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2008-04-03T07:17:00.001-07:00

Mudras

Mudras (gesture, seal) are subtle physical movements of the hands, face, and or body. Complex mudras involve the whole body in a combination of asana, pranayama, bandha and visualization, while simple mudras range from hand positions to meditation techniques. The purpose of a mudra is to activate and create a circuit of prana in the body. This circuit channels the prana in a specific way to create a subtle effect on koshas and to regulate and awaken the prana, chakras and kundalini, Mudras are used only after proficiency in asana, pranayama and bandha has been achieved, and when one has obtained some cultivation and awareness of prana. In hatha yoga, the level of progression is asana, pranayama, bandha, mudra, samadhi. Thus, mudra is the advanced practice leading up to the attainment of enlightenment or samadhi. Mudras are the bestowers of the eight divine powers. They are held in high esteem by all the siddhas and are difficult for even the gods to attain. (Hatha Yoga Pradipika, 3:8)

Hasta (hand) mudras used primarily in meditation, but can also be incorporated in asana and pranayama as well as in daily activities. Hasta mudras redirect the prana traveling through the fingers back into the body. These mudras are the most common and numerous of the categories of mudras. Many of the hasta mudras have been developed to help with mental and emotional issues as well as heal physical diseases. Hasta mudras should be done with both hands, with light pressure of the fingers and held for 5-45 minutes.

Mana (head) mudras utilize the sense organs of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and lips. These mudras are done only as meditation exercises and require intense concentration to engage for even short periods of time. Mana mudras are deeply inwardly focusing and induce higher states of consciousness.

Contraction mudras involve the engagement of subtle skeletal muscles, mostly in the area of the pelvis. These mudras concentrate the prana in the body and prime the energy channels (nadis) for the awakening of kundalini.

Kaya (postural) mudras are similar to asana, but combine the other types of simple mudras with pranayama and concentration. These are the most complicated mudras and require the most amounts of concentration and focus to hold. Kaya mudras invigorate the prana in the body and direct the prana into specific chakras (energy centers).

With the exception of hasta mudras, these techniques have traditionally been kept secret and could only be learned from a guru. A list of hasta mudras is now available in our premium yoga poses section.

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2008-04-03T07:16:00.002-07:00

Moksha and Maya

Liberation is not a place; it does not exist in the heavens, the earth or the spirit-world. Freedom has no space, no time, no location; it can only exist in the now, in the present moment. Moksha (liberation, freedom) is the state of non-ego, where the “me” vanishes and one stands free from all desires, actions and consequences in a total state of oneness. We are bound to this material world through attachment, desire, and the inability to see or experience the oneness of all life. Maya (illusion) is both the psychological separation between ego and the universe and the psychological filter that colors all of our experience. Maya is our memories, conceptions, judgments, and biases that present a distorted sense of reality. These impressions of past experiences become superimposed or projected on current experiences creating a false reality. Maya reinforces the ego, strengthens attachment, and defines our individual “story” that defines who we are and our relationship to the external world.

To achive moksha, maya must be cast off, anava (ego) must be dissolved, and both our attachments to pleasure and our aversions to discomfort must be severed. Moksha arises spontaneously when we become completely absorbed in the sensation of an experience without thought. This “taste” of total absorption is common yet fleeting. Through the practice of yoga, we seek to create the tools to consciously and willfully "pierce the veil" of maya and see the transcendent nature of reality. These tools include selfless work (karma yoga), self-dissolving love (bhakti yoga), absolute discernment (jnana yoga), and meditative immersion (raja yoga).

The most fundamental tool yoga gives us to create moksha is conscious awareness. Through the use of awareness we can slowly begin to see our projections, desires, attachments and judgments for what they are. Once these distorting factors become conscious, they are able to dissolve and unblock the way to a direct experience of reality. When we become liberated from the illusionary world of maya we are able to be in yoga: the union of the inner self (Atman) with the oneness of all life (Brahman).

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2008-04-03T07:16:00.001-07:00

Yoga for Tendonitis

Tendonitis is the inflammation or irritation of a tendon (the attachment of a muscle to bone). Excessive repetitive movements most often cause tendonitis, but it can also be caused by a minor impact on the affected area, or from a sudden more serious injury. The symptoms of tendonitis are: pain and stiffness, usually around a joint, which is aggravated by movement. Tendonitis is usually a temporary condition, but may become a recurrent or chronic problem. The healing of tendonitis occurs in two main stages, acute and subacute. Yoga supports the healing process in both stages by activating the body’s lymphatic system and by improving local circulation. Yoga is best used for healing in the subacute stage of tendonitis, as well as for preventing recurring bouts of tendonitis.

For acute tendonitis, rest the injured area for 4-6 days. Do not perform any movements that require strength, aggravate the injury, or produce any pain. Elevating the affected area during the inflammation stage helps to control any swelling thereby reducing the throbbing that often accompanies acute inflammation. Inversion poses will be very helpful to reduce inflammation by activating the lymphatic system, and will also provide elevation if the injury is located in the lower body. After the swelling has subsided (usually after the first 48 to 72 hours), very gentle and slow range of motion movements can be performed, but do not stretch the muscles that trigger the tendonitis pain.

The subacute stage of tendonitis follows and lasts between 1-3 weeks. Gentle stretching is the first step of rehabilitation. Stay focused on the breath and the sensations of the stretch, but do not stretch to the point of pain. The next step is to slowly and gently strengthen the muscles surrounding and attached to the injured tendon. Begin with slow, gentle non-weight bearing movements and gradually increase the amount of motion and number of repetitions. As symptoms resolve, gradually resume using weight-bearing movements. Strengthening the surrounding muscles restores full support to the effected joint and reduces the risk of recurrent tendonitis. An adequate warm-up before and correct posture during yoga is essential in this healing stage of tendonitis.

Once the acute and subacute stages of tendonitis or subsides, preventing recurrences is crucial to avoid developing a chronic condition. Developing conscious use of muscles, correct posture and good alignment as well as reducing repetitive movements are necessary. A regular yoga practice will address all these needs, as well as keep the tendons in good health. Care must be taken in yoga to not push or over stretch that can injure or irritate the tendons.

Tendonitis can sometimes recur with a return to physical activity, and prolonged bouts of this painful condition can lead to a thickening or rupture of the tendon. Thus, if the symptoms of tendonitis reappear, it is essential to return to following the movement guidelines for the acute stage.

A yoga practice should be used to supplement conventional therapy, not replace it. Talk to your doctor if your symptoms do not improve.

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2008-04-03T07:15:00.001-07:00

Yoga Therapy for Eating Disorders

In the United States, anorexia nervosa and bulimia affect nearly 10 million women and one million men, primarily teens and young adults, according to conservative estimates. Often thought only as a mental disease, new research is finding that eating disorders have a physical component as well. Eating disorders are complex and potentially life-threatening conditions that arise from a combination of behavioral, emotional, psychological, interpersonal, biological, and social factors. People with eating disorders often use food and the control of food in an attempt to numb or avoid feelings and emotions that are over-whelming. Yoga can be an effective tool to restore the imbalances in both the body and the mind that occur with eating disorders. Yoga has a profound ability to balance the emotions and has been shown to help relieve depression, anger and anxiety and to promote equanimity: a calm, clear focused mind. Yoga can also promote self-esteem and a positive body image, which play primary roles in eating disorders, through the cultivation of non-judgment, confidence, self-acceptance, openness and inner strength. Physically, a regular yoga practice can help rebuild the strength, energy and bone density that is damaged and lost with Anorexia.

Eating disorders are viewed as a dysfunction of the first chakra in the yogic energetic system. To balance this chakra, use poses that target the area of the base of the spine, such as: staff posture, bound angle, crab, full wind relieving pose, pigeon and locust. Use grounding postures such as Warrior 1 and 2, mountain, goddess, standing squat, child, and prayer squat to connect with the body, to become rooted to the earth and to build strength and courage. If depression is a strong contributing factor, backbending poses will be beneficial for their energizing, tonifying and heart opening qualities. If anxiety is a primary contributing factor, forward bends can be utilized for their calming and nurturing aspects.

When practicing yoga postures, the use of Pratyahara (inner focus) should be applied. The exterior alignment should be de-emphasized and the focus should be drawn deeply inwards to experience and explore the feeling and sensations that arise in the poses. By withdrawing attention from the external environment and by focusing inwards on the breath and sensations, the mind can be stilled and the awareness of the body increases. With this awareness and focus it is possible to move deeper into the practice of yoga and increases the ability for one to move through any limitations, fears and expectations.

Pranayama (yogic breathing exercises) are also helpful to calm the body and mind and to balance the energy in the body during the recovery stage of the disease. Nadi Sodhana Pranayama (alternate nostril breathing) is balancing, calming and reduces anxiety. Dirga Pranayama (three part breath) is calming, grounding and nurturing.

As eating disorders have a large mental component to them, the practice of meditation is very beneficial to cultivate a sense of control over life’s events and to reduce obsessive thoughts. A general meditation practice will be beneficial, but using an active and targeted meditation would be more effective. Practice any or all of the following based upon what calls you to be invoked within yourself: Inner Peace Meditation, Third Eye Meditation, Root Chakra Meditation or Prana Healing Meditation. If it becomes uncomfortable to practice with the eyes closed, have them slightly open with a soft downward gaze.

The most important aspect of healing from an eating disorder is the individual’s awareness and acceptance that there is a problem and the genuine desire for change. Unfortunately, the denial that there is a problem often does not change until the late stages of the disease when serious complications arise. Yoga’s inherent ability to promote self-awareness and self-acceptance can play a role in realizing the problem is within, although yoga is usually more readily embraced in the recovery stages of the disease.

Yoga is not a substitute for conventional medical treatment; please consult your medical professional before starting a yoga practice.

On our Membership Site: A complete list of yoga poses for Eating Disorders and a yoga therapy resource guide for Eating Disorders.

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2008-04-03T07:14:00.000-07:00

(NewsTarget) A cocktail of nutrients can improve the quality of life in those diagnosed with HIV infection and markedly slow deterioration into full-blown AIDS, according to the results of a new trial conducted at the Mengo Hospital in Kampala, Uganda.

The study, published in the latest edition of The Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, involved 310 patients divided into two groups, one of whom received daily multivitamin and mineral capsules containing 30 nutrients, whilst the second group received capsules containing the same multinutrients in combination with specific antioxidants, such as selenium, N-acetyl-cysteine and alpha-lipoic acid, designed to raise levels of the natural antiretroviral enzyme glutathione peroxidase. The scientists also sought to measure the effect of the nutrients on CD4 T lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell, low levels of which are often associated with HIV/AIDS progression), as well as body weight and quality of life parameters.

Of the 263 patients who completed the trial, average CD4 and glutathione peroxidase counts improved significantly in both groups, as did average weight (by approximately 1kg), along with some apparently remarkable changes in physical condition; 'many patients... described significant appetite increases, together with the return of their ability to walk long distances' wrote lead author Edith Namulemia.

The trial was conceived of by Dr. Harold Foster of the University of Victoria, British Columbia, who has previously authored a book on the subject of nutritional treatment for HIV infection. The premise behind both Foster’s book, entitled What Really Causes AIDS and the trial is that HIV causes AIDS by 'hijacking' cells, impersonating glutathione peroxidase, and stealing four key nutrients that are needed to produce it, those being tryptophan, cysteine, selenium and glutamine.

These deficiencies, claims Dr. Foster, account largely for the various symptoms experienced by the HIV-infected patient: a severe deficiency of selenium and glutamine being responsible for rapid immune system deterioration, while tryptophan abnormalities are associated with psychological disturbances, which tend to appear during the latter stages of the disease. It is also selenium, Foster notes, that appears to be deficient in the soil of the most prevalent areas of HIV/AIDS in Africa. The discovery that HIV acts in such a way was made by Dr. E. W. Taylor and colleagues at the University of Georgia, and the so-called 'selenium CD4 T cell tailspin' theory of AIDS appeared to gain some credibility from two smaller trials elsewhere in Africa, in which patients diagnosed as HIV infected improved through taking the four nutrients central to Foster's AIDS hypothesis.

Dr. Foster is not the first scientist to question the validity of the original theory of AIDS. In 1987, Dr. Peter Duesberg, a virologist at the University of California, Berkeley, created controversy with an article that claimed HIV may have no relationship with AIDS at all. Since then, Duesberg has been joined by a number of other scientists, including Nobel Prize winner Dr. Kary Mullis, in calling for a reappraisal of the true causes of the disease. However, 'the epidemiology and geography of the AIDS pandemic', argues Foster, 'clearly illustrate that Duesberg and his supporters are wrong'.

This latest study, the scientist and his co-authors suggest, adds further credence to the possibility that HIV infection causes immune system abnormalities that can be reversed with targeted nutritional supplementation, and concluded that 'nutrient combinations, taken by HIV-positive patients receiving no antiretroviral drugs, can significantly slow their decline into AIDS'. This calls for further studies to establish optimum dosages and nutrient combinations.

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2008-03-19T04:33:00.001-07:00

(NewsTarget) Thailand has authorized compulsory licenses to produce generic versions of two patented drugs, one being a HIV/AIDS antiretroviral drug, breaking the patents held by drug companies.
The decision comes at the protest of the World Health Organization, which wanted the country to come to a compromise solution with the drug companies to negotiate lower prices.
The WHO also has concerns that government-produced generics will not be of the same quality or effectiveness compared to the patented drugs.
The drugs involved are Kaletra, an HIV/AIDS antiretroviral drug produced by Abbott Laboratories from Illinois, and the blood-thinning medication Plavix, a popular drug produced by Bristol-Meyers Squibb. Thailand's distribution of licenses to make the drugs is permitted by World Trade Organization rules, which say the country can declare a "national emergency" to produce the drugs and override held patents.
Thailand's breaking of the local patent on Kaletra comes four months after the country broke the patent on another HIV/AIDS drug, Efavirenz by Merck.
Among its population of 64 million people, Thailand has more than 580,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, and its national health care system attempts to treat more than 82,000 HIV-positive people.
The move to make generics is expected to save the government $24 million in costs: Treating a person using Kaletra costs the government more than $4,000 a year, whereas using a generic would cost an estimated $1,400 a year, meaning the comparative cost of using a generic is up to two-thirds less.
Kaletra is used in Thailand for patients whose HIV has overpowered a weaker government-produced drug given to them as a first line of defense. Plavix, the other drug that Thailand broke the patent for, is one of the top five drugs sold worldwide, with sales of nearly $6 billion in 2005 alone.
Breaking patents and licensing these generic drugs could improve the Thai government's ability to negotiate lower drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, the director of the Thailand-based Aids Access Foundation, Nimit Tien-udom, was reported as saying by the Thai News Agency.
Thailand is not the only country to break patents: India and Brazil are examples of other countries that produce generic versions of patented drugs under the "national emergency" regulations of the WTO.

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2008-03-19T04:32:00.000-07:00

(NewsTarget) A legal challenge from drug maker Novartis to current Indian patent law could halt Indian companies from selling generic copies of drugs to combat AIDS and cancer to the third world.
When India joined the World Trade Organization in 1995, they had ten years to update their patent laws to a standard law used for patents. That change happened in 2005, but during the late 1990s India became a force in the third world market for generic drugs. With this in mind, India soon added a provision in its patent law that restricts patents from being placed on existing drugs, whether patented by a company or not elsewhere, that hold important therapeutic properties.
It is this provision that prompted Novartis to file suit.
The lawsuit stems from an attempt by Novartis to patent a new, modified version of their leukemia drug in India. The drug, Glivec, is widely copied as a generic by Indian drug manufacturers.
Pharmaceutical companies argue that generic copies are harming their business – to the tune of millions each year -- but opponents argue that shutting down Indian production of cheap generic drugs could cause many people in Africa and other parts of the third world to no longer be able to afford AIDS medication and other drugs.
"Novartis is now engaged in a type of intellectual property imperialism that would force the poorest people in the world to pay royalties to the richest corporations in the world," said Mike Adams, author of "Natural Health Solutions." "I believe that no medicines should be given patent protection, and that medicines belong to the people of the world, not greedy corporations that deliberately withhold medicine from countries in order to extract the maximum financial gain regardless of the cost in human lives."
Outside of India, other major countries in the generic drug business are Brazil, Canada and China, says AVERT, an international AIDS charity.

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2008-03-19T04:31:00.002-07:00

Health officials in Lawrenceville, Georgia have arrested and jailed Francisco Santos, a teenager who tried to walk out of a hospital and go home after being diagnosed with TB (tuberculosis). Instead of allowing him to leave the hospital, health authorities arrested and jailed the teen, throwing him in into a 15 x 20 foot isolation chamber and not allowing him to leave until he submitted to chemical treatments pushed by doctors at the hospital. Francisco is being described as "...a threat to public safety" due to his tuberculosis.

Francisco's plight is the latest episode in a growing number of "gunpoint medicine" episodes where individuals are being arrested at gunpoint and thrown into jails or detainment centers until they submit to treatment with pharmaceuticals, chemotherapy, radiation or surgery. NewsTarget has covered other cases of gunpoint medicine, including:

• Katie Wernecke, a teenage cancer patient who was kidnapped by Texas authorities and forced to submit to chemotherapy. Her parents were arrested and subjected to actions by Child Protective Services, who took Katie away. This all happened because Katie's parents refused to subject their daughter to chemotherapy and wanted to pursue safer, more natural holistic medical therapies.

• Abraham Cherrix, a 16-year old cancer patient who also refused a second round of chemotherapy after the first round nearly killed him. His doctor was outraged that Abraham would refuse chemotherapy and called Child Protective Services who had Abraham's parents arrested at gunpoint. CPS then took over joint custody of the child and attempted to force the teen to submit to barbaric cancer treatments like radiation and chemotherapy.

In this latest example of Gunpoint Medicine, 17-year old Francisco Santos is now being held against his will and will apparently be incarcerated for as long as doctors believe he is a threat to the safety of others. He's also being told he cannot leave until he takes medication.
Patients, or Prisoners?
As these cases of Gunpoint Medicine clearly demonstrate, you now surrender your rights when you walk into a hospital. You are not a patient; you are a prisoner. And if the medical authorities, in their own opinion, perceive you as resisting their authority, they can have you arrested on the spot, without a court order, without a trial, and even when you pose no threat to others (such as having cancer). These medical arrests are taking place in clear violation of both the Fourth Amendment (protection from unreasonable search and seizure) and Fifth Amendment (due process) of the U.S. Bill of Rights.

Just as worrisome, law enforcement authorities are supporting these tyrannical actions of doctors, effectively providing firepower to what can only be called the "tyranny branch" of modern medicine. Any system of medicine that requires firearms to motivate patients is, in my opinion, more a system of control than a system of healing. Whatever happened to, "First, do no harm?"

Remember this the next time you enter a hospital or clinic: By subjecting yourself to the false authority of a doctor, you are in effect surrendering your freedoms and shall only be allowed to leave the hospital or clinic by the grace of the physician! If they decide that, for whatever reason, you should not be allowed to leave the hospital, you may be arrested at gunpoint and thrown into jail for an indefinite period of time until you agree to undergo their toxic -- even deadly -- treatments.
But isn't Santos contagious?
Skeptics of this assessment will point out that Santos has a contagious form of TB and is a genuine threat to society. Therefore, the thinking goes, medical authorities are justified in locking him up against his will, without a trial or court order.

That's a fascinating bit of delusional thinking. If you believe that, then you must also believe that health authorities should round up all AIDS patients and throw them into detention camps "for the safety of the public." After all, if you believe that TB is a disease that's dangerous enough to lock people away for having, then why not AIDS? Why not HPV, Hepatitis, or any upper respiratory illness that might pose a health hazard to some senior citizen? Once you cross the line of arresting people against their will for showing symptoms of one particular contagious disease, then you have to follow through and arrest everyone with similarly dangerous diseases.

Of course, if that happened, half the country would be behind bars, because the truth is that there are people everywhere who carry infectious germs. Simply walking through any airport exposes you to countless strains of bacteria, fungi and viruses that might pose a risk to your health.

And how about all the dangerous elderly drivers doped up on medication? I've seen some crazy Alzheimer's patients operating vehicles who should never be allowed to drive and are a clear threat to the safety of other drivers. Why aren't these people being locked up for the safety of the public? (I'm not saying they should be, but if you're going to be consistent here, locking up TB patients means locking up all kinds of other people...)

The gunpoint approach that has been invoked to imprison Santos is a demonstration of modern medical madness. The mainstream media has stirred the people into a frenzy over freewheeling lawyer Andrew Speaker and his TB infection, and now health authorities are so paranoid about being blamed for allowing a TB patient to walk free that they would rather trample on Santos' rights than expose themselves to professional risk. Apparently, the only requirement for locking someone up who shows symptoms of an infectious disease is that the particular disease has received a lot of mention in the press and the public is now scared silly over it.

Can you imagine the outcry if medical authorities started locking up AIDS patients? Don't dismiss this idea: It could be next. Any tyrannical health system that can stick a gun in the face of a teenage boy with TB and throw him in prison is perfectly capable of sticking a gun in the face of an AIDS patient and locking them away, too. Today it's TB, tomorrow it could be HIV. (Just wait for the "AIDS camps" to become official U.S. policy...)
Enjoy your freedom? Don't visit doctors
All this explains why I continue to encourage people to avoid doctors altogether. It's much better to take care of your health through exercise, strong nutritional habits, superfoods consumption and outright avoidance of toxic chemicals. Stay healthy and you won't need to see a doctor... ever! (I've known many people who have never seen a doctor in their entire lives, and yet are extremely healthy and long-lived.) I don't visit doctors, and I foresee no need to ever visit one unless I suffer some sort of accident or acute injury.

If you value your freedom, stay as far away from conventional doctors as possible. As you've seen here, they can have you locked up at their discretion, even without a shred of evidence that you're really dangerous to others.
Tuberculosis myths
This "highly infectious form of TB," for example, is largely a medical myth. Allow me to explain: The bacterium certainly does exist, and it can be passed through the air, but the most important point that still escapes the understanding of conventional medical authorities is that vitamin D prevents TB infections. The only people susceptible to TB infectious are those who are chronically deficient in vitamin D! That includes people who don't get enough sunlight (or who have been brainwashed into using sunscreen all the time) and who eat atrocious diets lacking in vitamin D sources like fish oils. The problem with TB is not simply the person walking around with the bacteria, it's the people who are in such poor nutritional health that they're practically begging to be infected by something.

This is why TB is now an epidemic in the UK, by the way: There's very little sunlight at that latitude, and more than 80 percent of UK citizens are vitamin D deficient. (It also explains the ongoing problems with dental health and bone fractures in the UK, but that's a different story...)
An incredible double standard
What's all this about doctors pretending to "protect the public" anyway? They claim to be locking up Santos in order to protect the health of the public, and yet they'll send patients home by the thousands with prescriptions for toxic pharmaceuticals that harm everyone! FDA-approved prescription drugs are now the 4th leading cause of death in the United States (tuberculosis isn't even close). I suppose if we were to really take steps to protect the general public, we should actually be locking up the drug-pushing doctors! They are right now killing far more patients than any infectious disease.

Think about it: Oncologists openly push dangerous chemotherapy drugs that cause permanent damage to the brain, heart, liver and kidneys, even while insisting that patients take no vitamins, superfoods or nutritional supplements to protect their healthy cells during the chemo treatments. General Practitioners send patients home with prescriptions for dangerous COX-2 inhibitor drugs, diabetes drugs, statin drugs and psychotropic drugs that kill, at minimum, tens of thousands of Americans every year through heart attacks, strokes, liver failure and suicides. Where is the call to protect the public from these dangerous chemicals that are causing casualty numbers resembling a world war?

Where is the effort to protect the public from all the dangerous cancer-causing food additives like sodium nitrite? Hydrogenated oils? Chemical preservatives and sweeteners? With the American population more diseased than ever before in the history of human civilization, and drug companies inundating the people with deadly chemicals, I find it astounding that health authorities would see one teenager with TB as such a huge threat that they have to arrest him at gunpoint. Doesn't this seem a bit strange to you?

If guns are to be drawn at all, they should be drawn during the arrest of corrupt FDA officials, evil Big Pharma operatives and unethical food company CEOs who are knowingly killing hundreds of thousands of Americans each year with their highly-profitable chemicals, additives and medicines. Francisco Santos is not a threat to your health, but modern medicine certainly is! And the FDA is without question a threat to your health and safety. In previous stories on this site, I've documented how the FDA is far more dangerous to Americans than any terrorist threat.
Take your meds or go to jail!
Our nation's health authorities have gone mad. They're all focused on the wrong things, and they've managed to get the public frenzied up about all the wrong things, too. They've got people scared silly about antioxidants, believing that vitamins will kill them (but that pharmaceuticals will save them!).

They've also managed to get people to believe that infectious diseases are caused SOLELY by the presence of the virus or bacterium -- an idea that's utter nonsense. An infectious agent is only a threat when the body is suppressed enough to be susceptible to infection. The real cause of an infection is just as much a weakened immune system as it is the presence of the virus, yet conventional medicine focuses solely on the presence of the virus and dismisses the role of the immune system in preventing infection.

I say we should Free Santos! He is no more of a threat to public health than your typical doctor, and no patient should be imprisoned by hospital authorities simply for having an infection of a disease that doesn't even pose a threat to healthy individuals.

The alternative is to turn the U.S. into a medical police state, where anybody with a cough is arrested at gunpoint, and AIDS patients are thrown into detainment camps, and anybody who refuses "treatment" with synthetic chemicals gets thrown into jail. Imagine being arrested for not taking your statin drugs, antidepressants or blood thinners. Big Pharma is trying to create a society where "treatment" with drugs is mandatory, and anyone who refuses to take their chemicals will be considered a criminal. Parents are already being arrested for not subjecting their children to chemotherapy or giving in to ADHD drugs. If this trend continues, it won't be long before anyone who rejects vaccinations, drugs and psychiatric medications will be considered a criminal (or terrorist). Parents, be warned: The State is out to medicate your child, and if you resist, you may have your children taken away!

In a nation where so many people claim we're sending soldiers off to war in order to "fight for our freedoms," I find it astounding that patients in hospitals are being treated like Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Personally, I think Santos should sue the hospital and local law enforcement authorities for violating his civil liberties. What, exactly, is his crime anyway? If being sick is a crime, then practically this entire nation should be locked up, because we're the most diseased population in the modern world.

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2008-03-19T04:31:00.001-07:00

(NewsTarget) The developing world sees more deaths from diarrhoea than AIDS, or malaria annually. And yet, many people have been lead to believe these diseases are the true killers in places like Africa. AIDS is a devastating disease, and can take years to slowly kill someone, but a bad case of diarrhoea for a child that is chronically malnourished can kill in days.

According to UNICEF and the World Health Organization, the number of children that die from diarrhoea reaches 2.2 million a year. Malaria kills over one million, 1.1 million children under 15 in Africa are living with HIV, and a total of 4 million in the world for children under 15 are living with the retrovirus. A total of 610,000 deaths from AIDS occur in children annually. These numbers are staggering – but worst of all, a case of diarrhoea can be solved very simply through rehydration. This involves dissolving a sugar based product and salt in water, and giving this to the child.

Granted, the water used to make this mixture must be clean. But cleaning water, thanks to an invention that costs $5 as reported in a previous Newstarget article, can be an inexpensive while saving lives. As reported in a Science Daily article, a simple “biosand” filter, which are concrete containers that hold gravel and sand, have been shown to reduce the cases of diarrhoea by up to 40%. The researchers wanted some verifiable proof that the biosand filters did the job, so they studied a few Dominican Republic villages and came up with very good results which can easily be adopted in many poor countries.

Many health practitioners would not recommend using refined white sugar, and would recommend honey products instead for the rehydration mixture. Dried honey could be substituted in these mixtures giving many additional health benefits, besides rehydrating the child.

Honey has anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal properties, and is a natural humectant (attracts and retains moisture). Liquid honey never goes bad when left on the self and can be used topically as an antiseptic. And if that wasn’t enough, daily consumption of honey raises blood levels of protective antioxidant compounds in humans. This is according to research presented at the 227th meeting of the American Chemical Society in Anaheim, CA, March 28, 2004.

In addition to honey, a high quality sea salt, or rock crystal salt, would increase the health benefit of the rehydration mixture. Halite, or rock sat, is the mineral form of sodium chloride, your typical table salt, usually highly refined and stripped of trace minerals. By adding this high quality salt to the rehydration mixture, these malnourished, dehydrated children, would be getting extra minerals along with the desperately needed electrolytes.

There has been other, natural, advances to help combat deadly, bacteria induced diarrhoea in children. Scienc Daily reports that ginger can be added to the arsenal. An extract of ginger blocked the toxin responsible for diarrhoea caused by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (E. coli), in studies using lab mice by Chien-Yun Hsiang and colleagues.

What can we do to raise awareness of this issue that is the easiest, and yet most deadly, problem for developing world children? Contact the Red Cross, UNICEF, World Health Organization, or your congressman, and spread the word to your friends and family. Many people will wear a pin or bracelet for AIDS, but a simple glass of water, with honey, sea salt and ginger could save more children’s lives this year.

