ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Copyright © 2013 by Suresha Hill and One Sky Productions
Library of Congress Registration # TXu1-849-648
REMEMBER THE WISDOM THAT PROGRESS FORGOT
ISBN: 9781626757929
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FORWARD
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1_EXPLORING OUR ANCESTRIES; INTRODUCING THE FIRST GROUP OF ELDERS
DON LITTLE CLOUD - SEMINOLE / CREEK / MUSKOGEE
TOM PINKSON, PhD - HUICHOL SHAMAN
CHAPTER 2_KIKOSA ZANELANGA - AFRICAN SHAMAN
CHAPTER 3_PLAMEN TANEV – BULGARIA
CHAPTER 4_CAMILA MARTINEZ – CURANDERA MAZATEC / TIBETAN LAMA
CHAPTER 5_SWEET MEDICINE NATION – CHOCTAW / CHEROKEE
CHAPTER 6_PETER WOLF - JEWISH AMERICAN / TRACKER / WILDERNESS TRAINER
CHAPTER 7_ROBERT COLLINS, PHD – COMANCHE / HOUMA
CHAPTER 8_LADY SCOTLAND - AFRICA
CHAPTER 9_KOWSPI - CHIEF, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
CHAPTER 10_ZACHARY RUNNING WOLF BROWN - BLACKFOOT
CHAPTER 11_EDGAR SUDRABINS – LATVIA
CHAPTER 12_BONITA SIZEMORE - CHOCTAW, MICCOSUKEE, MONTAUK, IRISH
CHAPTER 13_TATA ERICK GONZALES – MAYAN SHAMAN / PRIEST
FORWARD
Liberation is the cry from the cultures exhausted in its present state. We are hoping to find again what would bring us to fertile ground or to proceed with what we have now, continuing on the course we have set for ourselves even though it is unsustainable?
What do we let go of and what to keep while we are embarking on this next Era? Asking these question sets us up for deep consideration of what we will say, think and do.
How do the sacred ways and truths of our old traditional ways play into this Next Global step? How to enter free from clutter, wounds and broken dreams towards this new world? In answering these questions I am inclined to follow first the threads of the tapestry of my ancestry beginning with the very encoded blueprint born in each of us.
Within the last moons I have felt a strong movement within me, deep inside my soul asking to be felt, danced with and with this the soul’s voice, asking me to listen for it is time for it to be heard. So I am listening even though we seemed to just be living our lives as usual, something significantly has changed.
While we slept, prayed or focused on tasks at hand, there was an acceleration, a peeling away from the old route and routines. We did, unbeknown to the mind, go down the rabbit hole’s dark and compressed Portal, which has brought us to a great clearing, reevaluating and readjusting to this new reactivated cellular time and location.
It both appears to be our normal world, yet it’s also like seeing into a room without stepping into it. We have more and different views now to explore. This time can be both concerning, a bit confusing, and rewarding.
I’m feeling this is a departure from what we designed toward what is the greater plan which was not made by us, but something long considered and planned for us, for those now born and for births coming into this zone and time period.
People have endured betrayals, detention, political and religious warring, either in a cultural sense or within their own inherent cultures’ endings. In these instances people have been stopped by outside forces from the ways of their former lives to have to surrender to the general mode for survival.
Today we have a chance to change this response and even cooperate with the consciousness of this New Era, which might begin with the void of false actions and words. May this be true that we leave behind the confusing double-talk.
We are now on the other side of this possibility of departing from the norm and listening to our inner guidance. My feelings have always been, coming from our education systems as they are, that we have always taught the form of fitting in and conformity through our schools. Instead we could teach self-reliance and trusting our inner feelings, we can teach choice-making.
Of course in being told the transparent truth without marketing we would foster other events which would change the ways we lived and how we interacted with this life gifted to us by the labors of our Elders’ dreams and hopes. We could manifest types of education that enliven us and bring with it this truth and justice.
We have been led and sold and told how to be, think, and react and as a result humanity is disenchanted, listless and lacking the very ability to cope with daily stress or resolve conflicts.
What would this new world look like to each of us? What vestments of our past or any of the preconditioning from our DNA are we taking into this New Era? We are carrying new “seeds” for this future and it is up to each of us to determine the place we plant it and how we will water it with our attention, or intentions.
It is time to light our fires like our ancestors of old whose warmth and protection settles the soul and feeds the body. Let’s look with fresh eyes like the wonder of a newborn at this blue-green mother earth and all she has for us. Let’s envision what it would look like to be innocent again and yet aware and joyful of all that is around us?
Are we able to purge the world of our personal problems? If so maybe this is the feeling we are having as this new year begins; feeling our created mazes and deadlocks, violence and governmental overthrows, along with our skeptical views of old policies which are just smoke and mirrors.
