Some days ago I came across a news about a brain stimulating thinking cap. I first thought it was a hoax, for there were so many quotes in blogs and online magazines of the gossip type. And when I found the website of the scientist of Sydney university (Center for the Mind), it still didn’t look like inspiring confidence at the first sight. Nevertheless, thoug the professor Allan Snyder seems to be a bit grumpy, he has done a lot of research and publications on “What Makes a Champion” or a genius.

Entrance of the site of the Center of the Mind, Sydney.

They have established a state of the art mind laboratory (MindLab), with magnetic pulse stimulation (TMS) and brainwave sensing (EEG) apparatus. Therer they have developed a device that works with magnetic impulses, which by swifting on and of over or under-active parts of the brain, thereby unlocking its hidden potential. Wearing the hairnet-like cap for a few minutes is said to have improved artistic ability and proofreading skills. Once perfected, the device could be marketed as a cap slipped on to boost creativity and intellectual capacity.

No wonder that all the media is crazy about it. The professor was in many TV shows, won famous prizes for his study with autistic savants and geniuses, and he even had talks, together with the Dalai Lama and many others… In Bejing, during the Olympics, they helt a What Makes A Champion? forum which was opened by former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair and other celebrities, and they got a global media coverage.

In spite of all the publicity the hope seems to be a bit airy – to discover the magic wand in order to open up the hidden genius of man. No tedious exercises for spiritual evolution, but just a magnetic cap, and then the brain functions at its optimum. Inner transformation work for refining the brain, to reflect the soul? No need, materialistic science dreams of finding the clue. The only thing they forget that there is no shortcut way on the path of evolution. Transformation work needs refining the personality through culturing the character. If you don’t tackle the fundamentals, the development will stand of feet of clay.

Man’s potential cannot be unfolded through a technical trick. Even a crystal skull isn’t enlightened but from an outer source of light. Photo of a friend from an exposition in Paris.

For most of us it is so normal to have electricity coming out of the wall outlet that we hardly can imagine living without. But for people living far away from the network of technical industrialization it does not at all go without saying. In third world countries, especially in rural areas, having access to electricity is often great step ahead – and be it just to charge a mobile.

A group of African Harvard undergraduates and university scientists, have created a social enterprise working in off-grid energy delivery and lighting technology in Tanzania. They call it “Lebônê“, pronounced [La – bo – ney], a Northern Sotho word for light, lamp, or candle.

They “combine efficient lighting technology with a simple energy source readily available to all Africans in the form of microbial fuel cells. These inexpensive fuel cells run on animal and plant waste and naturally occurring soil microbes, and are framed around a flexible substrate (wood, steel, etc) that can vary by geographic availability. This is truly electricity right out of the ground. These fuel cells are used to charge a battery or cheap supercapacitor, which in turn will be used to power a high-efficiency efficient LED or PLED lamp.”

To reach the target group of people they combine their innovative technologies with an innovative implementation strategy that will promote local entrepreneurship and youth involvement.

Another very innovative approach is the initiatve of a retired Swiss journalist in Kenia, Peter Baumgartner. He has realised a magazine for sustainable agriculture called “The Organic Farmer“. They are publishing “relevant, reliable and ecologically sound information which is both, appropriate as well as applicable for farmers in Africa.” It is monthly magazine with 18’000 copies, distributed nation-wide in Kenya and reaches around 100’000 readers. The electronic version can be accessed free of charge and has been used so far by farmers and researchers in over 20 tropical countries. Since end of August 08 they are also on the radio in Kiswahili and they offer the programs as MP3-files. They are supported by different sponsors, among others the Swiss government and www.infonet-biovision.org, an information platform for ecological control of plant pests and disease transmitters.

Their initiative has a very strong resonance, with more than 150 e-mails, sms and phone calls after every emission. People are asking questions about pests or other kinds of information. They have a team of specialists. One strength of the magazine is the intelligent distribution structure via farmer groups, church organisations and schools. So they can spread the knowledge of a gentle biological farming with a minimum of chemicals. The journal with 8 to 12 pages per month has also spread to neighbour countries. Each copy is read by about 7 – 9 persons in the average.

A very inspiring initiative for supporting local farmers by sharing know-how – good will in action.