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2008-03-19T04:30:00.000-07:00

Think U.S. health authorities have never conducted outrageous medical experiments on children, women, minorities, homosexuals and inmates? Think again: This timeline, originally put together by Dani Veracity (a NewsTarget reporter), has been edited and updated with recent vaccination experimentation programs in Maryland and New Jersey. Here's what's really happening in the United States when it comes to exploiting the public for medical experimentation:

(1845 - 1849) J. Marion Sims, later hailed as the "father of gynecology," performs medical experiments on enslaved African women without anesthesia. These women would usually die of infection soon after surgery. Based on his belief that the movement of newborns' skull bones during protracted births causes trismus, he also uses a shoemaker's awl, a pointed tool shoemakers use to make holes in leather, to practice moving the skull bones of babies born to enslaved mothers (Brinker).
(1895)
New York pediatrician Henry Heiman infects a 4-year-old boy whom he calls "an idiot with chronic epilepsy" with gonorrhea as part of a medical experiment ("Human Experimentation: Before the Nazi Era and After").
(1896)
Dr. Arthur Wentworth turns 29 children at Boston's Children's Hospital into human guinea pigs when he performs spinal taps on them, just to test whether the procedure is harmful (Sharav).
(1906)
Harvard professor Dr. Richard Strong infects prisoners in the Philippines with cholera to study the disease; 13 of them die. He compensates survivors with cigars and cigarettes. During the Nuremberg Trials, Nazi doctors cite this study to justify their own medical experiments (Greger, Sharav).
(1911)
Dr. Hideyo Noguchi of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research publishes data on injecting an inactive syphilis preparation into the skin of 146 hospital patients and normal children in an attempt to develop a skin test for syphilis. Later, in 1913, several of these children's parents sue Dr. Noguchi for allegedly infecting their children with syphilis ("Reviews and Notes: History of Medicine: Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America before the Second World War").
(1913)
Medical experimenters "test" 15 children at the children's home St. Vincent's House in Philadelphia with tuberculin, resulting in permanent blindness in some of the children. Though the Pennsylvania House of Representatives records the incident, the researchers are not punished for the experiments ("Human Experimentation: Before the Nazi Era and After").
(1915)
Dr. Joseph Goldberger, under order of the U.S. Public Health Office, produces Pellagra, a debilitating disease that affects the central nervous system, in 12 Mississippi inmates to try to find a cure for the disease. One test subject later says that he had been through "a thousand hells." In 1935, after millions die from the disease, the director of the U.S Public Health Office would finally admit that officials had known that it was caused by a niacin deficiency for some time, but did nothing about it because it mostly affected poor African-Americans. During the Nuremberg Trials, Nazi doctors used this study to try to justify their medical experiments on concentration camp inmates (Greger; Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).
(1932)
(1932-1972) The U.S. Public Health Service in Tuskegee, Ala. diagnoses 400 poor, black sharecroppers with syphilis but never tells them of their illness nor treats them; instead researchers use the men as human guinea pigs to follow the symptoms and progression of the disease. They all eventually die from syphilis and their families are never told that they could have been treated (Goliszek, University of Virginia Health System Health Sciences Library).
(1939)
In order to test his theory on the roots of stuttering, prominent speech pathologist Dr. Wendell Johnson performs his famous "Monster Experiment" on 22 children at the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home in Davenport. Dr. Johnson and his graduate students put the children under intense psychological pressure, causing them to switch from speaking normally to stuttering heavily. At the time, some of the students reportedly warn Dr. Johnson that, "in the aftermath of World War II, observers might draw comparisons to Nazi experiments on human subjects, which could destroy his career" (Alliance for Human Research Protection).
(1941)
Dr. William C. Black infects a 12-month-old baby with herpes as part of a medical experiment. At the time, the editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Francis Payton Rous, calls it "an abuse of power, an infringement of the rights of an individual, and not excusable because the illness which followed had implications for science" (Sharav).

An article in a 1941 issue of Archives of Pediatrics describes medical studies of the severe gum disease Vincent's angina in which doctors transmit the disease from sick children to healthy children with oral swabs (Goliszek).

Researchers give 800 poverty-stricken pregnant women at a Vanderbilt University prenatal clinic "cocktails" including radioactive iron in order to determine the iron requirements of pregnant women (Pacchioli).
(1942)
The Chemical Warfare Service begins mustard gas and lewisite experiments on 4,000 members of the U.S. military. Some test subjects don't realize they are volunteering for chemical exposure experiments, like 17-year-old Nathan Schnurman, who in 1944 thinks he is only volunteering to test "U.S. Navy summer clothes" (Goliszek).

Merck Pharmaceuticals President George Merck is named director of the War Research Service (WRS), an agency designed to oversee the establishment of a biological warfare program (Goliszek).

(1944 - 1946) A captain in the medical corps addresses an April 1944 memo to Col. Stanford Warren, head of the Manhattan Project's Medical Section, expressing his concerns about atom bomb component fluoride's central nervous system (CNS) effects and asking for animal research to be done to determine the extent of these effects: "Clinical evidence suggests that uranium hexafluoride may have a rather marked central nervous system effect ... It seems most likely that the F [code for fluoride] component rather than the T [code for uranium] is the causative factor ... Since work with these compounds is essential, it will be necessary to know in advance what mental effects may occur after exposure." The following year, the Manhattan Project would begin human-based studies on fluoride's effects (Griffiths and Bryson).

The Manhattan Project medical team, led by the now infamous University of Rochester radiologist Col. Safford Warren, injects plutonium into patients at the University's teaching hospital, Strong Memorial (Burton Report).
(1945)
Continuing the Manhattan Project, researchers inject plutonium into three patients at the University of Chicago's Billings Hospital (Sharav).

The U.S. State Department, Army intelligence and the CIA begin Operation Paperclip, offering Nazi scientists immunity and secret identities in exchange for work on top-secret government projects on aerodynamics and chemical warfare medicine in the United States ("Project Paperclip").

(1945 - 1955) In Newburgh, N.Y., researchers linked to the Manhattan Project begin the most extensive American study ever done on the health effects of fluoridating public drinking water (Griffiths and Bryson).
(1946)
Continuing the Newburg study of 1945, the Manhattan Project commissions the University of Rochester to study fluoride's effects on animals and humans in a project codenamed "Program F." With the help of the New York State Health Department, Program F researchers secretly collect and analyze blood and tissue samples from Newburg residents. The studies are sponsored by the Atomic Energy Commission and take place at the University of Rochester Medical Center's Strong Memorial Hospital (Griffiths and Bryson).

(1946 - 1947) University of Rochester researchers inject four male and two female human test subjects with uranium-234 and uranium-235 in dosages ranging from 6.4 to 70.7 micrograms per one kilogram of body weight in order to study how much uranium they could tolerate before their kidneys become damaged (Goliszek).

Six male employees of a Chicago metallurgical laboratory are given water contaminated with plutonium-239 to drink so that researchers can learn how plutonium is absorbed into the digestive tract (Goliszek).

Researchers begin using patients in VA hospitals as test subjects for human medical experiments, cleverly worded as "investigations" or "observations" in medical study reports to avoid negative connotations and bad publicity (Sharav).

The American public finally learns of the biowarfare experiments being done at Fort Detrick from a report released by the War Department (Goliszek).
(1947)
Col. E.E. Kirkpatrick of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) issues a top-secret document (707075) dated Jan. 8. In it, he writes that "certain radioactive substances are being prepared for intravenous administration to human subjects as a part of the work of the contract" (Goliszek).

A secret AEC document dated April 17 reads, "It is desired that no document be released which refers to experiments with humans that might have an adverse reaction on public opinion or result in legal suits," revealing that the U.S. government was aware of the health risks its nuclear tests posed to military personnel conducting the tests or nearby civilians (Goliszek).

The CIA begins studying LSD's potential as a weapon by using military and civilian test subjects for experiments without their consent or even knowledge. Eventually, these LSD studies will evolve into the MKULTRA program in 1953 (Sharav).

(1947 - 1953) The U.S. Navy begins Project Chatter to identify and test so-called "truth serums," such as those used by the Soviet Union to interrogate spies. Mescaline and the central nervous system depressant scopolamine are among the many drugs tested on human subjects (Goliszek).
(1948)
Based on the secret studies performed on Newburgh, N.Y. residents beginning in 1945, Project F researchers publish a report in the August 1948 edition of the Journal of the American Dental Association, detailing fluoride's health dangers. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) quickly censors it for "national security" reasons (Griffiths and Bryson).
(1950)
(1950 - 1953) The U.S. Army releases chemical clouds over six American and Canadian cities. Residents in Winnipeg, Canada, where a highly toxic chemical called cadmium is dropped, subsequently experience high rates of respiratory illnesses (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).

In order to determine how susceptible an American city could be to biological attack, the U.S. Navy sprays a cloud of Bacillus globigii bacteria from ships over the San Francisco shoreline. According to monitoring devices situated throughout the city to test the extent of infection, the eight thousand residents of San Francisco inhale five thousand or more bacteria particles, many becoming sick with pneumonia-like symptoms (Goliszek).

Dr. Joseph Strokes of the University of Pennsylvania infects 200 female prisoners with viral hepatitis to study the disease (Sharav).

Doctors at the Cleveland City Hospital study changes in cerebral blood flow by injecting test subjects with spinal anesthesia, inserting needles in their jugular veins and brachial arteries, tilting their heads down and, after massive blood loss causes paralysis and fainting, measuring their blood pressure. They often perform this experiment multiple times on the same subject (Goliszek).

Dr. D. Ewen Cameron, later of MKULTRA infamy due to his 1957 to1964 experiments on Canadians, publishes an article in the British Journal of Physical Medicine, in which he describes experiments that entail forcing schizophrenic patients at Manitoba's Brandon Mental Hospital to lie naked under 15- to 200-watt red lamps for up to eight hours per day. His other experiments include placing mental patients in an electric cage that overheats their internal body temperatures to 103 degrees Fahrenheit, and inducing comas by giving patients large injections of insulin (Goliszek).
(1951)
The U.S. Army secretly contaminates the Norfolk Naval Supply Center in Virginia and Washington, D.C.'s National Airport with a strain of bacteria chosen because African-Americans were believed to be more susceptible to it than Caucasians. The experiment causes food poisoning, respiratory problems and blood poisoning (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).

(1951 - 1956) Under contract with the Air Force's School of Aviation Medicine (SAM), the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston begins studying the effects of radiation on cancer patients -- many of them members of minority groups or indigents, according to sources -- in order to determine both radiation's ability to treat cancer and the possible long-term radiation effects of pilots flying nuclear-powered planes. The study lasts until 1956, involving 263 cancer patients. Beginning in 1953, the subjects are required to sign a waiver form, but it still does not meet the informed consent guidelines established by the Wilson memo released that year. The TBI studies themselves would continue at four different institutions -- Baylor University College of Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, the U.S. Naval Hospital in Bethesda and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine -- until 1971 (U.S. Department of Energy, Goliszek).

American, Canadian and British military and intelligence officials gather a small group of eminent psychologists to a secret meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal about Communist "thought-control techniques." They proposed a top-secret research program on behavior modification -- involving testing drugs, hypnosis, electroshock and lobotomies on humans (Barker).
(1952)
At the famous Sloan-Kettering Institute, Chester M. Southam injects live cancer cells into prisoners at the Ohio State Prison to study the progression of the disease. Half of the prisoners in this National Institutes of Health-sponsored (NIH) study are black, awakening racial suspicions stemming from Tuskegee, which was also an NIH-sponsored study (Merritte, et al.).

(1953 - 1974) The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) sponsors iodine studies at the University of Iowa. In the first study, researchers give pregnant women 100 to 200 microcuries of iodine-131 and then study the women's aborted embryos in order to learn at what stage and to what extent radioactive iodine crosses the placental barrier. In the second study, researchers give 12 male and 13 female newborns under 36 hours old and weighing between 5.5 and 8.5 pounds iodine-131 either orally or via intramuscular injection, later measuring the concentration of iodine in the newborns' thyroid glands (Goliszek).

As part of an AEC study, researchers feed 28 healthy infants at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine iodine-131 through a gastric tube and then test concentration of iodine in the infants' thyroid glands 24 hours later (Goliszek).

(1953 - 1957) Eleven patients at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston are injected with uranium as part of the Manhattan Project (Sharav).

In an AEC-sponsored study at the University of Tennessee, researchers inject healthy two- to three-day-old newborns with approximately 60 rads of iodine-131 (Goliszek).

Newborn Daniel Burton becomes blind when physicians at Brooklyn Doctors Hospital perform an experimental high oxygen treatment for Retrolental Fibroplasia, a retinal disorder affecting premature infants, on him and other premature babies. The physicians perform the experimental treatment despite earlier studies showing that high oxygen levels cause blindness. Testimony in Burton v. Brooklyn Doctors Hospital (452 N.Y.S.2d875) later reveals that researchers continued to give Burton and other infants excess oxygen even after their eyes had swelled to dangerous levels (Goliszek, Sharav).

A 1953 article in Clinical Science describes a medical experiment in which researchers purposely blister the abdomens of 41 children, ranging in age from eight to 14, with cantharide in order to study how severely the substance irritates the skin (Goliszek).

The AEC performs a series of field tests known as "Green Run," dropping radiodine 131 and xenon 133 over the Hanford, Wash. site -- 500,000 acres encompassing three small towns (Hanford, White Bluffs and Richland) along the Columbia River (Sharav).

In an AEC-sponsored study to learn whether radioactive iodine affects premature babies differently from full-term babies, researchers at Harper Hospital in Detroit give oral doses of iodine-131 to 65 premature and full-term infants weighing between 2.1 and 5.5 pounds (Goliszek).

(1955 - 1957) In order to learn how cold weather affects human physiology, researchers give a total of 200 doses of iodine-131, a radioactive tracer that concentrates almost immediately in the thyroid gland, to 85 healthy Eskimos and 17 Athapascan Indians living in Alaska. They study the tracer within the body by blood, thyroid tissue, urine and saliva samples from the test subjects. Due to the language barrier, no one tells the test subjects what is being done to them, so there is no informed consent (Goliszek).

(1956 - 1957) U.S. Army covert biological weapons researchers release mosquitoes infected with yellow fever and dengue fever over Savannah, Ga., and Avon Park, Fla., to test the insects' ability to carry disease. After each test, Army agents pose as public health officials to test victims for effects and take pictures of the unwitting test subjects. These experiments result in a high incidence of fevers, respiratory distress, stillbirths, encephalitis and typhoid among the two cities' residents, as well as several deaths (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).
(1957)
The U.S. military conducts Operation Plumbbob at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Operation Pumbbob consists of 29 nuclear detonations, eventually creating radiation expected to result in a total 32,000 cases of thyroid cancer among civilians in the area. Around 18,000 members of the U.S. military participate in Operation Pumbbob's Desert Rock VII and VIII, which are designed to see how the average foot soldier physiologically and mentally responds to a nuclear battlefield ("Operation Plumbbob", Goliszek).

(1957 - 1964) As part of MKULTRA, the CIA pays McGill University Department of Psychiatry founder Dr. D. Ewen Cameron $69,000 to perform LSD studies and potentially lethal experiments on Canadians being treated for minor disorders like post-partum depression and anxiety at the Allan Memorial Institute, which houses the Psychiatry Department of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. The CIA encourages Dr. Cameron to fully explore his "psychic driving" concept of correcting madness through completely erasing one's memory and rewriting the psyche. These "driving" experiments involve putting human test subjects into drug-, electroshock- and sensory deprivation-induced vegetative states for up to three months, and then playing tape loops of noise or simple repetitive statements for weeks or months in order to "rewrite" the "erased" psyche. Dr. Cameron also gives human test subjects paralytic drugs and electroconvulsive therapy 30 to 40 times, as part of his experiments. Most of Dr. Cameron's test subjects suffer permanent damage as a result of his work (Goliszek, "Donald Ewan Cameron").

In order to study how blood flows through children's brains, researchers at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia perform the following experiment on healthy children, ranging in age from three to 11: They insert needles into each child's femoral artery (thigh) and jugular vein (neck), bringing the blood down from the brain. Then, they force each child to inhale a special gas through a facemask. In their subsequent Journal of Clinical Investigation article on this study, the researchers note that, in order to perform the experiment, they had to restrain some of the child test subjects by bandaging them to boards (Goliszek).
(1958)
The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) drops radioactive materials over Point Hope, Alaska, home to the Inupiats, in a field test known under the codename "Project Chariot" (Sharav).
(1961)
In response to the Nuremberg Trials, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram begins his famous Obedience to Authority Study in order to answer his question "Could it be that (Adolf) Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?" Male test subjects, ranging in age from 20 to 40 and coming from all education backgrounds, are told to give "learners" electric shocks for every wrong answer the learners give in response to word pair questions. In reality, the learners are actors and are not receiving electric shocks, but what matters is that the test subjects do not know that. Astoundingly, they keep on following orders and continue to administer increasingly high levels of "shocks," even after the actor learners show obvious physical pain ("Milgram Experiment").
(1962)
Researchers at the Laurel Children's Center in Maryland test experimental acne antibiotics on children and continue their tests even after half of the young test subjects develop severe liver damage because of the experimental medication (Goliszek).

The FDA begins requiring that a new pharmaceutical undergo three human clinical trials before it will approve it. From 1962 to 1980, pharmaceutical companies satisfy this requirement by running Phase I trials, which determine a drug's toxicity, on prison inmates, giving them small amounts of cash for compensation (Sharav).
(1963)
Chester M. Southam, who injected Ohio State Prison inmates with live cancer cells in 1952, performs the same procedure on 22 senile, African-American female patients at the Brooklyn Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital in order to watch their immunological response. Southam tells the patients that they are receiving "some cells," but leaves out the fact that they are cancer cells. He claims he doesn't obtain informed consent from the patients because he does not want to frighten them by telling them what he is doing, but he nevertheless temporarily loses his medical license because of it. Ironically, he eventually becomes president of the American Cancer Society (Greger, Merritte, et al.).

Researchers at the University of Washington directly irradiate the testes of 232 prison inmates in order to determine radiation's effects on testicular function. When these inmates later leave prison and have children, at least four have babies born with birth defects. The exact number is unknown because researchers never follow up on the men to see the long-term effects of their experiment (Goliszek).

(1963 - 1966) New York University researcher Saul Krugman promises parents with mentally disabled children definite enrollment into the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, N.Y., a resident mental institution for mentally retarded children, in exchange for their signatures on a consent form for procedures presented as "vaccinations." In reality, the procedures involve deliberately infecting children with viral hepatitis by feeding them an extract made from the feces of infected patients, so that Krugman can study the course of viral hepatitis as well the effectiveness of a hepatitis vaccine (Hammer Breslow).

(1963 - 1971) Leading endocrinologist Dr. Carl Heller gives 67 prison inmates at Oregon State Prison in Salem $5 per month and $25 per testicular tissue biopsy in compensation for allowing him to perform irradiation experiments on their testes. If they receive vasectomies at the end of the study, the prisoners are given an extra $100 (Sharav, Goliszek).

Researchers inject a genetic compound called radioactive thymidine into the testicles of more than 100 Oregon State Penitentiary inmates to learn whether sperm production is affected by exposure to steroid hormones (Greger).

In a study published in Pediatrics, researchers at the University of California's Department of Pediatrics use 113 newborns ranging in age from one hour to three days old in a series of experiments used to study changes in blood pressure and blood flow. In one study, doctors insert a catheter through the newborns' umbilical arteries and into their aortas and then immerse the newborns' feet in ice water while recording aortic pressure. In another experiment, doctors strap 50 newborns to a circumcision board, tilt the table so that all the blood rushes to their heads and then measure their blood pressure (Goliszek).

(1964 - 1967) The Dow Chemical Company pays Professor Kligman $10,000 to learn how dioxin -- a highly toxic, carcinogenic component of Agent Orange -- and other herbicides affect human skin because workers at the chemical plant have been developing an acne-like condition called Chloracne and the company would like to know whether the chemicals they are handling are to blame. As part of the study, Professor Kligman applies roughly the amount of dioxin Dow employees are exposed to on the skin 60 prisoners, and is disappointed when the prisoners show no symptoms of Chloracne. In 1980 and 1981, the human guinea pigs used in this study would begin suing Professor Kligman for complications including lupus and psychological damage (Kaye).
(1965)
As part of a test codenamed "Big Tom," the Department of Defense sprays Oahu, Hawaii's most heavily populated island, with Bacillus globigii in order to simulate an attack on an island complex. Bacillus globigii causes infections in people with weakened immune systems, but this was not known to scientists at the time (Goliszek, Martin).
(1966)
U.S. Army scientists drop light bulbs filled with Bacillus subtilis through ventilation gates and into the New York City subway system, exposing more than one million civilians, including women and children, to the bacteria (Goliszek).
(1967)
The CIA places a chemical in the drinking water supply of the FDA headquarters in Washington, D.C. to see whether it is possible to spike drinking water with LSD and other substances (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).

In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers inject pregnant women with radioactive cortisol to see if the radioactive material will cross the placentas and affect the fetuses (Goliszek).

The U.S. Army pays Professor Kligman to apply skin-blistering chemicals to Holmesburg Prison inmates' faces and backs, so as to, in Professor Kligman's words, "learn how the skin protects itself against chronic assault from toxic chemicals, the so-called hardening process," information which would have both offensive and defensive applications for the U.S. military (Kaye).

Professor Kligman develops Retin-A as an acne cream (and eventually a wrinkle cream), turning him into a multi-millionaire (Kaye).

Researchers paralyze 64 prison inmates in California with a neuromuscular compound called succinylcholine, which produces suppressed breathing that feels similar to drowning. When five prisoners refuse to participate in the medical experiment, the prison's special treatment board gives researchers permission to inject the prisoners with the drug against their will (Greger).
(1968)
Planned Parenthood of San Antonio and South Central Texas and the Southwest Foundation for Research and Education begin an oral contraceptive study on 70 poverty-stricken Mexican-American women, giving only half the oral contraceptives they think they are receiving and the other half a placebo. When the results of this study are released a few years later, it stirs tremendous controversy among Mexican-Americans (Sharav, Sauter).
(1969)
Experimental drugs are tested on mentally disabled children in Milledgeville, Ga., without any institutional approval whatsoever (Sharav).

Judge Sam Steinfield's dissent in Strunk v. Strunk, 445 S.W.2d 145 marks the first time a judge has ever suggested that the Nuremberg Code be applied in American court cases (Sharav).
(1970)
Under order from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which also sponsored the Tuskegee Experiment, the free childcare program at Johns Hopkins University collects blood samples from 7,000 African-American youth, telling their parents that they are checking for anemia but actually checking for an extra Y chromosome (XYY), believed to be a biological predisposition to crime. The program director, Digamber Borganokar, does this experiment without Johns Hopkins University's permission (Greger, Merritte, et al.).
(1971)
Stanford University conducts the Stanford Prison Experiment on a group of college students in order to learn the psychology of prison life. Some students are given the role as prison guards, while the others are given the role of prisoners. After only six days, the proposed two-week study has to end because of its psychological effects on the participants. The "guards" had begun to act sadistic, while the "prisoners" started to show signs of depression and severe psychological stress (University of New Hampshire).

An article entitled "Viral Infections in Man Associated with Acquired Immunological Deficiency States" appears in Federation Proceedings. Dr. MacArthur and Fort Detrick's Special Operations Division have, at this point, been conducting mycoplasma research to create a synthetic immunosuppressive agent for about one year, again suggesting that this research may have produced HIV (Goliszek).
(1973)
An Ad Hoc Advisory Panel issues its Final Report on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, writing, "Society can no longer afford to leave the balancing of individual rights against scientific progress to the scientific community" (Sharav).
(1977)
The National Urban League holds its National Conference on Human Experimentation, stating, "We don't want to kill science but we don't want science to kill, mangle and abuse us" (Sharav).
(1978)
The CDC begins experimental hepatitis B vaccine trials in New York. Its ads for research subjects specifically ask for promiscuous homosexual men. Professor Wolf Szmuness of the Columbia University School of Public Health had made the vaccine's infective serum from the pooled blood serum of hepatitis-infected homosexuals and then developed it in chimpanzees, the only animal susceptible to hepatitis B, leading to the theory that HIV originated in chimpanzees before being transferred over to humans via this vaccine. A few months after 1,083 homosexual men receive the vaccine, New York physicians begin noticing cases of Kaposi's sarcoma, Mycoplasma penetrans and a new strain of herpes virus among New York's homosexual community -- diseases not usually seen among young, American men, but that would later be known as common opportunistic diseases associated with AIDS (Goliszek).
(1980)
According to blood samples tested years later for HIV, 20 percent of all New York homosexual men who participated in the 1978 hepatitis B vaccine experiment are HIV-positive by this point (Goliszek).

The first AIDS case appears in San Francisco (Goliszek).
(1981)
The CDC acknowledges that a disease known as AIDS exists and confirms 26 cases of the disease -- all in previously healthy homosexuals living in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles -- again supporting the speculation that AIDS originated from the hepatitis B experiments from 1978 and 1980 (Goliszek).
(1982)
Thirty percent of the test subjects used in the CDC's hepatitis B vaccine experiment are HIV-positive by this point (Goliszek).
(1985)
A former U.S. Army sergeant tries to sue the Army for using drugs on him in without his consent or even his knowledge in United States v. Stanley, 483 U.S. 669. Justice Antonin Scalia writes the decision, clearing the U.S. military from any liability in past, present or future medical experiments without informed consent (Merritte, et al..
(1987)
Philadelphia resident Doris Jackson discovers that researchers have removed her son's brain post mortem for medical study. She later learns that the state of Pennsylvania has a doctrine of "implied consent," meaning that unless a patient signs a document stating otherwise, consent for organ removal is automatically implied (Merritte, et al.).
(1988)
(1988 - 2001) The New York City Administration for Children's Services begins allowing foster care children living in about two dozen children's homes to be used in National Institutes of Health-sponsored (NIH) experimental AIDS drug trials. These children -- totaling 465 by the program's end -- experience serious side effects, including inability to walk, diarrhea, vomiting, swollen joints and cramps. Children's home employees are unaware that they are giving the HIV-infected children experimental drugs, rather than standard AIDS treatments (New York City ACS, Doran).
(1990)
The United States sends 1.7 million members of the armed forces, 22 percent of whom are African-American, to the Persian Gulf for the Gulf War ("Desert Storm"). More than 400,000 of these soldiers are ordered to take an experimental nerve agent medication called pyridostigmine, which is later believed to be the cause of Gulf War Syndrome -- symptoms ranging from skin disorders, neurological disorders, incontinence, uncontrollable drooling and vision problems -- affecting Gulf War veterans (Goliszek; Merritte, et al.).

The CDC and Kaiser Pharmaceuticals of Southern California inject 1,500 six-month-old black and Hispanic babies in Los Angeles with an "experimental" measles vaccine that had never been licensed for use in the United States. Adding to the risk, children less than a year old may not have an adequate amount of myelin around their nerves, possibly resulting in impaired neural development because of the vaccine. The CDC later admits that parents were never informed that the vaccine being injected into their children was experimental (Goliszek).

The FDA allows the U.S. Department of Defense to waive the Nuremberg Code and use unapproved drugs and vaccines in Operation Desert Shield (Sharav).
(1992)
Columbia University's New York State Psychiatric Institute and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine give 100 males -- mostly African-American and Hispanic, all between the ages of six and 10 and all the younger brothers of juvenile delinquents -- 10 milligrams of fenfluramine (fen-fen) per kilogram of body weight in order to test the theory that low serotonin levels are linked to violent or aggressive behavior. Parents of the participants received $125 each, including a $25 Toys 'R' Us gift certificate (Goliszek).
(1994)
President Clinton appoints the Advisory Commission on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE), which finally reveals the horrific experiments conducted during the Cold War era in its ACHRE Report.
(1995)
A 19-year-old University of Rochester student named Nicole Wan dies from participating in an MIT-sponsored experiment that tests airborne pollutant chemicals on humans. The experiment pays $150 to human test subjects (Sharav).

In the Mar. 15 President's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE), former human subjects, including those who were used in experiments as children, give sworn testimonies stating that they were subjected to radiation experiments and/or brainwashed, hypnotized, drugged, psychologically tortured, threatened and even raped during CIA experiments. These sworn statements include:
• Christina DeNicola's statement that, in Tucson, Ariz., from 1966 to 1976, "Dr. B" performed mind control experiments using drugs, post-hypnotic injection and drama, and irradiation experiments on her neck, throat, chest and uterus. She was only four years old when the experiments started.

• Claudia Mullen's testimony that Dr. Sidney Gottlieb (of MKULTRA fame) used chemicals, radiation, hypnosis, drugs, isolation in tubs of water, sleep deprivation, electric shock, brainwashing and emotional, sexual and verbal abuse as part of mind control experiments that had the ultimate objective of turning her, who was only a child at the time, into the "perfect spy." She tells the advisory committee that researchers justified this abuse by telling her that she was serving her country "in their bold effort to fight Communism."

• Suzanne Starr's statement that "a physician, who was retired from the military, got children from the mountains of Colorado for experiments." She says she was one of those children and that she was the victim of experiments involving environmental deprivation to the point of forced psychosis, spin programming, injections, rape and frequent electroshock and mind control sessions. "I have fought self-destructive programmed messages to kill myself, and I know what a programmed message is, and I don’t act on them," she tells the advisory committee of the experiments' long-lasting effects, even in her adulthood (Goliszek).

President Clinton publicly apologizes to the thousands of people who were victims of MKULTRA and other mind-control experimental programs (Sharav).

President Clinton appoints the National Bioethics Advisory Committee (Sharav).

Justice Edward Greenfield of the New York State Supreme Court rules that parents do not have the right to volunteer their mentally incapacitated children for non-therapeutic medical research studies and that no mentally incapacitated person whatsoever can be used in a medical experiment without informed consent (Sharav).
(1996)
Professor Adil E. Shamoo of the University of Maryland and the organization Citizens for Responsible Care and Research sends a written testimony on the unethical use of veterans in medical research to the U.S. Senate's Committee on Governmental Affairs, stating: "This type of research is on-going nationwide in medical centers and VA hospitals supported by tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers money. These experiments are high risk and are abusive, causing not only physical and psychic harm to the most vulnerable groups but also degrading our society’s system of basic human values. Probably tens of thousands of patients are being subjected to such experiments" ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D.").

The Department of Defense admits that Gulf War soldiers were exposed to chemical agents; however, 33 percent of all military personnel afflicted with Gulf War Syndrome never left the United States during the war, discrediting the popular mainstream belief that these symptoms are a result of exposure to Iraqi chemical weapons (Merritte, et al.).

President Clinton issues a formal apology to the subjects of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and their families (Sharav).
(1997)
In an experiment sponsored by the U.S. government, researchers withhold medical treatment from HIV-positive African-American pregnant women, giving them a placebo rather than AIDS medication (Sharav).

On Sept. 18, victims of unethical medical experiments at major U.S. research centers, including the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) testify before the National Bioethics Advisory Committee (Sharav).
(1999)
Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D. testifies on "The Unethical Use of Human Beings in High-Risk Research Experiments" before the U.S. House of Representatives' House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, alerting the House on the use of American veterans in VA Hospitals as human guinea pigs and calling for national reforms ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D.").

Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania inject 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger with an experimental gene therapy as part of an FDA-approved clinical trial. He dies four days later and his father suspects that he was not fully informed of the experiment's risk (Goliszek)

During a clinical trial investigating the effectiveness of Propulsid for infant acid reflux, nine-month-old Gage Stevens dies at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh (Sharav).
(2000)
The U.S. Air Force and rocket maker Lockheed Martin sponsor a Loma Linda University study that pays 100 Californians $1,000 to eat a dose of perchlorate -- a toxic component of rocket fuel that causes cancer, damages the thyroid gland and hinders normal development in children and fetuses -- every day for six months. The dose eaten by the test subjects is 83 times the safe dose of perchlorate set by the State of California, which has perchlorate in some of its drinking water. This Loma Linda study is the first large-scale study to use human subjects to test the harmful effects of a water pollutant and is "inherently unethical," according to Environmental Working Group research director Richard Wiles (Goliszek, Envirnomental Working Group).
(2001)
On its website, the FDA admits that its policy to include healthy children in human experiments "has led to an increasing number of proposals for studies of safety and pharmacokinetics, including those in children who do not have the condition for which the drug is intended" (Goliszek).

