The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran: Their Cults, Customs, Magic Legends, and Folklore
by E. S. Drower (Author)
Publication date 1937
Topics Mandaeans, Gnosticism
Collection opensource
Language English
No anthropologist has conducted fieldwork among the Mandaeans, not even in recent decades and therefore Drower remains a singular figure. Scholars, students, and aficionados regard her book as the work that brings the people alive.
https://archive.org/details/themandaeansofiraqandirantheircultscustomsmagiclegendsandfolklore/page/n143/mode/2up

Ethel Stefana Drower née Stevens December 1879 – 27 January 1972) was a British cultural anthropologist who studied the Middle East and its cultures. She was considered the primary specialist on the Mandaeans, and the chief collector of Mandaean manuscripts.

She was a daughter of a clergyman. In 1906 she was working for Curtis Brown, a London literary agency when she signed Arthur Ransome to write Bohemia in London.

In 1911, she married Edwin Drower and after his knighthood became Lady Drower. As E. S. Stevens, she wrote a series of romantic novels for Mills & Boon and other publishers. In 1921, she accompanied her husband to Iraq where Sir Edwin Drower was adviser to the Justice Minister from 1921 to 1946. Her works include The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans (a translation of the Qolusta); The Secret Adam (Mandaeans); and The Peacock Angel (about the Yezidis). Among her grandchildren was the campaigning journalist Roly Drower.

E. S. Drower - Diwan Abatur. Progress Through The Purgatories



Ethel Stefana Drower née Stevens December 1879 – 27 January 1972) was a British cultural anthropologist who studied the Middle East and its cultures. She was considered the primary specialist on the Mandaeans, and the chief collector of Mandaean manuscripts.

She was a daughter of a clergyman. In 1906 she was working for Curtis Brown, a London literary agency when she signed Arthur Ransome to write Bohemia in London.

In 1911, she married Edwin Drower and after his knighthood became Lady Drower. As E. S. Stevens, she wrote a series of romantic novels for Mills & Boon and other publishers. In 1921, she accompanied her husband to Iraq where Sir Edwin Drower was adviser to the Justice Minister from 1921 to 1946. Her works include The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans (a translation of the Qolusta); The Secret Adam (Mandaeans); and The Peacock Angel (about the Yezidis). Among her grandchildren was the campaigning journalist Roly Drower.

PUBLISHED BY THE VATICAN PRESS 1960

PREFACE

In the year 1622 a Carmelite father, B. P. Ignatius, was dispatched by the Propaganda in Borne to the Nestorians of Mesopotamia, whilst in Basrah, he met with members of a sect who, as is their custom when’dealing with Christians, told him that their prophet was St. John the Baptist. Prom them he obtained a roll illustrated by curious drawings of beings which they described as angels or demons. On his return to Borne Ignatius published a treatise in Latin about this interesting group of heretics 1 whose ceremonies were at once like and unlike those of Oriental Christians, and whose creed was so strangely perverted and pagan. - The roll found its way into the Museo Borgiano in Borne where Julius Euting saw it in 1879 2 . Euting was deeply, interested and persuaded a friend, Dr. B. Pfdrtner, to photograph the manuscript. This photograph was published in Strasbourg in 1904, under the title “Mandaischer Diwan nach photographischer Aufnahme, von Dr. B. Pfoertner mitgeteilt yon Julius Euting It.was not translated. Early in my dealings with Mandaean priests in the marshes of Lower ‘Iraq I was shown a copy of the Diwan Abatur and after long negotiations, it was arranged that I should have the toll that I had seen after its owner had copied it for himself. The copy was.made with plrill and care and the original sent to me. Judging by the paper and other indications, my roll, D.C. 8,of my collection, is a]bout the same date as the manuscript taken to Borne by Ignatius. If either the Borgian manuscript nor mine is dated, although each has a long list of copyists, showing that the text was an ancient one. , A considerable part of the beginning is missing from the Boman roll, but I have been able to compare the remainder of the Borgian manuscript with my own. I discovered no other copy of the text in ‘Iraq, although, of course, other priests may have concealed possession of a copy since, in spite of the inferior and -childish quality of the com¬ position and mistakes due to constant recopying, it is looked upon as a precious and holy book. v The illustrations, archaic and suggestive of a Sub^st form of art, are identical in both manuscripts. The Subba are clever artists and craftsmen, but tradition dictates that, representation of celestial and infernal beings must follow a certain pattern. Drawings like these in the Diwan Abatur are found in the ritual rolls, so that we have here no childish inability to portray a subject, but deliberate convention of a very individual'order. A Subbi smith who drew naturalistic pictures for engraving on his silverwork, when asked by me to draw pictures of some celestial beings, produced similar 0(j^ geometrical-looking designs. ‘ In the following pages I have translated the word mafarta as purgatory ” instead of the literal “ place of detention ” or, as Lidzbarski translates “ Wachthaus ”. Since the mafarata are places where the sinful and impure are purged by punishment of sin and uncleanness, they are undoubtedly “ purgatories ”. The idea that the soul must pass through seven planetary spheres after death, shedding in its progress impure and earthly qualities connected astrologically with each of the seven planets, is familiar to the reader of Gnostic literature. In this Mandaean text, however, the rulers of the mafarata are not all planetary spirits. The planets Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Yenus, Moon and Sun have their mafarata, but so have V purely Mandaean beings such as Ptahil and his sons Bihram, Anufi, Hibil, Ginziel or Kanziel, Nbat, and Sitil; and the saviour-spirit, the personified Sunday. - - i The Puntanmcal nature of Mandaean religion, to which music, dancing, ornaments and coloured clothing are abhorrent, is evident throughout, and ancient tabus about women are reflected in heavy penalties for sexual impurity, witting or unwitting. Such rigid rules have helped, no doubt, to preserve the health and vigour of the race. Part of the text is one of many creation myths found in Mandaean literature. Through it, as in similar creation stories in the Ginza Rabba and DraSa d Yahia, runs a theme of discord amongst primeval spirits of creation; of jealousy, rebellion and pride eventually quenched and reconciled by divine wisdom. I gave a summary of D. 0. 8 in the first number of the Journal of the British School of Archaeology in ‘Iraq, but this is the first time that the complete text is published and translated. Finally, T have 'made little attempt to interpret what is seemingly unintelligible and probably corrupt, and I doubt whether this is possible. This applies particularly to the- descriptions of the’ drawings. A guess at any¬ thing but the literal translation would be an unwarrantable liberty.

