Have you ever had one of those dreams where you know a terrible disaster is imminent, but you either can't tell anyone or they just won't listen? Well, this has been my life for the past twenty years or so. Yes, it's bizarre and no doubt, it sounds like I'm being overly dramatic. I probably wouldn't have believed me either.
Despite being marketed as a "safer" option than benzodiazepines for the treatment of insomnia, none of these medicines are intended for long term use. Prescribing medical practitioners are advised to limit their patient's use of the drug to a maximum of 14-28 days. All these medicines prevent the patient from obtaining complete sleep cycles, with their rhythm oscillating between slow-wave and REM phases of sleep. Such a deficit impedes regeneration of the immune system and the cognitive abilities of the brain to retain thoughts and memories, among other vital functions. Consequently, sleep obtained by taking such medicines, is little better than none at all.
Irrespective of prescribing guidelines advising doctors, countless patients take these drugs on a daily basis for years on end, having become hopelessly addicted after years of use. It's impossible that they can be getting anything but relief from withdrawal symptoms (which admittedly does feel good) and a psychosomatic effect , given the tolerance they must have acquired. Ironically, withdrawal symptoms can be so severe that benzodiazepines are needed to assist with tapering, reduction and the management of potential seizures. Incidences of over prescribing have continued increasing in frequency alongside a staggering popularity for recreational use.
Although the number of people addicted to Z drugs is significant, it's not the biggest concern users should be aware of. Pharmacies are legally obliged to clarify the many side effects that can befall patients. Warnings in the UK mainly consist of verbal advise from doctors and pharmacists, whilst in the US, black box warnings and many times the size of the packaging itself. They describe all the usual unpleasantness associated with hypnotics, but one specific peculiarity has been intentionally suppressed since its inception. One that everyone, whether they take the drug or not, needs to be keenly aware of.
It's impossible to suggest that I misused this drug in any way. I used it no more than two nights out of seven. Upon those occasions, I took a single 7.5mg pill, as prescribed, without any alcohol or any other possibly contra-indicated substance. To the best of my knowledge, I had experienced a fairly good night's sleep, waking feeling normal with nothing out of the ordinary to report. Then, one morning a friend of my then partner, knocked on my door. Thinking nothing of it, I opened the door and invited him inside. Before I could close the door behind him..BAM! He punched me square in the face. Now, I can take a punch, so my response was a combination of shock and confusion. I'm a very agreeable person. Definitely not the kind of person who has angered a queue avengers waiting for their turn to hit me.
Raised voices, accusations and denials ensued. Apparently, I had called his GF numerous times during the night, making increasingly severe threats. Calls made to someone I had never met, but yet even more baffling - how did I even know her phone number? I simply couldn't believe this was a behaviour I was capable of and still struggle to believe it to this day.
When he played me a recording of the calls, hearing my voice like that I was forced to admit my guilt. There was absolutely no denying it was my voice, but why or how it occurred was and still is, inconceivable.
Before too long I discovered from talking to friends, that these sort of bizarre incidents in conjunction with the memory loss, while under the influence of Zopiclone, were more common than we could have imagined. The common characteristics in all occasions were:
💊The use of a single 7.5mg dose of Zopiclone.
💊Behaviour out of character to the individual.
💊Absolutely no recollection whatsoever of the events.
During the ensuing years, obscure reports of violent and embarrassing stories involving both celebrities and everyday people, began to hit the headlines. Oprah Winfrey was mocked, when she blamed the drug for racist remarks she had made on Twitter. Also alleging to be affected by the medicine, was Chris Pratt who challenged WWE star Dave Bautista to a fight.
An airplane was forced to make an emergency landing, when one passenger who had used the drug to alleviate their fear of flying, physically attacked the cabin crew. Further accounts portrayed hotel rooms being destroyed, patients facing domestic violence charges and all manner of peculiarities.
Until you've personally experienced such an episode, I can understand how hard it would be to accept the deniability that is warranted in what has been dubbed "The Ambien defence". This is unlike other instances of amnesia such as that caused by alcohol, where it's possible that remnants of events can return in drips and drabs with time. It's not like the effects felt from benzodiazepines, barbiturates, anaesthetics, opiates, Ketamine or just getting messed up, or overindulging.
The truly terrifying business effectively steals your body for a period of time, to do absolutely anything with and you can never know. "Body snatching".
Manufacturers Merck were making obscene profits from their product, maintaining that it was a "very rare side effect". In truth, many people were either too embarrassed to report anything, or were simply unaware that anything had befallen them, besides a full night's sleep.
Initial reports that did become public, were considered funny due to how bizarre it sounded. As time progressed, the more problematic nature of sleep eating, having (potentially involuntary or forceful) sex whilst unconscious, sleep cooking and even sleep driving, offered an indication of where this was heading.
