Fight?? Create!

This I started just as a quick pondering, wanted to post a Ping update, but once I get creative...

Fight for peace, fight against cancer, fight against poverty, fight against environmental problems, fight for children, fight for rights, fight for life, fight for love. We hear these words all the time and it seems that all the good people of the world are fighting - isn't that strange?

Awesome that they want good things for themselves and others, but why fighting?

Fighting can be appropriate and necessary in certain cases, when you indeed must punch an opponent in the face to stay alive and so on, but I don't think that this is the only method. And that it is the most effective one, generally.

For fight is very low emotionally, it involves despair, anger, antagonism, which in fact result in destructive actions, inevitably.

So instead, why not go up on a higher plane and create?

Create peace with great intentions, constructive, fun and effective actions, education, arts.

Learn what do you need to do to live in good health, physically and mentally.

Create wealth by production.

Create a safe and sane environment.

Love and help children, create a great future for them.

Know your rights and grant others theirs.

Live!

Love!

Or does it sound too simple?



--
Text, photo: Andrea Gerak

About Andrea's Survival Guide
www.andreagerak.com

Is cancer caused by the genes?

Still October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And I am hearing from many of my friends that their family members, relatives, friends are struggling with some form of cancer, so I would like to help them.

In a previous post I expressed my doubts and reservations about the current methods of official "cancer politics", i.e. chemical drugs and similar agressive treatments are advertised and applied heavily, along with the permanent claims that researches need incredible amount of money every year, without getting any close to the real roots to the problem and offering effective solutions to handle those.

Probably it is time to dig deep and handle.

I wrote a few days ago:

"The theory of changed or damaged genes is wide spread, and this video gives a little hint on why does it occur:

"Damage or change in the genetic material of cells by environmental of internal factors sometimes results in cells that do not die and continue to multiply until a massive cancer cell or tumor develops."

Excellent. The next step would be then to investigate these environmental or internal factors that damage or change the genetic material of cells, wouldn't it?"

This is exactly what Dr. Bruce Lipton did. Watch these 2 videos (they are lengthy but definitely worth the time) where he speaks about the causes of illnesses generally, and specifically mentions breast cancer as an example.





For me, this lecture and the data in it gives the answers and thus the way to real solutions about cancer that research institutes are trying to find on an ever increasing, stellar high budget.

But I can't tell you, dear reader, what YOU should think about it, only encourage you to find out more about the subject for yourself. Dr. Lipton describes his theory in his book Biology of Belief, published in 2005.

Even more detailed and exact theory and a well workable, practical application of it was already published by L. Ron Hubbard in 1950, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and Science of Survival the following year.

That two scientists with different methods of research, independently, decades apart from each other in time and in the technology they used, and unbiased by sponsorships from Big Pharma, reasoned on a similar path and arrived to the same conclusion as to what is the cause of illnesses, shows me the validity of their theory.

Not to mention the countless cases and experiences from the most various fields of the so-called "alternative healing" showing that when the person is addressed in treating a body problem (along with proper nutrition and supplements, medical treatments handling the exact cause of a symptom and such), one gets way better results than pumping almost randomly prescribed chemicals into the body, without even knowing what problems exactly those drugs are supposed to solve...

In this light, the gene theory seems quite outdated and invalid, regardless of how great PR has been given to it by cancer institutes, governmental health bodies.


--
Andrea Gerak

Related articles:
Ten thousand candles
Cancer research: forward or backward?

DISCLAIMER: these articles express the personal opinion of the author (a cancer survival herself), only given with the intention of sharing a viewpoint, and can't be taken as medical advice. Those in need of consultation should seek advice from licensed practitioners of both standard and alternative medicine.

About Andrea's Survival Guide
www.andreagerak.com

Do you believe in coincidence?

