Polar stratospheric cloud

 
Polar stratospheric clouds or PSCs, also known as nacreous clouds ( /ˈneɪkriːəs/, from nacre, or mother of pearl, due to its iridescence), are clouds in the winter polar stratosphere at altitudes of 15,000–25,000 meters (49,000–82,000 ft). They are best observed during civil twilight when the sun is between 1 and 6 degrees below the horizon.^[1] They are implicated in the formation of ozone holes^[2] The effects on ozone depletion arise because they support chemical reactions that produce active chlorine which catalyzes ozone destruction, and also because they remove gaseous nitric acid, perturbing nitrogen and chlorine cycles in a way which increases ozone destruction.^[3]

Formation

The stratosphere is very dry; unlike the troposphere, it rarely allows clouds to form. In the extreme cold of the polar winter, however, stratospheric clouds of different types may form, which are classified according to their physical state and chemical composition.
Due to their high altitude and the curvature of the surface of the Earth, these clouds will receive sunlight from below the horizon and reflect it to the ground, shining brightly well before dawn or after dusk. Because of this, an observer, unfamiliar with this type of cloud may think one to be a UFO.
PSCs form at very low temperatures, below −78 °C (−108 °F). These temperatures can occur in the lower stratosphere in polar winter. In the Antarctic, temperatures below −88 °C (−126 °F) frequently cause type II PSCs. Such low temperatures are rarer in the Arctic. In the Northern hemisphere, the generation of lee waves by mountains may locally cool the lower stratosphere and lead to the formation of PSCs.
Forward-scattering of sunlight within the clouds produces a pearly-white appearance. Particles within the optically thin clouds cause colored Interference fringes by diffraction. The visibility of the colors may be enhanced with a polarising filter.^[4][1]

Types

A type II (water) PSC showing iridescence

PSCs are classified into three types Ia, Ib and II according to their chemical composition which can be measured using LIDAR. The technique also determines the height and ambient temperature of the cloud.^[4]

• Type I clouds contain water, nitric acid and/or sulfuric acid and they are a source of polar ozone depletion.^[5]
  • Type Ia clouds consist of large, aspherical particles, consisting of nitric acid trihydrate (NAT).^[4]
  • Type Ib clouds contain small, spherical particles (non-depolarising), of a liquid supercooled ternary solution (STS) of sulfuric acid, nitric acid and water.^[4]
  • Type Ic clouds consist of metastable water-rich nitric acid in a solid phase.^[6]
• Type II clouds, which are very rarely observed in the Arctic, consist of water ice only.^[4]

Only Type II clouds are necessarily nacreous^[1] whereas Type I clouds can be iridescent under certain conditions, just as any other cloud.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Noctilucent cloud

Night clouds or noctilucent clouds are tenuous cloud-like phenomena that are the "ragged-edge" of a much brighter and pervasive polar cloud layer called polar mesospheric clouds in the upper atmosphere, visible in a deep twilight. They are made of crystals of water ice. Noctilucent roughly means night shining in Latin. They are most commonly observed in the summer months at latitudes between 50° and 70° north and south of the equator. They can only be observed when the Sun is below the horizon.
They are the highest clouds in the Earth's atmosphere, located in the mesosphere at altitudes of around 76 to 85 kilometres (47 to 53 mi). They are normally too faint to be seen, and are visible only when illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon while the lower layers of the atmosphere are in the Earth's shadow. Noctilucent clouds are not fully understood and are a recently-discovered meteorological phenomenon; there is no record of their observation before 1885.
Noctilucent clouds can form only under very restrictive conditions; their occurrence can be used as a sensitive guide to changes in the upper atmosphere. They are a relatively recent classification. The occurrence of noctilucent clouds appears to be increasing in frequency, brightness and extent. It is theorized that this increase is connected to climate change.

