In the West, it’s easy to take our access to clean water for granted. With modern plumbing, fresh water is at our fingertips with the turn of the tap. But in many developing countries, pollution and waterborne diseases are an unfortunate reality. Around the world, 1.1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water, and 2.6 billion suffer from inadequate sewage. Women spend hours of their day collecting water from distant and oftentimes polluted sources. Every minute a child dies of a water-related illness. More than 840,000 people die each year from diseases related to tainted water.
And this problem is not only a Third World issue. Even in industrialized countries, we don’t have to look much farther than Flint, Michigan to see the devastating effect poor water quality can have on the health and well-being of a community.
This is why a low-cost, wind-powered invention that harvests up to 10 gallons of clean water a day — from thin air — is causing such a stir.
Water-Scarcity: Not Just a Third World Issue
“By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world’s population could be living under water stressed conditions.” ~ 11 Facts About Water in the Developing World
Throughout the U.S. we’re seeing increasing contamination of our water supply — from pharmaceutical waste and agricultural toxins to environmental pollutants and fracking wastewater. Some experts predict rises in drought and flooding, heightened waterway contamination, and increased population growth will further stress the planet’s drinking water supply — to the point where wars and civil unrest over this valuable resource will likely become widespread.
Sadly, it’s already happening today.
“Take Syria as an example. Between 2006 and 2010, the country was hit hard by drought, which wiped out rural livelihoods for many and caused significant internal displacement across the country. Internal displacement in turn helped stir up a pot that boiled over into all-out civil war in Syria, eventually spreading to Iraq. Over the last two years, ISIS has viewed water access and control as a primary strategic objective of their campaign, and has commandeered hydroelectric dams, irrigation canals, reservoirs, pipelines, and other water infrastructure to cement territorial gains.” [source]
Pakistan is another water-scarce country that is seeing an increase in conflict concerning the resource. The uprisings over Indian control of Kashmir have morphed to specifically target the regions most valuable resource — water.
When access becomes threatened — either through drought, contamination or restriction — social and political insecurity subsequently follow. Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria and Somalia are a few of the top regions struggling with water scarcity issues. But global heavyweights like China, India and even the United States are also facing uncomfortable futures as both civil and industrial demand for water squeezes sources of supply.
In an unprecedented report by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, it was stressed that many countries around the world “will risk instability and state failure, increase regional tensions, and distract them from working with the United States on important U.S. policy objectives” due to water scarcity. Triggers identified in the report ranged from “pressures on food and energy production to social and political disruption to water scarcity used by terrorists for leverage.” [source]
For these reasons and more, it’s crucial we address this looming crisis and find innovative solutions to the problem, sooner rather than later. One part of the answer could lie in an inexpensive, wind-driven device that pulls moisture from the air — and condenses it into purified water.
A Sustainable Solution for Worldwide Water Troubles
Developed by VICI-Labs, along with UC Berkeley and the National Peace Corps Association, the WaterSeer condenses pure water from the air without the need of power or chemicals. According to the company, “it is green, sustainable, simple, low-maintenance, easily deployed and scalable for any community.” It also yields up to 37 liters of distilled water a day. And a WaterSeer Orchard can provide enough clean water to satisfy the needs of an entire community.
VICI-Labs explains how it works:
The WaterSeer device is planted about six feet into the ground. The metal sides of the underground chamber are cooled by the surrounding soil.
Wind spins a turbine, which in turn, spins internal fan-blades that direct air into a condensation chamber. As the warmer air cools in the chamber, the water vapor condenses onto the sides, flowing down into the reservoir.
Clean, safe water can be extracted from the reservoir through a simple hose and pump.
Because the sides of the underground chamber are always cooler than the air, WaterSeer is always collecting water, day and night, even when there is no wind.
The efficiency of the device improves in higher air temperature, so long as below-ground temperature remains stable. The unit will also continue to produce in colder climates if the reservoir and condensation chamber stay above freezing temperature. A cold weather kit is in the works for extremely cold and subarctic environments.
You can learn more below, and check out the WaterSeer crowdfunding page here.
What is WaterSeer™, and How Does it Work?
Carolanne Wright enthusiastically believes if we want to see change in the world, we need to be the change. As a nutritionist, natural foods chef and wellness coach, Carolanne has encouraged others to embrace a healthy lifestyle of organic living, gratefulness and joyful orientation for over 13 years.
Through her website Thrive-Living.net, she looks forward to connecting with other like-minded people from around the world who share a similar vision. You can also follow Carolanne on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
(Waking Times by Julian Walsh) Greetings humans. Today I wish to return to your consciousness a special quality you were born with. Perhaps it’s more correct to say it’s a gift you’ve had since before leaving the womb, a gift so wonderful and so powerful, yet inexplicably, you may have dismissed it -or far worse, completely forgotten about it.
Before verbal phrases and expressions are “taught” to us, the human inclination is to try and extrapolate meaning out of those cumbersome creations called words. Consider for a moment this scenario; A new mother speaks to her infant son or daughter and wonders what they’re thinking or whether they understand. A “knowing” mother (as most mothers are) may sense that the baby does indeed understand -obviously not because the baby is well versed in the spoken language but because she knows the baby can “feel” what she is saying.
Yes, infants, as well as all humans at various life stages, keenly respond to the quality of voice, to tone and inflection -but what I’m about to suggest goes much beyond that. Incredibly, the knowing mother might even sense the baby’s desire to speak to her in his/her own language. Let this be an inkling to the bigger picture. This is not something Mom will ultimately go along with however. Nope- you’re gonna have to learn OUR language, Jr. …So get use to it.