Did you ever have an accident? We know, that was an unfortunate coincidence.
Did you ever run to school or work and missed all the buses and subways and arrived late? (I did...) Coincidence - great way to explain yourself out of the situation.
Did you know people who lost their jobs, family and health in the same time? Poor guy - coincidence.
While another suddenly got an extremely good job offer and found the mate of his life? He was just lucky - coincidence...

coincidence= the occurrence of events that happen at the same time by accident but seem to have some connection; also: any of these occurrences (Merriam-Websters)

In a video, I heard a few words by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz on this subject: "Belief in coincidence is neither scientific, nor religious. From a scientific standpoint, there is scientific determinism. Well, from a religious standpoint, there are things that are done which have an influence on the outcome. Coincidence is a way in which people trying escape bearing any responsibility"

He was commenting on an instance when in Israel there was a very long period of drought and people went to the Wailing Wall and prayed for rain - and voila, soon there it came.

(This quick thought just occurred to me now: there are so many people who are talking in a degrading way about religions, because "religion is not scientific", they say - but in this case, where was Almighty Science to bring waters from the sky that was so much needed? A humble question on the side note.)

Science and religion both have their values and uses, and their are great when they can give practical solutions to problems.

So what now with coincidence? Is there such a thing? What to do with it?

The above mentioned determinism is very much discussed throughout many fields of science: physics, biology, mathematics, and in philosophy etc. Let's let the scientists dispute it further, until they come up with answers that are really usable for everybody, even for the housewife and the bus driver. For any knowledge is only as good as it can be applied. In physics for example, determinism do have certain practical applications: if you are familiar with the related natural laws, you know why it will be much easier to glide downhill with your bike than push it uphill.

However, the definition of determinism used here implies that in certain situations one can't do anything, because everything has to go according the natural laws.

The only problem with this is that it puts one in an effect position and from that, you really can't and will not do anything to change things in life for the better.

"Yes, when one is over fifty, one puts on a lot of extra weight, that's the way it is."
"I have to bear with my husband's drinking, because men are like that."
"I could get a super good job, if the government didn't mess up this country."
"January is always the worst month, we never make any money."

And so on, this is how determinism reflects in everyday life. (Don't mix this definition with another one, where determinism = the quality or state of being determined, that is not what we are talking about now.)

That much about that. Let's take the religious standpoint Rabbi Steinsaltz mentioned: isn't it more practical? You have a difficult situation, problem - you can always do something about it!

Your 15-year-old kid is revolting continuously and you are not able to handle him? Instead of saying "Everybody knows that teenagers are like that", learn more about how to raise children, what is their mindset, how to communicate with them.
You always feel down when being in the near of a certain type of people? Instead of saying "They are just so stupid", learn about how to deal with such persons.
Your company has been hit very hard by the economy crisis? Instead of giving up and saying "Well, there is a crisis everywhere, of course we can't sell" and considering going bankrupt, burn the midnight oil and find more, new ways of promoting and selling your products.

I give this again from the Rabbi: "there are things that are done which have an influence on the outcome."

You can be cause and you don't even have to be religious for that.

How do you like this idea and how can you apply it to your life?



--
Andrea Gerak
Photo: Niklas Sjöblom
About Andrea's Survival Guide
www.andreagerak.com

Cancer research: forward or backward?

"Fight cancer", "Beat cancer" are very popular expressions these days, and it is good so, especially in October which is the Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

One can see many people wearing pink ribbons on their jackets, which is a demonstration of their will to help those women who suffer from this disease. And this is very much appreciated and should be acknowledged. Fundraising and information events, websites, donations, merchandise, advertisements all over the media, groups on social networking sites, individuals spreading the word - attention is certainly given to the subject and considerable amount of money is collected to fund cancer researches. In Stockholm, they had a beautiful demonstration with candles for the cause.

However, looking a little bit closer, I personally have some questions, doubts and reservations about these research programs and might be a bad person, but I didn't donate one single cent and not intend to do so. Tell you why.

Fight. A key word when talking about cancer.

How do you best fight so that you win?

You know your enemy.

A problem - any problem - can be only handled if one knows the exact cause of it. This should be clear - how else do you solve a situation, if you don't know what is it exactly?

