Insights to the occult causes of epidemic diseases:

Insights to the occult causes of epidemic diseases:
Author: Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Publisher: Philaletheians UK
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2022-01-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

Epidemics in moral and physical affairs are more now more rife than ever. The seeds of vice and crime spring up and bring forth fruit with appalling rapidity and paralyzing succession. The reciprocal relations between planetary bodies and man are as perfect as those between the red blood cells, which float in a common fluid. Each body, whether planetary of human, is affected by the combined influences of all and, in its turn, affects each and all. Pythagoras’ music of the spheres is more than a mere fancy, as certain planetary aspects may disturb the æther of our planet, while others may bring about rest and harmony. Some pathological conditions have a tendency to become rapidly spreading epidemics, influenced by causes unknown to modern science. Plato says that animal man is a son of necessity. A physically pure body will strengthen the soul which, though liable to err, will always side with reason against the lusts and proclivities of the body. The rapid growth of human intellect has paralysed spiritual perceptions. It is at the expense of wisdom that intellect thrives, and mankind is quite unprepared to comprehend the awful drama of disobedience of the laws of spiritual life and those governing natural life. The Sun is the Mind and Heart of our Cosmos. Its bright spots are the blood cells of that luminary. Its coronal changes have no effect upon the earth’s climate, but the sunspots have. The connection between sunspots and epidemics affecting plants is well-established, but the karmic influence of sunspots on the fortunes of man, the living barometer, is not even suspected. The current solar cycle of sunspot activity began in December 2019 and will continue for eleven years. The fact that the current COVID-19 pandemic also began in December 2019 is no coincidence. This is further evidence of the magnetic sympathy between man and the planetary orbs that rule and guide human destinies. In Occultism atoms are called vibrations; also sound, collectively. It is the sound that produces the colour, and not the other way around. By correlating the vibrations of a sound in the proper way, a new colour can be made. Now, if the nerves of the human body thrill in synch with a low form of life, such as a virus for example, the outcome of this abnormal chromatic vibration is likely to be an infection acquired by magnetic affinity. Epidemics such as cholera, are the consequence of man’s sin, though his neglect of hygienic laws, of cleanliness and good drainage, are preventable. But there are also climatic conditions, as those in the outbreak of cholera in 1884, when the epidemic seemed confined to certain areas, following some law of atmospheric currents. Number 9 represents the earth under the influence of an evil principle. It is a digit dreaded by the ancients, for its natural depravity is awful. Influenza epidemics have a mysterious predilection for royalty. That which is now called influenza was known before as the grippe, and the latter devastated Europe centuries before the cholera made its first appearance in the so-called civilized lands. Epidemics of influenza and other respiratory tract infections are often caused by an abnormal exuberance of ozone in the air. The real ozone is the Elixir of Life. Thought is neither less material nor less objective than the elusive germs of infectious diseases — current and continuously emerging — the causes of which are such a puzzle for modern science. Since the mind of a living person can psychologize another mind at will, so can the thought of a person already dead. Mental epidemics are often caused by sorcerers who arouse the earth-bound shadows of the dead to hallucinate the minds of good men. Moral taint is as communicable as the physical. Bad companions will degrade personal magnetism and this is more pernicious than the impressions conveyed to the eye or the ear. The latter may be repelled by avoiding seeing or hearing what is bad; but the moral poison of the former, floating in the air, enwraps the sensitive and penetrates his very being. A negatively polarized man, a man of a susceptible temperament, if exposed to a current of foul emanations from some vicious person will be absorb the insidious poison until he is saturated by it. Likewise, a susceptible body will absorb pathogenic microorganisms. The two best remedies for the sensitive to have his sensitiveness destroyed, is to change his negative polarity to positive, and to avoid passivity at all costs by maintaining full control of his mind at all times. While the fear that the presence of the dead brings pollution to the living is no better than a superstition, the real cause of the religious prohibition not to handle too closely the dead and to bury them without first subjecting the bodies to the disinfectant process of fire, vultures, or nitric acid, was as beneficent in its results as it was wise, since it was the best and most necessary sanitary precaution against epidemics. The Astral Light is no light, it is a huge storehouse of human corruption and degeneracy. It gives out nothing but what it has received; it is the great terrestrial crucible, in which the vile emanations of the earth (moral, psychic, and physical, upon which the Astral Light is fed) are all converted into their subtlest essence, radiated back intensified, and then spread as epidemics — moral, psychic, and physical.

