Differences - The Master Doesn't Know Who He is, Everyone Sees Themselves in Him

Each person is as different as snowflakes or fingerprints. Over millions of years all the variations you see in people have been formed by evolution of the species. When humans began their separation from animals, ego was created for individual identity. Ego became the mind identification necessary to create individuality. Over the millennium humans have created a strong ego that also obscures recognition of the energy field that is the source of all life. However because awareness is always present, the recognition of the energy field is always available. Ego is essentially a belief system that is formalized after birth and during the first few years of life.

Some traits and talent are brought with you into this new life. Anyone with exceptional artistic or musical talent has likely brought that talent with them from previous life experiences. Awareness is also brought with you as awareness gained is never lost. Awareness of the many levels of consciousness is a process that may take many life times, because awareness has to be experienced for it to be part of your consciousness.

Every age has its prophets pointing the way out of the delusion that you are only the ego mind. Just the awareness that you have an ego will allow you to see the separation between ego thought and the consciousness behind that thought. Thoughts of separation, comparison and judgments are all thoughts of the ego. All are necessary for you to live as an individual; however recognition of how they also create stress and conflict is part of your growing consciousness. Whenever you have a negative judgment of someone, look closely at that thought. Where did it come from? What belief caused that thought? Any time there is a crisis that the ego mind cannot handle; awareness comes forth to support you.

It is that part of you that brings peace and harmony to any conflict. By the practice of directing the mind to bring awareness to the front of consciousness, you can have the balance of being conscious of unity while living in the ego separate body. This is the state of conscious living, that point where the unity of all life is experienced while at the same time having an individual body and identity. In most creative projects such as art and music, the mind of the artist is expressed through the medium. The sum total of the artist is channeled into the creative expression. Your life is like that creative expression, every moment of everyday. It is the sum total of all your knowledge and experience.

When you look at the world, you see it with fresh eyes each time. Even though you have seen this person or place hundreds of time each moment is unique in its own way. To see the world new each time is awareness coming into being. It is the realization that each new moment represents the totality of being. As you age, your body is changing. As structures age, they change ever so slightly each moment. It is the way of energy to be ever moving and ever changing. Each thing is separate and evolving in its own way and they are connected to the unified whole at the same time.

Awareness gives you the platform from which to see the individual changes and the big picture at the same time. Medical science tells us that the human body renews itself every seven years. Aging reflects the effects of environment and nutrition along with the cellular structure in your body changing. Humans are developing longer life spans as environment and diet are improved. The mental health of each person is also a decisive factor of longevity. The less stress and conflict in your life will be a major reason that you will have a longer life. Accepting and allowing are the key concepts to understand for stress free living.

When you meet someone, the relationship is new. You may not know much about them but as you see them again, more is known and connections are made. If it is a love relationship then the connections are made stronger with the emotional responses by the partners. No matter how long the relationship, the process is the same. What keeps any relationship fresh is the ability to see it as new each time you meet. In truth it is new each time, you just have to discard past familiarity in order to see it that way.

Long term relationships are what most people want because of the emotional stability it brings. Everyone wants to feel loved because love is a fundamental expression of your connection to spirit. Love is the name you give to the state of being beyond the ego mind. When you love someone, you are experiencing an awareness of the essential being of the other person. You are connecting your energy to their energy at a deeper level that transcends the ego mind. On order to keep a relationship fresh look for ways to increase awareness beyond the ego attraction.

The mind combines past experience into your present experience in order to function smoothly in the world. Only when you can no longer see the differences between the past and the present does it create stress and conflicts. By living in the past you expect people and things to be the same as you remembered them. It is always in conflict with the present because people and things are constantly changing. The flow of energy is constantly bringing you new information and change to all forms. By embracing change you can free yourself from living in the past.

Past memory and present experience work in harmony, the ability to see the past and present as distinct and different is when awareness comes to the front of consciousness. Awareness works all the time bringing the ability to discern the many levels of understanding. As awareness grows your perception also grows, allowing you to have the balance of living in the moment and seeing the past for what it is, just a memory.

"The Nature of Awareness" is a comprehensive study of the Mind, Body and Spirit Connection. Visit http://thenatureofawareness.com for more information and free download of sample chapters.

This book is an expression of my spiritual journey. When the thought of writing this book came to me, I wanted to explore individual and collectively held beliefs and test them against my understanding or awareness to see what new awareness could be gained by this inquiry. I found that any subject could be met with inquiry and a lot of beliefs fell by the way as I pushed the envelope of understanding. The journey always led back to the truth that the source of all life is also the final answer to all questions.

The creative energy field of all creation, the source of all life, is the alpha and omega. Without the spark of consciousness we call life, there would be no evolution. The journey back to unity with the creative energy field is the path of self awareness. Once a topic was examined there was no barrier to peeling the beliefs away to get to the understanding of where those beliefs came from and if they were rooted in stressful ego identification.

William Lovett, author, email info@thenatureofawareness for questions or comments.

The Evolution of the Lhasa Apso

All dog breeds are the results of converging evolutionary factors and interbreeding. Some breeds are man-manufactured and some are naturally made, there is hardly any influence on their form and function from the ability of natural selection. For example, the Bulldog breed was a "backward" breed and bred to create a long-legged, more livelier version of the original dog breed.

Of the Tibetan breeds, the Lhasa Apso, the Tibetan terrier, is more a product of evolution rather than human influence. Of the five recognized Tibetan breeds; the Tibetan Terrier, Tibetan Spaniel, Do-Khyi (Tibetan Mastiff), Lhasa Apso and Shih Tzu, the Lhasa is the one breed most directly influenced by the harsh Himalayan-Tibetan climate conditions.

There are many reasons why this happened. Firstly, the Tibetans only began to selectively breed the Lhasas around 800-years ago in the city of Lhasa, capital city and home to the Dalai Lamas. However, the breed traces its origins some 2,000 years ago in the Tibetan environment.

Secondly, historians highly speculate whether these Tibetans actually attempted the sophisticated practice of selective breeding that is so popular today. Early Tibetans were hunters and herders who depended on Tibetan dogs to hunt, protect flocks and serve as watchdogs and companions to humans. The natural tendencies of Tibetan breeds, fashioned by evolutionary forces, were more than enough for for ensuring survival tasks faced by the Tibetans.

Thirdly, the physical form of a Lhasa Apso has remained largely unchanged from its original form, because it is still able to conserve heat when necessary. Cold adapted animals have bodies with a higher muscle and fat ratio, in comparison to bone mass of other breeds that have had to adapt to a warmer environment.