A meadow in Switzerland – biological farming is also an important factor here.

Some days ago I came across a video of National Geographics about a new generation of robots which “express themselves”: Developers have created robots that appear to make human expressions and show human-like emotions. There is a mechanism imitating the muscle movements of the human face – eye movements, smiles etc. What the cinema shows in films like Star Wars in perfection is a bit less perfect with these robots, but nevertheless creating a strange fascination for many: Making forms in their image and likeness.

Animatronics – employing electronics to animate motorized puppets – is quite a developed technology of the illusion-creating industry, as you see here with a human on the site of a Californian special-effect studio. They say: “We can replicate the likeness of virtually any character imaginable. We create realistic looking animals, creatures, and humans. These life-like creatures move, walk, talk, and simulate breathing.”

The dream is old, like with the creation of Pinocchio by the woodcarver Geppetto, or Frankenstein, or, a bit older, of Prometheus, who brought the divine fire of understanding to mankind, or the biblical creation of man out of clay. The modern robots are in the same tradition. There is a certain hybris hidden behind the hopes of technical betterment of man’s living conditions. Robots, however, have become a part of modern life, be it in automobile production or in surgery.

So have a look at the Salvator DaBot, the portraitist robot. He “recognizes human faces in its surroundings and extracts relevant characteristics from them. By using its uncanny artistic talent, it then draws portraits of the participants from the captured images by converting them into vector art and by using inverse kinematics to control the robot’s arm.”

The woodcarver Gepetto creating Pinocchio. Scene from a doll’s house in Berne

The present US finance crisis also spills over into e-mail requests to sign petitions like that of AVAAZ making a call to act now.  A friend asked me what I think of such initiatives.

AVAAZ says: “The global financial crisis is spilling over into our lives, threatening jobs, savings, pensions and public services everywhere — worldwide recession could be next, while the public bears the cost. It’s time for citizens around the world to raise our voices and demand that the fundamental causes of this crisis are addressed — we need tough rules to stop the financiers’ folly, and a new framework that better serves the public interest.”
They address European, US and world leaders: “We urge you to take a lead in fixing the fundamental flaws and loopholes which made the global financial crisis possible, including basic problems of debt and risk, incentives and transparency.” – and then they ask you to sign the petition with a click.

I’m not judging about the necessity of measures counter-acting excessive greed and its consequences… But  I normally keep a distance to these click-collection campaigns. I had participated once in one of the AVAAZ campaigns, for Tibet. and there I saw that you are per default registered into their mailing list (from which you later can resign), so they are a bit enforcing participation.

For me these click-collections are kind of a show. The idea is fascinating – a click from the desktop, like in a computer-game – and then you feel that you have done something against global crises. But changing the world cannot be done with a quick click.

Of course coordinated actions are powerfull, courageous commitment for the well-being of ones fellow-humans or nature is of a great value. And also an englightened public opinion.

Action is generally understood as a means for change. Much less, however, the value of a silent, inner work of transformation. It is much more effective to change oneself first and thus create a change in the world. This inner work is not showy, it demands patience and endurance. It is not a quick-click activity or an online-game.

The global crises are the results of collective past actions, called Karma. When people are ensuring a high standard of living on the basis of bank-depts, and the banks speculating with hot air, it is no wonder that the card-house of illusionary values collapses. It looks like magic to witness hundred billions of dollars just disappearing into the void. Was there any real value before? What is a value and the quality of money? You might like to read the Good Will in Action on “Money and Good Will“.

We are in the month of Libra, and in the East they are worshiping now the Goddess Durga, who is creating the illusions of matter and its impenetrability. She is depicted as sitting on a lion or a tiger, symbolizing the wild, untamed personality instincts. The gambling of the banks reminds of such a “ride on a tiger” – but of people with blind-folded eyes.

Durga-statue in the house of a friend.

Yesterday I got an e-mail from an Argentinean friend living in Southern Spain. He announced that he had just started a bi-lingual blog called “The Universal Nation – La Nación Universal“. His keynote starts with the words:

“The abolition of the system of nations as independent sovereign states is the present’s paradigm, and the greatest global need, and the solution to many of the major problems of modern humankind, all at once….
Today’s paradigm –21(st) century’s paradigm– is not nationalism, nor regionalism, nor continental integrations but, directly Universalization: a so-called Universal Nation – or the social habitat of World Citizens.”