Ethical and Legal Considerations in Mitigating Pandemic Disease

Ethical and Legal Considerations in Mitigating Pandemic Disease
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2007-07-08
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309107695

In recent public workshops and working group meetings, the Forum on Microbial Threats of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has examined a variety of infectious disease outbreaks with pandemic potential, including those caused by influenza (IOM, 2005) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) (IOM, 2004). Particular attention has been paid to the potential pandemic threat posed by the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which is now endemic in many Southeast Asian bird populations. Since 2003, the H5N1 subtype of avian influenza has caused 185 confirmed human deaths in 11 countries, including some cases of viral transmission from human to human (WHO, 2007). But as worrisome as these developments are, at least they are caused by known pathogens. The next pandemic could well be caused by the emergence of a microbe that is still unknown, much as happened in the 1980s with the emergence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and in 2003 with the appearance of the SARS coronavirus. Previous Forum meetings on pandemic disease have discussed the scientific and logistical challenges associated with pandemic disease recognition, identification, and response. Participants in these earlier meetings also recognized the difficulty of implementing disease control strategies effectively. Ethical and Legal Considerations in Mitigating Pandemic Disease: Workshop Summary as a factual summary of what occurred at the workshop.

The Hidden Epidemic

The Hidden Epidemic
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 446
Release: 1997-03-28
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 030917547X

The United States has the dubious distinction of leading the industrialized world in overall rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), with 12 million new cases annually. About 3 million teenagers contract an STD each year, and many will have long-term health problems as a result. Women and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to these diseases and their health consequences. In addition, STDs increase the risk of HIV transmission. The Hidden Epidemic examines the scope of sexually transmitted infections in the United States and provides a critical assessment of the nation's response to this public health crisis. The book identifies the components of an effective national STD prevention and control strategy and provides direction for an appropriate response to the epidemic. Recommendations for improving public awareness and education, reaching women and adolescents, integrating public health programs, training health care professionals, modifying messages from the mass media, and supporting future research are included. The book documents the epidemiological dimensions and the economic and social costs of STDs, describing them as "a secret epidemic" with tremendous consequences. The committee frankly discusses the confusing and often hypocritical nature of how Americans deal with issues regarding sexualityâ€"the conflicting messages conveyed in the mass media, the reluctance to promote condom use, the controversy over sex education for teenagers, and the issue of personal blame. The Hidden Epidemic identifies key elements of effective, culturally appropriate programs to promote healthy behavior by adolescents and adults. It examines the problem of fragmentation in STD services and provides examples of communities that have formed partnerships between stakeholders to develop integrated approaches. The committee's recommendations provide a practical foundation on which to build an integrated national program to help young people and adults develop habits of healthy sexuality. The Hidden Epidemic was written for both health care professionals and people without a medical background and will be indispensable to anyone concerned about preventing and controlling STDs.

The philosopher’s stone is Triune Unity, and the end of all philosophers

The philosopher’s stone is Triune Unity, and the end of all philosophers
Author: Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Publisher: Philaletheians UK
Total Pages: 110
Release: 2024-08-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

