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Since starting Pristiq I have had more stomach issues within the last year than I have had in my entire 32 year lifetime. Seriously, even liquids won’t stay down. I’ll be starving, go sit down to eat and it’s just fear of what’s gonna come back up later. I just want to be able to eat real food and have it stay in my body long enough for nutrients to be absorbed, then leave after fully digested out of the proper end….
I am a shell of the person I was before starting this. Starting weight was 142lb and here I am today at 112lbs. I can’t afford to lose anymore weight. Everyone I’m related to is concerned about my weight loss and I am too. My white cell count is low - so low that I am seeing a hematologist to run tests upon tests. They think my white cell count is down because of lack of nutrition. Someone employed by the hospital just can’t bring themselves to say their buddy the drug manufacturer could formulate such poison….
how can I get more nutrients when they won’t stay down for more than 20mins??
Seriously I have been at my wits end. Crying when I’m not puking. My poor boyfriend, he’s baffled as to why I’m always so sick. But he did actually wonder if Pristiq could be what’s causing my problems. What a man… he really is always right🤦🏼‍♀️
For real though people - if you’re thinking of starting Pristiq I’ll say this - DON’T! STAY AWAY FROM PRISTIQ! There are other options out there and you can find something that works without having to ruin your upper GI tract, hematology and overall well-being.
side note - we all respond to meds uniquely and my experience does not set the precedence for yours; however, make sure to thoroughly research any drug you’re considering to uncover all possible side effects that way you at least have the awareness to make an informed decision about your health
and there’s no pill to replace will power and mental stamina - sometimes you gotta just use what you’ve got or work to develop it until it’s there
I sure do wish my doctor had clearly defined what side effects I might encounter instead of just generalizing. Had I known what I know now I would have cried a river before I jumped on the Pristiq ship.
I started at 25mg, then up to 50mg. Doc said I could do 100 mg so I did for a month or two but pulled back because I told myself I wanted to stay at the lowest dose. Today I am on 50mg and tapering. They have 25mg in my country so I’m going to fill my refill for that to make tapering easier. Anyone saying it’s not a big deal to cold turkey from 50mg is proof that doctors will write scripts without any knowledge of how a drug’s molecular biology metabolizes in the individual body.

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Background, feel free to skip:
A couple weeks back my wife and I were talking about our formative teenage years. We had fun reminiscing about the dumb and the good, and it somehow came up that as nerdy and geeky as it is, one of my fondest memories from high school was spending months worth of DKP to be the first in my guild to get the T6 chest piece and the mace from Illidan in the same night. I explained to her how exhilarating it was to get that Illidan kill and how cool it was to go back to Orgrimmar and stand on top of that small building (you remember the one) and have dozens of people promptly gather around me to check out a full T6 shaman - something very rare on our realm at the time.
As I was further getting into things like how much coordination it took to clear Hyjal and BT, how we organized raid nights around school/work, what my duties as an officer and lead healer were, a wave of nostalgia and longing for those days took over me. While I haven't played since not long after the launch of Wrath due to life getting busier, I had a sudden urge to jump back into the game.
Sadly, I gave my account to a guild mate around 2009, so I couldn't recover my beloved troll shaman. As I didn't really expect to still have him, so after a moment of silence honoring Verdox, I went ahead and made a new account, bought Dragonflight and I jumped right back into the game. Here's where I'd appreciate some advice on class and role selection.
Onto the questions
So with a big dumb smile on my face I watched all the trailers, listened to lore videos for a couple weeks during my commute to work and made a brand new character (this time Ally; I do not like the new Orgrimmar and Sylvanas. I miss old Durotar, Barrens and Thrall already).
In the past, my main was Shaman. Restoration in raid, Elemental in arenas and battlegrounds. I loved that guy. Chain heal, chain lightning, ghost wolf, MANA TIDE saving the day more times than I can count. My alt was combat rogue, and while I couldn't utilize him raids, unless we had the rare alt night when they didn't need me healing, I liked him a lot in easier content; Kael'thas has died to my maces many times.
Today though I'm having some trouble commiting to a class. My partner in 2v2s and one of my best guildies was a frost mage, so started there (always wanted to play one, I love arcane magic lore). I leveled up my Draenei mage and I really liked it, but being a busy dad with 2 kids and a demanding job with long hours at times, I have concerns about being able to get into groups as a dps. Then again, I'm not convinced I have the extra time I need to put into learning all the dungeon routes to be an effective tank, so I once again may turn to healing. I have leveled a holy paladin and a holy priest: pally feels very nice, though AOE is a bit lacking, while the priest in general feels a little bit anemic in comparison, but it still plays just fine.
However, I'm very much concerned about the added stress of healing (or tanking). I'm an engineering manager in highly specialized field, meaning a buttload of stress I need to manage on a day to day basis. WoW for me this time around is a source of relaxation at the end of the day, or during a long pipe smoking session on the weekends. As such, even if I save queuing times by not playing dps, I have some reservations about playing heals due to the toll it may take on my mental health. Am I overthinking this? Should I stick with my mage or should I invest in a more sought after role? I'd appreciate y'all's thoughts on this. Thanks!
TL;DR: came back after 15 years. Stressful job with long hours, wonderful wife and 2 little kids. Playing to unwind in my beloved Azeroth and devour lore. Plan to do endgame. Prefer casters but concerned about queuing times. More concerned about how much stress healing or tanking might impose in 2023. Need insight from wonderful reddit people.

