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It has not only been the participants who have changed but also the weather.
Arriving early Thursday morning, to a little snow in the air, to cold rain on Friday and Saturday, this Sunday morning there is not a cloud in the sky. Now for Rome tonight.





Travel, means that I meet new people in different countries, but also I meet old friends too.
A very quick visit to Istanbul allowed me to return to a fantastic eating place, La Cantine very near to the historic underground train at Tunel and the terminus of the famous Taxim Hill tram.






The Men Who Stare At Goats, is an investigation by Jon Ronson in how the American agencies started with ideas from Lieutenant Colonel Jim Channon to employ new ways of cunning to win wars and the minds of the enemy.
I started reading the book thinking this is just fiction based on facts, as Ronson writes in an easy first person point of view from the interviews he undertook. It is not an academic or heavy work, and my interest grew, I could not put the book down.
I have read perhaps a dozen books on Remote Viewing, (only a small part of Ronson's book is about RV), spent time with Joe McMoneagle learning Remote Viewing, been filmed and tested by a TV crew and by a specialized department from Northampton University (UK) undertaking a Remote Viewing target, so I knew some of the story of the Stargate Project, and the various other names given to the Remote Viewing program.
Ronson makes light of some of the activities the American military and other agencies were doing, it seemed only looking at the complete failures of projects undertaken, of how people involved in the projects were deserved by others. An example given was that it was purported that a photograph was taken of the approaching Hale-Bopp comet being paced by a companion object. This was seen by psychic spies Prudence Calabrese and Dr. Courtney Brown as a Martian space craft. This belief was broadcast by Art Bell on his nationwide radio program over a period of time, and it is said led to the deaths of thirty-nine people, including their leader Marshall Applewhite, Heaven's Gate, who committed suicide, thinking that they would be taken on a ride of the companion object to Hale-Bopp to a higher level of human existence.
He seems to make light of the said ability to "down" a goat or hamsters, simply by staring at them by such people as Guy Savelli.
Throughout my readings and study of Remote Viewing, some of the names given in The Men Who Stare At Goats I had never come across, but then Ronson writes about Joe McMoneagle, Ed Dames, Ingo Swann, these people I did know about. I learned more, I did not know that it was Ed Dames blowing the whistle, telling the world about the existence of the secret psychic Remote Viewers, that allowed the other members of the project to go public, and for me to meet Joseph McMoneagle.
But in the book The Men Who Stare At Goats, Ronson states that McMoneagle's gifts apparently manifested itself after he fell out of a helicopter in Vietnam. But I distinctly remember Joseph capturing my imagination as he told his story, and as told in his book Mind Trek, (page 28 et al), of his near death experience in a restaurant in Braunau am Inn, Austria, leaving his body and watching as they worked on his body, loaded it into an automobile, to be raced across the Germany border to a hospital to be resuscitated.
Who am I to believe? Joseph McMoneagle's own mouth and his book, or Jon Ronson? Am I to believe the other facts Ronson lays out in his book?
It was not until I read the whole book, The Men Who Stare At Goats, that a new picture begins to emerge of what is happening in our world. Strange things. Unbelievable things. Things that have happened and are happening in Iraq, Afghanistan, Panama etc. Things that can be achieved just by using thoughts, the mind.
Is what is in Ronson's book the truth, facts? I have an open mind, especially as I have met and learned from people in that book. I have met, seen and learned from the bio-energy healer Seka Nikolic, author of the book ‘You Can Heal Yourself', who I have seen move people at a distance by pure thoughts.
I myself have and do some strange things, but that is another story.
It is when we look below the surface, look for more facts, how things are done that we understand. It is those that do not look deeper, see things at the surface level, that dismiss strange things as stage magic, slight of hand, misdirection, delusion, fantasy who will be the losers. Ronson supplies this information in his book, but there is so much more to know.
Joe McMoneagle said that psychic spying, remote viewing, downing a goat with a stare is not 100% successful, and some people are better at it than others. But, if the results are better than 50/50, or chance, statistically there must be something in what The Men That Stare At Goats do. As General Stubblebine, who did much to promote "cunning" ways believes, everybody has the ability.
Sometimes it is good to know how an Energy Saving Lamp works.

