A Bit of Culture!

I don't know if this falls into category of culture, but it's a TEDtalk anyway.
About the historic and current use of psychedelic substances to connect to higher consciousness.
What I found interesting is the references to the chemicals themselves, the government restrictions on their possession, etc.
Mostly about Ayahuasca, and the active ingredient psilocybin.

The War on Consciousness - Graham Hancock (Removed TED Talk) - YouTube
 
Irena Sendler

Died: May 12, 2008 (aged 98)
Warsaw, Poland

During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive.

Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried. She also carried a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger kids.

Irena kept a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.

The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.

During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants.

Ultimately, she was caught, however, and the Nazi's broke both of her legs and arms and beat her severely.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she had smuggled out, In a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and tried to reunite the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize.
She was not selected.
Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.

Al Gore must have been heartbroken when he heard about this story...the carbon footprint of an extra 2,500 people on this planet...
 
I don't know if this falls into category of culture, but it's a TEDtalk anyway.
About the historic and current use of psychedelic substances to connect to higher consciousness.
What I found interesting is the references to the chemicals themselves, the government restrictions on their possession, etc.
Mostly about Ayahuasca, and the active ingredient psilocybin.

The War on Consciousness - Graham Hancock (Removed TED Talk) - YouTube

Remember those far off days in the 70s when flower power and drugs freaked everyone out ?
I think one could say 40 years on that those mind bending drugs never did produce enhanced minds just madder people.
Who knows what the future may hold though as scientists unlock the secrets of the drug world. Keep testing them in the labs though seems sensible.
 
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