Part 1. Mystery is the negation of common sense, just as metaphysics is a kind of poetry. Ten axiomatic propositions of eastern philosophy. Part 2. There are two kinds of seership, spiritual and sensuous. Spiritual seership is pellucid vistas of cosmic splendour; sensuous, hazy glimpses of Truth distorted by matter. Part 3. The exercise of Will-power is the highest form of prayer, followed by an instant response. Eight Vedantic precepts of man’s mystic powers, and their appellations. Part 4. An illusionary “double” or doppelganger can be projected to any location. There are three kinds of “doubles” or astral bodies. Part 5. Feats and wonders by learned thaumaturgists, skilled in occult science. Conjuration, ceremonies, circle-making, and incense-burning are as ridiculous as they are useless. Part 6. The adept-magician can release the astral soul from the cremated remains and thus facilitate the withdrawal of the astral soul of the deceased, which otherwise might remain stupefied for an indefinite period within the ashes. Part 7. The disappearance from sight of a flame, symbol of Divine Light, does not imply its actual extinction. The spirit of the flame is inextinguishable. Part 8. Pure Buddhism possesses all the breadth that can be claimed from a doctrine, at once religious and scientific. Its tolerance excites the jealousy of none. Part 9. Magnetism is the alphabet of magic. The glorified human spirit is far more beauteous than its physical capsule. Part 10. The Todas resemble the statue of the Grecian Zeus, in majesty and beauty of form. Part 11. Shamanism is the heathenism of Mongolia, and one of the oldest religions of India. In is an offshoot of primitive theurgy, a practical blending of the visible with the invisible world. Part 12. The philosopher’s stone is no stone, it is Triune Unity and the end of all philosophers. Man is also a stone, potentially, a living foundation upon which he can build a temple, pure as flaming diamond, fit for his Higher Self to shine through him and become a beneficent power on earth. Part 13. The longevity of Lamas and the Talapoins of Siam is proverbial. Part 14. To deride wonders is easy; to explain them, troublesome; to dissect scientifically, impossible. How the brave warrior’s feet proved less nimble than his tongue. Part 15. Shamanism and its spirit-worship, is the most despised of all surviving religions. Still, many Russians are convinced of the Shamans’ supernatural powers. Part 16. The Kurdish rites and doctrines are purely magical and magian. They unify the mysticism of the Hindu with the practices of the Assyrio-Chaldean magians. Part 17. The plastic power of imagination, when impregnated with the potentiality of good or bad, generates a current which attaches itself to anyone who comes within it. “Evil eye” is the effect of venomous thoughts from the spell a malicious person. Part 18. The subjective end of matter, is pure spirit; the objective end, crystallised spirit. There being but One Truth, man requires but One Church, which is the Temple of God within us, walled-in by dense matter. Part 19. Modern Spiritualism is neither a science, nor a religion, not even a philosophy. To the spiritualists we offer philosophical deduction, instead of unverifiable hypothesis; scientific analysis and demonstration, instead of undiscriminating faith. Part 20. Our work is done. The enemies of Truth have been all counted, and paraded for all to see. Modern science, powerless to satisfy the aspirations of the race, makes the future a void, and bereaves man of hope. Paganism is ancient wisdom replete with Deity. And today, it rules the world in secret. Part 21. If ye love me, keep my commandments. Commentary on John xiv, 15–17. Appendix A. The Fire which devours itself is more mighty than ordinary fire. Appendix B. Biography of Francis Gerry Fairfield.

Akasha versus Astral Light

Akasha versus Astral Light
Author: Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Publisher: Philaletheians UK
Total Pages: 29
Release: 2019-04-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

In its highest aspect, Akasha is Divine mind reflected in the waters of Space or Chaos. It is undifferentiated Noumenal and Abstract Space, which will be occupied by Primordial Consciousness. Akasha has several fields: The first is the field of latent consciousness which is coeval with the duration of the First and Second Logos. Another Akashic field is coeval with the emergence of the Third Logos. From the latent potentiality there radiates a lower field of differentiated consciousness, which is Mahat, or the entire collectivity of those Dhyani-Chohans of sentient life of which Fohat is the representative on the objective plane and the Manasaputras on the subjective. 1. Akasha is eternal; Astral Light; periodic and ephemeral. The ideals of Divine Mind become reflected and reversed in the Astral Light, which also reflects the life of our Earth. 2. Akasha is eternal divine consciousness, undifferentiated, and unconditioned. Astral Light is a periodic projection of the One Celestial Unconsciousness to myriads of terrestrial, individualised consciousnesses. 3. Akasha is the germ within the acorn; Astral Light is the acorn. 4. Akasha is the Divine Soul of Thought and Compassion, a perpetually reasoning Divinity. Compassion, being the Spirit of Truth, is the Law of laws. 5. Akasha is the Soul of the World on the spiritual plane; Astral Light, the Body of the World on the psychic plane. 6. Astral Light is the dregs of Akasha polluted by man’s selfish and perverted thoughts and deeds, storehouse of all human and especially psychic iniquities. Astral Light is bi-sexual. The male part is purely spiritual; the female part, tainted with matter. 7. Astral Light is not even the thought substance of the Universe, but a mere recorder of every thought. Astral Light retains the thoughts and deeds of the animal man; Akasha, those of the Spiritual Man.