Then one day when I searched the internet for the latest news concerning the matter (which usually led with a selection of rehab and detox facilities), everything had changed. Suddenly, the first results the search engine churned out were for lawyers. Finally after nearly 2 decades, the other foot had fallen... a terrible disaster I had foreseen all those years before had come to pass. It was truly like some kind of horror movie. Patients using the drug had awoken to discover the person they loved and that loved and trusted them most in the world -their soul mate - was dead. Butchered by them in utterly heinous ways. Scientists had investigated this "very rare side effect" and discovered that everything that we had been saying was true. Thus it's now become an accepted alibi in defence of crimes, where it could be proven the phenomenon was in effect.
However, the important thing to keep in mind is that whether a court of law accepts this alibi or not, that person still has to live each day for the remainder of their life, imagining that terror and suffering they inflicted upon their trusting partner. To my mind, such a sentence is a fate worse than death.
Whether you take Zopiclone, Zolpidem or another nonbenzodiazepine, consider whether it's really a gamble you're prepared to take. This pill could lead you into a nightmare world from which there could be no waking up.
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In the UK we are fortunate enough to have important legislation, that's based on one overarching principle;
Access to safe, drinkable water is critical for the sustenance of human life. This might not sound like much. If you think it doesn’t apply to you, YOU’RE WRONG!
Those living without access to clean, safe, potable water no longer belong to third world nations of the kind we probably imagine. Take a closer look at this most vital of necessities that we had assumed was, and always will be plentiful and flowing freely… that’s not quite as certain as it might once have seemed.
All Brits pay water charges. But even if those go unpaid, no home can be deprived of the water supply while it’s inhabitants draw breath. It’s not like there’s any other option and you can just pop down to the canal, take a bath, fill up a jerry can and not end up sick.
With an extensive network of purification plants, sewerage systems and delivery pipes, every home can be reached. That's definitely not something people of the world universally enjoy. For some years, I lived in a small village in southern Europe where nearly everybody relied upon a few communal taps . During summer months, water only flowed from the taps for a few hours each day. A queue would grow at the tap as 4pm drew near each afternoon, of villagers bearing buckets, jerry cans, cheese tins and other assorted containers. After filling them, they could then flush toilets, bathe, cook and clean. Anything more than a single square of toilet paper would completely block the pipes, so a small bin (usually a repurposed cheese tin) sat at the side of every toilet, into which all disposables were placed.
Recently all the lead pipes in the U.K. received an upgrade. They can’t be replaced without our streets collapsing. After so long, they have just a part of the landscape we live in.
How-to resolve this problem when aging pipes are increasingly presenting a potential hazard to the health of consumers. Every lead pipe in the U.K. has had safe, new plastic piping threaded through it, providing a public health solution for the ages to come.
There exists an almost mythical belief that the superior quality and health benefits of bottled water cannot be unequalled.
Simply put, there's no such thing as clean bottled water, whether it’s the impurities inside the bottle tainting it, the unfathomable mark-up in price for something being stolen from a finite source, intended to support life within its natural vicinity, the obscene environmental impact, or the knock on effect that the industry imposes on the less fortunate and the vulnerable; if you could truly see the dirty tricks and human cost floating around inside that squidgy bottle that screams as clear as your conscience, nobody would ever give bottles of water a second glance, let alone pay for it.
Having had one or two health issues, I made a resolution to drink more water. Doctors had repeatedly advised my grandmother drink water. Not Tea, Coffee, Juice, Cordial or anything purporting to contain water. Something of which I hadn't been aware was that certain medicines draw water from the body to function properly. So drinking water with nothing added to it really is quite important.
Time and again, I see people screw up their face at the prospect of actually drinking the water flowing from the tap in their kitchen. Now, I've lived in places where foreign visitors are advised against drinking the local water... directions that serve local businesses quite nicely, thank-you very much and reduces demand on a water supply that could only be available for an hour or two each day.
Of course, there are certain places where under no circumstances should you ever drink the tap water (This includes ice made from that water too).
💥Facts💥 1 in 3 people worldwide lack access to safe, potable water. 700 children (under 5 years) die every day from diarrhoea linked to inadequate sanitation and hygiene. Try to imagine a little child s*itting liquid, then blood, then dying and the agonies that entails. Cholera can end a life in just a few hours time. Polio, Dysentery, Hepatitis A and Typhoid Fever are some of the delightful treats in store for 1/10 humans today. Often, parents faced the impossible choice of their children drinking water containing faecal matter from animals and humans, or simply going without. It doesn't hurt for holidaymakers to cough-up for bottles of drinking water during their two week holiday. People frequently experience stomach problems despite the local water sources being perfectly fine, with this solely resulting from their not being accustomed to the levels of minerals etc therein. However, I have spoken with people living in some of the most devestatingly beautiful places on the planet, who have described drinking directly from the nearest river or stream; the very same one into which flows raw sewerage. Undoubtedly, the critical difference when considering the impact of tainted water on human life is poverty. For those of us lucky enough to enjoy the benefit of industry controls, I guess there are a number of reasons why a large glass of H²0 from their local supply doesn't exactly fill them with enthusiasm.
Many claim that they taste or smell something unsavoury in their water.
They might feel that a bottle of water is safer or better
They could find bottles of water more convenient
They might have previously detected a metallic taste, smell or an unusual colour in the water.
