If a person needs an artificial heart or needs a newly developed artificial joint, this can be done, which may make it possible for this type of augmented technology to bring harm to a person.

One unusual method may be putting a ringing sound into people’s heads or even voices. As you’re reading this, you may be thinking this is crazy and we would be fully aware of something like this occurring in our society.

If you do your research online you may find there are good number of government cases where they conducted their research on individuals, who were not aware of this secret technology being tested on them. I really enjoy the technologically advanced products on the market today, but it could also be argued that this technology could be used against us. I know this sounds like something right out of a TV show or movie, but the fact of the matter is people can be tracked or traced with their cell phones easily with the right technology.

One of the most interesting shows on TV right now is called, “Fringe” and this show really delves into the unexplained and the power of scientific investigation. I have found the show to be refreshing and enjoyable to watch, but also extremely thought provoking.  Interestingly, there have even been discussions online in forums about the possible use of a microwave weapon, that may be using electromagnetic frequencies to disable a person’s brain function.

Sharon Weinberger has many different reports posted online about the workings of this so-called mind manipulation.  You’ll find a good number of online sources that discuss mind control in great detail, the question is, do you believe it’s real?

The human genome is riddled with dead genes, fossils of a sort, dating back hundreds of thousands of years — the genome’s equivalent of an attic full of broken and useless junk.

Source from New York Times.

A remarkable scene was captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA. The scene shows a wire spark that finally exploded in this month.

At least, according to NASA, throwing incandescent wire will reach its peak in 2013. In the video seemed a very large plasma energy into the solar system but does not create the aurora in the earth because dispersed before reaching the atmosphere.

The success of capturing images show an explosion of incandescent wire. Last August, NASA scientists to make observations for 28 hours to see the wave and the explosion of flames and a tsunami that rocked the sun. This event is called The Great Eruption.

This activity NASA scientists said Karel Schrijver is a sign if the sun was up and heading to the maximum circle the sun in 2013.

“On August 1, then in fact something happened, and opened our eyes,” said Schrijver. He stated at that time the storm the sun and beyond the limits of everything imaginable.

Scientists are still investigating the relationship between the massive wave that with what happens on the surface of the sun.

Most people worry about global warming. But in the past global freezing is the biggest worry in the world.

Scientists are still debating the cooling phenomenon that causes the event ‘Snowball Earth’ or Snow Ball Earth. It’s unclear how the earth can be frozen by themselves. One research group studied the effects of greenhouse warming from excess global cooling period has ended many years.

Evidence of a snowball Earth paleomagnetik is derived from data taken from ancient glacial deposit. From the magnetic properties of matter, geologists infer the existence of icy rock that comes from a low latitude. Surprising result implied frozen Earth as a planet.

“When you find evidence of ice cover in the tropics so this all comes from the snowball,” said Alexander Pavlov of the University of Arizona.

Ice reflects more than two times the sun’s rays that lead to bare soil or five times the water reflection. As a result, when ice spreads the less heat is retained surface. Global average temperature was estimated at minus 50 degrees Celsius.

“This is what causes the difficulty of escape from the snowball,” said Pavlov. As a result, the less radiation is absorbed by the Earth to warm the planet.

As part of the Astrobiology, Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology NASA, scientists began searching mempertibangkan implications of planetary habitats.

If you break away from the snowball phenomenon was so difficult, then the other planets we expect to contain fluids also mugkin permanently frozen.

Although that sounds weird that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere may be controlled by the position of the continent, but is also associated with higher levels of chemical weathering of rocks. Carbon dioxide in the air can dissolve into the water and creates acid rain karbobat in rock minerals such as silicates. Through the reaction, carbon dioxide is transformed into carbonate, thereby reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Typically, these schemes appear in the warm weather so that most of the continent along the equator will experience weathering. In akhirntya a significant decrease in the amount of CO2 that cools the continent.

molester can be triggered by various things. And it turns out one of them is genetic factors. Some people are known to have genes that make them unfaithful spouse

The team of researchers from the State University of New York, USA, discovered a gene that increases the chance of someone doing cheating on their partner.

“When a man or a woman having an affair gene, called a ‘love rat gene’, have betrayed their partners, they will receive the same chemical substance such as when a gambler wins in the game or when a drinker to enjoy alcoholic beverages,” said one researcher.

The study was conducted by asking questions at 180 volunteer men and young women about their attitudes toward romance. They were tested with a gene called DRD4, this gene could affect the levels of chemicals in the brain, dopamine.

In the first quarter or so volunteers with the genes ‘love rat’, two times more likely to be unfaithful. And when they had an affair, they did more than once a date one night.

“What we found, individuals with the DRD4 gene variant tend to have a sexual history without commitment. Includes a date one night and infidelity. Motivation affair seems to come from pleasure and reward system, which is where the release of dopamine. In terms of sex without commitment and high risk, motivation variables are all elements that make dopamine more rapid movement, “said Justin Garcia, one of the researchers was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.

He also added, the results showed it is possible for those with DRD4 gene to commit, but they still feel the need for cheating. But this condition would not serve as justification related to infidelity committed.

“This study is not related to allow or justify the affair. Not all people with these genotypes will make a date one night, or fornication,” said Gracia. (Kd)

In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil (pronounced /ˈɪɡdrəsɪl/; from Old Norse Yggdrasill, pronounced [ˈyɡːˌdrasilː]) is an immense tree that is central in Norse cosmology; the world tree, and around the tree exist nine worlds. It is generally considered to mean “Ygg’s (Odin’s) horse”.

Yggdrasil is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In both sources, Yggdrasil is an immense ash tree that is central and considered very holy. The gods go to Yggdrasil daily to hold their courts. The branches of Yggdrasil extend far into the heavens, and the tree is supported by three roots that extend far away into other locations; one to the well Urðarbrunnr in the heavens, one to the spring Hvergelmir, and another to the well Mímisbrunnr. Creatures live within Yggdrasil, including the wyrm (dragon) Níðhöggr, an unnamed eagle, and the stags Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór.

Conflicting scholarly theories have been proposed about the etymology of the name Yggdrasill, the possibility that the tree is of another species than ash, the relation to tree lore and to Eurasian shamanic lore, the possible relation to the trees Mímameiðr and Læraðr,Hoddmímis holt, the sacred tree at Uppsala, and the fate of Yggdrasil during the events of Ragnarök.

Terminology

Yggdrasil (1895) by Lorenz Frølich.

Yggdrasil comes from Old Norse Yggdrasill. In English, the spellings Yggdrasil, Yggdrasill, and Ygdrasil are used, as shown by entries in English dictionaries and encyclopedias. It is usually pronounced /ˈɪɡdrəsɪl/ in English, and only rarely [ˈyɡdrəsiːl] because the sound[y] does not exist in English and most English speakers are therefore unaccustomed to producing it.

The generally accepted meaning of Old Norse Yggdrasill is “Odin’s horse”, based on the etymology that drasill means “horse” and Ygg(r) is one of Odin’s many names. The Poetic Edda poem Hávamál describes how Odin sacrificed himself to himself by hanging in a tree, making this tree Odin’s gallows. This tree was apparently Yggdrasil, and gallows can be called “the horse of the hanged”, so Odin’s gallows developed into the expression “Odin’s horse”, which then became the name of the tree.

Nevertheless, scholarly opinions regarding the precise meaning of the name Yggdrasill vary, particularly on the issue of whether Yggdrasill is the name of the tree itself or if only the full term askr Yggdrasils refers specifically to the tree, where Old Norse askr means “ash tree”. According to this interpretation, askr Yggdrasils means “the world tree upon which ‘the horse [Odin's horse] of the highest god [Odin] is bound’”. Both of these etymologies rely on a presumed but unattested *Yggsdrasill.

A third interpretation, presented by F. Detter, is that the name Yggdrasill refers to the word yggr (“terror”), yet not in reference to the Odinic name, and so Yggdrasill would then mean “tree of terror, gallows”. F. R. Schröder has proposed a fourth etymology according to whichyggdrasill means “yew pillar”, deriving yggia from *igwja (meaning “yew-tree”), and drasill from *dher- (meaning “support”).

Attestations

Poetic Edda

In the Poetic Edda, the tree is mentioned in the three poems Völuspá, Hávamál, and Grímnismál.

Völuspá

“Norns” (1832) from Die Helden und Götter des Nordens, oder das Buch der Sagen.

In the second stanza of the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá, the völva (a shamanic seeress) reciting the poem to the god Odin says that she remembers far back to “early times”, being raised by jötnar (giants), recalls nine worlds and “nine wood-ogresses” (Old Norse nío ídiðiur), and when Yggdrasil was a seed (“glorious tree of good measure, under the ground”). In stanza 19, the völva says:

An ash I know there stands,

Yggdrasill is its name,

a tall tree, showered

with shining loam.

From there come the dews

that drop in the valleys.

It stands forever green over

Urðr’s well.

In stanza 20, the völva says that from the lake under the tree come three “maidens deep in knowledge” named Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld. The maidens “incised the slip of wood,” “laid down laws” and “chose lives” for the children of mankind and the destinies (ørlǫg) of men. In stanza 27, the völva details that she is aware that “Heimdallr’s hearing is couched beneath the bright-nurtured holy tree.” In stanza 45, Yggdrasil receives a final mention in the poem. The völva describes, as a part of the onset of Ragnarök, that Heimdallr blows Gjallarhorn, that Odin speaks with Mímir’s head, and then:

Yggdrasill shivers,

the ash, as it stands.

The old tree groans,

and the giant slips free.

Hávamál

Odin sacrificing himself upon Yggdrasil (1895) by Lorenz Frølich.

In stanza 34 of the poem Hávamál, Odin describes how he once sacrificed himself to himself by hanging on a tree. The stanza reads:

I know that I hung on a windy tree

nine long nights,

wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,

myself to myself,

on that tree of which no man knows

from where its roots run.

In the stanza that follows, Odin describes how he had no food nor drink there, that he peered downward, and that “I took up the runes, screaming I took them, then I fell back from there.” While Yggdrasil is not mentioned by name in the poem and other trees exist in Norse mythology, the tree is near universally accepted as Yggdrasil, and if the tree is Yggdrasil, then the name Yggdrasil directly relates to this story.

Grímnismál

In the poem Grímnismál, Odin (disguised as Grímnir) provides the young Agnar with cosmological lore. Yggdrasil is first mentioned in the poem in stanza 29, where Odin says that, because the “bridge of the Æsir burns” and the “sacred waters boil,” Thor must wade through the rivers Körmt and Örmt and two rivers named Kerlaugar to go “sit as judge at the ash of Yggdrasill.” In the stanza that follows, a list of names of horses are given that the Æsir ride to “sit as judges” at Yggdrasil.

In stanza 31, Odin says that the ash Yggdrasil has three roots that grow in three directions. He details that beneath the first lives Hel, under the second live frost jötnar, and beneath the third lives mankind. Stanza 32 details that a squirrel named Ratatoskr must run across Yggdrasil and bring “the eagle’s word” from above to Níðhöggr below. Stanza 33 describes that four harts named Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór consume “the highest boughs” of Yggdrasil.

In stanza 34, Odin says that more serpents lie beneath Yggdrasil “than any fool can imagine” and lists them as Góinn and Móinn (possibly meaning Old Norse “land animal”), which he describes as sons of Grafvitnir (Old Norse, possibly “ditch wolf”), Grábakr (Old Norse “Greyback”), Grafvölluðr (Old Norse, possibly “the one digging under the plain” or possibly amended as “the one ruling in the ditch”), Ófnir (Old Norse “the winding one, the twisting one”), and Sváfnir (Old Norse, possibly “the one who puts to sleep = death”), who Odin adds that he thinks will forever gnaw on the tree’s branches.

In stanza 35, Odin says that Yggdrasil “suffers agony more than men know”, as a hart bites it from above, it decays on its sides, and Níðhöggr bites it from beneath. In stanza 44, Odin provides a list of things that are what he refers to as the “noblest” of their kind. Within the list, Odin mentions Yggdrasil first, and states that it is the “noblest of trees”.

Prose Edda

The title page of Olive Bray’s 1908 translation of the Poetic Edda by W. G. Collingwood.

The norns Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld beneath the world tree Yggdrasil (1882) byLudwig Burger.

Yggdrasil is mentioned in two books in the Prose Edda, in Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál. In Gylfaginning, Yggdrasil is introduced in chapter 15. In chapter 15, Gangleri (described as king Gylfi in disguise) asks where is the chief or holiest place of the gods. High replies “It is the ash Yggdrasil. There the gods must hold their courts each day”. Gangleri asks what there is to tell about Yggdrasil. Just-As-High says that Yggdrasil is the biggest and best of all trees, that its branches extend out over all of the world and reach out over the sky. Three of the roots of the tree support it, and these three roots also extend extremely far: one “is among the Æsir, the second among the frost jötnar, and the third over Niflheim. The root over Niflheim is gnawed at by the wyrm Níðhöggr, and beneath this root is the spring Hvergelmir. Beneath the root that reaches the frost jötnar is the well Mímisbrunnr, “which has wisdom and intelligence contained in it, and the master of the well is called Mimir”. Just-As-High provides details regarding Mímisbrunnr and then describes that the third root of the well “extends to heaven” and that beneath the root is the “very holy” well Urðarbrunnr. At Urðarbrunnr the gods hold their court, and every day the Æsir ride to Urðarbrunnr up over the bridge Bifröst. Later in the chapter, a stanza from Grímnismál mentioning Yggdrasil is quoted in support.

In chapter 16, Gangleri asks “what other particularly notable things are there to tell about the ash?” High says there is quite a lot to tell about. High continues that an eagle sits on the branches of Yggdrasil and that it has much knowledge. Between the eyes of the eagle sits a hawk called Veðrfölnir. A squirrel called Ratatoskr scurries up and down the ash Yggdrasil carrying “malicious messages” between the eagle and Níðhöggr. Four stags named Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr, and Duraþrór run between the branches of Yggdrasil and consume its foilage. In the spring Hvergelmir are so many snakes along with Níðhöggr “that no tongue can enumerate them”. Two stanzas from Grímnismál are then cited in support. High continues that the norns that live by the holy well Urðarbrunnr each day take water from the well and mud from around it and pour it over Yggdrasil so that the branches of the ash do not rot away or decay. High provides more information about Urðarbrunnr, cites a stanza from Völuspá in support, and adds that dew falls from Yggdrasil to the earth, explaining that “this is what people call honeydew, and from it bees feed”.

In chapter 41, the stanza from Grímnismál is quoted that mentions that Yggdrasil is the foremost of trees. In chapter 54, as part of the events of Ragnarök, High describes that Odin will ride to the well Mímisbrunnr and consult Mímir on behalf of himself and his people. After this, “the ash Yggdrasil will shake and nothing will be unafraid in heaven or on earth”, and then the Æsir and Einherjar will don their war gear and advance to the field of Vígríðr. Further into the chapter, the stanza in Völuspá that details this sequence is cited.

In the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál, Yggdrasil receives a single mention, though not by name. In chapter 64, names for kings and dukesare given. “Illustrious one” is provided as an example, appearing in a Christianity-influenced work by the skald Hallvarðr Háreksblesi: “There is not under the pole of the earth [Yggdrasil] an illustrious one closer to the lord of monks [God] than you.”

Theories

This large tree in the Viking AgeÖverhogdal tapestries may be Yggdrasil with Gullinkambi on top.

Shamanic origins

Hilda Ellis Davidson comments that the existence of nine worlds around Yggdrasil is mentioned more than once in Old Norse sources, but the identity of the worlds is never stated outright, though it can be deduced from various sources. Davidson comments that “no doubt the identity of the nine varied from time to time as the emphasis changed or new imagery arrived”. Davidson says that it is unclear where the nine worlds are located in relation to the tree; they could either exist one above the other or perhaps be grouped around the tree, but there are references to worlds existing beneath the tree, while the gods are pictured as in the sky, a rainbow bridge (Bifröst) connecting the tree with other worlds. Davidson opines that “those who have tried to produce a convincing diagram of the Scandinavian cosmos from what we are told in the sources have only added to the confusion”.

Davidson notes parallels between Yggdrasil and shamanic lore in northern Eurasia:

[...] the conception of the tree rising through a number of worlds is found in northern Eurasia and forms part of the shamanic lore shared by many peoples of this region. This seems to be a very ancient conception, perhaps based on the Pole Star, the centre of the heavens, an the image of the central tree in Scandinavia may have been influenced by it [...]. Among Siberian shamans, a central tree may be used as a ladder to ascend the heavens [...].

Davidson says that the notion of an eagle atop a tree and the world serpent coiled around the roots of the tree has parallels in other cosmologies from Asia. She goes on to say that Norse cosmology may have been influenced by these Asiatic cosmologies from a northern location. Davidson adds, on the other hand, that it is attested that the Germanic peoples worshiped their deities in open forest clearings and that a sky god was particularly connected with the oak tree, and therefore “a central tree was a natural symbol for them also”.

Mímameiðr, Hoddmímis holt and Ragnarök

Líf and Lífþrasir after emerging from Hoddmímis holt (1895) by Lorenz Frølich

Connections have been proposed between the wood Hoddmímis holt (Old Norse “Hoard-Mímir’s” holt) and the tree Mímameiðr (“Mímir’s tree”), generally thought to refer to the world tree Yggdrasil, and the spring Mímisbrunnr. John Lindow concurs that Mímameiðr may be another name for Yggdrasil and that if the Hoard-Mímir of the name Hoddmímis holt is the same figure as Mímir (associated with the spring named after him, Mímisbrunnr), then the Mímir’s holt—Yggdrasil—and Mímir’s spring may be within the same proximity.

Carolyne Larrington notes that it is nowhere expressly stated what will happen to Yggdrasil during the events of Ragnarök. Larrington points to a connection between the primordial figure of Mímir and Yggdrasil in the poem Völuspá, and theorizes that “it is possible that Hoddmimir is another name for Mimir, and that the two survivors hide in Yggdrasill.”

Rudolf Simek theorizes that the survival of Líf and Lífþrasir through Ragnarök by hiding in Hoddmímis holt is “a case of reduplication of the anthropogeny, understandable from the cyclic nature of the Eddic escatology.” Simek says that Hoddmímis holt “should not be understood literally as a wood or even a forest in which the two keep themselves hidden, but rather as an alternative name for the world-tree Yggdrasill. Thus, the creation of mankind from tree trunks (Askr, Embla) is repeated after the Ragnarǫk as well.” Simek says that in Germanic regions, the concept of mankind originating from trees is ancient. Simek additionally points out legendary parallels in a Bavarian legend of a shepherdwho lives inside a tree, whose descendants repopulate the land after life there has been wiped out by plague (citing a retelling by F. R. Schröder). In addition, Simek points to an Old Norse parallel in the figure of Örvar-Oddr, “who is rejuvenated after living as a tree-man (Ǫrvar-Odds saga 24–27)”.

Warden trees, Irminsul, and sacred trees

A tree grows atop Mysselhøj,
a Nordic Bronze Age burial mound inRoskilde, Denmark.

Continuing as late as the 19th century, warden trees were venerated in areas of Germany and Scandinavia, considered to be guardians and bringers of luck, and offerings were sometimes made to them. A massive birch tree standing atop a burial mound and located beside a farm in western Norway is recorded as having had ale poured over its roots during festivals. The tree was felled in 1874.

Davidson comments that “the position of the tree in the centre as a source of luck and protection for gods and men is confirmed” by these rituals to Warden Trees. Davidson notes that the gods are described as meeting beneath Yggdrasil to hold their things, and that the pillars venerated by the Germanic peoples, such as the pillar Irminsul, were also symbolic of the center of the world. Davidson details that it would be difficult to ascertain whether a tree or pillar came first, and that this likely depends on if the holy location was in a thickly wooded area or not. Davidson notes that there is no mention of a sacred tree at Þingvellir in Iceland yet that Adam of Bremen describes a huge tree standing next to the Temple at Uppsala in Sweden, which Adam describes as remaining green throughout summer and winter, and that no one knew what type of tree it was. Davidson comments that while it is uncertain that Adam’s informant actually witnessed that the tree’s type is unknown, the existence of sacred trees in pre-Christian Germanic Europe is further evidenced by records of their destruction by early Christian missionaries, such as Thor’s Oak by Saint Boniface.

Ken Dowden comments that behind Irminsul, Thor’s Oak in Geismar, and the sacred tree at Uppsala “looms a mythic prototype, an Yggdrasil, the world-ash of the Norsemen”.

Modern influence

Modern works of art depicting Yggdrasil include Die Nornen (painting, 1888) by K. Ehrenberg; Yggdrasil (fresco, 1933) by Axel Revold, located in the University of Oslo library auditorium in Oslo, Norway; Hjortene beiter i løvet på Yggdrasil asken (wood relief carving, 1938) on the Oslo City Hall by Dagfin Werenskjold; and the bronze relief on the doors of the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities (around 1950) by B. Marklund in Stockholm, Sweden. Poems mentioning Yggdrasil include Vårdträdet by Viktor Rydberg and Yggdrasill by J. Linke.

Mount Galunggung a volcano with an altitude of 2167 m above sea level, located about 17 km from the center of Tasikmalaya.
There are several tourist attractions on offer include: tourist attraction and fascination wanawisata with an area of approximately 120 hectares under management Perhutanioffice, in the form of waterfalls and crater. Visitors are permitted to visit the crater Galunggung, and can reach the crater with a permanent ladder climbing stairs with a total of 620 units.
Other Objects of approximately 3 hectares in the form of hot water baths (Cipanas) complete with swimming pool, bathroom and hot tub water. Other facilities available at the bathhouse area is a children’s playground Cipanas, stage entertainment, saung Rangoon where botram (meals), tourist kiosks, also camping arena.
To go Galunggung area, there are three alternative roads to be taken, namely:
From the direction of Bandung through Ciawi, in front of the old Market Indihiang, turn to the right + 12 km.
From the direction of Bandung through Ciawi, after the bridge Cikunir (Singaparna) turn to the left + 14 km

From Tasikmalaya city center directly to the West via Jl. Bantar-Tawangbanteng, + 17 km.
Most visitor attractions Galunggung are local tourists, while visitors from abroad still below a count of 100 people on average per year. On average, domestic and foreign tourists who visit the Mount Galunggung totaled 213,382 persons per year.
Seeing the potential attractions that may be extracted, and a strategic geographical position, and its uniqueness from its natural condition Galunggung Mountain tourism potential to be sold to foreign tourists. But tourism has not been packed in a professional tour packages.
There are still many opportunities and attractions tourist objects that can be extracted from Mount Galunggung, given the facilities available at this time is still minimal, so it is still wide open for development. Investment opportunities for the development of mountain tourism Galunggung can be done following these steps:
There needs to be regulation of transport infrastructure that ensures smooth out the incoming visitor attractions.
Capacity attractions Cipanas need to be enlarged by adding another attraction.
Sightseeing Mount Galunggung potential built a resort.

2. Situ Gede Tasikmalaya

Tourism Objects Overview
One of the natural resources that have not been used optimally reliable for the economic development community in Tasikmalaya is a big tourist attraction that is located there and Mangkubumi dikelurahan Linggajaya Mangkubumi District.
Situ Gede is a lake covering an area of 47 ha with water depths between 1.5 sd 6 meters. In the midst there is an island with an area of 1 Ha, this island was buried Grandfather Prabudilaya that his legend flourished in Tasikmalaya City community, where big lies relatively close to the central city of Tasikmalaya, kuang more +4 km.

Facilities for tourists are 7 pieces gazebo, ample parking, mosques, public toilet, raft, fishing spots, parks and camping ground.
Activities tourists can do is jogging, fishing, doing all the fish, around the island by raft, enjoying the natural scenery with rural feel of the cool and fresh, enjoy grilled and fried fish-stall dikios about tourist attractions, as well as pilgrimage to the island it big.
Market Prospects

Prospects Situ Gede Nature Tourism is one of the natural tourist attraction in the city of Tasikmalaya with relatively close distance to the city center.
Average Traffic: 9950 persons / year.

3. Tasikmalaya Dragon Village

Kampung Naga is a traditional village with a total area of approximately 4 ha.Location of Kampung Naga tourist attraction located at the link road connecting the Tasikmalaya – Bandung via Garut, ie at about 30 kilometers to the west toward the town of Tasikmalaya.
Kampung Naga inhabited by a group of people who are very strong in holding the relics Ieluhumya customs. This will be obvious differences when compared with other communities outside of Kampung Naga. Kampung Naga community living in an institution that is conditioned in an atmosphere of simplicity and traditional wisdom inherent environment.
Administratively, including the village of Kampung Naga Legok Dage Neglasari Sub Salawu Tasikmalaya regency.
Mileage from Tasikmalaya to Kampung Naga City approximately 30 miles, while from Garut city 26 kilometers away.
To get to Kampung Naga from the highway Garut-Tasikmalaya had to descend the stairs that have been walled (Sunda sengked) up to the riverbank Ciwulan with a slope of about 45 degrees with a distance of approximately 500 meters. Then through the path along the river Ciwulan get to the Kampung Naga. According to data from Neglasari, form the soil surface in the form of Kampung Naga hills with fertile soil productivity can be said.
Kampung Naga land area is one hectare and a half, mostly used for housing, yards, ponds, and the rest is used for agriculture fields are harvested twice a year.
The appeal of Kampung Naga tourist attraction lies in the unique life of the community is located in Kampung Naga. Their lives can blend in with modern society, Moslem, but still strong memlihara Customs of his ancestors. Like many traditional ceremonies, ceremonial days such Islamic besr Mulud Ceremony month or Alif with implementing Pedaran (reading History Ancestors) The process begins with a bath in the River Ciwulan and Tourists should follow the event, subject to their adherence to the rules there.
The form of buildings in Kampung Naga same as houses, mosques, Patemon (meeting hall) and rice. The roof is made from sago palm leaves, coconut leaves, or as a cover injuk bumbungan. The walls of houses and other buildings, made of woven bamboo (chamber). Meanwhile, the building doors are made of rattan fiber and all the buildings facing North or South. Besides a neat pile of stones with the layout and natural ingredients is the hallmark of the architecture and ornaments because of the Dragon Village.
Sightseeing is one of the cultural attractions in Tasikmlaya Tourists usually have special interests that want to know the real situation and proved tesebut.Development of tourism in jangkuan Kampung Naga including short-term development.
History / origins of Kampung Naga according to one version begins at the time of his status as guardian Sheikh Sharif Hidayatullah or Sunan Gunung Jati, a servant named Singaparana tasked to spread the religion of Islam to the West. Then he got to the area that is now Neglasari Neglasari, District Salawu, Tasikmalaya regency. In these places, by the people in Kampung Naga Singaparana called Dalem Singaparana Worship. One day he got ilapat or instructions must meditate. In persemediannya Singaparana aright, that he should occupy a place which is now called Kampung Naga.
Kampung Naga ancestors of the most powerful and influential for the people in Kampung Naga "Sa Naga" which Singaparana grandparent or Worship Dalem Singaparana called again with a grandparent Galunggung, is buried west of Kampung Naga. The tomb is considered by society as Kampung Naga shrine which always diziarahi during ceremonies held for all his descendants.
But when Grandmother Singaparana died, did not obtain definitive data are not even one who knows it Kampung Naga. According to the belief that they inherited from generation to generation, people in Kampung Naga forefathers did not die but vanished without leaving the body. And that’s where people in Kampung Naga consider it a grave, by giving a sign or clue to the descendants of Kampung Naga Society.
There are a number of names of people in Kampung Naga ancestors are revered like: Prince Kudratullah, Gadog buried in Garut regency, a highly regarded master of Islamic knowledge. Raden clumsy Katalayah Nu Lencing The Seda Sakti, is buried in Taraju, Tasikmalaya regency which science mengusai immunity "kewedukan". Queen Ineng Kudratullah or called Grandmother Mudik Batara Coral, buried in Karangnunggal, Tasikmalaya regency, master the science of physical force "kabedasan". Prince Mangkubawang, buried in Mataram Yogyakarta master the science of nature kedunawian intelligence or wealth. Gunungjati Sunan Kalijaga, buried in Cirebon master the science of agriculture.

4.Cipatujah Beach Tasikmalaya

Beach Cipatujah
The object of Alternative Tourism in South Tasik
South coast tourist area of Tasikmalaya Regency is famous for its beach area Cipatujah. At the end of the year is usually held intent Overtime (Feast of Fishermen). In addition to objects and attractions Cipatujah there are also objects and other attractions such as parks Lengsar Sindangkerta Beach, turtle conservation, beach Pamay with village fishermen, Bubujung Beautiful Park, Beach and Beach CiherasKarangtawulan.

Tasikmalaya Keberadaab south coast is famous for its beaches Cipatujah is one of the natural attractions with the main attraction of marine tourism. South coast tourism management under the control of the Office of Tourism District Cipatujah Tasikmalaya.Obyek South coast tour covers an area of approximately 115 hectares, located approximately 91 km from the center of Tasikmalaya.

Tasikmalaya southern coast has the potential spread of tourism along the coast until Cikalong Cipatujah, among other things Sindangkerta Beach, Pamayangsari, Karangtawulan, everything including the District Cipatujah.

While the coastal tourist objects that go into subdistrict Cikalong include Mandalajaya and Sindangjaya Coast. In addition to the tourist objects are still there ,object of fascination and coastal areas south of Tasikmalaya empties into the rivers large enough to make the surrounding beautiful natural scenery and great potential.

5.Tasikmalaya Art and Industry

City of Tasikmalaya, a city that predicated this market town famous for its handicrafts industry in the form of embroidery, mats, matting, umbrellas and beauty Clogs The tourism sector is yet to be seeded, but its development continues to go hand in hand with craft industries that have been advanced.

Objects and leading tourist attraction Tasikmalaya town among other industrial centers of embroidery and factory outlets

6.Tasikmalaya Food

Oncom tutug Rice is one of the menus, which according to most people Tasikmalaya, is the typical food of this region. The mixture of white rice and oncom is the most delicious food people eat in the morning. However, there are hundreds of named meatballs taste that matches are presented in all situations. Although both serve beef balls, each stall packed menu and taste way different.

Tasikmalaya Location In Marking —

“The implications of this figurine are absolutely mind-boggling,” Dr. Charles told reporters. “It means that at one time the moon had an atmosphere conducive to life. And what’s more, it was once home to a sophisticated race of people with a highly refined sense of beauty.”

The angel – a humanoid female with wing-like appendages on her back and long flowing hair – is made of an iron compound found exclusively in the highlands of the moon.

This rules out the possibility that it was dropped by a race of aliens from another planet. It’s been hand polished to a silvery metallic sheen. Based on chemical analysis of the metal, geologists estimate the sculpture to be 200,000 years old which means it was made 170,000 years before the human species appeared on Earth.

It’s been examined by art experts who concur with Dr. Charles’ appraisal of the culture that produced it. “Clearly these beings had a sense of religion that parallels our Christianity. Perhaps they had a Jesus of their own, proving that the important spiritual principles are, in a very literal sense, universal,” said a Washington anthropologist.

Others are not so sure of its religious significance. Dr. Miles Fredericks of New York University countered, “This is just more Christian propaganda. The Sumerians told stories of the Annunaki, winged deities, as far back as 18th century BC. Maybe the Sumerians were visited by these moon beings, who merely modeled the statue after their own image.”

While many ponder the significance of the figure, others are curious about why it has remained a secret for so long. “The artifact has been common knowledge among NASA insiders for years,” said Dr. Charles. “But space agency higher-ups have kept the information highly classified, fearing world-wide panic. It was smuggled out to me by persons who must, for obvious reasons, remain anonymous.”

NASA officially denies Dr. Charles’ allegations. The statue was displayed to photographers and newsmen but is now being held for further study at an undisclosed location.

Astronauts of Antiquity – Zecharia Sitchin has already shown in The Twelfth Planet that the statues of gods and goddesses from Sumer present special helmets with protuberances on both sides (the Middle Ages’s illiteracy turned them into”devil horns”), which perfectly look like the pilots’ headphones; the statues were provided with the SHU.GAR.RA – a term that literally means”that which makes you go far into the Universe”.

Another image discovered in North Israel, dating back to the ninth millennium B.C., represents the sculpted head of a god with a helmet and safety glasses. Also a picture of the goddess Ishtar from her temple in Sumer…

All this suggests to us that the attire …was that of an aeronaut or an astronaut”…

Many drawings on the Sumerian plates show the gods with wings, which were not belonging to the body, but they were accessories of the flight suit, therfore the gods looked like eagles…
This drawing on a Sumerian plate suggests that an Anunnaki / Elohim spaceship is connected to the base on Earth.”The central object … it is more mechanical, more manufactured than natural.Its (( wings )) looks almost exactly like the solar panels which American spacecraft are provided to convert the Sun’s energy to electricity. The two antennas cannot be mistaken. The circular craft … is located between Mars (the six – pointed star) and Earth and its Moon”(Z. Sitchin, The Twelfth Planet)…

10. Scientology

Scientology may not be considered a true “doomsday” cult as most others on this list are, but it still has a stronghold all over the world, and its fair share of detractors who tell stories of mind control, financial devastation, and criminal activity leading to the deaths of those trying to escape the religion. Created by L. Ron Hubbard in 1947 in his first office on La Brea and Sunset in Los Angeles, Scientology is a religion based on the idea of clearing the “thetans” of outer space entities from the human psyche, with intense therapy sessions that rely on the use of a crude lie detector test, known as an E-Meter. Followers: Beck, Tom Cruise, Priscilla Presley. Scientology runs centers all over the world, but its best known is the Celebrity Center in Los Angeles, where many of its most renowned members come to “get clear”.

9. Hare Krishna

Founded in 1966, the Hare Krishna cult was a fixture in the seventies, with yellow-robed disciples panhandling at every major airport and intersection. The epitome of hippie idealism, Krishna followers believed utterly in the God “Krishna” who was actually a character created for a novel, Mahabaratha. The distinctive, relentless chanting practiced by followers of this cult actually meant “the energy of the Lord”. Krishna followers lived a hardscrabble, Spartan existence, with the barest level of sustenance, and very little sleep: they suffered for their religion, believing that they would be rewarded by ascension to a spiritual paradise after many reincarnations. However, not every member of the Krishna organization suffered: the higher echelons were well fed, housed in luxury, and surrounded by women catering to their every need. Although the Hare Krishna’s may also escape “doomsday cult” status, there are dark tales of disciples willing to do anything for their religion, including robbery and murder. Famous Followers: The Beatles, for a time.

