Controlled Breathing Calms Your Brain

The way you breathe — whether fast or slow, shallow or deep — is intricately tied to your body as a whole, sending messages that affect your mood, your stress levels and even your immune system. Yet, breathing is unique in that it’s both easily ignored (becoming a basic background of your life) and revered at the same time. In the latter case, it’s almost instinctual to advise someone to “take a deep breath” if they’re feeling anxious, stressed or fearful.

While it’s long been known that breathing is connected to your brain (and vice versa), it wasn’t until early 2017 that researchers discovered breathing may directly affect your brain activity, including your state of arousal and higher-order brain function.1 Breathing is initiated by a cluster of neurons in your brainstem. In an animal study, researchers were attempting to identify different types of neurons (out of a group of nearly 3,000) and identify their role in breathing function.

They were focused on the pre-Bötzinger complex (or preBötC), which is known as the breathing pacemaker (and has been identified in humans as well as mice).2 The researchers further honed in on 175 neurons in the breathing pacemaker, which they then “silenced” or essentially eliminated in the mice, with the expectation that this would alter their breathing patterns.

However, this did not occur. The mice had no changes in their breathing patterns after the neurons were knocked out, although they did become noticeably more “chill.”3 It turned out that these neurons positively regulate neurons in a brainstem structure called the locus coeruleus, which is linked to arousal. It is, in other words, the formerly hidden link between breathing rate and emotional state, at least in mice.4

Counting Your Breaths Influences Your Brain’s Emotional Centers

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to research highlighting breathing’s many effects on your mind. Respiration has traditionally been looked at in terms of automatic brain stem processes, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that higher brain mechanisms are also involved, although the link is not very well understood.

“Therapeutic techniques have used conscious control and awareness of breathing for millennia with little understanding of the mechanisms underlying their efficacy,” researchers wrote in the Journal of Neurophysiology.5

They conducted an experiment asking participants to count how many breaths they took for two minutes. During this time, their brain activity, which was monitored by EEG, showed a more organized pattern, or “increased coherence,” in areas linked to emotion than occurred during a resting state.6,7 Still other research hinting at the deep ties between breathing and your brain came from a study in the Journal of Neuroscience, which showed that natural breathing is not simply a “passive target of heightened arousal or vigilance.”

For instance, your breathing rate changes when you’re anxious or engrossed in a mentally challenging task. But the study suggests these changes, rather than being the result of your mental state, may actually be actively used to promote changes in your brain, including those that control goal-directed behaviors.8

In short, the rhythm of breathing leads to changes in your brain that may heighten your ability to make emotional judgments or form memories.9 For instance, people were better able to identify fearful faces during inhalation through their nose, as opposed to when they were exhaling through their mouth. The same was true for remembering images.

Controlled Breathing May Improve Depression, Lower Blood Pressure and More

Modern research suggests the benefits of controlled breathing may also include improved health conditions ranging from insomnia and anxiety to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. In a preliminary study presented in May 2016 at the International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health in Las Vegas, researchers found 12 weeks of daily yoga and controlled breathing improved symptoms of depression similar to using an antidepressant.

Not only did the participants’ symptoms of depression significantly decrease but their levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a calming neurotransmitter, simultaneously increased.10 Controlled breathing exercises have also been found to modify stress coping behaviors and initiate appropriate balance in cardiac autonomic tone, which is a term that describes your heart’s ability to respond to and recover from stressors.11

Also intriguing is a 2016 study published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which found yogic breathing reduces levels of proinflammatory biomarkers in saliva.12 Controlled breathing is also one way to trigger your relaxation response, which is essentially the opposite of the fight-or-flight response, as it activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which in turn may slow down your heart rate and digestion while helping you feel calm.

By evoking your body’s built-in relaxation response you can actually change the expression of your genes for the better, including in areas related to energy metabolism, mitochondrial function, insulin secretion, the inflammatory response and stress-related pathways.13

Slow breathing also reduces blood pressure and enhances baroreflex sensitivity, a mechanism to control blood pressure via heart rate, in people with high blood pressure.14 The finding was so strong that researchers suggested slow breathing “appear[s] potentially beneficial in the management of hypertension.”15

Different Types of Controlled Breathing

Your body breathes automatically, but it’s both an involuntary and a voluntary process. You can alter the speed and the depth of your breathing for instance, as well as choose to breathe through your mouth or your nose. What’s more, these choices lead to physical changes in your body. Short, slow, steady breathing activates your parasympathetic response while rapid, shallow breathing activates your sympathetic response, which is involved in releasing cortisol and other stress hormones.