Yet there are people who still complain about “undrinkable” water. A small amount of chlorine added at the source, quickly becomes nothing more than a residual amount. And fluoride hysteria forgets the far larger presence naturally occuring in the earth. That which actually reaches them is nothing in comparison. Regulatory bodies inspect records, but more importantly, tested repeatedly at the source, as it leaves the supplier and at the tap, those results are there for everyone to see by right.
Variations in taste are either due to changes in equipment, distance from the source. Chilling and allowing a jug of this water to stand is usually sufficient although at no point is it ever a risk to health. The biggest causes of noticeable variations in taste, are due to consumers moving between places supplied by different sources, often unknowingly. But also, the effect of other factors, such as smoking, diet, health, dehydration, other drinks such as tea, coffee and carbonated beverages, on the function of the taste buds. The impact of which, I could never have comprehended a couple of years before.
The biggest complaint is about so-called “hard" water. Nothing more than magnesium and calcium from the rocks in the land, a crucial feature that has contributed to natural filtration for centuries. Something, endangering only the life of the kettle, required to eliminate the issue completely. What petty and entitled whingers such privilege has made of us.
Being as I was paying for it anyway, I was going to drink what we lovingly describe using its pet name; council pop. The results were astonishing. Almost every aspect of my health improved rapidly. Suddenly people would comment on the clarity of my eyes and I was spending less time in the consulting room. As time went on, I reacquired the use of my taste buds to the point where I could no longer use metal cutlery as that’s all I could taste. Even my thinking became clearer.
As a child, I recall my father telling me “it’s the things you CAN’T see in water, you need to worry about. Try taking a bottle of water and evaporating it in a regular saucepan. Do the same thing with the same quantity of tap water and there’s a visible result. So, that can’t bode well.
I would see outraged comments about the developing world and the need for untainted water on social media. Scrolling to the bottom, it’s the work of the bottled water industry. Something just doesn’t add up. Being familiar with the value of investment in infrastructure, the industry is nothing but a thief, sneaking in, draining the reserve intended for the local inhabitants, making a horrible mess, selling it back to them with a lot of empty promises and escaping before the damage can be assessed.
Meanwhile, there are no requirements for the people getting fat from the dirty water tricks, to disclose the ingredients of their product either on the bottle or otherwise. Using the old name change switcheroo, it was one of those cases where you know something isn’t quite as it seems. But you can’t work out it is and somehow there’s a funny stink. Then you spot the Nestlé brand. Bingo! A leopard doesn’t change it’s spots. Being familiar with their track record, gave me an idea of what to look for. It’s not their self interest to GIVE their product away. But this is the same players who got the third world hooked on baby formula. So there’s always something being concealed, usually at the expense of someone with no voice.
Let’s start at the source. Nestlé are known for setting up shop in economically depressed areas with lax water laws. They often pay nominal charges, like the municipal extraction fee of $200 they paid in Flint, Michigan. They notoriously sold $343 million worth of product, leaving the area’s supply contaminated and genuinely undrinkable. A single plant produces 3.5 million bottles a day, eating up vast amounts of a dwindling energy supply and pumping great plumes of toxic gases into the sky. It may sound familiar. Flint is among the most deprived communities in North America. This is a routine business plan for one of the most despised, monopolies in the world.
But don’t imagine choosing another brand eliminates this factor. For example big players Danonê buying up Evian was no accident. People have such a vast exposure to branded products, their trust is easily abused in the knowledge, the majority either don’t care, don’t want to know, don’t have the time or energy to find out or have no option. Companies don’t spend billions on advertising because it doesn’t work. The very fact that someone maintains they’re not influenced by it indicates it’s done the intended job. You’re supposed to want it without knowing why. Selling a product for exorbitant profit depends on nobody finding out the true cost.
Fertilizers, pesticides and nitrates, even arsenic leeches into the water table. Their ridiculous claims of technologies that have no value at this scale, such as reverse osmosis and distillation are laughable. But even if they could (or would) use large scale purification processes, there’s the other effects on the environment too. It’s impossible to miss the great chimneys that release the very gases we have worked so hard to eliminate in a bid for our very survival. And when the argument of chemicals from the plastic bottles leeching into the bottles arises, notice how “scientists” (have a guess who’s paying for this study), say that they’re stable unless temperatures fluctuate. Anyone who has ever worked in a warehouse will be familiar with the searing heat during the day and freezing nights. That’s without accounting for seasonal and regional variations.
While our waterways yield the results of the industrial waste spilling out. Killing fish, creating mutations like spinal curvatures and even sex changes. If it’s doing that to fish, how long before it reaches us? Remember the old canary in the coal mine? When it keels over and drops to the floor, you don’t have long.
But there’s even greater profit to be found in the export market. Nestlé started selling water in Lahore, Pakistan in 1998. Locals could still turn on a tap and get a clean glass of water. Fast forward 20 years and instead of asking to buy a bottle of water, they are asking for a bottle of Nestlé. Infrastructure has broken down and there is no longer any choice. Suspicion leaks out occasionally, but biased “experts" coincidentally always appear with some way to subdue the issue if only for sufficient time for people to lose interest.
