There is a new computer threat to be wary of. It comes from Skype. This is what it says: '"lol is this your new profile pic?" along with a URL. The message in German is similar.'
Once it is on your computer it installs a delayed action file. When activated it causes your computer to spread the program to other computers. Experts detected 400 infected computers within 12 hours. They said this program is on every continent.
After your computer is used to spread the problem to other computers it is used for "ransomware". It sends you a message that your files have been encrypted and unless you pay $200.00 within 48 hours, your files will be deleted.
It is not enough to simply watch out for the Skype message, because "ransomware" infections are on the rise, and come from other sources as well.
'Graham Clulely, senior technology consultant at Sophos, noted that there have been many variants of the Dorkbot attack spotted in the last year or so through Facebook and Twitter.
"The threat can also spread via USB sticks, and various instant messaging protocols"'.
Here is what Skype says about this problem: 'We strongly recommend upgrading to the newest Skype version and applying
updated security features on your computer. Additionally, following
links—even when from your contacts—that look strange or are unexpected
is not advisable"'.
This information came from eWeek at this link: (Type it into your browser? Or go to eWeek site if you want to know more.) http://www.eweek.com/security/skype-worm-spreads-ransomware-botnet-links/?kc=EWKNLEDP10102012B
Anyway. We are stuck with lots of idiots with a little technical skill letting it go to their heads and going power mad. Sigh. This reminds me a lot of politicians.
My reaction to this is predictable. I want you to find, develop and use your spiritual gifts so that we can stop this nonsense and a lot of other nonsense and defend ourselves from it.
I am acting on my advice to you about using spiritual gifts. If I am killed around November 3 this year, I hope to leave the rest of you with less bad people running around making the world worse. Some spiritual gifts are good for this purpose.
You, will never know if you have the set of spiritual gifts for this purpose, unless you get busy finding, developing and using your own. Please do so as soon as possible. The earth is waiting for you.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Make Cheap Convenience Food For Emergencies And Everyday
Surviving in place will probably mean that you will have a lot of times when you will be very busy. Digging neighbors out of their collapsed home, for example, or hauling injured to the nearest doctor.
During these times you will still need to eat. You can make your own convenience food for these times. One of the ways that I do this is with small flat pies that are thin enough to pop into a toaster. I am not suggesting that you can use a toaster if you have no electric power, but having them this thin means they will thaw out quickly and if you do heat them you won't need much fuel.
They will fit easily into a pocket and are not difficult to eat without making a mess or dropping most of it while you are still moving. They would be even good to use for part of your go bag food if you have enough time to get them out of the freezer.
I already posted about these, but did not go into a great amount of detail. I am giving the detail here because the readership on the other post was low. My turbocharged gift of service is kicking in and I'm going try to help you with this some more. :-)
You can use commercial biscuit mix or even those pop open cans of biscuits. I hate both of those because they have chemicals in them, but whatever it takes you to get started is good.
I make my own whole wheat biscuit mix with no chemicals in it and am giving you the recipe right here:
During these times you will still need to eat. You can make your own convenience food for these times. One of the ways that I do this is with small flat pies that are thin enough to pop into a toaster. I am not suggesting that you can use a toaster if you have no electric power, but having them this thin means they will thaw out quickly and if you do heat them you won't need much fuel.
They will fit easily into a pocket and are not difficult to eat without making a mess or dropping most of it while you are still moving. They would be even good to use for part of your go bag food if you have enough time to get them out of the freezer.
I already posted about these, but did not go into a great amount of detail. I am giving the detail here because the readership on the other post was low. My turbocharged gift of service is kicking in and I'm going try to help you with this some more. :-)
You can use commercial biscuit mix or even those pop open cans of biscuits. I hate both of those because they have chemicals in them, but whatever it takes you to get started is good.
I make my own whole wheat biscuit mix with no chemicals in it and am giving you the recipe right here:
QUICK MIX about 13 c mix use
within 10-12 weeks
8 1/2 C all-purp flour (or 4 1/4 c all-purp
flour
and 4 1/2 c whole-wheat flour)
4 T baking powder (increase to 5 T for
whole
wheat)
1 T salt
2 t cream of tartar
1 t baking soda
1 1/2 c instant nonfat dry milk or dry
buttermilk
powder
2 1/4 c vegetable shortening
In lg bowl, sift tog all dry ingreds.
Blend well. With pastry blender or a
heavy-duty mixer, cut in shortening
until mixture resembles cornmeal in
texture. Put in an airtight container.
Label w date and contents. Store in a
cool dry place. Use within 10 to 12
weeks. Makes about 13 c of QUICK
MIX.
Here is the recipe for the biscuits to
make with this mix:
Biscuits (Also pizza dough, pies, fruit
cobbler, etc.)
3 c Quick Mix
3/4 c milk or water
Preheat oven to 450F. Grease a baking
sheet. Combine Quick Mix and milk or
water in a
medium bowl. Stir until just
blended. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls
onto prepared
baking sheet. Bake 10 to
12 minutes,
until golden brown. Makes
12 lg drop
biscuits.