The amount of heat produced by an animal is directly proportional to its weight or volume. The larger the body, the more heat it produces. What is known, is that heat loss is also proportional to the body's surface area, the more surface there is, the faster heat is lost. Conserving heat is a function of the ratio of body mass in relation to area, the one with the most surface will lose heat more quickly.

Because the body of a Lhasa Apso is shorter and rounded, it has less surface area than a longer-legged, equal in weight, warmer environment cousins. Those same forces also govern body type; people of Eskimo lineage have shorter, stouter bodies and less surface mass than an equally weighted Equatorial person who has a longer, leaner body and a higher surface area. In short, to limit loss of heat in the cold, an animal is better served by a body that is as compact and short-legged as possible.

Nature has adapted the body of a Lhasa Apso to suit the hills and villages of the Himalayan Highlands. This breed is built for stamina, not speed, for walking, jumping and climbing, and not like the bodies of other dog breeds.

This article was written by John Jackson and has been contributed by http://www.greatdogsite.com. For more information on the Lhasa Apso, please visit our page http://www.greatdogsite.com/breeds/details/Lhasa_Apso/.

The Galapagos' Five Most Impressive Rarities

The Galapagos Islands are not just about evolution, exotic animals and paradise-like beaches. It also has amazing and unexplainable natural formations. Let's take a look to the ones that, according to us, are the Galapagos' most impressive natural rarities:

1. Las Grietas (The Cracks): It is a giant crack located in the Santa Cruz Island that forms two big walls up to 12m (39 ft) high. At the bottom, there is a long inlet of the sea with crystalline waters and a great diversity of tropical fish. It is a great place for diving or simply for swimming between these two giants walls.

2. The sleeping lion (Kicker Rock): located in front of the San Cristóbal Island, it is a dramatic formation of two rocks that rise up abruptly from the bottom of the sea, creating a little passage where small vessels can transit (photo). With 144m (472ft) high, these formations are a resting area for birds and sea lions. The formation got its name because, viewed from a certain angle, the rocks seem to form the silhouette of a sea lion lying down.

3. Darwin's Arch: it is a natural stone arch that works as an entrance door to the Darwin Island. It is also considered by many professional scuba divers as the world's best place to dive.

4. The Pinnacle Rock: this is probably the tourists' most photographed scene of the Galapagos Islands. It is a rocky formation located in the Bartolomé Island that looks like the tip off a big arrow coming out of the sea, pointing to the sky. There are many volcanic formations with these characteristics in the Galápagos, but none of them have taken such a peculiar shape.

5. The Love Tunnel: it is an 800m (2624ft) long tunnel in the island of Santa Cruz, formed by the underground passing of the lava that was expulsed by the volcanoes thousands of years ago. Its entrance has the singular shape of a heart, reason why it got its name.

The Galapagos have been well taken care of and preserved in a good state for visitors to see. Nowadays, you can still enjoy its natural wonders and feel the same excitement the islands' first visitors once felt.

Ecuador is a diverse and surprising destination with beautiful landscapes and an unprecedented biodiversity, making it one of the most magical places on earth. A sustainable, diverse, surprising, beautiful and unique paradise in Latin America worth knowing.

Some Helpful Hermit Crabs Information

Land hermit crabs are friendly, odor-free, intelligent and clean animals that make wonderful pets. They have undergone an amazing process of evolution that made them adaptable to live on land and make use of a hollow snail shell as a temporary house and for added protection. As basic hermit crab information, always remember that hermit crabs are land animals that should not be kept in water.

More helpful hermit information is that these animals require for necessary items for their proper care. These materials are only simple, namely: thermometer, spare shells, hermit salt and pellets, gravel, glass tank, mangrove root bowl for water and food and a heat wave mat.

A typical hermit is somehow nocturnal and will usually sleep for the entire day. Low levels of temperature will tend to make them lesser active and they will retract inside their shell. Hermits are also sociable creatures; they are more active when they are more in number. One more note on hermit crab information: they will be able to live for many years if you take good care of them, and over time, they will become friendlier if you regard them as a member of your family.

For its housing, a hermit can be housed on an aquarium with a glass top. This environment can generate a humid condition that is important for the crab's health and well being. The tank should always be cleaned with boiled de-chlorinated water and keep from using any chemically based cleaners or detergents.

More important hermit crab information, hermits are tropical animals, thus they should be maintained in between 26C to 32C. The temperature level should not be allowed to drop below 20C at this will become detrimental to the health of the hermit crab.

In terms of humidity, hermit requires high levels of it in order to maintain the levels of moisture in their gills, thus allowing them to breathe properly. Make sure that they get enough humidity in their tanks by providing enough water in their drinking dish.

As for their water and food requirements, hermits usually need 2 dishes of water that should be replaced on a daily basis to ensure cleanliness. The first bowl must be placed with fresh water for drinking purposes while the other one should be filled with salt water for bathing purposes. As for their dietary requirement, hermits eat almost everything, from fruits, vegetables, meat and even fish. They can also be fed with dog and cat food as well as baby food. It is important to have them fed once a day. Since hermit crabs can really be messy when eating, it is also important to have their leftovers cleaned up after eating.

Steven A Black is a hermit crab enthusiast. For more accurate hermit crab information, visit http://www.hermit-crab1.com.

Darwinism's Unscientific Formula

Plentiful Muddy Water + A Long Time + Many Coincidences = Civilization

When the subject of evolution comes up, many people imagine that this is a scientific problem-and that for anyone less knowledgeable than scientists, Darwinism is impossible to understand. They assume it's pointless to argue the issue, one way or the other. Indeed, Darwinists employ Latin words and scientific terms generally unfamiliar to the public in order to encourage this mistaken idea. They engage in complicated descriptions and frequently resort to demagoguery and hollow slogans in order to give the impression they are discussing a highly scientific matter.

In fact, however, Darwinism's basic claim is completely unscientific, and its logical poverty is so obvious that even primary school age children can see it. According to Darwinism, in some unexplained manner, the first cell supposedly formed in the Earth's primeval environment, in a pool of muddy water. And out of that single cell, a literally endless series of coincidences later gave rise to animals, plants, human beings and civilizations. In other words, all of mankind, as well as the entire plant and animal kingdoms, are supposedly the work of an ideal quantity of mud, a long period of time and plentiful coincidences.

One would have to lack any facility to understand and reason in order to believe that through coincidences, mud eventually gave rise to civilizations. Anyone capable of thinking and drawing appropriate conclusions can't possibly be taken in by Darwinist errors.

