Wednesday, July 31, 2013

220,000 plus visits to intuitivefred888

Thanks again for everyone around the world for visiting my site. I think it's really great that we all are interested in many of the same things. Have a Great Day!

30 percent of Iraq and Afghan vets have considered Suicide

First of all, when an 18 year old joins the military possibly the last thing on their minds would be, "Will I get PTSD and become dysfunctional?" So, when you are 18 you think you are immortal. By the time you are 25 or 30 if you are still alive it starts to dawn on you that you are mortal and might die because you may have witnessed friends dead or dying. But, if you are a military volunteer it may be too late to change your mind at that point. When you are young you might think, "Well. The worst that can happen is I might die." Actually, in reality that's not true. There are many many things worse than death. You just might not have thought of all of them yet. So, the figure of 30 percent is logical given the actual reasons of joining up, especially as enlisted men who are not commissioned or non-commissioned officers.

30 percent of Iraq, Afghanistan veterans have mulled suicide: survey

By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

Nearly one third of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have contemplated suicide, according to survey results released Wednesday, underscoring the dark depths of a mental-health crisis that has gripped the U.S. military and the American veteran community in recent years.
In addition, 45 percent of the 4,000-plus survey respondents said they know of an Iraq or Afghanistan veteran who has attempted suicide, reports the group behind the poll, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) — the largest advocacy organization for men and women who served in the wars, representing about younger 170,000 veterans. Some 2.2 million Americans have been deployed to those countries.

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"That 30 percent have considered suicide is a high number. But what I look at from the survey is: We have 43 percent of the respondents saying that they are not seeking mental-health care because of a perceived negative impact to their career," said Jason Hansman, an Iraq veteran and now senior program manager for health at IAVA.
"Also, 80 percent of the respondents say they don't think the veterans are getting the care that they need. That speaks to the collective mental health of this community," Hansman added.
Two of the most common post-war themes haunting Iraq and Afghanistan veterans include the massive disability-benefits backlog within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — the entity designated to handle their health care — and the estimated 20 percent of those veterans who are struggling with symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The Army, the branch with the largest portion of combat troops, reported July 18 that 134 soldiers — including active-duty members, reserves and those in the National Guard — had committed "potential" suicide through the end of May. (Some of those deaths remain under investigation and await official designation).
More stunning: The Army's suicide pace far outstrips the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan (52) through May: according to iCasualties.org, which tracks deaths in that war.
What's equally troubling to suicide-prevention experts is the high rate veterans who have mulled suicide while skipping treatment due to stigma, career fears or VA frustrations.
"That number (30 percent) is higher than we should ever tolerate," said Alan L. Berman, executive director of the American Association of Suicidology (AAS). The organization strives to better understand and prevent suicide.
"As a society, we have to be concerned and it demands a response that is geared toward doing all possible to prevent thoughts from turning into action," Berman said.
By contrast, 3.3 percent of the U.S. population over the age of 18 has considered suicide during the past 12 months, and 13.5 percent of American adults has weighed the option of killing themselves during their lifetime, according to two AAS studies that each involved about 5,000 participants. (Berman cautioned that comparing the suicide-ideation rate among veterans with that of the general population is tricky math given that most people who served in the recent wars tend to be under age 40 and suicide rates are higher among younger people).
The good news, however, is that those 30 percent of veterans who acknowledged contemplating suicide are still alive, Hansman said.
"Certainly, there's something stopping them from taking their life. That's due to education that organizations like IAVA are doing, and the education that the VA is doing to (promote) the veteran crisis hotline, where the number of calls has risen year-over-year and month-over-month," Hansman added.
Still, only 37 percent of the ex-service members polled said they would call the VA's veteran crisis line — 800-273-TALK (8255) — if they were feeling suicidal.
"They don't want to say they're suicidal to a government hotline. Now, we know how that hotline runs. We trust it completely (in terms of) keeping veteran information confidential, how it will not get back into their service record or hurt their career," Hansman said. "But there is still that anxiety around talking to the VA or talking to the DOD about your issues."

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Inside the military, there's also an old stigma that seeking mental-health help is a sign of weakness — a sentiment both the VA and Pentagon are working to shatter.
"It's not overt. Your commander is not telling you: 'Don't go to mental health (services) because you're going to hurt your career.' It's just something that gets passed down (from other troops)," Hansman said. "Everyone carries around a horror story, whether it's true or not, about a guy or girl they know that sought mental health help and their career was over.
"It's entrenched in the military but it's something that can be changed," he added. "Stigma can be overcome. It's going to take a lot of work. But I think we, as a nation, should be up to the task."
end quote from:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/31/19795613-30-percent-of-iraq-afghanistan-veterans-have-mulled-suicide-survey?lite

Also, thinking that seeking for mental health help means you are "not tough enough" is a common idea for military, police and firemen. For example, all young people doing these professions learn from each other how to play the system to stay employed because they want their families to be financially okay. However, the choice of doing this often kills many in these professions and sometimes members of their families. Because what is going on inside your mind does affect you on really deep levels if you have witnessed traumatic events or have been seriously injured. So, many times without the tools of psychological therapy there is no way back to a normal healthy life ever.
You might be able to "Appear" to be healthy but you all know what actually is going on inside when you wake up screaming in the night or have a bad flashback of previous events.

I personally did not serve in the military but I had a form of PTSD that came from childhood epilepsy. In my case it caused me to become an intuitive in order to survive "Blunt Trauma epilepsy".
So, I very much identify with soldiers especially who had had traumatic brain injuries. Because even though my skull grew and released the pressure on my brain by the time I was 15, still it kept me out of the draft and out of Viet Nam and the Viet Nam War. By age 30 I could see that my experiences were a blessing in the end and not a curse. However, until I was about 30 I saw my experiences as both a blessing and a curse from God. However, with time I saw that my experiences made me a better person and saw how God directed my life in many ways to help not only myself but many many others as well. Sometimes things that might seem like a curse now become a blessing later. So, you never know how things are going to turn out.

