Natasha Mitchell: From Bach's Chorale Prelude Ich ruf Zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ, Andrei Tarkovsky opened his classic 1972 movie Solaris with it and my guest today uses it to reflect on the emotional and spiritual needs of the psyche.

Gone with the Wind, eat your heart out, today on Radio National Summer I've got a grand and provocative saga of vast proportion for you. Vast, but also deeply intimate; because it's cast across the history of Western civilisation but also inside the crevices of your brain. Dr Iain McGilchrist started out as a scholar in English literature and philosophy; his second career though saw him become a leading consultant psychiatrist and clinical director at the Bethlem and Maudsley hospital in London.

His latest book is something of a magnum opus, you can tell by its title, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. At its heart is a warning about the way we live. 'There's a reason we have two hemispheres of the brain,' he says, 'it's because we need both versions of the world.'

Well Iain McGilchrist, welcome to the program, thanks for joining us from London.

Iain McGilchrist: Thank you very much.

Natasha Mitchell: Your account, Iain, of where western civilisation has arrived at is a dark one, it's a pessimistic one. You suggest that we, and these are your words, 'occupy an increasingly fragmented, decontextualised world marked by unwarranted optimism mixed with the feeling of emptiness.' This is a dark conception of the world -- what prompted you to turn to the brain for an explanation when others might instead turn to social and economic shifts?

Iain McGilchrist: Yes, I don't think that it was really that I was turning to the brain for an explanation of those social changes, the changes in our culture and the structure of our civilisation even, but in fact that whole perspective that there's a greater reality by accounting for things at the brain level is one that I would be sceptical of. Instead it's more trying to suggest that there are two broad takes on the world if you like, and that in what I learned about differences between the hemispheres suggests that these actually underwrite two competing ways of being in the world and thinking about the world, only one of which we seem capable of entertaining these days.

Natasha Mitchell: And that's the left hemisphere view. But for you the brain has very much played a role in creating the world we occupy. It doesn't just experience the world, it generates it.

Iain McGilchrist: That's right, that my idea is that the world is something that isn't exactly given before we experience it but also isn't just something our brains or minds make up. It's a coming together of whatever it is outside of us with our minds. And that in the process of the two meetings there is a sort of what I call between-ness which brings things into being. And depending on which mode of attention we bring to bear on the world, a different sort of world will come into being.

Natasha Mitchell: Let's come to the title of this book, The Master and His Emissary, it draws from a lamentation on your behalf about the status of modern society.

Iain McGilchrist: Yes, it's very loosely based on a little story in Nietzsche about a wise spiritual master who is the head of a small community which flourishes under his care and grows in size to the point where he can't actually look after it all himself so he needs to have an emissary that he trusts. And his most trusted and gifted emissary is sent off to get on with business in the further flung parts of the domain. And I think an important point is that the master realises he can't actually get involved with that and can't know those things. In fact not only can't but shouldn't know what's going on there, he must deputise that to the emissary otherwise it would jeopardise what he is able to do.

And I think this is in a way an image of what...the relationship between the right and the left hemispheres. The right hemisphere sees a great deal but in order to refine it and to make sense of it in certain ways in order to be able to use what it understands of the world and to be able to manipulate the world, it needs to delegate the job of simplifying it and turning it into a usable form to another part of the brain. And if that brain, if that part of the brain was actually attending to it in the same way as the other part, they wouldn't be able to achieve this double act, if you like.

And in the story what happens is that the emissary feels that he's actually the one who is doing all the hard work here and doesn't really need the master, who's just an irrelevance, and through his sort of pride and short sightedness the community collapses and fails.

Natasha Mitchell: So the emissary betrays the master and in this way you're seeing the master as the right hemisphere and the emissary as the left hemisphere in today's world.

Iain McGilchrist: Yes.

Natasha Mitchell: Now what's gone wrong with today's world?

Iain McGilchrist: The way that metaphor works in the modern world is that the right hemisphere, from all that we know of neuroscience, conceives the world in a certain sort of way which is primary and we mustn't lose sight of it. But the left hemisphere has a narrow, decontextualised and theoretically based model of the world which is self consistent and is therefore quite powerful. And it becomes more important in the modern world, it seems to have taken over, there seems to be a process whereby its vision has become the only vision and the vision that would be possible through the right hemisphere has been undercut and excluded.

There are a number of reasons why that might happen. The first is, as I say in the book, I call the left hemisphere the Berlusconi of the brain because it controls the media, it's the one with which we do all our talking and arguing. But also it's fascinating in looking at the way in which the two hemispheres mutually inhibit one another across the corpus callosum, the band of tissue at the base of the brain through which they're connected. And the function of the corpus callosum is to convey information but very largely to inhibit the other hemisphere from acting when one of them is active. So there's a constant reciprocal interaction between them. But the fascinating thing is that the left hemisphere is better able to inhibit the right than the right is to inhibit the left.

Natasha Mitchell: Right, so it is in a sense dominant.

Iain McGilchrist: It's dominant in that way, even though in terms of the importance of what it can tell us it's secondary. The other thing is the left hemisphere is a system, as I say, is self consistent in a simplified way.

Natasha Mitchell: So it can delude itself.

Iain McGilchrist: So it can delude itself that it knows everything, whereas I see the right hemisphere as seeing things that lie beyond what we ourselves can see. So it is all the time as it were grasping or trying to grasp, reaching out towards something that is beyond us.

Natasha Mitchell: And in this way you suggest that the right hemisphere is our bullshit detector, it's more in touch with reality. But on what scientific basis do you...

Iain McGilchrist: Well there's a lovely piece of research by Dennett and Kinsborne, two quite prominent neuroscientists. They asked the same questions to individuals with both their hemispheres intact and working; with just the left hemisphere functioning, and with just the right hemisphere functioning. There are ways of temporarily inactivating one hemisphere or the other, and what is extraordinary is that when completely false propositions are put to the left hemisphere it accepts them as valid because the internal structure of the argument is valid. So the individual who has previously said this can't be right says well that's what it says on this bit of paper.

The right hemisphere on the other hand cries out this can't possibly be right, I know from experience this isn't correct. And that's much closer to the position that we adopt actually when we've got both our hemispheres working. That's how we detect that this is most probably not right.

Natasha Mitchell: Let's come to the contemporary world, because I mean you think it's come about through what you describe as the unopposed action of a dysfunctional left hemisphere, that in effect we've entered a phase in cultural history where the left hemisphere has all the cards and looks set to win the game. Is that more than a metaphor in your mind?

Iain McGilchrist: Yes, I think it is more than a metaphor in that it's at least my very real conception and concern about the way our culture in the west is heading and I think it's shared by a lot of people; which is that it is a rationalistic rather than reasoned or reasonable and mechanistic model of who we are and of the world that we inhabit, which is based on a relationship of exploitation (the left hemisphere is there to help us use and manipulate the world) and has come to displace a sense of ourselves as in connection with the world and playing an important reciprocal role with one another and with the planet on which we live.

So I think it has a very real meaning for where we are heading now, both in terms of the increasing abstraction bureaucratisation and technicalising of our lives and the sort of paranoia in which we can't trust one another anymore and have to monitor absolutely everything, versus you know a richer and more inter-connected sort of vision of the world.

Natasha Mitchell: And this you cast as very much a left hemisphere way of framing our world.

Iain McGilchrist: Yes.

Natasha Mitchell: And viewing the world.

Iain McGilchrist: Yes. And one of the fascinating things is that if you look at what happens to people when they have a stroke in the right hemisphere, a very, very usual phenomenon is that people underestimate or even deny the extent of their disability. As I say in the book the left hemisphere is an eternal optimist, it constantly believes in itself to a degree which is unsound, and that means in terms of the patient that they may deny that they've got a paralysis altogether.

There's a nice little bit of research looking at people who -- again you can isolate the right or left hemisphere experimentally and ask questions -- and when people estimate themselves with their right hemisphere they are more realistic about themselves. When they estimate themselves with the left hemisphere they give an unrealistically optimistic assessment of their own skills and abilities compared with what other people would say of them.

Natasha Mitchell: If we think about the two hemispheres of the brain, I mean they've been heavily popularised: left brain/right brain. You suggest that they've been hijacked by management, trainers and advertising copy writers and I would add probably new age aficionados as well.

Iain McGilchirst: Indeed, the idea was that the brain was like a machine that carried out certain functions, and because there were two hemispheres there was twice as much computing power as it were, but we would compartmentalise things. So there was a story that language was in the left hemisphere, reason was in the left hemisphere and something like creativity and emotion were in the right hemisphere. That's a complete and utter....misconception of things. Every single brain function is carried out by both hemispheres. Reason and emotion and imagination depend on the coming together of what both hemispheres contribute. So that particular dichotomy is incredibly unhelpful and misleading and I keep trying to steer away from it, but there is still, nonetheless, fairly obviously a dichotomy.

I mean I begin by asking the rather simple question which I'm not aware really has ever been properly addressed which is you know if the brain is all about making connections why is it that it's evolved with this whopping divide down the middle?

Natasha Mitchell: An interesting question indeed. I mean nevertheless, even though we now understand both hemispheres of the brain are involved in all the activities of the brain, you make the case, Iain, that there is quite literally a world of difference between the two hemispheres of the brain.