Once you have biscuit dough made you
can easily make the little pies I
mentioned. You will need to add a little extra flour to make the dough stiff enough to roll out. The dough should be rolled very thin. If you don't have a rolling pin, you can use a water glass, jar, or can. I like about an eighth of an inch or less. Any of these items will also work to cut out circles of flattened dough. I use a small zippered pouch from a chef's supplies shop. It makes crusts about six inches across. I put the filling to one side and form the pie by folding the crust in half.
If your pocket is small this size will be
too big. You might do better with a tin
can cutter. You can use a zip lock bag to
roll them out in, but you might need to
oil or flour the inside between each crust
to prevent sticking.
If you plan to use these pies to carry
around in your pocket, you need to be
sure to place only a very small amount
of filling in them. If you put too much
in, they will leak.
If you are using a very small glass or tin can to cut out your pies, you may want to use two of them instead of folding over your crust on top of the filling.
I crimp the edges together with a fork. Next I cut a tiny opening to let air out while it is cooking. If you neglect this, your pie may burst open. I like to put some kind of glaze on top of the crust to make it brown attractively. Milk, butter or beaten egg all work well. If you have no pastry brush for the glaze, your fingers will do to spread it on the crust. A very thin glaze is fine. It does not take much.
Don't have the pies touching on your baking sheet or pan. They will be likely to stick together if you do that.
The amount of cooking time varies a lot according to many things including the thickness of the crust and amount of filling. Until you are used to this recipe and how you do it, I would check every five minutes or less to see how they are doing. Keep track of the time for the next batch. When the oven is already hot, they will cook a little faster, so you need to allow for that in your timing.
I allow them to cool before I put them in the freezer, usually on the same sheet they were cooked on. Once the pies are frozen solid, you can remove them from the baking sheet or pan and put them in containers or zip lock bags. They will keep for several months once frozen.
When you want to thaw the pies, you can put them in a toaster, or up on top of your refrigerator to thaw out. I like to put them on top of the fridge the night before I plan to eat them. They will be ready the next morning.
I especially like these for snacks when I plan to go shopping. Several previous posts on this blog were about how shopping on an empty stomach is very expensive. You are much more likely to buy things you don't need. These pies are part of my tactics to avoid this problem.
I seldom use these pies for dessert. If that is your wish, you can fill them with canned pie filling, or instant pudding. Chopped fruit with a little corn starch and sugar or honey will work also. That should be simmered until tender in a pan on the stove, before using it for filling.
My preference for fillings is to use anything that would go into a good casserole dish. Spicy Mexican style beans, egg roll fillings, etc. are good. If the dish you want to use is too liquid, you can add a little corn starch and cook it on a low temperature for a little bit to thicken it.
These little pies are your chance to have exactly the kind of filling you especially like. I don't eat meat, but there are lots of nice meat dishes that would go well in these little pies. Ham or hot dogs and sauerkraut might be good.
Children love these little pies and will devour almost anything that is in them as long as it isn't too spicy. This is a way to get them to eat things that are good for them and enjoy it.
These pies are excellent for emergency preparedness storage. You can thaw them quickly even without heat and avoid cooking smells bringing in the whole neighborhood. If you happen to like the idea of feeding the whole neighborhood, you need a different recipe. :-)
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Playing Jackstraws With Our Lives
I have been debating about whether to post about this subject. I finally decided to do it, because it might be so important. It is possible that I have received a death threat.
I am not certain because of how it came to me. I was working on my blog one night and looked at my cell phone on my desk. The screen looked strange so I picked it up and looked closer. I had never seen the screen look like that before. All of the usual stuff on the screen was blank. There was only a small message in the middle of the screen in a different font.
It said, "Life Timer". Then it had a number. I didn't get too excited because I thought it was most likely some perfectly ordinary thing that just seemed strange. Besides, I have had numerous death threats that didn't leave me in any doubt as to what they were.
I did figure out how many days the number of hours added up to. It came to about November 3 this year. I thought about it a bit and called a tech for my phone company and asked if he knew what the message was. He said that it was a thing that all cell phones have that shows how long the phone has been in use. He stated quite forcefully that it is not possible to change these numbers. I thanked him and said goodbye.
I got on the internet and looked up Life Timers. It had instructions on how to change the one for my kind of phone.
I believe that the tech being so adamant about the Life Timers on cell phones being unchangeable and then seeing that it is not so, is a little suspicious. Added to getting the Life Timer message on my phone when I had not been handling it, makes it even more suspicious.
My life is not very normal. I have been through a lot of strange experiences and a lot of those experiences were not pleasant. This one with my cell phone is not nearly as exciting as a lot of other experiences. That does not mean that I like it or anything of the kind.
I have been risking my life with some of the things that I post on this blog, so it isn't really that surprising that somebody might want me dead. I don't have that big a problem with dying, but I think it would be better if I get some more things done first.
Getting people going with their spiritual gifts is the thing that seems most important for me to do. I am going to post more about finding and developing spiritual gifts on this blog, because of my possibly rather literal deadline.
