Each planet, each star and each minute particle of the universe relays an important message to mankind regarding the overall story of God, his Son, his Word and his love for us. If these elements of nature were not serving a vital role in God’s plan, he wouldn’t have fashioned them.

As its name suggests, the Milky Way and the events taking place within its boundaries profess a story the Creator obviously wishes to share with us. In the most simplistic terms, the “milk” of God’s word is the basic, literal concept of him and his love for his creation. We are simply incapable of comprehending the entire expanse of this love. In comparison, the Milky Way is, from a scientific standpoint, the most basic, vast realm in which man exists, a space so immense yet still comprehensible to the average human mind. Beyond the Milky Way, the human mind cannot comprehend the infinite expanse of space, just as we cannot comprehend the vast realm of God’s love for us.

Darkness and light were the first object lessons in nature given to us by the Creator. We can tell what differences these lights make by knowing how gloomy days often affect us in a negative emotional way, and how bright and sunny days somehow promote a more positive individual outlook.

The sun represents the Son of God, Christ, the true light of the world, providing us with warmth of brotherly love and companionship. The planets revolve around this single solar body, each at its individual pace, following its own special course, just as mankind on an individual level revolves around his own perception of the Word of God and is given his own special course to travel throughout his life.

Even during the darkness of each night, as we are turned away from the brightness of daylight, the Northern Star allows man to retain his sense of direction. This Northern Star also represents Christ, the point from which all directions are determined, our definitive Example. He alone will be the deciding factor of the final direction we take for eternity - either to stand with the sheep on His right hand or with the goats on His left.

The stars represent God’s chosen people and he knows each individual star by name (Psalms 147:4). These are the stars that are cast to the earth during Israel’s periods of tribulation and persecution and they are the same stars that will ultimately illuminate the earth once the world sits completely in darkness of sin and injustice. Once Israel’s eyes have been unblinded, these stars will begin to shine with the truth of her Messiah.

The moon appears to the human eye as a seemingly unimportant cosmological body drifting through the evening sky, yet it plays a vital role on earth. The moon has no atmosphere and lacks water, prophetically representing the “nothingness” of false teachers and human nature.

Tides are natural phenomenon caused by the alternating rise and fall of the seas on the earth due to the combined gravitational magnetism of the sun and moon. The combination of these two forces produces the recurrent cycle of the oceanic tides. From a prophetic perspective, the turmoil on the sea of nations, too, has historically been caused by ideologies of one religious belief colliding with the values and ethics of another.

The devil being cast to the earth (Revelation 12:9) may represent the moon literally being cast out of heaven. The moon controls the tides of the ocean, holding them within their appointed boundaries. God will allow his fury to be unleashed upon man as the sea and the waves will be roaring and men’s hearts will fail them for fear. The boundaries God has set for the waves of the oceans will no longer be restrained.

In the kingdom, there will be no sea on which the waves of conflict will occur. The moon will be cast out and there will be no tides to contend with. There will finally be peace upon all nations of the earth.

For more, please visit www.prophecyguide.net.

Terri Emmett has written a complete HAPPINESS TRILOGY collection: THE ORGANIZED HOUSEKEEPER’S HOUSEBOOK; THE ORGANIZED HOUSEKEEPER’S SIX-WEEK CHARM COURSE AND WEDDING PLANNER; and 100 STEPS TO ETERNITY. For links to the complete collection, please visit
http://www.charmcourse.com

http://www.touramerica.org

Induced brain waves can do many things we have found in the last few decades as researchers discover and learn more about the brain. One thing that can be done is to incite a rogue brain wave, which triggers an aggressive response. But why would you want an aggressive response you ask?

Well first consider that aggressive responses are an innate characteristic of mankind and the human species, so before you jump on the politically correct bandwagon to make fairies and weaklings out of all Americans you might consider for a moment the many uses of such a response and why the human species has it in the first place.

You see the fight or flight response has served the species well and enabled for future generations and had you ancestors not had it, well you most certainly would not be amongst the living right now. Next consider in the present period the need for aggressive response in dealing with various potential eventualities.

Sure discretion is the better part of valor, good point indeed, but sometimes aggressive responses are needed for your survival or the survival of another. For rescue operations, policing and military operations aggressive responses induced directly into the brain of the human might be a very valuable tool and give on the edge needed to for peak performance in an important life or death crisis. Consider all this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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Last Friday night, I met a Christian at a prayer
meeting. He was rescued from war-torn Sudan and
brought to the U.S. three years ago. He clearly
loves to pray. He gushed facts.

For example:

I didn’t know that George Washington, the first
president of the United States used to pray for
two hours every day - one hour in the morning at
4:00 a.m. and one hour at 9:00 p.m before retiring
to bed.

Or, that Christopher Columbus (who discovered America
in 1492) was so filled with the Spirit of God that he
wrote in his memoirs that he literally felt the Holy
Spirit on his shoulder directing him throughout his
journey to the New World.

And get this: I also did not know that in the book of
Genesis, when they brought Rebecca, the wife of Isaac,
the very first thing she saw him doing was praying.

“Most people just don’t know how to pray,” he explained.
“Since prayer is a spiritual weapon, it needs to be aimed
at a specific target and fired, like a gun repeatedly,
until you see the results.”