If your goal is to relax, many enjoy pranayama, or yogic breathing, which has been practiced for thousands of years for purposes of enhancing health. Pranayama can be done using nostril breathing (double, single or alternate), abdominal breathing or vocalized (chanting) breathing. There’s also the Buteyko Breathing Method, in which you make a conscious effort to breathe through your nose instead of your mouth.

As noted in the journal Breathe, “Since the 1990s, a system of breathing therapy developed within the Russian medical community by Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko has made its way across several continents: the Buteyko method. K.P. Buteyko began treating patients with respiratory and circulatory diseases using breathing retraining in the 1950s and 1960s.”16

When you stop mouth breathing and learn to bring your breathing volume toward normal, you have better oxygenation of your tissues and organs, including your brain. Factors of modern life, including stress and lack of exercise, all increase your everyday breathing. Most people believe that taking bigger breaths through your mouth allows you to take more oxygen into your body, which should make you feel better and more clear-headed. However, the opposite actually happens.

Deep mouth breathing tends to make you feel light-headed, and this is due to eliminating too much CO2 from your lungs, which causes your blood vessels to constrict. So, the heavier you breathe, the less oxygen is actually delivered throughout your body. In fact, one study that pitted pranayama breathing against the Buteyko method revealed the Buteyko group had better improvement in quality of life and asthma control than the pranayama group.17

How Many Breaths per Minute Are Ideal?

Typically, the respiratory rate of humans is about 10 to 20 breaths per minute. Slowing your breathing down to a rate of four to 10 breaths per minute appears to offer many benefits, however, including effects on the respiratory, cardiovascular, cardiorespiratory and autonomic nervous systems that may influence:18

Respiratory muscle activity
Ventilation efficiency
Chemoreflex and baroreflex sensitivity
Heart rate variability
Blood flow dynamics
Respiratory sinus arrhythmia
Cardiorespiratory coupling
Sympathovagal balance

Further, according to research in Breathe, optimized respiration in humans may be in the range of six to 10 breaths per minute, done in a way that activates your diaphragm. In addition, they noted that nasal breathing (such as taught by the Buteyko method) “is also considered an important component of optimized respiration.” Researchers explained:19

“Controlled, slow breathing appears to be an effective means of maximizing HRV [heart rate variability] and preserving autonomic function, both of which have been associated with decreased mortality in pathological states and longevity in the general population … This is easily achievable in most individuals with simple practice and there is yet to appear in the literature any documented adverse effects of respiration in the 6–10 breaths per min range.”

Slow, Deep Breathing Relieves Stress

Pranayama breathing involves three phases: inhalation, retention and exhalation, each of which can have varying lengths and tempos. The middle phase, retention (Kumbhaka) is said to be an important part of the breathing process and helps enhance the level of vital energy in your body. According to a study in the International Journal of Yoga:20

“Slow and deep breathing is efficient as it reduces the ventilation in the dead space of the lungs. Shallow breathing replenishes air only at the base of the lungs in contrast to deep breathing that replenishes the air in all parts of the lung.

“It decreases the effect of stress and strain on the body by shifting the balance of the autonomic system predominantly toward the parasympathetic system and improves the physical and mental health. Many researchers have found pranayama to be beneficial in treating stress-related disorders … The effects of pranayama, when practiced with kumbhaka, are substantially more than pranayama practiced alone.”

The study involved 12 weeks of modified slow breathing exercise in a modified pranayama (alternate nostril breathing) form, with equal phases of inspiration, breath holding and exhalation (1-to-1-to-1 ratio). Following the study, and compared to a control group that did not receive any intervention, the slow breathing group had reduced perceived stress and improved cardiovascular parameters, such as heart rate and blood pressure.21

Even in the immediacy, slowing your respiratory rate to six breaths per minute for a period of five minutes has been shown to significantly reduce blood pressure and result in a small reduction in heart rate.