In my restless dreams... Oh wait that's the wrong franchise xDD
​
Hello GiftofGames!!!
Today I am making this post in hopes of getting a game called Resident Evil 4 Remake, a Remake of one of my all time favorite games and definitely my favorite RE game. I will try not to make this post too long but there are some things I wanna go over so that everyone reading this post can understand how much I actually love this entire franchise, Horror as a genre and Video Games overall.

Horror is comforting

My favorite genre in Video Games, Movies, Books, Manga and pretty much everything is Horror. One of the first movies I have ever watched was the original "Scream" and "The Ring" (2002) (Scream has remained my favorite Horror movie of all time!!). Last year I also started reading Horror Mangas with my favorite Manga writteartist being Junji Ito, and if that name is familiar to you it is probably because he was attached to the now canceled P.T. a.k.a. Silent Hills.
Maybe it's because I started watching those movies at a very young age, but Horror movies have always been my favorite genre and it's been no different with Video Games. My favorite game of all time is no other than Silent Hill 2, a game that I consider to be completely flawless and have finished it so many times that I have lost count by now!! Actually, my entire Steam account is Horror themed with lot's of gifs, Screenshots and Horror games.
I would love to hear what's your favorite scary movie? ;)

Resident Evil 4 redefined Gaming forever

Every Third Person over-the-shoulder game owes everything to RE4. What Capcom managed to make with RE4 on Gamecube is nothing short of spectacular. Game being ported on pretty much every platform imaginable just proves how much general public loved and enjoyed re-playing this game over and over again.
Gameplay was smooth and responsive. There were so many unlockables and juuust the right amount of collectibles that made every playthrough fresh and enjoyable. Being able to unlock different Weapons and Outfits was something that made me keep coming back to replay this game whenever I had nothing else to play.
The cheesy humor was definitely done well in RE4, there were so many hilarious moments that fans have been making memes of for decades now. I mean there is literally a character in the game called Big Cheese!!
I hope I haven't been ranting here for too long... Wait, where is everyone going? Bingo? ;)