We are ready to create for ourselves this new Horizon so it is time to stop and review and take the next step from what is best for us today. It is time to develop the flexibility and listening to the inner voices and what the depth of truth can tell us about how this is done.
Close our ears to the metronome of materializing and governing Patriarchy. Let’s put our coats on and get outside and see what and how we can do one thing today that matters instead of one that is motivated by what will get us ahead or enable us to have more than another has.
This new era began for me by standing on a mountaintop facing east, awaiting the arrival of Venus in the form of the Morning Star, and the first rays of the sun. This all happened over a sacred mirror of sky lake on the side of a volcano in Guatemala.
During this time of paying our respects to our ancestors and those of the present day Mayan people, we danced and offered prayers and payments for our lives and everyone within it to this point. To the melodies of sacred songs and the accompaniment of marimbas, this great drama bloomed this unfoldment for all who had gathered to witness what would occur from these efforts.
We were not disappointed. This sunrise brought with it hope, willingness to make changes, and a joint and non-polarized state of people of all cultures and countries to tears. We were in this moment empty and now with this rising new day, setting intentions together, we asked for guidance and assistance to read, feel and vision the next steps as a people united. We knew and awaited with this new dawn what would have to be surrendered to bring these changing and sacred times into our lives and beyond, to our sacred location in this heart of the Americas.
In this time we committed to kindle being in the new fire, taking the embers from this new fire to heart and to hold. Feeding this inner fire we set our new courses towards holding joy and honesty in our hearts; not letting this get blown out by any false thought, or by doubt and confusion .
I believe in this new time there’s been a great insertion of spirit, an exploration into one’s own responsibility for the earth, and how we treat and interact with our fellow inhabitants.
We can ponder what would this new life look like as we align with the center of this galaxy and our universe, and what it could cost in re-purposing or even abolishing the old code and the purification of our cycles if altered and changed now. We can imagine what our lives would look like without them.
We can consider what we will take upon ourselves to step into ownership, being the very ones that will make the difference. And we can also decide upon the values we will bring into it if we are to invest our hearts and soul into this new world.
I feel the old codes, when we saw the whole of this world, came with reverence. In the true ways we looked at how everything would need to be considered and included in determining a wholesome view and the right actions for us, the land, and air and waters.
Maybe we cannot stop the materialism this world is based upon nor its acceleration, yet we can individually make the difference in our own actions and thoughts towards this. It means we might have to take a leap of faith and be willing to see all without borders, labels or limitations. Risking to love and to not judge who can have it or what had to be done first to get it.
Are we able to take the leap of faith without knowing the script for the plan and to use that which is within us to guide us through this portal of our own personal black holes?
Each one of us has the opportunity to enter into this abyss and discover that there lies the very answer; that it might be in this very darkness, this “unknown birthing place”, this mixing of all our experienced and individual beliefs of what has or has not worked is this place of true knowing and truth.
Let’s trust that we have in us our ancestor’s truths that once spoke for the whole and considered the total and its effects, not just for the people but also to the things without human voices to speak for themselves. We are the ones who share this place with all who are here, like the rivers as well as all that lives in it.
We are also being called on to face and take responsibility for what we have destroyed in the name of progress and ownership, like the migration of deer and birds for progress and greed.
It is a new Era and for myself I hold that if we look and listen to our Wisdom Keepers and respect the community’s support of their wisdom, we will practice gratitude and forgiveness, and gain joy for ourselves within our very attitudes.
It was seeded within you so there’s no need to expect others to lead or guide you to this. All we need to do is expect that we came with this within ourselves, to water that which unifies the efforts towards balance, and do our own part in all our words and actions.
When at the end of a day we can say that we did our very best, that our thoughts, actions and ideas considered others and the impact to our world, as Dr. Emoto said when he studied water, thought can change the dark to light, the impure to pure. As water vessels we must also do this within our own thoughts.
Know where your food comes from. Maybe just grow a container of herbs to contribute to the atmosphere or to our need for food. Share what you have in the abundance of expressions of love, joy and forgiveness.
Do not wait for someone else to pick up their trash, do it to make the place how you would love to see it. Honor life in some ways, like setting aside a portion of your food for someone else, or telling to the person or thing that you’re glad for its support in your life today. Stop and talk to an old person, or to someone you don’t know. Find out what they did in their lives and in so doing experience life outside yourself.
Offer gifts of your abilities to others in our community, volunteering to build a house, turn a garden, teach a child to read, or to play an instrument. If you’re not using your bike give it to a child or person who needs it. In these ways we join together creating the village of our world, not the Acropolis that limits us from interaction through fear.