It is a topic he has been pondering upon since long. In a chat with me last Sunday he wrote that the thoughts he intends to express through the blog are the synthesis of his experiences in this life, to be a good service to some extent…

Though he isn’t talking in the blog about personal experiences, just expressing his thoughts about the basic need of overcoming the separation of national borders and barriers, it is still a topic of a very intense nature concerning his life: Some years ago I had a talk with him while he was still living in Germany and trying to get a permission to stay. The authorities gave him a hard time and in the end he left Germany – an end of a cycle, as he said. He is an artist, a dancer and philosopher. I appreciate very much his energetic, kind and open-minded nature. (You might read here a blog-note about his father.)

The problem of nationality and borders is limiting the free movements more and more. The fear of strangers taking away jobs and over-flooding the cultural settings of a country is very strong – and the walls are getting tighter. The national personalities are developing…

Master Morya says: “I wish to see you moving over the face of the world when all national boundaries, because of their multitude, will be erased. How can we fly when pinned by a small nail! Reflect upon the need of travel for humanity.” (Agni Yoga – Community in the New Age § 93)

Separativity will break the unity of the world into many pieces. A very symbolic sculpture in front of the UN-building in New York.

World Union – overcoming division and seeing the inter-connectedness of all life. A statue in Berne erected on the occasion of the founding of the World Postal Union

An Indian friend forwarded me today the following text with an interesting story about decision making. How would you decide?

“A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the  rest on the operational track.

The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way?

Let’s take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make…

Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess. Exactly, to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian who told the story said he would not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train’s sirens.. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.

While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be   made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right one.

Remember that what’s right isn’t always popular… and what’s popular isn’t always right.
Everybody makes mistakes; that’s why they put erasers on pencils. “

Today a friend sent me the link to a YouTube-video of Osho (Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh) talking about “After Friedrich Nietzsche declared that “God is Dead” – the word F*CK has become the most important word in the English language…” Really funny and philosophical

Photo from the video (c)

After a final sprint during the last days, we finally managed to install the relaunch of the good-will website. It has just been opened. My son (16) has helped me a lot with the technical side, and now it’s nearly done…. We have integrated the blog into the site design, and the technical basis is quite better than before. Enjoy!

Today I finished the sites for the relaunch of the good-will website. It has been totally revised. During installation some problems showed up, which my son will take care of. So the good-will site will be closed for the next few days. In the meanwhile have a look at the blog-posts.

Some days ago I got an e-mail from a friend in Venezuela who wrote (lightly adapted):

“I assisted to a conference with the Tao people in Caracas, and they talked about how the human beings, when they die and disincarnate, there are different way  they do this work.
They said, if it is done by the  ajna center (in the middle above the eyes) they will have some special work to do, but if the soul is going out by the eyes, in their  next incarnation they will come as a bird, by the nose they will be an insect, by the ears a mammal,  by the mouth a fish, and by your navel you are again coming as a human being….
This part in the conference was a shock to me because I do not know anything about it, only with our teacher we really are doing a work in order to establish a different style of life with the work to do, in this incarnation, and  looking to continue an ascent to live with the soul and liberate the personality in order to use only our soul and participate with it in the social life, …”

I anwered her:

“Many people talk many silly things in spirituality. This with the bird, insect etc. is absolute nonsense. The Masters of Wisdom teach that you should go out through the higher centres, from heart onward, and the higher the better. I try to go by what I know from their teachings. You quickly get confused with people talking about spirituality and the like… Don’t let yourself get confused and try to help people to get out of the clouds of spiritual confusion, this is a big maya.”

She answered: “Those people of the Tao look so nice, but I really was shocked with the information they talked about….”

I replied: “Yes, there are many nice people in spiritual groups, but this doesn’t guard them from getting lost into wrong concepts.” It is a great test on the path to work out a right understanding and not to let yourself get confused by the many irritating concepts.  The mind is often compared with a mirror full of deformations and dirt. It is important to clean it and restore its original purity. This is a scientific process, and the age-old science is called the path of yoga or union. For this path a wise teacher is very helpful.

The mirroring globe in the Cité des sciences de de l’industrie in Paris. Photo of a friend