Formation

Night clouds or noctilucent clouds are composed of tiny crystals of water ice up to 100 nm in diameter^[1] and exist at a height of about 76 to 85 km (47 to 53 mi),^[2] higher than any other clouds in Earth's atmosphere.^[3] Clouds in the Earth's lower atmosphere form when water collects on particles, but mesospheric clouds may form directly from water vapour^[4] in addition to forming on dust particles.^[5]
The sources of both the dust and the water vapour in the upper atmosphere are not known with certainty. The dust is believed to come from micrometeors, although particulates from volcanoes and dust from the troposphere are also possibilities. The moisture could be lifted through gaps in the tropopause, as well as forming from the reaction of methane with hydroxyl radicals in the stratosphere.^[6]
The exhaust from Space Shuttles, which is almost entirely water vapour after the detachment of the Solid Rocket Booster at a height of about 46 km, has been found to generate minuscule individual clouds. About half of the vapour is released into the thermosphere, usually at altitudes of 103 to 114 km (64 to 71 mi).^[7]
This exhaust can be transported to the Arctic region in little over a day, although the exact mechanism of this very high-speed transport is unknown. As the water migrates northward, it falls from the thermosphere down into the colder mesosphere, which occupies the region of the atmosphere just below.^[8] Although this mechanism is the cause of individual noctilucent clouds, it is not thought to be a major contributor to the phenomenon as a whole.^[6]
As the mesosphere contains very little moisture, approximately one hundred millionth that of air from the Sahara desert,^[9] and is extremely thin, the ice crystals can only form at temperatures below about −120 °C (−184 °F).^[6] This means that noctilucent clouds form predominantly during summer when, counterintuitively, the mesosphere is coldest,^[10] therefore they can't be observed (even if they are present) inside the Polar circles because the Sun is never low enough under the horizon at this season at these latitudes.^[11] Noctilucent clouds form mostly near the polar regions,^[5] because the mesosphere is coldest there.^[11] Clouds in the southern hemisphere are about 1 km (0.62 mi) higher than those in the northern hemisphere.^[5]
Ultraviolet radiation from the Sun breaks water molecules apart, reducing the amount of water available to form noctilucent clouds. The radiation is known to vary cyclically with the solar cycle and satellites have been tracking the decrease in brightness of the clouds with the increase of ultraviolet radiation for the last two solar cycles. It has been found that changes in the clouds follow changes in the intensity of ultraviolet rays by about a year, but the reason for this long lag is not yet known.^[12]
Noctilucent clouds are known to exhibit high radar reflectivity,^[10] in a frequency range of 50 MHz to 1.3 GHz.^[13] This behaviour is not well understood but a Caltech professor, Paul Bellan, has proposed a possible explanation: that the ice grains become coated with a thin metal film composed of sodium and iron, which makes the cloud far more reflective to radar,^[10] although this explanation remains controversial.^[14] Sodium and iron atoms are stripped from incoming micrometeors and settle into a layer just above the altitude of noctilucent clouds, and measurements have shown that these elements are severely depleted when the clouds are present. Other experiments have demonstrated that, at the extremely cold temperatures of a noctilucent cloud, sodium vapour can rapidly be deposited onto an ice surface.^[15]

Discovery and investigation

Noctilucent clouds over Bargerveen, Drenthe, Netherlands

Noctilucent clouds are first known to have been observed in 1885, two years after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa.^[5][16] It remains unclear whether their appearance had anything to do with the volcano eruption, or whether their discovery was due to more people observing the spectacular sunsets caused by the volcanic debris in the atmosphere. Studies have shown that noctilucent clouds are not caused solely by volcanic activity, although dust and water vapour could be injected into the upper atmosphere by eruptions and contribute to their formation.^[11] Scientists at the time assumed the clouds were another manifestation of volcanic ash, but after the ash had settled out of the atmosphere, the noctilucent clouds persisted.^[9] Finally, the theory that the clouds were composed of volcanic dust was disproved by Malzev in 1926.^[16] In the years following their discovery the clouds were studied extensively by Otto Jesse of Germany, who was the first to photograph them, in 1887, and seems to have been the one to coin the term "noctilucent cloud",^[17] which means "night-shining cloud".^[1] His notes provide evidence that noctilucent clouds first appeared in 1885. He had been doing detailed observations of the unusual sunsets caused by the Krakatoa eruption the previous year and firmly believed that, if the clouds had been visible then, he would undoubtedly have noticed them.^[18] Systematic photographic observations of the clouds were organized in 1887 by Jesse, Foerster, and Stolze and, after that year, continuous observations were carried out at the Berlin Observatory.^[19] During this research the height of the clouds was first determined, via triangulation.^[20] The project was discontinued in 1896.
In the decades after Otto Jesse's death in 1901, there were few new insights into the nature of noctilucent clouds. Wegener's conjecture, that they were composed of water ice, was later shown to be correct.^[21] Study was limited to ground-based observations and scientists had very little knowledge of the mesosphere until the 1960s, when direct rocket measurements began. These showed for the first time that the occurrence of the clouds coincided with very low temperatures in the mesosphere.^[22]
Noctilucent clouds were first detected from space by an instrument on the OGO-6 satellite in 1972. The OGO-6 observations of a bright scattering layer over the polar caps were identified as poleward extensions of these clouds.^[23] A later satellite, the Solar Mesosphere Explorer, mapped the distribution of the clouds between 1981 and 1986 with its ultraviolet spectrometer.^[23] The clouds were detected with a lidar in 1995 at Utah State University, even when they were not visible with the naked eye.^[24] The first physical confirmation that water ice is indeed the primary component of noctilucent clouds came from the HALOE instrument on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite in 2001.^[25]
In 2001 the Swedish Odin satellite performed spectral analyses on the clouds, and produced daily global maps that revealed large patterns in their distribution.^[26]
On April 25, 2007, the AIM satellite (Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere) was launched.^[27] It is the first satellite dedicated to studying noctilucent clouds,^[28] and made its first observations on May 25, 2007.^[29] Images taken by the satellite show shapes in the clouds that are similar to shapes in tropospheric clouds, hinting at similarities in their dynamics.^[1]
On August 28, 2006, scientists with the Mars Express mission announced that they found clouds of carbon dioxide crystals over Mars that extended up to 100 km (62 mi) above the surface of the planet. They are the highest clouds discovered over the surface of a planet. Like noctilucent clouds on Earth, they can only be observed when the Sun is below the horizon.^[30]
Research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters in June 2009 suggests that noctilucent clouds observed following the Tunguska Event are evidence that the impact was caused by a comet.^[31][32]
The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and the United States Department of Defense Space Test Program (STP) conducted the Charged Aerosol Release Experiment (CARE) on September 19, 2009, using exhaust particles from a Black Brant XII suborbital sounding rocket launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility to create an artificial noctilucent cloud. The cloud was to be observed over a period of weeks or months by ground instruments and the Spatial Heterodyne IMager for MEsospheric Radicals (SHIMMER) instrument on the NRL/STP STPSat-1 spacecraft.^[33] The rocket's exhaust plume was observed and reported to news organizations in the United States from New Jersey to Massachusetts.^[34]