He went on to add:

“Christians who have learned that prayer is more than
just communication with God are powerful folks.

They’ve learnt to make decrees when they are praying.

They’ve learnt to bind and to loose during prayer.

They’ve even learnt to speak to spiritual mountains
such as debt,sickness, and poverty… and caused
them to disappear,just like the bible said we would.
All during prayer.”

Since I am into that dimension of praying and have been
teaching people how to pray their way out of debt, I
was eager to hear all this. I was so taken by what he
had to say that I spent the next two hours after the
prayer meeting listening to his story.

Here’s the really fascinating part…

“You’ve probably seen people who through unfortunate
circumstances in their homelands were brought here as
refugees,” he said. “Would you believe I am one of
them?” he asked me.

“Certainly not,” I said. He looked to me more like a
successful physician than the image of poverty and
wretchedness we all see on tv.

“I didn’t think you would” he told me. “But less than
three years ago, when I was rescued from a burning
village in the Sudan and airlifted to safety and freedom
here, I looked exactly like what you see on tv!”

I stared at him in disbelief. After a long silence, I
finally asked, “then what happened?”

“The fact that I’m still alive today is a testimony
that God still performs miracles, but I wont go into
that here. Instead I’ll tell you how I used only one
strategy in the bible to get from a non-starter and
struggling refugee to the point where I now live in
my own home (worth over $200,000), drive a new car,
and on track to making an income of close to $100,000
this year - all in less than three years.”

At this point someone came out and joined us.

He paused, then continued:

“As soon as I set foot on this land, I decided to start
a midnight watch. You see, I’m no physician, engineer,
lawyer, or some high flying professional. I had no
college education. I hated marketing. I knew that I
needed divine intervention in order to rise above the
level I found myself. And midnight prayer seemed to be
the only ticket I had.”

“Where did you learn that concept?” I asked.

“It’s right there in the bible,” he answered quietly.
“David used it. Jesus used it. Paul used it.

When I first arrived here I joined the prayer group in my
local church. It turned out they were not familiar
with the concept.

I really searched around and discovered only
a few Christians knew the secret of the midnight watch.
Then a Christian brother who read one of your books told
me you’ve been encouraging people to program their
prayers into the midnight hour.

I came here because I’ve
been using concepts similar to what you teach and
they’ve worked for me.”

He went on:

“In the bible when John’s disciples asked Jesus who he
was, the burden of proof was on him (Jesus) to provide
the answer. Jesus did not answer John’s question with
mere words; he authenticated his messianic claim by
his actions - which was in fulfilment of the well-known
prophecy in Isaiah concerning the Messiah.

Today, the burden of proof is on every believer… to
authenticate ourselves to the world around us.

If you say God is the Great Provider, prove it…

If you say He is the healer, you better be ready to
prove it… otherwise no one will take you seriously.

Right now, by the grace of God, I can humbly but boldly
tell you it is possible to pray and get into your own
home, or get a new car, or job, or business, or godly
spouse… whatever you desire, provided it is in line
with the will of God.

Because I am living PROOF!”

“I wish more Christians could say that,” I began…

“I have just started praying about a project I’ve had
in mind a long time,” he continued. “I need finances
to go back and build a children’s hospital in my native
country.

I saw some prayer points you posted on your website
a while ago and the very first week I started praying them,
I received an unusual invitation to participate in a
business venture… that could potentially generate
millions of dollars in the next few years.”

“I am here to sharpen my prayer sword so I can pray
this thing into physical manifestation,” he concluded.

The prayer points he talked about form part of this 2nd
instalment of praying to get out of debt.

If you are able to program the prayers into the
midnight hour, it will help you to:

* discover yourself and your divine purpose

* gain spiritual momentum, if you find yourself
in one spot year after year

* get out of debt and begin the journey on the
road to financial stability

* achieve financial success

* move from success to significance

Go here now for the prayers:

http://www.firesprings.com/debtfree2.htm

Remember, life can be pretty chaotic until you learn to
organize it with prayer.

The Lord will strengthen you in Jesus’ name.

Be blessed!

Prayer coach Elisha Goodman helps busy people get quick results
through prayer. Learn more about his two golden key secrets that guarantee answers to your prayers at http://www.firesprings.com.

Check out his ebook packed with tips and strategies on how to attract a car, house, spouse or anything else you desire through prayer - almost everytime you pray at http://www.firesprings.com/prayer.htm

EVOLUTION: More surprising to me as I consider where my intellectual head-space has been on this issue, which is central to theological ideal; is the fact that I have become more of a creationist. Skeptics may say that God doesn’t exist and I am inclined to agree he/she isn’t within our purview to limit and say we know; HIM, or even what it is that really goes on, in the world about us. It would be difficult to say there is any one humanistic discipline or theology that fits with my perception. Teilhard de Chardin’s ‘templates’ and ‘quantum many worlds’ join Lamarckian science, that requires uncertainty and values mystery and uncertainty principles with purpose. In the final analysis you can put me in whatever ‘cubby-hole’ you want and there’ll be agreement and respect for the truth therein expressed. I see a lot of people sounding like they disagree and yet I see little difference except when they seek personal gain by it. Surely science has given a great deal of support to the concept of consciousness existing in the very smallest parts of energy, and in the ways it performs what was once considered miraculous, or magical. Here are the thoughts of two very scientifically oriented people from MIT in a book called Darwinism Evolving:

“They also made it harder for the scientific worldview to be received with equanimity by other sectors of culture. Indeed, since the reducing impulse undermines fairly huge tracts of experience, people like Wallace, who feel deeply about protecting phenomena they regard as existentially important, frequently conclude that they have no alternative except to embrace spiritualism, and sometimes even to attack the scientific worldview itself, if that is the only way to protect important spheres of experience that have been ejected from science’s confining Eden. In response, scientists and philosophers who feel strongly about the liberating potential of a spare, materialistic worldview began to patrol the borderlands between the high-grade knowledge scientists have of natural systems and the low-grade opinions that in the view of science’s most ardent defenders, dominate other spheres of culture and lead back toward the superstitious and authoritarian world of yesteryear. ‘Demarcating’ science from other, less cognitively worthwhile forms of understanding was already a major feature of Darwin’s world. A line beyond which the Newtonian paradigm could not apply was drawn at the boundary between physics and biology. We have seen how hesitant Darwin was to cross that line and what happened when he did. Twentieth-century people are sometimes prone to congratulate themselves for being above these quaint Victorian battles. They may have less reason to do so, however, than they think, for the fact is that throughout our own century, the same sort of battles, with emotional overtones no less charged, have been waged at the contested line where biology meets psychology, and more generally where the natural sciences confront the human sciences. Dualisms between spirit and matter, and even between mind and body, may have been pushed to the margins of respectable intellectual discourse. But methodological dualisms between what is covered by laws and what is to be ‘hermeneutically appropriated’ are still very much at the center of our cultural, or rather ‘two cultural’, life. Cognitive psychologists and neurophysiologists are even now busy reducing mind-states to brain-states, while interpretive or humanistic psychologists are proclaiming how meaningless the world would be if mind is nothing but brain. Interpretive anthropologists are filled with horror at what would disappear from the world if the rich cultural practices that seem to give meaning to our lives were to be shown to be little more than extremely sophisticated calculations on the part of self-interested genes. Conflicts of this sort would have given Darwin stomachaches almost as bad as the ones he endured over earlier demarcation controversies.

The rhetorical pattern of these battles is still depressingly similar, in fact, to Huxley’s confrontation with Wilberforce. Hermeneuts ridicule scientists like Hamilton, Dawkins, and Wilson when they suggest that nothing was ever known about social cooperation until biologists discovered kin selection. Reductionists in turn criticize hermeneuts, now transformed largely into ‘culturists,’ for bringing back ghosts and gods, just as their nineteenth-century predecessors were taxed with being ‘vitalists’ every time they said something about the complexity of development. Humanists identify scientists with an outdated materialist reductionism. Scientists insist that hermeneutical intentionality is little more than disguised religion.

Perhaps, a way out of this fruitless dialectic between the ‘two cultures’, can be found if each party could give up at least one of its cherished preconceptions {Or just give up the science that rejects certain facts in favour of convention or the ‘Toilet Philosophy’.}. It would be a good thing, for example, if heirs of the Enlightenment would stop thinking that if cultural phenomena are not reduced to some sort of mechanism; religious authoritarianism will immediately flood into the breach. They should also stop assuming that nothing is really known about human beings until the spirit of scientific reductionism gets to work. Students of the human sciences have, after all, been learning things alongside scientists ever since modernity began. Among the things they have learned are that humans are individuated persons within the bonds of culture and cultural roles, and that as recipients and transmitters of cultural meanings, they are bound together with others in ways no less meaningful and valuable than the ways promoted by strongly dualistic religions. By the same token, it would be helpful if advocates of the interpretive disciplines would abandon a tacit assumption sometimes found among them that nature is so constituted that it can never accomodate the rich and meaningful cultural phenomena humanists are dedicated to protecting, and that therefore cultural phenomena ‘ought never’ to be allowed to slip comfortably into naturalism. Humanists seem to have internalized this belief from their reductionist enemies, whose commitment to materialism is generally inseparable from their resolve to show up large parts of culture, especially religion, as illusions. These opponents, we may safely say, take in each other’s laundry.” (7)

Ego and protecting territory abound in the internecine warfare that academics who seldom DO anything, often fight over. Meanwhile the real DOERS explore the boundless and awesome ‘waves of the marvellous’. (8) We should accept even the ridiculous possibilities that come to mind as having merit or avenues to understand, rather than constantly fighting to make black and white answers that support our ego and limit the people who put forward possibilities. The real rule should be something along the line of ‘if it hurts no one, why not enjoy the possibility? There are ample evidences that every supposed correct point of view or paradigm is short-lived unless backed by force and some kind of authority that limits rather than supports god and his/her purpose. Then an open-mind obtains new insight and finds the templates of reality even in exploring what first appears to be utterly absurd. I admit I often have found the idea of creationism absurd, and yet as I said at the start of this entry I am now on the side of creationists through evolutionary forces with intentional creative inputs in the Intelligent Design or Interventionist mode. The next entry will seem absurd to most people and few will think it deserves inclusion in a segment purporting to have anything to do with science. I must include it in honest presentation despite the ridicule most people will attribute to it, and me.

