Post No. 3,442 - Some (hopefully) interesting reading / viewing / listening - Saturday 2nd May, 2026

I recently found the following interesting and/or useful, and am posting them here in case anyone else does as well.

 

• “Chrome Is a Surveillance Platform. Here’s the Evidence”   https://substack.com/@protonprivacy/note/p-194499648  
  

THESE ARTICLES ARE IMPORTANT: 

 

• “Democracy is about people: Are we paying enough attention to the brain?”   https://www.idea.int/node/161115   “In a new 34-country mega-study just published in Nature Medicine, weaker democratic institutions were associated with accelerated brain ageing. In the context of global population ageing and democracy decline, this study clearly suggests that democracy scholars and public authorities have an opportunity to engage to support healthier brain ageing trajectories at both the individual and population levels.   As we seek to move beyond the common diagnoses of the declines in democracy and look for a solution, a new connection between the emerging field of brain capital research and democracy has the potential to allow us to take the big step needed to arrest the decline and treat the causes.   Brain capital is a complex concept that takes into account an individual’s knowledge, skills, and brain health. It recognizes that mental health, cognitive and emotional skills, and lifelong learning drive economic, social, and democratic resilience. Unlike traditional human capital, which emphasises productivity, brain capital places mental well-being and creative capacity at the core of the economy.”  
  

• “Democracy as Engine of Social Development and Shared Prosperity”   https://www.idea.int/publications/catalogue/democracy-engine-social-development-and-shared-prosperity?lang=en   “An Overview of Evidence and Pathways”  
  

• “Why democratic backsliding should be on the World Bank and IMF agendas”   https://www.idea.int/news/why-democratic-backsliding-should-be-world-bank-and-imf-agendas  
  

• “Joint statement: Call on the European Parliament to support funding for democracy as a smart investment to achieve EU foreign policy goals”   https://www.idea.int/news/joint-statement-call-european-parliament-support-funding-democracy-smart-investment-achieve-eu    

 

 

  

• “Mushrooms Have an Ability to Control Rain According to New Study - YouTube”   https://youtu.be/3qYyhOjTtSk   

• “Earth Day Global Meditation”   https://noetic.org/experience/connections-live/?vgo_ee=jPBRpMo%2B%2FBdGjqzlV6G7buiaBs1MNE6GJOALfPcoloDWIWa3DopFC73t%3A7DrKhBa0PO4DHqB3kn0X%2BaLQu4oU1zyh#replay   

• “Conspiracy theory over UFOs and missing scientists spreads from web to White House | UFOs | The Guardian”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/25/conspiracy-theory-ufo-scientists-white-house   

• After watching the fourth season of “Dark Winds”, which included a portrayal of a nihilistic perversion (by a seriously disturbed, if not evil, character) of family in the final episode, I wrote this poem as a reminder that the world we see now is, to far too great an extent, the perverted, nihilistic creation of a few millennia of patriarchy, a few centuries of capitalism, and a few decades of neoliberalism. And it DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY, as shown after the dramatic freeing of those trapped ... “THIS world”   https://musingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2026/04/this-world.html   

• “The Loop: everything has happened before, and everything will happen again”   by JA Westenberg   https://www.joanwestenberg.com/the-loop-everything-has-happened-before-and-everything-will-happen-again/   “We keep replaying the same human mistakes - bubbles, strongmen, scapegoats, and panics - because the operating system in our skulls hasn’t updated in ten thousand years”   