Observation

Noctilucent clouds are generally colourless or pale blue,^[35] although occasionally other colours including red and green occur.^[36] The characteristic blue colour comes from absorption by ozone in the path of the sunlight illuminating the noctilucent cloud.^[37] They can appear as featureless bands,^[35] but frequently show distinctive patterns such as streaks, wave-like undulations, and whirls.^[38] They are considered a "beautiful natural phenomenon".^[39] Noctilucent clouds may be confused with cirrus clouds, but appear sharper under magnification.^[35] Those caused by rocket exhausts tend to show colours other than silver or blue,^[36] because of iridescence caused by the uniform size of the water droplets produced.^[40]

Noctilucent clouds photographed by the crew of the ISS

Noctilucent clouds may be seen by observers at a latitude of 50° to 65°.^[41] They seldom occur at lower latitudes (although there have been sightings as far south as Utah, Italy, and Paris),^[35][42] and closer to the poles it does not get dark enough for the clouds to become visible.^[43] They occur during summer, from mid-May to mid-August in the northern hemisphere and between mid-November and mid-February in the southern hemisphere.^[35] They are very faint and tenuous, and may only be observed in twilight around sunrise and sunset when the clouds of the lower atmosphere are in shadow, but the noctilucent cloud is illuminated by the Sun.^[43] They are best seen when the Sun is between 6° and 16° below the horizon.^[44] Although noctilucent clouds occur in both hemispheres, they have been observed thousands of times in the northern hemisphere, but fewer than 100 times in the southern. Southern hemisphere noctilucent clouds are fainter and occur less frequently; additionally the southern hemisphere has a lower population and less land area from which to make observations.^[11][45]
The clouds may show a large variety of different patterns and forms. An identification scheme was developed by Fogle in 1970 that classified five different forms. These classifications have since been modified and subdivided.^[46]
They may be studied from the ground, from space, and directly by sounding rocket. Also, some noctilucent clouds are made of smaller crystals, 30 nm or less, which are invisible to observers on the ground because they do not scatter enough light.^[1]

Connection to climate change

There is evidence that the relatively recent appearance of noctilucent clouds, and their gradual increase, may be linked to climate change.^[47]
Atmospheric scientist Gary Thomas of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado has pointed out^[1] that the first sightings coincide with the Industrial Revolution and they have become more widespread and frequent throughout the twentieth century. The connection remains controversial however.^[1] Wilfried Schröder was the first to explain noctilucent clouds as "indicators" for atmospheric processes (Gerlands Beiträge zur Geophysik, 1971, Meteorologische Rundschau 1968–1970).
Climate models predict that increased greenhouse gas emissions cause a cooling of the mesosphere, which would lead to more frequent and widespread occurrences of noctilucent clouds.^[45] A competing theory is that larger methane emissions from intensive farming activities produce more water vapour in the upper atmosphere.^[11] Methane concentrations have more than doubled in the past 100 years.^[2]
Tromp et al. suggest that a transition to a hydrogen economy could increase the number of noctilucent clouds through increased emissions of free hydrogen.^[48]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Polar mesospheric clouds

Polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) are a diffuse scattering layer of water ice crystals near the summer polar mesopause.