EXORCISMS: - No, I don’t believe it has anything to do with devils and those who project such evil images and intents. These people are the ones who claim only they can exorcize the very devils they manufacture, in the hallucinatory and delusional or vulnerable people they treat. by Aldous Huxley exposes these Catholic masters of the art of deception. That doesn’t mean there are no spirits or dimensional entities with consciousness. To say such a thing would fly in the face of all the science we have presented. The soul would have no immortality as the Keltic Creed and Mandukya Upanishads that Eugene Wigner thinks explains quantum reality tells us is real. To deny such phenomena is the kind of thing reductionists in love with logic and certain of their omniscience will assure us they know. How can shamans create herbal concoctions that chemists can’t create? How can we doubt the actual results of the ‘dowsers’ and Tesla’s great achievements from visions or his ‘non-force info packets’ which allow such ‘free energy’ to be manufactured in something called a vacuum. NASA assures us the ingredients of life are ‘everywhere’ and that could even include a vacuum. What kind of avoidance of fact or ‘easy answers’ do you have to find in order to explain away reality and what you can observe with your own eyes? You would have to attribute the construction of ‘henges’ or the Nazca Lines to aliens or gods!

We don’t reject these possibilities but they would only serve to enhance the probability of spirits that can possess our physical and complex body with all of its conscious atoms and coordinated centers of energy known as chakras. The science and medicine of the ancients assures us that these things exist and these scientists have a solid track record of performance. They DO the things others can’t explain - then they explain how ‘chhi’ or Shakti is in every part of everything in the universe, and have suffered the guffaws of know-it-alls who are usually wrong. This energy with consciousness is open to direction and will avail the trapped or confused soul without awareness and unwilling to go on with life, an opportunity to hang on as ghosts or in the bodies of those they have shared life with. Sorry to disappoint the authors of ‘Darwinism Evolving’ but I knew this was fact even before 500 watts were extracted from a vacuum by machines built on the principles of Tesla. Those of us who have first hand knowledge of ‘the waves of the marvellous’ like Bucky Fuller and Einstein need no peer approval from those who deny god, the soul and ESP.

Author of Diverse Druids
Columnist for The ES Press Magazine
Guest ‘expert’ at World-Mysteries.com

The Chandigarh Administration revised and implemented the
electricity tariff w.e.f. 1.8.05 where in a new tariff structure
was introduced comprising of energy charges and fixed charges.
Anumber of representations from consumers/associations are being
received stating the new Tariff Structure as irrational. The
main resentment is regarding the domestic consumers consuming
151 units since energy charges@ 2.90 per unit becomes applicable
as against 1.65 per unit for 150 units consumption.The basic
idea behind the introduction of new tariff structure was to have
a Rational Tariff Structure for all category of consumers. There
fore the energy charges of all categories of consumers
(exceptDomestic Supply) were made equal i.e. Rs.3.36 per unit.
However, the Domestic Supply Consumers were given concession by
charging them subsidized rates of Rs. 2.90 per unit (for total
monthly consumption exceeding 150 units). Similarly within the
domestic category also,various slabs were done away under the
Rational tariff Structure. However, to grant some concession to
the weaker section, it was decidedby the Administration that
there should be no increase (on an average) intariff for
consumers with monthly consumption less than or equal to
150units.U.T. has no generation of its own and the power
requirement of the city is being met through power purchased
from various Central GeneratingUnits and BBMB. The average
purchase price per unit (including lossesand other expenditure)
is around Rs.3.2 per unit while the average sale price per unit
(energy charges + fixed charges) for all category of consumers,
also comes to approximately Rs.3.2 per unit with the
introduction of new tariff. The average energy charges per unit
for domestic category has been increased from Rs.2.65 per unit
to Rs.2.90 per unit (an increase of approx. 9%) with the
introduction of new tariff.The concept of fixed charges has been
introduced to charge for making available electricity at the
doors-steps, whether consumed or not. Accordingly the monthly
minimum charges of Rs.35/- per KW per month havebeen done away.
Chandigarh@abcnewsnetwork
http://abcnewsnetworkchandigarh.blogspot.com/

Nowadays, shopping is an activity that some people enjoy while others consider it a chore. Why? Simply because of the variety offered in the clothing department. There is also another challenge: sizes. With the fashion displayed in magazines, boutiques and suggested by designers during fashion shows, one thing has become more and more obvious: fashion is focusing on thin figures and is more limited in plus sizes.

Plus size clothing stores are the meeting the needs of an increasing patronage shopping for plus size clothing. Why? It is simply because of the lack of specialized boutiques and stores in plus sizes. In short, the production does not meet the demand.

So, to meet the needs of plus size women, the internet has open its doors to online plus size clothing stores which offers quite a few benefits to their customers. Which are these benefits? Allow me to share them with you.

First, you can shop in the comfort of your home while browsing and relaxing at the same time. Over are the hours lost in search of a clothing item because of the distance and rarity of boutiques offering plus sizes. Especially, in department stores that pride themselves in offering the smallest sizes in plus size fashion which of course is also limited in plus size patterns.

Second, you find variety, quality, designer brands and much more at your fingertips. Over is the time when you use to settle for something else than what you needed or according to your desires. Use your mouse, not your feet and enjoy viewing the selections offered by online plus size clothing stores.