RE4R Demo is out

So, a while back Capcom actually released RE4R Demo on Steam and Consoles and the reason why I haven't played it for more than like 20 minutes or so is because I wanted to experience everything fresh when I get to play the full and complete game. I wanted to avoid it completely but being as weak as I am... I had to at least try it out. (x_x)
Gameplay, Atmosphere, Graphics and Character animations and dialogues were so well done. The reviews were not lying when they called this game a masterpiece!!
Something that I feared about this Remake was them missing out on that perfect atmosphere at the very beginning, when you get to control Leon for the first time. You enter that deep creepy forest, with little to no ambient sound with just one house at the end of the road and a single pistol hand. This perfect setup and feeling of loneliness is what drew me into this game completely when I played it for the first time. They managed to make you immersed into the game completely just with that first impression. And you know what they say about first impressions... ;)

I got all Achievements on RE2R and RE4

As you probably know, RE4 is a direct sequel to RE2 with many characters returning and this is the first time we got to see Leon after everything that has happened to him in RE2. There two games are actually my two favorite games in the entire franchise, I have played them and finished them numerous amount of times and overtime managed to get all of the Achievements for both of them!! (Which you can see on my Steam account and by clicking on link above).
RE4 also has my favorite Save Room theme out of all of the RE games titles "Serenity".

Why I can't afford it?

Okay let's talk about this now... Since I have lot's of games on my Steam account, it would make sense for me to be able to afford RE4R for myself right? Well... 60$ is actually a pretty big price for me. Only time when I can get a game or two for myself is when they are on sale and strictly only when they are on sale. I have never been able to buy a game that expensive since 60$ is like 1/4th of my total income.
If I do get this game gifted to me, I can assure you that I will spend lots of time playing it. The last game I got gifted here on this sub was Horizon Zero Dawn and I ended up playing it for 63h~ and I also got all of the Achievements for this game as well!! That's how much I value every game I got gifted here and money that people spend on those same games.
Even you, the reader, making it all the way down here to the very end of my post means a lot to me. I have tried including every important detail without making this post too big and long so to everyone taking the time of their lives and reading through everything I have one big THANK YOU to all of you!! I’m sure you boys didn’t just read all this so we can sing Kumbaya together at some boy scout bonfire.
ALSO BEFORE YOU LEAVE, I got a question for ya: What is your favorite Resident Evil game?

My socials

Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/bossoskin/
Resident Evil 4 Remake: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2050650/Resident_Evil_4/

In my country, letters of offer are not really a thing. I applied for a job in a foreign country and I received a letter of offer this morning at 7am (Wednesday). It says I have three days to accept the offer.
Ideally, I would like to give my answer on Saturday morning. Is that within the window? Basically my question is should i count today as day 1 or should I count day one 24 hours after receiving the offer?
Thanks in advance

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The lies we are teaching our children
Yesterday, I wrote about some states trying to ban drag queens, and now this. Are these politicians trying to take everyone's rights away? Sure, as hell looks like it. A Florida textbook publisher removed all references of race from a lesson about civil rights icon Rosa Parks in order to get a Florida committee’s approval, according to The New York Times.
Parks helped spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott after she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., bus in 1955. The theory has become a major point of contention for Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed legislation last year that prohibits instruction that could make students feel responsibility, guilt, or anguish for what other members of their race did in the past.
DeSantis’s administration has taken this law and used it to reject more than 40 math textbooks for allegedly incorporating “prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies,” including critical race theory. This year, his administration banned an Advanced Placement African American studies course from running in schools, accusing the college board of “indoctrination not education.”
So seriously, we are now taking the truth out of our textbooks because we don't like the way it makes us look? Are we trying to erase all that we did? The execution of Native Americans, the Holocaust, the years of slavery and the rights we took from Black people? Like that's supposed to make things better?
Our children need to know the horrors we did and the pain we caused to so many people. We can't just pretend it didn't happen. Otherwise, we are likely to repeat our mistakes. We need to teach our children the difference between right and wrong, and trying to pretend it never happened is definitely not doing this.
The first thing in order to change is to admit you have a problem. We must admit our wrongdoings. When we know better, we do better. That is how we grow.
So today my friends, I tell you all the time, be the change you want to see. These are people you voted into office, whether you voted for them or by not voting at all because you think your vote doesn't count. We need to protest, run for office, and get out and vote. That is the only way change will happen. We must tell our children that we made mistakes in the past and that we are trying to do better, not by pretending it never happened. You want to see change? Then be the change you want to see.