Description

Observed from the ground, this phenomenon is known as noctilucent clouds. From satellites, PMCs are most frequently observed above 70°-75° in latitude and have a season of 60 to 80 days duration centered about a peak which occurs about 20 days after the summer solstice. This holds true for both hemispheres. Great variability in scattering is observed from day-to-day and year-to- year, but averaging over large time and space scales reveals a basic underlying symmetry and pattern. The long- term behaviour of polar mesospheric cloud frequency has been found to vary inversely with solar activity.
When mesospheric clouds are viewed above the atmosphere, the geometrical limitations of observing from the ground are significantly reduced. They may be observed ‘edge-on’ against the comparatively dark sky background, even in full daylight. The photometer field of view must be well baffled to avoid interference from the very bright Earth about a degree beneath the cloud layer. It is a much more difficult task to observe the clouds against the bright background of the illuminated Earth, although this has been achieved in the ultraviolet in the 200 to 300 nm spectral region, because of the very small albedo of the earth in this part of spectrum.
American and Soviet astronauts observed the phenomenon from space as early as 1970. Most observations are reported from the night side of the orbit and the observer is looking towards the twilight sector. At this time the observer's eye is dark-adapted and polar mesospheric clouds would appear with maximum contrast against a comparatively dark background. Soviet astronauts have reported sightings of mesospheric clouds even when the Sun is above the horizon.
Satellite observations allow the very coldest parts of the polar mesosphere to be observed, all the way to the geographic pole. In the early 1970s, visible airglow photometers first scanned the atmospheric horizon throughout the summer polar mesospause region (Donahue et al., 1972). This experiment, which flew on the OGO-6 satellite, was the first to trace noctilucent-like cloud layers across the polar cap. The very bright scattering layer was seen in full daylight conditions, and was identified as the poleward extension of noctilucent clouds. In the early 1980s, the layer was observed again from a satellite, the Solar Mesospheric Explorer (SME) . On board this satellite was an ultraviolet spectrometer, which mapped the distributions of clouds over the time period 1981 to 1986. The experiment measured the altitude profile of scattering from clouds at two spectral channels (primarily) 265 nm and 296 nm (Thomas and MacKay, 1985). This phenomenon is now known as Polar Mesospheric Clouds.
The general seasonal characteristics of polar mesospheric clouds are well established from the five years of continuous SME data. Over that period, data for four cloud ‘seasons’ in the north, and five ‘seasons’ in the south were recorded. In both hemispheres, the season begins about one month before summer solstice and ends about two months afterwards. Since there are no biases due to such factors as changing number of hours of visibility, weather conditions, etc. this is a ‘true’ behaviour. It is believed to be a result of the fact that summertime mesopause region becomes coldest during this period causing water-ice to form, in contrast to most other regions of the atmosphere which are warmest in summer. Temperatures at latitudes equatorward of the boundary of detection never get low enough for water-ice to form.
Polar mesospheric clouds generally increase in brightness and occurrence frequency with increasing latitude, from about 60 degrees to the highest latitudes observed (85 degrees). So far, no apparent dependence on longitude has been found, nor is there any evidence of a dependence on auroral activity (Thomas and Olivero, 1989). This indicates that control of polar mesospheric clouds is determined by geographical rather than geomagnetic factors. The brightness of polar mesospheric clouds and noctilucent clouds appears to be consistent at the latitudes where both are observed, but polar mesospheric clouds near the pole are much brighter than noctilucent clouds, even taking into account the lower sky background seen from space. Polar mesospheric cloud observations have revealed that the well-known phenomenon of the northward shifting with latitude of date of peak noctilucent cloud occurrence is partly due to the increased number of hours of noctilucent cloud visibility with latitude and partly due to an actual northward retreat of the boundary towards the end of the season.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Yoga--Ways to the Goal

Abstract:  Yoga is viewed in the Vedanta tradition as the path which seeks to unite one's own soul with Atman.

I.  Four Ways to the Goal:  Yoga

Yoga--specific directions for actualizing one's fullest nature; same root work for the English "yoke."

Two basic meaning are implied:

(1) to unite (as with the individual with the whole).
(2) to place under discipline or training.

Hence yoga is a method of training designed to lead to integration or union. E.g., how to become Brahman.

A. Hatha yoga--mastery and control over the body; ideally complete control over the body's every function; hence, it's not identical with gymnastics or physical culture. "Hatha" means "violent effort."


1. Originally Hatha yoga was practiced as a preliminary to spiritual yoga. Incredible control over autonomic nervous system and nonstriated muscles are possible.

2. The idea is a Mircea Eliade points out in Yoga: Immortality and Freedom (p. 227) "...since liberation can be gained even in this life, the body must be preserved as long as possible, and in perfect condition, precisely as an aid to meditation."

3. Without a perfectly healthy body, one cannot know bliss. Hatha yoga is not so much philosophy as it's physics and physiology.

4. Hatha yoga is used to develop physical powers far beyond the normal.  Models of body centers enable understanding of the unconscious.

5. Interestingly, much of hatha yoga as it is practiced today may well have orginated from the Scandinavian gymnastics tradition[1].

B. The four different directions people use to approach the goal of Brahman. The direction is determined by the complex of attitudes, interests, and temperament of the individual. The unique feature of Hinduism is that there are multiple paths to the same goal.


1. Basically there are four kinds of persons (compare to Jung's theory of temperaments).


a. reflective (thinking)

 b. emotional (valuing or feeling)

 c. essentially active (sensation)

d. empirical or experimental (intuitive)

2. All four ways have the common preliminary of cultivating the habits and practices of noninjury, truthfulness, honesty, cleanliness, contentment, self-discipline, and a compelling desire to reach the goal.

II. The Four Basic Forms of Yoga.

A. Jnana Yoga (pronounced something like "gyan you") for persons with an intellectual bent; the way of knowledge; the shortest route and the most difficult.


1. Appeals to the thinker, the philosopher, and the analyst (e.g., Siddhartha's early life in Hesse's book).

2. Three main parts of this path


a. Education in the scriptures and philosophic treatises, esp. the Vedanta and the Upanishads.

b. Reflection: breathing life into the concept of Atman into a momentous reality. Active awareness.

