For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mothers womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Did you know God already knows your sins, pains, and struggles? In other words, you are not going to surprise Him or catch Him off guard. He already knows. Why then does it seem like so many of us need to hide our deepest emotions and temptations in personal, private prayer?

If you are struggling, facing challenges, fighting temptation, frustrated, weary, and anxious it is always the best policy to just open up to God. It is freeing to live in the place where the psalmist lives, because nothing in our life is going to catch God off guard, and no matter what you are facing, His love for you is the same. Talk to God, no matter what. He can handle it, and will receive it with mercy and love.

It is this kind of open and honest conversation with God that leads us into deep spiritual self-reflection through the empowerment of His Holy Spirit. Its in these kinds of prayers that the Holy Spirit often leads us to the wonderful confession, realization, and plea of the concluding verses of Psalm 139:23-24, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

In some translations this word anxious is included in verse 23 and is translated to say, know my anxious thoughts. It is here God will meet us in prayer. I often find in this meeting, God asking me a simple yet profound question. Why? Why are your thoughts so anxious?

Im reminded that it is because of me and my sinful nature, not God or my circumstances. He meets me there in my doubt, in my fear, and in my anxiety. Lovingly, He is reminding me of the hope I am given by Him, the council I find in Him, and despite my many failures and sins, the forgiveness I have in Him.

This process of open, honest prayer leads us to great peace, and your burdens will become lighter because you will remember you do not carry them alone.

Brandon Zoll is pastor of the Church of God of Exeter. He may be reached by calling 559-592-2631.

Prays Together is a rotating column between the pastors of the First Presbyterian Church of Exeter, Church of Christ of Exeter, Nazarene Church of Exeter, Church of God of Exeter, the New Life Assembly of God and Rocky Hill Community Church as well as the Lemon Cove Presbyterian Church.

This column is not a news article but the opinion of the writer and does not reflect the views of The Sun-Gazette newspaper.

Original post:
Prays Together: Honesty in Prayer - Foothills Sun Gazette

Services and studies

Asbury United Methodist Church The church has suspended in-person worship and will have an online service each Sunday morning. You may view the weekly video at http://www.asburycolumbus.org/latest-worship

A new Asbury Kids video is available each Wednesday. Follow the link: http://www.asbury columbus.org/latest-asbury-kids

Look for our Asbury Kids Facebook page for fun and fellowship for kids of all ages! Follow the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/699946243533189/

The church is located at 1751 27th St., Columbus.

Cornerstone Outreach Ministries A nondenominational ministry at 1229 California St., Columbus. Sunday worship services are at 10 a.m.

Bible study is on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

For more information, call 812-375-4502.

Dayspring Church Apostolic Worship begins at 11:15 a.m. at the church, 2127 Doctors Park Drive, Columbus. Every visitor will receive a free gift.

The Sunday Education Session starts at 10 a.m.

Bible Study is Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. and is a group session sponsored by Heart Changers International, LLC on Depression, Perfection and Anger with hand out questions. These help build our Personal Empowerment and walk.

Our Prayer of Power starts at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and is preceded with requests and instructions on prayer.

Ignite is the Youth Growth Session that happens every third Friday.

For more information, call 812-372-9336, or email dayspringchurch@att.net.

East Columbus United Methodist East Columbus United Methodist Church in-person services and Bible studies are canceled due to the pandemic.

East Columbus United Methodist will only be offering on-line services until further notice.

Fairlawn Presbyterian Weekly worship service on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. via Zoom (links and numbers below or folks can check fairlawnpc.net or visit our Facebook page for login and phone information).

Please use Zoom to call in by phone and/or login online.

Join the Online Zoom Meeting at https://zoom.us/j/431070245 with the Meeting ID of 431 070 245.

Dial in using landline or cell phone: +1 253 215 8782 US; +1 301 715 8592 US; Meeting ID: 431 070 245.

For more information, visit Fairlawns Facebook page or website (fairlawnpc.net), email office@fairlawnpc.net or call 812-372-3882.

All are welcome! Please call or email the church office for most up to date information at 812-372-3882 or office@fairlawnpc.net

The church is located at 2611 Fairlawn Drive, Columbus.

Faith Lutheran The church has suspended all in-person activities until further notice. Wednesday and Sunday worship services are streaming live on Facebook: Faith Lutheran Church Columbus, as well as times for prayer each day at 9 a.m., 6:30 p.m., and 9 p.m.

More information is at Faithontheweb.org or call 812-342-3587.

The church is located at 6000 W. State Road 46, Columbus.

First Christian Church The church will only be having an online service at 10:30 a.m. on Facebook (www.facebook.com/FCCOC) and at http://www.fccoc.org/sunday/watch-now.

Details at http://www.fccoc.org

First Baptist Columbus will not be holding public worship gatherings at present. The church does offer a live stream worship connection at 9:30 a.m. on Sundays.

First Presbyterian First Presbyterian Church has canceled all in-person gatherings, including worship and committee meetings, and the office is closed until further notice. If you need to be in touch, please call 812-372-3783 and leave a message, and the church will be back in touch with you as soon as possible.

Streaming of worship services is available here https://www.facebook.com/groups/56933406910/ each Sunday, until the church is meeting back in person. Join the church as we worship together through technology!

Please know that we are praying for our church, our community and the world in this time of crisis, and we encourage you to join us in prayer. God bless you.

Information: fpccolumbus.org

First United Methodist Until further notice, First United Methodist Church will continue to live stream worship services instead of congregating in person. On Sunday, May 31, Rev. Howard Boles will deliver the message Ministry Without Borders. The scripture will be Acts 2:1-21.

The service will be live streamed at 10 a.m. on the church Facebook page. Services and sermons will be available on our website as well http://www.fumccolumbus.org

Information: 812-372-2851 or fumccolumbus.org

Flintwood Wesleyan The church is located at 5300 E. 25th St.

In response to the current Covid-19 (coronavirus) situation, Flintwood Wesleyan Church is canceling all midweek services and activities.

Sunday worship services resumed with the implementation of the recommended in-person worship guidelines.

Please remember to check our various communication spaces Facebook, Website, Mobile App for updates. Your Flintwood staff will be doing everything possible to keep our congregation encouraged. We need to do all we can to keep our staff encouraged. Above all pray!

For further information about services or our ministries, please call 812.379.4287 or email flintwoodoffice@gmail.com. Church office hours are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Our website is http://www.flintwood.org.

Garden City Church of Christ Garden City Church of Christ will continue to honor the Indiana stay-at-home order and has suspended all in-person gatherings including Sunday services, Bible studies, youth & childrens activities, and meetings. Please visit our website or Facebook page for updates.

Weekly sermons can be viewed at http://www.garden citychurch.com/media/ listen-to-sermons by 10 a.m. each Sunday. Weekly packets go out to families with grade school age children that include a family devotion, video, and activities. The Youth Group and the College and Career group are meeting via video chat.

In absence of our weekly gatherings, you are encouraged to continue giving your tithes and offerings through the website and the GivePlus app.

Garden City Church of Christ is located at 3245 Jonesville Road, Columbus.

For more information or to get connected, email us at gccc@gardencitychurch.com or call 812-372-1766.

Grace Lutheran Worship is at 9 a.m. and can be livestreamed at http://www.gracecolumbus.org/livestream.

All services will be live streamed but if you miss it, they are all available as recordings at the same location.

The church is located at 3201 Central Ave., Columbus.

North Christian Church Gather with the church for virtual worship! Services are regularly uploaded to our YouTube channel on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. YouTube: North Christian Church Columbus, IN

Find supplemental worship materials and resources at http://www.northchristianchurch.com. Follow them on Facebook for updates.

The staff continues to work remotely. No building access is available at this time. The church will continue to monitor this ever-changing situation, and update their response as appropriate.

Information: 812-372-1531

The church is located at 850 Tipton Lane, Columbus.

