#don’t recommend being forcefully isolated!! not great!

[icedtoastt]

Body horror and disability is so !!!! Yes!! My body is a prison, a cage that actively despises me!!!! I want to kill my body, be freed from it, but it won’t stop eating away at me!!!!! My own body has betrayed me and holds me down!!! Yessss girl!!!

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Tigre

“.... Where am I?” Tigre opened his eyes to darkness and the sound of his own deep voice. The black hulks of the concrete pillars stood in rows on the cold concrete floor.  “Oh… I know where this is.”

“Where are you?” An unfamiliar voice said. It was friendly… curious. Non-threatening.

“It’s where I live. But there are no chains any more. Brother broke the chains. I’m so tired. I want to sleep.” He closed his eyes again but the voice woke him.

“Brother?”

“Yes. He came… and he commanded the chains to burn and they fell off.” He suddenly saw his ‘brother’ there, standing with golden eyes. He saw as clear as if it was happening now, how that deep snarling sent heat through the thick iron chains that bound him for years and melted them like ice.

“He is your brother?”

“He has eyes like mine…” says Tigre, looking fondly at the image of this man. “No one else has eyes like mine. Is he okay? Zihang…” He remembered the explosion and the collapse of the building. He stood against the rubble, but he could smell the blood of Zihang. So much blood. “Please don’t die… don’t die, Zihang…” Tears ran down his cheeks and he curled into a ball.

“You know his name?”

“Yes.”

A square of blue light shined on his face suddenly. A different voice sounded from it, distant and electronic. “Zihang… Chu Zihang. Do you read? Come in! Come in, Chu Zihang!” 

That’s how he knew his rescuer’s name.

“What is your name?”

“Tigre… Where is Zihang? Is Zihang okay?” He stood up and started walking, looking for the source of the voice.

He suddenly saw a man standing there and stopped a moment before retreating again behind a pillar.

“Are you afraid?”

“Who are you? Where is this? The building blew up. This isn’t real. Are you going to try to kill me?” He asked question after question, breathing hard from panic.

“Why would I kill you?” The voice remained calm and curious, almost confused.

A vision of a dark shadow moved swiftly between the pillars. Tigre knew this shadow. It was the great beast he fought and killed last. It was hiding, but he could hear it breathing, its growling.

The friendly voice fell silent. 

Tigre didn’t cower or hide. His posture changed to stalking. He walked forward slowly, staying in the shadows of the pillars. But he moved forward with intent, without fear. He kept his head still.

He could hear the monster moving. The monster was hesitating. It was behind the pillar directly in front of him. It was either going to attack or retreat. Tigre wanted to push it to retreat. So he moved forward a step...then another step and then he ran. Three long strides and he was at the pillar and the monster retreated, turning his back to him to run away.  

But Tigre was already on top of it. He dragged it down with his weight and pinned it to the hard floor. His arm wrapped its throat and choked it. The monster was about twice as big and heavy as he was, but its breath was choked off by Tigre’s bulging arm muscles. Tigre felt that rapid pulse through his skin and just focused on squeezing, harder, harder… harder!

The creature died. He could feel the heart stop.  After a few seconds of stillness he let go. It was once some sort of mammal but now it was covered in scales, bare of fur, eyes rolled back to their whites. It may have been a cow.

“What are you going to do now?”

Tigre looked down, sadly. “Eat him.” 

“Why?”

“I have nothing else to eat. They did not feed me for a long time. Many days. If I don’t eat him, it will be days before I can eat again. I will have to eat him. You will eat anything if you feel hungry and desperate enough. Eating him makes me sick. But if I don’t eat, I will starve to death.”

The voice was silent for a while. 

Tigre sat next to the corpse. This wasn’t real. He had done this already. A sharp pain stabbed through the center of his skull and he flinched. “Hurts… Who are you?”

“My name is Toyama. I’m here to help you.”

“Where is Zihang?” He looked up. 

“He’s okay. Who are they? The ones that feed you?”

“I don’t know.”

“It’s alright,” said Toyama. “That part of your life is over. And a new life will start for you. I will help guide you to it, but you must be careful and not hurt anyone. Even if they try to hurt you. You must do no harm. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Now rest a little while longer. We will speak again.”

Tigre lay on the hard cold ground and felt unbearably sleepy. He closed his eyes.

Toyama released him from the trance he’d put him in. He sat next to the young man’s bed, listening to him breathe quietly.

Before putting him in the trance, he had sat like this for nearly thirty minutes.

Schneider had approached him that morning about this new recruit. The man spoke to him in private instead of going through official channels on the Nightwatcher Forum. He told him he wanted to evaluate the mental state of this newcomer as closely as he could and write a detailed and honest assessment of it, to be completely honest in his opinion and to report privately, only to him.

Toyama was an experienced psychologist, and knew that Schneider was prone to secrecy, a loner who had his own way of doing things, but never had he been personally solicited by him to do an evaluation.  Usually he worked closely with the other professors, Guderian and the Principal Anjou. This was the first time Schneider had approached him over an evaluation. It took great effort for the man to get anywhere. The oxygen container allowed him to do things, but he was nowhere near the stamina of a healthy person. For him to make the great effort to meet him in person told him the importance of the request.

On the day of this evaluation, he was personally escorted to the ward by senior members of the Executive Board and left there without anyone speaking. He used Schneider’s own security card to get in, meaning Schneider was shielding him from involvement. He closed the door behind him and he was only with this young man, who was still heavily sedated.

He sat with him and started with physical observations. Like Manstein, he could observe the scars from the battles and the shackles. But unlike Manstein, he could draw conclusions about the psychological effects of long term confinement. You didn’t shackle someone, unless you needed to be in physical proximity of someone dangerous and wanted to do something to them that they didn’t want you to do to them.

He expected to see abuse.