8. The Unification Church

Better known by the mocking nickname, “Moonies”, the disciples of Sun Myung Moon believe that Moon himself is the divine being, or Messiah. His status as the second coming of Christ allows him to live in royal fashion, supported by his many followers all over the world. Moon was unwelcome in Germany, being banned from the country, along with his wife, as a potentially dangerous influence on German youth: they were not allowed to enter Germany until 2006. It is believed that the cult lures in young people and separates them from their loved ones by making them feel a part of a new and more loving family. Moon expects to be treated as God, because he believes he is God, or so he has led his many followers to believe. Other belief systems of the Moonie cult are that an actual kingdom of heaven exists on Earth, not solely in the afterlife, as Christians believe. Korea is the chosen realm of this kingdom, according to Moon, who has earned millions and millions of dollars from Koreans, his chosen people, while preaching that Christian churches are the devil’s instruments.

7. Children of God

A seriously twisted cult that delivered an evil message that sex with children was natural and right, The Children of God cult was also known as the Family and was founded by David Berg. Known for turning female cult followers into prostitutes who used sex to entice men into the cult, they were the purveyors of “The System”, a doctrine that included belief in the Apocalypse. Actress Rose McGowan of Charmed was raised in the cult, and so was River Phoenix, who later died after an overdose in front of Johnny Depp’s Viper Room. The cult’s system of sexual abuse and “flirty fishing” (the use of sex to lure new members) makes it a particularly nasty addition to our list.

6. The Ku Klux Klan (or KKK)

Spawned from the intensely racist Christian Identity Movement, The KKK practiced cold-blooded acts of murder during their reign of terror, at its most potent during the time after the Civil War. But their activities, born out of a desire for white supremacy, did not stop there. Famous for the meetings they attended, fully hidden by white robes and hoods, and the burning crosses they would erect to frighten those they despised, the KKK membership swelled to almost four million at its peak in 1928. The KKK had many enemies, looking down not only on the entire black race, but also on Catholics, Jews, and other non-white races

5. The Manson Family

One of the most notorious cults of the modern age, the Manson Family was small, but deadly. Led by charismatic leader Charles Manson, a juvenile delinquent who sodomized other boys while in detention, Family followers believed in Helter Skelter, a massive retaliation by the black race against, in their own words, “whitey”. They also shared Manson’s belief that the Beatles’ White Album was sending them messages about how to participate in Helter Skelter. Songs like Piggies”, from that album, inspired drug-addled murderers like Charles “Tex” Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel to go into the Hollywood Hills and commit the gruesome murders of successful, rich members of the upper classes. When Roman Polanksi’s pregnant fiancée, the stunning actress Sharon Tate, begged for the life of her unborn baby, she was told, “I have no mercy for you”.

4. Heaven’s Gate

A true doomsday cult, Heaven’s Gate followers believed in UFO’s and that the Earth (and everyone on it) was about to be “wiped clean” and “recycled”. The only chance of escape, preached leaders Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles, was to get off the planet – immediately. Such teachings were the harbingers of mass suicides, and the followers were prepared with instructional videos and teachings, to leave their “flesh bodies” behind, and ascend to a new level of being. When the Hale-Bopp comet appeared in 1997, Applewhite had the sign he needed. Convinced that a spaceship was waiting just beyond the comet, to rescue his followers, he ordered the suicides of 38 followers, who believed it all. The 38 followers, and Applewhite, were all found dead in a beautiful house in San Diego in 1997.

3. The Solar Temple

Another cult with a charismatic leader, Luc Joret, the Solar Temple also preached the message of Apocalypse, claiming that it would come through natural disasters. Only Solar Temple converts would escape the fate of mankind: since they were the faithful, they would be spared. The Solar Temple devotees believed that suicide was actually salvation, and that they would be really be going on a journey to a star called Sirius. These beliefs were so strong that, in 1994, 53 members of the cult were found dead of suicide in a compound near Geneva, Switzerland. Joret, having earned more than 93 million dollars instilling this doctrine in his followers, was one of the dead in Switzerland, apparently also on a “death voyage” to a distant star: Joret started out as Gestapo officer during World War II.

2. Branch Davidians

David Koresh was a charismatic leader who taught his followers that the United States Government was the enemy of God. Also preaching the now-familiar refrain of apocalyptic terror and destruction, Koresh installed all of his followers at a compound in Waco, Texas, with some serious weapons, and instructions to fear and fight the authorities that “threatened” their life at the cult. Koresh enjoyed the bodies of his young female followers, while painting himself as the Messiah. In February of 1994, the ATF went out to the compound, to investigate allegations of the sexual abuse of children as young as twelve, and the illegal hoarding of weapons. A famous standoff ended in tragedy as canisters of tear gas were tossed into the compound by the ATF, resulting (maybe?) in fires that caused the death of 76 members. There is much contention about whose fault the tragic fire was: the controversy continues to this day.

1. The People’s Temple

Jim Jones, the leader of The People’s Temple, was an odd child who was intrigued, at a very young age, by religious zeal and a strong interest in “death”. From these abnormal beginnings, Jones rose to become a macabre symbol of mind control and brainwashing. Jones cloaked his darker interest in death beneath a veneer of Socialism, believing that true religious consciousness would lead to a socialist viewpoint. He felt that the Bible was ridiculous; a sort of joke or fairy tale, and his followers grew in numbers as he refined his own doctrine. Eventually, Jones and his disciples had to flee the United States, as they were pressured by the government regarding charges of violence, abuse of followers, and illegal cult activity. They escaped to a settlement in Guyana, which Jones named (naturally) Jonestown. This is where the largest mass suicide in cult history was played out, the result of Jones convincing his followers that they were being pursued by foreign governments who would torture them and hurt their children. Gripped with terror, 909 followers (including many children) drank the infamous Kool-Aid and gave their lives over to the cult, forever.

http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-secret-societies.php

10. Ordo Templi Orientis

Famous Members
Aleister Crowley

Ordo Templi Orientis is a mystic organization that was started in the early twentieth century. The group was established along the same lines as the less secretive Freemasons, and supposedly relies on ritual and occult practices as a means for members to move from one level of prestige to another within the organization. The general philosophy of the group was a belief in new age esoteric principles and practices as a method of realizing one’s true identity. Famed occultist and all-around eccentric Aleister Crowley composed much of the group’s lore, including a manifesto called the Mysteria Mystica Maxima, and he later became its head. After his death, the influence and popularity of Ordo Templi Orientis began to wane, but it still exists today and has various chapters scattered across the world, chiefly in the United States, the U.K., and other parts of Europe.

Secret Practices
As Aleister Crowley’s popularity as a new age figure has continued to grow, more and more of the teachings of the Ordo Templi Orientis have come to light. As such, the group makes much less of an attempt to be secretive today than it did in the past. This doesn’t mean that they don’t still have some bizarre practices. Chief among these is the group’s fixation on the sexual, especially their teachings on the “adoration of the phallus” and the magic of masturbation.

9. The Bilderberg Group

Famous Members
No members, but attendees have included Ben Bernanke, the royal families of Spain and the Netherlands, World Bank officials, and representatives from major corporations

The Bilderberg Group is not a secret society per se, but it does operate under a similar veil of mystery, which has made it the subject of countless conspiracy theories and criticisms. The group was started in 1954, and since then it has convened every year as an exclusive, invitation-only conference of various world leaders, captains of industry, and media moguls. The group was originally started as a means of addressing a streak of anti-Americanism that was spreading through Europe following WWII, but over the years it appears to have morphed into a more broad discussion on reaching mutual understanding between cultures.

Secret Practices
The Bilderberg Group has become controversial for one key reason: no press is allowed in the conference and no significant details concerning the topics discussed are ever officially released to the public. That kind of secrecy, along with the intense security of the meeting sites, which often feature armed guards, police, and even fighter jets patrolling the skies overhead, has produced a number of conspiracy theories centered on the conference. The most popular is that the group tries to steer the direction of public policy, financial markets, and media in certain prescribed directions of their choosing, perhaps even with the goal of forming a so-called “one world government.” These claims have been brushed aside by the group, which claims global understanding and the end of nuclear proliferation as its main goals.

8. Hashshashin– The Order of Assassins

Famous Members
None of note

The Hashshashin, or Nizari, were a mysterious band of Muslim assassins that operated in the Middle East during the 13th century. The group was made up of Shia Muslims who broke off from a bigger sect and banded together in order to establish a utopian Shi’ite state. Because their number was small, the group used guerilla tactics in their battle against their enemies, including espionage, sabotage, and, most famously, political assassination. The Hashshashin would plant highly trained moles inside enemy strongholds, with instructions to only attack when the time was right. They were known for their extreme discretion in minimizing civilian casualties, as well as their penchant for using stealth to intimidate their targets. As the story goes, enemy leaders would often wake in the morning to find a Hashshashin dagger lying on their pillow, along with a note saying “you are in our grip.” Their legend soon grew, and before the Mongols finally destroyed the group, they became well known contract killers, supposedly performing jobs for the likes of King Richard the Lionheart.

Secret Practices
Around the time of their downfall, the library that contained all Nizari records was destroyed, so much of what is known about them today has taken on the status of myth. The most controversial legend centers of the group’s use of drugs and other intoxicants– “Hashshashin” translates roughly as “Hashish user”–which some have said were employed by the members in battle. This has been widely discredited, but the term “Hashshashin” as it refers to the Nizari is believed to be the origin of the modern word “assassin.”

7. The Black Hand

Famous Members
Gavrilo Princip (rumored)

The Black Hand was a secret society of anti-imperialist political revolutionaries that was started in Serbia in 1912. It formed as an offshoot from Narodna Adbrona, a group that sought to unite all of the Slavic people of Europe under one country. This required the separation of Serbia from the monarchy ofAustria-Hungary, which had annexed the country some years before. With this in mind, the group began disseminating anti-Austrian propaganda and training saboteurs and assassins to disrupt political rule within the province. Their plan was to incite a war between Serbia and Austria, which would give them a chance to free their country and unite the different Slavic nations as one.

Secret Practices
Black Hand would be all but forgotten today if not for their unlikely involvement in one of the biggest events of the twentieth century. In 1914, the group engineered the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The job was badly botched, and was only completed when a low-level hood named Gavrilo Princip stumbled upon the Archduke’s car and shot him to death at close range (see photo). Still, the results of the assassination were catastrophic. Within days, Austria-Hungary had declared war on Serbia, and after the allies of both countries joined the fray, the small dispute managed to escalate into WWI.  The aftermath of WWI eventually led to WWII, and this led to the Cold War, which makes the Black Hand one of the most strangely influential forces of the twentieth century.

6. The Knights of the Golden Circle

Famous Members
John Wilkes Booth, Jesse James (above), Franklin Pierce (all rumored)

The Knights of the Golden Circle was a secret society that flourished in the U.S. during the American Civil War. In the beginning, the group sought to encourage the annexation of Mexico and the West Indies, which they believed would help the waning slave trade to once again flourish. But once the Civil War started, the group switched its focus from colonialism to fervent support of the newly established Confederate government. The Knights soon had thousands of followers, many of whom formed guerilla armies and began raiding Union strongholds in the West. In the Northern states, the mysterious order had an even bigger impact. Many newspapers and public figures engaged in witch-hunts where they accused supposed Southern sympathizers, including President Franklin Pierce, of being members of the Knights of the Golden Circle.

Secret Practices
Unlike most secret societies, the Golden Circle didn’t just concern itself with clandestine meetings and mysterious plans. Instead, the group often formed renegade armies and bands of bushwhackers in order to forward their agenda by force. In 1860, a group of the Knights made a failed attempt to invade Mexico. During the war, they robbed stagecoaches and attempted a blockade of the harbor in San Francisco, and a group of them even managed to briefly take control of southern New Mexico.

5. The Thule Society

Famous Members
Rudolf Hess, Arthur Rosenberg, Adolf Hitler (rumored)

Lots of secret organizations are suspected of having malevolent ulterior motives, but the Thule Society is one of the few where such suspicions have been proven. The group was unofficially started in Germany just after the end of WWI. It began as a kind of German heritage group that dabbled in the occult, but it quickly transformed into an organization that sought to forward the ideology of the Aryan race, and it took an outwardly racist approach toward Jews and other minorities. The group soon boasted over a thousand members, and even had its own propaganda newspaper. In 1919, members of the Thule Society formed a political organization called the German Workers’ Party. A young Adolf Hitler became a member, and eventually took over the party, which would later become known as the National Socialist German Workers’, or Nazi, party.

Secret Practices
Even before the Thule Society became a vehicle for Nazism, the members were involved in some pretty bizarre activities. The strangest was the group’s fascination with the Aryan race, whose origins they tried to trace back to the mythical land of Thule, which the Greeks had claimed was found north of Europe near Iceland and Greenland.

4. The Sons of Liberty

Famous Members
Paul Revere, John and Samuel Adams, John Hancock

The Sons of Liberty is the name for a loosely organized group of dissidents that existed in America prior to the Revolutionary War. The group did not exist as a secret society in the traditional sense; rather, it was made up of smaller factions of patriots from across the colonies that united in support of a common goal. When they did meet, it was usually in Boston around an elm tree that has since become known as the Liberty Tree. It was here that the group would formulate their resistance, which included the dissemination of pamphlets and even some sabotage and terrorist activity. This behavior led to the British branding the Sons of Liberty as seditious, and they were often referred to pejoratively as “The Sons of Violence.” The group is most notable today for sowing the seeds of revolution among the colonists with their protest of the Stamp Act, and for coining the now famous phrase “no taxation without representation.”

Secret Practices
The Sons of Liberty in Boston were the most famous arm of the group, but there were factions spread out all across the 13 colonies. One group in Rhode Island looted and burned the British trade ship Gaspee in protest of unfair trade practices, while others were known to tar and feather British loyalists. Still, the most famous event engineered by the Sons remains the Boston Tea Party in 1773, when members of the group dressed as Indians and dumped shiploads of overtaxed tea into Boston Harbor.

3. Skull and Bones

Famous Members
George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, John Kerry

Ivy League Colleges are known for their many secret societies and student organizations, and of these Yale’s Skull and Bones is probably the most famous. The society taps new students for membership every spring, and the only real prerequisite for membership is that the initiate be a campus leader. As such, athletes, members of the student council, and fraternity presidents are often considered. Skull and Bones counts among its membership U.S. Presidents, Senators, and Supreme Court Justices, which has lead many to argue that the group works as some kind of underground organization for the high-powered political elite. There is no denying that the club is well funded: an alumni organization called the Russell Trust Association bankrolls its activities, and the group supposedly owns an island in upstate New York.

Secret Practices
Skull and Bones’ membership is no longer kept secret, but their practices still are. The order meets twice a week, but just what goes on at their meetings has never been revealed. To the disappointment of conspiracy theorists, what rumors have come out are relatively innocuous. The group has supposedly taken part in a number of pranks, and was once even sued by chairman of the Apache tribe, who claimed the Bonesmen were in possession of the skeleton of Geronimo. Beyond this, the group is known for allegedly forcing new members to relate their sexual history to the rest of the society, and for giving out nicknames to each initiate. In a widely reported rumor, President George H.W. Bush was supposedly known as “Magog,” a name given to the Bonesman with the most sexual experience.

2. The Illuminati

Famous Members
Goethe, Ferdinand of Brunswick, many others rumored

In popular culture and the realm of wild and weird conspiracy theories, no secret organization has become as well known as the Illuminati, who have made frequent appearances in books, movies, and television. The group as it is popularly understood is more or less a myth, but the legend of it dates back to a real organization that existed in Germany in the late 1700s. At the time, the members of the group presented themselves as an order of enlightened free thinkers. The press soon turned against them, and they came to be regarded by many as an underground force of dissidents intent on overthrowing the government, and they were even blamed for inciting the French Revolution. The group disbanded shortly thereafter, but their influence remained strong, and for years after their dissolution they were rumored to still be operating somewhere in the shadows.

Secret Practices
Thanks to its constant presence in popular culture, the Illuminati have continued to be feared to this day. Modern conspiracy theorists have asserted that the group survived and now operates as a sinister shadow government, directing world industry and politics as it sees fit. The Bush family, Winston Churchill, and Barack Obama have all been named as prominent members, but no legitimate evidence of such a group has ever been uncovered. Still, the rumor lives on as one of the most popular, albeit bizarre, of all conspiracy theories.

1. The Freemasons

Famous Members
Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, James Buchanan, Bob Dole, Henry Ford, Ben Franklin

Although they are less influential and secretive today than they once were, the Freemasons remain one of the most famous fraternal organizations in the world, with a membership somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 million. The group was officially founded in 1717, but documents relating to its existence date back to the 1300s.  It was originally created to be a brotherhood whose members share certain key philosophical ideas, among them a belief in a supreme being. The group stresses moral uprightness, and as such many of the chapters have become known for their charitable work and community service. Despite these seemingly harmless practices, the Freemasons are not without their critics. Conspiracy theorists have long targeted them for supposedly being involved in nefarious occult practices, and there have even been whole political groups based around opposition to the group. Churches of all denominations have also criticized the organization, as its moral teachings and esoteric spiritual beliefs have been said to be in competition with more traditional religion.

The Stonecutters, a secret society featured on the Simpsons is based on the Freemasons.

Secret Practices
With its huge membership and different lodges scattered across the globe, modern Freemasonry no longer has the same universal principles as it did in the old days. One practice that has remained constant is the method for induction. Initiates must be recommended to the group by someone who is already a Mason, and once a member they must pass through three different degrees of standing before reaching the level of “Master Mason.” Members also have certain prescribed modes of greeting one another, including handshakes, gestures, and passwords, and non-masons are always banned from attending meetings.

Well Google Map is the most usefull GPS that majority  people use on internet..

this google maps is better than other gps.. i place in number one because this one

will be usefull in a future..

2.Google Search

this one u cant life with if u are a internet user, internet without google is dying..

google search provide the most largest database and flexible to use

the one problem google search had is advertising, but u must understand google

need to feed their company to offers more their inovation…

3.wikipedia

Today we studying almost anything from here, i see wikipedia never publish

anything without a fact first, so i hope someday this wikipedia become a

alice is brain..

4.Wordpress

this is a blogging site, the most leading site for blogging.. they always improve their

feature than any other blogging site, blogging site more usefull  for sharing than

social network from my own preception.. u can share ur idea with anyone in this

worldcan read it without limitation..

5.youtube

sometimes people more enjoying studying from visual than a word,and sharing with

visual is more easily to understaning than something only with word or text..

but youtube had a connection trouble today,growing slow year after year..

6.MSN Messenger

MSN already prove their new MSN messenger is the most interactive

messenger software in 2010, they linkable to any social network, and able

to see the update from anywhere ur social network, the one problem is their

server, often error for some ppl, for unexperience PCuser this can cause a confusion

even server or software is often error i give MSN is the most inovative software

today, with blogging software, photo uploading software,and emailing software

with need of some improvement in error things..

7.Photobucket

today this photo sharing site is the most interactive photo sharing site for me,

this site only had few trouble,sometimes picture not appeare in embeded..

but this site is fun and more interactive than other website with same function..

8.Plug In

all up there is the most usefull plug in for ur PC in the future..

9.google chroome

google chroome is the most inovative browser today, lightweight browser

and winning anti hacking browser today, less error than other browser,

more flexible and faster in my PC

10.Alice AI Project

in the future we will using this kind of AI in Internet.. very important project today..

11.Aldebaran Robot Project

they research in robotic inovation, this will be improve in the few year,

we will use robot in a future…

TOKYO FIRE DEPARTMENT SUPER AMBULANCE – FUSO (2003) MOBILE CASUALTY TREATMENT VEHICLE BASED AT THE HYPER RESCUE 2 KEIHIN JIMA

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The Lamborghini Gallardo, worth £130,000 and capable of reaching 62mph in four seconds, was one of a pair donated by the Italian manufacturer to the police to do battle on Italy’s roads, where 1 million motorists are injured annually and 4,731 died last year. The new Gallardo LP560-4 Polizia, which replaces the previous Gallardo in use by the Italian police force since 2004 has a 560 horsepower engine that can reach speeds of up to 203 mph.

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Aerial ladder = 85 3 Classes Ladder Truck 30 Meters Ladder Truck 40 Meters Ladder Truck 23 Meters Water Tower Truck Aerial Basket Truck

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Chemical Trucks = 48 4 Classes Basic Chemical Truck Large-sized Chemical Truck 10 Ton 22 Ton HAZMAT Truck Foaming Truck

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Pumpers = 486 7 Classes Small-sized Pumper Normal-sized Pumper Tank Pumper 2 Ton Tank 5 Ton Tank 15 Meters Ladder and 950 Liter Tank Pumper 13.7 Meters Tower and 950 Liter Tank Pumper Long-range Mass Water Supply Pumper Obstacle Removal and Pumper

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Rescue Trucks = 25 6 Classes Rescue Truck (Type II) Rescue Truck (Type III) Rescue Truck (Type IV) Mountain Rescue Truck Tracked Rescue Water Rescue Truck

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Fire boats = 9

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The Eurocopter SA 365/AS365 Dauphin 2 is a medium-weight multipurpose twin-engine helicopter

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A riot gun or non-lethal launcher

Rubber bullet Such "kinetic impact munitions" are meant to cause pain but not serious injury.

Tear gas, formally known as a lachrymatory agent or lachrymator Tear gas works by irritating mucous membranes in the eyes, nose, mouth and lungs, and causes crying, sneezing, coughing, hard breathing, pain in the eyes, temporary blindness, etc.

Pepper spray, also known as OC spray ,OC gas, and capsicum spray a chemical compound that irritates the eyes to cause tears, pain, and even temporary blindness

Stun Ammo with smaller explosive charges that aim to stun rather than kill.

Smoke

A shotgun shell

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Homo Sapiens – Modern Human

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Neanderthal – orc

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Homo ergaster – troll

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H. floresiensis – hobbit

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Homo heidelbergensis – elf

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and many more

the world still hiding much misteries that we still dont know excatly about our world’s true identity..our existence in this world.. all is waiting for u to  be founded..

Teutonic Knights
AD 1190 – 1525

The Order of the Teutonic Knights of the Hospital of the Blessed Virgin was a military-religious organisation which restricted its membership to Germans only. Originally part of the Hospitallers, they soon split away and formed their own order, taking as their uniform a distinctive white cloak bearing a plain black cross on the left shoulder. Upon the fall of Acre in 1291 they retired to Venice where Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II commissioned them to convert the heathens in Prussia. They became a very successful order with a new headquarters at Marienburg (East Prussia) from 1309-1509.

1190 – 1192

Meister Sibrand

First leader of the Brotherhood in Outremer.

1192 – 1193

Gerhard

1192

The Knights make their headquarters in Acre.

1193/94 – 1195

Heinrich

Prior.

1195 – 1196

Ulrich

1196 – 1198

Heinrich

Preceptor, probably Heinrich Walpot von Bassenheim.

1198

The brotherhood is elevated to a spiritual military order, and its priors become grand masters.

1198 – 1200

Heinrich Walpot von Bassenheim

1200 – 1208

Otto von Kerpen

1208 – 1209

Heinrich von Tunna

1209

In Acre, the Teutonic Knights side with the Hospitallers and the barons in Acre against the Templars, something which sparks a long-standing feud between the Templars and the Teutonic Knights.

1209 – 1239

Hermann von Salza

1217

Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II grants the Knights the same status as the Templars and Hospitallers in the kingdom of Sicily.

1220

Pope Honorius III grants privileges to the Knights. As an order, they are now on the same level as the Templars and the Hospitallers.

1226

The Golden Bull of Rimini is issued by Frederick II, giving the Knights wide-ranging powers in the name of the Holy Roman Empire in Prussia. The Teutonic Knights join the Northern Crusade, a war that has already been raging since the beginning of the century.

Already veteran soldiers from their time in the Holy Land, the Teutonic Knights would have presented a fearsome spectacle to the Prussians

1228

The Polish Prince Konrad of Mazovia invites the Teutonic Knights to settle in the Lower Vistula on the border with the Prussians, who have been ravaging Mazovia. The Order attempts to Christianise the pagan Prussians and starts off by conquering Prussian territory in a campaign which takes half the Prussian lands in a decade.

1236 – 1238

The Livonian Knights are decimated by the Samogitians and Semigallians at the Battle of Schaulen (Saule) in 1236. The following year the surviving Knights join the Teutonic Knights as an autonomous branch in Livonia. While being subject to the grand master of the Teutonic Knights, the Livonian Knights continue to operate on their own behalf.

1239 – 1240

Konrad von Thüringen

1240 – 1244

Gerhard von Malberg

1241 – 1249

The conquered and newly baptised Prussians, no longer able to stand the oppression of the conquerors, rise up but are defeated by 1249. The Order continues its advance to the north, intent on forming its own military-religious state (known as the Ordenstaat) which it governs for the next three hundred years.

1242

Bishop Hermann and his Ungenois forces in Dorpat are defeated along with the Teutonic Knights on 5 April by the prince of Novgorod, Alexander Yaroslavitz Nevsky during the Battle of the Ice on Lake Peipsi. This halts the eastwards advance of the German crusaders. However, Courland falls under the domination of the Knights through their acceptance of the Livonian Knights as a sub-order.

1243

The Papal legate, William of Modena, oversees the creation of the three dioceses of Culm, Ermland, and Pomesania within the recently conquered Prussian territories.

1244 – 1249

Heinrich von Hohenlohe

1249 – 1252

Günther von Wüllersleben

1252 – 1256

Poppo von Osterna

1252

The Knights take northern Prussia, with the result that the bishopric of Samland is formed there, comprising the Frisches Haff (Vislinskii Zaliv) and Kurisches Haff (Kurskii Zaliv), with Königsberg serving as the administrative headquarters.

1256 – 1273

Anno von Sangershausen

1260 – 1274

The Livonian Knights and Teutonic Knights are abandoned by their Estonian and Couronian vassals and defeated again, this time severely, at the Battle of Durbe in Livonia by the Samogitians. As a result, numerous rebellions break out against the Teutonic Knights all across the Baltics, including a general uprising throughout Prussia. The bishop of Courland leaves and only re-enters the territory in 1290. The Prussians win several battles against the hard-pressed Knights and by 1264 the situation is critical. Reinforcements arrive from Germany and the Order launches an attack against the rebels, with final defeat of the Prussians coming in 1274.

1273 – 1282

Hartmann von Heldrungen

1282/83 – 1290

Burchard von Schwanden

1283

The Knights continue to advance north through Prussia, and having conquered the lands of the Skalvs and part of that of the Yatvyags, it drives the Nadruvians to the River Nemunas in 1283, right on the border with Lithuania. The population of these areas is killed off, with only a few managing to escape across the border.

1290 – 1297

Konrad von Feuchtwangen

1290

The bishop of Courland re-enters his territory following the successful suppression of the Baltic rebellions. However, in the same year the cathedral chapter is incorporated into the territory belonging to the Teutonic Knights, resulting in the bishopric being subject to the Order, and many of its incumbents being members of the Order.

1291

Acre is conquered by the Mamelukes, signalling the end of Outremer. The Knights move their headquarters to Venice.

1297 – 1303

Gottfried von Hohenlohe

1303 – 1311

Siegfried von Feuchtwangen

1308 – 1309

Following the conquest of the Prussians, Nadravs, and Skalvs, and the seizure of Pomerania in this year, the state ruled by the Knights reaches from the Lower Vistula to Klaipeda (on the modern Lithuanian coast), which has been ceded to them by the Livonian Knights. The following year, the Knights move their headquarters from Venice to Marienburg in Prussia. Their state is extremely centralised and heavily militarised, and colonists from Germany are invited to settle while the Knights continue to fight the pagan Lithuanians and Catholic Poland.

1311 – 1324

Karl von Trier

1324 – 1330

Werner von Orseln

1331 – 1335

Lothar / Luther von Braunschweig

1335 – 1341

Dietrich von Altenburg

1342 – 1345

Ludolf König

1345 – 1351

Heinrich Dusemer

1346

The Danish king sells North Estonia to the Livonian Knights for ten thousand marks. This gives the Teutonic Knights control over the bishopric of Reval. All of Estonia is now ruled by a German nobility class. The official transfer of power takes place on 1 November 1346.

1351 – 1382

Winrich von Kniprode

1382

Ziemowit IV of the duchy of Plock loses much of his territory to the Teutonic Knights, including Belz, Plonsk, Wizna, and Zawkrze.

1382 – 1390

Conrad Zöllner von Rothenstein

1385 – 1387

The Union of Kreva (Krewo) is agreed by Grand Prince Jogaila of Lithuania as the only certain way to halt the crusading attacks by Poland, the Teutonic Knights and Moscow. The union includes the throne of Poland in return for the Catholic Christianisation of the Lithuanians, and in 1386 Jogaila becomes king of Poland under the name Wladyslaw Jagiello. In part, the offer is made in order to diminish the power of the Teutonic Knights, long a thorn in the side of Poland, but the Knights refuse to acknowledge the baptising of Lithuania and continue their war through to the end of the century.

1391 – 1393

Konrad von Wallenrode

1393 – 1407

Konrad von Jungingen

1398

The Knights conquer the duchy of Samogitia, removing it from Lithuanian control. Their dream of uniting their Prussian lands with those of Livonia and Courland has become a reality. However, the Samogitians refuse to surrender.

1407 – 1410

Ulrich von Jungingen

1410

The Battle of Tannenberg on 15 July (which is known more locally as the Battle of Grunwald) is one of the region’s greatest battles and one that is remembered for centuries afterwards by Germans. It is triggered by a Samogitian revolt in 1409, and sees Polish and Lithuanian forces under Polish leadership crush the Order’s army. Although the defeat is not followed up, it halts the eastward expansion of the Teutonic Knights, and after this defeat, the Livonian Knights begin to weaken and disintegrate.

The Battle of Tannenberg destroyed the authority of the Teutonic Knights in the Baltics

1410 – 1413

Heinrich von Plauen

1411 – 1422

Samogitia is recaptured by the Lithuanians in 1411, who incorporate it into their state as a district which accesses the Baltic Sea between the duchy of Courland and Prussia, and the situation is officially recognised by the Knights under the terms of the Treaty of Melno in 1422. Their aggression is permanently ended.

1414 – 1422

Michael Küchmeister von Sternberg

1422 – 1441

Paul von Rusdorf

1441 – 1449

Konrad von Erlichshausen

1449/50 – 1467

Ludwig von Erlichshausen

1454 – 1466

The next blow to befall the Knights comes in the Thirteen Year War (1454-1466) against Poland, which concerns the domination of Prussia. During the war, the Knights lose Pomerania and Danzig (modern Gdansk), and end up as nothing more than a Polish vassal. However, the grand masters try to avoid giving the vassal’s oath of loyalty to Poland, and on occasion even resist by military means.

Following the unsuccessful conclusion of the war, the Knights move their headquarters from Marienburg to Königsberg (founded by the Knights in the thirteenth century and now Kaliningrad). By this time they have greatly declined in power and importance and are in desperate need of help. As an attempt to strengthen the Order’s position and possibly attract the attention of the Holy Roman Emperor, they appoint grand masters who are drawn from the German nobility, rather than being elected on merit.

1467 – 1470

Heinrich Reuß von Plauen

1470 – 1477

Heinrich Reffle von Richtenberg

1477 – 1489

Martin Truchseß von Wetzhausen

1489 – 1497

Johann von Tiefen

1497 – 1510

Frederick of Saxony

Son of the elector of Saxe-Meissen.

1510 – 1525

Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach

Albert of Prussia.

1525

The monastic state (the Ordenstaat) is secularised during the Protestant Reformation and replaced with a duchy in East Prussia, in order to protect it from the threat of war and to spread the Lutheran faith. The last great master of the Teutonic Knights agrees to resign his position, convert to Lutheran Protestantism, and submit to Polish suzerainty in order to govern his new state, which becomes the first Protestant state in Europe.

Teutonic Knights
AD 1525 – Present Day

The Teutonic Knights, ousted entirely from power, remained as mere titular administrators, supported by the Holy Roman Emperor who continued to hold a claim on East Prussia. The Knights continue to hold landed possessions in Germany which were administered by the ‘Deutschmeister’, while further holdings in Livonia were administered by the ‘Hochmeister’ so, as the new head of the order, Walter von Cronberg combined the titles and duties and became the first Hoch- und Deutschmeister. The headquarters was moved from Prussia to Bad Mergentheim in the duchy of Württemberg.

1527 – 1543

Walter von Cronberg

First Hoch- und Deutschmeister (from 1530).

1543 – 1566

Wolfgang Schutzbar

1558 – 1561

Following Russian provocation and the conquest of Dorpat, the Livonian Wars erupt in the Baltic States between 1558-1583. The Livonian Knights and the archbishop of Riga seek help from Sigismund II of Poland-Lithuania, but the army of the Livonian Knights is completely destroyed by the Russians at the Battle of Ergeme in 1560, and a year later, on 29 November, the master of the Order, Gotthard Kettler, acknowledges the supreme power of Sigismund II over all areas regarding the Order, including its territories, formally dissolving the Livonian Knights. North Estonia surrenders voluntarily to the Swedish, and Livonia is drawn into the Lithuanian state.

1566 – 1572

Georg Hundt von Weckheim

1572 – 1590

Heinrich von Bobenhausen

1590 – 1618

Maximilian of Austria

Austrian count of the Tyrol.

1618

The duke of East Prussia (Albert Frederick) dies without an heir and the territory is inherited by the senior Hohenzollern line in Brandenburg.

1619 – 1624

Karl I of Austria

1625 – 1627

Johann Eustach von Westernach

1627 – 1641

Johann Kaspar von Stadion

1641 – 1662

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria

Son of Ferdinand II of Austria.