In Higgins and Grimes v. Kennedy Krieger Institute The Maryland Court of Appeals makes a landmark decision regarding the use of children as test subjects, prohibiting non-therapeutic experimentation on children on the basis of "best interest of the individual child" (Sharav).
(2002)
President George W. Bush signs the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA), offering pharmaceutical companies six-month exclusivity in exchange for running clinical drug trials on children. This will of course increase the number of children used as human test subjects (Hammer Breslow).
(2003)
Two-year-old Michael Daddio of Delaware dies of congestive heart failure. After his death, his parents learn that doctors had performed an experimental surgery on him when he was five months old, rather than using the established surgical method of repairing his congenital heart defect that the parents had been told would be performed. The established procedure has a 90- to 95-percent success rate, whereas the inventor of the procedure performed on baby Daddio would later be fired from his hospital in 2004 (Willen and Evans, "Parents of Babies Who Died in Delaware Tests Weren't Warned").
(2004)
In his BBC documentary "Guinea Pig Kids" and BBC News article of the same name, reporter Jamie Doran reveals that children involved in the New York City foster care system were unwitting human subjects in experimental AIDS drug trials from 1988 to, in his belief, present times (Doran).
(2005)
In response to the BBC documentary and article "Guinea Pig Kids", the New York City Administration of Children's Services (ACS) sends out an Apr. 22 press release admitting that foster care children were used in experimental AIDS drug trials, but says that the last trial took place in 2001 and thus the trials are not continuing, as BBC reporter Jamie Doran claims. The ACS gives the extent and statistics of the experimental drug trials, based on its own records, and contracts the Vera Institute of Justice to conduct "an independent review of ACS policy and practice regarding the enrollment of HIV-positive children in foster care in clinical drug trials during the late 1980s and 1990s" (New York City ACS).

Bloomberg releases a series of reports suggesting that SFBC, the largest experimental drug testing center of its time, exploits immigrant and other low-income test subjects and runs tests with limited credibility due to violations of both the FDA's and SFBC's own testing guidelines (Bloomberg).

In October 2005, the American Chemistry Council gave the EPA $2.1 million to study how children ranging from infancy to three years old ingest, inhale or absorb chemicals. Like IG Farben was for the German pharmaceutical companies of Nazi Germany, the American Chemistry Council acts much like a front group for chemical industry bigwigs like Bayer (which was incidentally also a member of IG Farben), BP, Chevron, Dow, DuPont, Exxon, Honeywell, 3M, Monsanto and Procter & Gamble. Studies have already proven that the chemicals made by these companies have long-term effects on children and adults. A short, two-year study like CHEERS would of course fail to reveal these long-term effects and the American Chemistry Council could then publicize these findings as "proof" that its chemicals were safe.
2006 - 2007
Merck begins pushing U.S. states to mandate the vaccination of teenage girls with Gardasil, a vaccine they claim prevents HPV, a sexually-transmitted virus. In February 2007, Texas Gov. Rick Perry -- who was revealed to have financial ties with Merck, the vaccine manufacturer -- mandates the vaccine in teenage girls (see http://www.newstarget.com/021572.html ). A key Merck lobbyist named Mike Toomey, it turned out, had served as Gov. Rick Perry's chief of staff.

The Texas decision to mandate the vaccine was a notable and troubling milestone in public health policy because it is the first time a vaccine is mandated for a disease that cannot be contracted through casual contact in public schools. It also invoked "gunpoint medicine," or the threat of arrest at gunpoint for not agreeing to receive state-mandated injections.

The Gardasil vaccinations remain a grand medical experiment being performed on children because it is not yet known what the long-term side effects of the vaccination will be, nor whether the vaccinations will actually lower rates of cervical cancer as intended.
2007
Maryland's governor and public health officials, fed up with the unwillingness of over 2,000 parents to have their children vaccinated, invoke gunpoint medicine yet again by threatening the parents with arrest and up to 30 days of imprisonment if they don't submit their children to state-mandated vaccinations. The children and parents are later rounded up at a county courthouse, guarded by attack dogs and security personnel, while a district Judge oversees the mass injection of schoolchildren with vaccines that contain toxic mercury. (See http://www.newstarget.com/022242.html )

Present day: New Jersey mandates the mass vaccination of all children with four different vaccines, stripping away the health freedoms of parents and unleashing a mass medical experiment that exploits the bodies of children and enriches pharmaceutical companies while criminalizing parents who refuse to participate.
Works Cited
Alliance for Human Research Protection. "'Monster Experiment' Taught Orphans to Stutter.". June 11, 2001.

Barker, Allen. "The Cold War Experiments." Mind Control.

Berdon, Victoria. "Codes of Medical and Human Experimentation Ethics." The Least of My Brothers.

Brinker, Wendy. "James Marion Sims: Father Butcher." Seed Show.

Burton Report. "Human Experimentation, Plutonium and Col. Stafford Warren."

Cockburn, Alexander and Jeffrey St. Clair, eds. "Germ War: The U.S. Record." Counter Punch.

"Donald Ewan [sic] Cameron." Wikipedia.

Doran, Jamie. "Guinea Pig Kids." BBC News. 30 Nov. 2004.

Drug Development-Technology.com. "SFBC."

Elliston, Jon. "MKULTRA: CIA Mind Control." Dossier: Paranormal Government.

Environmental Working Group. "U.S.: Lockheed Martin's Tests on Humans." CorpWatch.

Global Security. Chemical Corps. 2005.

Goliszek, Andrew. In the Name of Science. New York: St. Martin's, 2003.

Greger, Michael, M.D. Heart Failure: Diary of a Third Year Medical Student.

Griffiths, Joel and Chris Bryson. "Toxic Secrets: Fluoride and the Atom Bomb." Nexus Magazine 5:3. Apr. - May 1998.

Hammer Breslow, Lauren. "The Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act of 2002: The Rise of the Voluntary Incentive Structure and Congressional Refusal to Require Pediatric Testing." Harvard Journal of Legislation Vol. 40.

"Human Experimentation: Before the Nazi Era and After." Micah Books.

Kaye, Jonathan. "Retin-A's Wrinkled Past." Mind Control. Orig. pub. Penn History Review Spring 1997.

"Manhattan Project: Oak Ridge." World Socialist Web Site. Oct. 18, 2002.

Meiklejohn, Gordon N., M.D. "Commission on Influenza." Histories of the Commissions. Ed. Theodore E. Woodward, M.D. The Armed Forced Epidemiological Board. 1994.

Merritte, LaTasha, et al.. "The Banality of Evil: Human Medical Experimentation in the United States." The Public Law Online Journal. Spring 1999.

Milgram, Stanley. "Milgram Experiment." Wikipedia. 2006.

New York City Administration of Children's Services. Press release. 22 Apr. 2005.

"Operation Plumbbob." Wikipedia. 2005.

"Operation Whitecoat." Religion and Ethics (Episode no. 708). Oct. 24, 2003.

Organic Consumers Association. "EPA and Chemical Industry to Study the Effects of Known Toxic Chemicals on Children". 12 Apr. 2005.

Pacchioli, David. Subjected to Science. Mar. 1996.

"Placebo Effect." Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine. 2006.

"Project Paperclip." Wikipedia' target='_blank'>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Paperclip">Wikipedia. 2005.

"Reviews and Notes: History of Medicine: Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America before the Second World War." Annals of Internal Medicine 123:2. July 15, 1995.

Sharav, Vera Hassner. "Human Experiments: A Chronology of Human Rsearch." Alliance for Human Research Protection.

Sauter, Daniel. Guide to MS 83 [Planned Parenthood of San Antonio and South Central Texas Records, 1931 - 1999]. University of Texas Library. Apr. 2001.

"Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D." News from the Joint Hearing on Suspension of Medical Research at West Los Angeles and Sepulveda VA Medical Facilities and Informed Consent and Patient Safety in VA Medical Research. 21 Apr. 1999.

University of New Hampshire. "Chronology of Cases Involving Unethical Treatment of Human Subjects." Responsible Conduct of Research.

University of Virginia Health System Health Sciences Library. "Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study." 2004.

U.S. Department of Energy. "Chapter 8: Postwar TBI-Effects Experimentation: Continued Reliance on Sick Patients in Place of Healthy "Normals." Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE) Final Report.

Veterans Health Administration. Project 112/Project SHAD. May 26, 2005.

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(NewsTarget) "The greatest lie ever told is that vaccines are safe and effective," said Dr. Len Horowitz. I am a father, and in the course, I have spent a reasonable amount of time researching vaccines in order to determine the most sensible cause of action for my daughter.

According to the US government's own Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) in 1998 there were 88 vaccine related infant deaths, in 1999 there where 73 infant deaths, and in 2000, 73 infant deaths. This trend of between 70-90 reported infant deaths continues yearly through 2007.

In 1993, FDA commissioner David Kessler reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that, according to one study, “Only about 1% of serious events are reported to the FDA.”

Based on this report, and other studies regarding the reporting of “serious events,” one comes up with an estimated figure that 1-2% of all serious adverse vaccine reports are actually recorded. When you combine the VAERS data together with the adverse events reporting studies, there is only one dreadful conclusion. In the United States each year, anywhere from an estimated 3,900 to 7,800 infants are poisoned to death, as a direct result, of being vaccinated.

If this figure is too startling or shocking for you to swallow, consider an ultra-conservative figure that states that 10% of adverse vaccine events are reported. Even with that figure, we can be sure that about 780 infants are poisoned to death every year.

When one child is murdered by a violent person, as a culture, we put forth the maximum amount of anger, hatred, and punishment towards such a sick person. We all know in our hearts, that children need to be honored, cherished and protected from harm. We are united as a culture in the belief that hurting children is bad, and wrong.

However, when there is documented evidence that proves, beyond any doubt, that hundreds, and likely thousands of infants, are murdered every year by vaccines in this country, we consider it to be good public policy. With the recent vaccine events in Maryland, one can conclude that since a certain percentage of children will die, and a higher percentage will become permanently disabled, that Maryland's state vaccine policy is a policy of state sponsored child debilitation.

I want you to really take a moment here to pause and reflect on this experience that is so painful and vast; that many of us do not want to take the leap of faith to realize the gravity of what I am, as well as many others, are saying about vaccines. We have a national policy that supports the murder of completely innocent infants. The cost is particularly high to the parents who are shocked when they find their newborns poisoned to death. Part of a way our government has decided to mitigate this harm is through a system of compensation for vaccine injured children. The burden of proof to receive compensation for this program is extremely high. Very few parents who apply for an "award" qualify for the money. In the past 18 years, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) has paid out $782,638,751.16 for 908 “awards.”

Look At Vaccines Moralistically

As a culture, we accept, tolerate, advocate, and make laws that promote the unlawful murder of thousands of infants because we have a belief system, and a public policy, that allows these children to be the “necessary” sacrifices of what is believed to be an unassailable system of vaccinations. The purpose of murdering perhaps several thousand infants per year is because we think that the good of the vaccine policy helps other children live and thus supposedly outweighs the known harm caused.

Now, I am going to bring up a critical example to show you the error of the current vaccine paradigm that allows for children to be harmed. Imagine that one of these children was your own. Or, imagine that one of these individuals was your mother, your sister or brother, or a saint. Are you telling me that one of the greatest examples of the cruelties of humanity, sacrificing helpless infants, is justifiable to supposedly save others? Is it really good public policy to crucify some children to supposedly prevent diseases in others?

If it was your child, would you volunteer your child to be the sacrificial lamb of our public policy?

Do not volunteer your child anymore and allow them to be the next lamb of our hideous public policy, do not vaccinate your child!

The truth is, every child's and every infant's life is valuable. Each being is precious, full of life and warmth, each infant is god-like. Every person on this planet counts and deserves the chance to live a healthy life. Since we have a public policy that allows for innocent children to be harmed, and at times murdered, then this policy must stop immediately.

We know for sure that at least 70 or more children are murdered yearly, and more likely several thousand children are murdered every year. When any individual or government sponsors vaccines; this is the equivalent to sponsoring the crime of murder. This is an outrage!

This first argument against vaccinations has come to you allowing the broad assumption that vaccines work, and that the losses of human life are thus justifiable because many more lives are supposed to be saved by vaccine public policy.

Yet the belief that vaccines work, flies in the face of any reasonable scientific inquiry because there has never even been one. Expert vaccine researcher Dr. Philip Incao MD testified that, “Incredible as it sounds, such a common-sense controlled study comparing vaccinated to non-vaccinated children has never been done in America for any vaccination.”

In simple English, we have no real, double blind scientific studies that show that any vaccination works as it is intended to work. In case you are wondering, normal vaccines are approved for use with only short-term studies, many times the studies are 30 days or less. It is hardly scientific to study the effects of vaccines for such a short term, when vaccines are designed to work for several years at a time. Thus, the long term effects, and the long term effectiveness of vaccines, have never been proven; let alone reasonably studied by the people who unconditionally believe in their good.

Because “Safety testing of many vaccines is limited and the data are unavailable for independent scrutiny”; in the year 2000, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on vaccine mandates. With such limited evidence, they stated that mandatory vaccination “is equivalent to human experimentation.” Unethical human experimentation was banned by the Nuremberg Code after the horrors of World War II were exposed (Nazi experiments on their prisoners).

Not only do vaccines not work, they actually cause diseases. According to the same US government Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, there were approximately 1400 serious events from vaccinations for people of all ages, per year, from 1991-1996. Serious events include: permanent disability, hospitalization, and life threatening illnesses. And we can know for sure, due to the low reporting of serious vaccine events, that the actual number of diseases caused by vaccinations is 10 - 100 times this number, meaning vaccines cause 14,000 - 140,000 serious events (diseases) per year. In some cases, such as with the Hepatitis B vaccine given to infants and children, the vaccine causes more harm and injury that the disease of Hepatitis B in infants and children.

Published studies from reputable journals have linked vaccines to causing AIDS, autism, cancer, diabetes, hearing/vision loss, hepatitis B, mumps, measles, polio and rubella.

At this point you might be wondering how it is that vaccines can cause so much destruction.

Why Vaccines Cause Diseases

Our body is equipped with an immune system. The immune system I am referring to is not just helper cells and anti-bodies, we have several lines of defense against infection and illness. We have saliva that is full of germs, and we have skin to protect our organs. We have a liver and kidneys to cleanse our blood and excrete toxic waste. We have our lungs to take in fuel, and excrete the waste of cellular metabolism.

In order to make a vaccine, one needs to render the virus, or germ, ineffective and find a way to introduce it into the body. In order to make many batches of this virus for injection, the virus needs food to grow off of. To grow a vaccine virus, the virus is cultured on a variety of nutrient rich substances; like monkey kidney cells, aborted human fetuses, calf serum, guinea pig embryonic tissue, fetal tissue, and other foul things. Once you have this large batch of “disease,” and you can imagine how sick and putrid this mix is, you need to remove all the impurities and isolate the virus (or germ) that you want to inject into someone. Now isolating just the virus from this milieu is impossible. Yet we try anyway, we bleach and cleanse the serum and get mostly the virus, plus many contaminants. Now, when the body gets injected with this virus, it will immediately seek to repel it, especially since it is rare for a disease to be introduced into the body directly through the blood stream. Vaccine creators had to find ways to keep the altered virus or germ from being immediately repelled from the body, and this is one purpose of adjuvants, vaccine additives.

Every vaccine contains MSG as one such additive; other vaccine additives include, thimerosal which is mercury, antibiotics, anti-freeze and other poisonous and acidic compounds.

Now imagine your helpless infant. They hardly have an immune system as their bodies' lines of defenses. Their organs are still growing and forming. It is our public policy to inject infants soon after birth, directly with a syringe full of foreign substances. The injection dosage is not carefully measured to be specific to the exact body weight of the infant, and the dose has never been independently screened to be free of contaminants. Immediately after the injection, the body goes into life saving procedures. If you have a healthy and robust child, you will be lucky to get away with a cold or flu-like symptoms, as your child's body tries to excrete all of the impurities just injected through its organs of purification: such as the kidney's, the liver, and the skin. If you have a less robust child, their body's defense mechanisms can fail one after the next, especially after repeated injections. When the body's internal purifiers fail, the blood-brain barrier becomes compromised; that is why a known side effect to vaccines is a high-pitched screaming. The screaming is the nervous system of an infant being damaged and breached as it was never meant to be. Many children are autistic because of vaccinations as the toxic poisons in the vaccines get lodged into places that can alter and affect the nervous system; including brain and spinal column development.

Dr. Albert Sabien, developer of the oral polio vaccine, has changed his vaccine position widely. In a 1995 lecture, he said, "Official data have shown that the large-scale vaccinations undertaken in the US have failed to obtain any significant improvement of the diseases against which they were supposed to provide protection."

With this in mind, we have before us one of the most horrific, disturbing, and incompressible crimes ever committed. Each and every day, thousands of parents along with local and state governments, schools, doctors and politicians, allow this crime, and even promote this crime, as it continues to go unnoticed by the masses.

Let me add one final note to this article. You may have heard of these supposedly great humanitarian organizations going into the third world and providing community service by vaccinating poor children against diseases. Given your new awareness about the lack of evidence of vaccine efficacy, you might wonder what these organizations are really doing? This is what the World Health Organization asked themselves in an internal review, after noticing that an AIDS epidemic seemed to follow where they were vaccinating.

Vaccines in the Third World

On May 11, 1987, The London Times, one of the world's most respected newspapers, published an explosive article entitled 'Smallpox Vaccine Triggered AIDS Virus'. The story suggested the smallpox eradication vaccine program sponsored by the World Health Organization was responsible for unleashing AIDS in Africa. Almost 100 million Africans living in central Africa were inoculated by the WHO
(www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=34&contentid=1377&page=2) .

In Dr. Campbell Douglas's 1987 report titled 'W.H.O Murdered Africa' he writes that, “There is no question mark after the title of this article because the title is not a question. It's a declarative statement.” (www.biblebelievers.org.au/who.htm)

Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win Nobel Peace Prize claims, what is a common belief in some parts of Africa, that, "In fact it (the HIV virus) is created by a scientist for biological warfare."
(www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1602547,00.html)

Kihura Nkuba spoke about Polio vaccine genocide in Uganda. “At the main hospital in Mbarara during that month of 1977 more than 600 children had died following polio vaccination. 600 children! So even some of the timid medical practitioners who were initially afraid to come out, started coming out giving information and saying 'Oh, we knew this oral polio vaccine was trouble because as soon as the child receives it, they get a temperature and their health goes downhill and there is nothing that you could do.'” (www.whale.to/a/nkuba.htm)

You need to know why you have been led so far from the path of truth. You need to know that when you see media reports that promote the good of vaccines and their effectiveness, such as news or television reports, that these reports are completely fake and fabricated.

This leads me to the conclusion that some of the most powerful forces are at play, since they can easily and freely put manipulative and false material into the public's eye.

Healthy children come from healthy parents who eat whole and unrefined organic foods, who avoid processed foods like pasteurized milk, processed sugar, cheap vegetable oils, infant formulas, and processed flour products that are so prevalent in our food supply.

If you want your child to be healthy and disease free, do not give them a polluted body. Do not violate the purity of your child's blood.

Loving our children means not giving them vaccinations and it means that we need to inform other parents as well that vaccines are indeed shown and proven to be deadly.

Spread the word and do your part in ending this heinous crime.

“The greatest lie ever told is that vaccines are safe and effective,” and now you know why.

May you and your children experience peace and happiness beyond vaccines.

Learn more about vaccines and their harms from this free, well referenced resource that includes many detailed and specific vaccine links as well as references to many points made in this article. (www.healingourchildren.net/vaccine_side_effects.htm)

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(NewsTarget) A cocktail of nutrients can improve the quality of life in those diagnosed with HIV infection and markedly slow deterioration into full-blown AIDS, according to the results of a new trial conducted at the Mengo Hospital in Kampala, Uganda.

The study, published in the latest edition of The Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, involved 310 patients divided into two groups, one of whom received daily multivitamin and mineral capsules containing 30 nutrients, whilst the second group received capsules containing the same multinutrients in combination with specific antioxidants, such as selenium, N-acetyl-cysteine and alpha-lipoic acid, designed to raise levels of the natural antiretroviral enzyme glutathione peroxidase. The scientists also sought to measure the effect of the nutrients on CD4 T lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell, low levels of which are often associated with HIV/AIDS progression), as well as body weight and quality of life parameters.

Of the 263 patients who completed the trial, average CD4 and glutathione peroxidase counts improved significantly in both groups, as did average weight (by approximately 1kg), along with some apparently remarkable changes in physical condition; 'many patients... described significant appetite increases, together with the return of their ability to walk long distances' wrote lead author Edith Namulemia.

The trial was conceived of by Dr. Harold Foster of the University of Victoria, British Columbia, who has previously authored a book on the subject of nutritional treatment for HIV infection. The premise behind both Foster’s book, entitled What Really Causes AIDS and the trial is that HIV causes AIDS by 'hijacking' cells, impersonating glutathione peroxidase, and stealing four key nutrients that are needed to produce it, those being tryptophan, cysteine, selenium and glutamine.

These deficiencies, claims Dr. Foster, account largely for the various symptoms experienced by the HIV-infected patient: a severe deficiency of selenium and glutamine being responsible for rapid immune system deterioration, while tryptophan abnormalities are associated with psychological disturbances, which tend to appear during the latter stages of the disease. It is also selenium, Foster notes, that appears to be deficient in the soil of the most prevalent areas of HIV/AIDS in Africa. The discovery that HIV acts in such a way was made by Dr. E. W. Taylor and colleagues at the University of Georgia, and the so-called 'selenium CD4 T cell tailspin' theory of AIDS appeared to gain some credibility from two smaller trials elsewhere in Africa, in which patients diagnosed as HIV infected improved through taking the four nutrients central to Foster's AIDS hypothesis.

Dr. Foster is not the first scientist to question the validity of the original theory of AIDS. In 1987, Dr. Peter Duesberg, a virologist at the University of California, Berkeley, created controversy with an article that claimed HIV may have no relationship with AIDS at all. Since then, Duesberg has been joined by a number of other scientists, including Nobel Prize winner Dr. Kary Mullis, in calling for a reappraisal of the true causes of the disease. However, 'the epidemiology and geography of the AIDS pandemic', argues Foster, 'clearly illustrate that Duesberg and his supporters are wrong'.

This latest study, the scientist and his co-authors suggest, adds further credence to the possibility that HIV infection causes immune system abnormalities that can be reversed with targeted nutritional supplementation, and concluded that 'nutrient combinations, taken by HIV-positive patients receiving no antiretroviral drugs, can significantly slow their decline into AIDS'. This calls for further studies to establish optimum dosages and nutrient combinations.

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Yoga Therapy for Eating Disorders

In the United States, anorexia nervosa and bulimia affect nearly 10 million women and one million men, primarily teens and young adults, according to conservative estimates. Often thought only as a mental disease, new research is finding that eating disorders have a physical component as well. Eating disorders are complex and potentially life-threatening conditions that arise from a combination of behavioral, emotional, psychological, interpersonal, biological, and social factors. People with eating disorders often use food and the control of food in an attempt to numb or avoid feelings and emotions that are over-whelming. Yoga can be an effective tool to restore the imbalances in both the body and the mind that occur with eating disorders. Yoga has a profound ability to balance the emotions and has been shown to help relieve depression, anger and anxiety and to promote equanimity: a calm, clear focused mind. Yoga can also promote self-esteem and a positive body image, which play primary roles in eating disorders, through the cultivation of non-judgment, confidence, self-acceptance, openness and inner strength. Physically, a regular yoga practice can help rebuild the strength, energy and bone density that is damaged and lost with Anorexia.
Eating disorders are viewed as a dysfunction of the first chakra in the yogic energetic system. To balance this chakra, use poses that target the area of the base of the spine, such as: staff posture, bound angle, crab, full wind relieving pose, pigeon and locust. Use grounding postures such as Warrior 1 and 2, mountain, goddess, standing squat, child, and prayer squat to connect with the body, to become rooted to the earth and to build strength and courage. If depression is a strong contributing factor, backbending poses will be beneficial for their energizing, tonifying and heart opening qualities. If anxiety is a primary contributing factor, forward bends can be utilized for their calming and nurturing aspects.
When practicing yoga postures, the use of Pratyahara (inner focus) should be applied. The exterior alignment should be de-emphasized and the focus should be drawn deeply inwards to experience and explore the feeling and sensations that arise in the poses. By withdrawing attention from the external environment and by focusing inwards on the breath and sensations, the mind can be stilled and the awareness of the body increases. With this awareness and focus it is possible to move deeper into the practice of yoga and increases the ability for one to move through any limitations, fears and expectations.
Pranayama (yogic breathing exercises) are also helpful to calm the body and mind and to balance the energy in the body during the recovery stage of the disease. Nadi Sodhana Pranayama (alternate nostril breathing) is balancing, calming and reduces anxiety. Dirga Pranayama (three part breath) is calming, grounding and nurturing.
As eating disorders have a large mental component to them, the practice of meditation is very beneficial to cultivate a sense of control over life’s events and to reduce obsessive thoughts. A general meditation practice will be beneficial, but using an active and targeted meditation would be more effective. Practice any or all of the following based upon what calls you to be invoked within yourself: Inner Peace Meditation, Third Eye Meditation, Root Chakra Meditation or Prana Healing Meditation. If it becomes uncomfortable to practice with the eyes closed, have them slightly open with a soft downward gaze.
The most important aspect of healing from an eating disorder is the individual’s awareness and acceptance that there is a problem and the genuine desire for change. Unfortunately, the denial that there is a problem often does not change until the late stages of the disease when serious complications arise. Yoga’s inherent ability to promote self-awareness and self-acceptance can play a role in realizing the problem is within, although yoga is usually more readily embraced in the recovery stages of the disease.
Yoga is not a substitute for conventional medical treatment; please consult your medical professional before starting a yoga practice.
On our Membership Site: A complete list of yoga poses for Eating Disorders and a yoga therapy resource guide for Eating Disorders.

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Yoga for Tendonitis

Tendonitis is the inflammation or irritation of a tendon (the attachment of a muscle to bone). Excessive repetitive movements most often cause tendonitis, but it can also be caused by a minor impact on the affected area, or from a sudden more serious injury. The symptoms of tendonitis are: pain and stiffness, usually around a joint, which is aggravated by movement. Tendonitis is usually a temporary condition, but may become a recurrent or chronic problem. The healing of tendonitis occurs in two main stages, acute and subacute. Yoga supports the healing process in both stages by activating the body’s lymphatic system and by improving local circulation. Yoga is best used for healing in the subacute stage of tendonitis, as well as for preventing recurring bouts of tendonitis.
For acute tendonitis, rest the injured area for 4-6 days. Do not perform any movements that require strength, aggravate the injury, or produce any pain. Elevating the affected area during the inflammation stage helps to control any swelling thereby reducing the throbbing that often accompanies acute inflammation. Inversion poses will be very helpful to reduce inflammation by activating the lymphatic system, and will also provide elevation if the injury is located in the lower body. After the swelling has subsided (usually after the first 48 to 72 hours), very gentle and slow range of motion movements can be performed, but do not stretch the muscles that trigger the tendonitis pain.
The subacute stage of tendonitis follows and lasts between 1-3 weeks. Gentle stretching is the first step of rehabilitation. Stay focused on the breath and the sensations of the stretch, but do not stretch to the point of pain. The next step is to slowly and gently strengthen the muscles surrounding and attached to the injured tendon. Begin with slow, gentle non-weight bearing movements and gradually increase the amount of motion and number of repetitions. As symptoms resolve, gradually resume using weight-bearing movements. Strengthening the surrounding muscles restores full support to the effected joint and reduces the risk of recurrent tendonitis. An adequate warm-up before and correct posture during yoga is essential in this healing stage of tendonitis.
Once the acute and subacute stages of tendonitis or subsides, preventing recurrences is crucial to avoid developing a chronic condition. Developing conscious use of muscles, correct posture and good alignment as well as reducing repetitive movements are necessary. A regular yoga practice will address all these needs, as well as keep the tendons in good health. Care must be taken in yoga to not push or over stretch that can injure or irritate the tendons.
Tendonitis can sometimes recur with a return to physical activity, and prolonged bouts of this painful condition can lead to a thickening or rupture of the tendon. Thus, if the symptoms of tendonitis reappear, it is essential to return to following the movement guidelines for the acute stage.
A yoga practice should be used to supplement conventional therapy, not replace it. Talk to your doctor if your symptoms do not improve.

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Moksha and Maya

Liberation is not a place; it does not exist in the heavens, the earth or the spirit-world. Freedom has no space, no time, no location; it can only exist in the now, in the present moment. Moksha (liberation, freedom) is the state of non-ego, where the “me” vanishes and one stands free from all desires, actions and consequences in a total state of oneness. We are bound to this material world through attachment, desire, and the inability to see or experience the oneness of all life. Maya (illusion) is both the psychological separation between ego and the universe and the psychological filter that colors all of our experience. Maya is our memories, conceptions, judgments, and biases that present a distorted sense of reality. These impressions of past experiences become superimposed or projected on current experiences creating a false reality. Maya reinforces the ego, strengthens attachment, and defines our individual “story” that defines who we are and our relationship to the external world.
To achive moksha, maya must be cast off, anava (ego) must be dissolved, and both our attachments to pleasure and our aversions to discomfort must be severed. Moksha arises spontaneously when we become completely absorbed in the sensation of an experience without thought. This “taste” of total absorption is common yet fleeting. Through the practice of yoga, we seek to create the tools to consciously and willfully "pierce the veil" of maya and see the transcendent nature of reality. These tools include selfless work (karma yoga), self-dissolving love (bhakti yoga), absolute discernment (jnana yoga), and meditative immersion (raja yoga).
The most fundamental tool yoga gives us to create moksha is conscious awareness. Through the use of awareness we can slowly begin to see our projections, desires, attachments and judgments for what they are. Once these distorting factors become conscious, they are able to dissolve and unblock the way to a direct experience of reality. When we become liberated from the illusionary world of maya we are able to be in yoga: the union of the inner self (Atman) with the oneness of all life (Brahman).

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Mudras

Mudras (gesture, seal) are subtle physical movements of the hands, face, and or body. Complex mudras involve the whole body in a combination of asana, pranayama, bandha and visualization, while simple mudras range from hand positions to meditation techniques. The purpose of a mudra is to activate and create a circuit of prana in the body. This circuit channels the prana in a specific way to create a subtle effect on koshas and to regulate and awaken the prana, chakras and kundalini, Mudras are used only after proficiency in asana, pranayama and bandha has been achieved, and when one has obtained some cultivation and awareness of prana. In hatha yoga, the level of progression is asana, pranayama, bandha, mudra, samadhi. Thus, mudra is the advanced practice leading up to the attainment of enlightenment or samadhi. Mudras are the bestowers of the eight divine powers. They are held in high esteem by all the siddhas and are difficult for even the gods to attain. (Hatha Yoga Pradipika, 3:8)
Hasta (hand) mudras used primarily in meditation, but can also be incorporated in asana and pranayama as well as in daily activities. Hasta mudras redirect the prana traveling through the fingers back into the body. These mudras are the most common and numerous of the categories of mudras. Many of the hasta mudras have been developed to help with mental and emotional issues as well as heal physical diseases. Hasta mudras should be done with both hands, with light pressure of the fingers and held for 5-45 minutes.
Mana (head) mudras utilize the sense organs of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and lips. These mudras are done only as meditation exercises and require intense concentration to engage for even short periods of time. Mana mudras are deeply inwardly focusing and induce higher states of consciousness.
Contraction mudras involve the engagement of subtle skeletal muscles, mostly in the area of the pelvis. These mudras concentrate the prana in the body and prime the energy channels (nadis) for the awakening of kundalini.
Kaya (postural) mudras are similar to asana, but combine the other types of simple mudras with pranayama and concentration. These are the most complicated mudras and require the most amounts of concentration and focus to hold. Kaya mudras invigorate the prana in the body and direct the prana into specific chakras (energy centers).
With the exception of hasta mudras, these techniques have traditionally been kept secret and could only be learned from a guru. A list of hasta mudras is now available in our premium yoga poses section.