• “Our Paranormal Afterlife : Finding Proof of Life After Death: There Is No Such Thing As Death”   https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/our-paranormal-afterlife-finding-proof-of-life-after-death/id1354455555?i=1000764002147   “This week I am reading from RC Clarence’ book “There Is No Such Thing As Death: Scientific Evidence for Life After Death and How You Can Prove It Yourself” What really happens after death? This book draws on the extensive clairvoyant investigations of C. W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant into thousands of people who crossed over into the afterlife. Learn what they discovered and how you can do the same. More than a century ago, clairvoyant investigators associated with the Theosophical tradition began systematically exploring the realms beyond the physical world and comparing their observations of individuals who had crossed into the afterlife. And based on those detailed investigations, this book presents a remarkably consistent picture of life after death—one that anyone can begin investigating for themselves. In this book you will discover:    What happens immediately after death    The nature of the astral and mental realms    The roles of reincarnation and karma    The purpose and meaning of life    How to develop clairvoyant perception This book is ideal for readers seeking:    Evidence-based insights into life after death    A clear explanation of the astral and thought planes    A synthesis of classical Theosophical research    Practical guidance for developing clairvoyant perception Discover why death may not be the end of life — but the beginning of a much larger journey of consciousness. Bio R. C. Clarence, PhD is a university professor, active yoga practitioner, and devoted student of the Ancient Wisdom. His writing style reflects the methods used in the classroom: an informal, conversational approach coupled with the use visual highlights, charts and examples that make the subject matter come alive. He has practiced the methods of clairvoyant development outlined in the book and has achieved results that exceeded his expectations. His goal in life is to share what he has learned with others so they can begin to awaken their own inner abilities.   “THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS DEATH: Scientific Evidence for Life After Death and How You Can Prove It Yourself”   (Pub. 2017;  Paperback  ISBN 10: 0692902368 ISBN 13: 9780692902363;   eBook pub March 2026 Amazon)   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising”   

• “Groundbreaking Study on Chimp Warfare Shows Us the Nature of War”   https://youtu.be/wgs_EyhXoFU   The chapter headings are:   0:00 War never changes - but what is war?;   2:28 Gombe Chimp War in the 1970s;   4:30 New study - largest war ever;   5:20 Ngogo chimp project;   5:55 Something happened in 2014 resulting in violence;   7:20 Why did the violence start?   8:40 Implications for humans;   9:45 Ant warfare;   11:40 What does this tell us about our nature?   12:55 Conclusions   The “lessons”/conclusions are for small scale conflict: our ability to wage large scale destructive wars is different, something caused by our flaws, and possibly also capable of being addressed by our capabilities - as is our capacity to learn and apply the lessons from this work   

• [CW: description of animal testing]   “How Trauma Gets Passed to the Next Generation | NOVA | PBS”   https://youtu.be/J9-Ov-_KcWk   “The past might be closer than we think. Scientists have found that experiences — especially stress and trauma — can change how genes are expressed, and in some cases, influence future generations.   This video is an excerpt from the NOVA program Your Brain: Who’s in Control?, which originally premiered in 2023.”   and   “Dozens in New Mexico sought therapy for alleged abuse at Epstein ranch”   https://youtu.be/llF8PCa5yqY   

 

• “Scientists Just Confirmed What I’ve Been Saying for Thirty Years About the ADHD Brain”   https://www.hunterinafarmersworld.com/p/scientists-just-confirmed-what-ive   “And boredom, for the Hunter brain, is not a character flaw. It is a physiological state, as real and as measurable as hunger”   Having read this, I found I could notice this effect in action   

 

 

• “Alex Jones is Losing It Over The Onion Buying Infowars”   https://youtu.be/6XU2YzHVzIw   Good news and a good outcome   

• “Resistance History Principle #1 | Beware False Prophets - YouTube”   by Tad Stoermer, based on his upcoming book   https://youtu.be/OiJh-06JdOA   

• “We Rejected a King and Built an Imperial Presidency. They Kept the King and Built Democracies. - YouTube”   https://youtu.be/89ESmjIBIWI   

 

 

My article(s) on SubStack: 

• “Rights and Spirit No. 003 (~1,040 words, ~ 7 minutes)”   https://musingsofgnwmythr.substack.com/p/rights-and-spirit-no-003-1040-words   

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider: 

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”;  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

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Any and all support will be greatly appreciated, and will aid me in continuing this work 

 

Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).

#PsychicABetterWorld   and  

Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here, and Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear  

Copyright © Kayleen White 2007-2026     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-ShareAlike basis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/  

 

Post No. 1,008 - Some Personal Reflections: Courage and Ethics, and Change

I’ve been watching the film “Hacksaw Ridge” - with considerable difficulty, owing to internet interruptions associated with wind and a network that our housemate, who works with PCs, mobile phone apps and the internet, compares unfavourably with the internet speeds of places such as eastern Europe (actually, I started this during a 3 hour break at about 1 hr and 20 minutes into the film because of these problems … I hope former Communications Minister, now Prime Minister, Turnbull is pleased with his [catastrophic?] changes to the NBN … - although those changes did save something, when compared to what cretins in their neoliberal party wanted to do. Of course, after watching the film I had to spend a considerable amount of time clearing the units that had been drawn in – including several people who had died in that and similar battles and been earthbound ever since).