It would be better to post more in-depth about spiritual gifts on another blog, but that would waste time that I may not have. I would like to have enough posted here for people to work on their spiritual gifts even without me available to help.
Some of the people who would prefer to have me dead will not want more people to develop their spiritual gifts. The human race can not survive unless we start making a lot of use of our spiritual gifts, regardless of opposition to doing so.
We have wrecked the earth too much for science and hard work to cope with it. The damage is too great for ordinary means. The earth will not keep humans alive on it much longer unless we get busy repairing the damage we have done. We must use our spiritual gifts in order to repair such extreme damage before it is even beyond repair with spiritual gifts.
I am not even trying to convince people who still have their heads in places that are not polite mention. If you already know that things are not right in the world, I am talking to you.
Have you gotten a little concerned that weather is just too strange lately? I am talking to you. Are you concerned enough about what this might mean for your personal survival and your loved ones' survival? I am talking to you.
Have you been paying attention to the mass whale beachings, frogs disappearing all over the world, mass bird deaths, and fish deaths for no apparent reason? Maybe you want to tell yourself that they are only animals and it doesn't matter to you.
You can tell yourself whatever you want to say, but that does not make it true. If all of those creatures are dying, that means we should be worried that humans can be next.
You may have heard of the phrase, Miner's Canary. That comes from when they didn't have equipment to monitor air quality in mines. The miners used to take a caged canary along with them into the mines while they worked. As long as the canary chirped and sang everything was fine. If the canary was silent too long, the miners would drop everything and check to make sure the canary was okay.
Canaries are more sensitive to bad air than humans are. They faint or die before we even notice anything. If the canary was in trouble the miners would evacuate as fast as they could. It could mean there had been a silent cave in or there was going to be an explosion because gases had built up in the mine.
All of those dead animals are our "miners' canary". We need to take heed of the message that their deaths are giving us, "Watch out, you may be next."
There is another message that those dead animals are giving us. The earth is a wondrous place. Nature on earth is in a delicate balance. The most telling proof that I ever came across was why salmon are pink. They eat mosquitos that have fed on the blood of mammals, including humans. Mosquitos have a purpose in the food chain that brings beautiful, delicious salmon to people.
Who doesn't hate being swarmed and bitten by mosquitos? Even mosquitos fill a niche in a part of our environment. Even nasty, annoying mosquitos have a purpose.
This purpose is even easier to see with many other animals and plants than it is to see with mosquitos. Squirrels hide acorns all over the place for example. They are pretty squirrelly and do forget where they put a lot of those acorns and nuts. The ones they bury and forget, help make forests.
Have you ever played "Pick Up Sticks"? Before someone made it into a game to sell, it used to be jackstraws. You scramble a lot of sticks and throw them down and take turns trying to take one stick out without collapsing the whole pile. You lose if you collapse the pile.
Humans have been playing jackstraws with nature. We have been taking sticks out of our environment without collapsing everything so far, but things are looking pretty shaky. We all lose if everything collapses.
I am not certain because of how it came to me. I was working on my blog one night and looked at my cell phone on my desk. The screen looked strange so I picked it up and looked closer. I had never seen the screen look like that before. All of the usual stuff on the screen was blank. There was only a small message in the middle of the screen in a different font.
It said, "Life Timer". Then it had a number. I didn't get too excited because I thought it was most likely some perfectly ordinary thing that just seemed strange. Besides, I have had numerous death threats that didn't leave me in any doubt as to what they were.
I did figure out how many days the number of hours added up to. It came to about November 3 this year. I thought about it a bit and called a tech for my phone company and asked if he knew what the message was. He said that it was a thing that all cell phones have that shows how long the phone has been in use. He stated quite forcefully that it is not possible to change these numbers. I thanked him and said goodbye.
I got on the internet and looked up Life Timers. It had instructions on how to change the one for my kind of phone.
I believe that the tech being so adamant about the Life Timers on cell phones being unchangeable and then seeing that it is not so, is a little suspicious. Added to getting the Life Timer message on my phone when I had not been handling it, makes it even more suspicious.
My life is not very normal. I have been through a lot of strange experiences and a lot of those experiences were not pleasant. This one with my cell phone is not nearly as exciting as a lot of other experiences. That does not mean that I like it or anything of the kind.
I have been risking my life with some of the things that I post on this blog, so it isn't really that surprising that somebody might want me dead. I don't have that big a problem with dying, but I think it would be better if I get some more things done first.
Getting people going with their spiritual gifts is the thing that seems most important for me to do. I am going to post more about finding and developing spiritual gifts on this blog, because of my possibly rather literal deadline.
It would be better to post more in-depth about spiritual gifts on another blog, but that would waste time that I may not have. I would like to have enough posted here for people to work on their spiritual gifts even without me available to help.
Some of the people who would prefer to have me dead will not want more people to develop their spiritual gifts. The human race can not survive unless we start making a lot of use of our spiritual gifts, regardless of opposition to doing so.
We have wrecked the earth too much for science and hard work to cope with it. The damage is too great for ordinary means. The earth will not keep humans alive on it much longer unless we get busy repairing the damage we have done. We must use our spiritual gifts in order to repair such extreme damage before it is even beyond repair with spiritual gifts.