“Slow pace bhastrika pranayama (respiratory rate six/minute) exercise thus shows a strong tendency to improving the autonomic nervous system through enhanced activation of the parasympathetic system,” researchers explained.22 Further research published in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine suggests yogic breathing may:23

Modulate cardiovascular variables in patients with hypertension and cardiac arrhythmias.
Relieve symptoms and enhance pulmonary functions in bronchial asthma.
Enhance mood for patients withdrawing from cigarette smoking.
Reduce reaction time in specially abled children.
Manage anxiety and stress in students.
Modulate pain perception.
Improve quality of life and sympathetic activity in patients with diabetes.
Reduce cancer-related symptoms and enhance the antioxidant status of patients undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy for cancer.

Give These Controlled Breathing Techniques a Try

Subtle changes in the way you breathe can lead to significant changes in your body and mind. And different breathing techniques have the potential to offer different advantages to your system. As such, it’s a good idea to try out a variety and find out which works best for you (or simply rotate through them randomly). One of the most effective breathing exercises (a Buteyko method) to reduce stress and anxiety does not involve taking deep breaths at all but rather focuses on small breaths taken through your nose, as follows:

Take a small breath into your nose, followed by a small breath out
Then hold your nose for five seconds in order to hold your breath, and then release your nose to resume breathing
Breathe normally for 10 seconds
Repeat the sequence

In their review of scientific evidence into the effects of controlled, yogic breathing, the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine compiled 1,400 references that involved the yogic breathing practices such as the following.24 Give one, or several, a try today and see if it makes a difference for you.

Nadi Shodhana/Nadi Shuddhi (Alternate nostril breathing) — With your right thumb, close the right nostril and inhale through your left nostril. Closing the left nostril, exhale through the right, following which, inhalation should be done through the right nostril. Closing the right nostril, breath out through your left nostril. This is one round. The procedure is repeated for the desired number of rounds.Surya Nuloma Viloma (Right uninostril breathing) — Closing the left nostril, both inhalation and exhalation should be done through your right nostril, without altering the normal pace of breathing.Chandra Anuloma Viloma (Left uninostril breathing) — Similar to Surya Nuloma Viloma, breathing is done through your left nostril alone, by closing the right nostril.Surya Bhedana (Right nostril initiated breathing) — Closing the left nostril, inhalation should be done through your right nostril. At the end of inhalation, close the right nostril and exhale through the left nostril. This is one round. The procedure is repeated for the desired number of rounds.Ujjayi (Psychic breath) — Inhalation and exhalation are done through the nose at a normal pace, with partial contraction of the glottis, which produces a light snoring sound. You should be aware of the passage of breath through the throat during the practice.Bhramari (Female honeybee humming breath) — After a full inhalation, closing the ears using the index fingers, you should exhale making a soft humming sound similar to that of a female honeybee.

Scandal of the cesspit babies

Scandal of the cesspit babies: Liam Neeson joins fight for Pope to confront truth about 800 children dumped in a mass grave by Irish NUNS as star makes film about tragic home for unmarried mothers.

Pope Francis was greeted by rapturous crowds as he toured the streets of Dublin yesterday at the start of his historic visit to Ireland – only the second ever to the country by a Pontiff.

It was a warmth that will no doubt have come as some relief, given the cold shadow of abuse now covering the Catholic Church. That shadow will be all-too apparent once again today when Francis travels to Knock and its famous shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

For Knock in the west of Ireland is just a short distance from another, darker landmark – a mass grave containing the remains of up to 800 babies and children at a former home for unmarried mothers in Tuam, Co Galway.

As the Pope visits the shrine, crowds of protesters will tell him they want a forensic exhumation of the grisly cemetery nearby and the identification of the tiny remains. The Roman Catholic Church, they will tell its leader, must face the truth in full.

The long-running scandal of the Church’s cruelty to more than 30,000 ‘fallen’ women has shaken the country.

The shocking story of the mass grave at the Tuam home was first revealed by The Mail on Sunday in May 2014. A series of hard-hitting reports forced the Dublin government to form a Commission of Investigation

The forced adoption of babies born out of wedlock, the harsh treatment dealt out to those falling on the wrong side of respectability – these things have been highlighted by, among others, author and television presenter Martin Sixsmith. His investigation into a woman’s 50-year search for her son was depicted in the Oscar-nominated 2013 film Philomena.