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The 13 Obstacles of Yoga

The path of yoga can be long and hard, filled with obstacles, pitfalls, and detours. Luckily, yogic philosophy provides a roadside assistance program to aid you when you become stuck. The yogis who have traveled the path before us have left us a troubleshooting guide called the 13 obstacles of yoga. The nine main obstacles of yoga are:
1. Vyadhi - Illness, disease, physical or mental. It is difficult to do yoga if you are physically sick. Thus it is important to lead a healthy lifestyle for the prevention of illness and promotion of optimal health.
2. Styana - Apathy, disinclination towards performing ones kartavya or duty. By procrastinating, we avoid our practice and create excuses for not being on the path and doing the work.
3. Sanshaya - doubting ones capability or the result of yoga. We can only come to know Reality, declares the Brihad-Âranyaka-Upanishad (4.4.23), when we are free from doubt. It is important to cultivate faith in oneself as well as the yogic path.
4. Pramada - Heedlessness, carelessness, a lack of persistence. Yoga is both a science and art and approaching it without skill, care, respect and devotion will create erratic and possible negative results.
5. Alasya - Sloth, inertia of mind or body due to dominance of the tamasic element. Yoga requires discipline, zeal and tapas (will-power) to succeed on its path. Laziness will prevent you from attaining your highest potential.
6. Avirati - Overindulgence, attachment to pleasurable things. We must learn to “let go” of our attachments to desire and physical objects if we are to make progress in yoga.
7. Bhrantidarshan - False vision, a premature sense of certainty. The development of a false notion about the practice of yoga and its outcome can not only lead one off the path of yoga, but also create harm and disappointment.
8. Alabdha-bhumikatva - Non-attainment of the next yogic stage or accomplishment. This happens due to faulty or poor practice and creates a feeling of being “stuck” and leads to discouragement.
9. Anawasthitatwa - Instability, non-permanence of a yogic accomplishment or stage. Not able to maintain an attained stage can be a real drag. This again can be a result of faulty or poor practice.
When any of these primary obstacles are encountered, four minor obstacles may appear according to the circumstances:
1. Duhkha - Pain or sorrow
2. Daurmanasya - depression, pain caused by non-fulfilment of desires.
3. Angamejayatwa - the shivering of parts of the body.
4. Shvâsa-prashvâsa - disturbances in kumbhaka or breath retention causing the irregular breathing pattern that comes with mental agitation.
You will need to be able to remove all these obstacles at will to be successful in yoga. They may appear at any time, and if not conquered during their first appearance, they are most likely to return until you learn how to overcome them.
The key to the removal of any and all of the above obstacles is the cultivation of the one-pointedness of mind. These obstacles will naturally pass with time unless we allow ourselves to become entangled and bogged down in them. By focusing all of your attention on a single object the obstacles dissolve and begin to lose their importance and power.

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Bhakti Yoga: the Yoga of Devotion

Bhakti Yoga is one of the four main yogic paths to enlightenment. Bhakti means “devotion” or “love” and this path contains various practices to unite the bhakta (Bhakti Yoga practitioner) with the Divine. Bhakti Yoga is considered the easiest yogic path to master and the most direct method to experience the unity of mind, body and spirit. While Hatha Yoga requires a strong and flexible body, Raja Yoga requires a disciplined and concentrated mind, and Jnana Yoga requires a keen intellect, the only requirement for Bhakti Yoga is an open, loving heart. But Bhakti Yoga complements other paths of yoga well, and it is said that jnana (knowledge or wisdom) will dawn by itself when you engage in the devotional practices of Bhakti Yoga.
This deeply spiritual practice draws heavily on the Hindu pantheon of deities. Each of these deities is seen as representing a humanized aspect of the single Godhead or Brahman – much the same way the Christian saints represent specific attributes and qualities of God. The use of Hindu deities in Bhakti Yoga can be a large obstacle for Western practitioners, especially for those with a deeply religious background. But the use of the Hindu deities is not required for this practice – in fact, finding your own object(s) of devotion will be all the more effective in achieving yoga (union) with the Divine.
There are nine main practices of Bhakti Yoga that can be practiced independently or together. Each of these limbs creates a specific bhava (feeling) that appeals to different inner constitutions of practitioners.
The Nine Limbs of Devotion 1. Shravana – “listening” to the ancient scriptures, especially potent if told by a saint or genuine bhakta. 2. Kirtana – “singing” devotional songs, usually practiced in a call-and-response group format. 3. Smarana – “remembering” the Divine by constantly meditating upon its name and form. 4. Padasevana – “service at the feet” of the Divine, which incorporates the practice of karma yoga (selfless service) with bhakti (devotion). 5. Archana – the “ritual worship” of the Divine through practices such as puja (deity worship), and havan or homa (fire offering). 6. Vandana – the “prostration” before the image of one’s chosen image or representation of the Divine. 7. Dasya – the “unquestioning” devotion of the Divine involving the cultivation of serving the will of God instead of one’s own ego. 8. Sakhya – the “friendship” and relationship established between the Divine and the devotee. 9. Atmanivedana – the “self-offering” and complete surrender of the self to the Divine.
The most popular limb of Bhakti Yoga in the West is Kirtana (usually called Kirtan), with national and local Kirtan walas performing weekly in small to large cities. Bhakti Yoga can be practiced by itself or be integrated into other types of yoga or spiritual practices.
The benefits of Bhakti Yoga are immense, as Swami Sivananda writes, “Bhakti softens the heart and removes jealousy, hatred, lust, anger, egoism, pride and arrogance. It infuses joy, divine ecstasy, bliss, peace and knowledge. All cares, worries and anxieties, fears, mental torments and tribulations entirely vanish. The devotee is freed from the Samsaric wheel of births and deaths. He attains the immortal abode of everlasting peace, bliss and knowledge”.
The ultimate goal in the practice of Bhakti yoga is to reach the state of rasa (essence), a feeling of pure bliss achieved in the devotional surrender to the Divine.

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How Yoga Heals

t has become common knowledge that yoga is good for you. Currently yoga is being used as a therapy for cancer, infertility, lung disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, insomnia, high blood pressure, and joint pain. Yet there is very little awareness and understanding on exactly how yoga heals, even in the yoga and medical communities. The key is to understand the relationships between stress, yoga and disease. Medical research estimates as much as 90 percent of illness and disease is stress related. A few of the many diseases and conditions that have been linked to an over active stress response include: cardio-vascular disease, depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, some types of diabetes mellitus, some autoimmune diseases, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, reproductive problems, and suppression of the immune system.
What we feel as stress, is the product of the sympathetic nervous system or the “fight or flight” response: an almost instantaneous surge in heart rate, cardiac output, blood pressure, sweating, shallow breathing, and metabolism, combined with a tensing of muscles. Internally, the “fight or flight” response shuts down digestion and elimination and reduces blood flow to the internal organs. Short term, this stress reaction is a good thing. The “fight or flight” response prepares us to respond to any environmental threat by fighting against it or fleeing from it. But long term, continuous exposure to stress is harmful, placing excess wear and tear on the body’s systems and severely limiting the body’s natural maintenance and healing abilities.
Chronic stress can lead to continuously high levels of cortisol. This hormone at normal levels helps to maintain an active, healthy body (including regulation of metabolism and blood pressure). But excessive amounts of cortisol can suppress the immune system and cause sleep disturbances, loss of sex drive and loss of appetite. High levels of cortisol can also increase your heart rate, blood pressure and your cholesterol and triglyceride levels (risk factors for both heart attacks and strokes). The byproducts of cortisol act as sedatives, which can lead to changes in mood, especially to feelings of depression.
Fortunately, the body has a natural counterbalance to the “fight or flight” response, called the parasympathetic nervous system or the “relaxation response.” The parasympathetic nervous system becomes activated when the threat or stressor has passed or ended, but it can also be consciously activated by deepening the breath and by relaxing the skeletal muscles.
When activated, the parasympathetic nervous system lowers blood pressure, heart rate and respiration (the pace of the breath). Digestion and elimination are allowed to be stimulated, and blood is free to travel to the digestive, reproductive, glandular, and immune systems — systems necessary for the promotion of long-term health. The “relaxation response” is also known as the “rest and renew” stage, when the body has the time and resources to heal the body and to respond to illness. Obviously, by increasing the frequency, time and depth of the “relaxation response” we not only allow our body to recover from illness and disease, but we also practice preventive medicine by allowing the body to perform all of its essential maintenance tasks.
Yoga’s emphasis on long, deep breathing and conscious relaxation activates the parasympathetic nervous system and promotes its “rest and renew” functions. In fact, a recent study has shown yoga to decrease the level of the stress hormone cortisol in the blood. The meditative practices of yoga help to reduce the reactiveness of the mind to stressors and to lessen the intensity of the “fight or flight” response. Yoga also teaches us to see potential stressors as challenges rather than threats, enabling one to avoid the stress response entirely.
Not only does yoga’s ability to activate the parasympathetic nervous system reduce stress and allow the body to heal itself, but the practice of yoga also improves the body’s inherent healing abilities. The inverting, twisting and compressing that occurs in yoga postures enhances the circulation of blood and body fluids. This increase in circulation not only improves the body’s ability to deliver the materials needed to allow healing to take place, but also activates the lymphatic system to maintain normal functioning of the immune system and inflammation response. Yoga poses also improve muscle strength, flexibility and range of motion, all very important for the healing and prevention of musculoskeletal diseases such as arthritis and osteoporosis. Yoga’s emphasis on deep breathing combined with backbends improves lung capacity and function. Practicing yoga also encourages one to lead a healthier lifestyle, through developing the self-awareness and discipline required for positive behavior modification.
While yoga possesses such a strong support to the body’s healing mechanisms, it is important to view yoga as an adjunct or complementary therapy, and not relied upon as the only therapy for healing disease.

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The Power of Mantra

A mantra is a word or series of words chanted aloud or silently to invoke spiritual qualities. Chanting is used as a spiritual tool in virtually every cultural and religious tradition. In the yogic tradition a mantra is a Sanskrit word that has special powers to transform mind, body and spirit. Translated, mantra means, “that which when reflected upon gives liberation.” Mantras are unique mystical formulas of sacred syllables, which were originally revealed to the Rishis (seers or sages) in the deepest states of meditation. Mantras were one of the earliest components of yoga and are quite possibly the first type of meditation that was developed. There are three main types of mantras, Bija (seed), Saguna (with form), and Nirguna (without form). The Bija mantras can be used individually, but are most often incorporated into Saguna mantras to invest them with a special “seed” power. The Bija mantras correlate to the 7 chakras and to the main Hindu deities. The Saguna mantras invoke the forms of the individual deities or personalized aspects of God. It is said that the recitation of the Saguna mantras gives rise to the actual form of the particular deity, thus manifesting its power.
The Nirguna mantras originate from the Vedic texts and are thus the oldest mantras of the three types. As no deities or personalized aspects of God are invoked with these mantras, they are very difficult to interpret and are considered to not have a specific form or meaning to them. These mantras are said to have their identification with all the creation, and contain the fundamental truths in yogic philosophy. It is said that the mind must be very strong to be able to concentrate on the abstract Nirguna mantras, and thus they are not recommended for beginning students .
As each mantra invokes a precise power, they can be used for very specific purposes: spiritual development, the healing of diseases, and for the attainment of worldly desires. When combined with the user’s intention, mantras can become even more targeted and empowered. The mantras are said to increase in power in direct relationship to the number of times repeated. A mantra is fully empowered by becoming “seated” in the heart after 125,000 repetitions, achieving what is called Mantra Siddhi.
The practice of chanting a mantra is considered the easiest form of meditation. Sitting in a comfortable position, with the eyes closed, the mantra is repeated silently or aloud. Pay careful attention to the speed and rhythm of your chanting, the correct pronunciation, aim, and esoteric meaning of the mantra. Allow the mind to be focused on the mantra, letting the thoughts go and maintaining a slow and deep breath. A Mala (string of beads) can be used to count series of 108 repetitions of the mantra.
Like prayer and affirmation the repetitious use of mantra can have powerful effects on the mind, body, spirit and emotions. Mentally, mantra meditation increases concentration, and improves memory and focus. Physically, mantra meditation lowers the heart rate, reduces blood pressure, and activates the relaxation response to allow healing and rejuvenation to occur. Mantra meditation builds self-confidence and self-empowerment, reduces stress and balances the emotions. Spiritually, mantras are said to dissolve one’s bad karma, produce jnana (wisdom) and are considered one of the many yogic paths towards self-realization.
On our Membership Site: A complete list of mantras, with their meanings and audio pronunciations.

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Jnana Yoga: The Yoga of Wisdom

Jnana (wisdom or knowledge) is considered the most difficult of the four main paths of Yoga, requiring great strength of will and intellect. In Jnana yoga, the mind is used to inquire into its own nature and to transcend the mind’s identification with its thoughts and ego. The fundamental goal of Jnana yoga is to become liberated from the illusionary world of maya (thoughts and perceptions) and to achieve union of the inner Self (Atman) with the oneness of all life (Brahman). This is achieved by steadfastly practicing the mental techniques of self-questioning, reflection and conscious illumination that are defined in the Four Pillars of Knowledge. The Four Pillars of Knowledge (sadhana chatushtaya) are the prescribed steps toward achieving liberation in Jnana Yoga. These practices build upon each other and thus should be practiced in sequential order. Even if one does not have the goal of achieving liberation, practicing these techniques will cultivate spiritual insight and understanding as well as reduce one’s suffering and dissatisfaction of life.
Viveka (discernment, discrimination) is a deliberate, continuous intellectual effort to distinguish between the real and the unreal, the permanent and the temporary, and the Self and not-Self.
Vairagya (dispassion, detachment) is cultivating non-attachment or indifference toward the temporal objects of worldly possessions and the ego mind. "It is only when the mind is absolutely free from the attachment of all sorts that true knowledge begins to dawn." - Swami Sivananda.
Shatsampat (six virtues) are six mental practices to stabilize the mind and emotions, and to further develop the ability to see beyond the illusions of maya. • Shama (tranquility, calmness) is the ability to keep the mind peaceful, through moderating its reaction to external stimuli. • Dama (restraint, control) is the strengthening of the mind to be able to resist the control of the senses, and the training of the senses to be used only as instruments of the mind. • Uparati (withdrawal, renunciation) is the abandonment of all activities that are not one's Dharma (Duty). A simple lifestyle is followed that contains no worldly distractions from the spiritual path. • Titiksha (endurance, forbearance) is the tolerance of external non-conducive situations that are commonly considered to produce suffering, especially in extreme opposite states (success and failure, hot and cold, pleasure and pain). • Shraddha (faith, trust) is a sense of certainty and belief in one's guru (teacher), the scriptures and the yogic path. • Samadhana (focus, concentration) is the complete one-pointedness of the mind.
Mumukshutva (longing, yearning) is an intense and passionate desire for achieving the liberation from suffering. In order to achieve liberation one must be completely committed to the path, with such longing that all other desires fade away.
It can be difficult to grasp or comprehend the intellectual approach of jnana yoga, and since one can easily overemphasize intellectual attainment it is important to cultivate humility and compassion on this path. It is easy to become entangled in the constructs and thoughts of the mind and loose sight of the goal of jnana: to realize the divine oneness inherent in all beings. Obviously, this approach would be contraindicated for anyone with a history of mental disease or emotional instability. It is also highly advised to find a competent teacher before divulging deeply into the path of jnana yoga.

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The Power of Shakti

Shakti is the dynamic force animating all of creation, which gives us life and moves the planets in a cosmic dance called “lila.” This universal energy is considered feminine in nature, and is often personified as the Divine Mother or Paravati, the consort of Shiva. Shakti is extremely diverse in nature; it can both be an agent of change and destruction as well as the means to fulfill our desires and dreams. This dynamic power can be experienced both externally and internally. There are distinctive types of Shakti inside and outside of us that are experienced in different forms and different levels. Para-Shakti is the Shakti working on a cosmic level: the light generated by the sun, the rotation of the planets, heat and other forms of gross energy. Jnana-Shakti is the Shakti of the mind: of thought, wisdom and intuition. Iccha-Shakti is the Shakti of our will, action and intention. Kriya-Shakti is the Shakti of manifestation, creativity, and inspiration. Kundalini-Shakti is the most significant form of Shakti. Seen in nature as electricity and magnetism, Kundalini-Shakti is also the internal hidden Shakti coiled at the base of our spine.
The complementary force to Shakti is Shiva: universal consciousness. Without the animating power of Shakti, Shiva lies asleep. Internally, Shiva resides dormant at the crown chakra. Shakti is described as a coiled serpent of atomic energy at the base of the spine that only outputs the minutest of energy into the body. The path of liberation in yoga is the path of Shakti moving through the nadis (energy channels) and up the seven chakras (energy centers) to be united with Shiva.
Even if our goal is not enlightenment, conscious awareness and cultivation of Shakti can be very beneficial. As you increase the amount of Shakti in your body, your chakras and nadis adjust to contain the additional wattage of Shakti. With your energy system able to accommodate higher amounts of energy, the Kundalini-Shakti then increases its output of Shakti energy in the body. As more Shakti flows in our body, it manifests in its many forms to produce creativity, inspiration, intellect, wisdom and will.

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Unlocking the Mystery of Om

Om (also written Aum) is the oldest and most sacred sound found in yoga, Hinduism and Buddhism. Not only does Om represent the entire universe, known as Brahman, it is also said to be the source of all creation. Om represents all time: past, present, and future; and is beyond time itself. Om represents the eternal oneness of all that is, and thus represents the ultimate goal of yoga: to become unified in body, mind and spirit. Chanting the mantra Om is perhaps the oldest of yoga’s spiritual practices. In the Mandukya Upanishad we find this beautiful passage: “The body is the bow, Om is an the arrow, the arrow’s tip is the focused mind, and the ultimate Mystery is the target.” Thus, meditating on Om is used to guide one to discovering the higher Self, and the true nature of the universe. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali instructs one in contemplating the meaning of Om as a direct path to enlightenment. “The repetition of the sound of Om, along with a deep contemplation of the meaning of what it represents, brings both the realization of the individual Self (Atman) and the removal of obstacles that normally block this realization” (Yoga Sutras 1.27-1.29).
Om is said to be the essence of all mantras, and is used as the mula-mantra, the root and beginning of most mantras. Om is the bija (seed) mantra of the sixth chakra or third eye and chanting Om activates and opens this energy center. Om is also known as the adi-bija, the primary seed mantra. Om is used within sacred chants to increase their power and potency as well as to draw the practitioner into a deep internal state.
It is very important when repeating Om to pronounce the "O" sound correctly. In Sanskrit, the sound "O" is a diphthong-- a subtle speech sound that begins with one vowel and changes to another vowel within the same syllable. This “O” sound begins with an “A” sound as in “law” and ends with a “U” sound as in “put.” When these two vowel sounds are combined in this diphthong, it produces a single, pure vowel sound. Thus, when you pronounce Om it should sound like “home” without the beginning “h” sound. When pronouncing Om the sound should emanate from the navel, with a deep and harmonious vibration, and gradually rises upwards to resonate in the nostrils.
Though indivisible, Om has four subtle sounds that correspond to four levels of consciousness. The first sound of "A" represents Vaishvanara, the conscious waking state. The second sound of "U" represents Taijasa, the subtle, unconscious dream state. The third sound of "M" represents the Prajna, the casual, subconscious deep sleep state. The fourth sound is the silence that follows the sound of Om which represents Turiya, the absolute consciousness that illumines and pervades the three prior states.
When chanting Om, equal measure should be given to both the “O” and the “M” sounds, i.e. “oooommmm” and not “oommmmmm” or “oooooomm.” The mantra Om may be chanted aloud, whispered, or repeated mentally. The chanting of Om should be easy and natural, without strain. Usually when Om is chanted out loud it is long and when chanted mentally is it short, but experiment and do what feels most comfortable for you. When chanting Om you can also focus your gaze on the third eye center, the sixth chakra. If using Om as a mantra meditation you may wish to use a mala to count repetitions of 108.

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Yoga for Heart Health

According to the American Heart Association, coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, causing about 1.5 million heart attacks each year. Recent research has shown yoga and meditation to reduce blood pressure, lower the pulse rate, improve the elasticity of the arteries, regulate heart rhythm, and increase the heart’s stroke volume. Yoga, in short, is good for your heart. Stress is considered a major contributing factor in heart disease. Stressful situations raise your heart rate and blood pressure, and release stress hormones, which all can injure the heart and the blood vessels, especially during prolonged or repeated exposures. Yoga is widely known for its ability to reduce stress and promote a calm relaxed state, which in turn reduces stress hormones, decreases the heart rate and lowers blood pressure, helping to control and prevent heart disease.
The breath has a strong influence on the rhythm of the heart through the inner connections in the central nervous system. Slow deep breathing is encouraged by hatha yoga, pranayama (yogic breathing exercises) and verbal recitation of mantras. And this smoothing and lengthening of the breath slows the heart rate, regulates the heart rhythm, oxygenates the blood, and induces a feeling of calm and well-being. All of the benefits of establishing a slow steady breath rhythm have been shown to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Because of their effects on both the physical and energetic bodies, specific types of yoga postures can be used to control and prevent heart disease. Upper back-bending poses open the chest to improve heart function and respiration. Side-bending poses open the energy channels of the liver, gallbladder and heart to help remove physical and energetic blockages in the heart and chest. Spine lengthening poses promote good posture to reduce compression on the heart and lungs and to facilitate proper functioning of the heart. Shavasana (corpse or relaxation pose) is deeply calming and has been shown to reduce high blood pressure in just a few weeks. Inversions help to rest the heart muscle and improve blood circulation, but are contraindicated with unmedicated high blood pressure. Findings show that people who practice yoga and meditation at least three times a week may reduce their blood pressure, pulse and their overall risk of heart disease.
Meditation is renowned for its ability to calm the mind and reduce stress. It also can reduce heart-harmful emotions, such as anxiety, hostility and hopelessness. And studies have shown that a daily meditation practice can reduce the amount of fatty deposits in the arteries, as well as lower blood pressure.
Practicing yoga naturally leads one to choose a healthier lifestyle, which most often eliminates or minimizes heart disease’s dietary risk factors of refined sugar, alcohol, high cholesterol and fat rich foods, and caffeine.
While all of these yogic practices have been shown to help prevent and control heart disease, when they are practiced together they create powerful healing synergy on the heart. Dr. Dean Ornish’s famous study has shown that heart disease can not only be controlled, but can actually be reversed through diet, meditation, group support, and yoga.
A complete list of yoga postures that prevent and control heart disease is now available in our premium yoga therapy section. A yoga pose sequence for the Heart and Chest is available in our premium yoga sequence section.

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Focusing on a Drishti

A drishti (view or gaze) is a specific focal point that is employed during meditation or while holding a yoga posture. The ancient yogis discovered that where our gaze is directed our attention naturally follows, and that the quality of our gazing is directly reflected in the quality of our mental thoughts. When the gaze is fixed on a single point the mind is diminished from being stimulated by all other external objects. And when the gaze is fixed on a single point within the body, our awareness draws inwards and the mind remains undisturbed by external stimuli. Thus, the use of a drishti allows the mind to focus and move into a deep state of concentration. And the constant application of drishti develops ekagraha, single-pointed focus, an essential yogic technique used to still the mind. A drishti is commonly used in meditation to focus and concentrate the mind. The most useful drishti points used are the breath and the third eye center. External focal points can also be used, such as the tip of the nose, a candle or mandala.
In yoga postures, a drishti is used to deepen the primary movement of the pose, as well as to keep the mind engaged and focused. To use a drishti while in a yoga pose, simply select the point where your gaze is naturally directed by the alignment of the posture. The use of drishtis in yoga postures is to be developed slowly over time. First one must develop and focus on the alignment of pose, then the breath, and then finally the drishti. Using a drishti is especially helpful if you are holding a posture for an extended period of time, and will be enormously helpful while practicing balancing poses.
In Ashtanga yoga, eight specific drishtis are used and described: Nasagrai Drishti, gaze at the tip of the nose, as used in upward facing dog and standing forward fold poses. Angusta Ma Dyai Drishti, gaze at the thumbs, as used in warrior I. Nabi Chakra Drishti, gaze at the navel, as used in downward facing dog. Pahayoragrai Drishti, gaze at the toes, as used in hand to toe pose and most seated forward bends. Hastagrai Drishti, gaze at the hands, as used in triangle and warrior II. Parsva Drishti, gaze to the side, as used in seated spinal twists. Urdhva Drishti, gaze upwards, as used in warrior angle, balancing half moon, and prayer twist. Naitrayohmadya or Broomadhya Drishti, gaze at the third eye or forehead, as used in fish, upward forward fold, and reverse warrior II.
When using a drishti, do not strain the eyes. The muscles around the eyes should be relaxed and the gaze should be soft. Generally, it is recommended to use bahya (external) gazing for externally oriented yoga practices and antara (internal) gazing for contemplative and meditative practices. But there is also value to having the eyes closed and using antara drishti during yoga postures, as this creates a deep state of meditation and inward focus while holding the pose.
In bhakti yoga, drishti is used in a slightly different way: a constant loving and longing gaze is turned toward the concept, name or image of God. Drishti can also be thought of in a broader context, of having the proper view or perspective of one’s life. By developing the ability to adapt one’s perspective to accommodate the continuous change in the world, we can avoid the unnecessary attachments that cause us suffering.

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Ganesha: the Elephant Headed Prince

With an elephant head and a round potbelly, Ganesha is perhaps the most popular and best known of the Hindu deities. Ganesha is most notably known as the “remover of obstacles” but also resides over the realms of wisdom, luck, doorways, the household and writing. Before Ganesha was born, his father was often away from his wife, Parvati, fighting distant battles or spending long stretches of time in deep meditation. Shortly after Shiva’s departure for yet another battle trip, Parvati gave birth to a son who she raised over the years while Shiva was still out to battle. When Shiva finally did return home, he found a young boy guarding the entrance to his cave. Since Ganesha had never met his father, he stood his ground to protect his mother while she was bathing inside the cave. Unfortunately, thinking they were both an enemy, they fought each other, and in a fierce rage Shiva chopped off Ganesha’s head with his sword. Hearing a ruckus outside, Parvati emerged from the cave to find her son decapitated and sternly ordered Shiva to remedy the situation. Shiva and his army quickly scavenged the local area to find a suitable replacement for Ganesha’s head. Shiva was able to save Ganesha’s life by replacing his head with the head of a young elephant.
The complicated form of Ganesha is rich with symbolism. Ganesha is normally depicted with four arms: one using a mudra of protection, one holding a modaka (sweet), one holding a ankusha (elephant goad), and one holds a pasa (noose). The modaka symbolizes the sweet rewards gained while on the spiritual path. The ankusha is a tool used for training elephants and represents Ganesha’s role in prodding one out of inertia and back onto their spiritual path. The pasa symbolizes Ganesha’s powers at curbing the ego, restraining passion and conquering delusion. His potbelly signifies the bounty of nature and his large head is symbolic of the wisdom of the elephant.
Ganesha is most famously known as the “remover of obstacles.” He has the power to remove any obstacle, whether it is physical or spiritual, from the path of his devotees. If one is not respectful or faithful to Ganesha, he is known to place obstacles in one’s path to render worship fruitless and cause one’s undertakings to fail. Ganesha is venerated as the deity of letters and scriptures. Legend states that Ganesha, using his own tusk as a quill scribed India’s greatest epic, the Mahabharata. Ganesha also rules over the threshold. As he guarded his mother's doorway from unwanted guests, so does he guard the entrance into the inner sanctum of the spirit. Thus, Ganesha is traditionally invoked and honored at the beginning of important rites of passage and rituals, as well as before starting upon any new project.
Ganesha has many stories detailing his symbolism and roles as well as describing his cleverness, playfulness and wisdom. To read more on Ganesha and his many tales, explore the following titles: Ganesha: The Auspicious... The Beginning The Book of Ganesha In a World of Gods and Goddesses

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The Vedas

The Vedas are considered the most sacred and treasured texts of India. The Vedas are a collection of hymns that were received by the ancient rishis (sages) as shruti, divine revelation. As hymns and mantras, these works were actively recited out loud to both praise and invoke the powers of the spiritual realms, and had been verbally passed on for many generations before written down on delicate palm leaves. These Vedic mantras were utilized in yagas and yajnas (ritual sacrifices and ceremonies) for promoting the well being of individuals, society and the world. As the oldest texts in any Indo-European language, it’s astounding that within these works the foundations of yoga are established, with yoga being defined as "yoking" and as a "discipline." The Vedas provided the spiritual core and philosophical foundations for the future development of both yoga and Hinduism.
There are four texts that compose the Vedas: Rig-Veda, Sama-Veda, Yajur-Veda and Atharva-Veda.
The Rig-Veda is the oldest, dating back to 1500 B.C.E., and is the most revered and important of the four. The Rig-Veda’s collection of inspired hymns and mantras were used to invoke courage, happiness, health, peace, prosperity, success, and wisdom. In the Rig-Veda we learn the now famous Gayatri mantra, which is still used today for its potent spiritual qualities. We also find the first use and definition of the word yoga. These verses provide the foundation and material for the remaining Vedas.
The Sama-Veda is purely a devotional collection of melodies (saman) used to elevate one’s consciousness. The hymns in the Sama-Veda are combined with musical notes, and their content was heavily drawn from the Rig-Veda, providing no distinctive lessons of their own. This use of music combined with mantras formed the foundation for the Bhakti yoga practice of kirtan, devotional chanting.
The Yajur-Veda is devoted entirely to the worship of the deities and the instruction for the technical aspects of ceremonies. The Yajur-Veda served as a handbook for the Vedic priests who executed sacrificial acts through simultaneously chanting the hyms and mantras while following the sacrificial formula (yajus).
The Atharva-Veda consists of spells and charms to dispel evil, disease and misfortune. Its hymns are of a more diverse character than the Rig-Veda and were composed of a simpler language making them more accessible to the general population.
The Vedas expounded a diverse set of practices, ideas and concepts; among them was an primitive form of yoga as well as one of the world’s oldest, diverse and complex spiritual philosophies. Six main schools of philosophy emerged from these teachings. These Darshanas (viewpoints) all systematically represent the core ideas illuminated in the Vedas. They are: Nyaya (logic), Vaiseshika (analysis of the universe), Samkhya (classification of the universe), Yoga (union with the Divine), Mimansha (ritual interpretation of the Vedas), and Vedanta (inquiry into the Self).
Because all of these philosophical systems draw from the same source, they are seen to complement rather than compete with each other. Over time, Vaisheshika, Nyaya, and Mimamsa have become somewhat obsolete and are not actively practiced. Samkhya, Vedanta, and Yoga continue to have a strong importance and influence in Indian thought and many of the practices that evolved out of these Darshanas continue to be practiced today.