Third, often you have to either try quite a few plus size items before completing your purchase if you are not sure of your size or if the sizes are different. For example, a 3X may be different than a L in plus sizes or a 42 so you feel obliged to try it out in a small, hot, uncomfortable changing room. Why not shop online and look at the sizing charts they offer to both compare different sizing types and measurement as well as how to take them if necessary. Also, you can see what sizes are available right away in each one of the plus size patterns that are offered online.

Fourth, it is easy to compare prices and you can do it rapidly. Contrary to the people’s opinion, purchasing plus size clothing online is not always expensive. Like in 3-D boutiques, prices differ a lot. Some boutiques will offer you great deals and prices while other will charge for the quality, the name brand or the unique plus size patterns.

Finally, you can do you shopping at your own convenience. Time, distance, exhaustive searches and avoiding the “sales pitches” of sales clerks are now a thing of the past. You can now meet your needs by browsing, finding and purchasing what you want, at the right price and the quality that you want. Just…plus size it!

Looking for more information on shopping for plus sizes on line? Read this article and I also invite you to find more ideas, tips and inventory on my site: http://plus-sizes.findoutnow.org

The key to rapid muscle growth, is to perform all your exercises well outside your comfort zone. If you had performed the barbell curl to the point of complete and momentary exhaustion, instead of “copping out” at the tenth. Then your bicep muscles would be forced to work harder than normal. Much harder. As a result, they would grow and build size rapidly.

What matters here is not the number of repetitions performed beyond the initial ten. What’s most important is that you understand the reason behind the need to force yourself to work at higher levels of intensity. To produce the greatest possible muscle gains in the shortest possible time frame, you must continually strive to perform at a level well beyond your comfort zone.

If you perform a set of barbell curls until you can no longer lift the bar, no matter how hard you try, or how many pair of strides you split, then you will be involving the highest possible number of muscle fibers. It may not be the total number available, but it will be enough to produce massive increases in muscle size.

Muscle gains produced by a very small amount of intense exercise, will always be much, much more, than that produced by a large amount of low intensity exercise. It is never the quantity of exercise that produces muscle gains, it is always the quality.

Most guys who exercise today are completely ignorant of the need for maximum intensity in their workouts. And as a result, most are blind to their true potential. Even when they are training six days a week, most guys make have no muscle gains to show for it. They just don’t know that they need to workout at a much higher level of intensity. But, in many cases they’re just too damn lazy to do so.

If they don’t exert the level of intensity needed, they will never achieve astounding muscle gains. So, unless you are content to train for years and have nothing to show for it like Frankie No-Gains and Jermima Got-No-Brains, you must accept and respect what is required of you. Your exercise must be brief, but it must be intense.

Trent Brook is the Author of “Huge Gains Fast - How to Get More Rock-Hard Muscle Mass In A Month Than You Now Get All Year. His “Huge Gains Fast” muscle building program is an easy-to-follow system so simple and understandable it’s fully explained to you in just 4 easy steps! The Revised Edition is now available online at his website, http://www.hugegainsfast.com

Like many Americans my age, I grew up with a positive association to fluoride. Toothpaste commercials told me that fluoride helped prevent tooth decay and that I should brush my teeth with fluoride toothpaste, so I used it every day. The dentist gave me fluoride treatments for my teeth. Fluoride was also added to municipal water supplies, so drinking tap water (and anything made with it) gave me a daily dose of fluoride too. Like most other people, I assumed it must be healthy. Otherwise, why would people add it to toothpaste and water?

Many years ago though, I started hearing rumors about fluoride being potentially unhealthy. I realized I’d never looked into fluoride and didn’t really even know what it was and why I should be consuming it. I had to admit that all my knowledge of fluoride ultimately came from the people who were marketing it. People market plenty of other products that aren’t healthy (cigarettes, junk food, etc.), so why should I assume fluoride was healthy just because the marketers said it was?

So way back in 1997, I got curious and started taking a deeper look into fluoride. Today this is very easy to do because there’s plenty of info available online. I’ll share some of that info with you and provide some links so you can look into it further if you so choose. My goal is to help you consciously decide whether you wish to continue using fluoride.

What is fluoride?

The substance fluoride is technically a fluorine ion. Fluorine is a gas, and in nature it will be found bonded with other substances, forming compounds such as calcium fluoride.

Fluoride is a naturally occurring substance found abundantly in the earth’s crust. Consequently, it is found in natural water supplies, usually in very low levels (well below 1 part per million). Plants naturally absorb fluoride from the soil, so small amounts of fluoride compounds are present in all our food. Fluoride is also commonly used in pesticides, so plant foods grown with pesticides will have a higher concentration of fluoride.

The highest dietary concentration of fluoride occurs in animal foods and in processed foods, especially fish. Fluoride builds up in the tissues of animals. And whenever fluoridated water is used in food production, fluoride will be concentrated in the final product. The same goes for cooking with fluoridated water.

Although it is a natural substance, fluoride is highly toxic to human beings, even more so than lead. If you were to injest a mere 2-5 grams of sodium fluoride (a common ingredient in toothpaste), you would probably die. The amount of fluoride in a typical tube of fluoride toothpaste is sufficient to kill a small child if it were consumed all at once. Fluoride toothpaste contains a much higher concentration of fluoride than what is found in nature.

In the USA the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates fluoride usage.