Second Slap on the Butt
Babies have it tough in this world. We all know about that first slap- which thankfully now is primarily just a metaphor rather than a bona fide medical procedure. But the real slap comes when we begin to interface with other humans through words and sentences and soon realize just how awkward this modality is. But if we fail to establish this communication link, we simply cannot function in society. Failure is not an option.
Tone, Inflection and Projection (TIP)
Few will argue the importance of these tools used in conversation. They add color and character to our sentences and convey much information. Clearly, if we want to make a point, we have ways of emphasizing our speech so as to alert the listener that “I mean business” or “Hey, listen up!” And although these tools are quite useful in a normal context and within the arena of general conversation -to the “hearing sensitive” they can be like nails on a chalkboard.
I use the term “hearing sensitive” as a catch-all expression for those that can hear at a level beyond what most others remember how to do. This does not mean they have super-hearing in the sense that they can hear, let’s say, a watch ticking in another room. Instead, the hearing sensitive can hear the “primary” or real message embedded within the words an individual is trying to convey. These “sensitives” can pick up on very subtle nuances and extrapolate data that goes well beyond the dictionary meaning of the presented word. Additionally, the hearing sensitive is all too aware that ‘TIP’s are often just filter devices or smoke screens that people use to obscure true meaning, to look bigger in some way, or to persuade you into seeing things their way– as if they know better. There are many other such examples, but we’ll leave it there for now.
Does any of this surprise you? Let me show you a bit more how it works. The hearing sensitive knows that if you need to emphasize your point to any major degree via TIP then perhaps the speaker is having trouble articulating a thought correctly or may indeed be trying to get you to resonate along with them- which is not necessarily a bad thing. But it’s the position of a hearing sensitive that if a human has difficulty communicating with objectivity and clarity, then he or she will resort to using “tools” to accomplish what they set out to do.
Regardless of the tone, inflection or body language for that matter, when we speak we are telling the outside world a great deal more than what we may realize. The sensitive will “hear” how you really feel and what you really think. If, for instance, a salesperson is giving you a list of reasons why you should buy that car now- the sensitive may hear a different urgency in the voice. He or she may hear “buy this car -blah -blah (I really need the money because I’m a single Mom and times are tough) or (just one more car and I get my name on a plaque for this month). This is not a purely psychic transmission of thought -well not exactly anyway. But before I let the proverbial cat out of the bag, consider this example; a sensitive human knows a sincere “I love you” from a phony one -even when the phony one comes with a smile, chocolate and roses. How is this so?
The Quantum Transmission of Words
So “hears” the low down. If you subscribe, as I do, that the human body is enveloped in an energetic field or an “aura”, then ask yourself how a word could possibly pass from a speakers lips through this surrounding field without being somehow influenced or altered in some manner. It’s my contention that it cannot– in fact, as the words pass through this field, they become encapsulated in energetic “envelopes” that I loosely refer to as quantum enveloping. These envelopes tell a much broader story than the word contained within them. The word message inside the envelope is very rudimentary by comparison.
Okay, well that’s it. But that’s pretty big -don’t you think? A hearing sensitive will pick up on the “fuzzy little fundamentals” encapsulating each word which (in itself) is a type of fractal of the greater aura signature which radiates a humans entire essence- so this can be quite extensive indeed. A true sensitive can pick up early health problems for instance, or a major event in one’s life, a difficult childhood, etc., often things that the speaker is not even aware of. All your life experiences sparkle within that toroidal energetic field we call an aura- and so sorry, but you cannot speak without passing through it.
You Are Your words
Yep- that’s it in a nutshell. Doesn’t matter “how” you say it, “why” you say it, “what” you say and so forth. I’m here to simply remind you that you ARE the words you use- and that the real meaning is embedded in a collapsed waveform of expression, masked by the so-called meaning of the word and ultimately enveloped by a fractal of your very essence.
There is a certain obscurity that follows Julian Wash. We sense he’s benevolent, a little crazy and we think rather enjoyable to read. Email: jwash@rattlereport.com
This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.
(Waking Times) We all know, deep down, that we are all connected. But is this notion of being connected only a magical feeling or is it concrete fact? Quantum mechanics or the study of the micro-world states illustrates that what we think of reality, is not so. Our human brains trick us into believing in the idea of separation when in truth, nothing is truly separated —including human beings.
The Perception of Separation
As a species that grew and evolved to become one of the Earth’s most dominating forces, we came to believe that we were its greatest glory. Surely this thinking has slowly evaporated, but it still holds weight in today’s culture. But when we look into the atomic world with a magnifying lens, it becomes evident that we are not exactly what we thought we were. Our atoms and electrons are no more important or significant than the makeup of the oak tree outside your window, blowing in the wind. In fact, we are much less different from even the chair you sit on while you read this.
The tricky part in all of this knowledge and wisdom that quantum mechanics has imparted to us, is that we don’t know where to draw the line. Primarily because the physiology of our brains prevents us from truly experiencing the universe as it is. Our perception is our reality; but it is not the universe’s.
The Basics of Quantum Theory
In order to truly understand what is happening at a sub-atomic level when we think of someone or when we feel the lightness of love for another; we must first bridge the gap between the micro-world and the macro-world. This is much easier said than done, because the micro-world operates under significantly different laws. String Theory states that our universe is made up of tiny little string particles and waves. These strings are the building blocks of the universe we experience, and make up the multiverse and the 11 dimensions that exist in the multiverse.
Quantum Entanglement’s Spooky Actions
So how do these tiny strings that bind the book of life, correlate to how we experience consciousness and affect the physical realm?