I’d been reluctant to watch this film, owing to concerns that Mel Gibson may be pushing his pro-Christian/neochristian agenda, and the possibly gratuitous nature of the portrayal of violence (some of it was, but most of it was contextually plausible – and, based on the comments of those who were there, realistic) … however, the film does actually portray the moral struggles and terrifying situations quite well.

Bravery comes in different forms, and moral/ethical bravery is as valid as physical courage.

In the case of the film, Doss’ courage in insisting on his right to serve as an unarmed medic is moral courage (I’ve generally thought I would volunteer for bomb/UXO disposal if I was in a similar situation, but there are situations where I possibly would fight … a point the film “Dances With Wolves” makes in the context of this flawed world).

Can I recommend the film? Well, it is graphic enough to be disturbing to some people, who may lose the consideration of moral aspects in their distress, but for consideration of courage, it could be a useful stimuli – e.g., something to watch before meditating on the nature and forms of courage.

(Note: fearless means an absence of fear, and thus there is way someone who is fearless can be brave or courageous, in my view … to be brave, you have to overcome your fear – and suppressing/denying fear is NOT the same as fearless.)

Courage is something that is often needed in the workplace.

As an example, standing up to pressure to change a report to something that is less clearly against a development proposal, or resisting pressure to present information more favourably, rather than honestly, following proper QAQC procedures rather than creating approvals after the event, pointing out when restructuring is going to have disadvantages, etc. Back in the 80s, I even pointed out to one company I worked for that I would refer a matter to the Ethics Committee of the Institution of Engineers Australia (they back down, so I didn’t need to).

What can one lose from that? One’s job, any sense of belonging (I am getting used to being a pariah in the workplace), and, in the case of major whistleblowers (e.g., see here, here, and here), one’s sanity/wellbeing. In extreme cases, one can possibly lose one’s life, as Karen Silkwood did, – although watching one’s loved ones suffer as a result of losing a job/pay cuts/etc is probably more distressing. Sometimes the lack of obvious loss or injury makes the situation harder – as too often happens with mental illness.

(These are also situations that I was thinking about when I wrote my post about “lifestyle vulnerabilities”).

I lost the argument about changes in my workplace in the 80s which was part of the workplace war which led to the current neoliberal nightmare that afflicts the world now. I suspect the people I was contending with didn’t realise that their efforts to alter a static situation would lead to people wanting to take things a bit further than those who went before (and thus one could say, perhaps, the economic rationalists led to the neoliberals, as an example), but in my opinion, they should have had that vision/insight/understanding.

Less obviously, or less directly, perhaps, failing to stand against decisions that will result in ecological damage could possibly be a failure of courage, but, in any case, there is a lack of vision/insight/understanding (on that, I was appalled to discover that one of my senior colleagues is a climate change denier).

As an extension of that, arguments that business is simply “giving people what they want” also do not stack up morally/ethically/spiritually or, in some cases, environmentally. There are extreme examples of that, but, more recently, a number of advances in technology that are considered by many (not all – when people assume something they like and find convenient is the same for others, they are showing their lack of life experience and/or stupidity) have potential disadvantages around loss of privacy.

(There is also an issue of balance here. I read a comment last year that a manager didn’t want his employees to be able to do maths in their head/recall things if it detracted from their ability to think of the big picture. I can do basic maths fairly easily –f roughly – without a PC or calculator, and I appreciate the ability it gives me to keep my mind a bit sharper, but it is not a substitute for allowing a PC to do complex calculations so I can take a step back and look at the bigger picture.)

Of course, there can be a problem with all this when the values one are showing courage about are wrong – e.g., spiritually immature (such as the neochristian resistance to LGBT rights) or unbalanced (such as neoliberalism, or communism). Another example of that would be those Germans who supported – or started off supporting – the excesses of Hitler and his goons, and subsequently found out about the Holocaust (which was generally earlier than the end of World War Part Two).

On that, my dreamwork last night included gaining an awareness of people in families and larger groups who stayed loyal to the family, no matter what “side” of a conflict or issue they were on. It left me thinking of how “family values” can, in some ways, be harmful to the Family of Humanity – and of how contemptible some people’s values can be, when they make their loyalty to whoever is winning, irrespective of the rights and wrongs of a situation or issue. (I will be doing more clearing/healing work on those people in coming days and weeks.)