As an experiment I decided to replace one ceiling light unit of six bulbs with Energy Saving Lamps. Each Energy Saving Lamp being 9 Watts, equivalent to 40 Watts in the incandescent light bulb, that is the same amount of light.
Once fitting new lamps, the change in the light was amazing. Pure white light, daylight, compared to the old filament lights which gave a yellow tinge to the light.
Then I noticed that two of the Energy Saving Lamps appeared much dimmer than the other four. Looking into why, thinking I must have purchased different Wattage lamps, I found that there are two types of Energy Saving Lamps, "Daylight" and "Warmwhite".
Now that is something I did not know existed, two types of lamp. Look at the lables next time.
As I tested the lamps by switching them on and of, why I do that I have no idea, there was a load bang, and the trip switch on the main power supply to the house triggered, and the lights went out.
Investigating I found that one lamp had failed.
Oh Poo Poo. Buy cheap and you get cheap.
In the longterm, is it wise to by cheap, as the product never lasts long?
As I removed the failed lamp it fell apart, revealing the electronics inside.
Wow, it amazed me how many components were there. No wonder the lamps cost so much.










It had been a long morning, a drive across Penang, Malaysia, to the Mount Miriam Cancer Hospital to pick-up my sister-in-law half way through her chemotherapy treatment, to bring her home in Bukit Mertajam, and it was long past lunch time.
We stopped at a local "hawker" restaurant, where the food is cooked before your very eyes, and is so cheap, and in the right frame of mind, people undergoing chemotherapy do not loose their appetite, as my sister-in-law added a fish to her chosen food.
Within minutes it was as if the cartoon characters, Tom and Jerry had been at the table, because there in the center, laying on a plate, was all that remained of that fish.

Where is the food I know? Pizza, kebab, fish-n-chips.
Eating food in Malaysia is an adventure, I never know what is going to come next, what I am eating, what will it taste like, will I like it or hate it.
Fish and sea food is a big part of the dietary culture of South East Asia, especially in the coastal regions, and unfortunately, it is not a food high on my "like list", in fact, I avoid fish and marine food as much as possible. My avoidance of fish does not usually present problems, as most fish restaurants will have a meat dish, and grass dishes, sorry vegetables.
I will try anything, and that includes food, but fish, no thank you, unless it comes in batter, traditionally served in the British fish-n-chips meal.
I think my dislike of fish came from when I was a small boy at primary school, when we were told to eat everything on our plate, as just think of all those starving people who had nothing to eat. Being a trusting and loving young boy I did eat everything, including the bones, and now feeling a fish bone in my mouth makes me want to vomit.
I could never understand why my offer of the unwanted food on my plate I did not want to eat was always refused to be sent out to the starving people.
I must be typically British, only liking bland food, but.in some cultures, the stronger the taste and smell of the fish the better people like it. Here in Malaysia and in the flat below mine in Norbiton Hall in the UK, the stronger the smell that can be produced whilst cooking the fish, the better is the presupposition, or belief is, that the better the food will taste. Oh Poo Poo literally.
So, a small party of the family, staying in our home here in Bukit Mertajam, decided that it was time to go to a small fishing village, to eat at one of the fish restaurants.
I emptied my mine of any idea of having to eat fish, crab, lobster, squid, prawn, whatever, at least there would be rice.
The first dish to arrive was a Horseshoe Crab. Certainly something I had never eaten before, in fact something I had never seen before, only in pictures or on the TV, or its' shell being used as a helmet by Manny the Mammoth in the film Ice Age 3.




Merry Christmas to all no matter where you are.
Although I have not put up any Christmas decorations, nor erected up a Christmas tree, it has been a period of time where I have entered the Christmas Spirit.


I ask them if they will leave Santa a mince pie, a traditional small pie filled with mincemeat, a mixture of chopped dried fruit, often alcohol and spices, and sometimes beef suet, as Santa Claus will be very hungry.
I then ask if they could leave Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer a carrot and there would always be a willing yes.
Sometimes if dad was in earshot, he would ask if a glass of port of whiskey be left too, and again a yes would be given.
Christmas morning, the mince pie will have been eaten, the carrot will be gone, and the glass will be empty, all adding to the belief, but I wonder who drank the whiskey.
The small encounter with Santa Claus will end with a sweet being given, and a found farewell and wave, helping the spirit of Christmas continue for another year.
For me, I will be flying with Santa Claus, for tonight, Christmas Eve I will catch the 22:00 hour flight from London to Malaysia, flying all Christmas Day, with perhaps as an acknowledgment to this special day Malaysian Airlines giving a mince pie, arriving in Penang at 22:00 Christmas Day night.
Well I have booked a window seat, to see if I can spot my fellow Santa Claus delivering all the children's presents