It was in 1935, that Albert Einstein and his coworkers discovered quantum entanglement lurking in the equations of quantum mechanics, and came realized how “spooky” and strange it truly was. This lead to the EPR paradox introduced by Einstein, Poldolsky and Rosen. The EPR paradox stated that the only ways of explaining the effects of quantum entanglement were to assume the universe is nonlocal, or that the true basis of physics is hidden (also known as a hidden-variable theory). What nonlocality means in this case, is that events occurring to entangled objects are linked even when the events cannot communicate through spacetime having the speed of light as a limiting velocity.
Nonlocality is also known as spooky action at a distance (Einstein’s famous phrase for describing the phenomenon).
Think about it this way, when two atoms that come into contact with each other, they experience a sort of “unconditional bond” with one another. That spans an infinite amount of space, as far as we are capable of observing.
This discovery was so bizarre that even Albert Einstein went to his grave thinking that Quantum Entanglement was not real and simply a bizarre calculation of the universe’s workings.
Since Einstein’s days, there have been a multitude of experiments to test the validity of quantum entanglement, many of which supported the theory that when two particles come into contact, if one’s direction is changed, so too will the other.
In 2011, Nicolas Gisin at University of Geneva was one of the first humans to witness that very thing, a form of communication that went beyond the realm of space and time. Where there would typically be a medium like air or space for the atom to communicate what it was doing; during quantum entanglement there is no medium, communication is instantaneous. Through Gisin’s work in Switzerland, humans were physically capable of witnessing quantum entanglement through the use of photon particles for one of the first times in human history.
So What Does This Mean For Humans?
Senior scientist at Princeton University, Dr. Roger Nelson began a 14-year long study and organization called The Global Consciousness Project (GCP).The GCP uses electromagnetically-shielded computers (called “eggs”) placed in over 60 countries around the world that generate random numbers. Imagine that each computer (egg) is flipping a coin and trying to guess the outcome. With heads being counted as “1′s” and tails as “0′s”. Each time they guess correctly, they consider it a “hit”. The computers do this 100 times every second.
Based on probability, you would imagine that with enough attempts, the computers would break even at 50/50. And up until the catastrophic and rattling events of 9/11, that’s what was occurring. Randomness created by quantum physics, to the best of its ability.
After 9/11 occurred, the numbers that were once supposed to behave randomly, started working in unison. All of a sudden the “1′s” and “0′s” were coinciding and working in sync. In fact, the GCP’s results were so far above chance it’s actually kind of shocking. Over the 426 pre-determined events measured in the entirety of the project, the recorded probability of a hit were greater than 1 in 2, far more than probability could explain. Their hits were measuring in at an overall probability of 1 in a million.
Reminding the world and skeptics alike, that even quantum physics shows itself in the least likely of places.
So what this means on a psychological and philosophical field, is that what we once thought was a figment of our imagination is much more real than we could’ve ever imagined. When you touch someone’s heart, emotionally becoming attached to someone, something occurs. Your atoms, the building blocks of your presence in the universe become entangled.
Sure, most physicists will tell you it’s impossible to feel this entanglement, this “spooky” connection to another living being. But when you reflect on a past love or a mother’s inexplicable knowledge of their child in danger; then you really have to stop and look at the evidence. There is proof that we are all connected, and it has more to do with the creation of the universe than the simple fact that we are all humans.
It’s not magic, it’s quantum mechanics.
Luis R. Valadez: As an American Author and Research Psychologist, the two aspects in life I value most are: humanity and self-improvement. I make it my goal and life’s work to illuminate the secrets of the mind and our potential to every thirsty man and woman. For when given water to grow, we humans prosper. Aside from my love of moving the human spirit — I also research and rejoice in the fields of neuroscience, historical arts, and quantum mechanics.
Human thought in the twenty- first century needs to work towards a new model that immerses the human being within a vibrant energetic universe. However, this need not demand that we throw away what we already have; rather, we can expand upon the tools that have brought us to our present position. There is an eastern proverb that roughly translates as: “You may ride your donkey up to your front door, but would you ride it into your house?” In other words, when we have arrived at a particular destination we are often required to make a transition in order to continue the journey. In this sense we can be grateful to a vast knowledge base of scientific and religious thought for helping us arrive at the point where we presently stand. Yet it is now imperative that we move forward. As Deepak Chopra wrote his post “Consciousness and the End of the War Between Science and Religion” how we move forward is likely to be centered in our understanding of consciousness.
Our physical apparatus is spectacular; consider that each of us carries around a 100-billion-cell bioelectric quantum computer that creates our realities, with almost all its neurons established the day we were born. Still, this phenomenal “reality shaper” has undergone monumental perceptual change over our evolutionary history. What is required, at this significant juncture, is again another catalyst of consciousness change. This may come about through discoveries in the field of quantum biology, and the idea, emphasized by Ervin Laszlo in his blogs (http://ervinlaszlo.com), that the form of consciousness we possess is likely to be the result of quantum coherence.
The human body is a constant flux of thousands of inter-reactions and processes connecting molecules, cells, organs and fluids throughout the brain, body and nervous system. Up until recently it was thought that all these countless interactions operated in a linear sequence, passing on information much like a runner passing the baton to the next runner. However, the latest findings in quantum biology and biophysics have discovered that there is in fact a tremendous degree of coherence within all living systems. It has been found through extensive scientific investigation that a form of quantum coherence operates within living biological systems through what is known as biological excitations and biophoton emission. What this means is that metabolic energy is stored as a form of electromechanical and electromagnetic excitations. It is these coherent excitations that are considered responsible for generating and maintaining long-range order via the transformation of energy and very weak electromagnetic signals.
After nearly 20 years of experimental research, Fritz-Albert Popp put forward the hypothesis that biophotons are emitted from a coherent electrodynamic field within the living system. What this effectively means is that each living cell is giving off, and resonating with, a biophoton field of coherent energy. If each cell is emitting this field, then the whole living system is, in effect, a resonating field — a ubiquitous non- local field. And since it is by the means of biophotons that the living system communicates, then there is near instantaneous intercommunication throughout. And this, claims Popp, is the basis for coherent biological organization — referred to as quantum coherence.