1662 – 1664

Archduke Karl Josef of Austria

1664 – 1684

Johann Caspar von Ampringen

1685 – 1694

Ludwig Anton of Palatinate–Neuburg

1694 – 1732

Ludwig Franz of Palatinate–Neuburg

1696

Franz-Ludwig, Count Palatine of the Rhein, and duke of Neuberg, authorises the Hoch- und Teutschmeister infantry regiment in the Austrian army, to be composed of three battalions of foot. This is considered to be the formal birth of the Hoch- und Deutschmeister line, possibly the proudest name in Imperial Austria’s military history.

1732 – 1761

Prince Clemens August of Bavaria

Son of Maximilian II of Bavaria.

1761 – 1780

Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine

Son of Leopold Joseph of Lorraine.

1780 – 1801

Archduke Maximilian Franz of Austria

Son of Maria Theresa of Austria.

1801 – 1804

Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen

Son of Leopold II of Austria.

1804 – 1835

Anton Viktor of Austria

Brother. First hereditary master of the Austrian imperial house.

1809

Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France, commands the Order to be dissolved, and removes from it the last of its secular holdings. Adapting to changing circumstances yet again in its history, the Order instead retires to Vienna in Austria and works as a ceremonial body with charitable leanings.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s progressive conquest of Europe swept away everything that he saw as irrelevant to his modern Europe

1835 – 1863

Maximilian of Austria–Este

1863 – 1894

Wilhelm Franz Karl of Austria

1894 – 1923

Eugen F Pius Bernhard of Austria

Last hereditary master of the Austrian imperial house.

1923 – 1929

Dr Norbert Klein

Last Hoch- und Deutschmeister.

1929

The Teutonic Order changes its role again to become a clerical religious order within the Roman Catholic church, still headed by a grand master.

1929 – 1933

Dr Norbert Klein

1933 – 1936

Paul Heider

1936 – 1948

Robert Schälzky

1938 – 1945

The Order is officially outlawed by Adolf Hitler, but survives the rise and fall of the Nazi Third Reich in Germany and reforms after the war.

1948 0 1970

Dr Marian Tumler

1970 – 1988

Ildefons Pauler

1988 – 2000

Othmar Wieland

2000 – Present

Dr Bruno Platter

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Anthrax

Anthrax is a diseased caused by a bacterium called Bacillus Anthracis. There are three types of anthrax, skin, lung, and digestive. Anthrax has lately become a major world issue for its ability to become an epidemic and spread quickly and easily among people through contact with spores. It is important to know that  Anthrax is not spread from person to person, but is through contact/handling of products containing spores. Flu like symptoms, nausea, and blisters are common symptoms of exposure. Inhalational anthrax and gastrointestinalanthrax are serious issue because of their high mortality rates ranging from 50 to 100%.

HIV

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. As it has become a world epidemic. Many people who contract HIV live for years with the it, but many do eventually die. HIV is usually contracted through contact with blood, semen or vaginal fluid of an infected person. Although many steps can be taken to prevent disease transmission there is still no cure for HIV/AIDS.

Ebola Virus

Discovered in 1976, this killer virus has killed millions across the world. The virus is transmitted from the host (usually an animal) to the first case-patient. From this point, others are usually infected through contact with body secretions of the infected person.  Only a mere 10% of those who contract the disease survive. Symptoms are internal and external bleeding, vomiting, and severe stomach pain to name a few.

Marburg Virus

Marburg virus like the Ebola virus is a type of hemorrhagic fever. The two diseases share the same symptoms are almost indistinguishable from each other. This deadly virus has a 50-90% mortality rate.

Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

This form of the flu is common among birds (usually poultry) and infects humans through contact with secretions of an infected bird.
Although rare, those infected have a high incidence of death. Symptoms are like those of the more common human form of influenza.

Malaria

Malaria is a mosquito-borne illness caused by parasite. Although malaria can be prevented and treated, it is often fatal. Each year about 1 million people die from Malaria.  Common symptoms include fever, chills, headache. Sweats, and fatigue.

Cholera

Due to the severe dehydration it causes, if left untreated Cholera can cause death within hours. In 1991 a major outbreak occurred in South America though currently few cases are known outside of Sub-Saharan Africa. Symptoms include severe diarrhea, vomiting and leg cramping. Cholera is usually contracted through ingestion of contaminated water or food.

Yellow Fever

Transmitted through infected mosquitoes, Yellow Fever is still a serious problem in countries all over the world and a serious health risk for travelers to Africa, South America and some areas in the Caribbean.  Fatality rates range from 15 to over 50%. Symptoms include high fever, headache, abdominal pain, fatigue, vomiting and nausea.

Typhoid Fever

Patients with typhoid fever sometimes demonstrate a rash of flat, rose-colored spots and a sustained fever of 103 to 104. Typhoid is contracted through contact with the S. Typhi bacteria, which is carried by humans in both their blood stream and stool. Over 400 cases occur in the US, 20% of those who contract it die.

SARS

SARS is a severe respiratory illness caused by the Coronavirus. It became a world issue in 2003 during a major worldwide outbreak, especially concentrated in Asia. Symptoms include headache, fever, diarrhea and dry cough. An estimated 15% die from the virus.

Crimean-Congo

Transmitted through tick bites this disease is endemic (consistently present)  in most countries of West Africa and the Middle East. Although rare, CCHF has a 30% mortality rate. The most recent outbreak of the disease was in 2005 in Turkey.

Especially when traveling, be careful of all that you come in conact with. Remember to speak with doctors before going abroad and always get your vaccinations!

Bonnie Bassler discovered that bacteria “talk” to each other, using a chemical language that lets them coordinate defense and mount attacks. The find has stunning implications for medicine, industry — and our understanding of ourselves.

About Bonnie Bassler: In 2002, bearing her microscope on a microbe that lives in the gut of fish, Bonnie Bassler isolated an elusive molecule called AI-2, and uncovered the mechanism behind mysterious behavior called quorum sensing — or bacterial communication. She showed that bacterial chatter is hardly exceptional or anomolous behavior, as was once thought — and in fact, most bacteria do it, and most do it all the time. (She calls the signaling molecules “bacterial Esperanto.”)

The discovery shows how cell populations use chemical powwows to stage attacks, evade immune systems and forge slimy defenses called biofilms. For that, she’s won a MacArthur “genius” grant — and is giving new hope to frustrated pharmacos seeking new weapons against drug-resistant superbugs.

Bassler teaches molecular biology at Princeton, where she continues her years-long study of V. harveyi, one such social microbe that is mainly responsible for glow-in-the-dark sushi. She also teaches aerobics at the YMCA.

Quick Facts Type Logophonetic Genealogy Cuneiform Location West Asia > Mesopotamia Time 3300 BCE to 100 CE Direction Variable

The Sumerians were one of the earliest urban societies to emerge in the world, in Southern Mesopotamia more than 5000 years ago. They developed a writing system whose wedge-shaped strokes would influence the style of scripts in the same geographical area for the next 3000 years. Eventually, all of these diverse writing systems, which encompass both logophonetic, consonantal alphabetic, and syllabic systems, became known as cuneiform.

It is actually possible to trace the long road of the invention of the Sumerian writing system. For 5000 years before the appearance of writing in Mesopotamia, there were small clay objects in abstract shapes, called clay tokens, that were apparently used for counting agricultural and manufactured goods. As time went by, the ancient Mesopotamians realized that they needed a way to keep all the clay tokens securely together (to prevent loss, theft, etc), so they started putting multiple clay tokens into a large, hollow clay container which they then sealed up. However, once sealed, the problem of remembering how many tokens were inside the container arose. To solve this problem, the Mesopotamians started impressing pictures of the clay tokens on the surface of the clay container with a stylus. Also, if there were five clay tokens inside, they would impress the picture of the token five times, and so problem of what and how many inside the container was solved.

Subsequently, the ancient Mesopotamians stopped using clay tokens altogether, and simply impressed the symbol of the clay tokens on wet clay surfaces. In addition to symbols derived from clay tokens, they also added other symbols that were more pictographic in nature, i.e. they resemble the natural object they represent. Moreover, instead of repeating the same picture over and over again to represent multiple objects of the same type, they used diferent kinds of small marks to “count” the number of objects, thus adding a system for enumerating objects to their incipient system of symbols. Examples of this early system represents some of the earliest texts found in the Sumerian cities of Uruk and Jamdat Nasr around 3300 BCE, such as the one below.

You can read more about the previous example at www.metmuseum.org.

The Sumerian writing system during the early periods was constantly in flux. The original direction of writing was from top to bottom, but for reasons unknown, it changed to left-to-right very early on (perhaps around 3000 BCE). This also affected the orientation of the signs by rotating all of them 90° counterclockwise. Another change in this early system involved the “style” of the signs. The early signs were more “linear” in that the strokes making up the signs were lines and curves. But starting after 3000 BCE these strokes started to evolve into wedges, thus changing the visual style of the signs from linear to “cuneiform”.

By 2800 BCE the writing system started to exhibit use of phonetic elements. As the Sumerian language had a high number of monosyllabic words, there was a high degree of homophony, meaning that there is a large number of words that sound alike or identical. This presented the possibility of rebus writing, where sign for one word is used to represent another word that has a similar or identical sound. One example is ti “arrow”, which is similar to til “life”. So, to write “life”, the ancient Sumerians wrote the sign for “arrow”. Eventually, the logogram for “arrow” became a syllabogram to represent the sound /ti/. Similarly, other logograms also became syllabograms.

On the flip side, if different similar-sounding words all have different signs, then there could have been multiple ways of writing the same sound. This is the case with the syllable /gu/, as there are fourteen symbols that all represent the sound /gu/, of which four are shown below.

Note: When transcribing Sumerian syllabic signs into English, archaeologists use subscripts to mark different signs that have the same phonetic value. So in the previous example, gu is “flax”, gu₂ is “neck”, gu₃ is “voice”, and so forth. And as you will see later, when transcribing logograms, capital letters are used, such as MUSHEN for “bird”.

Another peculiarity of the writing system is polyphony, where many words that have similar meaning but vastly different sounds are written with the same sign. For example, the word zu “tooth”, ka “mouth”, and gu “voice” are all written with the sign for gu₃ “voice”.

In addition to use of phonetic signs to spell out new words, new signs were created by adding graphic elements to an existing sign or combining two existing signs. The additional graphic element could be geometric patterns without any meaning, or could be another cuneiform sign.

As the system grew more complex, it became hard to tell if a sign was being used as a logogram or a syllabogram (or even which one of the potential sound values the syllabogram can have). To help with the ambiguity, several logograms were overloaded to become “determinatives”. They would precede or follow a group of signs that make up a word, and gives a hint to meaning of the word by marking the broad category of objects or ideas the word belongs to.

Note: When transcribing a determinative, archaeologists use small, superscript capital letters to write the Sumerian word that the determinative means, such as ^GISH for “wood”.

Another way to disambiguate the reading of a sign is to use “phonetic complements” placed before or after (or both ways) a sign that gives part of the word’s pronunciation. For example, the word uga means ‘raven’ in Sumerian, and there is a logogram UGA for ‘raven’. However, the same logogram can also be NAGA (‘soap’), ERESH (name of a city), or NISABA (the patron goddess of Eresh). To explicitly spell out the word uga, not one but two phonetic complements were used, one placed before the logogram and one after. And to top it off, they put the determinative for bird, ^MUSHEN, after the group of signs to make it absolutely clear that this is a raven.

Another interesting fact about Sumerian (and later cuneiform systems as well) is that the numeric system is both decimal (base-10) and sexagesimal (base-60). This means that there are unique symbols for each of the bases, as well as combinations and powers of the bases. So for example, the number nine would be represented by nine copies of the “1″ sign, but the number ten would be represented only by the “10″ sign. The number sixty would be represented only by the “60″ sign, and the number seventy would be the “60″ sign followed by the “10″ sign.

The sexagesimal part of this system survives in the modern era in units of time (seconds and minutes) and of trigonometry (360 degrees).

Later Mesopotamian people (Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, etc) adopted this system but modified it so that it became positional (like ours). This reduced the system to only two symbols (the “1″ and “10″ signs) and the position a sign occur within a number changes its quanity, just like “1″ in the number “100″ is different from the “1″ in the number “10,000″ in our modern system.

The Sumerian writing system was adopted and modified by other contemporaneous Mesopotamian people such as the Akkadians and the Babylonians. As a spoken language, Sumerian died out around the 18th century BCE, but continued as a “learned” written language (much like Latin was during the Middle Ages in Europe). In this way, Sumerian was used continually until the 1st century CE, making it one of the longest used writing system in history.

Japanese mythology includes a vast number of gods, goddesses, and spirits. Most of the stories concern the creation of the world, the foundation of the islands of Japan, and the activities of deities, humans, animals, spirits, and magical creatures. Some myths describe characters and events associated with particular places in Japan. Others are set in legendary locations, such as the heavens or the underworld.

Sources for Japanese Myths

For many centuries myths were transmitted orally in Japan. In A . D . 712, a written version of the mythology, the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters), was compiled for the Japanese imperial court. The tales in the Kojiki tell of the creation of the world, the origin of the gods, and the ancestry of the Japanese emperors, who claimed descent from the sun goddess Amaterasu.

Another early source of Japanese mythology is the Nihongi, or Nihonshoki (Chronicles of Japan). Completed in 720, this work also includes various myths and legends, and it helps establish the genealogy of the imperial family The Nihongi was greatly influenced by

Hachiman, one of the most popular gods of Japanese mythology, was the patron of warriors.

Japanese Deities
Deity	Role
Amaterasu	goddess of the sun and fertility who brings light to the world
Hachiman	god of warriors, known for his military skill
Inari	god associated with rice and merchants
Izanagi	creator god
Izanami	creator goddess
Kagutsuchi	god of fire
Susano-ô	violent god associated with storms and the sea, Amaterasu’s brother
Tsuki-yomi	moon god, Amaterasu’s brother

Chinese and Korean history and mythology. Both the Kojiki and the Nihongi contain elements of Taoism, a Chinese religious movement that was introduced to Japan by the 600s.

Major Myths and Themes

The most important stories in Japanese mythology deal with creation and the goddess Amaterasu. Deeply rooted in nature, they vividly describe the formation of the landscape and the origin of forces such as fire, wind, and light.
Creation Myth. According to the Kojiki, in the beginning there was only a primeval ooze, out of which heaven and earth were formed. Life emerged from this mud. In heaven three deities—followed by two others—appeared. These five became the Separate Heavenly Deities. They were followed by the Seven Generations of the Age of the Gods, two single deities and five male and female couples. The two single deities came out of a reedlike substance floating in the ooze.

Magical Creatures

A group of monkeylike creatures called kappa displays both good and evil qualities in Japanese myth. Associated with water, they live in rivers, ponds, and lakes and carry water in a hollow space on top of their heads. If the water spills, the kappa lose their magical powers. Kappa drink the blood of humans, horses, and cattle. But they also eat cucumbers, and families can avoid being attacked by throwing a cucumber bearing their names into the kappa’s watery home.

Among the kappa’s good qualities is a tendency to be polite. When they meet someone, they bow, often spilling the water in their heads. They also always keep their promises. In many tales, humans outwit the kappa by forcing them to make promises.

patron special guardian, protector, or supporter

primeval from the earliest times

When the youngest pair of deities—Izanagi and Izanami—were born, the other gods ordered them to make solid land out of the material drifting in the sea. Standing on the floating bridge of heaven, Izanagi and Izanami stirred the primeval ocean with a

One story from Japanese mythology features a young hero named Yoshitsune and the king of the tengu, a group of half-human and half-bird deities. In this illustration, Yoshitsune grabs the king’s nose.

jeweled spear. When they pulled up the spear to see if any material had gathered on it, drops of salty water dripped down into the sea and formed an island called Onogoro. Izanagi and Izanami left heaven and went to live on the island. They married and produced eight children, who became the islands of Japan.Izanagi and Izanami then created gods and goddesses of the trees, mountains, valleys, streams, winds, and other natural features of Japan. While giving birth to the fire god Kagutsuchi, Izanami was badly burned. As she lay dying, she produced more gods and goddesses. Other deities emerged from the tears of her grief-stricken husband.

When Izanami died, she went to Yomi-tsu Kuni, the land of darkness and death. Izanagi followed her there and tried to bring her back. But Izanami’s body had already begun to decay, and she hid in the shadows and told Izanagi that she could not leave. Izanagi could not resist looking at his beloved wife one last time. When he lit a torch and saw her rotting corpse, he fled in terror. Angry that Izanagi had seen her, Izanami sent hideous spirits to chase him. Izanagi managed to escape, and he sealed off the passage to Yomi-tsu Kuni with a huge boulder. Izanami remained there and ruled over the dead.

Feeling unclean from his contact with the dead, Izanagi decided to bathe in a stream to purify himself. As he undressed, gods and goddesses emerged from his discarded clothing. Others came forth while he washed. Susano-ô came from his nose, Tsuki-yomi emerged from his right eye, and Amaterasu appeared from his left eye. Izanagi divided the world among these three gods. He gave Susano-ô control of the oceans, assigned Tsuki-yomi the realm of the night, and made Amaterasu the ruler of the sun and the heavens.
Myths of Amaterasu. One famous myth tells how Susano-ô, Amaterasu’s brother, was unhappy with his share of the world and caused much destruction. Banished to Yomi-tsu Kuni, he asked to go to heaven to see his sister the sun goddess one last time. Amaterasu became concerned that Susano-ô might be planning to take over her lands. The two agreed to a contest to prove their power. If Susano-ô won, he could stay in heaven forever, but if he lost, he would have to leave.

Amaterasu asked for her brother’s sword, which she broke into three pieces and chewed in her mouth. When Amaterasu spit out the pieces, they turned into three goddesses. Susano-ô then took a string of five star-shaped beads that Amaterasu had given him. He put the beads in his mouth, chewed them, and spat out five gods. Susano-ô claimed victory because he had produced five gods and Amaterasu had produced only three goddesses. However, Amaterasu pointed out that he had created these gods from her possessions, which proved that her power was actually greater than his. Susano-ô refused to acknowledge defeat, and Amaterasu allowed him to remain in heaven.

While in heaven, Susano-ô began doing things that offended his sister and violated important taboos. He destroyed rice fields, made loud noises, and dirtied the floors of her palace. Finally, Susano-ô killed one of the horses of heaven, skinned it, and hurled it into the hall where Amaterasu was weaving cloth. This so angered Amaterasu that she hid in a cave and refused to come out.

When the sun goddess concealed herself, the world was plunged into darkness, plants stopped growing, and all activities came to a halt. Desperate for Amaterasu’s return, 800 gods gathered to discuss ways of getting her to leave the cave. A wise god named Omori-kane proposed a solution.

The gods hung a mirror on the branches of a tree outside the cave. Then they had a young goddess named Ama-no-uzume dance to music while they laughed loudly. Amaterasu heard the noise and wondered what was happening. Opening the door to the cave a little, she asked why the gods were so happy. They told her that they were celebrating because they had found a goddess superior to her.

Curious at who this goddess might be, Amaterasu opened the door wider to look and saw her own image in the mirror. When she paused to gaze at her reflection, a god hiding nearby pulled her completely out of the cave. Another god then blocked the entrance with a magic rope. After Amaterasu emerged from the cave, her light shone once again, and life returned to normal. To punish Susano-ô for his actions, the gods banished him from heaven.
The Izumo Cycle. The Izumo Cycle of myths features the god Ôkuninushi, a descendant of Susano-ô. One of the most famous stories is about Ôkuninushi and the White Rabbit.

According to this tale, Ôkuninushi had 80 brothers, each of whom wanted to marry the same beautiful princess. On a journey to see the princess, the brothers came upon a rabbit with no fur in great pain at the side of the road. They told the animal that it could get its fur back by bathing in saltwater, but this only made the pain worse. A little while later, Ôkuninushi arrived and saw the suffering rabbit. When he asked what had happened, the rabbit told him how it had lost its fur.

A Divine Emperor

According to Japanese myth, the goddess Amaterasu established the imperial family of Japan. She began by sending her grandson, Ninigi no Mikoto, to live on earth. Before Ninigi left heaven, the goddess gave him the mirror that drew her from the cave, as well as jewels and a sword belonging to the god Susano-ô. When Ninigi arrived on earth, he was accepted as the ruler of Japan, and the gifts he brought from Amaterasu became treasures of the imperial family. Ninigi married the goddess of Mount Fuji, who bore him three sons. One of the sons was the father of Jimmu Tenno, the first historical emperor of Japan. By tradition, the Japanese imperial family traces its ancestry to Jimmu Tenno.
taboo prohibition against doing something that is believed to cause harm

One day while traveling between two islands, the rabbit persuaded some crocodiles to form a bridge so it could cross the water. In return the rabbit promised to count the crocodiles to see whether they were more numerous than the creatures of the sea. As the rabbit neared the far shore, the crocodiles realized that the promise was only a trick to get the rabbit across the water. Furious, the last crocodile seized the rabbit and tore off its skin.
* See Names and Places at the end of this volume for further information.

After hearing this story, Ôkuninushi told the rabbit to bathe in clear water and then roll in some grass pollen on the ground. The rabbit followed this plan, and new white fur soon grew on its body. The rabbit, who was actually a god, rewarded Ôkuninushi by promising that he would marry the beautiful princess. Ôkuninushi’s success angered his brothers, and a number of other myths in the Izumo Cycle tell about the struggles between them.

Classification: Gods (Extra-Dimensionals/Immortals)

Location/Base of Operations: Ergenekon

Known Members: Asena, Ay (goddess of the moon), Erlik (god of death & evil), Gesar, Koyash (god of the sun), Kuara (god of thunder), Tengri (god of the sky), Tulpar, Ulgen (god of light), Vaat (possibly Gaea)

Affiliations: Other races of Gods

Worshipped by the Mongolians and Siberians

Aliases: Mongolian or Turkic Gods

First Appearance: Thor I#300 (October, 1980)

Powers/Abilities/Traits: The Tenger all possess certain superhuman physical attributes. They are true immortals who cease to age upon reaching adulthood, and they cannot die by conventional means. The Tenger are immune to all terrestrial diseases and are resistant to conventional injury. If a Tenger is wounded, his or her godly life force will enable him or her to recover at a superhuman rate. It would take an injury of such magnitude that it incinerates a Tenger or disperses a major portion of his or her bodily molecules to cause him or her to die. Even then, it may be possible for a god of greater or equal power, or several gods acting together, to revive the deceased Tenger before the god’s life essence is beyond resurrection. Tenger flesh and bone are about three times denser than similar human tissue, contributing to the gods’ superhuman strength and weight. An average male god can lift about 30 tons; an average goddess can lift about 25 tons. The gods’ metabolism gives them superhuman endurance in all physical activities. Many gods also possess additional superhuman powers that may be magical in nature. For instance, the sun god Koyash can produce “solar strands” from his fingertips capable of ensnaring and burning his victims.

History: (Thor & Hercules: Encyclopedia Mythologica) – The Tenger (also known as the “Mongolian Gods” or “Turkic Gods”) are a race of superhumanly powerful humanoid beings who have been worshipped by the Altaic-speaking Mongol and Turkic cultures of Central Asia from the 8th century AD into modern times, although the god Erlik was worshipped as early as the Hyborian Era. Most of the Tenger dwell in Ergenekon, a small “pocket” dimension adjacent to Earth; an interdimensional nexus point between Ergenekon and Earth exists somewhere within the most remote regions of the Altai Mountains in Central Asia. Very little is known about celestial Ergenekon other than it appears to be built on a small planetary object. The Tenger are called different names by their human worshippers in Turkey, Mongolia and Siberia; for example, the Earth Mother Gaea is known as “Umay” or “Yer” to the Altaic Turks, as “Eje” or “Otuken” to the Mongols, and as “Ajysyt” to the Yakuts. Unlike many of their counterparts in other Earth-based pantheons, the Tenger are still invoked by a small number of Khakas and Tuvan shamans. Erlik is worshipped by the xenophobic Khirgiz tribe of Afghanistan, descendants of the Mongols.

The Tenger’s precise origin, like that of all Earth’s pantheons, is shrouded in legend. According to ancient myths, the Sky Father Tengri (known as “Tanri” to the Altaic Turks, as “Tengeri” to the Mongols, and as “Tangara” to the Yakuts) embodied the Eternal Blue Sky that predated all things. He found a kindred spirit in the primordial Earth Mother Gaea, and the two sired a son, Erlik. Gaea provided Erlik physical form by shaping his body out of mud, and Tengri imbued the body with life essence (“kut”). However, Erlik soon developed feelings of pride, hubris, and arrogance, forcing Tengri to banish him to the depths of the netherworld, where he became the god of evil & death. Other divine offspring soon followed, including the moon goddess Ay, the sun god Koyash, the thunder god Kuara, and the light god Ulgen. Pleased with the results of these subsequent attempts at creation, Tengri and Gaea then set out to create humanity and charged Ulgen with protecting the fledging mortal population. Jealous of Ulgen’s favored status, Erlik plagued humanity with sickness, disease, and death.

In ancient Valusia, Erlik granted the mortally wounded nobleman Vonndhar eternal life in exchange for serving Erlik until 10,000 BC, when he sacrificed his life to Erlik to restore his would-be lover, Jenna of Shadizar. Following the Great Cataclysm circa 18,000 BC, Erlik was worshipped in the remote northern realm of Pathenia. A prophet, the Tarim, was worshipped as Erlik’s living avatar and brought Erlik worship to the Hyrkanian tribes who founded the Turanian Empire. Through the Tarim and in alliance with the Celtic goddess Scathach, Erlik arranged for Sonja of Hyrkania to become a mighty warrior. Descended from the Lemurians, the Hyrkanians and Turanians were the ancestors of the Huns, Mongols, Tartars and Turks.

Circa 1000 AD, Ulgen was appointed by Tengri to serve as the pantheon’s representative at a Council of Godheads meeting to discuss the threat posed by the extraterrestrial Celestials’ Third Host. In the early 13th century AD, the warrior Genghis Khan (born Temujin) united many of the nomadic Mongol-Turkic tribes of Central Asia and established the Mongolian Empire. Although it is unrevealed if the Tenger played any role in Khan’s military success, Khan based the legitimacy of his power on a mandate from Tengri himself. He crafted a talisman known as the “Spirit Banner of Temujin” by weaving the hair of his most loyal horse and tying it below the blade of his spear; the Spirit Banner was believed to harness the Tengri’s power and channel it into Khan.

Following Genghis Khan’s death, a secret society steeped in advanced science and sorcery emerged that regarded itself as a perpetuation of the Mongolian Empire. In each era, this society selected the most worthy descendant of Genghis Khan as their new leader. Their most sacred talisman is the Spirit Banner of Temujin. Only the true khan can pluck the Spirit Banner from its flaming resting place, confirming his worthiness as their leader. As each khan grows ancient, he seeks a successor. The immortal Lung Dragon known as Mr. Lao has served as royal advisor to each khan for generations – and when a new khan is acclaimed as ruler, Lao ceremonially devours the previous khan. Over 700 years ago, Mr. Lao fought a mighty genie in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, inspiring the current name of the Mongols’ secret society: The Atlas Foundation. Today, the Agents of Atlas are under the leadership of former FBI agent James “Jimmy” Woo, who currently holds the title of khan. Although the society has traditionally pursued world domination in the names of Genghis Khan and the Tenger, Woo has attempted to use its covert power and vast influence to advance humanity’s greater good.

Children of Hyperion:
Eos, Helios, Selene

Daughters of Coeus:
Leto and Asteria

Sons of Iapetus:
Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Menoetius
The 12 Titans gods, also known as the elder gods, who ruled the Earth before the Olympians overthrew them. The ruler of the Titans was Cronus who was dethroned by his son Zeus. Most of the Titans fought with Cronus against Zeus and were punished by being banished to Tartarus.

In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age. The Titans were twelve from their first literary appearance, in Hesiod, Theogony; pseudo-Apollodorus, in Bibliotheke, adds a thirteenth Titan Dione, a double of Theia, aka Medusa. The six male Titans are known as the Titanes, and the female as the Titanides (“Titanesses”). The Titans were associated with various primal concepts, some of which are simply extrapolated from their names: ocean and fruitful earth, sun and moon, memory and natural law. The twelve first-generation Titans were led by the youngest, Cronus, who overthrew their father, Uranus (‘Heaven’), at the urgings of their mother, Gaia (‘Earth’).

The Titans later gave birth to other Titans, notably the children of Hyperion (Helios, Eos, and Selene), the daughters of Coeus (Leto and Asteria), and the sons of Iapetus – Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, and Menoetius; all of these descendants in the second generation are also known as “Titans”. The Titans preceded the Twelve Olympians, who, led by Zeus, eventually overthrew them in the Titanomachy (‘War of the Titans’). The Titans were then imprisoned in Tartarus, the depths of the underworld, with the exception of a few.

Greeks of the Classical age knew of several poems about the war between the gods and many of the Titans, the Titanomachy (“War of the Titans”). The dominant one, and the only one that has survived, was in the Theogony attributed to Hesiod. A lost epic Titanomachy attributed to the blind Thracian bard Thamyris, himself a legendary figure, was mentioned in passing in an essay On Music that was once attributed to Plutarch. And the Titans played a prominent role in the poems attributed to Orpheus. Although only scraps of the Orphic narratives survive, they show interesting differences with the Hesiodic tradition.

These Greek myths of the Titanomachy fall into a class of similar myths of a War in Heaven throughout Europe and the Near East, where one generation or group of gods by and large opposes the dominant one. Sometimes the Elder Gods are supplanted. Sometimes the rebels lose, and are either cast out of power entirely or incorporated into the pantheon. Other examples might include the wars of the Æsir with the Vanir and Jotuns in Scandinavian mythology, the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish, the Hittite “Kingship in Heaven” narrative, and the obscure generational conflict in Ugaritic fragments. The rebellion of Lucifer from Christianity could also fall under this category.

In Hesiod’s Theogony the twelve Titans follow the Hundred-handers and Cyclopes as children of Ouranos, heaven, and Gaia, the Earth. Ouranos considers Cronus monsterous, and so imprisons him in the bowels of the Earth. Cronus, aided by the Hundred-handers and Cyclopes, then sets upon his father, castrates him, and sets himself up as king of the gods, with Rhea as his wife and queen.

Rhea bears a new generation of gods to Cronus, but in fear that they will overthrow him, he swallows them all one by one. Only Zeus is saved: Rhea gives Cronus a stone in swaddling clothes in his place, and places him in Crete to be guarded by the Kouretes.

Once Zeus reaches adulthood, he subdues Cronus by force. Using a potion concocted with the help of Gaia, his grandmother, forcibly cause Cronus to vomit up Zeus’s siblings. A war between the younger and many of older gods commences, in which Zeus is aided by the Hundred-handers, Gigantes, and Cyclopes, who have once again been freed from Tartarus. Zeus wins after a long struggle, and casts many of the Titans down into Tartarus.

And yet the older gods leave their mark on the world. Some of them – like Mnemosyne, Gaia, Rhea, Hyperion, Themis and Metis – had not fought the Olympians, and become key players in the new administration. The Titans also leave behind a number of offspring, some of whom may also be counted as Titans, most notably the sons of Iapetus – Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, and Menoetius. Many ancient sources follow Hesiod closely, with minor variations: Apollodorus adds Dione as a thirteenth Titan.

Surviving fragments of Orphic poetry in particular preserve some variations on the myth.In one Orphic text, Zeus does not simply set upon his father violently. Instead, Rhea spreads out a banquet for Cronus, so that he becomes drunk upon honey. Zeus chains him and castrates him. Rather than being consigned to Tartarus, Cronus is dragged ­ still drunk ­ to the cave of Night, where he continues to dream and prophesy throughout eternity.

By and large Neopagan views of Titans can be considered ‘New Age’. Many of the ancient myths are often conveniently reinterpreted as metaphor or seen as man’s account of the divine. As such rather or not most modern beliefs regarding the Titans are grounded in actual mythology is often irrelevant to many Neopagans of today. In the United States Hellenistic Neopagan sects often have a special place for the Titan gods of ancient Greece, in particular Gaia, Cronus, Hecate, Hyperion, Theia, and Themis. It is sometimes argued that most of the beliefs regarding these Titan gods are inspired by popular fiction and entertainment media and not by actual mythology.

The Titans

Coeus

In Greek mythology, Coeus (also Koios) was the Titan of intelligence. Titans are the giant sons and daughters of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth). With his sister Phoebe, Titan of Brilliance and the Moon, Coeus fathered Leto and Asteria. Leto copulated with Zeus (the son of fellow Titans Cronus and Rhea) and bore Artemis and Apollo.As with the other Titans, Coeus was overthrown by Zeus and other Olympians.

Coeus

Crius

In Greek mythology, Crius (Kreios, the “Ram”) was one of the Titans in the list given in Hesiod’s Theogony, a son of Uranus and Gaia. The least individualized among them, he was overthrown in the Titanomachy. M.L. West has suggested how Hesiod filled out the complement of Titans from the core group, adding three figures from the archaic tradition of Delphi, Koios, Phoibe, whose name Apollo assumed with the oracle, and Themis. Among possible further interpolations among the Titans was Kreios, whose interest for Hesiod was as the father of Perses and grandfather of Hekate, for whom Hesiod is an “enthusiastic evangelist”.

Consorting with Eurybia, daughter of Earth Gaia and Sea Pontus, he fathered Astraios and Pallas as well as Perses. The joining of Astraios with Eos, the Dawn, brought forth Eosphoros, the other Stars and the Winds.

Joined to fill out lists of Titans to form a total that made a match with the Twelve Olympians, Crius/Kreios was inexorably involved in the eleven-year-long war between the Olympian gods and Titans, the Titanomachy, however without any specific part to play. When the war was lost, Crius/Kreios was banished along with the others to the lower basement of Hades called Tartarus. From his chthonic position in the Underworld, no classical association with Aries, the “Ram” of the zodiac, is ordinarily made.