The anger shows no sign of subsiding, nor does the growing pressure on the authorities. And now Irish star Liam Neeson is developing a new film about Tuam after the discovery of a horror so barbaric it almost defies belief: ‘significant quantities’ of child remains dumped in a septic tank in the grounds.

He was moved to act after The Mail on Sunday first uncovered the scandal in 2014 and now, on the eve of the Pope’s visit, he has issued an emotional statement calling on the Church to confront its past.

‘DNA technology is now available to identify all these bones, belonging to possibly over 790 babies and children, still lying in the ground in Tuam,’ he told this newspaper.

‘The Irish government, aided by the Catholic Church and especially the nuns’ order, the Congregation of the Sisters of Bon Secours, must not shirk the responsibility of giving these souls the dignity and respect of identification.

‘They had a right to exist. They were not “the devil’s issue”, as some people and establishments referred to them. A wrong is still a wrong and a crime is still a crime no matter how many years have passed. A proposed bronze plaque isn’t going to absolve those responsible for this horror.’

Among those pressing for a full examination of Tuam is Annette McKay, a 64-year-old councillor from Bury, Lancashire.

Irish star Liam Neeson is developing a new film about Tuam. He was

moved to act after The Mail on Sunday first uncovered the scandal in 2014.

She first learned about her own family’s disturbing link to the past when her grandson Joshua was born in 1996 – and her own mother, Maggie, made a terrible confession. As Annette cradled Joshua, her mother sobbed and shook with grief: ‘It’s the baby, it’s the baby. My baby who died.’

It was only then, at the age of 70, that Maggie revealed that she became pregnant aged 18 after being raped while she was living in an Irish children’s home.

After giving birth on December 7, 1942, mother and daughter were forcibly separated by the nuns, as could happen at the time when children born out of wedlock. Maggie was sent to another home.

Her daughter, Mary Margaret O’Connor, the family have since discovered, is one of the Tuam children for whom a death certificate has been issued, and now Annette is among those demanding a forensic investigation of the site. Without it, she says, there can be no conclusion for her or her family.

‘Mary died aged six months,’ explains Annette. ‘On that day, a nun came to my mum as she hung out washing and spat out the words, “That child of your sin is dead. Leave the home.” ’

Above, Maggie O’Connor, aged 21

The seeds of the whole traumatic story were sown when Maggie’s mother died in 1936, leaving eight children to care for themselves as their father was largely absent.

‘Her dad was a drinker and worked away for months at a time so after their mum died, the children came to the attention of the powers that be,’ recalls Annette.

Maggie and her seven malnourished siblings, aged between three and 16, were marched by a priest through the streets of Galway City to the local court. Annette produces a piece of paper dated 1937 – Maggie’s ‘charge sheet’.

In black, spidery writing, it details that she was a slightly built 12-year-old and outlines what she was charged with: ‘Found destitute.’ It adds the heartbreaking detail that she was ‘a rather nice child’.

In January 1937, Maggie and three of her five sisters were given a ‘sentence of detention’ at St Anne’s Industrial School at Lenaboy, Galway. Their two brothers were sent to a Christian Brothers home, while the two oldest girls were put to work in domestic service.

What was supposed to be their salvation turned out to be the beginning of years of abuse by the nuns.

‘As we grew up, Mum had several breakdowns and would cry as she recalled being beaten repeatedly for anything from not walking in a straight line to defending her sisters,’ says Annette.

‘If her siblings wet their beds, they’d all have cold baths with cleaning fluid in, which would sting their skin. It was like a concentration camp for children.

‘She tried to tell her father about their treatment on his rare visits, but a nun would be standing behind her. She confided in a priest, too, but wasn’t believed. Mum lived in fear of them. To Mum’s dying day, nuns meant monsters.

‘She didn’t know she was free to leave the home at 16 as no one told her. She didn’t even know her date of birth until she left the home, where she worked in the kitchens and fed her sisters the nuns’ left-over food.’

Maggie developed into a beautiful, green-eyed young woman, but at 18 she fell prey to a male member of staff at the home who raped her. ‘Mum knew nothing about sex – why would she as she never left the home? She wept as she named the man who did it and his job.

“It was his fault, he raped me. He had been nice to me, then he did that,” she repeated. Mum was puritanical and would not talk about sex, but she was very blunt that day.’