Old Union United Church of Christ Scriptures for the 10 a.m. Sunday service with social distancing will include Acts 2:1-21,1 Corinthians 12:3b-13, and John 20:19-23. The message will be The Fire Within Us.

We will apply the social distancing guidelines, which include: No one permitted without a face covering(face masks will be provided for those who need one), space two arm-widths apart for non-relatives seating, seating every other pew, no fellowship in the basement, no passing of the peace, no handshaking or hugging.

The church is located at 12703 N. County Road 50W, Edinburgh.

Petersville United Methodist Church The church continues to post Pastor Stormy Scherer-Berrys sermons on Facebook each week; the title for Sunday, May 31 will be Open the Eyes of My Heart.

On separate posts, scriptures will be shared by Joe and Kathy Bush from Ephesians 1:17 and Luke 24:48-49, and Teresa Covert will give the childrens message.

In-person services at the church will not be held for a few more weeks.

Information: 812-546-4438; 574-780-2379.

Sandcreek Azalia Friends Meeting On Sunday, May 31, the church will have no Sunday School before the 10:30 a.m. service.

The church is located at 13275 S. County Road 350E, Elizabethtown.

Sandy Hook United Methodist Sandy Hook United Methodist Church has cancelled all public worship services and meetings. Weekly messages are available on our Facebook Page or the Pastor Stephen W. Austin Youtube channel.

The church is located at 1610 Taylor Road, Columbus.

St. Pauls Episcopal Church All in-person activities at the church are suspended until further notice. Sunday Eucharist is being hosted on ZOOM at 10:15 a.m. each Sunday morning.

The First Thursday Ladies Lunch will also be on ZOOM, May 7 at 11:30 a.m. (see website for ZOOM meeting ID).

St. Paul Lutheran In person communion worship services will be held Sunday at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 6045 E. State St., at 8, 9:30 and 11 a.m. following all CDC guidelines for social distancing.

Pastor Jeff Pattersons message is entitled Living Water based on John 7:37-39.

The Spanish Worship service will be at 11 a.m. in the Fellowship Room conducted by Vicar Dan Fickenscher.

Christian Education classes will not meet. The Sunday worship services and the children and youth Sunday School lessons will be posted online Saturday morning, May 30 at http://www.stpaulcolumbus.org and at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnNwPk8yYCeX_bAnyMsXEsA

Radio Worship Service every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on 1010 AM and 98.1 FM.

Open enrollment for the 2020-2021 pre-school class registrations continues for students who are 3 & 4 years old by Aug. 1. Information: 812-528-0168.

Information: 812-376-6504.

Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbus At this time, the church has postponed in-person gatherings until further notice. Please join the church virtually! Follow the church on Facebook or visit uucci.org for more information.

The church is at 7850 W. Goeller Blvd., Columbus.

Information: 812-342-6230.

Westside Community WCC will be having drive-in church services on May 31 and June 7 in the parking lot at 10 a.m. The church is located at the corner of 46 West and Tipton Lakes Blvd.

Pastor Dennis continues to provide Points to Ponder, a daily devotional, which can be found on the church Facebook page or at wccsharejesus.com.

When able, WCC has plans to host a community-wide garage sale. Be on the lookout for more details in the upcoming weeks. If interested in participating, while you are stuck at home this might be a good time to clean out your basements, closets, garages, etc.

For more information on studies or small groups that meet throughout the week, contact the church office at 812-342-8464.

Events

Eckankar of Southern Indiana All Eckankar events in Indiana are suspended through May 31, 2020. This is to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. This includes the monthly Eckankar Spiritual Discussion held the third Sunday of the month at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation building in Columbus, Indiana.

Check http://www.eck-indiana.org for the latest update on events in Indiana, and you are invited to browse the main Eckankar website for videos and reading material at http://www.Eckankar.org.

North Christian Church The church is temporarily suspending all church activities, effective immediately and for the foreseeable future due to caution concerning the coronavirus outbreak. The offices of the pastor and staff members will be closed as well. The church will reopen as soon as recommended by health officials.

Visit link:
Religion news May 30 - The Republic

Melody Cooper/Facebook

Amy Cooper was not afraid. In the now-infamous Ramble video, we can clearly see her entitlement and rage.We see her losing control because her privilege to exercise unfettered autonomy was challenged by Christian Cooper, a birder who requested that she respect leash-law rules. Christians video revealed the falsehood of Amys call to the police, in which she assumes a distressed voice and begs them to help her because an African American man was threatening her.

Once exposed, Amy apologized via media interview for her behavior and insisted she is not a racist. She further noted that she, in retrospect wrongly, regarded the police as a cost-free protection agency but that she now understood that there are so many people in this country that dont have that luxury.

But Amy didnt call the cops because she was scared of Christian the birder. That much is obvious from the video. She called them to prevail in a power struggle with a black man who dared to challenge her authority to do as she wished in public. She knew that in the contest with Christian, who used cellphone video to advance his effort to get her to leash her dog, she had an ace in the holethe ability to activate a presumptively racist police force against an African American man. And what an advantage that is. A Minneapolis police officers horrific execution of George Floyd is just the latest in a mountain of evidence that such a call can equal a death sentence.

For decades, conservative and liberal women alike have been taught that the key to empowerment against men who pose a threat, real or imagined, is to call the police. As high as the stakes were for Christian, they were nonexistent for Amy. For upper- and middle-class white women, the demographic least likely to be arrested or face state violence, a call to the police appears to be a no-lose proposition.

The modern alliance between police and white women formed in the late 1970s, in the wake of an intrafeminist debate over how to best combat domestic violence.Feminists who harbored skepticism toward the warmongering police at first worried about calling in the cops, but soon their desire to activate police protection for the abused wherever possible trumped fears over the extension of discretionary powers of arrest so open to abuse, particularly against Third World and low-income people, as one early activist put it.As Donna Coker, an expert on the dynamics of domestic violence, has noted, white women are seldom aware of the degree to which white privilege protects them from police suspicion and surveillance. As one black feminist activist observed, I think White women talked more as if the courts belonged to us [all women] and therefore should work for us where we [women of color] always saw it as belonging to someone else and talked more about how to keep it from hurting us.

But white womens ability to accrue power against men, especially black men, via police enforcement has a long history. The infamous Scottsboro Boys case illustrates this.Two working-class white women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, had been on a train where several black boys were hoboing. They subsequently fabricated that the boys gang raped them, inciting a lynch mob, to protect themselves from potential prostitution charges.

Such a ready invocation of police protection is not necessarily feminist. In fact, gendered police protection was historically rooted in notions of women as mens property that could be violated or stolen by other men. In 1977, thenACLU lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg filed an amicus brief inCoker v. Georgia, the case that stuck down capital punishment for rape of a woman.Ginsburg submitted the brief on behalf of a large segment of the womens legal community who oppose the death penalty for rape as a vestige of an ancient, patriarchal view of women as the propertyof men. It argued, Rape of white women by black men threatened the white mans status by decreasing the value of his sexual possession, and by jeopardizing the purity of his race, and it was therefore necessary to take extreme measures to prevent this result. Lynching was one such measure; and the death penalty for rapeparticularly when perpetrated by blackswas another.

In short, white women have become accustomed to asserting power over men, especially black men, through policing.Thats why Amys decision to call the police, even though it was she who broke the park rules, was sadly unsurprising. Her entitlement is all too familiar. The media has been saturated with images of similar entitlement and rage in recent weeks, as throngs of predominantly white Americans protest COVID-19 business closures and demand their states resume business as usual, knowing that black lives disproportionately hang in the balance. These white protesters, who know they have the privilege to be armed and intimidating without facing police violence, are rejecting a shared responsibility for safe public spaces. Christian Coopers offense was to insist that Amy Cooper, too, had a responsibility to protect a shared public space. Amys response demonstrated that public safety is not shared by all.