Biophysicist Mae-Wan Ho has described how the living organism, including the human body, is “coherent beyond our wildest dreams” in that our bodies are constituted by a form of liquid crystal, which is an ideal transmitter of communication, resonance, and coherence. All living biological organisms continuously emit radiations of light that form a field of coherence and communication.
Moreover, biophysicists have discovered that living organisms are permeated by quantum wave forms. In her 1998 book The Rainbow and the Worm: The Physics of Organisms, Ho informs us that the visible body just happens to be where the wave function of the organism is most dense. Invisible quantum waves are spreading out from each of us and permeating into all other organisms. At the same time, each of us has the waves of every other organism entangled within our own make-up …
This incredible new discovery actually positions each living being within a non-local quantum field consisting of wave interferences (where bodies meet). Each person is thus not only in an emphatic relationship with each other but is also entangled with one another.
Neuroscience, quantum biology, and quantum physics are now beginning to converge to reveal that our bodies are not only biochemical systems but also sophisticated resonating quantum systems. These new discoveries show that a form of nonlocal connected consciousness has a physical-scientific basis. Further, it demonstrates that certain spiritual or transcendental states of collective ‘Oneness’ have a valid basis within the new scientific paradigm.
If we are willing to step down from the donkey, we will find that our new path ahead has a place for reconciling science and spirituality. We should focus on the best of both worlds: engage in cooperation, not in conflict and competition.
Kingsley L. Dennis, Ph.D., is a sociologist and writer currently connected with he Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University. He is also cofounder of WorldShift International. The author of numerous articles on complexity theory, technologies, new media communications, and consciousness, he spends his time between Andalusia, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
(Spirit Science & Metaphysics) If you want to truly live free, you have to first recognize the things that are preventing you from doing that. Life isn’t what it used to be. Being born in our day and age is a lot different than being born 5000 years ago.
Back then, you were born, rinsed off in a river, and grew up learning how to work and hunt. Now when you are born, you are assigned a social insurance number, you have a government authorized birth certificate, you are piled on with cultural programs, launched into a public education system, and you are brainwashed into conforming with societal expectations.
Nobody wants to be considered a slave, but to be honest, we are all slaves in one way or another. The world and its institutions are carefully designed by the people in power, and the people in power only care about two things: power and profit.
What we are going to look at is how our lifestyle, habits, and motives have been carefully sculpted by the people who run our planet. They don’t want a population of thinkers. They want a population of docile obedient workers.
Here are 3 ways the world is designed to make you a slave:
1) The education system
School teaches you how to memorize, repeat, and regurgitate. Just the skillset that is needed to spend your life working for someone else’s dreams. With ‘writing’ being a subject which is currently being taken out of schools, emphasis is being put more on memorization of knowledge and less on creativity and comprehension.
The system is designed like this. Go through school, don’t push the boundaries, memorize and repeat, get good grades, get a degree, and then land a “job” where you are an employee for someone else your whole life.
It’s designed in a way that will prepare you to be a full-time worker, and it’s extremely difficult to self-actualize as a person when you a buried head deep in studying, tests, projects, and exams. It doesn’t teach you anything about creating a career for yourself, being self-sustaining, raising a family, being happy, HOW to think, spirituality, developing as a person, or anything that is really important in life.
There is also a lot it doesn’t tell you about such as political conspiracies and government coverups, and this is because it is government owned. From the time our children turn 5 years old, they get thrown into a government-regulated system of indoctrination that spits them out the other side when they are 18 and have no idea who they are, what they are doing, how the world functions, how to live in the real world, or how to be happy. The education system is design to make you an obedient sheep. Nothing more, nothing less.
Form of slavery: Slave to grades
2) The rat race
After you have proven that you can follow orders and have traded your passions, creativity, and individuality in for grades, you are now fit to join the rat race. Because of inflation and the crazy amount of money it costs just to survive in our world today, we feel like trading our time for money is the only option we have. After all, we all have debts to pay off and bills to pay. And if you chose to go to college or university to increase your chances of landing a good job, chances are you are 20-50 thousand dollars in debt before you even see your first paycheck.
When you work 40 hours a week, spend another 5-10 driving, another 5 just trying to catch your breathe and relax after work each day, you are spending 50-55 hours per week chasing paper. It’s not your fault, it’s just the way the world is designed. When your entire life is dedicate to trading your time on earth to simply making ends meet, you are no longer working for the purpose of economic advancement. You are working to stay alive.
We sometimes call that type of work “slavery”. And when our world is set up where its almost always necessary to take out loans and debts, you spend the rest of your life trying to pay it all off. Where is there time for self-actualization, self-discovery, soul-searching, enlightenment, developing your passions, or adventure?
You become a slave to your job and your debts, and then you wake up one day thinking “Oh my God, I’m 60 years old”. Start living NOW. The rat race is a trap designed to keep you a passionless productive gear in the machine of capitalism.
Form of slavery: Slave to money
3) Television
The average American watches about 30 hours of television per week. The commercials are fear-based propogandas trying to scare you into purchasing crap you don’t need with money you don’t have. Not cool enough? Finance this car. Not with the in-crowd yet? Drink this type of beer. Not getting enough attention from the opposite sex? Use this type of body spray. The list goes on and on.
Junk food like McDonalds and Wendy’s advertised as being progressive and healthy. Partying is glorified. The news stations are owned by corporations and are biased, fake, and exclusive. Materialism is shoved down your throat in an attempt to make you feel less worth and less successful than you are. Even the television shows themselves are typically hollow, unintelligent, and drama-based. Televisions are brain-numbing machines.
