Education (a.k.a. fetchin' up)

All my friends walk up to me and say: "Joe, what's education?"

O.K. Maybe not.

Education can be divided into several STAGES.

Elementary School is commonly K-8. That is as far as most people on the planet ever get.

The main purpose of Elementary Schools, besides socialization, is the teaching of Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. No computers are necessary. Reading the newspaper and making informed choices was the main goal of this stage of education.

High Schools, which were few and far between before the Civil War, are commonly grades 9-12. Typical subject matter includes the sciences (geology, biology, chemistry, physics), math (algebra, geometry, trigonometry), modern languages (French, German, Spanish), History (World History, State History, Political Science), English (grammar, rhetoric, logic, literature), and a variety of electives. High schools were heralds of an advanced education right up to World War 1.

Founded in 1891, the oldest public high school in the State of California is Redlands.

And, with new high schools, you needed new high school teachers with "standard training" - called normalization. Suddenly, an education beyond High School was becoming necessary.

Normal Schools (early colleges) were just two year schools. But they were NOT Junior Colleges. They taught high school subject matter in some depth - enough to get your feet wet.

With "normalization" came alienation. Those students that were NOT IN THE NORM (e.g. middle-of-the-roat +/- 34%) were pushed out. And I am not singling out one group - there are plenty of groups that qualify!

So, back to specificity. Stages of advanced learning are: 1) High School, 2) Junior College (or offerings of lower-division undergraduate courses), 3) Colleges or offerings of upper-division undergraduate courses), and Universities (offering post-graduate degrees like the M.A., M.S., M.B.A., etc. and TERMINAL degrees like the Ph.D., J.D., etc.)

In a high school class, one might read "The Power of Myth." It's a good start. It is very broad in scope and none too deep - the wading pool, so to speak. Another possibility is the Portable Bible.

In a lower-division undergraduate course, one might read 5 or 6 books like the hard-bound Ballou, or Hero - among many others. Hero is also A.P. material for High School (thus the link to lesson plans).

As you advance in your education, the specificity becomes defined (e.g. Mahayana is separated from Theravada in Buddhism). Therefore, upper-division undergraduate courses or more well-defined than their lower-division counterparts. By this time. you are in it waist-deep.

In Grad School, you might learn "the art of alliteration in creative confessions." "Forgive me Father, for I have Farted."

By the time you get a Ph.D., you are all wet. Hope this helps you out.

don't pray for me argentina

IMO, prayer is an overt display of superstition.

Jesus said: "Do not pray in public!"

"But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray..."

Wanna know what that means???

Your "inner room" is the right half of your brain - and I am NOT kidding!

THIS will help you understand the following comment. The Sacred Mushroom and The Cross: A study of the nature and origins of Christianity.



R. Gordon Wasson's Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality (1969) identifies Soma as a mixture of amanita muscaria, a mushroom found under conifer trees having a blood-red cap spotted with white thornlike crusts, and the resinous flowers of cannabis sativa, commonly known as 'marijuana'.

'Muscimol, the psychoactive element of Amanita muscaria, remains active in urine for up to seven re-ingestions'

Wasson notes ancient Hindu scriptures depicting urine drinking as bestowing spirituality, just as Siberian shamans drink the urine of amanita muscaria-fed reindeer which exhibit appropriate signs of mushroom intoxication in order to gain insight and wisdom. This is because muscimol, the psychoactive element of Amanita muscaria, remains active in urine for up to seven re-ingestions or for use by others, which the shamans drink as a holy wine, the epitome of true transubstantiation.

(Wasson's archive of research, writings & correspondence is maintained by Harvard University's Herbarium Library and can be viewed by appointment only. Contact 617 495 2366.)

"Intercessory prayer itself had no effect on complication-free recovery from CABG, but certainty of receiving intercessory prayer was associated with a higher incidence of complications."

In other words, prayer is harmful, not helpful.

When I pointed this out to a "regular," I was told: "Harvard is not an academic institution."

O.K. Denial? LOL!

In 1970, the famed Dead Sea Scrolls scholar John Marco Allegro published the following series of articles in the London Sunday Mirror, UK. This series of articles was to announce that Christianity is based on a fertility-mushroom/drug cult, and that Jesus was none other than the mushroom itself.

So, if you have cancer, consider a mushroom over prayer!

"Anything that can not be rationally explained can be irrationally explained."

Though it seemed to the world
They were all I desired
They are illusions
They're not the solutions.
They promise to be...

nothing