Educate yourself at any age in what calls to you. Do it without worrying how it looks or sounds to others. Explore the world we live in. Get out of your own country and do not believe the propaganda that a place is not safe. I have been traveling for decades and find my views are not skewed by the news when I experience it for myself.
Wonder like a child and know you can change the world. It is in us to water this seed and when your tree of life bears fruit and new seeds, share and save some for those who come after us. It requires the small investment of each of us taking our place and the responsibility for those actions we do in each day.
Rites of passage, honoring of the seasons of our lives and being in reverence for their places in our life’s passages make a difference. We can make places in nature or use those the Mother has already made as your altar to give gifts of thanks. Commit and pledge to listen, to follow your vision and be present for the coming of signs. Those instructions and leads will be our teachers and wisdom keepers whether they show up as human or creature. Ask them what they have to teach you.
Share your wisdom and its impacts, and not just the ones that felt good. Share those that gave you the life stories that were also in all the stories of your ancestor’s teachings and the songs of their bones when you listened and remembered. The knowing is always within our indigenous songs.
Listen, be still, will to know yourself better. Be at peace with all outcomes. These are the ways of the past and also this new future.
- Sweet Medicine Nation
PREFACE
I’m writing this book because I had to. I was irretrievably drawn to do so. I was born in Ohio and my heritage is mixed with African, Irish, and Native American. I fell in love and married my high school sweetheart, graduated college, had a wonderful daughter and great friends. In spite of the goodness in all this there was something like a force pushing up from deep inside me in my twenties that began to peak in middle age. That force was connected to my Native American heritage which included Cherokee and Blackfoot on my mother’s side and Cherokee on my father’s side. For years it had yearned to express itself in some way.
I’d been asking for more details from both sides of the family, but very little was known. They’d died young and I’d only seen one photo of the kind and gentle face of Ida Pillar on my mother’s side who was the one from Ireland mixed with Cherokee or Blackfoot or both. I was told she held me once as a baby. Chief White Cloud and Annie Mae Keyes were on my father’s side along with another Native American no one mentioned. It was like that in those days.
There were no other details except that the Cherokee were from the Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee part of the country. Through the years I was moved to live in each of these places, but didn’t connect it to the roots of my ancestors until much later.
This yearning was intense and irrepressible. It was the most visceral sensation I’d ever felt, perhaps rivaled only by the desire to bear a child. Both refused to release themselves from my system until they reached fruition. Without having been taught, I discovered that many of the ways of being of my ancestors were alive in me.
I found myself talking to plants, trees, and feeling related to everything around me. I saw and felt their aliveness, a type of intelligence, sensitivity, and a right to be treated with care and respect. I hated the idea of stepping on an insect or killing a fly and often prayed for them if I did.
I found myself anticipating some form of communication from these creatures and began feeling and communing with nature from a young age. I didn’t want to buy a house and even resisted buying furniture. My husband thought it was all a little kooky but accepted it as people often do when they’re young.
I began gathering feathers, stones and seashells and standing outside staring at the sky. It took years before I understood why. I became plagued if not haunted by this force and began the search for a teacher who could solve the mysteries that were wanting to unfold from within.
When some wonderful teachers and masters appeared, serving the role of the elders and shaman in the community, I left everything behind in my oddly uncomfortable middle class life that was then dedicated to changing the way school systems were set up to teach children. I reduced my three bedroom townhouse of belongings down to two suitcases and set off on a journey of a lifetime.
After living in India and being immersed in Indian teachings for many years, in the 1990’s the Native part of my heritage set itself on fire inside. I began to participate in indigenous events and joined the Black Native American Association. It became clear that countless Americans shared a mixed heritage that included ancient wisdom.
I became excited to hear and share the stories of a few of those cultures in hopes that it might create a drumbeat that sounds in the heart and calls you. It fills in many gaps you might not have been able to articulate or label, but once you hear it, that light bulb goes off and the remembering begins. The mystery is solved, the forces move where they were intended, and the haunting is translated into its intended language.
No matter where your roots arise from, you can look any direction in the world and find powerful wisdom. North America as far as the Inuit in the Arctic, in many of the outer regions of South America, Central America, the Middle East, the Far East, India, Northern Europe like Russia, the Laplanders, Eastern Europe, Australian Aborigines and the Mauri in New Zealand. Hawaii, Japan, Polynesia, and countless islands also have beautiful traditions regarding the spirit of their original cultures.
Only a small sampling are represented here but I encourage readers to explore the depth of our diverse origins and discover the magic, the divinity, the relationships to life that was instrumental in a type of harmony we can resurrect and move forward with.
Half of the proceeds from this book will go to the organizations of those who gave their time to this project and continue to help others realize the beauties in this way of life.
“The best way I have to honor God is to understand the secrets of Nature.”