But you are too tired after work to do anything except sit down, and your day was so boring that you need some form of enjoyment. Television seems like the perfect solution.
Form of slavery: Slave to mind, meaninglessness, and boredom.
This is all by design
When you spend 50+ hours a week chasing paper and aren’t practicing spirituality, how can you really feel complete inside? When you go through an education system void of personal development and trade your creativity for grades, how can you expect to feel whole when you come out of it?
So what happens is, you go through school, get a job, and trade your time for money. You then have this void inside you that won’t leave you because life just feels hollow and meaningless, and you are too tired to do anything except watch television. You turn it on, and all you see is advertisements promising happiness, fulfillment, and comfort in the form of materials.
Because you haven’t been shown where to look for true happiness, you end up spending money you don’t have in an attempt to enhance your life, and end up being buried even further in debts and depression. Because you have been taught your whole life to trade your soul for grades and paystubs, you feel totally empty and end up chasing the high you get from buying new materials.
Not to mention, you are taught your whole life to take your ego for your identity, so by enhancing your ego you feel you will enhance your sense of identity and self-worth. Consumerism and materialism is literally built on the conveyor-belt process of school, work, television, emptiness, and a desire to feel like your life actually matters in some way.
Suicide is currently the 10th leading cause of death in America. Do you think that has anything to do with this worker/consumer labels we have allowed to define us as people? The world is literally designed to make us spiritually numb and then prey upon our need for purpose and meaning. The best thing you can do for yourself is listen to your heart, practice spirituality and meditation, and gain the courage to go do what makes you feel alive.
Life is too short to spend it living like a rat on a wheel.
About the author: My name is Steven Bancarz, and I am the creator of ‘Spirit Science and Metaphysics’. I am working on a new social platform is being built called ‘The Conscious Forum‘ to provide the best place online for open-minded people to discuss, engage, and connect with one another in a way never offered before. To learn more, click the photo below:
(Energy Fanatics) Every human being on Earth is familiar with water, because each of us drink it almost everyday and it is found in nearly every place on Earth. According to certain experts, our bodies and planet Earth are made of roughly 70 percent water. Even though we are very familiar with water, there are still many features of water that we do not know.
In school, we are taught that water is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom (H2O). We are also taught that water has a very unique characteristic that allows it to transform itself into three different states of matter, which are liquid, solid, and gas. Unfortunately, our education system did not teach us about the phenomenal properties of water. Two of these properties are the fourth phase of water and water’s ability to store memory.
The secrets of water have been known for decades, even ancient civilization knew about these secrets. Most of us do not know that there are more than three phase of water and that water has the ability to store memory and heal the body, because our education system does a poor job of teaching us about these things
Here is a great video that shows evidence of the phenomenal properties of water and its healing potential.
Photobiology is the scientific study of the interaction between light and living organisms, and specifically, the therapeutic use of light to improve health and treat disease.
In the interview featured below, Dr. Alexander Wunsch, a physician, researcher and one of the leading experts in photobiology, explains the modern significance of photobiology. In this article we will also look at the historical development of photobiology, to help you get a better appreciation of its incredible healing potential.
I recently interviewed Dr. Wunsch about the dangers of light-emitting diode (LED) lighting. That interview has been viewed nearly three-quarters of a million times at this point. If you haven’t seen it already, please take a look, as that interview went into some very practical, real world aspects of photobiology.
Historical Use of Light Therapy
Light has been used therapeutically for thousands of years. In ancient Egypt, we know that sunlight was used for hygienic purposes, and once humans began manufacturing glass, it also became possible to produce colored light using colored glass as filter technology.
Humans have not only evolved to adapt to sunlight but also to the influence of fire — near-infrared and mid-infrared radiation that is very low in in the blue range wavelength, which is also emitted by incandescent light sources. An important point that needs to be understood is that the human retina is not designed to be exposed to blue light at night. As humans evolved, we were ever only exposed to fire light at night. This is why it’s so crucial to block blue light, particularly at night, but also during the daytime when the light is emitted from artificial sources. Incandescent and halogen lights are acceptable as they produce near-infrared wavelengths, however LEDs are best avoided, since they’re virtually devoid of these healing near-infrared wavelengths, primarily emitting blue light — the effects of which we will explore here.
Around the turn of the 18th century, light began to be used therapeutically to treat illness.
“I call the time before the 18th century the ‘mystical phase’ of light use, because humans already had clear indications that light does them good, but they didn’t explore it in a scientific manner,” Wunsch says.
“In the 18th century — we also call it ‘the age of enlightenment’ — people became much more interested in the reasons why the occurrences happen around them.”
The First Phototherapeutic Device
Andreas Gärtner, known as the “Saxonian Archimedes,” built the first phototherapeutical device. It was a foldable hollow mirror made from wood and plaster, covered with gold leaf. Using this, he could concentrate sunlight onto aching joints of patients. People suffering from arthritis, rheumatism and gout found pain relief from this phototherapeutical unit.
Today, we can explain how this device worked without causing a phototoxic reaction or burns. The gold leaf actually absorbs all of the ultraviolet (UV) radiation from sunlight, emitting luminous heat rays in the near-infrared and red wavelengths, which is beneficial because it can penetrate deeply into the tissue.
“It’s interesting that UV behaves quite peculiar in combination with certain metals. For example, silver only reflects about 4 percent of the incident UV radiation. Gold almost absorbs all the parts. The best reflector for UV is aluminum.
When we talk about phototherapy, besides the heliotherapeutic application, we always have to look at the light source, and we have to look at the beam shaping media, such as the reflector or lenses, because they all contribute to the final blend of wavelengths, which then come into action in the phototherapeutical intervention,” Wunsch explains.