You can’t water parched arable farmland with a bottle of Nestlé. Neither does it treat raw sewerage and industrial effluent from some of the countries with the fastest booming economies in the world, built largely at the expense of the desperate poverty right next to it. The textile industry is notorious for the disastrous ethical cost to those who are worst off.
The pandemic has caused panic and chaos on a global scale, but 3,575,000 die annually due to lack of access to untainted water. If we had to choose between giving our children poisoned water or nothing, would it be allowed to continue?
Nestlé have publically announced that safe water isn’t a human right. By falling for their dirty bag of tricks, and filling their bulging pockets, we’re silencing.
A whole range of diseases are found in untreated water around the world, from Malaria, Cholera, Hepatitis A and Amoebic dysentery to parasitic infections, Trachoma, the majority of which affect children. In countries battling epidemic levels of HIV/AIDS, it’s the last thing you need with a weak immune system.
With the market for export bottled water growing, the question of finding an uncontaminated source is getting closer to home everyday. Isn’t it time we stopped kidding ourselves and allowing what is ours to be taken out of greed?
Bottled water is no solution for this problem. It’s just a band aid at best. But, where it detracts pressure from those responsible for provision and upkeep of crucial infrastructure, the only humane resolution, it’s actively worsening matters. There’s nothing that could convince me that replacing the linguistics for a basic element required for life, can be acceptable.
This is a much more pressing public health issue than recent events. Legislation, planning and the development for the essential works required, doesn’t happen overnight.
The notion of bottles of water being “convenient” is nonsensical, when it can be as simple as the touch of a button. And flavoured waters are nothing more than a tool to add to the blood money on the hands of big water.
In San Bernardino, California, Nestlé pays $524 annually to extract 30 million gallons of water, come fire or drought. How does that add up in anyone’s mathematics? If those in power allow such a trade off, even providing generous tax breaks, you can guarantee something is not being said. Ask the people of Mecosta, Michigan and neighbouring Evart about the cost of having Nestlé come in and pump your water. Years of wrangling, secret deals and desperate fundraising, by those with the least to give and the most to lose, for an idea of dirty water tricks.
Nestlé will quickly deny any involvement in profiteering from public scandals such as those faced by Flint. But years of dependence on bottled water by citizens, hasn’t hurt their business. Once they’re done abusing the public’s lack of recognition that this resource is theirs, they’ll be onto the next opportunity. Selling a product for 10,000 times the price is grotesque. There’s more to it than simply what’s needed to drink. Simply bathing in tainted water can be extremely dangerous. There’s absolutely no way they are capable of removing some of the chemical contaminants, especially. There are no requirements for bottled water to reveal the contents. A single plant pays $200 producing 3.5 million bottles a day. Filling the ocean with plastic, pumping toxic gases in the sky. fertilizers, pesticides and nitrates, even arsenic, leeches into the water table. These resources are finite.
In Lahore- Pakistan, 20 years ago, they could get a glass of clean water from a tap. Now they ask to buy a bottle of Nestlé . It’s not even called water anymore. And in this time, infrastructure has broken down. You can’t water a farm with a bottle of Nestlé.
I only know this because we have very tight restrictions on tap water in the UK. Tests are mandatory at multiple points and times- publically available with suppliers being accountable. I literally weep, when I look to the United States, a nation admired for the virtues of justice and public health. The ease with which this vital resource, for the wellbeing of themselves and future generations, is dismissed as a priority. Simply because there is an all prevailing culture of entrusting corporations in matters that cannot ethically be a question of profitability. Until it’s too late and everything goes horribly wrong. Revealing no protections for the citizens. Only a series of corrupt decisions and shady deals by those responsible for “guard duty”
When they turn up pumping your water supply, maybe the shine of bottled water won’t seem so attractive. If the money spent on bottled water was in the right hands, everyone could have access to the highest standards of clean, life saving water. What has the world come to, that the most basic needs are sold to corporate predators?
How long before the suffocating man gasps “give me some Nestlé?
I brought a bottle of water over 5 years ago, refilled it from the tap in the kitchen until something better came along. It’s filthy!
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2nd October 2024.
Update.
Last week this was published in SciTechDaily. What the heck is wrong with people? Can nobody think beyond their own immediate needs? No wonder this planet is purging itself of the parasitic disease that's steadily but surely killing it as if they had planned it all.
This is stuff you learn before the age of 10 as a rule-evaporation tests etc. In the UK -now this could have a lot to do with it- there's a tendency to look at social media and assume anything that's said applies to you, forgetting it's a global affair. Just as Britain has NEVER had vaccine mandates, we have some of the most rigid controls and regulations regarding the distribution storage, treatment of water and processing of water, whereas bottled water, (frequently precisely the same stuff) has none at all. All the road works and temporary traffic lights causing mayhem nationwide? That's your waterboard.
