Thanks, Rob Reiner: 'This Is Spinal Tap' (film)

This is Spinal Tap (1984) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers

Who cares about the Moon? Vanity does

Who cares about the waxing and waning Moon?

CONTINUED FROM PART 1

When they open, strap your seatbelt and hold on.

What does the Moon matter? O, shining Chandra, glowing Soma, ever changing Luna...

Well, once upon a time in East Hollywood at Dharma Punx on Melrose Avenue, across from Los Angeles City College, I met a beautiful meditator. Let's call her Vanity Lycan. This is her saga, about how she traveled to India and had an experience of enlightenment, sort of.

We became friends, and she so trusted me that she asked me if I wanted to accompany her to India. She was going, among other places, to Dharamshala (the Dalai Lama's abode in the Himalayas).

Heavens yes, I thought as I said, "Hells yeah!" Sadly, this being LA, something came up that could not be put off, and she could not change her round-the-world ticket. So we vowed to stay in touch online so I could guide her from on high. There might be pitfalls along the way for a Western gal on a solo-travel adventure that she didn't think of but that I could solve.

Oh, Moonglow, elfin magic

I remember one email then radio silence. It was a about year later as I was sitting at the weekly meditation meeting. When it opened up for shares, someone started to talk and cry. Imagine my astonishment, being hypervigilant and too easily annoyed by anything I notice and ignore while trying to sit still. It was her!

I hadn't noticed. I had forgotten even to wonder what had happened to her since it had been so long. There she was a few feet away on a cushion, crying. No one much listened to what she was trying to say.

But I thought I understood -- a lone girl wandering around at night in a strange country with strangers and men being what they are (though they didn't used to be like that in most of India in the times that I was there, which was a big surprise). She kept telling me that I didn't understand. Something had happened to her on the trip. I really thought that for once I did get. I didn't need it spelled out. I should have been there to prevent it.

What does one who knows say?

I was wrong. It wasn't a case of [S.A.] like 99% of people would have guessed and not been surprised to hear.

She confessed she had become "enlightened." Of course, it's not real Buddhist enlightenment (bodhi, liberating insight, thorough comprehension of the Four Ennobling Truths, touching nirvana, comprehending anicca, dukkha, and anatta by direct experience of the ultimate truth). It was nothing like that at all.

• My Kundalini Awakening turned into a nightmare after too much energy went to the brain...now barely functional...How do I recover a mind and nervous system that feel destroyed? (Quora)

What was her "enlightenment," not having a better word for the spiritual, psychological, entheogenic madness that was now going on? Her chakras had spontaneously opened, and with that come the powers of each chakra. It is not the real thing but that thing that happens to many Western travelers every year.

Was Wicca wise to the ways of the Moon?

Argue until you're blue in the face that she didn't know what she was talking about. But I had seen this before and heard about it from one superwoman who not only experienced it but survived and studied it academically to help others undergoing the premature experience, calming and closing those chakras up again until ready to move kundalini energy up the spine for good rather than all of the out of control pains, visions, and raving madness that could accompany them.

The most amazing thing she talked to me about, holding Western meds forced on her before she was thrown out of India into the arms of her family (who if they had not taken her out she would have been institutionalized, forcibly drugged with Thorazine or similar antipsychotics, warehoused, and forgotten there, she claimed) was how much the opalescent MOON now governed her moods, actions, and future. She had become "unmanageable" by consulate rules, so she had to be neutralized or sent back to the USA.

Triple moon symbol as gold charm

She feared it. She knew it even if she were to never see it again. I asked what she meant. She explained that the Moon has a profound effect on us on this planet, governing things (estrus, the ability to awaken, as with Siddhartha awakening on the evening of the full moon). It is more than Earth's calendar, making the months and seasons, not reflecting golden sunlight as we are told but emanating its own different kind of silvery light. The Zetetic scientists of the past proved this beyond on a doubt with demonstrable, reproducible, experimental published research.