So in this quiet hospital room, he started his psychological evaluation, calling for his Yanling to enter what he knew would be a damaged mind. But instead of a vast storehouse of tragic information, he found a jumbled mess, full of long gaps of memory lost. Memories scattered through time like a reel of a movie that had been cut to pieces and thrown on the floor. And instead of a wide variety of experiences, he just saw the same dark space, filled with foundation pillars.

He didn’t see someone driven mad by the isolation and the violence. He saw someone one who was only concerned about his rescuer, Chu Zihang. Someone who didn’t voluntarily kill from frustration and violence, but someone who fought and killed for food.

So he went in again. And then a third time and found the same thing. The young man was given fertile ground for a twisted mind, but his mind had grown up tall and straight.

After several hours, he decided he could honestly write that the young man’s mind appeared healthy, but he had some reservations, namely, the piecemeal nature of his memories. Toyama never met someone in his life who had the same Yanling as him, who could mold and shape the memories of a person. But that didn’t mean that he was the only one. He knew his own work, and he had the feeling that someone had forcefully erased and manipulated the mind of this man, to make him docile. Based on the hard facts, he could recommend him to the College, but it wasn’t just his body that had been shackled, but his mind had been shackled as well.

He returned to Schneider who looked over the report. He then prepared tea for him and sat across from him. The quiet hiss of his oxygen tank was the only sound while he read. Toyama couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy at Schneider’s odd behavior. Perhaps Schneider should be the one getting an evaluation instead. It was obvious that the good health of the patient wasn’t natural. It was induced. His mind was pruned like a delicate and beautiful bonsai tree that would require maintenance. Toyama got the feeling that he was going to be asked to continue that ‘maintenance’. 

He was right.

Schneider was very satisfied with this evaluation and even smiled. Toyama was accustomed to whitewashing minds for the benefit of the world. The Executive division was occasionally messy with its work and the world had to remain ignorant of dragons. Perhaps Schneider assumed that he wouldn’t mind this job but he preferred not to use his abilities against students. He still believed in free will and the right for hybrids to understand their world. On the other hand, he also understands that freeing the patient's mind could also spell his doom and he felt pity for him.

The patient, named officially Tigre, was moved to an ordinary room in the hospital and ordinary accomodations were being prepared for him. Toyama felt it was right to introduce him to the world gradually. Tigre wouldn’t understand the world at all and the students wouldn’t understand him. To throw him in uninitiated would be a disaster.

He saw Tigre’s eyes open genuinely to the world.. The voice he heard was Toyama’s, welcoming him. Tigre stared in recognition, remembering his voice from his dreams, like a baby opening his eyes for the first time and recognizing the voice of his mother from the womb.

Breakfast was simply a bland, slightly sweetened warm cereal and a small amount of apple. Toyama fed him at first with a spoon. Tigre devoured these foods, rising up from the bed to follow the spoon as it retreated and opening his mouth for the next bite. Even those middling flavors were like the taste of ambrosia to someone forced to eat nothing but raw flesh. His eyes grew wide and bright, and Toyama was forced to look away. That inhuman and icy fire pierced him with fear.

He then slid a pair of sunglasses over Tigre’s eyes. “You need these to help others see you better.” He gently explained.

That yellow light was dampened by the dark lenses and Tigre nodded. 

He bathed him with a warm cloth, clipped his nails, and combed his long hair. Tigre was unused to any touch at all and the hairs rose on his skin and he shivered, closing his eyes. 

Toyama pulled out his phone to flash cards in different languages. He would ask him to tell him what a single word said. If Tigre pronounced the word he would nod and go to a different language. The young man spoke English, but could also read it. He read in both Chinese, Korean, and a little Japanese. This spoke to a high level of education at an early age.

Toyama had tried to look into his earliest memories, but attempting to do so caused him physical pain. He didn’t want to ruin their relationship so whenever the man expressed that something hurt, he backed off and didn’t do it again. Now he knew that this wasn’t some orphaned street child in the middle of nowhere. Someone who could read so many languages had to have gone to a private or prestigious school.

His memories of his early childhood had been erased. But there had to be traces of it. He made similar evaluations of his recognizing numbers, his understanding of math. He brought a table and put a corn seed on the table, a cup of dirt, and a cup of water and asked him to tell him what to do with it. This was to evaluate his understanding of science. Tigre stared at it for a long time. His eyes suddenly squinted and he flinched slightly and turned away as if seeing the sunlight after leaving a dark room. Toyama wrote this down. He wasn’t sure why understanding how plants grew elicited pain, but it was important to establish these patterns.

Toyama played music. Music was something embedded deep in the mind and if he had any memories of his childhood he would react. He played the themes of music from children’s television. When he started playing the theme song for ‘Reading Rainbow’, Tigre grew visibly upset and started to pant, clutching his head. Tigre burst into tears, crying. “It hurts. It hurts!”

He collapsed on the bed, writhing and sobbing until Toyama had him sedated for the rest of the day. Toyama completed and sent this evaluation to Schneider who responded with a short message that the reintroduction to life should continue.

[mervealkanli-blog]

Chimps vs. Humans

Why is it that so many chimpanzees have been and are still continuously being taken away from their mothers at a very young age? Their only purpose is to test their communication abilities of being more like humans and adapting to our humanly behaviors and language. Does this seem ethical to you? I believe it shouldn’t, however most researchers unfortunately might not agree with me. They don't acknowledge the fact that these animals were not created to be raised like humans because it is not in their nature. Holding these animals in captivity, in locked enclosures and going against their nature by raising them like us in order to gain research is very unethical. After doing a literature review on this controversial issue, reading various articles and books, and watching documentaries, I have gained enough knowledge on the morality and ethics of raising chimpanzees like humans, and can evidently conclude that chimpanzees are physically and mentally incapable of communicating with humans using human language. That being said, it is pointless to put them through this unethical process if the outcomes are already explicit.  