Iain McGilchrist: Yes that's right, because I think attention is a very interesting thing, it doesn't sound like; it just sounds like another function of the brain. But in fact attention is a remarkable thing, it's the nature of attention determines what it is we find, and equally what we find determines the appropriate kind of attention to pay to it so it's a reciprocal process.

Natasha Mitchell: Your case here is that the left and right hemisphere attend to the world very differently so ultimately they construct a different world.

Iain McGilchrist: Yes, well we do know from lesion studies from every kind of neuropsychological information that the left hemisphere tends to adopt a narrowly focused attention which does bring into focus a very, very small part of the world. And we need that in order to be able to grasp things, the left hemisphere is not for no reason the hemisphere that controls for most of us the right hand with which we grasp things and the bits of language which make things precise -- whereby we say we grasp something.

So it's about that precision. And in birds and in animals the left hemisphere focuses on prey or on something that is there to be eaten, and the right hemisphere at the same time is keeping a sort of broad open attention for predators. And we know also that animals and birds use their right hemisphere for social interaction, not just of course with foes but also with kin, with con-specifics. So one of them is a sort of uncommitted and relational mode in which one is looking at the world in a broad sense for whatever it may contain.

Natasha Mitchell: That's the right hemisphere?

Iain McGilchrist: That's the right hemisphere and one sees oneself in relation to it, whereas the left hemisphere takes a very detached and precise view of something that we already know is important. Now if you put that sort of information together you end up putting together a lot of little pieces of information and you get a different sense of what something is from the mind that is able to take a much broader view.

Natasha Mitchell: Another way you describe the left hemisphere in the brain is an ambitious bureaucrat with their own interests at heart; it's a virtual bloodless affair, parasitic on the right.

Iain McGilchrist: Yes, I let it rip slightly in that phrase, there's a limit of course as to how helpful it is to anthropomorphise the hemispheres. On the other hand I would say there's no obvious reason why comparing them to human beings and after all each hemisphere is perfectly capable of sustaining consciousness for a human being; there's no reason why that should be a worse metaphor than the machine metaphor.

Natasha Mitchell: Yes, interesting. Psychiatrist and author Iain McGilchrist is my guest this week on ABC Radio National and Radio Australia's All in the Mind, I'm Natasha Mitchell and we're discussing the battle he thinks is being played out between the two hemispheres of the brain. The stage -- no less than the history of civilisation as we know it.

I mean let's head back in history, because you look at the present through the lens of the past. What you describe effectively, Iain, is a power struggle that's unfolded over time, over the last 2,000 years in fact, between the two hemispheres of the brain that's played out in the formation of western culture and its key transitions from the ancient Greeks to the present day. So let's dig in to that historical narrative, where does it begin?

Iain McGilchrist: Well I think it probably begins -- at least my understanding of it is that I can see it in the ancient world and there's a similar progression actually in ancient Greece, in ancient Rome and indeed from the Renaissance onwards in our own world. And that is, that for reasons that are complex and one can only speculate about, there appears to have been a quite sudden shift, an efflorescence of activities that are characteristic of both the best of the right hemisphere and the best of the left hemisphere working together in the 6th century BC in Athens. So you get a culture which is enormously productive across the whole field of humanities and science. But as time passes, and by the time the 4th century BC comes along, already there is a drift towards a more theoretical and conceptualised abstracted bureaucratic sort of view of the world. And so there's a tendency for things to move further and further towards the left hemisphere's conception.

This happens again in ancient Rome in the Augustan era there was a brief period where I see the best of the right hemisphere, the best of what the left hemisphere offers together producing an enormously rich mix which generates what we think of as the bequest of classical Roman culture to our civilisation. But again, within a couple of hundred years, things have drifted towards a more unwieldy and bureaucratic, power-hungry and militarised, very hierarchical structure.

Natasha Mitchell: Which you describe as a leftward shift in the brain as well.

Iain McGilchrist: A leftward shift in the brain.

Natasha Mitchell: And where does that impulse come from do you think?

Iain McGilchrist: Well I think it's an inevitable process which, because of the relationship between the worlds of the right and the left hemisphere produce, when the left hemisphere is allowed to conceive the world relatively independently from the right hemisphere -- which is initially something rather wonderful as long as it's in conjunction with what the right hemisphere gives -- it produces a very rich, productive and fertile and creative imaginative world.

Natasha Mitchell: Because if we think of the ancient Greeks it was a time of analytical philosophy but it was also a time of how you describe it as a greater empathetic engagement with the world.

Iain McGilchrist: Yes.

Natasha Mitchell: It sort of had a bit of both didn't it, the abstract and the empathetic?

Iain McGilchrist: Absolutely, yes and that's very much to simplify it but yes, we see aspects of what each of them in a specialised way produces, working together. But the right hemisphere contribution seems to decrease and the left hemisphere gains in confidence through its view, which one can see in aspects of Plato's philosophy, that he can account for everything in certain ways. You can find Plato eventually saying that astronomy is done by looking inwards by not looking at the stars, which you know is quite a remarkable thing to be saying. only a few hundred years after the first empirical scientists were observing the heavens and making very good and robust deductions from what they saw.

So that's the drift there and one sees the same thing happening in Roman civilisation and I see this happening also in our civilisation when, again, there is this sudden efflorescence of creative life in the sciences and the arts in the Renaissance, but with the Enlightenment there is a hardening up of the certain rather dogmatic and left-hemisphere-based view of the world, which we are still struggling with.

Natasha Mitchell: Are you giving the left hemisphere a bit too much flak here, I mean you seem to associate it with an absence of feeling, an absence of depth and context, but on the other hand, I mean the left hemisphere you also suggest lies at the basis of western civilisation. You know the great push to reason and rationality that was born of the Enlightenment, gave birth to modern science.

Iain McGilchrist: Well I slightly dispute that, I think modern science originated earlier than the Enlightenment and that's really what I'm saying, it was an enormously rich period in the 15th, 16th and early 17th centuries before the Enlightenment kicked in. And of course the left hemisphere is not devoid of feelings at all, it has its own range of emotions and the capacity to appreciate emotions. Interestingly anger is one of the emotions that is most obviously lateralised towards the left hemisphere, so it's not that it's able coolly to get on with science, I think that's a total misconception.

Natasha Mitchell: Which is relief, I'm glad it's a misconception.

Iain McGilchrist: Yes, exactly. Science is something much more wonderful than that, science is patient attention to things as they are, which means actually seeing them in context, and this was very much the way, the spirit in science from Bacon through to Goethe, but there is another strand in which it's become in a way decontextualised and dehumanised, which is a mistake in my view. So although you say I give the left hemisphere too much flak and in a way of course you're absolutely right, I'm trying to redress a balance. As I keep saying in the book nobody needs telling that rationality is important, it's bloody obvious really and nobody needs telling that the capacity to create sequential reasoning is a very important feature of the human mind.

But I think because it is so eloquent on its own behalf, it's neglected to allow us to perceive that there are other very important things that need to be combined with it and that's really the message. It's not that somehow the right hemisphere has got it all right and the left hemisphere has got it all wrong. That's another either/or black and white misconception which is much more typical of the left hemisphere's take on the world. The right hemisphere's take is broadly inclusive, as in the metaphor, the master knows that he needs the emissary; it's the emissary that thinks it doesn't need the master.

So my view is the right hemisphere is perfectly aware that it's a symbiotic relationship and when that works well, as it has done in periods in the west, it's a recipe that can't be beaten. What I say at the end of the book is to speculate as to why this doesn't seem to have happened to the same extent in oriental cultures.

Natasha Mitchell: Yes, that's a very interesting observation; because you're focused very much is on western civilisation here isn't it?

Iain McGilchrist: Well it is largely because of course that's what I'm familiar with and it's also the civilisation that seems to me to be presenting the world with a crisis at present. But it is interesting that in the last 15 to 20 years there has been a consistent and growing body of neuropsychological research asking far eastern people: Koreans, Chinese and Japanese to address problems, to make observations and then comparing them with the same problem-solving strategies and attentional strategies of people of western extraction.

And what one finds there is not that in some sort of new age-y way that oriental peoples are right-hemisphered and we are left-hemisphered -- that's another of these ridiculous and unhelpful dichotomies. But what one finds is that the far eastern peoples are much more able to use, in a balanced way, strategies of either hemisphere, which is how one would hope we would use our brain and minds. Whereas there's an enormously skewed distribution for the way in which westerners look at things, it's very much heavily skewed towards the way of looking at things with the left hemisphere.

Natasha Mitchell: I mean you saw the romantic era as a great blossoming again of the right hemisphere, but the Industrial Revolution to the present day for you represents a major shift leftward in the brain, and of course we're not saying politically here, we're saying hemispherically in the brain.

Iain McGilchrist: Yes, that's right.

Natasha Mitchell: I mean just describe that shift for us to the present day.

Iain McGilchrist: I mean one of the striking things about the Industrial Revolution is that for the first time we were able to put into the outside world artefacts which conform very much to the way the left hemisphere sees the world -- simple solids that are regular, repeated, not individual in the way that things that are made by hand are. And to transform the environment it was a sudden and obvious move forward in our ability to control our environment and to project outwards onto it the world as conceived inwardly by the left hemisphere.