The Science of Light in the 19th Century
In the late 19th century, we started gaining a great deal of knowledge about how light acts on the human body. It started with the experiments of A. Downes and T.P. Blunt, who discovered that UV radiation kills bacteria. Researchers were also interested in other parts in the optical spectrum.
He grew grapes for wine, using not only transparent colorless glass, but also blue window glass. With the latter, he got a significant increase in plant growth. Later, he performed similar experiments on humans.
“People in the late 19th century, especially in the United States, would walk around with blue glasses. In a way, they did exactly the opposite of what we do today to protect our eyesight… They even enhanced the blue part of the spectrum because they used it as a kind of booster, a kind of doping, and didn’t care about the long-term effects, which are pretty negative …”
Wearing blue-colored glasses increases the blue exposure and limits the red and infrared. The problem with that is that while short-term use of blue-enriched light has an activating effect, you can quickly develop a tolerance and, long-term, the stimulating effect is harmful to your biology. Hence, wearing blue-tinted glasses on a daily basis is not a good idea.
“You can use them for a few minutes. This can be a good idea. From today’s scientific viewpoint, we need at least one hour of unfiltered daylight [each day]during adolescence in order to prevent myopia. But it’s not pure blue, and not pure blocking. Somewhere in between is the golden pathway to health.”
Reinventing the Wheel
The same year General Pleasonton published his book on blue light experiments, Dr. Seth Pancoast published “Blue and Red Light: Light and Its Rays as Medicine,” covering both blue and red light experiments. Pancoast understood the antagonistic effect of red and blue light, using red light to stimulate sympathetic activity and blue light to stimulate parasympathetic activity.
A year later, in 1878, a year before Edison invented the incandescent lamp, Dr. Edwin Dwight Babbitt published “Principles of Light and Color.” He used the full set of rainbow colors discovered by Newton, and later on used the color set of Goethe. The book is about 800 pages long, but for those with an interest in photobiology, it’s a treasure trove.
“Today in medicine, we start to reinvent what they already knew or what they already found out in the late 19th century — that the colors have specific effects on our health, on our organism. Using the correct colors means you can communicate with all your different organs in your system,” Wunsch explains.
According to Dr. Wunsch, Dr. Babbitt’s tome covers everything we’re currently rediscovering about photobiology and phototherapy. Babbitt even presented information about how atoms are frequency and oscillation.
With regards to the use of colored light, Babbitt used a kind of bottle shaped as a lens. By adding a salt solution, he produced different colors. He then focused colored light on different parts of the human body. Like Pleasonton and Pancoast before him, Babbitt produced therapeutic results using colored light. Wunsch explains:
“The problem was that it’s very difficult to reproduce these effects, starting with the problem that the sun doesn’t always shine… They were pioneers in chromotherapy in a time where electrical lighting was not available… People, in a way, had better circadian rhythm without electrical lighting. But in terms of scientific precision with regard to producing colored light, they had worse conditions than we have. Today, we can exactly produce the same colors anytime, during the day and during the year.”
Dr. Mercola Interviews Dr. Alexander Wunsch About Photobiology
Treating Disease With Light
In 1897, Dinshah Ghadiali, an India native who lived out the second half of his life in the United States, rescued the life of a patient using Babbitt’s instructions. The patient had colitis, an inflammatory disease of the intestines. Dinshah knew, from reading “Principles of Light and Color,” that indigo colored light could stop vomiting and break the disease process. This started a new chapter in chromotherapy, and Dinshah experimented with colored light for more than 23 years before he presented his system to the public.
Another chromotherapy pioneer during the late 19th century was Niels Ryberg Finsen in Denmark. He was the first to make a discrimination between negative phototherapy and a positive phototherapy. He used a very specific red light to treat small pox patients. He removed the short wavelength part of the spectrum, especially the ultraviolet, violet, indigo and blue, leaving the colors located in the longer wavelength of the light spectrum.
“You can be 100 percent sure that if you paint a room completely in red and you’re using red curtains and red tissue or cloth, that you would have 100 percent elimination of blue. The short wavelength part, the blue and the indigo, was the reason for the inflammatory reaction in patients with small pox,” Wunsch explains.
“Finsen … reinvented the negative phototherapy, which means you eliminate certain parts of the spectrum, which would exaggerate the development of a disease … This observation — that the short wavelength in the spectrum would amplify the inflammatory reaction in small pox — led him to the idea that light acts as an incitement. It is able to produce the inflammatory reaction. In small pox, this would be a problem. But he was thinking about the treatment of tuberculosis.
In treating tuberculosis, his idea was if he could produce the inflammation in the tissue, then the body would be able to cure itself. This is what he finally developed: the positive phototherapy, which means he produced exactly this part in the spectrum he formerly wanted to exclude. Using the short wavelength part enabled him to very successfully treat tuberculosis, especially in the skin … His idea was to use electric light …
In the late years of the 1890s, he established the Finsen Institute in Copenhagen and successfully treated patients with tuberculosis from all over the world. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1903. This was one of the most important persons in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.”
Phototherapy Becomes State of the Art Medicine
Finsen’s work fueled the progress of phototherapy for the next several decades. From 1900 to 1950, phototherapy was a state of the art therapeutic intervention in medicine. Remember, Finsen effectively treated tuberculosis nearly 50 years before the advent of pharmacological medication. There really was no treatment for tuberculosis prior to light therapy. Tuberculosis is a very slow-growing organism that is hard to treat. Today, patients are typically given multiple drugs to treat it.
The reason light works for tuberculosis is because UV light is germicidal. This is one of the reasons why it’s useful to hang your clothes to dry outside. Exposing your laundry to sunlight kills bacteria, viruses and other microbes that might contaminate your bed linens and clothing.