Take for example, Senator McCain in Congress. He spent 5 years in a North Viet Nam prison camp and survived it while watching many around him who were Americans starve and die in various ways. But he survived that to become the "Maverick" Senator who almost became President. In some ways I think if you asked him, I think he would say his experiences in the military helped make him the man he is today. So sometimes out of very bad things great good can come.

Orcas Island

We spent a lovely evening last night with old college friends of my wife's who it turned out had bought several acres on Orcas Island. So, we decided to visit the Island because we had never been there before. We had stayed on San Juan Island at Friday Harbor before on our way to Victoria by Ferry but hadn't visited Orcas yet. So, this was a fun thing to see. So now we are looking out on the ocean here and it's great to finally visit here after all these years. For me, it might be a little remote because it can only be reached by Ferries and boats for me to be here in the winter time when it is snowing but other than that it is really amazing now in the summer. The last time I was here in the San Juan Islands it was very hot but today and yesterday it was only in the 70s mostly so the weather is perfect. There was a little fog at Anacortes when we set out on the Ferry but it soon cleared up as we journeyed across the ocean to the Island of Orcas. However, they told us if we want to go to Victoria we have to leave Orcas at 7:30 am to get a ferry to Friday Harbor to catch another Ferry at 9:30 am to Sidney so we can then drive to Victoria on Vancouver Island. If you haven't been here before Victoria is on Vancouver Island which is a really big island compared to the other islands which are much smaller in comparison.

It's This Easy for the NSA to Spy on Your Entire Internet Life

Reuters

Rebecca Greenfield 10:51 AM ET

We already knew the NSA has potential access to most of the Internetting Americans do through PRISM and other programs, but the latest Edward Snowden leak reveals just how easy it is for the government to access and analyze a whole lot of information. Through a program called XKeyscore, analysts can easily sift through what the NSA calls "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet," per more documents and slides revealed to The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald. "The quantity of communications accessible through programs such as XKeyscore is staggeringly large," he adds.
And analyzing all of it is incredibly easy, too. With a simple e-mail query or selection from a pull-down menu, for example, the database can pull up more than just metadata, including the contents of a message. An analyst just has to fill out this form with a "query name" and a "justification":

Despite the field for a justification, the "request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed," says Greenwald. Then, this next screen pops up and "the analyst then selects which of those returned emails they want to read by opening them in NSA reading software," explains Greenwald.

Further slides reveal that the NSA can do this with all sorts of other communications, like Facebook chat, and presumably the other tech companies the government works with, like Microsoft, which owns Skype:

For these other communications, the NSA doesn't even need an e-mail address, but can search using other keywords and queries.
As with all of these leaks, the NSA alleges that it only uses these systems for "legitimate foreign intelligence targets," the agency said in a statement to The Guardian. If the NSA wants to surveil Americans it needs FISA court permission — unless, of course, those people have ever had contact with one of these "legitimate foreign intelligence targets" or "two or three hops" from those people. "The government inevitably sweeps up the communications of many Americans," said the ACLU's deputy legal director, Jameel Jaffer.
Legal or not, it's technically very easy for the government to do. Snowden said he could "wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email." And despite that little "justification" box, his searches were rarely questioned, he said. "Even when we are, it's usually along the lines of: 'let's bulk up the justification.'"

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at rgreenfield@theatlantic.com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

Topics: NSA, Surveillance, Edward Snowden, FISA

end quote from:

It's This Easy for the NSA to Spy on Your Entire Internet Life

It is better if you just assume that every time you make love, go to the bathroom or go on Facebook that there is a PERMANENT record of that somewhere or more likely Many Somewheres. IN thinking about life in this way now you are being more realistic than in thinking you actually have privacy about anything in your lives. However, once you start thinking this way and just accept it the way you accept mosquitoes, traffic on the freeway, alligators, Grizzly Bears and everything else we have to deal with in life you can survive it. It is when you are naive about all this that is when it can and will destroy your lives in regard to ever getting a job, in regard to ever getting into a college or having a career and in regard to staying alive worldwide. Being Forewarned is being forearmed for your survival in a world not of your own making.

Also, maybe you and your friends might be able to change all this if you get together sometime in the future and decide to harness your votes and all your friends votes to change all this to something better.

If Grizzly bears or Raccoons were destroying your homes 100 or 200 years ago what would you do? Cry?

Obama team releases more NSA documents

USA TODAY

- ‎3 minutes ago‎

SHARE 72 CONNECT 39 TWEET 10 COMMENTEMAILMORE. The Obama administration released more documents about National Security Agency surveillance programs Wednesdayas a new set of leaks raise more questions about the extent of them.

It's This Easy for the NSA to Spy on Your Entire Internet LifeThe Atlantic Wire

Leahy, NSA clash over number of thwarted plotsKFOX El Paso

Featured:XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'The Guardian

Opinion:Make NSA programs more transparentWashington Post

In Depth:US Declassifies Court Order Allowing Record CollectionBloomberg

Wikipedia:2013 mass surveillance disclosures

Obama team releases more NSA documents

David Jackson, USA TODAY 11:10 a.m. EDT July 31, 2013

The Obama administration released more documents about National Security Agency surveillance programs Wednesdayas a new set of leaks raise more questions about the extent of them.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper authorized the release of documents on "the collection of telephone metadata pursuant to Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act," the DNI office said in a statement. "DNI Clapper has determined that the release of these documents is in the public interest."
MORE: Read the declassified documents
The Senate Judiciary Committee is conducting a hearing on the surveillance programs Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Guardian newspaper, relying on documents provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden, reported that a "top secret" NSA program "allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals."
The DNI documents -- which include many redacted sections -- describe in general how the surveillance programs are designed to work and what the restrictions on NSA analysts are.
One document says "these programs are authorized to collect in bulk certain dialing, routing, addressing, and signaling information about telephone calls and electronic communications, such as telephone numbers or e-mail addresses."
Analysts review the numbers, addresses, times and dates of the communications, "but not the content of the calls or the e-mail messages themselves," the document says.
The "bulk collection programs provide important tools in the fight against terrorism," the document says, "especially in identifying terrorist plots against the homeland."
Regarding the privacy issues, the document says that intelligence officials take "compliance problems in the programs very seriously, and substantial progress has been made in addressing those problems."
The documents included 2009 and 2011 reports on the bulk collection programs and letters to key congressional chairs about their re-authorization under the PATRIOT Act.