That's gone on into the 20th century but the interesting thing is that one might think of the Industrial Revolution and scientific materialism which emerged in the 19th century and is still with us at least in the biological sciences although I would say that physics has long moved on from that vision of the world to one that's closer to what both hemispheres see. But that movement is often seen as in opposition to modernist and postmodernist culture. I argue in the book that in fact that's not the case and that modernism and postmodernism are in fact also symptomatic of a shift towards the left hemisphere's conception of the world.

Natasha Mitchell: Which is interesting because I guess the postmodernist view would be that everything exists within a context and that perhaps there is no absolute truth and in a sense I would have thought that contextual framing of the world is more right hemisphere if your argument is to hold?

Iain McGilchrist: Well of course I agree that things are contextual and there's no absolute truth but unfortunately in postmodernism this often comes to mean there is no truth at all. There is nothing out there actually beyond the sort of paintings on the wall of the inside of our mind. And that seems to be very much more like what the left hemisphere sees, and in fact the products of the art of modernism and postmodernism bear striking resemblances to what the world looks like to people whose right hemisphere is not working very well.

That was something that was first pointed out indirectly by a marvellous book by Louis Sass, an American psychologist who wrote a book called Madness and Modernism in which he draws extensive parallels between the phenomena of modernism and postmodernism and of schizophrenia. Deficits of the right hemisphere present a world in which the literal triumphs over the metaphorical, things taken out of context triumph over their meaning in a context, particularly a social context, and the sense of connectedness to others -- empathy and so forth is lacking and the world appears to be a heap of fragments and one can see that in the sometimes wonderful but bizarre and exotic artistic productions of people with schizophrenia.

Natasha Mitchell: You, Iain, do lament the loss of our relationship to beauty, to body, to spirit and art. Is that to blame on the left hemisphere as well?

Iain McGilchrist: Well again because its approach is largely reductionist, I think yes, it doesn't really have the capacity to understand what it's not able to see. There's a rather nice article by Stanley Fish called 'Does Reason Know what Reason Doesn't Know' which I think is a good point. The problem really in essence is that the left hemisphere is not aware of what it is not aware of in that sort of like Rumsfeld-like formula but you know that's what gives it a sort of confidence which one can anthropomorphise as sort of an arrogant stunt. And that's the difficulty that we face, is getting a hearing at all for what the right hemisphere has to say.

Natasha Mitchell: But clearly you're at risk of further dichotomising between left and right hemispheres in the brain in the way that all the sort of popular mythologies about the hemispheres would have us believe. Clearly beauty, the body, the spirit, art, emotion aren't purely the domains of the right hemisphere?

Iain McGilchrist: They certainly aren't and both are contributed to by both hemispheres absolutely. But at the moment what I think is that a rather reductionist version of what they might be is evident not just in science but in our popular culture and indeed is expressed in the kind of art that is created nowadays too. So I think a lot of the power of art to alert us to things beyond ourselves, yes, what is known as the transcendent I think that has been lost. There's a sort of ironising undercutting of the power of beauty, the power of art, the power of the spirit; don't want to sound evangelical here, but these things are important and need to be mentioned. You know a lot of very great scientists have always said that these things are an important part of what science acknowledges and pays tribute to. So, you know, I'm hopeful that the synthesis that I consider would be fruitful can be re-established. At the moment things seem to be very skewed.

Natasha Mitchell: Well Iain McGilchrist, it's a grand, provocative, epic and enticing thesis and thank you for joining me on the program this week.

Iain McGilchrist: It's been a pleasure, thank you very much.

Natasha Mitchell: Iain McGilchrist, calling for a peace agreement, a reunion, in the hemispheric battleground of the brain. His vast book is called The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World published by Yale University Press.

i took my oath many years ago, it was a strange process that i understood at an intuitive level, and from reading hundreds of books on the occult and recognising this as the point where most practitioners loose their minds forever. it's where most magicians go very wrong and decent into madness. what made it much easier was when i discovered the use of what is known as chaos magic which confirms this concept by stating, do not desire a result.'
my initial investigations and practice were based around knowing when to attach significance and when not to, that is being discerning between synchronistic events that have meaning and random static that has none, you gotta attach no significance while being aware of significance. an open mind helps.
being to intellectual can prove a drawback, one must not use the left brain here, for we are walking into the mystical and magical realms, the super science if you will. the world of quantum. trying to make sense of it won't work, just know the process and when to stop.
i've watched many people, new age types take this part of the process far to far, translating meaning into everything and linking up all sorts of nonsense, well it's nonsense for me. this is a trap, the demonic realm. enter the chapel perilous and look around but leave. other things to be aware about is the next phase of this is invoking, because when you are in this state of mind, hyper aware of the universe and it's strange communication you can ask it for information which will manifest itself to you, however the new agers will not practice discernment where as the magickian must.

go see thor. fucking brilliant, directed by kennith branegha, with a great australian lead actor and natalie postman, wow, she's so my woman. i want one and i want one now. anyway's girls you will love thor, and nerds who read the comic books when they should been doing their homework and their parents nagged them for reading 'comics,' will love thor, he translates really well in brannagah's hands, he's really kept the essential stuff in there and the adaptions just make it contemporary, if ya like the norse gods or you had a past life in atlantis, you will love this. i did, see it in 3d because it is worth it, and worth seeing on a big screen. i love the fact it's got the past in the future, that is the god's of asgard, and the fact space and time are the same. there's some great astrological elements, and the story is so rich, yeah it's branegha remember.
yeah thor, one of the most interesting from the marvel universe. it's such a great adaption, and some of it is filmed in new mexico which is one of my favourite places on earth.

okay people are asking me what i think about marrickville council and the greens. i’ll tell you but you won’t like it, you’ll use your preconceived ideas about israel and the middle east, about jews and their role in history, about the media reports your fed and about me.
anyways here’s my take.
first lets tackle the greens.
the green party lost their way in the eighties when communism collapsed. a hell of a lot of socialists and communists now had no political party to align themselves to, they were bereft of ideology as in real terms their’s had failed. so the green party, a traditionally environmental political body was swamped with new members who proceeded to take over the party from the inside. any environmentalist will inform you that israel leads the way in environmental culture, not only in greening the deserts but in solar and electric car technology. in fact it is likely to be the first country on earth to have only electric cars, they already have a system where the road itself generates electricity that is fed back into the car.
unfortunately the green party don’t care much for environmental issues anymore, their issues are the socialist ones that emanate from the united nations with whom they are in league.
this is not the stuff of conspiracy theories, (see agenda 21)
okay so that’s where i think the greens are at.
the idea about boycotting israel comes from two areas, one the idea that israel is an apartheid state and palestinians suffer from human rights abuses more than necessary while ignoring the reasons why and the other side of the issue.
without going into history, we have to start somewhere. lets start by saying that the un after the second world war relocated the jewish survivors to israel where they hoped they would be annihilated by the arabs. an the day of independence five arab nations waged a war with israel and lost. the jews were outnumbered and outgunned and won because they were not just fighting for their lives, but their race. the defeated armies were shocked and surprised at the way the war was won so quickly and decisively. as was the rest of the world. from that point on isreal has been at war, that’s 850 million of it’s arab neighbors against 6 million jews. that’s just the facts. every war the arabs started the israelis won.
land was captured and thus begins the saga of the west bank and gaza. but the terrorism never stopped and all over the world jews were targeted, even at the olympic games the team were shot, war baby. there has never been peace. suicide bombers, missiles and assassinations, the israeli army depended upon it’s internal security service the mossad to keep it’s citizens safe. israel has always had a ‘no negotiation’ policy to terrorism, unlike britain and france who paid the PLO billions to keep them away from their soil.
now in the last decade israel adopted a different approach, it knows peace is the only solution, it always has, so it gave back the west bank and gaza for peace and found itself bombarded by rockets from the land they gave back for peace. no united nations outcry, no media coverage, no demonstrations, no boycotts, no nothing really.
so if you live in israel what incentive do you have for peace. you just gave back land for peace and are faced with destruction. mmm, do the maths.
so after 5000 missiles the israelis send the tanks in, yeah now the media is interested, ohh yeah poor innocents at risk from a big military. in fact the guardian, the independent and the bbc plus various human rights campaigners all spoke about massacres and slaughters they witnessed only to be later found to be lying. look up the jenin massacre. why?
same goes for the recent goldstone report which goldstone himself recently retracted by saying he would have written it very differently if he knew now what he knew then, specifically the claim that the isreali army targeted civilians but the UN still carry on using it as a weapon against israel while ignoring the fact hamas used human shields. why?
same with the inquiry into the bbc standard of journalism known as the 'balen' report which proves the massive anti semitic anti isreal bias the bbc has when covering the middle east. the bbc spent millions of tax payers money on suppressing this report. why?
because there is another agenda at work.
anyways on it went, i‘m the first to admit the israeli pr machine is piss poor, but it dosn’t even get a look in nowadays, i mean when was the last time you saw an isreali on your television being interviewed, giving their side of the story?
it don't happen unless it’s some fruitcake settler.
the settlers are mostly american, fundamentalists, and they are a minority. the israeli army has relocated them many times to give land back for a peace it never gets, so the settlers have a valid point when it comes to staying put.
however lets look at israeli society from inside. firstly it’s truly multicultural, people from all around the world, living as jews, muslims and christians or buddhists even pagans. political diversity, sexual diversity, equality, israel had the first ever female prime minister before anyone else and for a country that was brand new that’s an achievement. i mean even albert einstein was offered the job. the arabs that live in israel have more rights and freedoms than if they lived in the arab nations, most of them are happy there. that is a fact but you will never see that on the media. it’s not what people want, they need tension to sell papers.
anyway israel is in a very unique position and no other country on earth faces the adversity it does, yet all other countries judge it. and they judge it rather harshly. and this is the issue i have.
anti semitism is a litmus test, for what it means is one group of people are judged with a different set of standards than another.
the boycott movement is fine if individuals choose to exercise their free political will, good luck but why boycott israel when all the other countries around them are much worse when it comes to human rights, why indeed.
this is where the greens have made an error, in fact they are pretty stupid because in order to boycott israel they have to, hand over their phones and telecommunications, all computers, don’t drink from the desalination plant, don’t eat any australian vegetables or fruit as it was grown with isreali irrigation technology and don’t go to a hospital for a major operation as that would have been probably the result of israeli medical innovation. the list don't stop there but i won’t bore you with the other stuff. oh one thing, they would have to give away their superannunation as a lot of it is invested in israel, which happens to be the 4th most technology advanced country on the planet.
what i am trying to say is that the greens have backed themselves into a corner here, but what they wanted to do was score a cheap point for their UN masters.
there is no doubt their stance is anti semantic, that is, anti jewish.
while i agree peace is possible through the two state solution, security is a basic necessity for both sides, 6 million jews in israel have been asking for that for 60 years and when they defend themselves they are vilified.
so boycott all you want, but try not to be a hypocrite while your doing it, but that’s asking a lot from the green socialist alliance.