Drower, E. S. - The Secret Adam. A Study Of Nasoraean Gnosis

by

 

E. S. Drower, 1960

https://archive.org/details/DrowerE.S.TheSecretAdam.AStudyOfNasoraeanGnosis/mode/2up

The Secret Adam – a Study of Nasoreaen Gnosis by E. S. Drower takes us deep into the pre-Christian spirituality of the ancient Persia. Still today there are remnants of the Mandaeans (“Gnostics”) also known as Sabaeans in Iraq who among other had a tradition of baptism. Their knowledge are historically accessible through a vast amounts of scrolls. In The Secret Adam, E. S. Drower outlines the history of the people, their thoughts and secret knowledge.

Ethel Stefana Drower née Stevens (1 December 1879 – 27 January 1972) was a British cultural anthropologist who studied the Middle East and its cultures. She was considered the primary specialist on the Mandaeans, and the chief collector of Mandaean manuscripts.

She was a daughter of a clergyman. In 1906 she was working for Curtis Brown, a London literary agency when she signed Arthur Ransome to write Bohemia in London.

In 1911, she married Edwin Drower and after his knighthood became Lady Drower. As E. S. Stevens, she wrote a series of romantic novels for Mills and Boon and other publishers. In 1921, she accompanied her husband to Iraq where Sir Edwin Drower was adviser to the Justice Minister from 1921 to 1946. Her works include The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans (a translation of the Qolusta); The Secret Adam (Mandaeans); and The Peacock Angel (about the Yezidis).

INTRODUCTION
BY the rivers of ‘Iraq and especially in the alluvial land of AlKhaur 
where the Tigris and Euphrates squander their waters in
the marshes, meeting and mating at Qurnah before they flow
into the Persian Gulf, and in the lowland of Persia along the
Karun, which like its two sister rivers empties into the Gulf,
there still dwells the remnant of a handsome people who call
themselves Munduiiu, Mandaeans (‘gnostics’), and speak a 
dialect of Aramaic. When the armies of Islam vanquished the
Sassanids they were already there and in such numbers that the
Qur’Hngrantedthem protection as ‘people of a book’, calling them
‘Sabaeans’. To that name they still cling, both in its literary form
and as the vernacular q-Subbu, for it ensures their existence
as a tolerated community. The word (from SB’, Syriac ua )
means ‘submergers’ and refers to their baptism (mqhtu) and
frequent self-immersion. In the ninth book of his Fihrist ul-
‘ulzim, Al-Nadim, who wrote in the tenth century, calls them
ul-Mu&tasiluh, ‘the self-ablutionists’.
I chose none of these names when writing of them in this book
for, though this may appear paradoxical, those amongst the
 community who possess secret knowledge are called Nqruiiu
Nqoraeans (or, if the heavy ‘s’ is written as ‘z’, Nazorenes). 
At the same time the ignorant or semi-ignorant laity are called
‘Mandaeans’, Mmduiia-‘gnostics’. When a man becomes a
priest he leaves ‘Mandaeanism’ and enters tumidutu, ‘priesthood‘.
 Even then he has not attained to true enlightenment, for
this, called ‘Neirutha’, is reserved for a very few. Those possessed
 of its secrets may call themselves Nasoraeans, and ‘Nqomean’ 
today indicates not only one who observes strictly all
rules of ritual purity, but one who understands the secret doctrine.
When the head priests of the community learned some years
ago that two of their number had permitted certain scrolls to
pass into my possession they showed resentment and anger.
These scrolls, they said, contained ‘secrets’, knowledge 
imparted only to priests at ordination and never to laymen 
 or to outsiders. Their attitude is understandable. When I  
was advanced enough in their language to read these documents,
 I found at intervals stern insistence on secrecy. Only ‘one in a thousand
and in two thousand two’ would be found worthy of initiation
into certain mysteries and any initiate who permitted them to
become public was doomed to punishment in this world and
the next. 

Tiny Curly-Haired Baby Gorilla Shares Incredible Moment With Photographer

The adorable baby gorilla seemed fascinated by humans.
FOR MORE PHOTOS GO TO THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE

(TMU) — It must be surreal when a lifelong dream becomes reality and the moment is captured on film forever. Wildlife photographer Kirsty Taylor had her dream fulfilled when she shared an unbelievable moment with a gorilla mom and her tiny, adorable curly-haired baby in Rwanda.

As a little girl, Kirsty learned about mountain gorillas in an animal encyclopedia and watched them roam in an animated Tarzan film. She was enthralled by the beautiful animals and dreamed of one day seeing them in the wild.

Her choice of career as a photographer put her on the right path to realize her dream and she was fortunate to visit the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, which includes the Virunga Mountains, a range of extinct volcanoes that border the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda and home to a small population of Mountain Gorilla. Sure enough, Kirsty spotted some gorillas just over the Rwandan border.
A tiny, three-week old baby was being held in the arms of a female gorilla. As the group Kirsty was traveling with stopped to watch, the baby popped its head up to see what was happening.

According to Kirsty, the baby—with a shock of curly fur around its head—seemed fascinated by the humans. Kristy managed to capture her once in a lifetime, perfect shot of a loving mom and her curious baby, who happened to be looking straight at her camera.