She was not clear if the Moon was only a goddess, a sentient entity with powers, or a hollow world with beings in it directing their surveillance and energies at us from it. But when it waxed and rose, she was altered. She might dance naked like Shiva Nataraj with a message for the world embedded in postures and mudras, possessed as she would become by that spirit of Shiva, which she claimed was a real, literal being (blue extraterrestrial), not simply some historical or mythological figure.

I said to her at some point that "I want this." She said, "No, you don't! It's painful, it's horrible, it's unmanageable." "Yes, well, I'd manage it better with Ashtanga Yoga" (the "Eight Limbs of Union" with the holy spirit, prana, or subtle breath). "You think you would, but you can't. It's not to be managed. You think I want to take pharmaceuticals?" "No." "Well, I would rather take them than undergo what will happen to me without [chemical tranquilization]."

Oriental MS Indic beta, Wellcome

"But this awakening of the serpent Kundalini to rise from the base through the spine, energizing the chakras and gaining the siddhis or magical powers and samadhi, piercing and transcending the moving 'wheels' along the way, it seems to me that that's the whole point of our yogic aspirations." "What the hell are you talking about?" After arguing good/bad back and forth, I finally asked her, "Look, all right, I don't want it. But HOW did you do it? How did you get it to happen?" She shocked me with her answer.

You don't want sudden chakra openings

She looked at me like I was crazy and stress, "I didn't 'do' it. The Mountain did, somehow in connection with the Moon." "The 'Mountain,' what mountain?" "The Himalaya," she said and started crying to remember how she had gotten to Dharamshala and went off to sit under the full moon. And some guy had come along. "Aha! And then he attacked you?!"

"He didn't attack me. We talked, and I left, wanting to be alone. Then it happened. And I was aware of the Moon as it happened, and I knew the Moon was [or the beings in it were] aware of me [like a panopticon]." "And by Himalaya do you mean Mt. Everest or K2 or Kailash or Mt. Meru? Is there a special place for this one might go to?" I asked full of hope.

"No, you don't want this to happen to you." Foolishly, and I knew it was foolish, I kind of still did.

• Kundalini awakening
• Amethyst Moon Goddess Necklace: Sterling Silver Wiccan Jewelry - Etsy
• History of the Shotgun House | Santa Monica Conservancy

World Brain Day: the 'Buddha's Brain'

• 6 things to do when waking up for better cognitive function, recommended by neurologists
• WORLD BRAIN DAY - July 22, 2025 - National Today

Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love & Wisdom is an Audible audiobook (unabridged) by Dr. Rick Hanson, PhD. He is the author and narrator and has 4.7 out of 5 stars with 1,984 ratings.

Change your brain, change your life with this essential classic from New York Times bestselling author Dr. Hanson—now celebrating 15 years in print with more than 500,000 copies sold.

Great teachers like the Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, and Gandhi were all born with brains built essentially like anyone else’s—and then they changed their brains in ways that changed the world.

Neuroscience now reveals how the flow of thoughts actually sculpts the brain. More and more, we are learning that it’s possible to strengthen positive brain states. By combining breakthroughs in science with insights from thousands of years of mindfulness (sati) practice, we too can shape our own “Buddha’s Brain” for greater happiness, love, and wisdom.

Buddha’s Brain draws on evidence-based neuroscience to show how to stimulate our brain for more fulfilling relationships, a deeper spiritual life, and a greater sense of inner confidence and self-worth.

Using guided meditations and mindfulness exercises, readers learn how to activate the brain states of calm, joy, and compassion instead of worry, sorrow, and anger. Most importantly, they will foster positive psychological growth that will literally change the way we live our day-to-day life.

This book provides an essential intersection of psychology, neurology, and contemplative practice, and is filled with practical tools and skills that anyone can use every day to tap into the unused potential of the brain and rewire it over time for greater well-being.