Our water supplies and sewerage systems are so ancient that they're part of the landscape. To remove them could lead to subsidence, pot holes,crevices and chasms appearing.. so instead of replacing lead piping, every water pipe has had durable plastic piping threaded through it manually. If you're unhappy with the water you've paid for, , just get onto the computer via their website or the old fashioned way.. give them a call! Then again, I suppose they would need to find something else to moan about 😠
Not so long ago, the notion that such a large portion of our lives would have been relocated to the virtual online world, seemed like something depicted in science fiction. Having a perfect stranger choose your grocery shopping for you, attending meetings and even medical appointments in cyber space is now deemed to be "convenient". In fact for most people, it's really no more opportune at all; Something like an uncomfortable mattress that the dog was sick on so can't be returned, or a blue coat you waited 6 weeks to be delivered that turned out to be more green than blue. What's could be simpler than stopping by a nearby outlet (your local traders need your business now, more than ever), buying what you need with the advice of an assistant who's knowledgeable and has your full attention? You get to see, touch and try out your purchase, then take it home in your hand that same day? Personally, I prefer to choose the produce from the top of the display, where it's not battered, bruised, squishy and mouldering underneath. When there's no tuna on the shelf, I don't want to receive laundry detergent or pet food instead.
Not only does the disconnect that's come about affect our local businesses and the local economy, but it's delivered a fatal blow to the remnants of our "community". We don't need to be intimately acquainted with the humans behind the doors near ours, to simply know who belongs and who doesn't when home contents are hastily being loaded into an anonymous vehicle in the street. Even if pot luck shopping suits your needs, there's some things in life for which nobody should have to settle (for second best). I would argue your health is one of those and that your mental health even moreso.
Many will argue the successes of online therapists, but the fact is that online therapy is not psychotherapy. As a stop-gap during a global emergency, without doubt, the benefit has been undeniable. You'll find a "not the same as face-to-face psychotherapy" disclaimer on most websites. It's a simulation, with all the limitations and impediments of a simulation. Your practitioner is like a restaurant that can only offer you half the menu, or a surgeon with one broken hand.
There are more reasons why a face to face convergence of patient and practitioner is the optimal method for this discipline. A consulting room is a truly sacred space and an representation of confidentiality itself. Rules that clinicians live by and that assure patients their deepest help thoughts will remain within the confines of the physical and symbolic space, not unlike the confessional booth in a church. More than that, both parties leave the trappings of life at the door, devoting the time within this sanctuary to healing.
A space that's dedicated only to healing, with intimacy reflected in the choice of decor, every picture frame in place, carefully selected furniture. The themes of trust, safety and a dearth of judgement all play their part. Undoubtedly the principle concern demanding consultations occur in the office, is that of confidentiality.
Most people have realised by now that online privacy was never anything more than a myth. When the patient is in a home or work environment, it's a "make shift" alternative, or there could be echoes of less peaceful moments. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas and what happens in the consulting room, stays in the consulting room. The practitioner/patient relationship extends as far as the door..no further. For example, should you encounter your therapist in a social space, it would be exceptionally unprofessional for them to publicly acknowledge you (without your express permission) or risk exposing any details about the patient, their life or a reason for knowing them. Once the boundaries of the space within which they can speak freely are blurred, so those reassurances are lost.
For most people, there will be discussion of traumatic events, raw emotions and painful memories. A great benefit is acquired by the addition of body language and facial expressions for both parties. Indeed, one of the primary tasks in psychotherapy is to guide and assist the patient in discovering, extracting and managing repressed, forgotten and painful memories, that the patient may well be unaware are an issue. Picking up on potentially buried details depends on analysing such mannerisms, as well as speech patterns, irregular emotional responses and numerous other "tells", detected only due to the familiar understanding founded with time and trust.
At the end of the day, your mental health is too important to employ half measures. Frankly, I believe a worthwhile practitioner won't want to be limited in such a way. It may be your preference and feel easier not to have to travel to the meeting, but it's more than just a doctor's office. You deserve the best, so if you're thinking about online therapy, do consider everything you want to achieve from the process. Is a simulation really what you need? When the actual journey has been subject to decades of research and study.
Well, there you have it. Without overarching trust between the two parties afforded by strict confidentiality, it's essentially a futile endeavour.
They might seem like just any other Facebook groups. But Facebook has come alive with 90s rave revival groups, where the rave generation rapidly bond over a common love.
During the early 1980s, Brits partying in the Balaeraics brought home a very special souvenir. Acid house music hit the nation, along with Ecstacy (and just about anything else they could lay their hands on). The (so-called “designer") drug had been intended for therapeutic use in marital counseling. If you have experience of it, you can see how it works. Users experience an “ecstatic" euphoria, but also a kind of shared empathy and a sense of compassion, allowing them to both speak and (more importantly) listen, without judgement. A state that united users with a universal acceptance.