∼ Dr. Michio Kaku - Theoretical physicist
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In loving memory and gratitude for the service of our elder,
Wisdom Keeper and Keeper of the Great Pyramids
of Teotihuacan, Tlakaelel who passed on July 27, 2012
A translation of his last words is as follows:
“He asked us all to continue his work, and continue his message of unity and Peace that he has been bringing to the world. He asked us to continue teaching the importance of the Mexicanidad as a hope for the future of humanity. He asks us all to continue with the rebirth of the ancestral traditions. He is (in his words) transforming, integrating with the All, with the universe, with the cosmos. As I send this message to hundreds of you, please as he asked, to feel joy, to sing and dance.”
I’d also like to thank, honor and acknowledge my ancestors, all the elders, shaman, medicine people and walkers of this way for participating in this project and for the spirit and service they bring to the world. Ho Mitakuye Oyasin.
INTRODUCTION
Our world is inexplicably beautiful and full of immeasurable richness of every imaginable kind as well as some we can’t yet imagine. The majesty of the mountains, the mystery and depth of our oceans and skies, the exquisite, color-filled, diverse wonder of its life forms and the miracle of life itself are a daily source of wonder and awe.
Each of us knows this on so many levels every time we go outside for a walk, lie on the beach and lift our skin to the sun, stare at the infinity of a starry night, or rest under the shade of a tree in our yard. We can’t help but smile at the new blossoms in Spring or when we inhale the subtle and sublime fragrance they release.
Nature is so healing and balancing we know to go for a hike or a sail, or to take a vacation in a place where we will immerse ourselves in it. We know all this and more about our glorious earth, and one more bridge will help us to appreciate, love, and respect it even more. This is the bridge of recognition that we are connected to nature in more ways than the most vital ones of it feeding and breathing us every second.
There is so much more it can teach us.
WAYS WE WALK ON THE EARTH
I have heard of ways where a visionary could look through a hole in a rock and see the future; where there were tribes who could speak at a distance with a drum, and elders who could intervene in life circumstances through consciousness before physical manifestation. I’ve heard of those who hear the voices of plants and flowers and can then know of their healing properties, their growing cycles, their food value, and which parts of the plant to use.
There were those who knew where vortexes were in the earth so that even in unsatisfactory or scarce conditions, yielding of crops could still happen as enough to feed the entire clan. I’ve heard from those who live without money, where everyone owns everything and disagreements are settled with a decision from the one all respect. I’ve heard of villages where the children don’t cry, where the only competition is in play, and violence is unheard of.
I’ve met people who were born awake with full consciousness, those who can become invisible, especially when it pertains to leaving a mark on the path they walk. I’ve heard of those who can tell the mood, emotion, health, and decision-making process - over 1,000 bits of information by looking at a footprint, and those who found a lost child by asking a nearby horse. I spoke with a woman who said, “Bugs don’t bite on my land because there is harmony and balance here”, and countless stories of people whose lives have been saved by animals.
There are stories about trees who catch a blight and transfer the information to nearby trees who then produce an antidote to that pest. There are also stories that if a man enters a room and cuts a stem of a plant, all those near it shriek and continue to shriek when the man comes back into the room.
Nature is intelligent, sensitive, and aware. Nature is an astounding source of healing, of wisdom, of life, of beauty, majesty, of compassion and serenity. For millennia there were ways of being that recognized, respected, and honored the gifts of Nature, and treated her as a valued and sacred part of the community.
There are still a few members of the global community who walk in this way that we could learn a lot from; who can teach us how to hear, see, and sense nature in new and deeper ways so that its many more dimensions can be revealed. They can teach us to live in the ways of sacred relationship that would extend not only to Nature, but to one another as well.
ECOSYSTEMS AND BIODIVERSITY
How we walk on the earth touches everything that lives here and its ability to survive and thrive. Bio-diversity is influenced naturally by climate factors, predators, and the amount of food available in any given season, and recently numerous man-made factors have been added into the mix.
Every species is part of a circular ‘chain’ of life that is inextricably intertwined and interdependent, as is true of the human body. If one foot becomes broken, paralyzed, or amputated, it would be very difficult for the rest of the body to continue moving freely. Many activities would have to be omitted, or greatly modified, and several compensatory muscles would become strained if one part were reduced in capability.
Although most of the body appears to be at a distance from the feet, the form and function of our bodies are dependent upon them.
In an ecosystem, every species has the potential of undergoing an exponential population growth, but these tendencies are kept in check by various balancing interactions within the system. Exponential runaways will appear only when the ecosystem is severely disturbed. Then some plants will turn into ‘weeds’, some animals become ‘pests’ and other species will be exterminated, and thus the balance of the whole system will be threatened.