Is fluoride necessary for health?

Not remotely. Unlike calcium or magnesium, fluoride is not an essential nutrient for your body. If you were to consume zero fluoride your entire life, you wouldn’t suffer for it. There’s no such thing as fluoride deficiency.

What is fluoride’s purported role in tooth decay?

Fluoride acts as an enzyme inhibitor. For this reason it is believed to help prevent cavities by literally poisoning the bacteria in your mouth. Unfortunately, because fluoride is so toxic, you’re taking a big risk by using it to try to prevent cavities. You not only poison the bacteria in your mouth but your other cells as well.

“Fluoride inhibits enzymes that breed acid-producing oral bacteria whose acid eats away tooth enamel. This observation is valid, but some scientists now believe that the harmful impact of fluoride on other useful enzymes far outweighs the beneficial effect on caries prevention.”
- UNICEF, Dec 1999

Fluoride only works topically. If you swallow fluoride, it won’t help your teeth at all except to the extent it touches them. So fluoride supplements are utterly worthless.

What are the risks of fluoride consumption?

Aside from the risk of death, fluoride can cause serious problems even at low levels of injestion that come from using toothpaste or mouthwash or drinking fluoridated water.

One risk is a condition known as fluorosis, caused by excessive exposure to fluoride. This comes in two kinds: dental fluorosis and skeletal fluorosis. Dental fluorosis occurs at a young age, and the main symptom is discolored and/or pitted teeth, but the outward signs on the teeth are believed to be linked with a deeper neurological impairment.

Skeletal fluorosis is an arthritic disease caused by a build-up of fluoride in the bones that can cause the bones to become brittle. Studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association noted that hip fractures are more common in communities that fluoridate their water supply.

Drinking fluoridated water is linked with reduced cognitive ability in children. There are also over 30 animal studies showing that fluoride is a neurotoxin which reduces learning and memory. Essentially, fluoride makes you a bit less intelligent.

If you wish to look into this further, you can find a lengthy list of health problems associated with fluoride and links to some of the research here:
Fluoride Health Effects Database

There are many more health problems than the few I’ve listed above, including kidney damage and cancer. Fluoride problems are an active area of research. A lot of new information has come out in just the past decade.

Why did people start adding fluoride to toothpaste and water?

You don’t want to know. Really you don’t.

But if you do, you can start by reading these articles:
Industry and Fluoridation
Fluoride, Teeth, and the Atomic Bomb

And if you really want to hurt yourself, you can read all about the fluoride fraud here:
Suppression of Scientific Dissent on Fluoride’s Risks and Benefits

If you don’t want to read the above, the bottom line is that fluoride is an industrial pollutant which became a serious problem several decades ago, and this problem was essentially solved by devising ways to feed the stuff to humans. Today it’s become a difficult issue that involves big business, large sums of money, the ADA, the FDA, and somewhere near the bottom of the political food chain… health.

What about water fluoridation?

Water fluoridation is common practice in the USA. About 60% of the U.S. water supply is now fluoridated. My city of Las Vegas started fluoridating its water supply a few years ago (in what was apparently something of a political fiasco).

The last time I checked, water fluoridation was banned in Japan, China, India, and most European countries. What’s interesting though is that in Europe the levels of tooth decay are no worse than in the USA. In both the U.S. and Europe, the levels of tooth decay have been falling at about the same rate for decades. Fortunately for non-U.S. residents, the politics of fluoride which have infected the U.S. have not similarly infected the rest of world.

The theoretical reason for water fluoridation is that it supposedly helps prevent tooth decay. The problem, however, is that the theory just doesn’t hold true. There’s no evidence that water fluoridation helps prevent tooth decay at all. The evidence in fact shows that fluoridation has no effect whatsoever on tooth decay, but fluoridation does cause other health problems such as fluorosis.

“All of the recent large-scale studies on fluoridation and tooth decay show that fluoridation does not reduce tooth decay. Studies from New Zealand, Canada, Europe, and the US have confirmed no difference in decay rates for permanent teeth of residents of fluoridated vs. non-fluoridated communities.” (source)

“In summary, we hold that fluoridation is an unreasonable risk. That is, the toxicity of fluoride is so great and the purported benefits associated with it are so small - if there are any at all - that requiring every man, woman and child in America to ingest it borders on criminal behavior on the part of governments.”
- Dr. J. William Hirzy, Senior Vice-President, Headquarters Union, US Environmental Protection Agency, March 26, 2001

“I am quite convinced that water fluoridation, in a not-too-distant future, will be consigned to medical history.”
- Dr. Arvid Carlsson, Winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Medicine

So what are the health reasons for water fluoridation? There aren’t any. The real reason for fluoridation is a combination of business and politics. The health claims are largely used to draw attention away from the real reason. In the USA it isn’t so hard to get fluoridation policies passed in new cities simply by leveraging the previous marketing work that has been done in favor of fluoride. Communities will vote in favor of fluoridation because most of the people doing the voting don’t know any better. People will emotionally defend something as true which deep down they never understood.

What about bottled water?

It depends on the source. Most water from natural springs will have on the order of 0.1 ppm fluoride, which is about 10% of the level found in fluoridated municipal water supplies. So with bottled water your exposure to this toxin is greatly reduced.