A specific book that I read in class, genuinely helped me get a better understanding of this controversial issue and answered a lot of questions relating to the ethics of raising animals like humans. This book is called “we are all completely besides ourselves” written by an American author named Karen Joy Fowler. In this book a chimp was raised by a family alongside their youngest daughter rosemary. The chimp was treated no different then the families younger children. Even the daughter rosemary was convinced that the chimp was human. The unethical portion of the story is that after the chimp was forcefully adapted to its “human life”,  it was given away and held captive for further research. Although this is a fictional story it draws a great connect to Nims life. Nim was a chimpanzee whose life story was exposed in a documentary that was created in the 70's called Project Nim. Project Nim was an experiment performed by researchers and scientists whose sole purpose was to show that an ape could learn to communicate with spoken language if raised and nurtured like a human child. Nim was raised by humans and was constantly approached by language learning tasks. However, as expected, the experiment was a fail because Nim was not capable of learning the english language. Analogous to the chimps situation in the book “We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves,” after the unwanted outcome, Nim was given to a lab and was held captive for other research because he was useless for the project.

Throughout many decades multiple documentaries, books, and articles just like Project Nim were created, aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child, however most of their findings were not a success because the chimpanzees did not have the right physical structure and mentality to intake those words and speak them. Back in 1968, an ape-rearing experiment was practiced on an adolescent chimpanzee. In this experiment a home-raised chimpanzee was given the same social advantages and linguistics as a human baby. The chimp was able to imitate most humanly behaviors, however it failed to imitate human simple word sounds because the “the neural speech centers of a chimps brain are no doubt deficient in this respect and it is possible also that the larynx and speech organs are incapable of producing the complex sound patterns of human language”(kellogg). Furthermore, Chimpanzees are also not able to communicate by speaking a language because they are not able to pronounce majority of the words due to their restricting bone structure. A major structural differences between humans and chimps is found in the “mandibular alveolar vergency and in the internal slope of the mandibular symphysis where the oral cavity’s morphology is modified, thereby increasing the free space for tongue movements in humans. The chin, which is unique to the human species, is quantified through the external slope of the mandibular symphysis with a lesser angle in humans”(Fenol, Ruis, Campo). Therefore, the two studies above prove that chimpanzees are not physically capable to communicate with humans using human language.

Chimpanzees can’t and should not be taught the english language as a human chimp communication method because their physical form is not structured to speak it. Yes, this may be a major aspect of the issue however the list of reasons of why there are not recommended to learn the language goes on. For example, they can suffer from long term mental effects such as “social withdrawal, anxiety, and loss of appetite. They pull out their own hair, bite themselves, and pace incessantly”(Peta). Additionally, a recent study took place in 2012, in which the anxiety levels and social behaviours of two orphans and four mother reared adolescent chimpanzees were closely examined and recorded when interacting with humans. As anticipated, the two orphans displayed different results from the other four chimpanzees by displaying higher levels of anxiety. Based off of the results from the study, it was concluded that a baby chimpanzee who is raised without it’s biological mother and isolated from other chimpanzees can possibly have a permanent or even long lasting impact on its ability to take part in complex social interactions like playing or communicating. “chimpanzees raised in isolation are sometimes unable to engage in complex social exchanges such as grooming, clingung, or mating and exhibit stereotypical self directed behaviors”(Botero, McDonald, Miller). To conclude, I strongly believe that testing on chimpanzees and raising them like human should strictly be banned in the U.S because it is unethical. It is also pointless because it has been proven by various studies and experiments that these animals are not capable of communicating with humans using our language.

[aion-rsa]

I Care a Lot Ending Explained

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains I Care a Lot spoilers.

It’s an emotionally fraught conclusion. Before our very eyes, I Care a Lot’s protagonist—its ostensible hero—is bleeding out inside an asphalt parking lot. But then, was she or anyone else ever a hero in this story? Just seconds before she was gunned down, Rosamund Pike’s Marla Grayson is seen, smilingly lying about how great her new predatory company is, and how she’s figured out a way to turn elder abuse into a sanitized illusion of “eldercare.”

She is a monster with a sunshine smile.

By contrast, the man who waits outside an unnamed cable network with a gun is clearly a hard to like individual. With his long unkempt beard and red baseball cap—technically for a sports team instead of a political cause—Mr. Feldstrom (Macon Blair) resembles a collection of unsavory stereotypes and clichés. Earlier in the movie, Marla called him a sexist, and he reconfirms it again here by addressing Marla as simply “you fucking bitch.” With strong undercurrents of misogyny, Feldstrom is slaughtering a successful woman… yet honestly it is hard to imagine anyone having much sympathy for her.

If you don’t recall the full details, we actually met Feldstrom before Marla at the beginning of the movie. While we hear Ms. Grayson’s ruthless “greed is good” rhetoric in voiceover during the film’s opening moments, the images we’re primarily seeing are of Blair’s Feldstrom attempting to forcefully enter a nursing home and being restrained by security.

We learn in the subsequent court hearing that he is a son who’s even been denied access to visit  his own mother, much less having a say in how her court appointed professional guardian, Pike’s pitiless Marla, spends his mother’s money while selling off her possessions.

“Mr. Feldstrom, I sympathize,” Marla says with dripping condescension. “A doctor diagnosed your mother with dementia and wrote a note recommending immediate action to be taken for her safety.” She goes on to add that Feldstrom had ample opportunity to move his mother into a care facility or his own home. He did neither. Now Marla must keep him away because “your visits upset her.”

It’s bleak reptilian logic she uses, and chillingly it convinces the judge. Feldstrom is once again denied access to see his mother, much less help her, while Marla keeps squeezing mom’s assets for income. As she said in the initial voice over, “I’ve been poor. It doesn’t agree with me.” So she’ll let poor bastards like Feldstrom live in a nightmare.