Kirsty commented on the moment, saying: ‘’We only had a few minutes with the little family as we were on our way back down the mountain after our hour’s viewing was up, and were lucky to see them!

‘’I love the eye contact and the expression on the little baby’s face, looking at us like he’s not seen many humans before – and of course the cute curly hair!

‘’The pictures show the baby’s curly hair-do and how small and vulnerable he is compared to the adults.’’

Judging from Kirsty’s excitement of having finally seen mountain gorillas in the wild, I reckon she’ll be back for more.




According to the WWF’s website, the area Kirsten visited is the natural habitat of the smallest population of mountain gorillas in the world. Just over half of them live in the Virunga Mountains and the remainder in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda.

This mountain gorilla subspecies was first discovered in 1902 and had since suffered through years of war, hunting, habitat destruction and disease. The threat to their survival was so severe that it was thought they may be extinct by the end of the twentieth century. Due to conservation efforts both populations of mountain gorillas have increased despite ongoing civil conflict, poaching and loss of their natural habitat from an encroaching human population.

The bleak outlook for the subspecies just a couple of decades ago has improved in recent years. Despite ongoing civil conflict, poaching and an ever encroaching human population, both populations of the mountain gorillas have increased in numbers. The Virunga Massif population has grown from 480 in 2010 to 604 individuals, making a total population of 1,000 gorillas left in the wild, globally, with their status listed as endangered.


By Jade Small | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com

Thousands of ‘Final Fantasy’ Gamers Hold Virtual Funeral for Player Who Died of COVID-19

Some players recorded the event and the scene looks both surreal and poignant.

(TMU) — There is no shortage of opinions and articles regarding the value and potential of MMORPG gaming communities, ranging from toxic misogyny to empowerment and even as a tool for revolutionary anti-censorship journalism.

One thing that is fairly well agreed upon is that players in online gaming communities develop profound relationships with their fellow gamers that are, in many ways, just as strong as “in-real-life” relationships. The latest example of this ties into the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, revealing the depth of solidarity among RPG gamers.

A Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn gamer, known on the game’s Zalera server as Ferne Le’roy, contracted the novel coronavirus in early April and died soon after from complications related to COVID-19. Though few, if any, of the gamers had met in person, they were a close-knit community, known in game parlance as a Free Company (FC).

The FFXIV: Zalera Facebook group of 3,000 members organized an in-game virtual avatar funeral march to honor Ferne Le’roy. As news of the gesture spread to other communities of Final Fantasy XIV’s 18 million registered users.

Though they’d never met in-person, organizer Leafelda Moonchild had a strong loving friendship with Ferne Le’roy.

“We had never met in person as we lived in different states,” Moonchild reflects. “But we had talked in-game and over Discord. She was one of my [FC] officers and a great friend. She didn’t really like to do endgame things almost at all but loved to help people … Ferne was a great player, and if she even thought you were not doing okay in real life, she would find a way in-game to at the very least bring a smile to your face.”

Moonchild admits she didn’t expect many players if anyone to show up for the virtual march. So she was shocked when on April 11th thousands of character avatars materialized at the approximately same time, donning black funereal garments and umbrellas, and participated in the tribute.

Roke Leonas, a FFXIV: Zalera Facebook group moderator and event co-organizer, was also shocked:

“I didn’t know them. I wasn’t even in their Free Company,” Leonas said. “When the leader posted about it asking people to come, we made the event page for it to help them. The least we could do to get the word out… Gamers take a lot of grief, but for a lot of people, that’s what community looks like. We didn’t have to know them to show our support for a player that was tragically taken and to help FC mourn in their own way.”

Some players recorded the event and the scene looks both surreal and poignant.

While there have been large in-game vigils for lost gamers before, the scale of this virtual funeral march puts it in a different category. As COVID-19 continues to claim lives, communities around the world—both in-game and in-real-life—are likely to continue finding unique ways of honoring the dearly departed.

By Jake Anderson | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com

NYC Poison Control Center Sees Spike In Calls Following Trump’s “Disinfectant” Remarks

Despite warnings from Lysol and health officials, poison control centers saw a spike in activity in the days following the president's remarks. 

(TMU) — This week, everyone has been talking about comments made by US President Donald Trump at one of his regular coronavirus press briefings.

During the press conference, Trump tried his best to describe a variety of experimental treatments that he wants his administration to explore, but his descriptions of the potential treatments were extremely clumsy and gave the impression to many people that common “disinfectants” could be ingested or injected to cure the coronavirus.

He also made a quick remark about how UV light could kill the virus, and while there is a legitimate scientific basis for this claim, it was once again represented by the president in a very clumsy way, in his typical style of unscripted “hot takes.”

Of course, Trump’s supporters have rushed to his defense, insisting that his comments were misconstrued by the media, reaching to point out a variety of different alternative treatments that might align with his comments. However, he did not mention any of these treatments by name, and did not give any specifics about the actual research, and instead used vague terms like “disinfectant,” which has a very specific colloquial meaning for most Americans.

Hi, ER Doc here.
Do NOT inject or consume ANY disinfectants in an attempt to kill COVID19.
— Sam Ghali, M.D. (@EM_RESUS) April 23, 2020

During the press conference, Trump’s exact words were:

“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds, it sounds interesting to me.”


When he was later questioned about his comments following the backlash, Trump said that he was just being sarcastic, and playing games with the media.

“I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,” Trump said.

While his supporters insist that his message were clear, it appears that some people took his comments literally, and trusted his advice enough to ingest dangerous amounts of household cleaners.

Please don't eat tide pods or inject yourself with any kind of disinfectant.
If you do need help with #COVID19 issues, we have lots of resources at https://t.co/C4x8jjWL0x
Just don't make a bad situation worse.
— WA Emergency Management (@waEMD) April 23, 2020

Despite warnings from local health departments, and an announcement from Lysol telling its customers not to drink or inject bleach, poison control centers around the country saw a spike in activity in the days following the president’s remarks.

