Of Yoga and The Snake

Everyone has their believes and religion and everyone is entitled to practise those believes but no one has the right to judge another religion. Look, before I continue any further, I want to say I do not intend to offend anybody and start something and if you think this post offends you, speak out by commenting and I will remove it if there are more than 5 different people are offended. I'm writing this because I just read an e-mail sent to me by one of my friend about yoga and want to give my opinion on that, its a forwarded e-mail. Long story short, it says yoga is a form of spiritual exercise aimed to arouse the Hindu spirit of the snake and open the third eye which lets a person see into another world. In the e-mail, this is made a reason why Christians should avoid it. 1st of all, I'd like to say I am not christian but I do know a thing or two bout the religion. In Christianity, the snake is viewed as evil but not every religion says so. Yoga need not be a spiritual exercise , it can be just exercise. That is if you view it to be so. Okay, I know some reading this will be thinking its none of my business and yeah , I guess it really is none of my business but I'm gonna write about it anyways.

The thing is, everyone is allowed to do anything they like as long as it is well within the confines of the law. Here's what I think about Christians practising yoga - it is perfectly OK. I mean c'mon, if you're a stout believer in Christianity, I don't think doing a few poses will make you bad or evil, right? Besides if you think that a christian doing yoga makes the person deviate from Christianity, then let me ask you this- what do you think of those who actually believe in the spiritual power of yoga? Do you feel that the devil already has them, that they no longer have hope? If not, then how can a Christian be corrupted simply by doing a few movement and poses.

Yes, those poses are symbolic of animals but only if you view them to be so, if you don't then they are no more than movement and poses that helps one's health. Ever heard of Chinese martial art or wushu? The movements in wushu are largely based on the movements animals - the mantis, the tiger, the monkey and even the snake. When a person practises the movements in these forms of wushu, they in a way become one with the animal they are mimicking and make every strike, every kick more than just a strike and a kick. For example, a person that fights in the tiger style will move in a way symbolic of the power and aggression of the tiger and a person fighting in the style of the snake will move as if he is flowing and his strikes will be fast and accurate like that of a snake striking prey. So if you think yoga is bad because it supposed to summon a snake spirit, then do you think the same for the snake fighting style of wushu?

In the e-mail, there are supposed instances of people losing their mind because practising yoga opened their third eye and let them see in to the world of demons. Well here's another word to describe the "Seeing into the demon world" - HALLUCINATION. If you practise yoga and you see things, do not go blaming yoga without thinking. If something like this really happens to a person, he is in need of immediate medical attention because hallucination is one of the tell tale symptoms of schizophrenia which is a form of mental illness that we normally view as craziness.
Chances are that the things the person see is not real and are just figments of his imagination caused by stress or substance abuse rather than some evil spirit.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if a person wants to do yoga, Christian or not, just let him do it for its his choice and its not our place to judge another religion's believe no matter what we think of it. So if you think yoga will somehow make you bad, then don't do it and if you feel that its good for your health, the just go for it. Remember this, a belief is powerful only if you believe. That is why its called a belief and not something else.

Chain E-mails

Ever received E-mails containing a story about a couple of lovers and their supposed tragic demise or some 'scary' ghost story and at the end of the e-mail there is a line saying forward the frickin' e-mail or something bad is gonna happen to you or your family? Well, I know I have. To me this sort of mail is seriously annoying. I am quite superstitious thanks to my upbringing so in the past, I would believe in the threat and forward the message thinking "hey, better safe than sorry. Its just a few e-mails anyways" . But after a while, I get sick of those mails and don't even bother trying to forward those mail. Why? Simple, it is irritating having to forward such BS to like twenty people just because some a**hole decide its fun to play people's fear of the unknown so nowadays I just delete any mail that even hints that it is a lousy chain mail.

This phenomenon of sending and receiving anonymous letters (electronic or not) saying bad things will happen to you if it is not forwarded is not something new. It predates the Internet by hell lot. Don't believe me? Go ask your parents whether they ever heard of people sending and receiving during their time. You are likely to get a positive answer, if not go check out websites such as wikipedia and bet'cha gonna find what I've said is true. Some may think that, I'm making a fuss over nothing. Maybe I am, but I don't care as long as I get my opinions out. Those who think I am making a fuss over nothing, have you ever consider what effects do these chain e-mails have on a person's psyche. You and I may just shrug it off as nothing more than a nuisance or a sick joke but there are people who are extremely superstitious or gullible that they actually believe it and does exactly what the mail says.

Not every superstitious fellow out there will wise up like I did and stop believing in such crap instead they may end up forwarding every single chain mail they receive until they become fed up and terminate their E-mail addresses or worse themselves (I know its a little far fetched but improbable is not the same as impossible).