This doesn’t negate the awfulness of Feldstrom, who in the film’s opening salvo also repellently says, “I hope you get raped and I hope you get murdered… you fucking fucker.” But both I Care a Lot’s greatest strengths and weaknesses lie in how unpleasantly thorny every character is.

Technically, Marla is right to pick up that Feldstrom doubly hates her for being a woman, but she is no heroine in her own story. Rather she’s as despicable an anti-hero as you’re likely to find in a crime drama or movie about the debaucheries of high-finance crooks. She’s as greedy as Gordon Gekko or Jordan Belfort, and as shamelessly ambitious as Tony Montana.

She is the personification of the bottomless appetite of American capitalism, and she is so unflinching in her avarice that she can win over other sharks who recognize a fellow predator.

Take for instance Peter Dinklage’s Russian mob boss, Roman Lunyov, who has every reason to hate Marla Grayson. Like Feldstrom, Roman is a son whose mother is being kept against her will; a victim preyed on by a vulture who is keeping her isolated and even overmedicated as a form of torture. When Roman encounters this, his first instinct like Feldstrom is to handle her cleanly through the courts, albeit first via bribes from his high-priced lawyer. When that fails, however, Roman is quick to switch to a plan that will put Marla six feet under.

Yet when push comes to shove—and Marla is pushing to lock Roman away in an institution for the rest of his life—the mobster recognizes the financial brilliance in Marla’s scheme of turning the elderly into cash cows. Believe it or not, it’s something that happens in the real world with predatory professional guardians, and it’s something an amoral mob boss can find ways to monetize and wet his beak in.

I imagine some viewers were torn between who they were rooting for: Roman or Marla. Both are Great Whites gliding beneath a glassy surface, and both have reason to disdain the other. Yet the real appeal of the I Care a Lot ending is how it comments on the worship of money and success. Both Marla and Roman have climbed high in their chosen rackets, and cannot help but admire the other’s tenacity. Together they’ll climb higher still, leaving many other elderly folks harmed and hurting—and without a son like Roman who can leverage his power to bail them out, even if at a proverbial gunpoint.

But Marla and Feldstrom? They’re not equals or even on the same playing field. Marla surmises at the beginning of the movie that you’re either lion or lamb, predator or prey. She fed on Feldstrom and his mother until there were only scraps of bone left. And I Care a Lot’s real final conflict is about how long that power dynamic can last until the whole system collapses. It did for Marla.

Before her death, Marla’s being celebrated on cable TV for joining the one percent. When asked if she’s finally happy—if her thirst for wealth has been sated—she answers, “Peter, I’m just getting started.” Even though she can do anything she wants now, as she also tells girlfriend Fran (Eiza González) in her actual final words, the only thing she wants is more. And the fallout of such unfettered hunger is epitomized by the relatively unsavory man she stepped on at the beginning of the film. The guy everyone forgot about, including probably you. But unpleasant though he may be, his pain is real, and as he reveals while shooting Marla, his mother died alone in that nursing home/prison, without being able to see her son one final time.

“She fucking died in there alone,” the gunman whines.

It’s a horrible fate for an unseen victim, one of many, who’s suffering paid for Marla’s televised victory lap. And as she bleeds out, we’re asked to more than judge her. Before the movie even started, Marla was a lost cause of a human being. But what she represents as an idea is more sinister, and enduring. If left unchecked, that greed which made her a “lioness” will lead to only greater bloodletting between lions and lambs.

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[mooncalamity]

February 22, 1986- SECRET LANGUAGE NAME - EMPOWERED UNIVERSALITY- 

PERSONALITY TRAITS OF THIS DAY -

UNSELFISH - IDEALISTIC - DEDICATED - SUCCESS‑ORIENTED - CONCERNED - CARING - CHARISMATIC - FORMIDABLE INSIGHTFUL

UNFORGIVING - PESSIMISTIC - OVERCRITICAL - INSECURE - PESSIMISTIC - ISOLATED - MERCENARY - SELF‑NEGATING - ADDICTIVE

The Day of Universality

Meditation...

In some obscure corners of the world, the Ideal and the Real have consummated a secret marriage 

Advice...

Don’t be so demanding of yourself and others.

Allow for mistakes; they cannot always be avoided.

Be very conscious of your responsibilities to those who entrust themselves to you.

Show more interest in yourself as a person, too.

Traits...

UNSELFISH IDEALISTIC DEDICATED UNFORGIVING PESSIMISTIC OVERCRITICAL

   Amplified Universality Personality of this day...    Those born on February 22 tend to dissolve their ego away in the service of a meaningful cause. Their personal world may be an intricate and complex one, their emotions profoundly sensitive, yet they do not allow this to be their principal concern, and rather turn their spotlight out on the world, illuminating worthy ideals and goals.

   February 22 people generally believe in the greatest good for the greatest number. In this sense, their democratic, perhaps patriotic feelings run high. Not infrequently, they find themselves supporting or leading the cause of their clan, organization, community, even country. However, the most highly evolved people born on this day have ideals that reach far beyond municipal or national borders. Lovers of universal freedom, high idealists, they wish that all enjoy the blessings of a good life, without threat of tyranny or oppression.

   February 22 people have a strict sense of duty and can be rather stern and unforgiving. When they make mistakes, they come down very hard on themselves. They also suffer greatly when they have gone against their own personal code, whether for reasons of expediency or survival. They must learn to be less hard on themselves, and more accepting of circumstances as they are. February 22 standards are often too high for anyone (including themselves) to ever live up to.

   Though, as mentioned, February 22 people often dissolve away their ego in the service of their work, this does not mean that they are necessarily easygoing in personal relationships. Despite the fact that they can appear open to a variety of experience, their likes and dislikes are pronounced, even fixed. In addition, they will pull no punches when making their displeasure known to their partner.