i'd first learnt how to become invisible from books, i have a large selection of occult and esoteric literature hidden away in a secret room. the problem was that without a teacher it was actually hard to work out some of the instructions. most of the books on the subject were written around the 18th century when invisibility was a fad sweeping through the nations. unfortunately it died out superseded by something equally audacious no doubt.
i spent 6 months practicing the instructions in the book, there were a few diagrams but mostly it was mental exercises and disciplines one had to follow, the symbolic patterns needed to be learnt and stored within ones aura, and there was plenty of practical stuff to consider. the biggest being how do i come back to visitability. however future anxiety was not going to stop me learning.
then one day i came across a small charm, an amulet. it was in a charing cross book shop on a recent trip to london, hidden away under the counter, the assistant saw me looking at a 16th century text on invisibility and thought the amulet would persuade me to buy it. i immediately purchased both.
back home i inspected the amulet, i had recognised that it was pictured in most of my books pertaining to invisibility. it was orb shaped and in scripted with the sanskrit words, अदृष्ट adrshta which translates as invisible or unseen. however it wasn't a matter of just wearing it, i had various preparations and rituals to perform, it would take about 7 weeks of purification and meditation, including the primarily ceremony.
the amulet required various preparatory treatments as well so i immediately got to work. creating a magickal instrument is a serious buisness and requires a certain alchemical transmutation of intention into body fluid, one can't fuck this up at all. death could result or something worse. i had watched many peers go mad, some were much more experienced practitioners and more intelligent than i but they all had something i didn't which worked against them. ego. there was a direct relationship to the dissolution of the ego and the dissolution of the physical form, ergo i was crossing a threshold few had crossed.
preparations and rituals aside i needed to wait for the right moment to wear the amulet, and it so happened that as neptune jupiter and venus alighned i conducted my rite and slipped it over my neck.
everything else remained the same, except for me, i was no longer there, part of the scenery, no reflection, no shadow, i was invisible.
but in order to become visible i needed to do the opposite, inverse my ego into something larger, so i hung out in girls change rooms, listened in on conversations, took cocaine and spoke rubbish, went on shop lifting sprees and generally caused mayhem in a bewildered community, gradually becoming more visible but the side effect was a short stint in jail and a hefty fine.
i gave up with magic and took a course in upholstery, i became a christian and rejected invisibility as an evil pursuit, a tool from the adversary, the beast, i burnt all my books and buried the talisman, i renounced my past and married a girl from idaho.

i received a phone call once from sue, she asked if i would check up on margot as she was living in a boarding house in bondi and her house mates were abusing her. she was being beaten up as well as seriously ill.
about 16 years ago i was rummaging around a second hand cd shop and found a copy of the single 'adored' which i bought because i liked the cover and when i played the disc loved the song. imagine how surprised i was that steve and peter had played on this, maybe i already knew, i can't recall really, but either way i really loved it and sought out her work. it was majestic.
so i call her, she's all wonderful and invites me over saying sue has told her all about me. i ask her about her tormentors and she says, they hit her on a regular basis, stop her using the bathroom and generally make life really difficult. now bear in mind this is a very sick woman with a terminal illness.
i'm driving along pondering how i will confront these thugs, i'm no fighter although i can look after myself. so i park up on her street and wander over to her home, it's a room.
immediately she's swirling around me in her dressing gown, eyes moving all over me, scanning me, getting some kinda information and then smiling like a mischievous elf. she proceeded to show me her history, play me her future, she actually gave me a copy, she told me stories and spoke about steve in such a beautiful way, and then we took some photo's together, she revealed her body to me and it was ravaged, destroyed by liver poisoning and alcoholic deceasing. it was terrible to behold, i was determined i will never drink again and i never have.
she told me steve was going to be visiting her as well, and he would be here soon, at which i thought well at least if i have to confront these thugs then i have back up, i thought steve would definitely know a few moves. but steve rang a few hours later and explained he had children duties and would have to visit another day, and i said, to margot, 'do you want me to talk to these guys.'
'no way' she said, all protective, 'these guys are massive huge maoris, who fight just for fun, they will mash you to a pulp.'
jesus i thought, she showed me a doorway at the end of the corridor that lead to the room they lived in, the bathroom was just to the side.
anyway i went to put some change into the parking meter and when i returned margo sprung this on me, 'hey maybe you could go and speak to them for me, tell them to ease off on the hitting me in the face.'
i walked up that hall way, the longest walk in my life, stood before this big door i thought to myself, i may not get out of this one, but i was committed, i had no choice now. i knocked upon the door, a little tap really. i was scared.
no one home, excellent, i turned and there was margot, peering out from her doorway. she walked up and stood in the bathroom, closing a metal barred gate. 'knock louder, i'll stand in here, then they can't get to me.'
under my breath, for the first time in my life i cursed steve and thought, 'you're supposed to be my wing man.'
i knocked on the door and margo gave me that look, part mischievous partly scared, partly turned on by the whole thing.'
within seconds the door opened and this huge man, fucking huge covered in tat's and looking like some sort of meat eating black hulk fills the doorway, and i'm in his shadow, through a tiny gap i can see two other huge beasts sitting on a bed, they all look equally overwhelming and aggressive.
now i'm a big guy to, dark skinned, often mistaken for maori but i'm actually more poet than warrior and despite being in scraps in the past i usually take a beating.
i'm not sure what happened, i just started talking, something came over me, courage and action, but it wasn't really me, it was some kind of energetic being inhabiting my body, i put it down to ayahuscia, because my role with the vine was protecting women. so i said, 'i'm here on behalf of my friend margo', and i pointed down the hallway, i said that 'maoris are warriors and part of their role s to respect and protect women,' and that margo is an amazing women who 'deserves respect and to feel safe in her home', and that 'it's not their role to terrorise her because she is very ill and they should offer her protection because it is the warrior code.'
or worlds along those lines.
he mumbled something, looked at me backed away agreeing, then the door closed slowly and i stood there trying not to shake.
margo leapt out from the side and gave me a hug, 'my hero' she said.
ha, i dunno, it was more nuts than heroic.
she gave me a sculpture of a panther called 'brutus' which i keep on my coffee table.

i saw her a few months later, when she invited me to a birthday dinner, which was really special, i saw steve there and tim and sue and met some other good people for the first time. and had that photo taken which i will always treasure, steve margo and myself.
by this time she had her new apartment which was a much nicer home, she didn't have to share, but she looked great and i know she had a great night out with her friends and i was fortunate enough to be amongst them.

vale margo smith

you have travelled many lives, journeyed across the great divide, following your star and then finally now, you see the stars you follow are the same as hers, they brought you together, they are the same one star, we, our tribe follow. we have followed this star for thousands of years, and here we stand at the edge of the 2012 shift, like the end of a cosmic chess game, we must find our positions, for we are all players on the board although we may think we play for different sides.
we are directed by forces we cannot fully understand, we have to surrender sometimes to them and allow our lives to change with the choas, we fight it like our last breaths, the ego hates being under threat, it's physiological but spiritual as well, all things at this realm are multi dimensional, your healing is my healing, your joys are mine, your pain and sufferring mine. this is how it is at this point in the space time game so, i suggest you do what you have to do my friends, let go of the things that have entrapped you, let them all go, and let the strange attraction pull you where it will, towards her, switch off thy brain, and turn on thy heart and open you're mind again, for your mind is hers, your heart is hers, you know it. don't stuggle anymore, let it go, surrender to love not duty.