Be aware that some bottled water delivery companies do fluoridate their water. I called two of them to ask: Sparkletts and Arrowhead. Sparkletts told me they do fluoridate their water. Of course I let them know that I would never be a customer of theirs as long as they do so. Arrowhead told me they do NOT deliver fluoridated water unless the customer specifically requests it. Consquently, I have been an Arrowhead customer for many years. If I find out that they’ve started fluoridating their water, they will lose my family as a customer.

If you want to know whether or not your water contains fluoride, call the company and ask them how much fluoride is in their water and whether or not they add fluoride to it. They will be able to tell you how many parts per million of fluoride their water contains.

One fluoride-related web site suggested specifically avoiding Trinity Springs water because it contains a very high concentration of fluoride, on the order of 4 ppm. That’s about 4x the level you’ll get from fluoridated tap water.

You can also use a water filter to reduce fluoride from tap water. In this case you will need a reverse-osmosis filter, which will remove 90%+ of the fluoride. Distillation will also remove fluoride from water.

Is there such a thing as non-fluoride toothpaste?

Yes, absolutely.

Fluoride is not the ingredient in toothpaste that cleans your teeth. It is the abrasive calcium carbonate that does most of the cleaning. Fluoride’s only role is to poison the bacteria (and of course the rest of you gets poisoned in the process). Additionally, commercial toothpastes often contain sweeteners that can actually promote tooth decay.

I can recommend a couple brands of fluoride-free toothpaste which I’ve been using for years: Nature’s Gate and Tom’s of Maine. You should be able to find these at any health food store. I buy them at Whole Foods and Wild Oats.

My personal favorite is Nature’s Gate Herbal Creme de Peppermint. My wife prefers Tom’s of Maine. Tom’s of Maine also has children’s fluoride-free toothpaste available, which our 5-year old daughter uses. Both of these companies are cruelty-free as well, meaning they don’t test any of their products on animals.

These toothpastes are made from all-natural ingredients, and they don’t contain extra sweeteners. One thing I like about Tom’s of Maine is that they list all the ingredients on the box along with a description of what each thing is and why it’s there.

My wife also wrote a short review of Nature’s Gate toothpaste on her web site many years ago. One thing she noted was that because of the lack of sugar, it took us a few days to get used to these toothpastes. But after that we never looked back.

What about dentists?

I challenge you to ask your own dentist for detailed information on fluoride. Test his/her knowledge of this subject, and see if the answers you get make you more confident or more doubtful.

Ask your dentist to tell you exactly what fluoride is and what the lethal dosage is. Ask your dentist where the fluoride in their toothpaste and fluoride treatments originally comes from (trust me you really don’t want to know). Ask your dentist how s/he came to believe that fluoride helps prevent tooth decay. Ask your dentist to tell you about the dangers of fluoride exposure. Ask your dentist to tell you where you can obtain the proof that fluoride usage is safe and effective.

Wouldn’t you expect your dentist to know this information?

Personally I have never met a dentist who knew even the most basic facts about fluoride. Dentists apparently learn about fluoride from the same people that market it to consumers. Most likely your dentist doesn’t know much more about fluoride than you do aside from the information that’s been provided to them by marketers. In fact, simply by reading this article, you probably know a lot more about fluoride than your dentist does, unless your dentist happens to be exceptional.

What should you do?

I think you should look into this for yourself and make your own conscious decision.

Look beyond the fluoride marketing hype and decide if fluoride is something you want to put into your body on a regular basis. Common sense suggests that you shouldn’t ingest such a toxic substance unless you fully understand what you’re doing. Remember that you have no dietary need for fluoride, so if you have any doubt, leave it out. In my opinion that’s the safest bet.

Fluoride is not addictive, so I think you’ll find it easy to do without. You may even notice some health benefits in doing so. Who knows? Maybe your IQ will even go up a few points that effect is certainly conceivable given that fluoride is a neurotoxin and has been linked to reduced IQ in children.

At the very least, doctors recommend not using fluoridated water to make infant formula. Don’t give young children any fluoridated water if you can avoid it. Fluoride’s toxicity is relative to body mass. So the smaller the person, the more toxic a particular dose will be. Consider nature’s example the level of fluoride found in human breast milk is about 100 times lower than in fluoridated water (i.e. 0.01 ppm vs. 1.0 ppm).

My viewpoint is that if you want to convince me to injest a toxic substance on a regular basis, the burden of proof is all yours. By default I’m not going to take poison, so if you can’t provide rock-solid evidence that your substance is worth consuming, you won’t convince me. And fluoride is a substance where the mountain of evidence has convinced me I’m better off without it.

You don’t need to poison yourself just to try to prevent cavities. I hope you can begin to see the insanity in that approach. If you have excessive bacteria eating away your tooth enamel, realize that it’s a sign of a greater imbalance in your body. Don’t try to correct the imbalance by poisoning the symptoms (i.e. the bacterial growth). Address the root cause. By reducing the acidity of your diet, you can safely prevent your teeth from dissolving. Especially cut out refined sugar and coffee if you can, and eat more raw fruits and vegetables.

If you aren’t going to change your diet, at least acknowledge that tooth decay is not the worst health problem in the world. Even if you do get cavities, it’s a fixable problem, and in my opinion, it’s not worth taking poison to try to prevent one problem and cause yourself far greater grief in the long run. You might miss your teeth, but I think you’ll miss your brain, bones, and kidneys even more.