“Web of Life”
All living beings, including humans, are dependent upon the biodiversity of the Earth’s ecosystems. We are not always aware of how all the diverse species make contributions to the whole, just as we are still trying to understand the roles that many of the cells in our bodies play. Lack of understanding doesn’t make their roles any less significant. Unfamiliarity with a particular species doesn’t mean that we can live well without it.
Organs we believed to not be needed in the human body were later discovered to have an important function, such as the spleen, appendix, and tonsils. In the October, 1999 edition of the Scientific American, an article by Professor Loren G. Martin at the University of Oklahoma in the department of Physiology states:
“For years, the appendix was credited with very little physiological function. We now know, however, that the appendix serves an important role in the fetus and in young adults.
Endocrine cells appear in the appendix of the human fetus at around the 11th week of development. These endocrine cells of the fetal appendix have been shown to produce various biogenic amines and peptide hormones, compounds that assist with various biological control (homeostatic) mechanisms.
Among adult humans, the appendix is now thought to be involved primarily in immune functions. Researchers have also shown that the appendix is involved in the production of molecules that help to direct the movement of lymphocytes to various other locations in the body.”
Mankind has been perpetrating the loss of countless species on a weekly if not daily basis without understanding clearly how they contribute to the health of the whole. We’ve also added into the mix countless unnatural chemicals and substances that infiltrate vital systems that we know we cannot live without. Some of these chemicals disrupt our endocrine system which is essential to health.
The endocrine system is one of the body’s main communication networks and is responsible for controlling and coordinating numerous body functions. Hormones are first produced by the endocrine tissues, such as the ovaries, testes, pituitary, thyroid and pancreas, then secreted into the blood to act as the body’s chemical messengers where they direct communication and coordination among other tissues throughout the body.
“In the traditional view, the nervous system, endocrine system, and immune system are separate and serve different functions…. studied in three separate disciplines - neuroscience, endocrinology, and immunology. However, the recent peptide research has shown in dramatic ways that these conceptual separations are merely historical artifices that can no longer be maintained. According to Candace Pert, the three systems must be seen a forming a single psychosomatic network.”
“Web of Life”
For example, xeno (foreign) hormones have been released into the air from the production of plastics and pesticides. They resemble and therefore mimic natural hormones so the body absorbs them. Xenohormones, like GMO’s and some pesticides, antagonize natural hormones and block the receptors of natural hormones like progesterone, thyroid, and androgen in males.
Some repercussions include increased reproductive cancers, reduced fertility, low sperm count, increased PMS, low testosterone and an abnormally small penis. New research funded by the NIEHS (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) also found that endocrine disruptors may affect not just the offspring of mothers exposed during pregnancy but future offspring as well.
We are also impeding nature’s ability to communicate with itself while knowing that we aren’t able to understand these functions’ relationship to the whole. This lack of understanding is the cause of the current result. Life is a vibrant, continuous, interconnected loop of systems that each plays a role in the circle of life. We cannot afford to alter, reduce, or eliminate uncountable species and their functions in nature and expect a healthy outcome.
NATURE MIRRORS OUR BODIES
Nature provides checks and balances towards its own sustainability, but the in-built adaptations are quite slow, and cannot match the rate of modern demands. For example, the vegetation around bodies of water regulates and stabilizes water runoff acting as a modulator of extreme conditions like flood or drought. Much of that vegetation is now gone.
“Advancing to even smaller levels in their explorations of the phenomena of life, biologists found that the characteristics of all living organisms - from bacteria to humans - were encoded in their chromosomes in the same chemical substance, using the same code script.”
- Fritzov Capra
In addition, millions of people have built homes and businesses in recent decades where forests with important functions used to be. Clear-cutting for lumber, cattle grazing, or agribusiness reduced the quality and quantity of water, reduced wildlife and bio-diversity, and produced harsh weather conditions that has resulted in increased fires and floods.
People in our society are in a health crisis largely because their adaptogenic systems are being overloaded with enormous quantities of toxic and unnatural substances, combined with increased stress, less exercise, a faster pace, and reduced rest where the body would be able to release, reset and restore. The earth is in health crisis because it’s also being overloaded with scores of toxins and losses that it doesn’t have enough time to mend, adapt to, or to restore.
If our intestines are irritable, clogged, and imbalanced in its natural, diverse flora due to stress, bad diet, or too many antibiotics, they will have difficulty breaking down and absorbing nutrients to strengthen the body.
Soil, like our intestines, is dependent upon microorganisms to transform waste from living organisms into nutrients for the soil. We’ve infested the soil with pesticides that wind up hurting earthworms and kill helpful microorganisms minimizing the nutrients available for the soil and the food that grows there. Our bodies and the body of the earth mirror each other.