Look at how language is used everyday.
 
"My" distinguishes what I think stands apart).
I am changes in personality and chemicals over time. {Personality can be seen as the masks through which others see us in accordance with the roles we play.)


(1) The yogi corrects the false identification of our roles with ourselves. Consider the following statements:

[Car Accident] "The guy backed into my right rear.
[Nintendo] "Oh! I lost my tail."
[Hesse's Siddhartha] Siddhartha referred to himself in the third person.
Note that perception is selective.

(2) Consider the model of playing a game (e.g., chess).



Contestant		total person
----------	==	------------
total person		Atman

           
 
           
c. Meditation: shifting self-identification to Self-Atman. E.g., Siddhartha and the Samanas using mediation to relive the life-cycle of different animals.

With meditation one has the detached viewpoint of an onlooker--one still feels pain, but the fear is gone.


B. Bhakti Yoga--(pronounced something like "bhak tea") devotion, love, (the Christian way), most popular of the four ways.



1. God is conceived as otherness; separateness (total rejection of the view that the God you love is your Self).

2. The adoration is in passionate inwardness and is personal in character.

3. God's personality is indispensible--the worship of God through human incarnation.

4. Emphasis on Hinduism's myths esp.


Mahabharata and the Ramayana

5. Example invocation:


O Lord forgive three sins which are due to my human limitations
Thou are everywhere, but I worship you hers;
Thou are without form, but I worship you in these forms:
Thou needest no praise, yet I offer you these prayers an salutations,
Lord, forgive three sins that are due to my human limitations.

6. Myth, not logic, moves people. Proofs of God's existence are irrelevant in producing belief in God.

7. Three special feature of this approach.


a. japam (pronounced something like "jah palm") repeating the name of God as a warming presence some 12,000 times a day so that the repetition becomes unconscious.

b. ringing the changes on love--different nuances of love in different relationships. All aspects are part of the love for God.

c. the worship of God as one's chosen ideal as one of God's human incarnations: Christ, Rama, Krishna, or Buddha.


C. Karma Yoga--the way through work for active persons. You can find God in the everyday world.



1. Karma yoga is usually practiced with either jnana or bhakti yoga.

2. The idea is that every action performed upon the external world has its imprint on the mind. Cf., the doctrine of Karma.


a. Every deed I do for myself insulates my ego from the world.

b. Every act done without thought of self diminishes self-centeredness and brings one closer to the divine.

3. All tasks of daily life become a way of devotion. You view each task as a ritual. Cf., the Gita IX, 27-8:


"Whatever you do, or eat, or offer, or give, or mortify,make it as an offering to me, and I shall undo the bonds of [karma]"  (9.26-27).

4. Work is done without attachment. One forsakes all claims for success or failure. (No such thoughts upon finishing a job as "It could have been better" or "It turned out better than I thought it would.")


a. Karma yogi's deeds no longer litter and increase the ego.

b. Literally, the psychological framework is that the "I" does nothing at all.

c. Gita:

"To the work you have the right, but not to the fruits thereof."

One who does the task dictated by duty
Caring nothing for the fruit of the action
This one is yogi.

d. A yogi meditating on the banks of the Ganges saw a scorpion fall into the river--he scooped it out only to be stung. This happened two more times. When asked, "Why do you do this?," the yogi replied, "It is the nature of scorpions to bite; it is the nature of yogi's to help others when they can."

5. Karma yogi will do each thing as it comes as if it were the only thing he has to do.


a. A carpenter with a hand saw saws without effort, smoothly and gently, and finishes the cut with surprise (i.e., no forcing or pushing). Relate this procedure to Vasudeva's "letting go" and having no expectations.

b. Having done something or forced to leave it before it is finished, the yogi goes on to another duty in the same spirit.

c. Concentrate fully and calmly on each duty as it presents itself and all emotional hindrances disappear with the realization no task is ever completed.

d. Since all actions are uncompleted, anything you do is the only thing you do. Pain, loss, shame, and so forth only touch the surface self.


D. Raja Yoga--the royal road to re-integration by psychological experiment.



1. A starting point for raja yoga is the recognition that our true selves are vastly more wonderful than science or we realize and that we have a true passion for finding this Self.



2. The experiments consist of practicing certain prescribed mental exercises and seeing the effect on our mental condition.

3. Hindu model of man as a layered being. Perhaps, it's more metaphorical than literally accurate--even so it's a map of the territory of great use.

4. The positive effects are getting beyond the pitter-patter of daily existence (Samsara), but great risks are involved also.


a. Consciousness can degenerate into neurosis or psychosis.

b. Christmas Humphreys, Concentration and Meditation: A Manual of Mind Development:


"Rightly used, it is the high road to perfection; abused, and it can create a hell past human imagining" (p. 3).

"More men and women have been driven insane through a premature awakening of forces latent in these centers than most students realize" (p. 21.)

c. The eight main steps of the experiment:


(1) The five abstentions: from injury, lying stealing, sensuality, and greed.

