Your Three Voices

Ego: This voice is not “bad” it only becomes a problem when it is becomes overly critical. This voice is the voice of your desires, appetites, goals and hopes. It does not control your body but uses anxiety to spur your will into action. It is your taskmaster that spurs you on when you need it. Sometimes though it goes overboard and leaves you feeling anxious and dissatisfied by never allowing you to feel satisfaction when one goal is completed. It often just gives you another goal or picks apart your actions.

Will: This voice controls your actions. It controls your body. No other voice does this. Here is an example: You need to be at class at 10:00 am. You are tired. Your alarm rings at 6:30. Ego says “get up”. Will says “not yet” and pushes the snooze button. Your alarm buzzes at 7:00. Now ego amps up the pressure and you feel anxiety again ego says “get up” and “you are going to be late”. Despite the anxiety you press snooze again. Ego says “GET UP. YOU ARE GOING TO FAIL THIS CLASS” and the anxiety is amped up to greater heights. Yet for all of this ego cannot make you get up. It must act on your will and it does this by the use of fear as a lash. Finally you get up because the act of getting up is less of a pain than the pain of fear.

Watcher: This voice is quiet. It never compels you or tells you what to do. It never competes with ego nor does it force will. It is just a guiding voice. The voice of intuition. The voice of conscience. The inner voice of wisdom. It just says quietly “this is the right thing to do”. It is your moral compass and it always points true. Often you ignore it. Sometimes you don’t even hear it over the noise and clamor of your mind but it is always there. Guiding you. You have only to listen.

Samsaran

ORIGIN OF THE FLOOD MYTH

Most cultures around the world possess a mythology which describes the origins and customs of its people. They stories typically include the emergence of gods, the creation of humans, and the establishment of codes and laws.

These myths often establish models of behaviour, explaining how to live a spiritual and enriching life. This is typically exemplified by a hero’s journey, whereby their survival and ascension depends on the way in which they conduct themselves.

One myth which perfectly epitomises this heroic journey is that of a culture hero who manages to survive a great flood. It is a tale that can be found all around the world, from Sub-Saharan Africa to the island of Hawaii. What makes this myth so compelling is that the plot is almost identical the world over.

Typically it includes a sky god becoming angry with his human creations who have become troublesome and wicked. As an act of punishment, he sends a great flood upon his people, wiping out nearly all life on earth.

Typically, another friendly god selects one mortal, or a group of humans for survival. He sees great virtue in them, and tells them to make a boat, take refuge in a cave, or to hold onto a tree. Very often, the survivors end up on top of a mountain, where the flood waters were unable reach.

These culture hero/s then go on to repopulate the earth (e.g. Noah from the old testament, Gilgamesh from Babylon, Manu from Hinduism, Loralola and Kalola from the Andaman islands, etc).

But just how old is this myth? Some claim it was based on the following events:

The Burckle Impact:- a meteorite may have struck the Indian ocean around 5000 years ago, flooding the lands of Africa, India and the Middle East.

The Black Sea Deluge:- As the last Ice Age came to an end, masses of ice-water from glaciers began to flood into the Black Sea, displacing all the people who lived around its shores.

The Younger Dryas Impact:- A series of meteorites struck the Earth 13,000 years ago, causing a huge swell of flood water to consume the lands. The majority of these impacts hit the Americas, killing off much of the mega-fauna that once roamed its lands.

All these theories offer evidence of a catastrophic flood. However, they all fail to explain how the same flood myth can be found in several Stone Age cultures that have lived, isolated and undisturbed from Eurasia and the Americas for tens of thousands of years.

Two prime examples are Australia and the Andaman islands, which were curt off from the rest of the world for millennia. Genetic testing has proved these indigenous people are the direct decedents of humanities first migration out of Africa, which took place 60,000 – 90,000 years ago.

Isolated from the rest of the world, they had avoided the advent of agriculture, metal smithing and writing. Yet when their myths were studied, they provided stories about an angry god sending a great flood upon the world, whereby only a few people survived to help repopulate the Earth.

What this tells us is that the flood Myth is ancient, and dates back at least to the Middle Palaeolithic era. It is possible this story can be traced back further, to Africa, where humanities journey first began. A story that defines all people, of all races, that is as old as humanity itself.

3D-printed robotic hand wins 2015 UK James Dyson Award

A 3D-printed bionic hand designed byprosthetics startup Open Bionics is the recipient of the 2015 UK James Dyson Award for design engineering innovation.

The Open Bionics hand is designed to be cheaper and faster to produce than many of the prosthetics currently available for amputees, which can cost between £3,000 and £60,000.

Taking just 40 hours to 3D-print, the robotic hand is built from custom pieces designed to fit amputees' limbs precisely.

Wearers can be fitted with the bionic hand less than two days after being scanned – a stark contrast with many other options which can take weeks or months.

The hand is printed in four lightweight parts, made from flexible plastic material that makes it more resistant to damage incurred by falls or through daily use.

Electromyographic sensors – which detect muscle movement – are attached to the skin and used to control the hand by flexing their muscles, wearers can choose whether to open and close the hand or grip objects.

The hand's "smart" fingers have also been designed to sense when they are in contact with an object to prevent wearers from accidentally crushing objects they're holding.

The designer intends to add new components that will further replicate the structure of a biological hand by mimicking bones and ligaments.

Open Bionics intends to make the hands available for purchase by the second half of 2016 for less than £1,000. The hand will also be open source to encourage users to customise and share their own designs.