Toxins or bad diet can harm our kidneys and liver, just as pollutants in the soil and water can erode their filtration systems. Wetlands in particular are filtration systems for the earth and water. They’re effective filters for pollutants like heavy metals, while also frequently destroying harmful organisms and reducing the demand for oxygen.
Vegetation is essential for the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and for the maintenance of water and humidity levels. Undisturbed forests help maintain rainfall in a given area as it recycles the moisture back into the atmosphere. It also provides nests and roosts for diversity of birds that pollinate and control insect populations.
In addition to being a vital source of food for countless species, vegetation supplies important medicines and remedies for injuries, disease, and other weakened states. In the same way that our bodies cannot be force-fed heavy doses of toxic substances that are foreign to it while having reduced enzymes to metabolize them, damaged excretory systems to eliminate them, and insufficient time for rest to accomplish this daunting task, neither can the earth, air, or water. Whatever we do to impact Nature impacts us to the same degree, and most often in the same way.
BIODIVERSITY AND DISTURBED HABITATS
If your instrument in the symphony of life is not being played in the same key, it throws off the sound of the entire piece of music.
After two decades of intensive research, the precise details of this code (script) were unraveled. Biologists have discovered the alphabet of a truly universal language of life.
- Fritzov Capra
Dozens of species have become extinct while awaiting federal protection, and those are only the ones that we know about. Our orchestra has lost many of its instruments. Some may never be heard again, others play in a different key as a result. Many symphonies will have lost their harmonies, their rhythms, and some of symphonies will never be played again. According to SustainableTable.org:
“Although many of our most important crops are wind-pollinated and do not require pollinators, 39 of the leading 57 global crops benefit from natural pollinators, such as birds and insects. Agro-biodiversity is the result of thousands of years of human intervention in selectively breeding traits in animals and crops for particular agricultural advantages.
This abundance of diversity is the result of farmers artificially selecting traits over generations for specific purposes, like resistance to disease, tolerance to high altitudes or poor soils, etc. This diversity is important for food security—in the event that a particular crop variety fails due to drought, flooding or a disease, another variety might survive to avoid food shortages.
The FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the U.N.) has estimated that during the last century, 75 percent of crop genetic diversity has been lost, a phenomenon referred to as genetic erosion. in the 1970s, a lack of genetic diversity in US corn varieties resulted in the loss of over 1 billion US dollars due to a lack of resistance to leaf blight. Unfortunately, the situation has not improved today as increasingly, industrial food production relies on fewer and fewer crop varieties and animal breeds.“
The World Resources Institute reports that many forested areas are breeding grounds for wildlife and protect the genetic pool for a variety of species. We don’t know yet how long it would take to remedy a loss of habitat and bio-diversity from manmade circumstances. To date, almost 500 species of genetically distinct trees are endangered worldwide, and over 1500 varieties of rice have already become extinct in Indonesia in less than two decades.
THE DOMINO EFFECT OF GENETICALLY MODIFYING PLANTS
The domino effect of the loss of one species, or of one habitat, or one regulating function can have broad and catastrophic consequences that will then lead to other sweeping effects. Sudden loss of an entire crop to disease has already plagued oranges, potatoes, rice, corn, and wheat from loss of diversity that introducing GMO’s only complicates. In this way, the healthy remaining strains of crops and vegetation become contaminated.
Most animals refuse to eat it
Dr. Joseph Mercola, who reports on recent research states, “I strongly believe that one of the most obvious clues about the danger of GMO foods are that just about EVERY species of animal that is offered a GMO food versus a non-GMO food will avoid the GMO one. Many times they will do this to the point of starvation, as they have an intuitive sense of the danger of this food.”
Those who eat it die soon after
He goes on to say that in 2005, Dr. Irina Ermakova, one of the senior scientists with the Russian National Academy of Sciences, reported that more than 50 percent of the babies from mother rats that were fed GM soy died within three weeks, compared to a 10 % death rate among the controls… a death rate five times higher than normal, identical to the findings in the more recent hamster study.
In a small village in Andhra Pradesh, buffalo grazed on cotton plants for eight years without incident. On January 3rd, 2008, the buffalo grazed on Bt cotton plants for the first time. All 13 were sick the next day; all died within 3 days. Bt corn was also implicated in the deaths of cows in Germany, and horses, water buffaloes, and chickens in The Philippines.
In India, animals graze on cotton plants after harvest. But when shepherds let sheep graze on Bt cotton (genetically modified) plants, thousands died. Post mortems showed severe irritation and black patches in both intestines and liver (as well as enlarged bile ducts). Investigators said preliminary evidence “strongly suggests that the sheep mortality was due to a toxin… most probably Bt-toxin.” In a small follow-up feeding study by the Deccan Development Society, all sheep fed Bt cotton plants died within 30 days; those that grazed on natural cotton plants remained healthy.
