Help bring compassion back into the world.  The Compassionate Action Network (CAN) is working to do just that.  CAN is a network of self-organizing groups who share a common vision for a compassionate world.  They have written a Charter of Compassion and it has been proposed to the mayor and City Council of Seattle that they declare Seattle a City of Compassion and complete the actions outlined below when 1,000 residents have committed to the campaign (if we don’t reach 1,000 committed members the Mayor and City Council are not required to act).

We ask that Mayor McGinn and the City Council:
• Jointly affirm the Charter for Compassion and declare Seattle a Compassionate City.
• Jointly proclaim April and October as two months each year for the next 10 years in which we deepen our commitment to compassionate action. This annual repeating cycle utilizes April for sowing seeds and October for harvesting outcomes keeping actions informed by our mounting experience.

Campaign Members Commit to:
• Affirm the Charter for Compassion.
• Join the Compassionate Action Network (this network) to share and find opportunities to volunteer, donate, lend, initiate, sign, attend, join and share the Campaign for Compassionate Cities with others.
• Prepare to pledge a specific number of hours of community service and/or dollars to local organizations that help Seattle residents meet their basic human needs.(You will make the pledge once the campaign reaches 1,000 people. For now, join the campaign and we will keep you informed.)

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.

The other day I got one of those annoying email forwards.  This one warned about the deathly effects of the artifical sweetener, aspartame.  I've probably gotten it dozens of times before but this time it came from my high school bestfriend and it struck a deep cord inside me.  I had assumed everyone knew the dangers of aspartame but my friend would not have sent something she thought was so obvious a danger and, since its promoters are still making millions off its sales, my assumption was apparently very wrong.  People don't know.  Even so, aspartame seems almost trivial in comparison to all the other chemicals in our environment.  I knew I had to write something and Care2 was the place to do it. 

I fear that aspartame is just the tip of the iceberg.  I got an email recently from care2 that said "Every American alive today, including newborn babies, has hundreds of chemicals flowing through their blood."  

Not such a pleasant thought to ponder on, is it?

Keeping a log of foods and reactions can certainly help us identity potential toxic substances.  But we should also take time to listen to our bodies.  It might just answer us back.  Am I suggesting that some of us, maybe all of us, have a built in monitoring system?  Yes, I do think I am.  Maybe some people's detection 'hardware' is somewhat rusty from lack of use but I do believe that we all have the capacity to 'tune-in' and listen to what our bodies have to say to some degree.   Does the body know when a substance is toxic?   Again, I must say yes. It won't initially but with practice, you will come to 'feel' your reactions to different substances.

Start with whatever it is that you're eating regularly.  How do different things change how you feel, both physically and emotionally?  Take notes and eliminate anything that gives you a negative reaction.  

My body has always been highly sensitive to any type of major change.  I noticed this sensitivity early on in my life and spent much time in mastering this unique skill.   Would you believe that I actually felt when I conceived both my sons?  And, I do mean here that exact moment when the egg and sperm merged to become the miracle of new life we call an embryo.  I called the doctor right away.  I told her I was pregnant and that I knew the moment when I had conceived.  The tests she did then confirmed I was not crazy.  I was indeed pregnant.  She did not laugh then and, when I returned, to announce my second pregnancy she listened with eyes filled with amazement.  I also knew I'd give birth two weeks early that second time and I did.

When it comes to food additives and other toxins, I am also very sensitive.  My body will sometimes react violently and almost immediately to certain things.  In childhood, I discovered I was allergic to bee, wasp and spider venoms.  Being rushed to the hospital because my leg was swollen double its size was happening far too often.  It was quite annoying. I have scared tissue on my wrist from a spider bite that took many months to heal.  I soon realized that there were other things I was also allergic to from either being in contact with the substance or by ingestion.  Some, I found, were highly toxic to me and, if taken in large quantities, my reaction could prove to be fatal.   That is, obviously, just my body's unique reaction to things but . . . here's the interesting part.  I have found that if I isolate the ingredient causing the reaction, it is always one that someone, somewhere has identified as a toxin for most ANY consumer!

Coming back to the discussion of aspartame, I don't drink diet soda but when I did drink it, I was quite puzzled by my reaction.  Even after just one 12 ounce can, I'd get severe cramps almost immediately and a bit of shooting pain throughout the chest.  These cramps were so painful, I had to fight off screaming.  The red food dye they put in cherries does the same thing.  Ditto on some preservatives.

Be aware of environmental toxins as well especially when camping.  There are MANY woods whose sap is extremely toxic including several fruit trees. Plum, cherry, apricot, peach branches all contains cyanogenic glycosides.  That means you'd be at risk for ingesting cyanide poisoning along with the toasty marshmallow you're roasting on a fire.  When I see smoke from a chimney, I often wonder what toxins are being released into our air.