there is a spiritual war occurring, politics, religion, base ideology is the battlefield, humanity is at a cross roads, the ultimate goal control of the world, the greens under the united nations are the main players, using fear as a weapon. all carbon tax will be used fund the imf and un to push the one world government agenda that is behind this with their anti individual and diversity plan.
and why is it ultimately spiritual?
because it's designed to make you bend at the knees and worship the beast that is the united nations, in its current incarnation a demonic entity, a beast with many heads, for it is legion and its intention is to crush your will and then make you pay for the privilege.

ah silent nights, noisy mornings, cacophony of various road works, cars and people disturbing my quiet life, do my morning rituals, do my sacred work, contemplate my navel, fritter away a chuck of space time, listen to the reports about the death of bin laden, mmm, the war on terrorism, there's a strange amount of chitter chatter, i'm confused, terrorism has been around a lot longer than the fall of the towers, it's always been with us, it's part of the human condition, who can speculate on it other than as an individual one wants to feel as safe as possible and we are all helpless in the actions of our governments, some more than others, we speculate what its truth we grab at theories, conspiracies, make judgements and point fingers but the truth is, it's all a fiction.

day of rain, go away. i don’t really dig the rain, it’s something that takes me backwards, i need to feel warm and mission control is kinda cold again. cold and damp, i ‘m feeling the big freeze and i don’t like it. yeah i know, i heard all the rain gods, heard all the wisdom, and i admit it’s a glitch in my system, i don’t like rain but only because i seem to travel backwards in time, to my skool days which i have to say were fucking awful but then i was just a scrawny kid, what the fuck did i know, nothing, still don’t really but i’m getting there, it’s a battle, krishna is right, ya gotta battle your soul, the energies that pull you back words and that’s where i go in the rain.
gotta look forwards, while attempting to embrace the rain. that’s what i tried to do today.

as the writer reveals as he is revealed, as you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes into you, and he who fights monsters should take care, lest they become the monster to, and all the words of wisdom, the sages scribe are fading like embers off a dying star, their light is seen for what seems to be eternity but in cosmic terms is a moment, so shine bright, stay true and steady as she goes.
i was in classical times, a visitor at the invitation of pythia, priestess to apollo at delphi, it was the eve of it's fall as the deluded fools of roma, that pig headed theodosius was scribing his orders for the cessation of pagan temples and practice. we had but hours before his men arrive.
pythia in her red silks took me into her temple and i showed her sensual sutras of my dionysian ways, the flesh interfaced with the sprit world, for pythia remained virginal until this moment, and as she moaned and whispered my name and not apollo's her eyes closed and she went into a trance.
in her chambers there was a strange well like area, sealed with a heavy slate, we removed it and let the fumes fill the room, the strange amniotic like mist rose and engulfed us, it was think and heavy and not with out it's own sensuality, but as we lay copulating i could see the strange visions bestowed upon us by the gods, as pythia begun to speak and mumble in foreign words, a strange guttural babbling, the occasional recognisable words amongst them. i listened and watched her skin changed colour, she started to shift, almost snake like, almost reptilian, she spoke of the future.
'xmnujh js 2l dddk, avitar nhejf fjjjpoq, the fall of man, the wisdom of fools, the dawn of the end nlsjs lkiuye, whoooo can save you, who can save you who who, is his name lost is his name lost to time for they come in are committees, and they speak of governance, and they spread across the world and they have united army, united words, one language, one currency, one goal, the domination of the individual, for they are united and legion is their name.'
she fell into a sleep, her body stopped moving, her skin cold and clammy like a serpent. and then at first light the soilders came, they took her away as i watched hidden in the mountain, they destroyed delphic temple sealing it and then burring it under a landslide. the soldiers then took her exhausted body and disappeared into the castalian hills.
i never heard or saw her again, but her words have haunted me through several lifetimes, and now i remember and now i think i understand, i know a terrible season is upon us, i know it.

he mysteries of how you knew the “one” as soon as you met them, why our psychics are so accurate, and why astrology works will come alive during the next fourteen years when Neptune (finishing his first journey around the zodiac after we discovered his existence) is about to enter his own house—Pisces. Yes, this is a big deal, and should help balance the current drama resulting from the other slower moving planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto—all being in challenging aspect. He’ll be there as of April 4 through August 5, 2011, then returning on February 3, 2012 for thirteen straight years.

Neptune clearly has big plans for us with the recent revelations from a Nobel prize-winning scientist that DNA (our genetic thread) can “teleport” itself in water (Neptune’s realm). Another scientist has found that there is time travel in quantum physics, if a quantum bit is observed at “symmetrical times in the same location”… sounds like astrology and our psychics’ ability to “tune in” to us, doesn’t it? The creator of quantum physics was Max Planck, born with—yes—Neptune in Pisces!

Neptune is heading home, and will be there soon, dissolving old “realities” – all that is illusion – and we’re along for the ride through this age of new mystical revelations! If you’re wondering how to approach this powerful age, let’s refer to the last Neptune in Pisces period that produced the great playwright George Bernard Shaw, often quoted by Robert Kennedy: “You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’” If you’re aligned with Shaw and Bobby Kennedy’s view of the world, you’ll be aligned with the powerful energy of Neptune, now happily entering his home of compassion, great art, and magical love relationships.

What about psychics and astrologers who work with Neptune and his energies? Well, Thomas H. Burgoyne was born with Neptune in Pisces just after Neptune’s discovery, as well. He was a famous clairvoyant and astrologer who wrote the “Light of Egypt” series. The French astrologer Fomalhaut wrote of Pluto in 1897, yet he died before Pluto’s discovery in 1930. Several Catholic saints of compassion with Neptune in Pisces were also born at this time. So those of you expecting children during this time period, prepare for a gifted, compassionate child whose imagination and amazing intuitive abilities will delight you and sometimes stretch your “reality” limits.

Others born with Neptune in Pisces just after his discovery, also known as the romantic French Impressionist period when Monet, Cezanne and Renoir created their works, were Van Gogh and Gauguin. Writers Arthur Conan Doyle and Anton Chekhov were also born during this period. Music? How about Johann Sebastian Bach as an example? All of these arts will enjoy a renaissance of imagination, and our children will express this in their own being.

If you haven’t found your perfect partner yet, or are hoping that the one you’ve found will become your life mate, this will be a wonderful time of romance, sharing, music and compassion toward one another. It’s a time when the illusion of boundaries between us and others will dissolve so that we can truly know them and recognize that we love them. Work in these realms, and you will likely find the “One” there among the “Ocean of Diamonds” – the sea of endless love.

That comment wasn’t just a poetic, mythic view of eternal love, but one of Neptune’s attributes. Our scientists have offered a plausible theory that the odd tilt of Neptune might be due to an actual ocean of liquid diamonds that might be affecting its electromagnetic field. The action creating this could be the cause of the strongest winds in our solar system along the surface of Neptune’s gorgeous ocean-blue atmosphere where hydrogen from methane rises against diamonds settling into their glittering ocean – pretty cool, huh? So what does this imagery offer us?

One thing that astrologers and psychics do know is that when one surrenders to Neptune’s oceanic tides of the bliss of life instead of trying to control it, anything is possible. Flow with the water on the rapids around the rocks. That doesn’t mean giving up responsibilities. Part of loving unconditionally is also being there for the person when they fall short and disappoint us. We take turns supporting each other during the challenges of life, and find a balance far above and beyond our egotistical views and insecurities – pretty much what President Obama asked his nation to do recently. Does that sound like Utopia to you? It’s also a Neptune/Pisces creation, and deserves our commitment, along with our enjoyment of its bliss!
by Debbie Keil-Leavitt

On April 4 2011, the planet Neptune begins its journey through Pisces, another symbolic key enhancing the shift in human consciousness slowly unfolding on our planet. Neptune has strong associations with Pisces, both water energy, both belonging to a realm of the mysterious, the inspired and the imagined. Both have no boundaries, build no barriers, escapist and mystical in attitude. Neptune swims quite freely in this watery and boundless sign. We find no wave breakers in Pisces for Neptune as we consider a world letting loose and moving forward with what must be done, changed, seeded, even destroyed as we look optimistically towards the future.

During its sojourn in the fixed sign of Aquarius, Neptune has had its bounds , has been far more restricted than is its nature. Every planet has a particular purpose in a sign , each planet spends different times in a sign depending on its orbit. Neptune will enter Pisces in April 2011, leave at the beginning of August and return in early February 2012 where it will stay until 2026 . With every passage through a sign a planet is either considered an el supremo guest, a friend, an enemy or a pain in the arse! Neptune moving into Pisces is the el supremo guest as Pisces can and will deliver anything Neptune may demand or ask for. Neptune doesn’t ask for the tangible, he doesn’t even ask, he sends messages, waves and undercurrents and Pisces responds. Together these two create an overwhelming image, one so full of the imaginative, wild, out of this world, inspired ideas, concepts and passionate actions ever experienced, but also perhaps the most depraved and destructive. The destructive element comes in as Pisces being the last sign of the zodiac, the one concerned with the next cycle, destroys that which is not appropriate for the next wave.