Events would be a badly kept secret with a phone number to ring for the location, often two, just to throw the police off the scent. 👽. You would all gather in an abandoned warehouse or just a field, then dance until dawn. The DJ managed the room and churned out a mix of the biggest bangers, building sweaty youngsters into a frenzy of whistle blowing, lolly sucking, gurning, loved up kids. EDM (Electric Dance Music) had arrived with a large, powerful sound system of amplifiers and speakers. If you were there, everyone was your soul mate. Everything from water to chewing gum and prolonged hugs were shared.
https://youtu.be/gCWoAEhXaVU
Roger Cook on TVs “The Cook Report" shocked the nation, when he exposed an event advertised as having “no illegal substances", as having drugs freely available. In truth, he didn’t know the half of it. Not only was Ecstasy bringing together hundreds of ravers from across the nation, in a communion of empathy heightened by the scent of VICKS VAPORUB, 💊but suddenly football violence which had plagued the 80s, fell by 30%. Pubs across the nation were safer too. Thousands of would be drinkers were having the time of their lives, faces aching from their smiles.
Nobody cared what you wore. It would be drenched and hanging off you pretty soon anyway. The trainers though..danceability was key and endurance was the order of the day.🌅. Commonly copious quantities of Ecstasy, LSD and Amphetamine was the secret weapon. Loved up ravers with pupils like saucers threw their hands in the air to catch the laser shows that marked the era. Nobody drank alcohol. A bottle of water that you brought at the start of the night, then refilled from the bathrooms. UV reactive smiley faces were the code.😃. A DJ used whatever tracks he could purloin and blend samples, taken from iconic media of the day into his own kind of magic. The dancefloor was controlled by their fingertips on the mixer, as the tempo rose, so did the euphoria. Every night was the best night of your life. 🕊️. Now the Cheesy Quavers have reunited using technology…this from an era before even CDs and Digital technology. Photographs were taken with a camera and videos, something still new to most of us, occasionally could be created by a monstrous block that had to be carried upon a shoulder. 📹
It really was a once in a lifetime atmosphere. There were hugs and bonding between lads and girls, or any mixture of the two. But there was absolutely no cause for any unease, because everyone was there for the same purpose. ☄️. To dance and have it large!!
Raves frequently continued well into the following day, as everyone defied the daylight, or anything else to stop them. ♥️. Until in 1994 they did. The government created “The Criminal Justice Bill", ironically the ultimate injustice to unity and peace. It would criminalise any gathering and saw helicopters scouring the cities and suburbs alike. But the rave wasn’t so easily curtailed. 👀. Ravers protested by doing what they did best. More than 5,000 people gathered in London to fight for the right to rave.
https://youtu.be/S6ruUooMK9w
So raves moved indoors and were no longer illegal, although the concept remains frowned upon to this day and were, in a sense, legitimised.
There was a kind of parting of the ways as more commercial sounds went upmarket, charging higher entrance fees. The fact that the take at the bar wasn’t going to be sufficient to sustain the venue, was hardly a secret. Underground music frequently occurred in old and derelict nightclubs. Afterall, there’s no denying a thorough mess was proudly made, as hedonism prevailed. 🎧.
The movement had made a huge impact on the political views of those involved. The ethos was free music and love all round. Everyone is welcome. Just be with us in the moment. 🚨. As the indoor scene rolled through the 90s, it spread throughout Europe, across the Atlantic and even down under. It was absolutely normal, expected even, for ravers to take such a cocktail of drugs that they couldn’t see the floor or got lost in inanimate objects, that were now the secret to the meaning of life. If it sounds like madness, that’s because it was. But it was all about Love and a DJ.🍄.
There was a split of sorts at this time, with the smarter clubs hosting House music, Big room floor fillers, happy hardcore and bounce tunes, while the rougher venues accommodated gabba, jungle, techno and drum&bass.🎛️ EDM even spilt over into mainstream popular music with acts like THE SHAMEN, KLF, MASSIVE ATTACK, THE PROGIDY and THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS. The louder the better and don’t spare the bass.
Generation X was born and the dance Revolution had started. 😃.
The media tried their best to spread the perilous danger of Ecstasy, but it just became another inside joke, for the people who simply couldn’t stop smiling. 📰 We kept our stash of lovey doves, Mitsibushis, billy whizz and acid tabs safe, by swallowing the lot. From the front pages of the tabloids to the nine-o-clock news, the rest of Britain must have thought we were barking mad! Nothing was going to stop us. Then I guess people just grew up.
But what age pulled asunder let Facebook bring together, to revel in the residual bond. There are numerous groups where old rave nostalgia and stories of ridiculousness are exchanged. Some cater to specific styles of music, but there’s a common theme…those smiles literally go on for miles!! When we look back fondly on days and nights, remembering that the blurrier the memory, the bigger the rave was. It probably sounds incredibly irresponsible and stupid, but the intention was to get as mashed up as possible. 👟 Upon making a public display of yourself, your rave family would give you a cheer and lots more hugs. It was incredibly safe considering what we were actually doing. You always knew the other 900 odd revellers had your back. We were truly blessed.