I want to look into this further. Hook me up.

First, you can start with a simple Google search on fluoride or on such terms as “fluoride toxic poison” (without the quotes), and you’ll find plenty of sites to look through.

Here are a couple of my favorite fluoride sites with loads of articles, information, and research references:
The Fluoride Debate
Fluoride Action Network

At the very least, I recommend you read the home page of The Fluoride Debate site to give yourself a nice overview. But you will certainly learn a lot by diving deeply into both of these sites.

There are also some books on the subject (you can find both at Amazon):
The Fluoride Deception by Christopher Bryson and Theo Colborn
Fluoride: Drinking Ourselves to Death by Barry Groves

I just can’t believe any of this. It’s too unbelievable.

I’m sorry to be the one to shatter your blissful fluoride fantasy. Really, I am. I know you’ll probably curse me the next time you pick up your toothpaste and see a tube of IQ-lowering poison instead of sugary cavity-fighting bliss.

I’m just the messenger though. I didn’t invent any of this information. And my goal isn’t to convince you not to use fluoride. My goal is far more insidious it is to encourage you to think for yourself and make decisions more consciously, whether you agree with me or not.

Copyright © Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina
Personal Development for Smart People
http://www.stevepavlina.com
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog (blog)
http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles (articles)

Steve is intensely growth-oriented. He trained in martial arts, ran the L.A. Marathon, and graduated from college in three semesters with two degrees. He can juggle, count cards at blackjack, and make damn good guacamole. Steve is also a polyphasic sleeper, sleeping just 2-3 hours per day and only 20 minutes at a time. So chances are good that he’s awake right now.

What is a Family Business?
A family business is basically any business in which the majority of the ownership or control lies within a family. Involvement of members of family in a business can bring with it its own complexities because the line between the business system is sometimes separated by a thin line from the family system. Sometimes these 2 positions overlap causing all sorts of conflicts.

Families involve emotion with includes relationships that carry with it loyalties and natural love whereas a business system is unemotional and coldly designed to extract the highest profit from that venture.

Styles that are necessary in a family situation may not always suit the business situation. Membership of a family is by birth whereas membership of a business should be by investment and performance.

Families deal with family matters in a certain way that entails the head of the family making decisions either alone or in consultation with another senior member of the family. The business however, has its own systems and methods of communication as well as styles involving the resolution of conflicts and finalizing decisions.

Conflict between Business System and Family System
Conflicts arise in family business when the roles of one system intrude into the roles of the other and because each member of the family is basically involved in a dual system problems arise. The overlap of these two systems become really apparent when there are conflicts in interest arising between the family members and the business.

Most families regard the concerns as being paramount in all cases but a prudent business owner will ensure that family concerns and business concerns are properly balanced so as to achieve the maximum satisfaction for both systems and people involved. Too often the emotional bonds of family tend to short cut processes which have been designed to ensure the security of the business and to maximize its success.

For example, family members are put into positions of power where they do not have experience or knowledge simply because they are family members. If they came through the normal interview and selection process they would not get that position. This is clearly a case where family considerations breach the normal standards of how businesses should be run in order to achieve maximum profitability.

Specific Issues in the Family Business
A business is difficult enough to manage at the best of times. A family business however brings with it its own issues and problems and these need to be clear before anyone gets involved in a family business whether that person is part of the family or an outsider. A family business is subject to the same problems that beset every other business except they usually take on an extra one or two, simply because relatives are involved.

Some of the issues that most businesses have to face include the following:

• Leadership.
  Who is the leader in the business that makes the final decision and how will it appear for the business to move onto the next generation.
• Family Harmony.
  What needs to be done to ensure that there is harmony in the family.
• Successors.
  Who will be chosen to succeed and run the family business when the present manager retires or dies? Any family member who is given the responsibility of managing the family business must ensure that sound business and management practices are carried out.
• Engagement.
  Who should participate in the family business and under what conditions?
• Passing over the Business.
  What has to be done to allow the entrepreneur to pass over the business to the next family member?
• Non-family people.
  How are non-family executives and managers to be attracted and retained and what powers do they have to make decisions that may go against the wishes of family members in the business.
• Compensation.
  Should family members be paid for work which they are not qualified in? And should their salaries be at the same level as non-family members with greater expertise and knowledge in a particular area?
• Protect Finances.
  Many relatives regard the company as their own personal bank and as a place where they can do whatever they wish. The prudent family ‘boss’ needs to make decisions, however unpopular he becomes with family members, that will ensure the ongoing protection and financial health of the business.

All the issues above have to be assessed in a family business situation because the potential for business conflict and family stress can be very high. The way to diffuse conflict and eliminate stress involves identifying the issues causing the conflicts and stress and then discussing these issues with all the family members involved.

Copyright 2005 StartRunGrow
http://www.startrungrow.com

StartRunGrow (http://www.startrungrow.com) is a global online information organization that specializes in creating, developing and marketing business help information specifically with the aim of “making business easier” for entrepreneurs around the world. The StartRunGrow objective is to become a dominant player in the business help arena providing end to end solutions for the millions of small and medium businesses worldwide who continue to struggle daily with the difficulties of starting, running and growing a successful business.