Such situations are probably easier to handle if one hasn’t dug oneself into a moral hole by one’s vehemence ... Arguing politely has its advantages :)

And, on the topic of change, my partner has been working on a “self reflection” for her counselling and psychotherapy masters, based on events in one’s early life that have had a major influence on oneself.

In my case, the event that came to mind as having had a major influence on me when I was young was a documentary about the “Indian Mutiny” of 1857, watched while we were at my (adoptive) father’s grandmother’s house. She had an old “Queenslander” (see here, although that doesn't fully make clear that this style of house was found throughout Queensland - the one I am referring to was in Rockhampton), with massive verandahs that our beds were typically on, covered by mossie nets (which made some of the nights even more hot and uncomfortable). Well, I had nightmares triggered by the brutality and butchery shown (and that not very graphically, by today’s standards). However, those nightmares were a key step in me developing my determination that the world be a better place.

(I also felt quite a bit of empathy for the depiction of Abraham Lincoln’s son as having nightmares after seeing photos of slaves in the film “Lincoln”. I also understand the concerns of the parents that the nightmares not happen, but I can state – from my personal experience – that, in at least some cases, the nightmares can lead to something better.)

Another major influence on me, one that I have written about and critiqued elsewhere, was the very controversial Lobsang Rampa.

On the topic of change, I have planned for some time to write an article about “my escape from pugnacity”. The problem is, I don’t consider I have properly escaped from that way of reacting to situations.

However, as a result of my increased self awareness, particularly from the personal growth work I did in the 80s, I am often able to choose to work with this as a tool, much as I have worked at changing how I use anger. I aim to channel anger constructively (as passion, in a sense); pugnacity tends to crop up when I feel people are aggressively trying to push/bully/railroad me into their views, and I use it as a defence to get those people to back off and let me work through things at my own speed – in that sense, it is about assertive self defence. However, it can also manifest in a more negative form of defensiveness, and that is where the comments I made earlier about not having vehemently dug oneself into a hole are useful.

Courage to accept change, particularly when one is wrong, can also help.

And finally, I’d like to end with a few reading links.

• http://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2017/03/spiritual-treatment-no-substitute-mental-health-care.html;
• www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2017/03/listening-dead-civil-war-battlefield.html;
• http://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2017/03/re-emergence-fair-folk-ordinary-world.html;
• http://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2017/03/know-magic-worked.html (which is about how know if one’s magic has worked); 
• http://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2017/02/gods-test-people.html; and
• What if the Jedi Council found out Anakin was married in “Revenge of the Sith”?

I apologise for publishing these posts twice, but Blogger keeps changing my formatting. I can either publish it and then correct it, or save and close the post and correct it when I reopen it, but that leaves an extra copy in my "drafts" folder ...

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr, Pagan Energy Worker, Wéofodthegn

I am revamping my former website, and getting at least one other underway (pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux … aka Morinehtar … would-be drýicgan or maga ... )

My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this site) is here, and my glossary/index is here. The reasons for my caution when using Wikipedia are here.

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ... See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "Pagans for Peace" project (and join me for a few minutes at some time between 8 and 11 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate-clear for peace), and here for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend learning how to flame, ground and shield, do alternate nostril breathing, work with colour, and see also here and be flexible. 

May the best in me, my Higher Self,
and those of the Clear Light who assist me,
help me to keep myself grounded, centred and shielded,
to be Balanced and a Fulcrum of Balance,
a centre of Balanced Positivity and Spiritual Maturity,
with my aura continuously cleansed, cleared and closed,
repelling all negative or unwanted energies,
whilst allowing positive, balancing and healing energies in and through.

The real dividing line is not between Christianity and Islam, Sunni and Shia, East and West. It is between people who believe in coexistence, and those who don’t.

Tom Fletcher, Former UK Ambassador to Lebanon

• All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...

Tags: about me, anger, change, courage, emotions, fear, growth, moral courage, pugnacity, violence, warfare, 

First published: Manadagr, 27^th March, 2017

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's, Blogger's change of my formatting and other minor matters): Monday, 27^th March, 2017

 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also Instagram. 

Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).

Copyright © Kayleen White 2007-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-ShareAlike basis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/