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Read the original:
Why Amy Cooper Felt the Police Were Her Personal Protection Agency - Slate

Sexual Harassment By: Mannette Morgan | 12 hours ago

Covid-19 has changed everyones livesespecially those who find themselves living in an abusive situation. On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. That statistic could be on the increase since this pandemic has elevated the fear of the unknown and generated extraordinary stress and anxiety within families, households, and relationships. Furthermore, I fear fewer victims are seeking help since safer-at-home orders require people to hunker down together at home, sharing space with abusers.

Most individuals are consumed with worrying thoughts that I call the what ifs:

These worrying thoughts can raise stress levels and increase anxiety for anyone but can especially be a trigger for those prone to abusive behaviors. Some individuals who feel they are losing control of their own lives may become more controlling of those closest to them. Stressful situations like the pandemic can cause a rise in unhealthy copying skills such as alcohol and drug abuse. Abusive individuals my find themselves more frustrated, angry, or even rageful. These types of behaviors, fears, and emotions create a ticking time bomb that can devastate a family.

With a rise in domestic abuse and violence, families are more vulnerable than ever. The safety of victims and their children should be a chief concern for our society and prompt us to become more aware and offer support to those in need.

If you, your children, or someone you know is in in a dangerous life-threating situation, take the initiative and call 911. For those not in a life-threatening situation yet dealing with controlling, manipulative, degrading, or intolerable behaviors, it may be time to start planning for a new beginningone absent of abuse.

As a survivor and through my work with abuse victims over the last decade, I know all too well how hard it is to leave and start over, especially when children are involved. I personally felt trapped in my abusive relationship with my first husband. He controlled and manipulated my life. Not only was I fearful of losing his love, but I was financially dependent on him. He convinced me that no one would ever love me like he did; he told me I was stupid and incapable of do anything right. I lived in a cycle of emotional abuse for nearly ten years.

Abusive people can destroy a victims self-worth, manipulate their thoughts and beliefs. Abusers have a way of convincing a victim that they are to blame for the abusers poor behaviors. The victim can be manipulated into believing they are the uncaring and controlling person in the relationship. This is why I feel it is important to understand what emotional or psychological abuse looks, sounds, and feels like. Go to Helpguide.org to learn more about abuse.

Once a victim understands the abuse and decides to take action, they can transition from victim to survivor. The following steps offer effective ways to break free of an abusive situation:

Get Help First, it is vital to make a plan. Research options or find an organization for guidance and support. Rainn.org or National Domestic Violence Hotline Thehotline.org are organizations that can help survivors. Go to Mannettemorgan.com for more information and to find links to these organizations and other resources. Abuse survivors may need a support group, therapist, lawyer, resources, or a safe place to stay.

Get Out This just might be the hardest thing any survivor will ever do, but it can be done. I believe few relationships that involve abuse can be resolved. The only way to turn an unhealthy relationship into a healthy one requires behavioral modification by the abuser and the victim which involves awareness, reflection, work, learning, and growth as individuals and a unified pair. If both parties in the relationship arent willing to do the work, it might be time to move on.

Stop the Cycle of Abuse Once a survivor decides to face their challenges, it is time to become educated. A survivor must make a choice to invest in their own personal healing. They may need a therapist, guidance, or a self-help book like my book Finding Your Voice: A Path to Recovery for Survivors of Abuse. The best gift a survivor can give to themselves is to heal the pain of their past trauma. As a survivor heals, they can discover their self-worth and regain their self-empowerment. When a survivor gains these two self-beliefs, they will obtain what is needed to break the cycle of abuse in their own lives and have an opportunity for happiness, joy, and healthier relationships.

As a society we can make a difference. In order to stop the cycle of abuse in our society, we must become aware, educated, vocal, and supportive. We must empower victims to become survivors. I believe each individual survivors strength and empowerment is the answer to breaking the cycle of abuse.

About the author: Mannette Morgan is an inspirational speaker, author, and abuse survivor whois on a mission to stop the cycle of abuse in our society. After 30 years of intense self-work, she overcame her past trauma of emotional, sexual, and physical abuse along with powering through the limitations of her learning disability, dyslexia. A life coach certified through the Academy of Solution Focus Training and the American University of NLP,she has emerged as a leading voice among abuse survivors and today inspires others to rise above adversity and strive for a better life. Her incredible story of survival and recovery is documented in the bookFinding Your Voice. https://mannettemorgan.com

Read more here:
Abuse During the Pandemic: What You Need to Know and Do - Women's eNews

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It's no secret that ancient healing practices from all over the world have become increasingly popular in Western society over the past years and decades (hello yoga, Ayurveda, acupuncture and more). But for many, one particular concept is still shrouded in mystery, despite the widespread recognition of its central theme what exactly is shamanism?

"'Shaman' is an ancient term for a healer a person of medicine," Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D., founder of The Four Winds Society, says via email. "Shamans understand that the material world is an expression of a subtler energetic realm, and are able to interact with both realms at all times. They learned how to dream their world into being within this energetic realm, so they could participate in the creation and stewardship of reality."

Shamanism itself isn't tied to any single culture, but experts say the term "shaman" originated from the Tungus tribe in Siberia. The noun is formed from the verb a, which means "to know," so the term "shaman" literally translates to "one who knows."

While there are spiritual and mystical connotations to the term, Villoldo is careful to point out that the term "shaman" in and of itself is in no way tied to a specific religion or creed. "Lots of people believe that shamanism is a religion," he says. "While a number of religions may have evolved from shamanic tradition and many shamans around the world may also identify as members of organized religions shamanism is a spiritual practice."

A variety of formal religions are said to have roots in ancient shamanic traditions, but the specific practices and beliefs vary. According to the University of Minnesota's holistic health site, Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing, shamanism is a "group of activities and experiences shared by shamans in cultures around the world. These practices are adaptable and coexist with different cultures, systems of government and organized religious practices."

In her book, "An Encyclopedia of Shamanism," author Christina Pratt says a shaman by definition is a person who has mastered three specific things: altered states of consciousness, acting as a medium between the needs of the spirit world and those of the physical world in a way that's useful to the community, and the ability to meet the needs of the community in ways that other practitioners (like doctors, psychiatrists and religious leaders) can't. In some cultures that may mean a shaman dispenses wisdom or leads ceremonies in areas including meditation and energy work, but again, the specifics of the practices will vary according to the culture.

According to the website Shaman Links: "Shamans work with the spirit or the soul. They heal illness at the soul level. They gain knowledge and insight from working with the spirits of nature such as rocks and trees, the land, and they gain knowledge from working with spirits of animals and humans such as their ancestors. For the shaman, everything is alive and carries information. You can call this spirit, energy, or consciousness.

"In order to communicate with the spirit or consciousness of these things, the shaman will shift his or her own state of awareness. Shamans can do this through various means, such as meditation, repetitive sounds such as that of the drum or rattle, or through the help of hallucinogenic plants. The shaman will then see through a new set of eyes, they will see what is going on with you on a spiritual level.

"The shamans practice is also characterized by the soul flight. The shift of consciousness that the shaman makes, which allows the free part of his or her soul to leave the body. The shaman can then go retrieve information for your healing and growth. They can retrieve healing power, or things that you have lost along the way in living your life. During the soul flight the shaman is both in the room, and going on this journey so that he or she has an awareness of both at the same time."

According to Villoldo, modern shamans are still very much in existence, and over its 25-year history, The Four Winds Society has mentored over 10,000 students in the field of "Shamanic Energy Medicine." "Today's shamans are the new caretakers of the earth," he says. "Even though we are not shaking feathers and rattles, or reading the oracle of the bones, we are nonetheless engaging with the luminous nature of reality."

While the concept of shamanism may be open to interpretation and variations, Villoldo says the overall shamanistic approach to health is distinct. "Western medicine, which I describe as a disease-care system, recognizes thousands of ailments and myriad remedies, while shamanic energy medicine identifies only one ailment and one cure," he says. "The ailment is alienation from our emotions, from our bodies, from the earth and from Spirit. The symptoms of this ailment are physical and emotional disease. The cure is the experience of Oneness, which restores inner harmony and facilitates recovery from all maladies, regardless of origin."