Of course, there existed the eternal dilemma of how to get home. You could catch a ride with anyone, but there was always the time spent shivering in the car outside the club, because nobody was capable of operating a car. 🚬 But somehow or other everyone DID get home safely, although when we talk about it, we are deeply ashamed of driving in that condition. We thank the house of God that we didn’t kill anyone. If you ever dropped in at a British motorway service station on a Saturday evening (a good place to link up for hunt the rave), or a Sunday, you may well have bumped into these dishevelled, and over friemdly bunch. We were the most harmless bunch of criminals you’re ever going to come across. Couldn’t get into a fight if we tried. We must have looked quite a fright, but in our minds, we were the beautiful people. We had pure love and pills to welcome anyone who would join us. It was of no concern whatsoever for a single girl to go home with a total bunch of strangers.🤪 Nobody who raved was actually capable of being a stranger or any kind of danger.
These were immediately people you knew you could trust. It’s reminiscent of the gatherings in club toilets, which were naturally unisex…just try tearing us apart!! 🌀
Now we communicate through the comments section. It’s since been said that the neuropathic threat of the particular type of Ecstasy we took back then was drastically underestimated. Sure enough, this post concerning those who fell into heroin, crack cocaine and alcohol addiction in the ensuing years indicates a current 3K participants. Many have found a place within addiction services, which is so very valuable. An addict has zero trust in a counsellor who has read about drugs in a book. There is the language of rave for us to communicate our connection.
But we have each other for support with no fear of judgement. These are our brothers and sisters and we will go to the ends of the Earth together. We will never let one of our own go in need. I guess we are Just one, big happy family. We pray to the God of dance music and are borne of pure love. There is no drunken brawling, spiking of drinks, necessity for females to even begin to feel any threat. Did our happiness scare the public and authorities so very much? 😃.Many of us have paid the ultimate price. Just yesterday, I went to look for a messenger and noticed the long list of names under the header, “deceased". Mental health issues are chronic and enduring. We were just young and having fun. 😢.
R.I.P. John Knowles, Alex Wooldridge, ~Theò de Belgeonne, ~Dan Carter,~ Jay Barstani, ~Deborah-Louise Wood, ~Andrew Barker, ~Jeff Ostle, ~Gideon Dawson,~Fynn Western Davey. ~Tim Branson.😢.
🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭
🗣️Leave a comment. I read every one and will reply if requested to do so.
The Amazonian rainforest consists of an area approx 2.1million square miles, which is home to 90% of the Earth’s biodiversity. It is to this planet, what a heart is to our body. Below the canopy, the earth itself is relatively low in nutrients, with the majority being within the trees themselves. The biggest danger with deforestation like this is in soil erosion, washed away without the sponge like trees to soak up the rain and general humidity. Inevitably, the vital routes of the Amazon (The planet’s Aorta) will change, with some being blocked, redirecting the flow.Unless this delicate ecosystem is protected, it won’t be long before we start to witness droughts, famine and pestilence. Photosynthesis from this huge area of vegetation, is why we have a breathable environment within the Earth’s atmosphere. Approximately 400 tribes have essentially been the guardians of this lifeblood, simply by living in a harmonious co-existence with their environment.
However, increasingly the number of native tribes has been plummeting. With little to no protection from governments and authorities, Capitalism and corruption has resulted in blatant massacres by foreign intruders, pillaging the untainted resources to profit from the greed of the white man. “Out of sight, out of mind”. If a whole family is killed in the forest, does anyone hear them scream?
Tales of genocide, even where power is as morally corrupt as this… granting Carte Blanche to the culprits, you might imagine would provoke some shameful display of action. Instead,they are continually having to fight and jump through hoops, in order to have a legal right to live on this land. Once again, the mighty dollar and the corporations are given precedence over those, trying to defend their everything (one we might have a vested interest in helping them maintain). As more and more people venture into these remote regions, the perils multiply. Evolution has equipped the inhabitants to thrive within an environment full of deadly wildlife that would terrify most of us. At the same time, they are utterly defenceless against the health issues arising from Western cuisine and from disease that may leave us largely unaffected. The recent pandemic has illustrated this plight, seeing the decimation of entire tribes, one after another. The cost of Capitalism . As consumers, we can try to make ethical options, such as boycotting gold or unethically sourced materials and unethical investors (Although in this matter, the reader would be wise to investigate Greenwashing. Eco-friendliness is often just a veneer.
It’s long been known that certain chemical compounds found within nature are and have long been used, within ethnic mysticism, to commune with the spirit world. The rainforest is home to 90% of the world’s biodiversity, so having a means of understanding the complexities of this habitat, within their belief system, makes perfect sense.
One of the most important biggest issues these people are fighting for is land rights. For the permission to dwell in this space, as their forefathers did before them. This is the place where they are born, will live their life and to which their bodies will return, as did their descendents before them. Nourishing the habitat that sustains that collective. In this way, the land upon which they live, provides everything they need in addition to literally being a part of their being, bodily and spiritually.
It is usually the place of a healer or Curandero to imbue the concoction, having been educated in how to interpret the experiences through a legacy of wisdom, handed down by the elders often in song. Should someone be bitten by a snake,for example, the healer would consume the divine sacrament and enter into a state, where they can safely talk with the spirit of the snake, as well as other spirits, both living and dead. They would then know why this has happened, what needed to be done and how best to help the afflicted. It’s believed to be dangerous to enter this state without the appropriate preparation and education.