The easiest way to benefit physically from the light therapy provided by the sun is to expose your bare skin to the sun on a regular basis, ideally daily. Most people rarely ever expose more than their face and hands to the sun. Indeed, one of the most important points I want to make here is that a lack of exposure to sunlight can have some really serious adverse consequences for your health.
In the late 19th century, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg invented a phototherapeutic method using red and the near-infrared rays (the luminous heat rays). He founded the Battle Creek Sanitarium, where he performed heliotherapy on patients as early as 1876. In 1891, shortly after the invention of the incandescent lamp, he filed a patent for an incandescent light bath. In the following two years, he treated thousands of patients with this light.
Kellogg exhibited his incandescent light bath system at the world exhibition in Chicago in 1893, where it caught the attention of German chemist Dr. Willibald Gebhardt. Gebhardt visited Kellogg at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, where he learned all about its use, and then brought the technology and knowledge back to Berlin. Over the next few years, Gebhardt established hundreds of light institutes throughout Germany, treating psoriasis and pain associated with gout and rheumatism. These institutes were so successful they even posed a threat to the medical community, as doctors could not provide better relief than what people were getting from self-treatment at these light institutes.
Light Therapeutics
In 1910, Kellogg published a text book called “Light Therapeutics.” It’s a seminal work that has stood the test of time, being as valuable and revolutionary today as it was back then, if not more so, considering all the knowledge we’ve lost to modern science, and are just now rediscovering. You can download the book for free at the link above. It is a great read to see what he was doing more than a century ago.
“I really would recommend this [book]to everyone who is interested in phototherapy, because this is the basic knowledge. Everything you have to know about sunlight, ultraviolet light, visible light, the near infrared, about the use of cold, the use of heat — it’s all contained in this book from John Harvey Kellogg,” Wunsch says.
“It’s still, in my understanding, the first book to read if you want to understand how light in the different parts of the spectrum interact with the organism. It’s very systematically structured … For example, everyone warns you about sunburn, but in the pre-antibiotic era, the medical doctors sometimes had to completely change the direction in a patient … Here, sunlight was one of the therapeutic options.
I would not recommend to use this today, but Kellogg describes in detail the four different stages of a sunburn. The first thing that he says is ‘Sunburn is not a burn injury. A burn injury appears immediately. And a sunburn appears with delayed time of several hours.’
He didn’t know anything about reactive oxygen species these days, but he exactly explained that there is definitely a huge difference between an immediate heat-induced burn and a kind of phototoxic reaction that you find in a sunburn.
He discriminated or described four different stages of a sunburn from one to four. Four is with blisters. One is just the mild erythema. In those days, without antibiotics, sometimes [they]deliberately chose to induce a second degree or third degree erythema in order to change the direction of the development of the health of a certain patient.”
Heliotherapy During Surgery
Dr. Oscar Bernhard, a Swiss surgeon, even used heliotherapy (i.e. sun therapy) during surgery. Bernhard was actually using sunlight even before Finsen inaugurated and popularized his method. At this time in the late 19th century, it had become apparent that as people moved from the country to the cities, rates of rickets and tuberculosis rose, and that a lack of sunlight clearly had something to do with it, eliciting more extensive exploration of light therapy. Further, Bernhard, who lived and worked in the Swiss mountains near Davos, would place his surgical patients in direct sunlight for 10 to 15 minutes, just before closing the wound. He found this significantly improved wound healing after surgery.
Another Swiss “sun doctor” was Dr. Auguste Rollier, who began treating patients using sunlight in 1905. In the 1930s and ’40s, he ran up to 40 different hospitals in Switzerland.
“Rollier only used heliotherapy,” Wunsch says. “He was convinced that artificial light cannot do the job, and that sunlight is superior. Rollier was the master of heliotherapy in these days up to the 1950s … He was treating patients [with heliotherapy for]more than 50 years, from the beginning to the mid of the 20th century …
He was a holistic physician who not only used sunlight in a very skillful manner, but also all the other options, using music and a kind of physiotherapy or work therapy. He invented a lot of different appliances, which enabled the patient to lie in their bed and do some work and be productive …
This was very important for people suffering from tuberculosis being treated in Switzerland, because it was quite expensive to stay there as a patient … He had very good results — much better compared to what we expect from tuberculosis treatment using the five-phase antibiotics treatment we have nowadays.”
This isn’t so surprising when you consider that UV light is directly germicidal to many microbes, and UVB exposure specifically helps your body produce vitamin D. In fact, vitamin D is a biological marker for UVB radiation exposure. When your body has enough, your vitamin D levels go up.
Why Vitamin D Supplements Cannot Fully Replace Sun Exposure
Today, many simply resort to taking a vitamin D supplement, but it’s naïve to believe you’re going to get the same benefits from a synthetic oral supplement as you would from natural UVB exposure. Your body is designed to produce vitamin D in response to sunlight, not through oral intake. I’m not saying you should avoid vitamin D supplements. If you cannot get enough sunlight, that’s your next best option. But the goal should not be to raise and maintain your vitamin D levels only through swallowing a pill. As Wunsch explains:
“[I]f you administer vitamin D orally, it signals your system that you have lots of UV around you. This might even start processes that are not adequate because your skin didn’t actually have the exposure. I think the best idea, if you have the skin type so that you can stand sun exposure, is that you use this natural pathway [i.e. sun exposure]. Because then you have coordinated, coherent action pathways, which are not granted [otherwise].
Another aspect that is still unclear is if orally administered vitamin D really reaches the skin layers where you normally need it as well, in the keratinocyte layer. Cathelicidin is a substance produced under the influence of vitamin D in the skin, which helps the organism to fight germs. This might be one of the reasons why the heliotherapy and the UV therapy were so efficient with regard to tuberculosis treatment.”