According to Darwinists, who are suffering from an obvious logical deficiency, these materials, each one of which is unconscious, gave rise to human beings possessed of reason and conscience, who think, love, feel compassion, possess sound judgment, produce paintings and statues, compose symphonies, write novels, build skyscrapers, construct nuclear reactors, discover the causes of diseases and manufacture drugs to cure them, or engage in politics. They claim that when sufficient time had passed, lions, tigers, rabbits, deer, elephants, cats, dogs, moths, flies, crocodiles and birds all evolved by chance from muddy water.

A whole range of fruits and vegetables, with their own unique tastes and smells-oranges, strawberries, bananas, apples, grapes, tomatoes, peppers-flowers with their matchless appearances and other plants all emerged from that same mud. In short, ever since Darwin's time, countless articles, papers, films, newspaper reports, magazine articles and television programs have repeated the evolutionist scenario in which all of life emerged by chance from mud.

In other words, if you ask a Darwinist "How did our civilization arise?" or, "How did such a wide range of life forms come into being?" or, "How did mankind come into existence?" the essential answer you will receive is this: Coincidences gave rise to all these things from mud, over the course of time.

The Darwinist scenario of "life emerging from mud" can no longer deceive people. Any rational person can immediately see the nonsensical premise of the theory of evolution.

One would doubtless need to be devoid of reason or lack any facility for understanding in order to believe such a tale. Yet surprisingly, that very irrational and illogical theory has had its adherents for many years and is still being propagated constantly under a scientific guise.

The Lies of Darwinism Have Been Unmasked

Scientific evidence has revealed that the "sequence" of equine evolution, long portrayed as one of the strongest pieces of evidence for evolution, is untrue-and wholly imaginary.
The theory of evolution, first proposed under the primitive conditions of the 19th century, has been disproved by advances in science and technology. It has been recognized that Darwin's claims are totally unrealistic: Natural selection and mutations, cited as the mechanisms that drive the process of evolution, have no effects of the kind envisaged by Darwinists. In short, it is impossible for them to give rise to new species.

The final death blow to Darwinism was dealt by the fossil record. Darwin claimed that all the millions of different life forms had come into being through descent from a supposed single common ancestor.

In order for his claim to be verified, there should be traces in the fossil record-an irrefutable document of natural history-of this supposed primitive ancestor and of the various life forms that developed from it. For example, if all mammals were descended from reptiles, as evolutionists maintain, then there would have to be fossil remains of a series of half-mammalian, half-reptilian life forms.

To date, millions of fossils, belonging to a great many species, have been unearthed during excavations. Yet not a single one showing a transition between species has ever been found. Every fossil ever found shows that each living thing emerged suddenly, with all its characteristics complete. In other words, every species of plant and animal was created.

Confronted by this fact, evolutionists have resorted to various falsehoods. They have produced hoaxes-counterfeit, artificial fossils that have come to be regarded as disgraces to paleontology. They have tried to deceive the lay public by tampering with genuine fossils of extinct life forms and inventing a series of imaginary scenarios. One of the best known of them is the so-called "evolution of the horse."

Fossils belonging to entirely different species that once lived in India, South America, North America and Europe were arranged in order of size-from small to large-in the light of evolutionist imaginations. So far, different researchers have come up with more than 20 different equine evolution scenarios. There is no agreement among them regarding all these completely different family trees. The one point they commonly agree upon is their belief that a dog-like creature known as Eohippus (or Hyracotherium) that lived in the Eocene epoch (54 to 37 million years ago) was the very first ancestor of today's horses. However, Eohippus-portrayed as the ancestor of the horse and that became extinct millions of years ago-is almost identical to the present-day animal known as the hyrax, which looks nothing like a horse and is totally unrelated to that species.

Moreover, it has been established that breeds of horse living today have also been discovered in the same rock strata as Eohippus. (See Francis Hitching's The Neck of the Giraffe: Where Darwin Went Wrong, New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1982, pp. 30-31.) This means that the horse and its supposed ancestor were both living at the same time, which proves that the horse never underwent any such process as evolution.

The invalidity of the "equine series" proposed by evolutionists also applies to birds, fish, reptiles and mammals, in short, to all living things, to their supposedly common ancestors and supposed family trees. It has been determined that every fossil species suggested as being the ancestor of some other living thing either belongs to an independent extinct life form or is the result of evolutionists tampering with fossils of the species in question.

Darwinism has been exposed as the most wide-ranging and astonishing deception in the world's history. That millions have been taken in by this deception, as if hypnotized, and have been influenced by all of Darwinism's illogical claims, is truly miraculous. The support lent to the theory of evolution and the acceptance it has enjoyed up to now are the result of tricks played on mankind by satan, who urges vast numbers of people towards Darwinism.

Until recently, no one had the courage to unmask this ruse of satan's and to publicize the true facts. But in the present century, the response to this deception has finally been laid out in full detail, and the public has been made fully aware of the state of affairs. By the will of God, the collapse of Darwinism has advanced beyond any point of recovery. Indeed, that is the fundamental reason for the panic in the Darwinian global empire.

Under the pen name of Harun Yahya, Adnan Oktar has written some 250 works. His books contain a total of 46,000 pages and 31,500 illustrations. Of these books, 7,000 pages and 6,000 illustrations deal with the collapse of the Theory of Evolution. You can read, free of charge, all the books Adnan Oktar has written under the pen name Harun Yahya on these websites http://www.harunyahya.com

The Most Entertaining Zoo Animals

I've always been a big lover of the zoo. I happen to have grown up in San Diego, so maybe I was spoiled by such an amazing collection of animals all gathered in one setting. Whatever it is, I'm an animal lover and I find a visit to the zoo to be both incredibly entertaining, but very educational too.

Without further ado, I'll share some of my favorite zoo animals with you from here.

Dolphins. These are some of the most exciting animals to watch. They're extremely smart (they're mammals believe it or not), and they're one of the friendliest animals out there. They're also very sweet, and love the attention and affection of humans around them.

Monkeys, gorillas, chimpanzees, and anything in that family. This might be my favorite animal to see when I go to the zoo. Why? Because they're the closest thing to humans that you'll find. In terms of looks and in terms of their mannerisms, watching these animals for long enough can make you laugh for hours. Some of the things they do are truly entertaining and they're always sure to put a smile on my face.

The last animal I'll mention is the elephant, as these always hold a soft spot in my heart. Despite their huge size, elephants are really loving creatures and they're also highly intelligent. Any zoo that has an elephant exhibit is absolutely worth seeing, and I can watch these animals for a long time, simply fascinated with their every move.

When I'm not at the zoo, I'm making my own drop earrings. I have a new pair of silver drop earrings that's just about ready and I can't wait to wear them out.