end quote from:

Obama team releases more NSA documents

Astronaut drives Rover on Earth from Space Station

Astronaut Drives Rover from Space Station

SPACE.com54 mins ago

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Mike Wall 55 minutes ago Science, Social Science, & Humanities Astronomy

A K10 rover negotiates a simulated moonscape at NASA's Ames Research Center on July 26, 2013, guided …

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. — An astronaut aboard the International Space Station successfully operated a rover on Earth's surface Friday (July 26), helping lay the foundation for future human-robot partnerships that could push the boundaries of planetary exploration.
While zipping around Earth several hundred miles above the planet's surface, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano drove a 220-pound (100 kilograms) rover across a moon-mimicking landscape here at NASA's Ames Research Center, even ordering the robot to deploy a simulated film-based radio telescope antenna.
Friday's test was the second in a three-part series designed to help engineers and mission planners understand how the activities of humans and robots can be coordinated to maximize the reach and efficiency of planetary exploration missions. (The first run took place June 17 here at Ames, and the third is slated to occur next month.) [See photos of NASA's rover test drive from space]
"I think that the future of exploration is such that you'll have to have both humans and robots working together," said Terry Fong, human exploration telerobotics project manager and director of the Intelligent Robotics Group at Ames, which designed and manages the tests.
"It doesn't necessarily mean humans and robots always closely coupled in space or even time; you could have robots working ahead of humans, robots working in parallel, robots following up," Fong told SPACE.com. "But part of that is really trying to understand, well, if you're going to build these systems, what do you need? How do you build them?"
The tests at Ames simulate a mission in which astronauts parked at Earth-moon Lagrange point 2 — a gravitationally stable spot located about 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) above the moon's surface — operate a rover on the lunar farside.
Such a mission would have many benefits, advocates say. For example, the rover could deploy a radio telescope antenna, which would return great data to astronomers thanks to the "quiet zone" found on the moon's farside. The teleoperated rover could also collect ancient farside rocks for delivery back to labs on Earth.
"The twofer that you would get out of this for science is pretty exciting," said Jack Burns, director of the Lunar University Network for Astrophysics Research at the University of Colorado, Boulder, which developed the mission concept.
Burns hopes such a mission will launch in 2021, on the first manned flight of NASA's Orion capsule and Space Launch System rocket. The tests at Ames — which use the four-wheel, 4.5-foot-tall (1.4 meters) K10 rover — are steps toward making that dream come true, he said.
"We have demonstrated for the first time that an astronaut can operate a rover and do some relatively sophisticated commands," Burns told SPACE.com. "It's baby steps, but it's a good set of baby steps."

end quote from:
http://news.yahoo.com/astronaut-drives-rover-space-station-134913778.html

A funny experience

Sometimes being an intuitive (if you allow it) is just always being in the right place at the perfect right time by just being (in the flow spontaneously). But, life doesn't always allow this flow to happen because of responsibilities and then life can become very constipated in every way. So, we have to survive these constipated times until we become free enough to allow ourselves to move in more spiritual ways that create infinite good karma for us and everyone around us.

And sometimes being naturally intuitive is just sort of funny. Starting around July 16th or 17th my wife and I were chaperoning 3 and then 4 girls from the SF Bay area (my 17 year old daughter and her friends) who wanted to see about 50 colleges starting at Ashland, Oregon up through the University of Washington in the Seattle area. Because of my health I realized I had to go up to Mt. Hood with my older daughter who lives with her boyfriend in Portland. So I did.

Yesterday we were putting the 4 girls on a plane back to the SF Bay area and the girl who organized and planned this outint(a Herculean effort) from my daughter's Prep School was first in line to check her baggage. I said, "Mary, can I help you?" This was something intuitive I was saying to her. I wasn't sure why I was saying this at the time but I sensed it was appropriate. The next moment her luggage collapsed so I put my knee in the way of it so it didn't spew across the floor. I said to her, "Oh. I must have sensed that was going to happen and that is why I asked you if I could help you." It is constant funny things like that that are a part of what it is like to be an intuitive. Sensing the future before it happens in an infinite amount of ways is what makes intuitives valuable often in funny interesting ways.

Or other times sensing the future days, weeks, months or years ahead of time saves lives too. For example, I told my step son that he had to be careful surviving age 29. When he bought his first motorcycle I knew it was the motorcycle so I told him then, "Be careful on this thing when you become 29." Sure enough, at age 29 he accidentally hit a raccoon and wound up skidding on his knees as the bike went down on a bridge and wound up in the hospital for his right knee to heal for a long time. But, at least he didn't die because he knew it was coming.