In the case of (breast) cancer, it looks like this: each year $ millions are spent to find out the causes of cancer AND more importantly, develop new treatments. Let me suggest: treatments can be only effective when they target the root of the problem...

"The exact causes of breast cancer are not known." In fact, according to the publicly available statements, causes of cancer are a mystery for the medical profession.

The theory of changed or damaged genes is wide spread, and this video gives a little hint on why does it occur:

"Damage or change in the genetic material of cells by environmental of internal factors sometimes results in cells that do not die and continue to multiply until a massive cancer cell or tumor develops."

Excellent. The next step would be then to investigate these environmental or internal factors that damage or change the genetic material of cells, wouldn't it?

The environmental factors are pretty much known for the scientists and for the public: bad nutrition, tobacco, certain chemicals that we use, etc.

Cancer research should go then in the direction of eliminating these factors: educating the population on correct eating habits, cutting back the use of harmful chemicals, and so on.

And cancer treatment would primarily consist of targeting the cause of cancer, the reason why those genes got changed or damaged: increasing certain vitamins and other nutrition supplements, cleansing and physical exercise that helps the body push out the accumulated toxins, boosting the body's own self defense, the immune system and so on.

But this is not how it goes. Cancer researches deal mostly with developing the standard therapies by official medicine: new drugs, radiation, hormones and surgery.

And cancer treatments available in hospitals are mainly about giving chemotherapy and such to the patients. Can you see how adding extra chemicals into the already overwhelmed and weakened system would help the body to recover? I can't.

So why then chemotherapy is a preferred and highly promoted method, when it has very many known harmful side effects?

The answer is easy: pharmaceutical companies have vast interests in introducing and marketing drugs.

As Clinical Study Results.Org openly admits: "Clinical studies designed for approval of a new drug are sponsored primarily by pharmaceutical and biotech companies." Surprise, surprise!

One can predict the outcome of a clinical study on breast cancer treatment, if more than one-fifth of the Swedish Cancer Society researches are financed by Pfizer - can you guess from what pharma company will they recommend medicine to the patients?

Another suggested treatment is hormonal therapy. About that, only one word:
"Hormonal therapy can cause a variety of side effects including:
...
Increased risk for cancer of the uterus" - from the information video on the National Breast Cancer.Org site.

Pardon me??? Treating one cancer by increasing the risk for another one??? Someone must be kidding here and it's a very ugly joke.

Same for radiation therapy.

So what's the solution? To invest more money in research?

The above mentioned Swedish Cancer Society (Cancerfonden) held a nice event last Saturday in Stockholm where people bought ten thousand candles or so and contributed to the funding. This organization alone has a target to spend more then 400 million SEK each year on research.

That's a nice sum of money ($57M approx. and it's only in one country), one can imagine to do great things with it. I wonder though why does cancer research need so much money to find out for example that tobacco or alcohol is not good for your health and there are certain vitamins that are vital for the normal operation of cells, when this has been already known for a good while.

I am more inclined to listen to what the so-called alternative methods recommend, because I believe that by well-balanced nutrition with supplements if needed and a general good care of the body physically and mentally, one does not need to be afraid of even such a threatening disease as cancer.

Therefore I intentionally didn't link to sites of alternative practices, natural remedies, viewpoints or products, only referred to the information provided by the standard medicine, which is adopted and promoted by governments of the developed countries.

Well, look at the facts and the controversies they are giving and make up your own mind about it.

In the next round, I will share a few personal experiences that might help others as well - I am a cancer survival myself, so I put quite some effort to find out what works and what doesn't.

And I do like that Stockholm Central Station got some nice pink color:



--
Text and photo: Andrea Gerak
Related posts:
beautiful demonstration with candles
Is cancer caused by the genes?

About Andrea's Survival Guide
www.andreagerak.com

Grading yourself

One of my favorite reads is Derek Sivers' daily ponderings. He always poses a thought-evoking question or subject and I can't help but take a look at how I view the matter. And instead of writing a lengthy comment there, I answer here.

Yesterday's question was How do you grade yourself?
It got quite some responses - as always.