Conscious Or Unconscious - Nothing is Exactly As it Seems, Nor is it Otherwise

All living things have developed a sense of behavior that regulates the basic instincts of survival. When humans developed out of the animal world they carried with them the same survival instincts. However as the evolution of humans advanced beyond the animal stage they began to develop patterns of behavior beyond just survival. They began to develop ego and individual awareness of themselves. The use of language and tools caused rapid development of human evolution. When large numbers of humans began living in groups they began to create rules within their tribes and later laws of society.

Concepts like good and bad began to be used to make judgments about behavior. As awareness grew, the eternal questions of "Who am I" and "Where did I come from" started to be asked. Questions about the origin of the spiritual self began to form religious traditions and spiritual beliefs. Those religious traditions established a moral code or set of rules for acceptable behavior that became the foundation of the laws of society.

Beliefs are thoughts made by the ego for individual identification. One of the more common beliefs is the male and female roles in society. Your concept about your ability to do certain tasks based on your gender is part of your individual and collective belief system. Those beliefs indentify your relationship to yourself and others. With awareness you can see that men and women can take on roles in society regardless of gender. Do you see the changes in gender identification within traditional roles of society as good or bad? Only your interpretation of it makes it one or the other. Beliefs about good and bad behavior are on a sliding scale. When does good become bad?

Acceptable behavior in a strict Muslim society is completely different from acceptable behavior in a liberal society. Good and bad are abstract thoughts in that they are defined only by your beliefs about them. Think about your definition for good behavior. What rules of society do you accept as good or bad? Where is the line between good and bad behavior for you? There are still many communities that have laws about buying alcohol on Sunday. If you sell alcohol before 12:00 you are breaking the law, but it is ok to sell it after 12:00. This law goes back to the belief that people should be in church on Sunday morning and not buying alcohol. This is an example of how beliefs about good and bad behavior become laws in society.

You have individual beliefs and collective beliefs. Collective beliefs are what you construe to be laws and rules of society. Individual beliefs are a subset of the collective mind set. Individually a belief is a reflection of something you identify with in the world. When you see some action that you label good or bad it is because there is a part of you that believes that to be true. You identify something as good or bad if you have a belief about that behavior. If you are standing in line at the store to check out and someone pushes in front of the line, can you be neutral about that experience and allow it be what it is or do you automatically label it as bad behavior? What belief are you using to identify that experience bad?

Simple exercises like this can reveal many layers of beliefs stored in your subconscious. Since concepts of good and bad are based on a belief system, then judgments are inherent part of the process. Judgments are beliefs carried to an extreme that go beyond simple preference. Judgments occur when you make negative comparisons or think that everyone should agree with your preference. If you have a preference for classical music that is a personal preference, when you think that everyone should like classical music that is a negative judgment. As awareness grows you can see where personal preference slides over to judgment. When you can see that some beliefs cause conflict then you can start to see that judgments cause people to suffer.

Suffering is a thought that causes conflict and stress with the reality of the experience where there was none before. Suffering is the reaction to an event where a belief is in conflict with the reality of the event. If you lose your job, that is an event in your life, if your reaction to the event is clouded by beliefs of what should or could have happened, then you are suffering. The way to break free of suffering is to accept the reality of the event and attach no other meaning to it. This way you allow the energy of the event to move through you and no stress or conflict can reside within you.

Another way to identify behavior is conscious or unconscious. Conscious behavior accepts the responsibility for the good of all concerned. Conscious action is rooted in unity awareness. Unity awareness is the knowing that people and all living things are inter-connected. Unconscious behavior is centered only on individual ego gratification. Unconscious actions are harmful for everyone concerned even the person who is supposed to benefit. "No crime goes unpunished" recognizes that unconscious behavior will eventually have to be resolved. "What you sow, ye shall reap" is another way to express this understanding. Unconscious behavior can be met with inquiry and be resolved, it is the nature of awareness rising. Be aware of your beliefs and see if you are coming from unity or ego conscious behavior.

Consciousness is a state of being as well as the underlying energy field of all living things. Traditional use of the word means that you are physically awake or not asleep. In a spiritual sense consciousness describes your awareness of the unity of all things. Awareness is also a term to describe attentiveness. A deeper meaning is the knowing of the many different levels of the perception of life. You can see the different levels of consciousness in other people by the way they interact with the world. What decisions they make and how they relate to other people. Are those decisions inclusive and are they in harmony with anyone involved. Are their actions exclusive and create stress and conflict? Any decision may appear to be selfish in the sense that it benefits one over another, but the difference between conscious and unconscious decisions is whether anyone is harmed by those decisions. If you give a job promotion to someone over another, it can be done in a way so that the applicant that was not chosen can be appreciated for applying. The process of making difficult decisions can be done consciously so that no negative stress or conflicts are created.

Developing awareness is the process of overcoming the limited ego self. By examining your thoughts as they appear, your awareness grows. This is the process of stressful thoughts being resolved and thoughts of harmony being expressed. Why would you hold on to stressful thoughts? Once you can identify a belief then the process of inquiry can start. Most people never give their beliefs a second thought. They accept beliefs as part of their heritage or past. During the growth period of life most people are forming their beliefs based on social and environmental settings. These beliefs are thoughts which conform to society and your individual experiences. During the maturity stage of life you have more opportunity to examine your beliefs. You have more life experiences to compare. More importantly you know that there is more to life than the day to day experiences. You begin to know that you are a spiritual being that exists outside of the confines of the ego mind identification.

"The Nature of Awareness" is a comprehensive study of the Mind, Body and Spirit Connection. Visit http://thenatureofawareness.com for more information and free download of sample chapters.

This book is an expression of my spiritual journey. When the thought of writing this book came to me, I wanted to explore individual and collectively held beliefs and test them against my understanding or awareness to see what new awareness could be gained by this inquiry. I found that any subject could be met with inquiry and a lot of beliefs fell by the way as I pushed the envelope of understanding. The journey always led back to the truth that the source of all life is also the final answer to all questions. The creative energy field of all creation, the source of all life, is the alpha and omega. Without the spark of consciousness we call life, there would be no evolution. The journey back to unity with the creative energy field is the path of self awareness. Once a topic was examined there was no barrier to peeling the beliefs away to get to the understanding of where those beliefs came from and if they were rooted in stressful ego identification.

William Lovett, author, email info@thenatureofawareness for questions or comments.

Origin of Religion - Seven Stages in the Evolution of Religion

Have you ever wondered about the origin of religion? Those of you who have given birth or watched the birth of of a child know that babies do not come into the world with religious sensibilities. No baby has ever exclaimed "Oh My God," or "Jesus Christ," at birth. So where then does religion come from? How did humans ever begin to exhibit religious traits?