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The Five Vayus

Through their exploration of the body and breath, the ancient yogis discovered that prana (life force energy) could be further subdivided into energetic components they called Vayus (winds). The five Vayus of prana all have very subtle yet distinct energetic qualities, including specific functions and directions of flow. The yogis were able to control and cultivate these Vayus by simply bringing their focus and awareness to them. Through this conscious control and cultivation they were not only able to create optimal health and well-being, but were able to activate the primordial Kundalini energy to obtain states of enlightened Samadhi. Complete mastery over the Vayus is not necessary to benefit from using them to improve our inward focus and the ability to feel the subtleties within the body. Cultivating a basic awareness of one or more of the Vayus will help us deepen our awareness of body and breath to enrich our yoga practice.
The two most important Vayus are Prana-Vayu and Apana-Vayu. Prana-Vayu is situated in the head, centered in the third-eye, and its energy pervades the chest region. The flow of Prana-Vayu is inwards and upward. It nourishes the brain and the eyes and governs reception of all things: food, air, senses, and thoughts. This Vayu is the fundamental energy in the body and directs and feeds into the four other Vayus. To experience Prana-Vayu: Close your eyes, sit or stand with a long spine and relaxed body, and as you inhale feel an energy flowing up the torso from the belly to the third-eye.
Apana-Vayu is situated in the pelvic floor and its energy pervades the lower abdomen. The flow of Apana-Vayu is downwards and out and its energy nourishes the organs of digestion, reproduction and elimination. Apana-Vayu governs the elimination of all substances from the body: carbon monoxide, urine, stool, etc. To experience Apana-Vayu: Close your eyes, sit or stand with a long spine and relaxed body, and as you exhale feel an energy flowing down the torso from the top of the head to the tailbone.
Vyana-Vayu is situated in the heart and lungs and flows throughout the entire body. The flow of Vyana-Vayu moves from the center of the body to the periphery. It governs circulation of all substances throughout the body, and assists the other Vayus with their functions. To experience Vyana-Vayu: Close your eyes, sit or stand with a long spine and relaxed body, and as you inhale feel the breath radiating outward from the navel to the arms and legs.
Udana-Vayu is situated in the throat and it has a circular flow around the neck and head. It functions to “hold us up” and governs speech, self-expression and growth. To experience Udana-Vayu: Close your eyes, sit or stand with a long spine and relaxed body, and as you inhale and exhale feel the breath circulating around and through the head and neck.
Samana-Vayu is situated in the abdomen with its energy centered in the navel. The flow of Samana-Vayu moves from the periphery of the body to the center. It governs the digestion and assimilation of all substances: food, air, experiences, emotions and thoughts. To experience Samana-Vayu: Close your eyes, sit or stand with a long spine and relaxed body, and as you inhale and exhale feel the breath rising and falling in the front, sides and back of the torso.
Awareness of one or more Vayu has several applications in yoga, and is most easily illustrated within a yoga posture. The awareness of Prana-Vayu creates a focus to lift, lengthen and open the upper body. The awareness of Apana-Vayu creates a focus to ground and stabilize the lower body. The awareness of Vyana-Vayu creates a focus of strength and fluid movement body. The awareness of Udana-Vayu creates a focus to maintain a long spine and a correct posture. The awareness of Samana-Vayu creates a focus to open and relax the body.

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Yoga with common injuries

We often bring injuries with us into our yoga practice – both from pushing ourselves too hard in yoga and from overworking our bodies in other exercise or daily activities. Yoga can provide a therapeutic tool for healing and recovery from an injury – but it can also be an impediment to healing or even worsen the injury. By adhering to some simple guidelines we can safely practice yoga with an injury and utilize yoga to support the healing process by activating the body’s lymphatic system and by improving local circulation. There are three main stages of healing after an injury has occurred. By being aware of these three stages and following the recommended guidelines for each stage we can expedite the healing process and reduce the risk of re-injuring the area.
Acute Stage During the first stage, the acute period, rest the injured area for 4-6 days. Do not perform any movements that require strength, aggravate the injury, or produce any pain. At the beginning of this stage inflammation is usually present, and elevating the affected area will help to control any swelling to help reduce any throbbing or discomfort. Inversion poses will be very helpful to reduce inflammation by activating the lymphatic system, and will also provide elevation if the injury is located in the lower body. Using ice and compression (wrapping with an ace bandage) on the injured area during the first 2-3 days after the injury is also recommended to help relieve inflammation and pain, and to expedite the recovery process. After the swelling has subsided (usually after the first 48 to 72 hours), very gentle and slow range of motion movements can be performed, but do not stretch the muscles that trigger the pain. Even though the area may feel like it needs a stretch, stretching will not help with the healing process and most likely will re-injure the area to prevent further healing.
Subacute Stage The subacute stage of injury follows the acute stage and lasts between 1-3 weeks. During this time the injured tissue is very fragile and susceptible to re-injury. Very gentle stretching is the first step of rehabilitation. Stay focused on the breath and the sensations of the stretch, but do not stretch to the point of pain. The next step of rehabilitation is to slowly and gently strengthen the muscles involved in the injury. Begin with slow, gentle non-weight bearing movements and gradually increase the amount of motion and number of repetitions. As symptoms resolve, gradually resume using weight-bearing movements. An adequate warm-up before and correct alignment during yoga is essential in this healing stage.
Move into the poses slowly and gently; use long hold times and practice slow deep breathing in the poses. Any movements that increase your symptoms should be avoided. If a yoga pose causes any pain, tingling, or numbness, stop immediately.
Chronic Stage The chronic stage of injury follows the subacute stage and may take up to 12-18 months for complete healing to occur. During this time the injured site may feel healed but it is still susceptible to a re-injury and/or chronic inflammation if excessive force is used on the area. It is important to know that care must be taken during this stage and that the injury will not be 100% healed until after this stage has passed .
Following these guidelines will allow you to continue your yoga practice while allowing and encouraging the healing of your injury. While using the above guidelines can effectively heal most minor injuries, a yoga practice should be used only to supplement conventional therapy, not replace it. Severe pain lasting more than a few days without improvement requires medical attention.

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Sankhya's Map of the Universe

Sankhya philosophy, one of the oldest and most influential of the six systems (darshans) of Indian thought, has had a profound impact on the beliefs, values and concepts used in the practice of yoga. At the time of the Buddha, Sankhya philosophy revealed a detailed map of the universe to serve as a guide towards realizing the unitive state, the ultimate goal of yoga. Sankhya philosophy divides the universe into 25 distinct yet related principles called tattvas. The tattvas are guideposts to orient ourselves within the map and to see what we experience as separate concepts are truly part of a larger whole. Acknowledging and understanding these tattvas refines our discrimination, affirms our consciousness and brings us towards self-realization. Patanjali drew heavily upon Sankhya philosophy in the development of his Yoga Sutras, and many of the practical methods and techniques of yoga rest on Sankhya’s philosophical foundations.
The fundamental distinction in Sankhya philosophy is the separation of Brahman (oneness of all elements in the universe) into two distinct parts: Purusha (pure consciousness) and Prakriti (nature, primeval matter). Samsara or bondage arises when Purusha enters into a state of advidia (not knowing), loosing its identity and confusing itself with the physical body - which is seen as a distinct evolute of Prakriti. Purusha becomes liberated when the discriminate knowledge of the difference between conscious Purusha and unconscious Prakriti is realized.
These 25 elements were further simplified into two other maps of the body-mind-spirit: the three Shariras (bodies) and the five Koshas (sheathes). These both identify layers within our experience, which correlate with each other and the tattvas. The Shariras and the Koshas are both used to draw one’s awareness inside, traveling from the physical, to the energetic and casual bodies, towards the very essence of our being, which Sankhya tells us is Brahman, pure undivided oneness. This moving from the physical to the subtle deeper experiences of the body is an important tool in the practice of meditation and inner contemplation.
While the dualism apparent in the Sankhya system soon became incongruent with further developments in yogic philosophy, Sankhya’s core concepts became ingrained into yogic teachings as well as into other Indian systems of science, art and knowledge. Sankhya’s core concept of seeing all aspects of the created world as having the same essence remains an important realization to remove fear, separation and suffering and to lead us towards a state of experienced oneness.

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Yoga for Purifying Mind, Body and Spirit

Purification (shaucha) is a central aim of all the yogic practices, and is the first principle of self-discipline (niyama) in Patanjali’s eight-limbed approach. The yogis have discovered that impurities in our internal body adversely affect our state of mind, and prevent the attainment of real wisdom and spiritual liberation. Through the yogic practices of asana, pranayama, tapas and shatkarma, the body and the mind become cleansed and our spiritual development is accelerated. The physical postures of yoga purify the body through movements that increase and improve the flow of blood, oxygen and prana (life force energy) in the tissues, muscles and organs. The yoga poses squeeze and massage the muscles and organs to move out old stagnant blood and bring in fresh blood full of nutrients and oxygen. In the more dynamic postures, heat is created and sweat is produced to facilitate the release toxins through the pores of the skin.
The breathing techniques of pranayama purify the mind and body through the balance and cultivation of energy throughout the whole body. Different pranayamas have different actions on the body and thus different purifying effects. Kapalabhati (breath of fire) is warming and energizing, purifying the body through the creation of heat and the movement of energy. Nadi Sodhana (alternate nostril breath) is calming and cleansing, purifying the body through reducing stress and removing blockages in the nadis (energy channels).
The intensive self-discipline of Tapas purifies the mind and spirit through the “burning up” of the desires in our mind. Basically, Tapas is engaging the will to do some action you do not want to do or not doing some action you want to do. This creates a conflict between our will and the desire of our mind producing an internal “fire” which illuminates and burns up our mental and physical impurities.
The six cleansing practices of shatkarma purify the body by physically removing excesses of mucus or phlegm. These are primarily esoteric practices that must be learned and performed with the supervision of a qualified teacher. The shatkarmas are described as six groups of yogic cleansing techniques: Neti: nasal cleaning and irrigation, Dhauti: cleansing of the digestive tract, Nauli: abdominal massage, Basti: colon cleaning, Kapalbhati: purification and vitalization of the brain, and Trataka: blinkless gazing. The goal of these practices is to purge out excesses in order to bring the three doshas (physical constitutions) into balance. If the doshas are already in balance, then it is recommended to not practice these intense cleansing practices. There are easier, gentler and more accessible ways of balancing the doshas through the healing techniques of Ayurveda that can be utilized as an alternative of the shatkarmas.
When the mind, body and spirit have been purified through the various practices of yoga, the overall result is an increase in the flow of prana through the whole body, improving our capacity to work, think, digest, taste, feel, and experience life. And not only do these practices make us feel more alive, they also foster our spiritual development, inner awareness and equanimity.

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Cultivating devotion through the Puranas

The most revered and pertinent texts in the Bhakti Yoga tradition are the Puranas, the ancient stories of the Indian gods and goddesses. In Bhakti Yoga the devotional aspect of yoga is emphasized, in which the practitioner develops faith and unconditional love to become united with the Divine. This faith and love is cultivated through the Puranas personalization of the Devas (gods and goddesses) with vivid and entertaining myths, stories and legends. The Puranas also serve to detail the spiritual practices and modes of worshiping and invoking the universal energies encapsulated in the Devas. The essential teachings of the ancient Vedic texts were popularized through the entertaining stories of the Puranas, giving the common people access and understanding to these potent spiritual teachings and complex yogic philosophies. These myths, stories, legends and allegories provided concrete examples of living one’s life according to both dharma (duty, righteousness) and bhakti. The Puranas instructed one on having a personal relationship with the Devas through the explanation and encouragement of the practices of yoga, vows, puja, prayers, and spiritual sacrifices. The Puranas also served to provide a common mythological history to the Indian people through its stories of the lives of saints, kings and great men, and the chronicles of great historical events.
The Puranas are written in Sanskrit verse, and were composed between the 4th century BCE and the 1st century CE. There are eighteen major puranas, as well as a similar number of minor puranas and their length varies considerably: the Skanda Purana has 81,000 verses, while the Markandeya Purana has only 9,000 verses. The ancient Sanskrit scholar Amarasinha defined a purana as having five characteristic topics: "(1) The creation of the universe; (2) Its destruction and renovation; (3) The genealogy of gods and patriarchs; (4) The reigns of the Manus, forming the periods called Manwantaras; (5) the history of the Solar and Lunar races of kings."
Overall, the Puranas primarily tell of the numerous battles between the devas and the asuras (demons), which are viewed as allegorical accounts of the struggle within each person between the forces of good and evil. And through the heroic deeds and noble qualities of the Devas we become inspired to lead a better life, become a better person and overcome our limitations.

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The Hatha Yoga Pradipika

What is commonly considered Yoga in the West is in actuality just one of the many paths of Yoga, and is technically called Hatha Yoga. The oldest and most widely used ancient text on the physical practices of Hatha Yoga is the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. This book was composed in 15th century CE by Swami Swatamarama and is derived from older Sanskrit texts, the teachings from well-known teachers and from Swatamarama's own yogic experiences. The main goal of this text is to illuminate the physical disciplines and practices of Hatha Yoga and integrate these with the higher spiritual goals of Raja Yoga (meditation). Swatamarama begins with explaining the relationship between Hatha Yoga and Raja yoga, informing us that Hatha is a preliminary practice for Raja Yoga. He tells us that obtaining self-control and self-discipline is much easier when we start with the physical and energetic body, verses trying to directly control the mind as in Raja Yoga. Through the mastery of the prana, or energy of the body, we can then easily master the control of the mind and obtain success with Raja Yoga. In verse 1:41 he tells us that when the flow of prana is stabilized through the practices of Hatha Yoga, the breath stops spontaneously and a mindless state naturally arises.
Although Swatamarama’s instructions on how to practice this yoga are quite detailed and a bit dated, Westerners can still apply the most important and relevant points to their practice. Swatamarama tells us that the room where one practices yoga in should be clean, pleasant, comfortable and free from insects and animals. He also details the qualities that bring success in yoga, that cause failure, and also supplies ten rules of conduct and ten personal observances for the beginning yogi to follow. In brief, he tells us that to be successful in the practice of Hatha Yoga we must live a quiet, pure, honest and moderate lifestyle and avoid any excessive behaviors.
The bulk of this text details the techniques of the main practices of Hatha Yoga: Asana (postures), Pranayama (breathing exercises), Shatkarma (internal cleansings), mudra (energy seal), and Bandha (energy locks). After some basic preliminary requirements, Swatamarama makes clear the first stage of Hatha Yoga is Asana, the physical postures that we are most familiar in the West. Asana creates firmness of the body and mind, and diseaselessness and flexibility of the body. It is here where we first learn to control and discipline the body. Swatamarama tells us that once a practice of Asana has been established then Pranayama can be begun. The goal with these breathing exercises is to control the prana and the subtle energies of the body, which in turn can be used to control the mind. Swatamarama tells us that if there is excessive mucus in the body, this will need to be removed using the six purification techniques of Shatkarma. These purifying techniques as well as the Pranayama help to purify the energy channels of the body and allow the prana to move more efficiently through these nadis. Utilizing Mudra and Bandha further activates the energy of the body, concentrates it and channels it into the main energy channel, the sushumna, that runs from the base of the spine to the top of the head and intersects all seven chakras. Mudras are complex movements of the whole body in a combination of asana, pranayama, bandha and visualization. Bandhas are engagements of specific groups of muscles at the base of the pelvis, the abdomen and the throat to “lock” the prana energy of the body inside the torso. Both of these techniques are challenging to master and should only be attempted after one is competent and skilled in both Asana and Pranayama.
At one level, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika details a very similar yoga of what is practiced in the West, while a very different yoga is shown by the intent of the deeper practices described within. Traditionally, Hatha Yoga is uniquely focused on transforming the physical body through purification and the cultivation of the life force energy of prana. And all of the techniques of Hatha Yoga are seen as preliminary steps to achieving the deeper states of meditation and enlightenment found in the path of Raja Yoga. Considering this, we are only getting a small taste of what yoga can offer us here in the West. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika gives us a valuable map to these deeper practices of yoga, as well as providing the knowledge and tools to travel to these depths if we so choose.

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The Five Yamas of Yoga
At the beginning of Patanjali’s eight-fold path of yoga lays the Yamas: the moral, ethical and societal guidelines for the practicing yogi. These guidelines are all expressed in the positive, and thus become emphatic descriptions of how a yogi behaves and relates to her world when truly immersed in the unitive sate of yoga. While we may not strive to reach such a pure state ourselves, the Yamas are still highly relevant and valued guides to lead a conscious, honest and ethical life.
Patanjali considered the Yamas the great, mighty and universal vows. He instructs us that they should be practiced on all levels (actions, words, and thoughts) and that are not confined to class, place, time or concept of duty (YS 2.31).
Ahimsa is the practice of non-violence, which includes physical, mental, and emotional violence towards others and the self. We create violence most often in our reactions to events and others, habitually creating judgment, criticism, anger or irritation. I have found the Buddhist practice of compassion to be an excellent tool to foster non-violence in my life. Compassion is the ability to accept events as they are with an open and loving heart. It is a letting go of reacting to a situation in a conditional and negative way, and replaces those thoughts or feelings with kindness, acceptance and love. At first practicing compassion is hard, frustrating and not fun. But the key is to have compassion for oneself for not having compassion, and to smile at this contradiction.
Satya (truthfulness) urges us to live and speak our truth at all times. Walking the path of truth is a hard one, especially while respecting Patanjali’s first Yama, Ahimsa. Since Ahimsa must be practiced first, we must be careful to not speak a truth if we know it will cause harm to another. Living in your truth not only creates respect, honor and integrity but also provides the vision to clearly see the higher truths of the yogic path.
Asteya (non-stealing) is best defined as not taking what is not freely given. While this may on the surface seem easy to accomplish, when we look further this Yama can be quite challenging to practice. On a personal level the practice of Asteya entails not committing theft physically and/or not causing or approving of anyone else doing so--in mind, word, or action. On the level of society, Asteya would be in opposition to exploitation, social injustice and oppression. While not easy, practicing Asteya encourages generosity and overcomes Lobha (greed). And as Patanjali tells us, “when Asteya is firmly established in a yogi, all jewels will become present to him/her.” (YS 2.37).
Brahmacharya (continence) states that when we have control over our physical impulses of excess, we attain knowledge, vigor, and increased energy. To break the bonds that attach us to our excesses and addictions, we need both courage and will. And each time we overcome these impulses of excess we become stronger, healthier and wiser. One of the main goals in yoga is to create and maintain balance. And the simplest method for achieving balance is by practicing Brahmacharya, creating moderation in all of our activities. Practicing moderation is a way of conserving our energy, which can then be applied for higher spiritual purposes.
Aparigraha (non-coveting) urges us to let go of everything that we do not need, possessing only as much as necessary. The yogis tell us that worldly objects cannot be possessed at all, as they are all subject to change and will be ultimately destroyed. When we become greedy and covetous we lose the ability to see our one eternal possession, the Atman, our true Self. And when we cling to what we have we lose the ability to be open to receive what we need.
In a practical sense, the practicing the Yamas eliminates or reduces the accumulation of bad karma as well as prevents the draining of our energy when we lead a false and/or unconscious life. When we practice the Yamas we are striving towards living a healthier, holier and more peaceful life and at the same time we strengthen our powers of awareness, will and discernment. Engaging in these practices is not an easy task, yet by doing so we fortify our character, improve our relationships with others, and further our progress along the path of yoga.

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Yoga for Insomnia

Insomnia is a sleep disorder that is characterized by difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, waking too early, and/or feeling tired upon waking. Acute insomnia (lasting from one night to a few weeks) is the most common and is usually caused by stress, hormonal changes, and/or emotional problems. Fortunately, the stress reducing, calming and natural balancing effects of yoga make it a perfect remedy for mild and acute insomnia, and along with good sleep habits insomnia can often be prevented or quickly cured. A gentle practice of calming yoga poses will be generally effective to reduce stress and balance the body’s systems to promote good sleep. Since forward bending poses are traditionally known for their inherent calming effects, try to practice several of the following: seated and standing forward bends, downward facing dog, child, seated angle, seated head to knee, and yoga mudra.
If there is an emotional component to your insomnia that includes depression and anxiety, then incorporate the following poses to strengthen the energy of the body and open the heart center: fish, bridge, cobra, puppy dog, camel, goddess, warrior 1 and 2, and twisting squat. Also, practicing the Buddhist Metta meditation to cultivate loving-kindness to remove negative thought patterns will be helpful.
Hormonal imbalances are often a cause of insomnia. If so, forward bends and inversions will be particularly effective. Poses that massage the reproductive organs and activate the endocrine system will also be helpful, such as: bow, boat, bridge, crocodile, and seated twists.
If stress is contributing to your insomnia, then a more active or flowing approach to yoga would be warranted. Including some of the following hip openers and side bends in your yoga practice would also be beneficial: prayer squat, seated and standing angle, supine bound angle, half moon, half circle, and side seated angle. Establishing a daily meditation practice will also be important to calm the mind and effectively manage stress.
Always end your yoga practice with a 7-10 minute shavasana (relaxation) pose. You can also add a progressive muscle relaxation or a guided relaxation during shavasana to further calm and relax the body and mind.
Inversions, such as shoulderstand, plow, and headstand will be helpful to practice when you are having difficulty falling asleep. Also, practicing dirga pranayama, especially with an extended exhalation, will also be deeply calming to the body and mind, and can be practiced while lying in bed.
Chronic insomnia (lasting least three nights a week for a month or longer) will be harder to treat with yoga due to the possible underlying factors of other health conditions and/or side effects of medications. If chronic insomnia is present, consulting with a doctor or health professional will be essential to address any underlying medical issues.
A complete list of yoga postures, meditations and pranayamas that prevent and quickly cure mild insomnia is now available in our premium yoga therapy section. A yoga pose sequence for the calming the Heart and Mind is available in our premium yoga sequence section.

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The Five Niyamas of Yoga
The second limb of Patanjali's eight-limbed yoga system contains the five internal practices of Niyama (observance). These practices extend the ethical codes of conduct provided in his first limb, the yamas, to the practicing yogi’s internal environment of body, mind and spirit. The practice of Niyama helps us maintain a positive environment in which to grow, and gives us the self-discipline and inner-strength necessary to progress along the path of yoga. Shaucha (purification) is a central aim of many yogic techniques, and is the first principle of Patanjali's five Niyamas. The yogis discovered that impurities in both our external environment and our internal body adversely affect our state of mind, and prevent the attainment of real wisdom and spiritual liberation. The practices of asana, pranayama and meditation cleanse and purify the body and mind, as well as strengthening their capacity to maintain a pure state of being. We must also consciously work at surrounding ourselves with a pure environment (including food, drink, friends, entertainment, home furnishings and transportation) to not add any external impurities back into our bodies or minds.
Samtosha (contentment) is not craving for what we do not have as well as not coveting the possessions of others. The yogis tell us that when we are perfectly content with all that life gives us, then we attain true joy and happiness. It is easy for the mind to become fooled into thinking that we can attain lasting happiness through the possession of objects and goods, but both our personal experience and the teachings of the sages prove that the happiness gained through materialism is only temporary. Practicing contentment frees us from the unnecessary suffering of always wanting things to be different, and instead fills us with gratitude and joy for all of life’s blessings.
Tapas (asceticism) is a yogic practice of intense self-discipline and attainment of will power. Basically, Tapas is doing something you do not want to do that will have a positive effect on your life. When our will conflicts with the desire of our mind an internal “fire” is created which illuminates and burns up our mental and physical impurities. This inner fire can also be used as a source of spiritual energy; the yogis say the sole practice of Tapas can lead to the release of kundalini and attainment of enlightenment. Tapas transforms and purifies us as well as enables the conscious awareness and control over our unconscious impulses and poor behavior. Tapas builds the will power and personal strength to help us become more dedicated to our practice of yoga .
Svadhyaya (self-study) is the ability to see our true divine nature through the contemplation of our life’s lessons and through the meditation on the truths revealed by seers and sages. Life presents an endless opportunity to learn about ourselves; our flaws and weaknesses give us the opportunity to grow and our mistakes allow us to learn. Examining our actions becomes a mirror to see our conscious and unconscious motives, thoughts, and desires more clearly. The yogic practice of Svadhyaya also involves the study of sacred and spiritual texts as a guide to our interior world where our true self resides. Self-study requires both seeing who we are in the moment and seeing beyond our current state to realize our connection with the divine.
Ishvara Pranidhana (devotion) is the dedication, devotion, and surrender of the fruits of one’s practice to a higher power. This Niyama fuses two common aspects of yoga within it: the devotion to something greater than the self and the selfless action of karma yoga. Patanjali tells us that to reach the goal of yoga we must dissolve our egocentric nature and let go of our constant identification with ourselves. To do this, our yoga practice and all of the benefits we may receive from our practice must be seen as an offering to something greater than ourselves. Through this simple act of dedication we become reminded of our connection to our higher power, and our yoga practice becomes sacred and filled with grace, inner peace, and abounding love.
The foundation limbs of Patanjali’s eight-fold path of yoga, yama and niyama, create a solid foundation and strong container for the yogini to move into the deeper stages of yoga with focus, inner-strength, and success. Practicing the Yamas and Niyamas is a journey and process. Take one step, one Yama or Niyama at a time and proceed with compassion and without worry of perfection. As Swami Sri Kripalvanandaji said, " When you pick one petal from the garland of yamas and niyamas, the entire garland will follow

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Yoga Therapy for Colds and Flu

While we all are bound to suffer from the occasional cold or flu, the practicing yogi/yogini is less likely to come down with the sniffles, and when he/she does, tends to have a much faster recovery rate. This is true because of yoga’s known abilities to regulate the immune system, keeping it strong and healthy to withstand infections, and yoga’s ability to boost immune function with specific yogic practices. Yoga’s stress reducing abilities is one of the primary reasons a regular practice of yoga helps prevent and cure the common cold. Stress is known as a major contributing factor to catching a cold or flu, as stress hormones cause the thymus to shrink in size, causing it to poorly function as a producer of immune cells. Besides the general calming effects of most yoga poses, restorative poses and forward bends are especially calming to the nervous system, helping to reduce whole-body stress. The following poses are known to be especially calming to the body and mind: child, shavasana, supine bound angle pose, seated forward bend, and seated head to knee.
Any type of physical activity will give a boost to the immune system, and yoga, with its inherent stress reducing and immune enhancing properties, will both provide a short-term boost and a long-term strengthening of the immune system. In addition to a general yoga practice, specific yoga postures can be used to target specific organs of the immune system to further enhance yoga’s immune boosting abilities.
Chest opening upper back bends will activate the primary organ of the immune system, the thymus gland, located in the center of the chest. The most beneficial postures for this purpose are Cobra, Pigeon, Fish, Boat, Bow and Bridge. Since the thymus gland is located at the fourth chakra center, chanting “yum,” this chakra’s bija mantra, while performing these poses can further activate the thymus gland .
Inversions increase the passive circulation of the lymphatic system, which is responsible for the production and circulation of the immune cells to defend the body from the viruses and bacteria. Inversions such as shoulderstand, headstand, plow and legs up the wall pose, will all help improve the flow of lymph and immune cells through the body. Twists and hip openers activate secondary organs of the immune system: the spleen and the lymph nodes in groin and armpits. These organs are the production sites for the immune cells, so using yoga poses to target these organs during a cold or flu would be especially beneficial. Use twists such as seated twist, prayer twist, and knee down twist, and hip openers such as bound angle, seated angle, and pigeon to activate these organs to keep them healthy and strong.
Lion pose is a specific yoga posture that activates the immune glands of the tonsils and the lymph nodes in the neck. Performing lion pose at the very beginning of a sore throat can dramatically stop and prevent the sore throat from progressing. Another specific yogic technique that helps prevent and cure colds, especially sinus related infections, is Jala Neti (nasal irrigation). Jala Neti is the use of a Neti pot to pour water through the nasal passages, flushing out the bacteria or germs that can cause infection.
Many practicing yogis/yoginis follow a yogic diet, which can also help to prevent and cure the common cold. A yogic diet’s emphasis on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes naturally provides the body with the proper nutrition and the abundance of antioxidants that the immune system needs to function optimally. A yogic diet is also naturally free or low of sugar, caffeine, alcohol, and fat—all of which are known to suppress various immune functions.
These various practices and poses of yoga are an excellent way to keep the immune system healthy and strong to prevent and quickly recover from the common cold or flu. If you do come down with a cold or flu, it is important to rest, drink plenty of fluids, eat simple wholesome foods and to practice some gentle yoga poses. If after three to four days there is no change in your symptoms, or a worsening of symptoms occurs, please seek medical attention from a qualified health care practitioner.