One door closes another door opens article can give us the principal that an opportunity may become closed or unavailable to us, but more often or not, if we allow or we stay aware, new opportunities will show themselves. See Being Aware, Awakening.
It is the onus of ourselves to take advantage of these chances or opportunities, as there could be a limited time period of time, or a Window of Opportunity. Miss this window of opportunity, and it may be gone forever.
Often we may find that a window or door of opportunity has been offered us, but when we go to enter we find that the door has been closed on us again, but we have been offered a set of keys.
Which key is the one to open the opportunity? That is the question.
I have worked with many people who have had problems, and they continue to live with those problems, they fail to leave those problems behind they, to look for other ways to solve their ways of doing things, living their lives. They fail to leave, and close the door and windows, and lock them afterwards.
Then there are those that leave the one door that has been closed behind them, see that new door or window of opportunity, only to be presented with a set of keys to unlock them.
They try the first key, but that fails to unlock the door or window. They try the second and that fails, The third and fourth, and so on, each failing.
Just like Pavlov and his conditioning of dogs, by ringing a bell each time they were fed, the dogs would link food and the ringing of a bell resulting in salivation, and when just the bell was rung, the dogs would salivate, so is the same with the trying of the keys failing to open the door or window of opportunity, people often give up.
Even though they have only tried one or two keys and have failed and there are many more keys left to try, they are conditioned to failure and give up trying.
Perhaps we give up to this conditioning too early, the next key could have opened the treasure chest.
Perhaps we failed to notice that the keys we tried were too small or too big for the keyhole, we failed to sort the keys into the most likely ones that would lead to success.
We should be more aware of our actions and choices to take advantage of opportunities, take action, and keep trying. As Charles C. Manz said, "Most failures are not really failures – they are simply challenges in progress".

Shops, businesses often advertise special offers, keys, to get shoppers into their store, but when we get there, the offer has already gone, has many conditions attached to it, or the product or service is poor quality. Low cost airlines advertise very cheap flights, but fail to tell prospective travelers that there are limited seats available, or that there will be a booking fee, a baggage charge, extra taxi fares to pay because of the distances to travel from far away airports etc, which when added-up will cost more than a scheduled airline.
Sometimes we are drawn into doing something when there is nothing for us in the beginning.
For my non British readers I better explain.
The holiday period of Christmas held every year in December, is in the UK the most important holiday of the year. It is a time when families and friends get together for love and friendship, not withstanding the religious aspects, but as this period is celebrated by many non Christians I will leave this aspect out.
Gifts are exchanged on Christmas Day, and of course, children go to bed on Christmas Eve (24th) knowing that during the night Father Christmas visit every child, coming down the chimney to deliver and leave their presents.
The two main days of Christmas are the 25th December, Christmas Day, and 26th December being Boxing Day.
Boxing Day, also known as St. Stephen’s Day, is believed to have got its’ name by the practice of the upper classes who had exchanged their gifts on Christmas day (25th), allowing the lower classes or servants to have the next day off (26th), and giving and distributing gifts of money, clothes, food to those less fortunate often in boxes for easy transportation.
In the UK, nothing moves on Christmas Day except those people traveling to visit friends and families. Schools, offices and factories are closed. No buses run, no trains race up and down the railway tracks, often the last train to leave is at 10pm on Christmas Eve. No shops are open, no theaters or cinemas open their doors. No restaurants serve food. It is a special day where everything is closed.
Boxing Day is nearly as bad, as the country slowly awakens, some buses and trains run, but on a limited timetable. Some shops open to start the Sales of heavily marked down priced goods. Very few restaurants open as everybody has over eaten the day before and have loads of turkey meat and Christmas pudding left over to eat.
This festive period is started over a month before Christmas Day, with shops selling all the paraphernalia that goes with Christmas, the cards we send to each other, the decorations we put up in our homes and in the streets, the gifts we exchange (often unwanted), the seasonal food we only buy for that period, and the children becoming excited at the prospect of Father Christmas visiting.

Christmas lights in Kingston upon Thames late at night
The spirit of Christmas is built up day by day, and people get more and more excited, being conditioned to expect and want the special festive season.
But for me, working in countries during the month of December, where Christmas does not exist in their culture or belief system, I miss this build up, this conditioning, and as I have got older the festive season has lost its allure, I have not entered into the spirit of the season.
This year, due to the postponement of courses I had been asked to give, I find myself in the UK, and I am beginning to enter into the spirit of the season, and perhaps if you indulge me, I will report on some of my up and coming experiences.

See other articles:- Being Santa Claus in Kingston upon Thames
Santa joins the SHH (Special half Hour) Club