The pregnant Maggie was sent to the Tuam home run by nuns from the Bon Secours order. There, she gave birth to Mary. ‘She was so bonny and such a weight on my hip, oh, she was bonny,’ was Maggie’s only memory of her first child.

Maggie was then moved to a different home, St Bridget’s, where she was callously told of her daughter’s death on June 6, 1943 – and subsequently ordered to leave.

According to her death certificate, little Mary died earlier that day from cardiac failure after suffering whooping cough for two months. In the 1940s, the Bon Secours nuns were paid by the Irish state nearly £100 per child a week to care for those in their care. Yet the harsh conditions of the Tuam home meant the infant mortality rate there was five times the national average.

After the secret of her lost child came tumbling out, Maggie never spoke about it again. She died in 2016 after developing Alzheimer’s, never knowing where her baby was buried. Indeed, Annette is not convinced her sister is dead: ‘I have a death certificate, but no burial site and no record of a grave, so where is my sister? Was she dumped in the sewers or has she been trafficked to America, sold like so many others?’

Annette gave evidence to the Residential Institutions Redress Board in Dublin, set up in 2002 by the Irish state to determine damages for children who were abused in homes. The board paid substantial damages to Maggie after Annette named the abusive nuns and the alleged rapist, and detailed how her mother’s tragic early life impacted her family.

‘Mum suffered depression. She tried to take her own life, had several breakdowns and was cruel to us at times,’ says Annette.

‘We’d get beatings if the beds were not made, but she was only copying how she had been raised. After visiting Galway, Mum suffered a severe breakdown. I think she had PTSD. If she saw a nun, she would start shaking, even in later life. She never set foot inside a Catholic church again.’

The fate of the missing children at Tuam was uncovered by local historian Catherine Corless. Remarkably, she has paid out of her own pocket for the death certificates of 796 children who died there between 1925 and 1960.

And it was Catherine who Annette contacted for more details before travelling to Tuam to report her sister as a missing person. ‘The police officer laughed in my face and said “Oh, that was all a long time ago” and sent me on my way.

As I left the station, another officer sidled up to me and said discreetly, “There is stuff going on, a cover-up. Keep pushing on.” It is outrageous that the Church, the state and police are not supporting every family affected by this.

‘The church always told us to be truthful as we grew up. Why isn’t it practising what it preaches?’

It may never be known how many children died in Ireland’s unmarried mothers’ homes, or were sent abroad for adoption. However, the Commission of Investigation is looking into a total of 18 homes.

Last month, Annette travelled to Tuam with fellow Tuam Families’ Group campaigners to challenge Ireland’s Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone. Now she wants the Pope to confront the scandal.

‘He seems a compassionate man – we want him to visit the site and support our fight,’ she says. ‘He can lift the lid on the scandal that has plagued thousands of families.’

Annette believes a full forensic excavation is the only way to put the matter to rest. ‘If my sister is buried in that cesspit, I want her to be found and reunited with our mother in a space saved in her grave for her.

‘The Tuam site is a crime scene and needs to be excavated. It is the right thing to do – for the children who died, their mothers, and those of us who had to pick up the pieces in the ensuing decades

***A message from those who died on 9/11; This message was given on 9/16/2011.

Matthew, I just heard from Kalama that a representative of the people who perished in the towers told her they gave you a message. If you have something, I’m sure Jean and Michael will send it out.

Yes, Mother, I have their message, and I have been asked to speak on behalf of the Council of Nirvana and all other souls in this realm and beyond. We weep. We see the larger picture, but still we weep. Who could not do that in these days of agonizing shock and sorrow? We urge all souls to feel love, compassion and peace and hold these emotions in your heart—in a moment, your beloved family and friends who so recently came here will speak of this in their own words.

Every one of them is being tended most lovingly, with gentleness and understanding. Many recognize these familiar surroundings from other spirit lifetimes and remember that they knew this was to happen and agreed at soul level to participate. But they, as we, know this cannot comfort the people who love them.

The dark minds behind this seemingly inexplicable agony claim that war will be “justice for those who died.” But the war is intended to create even greater negativity in an attempt to extinguish all light on the planet. The perpetrators want you to feel fear and hatred and demand “justice” because they know that only by continuing their cycle of violence can they keep their pernicious hold in this critical time of souls choosing between the light and the darkness. Choose you must, and choose the LIGHT you must!