   Those born on this day are frequently critical of their society, adopting a revolutionary or avant-garde stance. Not particularly optimistic, they realistically assess the shortcomings of everyone and everything. Less highly evolved individuals born on this day can’t help but see all the imperfections around them, but choose to do nothing most of the time, vacillating between grumbling and aimlessly striking out in rebellion. Those February 22 people who come to accept social inequities against their idealistic nature can sink into a deep pessimism.

   Because of their capacity to put personal desire aside, February 22 people are capable of making magnetic leaders who instill great loyalty in their followers. Certainly not everyone born on this day will have the opportunity to exercise authority as an employer, manager or political leader. However, should the need arise to call for assistance or support, they will be able to demand great sacrifice from colleagues, family and friends since the purity of their motives is rarely in doubt.

Health...    Those born on February 22 are most often apt to ignore their health. They may one day be forced by disease to seek treatment if they don’t more actively engage in preventive practices. Staying informed as to current medical health research and possible homeopathic and holistic cures may prove beneficial, if not to themselves, then to their family. Taking vitamin and mineral supplements and eating a low-fat diet featuring plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables is a good start for them. Vigorous exercise is recommended for February 22 people, including aerobics, running, weightlifting, ocean swimming or climbing, and possibly competitive team sports.

Numerology...    Those born on the 22nd of the month are ruled by the numbers 4 (2+2=4) and 22, and by the planet Uranus, which is both erratic and explosive. Those ruled by the number 4 are highly opinionated and can be rather argumentative. Such traits may enforced in February 22 people by the lingering influence of Uranus (ruler of Aquarius), and given a rebellious or revolutionary cast. Not infrequently, number 4 people wish to change the social order, particularly true for those born on February 22. Since the sign of Pisces is ruled by Neptune, the Uranus-Neptune connection can indicate high idealism but also personal confusion, preoccupation with strange subjects and self-destructive tendencies. Since 22 is a double number, those born on the 22nd of the month may be fascinated with twins, coincidences, symmetry or other doubles.

Archetype...    The 22nd card of the Major Arcana is The Fool, who in several versions of the Tarot is shown blithely stepping over the edge of a cliff. Some interpretations picture him as a foolish man who has given up his reason, others a highly spiritualized being free of material considerations. Positive meanings include renouncing resistance and following instincts freely; foolish acts, impulsiveness and annihilation are the negative aspects. The highly evolved Fool has followed life’s path, experienced its lessons and become one with his/her own vision.

The Week of Sensitivity

Traits of this week...

SUCCESS‑ORIENTED CONCERNED CARING INSECURE PESSIMISTIC ISOLATED

Don’t give up on the world or retreat behind fences.

If necessary tear obstructions down to rediscover your sensitive self.

Learning to trust may mean ceasing to fear.

Without denying your need to explore the depths and the heights, take the middle road more often.

Personality of this week...    Those born during the Week of Sensitivity are often success-oriented individuals who give top priority to their career. They are usually fighters, an attitude sometimes based on underlying insecurity and the need to prove themselves. A chip-on-the-shoulder attitude many have makes them aggressive toward others and belligerent when attacked. A great personal challenge, then, is to rediscover and acknowledge their inner makeup and to break down some of the barriers they have built up. The tough, even aggressive exterior they present belies the sensitive personality inside. Extremely vulnerable as children, such individuals react to criticism or abuse from others by building a wall around themselves. Carried with them into adulthood, this armor may give the impression of an inner self far different from the reality.

   It should not be surprising that many orient themselves to one of two extremes: either the most far-out, idealistic pursuits or the most inner, deep, profound ones. Combining such essentially opposite attitudes may be extremely difficult, and many will swing from one to the other. In their work, for example, they may deal with abstract concerns, or with attempts to surpass objective limitations, while in their private lives they delve into the world of feelings, people and human affairs.

   Important as it is for such individuals to reconcile these two extremes in their nature, they should also work to explore the middle ground between them—the social side of life. Being strung between the poles of the physical and the metaphysical often means neglecting interaction with other people.

   They may be closely bound to their families. Although parental disapproval and criticism will hurt them in childhood, strong emotional bonds tie them to mother, father, or both. (Usually the stronger and most influential relationship is with the parent of the opposite sex.) Breaking free of such attachments is essential if they are to emerge into adulthood as unique individuals—a truth, perhaps, for many of us, but adolescence may be particularly rebellious and stormy for them. Those who do not succeed in breaking away during this time may continue their struggle for the rest of their lives, even after the death of parents or other powerful family elders.

   Particularly in matters of love, they will have to struggle to be open, honest and accepting with their partner, and to allow themselves to be vulnerable, even at the risk of pain. Thus personal relationships may have the effect of putting them back in touch with their essential self. Even those who are forceful and hard-driving in their careers may be quite passive in their personal relationships. In addition, a tendency to display both masculine and feminine qualities in their love relationships can mark these males as atypically sensitive and these females as atypically aggressive. Such role reversals often favor their choosing a mate they perceive as their opposite.

   In relationships, fear of rejection figures prominently, for they want to be liked but are often afraid of getting hurt, or don’t know how to go about getting approval without compromising themselves. For some, a show of pessimism or dissatisfaction guards them against having to interact; others appear more pleasant or agreeable, but this, too, is a facade designed to preclude any deep involvement. Gaining the courage to struggle in their personal relationships as forcefully as in their careers, to risk rejection, stand up for themselves and express their emotions powerfully, are challenges that they must eventually meet.

   Friendship may be an important vehicle for bringing them out into the world, enticing them to participate in club, community, philanthropic and school endeavors. The essential role that friends play goes beyond normal fellowship, companionship and personal sharing. Beyond having a small number of friends, they gain by building bridges with colleagues, co-workers, acquaintances and with more remote family members. By developing their people skills, they will widen their humanity and ease feelings of being isolated and misunderstood. Viewing the suffering of others first-hand can help them realize that the unhappiness they have gone through themselves is in no way unique, allowing the human points of identification they desperately need.