(2) The five observances: cleanliness, contentment, self-control, studiousness, contemplation of the divine.


It's important to realize that the meditation exercises will not "put your life together." You have to have already done that to begin this method of discipline.

(3) The postures (asana)--to minimize the effects of the body and its intrusions and distractions. E.g., the lotus position--there is no other posture in which the body can be kept alert and quiet for so long a time.

(4) Mastering the breath--normal breath can easily disrupt consciousness.


(a) A typical exercise is breathing so gently and evenly against goosedown that an observer cannot tell if air is moving in or out.

(b) A kind of hibernation is obtained by a yogi who can reduce the amount of CO2 exhaled from the normal 4% to 2% with a cycle of 16 counts in, 64 holding, and 32 counts out.

(5) By means of concentration, the external is completely shut out.


(a) Example: you are absorbed in TV and to not hear someone call you.

(b) A yogi can be oblivious to beating on a tin pan near him.

(6) The mastery of concentration occurs when the mind holds unwaveringly to objects.


(a) If you tried the simple meditation given early in the course, you know how difficult it is to still the mind.

(b) The average time one can spend thinking about one thing is about 3.5 seconds. Thoughts begin to buggle up from the unconscious.

(c) What you concentrate on doesn't matter--the breath, Om, the tip of your nose.

(7) The mastery of meditation occurs when the separation of subjective and objective vanishes. You lose the transcendental unity of apperception).


(a) You are not aware of yourself as distinct from the object.

(b) The sense of time and the duration of time disappears.

(8) Union with Atman--Samadhi (pronounced something like "sah mahd he).


(a) The "experiment" is complete when Atman is Brahman (personal proof of the existence of Brahman).

(b) Atman is realized through meditation.
-----
Notes: 1. The thesis that "the claims that many modern yoga schools were making about the ancient roots of their practes were not strictly true ..." is discussed by Mark Singleton, "Yoga's Greater Truth," Yoga Journal 223 (November, 2010), 107. It's interesting that asana now is used for many different body positions, whereas for Patanjali in his Yoga Sūtras, asana is used for only sitting postures. ↩
----- 
 http://philosophy.lander.edu/oriental/yoga.html

Hinduism: The Ends of Life

Abstract: We can seek what we want; all paths can be legitimately pursued.
I.  The Purpose of Life:  the four legitimate ends of life.

In this life you can seek what you want. In order to achieve meaning and significance, there are four basic ways.

It is important to realize that all persons need go through all stages, and they will be left alone if they pursue and enjoy any one of the following paths.

A. The Path of Desire--the twin goals are pleasure and success; nothing is gained by repressing these desires--in fact we might be worse if at some point we do not seek desire.


1. Pleasure: if you want it, go after it; the beauty and delight is there.


a. Of course, you have to balance short-term and long-term pleasures.

b. You will soon find that lasting pleasures are preferable.

c. There might be some sacrifices. E.g., the basic precepts of morality (cf. Siddhartha, "Samsara.")

d. The hedonism in Hinduism is sometimes viewed as shocking in terms of Western ethics.

Problem with the stage or goal of the path of pleasure: pleasure is enervating and too narrow and trivial to satisfy your total nature. The literature is full of advice from individuals who lament the transience of pleasure, glamour, and wasted youth.

2. Worldly Success: the path entails the triple aspects of wealth, power, and fame (all equally worthy goals).


a. The drives for these goods are almost second-nature to us.

b. They make many other things possible: raising a family, civic duties, dignity, and self-respect.

Problems with the state of worldly success:


a. Wealth, fame, and power are precarious--they are not distributive properties. They tend to be exclusive; not everyone can have them. (How can everyone be famous?)

b. Success can never be satisfied--for we compare ourselves to others.


(1) We can never get enough when worldly success becomes our style of life. The rich never retire.

(2) Poverty is measured by the increase of one's greed. The wise person has nothing he cannot carry in his hands. If you have something of worth, you must look out for it.

c. There remains a lack with worldly success. Surely there is more to life than this--subjective qualities seem to be lost.

d. We have molded the world to our will; dogmatism results. Life is short; "you can't take it with you."

e. Even the child will move on; unless we move on we are locked into the daily round (samsara). Even so, worldly success is a necessary stage in our development.

B. The Path of Renunciation,--has a negative ring to our ears (e.g., ascetic), but is not meant to do so. An athlete in training employs discipline toward a greater good. Hence, "renunciation" can be thought of as "hope" instead of "disillusionment" since the name "renunciation" is used in reference to what has gone before, i.e., the path of desire.


Not everyone will pursue this path in this life (cf. reincarnation).  What makes the path of renunciation persuasive is that those who pursue it after the successes of the path of desire and people who want more from life.

1. Duty: the third great aim in the Hindu outlook (dharma).


a. There are specific duties appropriate to our age, disposition, social status, community, and peer group.

b. Faithful performance brings praise and self-respect and joy for a time.

c. We have the sense of worth of being a valuable, reliable, productive person. Our existence seems to be justified by our doing the right thing.