The Burdens of Disease

The Burdens of Disease
Author: J. N. Hays
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2009-10-15
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0813548179

A review of the original edition of The Burdens of Disease that appeared in ISIS stated, "Hays has written a remarkable book. He too has a message: That epidemics are primarily dependent on poverty and that the West has consistently refused to accept this." This revised edition confirms the book's timely value and provides a sweeping approach to the history of disease. In this updated volume, with revisions and additions to the original content, including the evolution of drug-resistant diseases and expanded coverage of HIV/AIDS, along with recent data on mortality figures and other relevant statistics, J. N. Hays chronicles perceptions and responses to plague and pestilence over two thousand years of western history. Disease is framed as a multidimensional construct, situated at the intersection of history, politics, culture, and medicine, and rooted in mentalities and social relations as much as in biological conditions of pathology. This revised edition of The Burdens of Disease also studies the victims of epidemics, paying close attention to the relationships among poverty, power, and disease.

Piety and Plague

Piety and Plague
Author: Franco Mormando
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 533
Release: 2007-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 161248008X

Plague was one of the enduring facts of everyday life on the European continent, from earliest antiquity through the first decades of the eighteenth century. It represents one of the most important influences on the development of Europe’s society and culture. In order to understand the changing circumstances of the political, economic, ecclesiastical, artistic, and social history of that continent, it is important to understand epidemic disease and society’s response to it. To date, the largest portion of scholarship about plague has focused on its political, economic, demographic, and medical aspects. This interdisciplinary volume offers greater coverage of the religious and the psychological dimensions of plague and of European society’s response to it through many centuries and over a wide geographical terrain, including Byzantium. This research draws extensively upon a wealth of primary sources, both printed and painted, and includes ample bibliographical reference to the most important secondary sources, providing much new insight into how generations of Europeans responded to this dread disease.

The Ebola Epidemic in West Africa

The Ebola Epidemic in West Africa
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 137
Release: 2016-12-30
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309450063

The most recent Ebola epidemic that began in late 2013 alerted the entire world to the gaps in infectious disease emergency preparedness and response. The regional outbreak that progressed to a significant public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) in a matter of months killed 11,310 and infected more than 28,616. While this outbreak bears some unique distinctions to past outbreaks, many characteristics remain the same and contributed to tragic loss of human life and unnecessary expenditure of capital: insufficient knowledge of the disease, its reservoirs, and its transmission; delayed prevention efforts and treatment; poor control of the disease in hospital settings; and inadequate community and international responses. Recognizing the opportunity to learn from the countless lessons of this epidemic, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop in March 2015 to discuss the challenges to successful outbreak responses at the scientific, clinical, and global health levels. Workshop participants explored the epidemic from multiple perspectives, identified important questions about Ebola that remained unanswered, and sought to apply this understanding to the broad challenges posed by Ebola and other emerging pathogens, to prevent the international community from being taken by surprise once again in the face of these threats. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The Future of Public Health

The Future of Public Health
Author: Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1988-01-15
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309581907

"The Nation has lost sight of its public health goals and has allowed the system of public health to fall into 'disarray'," from The Future of Public Health. This startling book contains proposals for ensuring that public health service programs are efficient and effective enough to deal not only with the topics of today, but also with those of tomorrow. In addition, the authors make recommendations for core functions in public health assessment, policy development, and service assurances, and identify the level of government--federal, state, and local--at which these functions would best be handled.