Crius

Cronus

Cronus “horned”), also spelled Cronos or Kronos, is often confused with Chronos/Khronos.

In Greek mythology, Cronus was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans. His mother was Gaia, and his father was Uranus, whom Cronus envied.

Uranus hid the youngest children of Gaia, the one-hundred armed giants (Hecatonchires) and the one-eyed giants, the Cyclopes, in Tartarus so that they would not see the light, rejoicing in this evil doing. This caused pain to Gaia, so she created a great sickle and gathered together Cronus and his brothers to ask them to obey her. Only Cronus was willing to do the deed, so Gaia gave him the sickle and set him in ambush. Cronus ambushed his father and castrated him, casting the severed member into the sea. From that which spilled from Uranus and fell upon the Earth came forth the Gigantes, Erinyes, and Meliae. From that which was cast into the sea came forth Aphrodite. For this, Uranus called his sons Titans, meaning “strainers,” for they strained and did presumptuously a fearful deed, for which vengeance would come afterwards.

Cronus was identified in antiquity with the God Saturn of Roman mythology. The period of his rule was said to be a golden age on Earth, honored by the Saturnalia feast. Beginning on December 17 of each year, during the festival known as the Saturnalia, the Golden Age was restored for seven days. All business stopped and executions and military operations were postponed. It was a period of goodwill, devoted to banquets and the exchange of visits and gifts. A special feature of the festival was the freedom given to slaves, who during this time had first place at the family table and were served by their masters.

In an alternate version, a more benevolent Cronus overthrew the wicked serpentine Titan, Ophion. In doing so he released the world from bondage and for a time ruled it justly.

After dispatching Uranus, Cronus re-imprisoned the Hecatonchires, the Gigantes, and the Cyclopes and set the monster Campe to guard them. He and Rhea took the throne as King and Queen of the gods. This time was called the Golden Age, as the people of the time had no need for laws or rules; everyone did right, so there was no need.

Cronus sired several children by Rhea: Demeter, Hera, Hades, Hestia, and Poseidon, but swallowed them all as soon as they were born, since he had learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overcome by his own son as he had overthrown his own father. But when Zeus was about to be born, Rhea sought Uranus and Earth to devise a plan to save him, so that Cronus would get his retribution for his acts against Uranus and his own children. Rhea gave birth to Zeus in Crete, handing Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes (also known as the Omphalos Stone) which he promptly swallowed.

Then she hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete.

According to varying versions of the story:

1. He was then raised by Gaia.2. He was raised by a goat named Amalthea, while a company of Kouretes, soldiers, or smaller gods danced, shouted, and clapped their hands to make noise so that Cronus would not hear the baby’s cries.

3. He was raised by a nymph named Adamanthea. Since Cronus ruled over the earth, the heavens, and the sea, she hid him by dangling him on a rope from a tree so he was suspended between earth, sea, and sky and thus, invisible to his father.

Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge the other children in reverse order of swallowing: first the stone, which was set down at Pytho under the glens of Parnassus to be a sign to mortal men, then the rest. In some versions, Metis gave Cronus an emetic to force him to disgorge the babies, or Zeus cut Cronus’ stomach open. Then Zeus released the brothers of Cronus, the Gigantes, the Hecatonchires, and the Cyclopes, who gave him thunder and the thunderbolt and lightning, which had previously been hidden by Gaia. In a war called the Titanomachy, Zeus and his brothers and sisters with the Gigantes, Hecatonchires, and Cyclopes overthrew Cronus and the other Titans. Cronus and the Titans were confined in Tartarus, a dank misty gloomy place at the deepest point in the Earth. Ironically, Zeus also imprisoned the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes there as well.

Cronus was worshipped as a corn god, from his association with the Golden Age. He was a god of the harvest, grain, nature, and agriculture. He was usually depicted with a sickle, which he used to harvest crops as well as castrate his father. In Athens, on the twelfth day of every month (Hekatombaion), a festival called Kronia was held in honor of Cronus and to celebrate the harvest.

Cronus

Cronus as Saturn Time, Omega and Related

Hyperion

Hyperion was the Titan god of light, the father of the three shining gods of heaven – Eos the Light of Dawn and Day, Helios the Sun, and Selene the Moon.

In the Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey the sun god is called Helios Hyperion, ‘Sun High-one’. But in the Odyssey, Hesiod’s Theogony and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter the sun is once in each work called Hyperonides ‘Son of Hyperion’ and Hesiod certainly imagines Hyperion as a separate being in other places.

Hyperion is often considered the ‘God of Observation’ and is the brother of Theia the ‘Goddess of Sight.’

In later Greek literature Hyperion is always distinguished from Helios as a Titan, the son of Gaia ‘Goddess Earth’ and Uranus ‘God Sky’, and the father of Helios ‘God Sun’, Selene ‘Goddess Moon’ and Eos ‘Goddess Dawn’ by his sister Theia ‘Goddess Sight’.

Hyperion plays virtually no role in Greek cult and little role in mythology, save in lists of the twelve Titans. Later Greeks intellectualized their myths.

Of Hyperion we are told that he was the first to understand, by diligent attention and observation, the movement of both the sun and the moon and the other stars, and the seasons as well, in that they are caused by these bodies, and to make these facts known to others; and that for this reason he was called the father of these bodies, since he had begotten, so to speak, the speculation about them and their nature.

Hyperion in Neopaganism

Modern interpretations of Hyperion by Neopagans, particularly Hellenistic sects in the United States, include the interpretation that he is the all seeing, and subsequently all knowing, god of observation. Others believe that Hyperion holds ultimate reign over the positions of the stars and the heavens, and can at times reveal celestial messages to careful observers. Hyperion is seen as impartial and unconcerned with mortals.

Hyperion is believed to play a role in the final judgment of a mortal soul, particularly making observations about one’s virtuous and ill deeds before Hades, and adding weight to the scales held by Themis.Some modern pagans burn oils and incense to Hyperion and pray for worldly knowledge, or in some cases extended sight. There are those who believe that extended sight is impossible to control, and that some things in the universe are beyond mortal comprehension and should remain unseen. Others claim that extended sight can include seeing into Tartarus (hell) and may result in madness, thus some sects discourage active worship of Hyperion. Most sects that include the worship of Hyperion also include the worship of Hecate, and more commonly Theia. Such sects typically encourage experimentation with the paranormal.

Hyperion

Iapetus

In Greek mythology Iapetus, or Iapetos, was a Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia, and father (by an Oceanid named Clymene or Asia) of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius and through Prometheus and Epimetheus and Atlas an ancestor of the human race. Iapetus is the one Titan mentioned by Homer in the Iliad (8.478­81) as being in Tartarus with Cronus.

Iapetus’ wife is normally a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys named Clymene or Asia.

But in Aeschylus’s play Prometheus Bound, Prometheus is son of the goddess Themis with no father named (but still with at least Atlas as a brother).

Since mostly the Titans indulge in marriage of brother and sister, it might be that Aeschylus is using an old tradition in which Themis is Iapetus’ wife but that the Hesiodic tradition preferred that Themis and Mnemosyne be consorts of Zeus alone. But it would be been quite within Achaean practice for Zeus to have taken the wives of the Titans as his mistresses after throwing down their husbands.

Iapetus is sometimes equated by Creationists with Japheth, the son of Noah, based on the similarity of their names, though scholars of Indo-European linguistics dispute such an equation vehemently.

Iapetus

Mnemosyne (sometimes confused with Mneme or compared with Memoria) was the personification of memory in Greek mythology. This titaness was the daughter of Gaia and Uranus and the mother of the Muses by Zeus. In Hesiod’s Theogony, kings and poets receive their powers of authoritative speech from their possession of Mnemosyne and their special relationship with the Muses.

Zeus and Mnemosyne slept together for nine consecutive nights and thereby created the nine muses. Mnemosyne was also the name for a river in Hades, counterpart to the river Lethe, according to a series of 4th century BC Greek funerary inscriptions in dactylic hexameter. Dead souls drank from Lethe so they would not remember their past lives when reincarnated. Initiates were encouraged to drink from the river Mnemosyne when they died, instead of Lethe. These inscriptions may have been connected with a private mystery religion, or with Orphic poetry (see Zuntz, 1971).

Similarly, those who wished to consult the oracle of Trophonius in Boeotia were made to drink alternately from two springs called “Lethe” and “Mnemosyne”. An analogous setup is described in the Myth of Er at the end of Plato’s Republic.

Mnemosyne

Oceanus

Oceanus or Okeanos refers to the ocean, which the Greeks and Romans regarded as a river circling the world. Strictly speaking, it was the ocean-stream at the Equator in which floated the habitable hemisphere (oikoumene. In Greek mythology this world-ocean was personified as a Titan, a son of Uranus and Gaia. In ancient Greek beliefs this Titan is often depicted as having the upper body of a muscular man with a long beard and horns, and the lower torso of a serpent.

Oceanus’ consort is his sister Tethys, and from their union came the ocean nymphs, also known as the three-thousand Oceanids, and all the rivers of the world.

Some scholars believe he originally represented all bodies of salt water, including the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, the two largest bodies known to the ancient Greeks. However, as geography became more accurate, Oceanus came to represent the stranger, more unknown waters of the Atlantic Ocean (also called the Ocean Sea), while Poseidon ruled over the Mediterranean.

In most variations of the war between the Titans and the Olympians (“Titanomachy”), Oceanus, along with Prometheus, and Themis, did not take the side of his fellow Titans against the Olympians, but instead withdrew from the conflict. In most variations of this myth, Oceanus also refused to side with Cronus in the latter’s revolt against their father, Uranus.

Oceanus

Phoebe

Phoebe, in her name simply the feminine counterpart of Phoebus, was one of the original Titans, one set of sons and daughters of Uranus and Gaia in Greek mythology. She was traditionally associated with the moon (see Selene), as in Michael Drayton’s Endimion and Ph¦be, (1595), the first extended treatment of the Endymion myth in English. Her consort was her brother Coeus, with whom she had three children, Leto, Asteria and Hekate.

Through Leto she was the grandmother of Apollo and Artemis. The names Phoebe and Phoebus came to be applied as a synonym for Artemis and an epithet of Apollo. According to a speech that Aeschylus, in Eumenides, puts in the mouth of the Delphic priestess herself, she received control of the Oracle at Delphi from Themis: “Phoebe in this succession seems to be his private invention,” D.S. Robertson noted, reasoning that in the three great allotments of oracular powers at Delphi, corresponding to the three generations of the gods, “Ouranos, as was fitting, gave the oracle to his wife Gaia and Kronos appropriately allotted it to his sister Themis.” In Zeus’ turn to make the gift, however, Aeschylus could not report that the oracle was given directly to Apollo, who had not yet been born, Robertson notes, and thus Phoebe was interposed. These supposed male delegations of the powers at Delphi are not borne out by the usual reconstruction of the sacred site’s pre-Olympian history.

Phoebe

Rhea

Rhea (or Ria meaning “she who flows”) was the Titaness daughter of Uranus and of Gaia. She was sister to Cronus and mother to Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon, and Zeus. She was strongly associated with Cybele. In Roman mythology, she was Magna Mater deorum Idaea and identified with Ops.In art, Rhea was usually depicted on a chariot drawn by two lions, not always distinguishable from Cybele.

Her husband, Cronus, castrated their father, Uranus. After this, Cronus re-imprisoned the Hecatonchires, the Gigantes and the Cyclopes and set the monster Campe to guard them. He and Rhea took the throne as King and Queen of the gods. This time was called the Golden Age as the people of the time had no need for laws or rules; everyone did right and as such, there was no need.

Cronus sired several children by Rhea: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, but swallowed them all as soon as they were born, since he had learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overcome by his own son as he had overthrown his own father. But when Zeus was about to be born, Rhea sought Uranus and Earth to devise a plan to save him, so that Cronus would get his retribution for his acts against Uranus and his own children. Rhea gave birth to Zeus in Crete, handing Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes which he promptly swallowed.

Then she hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete. According to varying versions of the story:

1. He was then raised by Gaia.2. He was suckled by a goat named Amalthea, while a company of Kouretes, soldiers, or smaller gods danced, shouted and clapped their hands to make noise so that Cronus would not hear the baby’s cry.

3. He was raised by a nymph named Adamanthea. Since Cronus ruled over the earth, the heavens and the sea, she hid him by dangling him on a rope from a tree so he was suspended between earth, sea and sky and thus, invisible to his father.

In Greek mythology, Zeus forced the Titan Cronus to disgorge the other children in reverse order of swallowing: first the stone, which was set down at Pytho under the glens of Parnassus to be a sign to mortal men, then the rest. In some versions, Metis gave Cronus an emetic to force him to disgorge the babies, or Zeus cut Cronus’ stomach open. Then Zeus released the brothers of Cronus, the Gigantes, the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes, who gave him thunder and the thunderbolt and lightning, which had previously been hidden by Gaia. Together, Zeus and his brothers and sisters with the Gigantes, Hecatonchires and Cyclopes overthrew Cronus and the other Titans.

In Homer, Rhea is the mother of the gods, though not a universal mother like Cybele, the Phrygian Great Mother, with whom she was later identified. The original seat of her worship was in Crete. There, according to legend, she saved the new-born Zeus, her sixth child, from being devoured by Kronos, by substituting a stone for the infant god and entrusting him to the care of her attendants the Curetes.

These attendants afterwards became the bodyguard of Zeus and the priests of Rhea, and performed ceremonies in her honour. In historic times, the resemblances between Rhea and the Asiatic Great Mother, Phrygian Cybele, were so noticeable that the Greeks accounted for them by regarding the latter as only their own Rhea, who had deserted her original home in Crete and fled to the mountain wilds of Asia Minor to escape the persecution of Kronos (Strabo. 469, 12). The reverse view was also held (Virgil, Aeneid iii), and it is probably true that cultural contacts with the mainland brought to Crete the worship of the Asiatic Great Mother, who became the Cretan Rhea.

In Greek mythology, Rhea’s symbol is the moon. However, in Roman mythology, her symbol is known as the lunar (which would seem to mean “Moon”). She has another symbol, the swan, because it is a gentle animal. Also, her other symbol is two lions, supposedly the ones that pull her chariot.

Rhea

Tethys

In Greek mythology, Tethys was a Titaness and sea goddess who was both sister and wife of Oceanus. She was mother of the chief rivers of the universe, such as the Nile, the Alpheus, the Maeander, and about three thousand daughters called the Oceanids.

Tethys, along with her husband Oceanus, ruled the seas before Poseidon; Roman mosaic from Daphne (near Antioch) made in the 4th century A.D.Tethys, a Titan sea-goddess who ruled the seas with her husband Oceanus; Roman mosaic from Antioch (House of Calendar) made between the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D.During the war against the Titans, Tethys raised Rhea as her god-child.Tethys is sometimes confused with Thetis, the wife of Peleus and mother of Achilles.

Hera was not pleased with the placement of Callisto and Arcas in the sky, as the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, so she asked her nurse, Tethys, to help. Tethys, a marine goddess, cursed the constellations to forever circle the sky and never drop below the horizon, hence explaining why they are circumpolar.

Theia

In Greek mythology, Theia (also written Thea or Thia), also called Euryphaessa (“wide-shining”), was a Titan. With her brother and husband Hyperion, she was the mother of Helios (the Sun), Selene (the Moon) and Eos (the Dawn). According to the Homeric Hymn to Helios, Eryphaesa is listed as their mother. The name Theia alone, means simply “goddess,” Theia Euryphaessa with overtones of brightness.

She seems here a goddess of glittering in particular and of glory in general, but Pindar’s allusion to her as “Theia of many names” is telling, since it suggests assimilation not only to similar mother-of-the-sun goddess like Phoebe and Leto, but perhaps also to more universalizing mother-figures like Rhea and Cybele.

Theia’s mythological role as the mother of the Moon goddess Selene is referenced in the application of the name to a hypothetical planet which, according to one theory, collided with the Earth, resulting in the Moon’s creation.

Theia in Modern Paganism

Modern interpretations of Theia by many Neopagans, particularly sects in the United States, include the interpretation that she is the all seeing sister of Hyperion. Theia is sometimes seen as a kind and beautiful goddess, but her blessings are sometimes to be feared.

Worship of Theia may include prostration, and the burning of oils and incense, particularly at dawn or dusk. Worship of Theia is not as common as worship of many other Hellenistic gods. Some sects believe that Theia can grant the ability to see ghosts and spirits, as well as other forms of clairvoyance. Because of this many sects that worship Theia also encourage experimentation with the paranormal.

Themis

In Greek mythology, Hesiod mentions Themis among the six sons and six daughters – of whom Cronos was one – of Gaia and Ouranos, that is, of Earth with Sky. Among these Titans of primordial myth, few were venerated at specific sanctuaries in classical times, and Themis was so ancient that the followers of Zeus claimed that it was with him she produced the Three Fates themselves (Hesiod, Theogony, 904).

A fragment of Pindar, however, tells that the Moerae were already present at the nuptials of Zeus and Themis, that in fact the Moerae rose with Themis from the springs of Okeanos the encircling World-Ocean and accompanied her up the bright sun-path to meet Zeus at Olympus. With Zeus she more certainly bore the Horae, those embodiments of the right moment – the rightness of Order unfolding in Time – and Astraea. Themis was there at Delos to witness the birth of Apollo.

Themis (meaning “law of nature” rather than “human ordinance”), she “of good counsel,” was the embodiment of divine order, law and custom. When Themis is disregarded, Nemesis brings just and wrathful retribution. Themis is not wrathful: she, “of the lovely cheeks” was the first to offer Hera a cup when she returned to Olympus distraught over threats from Zeus (Iliad xv.88). Themis presided over the proper relation between man and woman, the basis of the rightly ordered family, and the family the pillar of the deme, and judges were often referred to as “themistopoloi” (the servants of Themis). Such was the basis for order upon Olympus too. Hera addressed her as “Lady Themis.”

The name of Themis might be substituted for Adrasteia in the birth of Zeus on Crete. She built the Oracle at Delphi and was herself oracular. Themis was one of the gods behind the Oracle at Delphi, which she received from Gaia and gave to Phoebe.

Themis in Neopaganism

Many modern Neopagans, particularly Hellenistic Neopagans, believe that Themis is the goddess of virtue and justice. In many modern sects Themis is thought to take part in deciding the afterlife of one’s mortal spirit. She carries a set of scales which weigh a persons virtuous deeds against a persons ill deeds. Themis is also thought to give the final input before the fate of a mortal is decided by Hades (The Judge).

Themis is often considered compassionate and virtuous towards mortals, and concerned with mortal wellbeing as well as mortal plights. Worship of Themis is not uncommon among many pagan sects in the United States, according to some pagan websites Themis may have as many worshippers that Artemis or Hera (two of the most popular pagan gods). Worshippers of Themis often attempt to lead virtuous and charitable lives.

Worship of Themis may take the form of chants, prayer, the burning of oils and incense, and the burning of food or spilling of drinks as offerings. Acts of Charity are also considered to be an active form of worship. Some sects that include worship of Themis encourage tithing, and many encourage proselytizing to non-believers. Proselytizing is typically rare among sects that do not include the worship of Themis. Followers of Themis often discourage hedonism, persecution, grudges, malice, spite, mockery, and revenge. Themis is thought to grant boons of good health, euphoria, virility, and charisma to her followers. Some pagan websites suggest that Themis is most commonly worshipped by males.

TITANS – MINOR GODS & GODDESSES

The Twelve Olympians, in Greek mythology, were the principal gods of the Greek pantheon, residing atop Mount Olympus. There were, at various times, fourteen different gods recognized as Olympians, though never more than twelve at one time. Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Athena, Apollo, and Artemis are always considered Olympians. Hestia, Demeter, Dionysus, and Hades are the variable gods among the Twelve. Hestia gave up her position as an Olympian to Dionysus in order to live among mankind (eventually she was assigned the role of tending the fire on Mount Olympus). Persephone spent six months of the year in the underworld (causing winter), and was allowed to return to Mount Olympus for the other six months in order to be with her mother, Demeter. And, although Hades was always one of the principal Greek gods, his home in the underworld of the dead made his connection to the Olympians more tenuous. The Olympians gained their supremacy in the world of gods after Zeus led his siblings to victory in war with the Titans; Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, and Hades were siblings; all other Olympians (with the exception of foam-born Aphrodite) are usually considered the children of Zeus by various mothers, except for Athena, who in some versions of the myth was born of Zeus alone. Additionally, some versions of the myth state that Hephaestus was born of Hera alone as Hera’s revenge for Zeus’ solo birth of Athena.
Aphrodite
Apollo
Ares
Artemis
Athena
Demeter
Hephaestus
Hera
Hermes
Hestia
Poseidon
Zeus

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Minor Gods and Goddesses in Greek Mythology

Bsae of : Svarga, the Russian heaven
The city of the gods in Russian Myth was called Iriys.
Other worlds in their cosmology includes Buyan- a fairy world of ever-lasting peace and Vela- the land of the dead

Known Members: Ajysyt, Dazhbog (god of light), Lada (goddess of beauty & youth), Perun (god of thunder), Svantovit (god of war), Stribog (god of the wind & sky), Svarozvich (god of fire), Milda (goddess of love), Laima (goddess of fate & luck), Marzana (goddess of witchcraft), Saule (goddess of the sun), Svarog (god of the sun & sky), Veles (god of the underworld)

Affiliations: Other races of Gods; possibly Baba Yaga, the Supreme Soviets/People’s Protectorate

Enemies: Thanos, The Celestials, (possibly) Demogorge The God-Eater

Aliases: Slavic Gods, Baltic Gods, Latvian Gods, Lithuanian Gods

First Appearance: Thor I#300 (October, 1980)

Powers/Abilities/Traits: The Dievas all possess certain superhuman physical attributes. They are true immortals who cease to age upon reaching adulthood, and they cannot die by conventional means. The Dievas are immune to all terrestrial diseases and are resistant to conventional injury. If a Dieva is wounded, his or her godly life force will enable him or her to recover at a superhuman rate. It would take an injury of such magnitude that it incinerates a Dieva or disperses a major portion of his or her bodily molecules to cause him or her to die. Even then, it may be possible for a god of greater or equal power, or several gods acting together, to revive the deceased Dieva before the god’s life essence is beyond resurrection. Dieva flesh and bone are about three times denser than similar human tissue, contributing to the gods’ superhuman strength and weight. An average male god can lift about 40 tons; an average goddess can lift about 35 tons. The gods’ metabolism gives them superhuman endurance in all physical activities. Many Dievas also possess additional superhuman powers that may be magical in nature. For instance, the thunder god Perun can summon the elements of the storm (lightning, rain, wind, etc.) and channel vast amounts of bioelectric energy through his weaponry.

History: (Thor & Hercules: Encyclopedia Mythologica) – The Dievas have been worshipped by the Slavic people inhabiting Eastern Europe, Central Europe, and the Balkans from as early as 700 BC until approximately the 10th century AD. Most of the Dievas dwell in Svarga, a “pocket” dimension adjacent to Earth; an interdimensional nexus between Svarga and Earth exists somewhere in the proximity of the Zbruch River (in the modern-day nation of Ukraine). Very little is known about Svarga other than it appears to be built on a small planetary object. The Dievas are called different names by their human worshippers; for example, the underworld god Veles was known as “Weles” in Polish.

The Dievas’ precise origin, like that of all Earth’s pantheons, is shrouded in legend. According to Slavic folklore, the primordial god Rod emerged on Earth following the Demogorge’s purging of the demonic Elder Gods, and set out to bring order to the chaotic world by establishing the universal laws known as Prav. He eventually crossed paths with the primordial Earth Mother Gaea (known as “Erce” to the Dievas) and accompanied her back to his native realm of Svarga, where she gave birth to Praamzius, the god of time. After siring a host of other offspring, Rod was succeeded as pantheon leader by Praamzius, who was in turn succeeded by his son Svarog, the god of the sun & sky.

Svarog granted portions of his power to each of his children. However, Perun, the rugged and boisterous thunder god, usurped the largest share of power in an attempt to gain his father’s favor. He was eventually challenged by Veles, the therianthropic death god, who kidnapped Perun’s wife Saule, the sun goddess. Perun chased Veles into his underworld realm of Virey; although Veles transformed into a dragon and attacked his pursuer, he was ultimately defeated by Perun. Following Russian King Vladimir the Great’s conversion to Christianity in approximately 980 AD, Svarog determined that it was in his pantheon’s best interest to return to their native realm of Svarga and cut off most ties with the Earth realm.

(Thor I#300 (fb) ) – In approximately 1000 AD, Svarog attended a meeting of the Council of Godheads to discuss the threat posed by the Third Host of the extraterrestrial Celestials.

(Soviet Supersoldiers#1 – BTS) In modern years, Valeri Sovloyev, A Soviet Government Agent, discovered an amulet left behind by the Russian gods. Using the artifact allowed the thunder-god Perun to channel his presence through Sovloyev on Earth.

(Captain America I#352-353) – In one of his first missions for the Soviet Government, Perun aids the Supreme Soviets in subduing the defected heroes Darkstar, Vanguard and Ursa Major.

(Infinity Gauntlet#2) – Svarog represented the Russian Gods in a meeting with Zeus, Odin, Osiris, Nuada, Itzamna, Tezcatlipoca and Manitou. The eight immortals discuss the Eternal Thanos as a possible threat to their realms.

(Avengers I#319-324, Incredible Hulk II#393, Soviet Super Soldiers#1, Quasar#54, Starblast#2, Quasar#55, Starblast#3, Quasar#56, Starblast#4, Quasar#57) – Perun continued to serve with the People’s Protectorate.

COMMENTS: So far, very few Russian Gods have appeared in the Marvel Universe. Very few stories have been made referring to them to avoid the tangled mess of the Celtic Gods interpreted by five to seven creative teams.

The ancient Slavic word for god is “bog.” It appears in many names: Dazhbog, Svarog, Chernobog.

The main image in this profile is by Kevin Sharpe.

Profile by William Uchtman

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with the Daevas, the Hindu Gods.

Svantovit (Slavis name Tiermes) is the god of war and son of Svaros and Lada. He and his brother Perun usurped much of their father’s power shared with their brothers and used it against each other in attempts to oust their father’s power in heaven.

DIEVAS (RUSSIAN/SLAVIC GODS)

Within Smarta Hinduism, a variety of forms of God are seen as aspects of the one impersonal divine ground, Brahman (not Brahma). Brahman is seen as the universal spirit. Brahman is the ultimate, both transcendent and immanent the absolute infinite existence, the sum total of all that ever is, was, or ever shall be.Brahman is not a God in the monotheistic sense, as it is not imbued with any limiting characteristics, not even those of being and non-being, and this is reflected in the fact that in Sanskrit, the word Brahman is of neuter (as opposed to masculine or feminine) gender.

Vedanta is a branch of Hindu philosophy which gives this matter a greater focus. Yoga is the primary focus in many ways of a Hindu’s religious activities, being somewhere between meditation, prayer and healthful exercise.

Some of Hinduism’s adherents are Smarta monists, seeing multiple manifestations of the one God or source of being, which is often confused by non-Hindus as being polytheist. It is however properly seen as one unity, with the personal gods being different aspects of one Supreme Being, like a single beam of light separated into colours by a prism, and are valid to worship.

Swami Vivekananda, a follower of Ramakrishna, along with many others, who brought Hindu beliefs to the West, were all Smarta in belief. Other denominations of Hinduism, as described later, don’t hold this belief strictly and more closely adhere to a Western perception of what a monotheistic faith is. Additionally, like Judaeo-Christian-Islamic religions which believe in angels, Hindus also believe in less powerful entities, such as devas.

Trimurti

In Hinduism, the Trimurti (also called the Hindu trinity) are three aspects of God in His forms as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

Brahma – Hindu creator god

Brahma is the Hindu god (deva) of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. He is not to be confused with the Supreme Cosmic Spirit in Hindu Vedanta philosophy known as Brahman. Also, in Sanskrit Grammer, Brahman is Nominative Singular of generic word Brahman, as Aatma is Nominative Singular for Aatman. Brahaman and Aatman are same in Vedanta Philosphy, the Para-Aatma (Supersoul) and Jeeva Aatma (Individual Soul) are Brahman. His consort is Saraswati, the goddess of learning. Brahma is often identified with Prajapati, a Vedic deity.According to the Puranas, Brahma is self-born (without mother) in the lotus flower which grew from the navel of Vishnu at the beginning of the universe. This explains his name Nabhija (born from the navel). Another legend says that Brahma was born in water. In this he deposited a seed that later became the golden egg. From this golden egg, Brahma the creator was born, as Hiranyagarbha. The remaining materials of this golden egg expanded into the Brahmanda or Universe. Being born in water, Brahma is also called Kanja (born in water). Brahma is said also to be the son of the Supreme Being, Brahman and the female energy known as Prakrti or Maya.

At the beginning of the process of creation, Brahma created eleven Prajapatis (used in another sense), who are believed to be the fathers of the human race. The Manusmriti enumerates them as Marichi, Atri, Angirasa, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Vasishtha, Prachetas or Daksha, Bhrigu, and Narada. He is also said to have created the seven great sages or the Saptarishi to help him create the universe. However since all these sons of his were born out of his mind rather than body, they are called Manas Putras or mind-sons.

Within Vedic and Puranic scripture Brahma is described as only occasionally interfering in the affairs of the other devas (gods), and even more rarely in mortal affairs. He did force Soma to give Tara back to her husband, Brihaspati. He is considered the father of Dharma and Atri.

Vishnu – the Maintainer, Preserver

He is most famously identified with His avatars, or incarnations of God, most especially Krishna and Rama. Additionally, another important name for Vishnu is Narayana.

Shiva – the Destroyer

Shiva is considered to be the supreme deity in Shaivism, a denomination of Hinduism. Many Hindus such as those of Smarta tradition are free to accept various manifestations of the divine as their chosen deity for worship, and those who prefer Shiva are called Shaivas. Shaivism, along with Vaisnava traditions that focus on Vishnu, and Sakta traditions that focus on the Goddess (Devi) are three of the most influential denominations in Hinduism.The worship of Shiva is a pan-Hindu tradition, practiced widely across all of India. Shiva is one of the five primary forms of the Divine in Smartism, a denomination of Hinduism that puts particular emphasis on five deities, the other four being Vishnu, Devi, Ganesha, and Surya. Another way of thinking about the divinities in Hinduism identifies Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva as each representing one of the three primary aspects of the Divine in Hinduism, known collectively as the Trimurti. In the Trimurti system, Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the maintainer or preserver, and Shiva is the destroyer or transformer.

Attributes of Shiva

• Third Eye: Shiva is often depicted with a third eye with which he burned Desire (Kama) to ashes.
• Serpents: Shiva is often shown garlanded with a snake.
• Crescent: Shiva bears on his head the crescent of the fifth day (panchami) moon. This is placed near the fiery third eye and this shows the power of Soma, the sacrificial offering, which is the representative of moon. It means that Shiva possesses the power of procreation along with the power of destruction.The moon is also a measure of time; thus the Crescent also represents his control over time. Thus Shiva is known by the names of Somasundara and Chandrashekara.
• Sacred Ganga: Ganga, the holiest of the holy rivers, flows from the matted hair of Shiva. Shiva allowed an outlet to the great river to traverse the earth and bring purifying water to human beings. The flowing water is one of the five elements which compose the whole Universe and from which earth arises. Ganga also denotes fertility one of the creative aspect of Shiva.
• Drum: A small drum shaped like an hourglass is known as a “damaru”. This is one of the attributes of Shiva in his famous dancing representation known as Nataraja. A specific hand gesture (mudra) called damaru-hasta (Sanskrit for “damaru-hand”) is used to hold the drum. This drum is particularly used as an emblem by members of the Kapalika sect.
• Vibhuti: Vibhuti is three lines of ashes drawn on the forehead that represents the essence of our Being, which remains after all the malas (impurities of ignorance, ego and action) and vasanas (likes and dislikes, attachments to one’s body, world, worldly fame, worldly enjoyments, etc.) have been burnt in the fire of knowledge. Hence vibhuti is revered as the very form of Shiva and signifies the Immortality of the soul and manifested glory of the Lord.
• Ashes: Shiva smears his body with ashes (bhasma). Some forms of Shiva, such as Bhairava, are associated with a very old Indian tradition of cremation-ground asceticism that was practiced by some groups who were outside the fold of brahmanic orthodoxy. These practices associated with cremation grounds are also menteioned in the Pali canon of Theravada Buddhism. One epithet for Shiva is “Inhabitant of the cremation ground” referring to this connection.
• Tiger skin: He is often shown seated upon a tiger skin.
• Elephant and Deer Skin: Shiva also wears elephant skins. Similarly deer represent the jumping of minds (flickering mind). Shiva wears deer skin which indicates that he has controlled the mind perfectly.
• Trident: (Sanskrit: Trishula) Shiva’s particular weapon is the trident.
• Nandi, the Bull, is his Vahana (Sanskrit for vehicle).
• Lingam:Shiva is often worshipped in the form of a lingam.These are depicted in various forms.
• Mount Kailasha in the Himalayas is his traditional abode.
• He is often represented as immersed in deep meditation.
• He is said to eradicate Kama (sexual desire), Moha (material desire) and Maya (mundane thoughts) from his devotees’ minds.

Polytheistic GodsAlthough the pantheistic system allowed only a subordinate rank to the old polytheistic gods, and the actual religious belief of the people was probably but little affected by their existence, they continued to occupy an important place in the affections of the poet, and were still represented as exercising considerable influence on the destinies of man. The most prominent of them were regarded as the appointed Loka palas, or guardians of the world; and as such they were made to preside over the four cardinal and (according to some authorities) the intermediate points of the compass.

Thus Indra, the chief of the gods, was regarded as the regent of the east; Agni, the fire, was in the same way associated with the southeast; Yama with the south; Surya, the sun, with the southwest; Varuna, originally the representative of the all-embracing heaven (atmosphere), now the god of the ocean, with the west; Vayu (or Pavana), the wind, with the northwest; Kubera, the god of wealth, with the north; and Soma with the northeast. (Note: In some traditions, Eesana, an aspect of Siva is regarded as the regent of the northeast and Nirrti the regent of the southwest.)