I am not even trying to convince people who still have their heads in places that are not polite mention. If you already know that things are not right in the world, I am talking to you.
Have you gotten a little concerned that weather is just too strange lately? I am talking to you. Are you concerned enough about what this might mean for your personal survival and your loved ones' survival? I am talking to you.
Have you been paying attention to the mass whale beachings, frogs disappearing all over the world, mass bird deaths, and fish deaths for no apparent reason? Maybe you want to tell yourself that they are only animals and it doesn't matter to you.
You can tell yourself whatever you want to say, but that does not make it true. If all of those creatures are dying, that means we should be worried that humans can be next.
You may have heard of the phrase, Miner's Canary. That comes from when they didn't have equipment to monitor air quality in mines. The miners used to take a caged canary along with them into the mines while they worked. As long as the canary chirped and sang everything was fine. If the canary was silent too long, the miners would drop everything and check to make sure the canary was okay.
Canaries are more sensitive to bad air than humans are. They faint or die before we even notice anything. If the canary was in trouble the miners would evacuate as fast as they could. It could mean there had been a silent cave in or there was going to be an explosion because gases had built up in the mine.
All of those dead animals are our "miners' canary". We need to take heed of the message that their deaths are giving us, "Watch out, you may be next."
There is another message that those dead animals are giving us. The earth is a wondrous place. Nature on earth is in a delicate balance. The most telling proof that I ever came across was why salmon are pink. They eat mosquitos that have fed on the blood of mammals, including humans. Mosquitos have a purpose in the food chain that brings beautiful, delicious salmon to people.
Who doesn't hate being swarmed and bitten by mosquitos? Even mosquitos fill a niche in a part of our environment. Even nasty, annoying mosquitos have a purpose.
This purpose is even easier to see with many other animals and plants than it is to see with mosquitos. Squirrels hide acorns all over the place for example. They are pretty squirrelly and do forget where they put a lot of those acorns and nuts. The ones they bury and forget, help make forests.
Have you ever played "Pick Up Sticks"? Before someone made it into a game to sell, it used to be jackstraws. You scramble a lot of sticks and throw them down and take turns trying to take one stick out without collapsing the whole pile. You lose if you collapse the pile.
Humans have been playing jackstraws with nature. We have been taking sticks out of our environment without collapsing everything so far, but things are looking pretty shaky. We all lose if everything collapses.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Spiritual Preparedness - More About Healing
This post is a continuation about the spiritual gift of healing. It is going to be a lot about how I perceive it and what I think happens when someone uses the spiritual gift of healing.
I already mentioned that my way of perceiving, what is wrong and in need of healing inside of someone's body who needs to be healed, is through something that is like sight. At first thought, one might think that seeing inside of someone's body is impossible.
If you think again, you may be aware that even something as solid as lump of lead or a steel bar are composed of atoms made up of electrons and even smaller particles.
Thinking of a human body that is less solid than lead or steel with the aforementioned information in mind, it is easier to understand how seeing inside it is possible.
If you think of the electrons whizzing around making up our bodies and everything else, solid becomes much less substantial. Bearing this lack of substance in mind, nothing is really solid. There is no particular reason why everyone can't see inside of people or steel bars. :-)
I have already mentioned that I consider the energy used in previously mentioned spiritual gifts to be what I call, "grace". This is a religious and maybe a Gd sort of word. You could equally well use a word like Chi, or mana, or whatever makes you happy.
I have also mentioned that it is a good idea to pray or your nearest equivalent when you use your spiritual gifts. This also applies to the spiritual gift of healing. The energy that is used for healing or other spiritual gifts has to come from somewhere.
It is possible to draw on energy contained within the person of the healer in order to do healing. This is a very bad idea for many reasons. One of these reasons is that you can kill yourself by healing this way. Another good reason is that you can give the person that you are healing, some of your own ailments. Yet another good one is that draining yourself to do healing has a real limit on the amount of healing you can do, and on your effectiveness.
No matter how you get the energy that you use for healing there will be times when your healing won't work. This will happen a lot more often if you suck yourself dry to do the healing.
I do not think of myself as doing a healing, even though I have the gift of healing. I consider myself a conduit for grace that comes from Gd. No matter how you view healing it will work better if you can "recharge your batteries", so to speak. You need to find a way to get more energy to heal.
When healing is going on I perceive the energy that does the healing as light. It looks to me as if light goes from the healer to the person being healed and the light goes to the spot that is injured or sick and heals it.
When I do healing I consciously direct the light to the spot or spots that need to be healed. It appears to me that other healers do the same thing, regardless of how they perceive the site to be healed or how they direct the light, by contact or not.
I am doubtful that this blog is the right place to give more details about the gift of healing. I think it is right to tell people about basic things regarding their spiritual gifts, but that is enough for an emergency preparedness blog. I hope that people who read this will want to develop and use their own spiritual gifts.