Neptune last spent time in a water sign in Scorpio in the 1960’s when peace, love, flower power, drugs and open sexuality changed our world and our cultural attitudes. Now just think, Scorpio is a fixed sign and still all this happened, shifted and changed! This also had much to do with the revolutionary presence of a Pluto Uranus conjunction in mid Virgo throughout this time. Despite Virgo’s restraint and Scorpio’s fixity we still experienced a world in revolutionary fervour. This is mindboggling when we consider the coming planetary line-up. This time we have Neptune in the mutable sign of Pisces, with Uranus in Aries demanding the freedom to express itself, squaring Pluto in Capricorn. The cardinal energy of fire and earth will challenge the world and its governing foundations. Not much restraint with this combination, as Uranus fuels change, Pluto demolishes established rules and Neptune infuses inspiration. These three outer planets all work together to encourage us to construct a new and better world.

Pisces imaginatively germinates and nurtures the seeds of the future . With Uranus’ sojourn through Pisces in the past seven years we witnessed the churning of the waters and the seeding ideas of what must change. With Uranus in Aries those seeds begin to sprout and some have already done so. Neptune will now connect the fragmented pieces of the Uranian turmoil and weave them magically back together . Germinating the seeds of the future , has much to do with what we allow ourselves to believe and hope for. With this passage we are challenged to trust in a future we can’t see but can only imagine. From the personal microcosm to the global macrocosm, these two energies create greater access to highly passionate and emotional experiences and actions, collective inspiration and insightful motivation. We are also prompted to think of all invisible energies, ephemeral, mysterious and mystical. With this journey the paranormal becomes normal. We step into the oceanic realm of the spiritual and the divine, where the swimmer doesn’t follow a particular current, but swims to what feels right, what smells good, what looks the best, senses working overtime for sure.

It’s interesting to look back previous eras when Neptune journeyed through Pisces to get an idea of what we may expect this time round. What becomes apparent with hindsight is that boundaries were broken, radical ideas were germinated which led to paradigm shifts in human consciousness. These times seemed to add to our understanding of ourselves as part of the world and the greater universe. What spawned during these times had far reaching and long lasting influences that didn’t seem to be integrated immediately, but slowly permeated our world view , human psyche, wisdom and knowledge. Many influential philosophies, theories and practices developed about the connection between body, mind and spirit and the power of healing that are still very much part of our world view today and will be added to and developed during this phase of the cycle.

Here are some of the inspiring and significant ideas that I found transpired during previous Neptune in Pisces eras. Not all periods are noted and by no means is this complete :

443 – 430 BCE
- Empedocles writes on the four humours : blood , yellow bile, black bile and phlegm.
Later these became associated with the four elements and then the four humours.
- Meron establishes the four solstice points.
- The Parthenon was built. A 13 metre statue of Zeus was built in Athens

280-267 BCE
- Zeno of Citium (334 - 262 BCE) a Greek philosopher founded the Stoic School of Philosophy emphasising the goodness and peace of mind gained from living a life of virtue in accordance with nature

1029 – 1043 CE
- Abd All?h ibn S?n?’ (980-1037CE) created the first Pharmocopeia, a great synthesis of practice which included arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, earth science, philosophy, metaphysics, psychology, physiology. He was also the first known person to study infectious diseases and the benefits of quarantine.
- On May 24, 1032, he observed the earliest recorded transit of Venus.

1520 – 1534 CE
- Copernicus gave his first talk on the sun centred solar system to Pope Clement VII, the idea was spawned.
- Magellan's first circumnavigation of the globe was completed in 1522.
- Paracelsus (1493 -1541) physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer - did most of his great work during this time. Pioneering the of use of chemicals and minerals in medicine. He used the 7 metals, 7 known planets associating them with 7 organs known as the Great Idea of Harmony, the macrocosm and the microcosm.

1684 – 1698 CE
- Isaac Newton published Principia in 1687. Newtonian mechanics explained the laws of gravity, laws of motion and the universe as a mechanical machine. Newtonian physics dominated the scientific view of the laws of the Universe for 300 years The idea that God created the universe and left it to work on its own came from Newtonian theory.
- The Salem witch hunts and trials

1848-1862 CE
- Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859 expounding the theory of Evolution
- Marx published The Communist manifesto in 1848.
- The first plastic was invented by Alexander Parkes in 1855.
- The world's first commercial oil well was drilled in Poland in 1853.
- James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism into a single theory, classical electromagnetism, thereby showing that light is an electromagnetic wave.
- Dr John Snow traces the source of one outbreak of cholera in London to a single water pump, validated his theory that cholera is water-borne thus beginning the study of epidemiology.
- The first public exhibition of a Foucault pendulum took place in February 1851 in the Meridian Room of the Paris Observatory.
- American Express was founded by Henry Wells & William Fargo.
- Solar flares were discovered by Richard Christopher Carrington (1853 -1861).
- The Production of steel was revolutionized by the invention of the Bessemer process
- The first commercially successful sewing machine made by Isaac Singer.

Most of the above are now fully integrated into our lifestyles and consciousness. Many of the above we can’t imagine living without. With this next long transit many of the above are up for review: the theory of evolution, our global economies reliance on oil, the pervasive use of plastic. We must also review our healing techniques and medicines and how the way we perceive our environment impacts on our well-being.

It’s been a long time. Neptune was discovered on September 23, 1846 and as it takes 165 years to go around the Sun, it is only recently that it has returned to its discovery position, which was 26 degrees Aquarius. One year after its discovery Neptune entered the sign it was later to have rulership over… Pisces. We have just experienced a Neptune birthday, and on April 4, 2011 this enormous planet will enter Pisces once again. This is going to be quite an event.The discovery of Neptune coincided with worldwide social upheaval, which was mostly peaceful. In 1848 the Communist Manifesto was published, which was a response to the inhuman conditions in expanding cities where new factories were sprouting as a result of steam power and industrialization. This was the period when Charles Dickens wrote his novels of social realism, and social democratic demonstrations shook the capitals of Europe. This was also a time when painters like Renoir, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Cezanne and Monet made their impressionist paintings, expanding the world of fantasy and imagination. On the scientific front Darwin’s theory of evolution completely undermined Christian tradition. The first photographs were taken, ultimately leading to the coming world of the movies. Anesthetics were used for the first time in hospitals. Opium became a socially acceptable drug. The accepted reality of the day was undermined and new spiritual, emotional and political realities took form.

Here in 2010 we can now document the movement of Neptune through each of the twelve signs, and await a new spiral of Neptunian evolution. The function of Neptune is to expand our experience of so-called reality by introducing new dimensions of consciousness. It is a unifying force, making us aware that we are all in the same evolutionary boat. Neptune reveals the illusion of generally accepted truths. What we think of as truth is in the last analysis a relative concept. Whatever personal truth you hang on to as a buffer against reality, Neptune is happy to dissolve it. Awareness of the human condition, which for a large part is suffering, and an identification with fellow sufferers, gives the potential for the awakening of compassion, which is the spiritual enrichment that Neptune offers.

The collective influence of Neptune can especially be traced in the dominant media and myths of the time. Neptune in Libra showed the idealization of Hollywood romance, and the reality of the dissolution of the iconic relationships of celebrities. Neptune in Scorpio was free love (meaning free sex) and the drug scene of the 1960’s. Neptune in Sagittarius was the Star Wars period culminating in film star President Ronald Reagan’s dream of a space-based missile system. Neptune in Capricorn was Wall Street and the idealization of greed. And the recent transit of Neptune through Aquarius from January 1998 to April 2011 has coincided rather nicely with the ban on smoking in public buildings (who would have thought that possible?), the surge of the internet, all those Facebook friends, the democratization of the cinema through YouTube, Dot Com crashes and DreamWorks, aided and abetted of course by Uranus in Pisces, which for much of this period has been in reception with Neptune.

But the tone of the world is about to change, and it will change because of social unrest, which is the inevitable result of the draconic restrictions that must be imposed by governments trying to weather the meltdown of capitalism. For that is what the transit of Pluto through Capricorn represents, and when Pluto finally enters Aquarius in 2024, there will be little that remains of the autocratic structures that are currently being put in place to safeguard the banks and corporations whose survival is currently threatened.

There were 180 million unemployed people around the globe at the time the Great Recession started (which was when Pluto came into Capricorn in 2008); this figure has increased by 30 million in the last two years, the largest increase being in the United States. (Note 1) Youth unemployment in Spain has doubled to almost 40%. Workers in Europe are accepting pay freezes and pay cuts. With the replication of the Uranus/Pluto square from the 1930’s - but this time with Pluto in business-Capricorn, rather than nationalistic-Cancer - this recession is just about to bite. Any recovery will be excruciatingly slow, and it will be largely jobless. The loss of jobs in the US means that people are getting evicted from their homes, some to live in their cars, and when they cannot pay for the cars, then in tent cities springing up all over the country.