The answer is that religion, like humans and all other things in existence, has evolved over time as represented by the following story.

In the time before time, there was a loosely organized community in which the men went out to hunt for food and the women remained behind to take care of the families. Sometimes these men would be gone for weeks at a time. On one such occasion, after three weeks of not catching or killing any animals, the men gathered what berries, plants, and fruits they could find and headed home.

One desperate fellow refused to return with such meager goods. He continued the search. Three days later, he encountered a tree in which an animal was entangled. Seeing this event, the man could have interpreted it many ways; however, he chose what became the first religious expression - he exclaimed that the tree had caught an animal for him. He bowed before the tree, gave it thanks, then looked around and noticed that none of the other trees had caught such an animal. This tree was special. It possessed a power which the other trees did not possess. Thus was born the notion of the sacred and the profane - the first stage in the evolution of religion. The sacred is that which possesses power and the profane is ordinary things which are powerless. The man took the animal home where he was hailed as a hero.

His wife took some of the skin of the animal and made the man a headdress which he wore as the people formed a circle around him and celebrated his feat. There was dancing and singing and out of this celebration emerged shamanism which is the oldest form of religion and the second development in the evolution of religion.

The next day, the man took the head of the animal and mounted it on a pole. He led a group of villagers to the tree where he erected the pole a few feet from the tree. These acts represent the third stage in the evolution of religion - totem and taboo. The people are told that this is the tree of life and all are forbidden to touch the tree or even visit it, except the shaman. His wife gathers a few fallen leaves and branches and takes them home with which she makes a crown for the shaman to wear.

Although the men continue to go hunting, the main source of food for this community becomes the tree and they begin to call themselves people of the tree. However, one day, the shaman goes to the tree but there is no animal. He concludes that someone has violated the taboo and he invents a ritual to identify the guilty person which turns out to be the only blond haired woman in the tribe. She is killed and her blood is sprinkled over the base of the tree. This ritual of sacrifice will be practiced whenever the tree does not catch an animal for the shaman.

Later, the shaman dies and his son takes his place. One night while worshiping the tree, the son sees his father, although his father has been dead for some time. The son develops rituals and ceremonies to honor his father who appears from time to time. This next stage in the origin of religion is called animism - the worship of ancestors and later spirits which is the second oldest form of religion. When the mother dies, she too is worshiped and praised.

Unfortunately, one day there is a terrible fire and the forest around this village is destroyed, including the tree. The shaman is also killed while praying to the tree to save the forest. Depression and terror beset the community. The shaman's son is elevated to shaman even though he is but a boy. He is at a loss what to do until one night his grandmother visits him and tells him to lead his people to a place beyond the forest.

When they arrive there after many trials and tribulations, a memorial is erected to the grandmother and she is declared a goddess who is the new protector and provider of this community. In a visit from his grandmother, the son shaman receives instructions how to gather and plant all kinds of fruits and vegetables and grains. Goddess worship is the fourth stage in the evolution of religion.

In subsequent generations, a revolt takes place and the original shaman is elevated from animism to god status and so are all the subsequent shamans and their wives. This establishes a transitional phase of gods and goddesses which is the fifth stage of religious development and its shortest phase as the next phase, the age of the gods replace it and this sixth phase will after only a few generations be replaced by the seventh and final phase - the idea of one ultimate reality.

Here, some people will settle on the idea of one god, while others will settle on a state of being or non-being, and others on energy or a force.

Don E. Peavy, Sr., J.D., Mdiv. Is an adjunct faculty member of religious studies and an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) For more information http://www.authorsden.com/donepeavysr To answer your questions regarding religion, visit my website http://www.authorsden.com/donepeavysr

Laws of Attraction - The Low-Down on Attraction's Role in the Dating Game

Is There Such A Thing As A Law Of Human Attraction?

We hear a lot these days about the laws of attraction. From theoretical physicists working out the fundamental laws of electromagnetics to popular works such as 'The Secret' and 'Think And Grow Rich' it's impossible to turn around without seeing another 'law of attraction'. But are there any real laws of attraction when it comes to relationships?

Is Attraction Just A Matter Of Chemistry?

Maybe so. Scientists have known for some time that attraction between animals is largely down to chemicals known as pheromones. Many animals, such as ant colonies, communicate largely through pheromones, and even amongst creatures who largely rely on other forms of communication, pheromones play an important role in sexual attraction. Some species of apes have been known to rub pheromone-containing urine on the feet of potential mates to attract them. I don't recommend trying the same trick on the cute girl from across the office though!

One of the main functions that pheromones play in sexual attraction is thought to be communicating genetic differences. Evolution has programmed animals to seek mates with just the right balance of genetic difference and similarity, as this helps ensure that offspring are strong and healthy.

Research conducted at the University of Bern seems to confirm this view. In one experiment, women volunteers were asked to sniff the cotton shirts of different men during the ovulation point in their cycle. It was found that they preferred the smell of shirts worn by men with a particular balance of genes: genetically different to the woman, but with certain specific similarities to her genetic pattern. It's worth noting, however, that these preferences can be disrupted by the foods we eat, perfumes and other scented body products, and by the use of hormonal contraceptives.

Is It All Down To Personality?

To an extent. But 2003 research carried out by E.C. Klohnen and S. Luo on interpersonal attraction and personality showed that a person's perception of their potential mate's personality was key, whether or not that perception was actually accurate. The person's sense of self-security was also found to play a large part. Discovering somebody's true personality can take some considerable time, but attraction works on a much shorter timescale, which means that we make subconscious assumptions about a person's personality and are attracted to them - or not - on the basis of these assumptions. Which is perhaps why so many relationships fail with the words "They're just not the person I thought they were."

What Part Does Attraction Play In Relationships?

Attraction is but a prelude to a relationship. It is a strong factor in the beginning, it is decisive in whether a relationship gets off the ground or not, but attraction alone is not enough to sustain a relationship. Attraction draws you to that person across the bar, but a deeper connection based around shared dreams and values is necessary to keep a relationship going for the long term.

Is It Wise To Focus On Making Myself Attractive?

Physical attractiveness is important, as I've said, but it's more important to work on all areas. Physical health, emotional stability, mental ability, and spiritual peace. Physical attraction is a precursor, evolution has programmed us to look for strong and healthy members of the species to hook up with, so certainly a healthy diet, a bit of exercise, and being well-groomed are all important. But not at the expense of other areas. You can be the most beautiful person in the world but if you're incredibly insecure about yourself nobody is going to want to be with you for long. You need to be comfortable with who you are, and you need to like every aspect of yourself.