In the institutes of Manu the Loka palas are represented as standing in close relation to the ruling king, who is saki to be composed of particles of these his tutelary deities. The retinue of Indra consists chiefly of the Gandharvas, a class of genii, considered in the epics as the celestial musicians; and their wives, the Apsaras, lovely nymphs, who are frequently employed by the gods to make the pious devotee desist from carrying his austere practices to an extent that might render him dangerous to their power. Narada, an ancient sage (probably a personification of the cloud, the water-giver), is considered as the messenger between the gods and men, and as having sprung from the forehead of Brahma.

The interesting office of the god of love is held by Kamadeva, also called Ananga, the bodyless, because, as the myth relates, having once tried by the power of his mischievous arrow to make Siva fall in love with Parvati, whilst he was engaged in devotional practices, the urchin was reduced to ashes by a glance of the angry god. Two other mythological figures of some importance are considered as sons of Siva and Parvati, viz. Karttikeya or Skanda, the leader of the heavenly armies, who was supposed to have been fostered by the six Knittikas or Pleiadesand Ganesha (lord of troops).

SmartismSmartism, a denomination of Hinduism is a monist as well as a monotheist religion that understands different deities as representing various aspects and principles of one supreme entity, Brahman or parabrahman. After all, Swami Vivekananda, a follower of Ramakrishna, along with many others, who brought Hindu beliefs to the West, were all Smarta in belief. Other denominations of Hinduism do not strictly hold this belief. Only a Smartist would have no problem worshiping Shiva or Vishnu together as he views the different aspects of God as leading to the same One God. It is the Smarta view that dominates the view of Hinduism in the West. By contrast, a Vaishnavite considers Vishnu as the one true God, worthy of worship and other forms as subordinate.

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Vedic Deities – These deities represent forces of nature or devas and are not equivalent to Brahman represented as Vishnu or Shiva. The Devas hold a similar place in relation to God as angels do in Judaeo-Christian traditions.

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Ancient India – Goddesses

Aditi – Hindu Great Goddess, as the Woman Clothed with the Sun. Sun Goddess, Mother of all the Lights of Heaven. She gave birth to the twelve zodiacal spirits.

Ananta – Indian Serpent Queen. aka Sarparajni. She enveloped all gods during their death, sleeping between incarnations.

Banka-Mundi – Hunting Goddess of the Khoud. Merely uttering Her name made one fearless against jungle beasts.

Bardaichila – Assamese Storm Goddess.

Bentakumari – Assamese Water Goddess. First fish of the season was given to Her.

Bhasundara – Tibetan Goddess of Prosperity

Bhavani – Common name for Mother Goddess of India. Bestower of Existence. Evoked by women in labor, who burned perfume to honor Her.

Bisal-Mariamna – Shakti of Sunlight in Mysore. Symbolized by a brass pot full of water called the Kunna-Kannadi or ‘eye mirror’. Into this pot are put pepper leaves and coconut flowers, a small metal mirror leans against it.

Budhi Pallien – Assamese Forest Goddess, appears as a tiger roving through the Indian jungle.

Chomo-Lung-Ma – Goddess Mother of the Universe, original name of Mt. Everest. One of the oldest Indian deities.

Devi – Dearly Beloved Goddess

Durga – the Queen Mother, Warrior Goddess, rode tigers into battle defending Her children, the gods.

Hudigamma – Hindu Mother Goddess served by eunuch priests dressed in women’s clothes.

Indrani – Queen of the gods.

Ista Devata – Tantric Patroness of the Self. Individual Guardian Angel of the Enlightened Sage.

Kadru – Serpent Goddess, Mother of the Nagas, or Cobra people.

Kali – Black Earth Mother, Conqueror of Time, Goddess of fertility, death and regeneration. Dark Mother, Hindu triple Goddess of creation, preservation and destruction. Birth and Death Mother. Treasure house of Compassion, Giver of Life to the World. Her mantras brought into being the very things whose names She spoke for the first time, Originator of the creative word or Logos. A triple Goddess – Maiden, Mother, Crone. Lady of the Dead. The Ocean of Blood at the beginning and end of the world. Also known as Jagadamba.

Kauri – Indo-European Swan Goddess. Cowrie shell was sacred to Her.

Khon-Ma – Mother Earth, Ruler of All Spirits emanating from the Earth element.

Kundalini – Serpent Goddess representing the inner power of the human body

Kurukulla – Dravidian Goddess of Caverns.

Lakshmi – Goddess of fortune,wealth and abundance. Portrayed as a golden skinned woman sitting or standing on a lotus, Her symbol. Hindu Goddess of Sovereignty. Source of the divine drink Soma. aka Padma, Lady Lotus. Goddess of Beauty and Good Fortune.

Manasa-Devi – Serpent Goddess of Bengal, identified with the Moon, bearing the Moons’s magic name Mana.

Marici – Buddhist Diamond Sow, Great Goddess seated on a lotus surrounded by 7 pigs. Glorious One. Sun of Happiness.

Maya – Virgin aspect of the triple Hindu Goddess, symbolized by a Spider, spinner of magic, fate and earthly appearances. The spider’s web was likened to the Wheel of Fate and the spider to the Goddess as a Spinner, sitting at the hub of Her Wheel. Mother of the Enlightened One, Buddha. Her colors were white, red and black. Hawthorne, Her tree.

Nanda Devi – Blessed Goddess. Mountain Mother Who gave birth to the Ganges. Nanda Devi is one of the Holiest Mountains of the Himalayan chain.

Parvati – Maiden aspect of Kali. Daughter of the Mountain. Shiva’s bride. Daughter of Heaven. Also known by Maya, Sati, Durga, Shakti, Privithi. Dark and colorful, ornate and mysterious. The richness of hues in Her attire as well as Her jewels symbolize Her power. She lifts Her veil to reveal Her beauty, shining like the Sun rising over the mountain of Anapurna. The cocoon, butterfly and the karmic golden wheel reflect Her deep connection with life and death, cause and effect, and transformation.

Prajnaparamita – Personification of Wisdom

Prakriti – Nature. Sanskrit title of Kali as female Holy Trinity, commanding the Gunas, the white, red and black threads of Creation, Preservation and Destruction. She embodied past, present, future; earth, sea, sky; youth, maturity, age.

Privithi – Very ancient Earth Mother.

Sara  Kali – Queen Kali, Mother Goddess of the gypsies. The Mother, the Woman, the Sister, the Queen, the source of all Romany blood. Queen of Heaven and Earth.

Sarama – Vedic Bitch Goddess, Mother of the brindled Dogs of Yama. The Huntress.

Saranyu – Goddess Who gave birth to all animals, Mother of all Creatures. Vedic Mare Goddess, Mother of the Centaurs.

Sarasvati – White skinned Goddess of poetry, music, science and learning as well as all creative arts. Inventor of the Sanscrit language. She wears a crescent moon on her brow and rides a swan or a peacock, or is seated on a lotus. The Flowing One. Inventor of all the arts of civilization: music, letters, mathematics, calendars, magic, the Vedas and all other branches of learning. Ancient River Goddess. Queen of Heaven. Mother of Waters. aka Ganga. Originally a River Goddess, She originated in the Ocean. Great culinary Goddess, She invented Soma, or Amrita (drink of bliss). Independent of nature. Goddess of sensual love, creativity, beauty, art and music. Goddess of learning and teaching

Savitri – Hindu Mother of Civilization, She Who brought forth music and literature, rhythm, time, measurements, day and night, memory, conquest, victory and yoga.

Shakti – Tantric title of the Great Goddess. Cosmic Energy. The Tantras say the female principle antedates and includes the male principle and this female principle is the Supreme Divinity. Tantric doctrine says mortal women are life itself, and Goddess-like, because they embody the principle of Shakti. The series of Universes appear and disappear with the opening and shutting of her eyes. (from the Lalita Sahasranamam) Final union with Shakti occurred at the moment of Death, according to Tantric mystics.

Shasti – Bengali Feline Goddess, depicted riding a cat. Goddess of childbirth and Protectress of Children.

Shitala – Protectress against small pox. Mothers appealed to Her for help for their children.

Sita – Furrow, the Goddess Earth as the wife of Rama (Krishna).

Smashana-Kali – Kali Ma as the Goddess of cremation grounds and other places of Death. Her yantra was an 8 petaled lotus with multiple repetitions of the inverted triangle. The meaning was Rebirth following Death. Her priestesses, called dakinis, arranged funerals and tended the dying.

Tara – Pre-Vedic Savior Goddess, known from India to Ireland. Indo-European primal Goddess Earth. An extremely ancient festival held annually at Athens was named after Her, Taramata (Mother Tara) nicknamed The Rioting because of its wild orgiastic customs. The sacred grove of Tara in Ireland was the Goddess’s genital shrine. In India, Tara is called The Most Revered of the old pre-vedic Goddesses. Wine is sacred to Her. Goddess of Compassion, The Diamond Sow. Diamonds are Her sacred stone. Tibetan Buddhist Great Mother. She is a Boddhisattva, an enlightened One who has vowed to incarnate until all beings have attained enlightenment. She also vowed to incarnate only as a female. She governs the Underworld, the Earth and the Heavens, birth, death and regeneration, love and war, the seasons, all that lives and grows, the Moon cycles. Green Tara is Her Nature-related aspect. Typically She is seen as a slender and beautiful woman of white complexion, long golden hair and blue eyes. She can also appear as red, black or dark blue. Her animals are the sow, mare, owl and raven. Goddess of spiritual transformation. When worshiping Tara, recognize all you see as Her body, made of green light, all you hear is Her divine speech, and all your thoughts as Her divine wisdom. Every molecule of air is Her divine energy and when you lie down, your head rests in Her lap. More on Tara

Uma – The Golden Goddess, personifying light and beauty. Daughter of the Mountains, Patroness of yogic ascetism. Kali’s Crone aspect. aka Prisni, Mother of the Dark Season, Daughter of Heaven. Mother Death.

Ushas – Vedic Goddess of the Dawn.

• Indra
• Surya
• Agni
• Vayu
• Varuna
• Yama
• Kubera
• Soma
• Mitra
• Kamadeva
• Gayatri
• Aditi
• Ushas
• Saraswati
• Rudra

Mother Goddesses

• Shakti
• Devi
• Kali
• Durga
• Lakshmi
• Amman (Goddess)

List of Hindu Deities

TARA

GARUDA & KARURA – HINDU BIRD HEADED GODS

The general characteristics and origins of Native American religion shed light upon the more contemporary sects. But the development of the numerous individual traditions, passed down orally, remains unclear. The sheer number of groups and the diversity of the nuances of belief complicates matters further.

The religions do share some common tendencies. Religion tends to be closely related to the natural world. The local terrain is elevated with supernatural meaning, and natural objects are imbued with sacred presences. Ceremonial rituals involving these supernatural-natural objects are meant to ensure communal and individual prosperity. These common underlying features unite a diversity of contemporary Native American sects.

Native American God and Goddess Dieties

It is known as Mulungu (East Africa), Leza (Central Africa), Nyambe (West Tropics), Nyame (Ghana), the Molder, Giver of Breath and Souls, God of Destiny, One Who Exists of Himself, God of Pity and Comfort, the Inexplicable, Ancient of Days, the One Who Bends Even Kings, the One You Meet Everywhere, etc.

Among many tribes, the creation of the Earth took four days.  The fifth day was reserved for worshipping the Orisha Nla (Chief of the Deities), who actually created the Earth with the instruction and aid of the Supreme Creator.  The Orisha Nla was also given the task of creating bodies out of clay.  When this was complete the Supreme Creator secretly placed the spark of life within the forms.  These newly created humans were then placed on the Earth to live.

Adroa
Other Names: “God in the sky”, God on Earth”, Creator God, River God.
Location: The Lugbara of Zaire and Uganda.
Description:  He is pictured as tall and white with only half of his body visible.
Rules Over:  Social order, law, death.

Akuj
Location:  The Turkana of Kenya.
Rules Over: Divination.

Ala
Other Names: Ale, Ane.
Location: The Ibo of Nigeria.
Description:  Extremely popular Goddess and Earth Mother. She is a Creator Goddess and Queen of the Dead.
Rules Over:  Community laws, morality, oaths, harvest.

Anayaroli
Location: The Temne.
Description: River demon.
Rules Over: Wealth.

Asa
Other Names:  Father God, “the strong lord.”
Location: Akamba of Kenya.
Rules Over:  Mercy, help, surviving the impossible.

Asase
Other Names: Yaa, Aberewa, Efua, “Old Woman Earth.”
Location:  The Ashanti of West Africa.
Description:  Goddess of creation of humans and receiver of them at death.
Rules Over:  Cultivation, harvest.

Behanzin
Location:  West Africa.
Description: Fish God.

Cagn
Location:  South Central Africa among the Bushman.
Description:  Creator God.
Rules Over: Sorcery and Shape-Shifting.

Chiuta
Other Names:  Mulengi, Mwenco, Wamtatakuya Tumbuka.
Description:  Creator God, Rain God.  Is self-created and omniscient.
Rules Over:  Rain, help, plant growth, food.

Chuku
Other Names:  Chineke.
Location:  The Ibo of East Nigeria.
Description:  “The first great cause”, “Creator”, Father of Ale, The Earth Goddess.  Offerings and sacrifices were done for him in groves.
Rules Over:  Help, goodness.

Danh
Location:  Dahomey.
Description:  Snake God.  Rainbow Snake shown with tail in his mouth.
Rules Over: Wholeness, unity.

En-Kai
Other Names:  Parsai, Emayian.
Location:  Masai.
Description:  Sky God.  Grass is used in rituals for him.
Rules Over:  Rain, vegetation, blessings.

Fa
Location:  Dahomey.
Rules Over: Destiny.

Famian
Location: Guinea.
Rules Over:  Protection, health, fertility.

Gauna
Other Names:  Gawa, Gawama.
Location: Among the Bushmen.
Description:  Leads the spirits of the deceased.
Rules Over:  Disruption, harassment, death.

Ge
Location: Dahomey.
Description:  Moon God.

Gu
Location:  The Fon of West Africa.
Rules Over:  War, smiths.

Guruhi
Location:  Gambia.
Description:  Evil God.  Meteors are his sign.
Rules Over:  Power and death over enemies.

Heitsi-Eibib
Location:  The Hottentots.
Description:  Sorcerer God.
Rules Over:  Shape-shifting, magick.

Imana
Other Names:  Hategekimana, Hashakimana, Habyarimana, Ndagijimana, Bigirimana, “Almighty God.”
Location:  The Banyarwands.
Rules Over:  Power, goodness, children, planning.

Ison
Other Names: Eka Obasi, Obasi Nsi, Ibibio, Ekoi.
Location:  West Africa.
Description:  Tortoise-shelled Goddess.
Rules Over: Fertility of the Earth.

Jok
Other Names:  Jok Odudu, Alur.
Location:  Uganda and Zaire.
Description:  Black goats were to be sacrificed to him when rain was needed.
Rules Over:  Rain.

Juok
Other Names:  Shilluk, Supreme God.
Location:  White Nile.
Description:  Created all men on Earth.

Kaka-Guia
Other Names:  Nyami.
Location:  The Volta areas.
Description:  He brought souls to the Supreme God.

Katonda
Other Names:  Lissoddene, Kagingo, Ssewannaku, Lugaba, Ssebintu, Nnyiniggulu, Namuginga, Ssewaunaku, Gguluddene, Namugereka.
Location:  The Ganda of East Africa.
Descriptiojn:  Creator God.
Rules Over:  Help, Judgment, aid when the odds are against you, control over spirits, divination, oracles.

Kwoth
Location:  The Nuer of South Sudan.
Description:  Great Spirit God.
Rules Over:  Nature, help, compassion, judgement.

Leza
Location:  Dahomey.
Description:  Chameleon God/dess.
Rules Over:  Protection, divination.

Mbaba Mwana Waresa
Location:  The Zulu of Natal.
Description:  Goddess of what she rules over.
Rules Over:  Rainbows, rain, crops, cultivation, beer.

Mawu
Location:  Dahomey.
Description: Supreme Goddess, creator of all things.  Mawu is worshipped by The Fon of Benin in West Africa as a Moon Goddess and creatrix of everything.

Mukuru
Location:  Macouas of Zambesi, Banayis.
Description:  Supreme God, creator of everything.
Rules Over:  Agriculture, architecture, the harvest.

Mungo
Location:  Giryama of Kenya.
Description: Rain God.
Rules Over: Rain.

`Nenaunir
Other Names:  The Rainbow Snake.
Location:  Masai of Kenya.
Description:  An Evil Storm God who was linked to the rainbow.  Resided in the clouds and was a dreaded spirit.
Rules Over:  Storms.

`Ngai
Location:  Masai.
Description:  Creator God.
Rules Over:  Life and Death.

Ngami
Description:  Moon Goddess.

Njambi
Location:  Lele.
Description:  Creator God.
Rules Over:  Protection, justice, help, forests, fertility.

Nyambe
Location:  Koko of Nigeria.
Description:  God.
Rules Over:  Restoring Life.

Nyambi
Other Names:  Nyambe.
Location:  The Barotse of Upper Zambesi.
Description: Gread God.  Creator of everything.

Nyame
Location:  The Twi of West Africa.
Description:  Great God who prepared the soul to be reborn on the physical plane and gave out its fate.
Rules Over:  Fate.

Nyamia Ama
Location:  Senegal.
Description:  God of storms, rain and lightning.  A sky god.
Rules Over: Storms, rain, lightning.

Nzambi
Location:  The Bankongo of the Congo.
Description:  Great Goddess who created everything.  She played the role of Justice and rewarded and punished according to the deeds of man.
Rules Over:  Justice.

Oba
Description:  Santeria river goddess.

Ochumare
Location:  Yoruba.
Description:  Santeria Goddess of the rainbow.

Oddudua
Location:  Yoruba.
Description:  Primary Mother Goddess.

Ogun
Other Names:  Ogoun.
Location:  The Nago and Yoruba of West Africa.
Description:  God of iron and warfare.
Rules Over:  Iron, warfare, removing difficulties, smoothing the path to a desired result, Justice, Smiths, Hunters, Barbers, Goldsmiths, Steel.

Olorun
Other Names:  Olofin-Orun, Olodumare.
Location:  Yoruba.
Description:  Sky God.
Rules Over:  Truth, control of the Elements, Forsight, Victory when the odds are against you, Destiny.

Pan
Location: Agni.
Description:  Son of the Earth.
Rules Over:  Cultivation.

Rock-Sens
Location:  The Serer of Gambia.
Description:  Sky god, controlled the weather.
Rules Over:  Rain, Thunder, Lightning.

Rugaba
Other Names:  Ruhanga, Kazooba, Mukameiguru.
Location:  Ankore of Uganda.
Description:  Creator God, Sun God, Sky God.
Rules Over:  Life, healing, death, sickness, judgement.

Ruhanga
Location:  Banyoro.
Description:  Great God.
Rules Over:  Fertility, abundance, children, animals, harvest, health, sickness, death, judgement, rebirth.

Sakarabru
Location:  Agni of Guinea.
Description:  God who is strongest during the main phases of the Moon.  Swift to punish wrongful deeds.
Rules Over:  Medicine, justice, retribution.

Shango
Other Names: Schango.
Location:  Yoruba of Nigeria.
Description:  Carries a double-headed axe much like the nordic Thorr.
Rules Over:  Thunder, Storm, War, Magick.

Soko
Location:  Nupe of north Nigeria.
Description:  Creator God.
Rules Over:  Control of the Elements, Witchcraft, Communication with the Deceased.

Tilo
Location:  Mozambique.
Description:  Sky God.
Rules Over: Sky, Thunder, Rain.

Unkulunkulu
Other Names:  Nkulnkulu.
Location:  The Amazulu and Ndebele of Zimbabwe.
Description:  Great God, Earth God.
Rules Over:  Fertility, organization, order.

Utixo
Location:  The Hottentots.
Description:  Sky God who speaks with a voice of thunder.
Rules Over:  Rain, Storms, Thunder, Harvest, Rebirth.

Wele
Other Names:  Khakaba, Isaywa.
Location:  Abaluyia, Bantu.
Description:  “The High One”.  Sky God, Creator God.
Rules Over:  Rain, storms, lightning, creation, prosperity, harvest, celestial phenomena.

Were
Location:  Luo of Kenya.
Description:  Great God, Father God, Creator God.
Rules Over:  Birth, Death, Nature, Judgement.

White Lady
Location:  Tassali of the Sahara.
Description:  Agricultural Goddess.
Rules Over:  Agriculture, fertility.

Xevioso
Location:  West Africa.
Description:  He used a thunder axe.
Rules Over:  Thunder, rain, fertility.

Ymoja
Location:  Yoruba.
Description:  River Goddess.
Rules Over:  Women, children.

“Nine Dragons” handscroll section, by Chen Rong, 1244 AD, Chinese Song Dynasty, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Chinese Mythology is a collection of cultural history, folktales, and religions that have been passed down in oral or written tradition. These include creation myths and legends and myths concerning the founding of Chinese culture and the Chinese state. Like many mythologies, it has in the past been believed to be, at least in part, a factual recording of history.

Historians have conjectured that the Chinese mythology began in 12th century B.C. The myths and the legends were passed down in oral format for over a thousand years, before being written down in early books such as Shan Hai Jing. Other myths continued to be passed down through oral traditions such as theatre and song, before being recorded in the form of novels such * Hei’an Zhuan – Epic of Darkness Literally Epic of the Darkness, this is the only collection of legends in epic form preserved by a community of the Han nationality of China, namely, inhabitants of the Shennongjia mountain area in Hubei, containing accounts from the birth of Pangu till the historical era.

• Imperial historical documents and philosophical canons such as Shangshu, Shiji, Liji, Lüshi Chunqiu, and others.

Some myths survive in theatrical or literary formats, as plays or novels. Important mythological fiction which is seen as definitive records of these myths include:

• Verse poetry of ancient states such as Lisao by Qu Yuan of the Chu state.
• Fengshen Yanyi (封神演義), or Anointing of the Gods, which is mythological fiction dealing with the founding of the Zhou dynasty.
• Journey to the West, by Wu Cheng’en and published in the 1590s, a fictionalised account of the pilgrimage of Xuanzang to India in order to obtain Buddhist religious texts, in which the pilgrims encounter a variety of ghosts, monsters, and demons as well as the Flaming Mountains.
• Baishe Zhuan, a romantic tale set in Hangzhou involving a snake who attained human form and fell in love with a man.

Nuwa and Fuxi represented as half-snake, half-human creatures.

• Shangdi (上帝), appears in literature probably earlier than 700 BC as Huangtian Dadi 皇天大帝 very occasionally as 皇天上帝, (the dating of these occurrences depends on the date of Oracle Bones and the Shujing, aka “Book of Documents”). When Huangtian Dadi was used it refers to Jade Emperor or Yu Huang, and Tian 天 and Jade Emperor were synonymous in Chinese prayers.

• Yu Di (玉皇 or 玉帝 or Jade Emperor), appears in literature after the establishment of Taoism in China, but the position of Yu Huang dates back to beyond the times of Huangdi, Nuwa or Fuxi.

• Tian (天, or Heaven), appears in literature probably about 700 BC, or earlier (the dating of these occurrences depends on the date of the Shujing, aka “Book of Documents”). There are no “creation” oriented narratives for ‘Heaven’, although the role of a creator is a possible interperatation. The qualities of ‘Heaven’ and Shangdi appear to merge in later literature (and are worshipped as one entity (“皇天上帝”) in, for example, the Temple of Heaven in Beijing). The extent of the distinction (if any) between them is debated. The sinologist Herrlee Creel proposes that an analysis of the Shang oracle bones shows Shangdi preceded ‘tian’ as a deity, and that Zhou Dynasty authors replaced the term Shangdi with tian to cement the claim of their influence.

• Nüwa (女媧), appears in literature no earlier than about 350 BC. Her companion was Fuxi (伏羲), the brother and husband of Nuwa. These two beings are sometimes worshipped as the ultimate ancestor of all humankind. They sometimes believe that Nuwa molded humans from clay for companionship. They are often represented as half-snake, half-human creatures. Nüwa was also responsible for repairing the sky after Gong Gong damaged the pillar supporting the heavens (see below).

• Pangu (盤古), written about 200 AD by the Daoist author Xu Zheng, was a later myth claiming to describe the first sentient being & creator.

Three August Ones and Five Emperors

Following on from the age of Nuwa and Fuxi (or cotemporaneous in some versions) was an age known as the Three August Ones and Five Emperors (三皇五帝). This involves a collection of legendary rulers who ruled between c. 2850 BC to 2205 BC, the time preceding the Xia dynasty.

The list of names comprising the Three August Ones and Five Emperors vary widely between sources (see Three August Ones and Five Emperors for other versions of the list). The version in the widest circulation (and most popularly known) is:

• The Three August Ones (Huang):
  • Fuxi (伏羲) – The companion of Nuwa.
  • Shennong (神農) – Shennong, literally meaning “Divine Farmer”, reputedly taught the ancients agriculture and medicine.
  • Huang Di (黃帝) – Huang Di, literally meaning, and commonly known as, the “Yellow Emperor”, is often regarded as the first sovereign of the Chinese nation.

(Source: Shangshu (尚書))

• The Five Emperors (Di):
  • Shaohao (少昊) – Leader of the Dongyi or “Eastern Barbarians”; his pyramidal tomb is in present-day Shandong province.
  • Zhuanxu (顓頊) – Grandson of the Yellow Emperor
  • Emperor Ku (帝嚳) – Great grandson of the Yellow Emperor; nephew of Zhuanxu.
  • Yao (堯) – The son of Ku. His elder brother succeeded Ku, but abdicated when he was found to be an ineffective ruler.
  • Shun (舜) – Yao, passing over his own son, made Shun his successor because of Shun’s ability and morality.

These rulers were generally regarded as extremely moral and benevolent rulers, examples to be emulated by latter day kings and emperors. When Qin Shi Huang united China in 221 BC, he felt that his achievements had surpassed those of all the rulers who have gone before him. Hence, he combined the ancient titles of Huang (皇) and Di (帝) to create a new title, Huangdi (皇帝), usually translated as Emperor.

Great Flood

Shun passed his place as leader of the Huaxia tribe to Yu the Great (禹). According to legend, the Yellow River was prone to flooding, and erupted in a huge flood in the time of Yao. Yu’s father, Gun, was put in charge of flood control by Yao, but failed to alleviate the problem after 9 years. He was executed by Shun, and Yu took his father’s place, and led the people in building canals and levees. After thirteen years of toil, flooding problems were solved under Yu’s command. Shun enfeoffed Yu in the place of Xia, in present-day Wan County in Henan. On his death, Shun passed the leadership to Yu. The main source for the story of Yu and the Great Flood comes from The Counsels of Yu the Great in the Classic of History (尚書·大禹謨). Because of his achievement in resolving the Great Flood, Yu, alone among the mythological rulers, is usually called “Yu the Great” (大禹). Alternatively, he is called Emperor Yu (帝禹), like his predecessors.

Xia Dynasty

Upon Yu’s death, his position as leader was passed not to his deputy, but was inherited by his son Qi. Various sources differ as to the process by which Qi rose to this position. Most versions agree that during his lifetime, Yu had designated his deputy, Gaotao (皋陶), to be his successor. When Gaotao died before him, Yu then selected Gaotao’s son, Bo Yi (伯益) as successor. One version then says that all the peoples who had submitted to Yu admired Qi more than Bo Yi, and Yu passed power to Qi instead. Another version holds that Bo Yi ceremoniously offered the position to Qi, who accepted, against convention, because he had the support of other leaders. A third version says that Qi killed Bo Yi and usurped his position as leader.

A 4th version, the currently most accepted version in China says, Yu named Bo Yi as successor, because Bo Yi had achieved fame through teaching the People to use fire to drive animals during hunts. Bo Yi had the popular support of the People and Yu could not go against it easily. But Yu gave Bo Yi the empty successor title, without giving Bo Yi more responsibilities. Instead Yu gave his own son all the responsibilities of managing the country. After a few years, Bo Yi lost popularity without additional achievements, and Yu’s son Qi became more popular among the People. Then Yu named Qi as the successor. Bo Yi, however, did not lose willingly. Bo Yi challenged Qi for leadership, and a civil war ensued. Qi with great support of the People, managed to defeat Bo Yi’s forces, and killed Bo Yi, and solidified his rule.

In any case, Qi’s succession broke the previous convention of meritorious succession, and began what is traditionally regarded as the first dynasty in Chinese history. The dynasty is called “Xia” after Yu’s centre of power.

The Xia Dynasty is considered at least semi-mythological. The Records of the Grand Historian and the Bamboo Annals record the names of 17 kings of the Xia Dynasty. However, there is no conclusive archaeological evidence of its capital or its existence as a state of any significant size. Archaeological evidence do not point towards a significant urban civilisation until the Shang Dynasty.

Shang Dynasty

Jie, the last king of the Xia Dynasty, is said to be a bloodthirsty despot. Tang of Shang, a tribal leader, revolted against Xia rule and eventually overthrew Jie and established the Shang Dynasty, based in Anyang. In Book 5 of Mozi, Mozi described the end of Xia dynasty and the new Shang dynasty. During the reign of King Jie of Xia, there was a great climactic change. The paths of the sun and moon were different, the seasons were confused and the five grains were dried up. Ghouls were crying in the country and cranes shrieked for ten nights. Heaven ordered Shang Tang to receive the heavenly commission from Xia dynasty. The Xia dynasty have failed morally and Heaven has determined her end. Therefore, Shang Tang was commanded to destroy Xia with the promise of Heaven’s help. In the dark, Heaven destroyed the fortress’ pool. Shang Tang then gained victory easily.^[1]

The Shang Dynasty ruled from ca. 1766 BC to ca. 1050 BC. It came to an end when the last despotic ruler, Zhou of Shang, was overthrown by the new Zhou Dynasty. The end of the Shang Dynasty and the establishment of the Zhou is the subject of the influential mythological fiction, Investitute of the Gods (封神演義). Book 5 of Mozi also described the shift. During the reign of Shang Zhou, Heaven could not endure his morality and his neglect of timely sacrifices. It rained mud for ten days and nights, the nine cauldrons (presumably used in either astronomy or to measure earth movements) shifted positions, pontianaks appeared and ghosts cried at night. There were women who became men, the heaven rained flesh and thorny brambles covered the national highways. A red bird brought a message “Heaven decrees King Wen of Zhou to punish Yin and possess its empire”. The Yellow River formed charts and the earth brought forth mythical horses. When King Wu became king, three gods appeared to him in a dream, telling him that they have drowned Shang Zhou in wine and that King Wu was to attack him. On the way back from victory, the heavens gave him the emblem of a yellow bird.

Unlike the preceding Xia Dynasty, there is clear archaeological evidence of a government centre at Yinxu in Anyang, and of an urban civilization in the Shang Dynasty. However, the chronology of the first three dynasties remains an area of active research and controversy.

Creation and the Pantheon

The Jade Emperor is charged with running of the three realms: heaven, hell and that of the living. The Jade Emperor adjudicates and metes out rewards and remedies to actions of saints, the living and the deceased according to a merit system loosely called the Jade Principles Golden Script (玉律金篇, see external links). When judgments proposed were objected to, usually by other saints, the administration would occasionally resort to the counsels of the advisory elders.

Dragon

The Chinese dragon is one of the most important mythical creatures in Chinese mythology. The Chinese dragon is considered to be the most powerful and divine creature and is believed to be the controller of all waters. The dragon symbolised great power and was very supportive of heroes and gods. One of the most famous dragons in Chinese mythology is Yinglong “Responding Dragon”, said to be the god of rain. Many people in different places pray to Yinglong in order to receive rain. In Chinese mythology, dragons are believed to be able to create clouds with their breath. Chinese people sometimes use the term “Descendants of the Dragon” as a sign of their ethnic identity.

For the most part, Chinese myths involve moral issues which inform people of their culture and values.

Dragon-gods, from Myths and Legends of China, 1922 by E. T. C. Werner

Religion and mythology

There has been extensive interaction between Chinese mythology and the major belief systems of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. (see Religion in China)

On the one hand, elements of pre-Han dynasty mythologies such as those in Shan Hai Jing were adapted into these belief systems as they developed (in the case of Taoism), or were assimilated into Chinese culture (in the case of Buddhism). On the other hand, elements from the teachings and beliefs of these systems became incorporated into Chinese mythology. For example, the Taoist belief of a spiritual paradise became incorporated into mythology, as the place where immortals and deities dwell.

Important mythologies and deities

Wen Chang, Chinese God of Literature, carved in ivory, c. 1550–1644, Ming Dynasty.