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Yoga for Anxiety

While anxiety (feelings of worry, fear and tension) is a normal reaction to stress, a constant state of anxiety or excessive levels of anxiety is a primary symptom of an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders are quite common, affecting about 18 percent of American adults, and are complex in nature, most likely occurring as a result from a combination of genetic, environmental, psychological, and developmental factors. While the traditional treatment of anxiety disorders with medication and Psychotherapy is effective, the stress reducing effects of yoga and meditation can reduce excessive levels of stress and anxiety, and can greatly enhance the effects of traditional therapies. Recent medical studies have shown that a regular practice of yoga and meditation is effective at lowering levels of anxiety. Excessive anxiety can be alleviated through a slow, gentle yoga practice focusing on postures that calm the heart and the mind, balance the emotions, and release body tension. Pranayama (yogic breathing) and meditation will also be helpful to calm the mind and body, and to reduce stress and negative thinking.
Besides the calming effects of a general yoga practice, restorative poses, inversions and forward bends are especially calming to the body and mind, helping to reduce and prevent excessive anxiety. The following poses are known to be especially calming: child, shavasana, crocodile, supine bound angle pose, seated forward bend, and seated head to knee. Simple inversions such as downward dog, standing forward fold, standing yoga mudra, shoulderstand, plow and supine staff pose create a temporary rise in blood pressure in the head which triggers the body’s natural calming mechanisms, dilating the blood vessels and lowering heart and breathing rates. If symptoms of fatigue, depression and heart palpitations are present, the qi or energy of the heart center may be weak, and heart opening poses such as Cobra, Pigeon, Fish, Boat, Bow and Bridge would both strengthen and calm the heart chakra.
Emotions play a large role in anxiety disorders. Excessive feeling of fear, worry, irritability, anger and depression can all add and exasperate our level of anxiety. Twists, hip opening poses and sidebends will all help to balance the emotions, and thus help reduce feelings of anxiety. Twisting and hip opening poses harmonize the nervous and endocrine systems, the two primary systems that regulate our emotional health, and side bending poses activate the Liver meridian, the energy channel known in Chinese medicine to regulate the emotions. The following poses will be especially helpful to regulate the emotions: prayer squat, standing angle, supine bound angle, half circle, revolved head to knee, seated angle, seated twist, knee down twist, and prayer twist.
The breath plays a major role in many cases of excess anxiety. During feelings of anxiety, the breath becomes shallow, rapid and constricted, which in turn reinforces our nervous system’s state of anxiety. When practicing pranayama, yogic breathing exercises, the nervous system is naturally calmed and soothed. With a regular practice we can learn how to consciously maintain a slow deep breath at all times to prevent and minimize excess states of anxiety. The practice of Dirga and Nadi Sodhana Pranayamas will be the most strongly calming to the body. If there is excess heat in the body, with symptoms of agitation, restlessness, impatience, craving, compulsions and poor sleep, then Sit Cari and Shitali pranayamas will be helpful as well.
The mind also plays a major role in most states of long-term anxiety. Continual focus and obsession with thoughts of fear and worry will only create additional levels of anxiety. Yoga and meditation allow us to have control over our thoughts through mental detachment and the ability to focus the mind on the present experience. The benefits of a regular meditation practice are known to include the reduction of stress, tension, anxiety and frustration.
Yoga, pranayama and meditation are all powerful tools in the reduction and prevention of excess states of anxiety. All of these practices cultivate the mental faculties of faith, self-control, concentration, determination, and patience. And when practiced together will create an even stronger effect on calming the mind and emotions.
When using the above yogic practices, it is important to avoid any of these yogic practices scare you or make you feel unsafe, as this may trigger the body's fight-or-flight response, which in turn will increase feelings of anxiety. And while yoga is effective at treating excess levels of anxiety, yoga is not a substitute for conventional medical treatment; please consult your medical professional if you are experiencing any of the signs or symptoms of anxiety disorders.

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The Upanishads
While the Vedas are considered the most sacred and treasured texts of India, it is the Upanishads that transferred the wisdom of the Vedas into practical and personal teachings. The word Upanishad literally means "sitting down beside” and the collection of Sanskrit texts known as the Upanishads are thought to be the direct teachings received at the foot of the ancient Indian sages. In these sacred texts we see an internalization of the sacrifice and worship extolled in the Vedas and a deeper understanding and exploration of the internal world of mind and spirit. Composed over several centuries and in many volumes, the Upanishads reflect a strong need to express and communicate the deep mystical states and spiritual contemplations that the ancient yogis experienced. According to tradition, there were over two hundred Upanishads, but there are only eleven "principal" Upanishads, as commented on by the ancient sage Shankara. The texts are written in a passionate poetic verse describing mystical states and spiritual concepts or in descriptive short stories and dialogues between historical figures.
The teachings of the Upanishads revolve around four primary spiritual themes. The first and most important is the realization that the ultimate, formless, and inconceivable Brahman (Godhead) is the same as Atman, as our internal soul. Brahman represents the entire universe, and the Atman is a little piece of that divine oneness that we contain inside us. This philosophical idea is summed up in the mantra Tat Tvam Asi (That Art Thou). The idea that the Atman is eternal, and becomes reborn over and over again is central to the concept of reincarnation that is taught in the Upanishads. This concept of rebirth is highly tied to the teachings of Karma: the future consequences of one's current intentions, thoughts, behaviors and actions. It is the accumulation of Karma that binds us to Samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth. To escape the endless cycle of Samsara requires one to attain enlightenment through the realization of Atman/Brahman. It is this state of Self realization that the majority of the Upanishads attempt to describe and encourage us to achieve through the yoga practices of meditation, mental discrimination and mantra recitation.
These spiritual concepts have exerted a profound influence on the development of Yoga, Hindu and Indian philosophy. While the yogic practices taught in the Upanishads were primarily mediation based, these philosophical teachings will remain the core beliefs for all of the future developments in the many paths and practices of yoga.
Reccomended reading: The Upanishads by Eknath Easwaran

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Yoga for Fatigue

We all have experienced common bouts of fatigue as a normal response to over-exertion, emotional stress, boredom, or lack of sleep.This common experience of low energy and/or motivation can usually be alleviated through proper rest, exercise, stress reduction and nutrition. Yoga is an especially effective treatment for fatigue as it combines movement, rest and stress reduction with the cultivation of prana (life force energy) and the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and renew response). The remedy for some cases of fatigue can be quite obvious, while other types of fatigue will require much more self-observation and self-inquiry to find the proper mode of treatment. Yoga is an optimal healing modality for fatigue not only because it addresses the physical, emotional and energetic causes of fatigue, but also because it fosters and facilitates the self-observation and self-inquiry required to understand the roots of this disharmony.

Physical Causes
While the physical causes of fatigue are the most obvious, they are also the least common. A lack of sleep will certainly cause fatigue, and while getting more sleep is the obvious solution, yoga can also help. Yoga is not a substitute for sleep, but yoga’s calming and regulating effects can help you get a longer and deeper night’s rest. A deep sense of rest can also be experienced from extended holdings of restorative poses, such as child, supine bound angle, knee down twist, and shavasana. Physical over-exertion can deplete the body’s energy and cause muscle fatigue. Gentle yoga poses will help to regulate, nourish and replenish the energy and muscles of the body. The restorative poses mentioned above will also provide rest and renewal to these centers. The poor circulation of blood, oxygen and nutrients can also create fatigue. Yoga’s whole body movements and stretches increase the flow of blood, oxygen and nutrients through the body, helping the cells of the body to access the proper materials for producing energy. Flowing movements and sequences, such as the sun salutations, as well as inversions will be the most effective in improving circulation. A nutritionally poor diet can also be the blame of physical fatigue. A yogic diet of simple, fresh, and organic foods will allow the body to easily digest and assimilate all of the proper nutrients that the body needs to produce energy. Overeating should be avoided as this can overtax the digestive system, reducing its ability to assimilate nutrients, making one feel heavy and sluggish.

Emotional and Energetic Causes
While yoga has a strong effect on the physical body, it has an even stronger effect at regulating the emotions and subtle energies of the body. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) excessive emotions are seen to adversely affect the organ systems responsible for the creation and regulation of prana or qi. In TCM, the Kidneys are seen as the foundation of all of the energy of the body and act like batteries to store prana for future use. Fear is said to constrain the energy of the Kidneys, causing them to dysfunction and for their energy reserves to become drained. The Chinese believe the Spleen is responsible for converting the food we eat into energy for the body to use. Excessive worry and over thinking weaken the Spleen’s ability to transform nutrients to produce abundant prana, resulting in fatigue. The Lungs also play a role in producing prana in the body. The Lungs transform the air we breathe into prana and also help circulate this prana in the chest. When excessive sadness or melancholy is present, this function of the Lungs is depressed and this may manifest as fatigue in the body. The Liver in TCM is responsible for the free flow of energy through the entire body. Excessive anger, frustration and irritation all cause the Liver to constrict and stagnate the flow of prana, which in turn can lead to fatigue.

The meditative and mindfulness practices of yoga are excellent tools to bring awareness to our emotional states and to experience and process them completely. Yoga poses can be used to target the Kidney, Spleen and Lung areas to encourage the release of held emotions and to tonify and regulate these organ energy centers. As the Kidneys are located in the low back, back bending poses are the best to activate the Kidneys and to tonify their prana. Low back bending poses such as Bridge, Cobra, Boat and Bow will be the best targeted for this area. As the Liver and Spleen are located on the sides of the abdomen, side bends and twists will activate these energy centers. Both the meridians of the Liver and Spleen travel down the insides of the legs, so hip opening poses like Pigeon, Bound Angle and Seated Angle will also activate these organ systems. Physical movement helps the Liver in moving the energy through the body, so vinyasa based sequences like the sun salutations will be beneficial as well. To activate and tonify the Lungs, use chest opening upper back bending poses such as fish, camel, sphinx and crab.

When working with the emotional and subtle bodies, it is important to keep the focus rooted inside the body on the sensations that arise while holding these poses. If sensations arise that have an emotional component to them, it is important to fully express and release the emotion, and to not repress any feelings if they arise.

Pranayama (yogic breathing techniques) are a very direct method to cultivate prana and energize the body. With a multitude of these techniques, there is a coresponding range of energetic effects for these practices: Dirga pranayama is a very gentle and easy pranayama to learn and use, while Kapalabhati and Bastrika are much more powerful and intense. Pranayama is considered a powerful yogic practice, so be cautious in your exploration and move carefully through the exercises, noting their effects on your energy levels. While Pranayama may be used with any of the physical or emotional causes of fatigue, it will not be very effective unless the root causes of fatigue are reduced or eliminated.

All regular exercise will reduce fatigue, but yoga has the unique ability to provide exercise that is multi-dimensional in nature: effecting the body, mind, energy and emotions. Yoga also allows the practitioner to moderate the level of activity based on his/her current state of energy to avoid further exhausting or depleting one’s energy. While fatigue is often a normal response to daily life stressors, it can also be a nonspecific sign of a more serious psychological or physical disorder. If your fatigue is not relieved by the above methods please seek a further evaluation from a qualified medical professional.

A complete lists of Yoga Poses for Fatigue is available in our Premium Membership website's Yoga Therapy section.

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The Four Ashramas of Yoga
The traditional Indian culture promoted four Ashramas, or stages of spiritual life, that provided a simple framework of life planning for the spiritual aspirant. Each Ashrama defined a level of spiritual practice based on the duties and responsibilities required at each stage of life. The four Ashramas allowed the Indian culture to participate in and actively support a rich spiritual life, as well as gave the individual comfort and clarity to progress along the path of Self-realization. These four stages need not be practiced in a sequential order, and while they were traditionally discussed as lasting 21-25 years, the duration of the Ashramas will vary with the individual.

Brahmacharya (Student)
The first quarter of spiritual life is spent as a celibate student, closely studying with a spiritual teacher (guru). In this stage the focus is on yogic training, mental discipline, and learning about spiritual, community, and family life. This Ashrama creates the foundation and overview of spiritual practice that follows in the three other stages.

Grihasta (Householder)
The second quarter of spiritual life is spent as a householder, creating and supporting a family and fulfilling one’s worldly interests and duties. The most appropriate path of yoga for this stage is Bhakti and Karma Yoga, and other practices that can be performed in the context of worldly life and service to others. During this Ashrama one utilizes the training, discipline and knowledge gained from the Brahmacharya Ashrama to live a complete life and to enjoy worldly pleasures. The Householder’s challenge is to “Live in the world but allow not the world to live in you.” He or she must view life as a great teacher and strive towards a spiritual life in the midst of worldly temptations and distractions. The Householder path is also considered the most important Ashrama as it supports all of the other three Ashramas.

Vanaprasthya (Hermit)
In the third Ashrama, one begins to withdraw from the world to establish a state of hermitage. This is a transition stage, moving away from fulfilling the needs of the family and society to deepening the practices started as a householder in preparation for the forthcoming renunciate stage. A quiet living space is sought, a simple yogic lifestyle is practiced and the close ties with family and community are reduced to the role of a detached counselor.

Samnyasa (Renunciate)
In this last Ashrama, the yogi/ni retreats from all involvement in all worldly pursuits and seeks only the attainment of the unitive state of Self-realization. Becoming a Sannyasin requires committing to a set period of practice and the taking of spiritual vows, usually including a vow of poverty and the abandonment of physical possessions. In order that all their time, energy and focus could be expended on spiritual practices, the Sannyasin cannot stay in a household, he has to stay in a temple or live in forest or ashram, relying on charitable donations for food.

The structures and meanings of the Ashramas have changed over the years due to the loss of caste system and through the influence of Western culture. The distinctions between the Ashramas have over time become blurred, and their overall importance has become diminished. The deeper yoga practices, once only taught to renunciates, are now becoming available to Householders who wish to practice a hybrid path. Unfortunately, these changes have produced a level of confusion and misunderstanding in the modern world of yoga, as the levels and types of yoga practices are missing an overall context. Reviving the idea of the Ashramas will not only provide this missing context, it will also give modern yoga practitioners a valuable long–term plan for their progress along the path of yoga.

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Challenge Yourself
To go deeper into your practice of yoga, it is necessary to challenge your body-mind-spirit on occasion. Use these four powerful techniques in combination or by themselves to challenge yourself further.

Go to the Edge
When holding a yoga posture you want to go to your edge. The edge is the place where you feel a deep stretch in your body or you feel the body working hard, but not going past that to where you hurt yourself or over work the body.

The edge is a magical place, but a scary place too. Getting to know your edges is getting to know your body. Its a body thing, not a mind thing, so let go of any thoughts or distractions. Slow down and listen to the body, easing your way closer and closer. Find the place between pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, creation and destruction, openness and protection. Balance there, feeling both worlds, feeling everything, and breathe.

Incorporate Challenge Postures
Start off your practice with postures that make you feel strong and confident in your self, getting your whole body warmed and energized. Then add one or two postures to your flow that bring you to your edge, postures you feel you “can’t” do, postures you normally avoid. Move slowly into these challenge postures, focusing the mind on the breath and the body. Feel what is happening in the body without the temptation to react, judge, or criticize. Breathe, breathe, breathe, and let go of the “I can’t”. Take yourself right to your edge, breathe some more, and see if you can go just a tiny bit more. Give yourself permission to bail out at any time if the body (not the mind) is saying a big “no”. Challenge postures can bring up strong emotions, and it is important to be in a safe environment so these emotions can be fully expressed and released from the body.

The Power of Visualization
When approaching a challenging / difficult / strenuous yoga posture, you can harness the power of the mind to move the body into the pose. If you can see yourself in the yoga posture, you can do it.

Close your eyes, deepen the breath and see your body doing the yoga posture in your mind’s eye. See every detail, seeing your body’s alignment and how you are breathing. See yourself in the posture strong, confident, and graceful. See yourself holding the posture with ease. See a simile on your face! Keep this image clearly in your mind as you move your body into the posture. Simply allow your body to fill up this mental picture, without excess pushing, straining or effort. When your body is fully in the posture, keep your focus on the mental picture, and begin to feel your body inside this image, filling it up with your awareness.

Create Inner Focus with Pratyahara
Pratyahara is the pivotal point in the practice of yoga where the path leads from the exterior to the interior landscape of the body. Pratyahara translates directly as “sense withdrawal” and is the fifth limb or branch of an eight-staged yogic approach to the unification of body-mind-spirit. By withdrawing our attention from the external environment and by focusing inwards on the breath and sensations, we still the mind and increase our awareness of the body. With this awareness and focus we can move deeper into the practice of yoga, learning to move through our limitations, fears and expectations. The key to practicing pratyahara is observing the body, breath and sensations as a detached witness, as if you were watching and feeling someone else’s body. Used with compassion and discipline, pratyahara enriches the practice of yoga and leads to deeper stages of concentration and meditation.

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History of Yoga

Yoga's history has many places of obscurity and uncertainty due to its oral transmission of sacred texts and the secretive nature of its teachings. The early writings on yoga were transcribed on fragile palm leaves that were easily damaged, destroyed or lost. The development of yoga can be traced back to over 5,000 years ago, but some researchers think that yoga may be up to 10,000 years old old. Yoga's long rich history can be divided into four main periods of innovation, practice and development.

Pre-Classical Yoga
The beginnings of Yoga were developed by the Indus-Sarasvati civilization in Northern India over 5,000 years ago. The word yoga was first mentioned in the oldest sacred texts, the Rig Veda. The Vedas were a collection of texts containing songs, mantras and rituals to be used by Brahmans, the Vedic priests. Yoga was slowly refined and developed by the Brahmans and Rishis (mystic seers) who documented their practices and beliefs in the Upanishads, a huge work containing over 200 scriptures. The most renowned of the Yogic scriptures is the Bhagavad-Gîtâ, composed around 500 B.C.E. The Upanishads took the idea of ritual sacrifice from the Vedas and internalized it, teaching the sacrifice of the ego through self-knowledge, action (karma yoga) and wisdom (jnana yoga).

Classical Yoga
In the pre-classical stage, yoga was a mishmash of various ideas, beliefs and techniques that often conflicted and contradicted each other. The Classical period is defined by Patanjali's Yoga-Sûtras, the first systematic presentation of yoga. Written some time in the second century, this text describes the path of Raja Yoga, often called "classical yoga". Patanjali organized the practice of yoga into an "eight limbed path" containing the steps and stages towards obtaining Samadhi or enlightenment. Patanjali is often considered the father of yoga and his Yoga-Sûtras still strongly influence most styles of modern yoga.

Post-Classical Yoga
A few centuries after Patanjali, yoga masters created a system of practices designed to rejuvenate the body and prolong life. They rejected the teachings of the ancient Vedas and embraced the physical body as the means to achieve enlightenment. They developed Tantra Yoga, with radical techniques to cleanse the body and mind to break the knots that bind us to our physical existence. This exploration of these physical-spiritual connections and body centered practices led to the creation of what we primarily think of yoga in the West: Hatha Yoga.

Modern Period
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, yoga masters began to travel to the West, attracting attention and followers. This began at the 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago, when Swami Vivekananda wowed the attendees with his lectures on yoga and the universality of the world’s religions. In the 1920s and 30s, Hatha Yoga was strongly promoted in India with the work of T. Krishnamacharya, Swami Sivananda and other yogis practicing Hatha Yoga. Krishnamacharya opened the first Hatha Yoga school in Mysore in 1924 and in 1936 Sivananda founded the Divine Life Society on the banks of the holy Ganges River. Krishnamacharya produced three students that would continue his legacy and increase the popularity of Hatha Yoga: B.K.S. Iyengar, T.K.V. Desikachar and Pattabhi Jois. Sivananda was a prolific author, writing over 200 books on yoga, and established nine ashrams and numerous yoga centers located around the world.

The importation of yoga to the West still continued at a trickle until Indra Devi opened her yoga studio in Hollywood in 1947. Since then, many more western and Indian teachers have become pioneers, popularizing hatha yoga and gaining millions of followers. Hatha Yoga now has many different schools or styles, all emphasizing the many different aspects of the practice.

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Hatha Yoga: The Physical Path
What we commonly call yoga in the West is technically Hatha Yoga. Hatha Yoga (ha="sun" tha="moon") attains the union of mind-body-spirit though a practice of asanas (yoga postures), pranayama (yoga breathing), mudra (body gestures) and shatkarma (internal cleansing). These body centered practices are used to purify the body and cultivate prana and activate kundalini, the subtle energies of the body. Modern Hatha Yoga does not emphasize many of these esoteric practices and focuses primarily on the physical yoga postures.

In the history of yoga, hatha yoga is fairly recent technique that was developed from Tantra Yoga. The tantrics embraced the physical body as the means to achieve enlightenment and developed the physical-spiritual connections and body centered practices that lead to Hatha Yoga. But Hatha Yoga is uniquely focused on transforming the physical body through purification and the cultivation of the life force energy of prana. And all of the techniques of Hatha Yoga are seen as preliminary steps to achieving the deeper states of meditation and enlightenment found in the path of Raja Yoga (meditation).

The oldest and most widely used ancient text on the physical practices of Hatha Yoga is the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. This book was composed in 15th century CE by Swami Swatamarama and is derived from older Sanskrit texts, the teachings from well-known teachers, and from Swatamarama's own yogic experiences. The main goal of this text is to illuminate the physical disciplines and practices of Hatha Yoga and integrate these with the higher spiritual goals of Raja Yoga. Swatamarama begins with explaining the relationship between Hatha Yoga and Raja yoga, informing us that Hatha is a preliminary practice for Raja Yoga. He tells us that obtaining self-control and self-discipline is much easier when we start with the physical and energetic body, verses trying to directly control the mind as in Raja Yoga. Through the mastery of the prana, or energy of the body, we can then easily master the control of the mind and obtain success with Raja Yoga.

It was not until the 1920s when Hatha Yoga became popularized and promoted in India with the work of T. Krishnamacharya and a few other brave and determined yogis. Krishnamacharya traveled through India giving demonstrations of yoga poses and with other pioneering yogis promoted hatha yoga through its strong healing and other positive benefits. Since then, many more western and Indian teachers have become pioneers, popularizing hatha yoga and gaining millions of followers. Hatha Yoga now has many different schools or styles, all emphasizing the many different aspects of the practice.

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Web Site Graphic Design

A picture is said to be an expression of a 1000 words. Yes, this may work for an artist. However, a Overland park website designer has to reconsider this while creating a website. A picture may express certain things that need to get to the audience but that may be for websites with humour as their theme.

As a Kansas web designer, you need to meet the demands of your audience and your organisation through quality information and content presented on a website rather than images that slow down the uploading of a website. You need to attract the visitor and not distract him. The Webmaster who realizes these little facts can gain huge success. He needs to remember that, fancy and alluring items do not always attract the customers.

Additional keep-in-mind features

ALT text is important
Including ALT text to a page can be helpful while adding an image on the same page. The ALT characteristic in the HTML tag provides substitute text when a person cannot view an image. The textual information will be displayed if the browser of the user does not allow him to see the images or if the user had disabled the visuals option. The ALT text can contain information on the company apart from a site map and then company's logo.

Handy height and width tags
These tags help the browser to track the size and resolution of the image and the browser automatically decides where to place and adjust the text that is available on the page. This helps to catapult the speed of the page and uploads it easily and more swiftly. This will also allow the users and visitors to access the page textual information on the page without displaying the images nearby. Therefore the webmaster has to keep in mind that the use of height= and width= attributes can be helpful incase the pictures are not viewable.

Interlaced images
These images can help a web page to load in a quicker fashion and bring
convenience on the users end. These are the GIF type of images and are easy to use. The image may appear a bit blurred at the start but it catches up with the browser after some time and comes as an attractive and useful image. These tricky images actually make the user feel that the page uploads fast when it does not in actuality.

Reuse images
The image that is put up on your website gets loaded to the browsers cache of a visitor when he logs on to it. This area of a hard disk stores files that may be needed again for viewing. Therefore, theimages on your website will load onto the users' computer and he can feel the website uploading faster. Thus, you can use one image throughout your site without causing any speed disturbances.

David vs. Goliath images
Several small images instead of one big image can be useful as they download more easily than big images. They can also express the organisations values, products and offerings. They are far faster than normal big size images.

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Various Techniques of Search Engine Optimization

SEO techniques are effective procedures to put a website on the first page of search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN for your targeted keywords. These techniques directly help in raising the SERPs (search engine result positions) of the site, increase site traffic and acquire relevant quality links.
If you want people to find your site via a search engine easily, the site will require a high SERP. This means when users search on specific keywords or phrases, they will find your site on the first page generated by the engine. Having the site on the 10th page of search engine results will not give you satisfactory traffic and you can potentially lose thousands of customers and sales.

Let's discuss the techniques that can help you towards achieving a high SERP

1. Domain & File Names
Select a domain name of your site that contains words from your main keyword phrase/query. The domain name should also be easy to spell and easy to remember. Ideally it should only contain alpha-numeric characters and no hyphens for optimum results.

2. Easy to think Keywords
Such keywords are to be used which are searched for in excess on the net. Add keyword synonyms to your content. Make sure you use your keywords from the page you are linking to.

3. Density of placing Keywords
Keyword density is related to the number of times the keyword appears in the text on a particular page. High keywords density is considered spamming by the search engine and can get your site blacklisted. Your keywords should be toward the top of your page and in either every paragraph or every second paragraph depending on your paragraph length.

4. Misuse of SEO Techniques
Misuse of search engine optimization techniques may get your site blacklisted from a search engine. Some techniques that are considered spam are cloaking, invisible text, tiny text, identical pages, doorway pages, refresh tags, link farms, filling comment tags with keyword phrases only, keyword phrases in the author tag, keyword density too high, mirror pages and mirror sites etc. These are all termed as Black Hat SEO techniques. While these techniques might work to give you a higher ranking for a short time, however in the long run they will slow down your progress and can have detrimental and very damaging consequences.

5. Construction of Titles and Description
Each page should have a different title with two or three of your keyword at the beginning. When search engine results are displayed the title is the first thing people observe and therefore enough time should be spent on constructing a fully optimized and well thought title. Your description should also have at least two or three of your keywords at the beginning as so should your first sentence on the page. There should be a different title, description and first sentence on each page.

6. Authors Biography
At the end of the page place an author biography or company name. This technique will help you to improve the branding of your site and get good rankings for your company name.

7. Website Design
In what way the website is designed is also important. Text content should balance the HTML text. The pages of the site should validate and be accessible in all browsers and from anywhere.

8. Links on the Site
There should always a navigation menu present on the site from where you link to all the important pages of the site. The idea is not trying to optimize the home page alone, but each and every page of the site. The secondary and tertiary pages of the site will only be recognized and indexed by the search engines if the spider can reach those pages. There should not a single broken link on any page of the site especially the index/home page.

9. Links to the Site
This involves ascertaining links that point to your site. The online world is not much different as compared to offline world. The celebrities in the real world are all famous and rich people i.e. have high SERPs. The reason they are famous is because so many people are familiar with them and know about their lives. The same principal applies to web-sties. The more the sites link to your site, the higher it will rank on search engines. This is an ongoing task and therefore a lot of effort should be spent in obtaining links from other sites. In an ideal world you should have all the sites linking to yours and your site not linking out at all. However this is not possible, but the idea should always be kept in mind when trying to acquire links. Also the quality of incoming link plays a big role in determining the overall benefit derived and its effect towards increasing the SERPs. The better the quality the better the result and so on so forth.

These are some of the techniques, which if used effectively can directly help in increasing not only traffic, potential customers but also the rankings on all search engines. In the end it's not only about what you know but how you act. Hard work, dedication and patience is always a recipe for success, whether working online or offline.

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Steps involved in making your Business Competitive

These are the fundamental steps that lead a business to a path of progress and competitiveness enhancing efficiency and effectiveness of the business. There are 7 steps that are discussed below:

1. Finding the Gaps
It includes the skills and knowledge your company possesses and is a major determinant of your success. In this step you need to identify your strengths, areas needing further study and areas of concern that could seriously affect your ability to stay competitive. Once you are through with this step, you would have access to practicable online information and other references that will help you bridge any knowledge and skill gaps. Filling these gaps will help in making your organization better prepared and to ascertain benefit from valuable information relating to the various management functions.

2. Pre-Planning
Pre-Planning is the process by which the management of an organization foresee its future and develop the necessary measures and operations to achieve the goals of future. It includes development of the purpose, mission, vision, and value statements of the managing teams; communication of these documents and suggestions for improvement, culture survey to create a base against which change can be compared and last but not the least celebrating achievements and learning from mistakes. After Pre-Planning the team needs to formulate strategies and, clearly identify an action plan on which implementation is to be performed. As part of this phase, you will also need to repeat your mission and restate your company's vision. Although there are many kinds of strategies but in this situation basic strategy should not change much in the short term, whereas sub-strategies can change rapidly in reaction to competitive situations.

3. Financing
Financing plan is developed to increase the business competitiveness through an improved knowledge of the techniques and methods of funding available. Equity and debt are two types of financing available to business. Equity is the money that you put into your business and Debt is what you borrow from others to invest in your business.

4. Involvement of Technology
The businesses are becoming more dependent on technology. By optimizing the use of technology, the business may maintain progress, improve its customer services, and gain a competitive edge over those businesses that are not utilizing their technology. In the modern world the change of information technology has become a vital part in competition with the real world. Now the Question is that why do we use technology in business? The answer is simple that it enhances customer service, can decrease cost, can improve communication, can facilitate research, can increase productivity, efficiency as well as effectiveness in the business.

5. Improvement in Human Resource
Using this resource to its best advantage is a means to maximize the effectiveness of the other entire systems and procedures already in place. The business or an organization having skilled and competitive employees is considered as the most competitive business. Proper human resource management is needed to increase effectiveness in work and to smoothly achieve the goals and accomplish tasks.

6. Marketing strategy
Marketing and related activities in a business, small or large, ensure that your business gets information from its customers, develops and markets the services to satisfy their needs and gets feedback on their satisfaction levels. Marketing acts as an interface between the enterprise and its markets. Marketing can be defined as the function that encompasses most activities between the producer of a good or the supplier of a service and the consumers. It is also a set of business development activities which starts with the consumer from whose needs, the business gets its service ideas and to whom it will sell its services.

7. Process of Quality Assurance
The Process of Quality Assurance in a business refers to planned, and step-by-step activities that determines that testing is being carried out correctly, results are accurate, and mistakes are found and corrected to avoid undesirable outcomes. Quality assurance is a constant set of activities that help the business to ensure that the test results provided are as accurate and reliable as possible. Maintaining quality assurance leads to customer retention, and an image as a competitive business in the minds of clients.

Conclusion
Competition in businesses is now found everywhere and in such a competitive world it is difficult for any new business or start-ups to survive and thrive. Implementation of the above steps can definitely help towards effectively competing in any market.

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Affiliate Programs - A Reliable Online Marketing Strategy

Affiliate programs can be a great strategy of Internet marketing and add additional income to your business. Internet marketing through affiliate programs may be easier if you are marketing your own products and have established customers or a stable list of potential customers. However, if you market products that are not your own through an affiliate program, then the following tips can assist in developing an effective marketing strategy.

Buy Them First
Common sense will state that it may not be wise to market products over the Internet especially when the ownership is not yours. You can't really sell something you know little about nor can you guarantee the product will deliver to your customers' expectations. It is advised to sample the product before you sell it. Educate yourself and learn the benefits of the product before you market on the Internet. Bottom line is to test the product!

Get Them While Their Hot
It is important to get hold of the product in its launch phase or when the demand is very high and not many people are aware of the product. Ideally you should start promoting the product when 99% of the market is not aware of it. This will help you to maximize your efforts and generate higher commissions. Make sure to grasp the information of your customers which you can always use to up sell or cross sell your own products in the future.

Set up 'Redirect' Web Pages
You probably already know that having your own website and domain name is a very important strategy of Internet marketing. Having your own website is a critical element to the success of your business. Use your domain to 'mask' the affiliate URL that was issued to you when you signed up. Customers are use to seeing affiliate URL's. There is a drawback however: When the product begins to gain popularity it is harder to sell with long URL's. By using a redirect and bringing customers to your site, gives you a great lead over the other affiliates selling the product.

Devote Your Web Site to One Product/Service
One thing that may have caught your eye that most web site owners share alike is that they will congest their website with thousands of different products on one web page. For more reasons than one this never works. Instead, avoid making this mistake and take your main page, the one that gets the most traffic, center it on your most profitable product or service. Try to focus towards a single product and even if you want to sell more products then ensure that the products are related to each other in terms of their offerings and value. The idea is to develop pages based on themes and then sell relevant products related to those themes. For e.g. if your page is developed to sell plasma tvs then you could always list products from different companies selling these tvs but placing other products like cameras and dvd players will not be a good idea as the customer who landed on your page was looking for tvs alone.