If you are someone like that,please believe me when I say that chain e-mails are nothing more than normal though irritating e-mails and if you receive one, just ignore it. If you hear any sort of rumour about someone's misfortune because of his neglect to forward a chain mail also ignore it. Rumours are rarely true and even if it is, it very likely has been bend and warped to make it sound more interesting. Even if that rumour is 100% true that someone experienced some misfortune and that he did not forward a chain mail, it cannot be concluded that his misfortune is caused by that chain mail. Why? Simply because there are plenty of people that don't give a horse's rear about chain mails and yet they thrive and are very successful.

On the other hand, if you're thinking of starting a brand new chain of such e-mails, consider first how would you feel if you were to receive some death threat from someone whom you don't even know. Well, that feeling is more or less how a person who receive a chain e-mail will feel. If you simply don't care and still send that mail you're a true blue a**hole that should have your own life f**ked up a bit just so you would know the feeling of what you say would happen in your little prank.

Apocolypse How?

I've recently watched a program called End Day on the Discovery Channel. This program features four ways the world could end as humankind know it. Actually, I missed the first way but the the other three were an asteroid, an epidermic and last but not least a black hole. All three are scenarios that have been portrayed by Movies. In the movies, the trip to the end is quite accurately depicted(mostly) but the difference between fact and fiction is that happy endings is unlikely in real life.

For example, If an huge monstrous asteroid were to hurtle towards the earth in the movies everyone will panic then the government of the world will work together then the U.S and other countries with nuclear missiles towards the asteroids and blowing it into smithereens and everyone lives happily ever after until the next doomsday scenario. Now back to reality, if an asteroid were to hurtle towards earth in real life, the governments will probably keep it a secret at first until they somehow find a way to change its trajectory and prevent it from hitting the earth because if they blow it up as in the movies, it will just become several chunks of smaller pieces that are just as dangerous if not more dangerous. Some may think smaller chunks will dissipate in the atmosphere from air friction but the thing is if the last asteroid was big enough to wipe out 70% of earth's life at the time, splitting the next into a few pieces will not help much because they will still be large enough to end humanity just slower.

In the movies, when killer epidermic breaks out people panic, governments quarantine, and doctors finds cure after sufficient casualties and life goes on. In reality, the first two parts will happen but a cure will not be found in a few weeks or months for that matter. The truth of the matter is that a cure will never be found or rather will not be found before its too late but quarantine methods will help reduce the spread and humanity lives on but if and only if measures taken can keep up with the spread. If the epidermic spreads as fast as the ones in the movies well nothing its gonna stop it. Take the virus in the movie "I am Legend" starring Will Smith for example. If a real fast-acting fatal disease spread like that in real life, let's pray there's heaven for us.

Black Holes actually seem the least likely doomsday scenario. But it could happen given all the experiments conducted in the search for the truth of the beginning of the universe. A black hole is not actually a hole, it is (I quote from the End Day show) gravity gone mad. A black hole is a huge concentration of mass in such small space that it has a density so high its gravitational field so strong it is literally off the charts (until they made charts with larger scales that is -...ahem, joke, ahem....). This field is so powerful that even light can't escape it. Hence, a black hole. All right, with that said, it is obvious we cannot stop a black hole by plugging it or any other means with our current knowledge of the phenomenon as in the movies. So if a black hole is really created here on earth enjoy your last moments because there will not be much time left till the inevitable end.

After talking about three ways the world could end, I personally think that if the world must end I hope it is in a quick and painless manner so my choice of doomsday would be an asteroid because that end be fast but there is a chance for the survival of humanity so suffering is minimal and limited to those who survived initial impact. At least those who died did not suffer before death and there is a planet to survive on. I really hope it will not be an epidermic because people who contracted the disease will suffer before dying and those who live will suffer a sense of loss and at the same time live in fear of contracting the sickness themselves. Chances of survival of the human race if this happens depends on the ability of Scientists to figure out a cure which is a gamble be cause luck plays a considerable role when it comes to working on cures because breakthroughs can happen in the nick of time or far too late. And finally is the black hole scenario, there is actually a very very simple reason I really really don't want it to happen and that is the chances of survival with our current understanding of the phenomenon is a BIG FAT Z-E-R-O ...zero, zip , nought , nil. We will not survive a black hole if we cannot stop it simply because there will not be a planet left or the solar system for that matter.

So after all that, could y'all send me some feed back and tell me how would you rather have the world end if it must end. Look, I do not, I repeat, I DO NOT want the world to end because I love this planet and wanna keep it alive for as long as it can. Before I end this post, I would like to put a little something about another way it could end that is because of our pollution and our overuse and exploitation of natural resources. The thing is, this may be the most likely doomsday scenario even though it is less popularised in the media through blockbuster movies or whatever because if awareness of this matter continues to stay as it is resources will run dry pollution will run amok rendering planet earth as inhabitable as venus or mecury and ultimately become the demise of humanity and quite possibly all life on earth. So start going green and help cross out a doomsday scenario from the list, thank you.