This is what I would say for myself:
- how many lives do I change for the better, even for a moment, with whatever I am doing. Creating a positive effect whereby their mood will raise for any length of time.

You know, bringing up somebody who is sad, angry or just bored, lift up somebody even higher who is anyway high spirit. This is pretty much an essential part of an artist's job. I would say it's a duty to bring people up and not down.

And this I can measure by the various responses I get: a smile, a thank you, a few words of feedback and such.

However, often it is not easy: how do you count all the sparkling eyes at a concert? Or when you just walk in the street and somebody smiles back at you?



So from my profession, I also have to be more practical on this and look at dry facts, like statistics on my web places, media appearances, CDs or downloads sold and such.

And in order to achieve good numbers in these, the point is not to concentrate on these figures (which would be called pushing the statistics and that just doesn't work), but creating and sharing stuff that can do any good to someone else: a song, a video, a photo, a poem, an article, a gift item, showing a book, a product or other piece of info to people that can help them or make their lives better in some way.

And what's your measure?

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Photo: Darren Hester

About Andrea's Survival Guide
www.andreagerak.com

The Power of the Arts - re. G20 Summit, Pittsburgh

There could be a lot said about the G20 Summit that just happened in Pittsburgh, but I'm not gonna go into environmental, financial, health or globalization issues, the protests, human rights etc, here. What I am mostly interested is the cultural aspect of the whole happening, and keep an eye on the concerts and other art related events.

Found Michelle Obama's comments at the CAPA (Creative and Performing Arts High School in Pittsburgh) absolutely great. I wish this attitude towards arts would penetrate our lives on all levels.

"We believe strongly that the arts aren't somehow an "extra" part of our national life, but instead we feel that the arts are at the heart of our national life. It is through our music, our literature, our art, drama and dance that we tell the story of our past and we express our hopes for the future."

I personally also firmly believe that it is art and culture that moves the world forward more than politics, money and such would do.

"And most of all, the arts have the power to connect us to each other throughout nations."

Let me tell you, the most fantastic thing is to experience when my songs from my little country Hungary, or the Balkans, Ireland, Peru or the Solomon Islands reach and touch people from Spain, Israel, India, Brazil or the US.

Read Michelle Obama's whole speech here

Thank you, First Lady, and I am very grateful to all the art lovers who are giving power to all young and not-so-young, amateur and professional artists and help us in any ways to do our job in creating a good world to live in.

- Andrea Gerak

About Andrea's Survival Guide
Andrea Gerak Music blog - news about the singer and other recommended artists
www.andreagerak.com - official website

More articles on music:
What Is Music?
How and Where to Learn Music?

How to keep in shape?

To my Facebook profile, I uploaded a self-portrait which triggered quite a few comments and was asked about how did I manage to keep in shape. Right, I am getting compliments about my look all the time, which goes also with my profession.

Well, you be the judge. (in my Facebook photo album the picture is bigger and much clearer)

So I'm gonna let you in some of my secrets here.

#1: An artist's job is to create beauty, aesthetic things. So where else should one start, than with herself, making herself beautiful?

Both inside and outside, mentally and physically.

Well now, that's a big subject! Sure bet, if one wants to make tons of books, magazines, radio and television shows, workshops, courses, websites, get into conversations with others.

But let's just make here a very short point.

Although I do have a bunch of tips and tricks of how to stay young, good looking and so on, and of which I will be sharing the best ones with you, this would be one of my first answers to the question: if your job is to make something beautiful, then you might as well start with something that is the closest to you as a being - your body.

Yeah of course, there is such a thing as genetics, but it's still up to each and every person to make the best out of what they have got.

And how my friend Zita Tatrai put it: one should look good as a way of showing respect for others.

And of course, for yourself.

And now, when you finish reading (commenting, checking around what else you find here on my pages, etc :-) and you look into the mirror, I hope you will see yourself even more beautiful.


Andrea Gerák | Create Your Badge


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About Andrea's Survival Guide
www.andreagerak.com

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