And it's no use pretending to be somebody you're not. You might be able to get somebody to be attracted to you on the back of this, you may be able to fool somebody into thinking that you share the same values, but you're just setting both of you up for disappointment in the long run. When you are a healthy and fulfilled individual, attractiveness ceases to be the goal and becomes but a side-effect. When you stop focusing on making yourself attractive you will, paradoxically, become far more attractive.

Be the best person you can be - for yourself, not anybody else - and you will attract the right people into your life and set yourself up for long-term harmony.

Dating Secrets For Men [http://www.datingsecrets4men.com] details how I went from zero to hero in the dating game, and how you can emulate my success and easily attract and seduce the woman of your dreams [http://www.datingsecrets4men.com] today.

Evolution of Healthy Diets

First there is the standard American diet. This diet makes people fat and sick. Then there is the vegetarian diet. All plant foods have plenty of fiber unless it is taken out like with refined wheat and white rice. Animal foods have no fiber. Fiber keeps your colon clean and healthy reducing your chances of cancer and cardiovascular problems. Four thousand studies show that fruit and vegetables prevent cancer. Meat encourages the growth of cancer.

People in China eat mostly plant foods and have a much lower rates of cancer and cardiovascular disease than Americans. Plant foods have a lot of unsaturated fat while meat has a lot of saturated fat. The unsaturated fats are healthier for you than the saturated fats. Some vegetarians eat eggs and dairy products. Dairy products create sinus and respiratory problems. Since donuts and jelly beans are vegetarian, people can eat a very unhealthy vegetarian diet. The most basic rule to eating healthy is to eat foods made by God or nature and avoid foods made by man that are designed to make you fat and addicted to food since that is best for their business.

Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Socrates and Pythagoras were vegetarians. Current vegetarians include Brad Pitt, Pamela Anderson, Dustin Hoffman, Kate Winslet, William Shatner, Avril Lavigne, Paul Newman, Chelsea Clinton (daughter of President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton), Paul McCartney, Shania Twain, Paul Newman, Drew Barrymore, Clint Eastwood and Allysa Milano.

Then there is the more restrictive vegan diet that Natalie Portman follows. This means eating no animal products including dairy products. Then there are even more restrictive diets than this. One is the fruitarian diet where people eat only fruit. This includes foods that come from the reproductive system of the plant like nuts, seeds, eggplant, cucumbers, pumpkins, tomatoes and more. With this diet, no plants are killed or harmed. The one that is popular now is the raw food movement. Raw foodists eat only raw food or mostly raw food and this food is also vegan food.

This diet is close to how animals eat. But there is a diet that is just like what the animals use. The animals know what is good for them by instinct. How does their instict work? They just eat whatever tastes good. Humans also have this instinct. They eat raw food and whatever tastes good is good for them. This way you do not need to worry if the oxalic acid in spinach prevents the absorption of calcium or if oranges are bad for people with certain blood types and all this nonsense. This is why babies are always putting things in their mouth. Their instinct will tell them if it is bad for them. Note that man can make rat poison that tastes like healthy food but kills the rat. So eating the foods that tastes the best does not include foods altered or cooked by man.

Put raw poisonous mushrooms (toadstools) in your mouth and you will spit them out since they taste so bitter. But if they are cooked, you can eat them and die. So if you are stranded in the woods with no food, you can use this to find good food to eat. It is possible to overeat raw foods when they are mixed together. But animals in nature eat only one food at a time. If you do this, then you will never over eat a food. You will not want any more when you have had enough. This is how the animals eat. Also this applies to any raw food even if it is not vegetarian.

This diet is called the instincto diet. People on this diet will try eating anything raw. It could be that many of the benefits of eating raw food comes from eating no salt (or very little). Salt was never a food. Put 3 ounces of salt in water and drink it and you will die. Salt causes water to not be able to work. That is why you can die of dehydration being on a raft in the ocean surrounded by trillions of gallons of water. Vitamins and minerals have a minimum R.D.A. (recommended daily allowance). But sodium has a maximum R.D.A.

Kevin Trudeau (author of the best selling Natural Cures) believes that the raw food diet is the healthiest diet but he does not follow it now. There are many people that are against eating 100% raw. But (and this is a big but) they don't suggest what percentage of raw food is best, whether it be 95% or 5%. By not eating meat, you do more to help the ecology of the planet and protect against global warming than doing anything else including switching to a hybrid car. In a groundbreaking 2006 report, the United Nations (U.N.) said that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) than all the cars and trucks in the world combined!

Copyright 2007 by Chuck Bluestein http://www.phifoundation.org

Chuck Bluestein is a nutritionist, ethnobotanical herbalist and an expert on fasting. His website has information on colds and flus, losing weight, Lemonade Diet, weight loss strategies, healthy diet, fasting, depression self help, natural cures and how to be happier.

Which Are the Top 15 Social Networking Sites?

It is true that humans are social animals, and the gradual evolution of social interactions between individuals within specific groups has resulted in social networking sites in the 21st century. This has been made possible by the technological advancements made in the past 50 years, resulting in the development of the Internet, which has completely changed people's lives. Literally, almost any information is now available on the screen of a computer with the help of the Internet. Similarly, it is now possible to socialize with other members of online social networking sites in the comfort of your home simply by clicking a few buttons of the computer.

Online social networking is achieved with the help of some dedicated websites, which are known as social sites and facilitate the formation of communities of Internet users. The members share common interests such as hobbies, politics, sports, or religion. When a person becomes a member of a social networking site, he can start socializing with the other members in many ways, including sharing views regarding different topics, reading the profiles of other members, and even getting in touch with them. The other benefits of online social networking include developing friendships with members from different parts of the world and learning about different cultures and languages.

Facebook: Although there are more than a hundred social networking websites, the top 15 sites are the most popular. Nowadays, most people become members of Facebook, which can easily be classified as the most popular social networking site. It has been in existence since 2006, and initially, it was mainly meant for Harvard students. It was founded by Mr. Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. Gradually, it spread to other colleges in Boston, the Ivy League, and Stanford University, and today, it can boast of having more than 150 million members worldwide.

Having a Facebook account is like having a key to the world because it is possible to keep in touch with anyone irrespective of where the other person lives and without having to know his physical address, e-mail address, phone number, or screen name, as long as the person has been added as a friend. It is possible to write messages, chat, send instant messages, instantly share photos, blog, read, and watch all that the other person has posted. It is also possible to set up events or causes and invite friends, keeping them informed all the time. The success of Facebook can be attributed to the fact that it provides a common, level field where people from every walk of life can communicate with each other and socialize. Its popularity and wide reach has tempted marketers and businesspeople to use this website to market their products and services through articles and advertisements.