Pollination can spread the GM effects to healthy crops
After corn, soy and wheat, alfalfa is the most widely grown crop in the US. Allowing GM alfalfa to be deregulated could spell disaster in several ways. It’s easily cross-pollinated by bees and wind, and it’s a perennial, meaning GM alfalfa could live on for years, spreading their genetically modified traits far and wide for a long period of time.
They do not decrease the use of pesticides
Closely tied to the production of GM crops is the use of the herbicide Roundup, which contains glyphosate. Monsanto’s Roundup is the most widely used herbicide in the world, and contrary to the popular belief propagated by industry, pesticide use has significantly increased - DOUBLED since 2005 - rather than decreased with the use of GM crops.
They cause damage to the soil
Dr. Mercola reports, “As it turns out, this is a serious problem for more reasons than one. Not only are GM food crops saturated with more pesticides than ever before, which naturally ends up in your body when you eat them, but glyphosate may also be killing the soil itself. This startling conclusion comes straight from one of the USDA’s own scientists, Dr. Kremer. According to this article in Grist, include evidence that glyphosate causes:
Doctors Warn Against GMO’S
Jeffrey Smith has done extensive research on the effects of genetically modifying food and has shared some of his findings that the medical community has confirmed. The findings are so staggering, that some doctors called for a moratorium on the practice. Jeffrey’s article states that the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) called for a moratorium on GM foods, long-term independent studies, and labeling.
AAEM’s position paper stated, “Several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food,” including infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, insulin regulation, and changes in major organs and the gastro-intestinal system.
They conclude, “There is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects. There is causation,” as defined by recognized scientific criteria. “The strength of association and consistency between GM foods and disease is confirmed in several animal studies.”
Evidence is conclusive that they damage human health
Dr. Jennifer Armstrong, President of AAEM, says, “Physicians are probably seeing the effects in their patients, but need to know how to ask the right questions.” World renowned biologist Pushpa M. Bhargava goes one step further. After reviewing more than 600 scientific journals, he concludes that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are a major contributor to the sharply deteriorating health of Americans.
Among the population, biologist David Schubert of the Salk Institute warns that “children are the most likely to be adversely effected by toxins and other dietary problems” related to GM foods. He says without adequate studies, the children become ‘the experimental animals.’
The Institute of Biological Sciences at the University of Brazil reports that the Bt (Bacillus Thuringensis) toxin in Monsanto’s genetically modified corn and soy has been linked to organ failure in humans. It has turned up in the bloodstreams of pregnant women and their fetuses. Now, a study published in the Journal of Hematology & Thromboembolic Diseases suggests that some forms of the Bt toxin may also contribute to certain blood cancers, such as leukemia.
GMOs Provoke Immune Reactions
AAEM states, “Multiple animal studies show significant immune dysregulation,” including increase in cytokines, which are “associated with asthma, allergy, and inflammation”—all on the rise in the US. According to GM food safety expert Dr. Arpad Pusztai, changes in the immune status of GM animals are “a consistent feature of all the studies.” Even Monsanto’s own research showed significant immune system changes in rats fed Bt corn. A November 2008 by the Italian government also found that mice have an immune reaction to Bt corn.
GM soy and corn each contain two new proteins with allergenic properties. GM soy has up to seven times more trypsin inhibitor—a known soy allergen, and skin prick tests show some people react to GM soy but not to non-GM soy. Soon after GM soy was introduced to the UK, soy allergies skyrocketed by 50%. Perhaps the US epidemic of food allergies and asthma is a casualty of genetic manipulation. We’ve in many ways created numerous far worse problems than the initial one. We’ve effectively dropped an atomic bomb into our food supply to kill an insect.
GMOs Remain Inside of Us
The only published human feeding study revealed what may be the most dangerous problem from GM foods. The gene inserted into GM soy transfers into the DNA of bacteria living inside our intestines and continues to function. This means that long after we stop eating GMOs, we may still have potentially harmful GM proteins produced continuously inside of us. Put more plainly, eating a corn chip produced from Bt corn might transform our intestinal bacteria into living pesticide factories, possibly for the rest of our lives.
When evidence of gene transfer is reported at medical conferences around the US, doctors often respond by citing the huge increase of gastrointestinal problems among their patients over the last decade. GM foods might be colonizing the gut flora of North Americans.
Here is a key area where an attempt to solve one problem generates several new problems without solving the original one. Not only do we wind up with less production from the plants, it doesn’t decrease the need for pesticides, it stimulates disease, sterility and early death in those who ingest the plants, and it damages the soil - this failed attempt to solve a problem has dominos that are still falling, yet it is still allowed to be used as a solution.