Problems with the stage of duty:


a. We become a cog in a machine; we have the feeling of being used, taken advantage of.

b. We lose ourselves in the daily round. (Cf., Hesse's Siddhartha, 106D.) Consider factory children working 12 to 14 hour shifts six days a week. What is the feeling of having done a good job?

c. Is this all there is?  I.e., what is the replacement value of a human being?  What other possibilities are there?

2. Liberation: seeking freedom from life's limitations. What are the things we really want, we deeply want?


a. The real desires of people are for liberation.


(1) Being--we don't want to die; we want life.

(2) Awareness--existence is not enough; curiosity and knowledge is more important.

(3) Joy--the feeling of well-being

b. More precisely, we want infinite being, infinite knowledge, and infinite joy. What is this concept in Western terms?

c. The Hindu word for this state of being is moksa (pronounced something like "mok shah," sometimes spelled moksha)) or liberation. Moksa is the complete release from the countless limitations and restrictions which impinge upon our existence.

III. The heart of Hinduism: what you want most, you can have. Not only can you have them, in a sense, they are already yours. (Remember Siddhartha's advice to Govinda, "Perhaps you seek too much.")

A. Is a person just a body? a personality? Hinduism says something more--an indestructible infinite center of being that never dies and is without limits.

B. The infinite center of every life is the hidden self. The Atman who is no less than Brahman, the Godhead. You are all three: body, personality, Atman-Brahman.

C. But suppose you say you don't feel particularly infinite today--where is this? It is buried and it is the task of the following lectures to show how it can be uncovered. 

 http://philosophy.lander.edu/oriental/purpose.html

The Gratitude Tutorial ~ How Thankfulness Can Improve Your Life

We spend just one day a year giving thanks, but we have reasons to be thankful every single day. Unfortunately, bad things tend to grab our attention and allow the good things to slip by, unnoticed. Even when we notice something good, we tend to forget about it more quickly than we do the bad things.
That's the inspiration behind this tutorial. Using the tips below, you'll not only develop an attitude of gratitude for Thanksgiving, but you'll be well on your way to making gratefulness a habit. Why would you want to do that? Simple. Gratitude is a powerful tool for focusing the mind on the positive, and positive people draw positive outcomes.
Begin by keeping a gratitude journal. Don't write down negative things; only positive ones. For example:
"I'm grateful that I made it through rush hour safely."
"I'm grateful that I got to see a beautiful sunset."
"I'm grateful that I have a class at school that I really like."
Think of all the good things that happened because something bad happened first. For example:
"If that slow driver hadn't pulled in front of me, I'd have gotten a speeding ticket."
"If I hadn't tripped on the playground, I would never have met such a nice person."
"If I hadn't been laid off, I would never have gotten a better job."
Don't focus on what you don't have. Focus on what you do have. For example:
"I'm so fortunate to have a warm place to sleep."
"I'm so fortunate to live in a safe neighborhood."
"I'm so fortunate to have time to relax."
Think about people you've known that have made you thankful for their existence. They can be family, friends or simply people who have created things that you enjoy. Imagine how many other people there are who might be equally as wonderful. You just haven't met them yet!
Think about people who have made life hard for you. Now think about the things you accomplished because of them. Did you finish something because they said that you couldn't? Did you get better at something because they made fun of you when you did it badly? Did their cruel actions make you vow never to treat others that way? Even the negative forces in your life can be hidden blessings, worthy of thankfulness.
Think about the animals that have given you joy: Dogs that love you with every inch of their hearts, cats that think your lap is the best place to nap in the whole world, birds whose songs uplift your spirit, squirrels whose antics put a grin on your face and so on.
Think about the places that make you smile: A favorite hangout, a wooded trail, an exciting city, a great spot from which to view the sky, a hill that you once rolled down. Give thanks for all these things.
Create your own opportunities for gratitude. Do you know someone who never seems happy? Be ready with a smile and a kind word each time you see them. It may require patience, but eventually, they'll smile first when they see you. Your interactions with them will be much more pleasant. Guess what? You'll have a new reason to be thankful!
Let others know when they've done something that you're thankful for. For example:
"I'll never forget how you stuck up for me. It meant a lot."
"That email you sent really made my day."
"You make shopping here a pleasure."
An attitude of gratitude spreads like ripples from a tossed pebble, benefiting all that it touches.
Remember that hard times make good times sweeter. Obstacles and challenges not only make you stronger, but force you to explore outside of your comfort zone. Without challenges, there can be no progress. Without obstacles, there can be no achievement. Be thankful for the opportunities that they provide.
Now pass it on. True gratitude leads to action. Lend a hand. Pitch in. Listen. Even small things like a friendly greeting can make a difference. And in the process of paying it forward, you'll discover more reasons to give thanks!
http://knowledgehound.com/khhow2s/giving_thanks.htm

http://www.templeilluminatus.com/

Sun Spot Demons, Solar Deities, Exploring the Causal Realm, and the Diamond Body

Even after my surprise journey to the Sun, taken with my Demon Commander, Prince T., I was not prepared for his latest revelation. Though, in retrospect, it would have been obvious.  Prince T. had revealed to me in the journey we took together several weeks ago that he and those of his kind dwell in a realm of the Sun, which is an infernal realm.  Pictured to the left is a Nasa closeup of a sunspot.