More Time To Online Marketing

You should have time to market online, instead of setting up several web sites, unlimited forms, handling questions after questions (you will get some, not many though), or any other administrative tasks. You can spend your time with what makes money, advertising and Internet marketing and getting your site visited. This is your main priority and should stay that way for the success of your business.

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All the programs we list have been thoroughly checked out and are guaranteed to pay. We use these programs daily to make ourselves a monthly paycheck. These are all simple and easy ways to stay at home, and make a great income. Some people do it part-time for the extra $250-$500/month to pay their car payment. Others work full-time and make enough to quit their jobs! It's your choice.

No Boss, No Noisy Alarm Clocks, and Definately No Schedules!

You will make the decisions now. Earn Up to $500-$3500 Every month making a better than average income for doing what you want when you want. Nobody to tell you what to do, nothing to tell you when to wake up, and the day now becomes yours! You get to decide because you have the freedom of working for yourself. Look at yourself as a Consumer Professional!

We aren't Filthy Rich, But We Sure Enjoy What We Do !
We are ordinary people, we don't flaunt our money, dine expensively every night, we just enjoy ourselves and what we do. We have never released this information out until now, and there has been an overwhelmingly successful response from it!

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How companies Pay You To Take Surveys

Its really simple. Companies like to find out what the consumer (you) like to spend your money on, and more importantly what you like to spend your time doing. They pay millions of dollars every month in advertising budget to hire people like us to show you how to take these surveys and focus groups. Its really quite simple to understand that these companies MAKE millions just buy knowing more about you.

Somtimes they even pay for your dinner, and sometimes even pay you to get with groups of people to try products in controlled areas they invite you too! ( These are called focus groups.)

Pretty soon you might find yourself getting Paid:

$5-$100 To Drive Brand New Released Cars
Free Meals + $40 to Try out a New Restaraunt in Your Area!
$20 for filling out a short 10 minute email survey
Get Paid $100-$200 an hour for offline surveys
Get Paid $50-80 for online surveys
Over $200 an hour for focus groups!
Get Paid $90 just for previewing a Movie Trailer!
Up to $3500 a month just for driving a car around!

People Didn't Believe Us Either When We Started, Now We are Practically Retired!
Nobody believed us when we started, and we hardly believed ourselves. But the money starting pouring in, We were getting paid by MULTIPLE companies somtimes MULTIPLE times a week. We are now making a living from our homes, working a couple of hours a week. Microsoft, Coca Cola, Sears, and many more LARGE corporations are paying you and I for the extremely valuable customer information that they pay the BIG BUCKS for! We are the source between you and these very generous and high paying companies.

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Sole proprietorship as a business structure - Advantages & disadvantages

Do you know what sole proprietorship is? A sole proprietorship is a business which has only one owner. It is a 'sole' proprietor in the sense that the owner has no partners. A sole proprietorship essentially means a person does business in his own name and there is only one owner. A sole proprietorship is not a corporation, it does not pay corporate taxes, but rather the person who organized the business pays personal income taxes on the profits, making accounting much simpler.

Most sole proprietors will register a trade name 'Doing Business As'. This allows the proprietor to do business with a name other than their legal name and also allows them to open a business account with banking institutions.

A sole proprietorship has an authority to hire any number of employees because the law makes no distinction between you, the sole proprietor, and the business. Sole proprietorship has also an authority to hire independent contractors of their own choice.

Whether the proprietor has zero or 100 employees or independent contractors, it doesn't make any difference. If you are the sole owner, your business will still be a sole proprietorship.

There are several advantages associated with operating as a sole proprietor. Starting a business as a sole proprietor brings two tax advantages. The first advantage is avoidance of double tax.

Double tax can occur if you carry out your business through a corporation. Corporations are considered as separate entities consisting of many partners or owners. As a result the corporation owners will pay tax on their individual income and the corporation will pay tax on any profits made by the company. As a sole proprietor, you will not pay double tax on your business income because the law makes no difference between you, the sole proprietor, and your sole proprietorship and the business income is treated as your personal income.

The second tax advantage of sole proprietorships is that you can deduct your business losses to the extent of your total income that you may have from all sources, including interest, dividends, and profits.

Operating as a sole proprietor also has some drawbacks. A business organized as a sole proprietorship faces difficulty in raising own capital since shares of the business cannot be sold. Hiring employees may also be difficult. This form of business will have unlimited liability, therefore, if the business is sued, it is the proprietor's who will be responsible.

The second disadvantage is that as a business grows, the risks accompanying the business also tends to grow. To minimize those risks, a sole proprietor has the option of forming a limited liability company.

The principle disadvantage of sole proprietorships is that you are personally responsible for all the debts and the reason for this is that the law makes no distinction between you, the sole proprietor, and your sole proprietorship authorities.

Another disadvantage of sole proprietorship is that you may have to pay high income taxes. You cannot take any tax deduction for your health or life insurance whilst operating as a sole proprietor. A full deduction for your health insurance and a deduction of life insurance policy are offered to corporations, so long as all employees of the corporation are offered the insurance.

In this competition of different businesses, every business is different from each other i.e one thing giving advantage to you may be a disadvantageous thing for the other business. Selecting the best business structure will depend on the factors including your type of business, tax situation, and industry liability among others. Your selection of business structure will have legal and personal applications and therefore it is always advisable to seek professional help in such matters. Getting on the track from day one will take you further and ease your problems in the long run.

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Testimonies

Personally I love it! I take my son to school, come home and start taking surveys. Work for maybe an hour or two, then head off to the gym. Come home and do a few more surveys. Run out to do a few errands and pick up my son from school. Do a focus group or a few more surveys before dinner and I'm done for the day. I fit my work in whenever I can. The part I like best is I can do it for 5 minutes or a few hours .. I can fit it in whenever I have time and I'm not tied down for long periods of time and I never have to leave the house!

Of course now everyone I know does online surveys for pay too! My mom is retired and really needs the extra money. My sister is just out of college and has a great job .. but really needs a few hundred extra a month for the extras we all enjoy. My best friend just had a baby and when I told her what I was doing and how much I was making she tried it out before going back to work.

She is so happy she did .. now she stays home with her daughter and makes great money .. and she spends wonderful quality time with her child. This is such a great job I know you will just love it.
Now you can get started making great money filling out online surveys too. You will receive instant access and can be working by tomorrow! You will have access to hundreds of companies that will pay you to sit home and give your opinion!

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NOTE: There is a Limited Number of Openings. If you hurry, you can Guarantee Processing of Your New Application Through.

earnmoneyatnet.com - Instant Access

Instant Lifetime Access to our members area containing:

FREE BONUS: "Get Paid to Shop & Eat!"
FREE BONUS: "Get Paid to Drive!"
FREE BONUS: "Over 300 Additional Work at Home Opportunities!"

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Work at home India is India's first work at home company, Work at home India has pioneered the work at home concept in India. Way back in 2000 work at home India started distributing home based work to Individuals, Now work at home India features a lot more work from home jobs both online and offline home jobs then any other company, We are providing home jobs such as data conversion, data processing, email processing, ad placing, data entry, medical transcription, data entry, editing work, paid SMS, paid survey, home webmaster jobs, Free Internet business and many other home jobs. Work at home India is known for its effective customer care and efficiency in the home business field. Work at home India provides high quality work for corporate and firms in the ITES business. We accept Data-conversion, Data Entry, Internet Research. MT, LT, HTML to XML and various other kind of ITES work. We also provide search engine optimization and Online marketing service at par with the industry standards. We also provide a lot more options in the online advertising industry. We sub outsource BPO projects to individuals and bulk customers we also provide telecommuting jobs to home jobs seekers.

If you want to outsource your projects to us we can offer the Most competitive and accurate service. Contact us to outsource your projects.

New Projects in Data conversion and Data entry Updated for Home Jobs and Bulk Outsourcing.

We offer only genuine work at home opportunities, no marketing, no forced matrix, no click based, no paid emails or paid to surf programmes.

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We are introducing paid SMS service in INDIA for the first time.

For Individuals

Make money by receiving SMS from us and our affiliates. You can earn 20 paisa per sms and also on the referrals you make for receiving promotional offers and advertisements on your mobile. Now make money on the go.

Visit: www.earnmoneyatnet.com Contact at 9989485265, 9949040265

For Advertisers & Corporate Customers

Now the best form of targeted advertising is at your finger tips. we have a database of 1 Million subscribers spanning all major GSM and CDMA networks.

All our members have agreed to receive promotional offers so no chance of rejection of your message.

Members classified under various sections consisting location, Age, Sex, Marital Status and other groups. Customers sorted out under various preferences and customer taste.

Now earn maximum attention and generate advertisements into sales through our advanced system of converting advertisements into sales directly. Now interact with your customer on the go. know their preferences through our interactive feedback system.

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Booking for the work opened for a limited period.

The last lot of work has been successfully completed by a group of 200 home workers with average accuracy of 98%.

We would like to congratulate our members for successfully completing the project 2 months before the dead line. The dedication of our members has earned us reputation with our clients and they are satisfied with our accuracy and management which has led to timely completion of our project.

On this occasion we are making a bonus payment to all the members who have helped us achieve this feat.

Booking now open for new lot of work 2000 home workers needed.

Our experience in the past has proved that working with home workers is a profitable venture and has resulted in significant cost benefits to us and our clients. We have been able to provide the most accurate results at the most competitive rates by saving on floor space, assets, & overhead cost.

People having a computer at home, preferably with an internet connection with good typing speed can apply for this home based data entry job..

Join us now to get the most out of this opportunity. Click below for home based data entry work and other offline jobs.

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We are now offering Online jobs to suit the needs of every individual.

The jobs we are offering is not marketing or click based, we totally discourage forced advertising and hits based earning opportunities.

Ad placing - Earning per ad placed.

We are offering currently ad placing work.

The work involves placing of the advertisement snippets which we will provide to various directories, classified sites, blogs, forums and others sites.

We are paying on per ad placed and not like other companies who pay only if the link is clicked.

You can earn any where between 50 paise to 5 rupee for per ad placed in directories and classifieds. You have to submit your report weekly of the sites you have placed the advertisements in, after verification we will pay you according to work done by you.

Payment is made on monthly basis.

You cant use link submission softwares or sites offering mass submission service.

The work is not limited by any means.

A person with average speed can post around 50 to 70 ads or links per hour.

You can earn around 700 to 1000rs per day depending on your speed and efficiency.

You also get paid on referrals joining under you. You will be paid 500rs per member joining under you.

You will be given your own link which you have to promote. You can promote that link anywhere you want. You will get paid for posting the same link and plus you will also get paid for referrals joining through your link.

You will be able given a personal page at www.workathomeindia.com/yourname.htm . you will be able to post your personal message or if you are promoting any other home jobs opportunity then you can post the same there on your personal page. So you can promote all your jobs on the same single page plus you get paid for promoting your own page.

will get a page similar to this.

The advertisements can be of ours or any of our clients or affiliates. You cant add your personal ads or links along with ours else your payments will be with held.

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We are now offering Online jobs to suit the needs of every individual.

The jobs we are offering is not marketing or click based, we totally discourage forced advertising and hits based earning opportunities.

Ad placing - Earning per ad placed.

We are offering currently ad placing work.

The work involves placing of the advertisement snippets which we will provide to various directories, classified sites, blogs, forums and others sites.

We are paying on per ad placed and not like other companies who pay only if the link is clicked.

Payment is made on monthly basis.

You cant use link submission softwares or sites offering mass submission service.

The work is not limited by any means.

A person with average speed can post around 50 to 70 ads or links per hour.

You can earn around 700 to 1000rs per day depending on your speed and efficiency.

You also get paid on referrals joining under you. You will be paid 500rs per member joining under you.

The advertisements can be of ours or any of our clients or affiliates. You cant add your personal ads or links along with ours else your payments will be with held.

Page 141

2008-03-19T03:33:00.002-07:00

A Complete India Travel Guide Launched

Your wait is finally over. A complete Travel Guide, www.travelgoindia.com that focuses completely on India has been launched. The days of scratching about for information on India before you embark on a tour of this beautiful country is passé. Learn more about the beauty of this enchanting land from this exhaustively informative website www.travelgoindia.com. This travel guide has quite a few useful tools that enable it to become a traveler’s best friend.

Are you ready to pack your bag but not very sure about your destination? At TravelGoIndia.com you will get to know about some tourist locations, whose existence you were never aware of. No wonder, this is by far the best India Travel Guide that you will find in the Internet. Rich in information, this exclusively India centric travel guide is surely destined to become a tourist’s best pal.

TravelGoIndia.com is conceived to provide travelers with enough information on travel so that it becomes easier for them to take decisions. The website enables you to book hotels in more than 150 Indian cities. You also have the choice to book a luxury hotel or a budget hotel. One added advantage that this complete India Travel Guide has is its ability to book hotels real time through partners and give instant confirmation facility. It has more than 500 hotels of all categories throughout India in its database. You can, therefore, be pretty sure of getting a hotel room anywhere in the country.

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Tropical Vacations Introduce You to Nature’s Glory

Tropical Vacations Introduce You to Nature’s Glory

A tropical vacation usually evokes images of images of sultry summer days lounging on the beach and soft breezes caressing you in the evenings while you sip a drink in the evenings. There are so many wonderful tropical vacation packages that give you just that in Mexico, but if you’d like to take it to the next level, consider traveling to the interior as well and experience the full spectrum of nature’s glory. Tropical also means exotic plants, gorgeous birds and chattering monkeys, mountain cliffs and amazing wildlife!

Jungle and Tropical Rainforest Vacations

Ecotourism is one of the most incredible adventures you can embark on in Mexico and other tropical areas of the world. These eco adventures give you the opportunity to see and hear things you would never be able to experience outside of a zoo or museum. In tropical regions of the world there are jungles and rain forests that shelter an amazing array of plants and animals that are colorful, unique and exotic.

Traveling with an experienced guide through the interior of a rainforest or jungle will bring you into a world where time has stood still for thousands of years. Imagine trekking along a stretch of sandy beach your first day, then heading spending the next few days in a rainforest where brilliantly plumed parrots fly overhead, calling to one another and flashing feathers of emerald, ruby and gold. The chatter of monkeys as they swing overhead will delight your group as your guide explains the delicate balance of Mexico’s ecosystem.

There are coral reefs to explore, natural springs and underwater rivers with stunning rock formations and always the crystalline waters of the Caribbean Sea.

In the evenings you’ll view glorious sunsets from atop majestic Mayan ruins or high natural ridges, all part of the protected heritage of the Mexican people. The warm breezes will sweep away the humidity of your jungle day as you relax with your small group of fellow travelers, suspended in time under a brilliant blanket of stars.

Challenge Yourself in the Tropics

If you’re up to something a bit more physical, tropical vacations offer a vast range of topographies for every activity from mountain biking to scuba diving. The mountains of the Yucatan Peninsula offer extremely challenging mountain biking trails and hiking opportunities for solo or group trekking.

Check out some of the stunning vistas you can see from various mountain locations, including views of several of the largest volcanoes in Mexico like Pico De Orizaba, Iztaccihuatl and the still active Popcateptl (which erupted spectacularly less then ten years ago, causing the evacuation of two villages). Near Mexico City you can visit the Pyramids of Teotihuacan, another spectacular example of early Mayan culture.

If you’re a fan of scuba diving, there’s nothing more exhilarating than a tropical vacation for scuba. Cancun offers a variety of packages for exceptional open water diving and cave or cavern diving. Even experienced scuba divers agree that there’s always something new to discover in the elaborate underwater caverns along the tropical beaches of the Mexican shore.

Did you know that the second largest coral reef in the world, the Great Belize Coral Reef, is in Mexico? This tropical reef system

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Best Hotels are Found Here

Best Hotels are Found Here

Need help? Need a place to stay? Try Hotelslocator.com

Whether you're on your vacation, in for a conference in the city, or just visiting, nothing beats going back to a nice hotel after the day is done. A good night's sleep and nice stay can recharge and invigorate you, getting you ready for the next day.

Standard hotels usually have basic accommodation like a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table. Washstands have been largely replaced by rooms with en-suite bathrooms. Other features found may be a TV, a telephone and an alarm clock. Food and drink may be supplied in a small refrigerator which is usually referred to as "mini-bar", containing snacks, drinks and tea and coffee making facilities like cups, spoons, an electric kettle and sachets containing instant coffee, tea bags, sugar, and creamer or milk. Aside from these, food and drinks may also be ordered through room service, some hotels even offer specialty cuisine which they are famous for.

However, in Japan the capsule hotel supplies minimal facilities and room space. The cost and quality of hotels are usually indicative of the range and type of services available. Due to the enormous increase in tourism worldwide during the last decades of the 20th century, standards, especially those of smaller establishments, have improved considerably. For the sake of greater comparability, rating systems have been introduced, with the one to five stars classification being most common.

But sometimes hotel availability can be a problem. This is where a hotel directory comes in handy. A hotel directory, either on the Internet or in a magazine type publication, is a list of all hotels/motels/places of lodging in a certain area. Typically it also includes reviews

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2008-03-19T03:31:00.000-07:00

Work at Home Reviews: Affiliate Marketing Home-Based Business

We are living in an amazing time in history! Technology has given us the ability to communicate, be productive, and work wherever we have internet access. But how do you get an employer to agree to let you work from home? That is tricky. Most companies are still uncomfortable allowing employees to telecommute. One big reason is that businesses who allow employees to work offsite have to make investments and be vigilant about security breaches into the company intranet. Some companies now allow for an occasional telecommute, but that barely impacts the issues driving the desire to work from a home office, such as high fuel costs, long commutes, expensive child care costs, and global warming.

Another way to make money online is to set up your own virtual business. But trying to build your company from scratch is expensive and risky. A quick internet search will present a plethora of home-based business options. So, how do you know which ones are legitimate? The answer is to look at the business model. A solid opportunity provides benefits to all parties involved. Affiliate marketing programs have attracted a lot of attention lately. This type of program is successful because companies need help getting the attention of consumers who have may have an interest in buying from them.

Businesses have long known that referrals from a friend, or another influential authority, such as a trusted business or an association are much more likely to make a purchase than those who come in arbitrarily. This recommendation breaks the initial barrier of distrust between vendor and prospective customer. However, before the internet age, companies had a hard time obtaining enough referred business to sustain their profitability goals. So, they also used expensive media ads to bring in additional customers and build their brands. With the proliferation of internet usage, businesses began shifting some money away from traditional advertising venues to website development and internet advertising. This was a successful strategy when the internet was still small. Now-a-days, there is an overload on information and advertising on the web. So, how does a business stand out to customers who are interested in what they have to sell? They first start by improving their search ranking in an effort to land on the first page of results from searches on major engines like Google and Yahoo. They can do this by optimizing keywords and paying to be listed as a sponsor when people search with pre-specified keywords. This is a necessary tactic, but any good marketer knows that relying on only one stream of leads is short-sighted and risky.

A second tactic is to partner with other websites that provide content which interests their best prospects. This alliance is called an affiliate marketing program (or performance marketing in some circles). It is designed to create a network of targeted lead generators. The concept is simple: companies advertise related products and services to the targeted audience of a website. The owner of that site is rewarded for generating business for referring business to the company. Example: I am interested in cats and build a site with cat tales. Cat food manufacturers, veterinaries, and stores who sell pet food advertise on my site. When my readers click-through to the vendor's sites or make a purchase, I receive a commission. Although there are several affiliate program models the most popular by far is revenue sharing, also known as Cost-per-sale (CPS) or Pay-per-sale (PPS). First a customer must reach the merchant site by clicking on an ad from the publisher's website. When that customer makes a purchase, the publisher of the original site receives a percentage of the sale. Another commonly used affiliate marketing program pays a set dollar amount per referral who performs a given action, such as signing up to the merchant site, subscribing to a newsletter or filling out a form. This is called Pay-per-lead (PPL), Cost-per-lead (CPL), or Cost-per-action/Cost-per-acquisition (CPA).

According to Marketing Sherpa, in 2006, affiliate programs paid out approximately $6।5 billion US dollars in commissions. If there is so much money to be made, why can't you be a part of this growing industry? Perhaps you're thinking you need to be a web designer who is adept at internet marketing strategies. Once again, technology comes to the rescue! The internet allows you to be in business for your self without having to do it by yourself. But how does it work? Where can you go for good advice? Work at Home Enterprises can provide you with in-depth guidance on how to structure an affiliate home business and run it successfully.

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2008-03-19T03:30:00.000-07:00

Experiencing Natural Wonders with Ecotourism

Ecotourism

Coined by Héctor Ceballos-Lascuràin in 1983 the term Ecotourism was used to describe nature centric travel to relatively undisturbed areas with an emphasis on education. Today ecotourism consists of cultural tourism, nature tourism, leisure tourism and a good dose of adventure. Sound ecotourism involves travel to natural destinations, minimizes impact, builds environmental awareness, provides direct financial benefits for conservation, provides financial benefits and empowerment for local people, respects local culture, and supports human rights and not exploitation. It is an enlightening, participatory travel experience to environments, both natural and cultural which produces viable economic opportunities for the tourism industry and host communities, and makes the use of these resources through conservation beneficial to all tourism role players.

Global Ecotourism

According to the World Tourism Organisation Ecotourism is the fastest growing market within the ever expanding global tourism industry. Eco-travel is a serious player within the global tourism market and is fast becoming the preferred option in vacationing. We are a society trademarked by a heightened environmental consciousness not known in past eras. This combined with easy accessibility to exotic locations is what has drawn so many to eco-travel. Countries have begun to promote their natural resources, unique locals and tourism facilities in a bid to capture the interest of intrepid eco-travellers. Businesses are constructing camps and lodges and trails and tours are being designed to facilitate the wants and needs of the eco-tourists.

Ecotourism in Africa

Africa is synonymous with the concept of ecotourism, its multitude of game parks and reserves conserve some of the world's most magnificent creatures. The bird life throughout the continent is remarkable, natural wonders are scattered throughout the continent and the cultures and traditions of past eras mystically intertwine with modern day. Each country on this diverse continent offers its own unique appeal to eco-travellers and no eco-traveller would be complete without a trip to Africa.

A Jewel at the Tip of Africa

When the path of tourism began to diverge to ecotourism; nature, heritage and recreational destinations became more important than before and South Africa is a haven for these three cornerstones of eco-tourism. Lying at the very tip of Africa, South Africa is home to some of the most magnificent vistas, sunsets and natural resources one could hope to encounter. It is near impossible to separate SA from a nature experience and the strongest

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2008-03-19T03:29:00.000-07:00

amaica's underwater wonders

Over the years many songwriters have referred to the beauty of this green pearl in the string of Caribbean islands, and today it is known throughout the world for its lush vegetation, reggae music, rum and coffee. One of the most overlooked attractions is, however, that part of the island that lies below the surface of the ocean that surrounds it. Divers typically do not think of Jamaica as a prime diving destination, except for those who have explored its reefs and have found it to be the best destination of all. Where else can you do a breathtaking wall dive in the morning, enjoy the sea life on a shallow reef at noon, and have plenty of time left in the afternoon to go river rafting, horseback riding, play golf, visit a great house or indulge in any manner of activities. Jamaica as one of the largest islands in the Caribbean has many excellent diving and snorkeling sites: shallow and deep, reefs and walls, wrecks and caverns, home to all manner of sea life: spectacular coral, exotic sponges, spiny lobsters, moray eels, sea turtles and multitudes of colorful fish, big and small. Below we have selected by region some of the unique diving opportunities available to you based on your level of experience. All dives offered by commercial operators in Jamaica are guided dives. The dive guides must have, according to regulations, at least a dive master certificate from an internationally recognized association and be licensed by the Jamaica Tourist Board. Although this limits your freedom to dive wherever you like, this regulation increases the safety and fun of diving in an unfamiliar area. The dive classifications employed below were assigned based on the following principles: Novice divers: Persons who are recently certified, or who have done only a limited number of dives with considerable gaps in between; this could include divers with as many as 20 dives. Dives in this category will tend to be less than 60 ft (18 m) or will not require advanced diving skills. Intermediate divers: Persons who have been diving on a regular basis but lack further training beyond certification, also those with advanced training who have not been diving for the past several months. The environment of this category of dive necessitates greater experience. Advanced divers: Persons with training beyond the open water diver certification that have been diving regularly in the last several months. This requirement will apply to most sites deeper than 80 ft (24 m) because those dives require a mastery of buoyancy and a thorough knowledge of the dive tables. These dives may also be accessible to the less experienced diver after a couple of refresher dives.

MONTEGO BAY Rose Hall Reef Depth: 20-45 ft (7-14 m) Class: Novice Named for the famous great house that overlooks the sea just a couple of miles east of Montego Bay, this shallow reef is teaming with marine life. At this location you'll discover "Fairy Castle", a massive colony of pillar coral, and "Fairy Bridge", a coral formation that connects two sections of reef over a sandy "river". The reef forms an intricate system of tunnels that are home to squirrelfish, goatfish, porcupinefish, bar jacks and grunts.

The Spanish Anchor Depth: 50-90 ft (15-28 m) Class: Intermediate Located on the west side of the marine park, the shallow reef drops to a sandy bottom at 50 ft. The site derives its name from the large anchor, undated but of Spanish origin, that rests on the sandy bottom. Within the reef wall one can explore tunnels and caverns with abundant sponge colonies. Sightings of eagle rays are quite common here, and in the deeper water large mutton snappers- and sometimes a docile nurse sharkmay pass by.

Widowmaker's Cave Depth: 40-80 ft (12-24 m) Class: Advanced A deep dive along a wall with a vertical, narrow crack which forms the entrance to Widowmaker's Cave. Inside the tunnel leading to the cave, there is wire coral with, in the beam of your dive light, red polyps, and the walls are covered with multicolored sponges. On this dive you'll likely encounter schools of silvery blue bogas, glassy sweepers, schoolmaster snappers, balloonfish, trumpetfish, hamlets, wrasses and parrotfish.

NEGRIL The Throne Room Depth: 40-70 ft (12-21 m) Class: Novice The entrance to the Throne Room, a fairly wide but low cavern, is a crack in the reef about 25 feet long and 8 feet wide. The walls on the inside are covered with colorful sponges and on the bottom near to the exit you can see a large orange elephant ear sponge for which the site is named. Ceros, cruising along over the sandy bottom, are a common sight, as are small groups of yellow tail snapper.

The Caves Depth: 40-70 ft (12-21 m) Class: Intermediate This site is named for the two caverns, one small and one slightly larger, with a narrow tunnel connecting the two. You can find a variety of sponges here along with soft gorgonians. On the sand flat you will see the usual occupants: furry sea cucumbers, stingrays, jacks and some lane snappers.

Kingfish Point Depth: 80-90 ft (24-27 m) Class: Advanced Among the elephant ear sponges and yellow tube sponges, you may

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2008-03-19T03:28:00.002-07:00

Equitours: Worldwide Horseback Riding Adventures Change World Perceptions of the American Traveler

If you’re weighing the pleasures of tourism against the discomfort of going abroad at a time when our country seems widely abhorred, you might want to consider savoring a new way of traveling: on horseback

If you’re weighing the pleasures of tourism against the discomfort of going abroad at a time when our country and culture seem widely abhorred, you might want to consider savoring a new way of making an entrance into that picturesque Provence village. Leave the trains, cars and tour buses to others. What really elicits a warm welcome from locals abroad is arriving in town on horseback.

“Anywhere in the world – Iceland, Tierra del Fuego; France, India – local people greet riders in an overwhelmingly open and friendly way; there’s an instant rapport,” says Bayard Fox, the founder of Equitours, the oldest and largest riding vacation company in the United States. “Horses aren’t just a great passport to some of the most beautiful spots in the world, they are a passport to the hearts of people everywhere.”

Fox, who, with his wife, Mel, has spent the better part of twenty-five years taking Americans to every part of the globe on equestrian vacations, is no stranger to chilly foreign relations. A former CIA operative from the Cold War era, he’s spent years living in Paris, riding with nomadic tribes in Iran, and posing as a big game hunter in Central Africa, all to gather information for the U.S. during the 50s and 60s. His knowledge of foreign cultures is enormous; and his experience has been invaluable in carefully choosing the world’s best riding tours in places that highlight natural beauty,

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Life is an Adventure, Live It

Costa Rica is Central America's jewel. It's an oasis and an Ecotourism heaven, making it one of the best places to experience the tropics with minimal impact. It's also mostly coastline, which means great surfing, activities and beaches galore with a climate built for laziness.

Deep Sea Fishing Would you like to hook a sailfish on a fly, catch and release a marlin, fight a giant tuna, reel in dolphin fish, take a swim with a porpoise, and catch a few snappers to take back for your dinner? The North Pacific Coast of Costa Rica is a World-Class sport fishing paradise. More than 40 world records have been registered within an 80-mile radius. Sailfish, black marlin, blue marlin, striped marlin (sails and marlin are catch and release), yellow fin tuna and Wahoo are found in abundance. Inshore species include large concentrations of roosterfish and snapper. Billfish are the favored target of most visiting anglers. There are many charter boats on the west coast of Costa Rica. They can accommodate an individual, a couple, a family or a group of any size.

Canopy Tours Swing like a monkey thru the trees on a zip line canopy tour. Guides are professionals in the area of Canopying and most have years of previous experience. The canopy tour offers any adventurous tourist the opportunity to ascend into the forest canopy and see jungle life from a perspective available previously to only a select few researchers and photographers. This is an Adventure for all ages that should not be missed.

Sailing Experience a day of sailing and exploring the impressive Costa Rican coast. While sailing you could encounter dolphins, whales, turtles, manta rays and bat rays. Anchored in a bay you can snorkel coral and rock formations, swim, or simply enjoy the secluded beaches. The best way of relaxing on your vacation is to enjoy a beautiful Guanacaste Sunset Cruise. Sit-back and watch the colorful sunset, while sipping a cold beer, rum punch or soft drinks and enjoying the light snacks.

Volcano's, Hot Springs, Mud Baths and Waterfalls Arenal volcano is well known for its exploding lava shows. Shop at the road side gallery's and gift shops. Visit the rain forest. Lake Arenal, a beautiful 22-mile long lake is great for freshwater fishing. It's home to the hard-hitting rainbow bass, or quapote: five to six pounders are common. Take your swimsuits to bathe in the pools of naturally warm thermal waters amid tropical gardens at Arenal Volcano National Park. For the sports enthusiast you can windsurf one of the premier windsurfing destinations in the world. Due to the area's irregular topography the wind is constant, providing excellent windsurfing conditions, especially in the dry season between December and April.

Buena Vista Hot Springs Canopy tour, hot springs, horses, water slide, waterfall and mud bath. The thermal waters, steam bath, and natural spa are located at the foot of Volcano, Rincon de la Vieja. At the hot springs, you will relax unconditionally as you enjoy pleasurable and rejuvenating treatments with volcanic mud and warm spring waters. This "spoil me" atmosphere makes it easy to forget the hustle and bustle of modern life. By

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2008-03-19T03:27:00.000-07:00

Ngorongoro Crater

Maybe it was Mark Twain who said there are lies, dammed lies and statistics. This seems to be the case concerning statistics for Ngorongoro crater. As I checked my figures for accuracy for this article I could find no two sources that agree. So I will endeavor to keep statistics to a minimum.