That is why Neptune is needed in Pisces. Forget the dreams of billionaire fortunes made by internet startups and social networking sites; what is needed now is universal concern for the millions of economically displaced people who have to resort to state handouts and charity. You could become one of them. The awareness of the suffering of the underprivileged has scarcely begun. What we will see over the next few years is the extreme polarization of right-wing solutions, which is part of the Uranus/Pluto effect in Aries/Capricorn, in contrast with left wing solutions, reflected by the Pluto/Neptune sextile from Capricorn to Pisces.

This process will take place in stages, with initial awareness and concern as Neptune dips its toe in the Piscean ocean on April 4, 2011, retreating to Aquarius again from August 5, 2011 to February 3, 2012, after which time there will be 13 straight years with Neptune in Pisces. Early in this period there will be good governance reflected by Saturn in Libra, which can be characterized as the time of President Obama.

It is when Saturn moves into Scorpio, in reception with Pluto in Capricorn and trining Neptune, that things get interesting. This combination is a strong counterpoint to the survivalist dictates of the Uranus/Pluto square, and shows a serious mobilization of state compassion. Generally this will coincide with left-leaning governments worldwide, though there could just as well be right-wing quasi-dictatorships. It is worth remembering that the year Neptune entered Pisces for the first time - 1847 - the Communist Manifesto was published with the memorable words “Workers of the world, unite!”

2013 is the year when the Saturn>Pluto>Neptune pattern really kicks in. Saturn enters Scorpio immediately trining Neptune, goes on to sextile Pluto then retrogrades to make a long trine to Neptune in June, July and August 2013.
The Saturn/Pluto sextile is tough love. The need for a transformation of existing state, business and banking structures will be strong, but nobody is going to use democratic methods to ask anybody for their point of view. This is emergency surgery, performed by powerful rulers through secretive and autocratic methods. Taxes will be ruthlessly imposed with a view to alleviate the social disasters of the time. There will be corruption and the rooting out of corruption. Industry barons will do all within their power to maintain their advantages at this time through strong links to government. But they will also be moved to reach out to the disadvantaged to alleviate their suffering, if only to burnish their image.

It is difficult for us to imagine at this stage the plight that society will find itself in. To give an example: On the exact day when Chiron, which is after all a very minor planetary body, moved into Pisces, the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded, leading to the biggest pollution disaster in American history. The oil poured out of an open wound in the ocean floor for many months and - in true Chiron fashion - could not be healed. There is a strong likelihood that the entry of Neptune into Pisces will have even more far-reaching consequences. No doubt this will bring a very strong focus on nature and the environment in the coming decade, but it will be the social conditions of the human family that will take precedence. Neptune’s arrival in Pisces can also bring fears of epidemics (note 2) but in the long run this influence is sure to bring wonderful advances in medicine, just as the last transit through Pisces brought chloroform and the wonders of anesthetics, as well as the first collective health schemes.

The transit of Neptune through Pisces will see the beginning of the ascendancy of Africa. In fact it was when Neptune entered Pisces in 1847 that the first African colony gained independence, when slaves freed in America returned to Africa and declared Liberia an independent country. Slaves liberated an enslaved land. It is likely that the growing worldwide food shortages can be alleviated by more effective farming in Africa, which currently is very inefficiently cultivated, and the riches found in agricultural, mineral and oil reserves will finally bring prosperity.

The sensitivity of nations to food shortages will probable be one of the major sources of unrest in the developing world in the coming period. Here in 2010 drought and fires in Russia have led to a ban on wheat exports and prices worldwide have risen over 60% leading in turn to the danger of food riots in countries that traditionally import a lot of wheat, like Egypt. Back in 1847 there was famine in Europe, and over the next 13 years two million immigrants arrived in New York… over a million being Irish. (Note 3)

In response to shortages, harvesting the sea will also be undertaken on a vast scale in this period, and with mass production of factory fish, a much greater awareness of the ecological downsides of the process will dawn, leading to more humane standards for fish. Extraction of oil from the ocean will play an even greater role, and as a shortage of oil begins to threaten the smooth functioning of industry, vast undersea reserves will be exploited in previously pristine environments around Greenland and in the Arctic.

Neptune in Pisces will bring a global focus on the suffering of humanity and a corresponding urge to alleviate this suffering through social change. The social upheaval that shook Europe from 1848 - 1850, as the Communist Manifesto was translated into every European language, resulted in a revolution in Czechoslovakia (successfully suppressed), in Austria (suppressed but serfdom abolished and emperor abdicates), Budapest, Berlin, Milan and Rome, Ireland and Britain (the Chartist movement). In France students and workers seized Paris, and a new French Republic was proclaimed. Thousands of workers died as the French military put down the revolt. France was the European country most marked by the entry of Neptune into Pisces, and the 1848 revolution led to the abandonment of the monarchy and the establishment of the Second Republic, founded with a Sun/Neptune conjunction in Pisces. (It did not last long).

Neptune’s influence in a sign is not necessarily as drastic as that of Uranus or Pluto, but it reaches deep and subtly alters everything. For example it was after Neptune entered Capricorn that the Iron Curtain was torn down and the Berlin Wall fell. This was the beginning of a new political order in Russia (and the world) which initially caused immense hardship for the people. But there was euphoria too for those who felt liberated from decades of repression. When Neptune entered Aquarius in January 1998 (which it did simultaneously with Bill Clinton saying those famous words: “I never had sexual relations with that woman” - the biggest and funniest media lie ever) it was the time when the world was bewitched by the virtual world, and dot com millionaires made their fortune. We all relocated to cyberspace and people dematerialized to reappear as ghostly presences on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and the rest. A global unification was created, but digital revolution also created the web of financial structures that brought financial chaos and dissolution.

Neptune in Pisces will bring a need for spiritual content. Not the digital psychics and clairvoyants who have thrived with Uranus in Pisces, but for compassion-centered altruism. People will withdraw from the small comfort of a Facebook universe - sell your shares now (it’s a bubble) - and seek privacy and seclusion. Suffering will be too real for dabblers in spirituality, and true solidarity will be found in helping people who are in situations where - but for the grace of God - you could find yourself.

Adrian Ross Duncan .

in sacramental devotion to jah i smoke a lot of weed. i am on a mission. i was blessed a few months ago with the contents of steve kilbeys ipod, containing many church and solo and side projects some of which have not been released. and in my usual autistic loop i fixated upon one album the kennedy and kilbey collaboration, 'white magic' which i played non stop for three months, neglecting the rest of the playlist.
now under the approprate conditions i listen to something called, 'thrillseeker01'
it is magnificent, it's the bands music only, no vocals but i think some vocals should be added but just minimum, very progressive with one song in there that is almost a perfect pop rock moment, it actually is the fourth song and it's quite random when heard amongst the others. i really love this music. it's music to drop acid to. there's elements of floyd in there, ummugumma.

the day started all sunny and transmorphed into a wet miserable day as i wandered around circular quay waiting for my dear old friend lily who is part mermaid and therefore enjoys being wet, we sat outside protected from the storm drinking in exotic hot praline chocolate and then later went towards the opera house for some nibbles, and then up to the opera house, where i saw the wonderful samantha mayfair and her maidens all looking pretty glamorous and spectacular. i sneaked out to praise jah, figuring that i should pay homage and alter my state of mind.
in the auditorium we discovered our seats were actually pretty dam good, right in the centre of the whole thing, and then it all went dark and the orchestra were revealed as they started to play metropolis and then the band came on and played along, and then in time for the last line, 'there will never be another one like you' steve appeared and from that moment magic was in the air, yes the band played a brilliant selection of songs, getting better and better as they preformed, i heard two songs i had not heard live before, 'anchorage' which worked brilliantly with the backing vocals and 'myrrh' which i may have heard many years ago but can't recall, plus a lost australian classic from 1969 which i know steve name checked at the aria awards. there was an interval and the orchestra resumed by playing 'happy hunting ground' which i had not heard for ages, i think one show i saw years ago the band came on to it.
highlights were 'never before' and the very beautiful 'already yesterday' which is one of the reasons why i came to australia after being hinted by that line,

'We don't feel those locks and chains
We won't listen to the lizard part of our brains
Giving the orders
Another morning we'll be gone
I start the car for Ten Mile Beach
Or maybe Avalon
Across the water.'

but the biggest and most impressive song was 'the disillusionist' which steve preformed with the passion and conviction of a shakespearean actor delivering the closing monologue of a tragic comedy drama, really quite mesmerising, can't wait for the dvd.

i have not seen a concert since the last church show that held me transfixed and took me away, what an absolute special event, introduced by george negus himself.
for thirty one years i followed this band, and last night they seemed to reach the point they had been travelling towards, a fundamental point where a rock band becomes something bigger than just making music and singing songs, the church have never really been an ordinary band, they always pushed harder and took us further musically, lyrically challenging the borders of reality in a shamanic sense and dissolving that ethereal layer that lies between, transcendence. yeah the church is the only band that have transcended themselves and they did it with intent and hard work.

mission control is a dark place at night, i don’t like those electric lights as they give me a headache, i like candles. soft lights cos of me vampyre sentimentalities. i ‘d quite like to live in a castle as well but somewhere warm. anyway in mission control i have a new lamp, in the kitchen, it’s really good, soft and striking the row of spice across the way, it’s given the whole place a new feel. now all i need is a cd player. so i flick through the channels on tv and discover a film on sbs, the spanish apartment, really good film with some interesting sequences and dialogue. yeah chilled out at mission control.