• Three Pure Ones (三清) the Daoist trinity, beings first transformed from the primodial unity
  • Yuanshi Tianzun (元始天尊)
  • Lingbao Tianzun (靈寶天尊)
  • Daode Tianzun (道德天尊)

• Four Emperors (四御) heavenly kings of Daoist religion
  • Yu Huang (Jade Emperor)
  • Beiji Dadi
  • Tianhuang Dadi
  • Empress of Earth

• Eight Immortals (八仙)
  • He Xiangu (何仙姑)
  • Cao Guojiu (曹國舅)
  • Tie Guaili (鐵拐李)
  • Lan Caihe (藍采和)
  • Lu Dongbin (呂洞賓)
  • Han Xiangzi (韓湘子)
  • Zhang Guolao (張果老)
  • Han Zhongli (漢鍾離)

• Deities with Buddhist Appellations
  • Guan Yin (觀音) (觀音菩薩, also Kuan Yin)
  • Laughing Buddha
  • Dizang (地藏菩薩/地藏王), ruler of the ten hells
  • Four Heavenly Kings (四大天王) Four Buddhist guardian gods
  • Gautama Buddha (釋迦牟尼)
• Erlang Shen (二郎神)
• Lei Gong (雷公) god of thunder
• Nezha (哪吒)
• Guan Yu (關聖帝君), God of Brotherhoods. God of martial power. Also revered as God of War.
• Zhao Gongming (趙公明)
• Bi Gan (比干)
• Bi Fang
• Kui Xing (魁星)
• Sun Wukong (孫悟空)
• Daoji (道濟)
• Matsu (媽祖)
• Zao Jun (灶君)
• Tu Di Gong (土地公)
• Town god (城隍)
• Zhong Kui (鍾馗)
• Lung Mo (龍母)
• Hung Shing (洪聖)
• Tam Kung
• Wong Tai Sin (黃大仙)
• Meng Po (孟婆)
• Three August Ones and Five Emperors (三皇五帝), a collection of legendary rulers
• Zhu Rong (祝融):
• Gong Gong (共工):
• Chi You (蚩尤 chi1 you2)
• Da Yu (大禹)
• Kua Fu (夸父追日)
• Cangjie (倉頡)
• Hou Yi (后羿 hou4 yi4)
• Chang E (嫦娥)
• The Cowherd and Weaver Girl (牛郎織女)
• Han Ba (旱魃)
• Wenchang Wang (文昌王)
• Gao Yao (皋陶)
• Tu Er Shen (兔兒神)
• Wu Gang (吳剛)

Spirit of the well, from Myths and Legends of China, 1922 by E. T. C. Werner

Zoomorphic guardian spirits of Day and Night, Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) Chinese paintings on ceramic tile

Mythical creatures

• Bashe (巴蛇 ba1she2) a snake reputed to swallow elephants
• Birds:
  • Fenghuang (Chinese Phoenix)
  • Jian (鶼 jian1) A mythical bird supposed to have only one eye and one wing: 鶼鶼 a pair of such birds dependent on each other, inseparable, hence, represent husband and wife.
  • Jiguang (吉光 ji2guang1)
  • Jingwei (精衛) a mythical bird which tries to fill up the ocean with twigs and pebbles.
  • Jiufeng A nine headed bird used to scare children.
  • Peng (鵬, a mythical bird of giant size and awesome flying power) Also known as the Chinese roc.
  • Qing Niao (青鳥 qing1niao3) a mythical bird, the messenger of Xi Wangmu.
  • Sanzuniao (三足鳥) a three-legged crow. Represented the sun birds shot down by Houyi.
  • Shang-Yang (a rainbird)
  • Su Shuang (鷫鵊 su4shuang3) a mythical bird, also variously described as a water bird, like the crane.
  • Zhen (鴆) a poisonous bird
  • Zhu (a bad omen)

• Chinese dragon
  • Yinglong, a powerful servant of Huang Di.
  • Dragon King
  • Fucanglong, the treasure dragon
  • Shenlong, the rain dragon
  • Dilong, the earth dragon
  • Tianlong, the celestial dragon
  • Chi, a hornless dragon or mountain demon
  • Jiaolong, a dragon of floods and the sea.
• Chinese “Unicorns”:
  • Qilin – a chimeric animal with several variations. The first giraffe sent as a gift to a Chinese emperor was believed to be the Qilin. An early Chinese painting depicts this giraffe replete with the fish scales of the Qilin. In legend, it is believed to have perfect good will, gentleness and benevolence to all living creatures.
  • Xiezhi (獬豸) – Also called Xie Cai, is a creature of justice said to be able to tell lies from truths. It has a single long straight horn that it uses to gorge liars. Often depicted as a goat unicorn.
  • Bai Ze (白澤) – literally meaning “white marsh”, is a legendary creature said to have been encountered by the Yellow Emperor and to have given him a compendium listing all the demons in the world.
  • Xiniu (犀牛) – or the rhinoceros, started to become mythical creatures when they became extinct in China. Their depictions changed to a more bovine appearance with a single short curved horn on its head that was used to communicate with the sky.
• The Four Symbols (四象)
  • Qīng Lóng, Azure dragon of the east.
  • Xuán Wǔ, black tortoise of the north.
  • Bái Hǔ, white tiger of the west.
  • Zhū Què, vermilion bird of the south.
• The Four Fiends (四凶):
  • Hundun (渾敦) – chaos
  • Taotie (饕餮) – gluttony
  • Taowu (梼杌) – ignorance
  • Qiongqi (窮奇) – deviousness
• Longma (龍馬), the “dragon horse”, similar to the Qilin.
• Kui 夔, a one-legged mountain demon or dragon, also Shun’s musical master who invented music and dance.
• Kun, also known as Peng (鯤 kun1) a mythical giant monstrous fish.
• Jiang Shi
• Luduan can detect truth.
• Yaoguai — demons.
• Huli jing — fox spirits.
• Nian, the beast
• Ox heads & horse faces 牛頭馬面 devils in animal forms.^[2]
• Pixiu (貔貅)
• Rui Shi (瑞獅)
• Xiao (魈 xiao1) A mythical mountain spirit or demon.
• The Xing Tian (刑天 “punished one” or “he who was punished by heaven”) is a headless giant. He was decapitated by the Yellow Emperor as punishment for challenging him. Because he has no head, his face is in his torso. He wanders around fields and roads and is often depicted carrying a shield and an axe and doing a fierce war dance.
• Chinese Monkey Warded off evil spirits and was highly respected and loved by all Chinese people.
• Yifan Zhang – Cat goddess, led a legion of cats to uphold righteousness before the Shang Era. Descendant of Huang Di.
• Zhayu (詐窳) – a creature of pure yin said to devour evil humans.
• Iphot – a creature of light that brings light to the universe

There are also many other creatures.^[3][4]

Mythical places

• Xuanpu (玄圃 xuan2pu3), a mythical fairyland on Kunlun Mountain (崑崙).
• Yaochi (瑤池 yao2chi2), abode of immortals where Xi Wang Mu lives.
• Fusang (扶桑 fu2sang1), a mythical island, interpreted as Japan.
• Queqiao (鵲橋 que4qiao2) the bridge formed by birds across the Milky Way.
• Penglai (蓬萊 peng2lai2) the paradise, a fabled Fairy Isle on the China Sea.
• Longmen (龍門 long2men2) the dragon gate where a carp can transform into a dragon.
• Di Yu (地獄 di4yu4), Chinese term for hell.

Literary sources of Chinese mythology

• Zhiguai (誌怪), a literary genre that deals with strange (mostly supernatural) events and stories
• Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, by Pu Songling, with many stories of fox demons
• Imperial historical documents and confucian canons such as Shiji, Lüshi Chunqiu, Liji, Shangshu
• Zǐbùyǔ (子不語), a collection of supernatural stories compiled during the Qing Dynasty

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18, 2003 – Newly discovered traces of ancient roads, bridges, and plazas in Brazil’s tropical forest may help dispel the once-popular impression of an “untouched” Amazon before the Europeans’ arrival. In southern Brazil, archaeologists have found the remains of a network of urban communities that apparently hosted a population many thousands strong. Reporting their findings in the journal Science, published by AAAS, the science society, the researchers say the people who dwelled there dramatically changed their local landscape.

In the upper Xingu region of the southern Amazon, in central Brazil, Michael Heckenberger of the University of Florida and his colleagues have discovered centuries-old remains of roads that appear to link a network of large villages in a carefully organized, gridlike pattern. The residents, ancestors of the modern-day Xinguanos, dug enormous ditches around the villages, built bridges and moats in wetland areas, and cultivated large tracts of land.

It seems that virtually no part of this landscape was truly wild, or “pristine.” Even some of the forested areas may have been more akin to a large park than to untouched forest, according to Heckenberger.

Too hostile for habitation?
Though multitudes of plants and animals thrive in the Amazon, the environment was long thought to be too hostile for large-scale human settlement. In particular, archaeologists believed that the soil quality was too poor to support the intensive agriculture that would be necessary to support a population of significant size.

The general impression of native Amazonians as “stone age primitives frozen at the dawn of time” has changed little over the past few centuries, Heckenberger said.

“There was this cherished image that the Amazon was pure nature. The problem is, we have very few good, empirical cases that tell us what Amazonia was like in 1492, one way or the other,” he said.

In recent years, archaeologists have been revising their view of the Amazon, sometimes provoking bitter debates over how extensively the land could have been settled by humans. A key reason for the controversy has been the lack of good physical evidence, according to Heckenberger.

The first written record that refers to the Kuikuro, a subgroup of the Xinguanos with whom Heckenberger has worked for a decade, is from 1884. But, according to the Kuikuro’s oral history, the first Europeans they encountered were slavers, around 1750. Heckenberger and his colleagues tentatively estimate that the population of the region numbered in the tens of thousands, but crashed due to enslavement and disease epidemics. By the 1950s, there were as few as 500 Xinguanos.

With indigenous Amazonians’ numbers decimated, and little concrete evidence of their earlier civilizations, researchers visiting the Amazon generally concluded that its people had always been small, “primitive” tribes who left little imprint on their environment.

A satellite image shows complex regional settlement patterns and large-scale transformations of local landscapes over the past millennium.

An urban amazon
Heckenberger’s team has found 19 settlements to date, at least four of which were major residential centers. The settlements were built around large, circular plazas, with roads leading out from them at specific angles, repeated from one plaza to the next.

Heckenberger, who collaborated with two Kuikuro chiefs on the Science study, believes the engineered features of the landscape all involved elements of the Kuikuro’s understanding of the entire cosmos. Road directions and the orientations of other structures are keyed to the directions of the sun and stars, for example. Today, the Kuikuro continue this sort of “ethnocartography,” as Heckenberger calls it.

Roads in the ancient settlements were up to 165 feet (50 meters) wide, the width of a modern-day four-lane highway, and flanked by large curbs. The researchers report that the roads linked settlements, every two to three miles (three to five kilometers), along an extensive grid. This kind of planning would have required the relatively sophisticated ability to reproduce angles over large distances, according to Heckenberger.

Where the villages converged on wetlands, the researchers discovered the remains of ancient bridges, moats and canals. The Kuikuro still use many such structures today.

The entire area in between settlements was carefully engineered and managed, according to the researchers. It was likely either cultivated, or maintained as a sort of parkland — a managed area, rather than wild or pristine forest. Satellite images reveal that the vegetation now growing in these areas looks quite different from older forest.

Conservation questions
The Upper Xingu is the largest contiguous tract of Amazonian forest still under indigenous management. Its history brings up the question of how to go about conserving the remaining Amazon. Should the goal be to preserve a “pristine” wilderness untouched by human activity? Or a working landscape that supports indigenous peoples?

Perhaps both options need not be mutually exclusive. Heckenberger is quick to point out that the Amazon is not a uniform landscape.

“Because it’s so poorly known, Western knowledge has tended to treat the area as one homogeneous thing: one big jungle, one big rainforest, one natural lab for primitive people,” Heckenberger said. “As we dig into the region, we realize that 500 years ago it was very different, and that even today there is a large amount of variation that we didn’t appreciate before.

“These people were involved in the same kinds of cultural human innovation as elsewhere in the world. We’re not talking about the Incan or Roman Empire here, but in terms of the rest of Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas and elsewhere, Amazonians were no less capable of human cultural innovation than anyone else,” Heckenberger said.

Taueret

Different towns struggled to have just their local gods at top of the state religion and thus we have many different religious legends over the years depending upon which town had the greatest politi-cal influence during the period. To increase the number of sup-porters nation wide they could “borrow” abilities from popular gods and give to their own. Because of this over the years different gods came into fashion and later went out of style, with exception of a group that was in front right from the beginning and never lost its popularity. These were responsible for basic and vital things in life like love, joy, dancing, childbirth, justice, and life after death.
All aspect of daily life were covered by at least one of these deities, and like people on earth a vast majority of them were married (of- ten to their siblings) and had children.
Many ingredients made it possible for common people to identify themselves with them since their personalities were made of both divine strength and human weakness. They did most of the things that ordinary people did, like harvesting, hunting, eating, drinking, partying and even dying. Most of them were depicted as men and women combined with the head of the animal by which they were represented and they could appear in different costumes and be represented by several animals in the Egyptian fauna.
In other words – they could appear in many ways and yet some of them were so alike looking that it’s impossible to identify them without reading the connecting text. Just looking at the dresses and the regalia they carry along isn’t always enough, because they used to borrow objects from each other. This guesswork is a part of the charm when looking in to their in many ways, to us, unlikely world.
As to their names, today we use a blend of both their original Egyptian ones like Re, Ptah and Amon, and the Greek forms like Isis, Osiris and Horus.

Shrines
As for the veneration of the gods scholars of Egyptology doesn’t know exactly how this was made during the oldest times, or at what point in history the main gods had cult areas replaced by temples of their own.
One clue might be the god Min (see him) who obviously had a very old cult at Koptos in Upper Egypt where two statues of him larger then life size were found in the late 1800s. They had no doubt been situated within a sacred area or by a shrine of some sort, but no remains are left to reconstruct what it may have looked like.
After the formation of two separate countries along the Nile (Upper and Lower Egypt) a typical building came to be in each part, which more or less symbolized the country itself in both a religious and political way and underlined its national identity.

It’s most likely that local temples made of clay and reed originally were the cult build-ings used by tribes along the Nile, and with time two shrines were specified where people could make offers to the main gods. Through their different designs it’s easy locate the origin of old writings found since their depictions were incorporated into the hieroglyphic signs in an early stage (shown to the right of each illustration above).
Per-wer, meaning “the Great House”, stood for Upper Egypt, and Per-nu, “the House of Flame” was the cupola shaped roofed national temple of Lower Egypt.
They are both attested for already during the reign of pharaoh Aha at the beginning of the first dynasty where they are present on a famous wooden label.
If at this stage, all mayor gods were worshipped in these buildings is not known.
With time the temples were elaborated to be great stone building just for a few very popular gods and goddesses which had fame over the centuries throughout the long Egyptian history. Minor gods had small shrines or were venerated in the homes.

Clothing
When the goddesses and gods were depicted with a human body the variety wasn’t so big in the way they were dressed. Less then half a dozen types of garments covers almost all of them. From the beginning they all wore white dresses, or at least single colored. This tradition slowly changed over the years and with time the colors and patterns became elaborated. The peak was reached during the Greco-Roman period when they were seen in outfits like actors in a costume spectacle in a theatre.
Excluding the mummy-like creations, here is a type description in brief:

Tunic with suspenders. Male garment, ending above the waist and popular in all times. Example: Re. Dress with suspenders. Female garment, ended above the waist, and was usually white. Example: Hathor. The short loincloth Short and skirt-like garment and popular from earliest times. Example: Asar-hap. The short-sleeved overall From the earliest times very common tight female garment. Example: Isis. The full-length dress Unusual, sleeve-less and for goddesses. Went up to the neck. Example: Seshat.

Notice that long sleeves were not in fashion in any era of Egyptian history, at least for the gods and goddesses. Their dresses were to a great extent similar to those worn by the upper classes in society during daytime and evenings, and mostly indoors.

Headgear
The gods had a lot of different things to put on their heads, and they surely did. In bright contrast to the stereotyped positions of their bodies the painters and sculptors were keen on giving the heads as much attention as possible. This was obviously initiated by pharaoh himself or the priesthood in order to give their favorite gods as much promotion as possible. The different crowns could give a hint where the god originally came from, and by wearing the combined crown for the whole country, the message was given that this god or goddess was important to all Egyptians. To make them conspicuous all crowns, hats etc. were adorned with plumes, horns, snakes, flowers, sun discs, leaves etc painted in bright colors. Especially during the Greco-Roman era the fantasy and elaboration was significant.

Deshret     Hedjet    Peshent     Peshent       Atef      Atef with horns   Khepresh

EGYPTIAN CROWNS: The red one was from Lower and the white from Upper Egypt. The double crown represented the whole country. The Atef-crown was worn by Osiris and the type with horns and the sun disc by Re-Horakhte and other gods. The blue helmet-like came during dynasty 18 and was worn by kings and the god Amon.

Besides royal crowns the gods had a lot of other symbols and things to wear upon their heads. In some cases the headgear was necessary to identify the deities in ques-tion, when they were dressed the same, as they often were. Here is a selection of per-sonal things helping to identify which goddess is depicted in case the written hiero-glyphs don’t give a clue. The following objects below are shown as they looked when the bearer in question was facing right.
Neit had the a stylised form of her shield and crossed arrows on her head. Isis wore a throne on top, a rather uncomfortable one it seems, and Maát had her standing ostrich feather she was named after. Nephtys had a building topped with a bowl-like object (for collecting rain water?) and Nut had a pot (or a broad vase) upon her head.
Selkhet wore the dangerous scorpion (without its deadly sting), and Seshat had the holy Persea-tree with two horns over it as her personal sign. Anat had a stylized cow’s uterus as her token. Hathor had several objects in her hat box like cow’s horns with the sun disc and her favorite musical instrument – the sistrum, which was a rattle.

Most of these 18 objects worn upon their heads were unique for just one female deity, but Hathor’s solar disc in variations and Anit’s object could be worn by others.
Especially the sun (symbolizing the god Re) was seen above the heads of many gods.

Regalia
All paintings, drawings, sculptures and reliefs in Egypt followed a traditional scheme, and changes came slowly with time. Some artistic features did not alter anything at all, and remained unchanged for over 3.000 years. Thw way of depicting people are among these unaltered expressions of art. The body was normally in profile except for the torso which was shown from the front like the eye, to make the face more expressive. The gods (and kings) depicted were seldom empty handed – they usually carried various objects, and the symbolic meaning of some are still obscure to Egypto-logists. The gods usually had the well known ankh-sign in one of their hands, with the general meaning “life”, and also to be interpreted as joy of living. Since the Egyptian religion offered eternal life for those who had behaved well on earth, we don’t know if this sign of life meant the next or the present one – or possibly both.
The other hand was holding a staff or scepter of some kind, and here we have half a dozen types. Goddesses usually had a scepter topped with a flower in different colors (like a white lily from the Nile) but this was seldom seen among the gods, possibly because it gave a more soft impression to the observer.
Very common through all times was the Was-scepter for “command” (see pictures below) and some gods, like Ptah and Osiris, had their own type of this staff.

1) Sceptre with flower often carried by goddesses. 2) The herdsman’s crook of god Anedjti, patron of shepherds and protector of domesticated animals. 3) Was-sceptre, stood for domination and power. It was very common among gods/kings in all times. 4) Staff of creator Ptah formed of four “djed-pillars” of order and stability (possibly a human spine). 5) Outfit of Osiris: crook and flail (cattle breeding and farming) plus the Was-sceptre and ankh-sign.

Osiris

is an old and famous tale which in a way tells how Egypt came to be and points out the devine background of its rulers – the pharaohs. Among variations the main theme is as follows.

In the very beginning of time Osiris was king over Egypt and his queen (and sister) was the goddess Isis.
He was beloved by the people whom he told how to worship the gods and grow their crops for their daily bread. His brother Set became jealous and tried to overthrow him and become king himself. When participating in a feast with Osiris as host, Set began to describe a beautiful coffin he had, in a way that made the other guests curious.

Isis

He was asked to fetch it and so he did and this was just in line with his plan.
Everyone agreed that it was a magnificent piece of craftsmanship and Set told them that he would give it away for free to whomever fitted exactly into it. Since he had made the coffin himself it was measured to fit one person only – his brother Osiris. When he placed himself in it everybody could see that he was the one who would get i as a present, but the evil Set had other plans. With his brother Osiris still in it, he and his fellows quickly nailed the lid and threw it into the Nile. Queen Isis was overcome by sorrow and began to search all over the land for it, but in vain.

One day she heard that a wonderful tree had sprung on the shores of Byblos in the north on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, where the local king had cut it down and built a palace from it.

Horus

Isis understood that this was the place where the coffin had come to shore and she went there in disguise. She got a job at the court as a hairdresser for the queen and now when she could walk freely inside the castle she began to look for the coffin, and finally she found it in a remote chamber.
During the night she managed to snatch it and embarked a boat heading for Egypt. When she came there she hid in the marshlands in the delta. There she opened the coffin and took a last farewell of her beloved husband Osiris and began searching for a suitable place to bury him. But Set was aware of all this and was hiding nearby. When Isis went to rest for the night he snatched the coffin and cut his brother’s body into fourteen pieces and spread them all over Egypt. Isis became furious and asked her sister Nephthys and her son Anubis, to help her to find all the pieces of her husband’s body.

Set

They now started a nation wide search that lasted for many years and finally all the part of Osiris’ body were found except for the penis which had been thrown into the Nile where it was devoured by a fish.
Isis made a wooden replacement for it and then put the whole body together. She now asked the sun god Re to make her husband alive just for one day, which he did, and they could have a last night of love together. The next day Osiris died and his body was embalmed by Anubis who thus made him the first mummy. Isis later gave birth to a son who was named Horus and she did all she could to keep it a secret from Set, but he found them and almost killed them in an ambush.

Thoth

They were saved by the god of wisdom – Thoth, and he told them to hide in the reeds in the marshes once more. But as before Set found their hiding place and had more wicked things on his mind. He transformed himself into a snake and gave the little Horus child a fatal bite.
When Isis came back she found her baby almost lifeless, and took him to the nearest village to get help. A wise old woman examined him and found out that it must have been Set as a snake who had bitten him. Thoth came to their rescue once more and drove out the poison from Horus’ body and he recovered. He and his mother stayed hiding in the delta until he was a mature man and sometimes he took the form of a hawk and scouted out Set for the final showdown – the revenge on his murdered father. When that moment came they fought for three days until Thoth stopped the fight. They were both taken to the Court of Law in the Underworld and there they presented their versions of the story leading to the combat. The Court did not believe Set, who was sentenced to pull the boat with the sun across the sky forever. Horus now became the new king of Egypt like his father Osiris before him, and the good had finally conquered evil.
Isis put the body of her dead husband in a coffin and had nineteen identical coffins made in which she put duplicates. Priest from Egypt’s twenty biggest towns then were given one each and could all thereafter claim that they had Osiris’ tomb in their town. Thus many places in Egypt were (and still are) called Abusir – the place of Osiris.

Ancient Egypt had different stories telling about how the world and all its inhabitants once came to be. The legends varied from province to province along the Nile, but after the unification a handful of them grew more popular and others were forgotten.
The priesthood in the cult centers of the creator-gods supported their own version and thus we meet gods like Atum, Re, Ptah, Khnum and Kheper performing the act as The Great Maker, but in different ways. There are no Deluge-legends involved in any of the creation stories of the Nile-people, probably because they had their own big flood every year and the beginning of everything couldn’t possibly involve a banality like that.
The most common and probably one of the oldest stories, said that at the dawn of time there was nothing but the water called Nun, and the first ground coming out of it was a rock called the “Ben-Ben stone”. From a slightly irregular shape at the begin- ning, with time it was elaborated and turned into a broad and short obelisk with a pointed top in a four-side pyramid fashion. Some scholars suggest that this might be the prototype for later pyramids tombs, but others do not.
On the Ben-Ben stone stood Atum and he coughed and spat out Shu and Tefnut.

The world creators in breef: ATUM from Heliopolis made everything (even himself) of his own sperm through masturbating or spitting. He then created woman from a bit of flesh from his hand.
PTAH from Heliopolis in Lower Egypt made the world by simply saying words and made earth raise from the water, very similar the story in the Bible.
RE (also from Heliopolis) is told in a rather late poetic legend to be the creator by using a tear from his eye to build all the world.
KHNUM from the island Elephantine at Aswan in the south, was the creator who made the world and all its people on his potter’s wheel. The stuff was mud from the Nile.
KHEPER (representing Re) made all other gods from matter taken from his own body. He also created life (symbolically) every morning by commanding the sun to rise.
AMON from Thebes was during the New Kingdom vaguely connected to the creation of the World, saying that he once (like Atum) had created himself at the dawn of time.
THOTH was in Khemenu (Hermopolis) in Upper Egypt, the maker of the world and the first ones he helped to life were four frogs and four snakes, the so called Ogdoad.

The family from which all people in the world came was of the earth god Geb and his wife Nut, goddess of the sky. They had the twins Shu who was god of the cool dry air and his sister Tefnut, patroness of rain, warm dew and moisture.
Before they had any children they were separated by command of the solar god Re and Geb wept over his loss and his tears made all the seas and oceans of the world.
One legend tells that Re for some reason (possibly jealousy) had become angry with Nut and laid a curse on her telling that none of her coming children could be born on any one day of the year. This was a big setback for Nut and Geb who were just plan-ning to raise a family. In their agony they turned to the god of wisdom – Thoth, for advice. He went to his superior, the shadowy and not often depicted moon-god Aah who was in charge of the Egyptian moon-calendar. This old table of time consisted of 12 months of 30 days together making the moon-year of 360 days.
Thoth made Re a proposition to gamble about the matter and they started to play a game of dice resulting in victory for Thoth. He thereby won the moonlight of the five additional days of the true year (in this case July 14 to 18) and gave it to Geb and Nut who used them for the births of their children. Thus the curse of Re had no effect upon them because their children could all be born outside Aah’s moon calendar. In the years to come Nut gave birth to five of the most prominent deities of Egypt:
Year 1 – Osiris. Year 2 – Horus (the Elder). Year 3 – Set. Year 4 – Isis. Year 5 – Nephtys.

The origin of Universe.
From the beginning there was nothing but a water chaos called Nun, and from that came the god Atum, who had created himself. From matter taken from his own body, he made the earth-god Geb and his sister (and wife) Nut, the goddess of the sky.
To hold up and fill the sky they had two children, the boy Shu, the god of the air, and a girl Tefnut, goddess of moisture and rain. This family of four was the very foundation upon which the world existed as they represented: earth, water, air and the sky.

Air-god Shu holding up the sky-goddess Nut supported by two versions of Khnum. Lying down: earth-god Geb.

The first gods.
1) The old tradition from Heliopolis (Iunu) just north of Memphis in Lower Egypt said the creation of all the gods was made by Kheper, who was another form of their local sun god Re.
He was self-produced and made the other gods out of the matter of his own body. He was the father of many gods like Osiris, Nephtys, Isis, Set, Horus and others.

Creation of man.
A very old legend in Egypt told that mankind was divided into four types when they were made on the potter’s wheel by the great creator Khnum. He made them all out of mud of various colors from the Nile.
The order in which they were made was as follows: First was – Romut, meaning “men”, and these were the Egyptians themselves. The second to come from the potter’s wheel was – Áamu, the people from the desert mountains east of the Nile. This name was later also used for Asians in general.
Number three, called – Temehu, was the fair skinned people from the Mediterranean coast west of the Nile Delta and the oases west of the Nile Valley.
The last to be made was – Nehesy, the black people to the south of Egypt, below the province of Nubia.
Notable is that the names of these people seem to be very old and originating from the early times when the Egyptians didn’t have a name for Asians, which they surely encountered well before the first dynasty as shown in archaeology remains.
According to another (much younger) legend mankind was created from a tear that fell from the eye of the god Re, and turned into men and women. The fair-skinned Libyans, considered as “cousins” by the people in the Nile valley, were formed in the same way. The two other people have a tear from Re as their origin too, but in a more irregular way.

The Court in the Underworld
When a person had died he was taken to Underworld where his deeds in life were taken to the Court of Osiris for the final judgement. Since this place also was called “The Island of Fire” it’s quite obvious that the Egyptians had knowledge about the burning interior of the Earth though they had no volcanoes in their own country. Before coming there the dead person had to pass a labyrinth of gates and doors and answer questions correctly to pass through. The lion-god Aker let him through the last gate and he was facing the fourteen members of the jury in the Tribunal Hall. There he was allowed to speak about his behavior on Earth. (Shown in the upper left in the picture below).
Then god Anubis took him into the courtroom presenting him the scale where his heart would be put in balance with the feather of the goddess Máat, patroness of truth and harmony. The procedure was recorded by Thoth – the god of writing and wisdom. Sometimes Thot’s animal (a baboon) was sitting on top of the scale ready to adjust the result using a sliding weight.

The deceased enters from the left guided by Anubis. His heart is placed on the scales and the result is recorded by Thoth. Then Horus takes him in front of the judge Osiris for the final verdict. Behind the throne stand Isis and Nephtys.

If the heart of the deceased wasn’t too heavy with sins from his life on Earth, he went through and could continue his voyage to the afterlife and was granted a plot of land in the “Field of the Reeds”. This was the paradise for the ancient Egyptians – to grow crops for eternity in a land that was the very image of the Nile Valley they just had left.
If he failed the test on the other hand – his heart was immediately devoured by the beast Ammut sitting under the scale ready to have a good blow-out. In that case the dead faced the most horrible future imaginable for the Egyptians – he was denied an eternal life in the land in the West and his soul would be restless forever.

The seven steps to Paradise

The Book of the Dead was (in most versions) an illustrated manuscript which consisted of prayers and magical texts to be used during the funeral and read over the dead to ensure the survival in the afterlife.
These texts were a necessary part of the funerary equipment and were thought to help through dangers of the Underworld. Over 150 burial spells were written on papyrus and placed with the dead and the content has been traced back to the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts from 2.300 BC and had probably a long oral tradition before that.
Each nome (province) and even towns had their own version putting text mentioning the local gods in favor.
For poor people (i.e. the average Egyptian) there were versions not so elaborated (and expensive) and just containing the essence. A big part concerned the moment when the dead came in front of the jury in the Underworld. There he would make confessions like: “I have not killed or used false weights on my balance, or caused pain to anyone”. Then he usually stated things like: “I have given clothes to the naked, water to the thirsty and bread to the hungry” etc, all to convince the jury members of his kind-heartedness.
One spell was spoken in front of a tribunal of 42 gods, and proclaimed innocence of a series of specified sins that covered every kinds of wrong doing. This made the soul worthy to go further into the Judgement Hall where the Court of Osiris (see above) had the final word. Being approved of there he was ready to embark on the Boat of Re to sail to the “Land in the West” for eternal rest.

The human soul – Ba, seen as a bird, hovering over his newly mummified master on his bier.

Ka and Ba (body and soul)
The purpose of preserving the body through embalming is clearly shown in the two components the Egyptians thought built up a man’s personality. In both cases the physical body was essential for their existence and an eternal life for the deceased.

Ka (left) walking beside the body and Ba who was dwelling within.

The human soul was called – Ba and was depicted as a bird with a human face, sometimes with the features of the dead person. The Ba (like Ka) appeared for the first time at the moment of birth, but the Ba was dwelling within the body, and after death in the mummy. During life he was his master’s conscience and after death he was himself protected from being misled by evil spirits through rituals and prayers from “The Book of the Dead” performed by priests or relatives. A correct behavior in both worlds was essential to the Egyptians.
After death he was released from the mummy every night and could fly back to the world of the living to check things out. Before sunrise he was back within his master, who thus never lost contact with the world he had left.

The Solar Boat of Re
The story of the sun god Re and the voyage in his boat was one of the most important in Egyptian mythology and concerned the very basics of life for the people in the Nile Valley. It clearly shows the cyclic way of looking at time and life that was at hand since the oldest times for Egyptians.
The religious beliefs in Heliopolis in Lower Egypt told that Re was the creator of men and at the beginning of the fifth dynasty he reached a very lofty position when the kings adopted his name in their titles claiming to be his sons.
Re traveled through the waters of heaven in two different boats each day. The first, Madjet (“being strong”), rose out of the east behind the Mount Bakhu and then passed between two sycamore trees. At noon he was transferred over to a small bark by the name of Semektet (“going weak”), and this vessel took him into the sunset in the west at Mount Manu.
He did not navigate the boats himself because this was taken care of by Máat, god- dess of justice and stability. She was first mate on the bridge and set the course acc- ompanied by Horus.

The first voyage over the sky. The life-giving Re (as the sun disk) and the symbol of creation the beetle Kheper on the very first day. Onboard are the gods who had helped to formed the World. The boat was held up by Nun, the lord of the watery chaos below from which everything had emerged at the dawn of time – the day before. (See also the gods Hu and Sia).

The boat was not provided with sails, but had another way to get power to move. It was simply pulled across the sky by the evil god Set who had been condemned to do so for killing his brother Osiris (as told in the Myth of Osiris above).
At night the god Upuaut stood on the prow and navigation was assisted by pilot fish Abtu and Ant, who swam in front of the boat.
The crew consisted of the gods Geb and Heka plus the companions Hu and Sia. They all helped Re to overcome the obstacles set up by those who tried to stop his journey – the three monsters Sebau, Nak, and Apep. The evil creature Apep was the most dan- gerous one and he took the shape of a big snake or a crocodile.
Under the protection of war god Maahes, Re fought and killed the monsters every day and thus secured the way for the sun to rise the next morning. By then the participants were all alive and kicking again and the daily combat could begin as usual.
Cloudy days were scary to the Egyptians because it might be that Apep had stopped Re in his boat. To prevent this and make things go back to normal again they made extra offerings in the temples to make the sun come back.

A prayer for life By begging Re to come back in the morning the Egyptians hoped that daily life should go on as usual. Scene from a prayer book.

The most critical days, that thankfully did not come often, were those with solar eclipses in different stages. It seemed that Apep was swallowing up the sun, but somehow, after extra ceremonies, Re turned out to be the winner in the end. There were even manuals for people to help to fight this evil snake/crocodile that could jump up from the heavenly waters and attack the boat and the people onboard. Even the otherwise bad god Set took part in the struggle, besides pulling the boat, which underlines the importance of the mission.
The essence of this myth is that the sun (symbolizing life itself) was a constant struggle. A lifetime for a man was a similar voyage with the birth and peak of living at noon. At twilight life was coming to an end and people finally reach the glorious Land In the West – the next World, after their short stay on Earth.
By venerating the gods who struggled every day to make the life-giving sun keep shining, order and stability was secured. This was what the chief navigator goddess Máat stood for and she always managed to get the old barge to port.