Reminder: Lysol disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as directed and in line with usage guidelines pic.twitter.com/yPVhvINxbU
— Lysol (@Lysol) April 24, 2020

According to an NBC affiliate in New York City, the city had 30 exposure calls in the hours after the president’s press conference, nine of those calls were specifically about Lysol, ten were about bleach and 11 were about other household cleaners. This is reportedly more than double the number that the center recorded this time last year, where only 13 calls happened in that same period, only 2 involving bleach, and none including Lysol. Luckily, none of the calls this week resulted in death or hospitalization.

Some of this increase from last year can be attributed to the fact that more people are at home and dealing with cleaners. Even before Trump’s comments, poison control centers in Kentucky and other areas were reporting higher rates of poison control calls, mostly relating to children. However, poison control centers have had an especially busy week following the president’s remarks.

By John Vibes | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com

ACLU Files Historic Lawsuit to Stop Surveillance Planes Above Baltimore

"If this wide-area aerial surveillance program is allowed to move forward, we can expect mass surveillance to spread in cities across the country."

(TMU) — The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop the city of Baltimore from rolling out a disturbing aerial surveillance program.

The ACLU filed the suit on behalf of a group of Baltimore community activists who have raised concerns about the introduction of a controversial technology known as wide-area aerial surveillance which involves stationing an aircraft equipped with ultra-high-resolution cameras over a city to track all visible pedestrians and vehicles within that city.

The ACLU writes:

“Imagine a day in the future when everyone, from the moment they step outside their home, has to live with the knowledge that their every movement is being recorded by powerful cameras circling in the skies above. Not just where they work, shop, eat and drink, and whose homes they visit, but details about their political, religious, sexual, and medical lives—all captured and stored in databases without a warrant and available to law enforcement upon request.

That day is here.”

The ACLU states in the lawsuit that the program would violate the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to freedom of association and privacy. The rights group argues that government tracking of everyone in a city would violate the Constitution’s ban on “general warrants,” which authorize searches under broad and vague criteria. The ACLU states that the systems violates the Fourth Amendment prohibition against “unreasonable searches and seizures” and the First Amendment’s guarantees of the right to assemble. The ACLU also notes that the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear that the courts’ role when interpreting new technology is to protect the “degree of privacy against government that existed when the Fourth Amendment was adopted.”

The wide-area aerial surveillance technology—originally used for monitoring citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan in a program called “Gorgon Stare”—is yet another example of tools from the U.S.-led Global War on Terror making their way to American cities. Coincidentally, the company behind the technology, Persistent Surveillance Systems (PSS), was founded by Ross McNutt, a former colonel in the U.S. Air Force who worked on similar programs in the military. McNutt and PSS are now preparing to roll out the same technology in the skies above Baltimore.

The company has been promoting the technology to local police for years. However, the Baltimore police department is the first to embrace the idea.

The ACLU warns that if McNutt and PSS succeed, the flood gates will be opened and additional companies would likely join the market. This would likely lead to a roll out of even more powerful technologies, including automated AI analysis, multi-spectral imaging, and night vision capabilities, not to mention much higher camera resolutions. The lawsuit also warns that the monitoring program would likely put activists, protesters, and dissidents of all kinds under surveillance.


The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, a grassroots think-tank that advances the public policy interests of Black people in Baltimore, Erricka Bridgeford, co-founder of the Baltimore Ceasefire 365 project to end gun violence in the city, and Kevin James, a community organizer and hip-hop musician.

This is not the first time surveillance planes have caused controversy in Baltimore. In November 2015, internal documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) revealed the agency flew surveillance planes over Baltimore and Ferguson, MO during highly-publicized protests. The planes also operated thermal imaging equipment. The documents, obtained by the ACLU via Freedom of Information Act requests, outline how the bureau is using planes equipped with infrared and night vision cameras.

The release of the documents came after FBI Director James Comey confirmed to Congress that the agency flew surveillance aircraft over Ferguson and Baltimore during the protests following the police killings of both Michael Brown and Freddie Gray.


According to the FBI’s own flight logs, the agency flew 10 surveillance flights over Baltimore from April 29 to May 3, 2015, comprising a total of 36.2 flight hours. The flights took place mostly at night and typically involved a Baltimore Police Department representative and an FBI agent. Evidence logs show that at least half the flights conducted video surveillance, and the FBI is apparently holding on to copies of these videos. Still other flights conducted “electronic surveillance,” but specific details were redacted.

Additionally, in September 2015, Anti Media reported on the existence of a fleet of surveillance aircraft operated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that has been flying over various locations within the United States, as well as foreign destinations.

The ACLU’s lawsuit is an attempt to stop the expansion of these types of programs over American cities. If they fail and there is no public push back, Americans will soon have to contend with the reality that surveillance drones are watching their every move.


By Derrick Broze | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com

New Technology Could Allow You to “Hack” Your Dreams and Control Lucid Dreaming

MIT scientists are building a wearable device that allows you to "hack" your dreams.


(TMU) — Brain activity during sleep and dream states represents one of the many persistently nebulous aspects of the human mind that has defied easy explanation over the years. Researchers are taking a whole new approach to the field, conducting next-level dream research in a clinical, real-life version of Inception. And they believe dreams can be “hacked, augmented, and swayed” and are developing tools to mine the subconscious like never before.

A team of researchers at MIT’s Dream Lab is developing an open-source wearable device that tracks bio-rhythms and engages with a person’s mind while they’re dreaming. The device, which they call Dormio, looks like an old-school Nintendo glove adorned with a full array of sensors and tracking mechanisms that study muscle tone, heart rate, and skin conductance.

When a person drifts into the hypnagogic stage of sleep, the glove emits a pre-recorded audio signal. The researchers believe that because dreams have a synergistic role in mental health, including memories and emotions, they can be tapped and harnessed for a better understanding of and control over mood regulation.