Other times what I see is much more scary than that. For example, I was living in UCSC family student Housing in Santa Cruz, California in Fall 1989 when I had a vision of the "Grim Reaper". Since death hadn't come to me before I woke up and told my wife about it. She and I thought we should Cross Check to see what it meant. At that time we were experimenting with pendulums. Though I haven't used this method since at that time we found it useful because we were studying about dousing at that time. Anyway, we realized that either a nuclear blast or an earthquake was going to hit where we were and "Death" had come to warn us about it. So, we decided not to be there the week it was going to hit. So, we went to Hana, Maui, Hawaii with our children and watched the Loma Prieta Earthquake happen live on CNN. This likely was the weirdest intuitive experience I have ever had because about 50 people died from it and there was billions in damage. Here is a button for it if you want to look at it:

1989 Loma Prieta earthquake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Loma_Prieta_earthquake‎
The Loma Prieta earthquake, also known as the Quake of '89 and the World Series Earthquake, was a major earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area ...

‎Epicenter - ‎Injuries and fatalities - ‎Damage - ‎1989 World Series

I emotionally was completely unprepared for how much this upset me. I was upset because even though I and my family were warned about the arrival of this earthquake and got out of the way of it, there was no way for me to help prevent all the deaths. So, this upset me because "Who was going to believe me when I told them this was coming?" The one friend who was tuned into us enough to share I told her this was coming because she was an SRF practitioner and had a 6 million dollar house in the Bay area. But, when the Earthquake tore her house in half she didn't want to speak to me again. So, even though I told her it was coming her PTSD from the experience made her not want to talk to me about it ever again. Truth is Stranger than Fiction!

Salad pegged in Iowa, Neb. cyclospora outbreak

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GRANT SCHULTE, AP
14 hours ago

news-national-20130730-US-Stomach-Bug-Outbreak

In this image provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a...

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Health officials in Iowa and Nebraska on Tuesday identified prepackaged salad mix as the source of a severe stomach bug that sickened hundreds of people in both states, but federal authorities said it's not clear whether cyclospora outbreaks elsewhere in the U.S. are also linked to that produce.
Cyclospora is a rare parasite that causes a lengthy gastrointestinal illness, and outbreaks of the illness have been reported in 15 states. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that it's not clear whether all of the illnesses are linked to a single source. The outbreak has sickened at least 145 residents in Iowa and 78 in Nebraska.
Nebraska officials said the salad mix in question included iceberg and romaine lettuce, along with red cabbage and carrots, which came through national distribution chains. They did not identify specific brands. A Nebraska health department spokeswoman said the agency was working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to get a "clear picture" of which were involved and whether they're tied to one common source, such as the same farm or producer.
"Our goal is to protect Nebraskans, pinpoint the source of the illness and make sure the risk is eliminated," said Dr. Joseph Acierno, the department's chief medical officer and director of public health.
In Iowa, officials said they were confident that most if not all of the product was no longer on the shelves. The affected products were traced to grocery stores and restaurants, said Steven Mandernach, the state's top food-safety inspector. Mandernach said cases were reported throughout the state, but the largest number was in the eastern Iowa city of Cedar Rapids.
Mandernach said officials have traced 80 percent of the Iowa cases to a common source, which he did not identify because officials believe there's no longer any immediate safety threat. Mandernach said it's possible that the parasite spread through contaminated floodwater and onto farm fields after arriving in the state. Before the outbreak, he said, Iowa had seen about 20 cases of cyclospora in the last decade.
Local health departments are working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to identify exactly where the contamination originated in the food production chain and where the product was distributed.
The CDC says 372 cases of the cyclospora infection, which causes diarrhea and other flu-like symptoms, have been reported in 15 states: Iowa, Texas, Nebraska, Florida, Wisconsin, Illinois, New York, Georgia, Missouri, Arkansas, Connecticut, Kansas, Minnesota, New Jersey and Ohio.
The CDC said at least 21 people have been hospitalized and most of the reported illnesses occurred from mid-June to early July. The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration are investigating the cyclospora infections but have not yet pointed to a source.
"CDC is still actively pursuing all leads and hasn't implicated any single food item as the cause of the outbreak in all states," said CDC spokeswoman Sharon Hoskins. "We're still not sure if the cases in all of the states are linked to the same outbreak."
Hoskins said that in some previous outbreaks of cyclospora, the cause was never discovered. The illness is rare in the United States but is sometimes contracted abroad or from imported food, according to the CDC.
The FDA said investigators are trying to trace the paths of food eaten by those who fell ill. That process is "labor intensive and painstaking work, requiring the collection, review and analysis of hundreds and at times thousands of invoices and shipping documents," the FDA said.
The agency said it has a seven person team in its Maryland headquarters and specialists in 10 field offices across the country working to identify the source of the outbreak.
Cyclospora illnesses are spread when people ingest food or water contaminated with feces. The illnesses are most often found in tropical or subtropical countries and have been linked to imported fresh fruits and vegetables in the past.
In Texas, public health officials have received 122 reports of the illness but have not yet found a link. The state issued an advisory that urged health care providers to test patients if they show symptoms of the infection, said Christine Mann, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Connecticut has two reported cases, state Department of Public Health spokesman William Gerrish said Tuesday. Gerrish said the agency interviewed the two people to determine if there is any relation to the national outbreak. One patient likely acquired the infection while traveling internationally and the case is not related to the multistate outbreak, he said
In Kansas, state health department spokeswoman Miranda Steele said two cyclospora cases were tied to the outbreak. Steele said officials there believe both illnesses were caused by food eaten in Nebraska.
———
Jalonick contributed from Washington, D.C. Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant in Dallas, Stephen Singer, in Hartford, Conn., and Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kan., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

end quote from:

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20130730/US-Stomach-Bug-Outbreak/?cid=hero_media

Though cyclospora can be on lettuce and other vegetables and other fruit it is actually more common in all city water supplies at least 1 or more months a year. In most areas it would be the most common when the water supplies are lowest in the summer or fall of some areas because cyclospora is not killed by either clorination or fluoridation. Only boiling and reverse osmosis protects you from it. If you have an immune disorder cyclospora is fatal for example AIDS or HIV or other immune disorder. Otherwise it is similar to giardia.