Burial customs
The basic purpose of mortuary preparation was to ensure the deceased a successful passage into the next world. The tombs were from the very beginning shallow holes in the sand later to be lined with a wall of sun dried bricks or stones and topped by a mound of sand or clay. The substructures were elaborated downwards when pits leading to grave chambers were cut out in the bedrock starting around 3200 BC. The structures above ground developed into bench-like brick buildings (mastabas) later to be made of stone and ending with the great pyramids 2.400 BC, a time span of evo- lution for almost half a millennium.
The amount of grave goods and offerings (for wealthy people) was increasing and be- came more sophisticated and progress was also seen in the treatment of the body of the deceased – the mummification. This custom first appeared also in about 3200 BC. and steadily progressed technically for the next 2.000 years from simple dehydration (made by the dry climate) to preparations with chemicals.
Originally the dead was placed in a crunched position lying on the side, but with time traditions changed and they were stretched out on their backs.
The religious belief was that the body should be preserved intact for the soul to dwell within in the next world. This made kings and other royalties hide their dead protec- ted under mountains of stone (pyramids) and later in secret hideouts in the desert cliffs. Unfortunately the huge monuments draw attension from poor people, and Egyptians never separated the valuable offerings and grave goods from the mummies, which made the robbers plunder it all during periods of political instability.
During the long periods prosperaty, which could last for hundred of years, cults of long deceased kings is noted to have been going on for many generations. In these the content in “the Book of the Dead” (see above) was a crucial element.

Prepared for eternity Anubis who was the watcher over the cemeteries, also took care of the important mummification. In the picture he is making an em-balming to make the dead keep his looks in the next world. Without a physical body the soul had no place to dwell and be-came restless forever. Poor people could only afford small clay figurines as substitute for a preserved body.

Thus the great kings from the Old Kingdom did not come to “the Field of Reeds” after death despite (or more accurate: just because) they tried to protect themselves under mountains of stone, which draw attention to everybody, not the least tomb robbers.
The next world was located in more than one place both in a physical and a religious (metaphysical) sense. It could be 1) in the area around the tomb, 2) among the stars, 3) in the celestial regions with the sun god or 4) in the Underworld itself.
All places had one thing in common: they were all located in “The Beautiful West” where the day (and life) ended with the setting sun.
The journey to the next world was fraught with obstacles in the Underworld. It was a trip by boat through many gates with tricky questions to answer. The judgement after death (see “the Book of the Dead” above) was a subject often depicted from the New Kingdom and onwards. The belief itself was much older, probably from before the first dynasty 2000 years earlier. It was the final judgement whether the deceased had been a good human being or not. Most of them (with means) could pass by giving offerings to the gods and making declarations about their good behavior on Earth, true or not.

2. Food for thought

3. The Mozart effect

4. Gainful employment

5. Memory marvels

6. Sleep on it

7. Body and mind

8. Nuns on a run

9. Attention seeking

10. Positive feedback

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It doesn’t matter how brainy you are or how much education you’ve had – you can still improve and expand your mind. Boosting your mental faculties doesn’t have to mean studying hard or becoming a reclusive book worm. There are lots of tricks, techniques and habits, as well as changes to your lifestyle, diet and behaviour that can help you flex your grey matter and get the best out of your brain cells. And here are 10 of them.

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1. Smart drugs

Does getting old have to mean worsening memory, slower reactions and fuzzy thinking?

AROUND the age of 40, honest folks may already admit to noticing changes in their mental abilities. This is the beginning of a gradual decline that in all too many of us will culminate in full-blown dementia. If it were possible somehow to reverse it, slow it or mask it, wouldn’t you?

A few drugs that might do the job, known as “cognitive enhancement”, are already on the market, and a few dozen others are on the way. Perhaps the best-known is modafinil. Licensed to treat narcolepsy, the condition that causes people to suddenly fall asleep, it has notable effects in healthy people too. Modafinil can keep a person awake and alert for 90 hours straight, with none of the jitteriness and bad concentration that amphetamines or even coffee seem to produce.

In fact, with the help of modafinil, sleep-deprived people can perform even better than their well-rested, unmedicated selves. The forfeited rest doesn’t even need to be made good. Military research is finding that people can stay awake for 40 hours, sleep the normal 8 hours, and then pull a few more all-nighters with no ill effects. It’s an open secret that many, perhaps most, prescriptions for modafinil are written not for people who suffer from narcolepsy, but for those who simply want to stay awake. Similarly, many people are using Ritalin not because they suffer from attention deficit or any other disorder, but because they want superior concentration during exams or heavy-duty negotiations. The pharmaceutical pipeline is clogged with promising compounds – drugs that act on the nicotinic receptors that smokers have long exploited, drugs that work on the cannabinoid system to block pot-smoking-type effects. Some drugs have also been specially designed to augment memory. Many of these look genuinely plausible: they seem to work, and without any major side effects.

So why aren’t we all on cognitive enhancers already? “We need to be careful what we wish for,” says Daniele Piomelli at the University of California at Irvine. He is studying the body’s cannabinoid system with a view to making memories less emotionally charged in people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Tinkering with memory may have unwanted effects, he warns. “Ultimately we may end up remembering things we don’t want to.”

Gary Lynch, also at UC Irvine, voices a similar concern. He is the inventor of ampakines, a class of drugs that changes the rules about how a memory is encoded and how strong a memory trace is – the essence of learning (see New Scientist, 14 May, p 6). But maybe the rules have already been optimised by evolution, he suggests. What looks to be an improvement could have hidden downsides.

Still, the opportunity may be too tempting to pass up. The drug acts only in the brain, claims Lynch. It has a short half-life of hours. Ampakines have been shown to restore function to severely sleep-deprived monkeys that would otherwise perform poorly. Preliminary studies in humans are just as exciting. You could make an elderly person perform like a much younger person, he says. And who doesn’t wish for that?

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2. Food for thought

You are what you eat, and that includes your brain. So what is the ultimate mastermind diet?

YOUR brain is the greediest organ in your body, with some quite specific dietary requirements. So it is hardly surprising that what you eat can affect how you think. If you believe the dietary supplement industry, you could become the next Einstein just by popping the right combination of pills. Look closer, however, and it isn’t that simple. The savvy consumer should take talk of brain-boosting diets with a pinch of low-sodium salt. But if it is possible to eat your way to genius, it must surely be worth a try.

First, go to the top of the class by eating breakfast. The brain is best fuelled by a steady supply of glucose, and many studies have shown that skipping breakfast reduces people’s performance at school and at work.

But it isn’t simply a matter of getting some calories down. According to research published in 2003, kids breakfasting on fizzy drinks and sugary snacks performed at the level of an average 70-year-old in tests of memory and attention. Beans on toast is a far better combination, as Barbara Stewart from the University of Ulster, UK, discovered. Toast alone boosted children’s scores on a variety of cognitive tests, but when the tests got tougher, the breakfast with the high-protein beans worked best. Beans are also a good source of fibre, and other research has shown a link between a high-fibre diet and improved cognition. If you can’t stomach beans before midday, wholemeal toast with Marmite makes a great alternative. The yeast extract is packed with B vitamins, whose brain-boosting powers have been demonstrated in many studies.

A smart choice for lunch is omelette and salad. Eggs are rich in choline, which your body uses to produce the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Researchers at Boston University found that when healthy young adults were given the drug scopolamine, which blocks acetylcholine receptors in the brain, it significantly reduced their ability to remember word pairs. Low levels of acetylcholine are also associated with Alzheimer’s disease, and some studies suggest that boosting dietary intake may slow age-related memory loss.

A salad packed full of antioxidants, including beta-carotene and vitamins C and E, should also help keep an ageing brain in tip-top condition by helping to mop up damaging free radicals. Dwight Tapp and colleagues from the University of California at Irvine found that a diet high in antioxidants improved the cognitive skills of 39 ageing beagles – proving that you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Round off lunch with a yogurt dessert, and you should be alert and ready to face the stresses of the afternoon. That’s because yogurt contains the amino acid tyrosine, needed for the production of the neurotransmitters dopamine and noradrenalin, among others. Studies by the US military indicate that tyrosine becomes depleted when we are under stress and that supplementing your intake can improve alertness and memory.

Don’t forget to snaffle a snack mid-afternoon, to maintain your glucose levels. Just make sure you avoid junk food, and especially highly processed goodies such as cakes, pastries and biscuits, which contain trans-fatty acids. These not only pile on the pounds, but are implicated in a slew of serious mental disorders, from dyslexia and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) to autism. Hard evidence for this is still thin on the ground, but last year researchers at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego, California, reported that rats and mice raised on the rodent equivalent of junk food struggled to find their way around a maze, and took longer to remember solutions to problems they had already solved.

It seems that some of the damage may be mediated through triglyceride, a cholesterol-like substance found at high levels in rodents fed on trans-fats. When the researchers gave these rats a drug to bring triglyceride levels down again, the animals’ performance on the memory tasks improved.

Brains are around 60 per cent fat, so if trans-fats clog up the system, what should you eat to keep it well oiled? Evidence is mounting in favour of omega-3 fatty acids, in particular docosahexaenoic acid or DHA. In other words, your granny was right: fish is the best brain food. Not only will it feed and lubricate a developing brain, DHA also seems to help stave off dementia. Studies published last year reveal that older mice from a strain genetically altered to develop Alzheimer’s had 70 per cent less of the amyloid plaques associated with the disease when fed on a high-DHA diet.

Finally, you could do worse than finish off your evening meal with strawberries and blueberries. Rats fed on these fruits have shown improved coordination, concentration and short-term memory. And even if they don’t work such wonders in people, they still taste fantastic. So what have you got to lose?

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3. The Mozart effect

Music may tune up your thinking, but you can’t just crank up the volume and expect to become a genius

A DECADE ago Frances Rauscher, a psychologist now at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, and her colleagues made waves with the discovery that listening to Mozart improved people’s mathematical and spatial reasoning. Even rats ran mazes faster and more accurately after hearing Mozart than after white noise or music by the minimalist composer Philip Glass. Last year, Rauscher reported that, for rats at least, a Mozart piano sonata seems to stimulate activity in three genes involved in nerve-cell signalling in the brain.

This sounds like the most harmonious way to tune up your mental faculties. But before you grab the CDs, hear this note of caution. Not everyone who has looked for the Mozart effect has found it. What’s more, even its proponents tend to think that music boosts brain power simply because it makes listeners feel better – relaxed and stimulated at the same time – and that a comparable stimulus might do just as well. In fact, one study found that listening to a story gave a similar performance boost.

There is, however, one way in which music really does make you smarter, though unfortunately it requires a bit more effort than just selecting something mellow on your iPod. Music lessons are the key. Six-year-old children who were given music lessons, as opposed to drama lessons or no extra instruction, got a 2 to 3-point boost in IQ scores compared with the others. Similarly, Rauscher found that after two years of music lessons, pre-school children scored better on spatial reasoning tests than those who took computer lessons.

Maybe music lessons exercise a range of mental skills, with their requirement for delicate and precise finger movements, and listening for pitch and rhythm, all combined with an emotional dimension. Nobody knows for sure. Neither do they know whether adults can get the same mental boost as young children. But, surely, it can’t hurt to try.

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4. Gainful employment

Put your mind to work in the right way and it could repay you with an impressive bonus.

UNTIL recently, a person’s IQ – a measure of all kinds of mental problem-solving abilities, including spatial skills, memory and verbal reasoning – was thought to be a fixed commodity largely determined by genetics. But recent hints suggest that a very basic brain function called working memory might underlie our general intelligence, opening up the intriguing possibility that if you improve your working memory, you could boost your IQ too.

Working memory is the brain’s short-term information storage system. It’s a workbench for solving mental problems. For example if you calculate 73 – 6 + 7, your working memory will store the intermediate steps necessary to work out the answer. And the amount of information that the working memory can hold is strongly related to general intelligence.

A team led by Torkel Klingberg at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, has found signs that the neural systems that underlie working memory may grow in response to training. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans, they measured the brain activity of adults before and after a working-memory training programme, which involved tasks such as memorising the positions of a series of dots on a grid. After five weeks of training, their brain activity had increased in the regions associated with this type of memory (Nature Neuroscience, vol 7, p 75).

Perhaps more significantly, when the group studied children who had completed these types of mental workouts, they saw improvement in a range of cognitive abilities not related to the training, and a leap in IQ test scores of 8 per cent (Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, vol 44, p 177). It’s early days yet, but Klingberg thinks working-memory training could be a key to unlocking brain power. “Genetics determines a lot and so does the early gestation period,” he says. “On top of that, there is a few per cent – we don’t know how much – that can be improved by training.”

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5. Memory marvels

Mind like a sieve? Don’t worry. The difference between mere mortals and memory champs is more method than mental capacity

AN AUDITORIUM is filled with 600 people. As they file out, they each tell you their name. An hour later, you are asked to recall them all. Can you do it? Most of us would balk at the idea. But in truth we’re probably all up to the task. It just needs a little technique and dedication.

First, learn a trick from the “mnemonists” who routinely memorise strings of thousands of digits, entire epic poems, or hundreds of unrelated words. When Eleanor Maguire from University College London and her colleagues studied eight front runners in the annual World Memory Championships they did not find any evidence that these people have particularly high IQs or differently configured brains. But, while memorising, these people did show activity in three brain regions that become active during movements and navigation tasks but are not normally active during simple memory tests.

This may be connected to the fact that seven of them used a strategy in which they place items to be remembered along a visualised route (Nature Neuroscience, vol 6, p 90). To remember the sequence of an entire pack of playing cards for example, the champions assign each card an identity, perhaps an object or person, and as they flick through the cards they can make up a story based on a sequence of interactions between these characters and objects at sites along a well-trodden route.

Actors use a related technique: they attach emotional meaning to what they say. We always remember highly emotional moments better than less emotionally loaded ones. Professional actors also seem to link words with movement, remembering action-accompanied lines significantly better than those delivered while static, even months after a show has closed.

Helga Noice, a psychologist from Elmhurst College in Illinois, and Tony Noice, an actor, who together discovered this effect, found that non-thesps can benefit by adopting a similar technique. Students who paired their words with previously learned actions could reproduce 38 per cent of them after just 5 minutes, whereas rote learners only managed 14 per cent. The Noices believe that having two mental representations gives you a better shot at remembering what you are supposed to say.

Strategy is important in everyday life too, says Barry Gordon from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Simple things like always putting your car keys in the same place, writing things down to get them off your mind, or just deciding to pay attention, can make a big difference to how much information you retain. And if names are your downfall, try making some mental associations. Just remember to keep the derogatory ones to yourself.

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6. Sleep on it

Never underestimate the power of a good night’s rest

SKIMPING on sleep does awful things to your brain. Planning, problem-solving, learning, concentration,working memory and alertness all take a hit. IQ scores tumble. “If you have been awake for 21 hours straight, your abilities are equivalent to someone who is legally drunk,” says Sean Drummond from the University of California, San Diego. And you don’t need to pull an all-nighter to suffer the effects: two or three late nights and early mornings on the trot have the same effect.

Luckily, it’s reversible – and more. If you let someone who isn’t sleep-deprived have an extra hour or two of shut-eye, they perform much better than normal on tasks requiring sustained attention, such taking an exam. And being able to concentrate harder has knock-on benefits for overall mental performance. “Attention is the base of a mental pyramid,” says Drummond. “If you boost that, you can’t help boosting everything above it.”

These are not the only benefits of a decent night’s sleep. Sleep is when your brain processes new memories, practises and hones new skills – and even solves problems. Say you’re trying to master a new video game. Instead of grinding away into the small hours, you would be better off playing for a couple of hours, then going to bed. While you are asleep your brain will reactivate the circuits it was using as you learned the game, rehearse them, and then shunt the new memories into long-term storage. When you wake up, hey presto! You will be a better player. The same applies to other skills such as playing the piano, driving a car and, some researchers claim, memorising facts and figures. Even taking a nap after training can help, says Carlyle Smith of Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.

There is also some evidence that sleep can help produce moments of problem-solving insight. The famous story about the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev suddenly “getting” the periodic table in a dream after a day spent struggling with the problem is probably true. It seems that sleep somehow allows the brain to juggle new memories to produce flashes of creative insight. So if you want to have a eureka moment, stop racking your brains and get your head down.

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7. Body and mind

Physical exercise can boost brain as well as brawn

IT’S a dream come true for those who hate studying. Simply walking sedately for half an hour three times a week can improve abilities such as learning, concentration and abstract reasoning by 15 per cent. The effects are particularly noticeable in older people. Senior citizens who walk regularly perform better on memory tests than their sedentary peers. What’s more, over several years their scores on a variety of cognitive tests show far less decline than those of non-walkers. Every extra mile a week has measurable benefits.

It’s not only oldies who benefit, however. Angela Balding from the University of Exeter, UK, has found that schoolchildren who exercise three or four times a week get higher than average exam grades at age 10 or 11. The effect is strongest in boys, and while Balding admits that the link may not be causal, she suggests that aerobic exercise may boost mental powers by getting extra oxygen to your energy-guzzling brain.

There’s another reason why your brain loves physical exercise: it promotes the growth of new brain cells. Until recently, received wisdom had it that we are born with a full complement of neurons and produce no new ones during our lifetime. Fred Gage from the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, busted that myth in 2000 when he showed that even adults can grow new brain cells. He also found that exercise is one of the best ways to achieve this.

In mice, at least, the brain-building effects of exercise are strongest in the hippocampus, which is involved with learning and memory. This also happens to be the brain region that is damaged by elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol. So if you are feeling frazzled, do your brain a favour and go for a run.

Even more gentle exercise, such as yoga, can do wonders for your brain. Last year, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, reported results from a pilot study in which they considered the mood-altering ability of different yoga poses. Comparing back bends, forward bends and standing poses, they concluded that the best way to get a mental lift is to bend over backwards.

And the effect works both ways. Just as physical exercise can boost the brain, mental exercise can boost the body. In 2001, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio asked volunteers to spend just 15 minutes a day thinking about exercising their biceps. After 12 weeks, their arms were 13 per cent stronger.

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8. Nuns on a run

If you don’t want senility to interfere with your old age, perhaps you should seek some sisterly guidance

THE convent of the School Sisters of Notre Dame on Good Counsel Hill in Mankato, Minnesota, might seem an unusual place for a pioneering brain-science experiment. But a study of its 75 to 107-year-old inhabitants is revealing more about keeping the brain alive and healthy than perhaps any other to date. The “Nun study” is a unique collaboration between 678 Catholic sisters recruited in 1991 and Alzheimer’s expert David Snowdon of the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging and the University of Kentucky in Lexington.

The sisters’ miraculous longevity – the group boasts seven centenarians and many others well on their way – is surely in no small part attributable to their impeccable lifestyle. They do not drink or smoke, they live quietly and communally, they are spiritual and calm and they eat healthily and in moderation. Nevertheless, small differences between individual nuns could reveal the key to a healthy mind in later life.

Some of the nuns have suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, but many have avoided any kind of dementia or senility. They include Sister Matthia, who was mentally fit and active from her birth in 1894 to the day she died peacefully in her sleep, aged 104. She was happy and productive, knitting mittens for the poor every day until the end of her life. A post-mortem of Sister Matthia’s brain revealed no signs of excessive ageing. But in some other, remarkable cases, Snowdon has found sisters who showed no outwards signs of senility in life, yet had brains that looked as if they were ravaged by dementia.

How did Sister Matthia and the others cheat time? Snowdon’s study, which includes an annual barrage of mental agility tests and detailed medical exams, has found several common denominators. The right amount of vitamin folate is one. Verbal ability early in life is another, as are positive emotions early in life, which were revealed by Snowdon’s analysis of the personal autobiographical essays each woman wrote in her 20s as she took her vows. Activities, crosswords, knitting and exercising also helped to prevent senility, showing that the old adage “use it or lose it” is pertinent. And spirituality, or the positive attitude that comes from it, can’t be overlooked. But individual differences also matter. To avoid dementia, your general health may be vital: metabolic problems, small strokes and head injuries seem to be common triggers of Alzheimer’s dementia.

Obviously, you don’t have to become a nun to stay mentally agile. We can all aspire to these kinds of improvements. As one of the sisters put it, “Think no evil, do no evil, hear no evil, and you will never write a best-selling novel.”

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9. Attention seeking

You can be smart, well-read, creative and knowledgeable, but none of it is any use if your mind isn’t on the job

PAYING attention is a complex mental process, an interplay of zooming in on detail and stepping back to survey the big picture. So unfortunately there is no single remedy to enhance your concentration. But there are a few ways to improve it.

The first is to raise your arousal levels. The brain’s attentional state is controlled by the neurotransmitters dopamine and noradrenalin. Dopamine encourages a persistent, goal-centred state of mind whereas noradrenalin produces an outward-looking, vigilant state. So not surprisingly, anything that raises dopamine levels can boost your powers of concentration.

One way to do this is with drugs such as amphetamines and the ADHD drug methylphenidate, better known as Ritalin. Caffeine also works. But if you prefer the drug-free approach, the best strategy is to sleep well, eat foods packed with slow-release sugars, and take lots of exercise. It also helps if you are trying to focus on something that you find interesting.

The second step is to cut down on distractions. Workplace studies have found that it takes up to 15 minutes to regain a deep state of concentration after a distraction such as a phone call. Just a few such interruptions and half the day is wasted.

Music can help as long as you listen to something familiar and soothing that serves primarily to drown out background noise. Psychologists also recommend that you avoid working near potential diversions, such as the fridge.

There are mental drills to deal with distractions. College counsellors routinely teach students to recognise when their thoughts are wandering, and catch themselves by saying “Stop! Be here now!” It sounds corny but can develop into a valuable habit. As any Zen meditator will tell you, concentration is as much a skill to be lovingly cultivated as it is a physiochemical state of the brain.

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10. Positive feedback

Thought control is easier than you might imagine

IT SOUNDS a bit New Age, but there is a mysterious method of thought control you can learn that seems to boost brain power. No one quite knows how it works, and it is hard to describe exactly how to do it: it’s not relaxation or concentration as such, more a state of mind. It’s called neurofeedback. And it is slowly gaining scientific credibility.

Neurofeedback grew out of biofeedback therapy, popular in the 1960s. It works by showing people a real-time measure of some seemingly uncontrollable aspect of their physiology – heart rate, say – and encouraging them to try and change it. Astonishingly, many patients found that they could, though only rarely could they describe how they did it.

More recently, this technique has been applied to the brain – specifically to brain wave activity measured by an electroencephalogram, or EEG. The first attempts were aimed at boosting the size of the alpha wave, which crescendos when we are calm and focused. In one experiment, researchers linked the speed of a car in a computer game to the size of the alpha wave. They then asked subjects to make the car go faster using only their minds. Many managed to do so, and seemed to become more alert and focused as a result.

This early success encouraged others, and neurofeedback soon became a popular alternative therapy for ADHD. There is now good scientific evidence that it works, as well as some success in treating epilepsy, depression, tinnitus, anxiety, stroke and brain injuries.

And to keep up with the times, some experimenters have used brain scanners in place of EEGs. Scanners can allow people to see and control activity of specific parts of the brain. A team at Stanford University in California showed that people could learn to control pain by watching the activity of their pain centres (New Scientist, 1 May 2004, p 9).

But what about outside the clinic? Will neuro feedback ever allow ordinary people to boost their brain function? Possibly. John Gruzelier of Imperial College London has shown that it can improve medical students’ memory and make them feel calmer before exams. He has also shown that it can improve musicians’ and dancers’ technique, and is testing it out on opera singers and surgeons.

Neils Birbaumer from the University of Tübingen in Germany wants to see whether neurofeedback can help psychopathic criminals control their impulsiveness. And there are hints that the method could boost creativity, enhance our orgasms, give shy people more confidence, lift low moods, alter the balance between left and right brain activity, and alter personality traits. All this by the power of thought.

The report explores the functioning and role of the two halves of the human brain and the relationship between them. It is the right half which usually communicates with the primitive parts of the human brain and this is related to the functioning of the autonomic nervous system and the immune system.

The report also relates the functioning of the brain to behaviour, showing to some extent how human behaviour is affected by the primitive instincts of our reptilian ancestors.

CONTENTS

THE BRAIN

How the Human Brain Evolved

Reptilian Brain
Mammalian Brain
Human Brain

Brain Waves
Brain Scanning

SLEEP AND SLEEPING

Body-Temperature and Sleep Rhythms
Sleeping
Deep Sleep and REM Sleep
Role of DEEP Sleep
Role of REM Sleep

DREAMING AND DREAMS

Content of Dreams
Role of Dreams

LEARNING, MEMORISING AND REMEMBERING (Receiving, Storing and Recalling)

Types of Memory

Procedural Memory
Declarative Memory

Associating Memories and their Components

Working Memory
External Memory

Stored Information (Perceived Content)
Learning (Memorising) and Understanding
Development of Brain Functions in Humans

Development of Brain Functioning in Foetus and Newborn
Role of REM Sleep in Infants
Changes in Sleep-wakefulness Rhythm during First Year of Infant’s Life
Learning by Playing and by Experience
Change from Eidetic to Linear Memory

CONCLUSIONS – BRAIN, MIND AND BEHAVIOUR (Human Behaviour and how the Mind works)

Instincts and Instinctive Behaviour
Conscious Behaviour: Learning and Evaluating, Memory and Memorising
Communicating Non-verbally: Conveying Information by Using Images

Instinctive Behaviour
Subconscious Behaviour (Functioning)
Memorising

Adapting to the Environment: Changing Instinctive Behaviour
Adapting to the World in which we Live: Changing Behaviour Patterns
Evaluation and Understanding
The Struggle for a Better Life
Main Conclusions

NOTES AND REFERENCES

Notes   <..>
References   {..}

ILLUSTRATIONS (Click any illustration to see the full-size chart)

1. Sleep Pattern: Day-Night-Day
2. One Sleep Period (One Night)
3. The Human Brain

Relevant Current and Associated Works

Relevant Subject Index Pages and Site Overview

THE BRAIN

HOW THE HUMAN BRAIN EVOLVED

We slowly ascended from lower life forms to what we are today, by a process of natural selection from randomly occurring changes. Each change had to prove its worth by surviving the continual battle for existence, being against being, species against species and this process has gone on for many millions of years.

As far as we know the human brain evolved in three main stages {3}. Its ancient and primitive part is the innermost core reptilian brain. Next evolved the mammalian brain by adding new functions and new ways of controlling the body. Then evolved the third part of the brain, the neocortex, the grey matter, the bulk of the brain in two symmetrical hemispheres, separate but communicating. To a considerable extent it is our neocortex which enables us to behave like human beings.

So the human brain consists of these three different but interconnected brains and the way in which these three brains interact with each other underlies human behaviour. {3}

How the brain evolved and functions is explored and described in the immediately following chapters which cover how the brain evolved, sleep and sleeping, dreaming and dreams, and how we learn, memorise and remember.

The final chapters contain conclusions which describe how the functioning of the human brain and of the human mind determine behaviour.

What we see in this report raises a number of pertinent questions which need answering. Questions such as why do we have to struggle for a better life and what motivates human beings.

Reptilian Brain

Innermost in our brain is what is called the reptilian brain, its oldest and most primitive part. The reptilian brain appears to be largely unchanged by evolution and we share it with all other animals which have a backbone.

This reptilian brain controls body functions required for sustaining life such as breathing and body temperature. Reptiles are cold-blooded animals which are warmed by the daylight sun and conserve energy by restricting activities when it is dark. The biological clock (controller) for their activity-rest cycle is located in the eye itself {10}.

At this level of evolution, behaviour relating to survival of the species, such as sexual behaviour, is instinctive and responses are automatic. Territory is acquired by force and defended. Might is right.

Mammalian Brain

Next to evolve from the reptilian brain was the mammalian brain. An enormous change took place as mammals evolved from reptiles, the mammalian brain containing organs {11, 12}:

For the automatic control of body functions such as digestion, the fluid balance, body temperature and blood pressure (autonomic nervous system, hypothalamus).

For filing new experiences as they happen and so creating a store of experience-based memories (hippocampus).

For experience-based recognition of danger and for responding to this according to past experience. And for some conscious feelings about events (amygdala).

To this extent the mammal is more consciously aware of itself in relation to the environment. Millions of neural pathways connect the hippocampal and amygdala structures to the reptilian brain and behaviour is less rigidly controlled by instincts. It seems that feelings such as attachment, anger and fear have emerged with associated behavioural response patterns of care, fight or flight. {4}

Human Brain

And the mammalian brain became the human brain by adding the massive grey matter (neocortex) which envelopes most of the earlier brain and amounts to about 85 per cent of the human brain mass.

This massive addition consists mostly of two hemispheres which are covered by an outer layer and interconnected by a string of nerve fibres. {13}

The brain is actually divided into its ‘hemispheres’ by a prominent groove. At the base of this groove lies the thick bundle of nerve fibres which enable these two halves of the brain to communicate with each other.

But the left hemisphere usually controls movement and sensation in the right side of the body, while the right hemisphere similarly controls the left side of the body.

We saw that with the mammalian brain emerged feelings such as attachment, fear and anger and associated behavioural response patterns.

And human emotional responses depend on neuronal pathways which link the right hemisphere to the mammalian brain {4} which in turn is linked to the even older reptilian brain.

Fascinating is the way in which work is divided between the two halves of the brain, their different functions and the way in which they supplement and co-operate with each other.

Most people (about 80 per cent) are right-handed <4> and in the vast majority of right-handed people, the ability to organise speech and the ability to speak are predominantly localised in the left side of the brain. But the right side can understand written and spoken language to some extent at least. {14}

“Appreciating spatial perceptions depends more on the right hemisphere, although there is a left hemisphere contribution. This is especially true when handling objects” {14} and concerning abstract geometric shapes and music.

Roger Sperry, Michael Gazzaniga and their colleagues found that, when presented with a stimulus, both hemispheres were active and could recognise the nature of visual stimuli as well as spoken words.

But while the left hemisphere can express itself by verbally describing a stimulus, the right hemisphere can express itself non-verbally by selecting the matching stimulus.

The left hemisphere deals with word choice, rules of grammar, and the meaning of words. The right hemisphere apparently determines the emotional content of speech. {14}

So a general overview of the functional division of activities between the two hemispheres would be:

Left Hemisphere

Communicates by using words, has highly developed verbal abilities, is logical and systematic, concerned with matters as they are.

Right Hemisphere

Communicates using images (pictures), has highly developed spatial abilities, is intuitive and imaginative, concerned with emotions and feelings.

But the two hemispheres are interconnected and communicate, the human mind brings together these abilities and skills into a comprehensive whole whose operation depends on the way in which its parts contribute and co-operate with each other.

The right hemisphere links to the primitive older part of the brain, and I consider that it communicates using images with its primitive ‘unconscious’ functions. Thinking in pictures is fast. Think of how long it takes to describe a picture, a scene, in words and compare this with the speed of taking it in by looking at it. But images may be described, or transformed into a narrative, by the left hemisphere.

Language is both spoken as well as written, verbal and visual. And speech and language and associated pictures, images and memories appear to be located all over the brain. Cognition of meaning (knowing and understanding sentences, for example) is high level processing which includes both semantic and visual processing. And behaviour involves the integration of activities in many different parts of the brain.

So now the human brain includes the processing and memorising of images and of their components. And the development of language and corresponding mental processing connected with memory and memorising. As well as the development of a wide range of emotions, of feelings, of care and affection, and the capability for objective and logical thinking and evaluation. And the later development of written languages and artificial images.

BRAIN WAVES

The brain functions by sending electrical signals from one place to another. Very small charges pass between nerve cells, accompanied by changes in electrical potential, in voltage.

This activity can be measured and displayed as a wave form called brain wave or brain rhythm. The height of the wave is a measure of the potential difference, its frequency is a measure of the rate at which electrical charges pass through a nerve cell or nerve fibre. {1}

A person’s brain is active all the time, waking and sleeping, producing and shifting between distinct wave forms which are commonly grouped as follows:

Table 1

Brain Waves

When delta waves predominate then one is said to be in a delta state.

People can think of relaxing and so strengthen alpha waves, or can do mental arithmetic and so weaken them. This enables people ‘to perform an on-off decision, switching a light on or off or moving a cursor on a screen’. {5}

BRAIN SCANNING

Electroencephalograph (EEG) {1}

The EEG measures electrical activity of the brain using pairs of electrodes placed at different (internationally specified) points on the scalp. It is used by doctors for diagnosis and research.

It seemed that the EEG would provide the key to understanding how the brain functions, but it proved very difficult to interpret these brain waves, or to deduce from where in the brain they originated.

Magnetoencephalograph (MEG) {2, 7}

The MEG, however, can measure

the oscillating millisecond fluxes of the brain in real time. Furthermore, unlike the EEG, granted enough mathematical sophistication and computing power, you get a good idea of the location of the electromagnetic source in the brain.

And it can be used to

record magnetic and electrical fields within the brain simultaneously, tracking impulses moving (a distance of) a few millimetres at up to 200 miles per hour.

In real time, that is ‘in perhaps 10 milliseconds’. And ‘usually accurate to within one or two millimetres in pre-surgical mapping’.

And in this way enabling responses to be tracked within the brain.

SLEEP AND SLEEPING

BODY-TEMPERATURE AND SLEEP RHYTHMS

Day and night alternate over 24 hours due to the rotation of the planet, and the start and length of daylight varies with the seasons.

So internal biological clocks (controllers) evolved for controlling activities related to the environment such as those of cold-blooded animals which need to maintain their body temperature by warming themselves in the sun. Reptiles are cold-blooded animals warmed by the daylight sun and conserve energy by restricting activities when it is dark. And the biological clock which controls their activity-rest cycle is located within the eye. {10}

But about 180 million years ago, warm-blooded mammals evolved from their cold-blooded reptilian ancestors by developing the ability to maintain a constant body temperature by biological processes. This freed them from depending on daylight and the weather for survival. Deep sleep appeared at the same time. {4}

The earlier mammals were reproducing themselves by hatching their young out of eggs. But about 180 to 130 million years ago, many mammals evolved into giving birth directly from the womb, their young being born alive after having been developed for a considerable period within the womb. Their young have to grow and learn much for a long time before they can survive independently, for many years in the case of human beings. The human brain now has much greater learning capacity.

In mammals, information about light and darkness is transmitted from the eye to a biological clock, now situated in the mammalian brain, which controls the sleep-wakefulness rhythm. Another biological clock controls the body-temperature rhythm, and these biological clocks together control the related body-temperature and sleep-wakefulness rhythms. {10}

While the body’s temperature is held at a constant level, it varies by about 0.5 deg C from a low at about 05.00 hours to a high at about 18.00 hours. It appears that we tend to go to sleep after our body temperature has began to fall and tend to wake up after it has started to rise.

