Tag Archive for 'history'

Benefits of Blogging

People who blog are not limited to only one kind of blog. In deed, there are a few types of blogs. It doesn't matter what kind of blog bloggers use, they publish articles about topics that they feel passionate about. For example, a lot of bloggers write about politics, some about cats or dogs and others about personal computers. However, blogs that are business related are usually about a single topic because they have to emphasize their services or products.

Blogs can cover a very wide range of topics. Because of this versatility, millions of people have started blogging. Not only do blogs allow people to express what they feel or promote their products or services, they can also earn cash. Blogs are a new way of earning income from the comfort of your own home. However, that is just the icing on the cake since blogging brings lots of pleasure to lots of bloggers because of the fact that they can share their opinions with others and receive advice from them or vice versa.

Blogging for Business: Very many businesses are entering the world of blogging. This is because it is an excellent chance for them, since blogging is a great medium of communication. Additionally, business related blogs can gain from the search engine optimization advantage, which is the biggest advantage of blogging.

If a business has a web site that markets its products or services, any type of content that the business uses as a vehicle to take business to a higher level should be put in a blog. Blogs are very useful because they are text-based and therefore light weight (with regards to the code used) compared with traditional web site content. This only means that blogs minimize the crawl time of search engine spiders and allows them to send more details about the web page's contents to the search engines a lot faster.

Moreover, blogs are dynamic because they can be up-dated often and easily. Frequently posting articles to the blog, makes sure that the search engine spiders will crawl them more often. The result is that the blog can have more pages scanned and sent to the search engines compared to the business' opponents, which is very good news indeed, especially if the competitors have only the traditional, and therefore, more static web sites. This also provides the business that blogs with a chance to be accessible to more potential customers, thereby possibly increasing their income.

Blogging for Personal Objectives: Normally, personal blogs are much more exciting, interesting and enjoyable. Bloggers blogging for personal reasons want to keep their friends and family up-to-date about their lives and activities. Many bloggers take great pleasure in blogging personal content. It goes without saying that if you write a personal blog, you must be open to the idea of sharing your interests, likes and dislikes with people who might visit your blog.

Just like any other blog, personal blogs can hold photos, videos and other multimedia elements. You can make a personal blog about anything you are passionate about. There are even personal blogs with content about products that the blogger likes or recommends or even hates - a type of personal 'Which?' guide. These products or services can then be marketed through an affiliate link to the product from a supplier.

So, you can see that blogs are very easy-to-use 'content management systems', that make it easy for people to publish articles right away. These platforms for communication offer new opportunities to connect with others worldwide on either a personal or a professional level.

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Historic Use of Mushrooms in Religious Ceremonies

People have used mushrooms as spiritual tools for at least 7,000 years. Thats the age of the oldest preserved records, cave paintings left by the historic San Peoples in Tassili of southeast Algeria. Images depict what has been interpreted as masked, dancing medicine men holding mushrooms in their hand; presumably of the awareness altering variety.

Tassili is located in an area that today is an uninhabitable mountainous desert. But in ancient times, the climate was wet, allowing not only humans to live there but also cattle, and even crocodiles. The San Peoples were culturally tied to other tribes across the desert, from Chad to Egypt, maybe even Greece.

Jumping forward 3,400 years in time to Greece, 1,600 B.C., we find the Eleusinian Mysteries. Continuous for an astounding two millennia, the Eleusinian Mystery initiation was the most important spiritual ceremony of ancient Europe. Scholars believe the Mysteries involved use of consciousness-altering mushrooms. With well-known participants like Plato and Aristotle, its influence on western civilization cannot be denied.

Jumping another millennia or so forward in time, the Vikings were known to consume the poisonous species Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) in limited amounts to overcome fear. In spiritual pre-war ceremonies, they are said to have eaten mushrooms and danced in the woods before going into battle.

It may not have been an admirable type of spirituality practiced by this warrior culture but it was none-the-less part of their religious practices whatever we may think of them. Siberian shamans are also said to have used Fly agaric in their spiritual practices to help them talk to their gods.

In a controversial book titled Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality by R. Gordon Wasser, Fly agaric is even attributed as the source of the Vedic juice called "soma" - a liquid described to have been used in ancient Hindu religious practices, and said to be bestow divine qualities to the soul of the consumer, even immortality.

(Note: Make no mistake, Fly agaric - Amanita muscaria - is poisonous and can also be confused with other deadly species. Consumption for any reason is completely discouraged.)

On the other side of the ocean from Europe, the Mixtec culture likewise employed mind-altering mushrooms in their spiritual ceremonies, as recorded in the Mixtec Codex (13th-15th century). Their Gods were frequently engraved with mushrooms in hand.

Although Mixtecs themselves told white anthropologists they used spiritual mushrooms in their religious rituals, western scientists still doubted them in characteristic condescending manner.

American botanist William Safford argued that peyote buttons were mistaken for mushrooms, while other scientists insisted that the Mixtec culture really did use mind-expanding mushrooms in their religious rituals.

The debate raged on until the early 1930s, when amateur anthropologist Robert Weitlaner got invited to witness an original spiritual ceremony that included the use of consciousness-altering mushrooms.

Then in 1953, mycologist R. Gordon Wasson and his wife Valentina Povlovna as the first westerners became honored participants in a mushroom ceremony - Velada - performed by shaman Don Aurelio. Wasson published his account of the Velada in Life Magazine, 1957. His article initiated the broader public awareness of spiritual mushrooms.

25 species of the Psilocybe genus are known to contain the consciousness-altering chemical compounds psilocybin (stable) and psilocin (unstable). The species used by the Mixtec culture are believed to have been Psilocybin caerulescens and Psilocybin mexicana. The more common and sometimes cultivated species Psilocybin cubensis did not exist in America before the arrival of Europeans.

Viewed as recreational drugs, mind-altering mushrooms have been prohibited in most countries since the early 1970's. The exception, which will come as no surprise, was The Netherlands, were fresh Psilocybe mushrooms were legal until very recently.

However, that came to an abrupt halt when a 17-year-old girl jumped off a bridge in Amsterdam after consuming Psilocybe mushrooms. In response, the Dutch parliament banned all sale of "magic mushrooms" effective December 1, 2008. So from Tassili to Amsterdam, the use of consciousness-altering mushrooms is now officially history.

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