PLEASE NOTE: Purchase of this title is accompanied by a PDF in the Audible Library along with the audio. More: Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love & Wisdom by Dr. Rick Hanson, PhD, and Daniel J. Siegel, MD, with foreword by Dr. Richard Mendius, MD and contributor Jack Kornfield for preface (Brilliance Audio)

Sex and Violence (video)

What if we could protect ourselves?

(VoteSport) Dec. 20, 2022. There was once an American Indian-Irish fighter who had more power than any previous boxer, even ear-eating crazed Black champ Mike Tyson. It was one punch knockout Tommy "The Duke" Morrison. Here's the true story of his short career, which was derailed by women. Morrison will forever remain one of the most tragic figures in pugilistic history.

In the 1990s the blond giant with a chiseled silhouette was the embodiment of a knockout machine. But the prominent heavyweight’s career was suddenly and irrevocably cut short in the prime of his potential career. Today he is remembered as the legendary power and dramatic path of professional boxing’s "Great White Hope." Business inquiries: asker.skon@gmail.com

Sexual energy transmuted

Transmuting sexual energy into higher consciousness

Fighting is bad karma.

(AngelStarCreations) Sexual energy can be one way for us to connect with the divine. Utilizing this energy in the proper way will enable us to feel a sense of oneness and balance and harmonize our chakras or subtle energy centers that turn like wheels. Aug. 22, 2014.

• evolutionarysoul.com

Dr. Joe Dispenza: DMT, pineal, breath (3/5)

Dr. Dispenza via Motivation Manifested; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Practice this breathing in group meditation, March 5, 2020. FREE: DBM, Los Angeles

Information + Application = Transformation. Learning is the first step, practice the second until we drop what is ready to be let go of and gain what is waiting.

DMT, Pineal Gland, and the Piezoelectric Effect

I can see colors and feel bliss.

Dr. Joe Dispenza provides a detailed explanation on how to contract the muscles of the body together with breathing in order to accelerate the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, apply gentle pressure to the pineal gland ("third eye" or Buddhist dibba cakkhu) at the center of the brain, and create very profound metabolites including benzodiazepine and DMT (the "spirit molecule," di-methyl-tryptamine). More

• Looking for Consciousness with Dr. Dispenza

HIGHLIGHTS: 00:10 - Psycho-neuro-immunology, 01:40 - Anatomy of Supernatural Breathing, 02:43 - Cerebrospinal Fluid and the Inductance Field, 04:00 - The Pineal Gland, 05:10 - The Pituitary Gland (Oxytocin + Vasopressin), 07:00 - Piezoelectric Effect, 09:00 - Serotonin, Melatonin, Inner Visions (DMT), 10:40 - Joe's Personal Experiences, 11:28 - Moving into the Unknown, 12:30 - Biological Upgrade, 13:25 - How to Breathe Supernaturally.

Music by Jonathan Slatter. Licensed through yopo.co.uk. Watch the full interview. Footage licensed through and all videos and images sourced from: pixabay.com, pexels.com, videezy.com, videoblocks.com. Motivation Manifested claims to "own the rights to all music/footage used in this video except for speaker audio used under fair trade."

Easy way to decompress the spine

Joseph Everett (What I've Learned); Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Spinal traction or decompression is stretching out the back. It can be done by inverting. It helps posture, meditation, and sleep. This kind of stretching has made a noticeable improvement. The idea came from @TimFerriss's #fourhourbody. Why it works: It improves blood and lymph circulation. The circle above shows the lymph nodes on the vertebral column. Andrew Still said circa 1874, "[the importance of chiropracty/osteopathy is] found in the spinal column with all of its intricate bony framework, plus the beautiful circulation of blood and lymph through the nerve centers of the spinal cord and throughout the whole body.” Hang from a bar or, safer yet, use an inversion table. Hang completely upside down then lower yourself gradually while keeping the core engaged. Spinal traction is meant to be a "gentle" decompression process. More

• Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page breaks her silence
• PHOTOS: Tired of paying rent, build a tiny house
• Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes (Daniel Everett)

How to release chronic pain (talk)

Michael Sandler (Inspire Nation), Dr. Hanscom (backincontrol.com); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

How to release chronic pain for good!