“People don’t know that a third of their life is a third where they could change or structure or better themselves,” said PhD student, Adam Horowitz, who is one of the Dream Lab’s researchers. “Dreaming is really just thinking at night. In dreams, we’re turning any sensory input into part of a story. Whether you’re talking about memory augmentation or creativity augmentation or improving mood the next day or improving test performance, there’s all these things you can do at night that are practically important.”

Dream Lab hosted a workshop in 2019 that explored the realm of “lucid dreaming.” Since then, they’ve conducted a 50-person experiment in which the Dormio glove delivered an audio cue of “tiger,” which subsequently caused the participants to experience a tiger in their dreams.

Dream Lab is making its device open-source and has posted the source code to the biosignal tracking software on Github.

Another Dream Lab researcher, Judith Amores, is experimenting with the olfactory sense to tap further into the unconscious science of sleep. Her project, BioEssence, works similarly to the Dormio except its primary mechanism is a wearable scent diffuser that monitors biorhythms and brain waves. When the wearer reaches the N3 stage of sleep, which scientists believe is linked to memory, the device releases a triggering scent tied to a specific memory or behavior.

“The sense of smell is particularly interesting because it’s directly connected to the memory and the emotional parts of the brain—the amygdala and the hippocampus,” Amores, who believes one day we could alter the content of dreams to treat PTSD and other conditions, says. “And that’s a very interesting gateway to access well-being…you can heal without being fully conscious.”

While scientists consider the therapeutic applications of controlled lucid dreaming, it’s hard not to imagine the recreational potential of being able to steer and author the content of a dream. Professor Tore Nielsen compares the “exhilarating feeling of a lucid dream” to virtual reality. “You can try flying, singing, having sex—it’s better than VR.”


While some may brand the Dream Lab researchers as renegade pioneers on a new frontier of science, not everyone is impressed with their work, nor receptive to their end goal. And though they’ve made both their hardware and software open-source, some have questioned the ethics of dream engineering.

Rubin Naiman, PhD, a psychologist and sleep and dream expert with the University of Arizona’s Center for Integrative Medicine, for example, says the idea of hacking dreams is arrogant and potentially dangerous. He claims patients “could end up with sleep-onset insomnia.”

“The unconscious, it’s another kind of intelligence,” Rubin explains. “We can learn from it. We can be in dialogue with it rather than dominate it, rather than ‘tap in’ and try to steer it in directions we want.”


However, Amores counters that what they’re doing is not about controlling dreams:“This is about bringing awareness to the capabilities that we already have.”

Would you volunteer to be a test subject? Do you want to hack your dreams?

By Jake Anderson | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com

Icelanders Urged to Hug Trees Instead of People to Overcome Isolation During Pandemic

When was the last time you hugged a tree?
TRUTH THEORY

Image credit: Instagram @realandrews, @sofiamakkyla, @julianepfeiffer.today
click here for the article with more Instagram pics 

(TT) — The coronavirus-enforced social distancing regulations have taken away the comfort of human contact from us. But there are other ways to nourish the soul—such as tree hugging, according to the Icelandic Forestry Service.

Until quite recently, tree hugging had been seen as the domain of the ecologically friendly hippies of the 1960’s and 70’s.

But studies in the last few years have shown that there is indeed a science behind tree hugging.

It’s now believed that mental illnesses, depression, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), reaction times, concentration and even headaches can be alleviated by bonding with a tree.

Indeed, there are a growing number of people who are questioning the Western medical establishment and are understanding better the benefits of natural or holistic treatments.

So it seems the forest rangers at the Hallormsstaður National Forest in east Iceland may be onto something in these stressful times amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

“When you hug [a tree], you feel it first in your toes and then up your legs and into your chest and then up into your head,” explained forest ranger Þór Þorfinnsson.

“It’s such a wonderful feeling of relaxation and then you’re ready for a new day and new challenges.




The rangers have been hard at work clearing snow-covered tracks to enable people the space they need to wander through the forest and find a tree which they feel attracted to.

According to Þorfinnsson, the tree can be of any size, and even a five minute hug will be enough to leave one feeling renewed and invigorated.

“You can also do it many times a day – that wouldn’t hurt. But once a day will definitely do the trick, even for just a few days,” he added.

It’s not so much about how much time is spent with the tree, but rather the quality of the interaction.

“It’s also really nice to close your eyes while you’re hugging a tree,” Þorfinnsson explained. “I lean my cheek up against the trunk and feel the warmth and the currents flowing from the tree and into me. You can really feel it.”

The History of Tree Hugging

It wasn’t the hippies who started tree hugging. It actually began as far back as 1730, with a group of around 363 people belonging to the Bishnois branch of Hinduism in India.

When foresters decided to chop down trees to build a palace, the Bishnois protesters tried to stop them by clinging to the trees.Tragically, they were all killed by the foresters. But their efforts were not in vein as a royal decree was later issued, banning the felling of trees in any Bishnoi village. Resultantly, a wooded oases remains in what is otherwise a desert landscape.

By Anthony McLennan | TruthTheory.com | TMU

Grisly gladiator fresco discovered in tavern at PompeiiGrisly gladiator fresco discovered in tavern at Pompeii

AFP 11 October 2019

Grisly gladiator fresco discovered in tavern at Pompeii

Photo: Press office of the Pompeii Archaeological Park/AFP

A vivid fresco depicting an armour-clad gladiator standing victorious as his wounded opponent stumbles, gushing blood, has been discovered in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, Italy's culture ministry said on Friday.

The striking scene in gold, blue and red was uncovered in what experts think was a tavern frequented by gladiators, who fought each other, prisoners, and wild animals for the public's entertainment.

"We do not know how this fight ended. Gladiators were killed or shown mercy," Pompeii's director Massimo Osanna said.