While there isn't much evidence to support the effectiveness of shamanic healing when it comes to disease, there are some studies that indicate that the interactive, soul-based healing practices inherent in some shamanic practices may be beneficial for some people. Some experts, like Marlene Dobkin de Rios, Ph.D., who wrote the 2002 paper, "What We Can Learn From Shamanic Healing: Brief Psychotherapy With Latino Immigrant Clients," published in the American Journal of Public Health, believe that the personal empowerment, behavior modification and cognitive restructuring encouraged by some shamans may be helpful for some people coping with physical, emotional or psychological issues. That said, there's no single certifying body that registers practitioners, so experts recommend that those interested in shamanism who are not living in indigenous cultures do some research and check out available resources, like the Foundation for Shamanic Studies.

Read the rest here:
What Is a Shaman and Can Anyone Become One? - HowStuffWorks

CHICAGO, IL - FEBRUARY 1: Harry Lennix, Jennifer A. Goodman, Ryan Atkins and Eric Roberts during the ... [+] Conrad Series Reboot screening at Davis Theatre on February 1, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Barry Brecheisen/Getty Images)

Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, creators have been forced to find unique new ways to remain engaged with fans, as filming of television shows and movies remains shut down during shelter-in-place orders.

Conrad series co-creators Jennifer A. Goodman and and Ryan Atkins have been holding weekly webinars with stars like actor Harry Lennix (The Blacklist), who portrays lieutenant Don Brewer in the pilot episode of the new Lakefront Pictures crime drama.

Goodman and Atkins began pitching the pilot to networks last week despite the onset of COVID-19. While the crime drama genre can be a crowded corner of the network television sphere, Goodman and Atkins have gone to great lengths to ensure Conrad stands out.

Just another crime drama is a common saying that none of us want our project to fall within, said Atkins, who doubles as director of photography. What sets Conrad apart would be probably how deep the story goes and the characters that were focusing on.

Conrad isnt just a crime drama or a cop drama - its a story that really helms a young woman who is really trying to find her place in the world, added Goodman, who portrays detective Kate Conrad. She is guarded from life by her father - shes protected by her father - and shes really trying to make a name for herself. So its really about determination and surpassing expectations that have been set for you - which actually parallels my own personal life. Im on the Autism spectrum and I was always kind of guarded from society or told that I would not get to certain points in my life. And I have always surpassed that expectation. So, its really about empowering ones self to be true to who they are and what they believe in.

CHICAGO, IL - DECEMBER 02: Jennifer A. Goodman, Kelli Tidmore and Kristin Hum-Dell during the ... [+] Conrad series premier screening at the Gene Siskel Film Center on December 2, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Barry Brecheisen/Getty Images)

Female empowerment is a theme that quickly emerges from the Conrad pilot. But the plot lines run much deeper.

Conrad kind of deals with some of the concerns that we have today over privacy - identity theft, things like that. Are you who you say you are? Not everything is as it seems in this story. But its a story about hope, said Atkins.

Its about the realities in terms of underground worlds and lives that we dont even realize are happening all around us every single day. And thats where a human trafficking piece comes in. We see a lot of people in this story who are kind of living double lives - who are kind of experiencing this world that they didnt mean to fall into but are involved with without even knowing it, Goodman elaborated. It kind of touches upon a greater depth than just everyday crime. It goes beyond more of the psychological story behind why someone may do something that they do. It leads into perspective that goes deeper than we may fathom, while empowering women in these fields to feel confident and forthcoming about what they want to do.

Conrad was the brainchild of Atkins, beginning as just a two page script near the end of 2016.

Goodman joined on after responding to a social media post from Atkins seeking a bad ass, fierce detective.

Engaged by that original treatment and initial meeting with Atkins, Goodman immediately knocked out an additional seventy script pages.

I think my audition was over about 4:30 or 5 PM - and I went home and started writing. And I wasnt done until about 9 AM the next day. I was writing, took a nap for thirty minutes, woke back up, had more ideas and started writing again, Goodman explained. The scripted seventy pages was definitely not a shootable script. But what it was was it was a bunch of ideas that were intriguing and eye opening. And then I kind of helmed the script from there with Ryan.

The original story came from me and it was intended to be a demo reel project. At the time, I was on a break from a previous project and I decided to do that. My hope was that thered be interest in expanding that into a larger project, said Atkins. I had only vague ideas - nothing super specific. We ended up collaborating for a while but I ended up just giving Jennifer the script to run with.

CHICAGO, IL - JANUARY 06: Harry J. Lennix, Brian Barber and Kelli Tidmore on location for 'Conrad' ... [+] a new crime drama that focuses on women empowerment and gender equality on January 6, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Barry Brecheisen/Getty Images)

Shooting took place over fifteen days in the summer of 2019, with a few pick ups last fall, in both Chicago and New York.

In Chicago, filming closed the Wacker Drive bridge downtown at Michigan Avenue. In New York, shoots took place near the Brooklyn Bridge as well as in a shipping container yard which can also be seen in both The Blacklist and The Shawshank Redemption.

We did this kind of backwards. We didnt have a budget and then shoot a show. We shot a show and built the budget as we went along, said Goodman. Because I felt very confident and I really believed that I would make this happen. And I constantly reminded people of that: Dont worry. If we build it, it will happen. Im a firm believer that if you build something, people will come. And they did.

Ultimately, that budget was financed via crowdfunding campaigns and active investors with a keen eye on reigning in spending wherever possible.

A lot of the things that we did with fundraising started with Indiegogo and then asking friends and family and putting in our own money. That didnt get us very far. However, Ryan and I put in a substantial amount of our own time and money - and so did some of the other producers. Because they believed in what we were creating, said Goodman. We were able to get that trailer out and brand our show. We got our social media marketing out and started getting up to about five or six thousand followers - without people having seen the show. And that was exciting. People who were a part of our show, or did locations or helped us with utilizing their home, put in money to our team. There were individuals who were very adamant about what we were creating and wanting their name to be a part of it. So just through networking and my background in sales, Ive been able to utilize my skill set in this environment.

That social media footprint has now doubled on Facebook alone and the Conrad pilot premiered in February at the Davis Theater in Chicago, with stars like Lennix and actor Eric Roberts (Michael Conrad) on hand for interviews and a red carpet reception.

Over the course of the last four years, Conrad has evolved from a two page idea into a fully realized and produced pilot with actual Hollywood star power, a lifespan few planted seeds ever make it through.

With future series story lines fleshed out, and the pitch process officially underway, Goodman is clear about what a learning process the entire experience has been.

First, you cant trust everybody. Youve got to do your research. The biggest thing is to do research, plan wisely, involve the right people and make sure the people that are invested in this are emotionally engaged and invested - that they believe in you and what youre doing and are doing it for the win and success of the show, she said. It cant all be about the money. We want the money - but we want a team of collaborators and creatives that want to see something happen thats unique and different. So, I think the biggest learning experience, I would say, is to be open minded - listen to others, take in feedback and be willing to grow.

CHICAGO, IL - FEBRUARY 1: Harry Lennix, Kelly Tidmore, Jennifer A. Goodman, Eric Roberts and Ryan ... [+] Atkins during the Conrad Series Reboot screening at Davis Theatre on February 1, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Barry Brecheisen/Getty Images)

With the finish line potentially in sight, regardless of how the pitch process plays out, both Atkins and Goodman are clear on what their unique partnership has meant from the advent of the idea through to today despite the uncertain times.

The collaboration overall has been really fantastic. Shes a wonderful person. She had a lot of different ideas for the character. The story now is several seasons deep. She has endless ideas and is just a source of energy, said Atkins. You never know whos going to like your idea and where an idea might lead you. I had no intention of making this a TV show. It was a two page theme. I couldve never told you that.