I believe that I am intended to help others find, develop and begin using their spiritual gifts. I do not think I am the only way someone can find, develop and use their spiritual gifts. If you can not or do not want to use me, then find another way and use it. You can't really be happy until you do. The world needs for you to do this also.
The world is sick and needs healing of all kinds, including the use of your own spiritual gifts.
I already mentioned that my way of perceiving, what is wrong and in need of healing inside of someone's body who needs to be healed, is through something that is like sight. At first thought, one might think that seeing inside of someone's body is impossible.
If you think again, you may be aware that even something as solid as lump of lead or a steel bar are composed of atoms made up of electrons and even smaller particles.
Thinking of a human body that is less solid than lead or steel with the aforementioned information in mind, it is easier to understand how seeing inside it is possible.
If you think of the electrons whizzing around making up our bodies and everything else, solid becomes much less substantial. Bearing this lack of substance in mind, nothing is really solid. There is no particular reason why everyone can't see inside of people or steel bars. :-)
I have already mentioned that I consider the energy used in previously mentioned spiritual gifts to be what I call, "grace". This is a religious and maybe a Gd sort of word. You could equally well use a word like Chi, or mana, or whatever makes you happy.
I have also mentioned that it is a good idea to pray or your nearest equivalent when you use your spiritual gifts. This also applies to the spiritual gift of healing. The energy that is used for healing or other spiritual gifts has to come from somewhere.
It is possible to draw on energy contained within the person of the healer in order to do healing. This is a very bad idea for many reasons. One of these reasons is that you can kill yourself by healing this way. Another good reason is that you can give the person that you are healing, some of your own ailments. Yet another good one is that draining yourself to do healing has a real limit on the amount of healing you can do, and on your effectiveness.
No matter how you get the energy that you use for healing there will be times when your healing won't work. This will happen a lot more often if you suck yourself dry to do the healing.
I do not think of myself as doing a healing, even though I have the gift of healing. I consider myself a conduit for grace that comes from Gd. No matter how you view healing it will work better if you can "recharge your batteries", so to speak. You need to find a way to get more energy to heal.
When healing is going on I perceive the energy that does the healing as light. It looks to me as if light goes from the healer to the person being healed and the light goes to the spot that is injured or sick and heals it.
When I do healing I consciously direct the light to the spot or spots that need to be healed. It appears to me that other healers do the same thing, regardless of how they perceive the site to be healed or how they direct the light, by contact or not.
I am doubtful that this blog is the right place to give more details about the gift of healing. I think it is right to tell people about basic things regarding their spiritual gifts, but that is enough for an emergency preparedness blog. I hope that people who read this will want to develop and use their own spiritual gifts.
I believe that I am intended to help others find, develop and begin using their spiritual gifts. I do not think I am the only way someone can find, develop and use their spiritual gifts. If you can not or do not want to use me, then find another way and use it. You can't really be happy until you do. The world needs for you to do this also.
The world is sick and needs healing of all kinds, including the use of your own spiritual gifts.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Spiritual Preparedness - Healing
I have dropped my number of posts down to five a week instead of posting every day. I will be back on Monday after midnight my time.
This post is going to be about the healing spiritual gift and how to tell if you might have that one and the ones related to it. Most of the time people who have the gift of healing also have the gift of service. The gift of healing is one of my major spiritual gifts and I have the gift of service that goes along with it.
I believe that groups of gifts may have slightly different flavors when they are in one person. An example of this is the gift of service. When service belongs to someone who has the gift of healing, that person will want to serve people who are sick or who need healing.
The spiritual gift of service may also be paired with the spiritual gift of teaching. When service belongs to someone who has the spiritual gift of teaching, they will have an urge to serve people by teaching them.
I believe that I have a certain amount of the gift of service linked to various other gifts that I have and each gift of service is slightly different. I think this means I have an extra large helping of the gift of service. I seem to be more driven to serve than someone with only one helping of the spiritual gift of service.
It sometimes requires an extraordinary effort and prayer for me to refrain from hunting people down, tackling them, hog tying them, and making them let me help them. lol.
Back to healing. When you have the gift of healing it can also result in the battery draining thing that I mentioned with the moving mountains spiritual gift. I do not know why it happens only to some people with the gift of healing. I suspect that there is a large variation in types of healing spiritual gifts. I will need exposure to more different kinds of the spiritual gift of healing to understand it better, to clear this up.
There is not a really precise dividing line between the gift of healing and the gift of miracles. Even if you have no religion, you can have the gift of miracles. It can be like a little stronger version of the gift of healing. Miracles can mean healing of people who are closer to dying than can usually be managed by the gift of healing alone. There is more to the spiritual gift of miracles than that, but I will continue with the gift of healing here.
In order for the gift of healing to be effective, it usually requires that the person who has this gift is able to know what is happening inside the person they are healing. I have come across several ways that people with the gift of healing can do this perception.
The most common way of telling where the spot that needs the healing is, comes from a perception of heat on that spot. The healer feels a slight or more than slight warm or hot spot on the body of the person who needs healing.
The next most common perception of the site if injury or illness in the body of the person being healed is vibration. Some healers feel a slight vibration on the spot that needs to be healed.