A "Murmillo" fighter wearing a plumed, wide-brimmed helmet with visor, holds aloft his large rectangular shield in his left hand, as he grips his short sword in the right.

On the ground next to him lies the shield of the defeated "Thraex", who has suffered deep wounds and is on the point of collapse.

Photo: Press office of the Pompeii Archaeological Park/AFP

"What is particularly interesting is the extremely realistic representation of the wounds, such as the one on the wrist and chest of the unsuccessful gladiator, from which the blood runs, wetting his leggings," Osanna said.

"The Thraex is gesturing with his hand, possibly asking for mercy," he said.

The fresco - which measures 1.12 metres by 1.5 metres - was found in what excavators believe was a basement room, as the imprint of a wooden staircase can be seen above it.

Treasures of a ruined city

The building was situated not far from the gladiators' barracks in Regio V, an entire quarter of the site that has recently offered up several impressive archaeological finds but is yet to open to Handout photo: Press office of the Pompeii Archaeological Park/AFP the public.

It was most likely a tavern with an upper floor of rooms used either by the innkeeper or by prostitutes, the ministry said.

The discovry was made during works to secure an area of the north of the archaeological park under the Great Pompeii Project, launched after years of poor maintenance and bad weather caused a series of wall collapses.

Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said the find showed Pompeii was "an inexhaustible mine of research and knowledge for the archaeologists of today and the future".

The ruined city in southern Italy is the second most visited tourist site in the country, after the Colosseum in Rome, with more than 3.6 million visitors in 2018.

Perhaps the most significant find at the Regio V so far has been an inscription uncovered last year that proves the city was destroyed by Mount Vesuvius after October 17, 79 AD and not on August 24 as previously thought.

The most eye-catching one, however, was the skeleton of a man in 2018 whose torso was found protruding from a large stone block which had crushed his head.


He appeared to have survived the initial eruption, and attempted to flee Grisly gladiator fresco discovered in tavern at Pompeii

AFP

Ancient Romans had 'overwhelming' genetic diversity, study finds
AFPnews@thelocal.it

Performers from historical group Gruppo Storico Romano dressed as ancient Romans. Photo: AFP

DNA study of inhabitants of ancient Rome found some surprising results, and helps chart mass migration dating back 9,000 years.

At the height of its empire, the inhabitants of ancient Rome genetically resembled the populations of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, according to a new DNA study.

READ ALSO: Rome Reborn: take a virtual reality tour of Ancient Rome

The paper is based on genome data of 127 individuals from 29 archaeological sites in and around the city, spanning nearly 12,000 years of Roman prehistory and history.

Rome and central Italy's antiquity is well-documented in the rich archaeological and historical record, but relatively little genetic work had been carried out until now.


The Ancient Roman Forum (Foro Romano) in central Rome. Photo: AFP
Writing in the journal Science, researchers from Stanford and Italian universities said people from the city's earliest eras and from after the Western empire's decline in the 4th Century CE genetically resembled other Western Europeans.

But during the imperial period, Romans had more in common with populations from Greece, Syria and Lebanon.

The earliest sequenced genomes, from three individuals living 9,000 to 12,000 years ago, resembled other European hunter-gatherers at the time.

Starting from 9,000 years ago, the genetic makeup of Romans again changed in line with the rest of Europe following an influx of farmers from Anatolia or modern Turkey.

READ ALSO: Why the average ancient Roman worker was dead by 30

Things started to change however from 900 BCE to 200 BCE, as Rome grew in size and importance, and the diversity shot up from 27 BCE to 300 CE, when the city was the capital to an empire of 50 million to 90 million people, stretching from North Africa to Britain to the Middle East.

Of the 48 individuals studied from this period, only two showed strong genetic ties to Europe.
The genetic "diversity was just overwhelming," added Ron Pinhasi of the University of Vienna, who extracted DNA from the skeletons' ear bones.

After the empire split into two parts with the eastern capital in Constantinople (now Istanbul), Rome's diversity decreased once more.

"The genetic information parallels what we know from historical and archaeological records," said Kristina Killgrove, a Roman bioarchaeologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who wasn't involved in the study.

Jonathan Pritchard, a population geneticist at Stanford University who sequenced and analyzed the DNA, said mass migration is sometimes thought to be a new phenomenon.

"But it's clear from ancient DNA that populations have been mixing at really high rates for a long time," he added.



Photo: AFP

'Hands off women': Anger in Italy over Salvini's comments on abortion

AFP/The Local

Matteo Salvini brandishing the crucifix at an election rally in 2019. File photo: AFP

Italian medical professionals spoke out on Monday after right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini claimed that women go to emergency rooms for abortions because they live an "uncivilised lifestyle".

The comments from the ex-interior minister and League leader that some women having abortions were using emergency rooms "like health ATMs" came during a political rally in Rome on Sunday.

"Emergency room nurses in Milan let me know there are women who have shown up for the seventh time for an abortion," Salvini told supporters.

READ ALSO: Italy's Senate has voted to send Salvini to trial. What happens now?

"It's not for me to judge, it's right for a woman to choose, but the emergency room can't be the solution for uncivilised lifestyles in 2020."

The country's medical community cautioned that Salvini's comments were inaccurate as abortions are not performed in an emergency room.

The general secretary for the union of Italian doctors, Pina Onotri, told AFP it would be "impossible" for a woman to have an abortion in an emergency room unless it involved a miscarriage.

Gynaecologist Gisella Giampa at the Sandro Pertini hospital in Rome said Salvini was taking "rare cases" and generalising.

"Before speaking, he could inform himself, and, when one wants to be a statesman, not to take his information from one single nurse,” she said.

Just before this comment, Salvini had railed against "non-Italians" using emergency rooms for free, saying the "third time you have to pay."

Anti-migrant diatribes regularly launched by Salvini, who maintains that he is a staunch Catholic, have increased his popularity among supporters.