Its been a lot of work. Because theres been a lot of challenges. I never really wrote scripts prior to this. But there are few people that Id rather be in business with. He truly offers authenticity. Hes humble. His integrity is in line. We really are honest with each other and we communicate well. In the beginning, it was challenging. Hes really the opposite of me in every sense of the word. But, honestly, hes the yin to my yang when it comes to filmmaking. I think that because were very comfortable and trusting of each other, its a lot easier to be in this process together, said Goodman of the Conrad partnership with Atkins. Were both very well aware that I may not be Kate Conrad. He may not be director of photography. But we also understand that as creators, something weve created will make sure were on top of this and partnered to this as long as we can.

Read this article:
Jennifer Goodman And Ryan Atkins On Maintaining Connection With An Audience Amidst COVID-19 And Guiding Conrad From Pilot To Pitch - Forbes

The crowd is untruth.-Soren Kierkegaaard

The crowd, cautioned Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, is untruth. Nowhere is the concise wisdom of this 19th century warning more plainly apparent than in Donald Trumps despairing United States. Even today, even after so much rancorous presidential dissemblance and chicanery, this fragmenting and unhappy nation too often accepts incoherent political dogma as proper authority and conspicuously vile political gibberish as truth.

Even now, even when a derelict president elevates his own contrived and illiterate judgments concerning epidemiology above the authoritative opinion of Americas distinguished scientists and physicians, millions of his supporters still offer a visceral amen. In essence, these obedient citizens stand in stubbornly open support of untruth or anti-Reason. Why?

How can this unchanging self-destructiveness be suitably explained?

It gets even worse. In certain refractory instances, this irrational hierarchy of US citizen preference has led hundreds (perhaps thousands) of Americans to consume potentially lethal medications against Covid-19. What are these obedient people thinking? This is a president, let us not forget, who thinks human bodies can somehow undergo beneficial anti-viral cleanings with commercially-available disinfectants. If it can kill virus on tabletops, reasons Trump openly, why not take the remediating substance internally?

Credo quia absurdum, affirmed the ancient philosophers. I believe because it is absurd. Still, this is a president of the United States in the year 2020. How can such preposterous reasoning be accepted by literally millions of Americans?

There is more. How shall such normally incomprehensible behaviors be explained more gainfully? At one level, at least, the answer is obvious. America is no longer a society that sincerely values knowledge, education or learning. Led by a retrograde man of commerce who never reads books indeed, who proudly reads nothing at all this has become a know nothing country, a nation that wittingly and shamelessly spurns both intellect and truth.[1] For whatever deeply underlying reasons, docile Trump minions seek to keep themselves anesthetized.

In this active form of complicity with self-destruction, these Americans are not passive victims. Rather, they insistently hold themselves captive by a lengthening string of embarrassingly false presidential reassurances and by clinging to endlessly mindless Trump simplifications of complex problems.[2]

In her magisterial two-volume work, The Life of the Mind (1971), political philosopher Hannah Arendt makes much of the manifest shallowness of historical evil-doers, hypothesizing that the critically underlying causes of harm are not specifically evil motives or common stupidity per se. Rather, she concludes controversially but convincingly, the root problem is thoughtlessness, a more-or-less verifiable human condition that makes a susceptible individual readily subject to the presumed wisdom of clichs, stock phrases and narrowly visceral codes of expression.

There are always a great many who will be susceptible. This does not mean only those who lack a decent formal education. Significantly, in Donald Trumps fragmenting America, just as earlier in the Third Reich, well-educated and affluent persons have joined forces with gun worshippers and street fighters to meet certain presumptively overlapping objectives. In the end, we may learn from both history and logic, each faction will suffer grievously alongside the general citizenry.

Both sides will lose.[3]

For philosopher Hannah Arendt, the core problem is this: a literal absence of thinking. In her learned and lucid assessment, evil is not calculable according to any specific purpose or ideology. Rather, it is deceptively commonplace and altogether predictable. Evil, we may learn from the philosopher, is banal.

There is more. Fundamentally, the mass man or mass woman (a Jungian term[4] that closely resembles Arendts evildoer) who cheers wildly in rancorous presidential crowds, and whatever the articulated gibberish of the moment, favors a constant flow of empty witticisms over any meaningful insights of reasoning or science. Living in a commerce-driven society that has been drifting ever further from any still-residual life of the mind, this susceptible American is a perfect recruit for Trumpian conversion.

This obedient citizen, after all, has absolutely no use for study, evidence or critical thinking of any kind. Why should he? Der Fuhrer will do his thinking for him.[5]

Could anything be more convenient?

With Arendt and Jung, the anti-Reason culprit is unmasked. It is the once-individual human being who has wittingly ceased to be an individual, who has effectively become the unapologetic enemy of intellect and a reliable ally of thoughtlessness. Using the succinct but incomparably expressive words of Spanish philosopher Jose Oretga yGassett, he or she thinks only in his own flesh.[6] Following any such antecedent triumphs of anti-Reason in the United States, it becomes more easy to understand the hideous rise and political survival of dissembling American President Donald J. Trump.

Americas most insidious enemy in this suffocating Trump Era should now be easier to recognize. It is an unphilosophical national spirit that knows nothing and wants to know nothing of truth.[7] Now facing unprecedented and overlapping crises of health, economics and law,[8] sizable elements of We the People feel at their best when they can chant anesthetizing gibberish in mesmerizing chorus. Were number one; were number one,these Americans still shout reflexively, even as their countrys capacity to project global power withers minute by minute, and even as the already ominous separations of rich and poor have come to mimic (and sometimes exceed) what is discoverable in the most downtrodden nations on earth.

Most alarmingly, among these manifold catastrophic American declensions, the badly-wounded American nation is still being led by an utterly ignorant pied piper, by a would-be emperor who was stunningly naked from the start and who has now managed to bring the United States to once unimaginable levels of suffering. In this connection, the Corona Virus pandemic was not of his own personal making, of course, but this relentless plague has become infinitely more injurious under Trumps unsteady dictatorial hand.

Nonetheless, the champions of anti-Reason in America will still generally rise to defend their Fuhrer. He did not create this growing plague, we are reminded. He is, therefore, just another victim of a plausibly unavoidable national circumstance. Why keep picking on this innocent and brilliant man? Instead, let us stand loyally by his inconspicuously sagacious counsel.

Sound familiar?

Recalling philosopher Hannah Arendt, such determinedly twisted loyalties stem originally from massive citizen thoughtlessness. Though Donald Trump is not in any way responsible for the actual biological menace of our current plague, he has still willingly weakened the American nations most indispensable medical and scientific defenses.[9] It is well worth mentioning too, on this particular count, that meaningful national defense always entails more than just large-scale weapons systems and infrastructures.[10] Looking ahead, moreover, this country has far more to gain from a coherent and science-based antivirus policy than from a patently preposterous Trumpian Space Force.[11]

Thomas Jefferson, Chief architect of the Declaration of Independence, earlier observed the imperative congruence of viable national democracy with wisdom and learning. Today, however, many still accept a president whose proud refrain during the 2016 election process was I love the poorly educated. Among other humiliating derelictions, this refrain represented a palpable echo of Third Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels Nuremberg rally comment: Intellect rots the brain.

Americans are polarized not only by race, ethnicity and class, but also by inclination or disinclination to serious thought. For most of this dreary and unhappy country, any inclination toward a life of the mind is anathema. In irrefutable evidence, trivial or debasing entertainments remain the only expected compensation for a shallow national life of tedious obligation, financial exhaustion and premature death. This sizable portion of the populace, now kept distant from authentic personal growth by every imaginable social and economic obstacle, desperately seeks residual compensations, whether in silly slogans, status-bearing affiliations or the manifestly deranging promises of Trump Era politics.