Jonathan Flow and Saint Germain

Truth is Stranger than Fiction:

Jonathan was contemplating his old friend and mentor Saint Germain. As he thought about him Saint Germain showed up as usual.
Jonathan said, "I was just studying about the real historical Saint Germain."
Saint Germain: "Don't believe everything you read. 100 years from now what do you think might be said of your writings?"
Jonathan: "Will they think I'm you?"
Saint Germain: "Some will."
Jonathan: "Will they be wrong?"
Saint Germain smiled as said, "Not really."
Jonathan: "I'm not sure how many would actually be capable of understanding that."
Saint Germain: "The important thing is that you understand how it is possible. Whether they understand or not is less important for now."
Jonathan: "How many Saint Germains can be walking around?"
Saint Germain: "There are no limitations to the number of Jesus' or Saint Germains' really."
Jonathan: "Then Truth really is Stranger than Fiction?"
Saint Germain: "Though there is no right answer to that question right now my answer would be yes."

text of The Comte De Saint Germain by Cooper Oakley

The Comte de St. Germain

I haven't read completely what is here. However, it looks like you can read some or all of the chapters of the book written in 1912 by Cooper Oakley about the Comte De Saint Germain which is still one of the best places to start in your historical studies about him. Just click on "The Comte de St. Germain" above.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

COMTE DE SAINT GERMAIN

It is important to understand here that we are talking about the historical Comte de Saint Germain who knew Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. So, this is the historical Comte De Saint Germain. Many religious ideas whether they be Masonic, Rosicrusian, Saint Germain Foundation and many others might also be based in part on the Historical Comte De Saint Germain as well. However, here we are only dealing with the historical Comte de Saint Germain of France during the 1700s?

What is also interesting to me is that Count Dracula is like a rumor of him mixed with Vlad the Impaler in popular culture of the time because one of his names was: Count Rakoczi of Transylvania: Rákóczi family. So, in some ways Count Dracula is like taking Prince Rakoczi, mixing him as this name with Vlad the IMpaler, and then making up a pulp fiction novel about it based upon the fears of the uneducated people of those times. So, it becomes a rumor of a rumor of a rumor.

Count of St. Germain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_of_St._Germain‎

The Comte de Saint Germain (born 1712?; died 27 February 1784) was a European courtier, with an interest in science and the arts. He achieved prominence in ...

‎Francis II Rákóczi - ‎St. Germain (Theosophy) - ‎Claude Louis, Comte de Saint ...

Count of St. Germain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

"Count Saint-Germain" redirects here. For other uses of St. Germain see Saint-Germain (disambiguation). Also see St. Germain (Theosophy)

An engraving of the Count of St. Germain by Nicolas Thomas made in 1783, after a painting then owned by the Marquise d'Urfe and now apparently lost.^[1] Contained at the Louvre in France^[2]

The Comte de Saint Germain (born 1712?;^[3] died 27 February 1784)^[4] was a European courtier, with an interest in science and the arts. He achieved prominence in European high society of the mid-1700s. In order to deflect inquiries as to his origins, he would invent fantasies, such as that he was 500 years old, leading Voltaire to ironically dub him "The Wonderman".^[5]
His birth and background are obscure, but towards the end of his life he claimed that he was a son of Prince Francis II Rákóczi of Transylvania. His name has occasionally caused him to be confused with Claude Louis, Comte de Saint-Germain, a noted French general, and Robert-François Quesnay de Saint Germain, an active occultist.^[6]

Background

The Count claimed to be a son of Francis II Rákóczi, the Prince of Transylvania, possibly legitimate, possibly by Duchess Violante Beatrice of Bavaria.^[7] This would account for his wealth and fine education.^[8] It also explains why kings would accept him as one of their own. The will of Francis II Rákóczi mentions his eldest son, Leopold George, who was believed to have deceased at the age of four.^[8] The speculation is that his identity was safeguarded as a protective measure from the persecutions against the Hapsburg dynasty.^[8]
He was educated in Italy by the last of Medicis, Gian Gastone, his mother's brother-in-law. It is believed that he was a student at the University of Siena.^[6]

Historical figure

He appears to have begun to be known under the title of the Count of St Germain during the early 1740s.^[9]

England

According to David Hunter, the Count contributed some of the songs to L'incostanza delusa, an opera performed at the Haymarket Theatre in London on all but one of the Saturdays from the 9th of February to the 20th of April 1745.^[6] Later, in a letter of December of that same year, Horace Walpole mentions the Count St. Germain as being arrested in London on suspicion of espionage (this was during the Jacobite rebellion) but released without charge:

The other day they seized an odd man, who goes by the name of Count St. Germain. He has been here these two years, and will not tell who he is, or whence, but professes [two wonderful things, the first] that he does not go by his right name; [and the second that he never had any dealings with any woman - nay, nor with any succedaneum (this was censored by Walpole's editors until 1954)] He sings, plays on the violin wonderfully, composes, is mad, and not very sensible. He is called an Italian, a Spaniard, a Pole; a somebody that married a great fortune in Mexico, and ran away with her jewels to Constantinople; a priest, a fiddler, a vast nobleman. The Prince of Wales has had unsatiated curiosity about him, but in vain. However, nothing has been made out against him; he is released; and, what convinces me that he is not a gentleman, stays here, and talks of his being taken up for a spy.^[10]

The Count gave two private musical performances in London in April and May 1749.^[6] On one such occasion, Lady Jemima Yorke described how she was 'very much entertain'd by him or at him the whole Time- I mean the Oddness of his Manner which it is impossible not to laugh at, otherwise you know he is very sensible & well-bred in conversation'.^[6] She continued:

'He is an Odd Creature, and the more I see him the more curious I am to know something about him. He is everything with everybody: he talks Ingeniously with Mr Wray, Philosophy with Lord Willoughby,and is gallant with Miss Yorke, Miss Carpenter, and all the Young Ladies. But the Character and Philosopher is what he seems to pretend to, and to be a good deal conceited of: the Others are put on to comply with Les Manieres du Monde, but that you are to suppose his real characteristic; and I can't but fancy he is a great Pretender in All kinds of Science, as well as that he really has acquired an uncommon Share in some'.^[6]

Walpole reports that St Germain:

'spoke Italian and French with the greatest facility, though it was evident that neither was his language; he understood Polish, and soon learnt to understand English and talk it a little [...] But Spanish or Portuguese seemed his natural language'.^[11]

Walpole concludes that the Count was 'a man of Quality who had been in or designed for the Church. He was too great a musician not to have been famous if he had not been a gentleman'.^[11] Walpole describes the Count as pale, with 'extremely black' hair and a beard. 'He dressed magnificently, [and] had several jewels' and was clearly receiving 'large remittances, but made no other figure'.^[11]

France

St Germain appeared in the French court in around 1748. In 1749 he was employed by Louis XV for diplomatic missions.^[12]
A mime and English comedian known as Mi'Lord Gower impersonated St-Germain in Paris salons. His stories were wilder than the real Count's — he had advised Jesus, for example. Inevitably, hearsay of his routine got confused with the original.
Giacomo Casanova describes in his memoirs several meetings with the "celebrated and learned impostor". Of his first meeting, in Paris in 1757, he writes:

The most enjoyable dinner I had was with Madame de Robert Gergi, who came with the famous adventurer, known by the name of the Count de St. Germain. This individual, instead of eating, talked from the beginning of the meal to the end, and I followed his example in one respect as I did not eat, but listened to him with the greatest attention. It may safely be said that as a conversationalist he was unequalled.

St. Germain gave himself out for a marvel and always aimed at exciting amazement, which he often succeeded in doing. He was scholar, linguist, musician, and chemist, good-looking, and a perfect ladies' man. For awhile he gave them paints and cosmetics; he flattered them, not that he would make them young again (which he modestly confessed was beyond him) but that their beauty would be preserved by means of a wash which, he said, cost him a lot of money, but which he gave away freely.

He had contrived to gain the favour of Madame de Pompadour, who had spoken about him to the king, for whom he had made a laboratory, in which the monarch — a martyr to boredom — tried to find a little pleasure or distraction, at all events, by making dyes. The king had given him a suite of rooms at Chambord, and a hundred thousand francs for the construction of a laboratory, and according to St. Germain the dyes discovered by the king would have a materially beneficial influence on the quality of French fabrics.

This extraordinary man, intended by nature to be the king of impostors and quacks, would say in an easy, assured manner that he was three hundred years old, that he knew the secret of the Universal Medicine, that he possessed a mastery over nature, that he could melt diamonds, professing himself capable of forming, out of ten or twelve small diamonds, one large one of the finest water without any loss of weight. All this, he said, was a mere trifle to him. Notwithstanding his boastings, his bare-faced lies, and his manifold eccentricities, I cannot say I thought him offensive. In spite of my knowledge of what he was and in spite of my own feelings, I thought him an astonishing man as he was always astonishing me.^[13]

Death

In 1779 St. Germain arrived in Altona in Schleswig. Here he made an acquaintance with Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel, who also had an interest in mysticism and was a member of several secret societies. The Count showed the Prince several of his gems and he convinced the latter that he had invented a new method of colouring cloth. The Prince was impressed and installed the Count in an abandoned factory at Eckernförde he had acquired especially for the Count, and supplied him with the materials and cloths that St. Germain needed to proceed with the project.^[14] The two met frequently in the following years, and the Prince outfitted a laboratory for alchemical experiments in his nearby summer residence Louisenlund, where they, among other things, cooperated in creating gemstones and jewelry. The Prince later recounts in a letter that he was the only person in whom the Count truly confided.^[15] He told the Prince that he was the son of the Transylvanian Prince Francis II Rákóczi, and that he had been 88 years of age when he arrived in Schleswig.^[16]
The Count died in his residence in the factory on the 27th February 1784, while the Prince was staying in Kassel, and the death was recorded in the register of the St. Nicolai Church in Eckernförde.^[17] He was buried March 2 and the cost of the burial was listed in the accounting books of the church the following day.^[18] The official burial site for the Count is at Nicolai Church (German St. Nicolaikirche) in Eckernförde. He was buried in a private grave. On April 3 the same year, the mayor and the city council of Eckernförde issued an official proclamation about the auctioning off of the Count's remaining effects in case no living relative would appear within a designated time period to lay claim on them.^[19] Prince Charles donated the factory to the crown and it was afterward converted into a hospital.
Jean Fuller-Overton found, during her research, that the Count's estate upon his death was: a packet of paid and receipted bills and quittances, 82 Rthler and 13 shillings (cash), 29 various groups of items of clothing (this includes gloves, stockings, trousers, shirts, etc.), 14 linen shirts, 8 other groups of linen items, and various sundries (razors, buckles, toothbrushes, sunglasses, combs, etc.). There were no diamonds, jewels, gold, or any other riches. There were no kept cultural items from travels, personal items (like his violin), or any notes of correspondence.^[20]

Music by The Count

The following list of music comes from Appendix II from Jean Overton-Fuller's book "The Comte de Saint Germain".^[21]
Trio Sonatas
Six Sonatas for two violins with a bass for harpsichord or violoncello.

