Sott Radio Network

The most central image, metaphor and symbol in Christianity is the crucifixion of Jesus. The sign of the cross is ubiquitous in contemporary Western civilization, but what does it really symbolize? What meaning are we meant to derive from it, and how might it be understood and utilized in a way that is vivifying and spirit-strengthening? In this concluding examination of Timothy Ashworth's Paul's...

As the world continues to freak out about COVID-19, the advice from the authorities about what to do seems disproportionate to the the panic they're stoking - wash your hands, don't go out unless you have to, avoid crowds. It seems like a recipe for making people panic. While the MSM have continually poo-pooed any and all alternative therapies in protecting or treating coronavirus infections, they...

Today we discuss the key practices and processes by which individuals come to know themselves, others, and the divine, according to Timothy Ashworth's interpretation of the Apostle Paul's thought in his book Paul's Necessary Sin. Since 'The Fall', humanity has suffered from a 'darkening of the mind' or an identification with the things created - our own physical existence - and a blindness to high...

The 'gold standard' in nutritional and medical studies is the random controlled trial (RTC) which relies on the fact that neither the experimenters nor the subjects are aware of which subjects are getting the actual intervention or are receiving a placebo (an inert preparation that is indistinguishable from the real substance being tested, be it a pill, an injection, etc.). The idea is that this w...

One of the earliest, most eloquent, and most influential of all advocates for Christianity was the Apostle Paul; his letters are widely quoted the world over. After many centuries of translation, interpretation and analysis, bible scholars and historians have continuously pored over his writings to uncover just what the ancient figure meant, what he truly believed, and what he was trying to convey...

Red meat has gotten the blame for almost every health condition currently afflicting modern society. Red meat raises your cholesterol and clogs your arteries. Red meat causes cancer. Red meat makes you more susceptible to the coronavirus. But when nutritional psychologist Georgia Ede recently read the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and came across a statement that red meat causes depression, wit...

Everything old is new again. Or it can be, if we let it. Though several thousand years old, the teachings and guidance for making the right decisions - in all things - can be seen in the words and ideas of Zoroaster, and the writings that grew out of his movement. Seeking to give individuals a view of their place in the grand scheme of life, and acknowledging the part that man has in manifesting a...

In recent years the ketogenic diet has been studied more and more, with scientists determining the beneficial aspects of the diet for a number of disease pictures. Among epilepsy, dementia, obesity, mood disorders and many more, one condition that seems to respond very well to the keto diet is Type II Diabetes. It responds so well that in fact, many doctors and scientists have declared it should b...

More than several millennia ago, a spiritual leader in Persia had a very high vision and ideal for humanity that he labored to preach and spread. In what is now known as Iran, this priest and reformer - who we know as Zarathustra (or Zoroaster) - began with a strong conception of both good and evil, and man's choice to be a manifestation of either. He saw this choice, and the awareness of it as a...

If you haven't heard about the coronavirus currently locking down China, you've likely been hiding under a rock. The explanations for the origin of the virus have been all over the place: it came from Chinese people eating weird animals (bat soup anyone?); it came from space hitchhiking on a meteorite; it escaped a biotech lab; it's a bioweapon launched by the US to cripple China's economy. There'...

In this discussion of G.I. Gurdjieff's central ideas we delve further into the key insights he had on the human individual's state of sleep and the implications that such a condition has for the state of humanity as a whole. 'Self-remembering', 'identification', and 'considering' are just some of the key concepts and terms Gurdjieff used to describe the goals and pitfalls of the individual on the...

Diet dogma. Everyone wants to avoid it and generally we all think that we are. But it seems no dietary regimen comes without adherents that get a little too fundamentalist and authoritarian. While it's so common as to become a trope within the vegan community, Keto, Paleo and Carnivore diet communities seem to have their fair share of fundies, too. Apparently no one is entirely free of this tenden...

Healer, philosopher, psychologist, adventurer, composer, mystic - all describe a facet of who George Ivanovich Gurdjieff was, and what he did. And yet, he may also be called one of the leading figures in 'spiritual' growth that most people have simply never heard of. Gurdjieff's teachings, body of writing and the schools he started and taught were, and are, a profound testament to his insight and...