   Building their own family, including children, or living in a family situation is often a positive experience for those born during the Week of Sensitivity, although their need to be alone and their difficulty in regular or intense interactions may make such relationships hard for them to maintain. Still, their nurturing qualities need to be expressed in some area of their lives—if not through family, perhaps through pets or career projects. Expressing their care, concern and sympathy is as necessary to them as are love and passion.

The Way of Empowerment

Traits of this way...

CHARISMATIC FORMIDABLE INSIGHTFUL MERCENARY SELF‑NEGATING ADDICTIVE

Suggestions...

Remember the axiom “As within, so without.” Try to analyze what your conflicts are telling you.

Surrender to the source of all power.

Know that in order to love others, one must first love oneself.

Their goal...

TO COME TO BELIEVE IN THEIR OWN STRENGTH AND PERSONAL POWER

They must release... 

THE NEED TO WIN

Their reward...

THE JOY OF SELF-ESTEEM

Their balance point...

SELF-ASSERTION & SELF-CONTROL

   Empowered Blissful Wizard Personality of this way...    Those born during the Way of Empowerment must learn how to unlock the sources of power within. Blessed with charm, insight, and consciousness, they must learn to utilize their inner resources and believe in their own personal power. They can be described in one word: magnetic. They attract all manner of people and experiences. This capacity springs from the often unacknowledged potential of their power, which they will learn to harness. But first their journey often entails grappling with quite a bit of conflict, since they can expect to encounter others who will attempt to assert their power or authority over them or suppress them in some fashion. It must be kept in mind that this is merely an outer reflection of an inner reality. Until they begin to truly believe in themselves and their own strength, such lessons will continue to confront them, building their character until they do believe. Miraculously, once they fully own their own power, such experiences and confrontations cease. The key for them is to set aside their self­judgment and criticism and learn how to love themselves.

   These people are innately charismatic. They are both highly intellectual, possessing abundant taste and discernment, and passionate. Naturally and fundamentally attractive, they are also quite capable of utilizing their assets to manipulate others for their own reward. People are often magnetically drawn to them. Their love lives may be strewn with tempestuous romances and stormy scenes. Others might call them lucky since things seem to come their way magically. Their type of magnetism seems uniquely suited to tapping into one of the universal laws, that of attraction.

   Their mental power is prodigious. However, as many good things as this capacity brings, it also comes with quite a bit of turmoil. Higher law states roughly that we attract what we are—or “as within, so without.” For example, if a person burns with low­level anger, one finds others are often angry with them. Thus, until they mature a bit and develop some emotional balance, they are apt to be confronted with quite a variety of sometimes distressing experiences before they reach a place of greater calm.

   These folks are highly discriminating and may even be a bit judgmental. But these insightful individuals are usually their own worst critics. So hard are they on themselves that often self-negation is second nature and they little realize how destructive this can be. In large part, it is their self­critical attitudes that attract their more difficult experiences as mirrored in exterior circumstances, such that others may often be highly censuring of them. Early life, in particular, finds them confronted with parents or teachers who are extremely exacting or stern or overly demanding. Problems with authority figures of all kinds plague them, not the least reason for which is their wilder side, with conflict the inevitable result. These individuals appear to undergo a kind of trial by fire where others attempt to assert their power over them or manipulate them. This often reflects their weak ego structure and lack of feelings of self-worth. By being forced to confront such power plays over and over again, they learn to stand up for themselves, thus slowly building their egos and healing some of their core issues—which often center around issues of self-worth.

   They must learn to love themselves more and criticize themselves less. Self­love is their core lesson. Approaching themselves with understanding, applying their great insight to seeing their own strengths, and accepting themselves will take them a long way toward self-empowerment. Once these men and women feel secure in who they are and what they have to offer, they will negotiate conflict better and will stand firm in their own defense. As they come to feel better about themselves inwardly, the outer world is bound to follow suit and the tensions of their lives—the conflicts, misunderstandings, and power struggles—will abate of their own accord.

   Once they have become empowered through self­love and self­acceptance, they can begin to harness their enormous potential. As they learn to use their mental power as well as their magnetism, they will be able to invoke what they need to achieve their aims. They can be found in many fields, but one thing is certain: when they develop a greater degree of self­respect, there will be no stopping them. Moreover, engaging in as many battles as they surely will, they truly come to an understanding of how power works and, with a strong sense of self­worth in hand, will have the courage to go up against often daunting odds. Using a mixture of resolve and willpower, they will inspire awe in even the most formidable of adversaries. They are apt to discover that when they combine their innate talents for persuasion and excellent sense of timing with their considerable charm, no one can resist them or fail to agree to their wishes and plans.

   The most obvious danger for them is that their power urges or drives may run out of control. Unless governed by a strong moral imperative, they may inflict considerable pain on others in a misguided effort to secure a powerful position for themselves. Such overreaching inevitably leads to failure, leaving them angry and resentful, much to their own detriment and woe. Engaging in any kind of power mongering creates the risk of self­undoing, usually through a combination of hubris, overconfidence, and downright self-destructiveness. In addition, indulgence in sensuous pleasures is certainly a weakness for these people and can only lead to trouble. Thus, they must develop vigilant self­control, usually through mental reprogramming combined with adherence to a strict code of ethics.

   Although it is within the arena of relationships—more specifically, one­on-one encounters—that many of their challenges take place, the area in which they truly engage is within their own psyches. Relationships are extremely important, because others will always act as a mirror for them. Observing others and then reflecting upon themselves is a large part of this process. The power they achieve is never over others, but merely within themselves. Thus, many of their greatest life lessons and victories are psychological. Overcoming negative thinking or patterns, stilling the critical voice of an internalized parental figure, and recovering from addiction are some of the types of battles they may be forced to wage. Some may also have to grapple with or overcome physical or mental handicaps. Winning through self-control results in greater emotional stability, inner peace, and self­esteem.