The most rare perception is by something like sight. That is the version that I have, although sometimes I have the others instead. This one seems to be the most easy to use and convenient to me, but I am biased.
Most healers actually touch the injured or sick spot on the body of the person who needs to be healed. Other healers do not use physical contact at all or only do it part of the time.
Healers usually say that they send energy through their hands into the healing site. Some healers are not that aware of the exact process that is occurring when they heal, or are not able or willing to talk about it. What the ones who are willing and able to say about what is happening during the healing process varies a lot.
Since my perception of healing involves sight, that is how I observe the healing process when I see others doing healing. This is how I can best describe it, by what I see. That does not mean that I am necessarily right at all, or more right than someone else's idea about it.
My next post will probably be about what I see going on with the gift of healing and my perception of it. I will also talk about what I think is actually happening.
This post is going to be about the healing spiritual gift and how to tell if you might have that one and the ones related to it. Most of the time people who have the gift of healing also have the gift of service. The gift of healing is one of my major spiritual gifts and I have the gift of service that goes along with it.
I believe that groups of gifts may have slightly different flavors when they are in one person. An example of this is the gift of service. When service belongs to someone who has the gift of healing, that person will want to serve people who are sick or who need healing.
The spiritual gift of service may also be paired with the spiritual gift of teaching. When service belongs to someone who has the spiritual gift of teaching, they will have an urge to serve people by teaching them.
I believe that I have a certain amount of the gift of service linked to various other gifts that I have and each gift of service is slightly different. I think this means I have an extra large helping of the gift of service. I seem to be more driven to serve than someone with only one helping of the spiritual gift of service.
It sometimes requires an extraordinary effort and prayer for me to refrain from hunting people down, tackling them, hog tying them, and making them let me help them. lol.
Back to healing. When you have the gift of healing it can also result in the battery draining thing that I mentioned with the moving mountains spiritual gift. I do not know why it happens only to some people with the gift of healing. I suspect that there is a large variation in types of healing spiritual gifts. I will need exposure to more different kinds of the spiritual gift of healing to understand it better, to clear this up.
There is not a really precise dividing line between the gift of healing and the gift of miracles. Even if you have no religion, you can have the gift of miracles. It can be like a little stronger version of the gift of healing. Miracles can mean healing of people who are closer to dying than can usually be managed by the gift of healing alone. There is more to the spiritual gift of miracles than that, but I will continue with the gift of healing here.
In order for the gift of healing to be effective, it usually requires that the person who has this gift is able to know what is happening inside the person they are healing. I have come across several ways that people with the gift of healing can do this perception.
The most common way of telling where the spot that needs the healing is, comes from a perception of heat on that spot. The healer feels a slight or more than slight warm or hot spot on the body of the person who needs healing.
The next most common perception of the site if injury or illness in the body of the person being healed is vibration. Some healers feel a slight vibration on the spot that needs to be healed.
The most rare perception is by something like sight. That is the version that I have, although sometimes I have the others instead. This one seems to be the most easy to use and convenient to me, but I am biased.
Most healers actually touch the injured or sick spot on the body of the person who needs to be healed. Other healers do not use physical contact at all or only do it part of the time.
Healers usually say that they send energy through their hands into the healing site. Some healers are not that aware of the exact process that is occurring when they heal, or are not able or willing to talk about it. What the ones who are willing and able to say about what is happening during the healing process varies a lot.
Since my perception of healing involves sight, that is how I observe the healing process when I see others doing healing. This is how I can best describe it, by what I see. That does not mean that I am necessarily right at all, or more right than someone else's idea about it.
My next post will probably be about what I see going on with the gift of healing and my perception of it. I will also talk about what I think is actually happening.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Seldom Mentioned Preparedness Items
There are a few things about emergencies that I never see anywhere. There are a couple of them that I believe people, including my readers, should think about.
One of them is that during many emergencies, notably earthquakes, but others as well, broken crockery is involved. What are you going to drink your coffee if all the coffee cups are broken to smithereens?
I have reserved some dishes for such emergencies. One of these is a metal coffee cup. It is one of those old speckled enamel ones. You can't put it in a microwave and it will burn your hands if you touch the cup part. It is not nearly as nice as a ceramic coffee mug. It will not get smashed nearly as easily as a ceramic mug, however.
I have a few plastic drinking glasses for water and other cool liquids during an emergency.
You can always use a tin can to drink your coffee out of, if all of your dishes get smashed during a tornado. You will have to use cloth or something to keep the sides of the can from burning your hands.
Another big lack in most prepper information is toilet paper. You will probably run out of it before your emergency is gone. Catalogs used to be the toilet paper substitute of choice for rural areas that were still using outhouses. Corn cobs were used before that. ("Rough as a cob?" Did you ever hear that saying?)
I believe phone books would make excellent toilet paper substitutes for emergencies, although one might end up with ink in usually hidden spots. This might be an especially attractive use for the government and some ad pages.
Don't even try to flush any of the above substitutes.
A few blogs suggest ways to substitute for toilet paper. One of these involves having a container of water and some rags handy. When I have mentioned this to some acquaintances, they invariably react with a shudder and mostly unprintable language. This may be necessary whether you like it or not.