What happened is not a nation against another nation. It is not even a tiny faction of humankind against all other humankind. The root of this madness is a malignant power that most of you don’t know exists, but its intentions are so malevolent that Earth herself is weeping. This truth will be revealed in time, but for now, please hold only healing love in your hearts for all life. Let the god self in each of you sustain your light so your conscious self won’t align with the darkness that wants retaliation, revenge, hatred, more cold-hearted killing.

Let the thousands of lives that left Earth in those fiery moments stand for something besides what the dark ones want. As a collective voice, these recently departed souls are saying:

“Let no more lives be taken. This is the time to keep love above all, for compassion, for bringing healing to the bereaved and injured, for bringing healing to Earth. Please know that the hearts that are hardened into wanting to kill others as their tribute to us, they need light above all. We petition you from the whole of this realm of Heaven to speak of love, of opening eyes to seeing clearly what is happening on Earth, and rising above the tragedy that has been perpetrated by a darkness you cannot even imagine, where your entire world is expendable. We see this from here. We need you to help the myriad light workers by uplifting your hearts and allowing light to come in, by comforting those in fresh sorrow. You must hear our plea. We are working in the light to assist you, and we are forever bonded with you in love.”

» Source » Channel: Suzy Ward

Plots in Brazil

Brazil’s far-right candidate for president Jair Bolsonaro was stabbed in the abdomen during a parade in the city Juiz de Fora Thursday. Bolsonaro’s son, Flavio tweeted that his father had been stabbed and suffered severe blood loss and arrived to the hospital “almost dead” but added that “his condition now seems stabilized. Please pray.”

Numerous videos on social media showed Bolsonaro, who has promised to crack down on crime in Latin America’s largest nation, being stabbed with a knife to the lower part of his stomach. At the moment of the attack, Bolsonaro was on the shoulders of a supporter, looking out at the crowd and giving a thumbs up with his left hand. According to Folha, Bolsonaro’s liver – which was perforated by the stabbing – suffered a “grave injury.”

After the attack, he is seen flinching and then goes out of view. Other videos show supporters carrying him to a car and hitting a man who was apparently the attacker. Brazilian media reported the “Brazilian Donald Trump” was undergoing urgent surgery at a local hospital.

Bolonsaro, who was caught by supporters as he fell, was quickly whisked away in an SUV, further video indicated. His son later said on Twitter that the wound was superficial and his father was doing fine.

A police spokesman confirmed that the alleged attacker – named as Adelio Bispo de Oliveira – was in custody after being badly beaten up by Bolsonaro supporters. The man was arrested in 2013 for another assault, police said.

Luis Boudens, president of the National Federation of Federal Police, told the AP that the assailant appeared to be deranged.

“Our agents there said the attacker was ‘on a mission from God,’” Boudens said. “Their impression is that they were not dealing with a mentally stable person. He didn’t expect to be arrested so quickly, agents reacted in seconds.”

“The Minas Gerais police reacted rapidly. Uniformed officers who were there arrested the attacker,” said Major Flavio Santiago, a police spokesman.

Santiago said such attacks were rare in Brazil. “The candidates in this political process of getting close to their public, they have their security, police are there,” he said. “In Brazil we don’t have the culture of this type of attack, where someone can break through security and attack a candidate.”

The incident comes after a tumultuous period in Brazilian history that saw a president impeached 2 years ago and the still popular former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva jailed and barred from running in the election. It is the most unpredictable election since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985 with a highly splintered field of candidates.

Brazil’s President Michel Temer commented on the attack during an event in the nation’s capital, Brasilia, saying “the intolerance that there’s been in Brazilian society is unacceptable.” Other presidential candidates were quick to condemn the attack.

Bolsonaro’s political rivals were also quick to denounce the attack.

Fernando Haddad, who is likely to replace Lula as the Workers party presidential candidate, said the stabbing was a “shame” and a “horror”.

“The violence against the candidate Jair Bolsonaro is inadmissible and is a double attack: against his physical integrity and against democracy,” said Marina Silva, an environmentalist and centrist candidate.

But Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s successor, provoked some anger when she suggested that Bolsonaro’s extremist views could have provoked the attack.