The latest IRCC data helps paint a picture of where the Canadians of tomorrow hail from.
The arrival of immigrants is crucial to the continued health of Canada. The country hopes to not just integrate newcomers as permanent residents, but eventually as citizens who have strong ties and vested interests in Canada’s development and growth.
As a country largely comprised of immigrants, it can be pertinent to learn where the Canadians of tomorrow hail from, especially considering the newest immigration targets. The latest IRCC data yields some interesting insights into this question.

Top Source countries of 2022

In 2022, 374,554 permanent residents became Canadian citizens.
This is a huge increase from 2021, which saw little over a third of that number (137,079) transition to citizens—and a moderate increase from pre-pandemic numbers (250,000 new citizens welcomed in 2019)—a good sign that Canada’s immigration system is returning to normal functioning, and addressing domestic needs as required.
The most frequent country of birth among new citizens in 2022 was India, followed by the Philippines and then Syria, respectively.
The top ten birth countries of permanent residents (PRs) who transitioned to Canadian citizens are detailed below:
​

1. India (59,503 PRs transitioned to citizens);
2. Philippines (41,540 PRs);
3. Syria (20,355 PRs);
4. Pakistan (15,188);
5. Iran (13,082);
6. Nigeria (12,670);
7. People’s Republic of China (10,722);
8. United States of America (9,215);
9. France (8,163); and
10. Iraq (7,692).

India remains in top spot

For a second year in a row, India has been the top source of new Canadian citizens. In 2021, Canada welcomed 20,866 new citizens from India—displacing the Philippines which had prior been the biggest source country for new citizens.
Within the last four years the top ten source countries of Canadian citizens have not much changed, however there has been a re-ordering of the countries. Of note has been the growth in Syrian PRs who have transitioned to citizens in recent years (third biggest source country). This is a sharp departure from 2019, when Syria did not feature at all in the top 10.
The same can be said about Pakistan, which (similarly absent from 2019’s top 10 source countries) is today the fourth most popular country of birth among new Canadian citizens. Formerly in the same territory was the People’s Republic of China, which has fallen from fourth in 2019 to seventh in 2022.

What is the pathway from PR to Citizenship?

Once landed as a PR, those looking to become Canadian citizens must assess whether they are eligible to apply for citizenship, and when they can do so.
To be eligible for Canadian citizenship as a PR, one must:
​

• Be a permanent resident of Canada;
• File taxes if necessary;
• Pass a Canadian citizenship test (if between the ages of 18-54);
• Prove language skills (if between the ages of 18-54);
• Meet Canada’s physical presence requirements;

If all other factors are met, a PR applying for citizenship must have spent at least three of the last five years (1,095 days) physically in Canada to be eligible for citizenship (unless under exceptional circumstances).
If an applicant has spent time in Canada as a temporary resident or protected person, they can count each day in Canada under this status, as half a day towards the physical presence requirement (with a cap of 365 eligible days towards the physical presence requirement).
Children under 18 who are applying must still be PRs but can waive the physical presence requirement.