Even worse: You will also have to wash the rags and use them again. This is actually not that much more terrible than washing baby diapers and rags used to clean them off before changing them.
I know. The yuck factor is why disposable diapers and paper towels have become so popular.
Emergencies are often messy in many ways. Because of this messiness, part of your preparedness supplies should be plenty of rags and cleaning supplies. Not having these rags for emergencies may mean that you will have to tear up things that you would rather not tear up.
Costco and Wal Mart have bargain bundles of various sorts of rags. Wal Mart frequently has sales on bundles of 18 or so terry washcloths. If you have a choice, pick plain white ones because dyes can aggravate injuries sometimes.
Costco has bundles of white terry towels in their regular stock. They may be found in or near the automotive section in the Costcos that I know. They also have bundles of microfiber towels, and red cotton shop rags.
It is not necessary to buy your emergency preparedness rags. You can take old clothes or linens and cut or tear them up into handy-sized rags. I prefer to hem them, but it is may not be essential to do.
Hanging threads could become stuck in wounds, if your rags are used for cleaning or bandaging injuries, however. It could be painful to remove the threads from a wound, and may cause more risk of infection.
It would be a good idea to leave some larger pieces of rags to be used for splints and larger injuries.
I use these cloths from the store bundles and my own rags that I make in my everyday life. I do keep a lot of extras for emergencies. I doubt it would be easy to have too many of them. I think your storage and funds should be the limit on it. If you happen to have more than you need during an emergency there will be others who will need them.
One of them is that during many emergencies, notably earthquakes, but others as well, broken crockery is involved. What are you going to drink your coffee if all the coffee cups are broken to smithereens?
I have reserved some dishes for such emergencies. One of these is a metal coffee cup. It is one of those old speckled enamel ones. You can't put it in a microwave and it will burn your hands if you touch the cup part. It is not nearly as nice as a ceramic coffee mug. It will not get smashed nearly as easily as a ceramic mug, however.
I have a few plastic drinking glasses for water and other cool liquids during an emergency.
You can always use a tin can to drink your coffee out of, if all of your dishes get smashed during a tornado. You will have to use cloth or something to keep the sides of the can from burning your hands.
Another big lack in most prepper information is toilet paper. You will probably run out of it before your emergency is gone. Catalogs used to be the toilet paper substitute of choice for rural areas that were still using outhouses. Corn cobs were used before that. ("Rough as a cob?" Did you ever hear that saying?)
I believe phone books would make excellent toilet paper substitutes for emergencies, although one might end up with ink in usually hidden spots. This might be an especially attractive use for the government and some ad pages.
Don't even try to flush any of the above substitutes.
A few blogs suggest ways to substitute for toilet paper. One of these involves having a container of water and some rags handy. When I have mentioned this to some acquaintances, they invariably react with a shudder and mostly unprintable language. This may be necessary whether you like it or not.
Even worse: You will also have to wash the rags and use them again. This is actually not that much more terrible than washing baby diapers and rags used to clean them off before changing them.
I know. The yuck factor is why disposable diapers and paper towels have become so popular.
Emergencies are often messy in many ways. Because of this messiness, part of your preparedness supplies should be plenty of rags and cleaning supplies. Not having these rags for emergencies may mean that you will have to tear up things that you would rather not tear up.
Costco and Wal Mart have bargain bundles of various sorts of rags. Wal Mart frequently has sales on bundles of 18 or so terry washcloths. If you have a choice, pick plain white ones because dyes can aggravate injuries sometimes.
Costco has bundles of white terry towels in their regular stock. They may be found in or near the automotive section in the Costcos that I know. They also have bundles of microfiber towels, and red cotton shop rags.
It is not necessary to buy your emergency preparedness rags. You can take old clothes or linens and cut or tear them up into handy-sized rags. I prefer to hem them, but it is may not be essential to do.
Hanging threads could become stuck in wounds, if your rags are used for cleaning or bandaging injuries, however. It could be painful to remove the threads from a wound, and may cause more risk of infection.
It would be a good idea to leave some larger pieces of rags to be used for splints and larger injuries.
I use these cloths from the store bundles and my own rags that I make in my everyday life. I do keep a lot of extras for emergencies. I doubt it would be easy to have too many of them. I think your storage and funds should be the limit on it. If you happen to have more than you need during an emergency there will be others who will need them.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Seriously Recycled Blankets for Cold Weather Emergencies or Charity
I have figured out a way to recycle dryer sheets. Other people have already thought of other ways to recycle dryer sheets, but this is a good one. :-)
I thought of this one because of watching homeless people wake up on a park bench and walk off and abandon a quilt that they used for one night. Sometimes they are thoughtful enough to put the quilt in a trash can. The quilt may have taken some woman months or at least weeks to make.
I don't want homeless people to die of exposure, but I don't like putting a lot of useless work into it either, or money.
The solution to this dilemma is dryer sheets, fabric glue, and pieces of thread ends and tiny slivers of fabric or small bits of yarn.