Candles — A Healthy Light Alternative
Candles are even better light sources than incandescent bulbs; there is no electricity involved, and candles are the lights our ancestors have used for many millennia, so our bodies are already adapted to the light they produce. The only problem is that you need to be careful about using just any old candle, as most commercially produced candles produce poisonous emissions when burned.
As you may or may not know, many candles available today are riddled with toxins, especially paraffin candles. Paraffin is a petroleum by-product created when crude oil is refined into gasoline, and a number of known carcinogens and toxins are also added to the paraffin to increase burn stability. There is also the potential that lead has been added to the wicks of your candles, and soot can invade your lungs.
To complicate matters, a lot of candles, both paraffin and soy, are corrupted with toxic dyes and fragrances; some soy candles are only partially soy with many other additives, and/or many commercial candles use GMO soy. The candles I use are non-GMO soy, which is clean burning without harmful fumes or soot, is grown in the U.S. and is both sustainable and renewable. They’re also completely free of dyes. The soy in these candles is not tested on animals, and is free of herbicides and pesticides. It’s also kosher, 100 percent natural and biodegradable. The fragrances are body safe, phthalate- and paraben-free, and contain no California prop 65 ingredients. You can search online for healthy candles, but if you like, you can use the ones I found at www.circleoflifefarms.com. I am not affiliated with the company and I earn no commissions on promoting their candles; I just thought you might benefit from using the ones I use in my home.
You may also like to try genuine Himalayan crystal salt lamps. The wavelengths of salt crystal colors fall within the upper nanometer zone (600-700 nanometers) producing orange/red light. Because of the neutral atomic structure of crystal salt, a heated salt lamp helps you balance artificial frequencies and neutralize electromagnetic radiation. (See: Why You Should Have a Himalayan Crystal Salt Lamp in Every Room of Your House.) — Wake Up World Editor
How to Make Digital Screens Healthier
When it comes to computer screens, it is important to reduce the correlated color temperature down to 2,700 K — even during the day, not just at night. It’s even better to set it below 2,000K or even 1,000K. Many people use a program called F.lux to do this, but I have found a far better alternative that health and fitness author Ben Greenfield introduced to me, created by 22–year–old Bulgarian programmer Daniel Georgiev.
Daniel was using F.lux but became frustrated with the controls. He attempted to contact the F.lux programmers but they never got back to him, so he created a massively superior alternative called Iris. It is free, but you’ll want to pay the $2 and reward him with the donation. You can purchase the $2 Iris mini software here.
Iris is better because it has three levels of blue blocking below F.lux: dim incandescent, candle and ember. I have been using ember after sunset and measured the spectrum and it blocked nearly all light below 550 nm (which is spectacular) as you can see in the image below when I measured it on my monitor in the ember setting. When I measured the F.lux software at its lowest setting, incandescent, it showed loads of blue light coming through, as you can clearly see in the second image below.
So, if you are serious about protecting your vision, I’d recommend you switch to Iris. I have been using it for about three months now, and even though I have very good vision at the age of 62 and don’t require reading glasses, my visual acuity seems to have dramatically increased. I believe this is because I am not exposing my retina to the damaging effects of blue light after sunset.
More Information
Dr. Wunsch, who has studied photobiology and light therapy for decades, understands the influence of light on health perhaps better than anyone. Having this historical grounding will hopefully help you understand some of these benefits, and inspire you to apply heliotherapy in your own life. All you have to do is step outside and take some clothes off! There’s no question in my mind that sun exposure is as important — or nearly as important — as eating a healthy diet and exercising.
Unfortunately, virtually no one is talking about or teaching this. The point is, they did in the past. We’re now rediscovering what was common knowledge 100 years ago! Sadly, the pharmacological focus of modern medicine has created an enormous, manipulated bias, which essentially directs most of the research away from non-pharmaceutical medicine. If the focus of the medical establishment was authentically and sincerely motivated, based on specific healing principles, we would have expanded on the research into heliotherapy and photobiology. The reason we haven’t is because it’s been artificially suppressed. That’s the sad reality.
The good news is that this is the 21st century — a time when we have access to extremely powerful methods of communication, allowing us to share this information with literally millions of people. By doing so, we can create a foundation of a new understanding, thereby catalyzing research and therapeutic interventions that can help us avoid the expensive and toxic interventions typically recommended for diseases that respond perfectly well to interventions such as light.
It’s truly so simple. Take myopia for example. We’re now realizing that nearsightedness is closely linked to lack of sun exposure, especially during childhood — not a lack of vitamin D, mind you, but a lack of natural sunlight striking the eye. (If you missed my article on preventing myopia with sunlight, please take a moment to check it out now.) Understanding this connection, and doing something about it — sending your kids outdoors for at least an hour a day — could help prevent this extraordinarily common vision problem without costing a cent.
Born and raised in the inner city of Chicago, IL, Dr. Joseph Mercola is an osteopathic physician trained in both traditional and natural medicine. Board-certified in family medicine, Dr. Mercola served as the chairman of the family medicine department at St. Alexius Medical Center for five years, and in 2012 was granted fellowship status by the American College of Nutrition (ACN).
While in practice in the late 80s, Dr. Mercola realized the drugs he was prescribing to chronically ill patients were not working. By the early 90s, he began exploring the world of natural medicine, and soon changed the way he practiced medicine.
In 1997 Dr. Mercola founded Mercola.com, which is now routinely among the top 10 health sites on the internet. His passion is to transform the traditional medical paradigm in the United States. “The existing medical establishment is responsible for killing and permanently injuring millions of Americans… You want practical health solutions without the hype, and that’s what I offer.”
Posts