In the period of time since, he has definitely been a wonderful guide and teacher through my meditations, and a few ouija sessions.  To be honest, what he reveals in ouija sessions is often so intense that it can take days or even weeks to digest and be ready for the next ouija session with him. 
Recently Akelta and I acquired 2 more ouija boards the same as mine, for our coven to cast on, and eventually present as an offering in our upcoming shop.  In one of our coven sessions we cast powerful black magick spells of protection and connection onto the 2 new boards and my personal one.  Akelta took one board home and I kept one, and we are each working with the new boards exclusively, to further charge them up with regal and Satanic, powerful demonic energies, through communicating with our highest guardian demons – I communicate mainly with Prince T, Akelta with Prince V, and of course, we both have conversations with Prince Venom.
I was very pleased by the spellwork on the boards and planchettes when I first used the board I am working on charging, after we cast upon it.  Akelta has been bringing forth profound guidance from Prince V. on a near daily level – immediately after the session where we cast, I had some questions for Prince V., who had made a physical appearance during our session, and had been accompanied by another presence.  I wanted to know about this and the information he revealed and the guidance he gave helped me to encounter that night 3 powerful Sons of Satan and an ancient, primal demon at the power level of Satan himself.  The journeys with these demons have been amazing so far… some who will be bound will eventually be offered to new keepers.
In short, the information we have been able to obtain through the ouija has been profound and the guidance and the lessons we are made aware of and directed towards, life-changing.
Of course, I must make a disclaimer and shortly Akelta and I will do a full write-up on the ouija and its powers, dangers, and proper use of it to work with demonic entities in the way that we do.  We do not support the blind use of the ouija board (to summon, conjure, contact and communicate with entities unknown to you), or the use of ouija for purposes of dabbling.  The ouija is a powerful tool of connection that when used intelligently can actually open up many doors between you and the demons in your keep.
When the ouija writeup is done, I will post a link to it here.
Now, on to my most recent communication.  It was short and sweet while at the same time profoundly revealing and inspiring.  It follows up to the session I last published (here), perfectly.
Prince T's most recent communication led me to learn about Sphere 6, the realm where one transcends the astral, the realm through which you can be drawn to the Kether, by grace, past which, you can find the divine origins… A realm that is the spiritual gate to the causal plane, where, perceiving the radiant light from within, merging with the light in causal-level enlightenment, the soul's method of transportation, the causal body, is formed by the fixation and crystallization of this living light – the Diamond Body.  The realm of the Solar King, the sacrificed god, the divine or magickal child – the realm of Osiris, Ra – yes – the Sun, the realm of Satan.
Prince T. had given me some news and insight into current affairs in my life, sneakily shifting the conversation to his origins when he gave me the occult name of his group – the high-level Demon Commanders, the Satanic elite infernals, demons and fallen angels of a realm in the Sun, who walk with Satan and many are descended from him or originated by his side, his brothers and friends.
Some of these are the demons Akelta and I have been able to offer to the public and place with keepers, high-level Demon Commanders brought to us by the Princes of this realm.  We have quite a few more we have been working with lately and are at the end of our pre-launch period – soon you will see listings for these Demon Commanders, Princes and Sons on our new site.
Many of our DCs have come from this realm of the Sun, and after giving me the name of his group, Prince T. began to tell me more about his realm. 
SUN-LEVEL HELL.  ONE OF SEVERAL TIERS EXISTING OUTSIDE OF SPACETIME.
IS NATURAL RESIDENCE – FIERY ENTITIES
FALLEN ANGELS CAN FALL HERE.
I asked, "And what happens when they fall there, are they transformed?"  He replied, Yes, into DEMONS OF VARIOUS TYPES.
I asked, if Satan, Lucifer, Goetia-level Fallen Angels, and the others we know, had fallen there and he replied, yes.
Then he told me it's name.  The name of his realm of the sun – Tiphareth.
He spelled it Tiparoth – as an intelligent demon, he did this for a reason – the significance of which I will explore in another blog or in comments below.  I recognized it immediately as a Qabalistic name of a realm, likely linked to a planet, but I did not know anything more about it.  I googled and found Tiphareth is in fact the name the Qabala gives to the Sun Realm.
The information I discovered immediately upon researching it, what I posted above about his realm being the spiritual gate to the causal plane and the place where one forms the Diamond Body – well, to say the least, it gives me much food for thought!  Occultists have long linked Satan to the Sun, to the Solar Deity, to Sun worship.  Prince T. had already taken me to the Sun and enabled me to surf in its lightwaves and bask in its healing energies.  Now, I find, there is so much more to it.  It is a realm of mastery – from the linked page, it is said that causal plane awareness equals tremendous power and requires a great moral code.  Through the latest ouija communication, I am made aware of this great power, and the next pinnacle of spiritual mastery – the creation of the Diamond Body.
More on this and other topics soon …
I love this photo from Nasa, I will enlarge it and post some closeups.
http://castaspell.info/