Op.47 I. F Major, 4/4, Molto Adagio
Op.48 II. B Flat Major, 4/4, Allegro
Op.49 III. E Flat Major, 4/4, Adagio
Op.50 IV. G Minor, 4/4, Tempo giusto
Op.51 V. G Major, 4/4, Moderato
Op.52 VI. A Major, 3/4, Cantabile lento

Violin Solos
Seven Solos for a Violin.

Op.53 I. B Flat Major, 4/4, Largo
Op.54 II. E Major, 4/4, Adagio
Op.55 III. C Minor, 4/4, Adagio
Op.56 IV. E Flat Major, 4/4, Adagio
Op.57 V. E Flat Major, 4/4, Adagio
Op.58 VI. A Major, 4/4, Adagio
Op.59 VII. B Flat Major, 4/4, Adagio

English Songs

Op.4 The Maid That's Made For Love and Me (O Wouldst Thou Know What Sacred Charms). E Flat Major (marked B Flat Major), 3/4
Op.7 Jove, When He Saw My Fanny's Face. D Major, 3/4
Op.5 It Is Not That I Love You Less. F Major, 3/4
Op.6 Gentle Love, This Hour Befriend Me. D Major, 4/4

Italian Arias
Numbered in order of their appearance in the Musique Raisonnee, with their page numbers in that volume. * Marks those performed in L'Incostanza Delusa and published in the Favourite Songs^[22] from that opera.

Op.8 I. Padre perdona, oh! pene, G Minor, 4/4, p. 1
Op.9 II. Non piangete amarti, E Major, 4/4, p. 6
Op.10 III. Intendo il tuo, F Major, 4/4, p. 11
Op.1 IV. Senza pieta mi credi*, G Major, 6/8 (marked 3/8 but there are 6 quavers to the bar), p. 16
Op.11 V. Gia, gia che moria deggio, D Major, 3/4, p. 21
Op.12 VI. Dille che l'amor mio*, E Major, 4/4, p. 27
Op.13 VII. Mio ben ricordati, D Major, 3/4, p. 32
Op.2 VIII. Digli, digli*, D Major, 3/4, p. 36
Op.3 IX. Per pieta bel Idol mio*, F Major, 3/8, p. 40
Op.14 X. Non so, quel dolce moto, B Flat Major, 4/4, p. 46
Op.15 XI. Piango, e ver, ma non procede, G minor, 4/4, p. 51
Op.16 XII. Dal labbro che t'accende, E Major, 3/4, p. 56
Op.4/17 XIII. Se mai riviene, D Minor, 3/4, p. 58
Op.18 XIV. Parlero non e permesso, E Major, 4/4, p. 62
Op.19 XV. Se tutti i miei pensieri, A Major, 4/4, p. 64
Op.20 XVI. Guadarlo, guaralo in volto, E Major, 3/4, p. 66
Op.21 XVII. Oh Dio mancarmi, D Major, 4/4, p. 68
Op.22 XVIII. Digli che son fedele, E Flat Major, 3/4, p. 70
Op.23 XIX. Pensa che sei cruda, E Minor, 4/4, p. 72
Op.24 XX. Torna torna innocente, G Major, 3/8, p. 74
Op.25 XXI. Un certo non so che veggo, E Major, 4/4, p. 76
Op.26 XXII. Guardami, guardami prima in volto, D Major, 4/4, p. 78
Op.27 XXIII. Parto, se vuoi cosi, E Flat Major, 4/4, p. 80
Op.28 XXIV. Volga al Ciel se ti, D Minor, 3/4, p. 82
Op.29 XXV. Guarda se in questa volta, F Major, 4/4, p. 84
Op.30 XXVI. Quanto mai felice, D Major, 3/4, p. 86
Op.31 XXVII. Ah che neldi'sti, D Major, 4/4, p. 88
Qp.32, XXVIII. Dopp'un tuo Sguardo, F Major, 3/4, p. 90
Op.33 XXIX. Serbero fra'Ceppi, G major, 4/4, 92
Op.34 XXX. Figlio se piu non vivi moro, F Major, 4/4, p. 94
Op.35 XXXI. Non ti respondo, C Major, 3/4, p. 96
Op.36 XXXII. Povero cor perche palpito, G Major, 3/4, p. 99
Op.37 XXXIII. Non v'e piu barbaro, C Minor, 3/8, p. 102
Op.38 XXXIV. Se de'tuoi lumi al fuoco amor, E major, 4/4, p. 106
Op.39 XXXV. Se tutto tosto me sdegno, E Major, 4/4, p. 109
Op.40 XXXVI. Ai negli occhi un tel incanto, D Major, 4/4 (marked 2/4 but there are 4 crochets to the bar), p. 112
Op.41 XXXVII. Come poteste de Dio, F Major, 4/4, p. 116
Op.42 XXXVIII. Che sorte crudele, G Major, 4/4, p. 119
Op.43 XXXIX. Se almen potesse al pianto, G Minor, 4/4, p. 122
Op.44 XXXX. Se viver non posso lunghi, D Major, 3/8, p. 125
Op.45 XXXXI. Fedel faro faro cara cara, D Major, 3/4, p. 128
Op.46 XXXXII. Non ha ragione, F Major, 4/4, p. 131

Literature about The Count of St. Germain

Biographies

The best-known biography is Isabel Cooper-Oakley's The Count of St. Germain (1912), which gives a satisfactory biographical sketch. It is a compilation of letters, diaries and private records written about the Count by members of the French aristocracy who knew him in the 18th century. Another interesting biographical sketch can be found in The History of Magic, by Eliphas Levi, originally published in 1913.^[23]
There have also been numerous French and German biographies, among them Der Wiedergänger: Das zeitlose Leben des Grafen von Saint-Germain by Peter Krassa, Le Comte de Saint-Germain by Marie-Raymonde Delorme and L'énigmatique Comte De Saint-Germain by Pierre Ceria and François Ethuin. In his work Sages and Seers (1959), Manly Palmer Hall refers to the biography Graf St.-Germain by E. M. Oettinger (1846).^[24]