If you’ve ever struggled with chronic pain or back pain or thought surgery was the only answer then we have a show for you.

Today I’ll be talking with Dr. David Hanscom, M.D., a complex-deformity spine surgeon of over 30 years and the best-selling author of Back in Control: A Surgeon’s Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain, now in its second edition.

I talk with him about the roadmap to get out of chronic pain WITHOUT surgery. Plus we talk OCD, panic attacks, shopping for used cars, jumping, migraines, the 4th of July, flat tires, labeling, how not to think about white bears, what in the world we can learn from his daughter Jaz, a tango party, and $20.

DR. DAVID HANSCOM

Dr. Hanscom is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon specializing in all areas of the spine. He has expertise in adult and pediatric spinal deformities such as scoliosis and kyphosis. A significant part of his practice was devoted to performing surgery on patients who had had multiple prior spine surgeries. He works for Swedish Neuroscience Specialists in Seattle, WA.

KEY TOPICS:

What are the three steps out of chronic pain?

What is a neurophysiologic disorder?

What are imbedded pain pathways?

What’s the importance of sleep?

What’s expressive writing?

What’s the relationship between anger and chronic pain?

When did Dr. Hanscom start having panic attacks?

What were the writing exercises Dr. Hanscom started doing for healing?

What’s the gift of “extreme suffering”

What’s the chronic pain patient’s dilemma?

Are emotional and physical pain equivalent?

What happened shortly after Dr. Hanscom completely orthopedic residency?

What is active meditation?

What’s the importance of mindfulness?

What’s the importance of play?

What’s the importance of gratitude?

What’s the importance of forgiveness?

What’s the power of commitment? More

Back in Control: http://amzn.to/2matpGJ

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Michael Sandler
--Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/runswithspirit

Do you really need spine surgery or drugs?

Dr. David Hanscom, M.D. (coasttocoastam.com, 10/28/19); Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

My surgeon said it was worth a try. It wasn't.

Renowned spine surgeon of 30 years, Dr. David Hanscom, MD (backincontrol.com), has quit surgery and opiate medication for healing pain.

• The rate of spine surgery has continued to rise in spite of evidence that most of it is ineffective. It rose rapidly in the mid-90’s with the introduction of new techniques that improved the fusion rate. However, outcomes haven’t improved. Disability keeps rising. Why? “Let’s try spine surgery”?
  Surgery works poorly if it is done for “pain” and the source of it is unclear. There is a widespread belief among most patients and many physicians that if everything else has been tried and failed, then surgery is the next logical step. Nothing could be further from the truth. More

He claims the majority of spine operations are unnecessary. Many procedures are actually performed on spines with normal, age-related conditions.

These "spinal fusion" operations are particularly unpredictable when trying to reduce pain. Dr. Hanscom revealed that he's retired from conducting surgeries because too often the results are unsatisfactory. In fact, most patients have stopped seeking this option.

"There's not one piece of data in 50 years," he claims, "that says we should be doing spine fusion for back pain." Only 22% of such patients have a positive outcome, whereas the chance of making the pain worse is 40%. This can push people into opioid abuse.

• It is well-documented that disc degeneration, bone spurs, arthritis, bulging discs, and so on are rarely the cause of back pain. So when a fusion is performed for lower back pain (LBP), we really don’t know the source of its arising (3). The success rate of performing a fusion for LBP is less than 30% (4,5). Most people expect a much better outcome, and the resultant disappointment is also problematic for their pain.

I didn't know there was an alternative!

According to Dr. Hanscom chronic physical pain is interwoven with feelings of anxiety. Mental turmoil and anxious symptoms are the triggers. By treating anxiety, pain greatly improves.

"The key is to rewire the nervous system," according to Dr. Hanscom, referring to the concept of neuroplasticity: The brain can adapt and make changes, potentially removing the pathways and associated chemicals -- triggered by inner turmoil -- of "memorized pain."