Would you like a side of gambling addiction with your Parkinson's medication? How about bouts of road rage and violence with your cholesterol meds? Or a pill that reduces your sense of empathy along with your headache? A recent article on the BBC called "The Medications That Change Who We Are" exposes the little-mentioned serious personality-shifting side effects of many of the most popular medica...

A recent article on Mercola.com decries the sad fact that much of the stevia on the market at this point is genetically modified. Anyone who cares a modicum about their health (and presumably stevia users would fall in this category) is likely outraged that this natural sweetener has been degraded in such a way. This highlighted the subject of alternative sweeteners for us here at Objective:Health...

What good is philosophy? For the Stoics, among other schools, philosophy is dead if it is not fully lived. That's why the Stoics presented not just a system of logic and cosmology, but also a way of living - to put into practice the principles on which the system is built. But while the Stoic schools that taught this way of life died out many years ago, that doesn't mean that Stoicism is no longer...

The human body, when looked at in enough detail, is truly miraculous. A study in 2009 found that human breast milk actually varies its composition throughout the day, sending circadian signals to the infant to help regulate its biology appropriately. Among many different nutritional factors, the milk varied in composition by providing more cortisol in the daytime and more melatonin at night. Anoth...

While the ancient philosophy of Stoicism is experiencing a comeback, many are still unfamiliar with some of its more esoteric concepts, like the role of pneuma or spirit in cosmology. The primal stuff of the cosmos - informing matter and mind at different levels of tension - for the Stoics, pneuma is the alpha and omega, the beginning and end of the cosmos. Today on MindMatters, we take a look at...

Correct breathing should come as natural to us as, well, breathing. But it doesn't. In fact, most of us so take the simple act of respiration for granted that we have learned to breathe shallowly and, indeed, incorrectly - allowing for a host of all sorts of detrimental knock-on effects. But what does that have to do with the world of ideas and the 'life of the mind' anyway? Well, quite a lot actu...

We're back for the New Year with an analysis of the current health headlines. Happy New Year - 2020 is gonna be a doozy! This week we talk about the Ebola vaccine that the FDA has just approved which has all the signs of, like the polio vaccine before it, causing more Ebola cases than it prevents. We also discuss the outbreak of whooping cough in a Texas school that had a 100% vaccination rate. Ca...

A judge walks out of his chambers laughing his head off. A colleague approaches him and asks why he is laughing. "I just heard the funniest joke in the world!" "Well, go ahead, tell me!" says the other judge. "I can't. I just gave someone ten years for it." With the fall of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the world lost one of humanity's greatest cultural productions: the communi...

Fragile things hate chaos, volatility and randomness. The slightest jolt can break them. But what is the opposite of fragility? Not resilience or robustness. Resilient things are neutral to stressors. They take a beating, but remain unchanged. So what likes from disorder? Our languages don't have a word for such a property, or at least they didn't, until Nassim Taleb came around. Antifragile is th...

Are killers born or made? Depending on who you ask, you'll get a variety of responses: all humans are good - it's only the 'environment' or 'society' that makes them do bad things; anyone who engages in murder must be a cold-blooded psychopath, born to kill. But simple explanations come from simple minds. It's not a matter of either/or. Some people are born that way, like psychopaths. Some have th...

Everywhere we look we see signs that the medical system, that's supposed to be healing and preventing disease, is diseased itself. It was recently announced that Americans are dying young at alarming rates. And is it any wonder? We have the opioid epidemic, vaccine injuries, the obesity epidemic, the cholesterol obsessed doctors who know nothing about nutrition, the most basic foundation of health...

Why have many ancient - and even contemporary stories - just stuck with us and seem etched into the psyche of civilization? What is it about particular narratives that appear to hold something so essential to our existence, and that have become reference points for our own narratives? And how can a story, or a mythology, serve us as we navigate life's many day to day travails, and unexpected twist...