Books attributed to the Count of St. Germain

One book attributed to the Count of Saint Germain is La Très Sainte Trinosophie (The Most Holy Trinosophia), and although there is little evidence that it was written by him, the original was certainly in his possession at one point.^[8] There are also two triangular books in the Manly Palmer Hall Collection of Alchemical Manuscripts at the Getty Research Library which are attributed to Saint Germain.^[25]

In Theosophy

Main article: St. Germain (Theosophy)

Myths, legends and speculations about St. Germain began to be widespread in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and continue today. They include beliefs that he is immortal, the Wandering Jew, an alchemist with the "Elixir of Life", a Rosicrucian, and that he prophesied the French Revolution. He is said to have met the forger Giuseppe Balsamo (alias Cagliostro) in London and the composer Rameau in Venice. Some groups honor Saint Germain as a supernatural being called an Ascended Master.
Madame Blavatsky and her pupil, Annie Besant, both claimed to have met the Count who was traveling under a different name.^{[citation needed]}

In Fiction

The Count has inspired a number of fictional creations, from the mystic in the Alexander Pushkin story "The Queen of Spades", to Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum.^[26] Chelsea Quinn Yarbro used the count as the base for her series character Count Saint-Germain (vampire), although only the initial book deals with the historical rather than fictional St. Germain. He is also mentioned as a main character in the stories of the immortal Nicholas Flamel book series where he teaches fire magic obtained through alchemy. And the Count is one of the main characters in the trilogies of the German writer Kerstin Gier. In the book, he is a time traveller who wants to become immortal through use of the philosopher's stone. In Warehouse 13 Season 4, episode 11, he is introduced as a recurring character played by James Marsters.

References

^ THE COUNT OF ST. GERMAIN, Johan Franco, Musical Quarterly (1950) XXXVI(4): 540-550
^ Hall, Manley P. (preface) The Music of the Comte de St.Germain Los Angeles, CA: Philosophical Research Society, 1981
^ Isabel Cooper Oakley, The Comte de St. Germain: the secret of kings (1912), p.47
^ Isabel Cooper Oakley, p45
^ Comte de Saint-Germain (French adventurer) - Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Britannica.com. Retrieved on 2011-05-07.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Hunter, David. "Monsieur le Comte de Saint-Germain: The Great Pretender". The Musical Times, Vol. 144, No. 1885 (Winter, 2003), pp. 40-44.
^ The Comte de St. Germain by Isabel Cooper-Oakley. Milan, Italy: Ars Regia, 1912
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "The Count of St. Germain Johan Franco The Musical Quarterly , Vol. 36, No. 4 (Oct., 1950), pp. 540-550". Oxford University Press Article.
^ http://ichriss.ccarh.org/Germain.pdf
^ "Letter to Sir Horace Mann". Project Gutenberg. December 9, 1745.
^ ^a ^b ^c The Yale edition of Horace Walpole correspondence (1712-1784), vol 26, pp20-21
^ Isabel Cooper Oakley, The Comte de St. Germain: the secret of kings (1912), p.94
^ "The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoires of Casanova, Complete, by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt". Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2013-04-30.
^ The memoirs of Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel, (Mémories de mon temps. Dicté par S.A. le Landgrave Charles, Prince de Hesse. Imprimés comme Manuscrit, Copenhagen, 1861. von Lowzow, 1984, pp. 306-8.
^ Letter from Charles of Hesse-Kassel to Prince Christian of Hesse-Darmstadt, April 17, 1825. von Lowzow, 1984, p. 328.
^ von Lowzow, 1984, p. 309.
^ von Lowzow, 1984, p. 323.
^ 10 thaler for renting the plot for 30 years, 2 thaler for the gravedigger, and 12 marks to the bell-ringer. von Lowzow, 1984, p. 324.
^ Schleswig-Holsteinischen Anzeigen auf da Jahr 1784, Glückstadt, 1784, pp. 404, 451. von Lowzow, 1984, pp. 324-25.
^ Overton-Fuller, Jean. The Comte De Saint-Germain. Last Scion of the House of Rakoczy. London, UK: East-West Publications, 1988. Pages 290-296.
^ Overton-Fuller, Jean. The Comte De Saint-Germain. Last Scion of the House of Rakoczy. London, UK: East-West Publications, 1988. Pages 310-312.
^ Saint-Germain, Count de, ed. The Music of the Comte St.Germain. Edited by Manley Hall. Los Angeles, California: Philosophical Research Society, 1981.
^ Levi, Eliphas. The History of Magic. York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1999. ISBN 0-87728-929-8.
^ Hall, Manly P. Sages and Seers. Los Angeles: Philosophical Research Society, 1959. ISBN 0-89314-393-6.
^ CIFA: Search Form^{[dead link]}. Archives.getty.edu:8082. Retrieved on 2011-05-07.
^ Eco, U. Foucault's Pendulum. London: Random House, 2001. ISBN 978-0-09-928715-5.

External links

The Comte de St. Germain (1912) by Isabel Cooper-Oakley, at sacred-texts.com
An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural: Saint Germain at the James Randi Educational Foundation
[1] Professional recording of St. Germain's arias, violin sonatas, and English music on period instruments by the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, Soprano Julianne Baird, and tenor Mark Bleeke]
An L'incostanza Delusa Suite A recording from sheet music attributed to Comte De St Germain at the Philosophical Research Society, Los Angeles.

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Count of St. Germain

Contents

Background

Historical figure

England

France

Death

Music by The Count

Literature about The Count of St. Germain

Biographies

Books attributed to the Count of St. Germain

In Theosophy

In Fiction

References

Further reading

External links

GRANT SCHULTE, AP
14 hours ago