During recent years, legislative changes regarding the medicinal and recreational use of Cannabis in North America and Canada, have led to an adjustment in the general attitude towards the use of psychedelics. (It’s not uncommon for users in these places to be unaware that this too, is a hallucinogen). Formerly abundant with scaremongering propaganda such as the infamous reefer madness .
Caution should be taken regarding the Cannabis over enthusiast. Yes, it has medicinal benefits, but No! It doesn’t cure cancer. No! It isn’t the best medicine for everyone. Yes! It can cause problems (as can any drug). Operating heavy machinery or driving, especially under the influence is a strain with a high quantity of THC in, is every bit as dangerous a drink driving and would render you equally liable. In truth, Cannabis still requires considerable research and should not be advised for medicinal use unless by a medically qualified practitioner.Tragic deaths have occurred due to delays in seeking medical care, only realising by the time it is too late that the herb won’t save them.
Could this discovery, that Cannabis is not, in fact, the gateway to demonic debauchery we had been led to believe, possibly mean that what we had been told of other drugs, may also have been fabricated somewhat? It just takes that sprinkle of doubt, in the formerly indoctrinated mind, brought to us by the makers of “Parenting by TV”. Combine it with Capitalism’s ability to commodify an ancient and revered link to the divine. Refer back to one’s history of colonialism “how-to” and voila!!! Social media is awash with middle class privilege, bastardising the very essence of life and everything in it, with festival style facepaint and happy snaps, parading accommodating locals.
Hundreds of Ayahuasca retreats and Iboga clinics have emerged and the only requirement for admission is the mighty dollar. If you even entertain the claims that this is helping the people survive and bringing them into the modern world with all it’s wonderful accessories….please check your history books. Look at coffee and tea plantations, cocoa beans, fruit like pineapples and coconuts, not to forget those great value Chinese buys. Where poverty exists, sure enough, you’ll soon find those exploiting that very societal ill. It is literally almost NEVER that the people in greatest need receive any benefit. A recent estimate suggested the biggest retreats alone brought in $7million in a year (filling the pockets of foreign business). Even the necessities required to cater for western expectations and the embellished experience, requires capital you will not find tribal people having access to
Lost is their most sacred gift and the safety afforded by the remote nature of their location. Things no amount of money can buy back. Add to this the indignity of ritual symbolism, daubed across the faces of their new masters, but their lives are imperilled and health at stake. Where so many lives have been lost, a tribe really cannot afford to lose anymore before their time. The truth is that increasingly, the genuine Shaman and healers have literally, run for the hills. In their place, fakes…actors. A purpose made recreation of reality. Either way, anything that these people could possibly gain from catering to the problems of the privileged…pandering to those who have no understanding whatsoever of what they are even doing…the descendents of those who massacred their predecessors…there is nothing the Whit man can give them that they need, besides GOING AWAY!
D.M.T. (the “God molecule”), that has this profound effect, exists in our brains and within the Earth. Varying amounts exist in most living things, but it’s most commonly made using the bark of the Mimosa Hostilis plant due to a plentiful quota of the compound. Small stores outside of the jungle sell it and it’s quite easy to find “retreats” much closer to home, that don’t entail cultural appropriation, exploitation or endangerment of an entire people. What you will almost certainly not find is any retreat with genuine qualified medical assistance. One of the most common reasons people seek out this treatment, is for help with addiction. Indeed, used correctly, there is nothing else comparable in modern medicine. However, detoxification, especially from Alcohol or benzodiazepines, must be medically supervised as potentially lethal seizures and relatively common. As with any drug, or food substance new to someone, there is always a risk of an allergic response, possibly anaphylaxis. That’s not something you want to happen when deep in the jungle, miles from help. As with all therapeutic use of psychedelics, set and setting are paramount. That means being in a place where you feel safe, relaxed, comfortable, with people you trust and clever use of purpose made environmental accessories. It does not mean that it only works if you demean the cultural belief system of someone else, disrespecting their roots and connection with a location, because you can give them something that can only magnify their ever increasing fight for survival. Can you imagine the outrage were a strange looking person come into a Catholic mass, stride up to the altar and stuff as many wafers in their mouth as possible, wash it down with sacramental wine and then rinse off in the font, stuffing a wad of money in the collection box, before desecrating a few burial sites upon departure?
Ultimately, what these people need most is to survive. Just last year, these aerial shots were shown as evidence of the existence of uncontacted tribes. Their survival depends on remaining isolated and thus, our survival does too. It’s clear that they are fully aware of their surroundings, yet choose to remain uncontacted. They have indicated these methods.
*Leaving crossed spears in the forest.
*Pointing arrows up at passing planes.
*Fleeing when outsiders approach.
*Intentionally avoiding others.
LET’S TRY AND RETURN THE GIFTS WE HAVE RECEIVED TO THOSE THAT WILL PROTECT IT’S POWER. PLEASE CHECK OUT https://www.survivalinternational.org/ FOR INFORMATION ON THE WAYS WE CAN HELP.
***Please feel free to leave a comment if you wish. All comments will be read and replied to should you ask***
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