Case in point, me, my sensitiveness and my allergies.  I can not go inside a brand new mobile home for more than 30 seconds without being hit with nausea, dizziness and a severe migraine.  I was visited a few years back by an friend who lived in an old RV. I did not seem to have any initial reaction so I stayed for a while thinking that the environment was toxin-free.  After several hours, the medics were called to take me to the hospital.   I was scared to death . . . I could not move and could barely breathe.  My body had been frozen in a strange paralysis by whatever toxins were in that trailer.   Fortunately, an injection and fresh oxygen slowly brought me back to normal and there were no lasting ill effects.  For obvious reasons, I will never go inside a trailer again without aid of an oxygen mask.

The average individual has more immunity to these substances so it stands to reason that experimental test subjects tend not to show immediate ill effects.  Please realize this does not mean these substances are not toxic to these people.  As I said previously, most toxins work very slowly but they can and do kill!

Hidden agendas?  Billions are made through these products. Mansanto, JWChild (who took over aspartame production from Mansanto) and other companies responsible for introducing these substances into the marketplace have huge amounts of insurance so they can shug off their responsibilities to an unaware public.

The get well industry, that is our medical institutions, thrive on us remaining sick.  They are about treating symptons, not finding cures. Of course, there ARE exceptions.  There are many doctors who go to great lengths to treat their patients with the best methods, medicine and knowledge available. Some are even advising their patients as to what toxic substances, such as aspartame, might have attributed to their condition and will suggest removing those substances from their diets and environments.  It is, however, the institution of medicine as a whole that is conditioned to treat symptons and not causes.  As such, they reap billions in treating symptons of toxicity.  Since the cause of these 'conditions' are being attributed to MS, Lupus or other diseases rather than toxicity, no cures can or will be found!  With powerful drug lobbyists influencing congressmen, potential legislation is killed before it can do any good.  It may be a very, very long time before we see anything being done about this lerrible tragedy.

More hidden agendas?   I keep thinking about the terrible sweat lodge tragedy that ended in the recent arrest of James Arthur Ray.  Nothing about this incident makes any sense.

On the one hand, we are told Ray was negligent and unresponsive to the needs of his participants.  But, even with the very best of medical staff, had it been available, in addition to the nurse and others trained for emergencies, would any of these three people have survived? I strongly believe they would not have.  One of the three was taken to the hospital but still died.  I believe highly toxic substances are to blame.

As the rest of this article might suggest, I am an intuitive.   My intuition is telling me something is not right here.  I can NOT prove any of my theories on this but I do believe that someone who wanted to discredit James Ray --along with ALL other self-help 'experts' -- added toxic substances to the fire so people would get very sick and die in fulfillment of a specific agenda. (Note: although some woods are highly toxic, there ARE manufactured toxins that leave no trace, even in the poisoned victim and will lead investigators to false conclusions.  Yes, much like doctors, lead to false assumptions, treating symptons rather than causes).

This knowing makes me very sad for, without proof, there is nothing that can be done.   I have been to many sweatlodges.  There is no way James Ray could be directly responsible for any of the deaths.  Toxins are the only thing that could have killed these otherwise healthy people but he is being blamed for it nonetheless.  His workshops are on suspension, probably permanently.  My guess is he'll probably never give another workshop. 

By the way, I am not discussing the moral issues of what Ray did or did not do here.  This is ONLY about the possibility of toxins and hidden agendas being involved.

This whole incident smells like a smokescreen.  VERY little discussion has been given to WHAT actually killed three people.  The focus is on WHO is to blame and not WHAT toxin or elemental factor is to blame.  I want to know what caused the deaths!  Don't you?  Something had to be responsible, be a weak heart, a preexisting illness . . .  or an outside stimulus.  Plus, 18 other people were hospitalized.  This does not normally happen at sweat lodges and had NOT happened at his previous ceremonies!  It was not just too much heat or lack of oxygen, a byproduct of fasting or the number of people present.  There has to be another explanation!  Of course, if the toxin is indeed a nontraceable one, there also won't be any evidence, would there?

Ray is being charged with manslaughter.  Doesn't it seem very strange that no news article has discussed the results of autopsies?  The only reference I found was the one below from an October article in The Huffington Post and a CBS News blog:

"Autopsies on Brown and Shore were conducted, but the results are being withheld pending additional tests. Carbon monoxide poisoning was ruled out as a cause of the deaths and illnesses."

That was back in October.  Results are apparently still being withheld because of the trial.  

More hints of an agenda?  Yet another possibility has occurred to me.  IF Ray is convicted and even if he's not, the credibility of any LOA (Law of Attraction) advocate is clearly in jeopardy.  It is already happening . . . here's a quote from a Feb 4, 2010 ABCNews bulletin in discussing the trial:

". . . the three deaths stemming from the ceremony are intensifying calls for government regulation of the $11 billion-a-year self-help industry based upon books, lectures, talk shows and radio shows. Critics say some self-help gurus essentially operate as unlicensed therapists, pushing vulnerable people into the danger zone."