He addresses the related problem of osteoporosis, a condition where bones become weaker and more brittle. There are solutions, even free ones on his website. Surgery and prescription medicines are almost never the answer. Listen

• Do You Really Need Spine Surgery?
• Back in Control: A Spine Surgeon’s Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain

3. Boden SD, et al. “Abnormal magnetic-resonance scans of the lumbar spine in asymptomatic subjects. A prospective investigation.” J Bone Joint Surg (1990); 72:403– 8.

4. Carragee EJ, et al. “A Gold Standard Evaluation of the ‘Discogenic Pain’ Diag­nosis as Determined by Provocative Discography.” Spine (2006) 31:2115-2123.

5. Franklin GM, et al. “Outcomes of lumbar fusion in Washington state workers’ compensation.” Spine (2994); 19: 1897–1903; discussion 1904.

Surgeon: "The Perils of Back Surgery" (video)

Dr. David Hanscom (Talks at Google, April 18, 2018); Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

Dr. Hanscom: "The Perils of Back Surgery: A Spine Surgeon's Roadmap"

Orthopedic spine surgeon Dr. David Hanscom, M.D. visits Google to discuss the harsh realities of the spine surgery business. It makes an obscene amount of profit.

But he offers a groundbreaking new approach to solving chronic back pain without surgery or drugs.

After decades of performing spine surgeries, Dr. Hanscom realized the truth: Surgery is rarely effective for patients with back pain.

This realization – combined with his own battles with chronic pain – sparked Dr. Hanscom to develop a new evidenced-based program for ending chronic pain.

Dr. Hanscom is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon with Swedish Neuroscience Specialists in Seattle, Washington. Find his chronic pain ROADMAP at backincontrol.com.

When the Buddha was a famous fighter

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (OPINION), Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly; acidcow.com

Heroes of traditional Indian wrestling, known as kushti (acidcow.com)

That's making my back worse, Bodhisattva! You win! (dannyghitis.photoshelter.com)

.

Traditional India (kushtiwrestling)

The Buddha was in some ways still Siddhartha Gautama. That is to say, although he was changed irreversibly by the purification of knowing-and-seeing things as they truly are, on the outside the Buddha was still Siddhartha.

The profound change is called a "change of lineage" (gotrabhu). The enlightened -- from stream enterers to arhats -- are no longer like ordinary worldlings caught in endless wandering in samsara, the Wheel of Life and Death. They are either liberated or destined for complete liberation in no more than seven lives.

How was the Buddha still Siddhartha? So long as the Buddha carried on rather than relinquishing all for final nirvana, karma was still operating producing its exponential results of past actions of thoughts, words, and deeds.

In a past life, the Buddha explained, he had been a fighter, boxer, or wrestler demonstrating his strength and skill. Unfortunately, on one occasion, he (the Bodhisatta, the Buddha-to-be, the being striving for enlightenment over countless lives) lifted his opponent and threw him down on the mat in the ring. This act broke the opponent's back.
 

Ah, you're breaking my back! Your wrestling is too rough! (muslimmartialarts.com)

• Kushti, or traditional Indian wrestling, is not just a sport but an ancient subculture. Wrestlers live and train together under strict rules. They may not drink, smoke, or have sex. Their life must be pure. Kushti wrestlers live in gyms called akhara with strict diets (acidcow.com).
  

That deed would long haunt the Bodhisatta, so much so that in his final birth, now as the Buddha teaching monastics late into the night, bringing them to realization of the path then handing monks and novices over to Ven. Sariputra who brought them to stream entry. Ven. Sariputra, the chief male disciple foremost in wisdom, then handed monks and novices over to Ven. Maha Moggallana, chief male disciple foremost in psychic powers, who brought them to full enlightenment (arhatship).

• Wisdom Quarterly Editors: One suspects that the Buddha took the same care in teaching the nuns because he designated two counterpart "chief female disciples," Ven. Khema (foremost in wisdom) and Ven. Uppalavana (foremost in psychic powers). In this way females could receive effect8ve training to achieve the heights of liberating-insight the same as male monastics.