This aside Ngorongoro Crater is a true marvel and I believe unique in Africa; it is located between the lake Manyara National Park and the Serengeti. It was formed from an ancient volcano that erupted and then collapsed into the craters we see today. This is called a caldera and Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest [unbroken] caldera. It is thought that this volcano, before it erupted and collapsed, stood taller than its close neighbor Mt Kilimanjaro.

The crater floor is spread across one hundred square mile and is home to many thousands of animals. Ngorongoro Crater enjoys a year round water supply and so nearly all animals remain here as permanent residents. It has the densest population of game in the whole of Africa; and it is possible to see the big five in one day. It is often referred to as a mini Serengeti as it shares many of the habitats of this huge neighbor. Although rich with game the crater has no giraffe, impala or topi. There are only a small number of tall acacia trees, this lack of grazing can explain the absence of the giraffe but the absences of impala and topi is a mystery; especially as they are present in large numbers in the nearby Serengeti.

There are five habitats on the crater floor, which as mentioned have echoes of the habitats of the Serengeti. In the south west is the Lerai Forest which gets its name from the tall yellow barked acacia. This Forrest is home to baboons and vervet monkeys. There is also a small population of giant tusker bull elephants. These elephants are the biggest you will see in Tanzania. There are no breading herds of elephants here; in fact there are no female elephants in the crater. If you are lucky you may also catch a glimpse of the shy leopard lying along the branches of the acacia trees in this forest.

The best time to visit this forest is early in the morning. We recommend a 6h30 start, if you are up to it, to be amongst the first into the crater. The animals are at their most active in a morning and an early start will be well rewarded. The Ngorongoro

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2008-03-19T03:26:00.002-07:00

Find Serious Romance at Oregon B&B

On Oregon's northern coast, the tiny town of Wheeler sits at the edge of a pristine bay that cloisters all sorts of wonders, which stay even more secret because they often get passed over by the major tourist publications. A mere few blocks long, if you blink you may miss this diminutive gem, where antique shops seem to be the number one industry (there are four such shops, yet only two lodgings and two restaurants). All of this looks out over the Nehalem Bay, where mysterious Neahkahnie Mountain hovers in the distance, looming over the immaculate beaches of Manzanita, some four miles away.

Another spot from which to get a stunning view of the bay sits at the center point of Wheeler: the Old Wheeler Hotel. At the corner of Highway 101 and what is called "Artisans Row," Old Wheeler has five cozy and luxurious rooms, all of which have windows to the always-unforgettable bay.

Beauty and romance resonates and oozes from this place, with soothing, Tuscan-inspired color schemes, hardwood floors and a classical décor that's warm, inviting and imparts luxury.

The best of modern conveniences - and a few surprises - await you. The common room serves up breakfast in the morning, and comes with a microwave and high-speed Internet access. Walk down chandeliered and candlelit hallways to the "piano lobby," decked out in a lush, warm pepper-red, stuffed with oversized comfy couches and containing a nifty hammock-like seat. There's also a vintage Wurlitzer piano.

Each room has a vibrant charm to it that's the result of a myriad of nice little details - from the bedspreads and the art on the walls, to the light fixtures and the stuffed animal you may find on your bed. Some rooms have a Jacuzzi and some have a claw foot bathtub.

There's also a masseuse in residence.

On top it all, enjoy free popcorn and movies - thanks to owner Winston Laszlo's history with the film industry. His father was a screenwriter in Los Angeles, so Winston grew up with the world of movies

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2008-03-19T03:26:00.001-07:00

Staying healthy while traveling

Your good health is paramount while traveling and taking simple precautions can drastically reduce your chances of falling ill.

Health Insurance
An insurance package that covers your health, possessions and cancellations is imperative.

Immunizations
Immunizations are critical – especially if you are planning to visit 3rd world countries. Many immunizations require a specific time period to take effect or require certain follow-up shots – so plan well ahead. You should record any immunization shots received on an official health certificate as this is often a requirement of visa applications.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can advise you on the current recommendations for your intended destination.

General
Food and water are one of the leading causes of illness for travelers. These simple tips can drastically reduce your chances of illness:

- If the water is suspect, don’t take the risk. This includes ice, food washed and prepared in the water and swimming pools. Buy bottled water or boil/sterilize existing water.

- Only consume fruit and vegetables that can be pealed or are protected by an outer skin (bananas, oranges, pineapple etc)

- Wash you hands thoroughly before all meals.

- When purchasing meat and seafood, look for प्रोपेर

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2008-03-19T03:25:00.000-07:00

When should you talk to your preteen about sex? Most experts would agree, there's no time like the present.

Talking to our youngsters about the birds and the bees is one thing when they're preschoolers, it's quite another when they're preteens. Chances are that at this age you'll get a lot of squirming and looks of disgust when discussing sexual health. But those reactions of embarrassment are pretty normal with preteens, says sexual health educator Kim Marsden. "When they're in the pre-pubescent age, they go into the gross-me-outter stage. Painful for parents, but it's a really important time to persevere and keep talking to them about their bodies."

However kids aren't the only ones who squirm. Many parents find sexual health difficult to discuss and find themselves continually postponing a frank discussion with their child. If this is the case with you, the best bet is to pick up a book, do some reading and then stop procrastinating.

Now is the time to sit down and talk with your child because according to Meg Hickley, author of "Speaking of Sex", "children in grades 4 to 7 have the greatest needs for information and this is the most crucial time to talk. They've been exposed to television and school yard gossip about sexuality and this is your last chance to talk. They need to know about breast development, for boys as well as for girls, that some children gain weight during puberty and it's totally unfair to tease someone about being skinny or fat, and they need to know about body hair and daily washing."

Marsden acknowledges that when it comes to discussing sexual health with children "it's difficult to get the conversation going because they're so embarrassed. So lock them in the car, take a long drive, get talking and keep talking. Then ask them to return the information and see how much they've actually picked up."

And when you've finally had the big talk, pat yourself on the back. According to Hickley the open communication you've created around sexual health will pay off for many, many years. "If you've talked to your kids from preschool through to primary years, I can promise you are going to have a teenager who is filled with joy and optimism about their future adult sexual lives, and who is extremely easy to talk to."

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2008-03-19T03:24:00.002-07:00

Social Skill Repair: Creative Methods To Build Students' Peer Skills

Peer interaction problems can make any school or agency site chaotic, loud, unpleasant or unsafe. There are no quick fixes to instantly turnaround all your peer problems, but here are some fun ways to begin the process.

The more you can use creative, unexpected and humorous methods, the more success you may achieve repairing poor peer skills. Rely on methods that catch your resistant, oppositional, depressed, withdrawn and defiant youth off-guard and powerfully engage them in learning despite themselves. The interventions below offer those benefits.

** Who You Gonna Call? Gropes Busters! Here's a fun multiple choice quiz that teaches while your students are laughing. Permission is granted to you to print out the quiz for use with students.

The Gropes-Busters Quiz

1. When standing near other kids, it is very important to stand: a) Nose to nose b) On their toes c) About one arm length away

2. When other students say "No," it really means: a) "Yes" with an attitude b) The "n" and "o" are silent c) Stop!

3. When touching others, a guideline to follow is: a) Grope first, ask second b) Ask first, grope second c) Ask first and comply with the answer

4. When watching pro sports like football and hockey, it is important to remember that a) Slapping people's backsides is a universal greeting b) Violent contact is welcomed everywhere c) No one should ever behave as badly as misbehaved pro athletes

5. When touching others, it is always best to a) Never touch anything labeled "radioactive" b) Never touch anything you can't reach c) Never touch until receiving permission first

**BONUS INTERVENTION
To generate a dialogue about interacting with peers who are ethnically, culturally, or otherwise different, use this group experience exercise: Divide students into two groups. Each group will be given the task of either buying or selling items. Privately provide separate instructions to each group on how they may behave, and have these instructions conflict. For example, one group may talk only to blondes; the other group may not permit blondes to talk to others from outside the group. The resulting conflict will mirror real-life clashes and can be followed by a discussion on identifying, understanding and managing cultural, ethnic and interpersonal differences.

**BONUS INTERVENTION
"Problem hands" can be a big problem. It is important to teach youngsters who are being victimized, how to avoid additional problems. But, in addition, remember to teach the victimized kids that they are not to blame. Victims sometimes don't report problem touching by peers for reasons that relate to self-blame. Teach these youngsters that they were not to blame regardless of their dress, demeanor, reputation or personal history. Self-blame issues can be especially important for girls and young women.

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2008-03-19T03:24:00.001-07:00

Online education and the challenge of motivation

Getting an online education is both a very thrilling proposition and a challenging one as well. It is quite exciting to learn through a very new and non-traditional form of education and it offers a set of new challenges that would compel individuals to really immerse themselves in what they are doing.

Unfortunately, even with an educational format as new as online education, the same old problems that plague students would usually crop up. The most common difficulty a student encounters is losing the motivation to continue studying. This feeling is further exacerbated by the unique environment that a student must contend with in an online education course. Being alone with no real classmates to act as real-time sounding boards and given the free rein to handle your time it becomes a challenge to really get into the groove of studying. Since online education classes are a new education format, it also does not possess many of the known support systems that we can find inside a traditional school structure. These support systems are what helps keep students motivated. The lack of social interaction can also be a significant contributing factor for online education students easily losing the motivation to study.

Losing motivation is quite difficult because it could become difficult to stay focused on what needs to be done. Losing the impetus to study will make it very difficult to prepare for exams or tests, complete assignments and finish projects. Motivation is what drives a person to study through the boredom, the tedium and the difficulties. Without motivation, the whole purpose of taking online education classes loses meaning. It would be just so easy to quit and stop taking the classes at the risk of losing the tuition paid for the online classes.

For those who may be worried that they may lose their motivation, the good news is that it can be restored or reinforced. Below are some tips given by many education experts as a way of keeping motivated.

* One way to stay motivated is to identify a goal and work towards its attainment. Try to focus on small goals that can be easily fulfilled. You can mark off a calendar with daily and weekly goals that you are required to accomplish. As you fulfill each goal cross it out with a pen. This process helps you build up your pride in your accomplishments.

* Try to talk to other people about what you are learning in your online classes. This process is usually done with your classmates in a traditional school system but because of the nature of online education, you really do not have classmates in the traditional sense. What you can do is talk to family members and friends about what you have learned in your online classes. One other thing you can do is to try to arrange a chat with your instructor so that you can have some time to discuss the subjects and/or curriculum with him.

* Try to be active in forums related to your course or classes. Even though there are no real physical ways of meeting fellow students in an online course most educational institutions that offer online education provide chatrooms or forums where you can chat with other people taking the same courses. These chatrooms or forums provide ample opportunity for different kinds of interactions with fellow students. You can use it to get to know other students personally and if you find one that lives near you, then you can probably arrange to meet with them regularly to discuss your subjects. You can set up online study groups that other students who taking the same course can use.

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You might think you already know everything about search engine optimisation process. Well, think again. Some of the things you know may just be myths. There are several SEO myths that webmasters and search engine optimisers still fail to recognise. What are the SEO myths? Here are the top 25:

1. Search engine optimisation can be performed just by anyone.
2. SEO is only for those websites who sell products online.
3. SEO companies can give their clients a guaranteed top ranking position.
4. SEO gives an overnight result. You can optimise a website today and expect it rank high tomorrow.
5. Build more links irregardless of the quality.
6. It is fine to copy content from other websites and paste it on your own website.
7. There is no need for you to write unique content for your website since you can just syndicate articles from directories.
8. There is no need for further work after you have optimised your website.
9. Search engine ranking is all that matters.
10. The more links the better, quantity matters and not quality.
11. There is no need for a website to be submitted to web directories.
12. A website doesn't need updated content.
13. The search engines won't know if you use black hat SEO techniques.
14. Do it yourself SEO is better than hiring SEO professionals - can be true if you are an expert yourself.
15. Web design doesn't need to be optimised.
16. The navigability of the website has no effect on its search engine ranking.
17. The search engines must be prioritised than the target market.
18. There is no need for testing, once a website is already optimised let it stay that way.
19. Site visitors already know how to browse a website so don't worry about usability.
20. Flash is the best way to present your message.
21. You can write anything that you want in your website content.
22. There is no need for you to add keywords on the website content.
23. Adding more large-file images on the website makes the site more appealing.
24. It doesn't matter if the website is slow to load, after all, there are now more broadband users than dial ups.
25. Why still optimise a website when it can still be indexed by the search engines no matter what?

These are the top 25 search engine optimisation myths that both webmasters and search engine optimiser must be aware of. Some of them seem to be like a fact rather than a myth, so be very careful.

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Adult Learning Disabilities

You have to deal with a number of issues if you have a learning disability, even if that disability was diagnosed in the childhood. The issues will be different and many more in adulthood than they were in your childhood years. Hence you will have to find new ways to cope with these challenges and issues posed by the learning disability.

Most children plan on marrying, having children, and being a productive member of their society. If you have a learning disability, you will have to incorporate it into your life-plan. You will need to learn ways of handling the milestones in your life and still deal with your disability. You can lead a successful life with a little by taking some small steps.

Learning disabilities come in many forms, but usually affect how a person thinks, talks, hears, reads and writes. These problems impact how you process thoughts and perform tasks such as mathematics. Since we use these skills everyday, you will have to find ways of coping with daily tasks.

It can be extremely difficult to be an adult with a learning disability. Other adults expect you to have the same skill sets that they do and may become angry and frustrated when they have to repeatedly explain something to you. They don't realize that you need extra time to make sense of certain things. You may even drop out of classes you're taking because others don't understand your needs. Doing this will most likely jeopardize your career plans.

You need to find the balance between having a disability and changing your goals. You do need to know your limitations but at the same time there is no reason for you not to live a full and happy life. You should be able to enjoy relationships and being a parent, even with your learning disability.

Being a parent with learning disability can be tough and stressing. To reduce the stress of being a disability parent, you can do a number of things like take care of your time and manage it properly.

One of the many tricks that you can implement so that you don't forget important family information is to have a calendar prominently displayed in the kitchen or other room in your home. Keep track of dates and times when you and your children need to be somewhere. This way you have a constant visual reminder to refer to so that you don't miss appointments and pick up times.

Keep your home as organized as possible so that when you need to find something it will be in a permanent location inside your home. This ensures that you don't spend unnecessary time searching for something that you need since this can often lead to your frustration and anger.

Remember that it is very important to remain calm and patient even when things are not going the way you may want them to. Everyone, even those who don't have a learning disability will have moments that are frustrating and trying. Do not blame everything that goes wrong on your learning disability.

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"When Reading is Stupid; the Why, How and What to Do About It"

As we are about to embark on a teaching career we as English teachers need to be aware that our students will not always share the same enthusiasm and passion we have for reading. Jeffrey Wilhelm's article "When Reading is Stupid; the Why, How and What to Do About It" is therefore of particular relevance as it discusses the issue of how teachers can motivate their students to read more.

Wilhelm conducted research surrounding various students and adults' reading experiences, both meaningful and frustrating. After interviewing over five hundred participants Wilhelm confirmed that relevance, competence and agency were the key factors that entice people, especially students, to read. Using these key factors, he devised the notion of "contact zones".

Reading need not be seen merely as homework or a set task, yet so often teachers present reading material in such a way. "Read pages 40 - 70 before next Tuesday" or "Write ten lines describing the themes explored in this novel".

According to the Chief Review Officer for ERO certain students, in particular Pacific Islanders, Maori and another group referred to as 'the tail' are currently unsuccessful within the educational system. They say that the percentage could be as high as 25% . Many leave school without a formal qualification and usually this also means that a number of them will be fairly illiterate. From the time they leave school, these students therefore have a disadvantage in the world as they do not have access to the vast amount of knowledge that can be found within literature. Their knowledge of the world will be limited to their own life experiences and cultural boundaries. Whether these experiences are positive or negative will influence a student's opinion about what they have to read. If the material does not fit their own experiences or culture, they will probably fail to understand the relevance or point of being 'forced' to read it.

According to Wilhelm the key to encouraging the students, in particular those that are having difficulties with reading, is therefore about making connections. Their life experience and culture should be the very foundation from which teachers should be choosing material to read. Wilhelm states that reading should be seen as a choice that is 'personally relevant and socially significant'. Students should therefore, under close guidance, with a clear purpose and carefully explained procedures, be given increased responsibility in what and how they read in order to develop an understanding of themselves and the world outside of their own life and cultural experiences.

Wilhelm suggests that teachers should use the technique of 'contact zones'. This is where each student feels connected to learning the material in some way. They need to be able to see the relevance of committing their own precious time on something they do not necessarily deem important. With the increasing competition of computer games, films, DVDs, music and so much more, ensuring that texts are 'relevant' becomes more important than ever before. As there is so much information and choice available to our students we need to be able to recreate the same amount of choice and connection for them within the classroom, especially when it comes to the context of getting them to read! Reading has to be as exciting as the next episode of the Simpsons or Missy Elliot video or as action charged as winning the first fifteen game.

Over my two-week observation period on placement I noticed the concept of contact zones being put into practice. My year 9 English class had just completed reading the Duncan Stuart's novel Whole of the Moon. The female and male characters in the book are about the same age as the students in the class.

"He's smart, good-looking, rich - he's just won the speed-skating champs and has a terrific girlfriend. Kirk Mead has it all...including cancer. Now he has to tough it out in the biggest battle of his life."

Although The Whole of the Moon is about fictional characters the students were encouraged to close read the novel in such a way as to imagine that they themselves could be one of the Kirk Meads of the world. It turned out that one of the students had actually battled two years of chemotherapy himself. The student was very open about the experience and his perspective on Kirk's story in relation to his own made reading could possibly have made the text more relevant and socially significant for the rest of the class. Discussing common elements about the characters in relation to themselves, such as a love for skateboarding, helped them to connect to the story in a way that recognized its parallels within their own world. An after reading activity encouraged the students to find their own quote from the book which they thought conveyed a theme and were then asked to do a static image. Although this was not linking the story to direct personal experience the students were able to convey visually their own interpretation of the characters of the story. Following that the students were then asked to do a speech as if they were one of the characters that had lost their leg. Becoming the character like this encouraged the students to step outside of their comfort zone and be disabled for a moment. They were able to describe how they felt both physically and psychologically. The students themselves brought up discussions about how the school was equipped for wheelchairs and extra-curricular activities for the disabled.

In comparison my year 13 class had been studying short stories in a way that resonated from my bursary days. They were the same stories and the same themes regurgitated - bullying, relationships, death and so forth. Although wonderful stories, of which I had great pleasure in studying I wonder just how the students see any relevance of the stories other than to learn the quotes and write the essay. In comparison to the Year 9 novel study the short stories required much more in-depth analysis and discussion with little time to find personal connections. Perhaps it may have been useful for the students themselves to vote on their own themes at the beginning of the year and then the teacher to ensure that material studied, including the short stories, incorporated those themes? Short stories written by fellow secondary school students such as 'Surrender' by Maria Belich could possibly be good to use as it may reflect their own personalities and encourages them to see attitudes from a different perspective.

So when faced with the importance of relevance, competence and agency we would need to address the following questions before implementing Wilhelm's 'contact zones' . Firstly we would need to take into the account the nature and personalities of the classroom. What issues interest them? What are their favorite hobbies? Sports? Crafts? Once these have been identified then areas of literature that has relevance can be investigated. Inquiry also need not be fake. A teacher should not be hesitant of leaving it up to the students to find out the answers for themselves. Once students are using their own knowledge to make useful and intelligent connections, they will feel a sense of accomplishment. This sense of achievement and call to action will then lead to increased self esteem and competency in reading. Through making texts accessible to students in a way that is relevant students will understand that knowledge is created and that in all things in life, a position must be taken.

Time is precious in a teenager's world, as it is in ours. Potential topics worth exploring would then need to be around things that would be topical for them. Perhaps for the boys it may be cars, music or girls. Maybe they have a favourite actor or actress? A favourite sport or sportsperson? For the girls it may be fashion and boys. If I look back my interests were probably in the narrow realms of boys, music, theatre and photography. Maybe we could look at the impact of technology or media on our lives utilizing materials such as video games, films, mp3 players which could then be connected to relevant texts or literature. Topics that could be interesting in exploring could be about artificial intelligence or genetically modified foods. In fact one book that has been recommended to me is Daniel Keye's novel 'Flowers for Algernon', about a mentally retarded boy who is used for an experiment where he and a mouse become mentally superior. The book has an opportunity to tackle all sorts of everyday issues such as bullying, the ethics scientific research or the lengths people go to for popularity. The overall theme could be 'acceptance'. By using varying texts such as newspapers, magazines, World Wide Web, radio interviews, video clips and so forth we can explore these issues in depth in relation to how it could affect the students. E.g. the ear grown on the mouse, girls in Asia lengthening their legs or operating on their eyes to become 'more western', recent infant killing milk powder in china. If the literature they read is linked to things that could have potential consequences within their own lives, then the reading will become that much more interesting for them. Another interesting topic could be that of the body beautiful. How women and men are portrayed in the media and within certain literature. Further opportunities could exist to explore eating fads historically and to date, such as the Aitkens diet. The everyday realities can be drawn into classroom teaching and the literature that we expose them to should have similar themes or connections to these realities.

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Prostitution, AIDS, Social Evils, Ho Chi Minh City

Vietnam appears to be on the edge of a devastating AIDS epidemic. The official figure for the number of HIV-positive people, 3,706 (with 148 deaths since the first case was recorded in 1990), is almost certainly underestimated by several orders of magnitude. Aid workers from non-governmental organizations say that estimates by the World Health Organization of 100,000 HIV-positive people in Vietnam are much closer to reality. More ominous are WHO reports that estimate 500,000 people in Vietnam will be HIV positive by 1998 unless massive education efforts slow the epidemic.
Vietnam still has time to prevent becoming another Thailand, with its one million HIV-positive citizens. Vietnam's only hope is through decisive and aggressive action: it must not only educate prostitutes and drug users--traditional sources for AIDS infection-- but must also create massive, active education and outreach programs directed at the mainstream population. The Vietnamese government has decided to fight the epidemic through an extensive if passive AIDS prevention campaign using television and billboards that explain HIV transmission, and by urging morality and monogamy.
The government is also setting up small programs for high-risk groups using the "harm-reduction" model of AIDS education, a hands-on method that uses outreach workers. Harm-reduction education teaches sex workers to use condoms and to avoid high-risk sexual activity. Intravenous drug users are also taught to use clean hypodermic needles and not to share injection paraphernalia with other users. Government AIDS policy also focuses on educating government employees like police officers and medical workers about HIV transmission. There is some education in the schools, but it is only on HIV and AIDS transmission; no sex education courses exist. Moreover, there are no special hospitals for AIDS patients. In the destitute Vietnamese medical system, where a patient's family must go to the black market to buy medicine, the AIDS drug AZT is given only to pregnant women.
In Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), the government and Save the Children both run similar programs using peer outreach workers, employing former sex workers to teach safe sex to prostitutes, and using former intravenous drug users to educate present drug users on how to avoid AIDS. Although the programs have the same goal--to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS--the way that they are run says a lot about the attitudes toward the sex workers and drug users whom they attempt to help.
The Vietnamese government has set up pilot syringe-exchange programs in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Save the Children has created pilot AIDS education and outreach programs with the hope that locally supported versions will eventually be run in other provinces in Vietnam. The government is now hopeful that more nongovernmental organizations will come into Vietnam to set up more projects.
Ho Chi Minh City is the epicenter of Vietnam's AIDS epidemic, with half the reported HIV cases coming from the city. Police figures estimate 33,000 prostitutes and 150 brothels there, though these figures are at least three years old. An estimated 10,000 IV drug users and 30,000 children live alone or with their families in the streets. In the past five years, more than a million people have come to Ho Chi Minh City to try to escape the crippling poverty of the countryside. Some women from the provinces inevitably wind up working as prostitutes.
Dr. Thue Vinh is a member of the District One AIDS Committee in Ho Chi Minh City. "When we first set the program up, in 1993, we had some resistance from the police officials. They did not understand why we gave condoms to sex workers; they said we were helping them to be prostitutes," Vinh explained. Attitudes are better, according to Vinh, because of the massive government AIDS education campaign. Among the general population, the knowledge about HIV transmission is high.
But the government campaign has some big holes. "We have classes in the schools on how HIV is transmitted," said Vinh, "but no sex education programs." Efforts to reach prostitutes who work in hotels are hampered by the hotels' refusal to accept free government condoms. Accepting the free condoms, the hotel managers reason, is the equivalent of pleading guilty to charges of promoting prostitution. They fear the police will shut them down.
Last February the AIDS committee also restarted their needle exchange, shut down two years ago because of conflicts with the police. The exchange has 87 clients out of the 500 users in the district. Estimates for IV drug users are bleak--the HIV infection rate may be as high as 80 percent. According to Aaron Peak, an American AIDS policy consultant in Vietnam, the addicts of Ho Chi Minh City frequent "shooting galleries," where they buy the opium they shoot and where one person injects all the clients, often with the same needle.
The District One Women's Union runs the government's peer outreach program to sex workers. At a recent meeting, eight former sex workers were gathered around a long table. The meeting was led by Hoa Hong, a Women's Union official who has never worked as a prostitute, and the mood was very serious. Hong asked each woman to make a report. Several women said the new law against social evils, known as Local Law 87, has forced prostitutes off the street because it is easier for the police to arrest them for vagrancy. Many of the sex workers now work inside, and some have resorted to having an accomplice drive them around on a scooter, allowing for quicker propositions with less danger of being arrested. Local Law 87, which cracks down on gambling, prostitution, and drug use, was passed last winter to appease Communist Party hard-liners in preparation for June's Party conference. It has put a damper on safe-sex education and condom distribution.
At Save the Children, the atmosphere was much more relaxed. The offices were in a large house and the sex workers' meeting was held on the floor, with the half-dozen women volunteers, all present and former sex workers, sitting and discussing their work while exchanging lively banter.
Truong is a former sex worker and staff member. Although more than 100,000 Saigon bar girls and prostitutes were sent to communist "reeducation" camps in 1975, that's when Truong's career as a sex worker started. Her father, who had worked with Americans in Vietnam, was sent to a reeducation camp where he spent 11 years. To support her mother and brother, Truong sold her virginity at the age of 21 and spent 16 years as a prostitute. She stopped after she was recruited to do outreach for Save The Children four years ago.
"I'd say about 70 percent of the commercial sex workers start because of poverty," Truong said. "Most come from the provinces and are very poor; they have a low education level and no stable job. The Women's Union hates commercial sex workers. They don't try to determine the reasons why women sell themselves. They just say it is a social evil without knowing the reasons why."
Harm-reduction education has to be done without moral judgment, to actively address the needs of high-risk groups while appealing to their ability to take care of themselves. This flies in the face of abstinence models of HIV-prevention: don't have sex until you are married, don't have sex outside of marriage, don't do drugs ever.
Harm reduction is still controversial in the United States because it involves teaching members of groups at high risk for HIV infection how to protect themselves from AIDS, and to prevent those who are already infected from spreading the disease. Giving out needles and condoms acknowledges that drug addicts and prostitutes exist and are a part of society in Vietnam (as well as in just about every country); they cannot be simply disposed of by arresting them and sending them off to prison or reeducation camps.
Most AIDS education outreach efforts in Ho Chi Minh City are directed at high-risk populations. Besides drug users and sex workers, Save the Children also has projects doing HIV-prevention work with street children and gay men. In Vietnam, homosexuality is illegal.
Vietnam should be aware that the country has already entered a crisis. To slow the spread of HIV, the Vietnamese government should not merely wait for increased spending on the part of nongovernment organizations; it should itself increase spending on HIV prevention. For example, with new joint ventures between the government and foreign corporations being formed every week, the government could impose a small corporate tax to pay for increased AIDS spending.
The Save the Children program is small, with a staff of just 24 in addition to its 50 outreach workers, but it is vital. By approaching the sex workers with respect, they gain their confidence and give them tools with which to protect themselves. Though some sex workers still have unprotected sex despite knowing about AIDS, the outreach workers have changed attitudes, raised self-esteem, and helped sex workers convince their clients to use condoms.
As a first step, the Vietnamese government should expand the education and outreach toward high-risk populations. For example, the needle-exchange program in Ho Chi Minh City should be expanded to include all addicts interested, not just the five percent now involved. These education and outreach programs should also be set up on a smaller scale in the capital of each province: as affluence spreads through the country, attendant social problems such as prostitution will also become an issue in the smaller cities and town.
The European nongovernmental organization Medicins Du Monde has set up a "Condom Coffee Shop" in the city's youth center to educate young people about HIV and AIDS. "We are targeting the heterosexual population with education, trying to get to them before HIV spreads even further to the general population," said Martine David, the 23-year-old Canadian who runs the program. The coffee shop is staffed with young volunteers trained to discuss HIV and AIDS prevention with their teenage and young adult clientele. They stage puppet shows and dramas that address HIV and AIDS and distribute free condoms with names like Trust and OK. David said they hope to start inviting high school classes to the coffee shop. "There is no condom education in the schools," she said. "Mainly, the teachers are too shy."
"The government does a good job on AIDS education with TV and radio, but the attitudes don't change," said David. "People tell me 'I go out with good girls,' or 'I'm a university student.' They see AIDS as a problem for prostitutes and drug users."
Programs like the Condom Coffee Shop, though minuscule, are effective because they appeal to people's intelligence, as well as to their fear of AIDS. Programs like these need to be expanded and set up in different areas of Vietnamese society, such as bars catering to businessmen or farmers.
Government billboards and television announcements that warn of the risks of HIV and AIDS are necessary, but this passive form of education is not as effective as the more active, individual education that changes attitudes. In Ho Chi Minh City, a married man who has unprotected sex with a prostitute may read a billboard on his way home urging him to be faithful to his wife to avoid AIDS. But it is only by changing sexual practices and ways of drug use that AIDS in Vietnam will be curtailed.
While the first part of Vietnam's AIDS strategy should address high-risk populations, the second phase should deal with mainstream society. A comprehensive sex education program should be set up for high school and university students. If the teachers are too shy to teach it, specially trained instructors should be used. Outreach programs promoting discussions of safe sex should then be developed and used with groups such as labor unions and other professional bodies.
It is essential that the control of these programs not be limited to "official mass organizations" such as the Women's Unions and the Youth Union. There must be mass participation on a local level to promote active education, not just the passive education from billboards and television. It is as necessary to reach the farmer in the countryside with AIDS education as it is to reach the doctor or government clerk in the city.
Although cultural practices that prevent the candid discussion of sex and AIDS remain strong in Vietnam, it is necessary to try to change these traditions; it's also best if these changes are done by the Vietnamese themselves and not by foreign nongovernmental organizations. Unfortunately for Vietnam, HIV and AIDS do not respect cultural traditions.