Even at this eleventh hour, Americans must learn understand that no nation can be first[12] that does not hold the individual soul[13] sacred. At one time in our collective history, after American Transcendental philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, a spirit of personal accomplishment did actually earn high marks. Then, young people especially, strove to rise interestingly, not as the embarrassingly obedient servants of destructive power and raw commerce, but as plausibly proud owners of a unique and personal Self.

Alas, today this Self lives together with increasingly unbearable material and biologically uncertain ties. Whether Americans would prefer to become more secular or more reverent, to grant government more authority over their lives, or less, a willing submission to multitudes has become the nations most unifying national religion. Regarding the pied piper in the White House, many Americans accept even the most patently preposterous Trump claims of enhanced national security. Credo quia absurdum.

Upon returning to Washington DC after the Singapore Summit, President Trump made the following statement: Everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea.[14]

Its not just America. Crowd-like sentiments like these have a long and diversified planetary history. We are, to be fair, hardly the first people to surrender to crowds. The contemporary crowd-man or woman is, in fact, a primitive and universal being, one who has uniformly slipped back, in the words of Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset, through the wings, on to the age-old stage of civilization.

This grotesque stage is not bare. It is littered with the corpses of dead civilizations.[15] Indiscriminately, the crowd defiles all that is most gracious and still-promising in society. Charles Dickens, during his first visit to America, already observed back in 1842: I do fear that the heaviest blow ever dealt at liberty will be dealt by this country in the failure of its example to the earth.

To this point, at least, Americans have successfully maintained their political freedom from traditional political tyranny and oppression, but plainly this could now change at almost any moment. Already, we have come to accept in once unimaginable terms the kind of presidential manipulation and bullying that can shred and pull apart well-established constitutions. As corollary, Americans have also cravenly surrendered their liberty to become authentic persons. Openly deploring a life of meaning and sincerity, a nation stubbornly confuses wealth with success, blurting out rhythmic chants of patriotic celebration even as their cheerless democracy vanishes into meaninglessness, pandemic disease and a plausibly irremediable despair.

Whatever its origin, there is an identifiable reason lying behind this synchronized delirium. In part, at least, such orchestrated babble seeks to protect Americans from a potentially terrifying and unbearable loneliness. In the end, however, it is a contrived and inevitably lethal remedy . In the end, it offers just another Final Solution.

Still, there remain individual American citizens of integrity and courage. The fearlessly resolute individual who actively seeks an escape from the steadily-poisoning crowd, the One who opts heroically for disciplined individual thought over effortless conformance, must feel quite deeply alone. The most radical division, asserted Jos Ortega y Gasset in 1930, is that which splits humanity. those who make great demands on themselvesand those who demand nothing special of themselves In 1965, the Jewish philosopher, Abraham Joshua Heschel, offered an almost identical argument. Lamenting, The emancipated man is yet to emerge, Heschel then asked each One to inquire: What is expected of me? What is demanded of me?

Why are these same questions so casually pushed aside by current American supporters of a rancorous president who opposes emancipation in any conceivable form?

There is more. It is time for camouflage and concealment in our pitiful American crowd to yield to what Abraham Joshua Heschel called being-challenged-in-the-world. Individuals who would dare to read books for more than transient entertainment, and who are willing to risk social and material disapproval in exchange for exiting the crowd (emancipation), offer America its only real and lasting hope. To be sure, these rare souls can seldom be found in politics, in universities, in corporate boardrooms or almost anywhere (there are some exceptions still) on radio, television or in the movies. Always, their critical inner strength lies not in pompous oratory, catchy crowd phrases, or observably ostentatious accumulations of personal wealth (Trump. Trump, Trump), but in the considerably more ample powers of genuineness, thought and Reason.

There is much yet to learn. Currently, not even the flimsiest ghost of intellectual originality haunts Americas public discussions of politics and economics, even those organized by intelligent and well-meaning Trump opponents. Now that Americas largely self-deceiving citizenry has lost all residual sense of awe in the world, this national public not only avoids authenticity, it positively loathes it. Indeed, in a nation that has lost all recognizable regard for the Western literary canon, our American crowdsgenerally seek aid, comfort and fraternity in a conveniently shared public illiteracy.

Inter alia, the classical division of American society into Few and Mass represents a useful separation of those who are imitators from those who could initiate real understanding. The mass, said Jose Ortega y Gasset, crushes beneath it everything that is different, everything that is excellent, individual, qualified and select. Today, in foolish and prospectively fatal deference to this Mass, the intellectually un-ambitious American not only wallows lazily in nonsensical political and cultural phrases of a naked emperor, he or she also applauds a manifestly shallow national ethos of personal surrender.

America First, yes, but only in Covid-19 mortality.

By definition, the Mass, or Crowd, can never become Few. Yet, someindividual members of the Mass can make the very difficult transformation. Those who are already part of the Few must announce and maintain their determined stance. One must become accustomed to living on mountains, says Nietzsche, to seeing the wretched ephemeral chatter of politics and national egotism beneath one. It was Nietzsche, too, in Zarathustra, who warned presciently: Never seek the Higher Man at the marketplace.

Aware that they may still comprise a core barrier to Americas spiritual, cultural, intellectual and political disintegration, the Few, resolute opponents of the Crowd, knowingly refuse to chant in chorus. Ultimately, they should remind us of something very important: It is that both individually and collectively, doggedly staying the course of self-actualization and self-renewal a lonely course of lucid consciousness rather than self-inflicted delusion is the only honest and purposeful option for an imperiled nation.

Today, unhindered in their endlessly misguided work, Trump Era cheerleaders in all walks of life draw feverishly upon the sovereignty of an unqualified Crowd. This Mass depends for its very breath of life on the relentless withering of personal dignity, and also on the continued servitude of all independent citizen consciousness. Oddly, We the people, frightfully unaware of this dangerous parasitism, are being passively converted into the fuel for the omnivorous machine of Trumpian democracy. This is a pathologic system of governance in which the American citizenry is still permitted to speak and interact freely, but which is also an anti-intellectual plutocracy.

In the early 1950s, Karl Jaspers, well familiar with the seminal earlier writings of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, sought to explain what a dissembling Crowd had brought to his native Germany and Germanys captive nations. Publishing Reason and Anti-Reason in Our Time in 1952, the distinguished German philosopher explained the formidable difficulties of sustaining Reason among many who would prefer the fog of the irrational. Now, Jaspers earlier observations about Nazi Germany may apply equally well to Donald Trumps dissembling America:

Reason is confronted again and again with the fact of a mass of believers who have lost all ability to listen, who can absorb no argument and who hold unshakably fast to the Absurd as an unassailable presupposition.

Here, in essence, Jaspers here underscores the fraudulent freedom of obedience in any society that might seemingly will itself to be a democracy, but is actually just an oblique celebration of tyranny, moreover, the singularly arch-tyranny of anti-Reason. In earlier times, such perverse celebrations were unexceptional or even de rigeur, but they also set the stage for what Americans are experiencing so painfully at the present moment. To some extent, at least, for America to be freed from the false freedom of obedience will demand the whole society be placed in status nascens, as if newly born.

, When, in 1633, Galileo Galilei kneeled before the Inquisitorial Tribunal of Rome and was forced to renounce the compelling science of Copernicus, he revealed the vulnerability of Reason to the mortal seductions of anti-Reason. In this case, history deserves notable pride of place. When Americans watch the evening news depicting US President Donald Trump railing thoughtlessly against well-established theories of biology and medical science, they should finally begin to appreciate something utterly primal. Such flagrant seductions of anti-Reason are not only sinister, but also lethal.

The crowd is untruth.

[1] In this regard, consider the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsches succinct warning in Zarathusrtra: Never seek the higher man at the marketplace.

[2] One may be usefully reminded of Bertrand Russells trenchant observation in Principles of Social Reconstruction (1916): Men fear thought more than they fear anything else on earth more than ruin, more even than death.