IF government regulation does go into affect, where would it stop and who would it affect?  Would everyone who chose to give a motivational lecture now have to have a license and register with the government?  Would it affect Course in Miracles, Edgar Cayce, Keys of Enoch etc study groups as well?  Would it be suddenly against the law to hold any type of Law of Attraction meeting?  People's beliefs are challenged in these environments too.  What happened to OUR freedom of speech??  Guys, think about it.  There are thousands of motivational LOA speakers.  How could this world exist in harmony without its creative geniuses and its motivators?

Think of the move to impose legislation to control the sale and distribution of herbal supplements.  This has brought out a huge cry of outrage from herbal supplement users.  The price of herbals would skyrocket and their purchase would require prescriptions. As with marijuana, their growth by individuals might even become illegal.  Similiarly, to demand government regulations on the entire self-help industry based on the occurrance of four deaths and one organization alone is sheer lunacy.  Doesn't anyone else see what's happening here?

Again I repeat . . . this is only about toxins and the hidden agendas that might be utilized to harm others.  I am not saying Ray is without fault. If he is guilty of taking money under fault pretends, he certainly needs to be accountable to those people and, ultimately, to God for whatever crimes he has committed.

As far as responsibility for causing death . . .  Maybe Ray was negligent and maybe not.  Maybe it is true that he got so lost in his greed that he forgot the participants of his workshops were real people with frailities.  Maybe, too, he became so engrossed in believing his own axioms that he got careless and uncaring.   Still, in the end, none of these things matter.  People are dead and we still do not know the 'real' cause of death!  Also, is there 100% proof that the woman from Ray's group who jumped at the mall to her death was not under some form of hypnosis?  That one doesn't make a whole lot of sense either.

Whoever was really behind these tragic poisonings, be it a madman, madwoman or fanatical organization, it is evident, the motive would be the generation of enough outrage by enough people in the masses to gain total control over the multi-billion dollar self-help industry which, by the way, including thousands of well-meaning people who are simply sharing their knowledge (at no cost to anyone!)  And, guess what?  This media 'show' will also blind us to the zillions of dollars in value we've received from that very same industry from icons like Jack Canfield, Deepak Chopra, Mike Dooley and Dr. Wayne Dyer!! Duh!  Do you still not get it yet???

The contradictions?  There are also tons of contradictory statements in news articles and eyewitnesses accounts for this incident.

Have you ever asked yourself why there are always so many contradictions?  As a reporter, I know that people do NOT read the fine print.  News people obviously know this too.  It is heresy, NOT fact, that hits you at the beginning of an article.  Heresy is sensational and inciteful.  It draws in readers, gets people to turn on the news and sells papers.  Facts don't.  The real facts, that often contradict the heresy are buried at the end of the article or totally left out.  And, often, the heresy itself becomes the facts just because it are being repeated so many times.   Repetition does not make a statement into a fact.  Note also, that if you ask a hundred different witnesses about the same crime, you WILL get a hundred vastly different responses!  Witness accounts are, by nature, based on bias, emotional reaction and often not rooted in fact.

Contradictions?  Here's an example.  One news report said stones and building materials were taken by police yet in another I read this:

"Lawyers also question the construction of the sweat lodge, claiming it was destroyed after investigators left the scene.

"It is now impossible for us to analyze the materials used in constructing and covering the sweat lodge; to analyze whether or not the rocks provided by Angel Valley contained arsenic or other toxic materials; and to determine whether any structural changes were made or allowed to occur since James Ray International last used the sweat lodge in 2008," the letter read."  Humm . . . how convenient, huh?

Master or Slave?

Be thou master or slave
to thine own destiny?
Do you foolish await
the mountain to come to you
before you start the climb?
How long will you search
the clammy, cold hard ground
within thy darken cell
for a key
that is nowhere to be found?

Are you willing to believe you have
the power to create within yourself?
For the slave awaits
to be told what to do,
but it is the true master
who makes his fate unfold
entire of itself.

By Shirl A. Steward
Copyright 10/13/1987.

BEHIND THE PAGE

Fear of the blank page
laid out before me,
the naked stage
upon which my words will play,
speaks terror to the conscious mind,
threatens to delay
the purge of words upon the empty page.
The words that dare conceive my fate,
The fear of failure or of fame
Enveloping my name,
Both of which now seem to be the same.

Soon, however, relieved of rage thus spent,
the conscious mind relents to seek
unconscious flow.
Deciding then, to join the plunge
of filling up the page.
Once begun,
ensues the fun
of setting characters upon the stage.

By Shirl A. Steward
Copyright 5/1/1984