Twitter: Twitter is comparatively a new social networking site, but it has become very popular in a very short time. It is different in nature to Facebook, and its traffic interaction, website reach, and other factors are not of the level of Facebook. However, Twitter provides a better indication of what is popular, and its followers are more open and vocal. Moreover, the followers of Twitter are more interactive and take greater part in discussions. Twitter also gives a better scoop of celebrity chatter.

MySpace.com: This social networking site claims to be massive and the largest with about 191 million members.

MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook are the three most popular and biggest social networking sites. The other 12 sites, forming the top 15 sites, are enumerated below.

LinkedIn.com: This is a business networking site with 12.5 million members.

Friendster.com: Most of the users of this site are between the ages of 17 and 30, and it was considered to be the most popular social networking site till April 2004 when MySpace overtook it. It has about 29 million members.

Stumbleupon.com: It was bought by eBay in May 2007 for $75 million, and it has 2.75 million members. It is basically a web browser tool that enables its users to discover and rate news articles, photos, videos, and web pages. It is also an ideal method of getting website promotion.

Del.icio.us: It is now a part of Yahoo!, but it was founded in late 2003 by Joshua Schachter. It is basically a social bookmarking web service and is used for discovering, sharing, and storing web bookmarks.

Digg.com: This is a great site for people who are interested in discovering and sharing content from the Internet. Members submit links and stories and vote and comment on the submitted links and stories with a spirit of cooperation.

Orkut.com: It has a membership of 5 million people. It was created by Orkut Büyükkökten, an employee of Google, and it is also run by Google. It had been created to help its members to develop new friendships and to maintain existing ones.

Classmates.com: It is one of the oldest social networking sites as it was established in 1995. It now has 40 million members. It is ideal for people who wish to be connected with old friends, classmates, and acquaintances from the entire course of their lives.

Meetup.com: Having a membership of 2 million people, the members of this site are joined together in various groups that have common interests, such as hobbies, careers, politics, movies, health, pets, books, or games. It is also a portal for offline group meetings in different places of the world.

Yahoo! 360°: This site is similar to Orkut and MySpace, and it incorporates features of social networking, photo sharing, and blogging sites. It provides a personal communication portal. However, at the moment, it is in the beta-testing phase.

Xanga.com: It is a free web-based service with 40 million members. It hosts videoblogs, weblogs, photoblogs, audioblogs, and social networking profiles.

Care2.com: It is a social networking site that was created to connect activists from all over the world. It currently has 7.2 million members.

Ryze.com: Its basic purpose is to link business professionals. This free social networking website has 250,000 members. These are the top 15 social networking sites. However, there are many other such sites that meet the needs of other social groups.

If you are looking for wholesale directory, join wholesale forum now. Also get information about wholesale dropshipping.

Animal Archetypes

Archetypes are one of the levels of building-blocks of this entire physical-universe. They are fundamental definitions that can be found anywhere on earth, in any culture, on any continent, even before that society has any contact with other cultures.

Every human on earth has some degree of natural connection to one or more animal archetypes . . . it is up to each of us to decide to either acknowledge and use that part of us, or be used by it.

Carl Jung (aka. Karl Jung) found various types of archetypes in his research, including animal archetypes and found that their influence on people is normally beyond conscious control.

Children find it easy to identify with animals as can be seen from the fact that animals are very common in children's stories anywhere in the world. In all primitive civilizations animals are deified and a direct relationship with animals (as food or danger) is very necessary for survival.

A totem is an element of nature (which can be a plant or animal) which is perceived to have some particular relationship with a person. The totem is not associated with a single member of a species, but with the whole species, ie. the archetype rather than a specific manifestation of that archetype into an animal body.

Many cultures are famous for their use of animal archetypes, including native American cultures, Australian aborigines, Celtic cultures, ancient Egyptian and Indian gods, Chinese civilizations and many others across the globe.

Common animal archetypes include the wolf (teacher or guide), crane (good fortune and long life), crow (spiritual strength, creation, opportunity), dog (unconditional love), eagle (messenger, far vision), fox (cleverness and subtle change), heron (dynamic balance), lion (fearlessness), monkey (ability to see what is hidden), owl (wisdom), snake (rebirth, see without being seen), horse (power by movement), swan (serenity), dove (peace, compassion).

For lots more details on animal archetypes, see our Animal Archetypes Blog post.

Cat Evolution & Domestication

Cat evolution has been going on for a long time... longer than people have been on earth. And when people finally did show up, the cat let us right on in.

Noah may have had cats on the Ark he built for the great flood, but were they the ancestor of what we know as the domestic cat of today's world? It can be confusing to think that all there is in the world, is all there has ever been in light of so much evidence to the contrary, i.e. fossil discoveries. I think the story of Noah is meant to convey an understanding of greater meaning than one recounting the re-seeding of life after a particularly heavy rain. Scholar's generally place the deluge sometime in the 2nd and 3rd millennium BC, or some 4 - 5 thousand years ago. That was about the time Egyptians were domesticating the first cats. Did they get on board? And how safe did the rats and mice feel? Were the cats guardians of the food stores on the ark which everyone depended on until dry land was again underfoot? And how did those Koala's make it to the ship if they were confined to the continent of Australia? Really, the best 5000 years can do is raise a lot of questions.

The great equalizer in any debate is time. Time changes everything, including the diametric of a species. As people spread around the world, their skins changed color, eating habits adapted to new environments, clashes occurred with others also in migration for prized lands that yielded favorable life supporting resources, i.e. abundant prey animals for hunter-gathers, then domesticated stock animals and food/grain plants for sustenance.

Survival is unforgiving of failure. One either survives... or doesn't. It's one identifying characteristic of "life" that it yearns to survive. Another survival characteristic is that individual members of a species, don't, or rather only do so for a limited time. A life-span as we call it. Only large groups or classifications of rocks, trees and other sentient beings, including that of any species can survive for indeterminate times, if it is successful.

Fossil documentation of cat evolution is extremely incomplete. There is evidence tracing the cat to around 200 million years ago, with cat evolution beginning when they diverged from reptiles. From that point scientists have divided the cat family into two major groups. Feline cats which includes all the modern species of cat, and sabre-tooth cats, who are all extinct. The 'Felidae Family' or Feline cats are gathered into three Genus:

• Panthera - Lions and tigers and... panthers, or cats that roar.