India's kushi wrestlers still compete in age old-contests (Reuters/ibtimes.com)

In a pit on bare dirt, traditional Indian wrestling gets brutal (acidcow.com).

.

This arduous work of speaking and teaching late into the night was made almost impossible by back pains, which forced the Buddha to lay down to rest it. He would hand over the job of teaching to a disciple such as Ven. Sariputra.

It was that karma, possibly detailed in a Jataka Tale or merely alluded to when explaining the necessity of attending to his back, that ripened and created a burden many would think the Buddha had risen above. It was, indeed, possible for the Buddha to use meditative absorptions (jhanas) to tolerate all manner of physical pain and even to extend life. Nevertheless, fighting had very terrible consequences.

Soldiers, butchers, actors, comedians, and others should beware of the danger of karma bearing results in the future for occupations we think innocent and admirable. Most of us would like to be famous, revered, esteemed, and long remembered for some trivial fame in this life.

• SUTRA: The Danger in Acting (To Talaputa, SN 42.2)
• Wrong Livelihood and Its Karmic Consequences
• Right Livelihood and other Path Factors Explained

Did the Buddha still suffer?

So the question may come up, Could the Buddha (not Prince Siddhartha but the Awakened One who had undergone the life-changing experience of enlightenment) suffer and feel pain? Wasn't that all done away with at enlightenment when he glimpsed (directly experienced) nirvana?

The short answer is that seeing, touching, directly experiencing nirvana, while it leads to stream entry and the first stage of enlightenment, it does not end suffering. Reaching the various stages, which can go quite quickly with practice, and even getting to the final stage of full enlightenment (arhatship) still does not end pain. There is pain so long as there is a body. Psychological suffering is optional, so suffering has been done away with. But one definition of dukkha is "pain" (dukkhata).

That still exists until final nirvana -- or parinirvana -- which is not death but often gets called passing away. It is not death because what being was there ever to die? Only suffering (dukkha) came into being, only it passes away. It is not a person because those things by which we conceived or measured a person (the Five Aggregates) are no longer incessantly arising and passing away. One is free of rebirth and all disappointment.

But to say anymore of nirvana necessarily leads to wrong views or the holding of views about it. It is incomprehensible by words and concepts. It is not like our present experience, and it is not the opposite of it. The Buddha described it with similes, but by using negative terms (such as not this and not that), people frequently misconstrue it as nothingness or either of the twin wrong views called eternalism and annihilationism, which logics dictates, "If it's not one, it has to be the other" when, in fact, they are both wrong. Here the matter is explained in more detail: buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/10793

Look at my cool YOGA tattoos! (video)

Yogis Crystal Quintero, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Vickie Howie (chakraboosters.com)

Maximize Potential for Love, Health, Money...

Chakra Boosters Healing Tattoos™ are the easiest way to move through blocks in any area of life.

Full set of seven tattoos

These temporary tattoos beautify body while boosting our seven main energy centers -- even during sleep! The vitality of these energy wheels -- called chakras -- are responsible for our wealth, sexuality, power, love life, personal expression, relationships, intuition, spirituality, and overall health. 

With these Chakra Boosters we can effortlessly and continuously improve key areas of our lives. Get some now.

How do they work?

Dr. Emoto water crystal (indicescibles)

Dr. Masaru Emoto’s water research shows why these tattoos work. The renowned Japanese researcher showed the world that when we put positive words on water, we change the molecular structure of it. Since humans are approximately 70% water, we can boost our body’s main energy centers by putting these beautiful, powerful, healing chakra tattoos right on the actual areas where each energy center. More

Why Affirmations may do more harm than good

Vicki Howie (M.A., International Life Coach, creator of Chakra Boosters Healing Tattoos, Hypnotherapist) shares a controversial perspective on affirmations: They can actually have a detrimental effect. To find out why and learn what to do instead, here's a short VIDEO to create a transformative turning point. Namaste

Meditation on the Chakras