Mar 21, 2021

Esoterica



Psychedelic therapy could 'reset' depressed brain

Psychedelic-assisted therapy might offer longer-term relief from symptoms, some researchers believe.

A growing body of evidence indicates other psychedelic drugs, particularly alongside talking therapy, are safe and can be effective for treating a range of mental illnesses.

This will be the first time DMT is given to people with moderate to severe depression in a clinical trial.

Carol Routledge, the chief scientific officer of Small Pharma, the company running the trial said: "We believe the impact will be almost immediate, and longer lasting than conventional antidepressants."


TikToker Left Horrified When 4-Year-Old Daughter Describes Working At Twin Towers On 9/11

Responding to another TikTok, which said, ‘Tell me a time when your child told you a past life story,’ Riss White opened up about a disturbing account given by her young daughter a couple of years ago.

On September 11, 2018, Riss had been scrolling through social media and came across some 9/11 memorial posts. One of these posts showed an image of the Twin Towers, which appeared to strike a familiar chord with her daughter.

The little girl pointed to one of the towers, Riss believes it was the North Tower, and said, ‘Hey mom, I used to work there’. When Riss asked her when this was, her daughter simply responded ‘before’.

. . .

Riss then went on to clarify that the child had never before heard about 9/11, making the details of her story all the more eerie.


'Exit Counselors' Strain To Pull Americans Out Of A Web Of False Conspiracies

Experts see this spread of disinformation as a public health emergency that's threatening democracy, increasing the risk of further violence, and straining family relationships. It's also taxing a bevy of "deprogrammers" who are trying to help. More commonly referred to as "exit counselors" or "de-radicalizers," they help people caught up in cultic ideologies to reconnect with reality.

"I've probably got almost a hundred requests in my inbox," says Diane Benscoter, who's been helping people untangle from extremist ideologies since the 1980s, after she herself was extricated from the Unification Church, commonly known as the Moonies.

She recently founded a non-profit, Antidote.ngo to run Al-Anon style recovery and support groups for the unduly influenced and their loved ones. There's no end to the need for those kinds of services, Benscoter says.

. . .

Indeed, anyone can be psychologically manipulated, Benscoter says. Cultic groups all tend to fill some psychological need or void, such as a desire for meaning, purpose, or community.


QAnon has merged with white Christian evangelicals, experts say — and the results could be lethal

The general thrust of QAnon mythology goes something like this: Trump is engaged in a sub rosa battle against a powerful, secretive cabal of baby-eating pedophiles who control Hollywood, legitimate news outlets, the Democratic Party, non-Trump-supporting factions of the Republican Party, and many foreign governments. Every development — even his loss to Biden — is part of a long-running plan that will end with mass arrests and executions of Democrats, journalists, and Hollywood figures. The date for such a putsch, known in QAnon parlance as “the storm,” has shifted numerous times, most recently to March 4 (after Biden took office and Trump did not declare martial law to stop it on January 20).

Trump, the central, messianic figure in QAnon and QAnon-adjacent conspiracy mythology, has tacitly encouraged such delusions. In remarks delivered at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference last week — his first public appearance since leaving office — the ousted ex-television star repeated many of his oft-told lies about having won an election which he lost decisively to Biden.

And it’s Trump’s refusal to acknowledge reality, combined with the increasingly intricate nature of Republican conspiracy mythology — theories that are becoming more intertwined with the flavor of evangelical Christianity that dominates the GOP — that have extremism experts and former Republicans warning the violent movement centered on the 45th president is not going away. In fact, they say, it will most likely become more violent.


Trump prophet Jeremiah Johnson ends ministry, saying, ‘we need to humble ourselves’

Jeremiah Johnson, the self-described prophet who faced backlash from fellow evangelical Christians after publicly apologizing for prophesying former President Donald Trump would be reelected president, is ending Jeremiah Johnson Ministries.

The announcement comes “after much prayer and the clear direction of the Lord,” Johnson said Monday (March 8) on his Facebook page.

It also comes after his abrupt two-week hiatus in the middle of a YouTube series he titled “I Was Wrong.”

Johnson said during the series, which he described as a money loser, that apologizing wasn’t enough.

“I believe that it is a tremendous mistake to take the next four years to argue and debate and cause division and grow more prideful talking about how we think the election was taken from Donald Trump. I actually believe we need to take the next four years and humble ourselves,” he said.


Robin Bullock Claims ‘Prophets’ Have the Power to Call Trump Back Into the White House

Bullock is among the various self-proclaimed “prophets” who guaranteed that Trump would win the 2020 election. Like many of those otherprophets,” Bullock still refuses to accept that his prophecies were wrong even though President Joe Biden has been in the White House for over a month.

“Prophetical authority has to start being used by God’s prophets,” Bullock declared. “We’ve got to come up now to another level and start speaking with authority. Not just declaring, speaking with authority. And the Lord is going to give you words to warn people and speak to people in high-ranking positions. Whether you think they’re listening or not, they’re listening.”