“The length of the geophysical day is 24 hours. Our sleep-wakefulness rhythm (circadian rhythm) has a duration which varies from individual to individual (usually between 25 and 28 hours) but is always longer than 24 hours. And our biological rhythms are adjusted accordingly, day by day,” by these internal biological clocks, to the external geophysical day, to the environment. People sleep, on average, between 6.5 and 8.5 hours. {10}

The body-temperature clock also controls the appearance of REM sleep.

SLEEPING

There are key mental states each characterised by its own brain wave pattern <5>. When awake we can be attending or concentrating, or we can be relaxed. When asleep we could be in SHALLOW sleep, DEEP sleep, or REM sleep.

Shallow sleep is often referred to as ‘Stage 2′ sleep, and Deep sleep as ‘Stage 4′ sleep.

During REM sleep (Rapid-Eye-Movement sleep), the eyes move rapidly and continuously. At times REM sleep is referred to as dreaming sleep and sometimes called paradoxical sleep, or called paradoxical sleep only when referring to animals.

During Deep sleep the body’s muscles are relaxed, heart beat and breathing are slow and regular. In REM sleep the body’s muscles are paralysed while heart beat and breathing fluctuate as they would during emotional upsets in waking life.

Brain-wave frequency of the different sleep stages we pass through in the course of a night are outlined in Figure 1 ‘Sleep Pattern: Day-Night-Day’. From being wide awake before going to sleep, we relax, sleep lightly (shallow) for ten to fifteen minutes before sleeping deeply. Following Deep sleep we REM sleep after which we wake up through relaxing to being fully awake. <6>

Figure 1 Sleep Pattern: Day – Night – Day

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Deep sleep is followed by REM sleep. In order to achieve this as far as possible within a night, the brain arranges alternating periods of deep sleep followed by REM sleep <8>.

The illustration shows graphically what happens to the brain’s electrical activity as the night progresses, illustrated by the frequency of the brain waves. As we progress from being awake through sleep to being awake again, the frequency drops, reaching its lowest point while in deep sleep and then rises again to the wide-awake level.

Amplitude, that is voltage, changes inversely. It increases when the frequency drops, reaching its highest level during deep sleep, and then decreases again to the wide-awake level.

Considering adults, that is excluding the young and the elderly, on the whole we ‘Deep Sleep’ during the first half of the night, and ‘REM Sleep’ during the second. But possibly because we cannot be certain how long we will sleep, whether our sleeping period will be interrupted unexpectedly, Deep sleep and REM sleep are divided into shorter sleep periods which alternate, something like:

Table 2

One Sleep Period (One complete night)

Figure 2 One Sleep Period (One Night)

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That we Deep sleep first and that REM sleep follows Deep sleep is clearly shown in Figure 2. This shows how the two kinds of sleep alternate as Deep sleep ends and REM sleep begins and proceeds.

Deep Sleep and REM Sleep each take up about 20 to 25 percent of the night’s sleep. The remainder is largely taken up by transition ‘Shallow’ sleep’ periods which enable brain and body to adjust to the next type of sleep, and by occasional brief periods of intermediate ‘Stage 1′ and ‘Stage 3′ sleep <6>.

DEEP SLEEP AND REM SLEEP

We have already seen much about Deep sleep and about REM sleep so this seems a good point to include in this section also what has been said so far.

Both Deep sleep and REM sleep appeared about 180 million to 130 million years ago in mammals as they evolved from reptiles.

Deep sleep and REM sleep are the core sleep activities, each taking up about 20 to 25 percent of the night’s sleep, the remainder being taken up by shallow transition sleep periods.

On the whole we Deep sleep during the first half of the night, and REM sleep during the second. Deep sleep and REM sleep are divided up into shorter sleep periods which alternate.

So now we can list the characteristics of Deep sleep and of REM sleep, as follows:

Deep Sleep

Deep sleep appeared at about the time warm blooded mammals evolved from their cold-blooded reptilian ancestors by developing the ability to maintain a constant body temperature by biological processes.

As we progress from being awake through sleeping to being awake again, the frequency of the brain waves drops, reaching its lowest point while in Deep sleep and then rises again to the wide-awake level. (See Figure 1 ‘Sleep Pattern: Day – Night – Day’)

During Deep Sleep the body’s muscles are relaxed and heart beat and breathing are slow and regular.

Deep sleep ‘dream-like experiences are more like ordinary everyday thoughts and are usually rather banal and repetitive in content’. During Deep sleep ‘one is not dreaming but thinking.’ {4}

REM Sleep (Rapid-Eye-Movement sleep)

REM sleep also appeared at about the time warm blooded mammals evolved from their cold-blooded reptilian ancestors by developing the ability to maintain a constant level of body temperature by biological processes.

At this constant level there is a small but closely controlled body temperature rhythm (we tend to go to sleep after our body temperature has began to fall and tend to wake up after it has started to rise) and the body-temperature clock also controls the appearance of REM sleep.

On the whole we REM sleep during the second half of the night, after Deep sleep and before waking up through relaxing to being fully awake.

In REM sleep the body’s muscles are paralysed while heart-beat and breathing fluctuate as they would during emotional upsets in waking life. Brain waves look like the waking pattern. The eyes move rapidly and continuously. <7>

Persistent rapid eye movement shows that dreaming is taking place and the brain paralyses the sleeper so that the dreams cannot be acted out.

Dreams tend to consist of “sensory illusions or hallucinated dramas” (imagined feelings or awarenesses), are not usually remembered unless the dreamer wakes up from the dream itself. “The length of time taken to dream of certain events is about the same as the time it would take to experience those events in waking reality.” {4}

ROLE OF DEEP SLEEP

We saw that Deep sleep appeared about 180 million to 130 million years ago in mammals as they evolved from reptiles. And that during Deep sleep the body’s muscles are relaxed and heart beat and breathing are slow and regular. In Deep sleep ‘one is not dreaming but thinking’.

As reptiles evolved into mammals and mammals into human beings, complicated and interrelated physiological and biological changes took place. And it seems as if body maintenance and development takes place during Deep sleep.

For example, “during sleep, the endocrine organs come to life and secrete into the bloodstream hormones that affect the entire body” {10}.

ROLE OF REM SLEEP

“If REM sleep is prevented, it takes precedence over other kinds of sleep until the lack of REM sleep has been made good, at least to some extent. So human beings need REM sleep.” {10}

Professor Lavie heads Haifa Technion’s Sleep Laboratory. He reports {10} “that in some way or other, we can maintain contact with reality during REM sleep and even decide when to wake up with the help of internal signals”, and that “REM sleep allows a smooth and rapid transition from sleep to wakefulness, and so can be viewed as a gate to wakefulness during sleep.”

“Further findings at the Technion Sleep Laboratory demonstrated an additional advantage in awakening from REM sleep. When we examined how people functioned after awakening from REM sleep, we found that they performed very well at tasks which included orientation in space. These tasks, which are controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain, were performed with a lesser success rate after awakening from the Deep sleep of stages 3 and 4. In other words, a person awakening from REM sleep is immediately orientated in his surroundings, which is of cardinal importance to a smooth transition from sleep to wakefulness.”

Which suggests to me that the left hemisphere is involved in Deep sleep ‘dreaming’ and the right hemisphere in REM sleep dreaming.

REM sleep appeared when, as we saw already, mammals evolved into giving birth directly from the womb, their young being born alive after having been developed for a considerable period within the womb. The young have to grow and learn much for a long time before they can survive independently, for many years in the case of human beings. Which applies particularly to the brain which now has much greater learning capacity.

During the first few days after birth the actual amount of REM sleep is very great and Lavie concluded that “it plays a vital role in the maturing stage of the nervous system” and that “it is possible that REM sleep is particularly important for procedural types of learning in which humans acquire motor and perceptual skills. Since during the first few months of life infants are busy acquiring new motor and perceptual skills, these findings may also explain the abundance of REM sleep at that particular time in our life”.

Lavie also reports that REM sleep in cats “seems to be training their neural networks in mainly instinctive behaviour” and that “several studies have indicated a possibility that the consolidation of memory traces for at least certain types of learning occurs during REM sleep”.

So the role of REM sleep appears to be that of generating dreams, of filing away memories for later use, and to enable us to wake up quickly and fully orientated.

DREAMING AND DREAMS

Dreaming, whatever this may be or whatever is taking place during REM sleeping periods, is likely to perform an essential function as otherwise the brain would not be paralysing the body to enable dreaming to take place.

Important also because it takes place regularly as a matter of routine and as all individuals are normally subject to this procedure.

In other words, there must be an important reason for sleeping in this way and for dreaming.

CONTENT OF DREAMS

The content of an individual’s dreams normally corresponds with that individual’s language and memories, beliefs and culture, depends on an individual’s day-to-day life, experiences, preoccupations, likes and dislikes.

But at times dreams seem to originate from an unknown apparently internal source which has been given labels such as the ‘unconscious’ or the ‘subconscious’. Occasionally dreams contain information beyond the experience, knowledge or understanding of the dreamer.

The dreams of the blind do not include sights or scenes but include noises, the sense of contact and emotional experiences. Lavie found that there were only single eye movements during their nonpictorial dream sleep. The longer they had been blind, the sparser the eye movements of blind people and so Lavie showed that grouped eye movements indicate dream pictures. {10}

Lavie records that early-REM-period dreams deal with the present, and in most cases lack story or central character. But “dream reports made in the early hours of the morning are richer in detail, central characters, and feelings, and, compared with dreams from the first half of the night, they tend to deal more with the dreamer’s early childhood”.

First dreams are not remembered in the morning but last dreams are, and it is these last dreams which the psychiatrist is most likely to hear.

Dreams may deal with what happened during the day which has just passed, or are about what took place more than a week ago, but do not as a rule deal with the events of the seven days or so which come in between. This gap seems to show that two kinds of memory are involved, a short-term working memory and a more permanent long-term memory, and that it may take a week or so before at least some of the information which reached the working memory is processed and stored in the long-term memory.

ROLE OF DREAMS

According to Jouvet “dreams arise from bursts of activity in biologically ancient parts of the brain, and both animals and humans get up and act out their dreams when the brain centres responsible for inhibiting movements during sleep are incapacitated”. {4}

Theta rhythms have been observed not only in REM sleep periods in humans but also in animals when performing activities such as hunting on which survival depends.

“Instincts are an innate form of behaviour – in other words, patterns of motor behaviour which are not learned but stamped on the nervous system before birth. The behavioral patterns of numerous species which involve attack, defense, or copulation are instinctive, and the animal performs these actions from birth, without being trained to do so.” {10}

According to Lavie, Jouvet hypothesised

“that one of the roles of paradoxical sleep was to train the neural networks which are related to instinctive behavior”,

“that during paradoxical sleep these neural networks are activated independently of the muscles which are linked to the nerve cells and inhibited by the brain stem”,

and that “because of the decisive importance of the instincts to the survival of the species, the neural networks linked to instincts are checked every night”.

Dreams may “provide help in solving problems (or solutions to everyday problems), even scientific ones” and may “also be an inspiration for artistic creativity (for discovery and creativity)” and have also been the source of literary and musical inspiration.

There are many stories indicating that at least some dreams may be predicting events.

Dreams which predict events would be based on the situation as it exists just before the dream is dreamt, and the dream itself introduces another factor into the situation which has been predicted.

Bearing in mind the vast total number of dreams being dreamt every night by so many people world-wide, I also think that similarities or dream components which after the event has occurred are said to have predicted it or to refer to it, cannot at this time be credited with being more than coincidences.

Some people consider that dreams may be caused “by supernatural agencies such as gods or demons and are to be understood as messages. Dreams caused by gods are ‘good’ dreams sent to guide us; dreams caused by demons are ‘bad’ dreams sent to destroy us” and “people have tried to distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ dreams and to find rules for discovering what they mean.” {4}

An inquiry commissioned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists <2> has concluded that any memory of severely traumatic events ‘recovered through … dream interpretation … is almost certainly false’. Dream interpretations “usually reflect the training and personal convictions of the therapist”. Beliefs that certain events took place are apparently being implanted and referred to as memories. {16}

LEARNING, MEMORISING AND REMEMBERING (Receiving, Storing and Recalling)

Human beings are learning all the time, storing information and then recalling it when it is required.

Massive volumes of information are being received continually. But only some of this information is selected and stored, and so becomes available for recalling later when required. Selection seems to be necessary as otherwise it may take far too long to recall any specific memory or possibly because we may not have sufficient capacity for storing everything in our brain.

But on the other hand we may not be able to recall a specific memory when we want to remember it, some stored information may have been forgotten.

TYPES OF MEMORY

Memory and memories have been defined or classified in different ways. Established is that there are two main types of memory, namely ‘procedural memory’ with information about how to proceed when doing something, and ‘declarative memory’ which contains what we know.

Both procedural and declarative memories are long-term memories and we also have a working (short-term) memory which enables the brain to evaluate the mass of incoming information and select what is to be retained and memorised and what is to be rejected.

Distinctions have been drawn also between different kinds of memory and memories, such as semantic (verbal), episodic (events as part of a sequence), eidetic (detailed mental images) and visual (images as seen). In addition to what we see, we also remember other sensory information such as sounds, smells, tastes and what we touch.

Procedural Memory

This memory stores information about how to proceed when doing something, stores information such as how to drive a car, play football or play an instrument.

This type of memory is long-lasting. The memories are actions, habits or skills which are learned by repetition and which can be changed by many repetitions, by training. {11, 14}

Declarative Memory

This is long-term memory and it contains all you have experienced or learned, all the information gained by you from childhood onwards.

No one really knows where this enormous database is located but it seems that each type of component memory is located in a kind of memory location of its own.

Associating Memories and their Components

Suppose we remember a person saying something. The component parts of this memory, components such as shape of face, sound of voice, colour of hair, are stored in different locations. They are associated with each other, cross-indexed if you like, so that a memory can be recalled from remembering just one of its components. Component memories are continually being associated with other old or new component memories, enormously increasing the range and flexibility of what can be recalled.

And so we may be able to recall a person’s name by remembering the colour of his hair, or the shape of his face.

Working Memory

The working memory enables the brain to evaluate the mass of incoming information and select what is to be retained and memorised and what is to be rejected.

External Memory

In addition we have the vast mass of externally prepared and stored information which is accumulating. It has accumulated ever since people told stories to their young who in turn retold them to later generations and ever since writing was invented and the printed word accumulated, followed by pictures, photographs, films and videos, television and computerised manipulation of text and images. All of which spread and proliferated together with corresponding search (recall, retrieval, associating and selecting) procedures.

STORED INFORMATION (PERCEIVED CONTENT)

Much of what we are storing includes semantic information, that is information which consists of words and is about words, information relating to what words mean and imply.

And images, that is scenes, including events and sequences of events, and their components.

Including what happened, when it happened and the sequence in which it happened.

People with an eidetic (image-retaining) memory remember images, often clearly and in detail <1>. “Many, if not all, young children apparently do normally see and remember eidetically, but this capacity is lost to most as they grow up. What is in young children an apparently general capacity has become a remarkable rarity in adults.” {6}

The information one receives may be fact or fiction, right or wrong, intended to inform or to mislead, understood or misunderstood. Even so, what is stored is the perceived content of the received information.

LEARNING (MEMORISING) AND UNDERSTANDING

Rose defines an animal’s learning by “learning is a response by an animal to a novel situation such that, when confronted subsequently with a comparable situation, the animal’s behaviour is reliably modified in such a way as to make its response more appropriate” {6} <3>

Pointing out that human memory is very different from that of a non-human animal, Rose says that “procedural memory dominates the lives of non-human animals, … but declarative memory profoundly shapes our every act and thought.” Our memory includes a verbal memory which “means the possibility of learning and remembering without manifest behaviour.”

But our memory consists of much more than just verbal memories.

Continually associating new information with older information, and older information with other older information, is much more than random cross-referencing.

It is because of the meaningful way in which we associate over such large volumes of stored information, that the process of associating amounts also to the seeking of meaningful associations.

So to me it seems that all the information we take in and retain results in a more comprehensive view and deeper understanding of the world in which we live, of our social organisation and physical environment. Thus, in the end, at some time and in some way, the information we have taken in affects and changes what we do, changes our behaviour.

DEVELOPMENT OF BRAIN FUNCTIONS IN HUMANS

Development of Brain Functioning in Foetus and Newborn

Rose describes how the human brain develops before and after birth, saying “Early brain development in the foetus and newborn is itself associated first with a massive proliferation of cells, and then by a steady drop in numbers, but the space once occupied by the lost cells is taken up by an increase in the branching and synaptic connections made by those that remain.”

Role of REM Sleep in Infants

Lavie pointed out that in animals which are born fairly mature, such as sheep, REM sleep is low and near adult level. In species which are born immature, “such as rats, cats, and humans, initial amounts of paradoxical (REM) sleep are very large. In kittens, during the first ten days of life paradoxical (REM) sleep occupies 90 percent of their time.” {10}

We already saw that Jouvet hypothesised that one of the roles of REM sleep in animals was to train the neural networks which are related to instinctive behaviour.

We also saw that during the first few days after birth the actual amount of REM sleep in babies is very great and Lavie concluded that “it plays a vital role in the maturing stage of the nervous system” and that “it is possible that REM sleep is particularly important for procedural types of learning in which humans acquire motor and perceptual skills. Since during the first few months of life infants are busy acquiring new motor and perceptual skills, these findings may also explain the abundance of REM sleep at that particular time in our life”. {10}

Stevens {4} says “REM sleep is thought to play an important role in developing the infant brain and in activating those neural programmes responsible for basic and characteristic patterns of behaviour, such as maternal bonding, environmental exploration and play.”

He added that common childhood fears “of the dark, of strangers, of rapidly approaching objects, are all … early warning devices put there by evolution because of the constant dangers in the ancestral environment”.

Children do not distinguish between dreams and waking life until they are three or four years old, but can usually understand the difference when between five and eight years old.

Changes in Sleep-wakefulness Rhythm during First Year of Infant’s Life

A baby wakes and sleeps roughly every four hours in its first month. This changes gradually until at about six months “the baby begins sleeping almost through the night and the sleep-wakefulness rhythm stabilises at twenty-four hours”. And so during the first year “a single and continuous sleep period and a period of continuous wakefulness begin to emerge, and at the same time a pattern of coordination between the sleep-wakefulness rhythm and the demands of the external environment slowly begins to develop”. {10}

Lavie notes that it is during the first months of life that the longest duration of REM sleep occurs and that this coincides with the time when sleep becomes consolidated into a single and continuous sleep period.

Learning by Playing and by Experience

Playing is a way of learning how to behave, of learning about social co-operation and conflict, about family relations and about bringing up a family.

Social responsibility, the caring, giving and sharing with others, the taking on of responsibility for others, including conflict management, can be and is being taught. {15}

From infant through child and adolescent to being an adult, we go through a long period in which we learn through playing and by experience, and also absorb information from external memory, from the mass of information now available to us from sources external to ourselves.

And learning by experience and by gaining knowledge continues while we are alive. Each new experience adds to our knowledge and plays a part in shaping our view of the community and society in which we live, of the world at large, and helps to determine what we do and how we do it, helps to determine our behaviour.

Change from Eidetic to Linear Memory

We already saw that many, if not all, young children apparently do normally see and remember eidetically <1>, but that this capacity is lost to most as they grow up.

Rose considers that at birth all types of input are likely to be seen as about equally relevant, that all input is registered and ordered “so as to enable each individual to build up his or her own criteria of significance”. Eidetic memory gives equal importance to all inputs so that all inputs are analysed, are processed and stored.

It seems that children remember everything. But at some time before puberty most of us cease to remember eidetically, ‘there is for most of us a transition in how we perceive and remember the world … as we consciously or unconsciously learn to select salient information that we need to commit to memory from the environment around us.” {6}

CONCLUSIONS – BRAIN, MIND AND BEHAVIOUR (Human Behaviour and How The Mind Works)

INSTINCTS AND INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOUR

We saw that instincts are an innate form of behaviour, that is a form of behaviour which is not learned but which the animal performs from birth, without being trained to do so.

Behaviour relating to survival of a species, such as attack, defence and sexual behaviour, is instinctive and responses are automatic. Territory is acquired by force and defended. Might is right.

CONSCIOUS BEHAVIOUR: LEARNING AND EVALUATING, MEMORY AND MEMORISING

As mammals evolved from reptiles, there evolved the ability for storing new experiences as they happen and so creating a store of experience-based memories.

A primitive animal’s memory seems to be largely procedural. Both procedural and declarative memories are long-term memories, but declarative memory is located and used in a different way.

Human beings are learning all the time, memorising information and then recalling it when it is required.

What is being memorised includes what we are taught, what happens to us and to others and any lessons learned as a result. And when it happened and the sequence in which it happened. Including also the meaning of words and what is implied. And in addition we have the vast mass of externally prepared and stored information which is accumulating at an accelerating pace.

Massive volumes of information are being received. The incoming information is evaluated and we memorise only information which seems to matter. Some is retained, the rest rejected. Retained short-term (working) memories are converted to long-term memories. So only a part of the incoming information is retained and stored, that is memorised, so becoming available for recalling later when required.

Aspects of memories <9> are stored in different locations. Aspects such as colour, shape, event, phrase, place, time, date. Aspects like shape of face, sound of voice, colour of hair.

Memories are associated, crossindexed if you like, with their different aspects and can be recalled by recalling an aspect associated with the memory one wishes to recall. Component memories are continually being associated with other old or new component memories, enormously increasing the range and flexibility of what can be recalled.

A process which continually keeps available memory components which relate to those of current interest, and memory components which are more frequently used than others.

Human beings store memories by means of changed neural pathways, by means of persistent modifications to the structure of neurons and their synaptic connections, by means of biochemical changes. {6} <3>

So we are strengthening neural pathways or associations by frequently using or recalling them, weakening memory components which are not being used.

Hence using neural pathways holds memories at higher, more easily accessible levels of memory, makes them more readily available. Infrequently recalled memories would seem to be overlaid by more frequently used ones, seem to be reduced to lower levels of awareness, of accessibility.

COMMUNICATING NON-VERBALLY: CONVEYING INFORMATION BY USING IMAGES

Instinctive Behaviour

Dreaming trains animals and human beings in instinctive responses and then keeps instinctive behaviour fully trained.

Dreaming does so by generating situations which require responses of the fight, flight, affection kind. A dream produces a corresponding response which, however, is not translated into action as the dreamer’s body is normally paralysed by the mind for duration of dreaming (REM) sleep.

Frequent replaying strengthens corresponding neural pathways and so trains the individual to respond and to respond quickly.

Subconscious Behaviour (Functioning)

As mammals evolved from reptiles, the added functions included organs such as the autonomic nervous system for the automatic control of body functions, of functions such as digestion, the fluid balance, body temperature and blood pressure.

A key finding of this report is that the right hemisphere of the human brain is able to communicate by using images with the brain’s older and more primitive component organs which have no verbal skills. And this enables us to communicate intentionally (that is ‘consciously’) with our autonomic nervous system and ask it by visualising to control body functions and to affect our body’s immune system. Any or all our senses can be included when visualising.

Clinical trials have shown remarkable success in areas such as the treatment of cancer and heart disease.

Communicating with one’s autonomic nervous system by visualising is a conscious activity.

Hence it is possible to direct and use the mind’s subconscious maintenance and control capabilities, and so enable environmental experience and knowledge to be applied for one’s benefit. That is, one’s knowledge and experience can be consciously applied towards modifying the mind’s subconscious control of body functions for the benefit of the individual.

Memorising

It is while REM sleeping that dreams are generated and that we appear to be filing away (memorising) memories for later use.

Much of dreaming may then be the creating and recalling of associations. As the night progresses this process seems to become more intuitive, delving deeper into stored memories and associations, associating with earlier memories and their aspects, tending to go back in time towards childhood.

Becoming more intuitive by going through likely or apparently associated filed images or other stored memory components (aspects) in their different locations.

In this way keeping long-term memories intact and relevant by continually associating and reassociating their various parts.

So we are strengthening neural pathways or associations by frequently using or recalling them.

This process at the same time would seem to weaken those memory components we are not thinking about or which are not being used.

ADAPTING TO THE ENVIRONMENT: CHANGING INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOUR

A key feature which distinguishes mammals from the reptiles from which they evolved would seem to be that the mammalian brain contains organs for the experience-based recognition of danger and for responding to this according to past experience. And for some conscious feelings about events.

Millions of neural pathways connect the organs which generate experience-based memories, and also those which generate conscious feelings with associated behavioural response patterns, to the reptilian parts of the mammalian brain.

It seems that feelings such as attachment, anger and fear have emerged with associated behavioural response patterns, and that behaviour is less rigidly controlled by instincts.

So it seems that instinctive behaviour can be modified by feelings of care and affection and also by experience, particularly when repeated frequently.

Neural pathways are created and strengthened by being used, others weakened by not being used. We react accordingly and it seems as if memories are being created which modify instinctive behavioural responses.

It also seems that instinctive behaviour has to be controlled, and modified according to the environment in which we find ourselves, in every generation, and that the mammalian and human parts of the brain play a major part in this.

ADAPTING TO THE WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE: CHANGING BEHAVIOUR PATTERNS

We adapt to the world in which we live in much the same way. What happens to us and what we do, and what happens as a result, changes neural pathways. A trace is left, neural pathways are changed, memories are formed.

Playing is one way of learning how to behave, of learning about social co-operation and conflict, about family relations and about bringing up a family. From infant through child and adolescence to being an adult, we go through a long period in which we learn through playing and by experience. And learning by experience and by gaining knowledge continues while we are alive.

Social responsibility, the caring, giving and sharing with others, the taking on of responsibility for others, including conflict management, can be and is being taught.

What human beings do, what happens to us, is also memorised if thought relevant. These memories can be recalled when required and in this way will affect our future behaviour.

Additionally we also absorb information from external memory, from the mass of information now available to us from sources external to ourselves. And the action we take, what we do, depends on evaluating the situation, what we know and how we feel about it. The outcome itself is evaluated and becomes part of our memories.

It seems that on the whole people may not be able to recall feelings, that most people can only recall how they felt about something at the time.

Each new experience adds to our knowledge and plays a part in shaping our view of the community and society in which we live, of the world at large, and helps to determine our behaviour.

EVALUATION AND UNDERSTANDING

Behaviour of the primitive animals from which human beings evolved is instinctive. Which means that behaviour relating to survival, such as attack, defence or sexual, is automatic. Territory is acquired by force and defended. Might is right.

The mammalian brain includes the older reptilian brain and is linked to it. With the mammalian brain emerged feelings such as attachment, fear and anger together with associated behavioural response patterns. Mammalian behaviour is less rigidly controlled by instincts.

The human brain (see Figure 3 ‘The Human Brain’) includes the mammalian brain and human emotional responses depend on neuronal pathways which link the right hemisphere to the mammalian brain.

It takes human beings many years to bring up their children and it is the right hemisphere which is concerned with a wide range of emotions and feelings of care and affection for the young and for the family, and then for other people and the community.

Figure 3 The Human Brain

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For human beings, primitive (reptilian) instinctive urges and behaviour are overlaid by mammalian care and affection for one’s young and human care and affection for one’s family and community. Behaviour is aimed at survival of the young and of the family, and then is for the good of family, other people, community.

The right hemisphere is linked to the primitive older part of the brain which has no verbal, semantic or reasoning ability and so functions subconsciously (below the level of consciousness). Hence the right hemisphere communicates with the ‘subconscious’ functions of the older part of the brain by using images. Communicating by using images is fast.

And so the right hemisphere communicates using images (pictures) and has highly developed spatial abilities, is intuitive and imaginative, is concerned with emotions and feelings.

Speech, that is thinking and communicating by using words, seems to have evolved later. The left hemisphere communicates by using words, has highly developed verbal and semantic abilities, is logical and systematic, concerned with matters as they are. Images may be described, or transformed into a narrative, by the left hemisphere.

Hence behaviour is not only determined by feelings but also by knowledge, understanding and reason.

So the human brain includes the processing and memorising of images and of their components, and the development of language and corresponding mental processing connected with memory and memorising. It also includes a wide range of emotions, of feelings, of care and affection, and the capability for objective and logical thinking and evaluation. And the later development of written languages and artificial images.

We are continually gaining information by learning, by reading or studying, learning from the experiences of others, gaining verbal information and pictorial images from external memory. The mind evaluates this incoming information and decides what is to be retained and memorised, rejecting the remainder. Information about what has been happening to oneself is treated in the same way.

And when something is happening to oneself, when one is doing something or planning to do something, we recall relevant information from memory, add other available information, and before taking action we evaluate all the information we now have. What happens as a result of the action we took is again evaluated and memorised for later use.

So we are continually evaluating information and this is a key feature of the human mind. Evaluation means estimating significance, relevance and reliability. In other words, estimating meaning and importance, bearing on or reference to the matter in hand, whether it can be relied on. In this way continually becoming more aware of explanations and causes, gaining understanding.

We memorise both verbal and image information. However, we do not memorise feelings, possibly because they may originate within the earlier mammalian parts of the brain . What is recalled is how we felt at the time, the actual feeling is not reproduced, cannot be recalled.

And memorising images is fast and this would seem to apply to their component parts and to associating. The eidetic memory of young children usually changes to linear memory as they become more adult. It appears that as we grow older so we start evaluating and then cease merely to take in such information as we come across. As we become adult we start to evaluate and develop and extend our evaluating skills. In other words, as adults what we memorise and how we recall and use recalled information is then governed by reason and aids understanding.

Continually associating new information with older information, and older information with other older information, is much more than random cross-referencing.

It is because of the meaningful way in which we associate over such large volumes of stored information, that the process of associating amounts also to the seeking of meaningful associations.

So to me it seems that all the information we take in and retain results in a more comprehensive view and understanding of the world in which we live, of our social organisation and physical environment. And thus, in the end, at some time and in some way, the information we have taken in affects and changes what we do, changes our behaviour.

THE STRUGGLE FOR A BETTER LIFE

When identical same-sex twins are brought up in exactly the same environment and treated exactly the same (clothing included), they usually behave and feel much the same.

But identical same-sex twins brought up as individuals have different personalities, are different people. Usually one is more dominant while the other is more emotional.

It is apparently easier for people who are ‘cold and calculating’ to be dominant, to dominate those who are ‘emotional’.

Add that those dominating others may in this way acquire power over others, or social and economic gains from using, and from misusing, people.

Such a system rewards primitive inhuman brutal (beastlike) behaviour (acquiring territory by force, might is right), held in check only by the fear of consequences.

We also see that dominating others is conditioned, that is unnatural, behaviour which is destructive of humane behaviour. A throw-back to the level of the unthinking unfeeling primitive animal.

Humane behaviour is based on feelings of care and affection for the young and for the family, and then for other people and the community. From this emerges a sense of social responsibility: people matter and are important, need to be treated well and looked after, are entitled to share equally. Backed up by knowledge, understanding and reason.

And, in the hostile environment in which humanity finds itself, what is also needed is dedicated effort, strength and power to achieve a humane way of living, to achieve a good standard of living and a high quality of life.

Part of the hostile environment is an almost intentional-seeming conditioning which frequently portrays brutal behaviour as a norm, by media and other opinion-forming sources. This has the effect of brutalising society, seemingly legalising, making acceptable, inconsiderate and unfeeling behaviour towards other people.

What we see is a world-wide struggle for a humane life {8, 9} which shows people struggling to achieve a humane way of life, each struggling to advance at their own level of development and achievement, struggling against those who wish to dominate others, against those who wish to exploit others, against those who wish to oppress so as to exploit.

Struggling to achieve the satisfaction of needs which are entirely in line with what we have seen here in this report about the evolution and development of the human brain and human mind. Needs and wants such as those for survival (food, shelter, clothing) and secure existence, affection and esteem, friendly and trustful co-operation and companionship, independence from domination by others, high quality of life and living, self-realisation and development. And “people will co-operate with each other and work hard and well to satisfy these needs and gain much satisfaction from doing so”. {8, 9}

MAIN CONCLUSIONS

As a result of the work reported here there has emerged a much clearer appreciation of what happens during the course of a night’s sleep, and clear explanations of the role of dreaming and the meaning of dreams.

The report explores the functioning and role of the two halves of the human brain and the relationship between them. It is the right half which usually communicates with the primitive parts of the human brain.

A key finding of this report is that the right hemisphere of the human brain is able to communicate by using images with the brain’s older and more primitive component organs which have no verbal skills. This enables us to communicate intentionally (that is ‘consciously’) with our autonomic nervous system and ask it by visualising to control body functions and to affect our body’s immune system. Any or all our senses can be included when visualising.

Hence it is possible to direct and use the mind’s subconscious maintenance and control capabilities, and so enable environmental experience and knowledge to be applied for one’s benefit. That is, one’s knowledge and experience can be consciously applied towards modifying the mind’s subconscious control of body functions for the benefit of the individual.

The report also relates the functioning of the brain to behaviour, showing to some extent how human behaviour is affected by the primitive instincts of our reptilian ancestors.

The Moon is covered with rocks, boulders, craters, and a layer of charcoal-colored soil from 5 to 20 feet (1.5 to 6 meters) deep. The soil consists of rock fragments, pulverized rock, and tiny pieces of glass. Two types of rock are found on the Moon: basalt, which is hardened lava; and breccia, which is soil and rock fragments that have melted together.

Elements found in Moon rocks include aluminum, calcium, iron, magnesium, titanium, potassium, and phosphorus. In contrast with Earth, which has a core rich in iron and other metals, the Moon appears to contain very little metal. The apparent lack of organic compounds rules out the possibility that there is, or ever was, life on the Moon.

The Moon has no weather, no wind or rain, and no air. As a result, it has no protection from the Sun’s rays or meteorites and no ability to retain heat. Temperatures on the Moon have been recorded in the range of 280°F (138°C) to −148°F (−100°C).

Formation of the Moon