“When you plant hate, you harvest thunderstorms,” she said in an interview with the Folha de S Paulo newspaper. During the Congress session that began Rousseff’s 2016 impeachment proceedings, Bolsonaro dedicated his vote in favour of her suspension to a notorious dictatorship-era torturer. Rousseff was a member of the armed resistance to military rule and was herself tortured.

Bolsonaro recently said that members of her Workers’ party should be shot.

A former army captain, Bolsonaro – similar to Trump – had made a name for himself with his unapologetic rejection of political correctness and willingness to court controversy. Statements about women, minorities and LGBT people have repelled some Brazilians, but attracted many others.

According to the latest Ibope poll, Bolsonaro had 22% of first-round vote intentions, more than 10% points ahead of his closest rivals. Former Environment Minister Marina Silva and left-wing candidate Ciro Gomes each have 12 percent while former governor of Sao Paulo, Geraldo Alckmin, has 9%. Fernando Haddad, the likely substitute for Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has 6%, although it remains unclear how much of Lula’s vote, which was in the 30% range, would transfer over to Haddad now that Lula has been barred from running for president.

Following news of the stabbling, Brazil’s Ibovespa index extended on its gains in the afternoon, as traders assumed the candidate would be the recipient of a “sympathy vote.

“People will start to see Bolsonaro as a victim,” said Luiz Roberto Monteiro, an analyst with Renascenca brokerage

Thiago de Aragao, from political consultancy Arko added that “some might interpret that if the ‘left’ did this, the chance of them losing increases considerably.” However, he added that it’s too soon to point to correlation between stabbing and markets, and that if that proves true it shows “how the market is completely lost in their interpretation of the campaign.”

Bolsonaro, once feared by investors because of comments against privatizations and private investments, has become the most viable option against the left. The incident “increases Bolsonaro’s election chances,” said Richard Back, head of Latin America political strategy at XP Investimentos, at a time the candidate was losing votes.

Brazil’s Bolsonaro Lost 40% Of Blood After Knife Attack By Crazed ‘Socialist’

09/07/2018

We previously detailed the shocking stabbing incident involving Brazil’s far-right candidate for president Jair Bolsonaro – called “Brazil’s Donald Trump” due to his at time eccentric behavior and policy suggestions – during a parade in the city Juiz de Fora Thursday. Bolsonaro’s had suffered severe blood loss and arrived to the hospital “almost dead” according to his family, but his situation has stabilized as he remains in intensive care.

Significantly, only one month ahead of a presidential election in Brazil, the man commonly described in local media as “Brazil’s Donald Trump” and who was a presidential front-runner and current congressman will take at least two months to recover from the serious wounds, according to medical staff treating the presidential candidate.

Hospital director Eunice Dantas told reporters on Friday that Bolsonaro had lost about 40 percent of his blood, or more than two liters, resulting in his being in shock upon arrival after the knife penetrated 12cm (4.7in) into his abdomen. Doctors now report him to be “in excellent clinical condition” after emergency surgery.

Citing medical sources, Reuters reports of Bolsonaro’s medical status after he suffered the deep wound to his lower stomach:

Congressman Bolsonaro, who has enraged many Brazilians for years with controversial comments but has a devout following among conservative voters, could take two months to fully recover and will spend at least a week in hospital, said Dr. Luiz Henrique Borsato, who operated on the candidate.

“His internal wounds were grave and put the patient’s life at risk,” Borsato said. The challenge now is preventing infection that could result from the perforation of Bolsonaro’s intestines, he said.

He’s since tweeted that he’s doing well and recuperating; however, in a video message ot his supporters Bolsonario acknowledged he had been in “intolerable” pain and had “never hurt anyone”.

Police have arrested 40-year-old Adelio Obispo de Oliveira, and say they are currently investigating his mental health. He reportedly told police he was “on a mission from God” and has been described as a socialist.

Immediately after the attack he was beaten by angry supporters of the 63-year old presidential candidate before being taken into custody.

Video footage of the attack has since gone viral, and Brazilian media reports the political process ahead of the upcoming presidential election is in tatters and remains uncertain.

The suspected attacker, Oliveira, was reportedly a member of the left-leaning PSOL party from 2007 to 2014. And multiple reports further note that just prior to the attack he posted messages criticizing Bolsonaro and praised the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

According to local media reports, Pedro Augusto Lima Possa, the suspect’s lawyer said his client has confessed to the knife attack.