READ ALSO:
Salvini wants Italy's 'little ethnic shops' to close at 9pm
Italy's Senate passes tough anti-migrant decree
As racist attacks increase, is there a 'climate of hatred' in Italy?

Abortion has been legal in Italy since 1978. The law allows women to terminate their pregnancies within three months of inception, with later-stage abortions permittable in some cases.

Women must request the procedure and then wait seven days to lower the chance of them later having misgivings, Italian law states.

But despite its legality, in reality women often find it nearly impossible to get an abortion because many Italian gynaecologists, legally allowed to be "conscientious objectors", refuse to perform the procedure.

READ ALSO: An Italian woman was forced to go to 23 hospitals to have an abortion

Womens' rights activists said Salvini "seemed to be very confused about abortion judging by his comments."

"The morning after pill is not a method of abortion, but of contraception," Beatrice Brignone, equality activist and secretary of the left-wing Possibile movement, wrote on Twitter.

Salvini sembra essere molto confuso sul tema dell'#aborto, a giudicare dalle sue dichiarazioni di ieri.
Ma, visto che insiste a volerne parlare, facciamo chiarezza: magari può essergli utile. pic.twitter.com/bynpUPgAzk— Beatrice Brignone (@beabri) February 17, 2020

The head of Italy's Democratic Party (PD), Nicola Zingaretti, said Salvini's comments showed him increasingly desperate ahead of regional elections this spring where he hopes to win key regions of Italy for the League.

"Salvini mouths off even more every day because he's in trouble. With insults, outlandish theories and random numbers," Zingaretti wrote on Facebook.

"Luckily, Italian emergency rooms don't listen to his provocations,” he said. “Get your hands off women."

The spokesman for the Five Star Movement, which currently shares power with the PD, said women were Salvini's latest target.

"After migrants, gypsies and gays, Matteo Salvini now has it out for women who choose abortion," Giuseppe Buompane said on Twitter.


Women taking part in a protest against the League in Milan in 2019. Photo: AFP

ANALYSIS: Could Italy's coronavirus crisis boost euroscepticism and the far right?

AFP

Will the Covid-19 emergency fuel populist and far-right narratives in Italy? Photo: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP

Italy is staring down the barrel of the worst recession since World War II, which could bolster the far-right and damage the country's love affair with the European Union, analysts say.

Much will depend on how Rome handles the easing of the national lockdown, how quickly it manages to get liquidity to suffering businesses, and how much solidarity it is seen to get from the EU at a key meeting this week.

The coronavirus emergency in Italy has fuelled not only national pride but also eurosceptic and populist narratives.

That brew could play right into the hands of Matteo Salvini, whose League party governed Italy in a coalition for a year until summer 2019 and who is determined to return quickly to power, to rule alone.

"The [economic] blow is going to be extremely hard, that's clear. But it can be merely extremely hard, or it can be exceptionally hard," Giovanni Orsina, professor of politics at Rome's LUISS University, told AFP.

"If people begin to suffer seriously, rage could spread throughout the country... at which point far-right propaganda becomes very effective", he said.

READ ALSO:
The knock-on effects of the coronavirus on Italy's economy
Why the coronavirus is hurting Italian farmers
'We have no visitors now, none': Italy's tourist towns suffer under coronavirus lockdown

At the height of the health crisis, which has killed over 22,000 people and infected around 169,000, largely in the country's wealthy northern powerhouse, Italy's warring political parties called a temporary truce of sorts. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's popularity shot up to a record high of around 63 percent, polls showed.

But as preparations for relaunching parts of the economy begin, cracks have emerged in the already fragile ruling coalition, made up of the centre-left Democratic Party and anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S).

And opposition leader Salvini has resumed his attacks on the government, along with Giorgia Meloni, head of the small far-right Brothers of Italy party, which has been enjoying a sharp rise in popularity.

Bitter spats have broken out over the length of the economically crippling lockdown, which has been extended by Conte and is currently due to be lifted on May 4th, after a near two-month stoppage.

Millions of Italians are either furloughed or have lost their jobs, and the northern regions -- League strongholds -- are champing at the bit to reopen.

The economic fallout forecast is mind-boggling. The International Monetary Fund expects Italy's economy to shrink by 9.1 percent in 2020 -- the worst peacetime decline in nearly a century. The Confindustria big business lobby has said every week of the shutdown chops another 0.75 percent off GDP.

READ ALSO: When will Italy's lockdown 'phase two' begin and what will it involve?


Closed shopfronts in Bergamo, one of the worst-hit provinces in Italy. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP

Yet Conte has hesitated over entering the so-called "Phase Two", the easing of the lockdown, amid advice from top scientists that the epidemic could flare up again, forcing him to shut down the country a second time.

He is banking on help from the EU to weather the storm. Eurogroup finance ministers have approved a 500-billion-euro rescue package to help European countries hit hard by the pandemic -- but some Italians fear that the cross-border solidarity will come with strings attached.

Rome is reluctant to use the rescue plan, which includes loans from the financial-crisis-era European Stability Mechanism (ESM), despite an easing of the tough economic and fiscal reform usually tied to it as requirements.

The ESM evokes bad memories of Brussels dictating policy to bailed-out Greece, and Salvini and Meloni have both said Conte would be stripping Italy of its sovereignty if he uses it. They also complain Italy is being offered a fraction of the money it pours into the EU, and will have to pay interest.

"It's stealing," Salvini said, dismissing the suggestion Italy had got a good deal in terms of the reduced conditions. Meloni said using the mechanism was "worthy of a totalitarian regime" and "a democratic point of no return".


Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini at a rally last year. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP
Conte's problems are not limited to the right-wing. While the PD is in favour of using the ESM, part of the Five Star Movement is stridently opposed, with party leader Vito Crimi saying in an interview on Wednesday that Conte's premiership was at risk over it.

According to political analyst Stefano Folli, a fracture like the one currently dividing the ruling majority "would usually have already toppled the government".