[3] Said Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in 1934: Whoever can conquer the street will one day conquer the state. Later, in 2019, Donald Trump echoed this dreadful sentiment: I have the support of the street, of the police, of the military, the support of Bikers for Trump. I have the tough people, but they dont play it tough until they go to a certain point and then it would be very bad, very bad. In a similar vein, during a 2016 rally in Las Vegas, Trump told a wildly cheering crowd that hed like to punch the protestors in the face. I love the old days, you know what they used to do to guys like that when theyre in a place like this, theyd be carried out on a stretcher, Then, identifying a specific target person in the audience, Trump added: Id like to punch him in the face.

[4] See the pertinent writings of Swiss psychologist Carl G. Jung, especially The Undiscovered Self (1957).

[5] A current example is flag-waving Trump supporters who hold signs blaming distinguished epidemiologist Dr. Anthony Fauci for tyrannical closure policies, and simultaneously urging greater medical authority for President Donald J Trump.

[6] The mass-man, we were warned earlier by Ortega in The Revolt of the Masses (1930) has no attention to spare for reasoning; he learns only in his own flesh. Nothing could be more conspicuously clarifying than this graphic metaphor.

[7] Apropos of truth in Platos The Republic: To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

[8] See, by this author, Louis Ren Beres: https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2020/04/the-trump-presidency-a-breathtaking-assault-on-law-justice-and-security/

[9] This virus is going to disappear, said Trump, on February 27th, 2020.

[10] On this matter, of course, one ought also note this presidents withdrawal from treaties with Russia and from the United Nations World Health Organization. Credo quia absurdum.

[11] The United States Space Force was created by US President Donald Trump on December 20, 2019, under terms of the National Defense Authorization Act. Although it is intended to bolster this countrys overall military power in any expanding strategic competition with Russia, its most likely effects will be contractive, corrosive and destabilizing. The critical underlying US policy error being committed in this creation is conceptual and historic. In essence, it consists of failing to recognize that millennia of belligerent geopolitical competitions have resulted not in peace, but in assorted forms of international war. At a unique time when the United States faces a new and unpredictable set of dangers from worldwide disease pandemic, shifting large sums of money needed for public health to a space-centered arena of future international conflict represents mistaken national priorities. Of course, from what we ought already have learned about Reason and Anti-Reason, before this miscalculation can be changed, Americas leaders will have to appreciate the fundamentally intellectual antecedents of US foreign policy decision-making at every level.

[12] This presidents self-serving refrain of America First ignores an absolutely overarching empirical truth: America is first in Covid-19 deaths, but not in any other tangibly enviable standard of civilizational quality or improvement. Always, we have the biggest bombs and missiles, but little else to show for even the most basic expectations of human empathy and compassion. For this president and his retrograde followers, caring about others is a sign of weakness. Nothing else. To wit, in the presidents currently most evident example, wearing a mask against Covid-19 infection is described as little more than political correctness.

[13] Both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung thought of soul (in German, Seele) as the very essence of a human being. Neither Freud nor Jung ever provides a precise definition of the term, but it was not intended by either in any ordinary religious sense. For both psychologists, it was a still-recognizable and critical seat of both mind and passions in this life. Interesting, too, in the present context, is that Freud explained his already-predicted decline of America by various express references to soul. Freud was disgusted by any civilization so apparently unmoved by considerations of true consciousness (e.g., awareness of intellect and literature), and even thought that the anti-intellectual American commitment to perpetually shallow optimism and to crudely material accomplishment would occasion sweeping psychological misery.

[14] The worst expression of such incoherent presidential reassurance would likely be a nuclear war. For authoritative early accounts by this author of nuclear war effects, see: Louis Ren Beres, Apocalypse: Nuclear Catastrophe in World Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980); Louis Ren Beres, Mimicking Sisyphus: Americas Countervailing Nuclear Strategy (Lexington, Mass., Lexington Books, 1983); Louis Ren Beres, Reason and Realpolitik: U.S. Foreign Policy and World Order (Lexington, Mass., Lexington Books, 1984); and Louis Ren Beres, Security or Armageddon: Israels Nuclear Strategy (Lexington, Mass., Lexington Books, 1986). Most recently, by Professor Beres, see: Surviving Amid Chaos: Israels Nuclear Strategy (New York, Rowman & Littlefield, 2016; 2nd ed. 2018).

[15] Dostoyevsky reminds us soberly: And what is it in us that is mellowed by civilization? All it does, Id say, is to develop in man a capacity to feel a greater variety of sensations. And nothing, absolutely nothing else. And through this development, man will yet learn how to enjoy bloodshed. Why, it has already happened.Civilization has made man, if not always more bloodthirsty, at least more viciously, more horribly bloodthirsty. (See Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes From Underground, 108 (Andrew R. Mac Andrew, tr., New American Library, 1961 (1862).

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Donald Trump, "The Crowd" And A Nation's Bitter Despair - Modern Diplomacy

Regarding Michael A. Wolffs guest column Should Missouri kill Walter Barton? (May 18): In the case of Walter Barton, there were two mistrials, a trial and conviction, a reversal and remand by the Missouri Supreme Court. The second trial ended in conviction and was upheld by the Supreme Court but later thrown out by a lower court. At the fifth trial, Barton was found guilty, and the death penalty was recommended. During final appeal, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled 4 to 3 to uphold his death sentence.

On Feb. 19, the state of Missouri set the execution for May 19. A petition, which was signed by more than 5,800 people, asked Gov. Mike Parson to grant clemency. The clemency appeal was based on an innocence claim and lack of competence.

Michael A. Wolff, retired Missouri Supreme Court justice who voted against the conviction and death sentence, wrote: Even if the evidence were strong enough to support a conviction, it may not have been enough to warrant the death penalty.

In the end it was up to Parson. He was asked to stay the execution and appoint a board of inquiry to investigate. He chose to take no action, seeing no reason to intervene. Barton was executed last week by a lethal drug.

I am horrified, angered and saddened to live in a state and a country that condones and promotes the killing of a human being who may not have been guilty. This is indeed cruel and unusual punishment.

Lucy Freeman St. Louis

The rest is here:
Top letters: Contempt for law, Trump on the Titanic, execution was 'cruel and unusual' - STLtoday.com

May 29, 2020 6:00AM ET

Up Close is Sourcing Journals regular check-in with industry executives to get their take on topics ranging from personal style to their companys latest moves. In this Q&A, Angelique Bohbot, creative director for denim label NYDJ, discusses the era that speaks to her the most and why the next generation makes her hopeful for the future.

Angelique Bohbot, creative director at NYDJ

Name: Angelique Bohbot

Title: creative director

Company: NYDJ

Which industry, besides fashion, has the best handle on the supply chain?

The food industry has had a great handle on the supply chain. The food industry has grown the most across all channels and in partnerships. Anything at any time is at the tips of your fingers.

Do you consider yourself a typical consumer?

Yes, I stay on top of all the new fashion trends in the marketplace and online.

As a consumer, what does it take to win your loyalty?

As a consumer, it takes consistency, quality and a brand that is able to evolve organically over time.

Whats your typical work or weekend uniform?

Classic: jeans and a T-shirt.

Which fashion era is your favorite?

1950s.

Whos your style icon?

Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent.

Whats the best decision your company has made in the last year?

The opportunity to refresh the look of the brand.

How would you describe your corporate culture?

The company culture at NYDJ has a strong sense of female empowerment.

What should be the apparel industrys top priority now?

The apparel industry needs to focus on the impact it is having on the environment and how the industry as a whole can make positive changes.

What keeps you up at night?

Pretty much nothing, except days I have deadlines.

What makes you most optimistic?

My kids. I believe the new generations are thoughtful and are doing more to take care of the planet. That keeps me optimistic and hopeful.

Tell us about your companys latest product introduction:

Im excited about our new Summer collection that will be launching shortly. Its bright, fun, and we have some great imagery that really brings the products to life. Its something to look forward towhich is what we all need right about now!