   As they learn to love themselves better and give themselves a bit more credit, they will discover that their attitudes toward others become similarly loving. An important realization that comes to many of them is that giving up power can also be a powerful action, particularly when the desire to control others or to win is released and a path of kindness adopted. In recognizing the enormous power of love, they can temper their aggression and plug into universal values. Those with religious values may choose to put their power into the service of their beliefs.

   The choice of a partner is particularly crucial for these individuals. Sometimes it is through loving another that they learn to love themselves. If love is equated with sexual excitement, control, and competition, they can expect serious setbacks in their ability to relate. On the other hand, learning to share, empathize, listen, cooperate, and express kindness, consideration, and affection will tend to instill deeply human values that can guide their more ambitious drives in other areas of life. In this way, family, friendships, and married life can all function as a good moral proving ground for professional and career endeavors. What is best for them is a life in which a healthy balance can be maintained between maintaining a strong ego through active assertion and guiding it with equally powerful moral and loving attitudes.

   For those born during the Way of Empowerment, one can think of courageous people everywhere who fight against oppression. At some point one member of an oppressed minority, strongly believing in his self-worth and human rights, refuses to bow to the authority of those in power. Some of the most effective instances of this have been when the oppressed refuse even to engage in battle with their adversaries. Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, and even Rosa Parks are icons in this respect.

The Path of Empowered Sensitivity

The Week of Sensitivity

travelling

The Way of Empowerment

Their challenge...

TEMPERING THEIR BELLIGERENCE ENOUGH TO ASK WHY THEY’RE FIGHTING

   Empowered Impression Their fulfillment...

DELVING INTO THE CAUSE OF THEIR SUFFERING ONLY TO REALIZE THAT IT’S ONLY IN THEIR MINDS

Personality of this configuration...    Highly dramatic and prone to overreacting to the dilemmas and dramas of daily life, those born during the Cusp of Sensitivity who travel the Way of Empowerment will have to work hard not to cancel out their best efforts with self-doubt and second guesses. In many cases their impulse to protect their more sensitive side will interfere with their higher development, as many of them will continually be involved in attempts to enforce their wills and wield their personal power without first acknowledging their own deep need for emotional sustenance. Thus a willingness to admit their own need for love will be their first step toward higher development. If they can further recognize that their need for material success and achievement can be realized only when they pursue the things that nurture their spirits, their road to contentment will smooth considerably.

The Month of the Transcender

Their motto...

I Believe

   Amplified Universality Personality of this month...    The Month of the Transcender is the last month of the Personology year, and can be viewed as the most highly evolved. Those born this month symbolize the merging of the human soul with the cosmos, a necessary step before the next incarnation may begin anew, and a deep belief in the highest powers of the universe.

   These people swim freely in society and represent the highest lessons of fellowship, but also the capacity to see deeply into the life and nature of things. They can submerge themselves in the depths of life and partake of hidden and ultimate mysteries. They teach us not to be afraid to let go of our earthly form, and that death is only the beginning of new life.

   People born during the Month of the Transcender transmute airy, detached and eccentric energies into fiery, direct and uncomplicated ones.

   Their personality symbolizes a spiritual letting go of earthly attachments and a merging with the cosmos. There is a dreamy, spiritual and deeply emotional quality to them. They are not known for their practicality but can in fact be masterful in their understanding and expression of abstract ideas and systems. Thus, they can be typed as dreamers yet when they make a gift of their visions to humanity it is indeed a fine offering. Generally speaking, they are easy about sharing material possessions and enjoy friendships and close partnerships more than most. Yet they also need to be alone a good deal of the time and run the risk of becoming escapists or loners who isolate themselves from the world.

   Extreme sensitivity can make it difficult for these people to lead an easy social life. Though often characterized as the sign of sorrows, suffering is born well by them. However, they can be vulnerable to depression and occasionally beset by self-pity. Escapes involving addiction are particularly dangerous. Their deep and complex emotional life makes them highly attractive to those who long for contact with the profound in life.

   Those who are born during the Month the Transcender are often blessed with excellent memories, perhaps due to their impressionability. In addition, they tend to be devotional, and make true believers—this applies not only in the religious sense but also in regard to other belief systems and principles. They can be very generous and are highly empathic and sensitive to the difficulties of others; they tend to respond with compassion in the face of misfortune. However, they must beware that others do not impose unduly on them or take advantage of their acquiescence.

The Season of Evaluation

Their mode of thought...

EVALUATORS

These folks look at the entire year that has gone by and assess what has worked and what has not, passing on their recommendations to the starter-uppers.

   Wondrous Universality Concepts of this season...

Prophecy, Mystery & Imagination, Sensitivity

Their motto...

I Master, I Universalize, I Believe

Elements of this season...

Earth, Air, Water

Personality of this season...    The winter solstice usually occurs on December 21st in the northern hemisphere. At this time of stillness, nights are longer and days shorter than at any other time in the year. As winter advances through the bitter days and on to the hint of spring, the nights grow shorter and the days longer. Winter is the fourth and last quarter of the yearly cycle, extending from the winter solstice to the spring equinox.

   Winter is traditionally the period at which the water in ponds and rivers freezes, snow falls, the sounds of nature are muted and the land lies sleeping under a white blanket. Trees stretch their bare arms into a gray sky only lit a few hours a day by a low rising sun. Although much of nature seems dead, this is only a surface view. Deep within the earth, powerful forces are engaged in a metamorphosis, the results of which will be evident to the eye in spring. Nothing really dies but is transformed into another state. There is a feeling of waiting, and of expectation. Life has moved inside and underground. Warmth is sought in caves and in houses from bitter, howling winds. Fire keeps humans warm and foods that have been stored for the winter are eaten by both people and animals.