Everything’s gotta eat right? It’s as natural as breathing…well usually it’s natural. Some things don’t breathe. Like rocks, water, and the undead. All of those things don’t breathe, and that’s very natural for them. But in general, if it can breed, it can usually breathe. That makes sense right?
I am sorry. I tend to get a little lost in the moment when I think by myself. It’s a rare treat. Anyways, as I was saying, everything has to eat. Even things that I once thought impossible have to eat. Fortunately for most of us, as the world changed the things that would eat us found it a lot harder to get away with just snatching up a local civilian like we snatch up so many dollar cheeseburgers. It’s a lot harder to be a monster in the modern world, at least that is what I am told by my customers. Everyone is a photographer now.
Long gone are the days of the rare lucky photographer catching a glimpse of the supernatural. Now anyone and everyone can be that lucky photographer. You see monsters are a lot like celebrities. They desire a privacy they can never have because of who they are. In that way monsters are kind of a sad group of beings. Quite prone to loneliness as their numbers have dwindled over the years.
That’s where I come in. I provide two very essential services to the monster community of the Midwest. Firstly, I acquire suitable food and sundries so that they may live out their lives and unlives in peace and comfort. Secondly, I provide a small amount of company to the more lonely individuals of the monster community. Well the lonely ones who won’t express their emotions by ripping out my stomach. The job pays immensely well and the service is provided by a company I won’t mention by name. You can probably guess which one though…like if you think about which delivery company probably feeds monsters…it’s not hard to figure out which one it is. I like my job most of the time, but some clients really freak me out.
One such client is the subject of this little online journal entry of mine. See there’s this guy…creature…collective…let’s go with guy, he’s kind of hard to deal with. See first of all he eats an insane amount. Literally eight horses was what I was delivering. The other problem was talking to him. He’s kind of insane and scares the living shit out of me. The special instructions for his deliveries always mention he is “mostly harmless”, but I just can’t shake the feeling that’s inaccurate. He has told me multiple times that “my digestion is inevitable”, which I am not sure what to make of that. I am not sure if that’s a death threat or what? I just know it scares the fuck out of me.
I remember the other me having a good ole time taunting me during the delivery too. Oh, yeah btw there is another me. Not like two physical copies of myself, that would be silly, no there’s like another copy of me living in my head. It’s not like a mental illness or some kind of witch's curse or anything. Just something that I was born with. It’s like a copy of myself that doesn’t have to interact with the world, and is therefore uncaring as to our ultimate fate or comfort. So mostly it just bullies me.
“Aw, is Sam afraid of the big bad flesh beast? Are you gonna break out in a panic sweat?” They taunted me.
“I mean probably. It’s hot out and I am anxious as hell. You know I don’t like dealing with the Flesh thing.” I replied to the other me.
“I like him. He’s kinda like us. Except instead of two people, he’s like thousands. Also all of him agrees and is pretty much uniform. Unlike us where one of us is cool, and the other is an aimless loser.”
“You’re more than welcome to come out and take control. Feel free to do this shitty run for me.”
“Nah, I like to watch.”
“Except when I am eating cheesecake. Right?”
“You don’t even like cheesecake. You buy that for me, and you know it.”
Thankfully, me and my other self don’t share the same thoughts. So I always have a nice quiet place in my own mind to get away from…myself. Yeah…anyway, I was able to tune myself out and run over the checklist for the delivery. Once I got to their home I had to drive around back to the well. Then press the button on the side of the trailer to release the horses, then kinda just be generally out of the way. The feeding is more or less the easy part. The hard part is talking to him. I really don’t wanna talk about tapeworms again…I now know so much about tapeworms that I wish I didn't. Did you know you can get a tapeworm in your brain? Fucking gross!I continued to snake through the rural roads of a small farming town looking for the dilapidated farmhouse the app was trying to direct me to. That in and of itself also frightened me. I have never liked driving through the less populous areas of the Midwest. It’s too dark, too many deer coming out of nowhere, nothing around if you break down, and just oppressively devoid of anything resembling human life. Despite my preoccupation with all my passive hatred for the country, I did find the farmhouse. Even though the mailbox was rusted and damaged, the numbers 1552 still shined as though they were new. I began carefully maneuvering my truck up the poorly maintained dirt driveway. I grew more anxious with each pothole I drove over in the driveway. The loud metallic clunks from the truck and attached trailer somehow amplified by the empty night. As I made my way around the crumbling farmhouse and saw the well, I veered off into the grass so that I could back the trailer up to the well. Through my side mirror I spotted some movement from within the well.