You take two dryer sheets and run a thin bead of glue along one side of a sheet. The bead of glue needs to be about 1/8 of an inch wide or more. Stick the second dryer sheet onto the bead along the bottom dryer sheet so they are even. Run a bead of glue along a second side of the bottom dryer sheet and stick the top one onto it. Do the same for the third side of the dryer sheets.
On the fourth side of the dryer sheets only glue about an inch of the sheets together from the corners out. Leave an opening between the two glued corners large enough to get your hand or at least several of your fingers inside the bag that is formed by the dryer sheets.
Take a small amount of sewing trash and put it in each corner of the bag. Then fill in the middle with more sewing trash. You do not need a lot of sewing trash to provide more insulation than many quilts have. Do not stuff the dryer sheet bag too full. Remember that there will be many more dryer sheet bags full of sewing trash and all of them together can become very heavy.
I put a piece of newspaper down on the surface I am using to glue the dryer sheets before I start. Lift up the glued dryer sheets before they stick to the paper.
Once you are satisfied with filling your dryer sheet bag with sewing trash, you can glue shut the opening you used to stuff it.
I have experimented more with this and it seems to work better to take one dryer sheet and fold it in half. You then glue two sides and leave the fourth side open for stuffing.
Dryer lint is a very soft fluffy stuffing for the dryer sheet bags. There is a big problem with it however. Dryer lint is extremely flammable. It would not be remotely safe for a person to smoke while wrapped in a blanket stuffed with dryer lint. For some reason, most homeless people seem to smoke like chimneys. None of those homeless who smoke like that should be given a blanket involving dryer lint.
If you are making your dryer sheet and sewing trash or dryer lint blanket for your own emergency use, you need to remember not to have it anywhere in the vicinity of an open flame.
I like to do the dryer sheet squares as the sheets become available. After completing a square, I put it in a box with others until I have enough to assemble into a blanket.
Once you have enough squares made you can glue them together into a blanket. It is much easier to glue whole squares' edges than to make a square, so assembly goes fast. In a very short time you will have a warm and almost free blanket.
Now all you need to do is find a place to take your blanket. Be sure to tell them not to give a blanket, made with dryer lint, to a smoker. Warn them to avoid fires with it.
A little bit of your time and a very small amount of money will keep someone warm. Your stupid-looking and very cheap blanket may save a life.
I thought of this one because of watching homeless people wake up on a park bench and walk off and abandon a quilt that they used for one night. Sometimes they are thoughtful enough to put the quilt in a trash can. The quilt may have taken some woman months or at least weeks to make.
I don't want homeless people to die of exposure, but I don't like putting a lot of useless work into it either, or money.
The solution to this dilemma is dryer sheets, fabric glue, and pieces of thread ends and tiny slivers of fabric or small bits of yarn.
You take two dryer sheets and run a thin bead of glue along one side of a sheet. The bead of glue needs to be about 1/8 of an inch wide or more. Stick the second dryer sheet onto the bead along the bottom dryer sheet so they are even. Run a bead of glue along a second side of the bottom dryer sheet and stick the top one onto it. Do the same for the third side of the dryer sheets.
On the fourth side of the dryer sheets only glue about an inch of the sheets together from the corners out. Leave an opening between the two glued corners large enough to get your hand or at least several of your fingers inside the bag that is formed by the dryer sheets.
Take a small amount of sewing trash and put it in each corner of the bag. Then fill in the middle with more sewing trash. You do not need a lot of sewing trash to provide more insulation than many quilts have. Do not stuff the dryer sheet bag too full. Remember that there will be many more dryer sheet bags full of sewing trash and all of them together can become very heavy.
I put a piece of newspaper down on the surface I am using to glue the dryer sheets before I start. Lift up the glued dryer sheets before they stick to the paper.
Once you are satisfied with filling your dryer sheet bag with sewing trash, you can glue shut the opening you used to stuff it.
I have experimented more with this and it seems to work better to take one dryer sheet and fold it in half. You then glue two sides and leave the fourth side open for stuffing.
Dryer lint is a very soft fluffy stuffing for the dryer sheet bags. There is a big problem with it however. Dryer lint is extremely flammable. It would not be remotely safe for a person to smoke while wrapped in a blanket stuffed with dryer lint. For some reason, most homeless people seem to smoke like chimneys. None of those homeless who smoke like that should be given a blanket involving dryer lint.
If you are making your dryer sheet and sewing trash or dryer lint blanket for your own emergency use, you need to remember not to have it anywhere in the vicinity of an open flame.
I like to do the dryer sheet squares as the sheets become available. After completing a square, I put it in a box with others until I have enough to assemble into a blanket.
Once you have enough squares made you can glue them together into a blanket. It is much easier to glue whole squares' edges than to make a square, so assembly goes fast. In a very short time you will have a warm and almost free blanket.
Now all you need to do is find a place to take your blanket. Be sure to tell them not to give a blanket, made with dryer lint, to a smoker. Warn them to avoid fires with it.
A little bit of your time and a very small amount of money will keep someone warm. Your stupid-looking and very cheap blanket may save a life.
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