   Generally speaking, wintertime people are more concerned with the larger picture. They can be dominant types who rule their space with assurance, but often also display a greater degree of flexibility, sensitivity, acceptance and spirituality than those born at other times of the year. Although those born in the winter are often quiet types, many manifest great excitement through their thoughts, ideals and work. They are particularly distinguished by an active imagination and fantasy life. The most successful of wintertime people can objectify these visions and perhaps make them a source of creativity rather than be victimized by them. The allegiance of wintertime people is not so much to society or to personal considerations as to the world of ideas.

   Wintertime people are less concerned with the state of the world as it is now and more with how it could and should be. A real reforming spirit can show itself in this personality, and an interest in matters concerning political and economic justice is very common.

[treadawaytraining]

Build muscle with PROPER barbell bench press form (Video)

Today we’re going to talk about how to perfect the bench press so you can safely lift more weight and build a muscular bulletproof chest.

I’m going to break this video up into 3 sections:

Muscles targeted

Setup and form

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Muscles Targeted by the Bench Press

Pec Major - horizontally adducts the shoulders by bringing the arms in.

Pec Major - also flexes the shoulder by bringing the arms up with the assistance of the Anterior Deltoid.

The Triceps - extend the elbows to lock out the arm.

Setup and Form

When setting up for the bench press, the first thing you should do is set your feet. The exact placement will vary depending on your height, but the goal is to get your feet slightly under your legs, while keeping your heels on the ground. Using lifting shoes will allow you to get your feet further under you while still keeping your heels on the ground.

From here, lay back onto the bench. Grab the uprights of the bench and use them to push your body forward, creating an arch in your back, while at the same time pushing your shoulder blades together. You’ll want to keep your shoulder blades contracted throughout the movement.

You’ll want to keep your shoulder blades contracted throughout the movement. Keeping the shoulder blades contracted and back arched is a stronger position, allowing for greater load to be used AND is a safer position for both the shoulder joint and the spine. At this point, your eyes should be under the barbell.

Grab the bar slightly wider than shoulder width. You can play with grip width to determine the width you’re strongest at, but a great starting point would be the width that places your wrists directly above your elbows when at the bottom of the movement. Personally, I grip the bar slightly wider than this.

When grabbing the bar, be sure to place the bar in the webbing between your index finger and thumb rather than across your palms. This will keep your wrists from bending backward, reducing risk of injury. Grip the bar tightly, push up on the bar, and bring it forward or have your spotter unrack the weight forward.

As a side note, you should always have a spotter when approaching maximal efforts.

Gripping the bar tightly seems to excite the nervous system, which allows the active muscles to fire more forcefully, allowing you to lift more weight.

Take a deep breath in and brace your core. If you don’t know what I mean by that, think about if you were bracing for someone to punch you in the gut.

Pull your arms in to about 45 degrees from your torso. Think about trying to bend the bar into a U shape. Closing off the angle of the shoulder joint will reduce risk of shoulder injury.

As your lower the bar, rather than lowering the bar straight down, the bar will travel down and forward in a slight arcing motion. The descent should take 1 - 2 seconds. Lowering the bar under control rather than just letting gravity bring the bar down, allows the muscles to store up force to propel the bar back up, similar to a spring. The bar should touch somewhere between the bottom of the pec muscles and the top abs.

When the bar touches your chest, pause just long enough for the bar to completely stop before pressing the weight back up. If you have powerlifting goals, this is something that’s required and even if you don’t, I would still recommend you do this because it will prevent you from using too much weight and bouncing the bar off your chest.

Press the bar back up in the same arcing path as it was lowered while driving your heels into the ground. Be sure not to press the bar so far back that you hit the rack. Simply bring your arms back into the vertical starting position.

Repeat this process for each additional rep and touch the same exact spot on your chest each time. This will allow you to deeply engrain that exact motor pattern, which will translate into being able to lift more weight.

Be sure to keep your head, shoulders, butt, and feet planted firmly throughout the entire lift.

Before moving on to common mistakes, I will mention when approaching maximal loads, you will experience a sticking point where the lift becomes more difficult and once you pass that sticking point, the lift becomes easier. The exact sticking point will vary from individual to individual, but in general, will be somewhere in the first half of the lift.

To help power through the sticking point, explosively press the bar off the chest so that when you approach the sticking point, the momentum can help carry you through. Additionally, you can use chest isolation and tricep isolation exercises to help strengthen the muscles involved in the lift.

Common Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)

The first and most common mistake I see is lowering the bar too quickly and bouncing the weight off the chest. Not only is this extremely dangerous, but it also causes you to miss out on the stretch response of the muscles that we talked about earlier, which will actually cause you to be able to lift less weight. Remember, the eccentric or negative phase of the lift should take 1 - 2 seconds.

The next mistake I see is placing the feet out in front. If you keep your feet out in front of you during the bench, they’ll have a tendency to want to come off the ground when you approach a sticking point. This will cause you to be less stable, greatly reducing the force output of the rep as well as making it more dangerous. Remember to keep your feet under your legs and forcefully drive your heels into the ground as you press the weight.

The last mistake I commonly see is flaring the elbows out. Not only does this place the shoulder joints in a less stable position, increasing the risk of injury, it’s also a weaker position because it forces you to press the bar straight up and down rather than the more natural arcing motion. As I said earlier, keep your arms tucked in so that your arms make approximately a 45 degree angle with your sides.

And there you have it, all the steps you need to perfect the bench press and start building muscle and strength.

Question of the day: How much do you bench? Let me know in the comments and I'll list my max as well.

If you enjoyed the video, check out my guide on how to perfect the deadlift next.

Thank you so much for watching! If you found this information helpful and want to help the Treadaway Training blogcast grow, simply share this post with a friend. If you like what I have to say, sign up below to become a Treadaway Training insider or check out my YouTube channel. I will be back here Saturday with another fat loss topic. As always, God bless you AND your family and I'll see you Saturday.