THE COST OF UNEXAMINED CONCEPTS
Technology Author David Abrams comments, “As technological civilization diminishes the biotic diversity of the earth, language itself is diminished. As humans reduce their environment, so they reduce themselves. Peoples’ options, their insights and visions, their ability to perceive, think, or sense an existence that is beyond what is presented and programmed by the schools and media will shrink into a spectrum of color and sound that continues to weaken in its artificial redundancy.”
Compared to children in limited technologically advanced cultures, Western children’s brains are already less able to perceive ranges of colors and sounds, and less able to comprehend language and to notice or draw meaning from their surroundings. Brain function is being altered by the virtual reality it has entered into relationship with neurologically.
Some doctors are now prescribing Vitamin ‘G’ for green, for time in nature. Studies show and I quote from Dr. Ben Kim’s newsletter.
Modern advances in technology in many instances have been extremely helpful and I am not advocated getting rid of it, but to maintain in every instance a balance on a personal, industrial, and ecological level.
Climate change
A recent, comprehensive report from the Global Humanitarian Forum has warned the world that climate change alone is a “silent crisis” that is killing 300,000 people each year. They have estimated that this number will double by 2030 and that more than 300 million people are already seriously affected by the gradual warming of the earth. Of these 300 million, 90% are affected by gradual environmental degradation leading to malnutrition, disease, and diarrhea. 99% of these deaths are in developing countries who contribute less than 1% of carbon emissions.
Much of the destruction the planet is experiencing at the hands of mankind is frivolous, unexamined, and unnecessary. For example, 57 million trees a year are cut down for catalogues alone, overlooking the alternative approach that 30 million pounds of greenhouse gases per year could be eliminated by using recycled paper.
The Union of Concerned Scientists report: “Just to be clear, there are not two sides to this story. Sea levels are rising. The flooding from Hurricane Sandy was undeniably worse because of it.”
Industrial toxins
Other forms of industrial toxins produced by paper mills include nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic chemicals which are released into the air through leaky valves and open-ended lines. These air emissions often produce the unpleasant odor found in the vicinity of many mills. Additional industrial toxins generated by the papermaking process include mercury, which is used in fungicidal processes; cellulosic fibers, which congeal into toxic sludge; and chlorophenolic wood preservatives and anti-sap stains.
For Our Water
The fish downstream of a paper mill in North Carolina in the Pigeon River were seriously affected by the pollutant released into the water called dioxin. Studies showed that their hormonal, endocrine, and metabolic systems were adversely affected, their DNA damaged, and cancerous lesions were created.
Humans were poisoned by the same substances that we poison the water and its fish with. People living in the Pigeon River area who used the water and ate the fish had increased cancer rates. Environmental Defense cites that, “Over 7 billion pounds of toxic chemicals are released by industry into the nation’s environment each year, including over 100 million pounds of recognized carcinogens.”
For Our Food
One of the toxins that has been cited by the EPA as a known carcinogen with “no known safe levels of exposure” is dioxin, produced in paper production. Dioxin is formed as an unintentional by-product of many industrial processes involving chlorine such as waste incineration, chemical and pesticide manufacturing and pulp and paper bleaching.
Due to their treated food supply, it is most often found in beef, chicken, and their ‘by-products’ - milk and eggs, but also is absorbed into fish from the water they swim in. Through our food supply, dioxin winds up in humans and has been recently found in a large amount of breast cancer tissue samples since it travels to fat.
In Our Air
Neither fish nor humans tolerate the heavy metals released from coal mines, which are often drained into the water source nearby. The burning of coal releases toxic substances including carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury compounds.
The most economically significant consequence of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions is acid rain, which occurs when these gases react with water and oxygen in the atmosphere to form acidic compounds. When the compounds return to the earth in the form of rain, they can cause extensive damage to property and soil.
Mercury compounds released from coal plants are extremely toxic to humans. These compounds can cause permanent damage to the brain and kidneys, as well as to fetuses. It is a substantial price for miners and their families to have their health risked and possibly their lives shortened by the toxicity, and it’s an immense price to pay when entire bodies of water are contaminated along with every ecosystem therein, all the way up the food chain.
Research has established a link between the respiratory system of humans and the toxins in pesticides and their relationship to asthma. Asthma is the leading cause of absenteeism in schools where 1 in 8 children fall victim to this condition (possibly higher in agricultural areas of southern California) and more than 14 million days a year are lost because of asthmatic attacks.
The number of children dying from asthma tripled between 1976 and 1999, showing that consequences of widespread introduction of toxins in the environment are deadly, and on the rise. Both cigarette smoke and pesticides have been shown to both cause and trigger asthma attacks. The use of these toxic substances and the respiratory issues they cause are preventable.