“The stage is set,” he continued, “but you’re going to have to pray for the rightful president, whether he wants to walk back into this or not. You must pray that he wants to do it because God won’t make him do anything. Is it his will? Yes. Is he the president? Yes. That’s why he could just walk right back in, and God will supernaturally move things out of the way.”


God Has Canceled This Baptist Preacher Who Gave the Most Sexist Sermon In the 6,000-Year History of the Planet

In February, Stewart-Allen Clark, a pastor at First General Baptist Church in Malden, Missouri, jumped onto stage and delivered a long sermon about some of the central teachings of Jesus Christ. Wives, Clark preached, have a Biblical obligation to not only look hot for their husbands, so that they don’t cheat, but also to submit to sex whenever their husband wants to bone. Clark apparently forgot another one of the tenets of the Bible—that people will record your sermons and upload them to the internet and that consequences are real. After an extremely justified backlash, Clark has been forced to take a leave of absence from his church, and he is, in the words of his church, “seeking professional counseling.”

. . .

Sounding for all the world like he was doing a tired, misogynistic stand-up set in 1991, Clark continued: “Why is it so many times that women after they get married let themselves go?” He then flashed a photo of... Melania Trump on the screen behind him??? “Now look, I’m not saying every woman can be the epic, epic trophy wife of all time, like Melania Trump, I’m not saying that at all. Most women can’t be trophy wives like her, maybe you’re a participation trophy.” To punctuate his point, Clark threw in some points that smack of homophobia and transphobia. “All I can say is, not everybody looks like that, amen...But you don’t need to look like a butch either!”

. . .

If you’re wondering right now whether Clark is married, the unfortunate answer is yes. At one point, he began talking about how happy he was that his wife attended Weight Watchers. After his wife, incredibly enough, didn’t leap on stage and murder him, somehow, his sermon got worse. Towards the end, Clark endorsed the idea of marital rape. “Men, put this on your headboard at your house.” He then quoted from 1 Corinthians 7:4. “The wife has no longer all the rights over her body—wow!—but she shares them with her husband. There’s a double, woohoo! Ooohwhoo! So whenever she’s not in the mood, dig out your Bible!”


In setback for gay Catholics, Vatican says church cannot bless same-sex unions

The Vatican said on Monday that priests cannot bless same-sex unions and that such blessings are not valid, in a ruling that greatly disappointed gay Catholics who had hoped their Church was becoming more welcoming under Pope Francis.

In some countries, such as the United States and Germany, parishes and ministers have begun blessing same-sex unions in lieu of marriage, and there have been calls for bishops to de facto institutionalise these.

. . .

In response to formal questions from a number of dioceses on whether the practice was allowed, the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), issued the ruling: “Negative”.

Pope Francis approved the response, the CDF said, adding that it was “not intended to be a form of unjust discrimination, but rather a reminder of the truth of the liturgical rite” of the sacrament of marriage and the blessing associated with it.


Dead Sea Scrolls discoveries are first ancient Bible texts to be found in 60 years

A new set of Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient fragments of biblical texts dating back almost 2,000 years and thought to have been hidden during a Jewish revolt against Rome, have been found in an Israeli desert.

The Israel Antiquities Authority announced Tuesday that a four-year archaeological project uncovered portions of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets, including the books of Zechariah and Nahum. It was the first such discovery in 60 years.

. . .

Among the recovered texts, which are all in Greek, is Nahum 1:5–6, which says: "The mountains quake because of Him, And the hills melt. The earth heaves before Him, The world and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before His wrath? Who can resist His fury? His anger pours out like fire, and rocks are shattered because of Him."

The authority said these words differ slightly from other Bible versions, shedding a rare light on how biblical text changed over time from its earliest form.


Dinosaur found in Argentina could be oldest titanosaur ever discovered

An enormous dinosaur unearthed in Argentina could be the oldest titanosaur ever discovered, scientists say.

Researchers at the country’s national scientific council believe that the fossilised titanosaur roamed what is now Patagonia 140 million years ago, at the start of the Cretaceous period.

This new analysis would mean that titanosaurs, a diverse group of long-necked, plant-eating dinosaurs, lived longer ago than previously thought.

“The main importance of this fossil, apart from being a new species of titanosaur, is that it is the oldest recorded for this group worldwide,” Pablo Gallina of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (Conicet) said.

He added that 140 million-year-old fossils are “really very scarce”.


Boys are being born with testicles in the wrong place, and pollution could be to blame

Researchers from France's national public health agency found that young boys were being born with deformed testicles, a condition that can result in decreased fertility. They found they were predominantly in areas where coal mining and metal production took place.

For the study, published on March 17 in the journal Human Reproduction, the researchers looked at 89,382 French boys who have cryptorchidism, a genetic birth defect where one or both testes are missing, or undescended, from the scrotum.

Often, cryptorchidism resolves itself within the six months after a baby is born. But these French boys, all under age 7 and studied between 2002 and 2014, needed surgery to correct their cryptorchidism because it didn't go away on its own.

. . .

Mapping out where the boys lived, they found that boys who lived in more polluted regions, where coal mining used to take place, were more than twice as likely to have one undescended testicle. They were also five times more likely to have two undescended testicles.


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