See more here:
Up Close: In Conversation with NYDJ's Angelique Bohbot - Sourcing Journal

Artist Ani Liu in her studio. Credit: Daniel Peterschmidt

In 2015, artist Ani Liu heard two sentences that changed her entire approach to art: Digital is dead. Bio is the new digital. Those words, spoken at a welcome talk on her first day as a grad student at the MIT Media Lab, triggered panic at first. I was like, oh shit, I dont know anything about biology, Liu says.

But today, biology is the starting point for most of Lius work. Her feminist artworks are visceral, thought-provoking, and anchored in biotechnology. I like to say that I have a research-based practice, Liu says. Each of the artworks I make are usually centered around a specific topic that I do a deep dive of research into.

Her body of work is executed through experimentation: Shes used organic chemistry to concoct perfumes that smell like people emotionally close to her; shes programmed a knitting machine to produce a a garment workers brain signals; shes engineered a device that enables the wearer to control the direction of swimming sperm with their mind.

The throughline of her work is speculative design, an approach to art and design that critiques larger societal issues. Speculative design isnt about predicting the future, Liu clarifies. Its different ways of considering the future, and hopefully, theyre actionable. But for me, its the importance of letting things outside of capitalism drive progress.

Her pieces provide a moment to pause. One of the things that I find so important about speculative design is that it allows people to reflect on the implications of the technologies that we consume, instead of kind of blindly going along with it, Liu says. I feel like it forces us to unpack what is going on.

Credit: Daniel Peterschmidt

Lius workspace in Long Island City, New York has more in common with a scientific lab than it does a traditional art studio. Jars of organic matter, electrodes, and machines are strewn across her desk and shelves. Tucked in one corner, a tank filled with circuits and electrodes sits leftover from her Real Virtual Feelingsproject.

Liu points to a two-foot-tall clear tube of stringy, sinew suspended in a pus-like liquid. She wanted to create an iteration of a self-portrait, based on the materials in her body. She even worked with a radiologist who helped her take scans of her body to figure out the percentages of water, fats, and different kinds of proteins, to try to show a portrait of myself as a kind of stratified tube of goop, she explains. But, she found the organic soup wasnt very stable. Some of the prototypes I would make would start to [let] off gas, they werent sterile. Sometimes they would explode, she laughs.

Like the explosive mixture of those early prototypes, Liu didnt mix well with science and math at first. At some point early on, an authority figure told me that girls are bad at math, she says. And it really sunk deep into me. For most of my life, I felt so intimidated by laboratories and science and technology.

That changed when she decided to approach art with materials that required math, science, and technology. I was like, oh, Im not that bad at circuit making, or this isnt actually outside my realm of possibility. It wasnt until I used it as a secondary tool that it really felt natural.

After attending Dartmouth College and Harvard University, Liu dove headfirst into biology-infused art at the MIT Media Lab. She transformed her dorm room into a mini-lab space, purchasing distillation equipment, glassware, an incubator, and microscope on eBay. She also worked out a deal with some professors to get access to labs at night when they werent in use, so she could try out personal experiments, like genetically altering a plants smell into a human scent.

Smell intrigued Liu so much that she created multiple perfumes that smelled like her husbanda kind of scent portrait made from intimate and heated moments, like after a fight or showering, or before saying goodbye.

When you paint a portrait of someone, theres not just one reality of how someone looks or appears, she says. So I wanted to make many layers of portraits of him.

Liu compared the process of creating the piece to being a forensic scientist. Youre like a detective. You have the evidence and then you have to go backwards. Since they were long distance, Liu gave her husband special bags to send his dirty, stinky shirts so she could begin the distillation process. She ran them through a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry machine to identify some of the chemicals that were coming from the shirt. Then, she would apply different solvents, like chloroform and ethanol, to capture the most volatile organic compoundsthe signature molecules responsible for the smell.

Those little chemical portraits resulted in three different perfumes of her husband. I personally deeply think [it smelled like him], she says. But smell is super subjective. My husband thinks it smells like his brothers. And his brothers think that it smells like him, which is to say that smells really bad, she laughs.

Human perfume bottles. Credit: Ani Liu

Since then, Liu dove into other fields for inspiration. A few years ago, she learned that two researchers from Stanford programmed a chip with a paramecium on top, and used it to play Pong. Since paramecium are susceptible to an electric field, the researchers were able to control their movement and hit the games Pong ball in a desired direction by changing which way the field was flowing. My whole mind exploded because I thought it was so interesting, Liu says. It was like a lightning bolt hit me in the class, because I was like, What if that thing was a sperm instead?

Sperm are also susceptible to an electric field, and Liu thought similar techniques from the Stanford study could also be used on them for an art piece.

After some research, Liu found an EEG device that could be trained to recognize specific patterns of brain signals. For example, if the wearer repeatedly thinks left, left, left, the EEG can assign those left brain signal patterns to a certain action, like moving an object left. In this case, that object was sperm. It was fairly simple, she says. I created a little circuit on a glass slide. And it created an electric field where I would switch the polarity back and forth. And they would swim towards it.

Originally, Liu wanted the commanding brain signals to be related to complex concepts; thinking of free will would orient the sperm left or female empowerment would turn it right, for example. But that ended up being too abstract for the EEG machine to learn quickly and too difficult to get consistent results from person to person. She settled on attention, relaxation, and other signals that are easy and quick to train.

Beyond the technical feat of the project, the piece touches on something greater. What if a woman was controlling it? And what does this mean symbolically and metaphorically as a performance? By allowing female participants to physically control sperm, the piece allows them to control an aspect of male bodiesa flip on the generations of societys control over female bodies, such as the regulation of contraceptives and genital mutilation.

All of Lius art explores the human nature of discoverythe jubilations and pitfalls. In order to do high-level work in a laboratory, you have to be very intensely focused. Like, Ive met some individuals that have spent most of their life investigating several molecules, she says. But I think we should demand it of our researchers to do a deep dive and then zoom out, a back and forth. And I feel like thats what I do all the time.

The door in Liu's studio. Credit: Daniel Peterschmidt

Its that zooming in and out that has led Liu to classify her designs as speculative realism, similar to how Margaret Atwood describes her writing as speculative fiction, as opposed to science fiction. Some amazing sci-fi and a lot of art can prime what you think reality should or could be, she says. For example, robots portrayed in movies and TV, such as the nanny robot Rosie in The Jetsons and the murderous robot in The Terminator, pigeon-holed humans relationships to robots, Liu says, and over time, fiction can influence reality. She points out how today we have female-voiced AI assistants, which imply an outdated gender stereotype of nurturing, an unconscious callback to Rosie.

Slowly over time, I think it can really impact reality. That relationship between speculation and reality, I think its very important, she says. Theres a lot of room for interpretation and [many directions] that the research or technology development can go.

I think we should demand it of our researchers to do a deep dive and then zoom out, a back and forth. And I feel like thats what I do all the time.

And having an array of perspectives can help more people connect with complex aspects of research.

A big part of the importance of speculation is allowing multiple voices into the conversation. Because whats better for me or whats better for my daughter or whats better for someone living on a reservation might be very different, Liu says. So, I think that theres a really important seat at the table for artists and designers.

Liu hopes that her speculative work loops back around to the scientists who inspired it in the first placewidening the view on research. I hope that they consume these types of media and artworks so that they really think about the non-intended, secondary implications of these technologies, she says. It is my near and dear hope and dream that it will cause whoever views itscientists and owners of big corporate technology institutionsto really think about what is happening.

Ani Liu. Credit: Daniel Peterschmidt

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Daniel Peterschmidt

Daniel Peterschmidt is a digital producer and composes music for Science Fridays podcasts, including Science Diction and Undiscovered. Their D&D character is a clumsy bard named Chip Chap Chopman.

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This Biotech Artist Wants Scientists To Think About Their Creations - Science Friday