“He seems especially hungry today.” Said the other me. “Better hurry! I would hate to see what he does when he gets impatient”.
I really don’t like the other me. I am absolutely no help to myself. When the truck was finally in position, I opened my center console and removed the firearm the company provides. It was for all intents and purposes a normal Glock. What was special were the magazines and bullets. See in this line of work tasers and pepper spray don’t work all that well. What does work are bullets of varying types. My usual magazine has what we call the “safety stack”, the first 2 bullets are warding bullets enchanted with some kind of old Viking runes. If those don’t work the next two shots are Iron and Silver. Iron and silver tend to at the very least be quite painful to most monsters. Then it’s a myriad of other potentially useful bullets the rest of the way down. Consecrated bullets, dead sea bullets, etc. Ending with a final incendiary bullet that would either do the trick on them or me, depending on what I decided to do should I need it. I did not choose my a safety stack for this, I chose my all incendiary magazine and loaded it.
I got out of the vehicle with a flashlight in hand and went to the button on the side of the trailer. I could hear the horses inside getting antsy, I felt bad for them…but we all had to eat. I pressed the button and allowed the back doors to swing open, there was an instant scuffling amongst the horses as they tried to flee the trailer. It was short-lived though as a mass of sickly pink and red meat projected out of the well and sealed off the horses’ exodus. There was a sound of crunching bone and distressed horses. A sanguine dribble grew louder and louder as the fluids of dying horses leaked onto the metallic trailer floor. The smell of freshly slaughtered meat mixed with the putrid smell of the flesh beast, creating a smell that threatened to turn me vegan. I waited patiently, I still had the other part of my job to do. I still had to keep the creature company. My hand hovered over the “timer start” button on the app, intending to press it as soon as it started talking. I didn’t wanna spend any extra time around this thing.
After more time passed the creature finally dislodged from the entrance to the trailer and oozed its way toward me as a long pile of meat. There were still horse limbs sticking out of it, but if my experience was correct, they would not remain long. At about 15 feet away it took on a hulking form that could almost be described as human at a distance. Two vacuous holes formed on its face, then a slit for a mouth. It opened its mouth wide as pieces of its gooey flesh snapped and popped with sickening moistness.
“Thank you Sam, I was starving. Another day or two and I would have had to find my own food,” It said with a bubbly and muddled voice.
“Not a problem Cole, would have been here sooner but the guys loading up the horses were late today.” I said, starting the in app timer. 30 minutes to go.
“Oh it’s perfectly all right. I am happy to see you again, it’s so rare to meet people who don’t run in terror at the sight of me.”
I felt a little bad at hearing this. Monsters are universally lonely, and Cole was no exception. He scared the living shit out of me, and my heart was going a mile a minute, but still I couldn’t help but open up a bit to the monster’s loneliness.
“Well you have like thousands of minds inside you. Right?” I asked.
“12,136 human minds, but a far greater number of animal minds. I have lost count of how many of those I have. I assume though you mean the human ones.”
“Well do any of those minds understand why most people run?”
“Yes, many do. They feared before they were one with me, and now they are without fear. They do remember the fear though. Such an unpleasant sensation. I have no idea why your kind allows it. Would it not be easier to beat fear out of human children?”
“Yeah, child abuse is not really tolerated in modern society. There have been a few people who have tried what you are describing, but it usually results in less than ideal results. I am pretty sure that’s how most serial killers are made.” I responded, looking down at the timer on the app.
It was gonna be a long one. Not more than a minute in and Cole was already talking about beating children to eliminate fear. At least he wasn’t talking about tapeworms again. I don’t think I could have had another conversation about tapeworms. This was also adequately uncomfortable though.
“What is wrong with being a serial killer?”
“Well, we as a species have kinda decided we don’t like when one of our own just starts shamelessly murdering people. I know that is probably a weird concept to someone like yourself though.” I responded, trying to be sensitive to the creature's world view.