Possa said, “Adelio confessed and claimed responsibility for the attack. But he said he had not intended to kill [Bolsonaro].”

“He said he acted due to political and religious reasons, against Bolsonaro’s prejudices,” Possa added in separate statements to Bloomberg. “He acted without anyone else’s participation nor on anyone’s order.”

And consistent with media reports presenting the attacker as mentally disturbed, a local news interview revealed the following, per Bloomberg:

In the video posted on local news websites, de Oliveira says no one but “God above” ordered him to carry out the attack.

In recent years, the attacker had begun talking to himself, responding out loud to television political news, and presenting disturbing ideas to relatives, his niece Jussara Ramos told BuzzFeed. Possa declined to comment about his client’s mental health.

Bolsonaro has relied heavily on social media and rallies across the country in a grass roots populist oriented campaign,thus his inability to take to the streets and give speeches could greatly impact the results.

President Temer, an unpopular leader, is not standing for re-election, and millions of voters remain undecided.

Mr Bolsonaro is expected to have a strong first round but lose a run-off to leftist Ciro Gomes, environmentalist Marina Silva or ex-Governor of Sao Paulo Geraldo Alckmin, according to leading research company Ibope. — BBC

However, Flavio Bolsonaro, the candidate’s son, made a surprise statement on Friday, saying “the attack was a political boost”.

Indeed with Bolsonaro’s story of surviving this vicious attack now spread across the globe, and with an outpouring of sympathy from Brazilians, many of which are still on the fence regarding the upcoming election in October, this could be the very thing that pushes him over the edge to victory.

You are here to reveal the light as a sign of glorious life

God Said:

Beloved, from Heaven you come, and you come to share light on Earth for the sake of humanity and all sentient creatures and the Universe forever and a day. You are here to reveal light as a signal of glorious life to come. You are not here to reveal drapes of darkness hanging over light. Light is truthfulness. Light shines through to the human heart no matter what coverings may figure in. You are indebted to light. Light is yours to reveal.

You are indebted to the light of love, and so you set light and love aflame in a burst of radiant light. Radiant, you are here on Earth precisely to light up love to reveal itself beyond a doubt. Be gracious with the light you shine. The more the merrier. Light up the world, and light up life. This isn’t a whole lot I ask of you. Shine your light on the world. You are certainly not to hide your light. Shine your light far and wide. Make what I say come true before everyone’s eyes. Shine on, Harvest Moon. Shine My Light of Love. Shine high and wide. Yes, love is to be taken as a matter of course. Introduce bright light under whatever dusk you may imagine you are hidden. Come out of the shadows now into the bright stage lights that reveal all.

Absolutely, you are here for something. You are not here for nothing. You are not here on Earth just to float around. There are good reasons why you are here. You are not interim. Maybe you are here on Earth simply to shine light to sparkle forth with brilliance and get-up-and-go.

You do know that light is known, and light is known as a gift.

Who does not like to look at sparkling light beaming off the waves of the ocean with joy? Who does not like to look at eyes that reflect their inner light? Who does not like to look at irridescent light splashing light itself? Light thrills your spine and heart. Everyone knows that light universally suggests a treasure. Starlight reflects volumes of light deep to the core.

There are light displays all over the world. There is light to spare, to say nothing of dawning and setting suns. What kind of Earth would there be without rising and setting suns? Who could think of an Earth without light dazzling? Who would want to get up in the morning without such a spectacle? Hail to the Sun! It stirs your blood. There is nothing like it, this radical radiating moving light that reveals itself brightly. What natural light than this can be released without cease? Now is the time for you to shine for all the world to see. Not even once again are you to cover your eyes. Stand out now in front of the stage lights. You are not a second string light-bringer.

When you hide yourself, you diminish yourself. This is not the way you are to disclose yourself. Stand up straight. This is the way to open yourself up to life and declare life beautiful. Your eyes are to be seen in front of God and everybody. No longer do you shield your eyes. Your eyes are to be seen front and center. Forthright are you now.

Stellar are you. Take your place in the firmament. Make your voice heard. You are a singer of God’s wares. This is not arguable. Stand in the open where you are destined to be.

No longer are you even to consider taking a back seat. You are God-bound. You are elegant, once and for all. Rise to your natural height. Declare yourself once and for all as God’s beloved child.

» Source » Channel: Gloria Wendroff

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