today i gave it all away, i drop my shoe down the steps and it falls behind an inaccessible boiler where i cannot reach to retrieve it, i try all sorts of sticks, poles and devices but it just gets further from me, then whilst in the middle of this i realise i have locked myself out, gravy who is coming to pick me up arrives, i organise the locksmith as we drive to why town as i am buying a new cd player, a fancy second hand NAD when i return the locksmith has fixed my door but the cd player is broken and won't play cds. curses, i just spent $100 on it, i just spent $120 on the locksmith and i'm now told that a new machine would cost $300. this is life on saturday. it's enough to make ya wanna scream but i don't have time for screaming, i gotta fix up the holes that are ruining my saturday.
yesterday i spent 4 hours on the phone to the tax dept, they wanted to charge me for some unpaid tax and paperwork that i have no idea about. the red tape involved was unbelievable, incredible, it's no wonder people just go slowly mad, this is the worst type of society, filled with pointless exercises and stupid people trying to rip you off, it's filled with bureaucracy and hoops to jump through, and there's very little reward. fines, tax and useless products that's the 21st century for ya.

walking up that hill with pan and my friend, gravy, behind us a little slice of moon light and in front as we approach that big old sky, the stars shine across the ocean. the sacred place. our sacred space. we praise jah, smoke a spilff in his honour. it's like coming home for me, there are only a handful of people i feel at home with, gravy, evan, steve, all journeying in this fantastic voyage, discovering, unravelling, getting some understanding and knowing we know nothing but we can reach for those stars, run with the lone wolf, hunt for the pack, carry the weight, share the load, kill the pain, and when it all goes wrong, you gotta laugh because we were not were we were yesterday, in a different place, open to the influence of our dreams, being pulled by a strange gravity, towards something intelligent.
any ways gravy and i discuss the camera work in a hard days night, while i tell him about the englishness of the film, 'never let me go.' that haunting quality that carries with you into the sunlight of tomorrow. pan plays between us, enjoying nocturnal adventures with the rabbits that run across the roads. pan a dog at peace, a dog that loves all creatures and is almost vegetarian, although i do take liberties when i say that as he loves his bones. yeah,
anyways here i am with gravy, it's a short little interlude, a quiet life, some kinda of peace.we walk back and meet a man with a dog called ted and i tell him TED is one of the best websites i know and gravy launches into a description and the man is interested and somewhat bemused by our enthusiasm and as gravy wanders up his driveway i say, 'good to see you brother' but the guy with the dog called ted thinks i'm talking to him and he says, 'yes it was very nice to meet you, my names peter.'
and i get home and some one sends me a message saying steve's on tv and i watch the interview and it's quite brilliant so here it is.

so after watching this i put on narcosis and listen to it, it's been a few years, and i think you really should go out and listen to it, and follow those lyrics, it's a fantastic piece of music but the words are literature, outstanding, the poppy is there, you can feel her, he did bring her, but it cost him ten years, and he made art that will be eternal, every man, woman and child is a star. how do you thank an artist for art that inspires and lifts you, takes you away and on a journey, into other worlds and dimensions, that respects your intelligence and if you wait long enough there's a hidden track, well worth listening to if you like jean nicolas arthur rumbaed. thanks man, friday night at mission control in narcosis.

im travelling faster, moving through time now i see trees sprouting and moving across the planet like synapses straining to connect, if you look at the patterns in fractal time you get to see how beautifully choreographed it all is, the electrical impulses that travel from the centre of the earth through the roots through the tree and out into the atmosphere, as they are met with the electromagnetic impulses from the sun and moon, and the invisible realms, information is exchanged and life is the bi product. the bi product is life, moving faster as time is cranked up as we approach the 2012 shift, hang on to your seats, watch the changes in your own realm and them on global terms, consciousness is expanding, take it from a worn out old mystical soul, thousands of lifetimes just to get to this point. shed the old skins brothers and sisters, take of your clothes and stand before the emergence of new ways, surrender to the beauty and awe, what else are you going to do, stop the tide. no hardly, i think we been doing that for to long. let it was over you and merge into it, it's going to come anyway. as the ground shifts and opens up, swallowing us, our towns, gaia doesn't care about humans, it's seen plenty of us come and go, cells are shed every day in the body, why would they not be shed upon the world, yeah shake it loose, shake of the old ways, the dead skin, rebirth is the way forwards, it's the natural rhythm of life. it's the only way forwards up against the forces of darkness. the ones that exist inside us, the ones that move us, surrender to them, let them go, let them enter your dan, let them enter and obsess you, live like a poet, shocked and awed by beauty and splendour, the king of kings the queen of queens, are we not their princes and princesses. gods have decreed, man is the pawn, but only because we chose to be. jakob fought the angel, jakob won. enter the kingdom of heaven, you're really already there.

television rain
blue reptile smile
the future is coming baby
but it may take a while,
right now
i'm stuck in this moment
and it feels kinda old
cos these twilight years
i like to go with the flow

go go
go with the flow
and some people go with the flow
some people just have to stay

along the cold north shore
there's a mighty old freeze
my words falling apart
in blue radiation breeze
and here we go
i'm stuck in this moment
and it feels kinda cold
cos in these twilight years
i like to go with the flow

go go
go with the flow
and some people go with the flow
some people just have to stay

satellite comes crashing down, secrets revealed as life crawls out, civilian population contaminated by gamma radiation, military overwhelmed by majestic skies as their hardware fries, anything with an electrical component rendered immobile. the creatures are invisible, they operate within the invisible spectrum but spill into ours, distortion occurs, time slows, sometimes bends and curves, people find strange side effects, regained youth as the body clock reverses, lost memories returned, strange communications from ghosts and the unborn. society crumbles fast, light alters and intensifies, burning the skin, exposure is lethal. millions die. some small communities move around at night, a small private corporation in an underground facility invents a cure, a pigmentation genetic implant that turns the skin blue and luminous. food sources are scarce but the survivors who have the blue skin learn to photosynthesis using light and water as a side effect. other side effects are the bones become more elasticated and give humans the ability to become almost part rubber, more flexibility.
the visitors keep themselves to themselves, occasionally whispers are heard that they are altering the atmosphere, changing increasing the carbon dioxide to oxygen ratio, plant life starts to flourish, the altered atmosphere is thought to be a trigger for the change in skin pigmentation to react with the gene alteration.
looking up at the skies humanity is filled with wonder but the biggest thought people had was are we still human?

despite no real interest in australian politics i do love to watch q and a on the abc, and i enjoy the live aspect of it, particularly the way information is revealed. last night kevin rudd confessed he made a mistake backing away from an ets plus his ministers told him to drop it. then when he did the same ministers dropped him and went to an election with a promise there would be no carbon tax only later after they won to revive the tax and this is the political zielglizt we find ourselves in. kevin rudd looks good, he know his stuff, he has that rare integrity that these days is very hard to find, a genuine belief in changing the world. he was stabbed in the back by his own side. the labour party is a dinosaur. kevin rudd should now take control, he would win by public support.

other stuff i find interesting is not one journalist has made the point that despite going around it in a ridiculously amateurish way, gw bush may have been onto something, changing dictatorships in the middle east with force. it appears all his critics are now doing this. plus obama is now following bush's conviction to give the sept 11 bombers a military trail despite promising he wouldn't.

while i care not for these things i do find the hypocrisy of the media and most of the left wing ridiculous. the worst of these are the greens who really need to get a reality check. nothing wromng with idealistic vision but the greens are just socialists undercover of an enviromental movement.

this leaves labour under rudd, or liberals under abbott. both stand by their convictions. that's more admirable than the alternatives.

richard goldstone recants his report on israeli warcrimes for the un. i see that despite the massive reaction of the un human rights watch, who are composed mostly of islamic dictatorships, gaddaffi headed it, there has been no official retraction or apology, nope, the anti israel hysteria is now epidemic, one can investigate this by the fact hamas has built up a massive stock of weapons since the un ceasefire, that over 5000 rockets have been fired into israel since the un imposed cease fire and there is no media coverage of this, in fact the only journalist who mentioned this was melanie phillips when a family were killed and a sleeping baby had it's throat cut when a arab terrorist broke into a house a month ago. she described the killing as savage and now is being taken to court by an extremist who has publicly declared all jews, gays and loose women should be murdered for crimes against allah. yes he is suing melanie phillips for racism and given the state of the uk at the moment may succeed.
meanwhile in the wonderful city of sydney marrickville council has declared it will boycott israel, it's green representative has said it wants it's arab vote. so therefore boycotting israel is kosher. nice one except they have no idea that in order to boycott israel they will need to hand over all technology, mobile phones, computers and most microchips. also most medical procedures would have to be boycotted as most of them come from israeli innovation.
the trouble is the west is suffering from the same weakness it has always suffered from, dependancy upon oil and antisemitism. to be anti israel without recognising the incredible and glaringly obvious human rights abuses in the arab nations is basically anti semitic, no other country on the planet would tolerate 5000 missiles being fired at it from land it returned for peace. and when it does act to defend it's citizens it is brutally criticised by the un, the media and reports like goldstones.
the human population are turning into zombies and sheep.