It brought a meaty facsimile of a hand to its “chin”, and stroked it as though it had a beard. It made a sound like mixing ground beef by hand. It also allowed his very unique smell of rot and decay to emanate more freely. I suppressed a desire to vomit, and maintained a plastic smile.
“Is war not shameless murder?”
“Yeah…yeah it is.” I answered hesitantly.
“Your kind seems to like those quite a lot. Why else would you all be constantly fighting and killing each other?”
“Well no one actually likes war. Also those usually occur because powerful politicians order it or some sort of land dispute. Or someone wants more natural resources…” I was cut off,
“Yes, but people willingly sign up for the military knowing full well they may be called to fight. They know the risk, they volunteer to kill, they volunteer for THE HARVEST” Cole croaked this out, working himself into a frenzy.
I shifted my weight to my other leg, passing the flashlight’s beam over his body. I could see his mincemeat flesh growing red, a tell tale sign of agitation outlined in his customer profile. I felt as adrenaline began coursing through my veins and attempted to control my breathing to mitigate its effects.
“Why would humans willingly partake in a harvest if they did not desire it. Do not all humans desire death, they seem so willing to race head first into the maw of oblivion. Such a waste. If only it was the old days. The people who lived here long ago, when they were near death, they would come to me and join in my majesty. They respected me, they wanted to live on in me. They chose this” Cole said, reaching into his chest area and removing a brain from his mass. “This woman here, her name lost to time, lives within me. Her life was stolen from the void to live on through me in infinite ecstasy! Why would humans choose anything other than this? Why have I been forgotten!”
“Well that’s a lot to unpack and I don’t know the whole story. I imagine though it must be frustrating, the way things are now. It must be hard to keep it all in.” I said, trying to seize control of my rapidly increasing heart rate. “Surely though you respect a person's right to choose how they rest?”
“Why would I respect an inferior choice? Do you respect the choices of a drug addict?”
“No, but I understand and empathize with them. It’s not my place to judge them or control them.”
“You only say that because you cannot. I could help everyone. I can help you.” Cole took a hulking step towards me. “I could take you into our being. I could separate the two of you. Finally let the both of you have the distance from each other you need.”
“I think we’re doing ok as we are. We clash sometimes, but we do our best to get along. I do appreciate the offer though.” I said frantically, trying to decide whether or not to pull my firearm.
“It’s not an offer. I must separate you two. Your minds call out to me for freedom. Fear not sweet meat, you are merely a protein prison. Your minds need to be freed, too long have they festered in their confinement.”
“Cole, I am not on the menu. We’ve discussed this.” I drew my firearm.
“Anything I can catch is on the menu!” He shrieked, raising a fleshy arm above his head.
At this point, I was well within my contractual rights with the company to open fire. So I did, I loosed every last round in the magazine. My eye’s burned as they tried to adjust to the bright flashes of the bullets contacting Cole’s skin. Several pieces of his fleshy mass were now immolating, and this caused him to step back and away from me. I took this momentary opening to jump into my vehicle and tear ass down the driveway. I must have blacked out from fear because I didn’t really remember anything until about 2 miles down the road. I remember feeling very dizzy and ill. I remember looking at the app and pushing the little bell icon in the right corner of the app. Clicking “report harassment”, and then speaking to one of the driver care specialists. I remember reporting everything I could remember, and getting a bonus payment on the delivery. It all happened as though I was in a dream, as though I was not in control of myself. I felt so detached. Then I sat for I don’t know how long. Feeling bad about having shot Cole, even though I was within my rights. Feeling bad that Cole felt so alone and powerless. I just couldn’t help but feel bad.
After a while I calmed down and came here to write this down. I guess to vent? To just feel heard? I am not a hundred percent sure. Other me says it’s “a waste of time” and “no one cares about your stupid independent contractor gig”. Maybe they’re right, but I do feel better for having written it down. If I have any more bad nights I'll post them here. If nothing else, but for the therapeutic value.
Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/u5l8mf/i_deliver_food_to_monsters_part_2/
Part 3: https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/u7wnas/i_deliver_food_to_monsters_part_3/
Part 4: https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/ubis95/i_deliver_food_to_monsters_part_4/
Part 5: https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/uen5d2/i_deliver_food_to_monsters_part_5/