• Felis - Lynx, ocelots, your Fluffy and other small cats.


• Acinonyx - or the cheetah. They're in a group of their own because they cannot retract their claws like all other cats.

Originally, cat evolution diagrams had cats divided into two main groups: Big Cats and Small Cats. The distinction was based on the size and shape of their skulls. But, it was discovered that the division was not viable since studies eventually showed a gradual transition of skull characteristics from the smallest to the larger cats. There essentially was no separate distinction using that criteria.

Lately, DNA studies have provided insights to cat evolution as they migrated from Asia to North American via the Bering Sea Land Bridge that appeared around 9 million years ago. These panther like predators had first appeared in Asia about 2 million years before the Land Bridge was exposed by falling sea levels. Cats are considered , next to humans, the most successful of hunters. They would have followed migrating prey and easily survived the challenges of roaming vast territories as they explored new environments. (Think of kitty nosing around an unexplored bush or strange new object, either in or out of her territory) Later, several American lineages of newly evolved cats returned to Asia via the Bridge and with each migration, evolutionary forces morphed these cats into a rainbow of species ranging from lions and leopards to lynxes, ocelots and today's domestic house cat. Where were people at this time? Well, no where to be found... yet. Anatomically modern humans evolved solely in Africa, between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago, according to most experts using deductions based on mitochondrial DNA data. Obviously, cat evolution is long on history with existing in this world.

It was around 10,000 years ago as humans stopped being hunter-gathers and started to cultivate the land, that the relationship seeds between people and cats began. By then cats inhabited most parts of the world except in the Arctic, Antarctica, Australia and inhospitable tundra regions. As the first modern humans migrated from central Africa to Europe and Asia, it would have been impossible for cat and human paths not to cross. But, it was when people began to grow crops that certain species of cats and humans began to have a co-dependant relationship, creating an interesting, if not fateful, twist in cat evolution.

From the beginning the newly evolved farmers found that food storage, especially grain storage, became an attraction for small rodents such as rats and mice. Archeological evidence supports this given that uncovered storage ruins have a preponderance of rodent skeletons entombed within the storage relics. It can easily be surmised that the smaller cats followed their prey to the farms and probably couldn't resist the banquet concentration of mice and rats these early silos offered. Humans, being a smart creature himself, would have noticed the antipathy that rodents and cats had (have) for each other. An early farmer might have come across a litter of kittens and taken them home to try and raise them for the purpose of protecting his hard work from the fields.

Very likely, the first young kittens would have retained most of their wild nature and maintained a 'safe' distance from their human benefactor. But, as generations of kittens had more contact with people, especially being handled by humans as a kitten, they would have grown tolerant to, and amenable with, people to cat interactions, maybe even sleeping in their homes. Speculating this way, the early stages of domestication might have begun. Two species of cats were most successful with adapting to this new relationship, Felis Silvestris and Felis Lybica. Silvestris became more adaptable to the European environments and climate while Lybica preferred the Middle East.

Early Egyptians had multiple deities and these gods were attributed with animal-like qualities. The chief god of Egypt was the sun god Ra, symbolized by a lion. Ra was said to rule the world during the day shining from a sun chariot traveling the sky from dawn to dusk. At night he fell into darkness where he was vulnerable to his enemies. But, having the qualities of a lion he had the vision of a cat who could see in the darkness to better protect himself . Bast was known as the goddess of fertility, birth and family who also was symbolized by a cat. It didn't escape the Egyptians notice how strong the maternal instinct is in cats when caring for their kittens. Cats were buried with pharaohs and were even accorded cemeteries of their own for common people who had cats in their own care.

It was after the rise of the Roman Empire that cats made their way to Europe as a domesticated animal. Cats also lost their 'god' status and took on the more practical role being a 'pet'. By then the cat-mouse-human triangle was pretty well established, and as humans migrated, cultivating the world as they went, the cat and mouse went right along with them. Domestic cats traveled the Spice Routes to Asia and sailed the seas to the Americas. Everywhere they have gone, cats have established populations not only by inter-breeding among their own kind, but by breeding with indigenous species they met along the way. The result has been a plethora of fur coat colors, hair lengths and coat patterns which identify cats today.

The effects of domestication on cat evolution can be summarized as follows:

• Period of Competition (prior to 7,000 BC) characterized by wild cats competing with hunter-gatherer humans for birds and small mammals.


• Period of Commensality (7,000 - 4,000 BC) characterized by 'semi-domestic' cats feeding on vermin around and within early villages.


• Period of Early Domestication (4,000 - 3,000 BC) with the confinement of cats to cult status


• Period of Full Domestication (3,000 BC - present) the popularization of cat keeping and the diffusion of cats from Egypt*

The close coexistence that cats and people began when cultures started to formulate and we as humans settled down from our hunter-gather wanderings might be conceived as a chance encounter. Our early farming ancestors would have had to solve many problems, the solutions to which today we take for granted. But, the cat hasn't forgotten their contribution to our success and this might even account for their seemingly proud nature. After all, the interconnectedness of everything in this world is only surpassed by the human arrogance to dismiss such an idea by believing in our own mental superiority, which then only perpetuates a belief in our disconnectedness from nature. Fortunately, only people are capable of such mutterings. Cats have never forgotten their roots. Roots buried deep in cat evolution, domestication and time.

There are moments I find myself, like many others I suspect, lost within the loneliness that results in acknowledging the separateness of being, or distance that seems to be between each of us in this life. It's then that I only have to look into the sky, marveling at the distance that exists between myself and the infernal ovens that are the stars. Even at that great distance, which is measured in the time it takes light to travel in one year, I am comforted in the knowledge that we are all made of the same stuff that is spilling out from those light factories. We are so interconnected... yet, it is blindly taken for granted as we pursue our inflated activities of living every day. Coming back to this place, my kitty lies on my lap and I stroke her back while she quietly accepts the affection. It doesn't take much to reverse our roles, and put myself in her place, to even become her back, relishing the stroke of my hand upon it. And, with a little imagination, I can trace the path of cat evolution in my mind.

*Thanks to Feline Advisory Bureau - Wiltshire, UK

Robert J Gallegos is the author of http://www.catlover-giftsworld.com a web site dedicated to proper cat care with quality cat lover gifts based on an understanding of cat behavior, instincts and the unique requirements for healthy cats as pets. Cats are the newest of animals to be domesticated and still have one paw in the wild. It's a major reason why they're so mysterious and resistant to human expectations.

Robert is a life long lover of cats. He is dedicated to sharing his understanding of the cat experience, reducing the epidimic feral cat situation, and helping cat lovers to provide the best care for their cats.