Conte has said no decision will be taken before the exact conditions are drawn up and can be studied by parliament.

Analysts say the PM is gambling on getting more attractive aid from the EU if he drags his feet over the ESM.

The government hopes it will score an important win on the question of joint bonds to finance reconstruction at a videoconference meeting of EU leaders on Thursday -- perhaps allowing it to avoid using the ESM.

READ ALSO: 'Europe needs an answer': Italian PM tells Germany to back 'coronabonds'


Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

EU ministers have so far refused to counter a proposal from Italy, Spain, and France for a joint borrowing instrument, dubbed a "coronabond", that would have raised money towards a recovery after the outbreak.

The bonds could reduce Italy's borrowing costs, but northern nations say they unfairly help countries that had been spending beyond their means for years. That has incensed many Italians.

Italy also felt abandoned at the start of the crisis, with European countries reluctant to share much-needed medical supplies, for which the EU Commission president offered a "heartfelt apology" this week.

A Tecne poll from April 9th and 10th found the share of Italians that would vote to leave the EU in a referendum was up by 20 percentage points to 49 percent, compared to a previous poll from the end of 2018.

Former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta implored Brussels, Berlin and Paris "not to underestimate... growing euro-frustration" among Italians. It would be "a big mistake", he tweeted.

Conte has been accused of avoiding difficult decisions on lifting the lockdown by simply extending it. He has called on Italians to be patient, saying financial aid was coming.

But it is not clear his assurances will soften the rumblings of discontent inside and outside the government.

There are real fears that widespread job losses, poverty, homelessness and hunger could spark social unrest. Media reports have flagged a rise in domestic abuse and suicides as quarantined families snap under the strain.

READ ALSO: Italy 'considering psychological tests' to judge how long people can stay at home

Italy's interior minister has put the police on alert. Particular attention will be paid to the poorer regions south of Rome, where the lockdown is costing some €10 billion a month in lost productivity, according to the SVIMEZ association.

Anger is rising there that an area already dogged with high unemployment has not been allowed to leave the lockdown early, despite having relatively few virus cases.

"If you have a very, very troubled country, you cannot have Salvini and Meloni fanning the flames," LUISS University's Orsina said.

"You risk serious trouble: very bad polling numbers for the government, people protesting in the streets, people stealing in supermarkets, a furious country," he said.

READ ALSO: Which Italian regions will be first to beat the coronavirus?


Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

Not all are as pessimistic. The Stampa daily's commentator Ugo Magri said Salvini or Meloni were unlikely to go for Conte's jugular now, largely because they would be blamed if the manoeuvre slowed or hampered the easing of the lockdown.

"Conte will be politically untouchable throughout 'Phase Two', so until the autumn," he wrote.

And while fellow analyst Massimo Franco thought Italy's anti-European forces could prevail in the short term, he told AFP he believed Italians would soon realise their connection with Europe "is increasingly necessary and important".

"Problems like pandemics need a supranational effort. And Europe, in spite of everything, is doing what it can for Italy," he said.

By AFP's Ella Ide

ANOTHER ALL CAPS WRITER

Hassan's debut poetry collection was printed in a record 120,000 copies after it was released in 2013, in a country where poetry collections are usually printed in the hundreds. 

Writing in all capital letters without any punctuation, he used street slang and blunt word play to deliver a damning indictment of his parents' generation of immigrants who came to Denmark in the 1980s, describing domestic violence, benefit fraud and religious hypocrisy on the Aarhus housing estate where he grew up.   In the poem "Satellite dish" he wrote: "WE HAD NO DANISH CHANNELS/WE HAD AL JAZEERA ... WE HAD NO PLANS/BECAUSE ALLAH HAD PLANS FOR US."   

Danish -Palestinian poet Yahya Hassan dead at 24

AFP 30 April 2020

Yahya Hassan giving a reading last year. Photo: Ida Guldbaek Arentsen / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP

Danish-Palestinian bad-boy poet Yahya Hassan, who stormed on to Denmark's literary scene in 2013 and quickly became a household name, has died aged just 24, his publisher said Thursday.

The exact cause of his death on Wednesday has not been made public but police said they did not believe it was a criminal act.

"Twenty-four years. That's nothing, this is a catastrophe," Simon Pasternak, head of publisher Gyldendal, said in an Instagram post. "I have known him, since he was 16 years, this brilliant boy with enormous talent."

Police in Aarhus, the country's second largest city where Hassan lived, told local media that they had responded to reports of the death of a man in his mid-20s.

"Currently there is nothing in our investigation that indicates that this is a criminal act," police spokesman Jakob Christiansen told newspaper BT.

Hassan's debut poetry collection was printed in a record 120,000 copies after it was released in 2013, in a country where poetry collections are usually printed in the hundreds.

Writing in all capital letters without any punctuation, he used street slang and blunt word play to deliver a damning indictment of his parents' generation of immigrants who came to Denmark in the 1980s, describing domestic violence, benefit fraud and religious hypocrisy on the Aarhus housing estate where he grew up.

In the poem "Satellite dish" he wrote: "WE HAD NO DANISH CHANNELS/WE HAD AL JAZEERA ... WE HAD NO PLANS/BECAUSE ALLAH HAD PLANS FOR US."

"Yahya insisted on not bending to anyone, he didn't want to be anyone's representative... He wanted to be himself," Pasternak said.

Many young Danes of immigrant origin disliked Hassan for his negative views on their communities and their religion. In November 2013, he was assaulted in Copenhagen's main train station by a 24-year-old man previously convicted of trying to commit an act of terror.

In November 2019, Hassan released a follow up poetry collection, which like the first was named after himself, also to critical acclaim.

In between, he made headlines more for his rantings, his attempts to enter politics and his dealings with justice than for the quality of his writing.

In 2016, he was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison for shooting a 17-year-old boy with a pistol, wounding the boy's foot and leg.