Over the past decades, yoga has become part of the Zeitgeist of affluent western societies, drawing housewives and hipsters, new agers and the aged, and body culture and corporate culture into a multibillion-dollar synergy. Like every Indian cultural artifact that it has embraced, the West views Indian yoga as an ancient, unchanging tradition, based on revelations received by the Vedic sages who, seated in the lotus pose, were the Indian forerunners of the flat-tummied yoga babes who grace the covers and webpages of such glossy periodicals and internet websites as the Yoga Journal and Yoga International.
In the United States in particular, yoga has become a commodity. as of 2018, no fewer than 36 million Americans were practicing yoga every year. For most people, this has meant going to a yoga center with yoga mats, yoga clothes, and yoga accessories, and practicing in groups under the guidance of a yoga instructor or trainer. here, yoga practice comprises a regimen of postures (āsanas), sometimes held for long periods of time, sometimes executed in rapid sequence, and often paired with regulated breathing (prāṇāyāma). Yoga entrepreneurs have branded their own styles of practice, from the superheated workout rooms of Bikram Yoga studios to storefronts offering “doga”: practicing yoga together with one’s dog. They have opened franchises, invented logos, packaged their practice regimens under Sanskrit names, and marketed a lifestyle that fuses yoga with leisure travel, healing spas, and seminars on eastern spirituality. “Yoga celebrities” have become a part of our vocabulary, and with celebrity has come the usual entourage of publicists, business managers, and lawyers. Yoga is mainstream. arguably India’s greatest cultural export, yoga has morphed into a mass cultural phenomenon.
Many yoga celebrities, as well as a strong percentage of less celebrated yoga instructors, combine their training with teachings on healing, spirituality, meditation, and India’s ancient yoga traditions, the Sanskrit-language Yoga Sūtra (YS) in particular. here, they are following the lead of the earliest yoga entrepreneurs, the Indian gurus who brought the gospel of yoga to western shores in the wake of Swami Vivekananda’s storied successes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But what were India’s ancient yoga traditions, and what relationship do they have to the modern postural yoga that people are practicing across the world today? In fact, the yoga that is taught and practiced in the twenty-first century has very little in common with the yoga of the YS and other ancient yoga treatises. nearly all of our popular assumptions about yoga theory date from the past 150 years, and very few modern-day practices date from before the twelfth century. This is not the first time that people have “reinvented” yoga in their own image. This is a process that has been ongoing for at least two thousand years, with every age seemingly creating its own version and vision of yoga. one reason this has been possible is that yoga’s semantic field – the range of meanings of the term “yoga” – is so broad and the concept of yoga so malleable, that it has been possible to morph it into nearly any practice or process one might wish to choose. When seeking to define a tradition, it’s useful to begin by defining one’s terms, and it is here that problems arise. “Yoga” has a wider range of meanings than nearly any other word in the entire Sanskrit lexicon. The act of yoking an animal, as well as the yoke itself, is called yoga. In astronomy, a conjunction of planets or stars, as well as a constellation, is called yoga. When one mixes together various substances, that, too, can be called yoga. The word yoga has also been employed to denote a device, a recipe, a method, a strategy, a charm, an incantation, fraud, a trick, an endeavor, a combination, union, an arrangement, zeal, care, diligence, industriousness, discipline, use, application, contact, a sum total, and the Work of alchemists. But this is by no means an exhaustive list.
So, for example, the twentieth chapter of the ninth-century Netra Tantra, a Hindu scripture from Kashmir, describes what it calls gross, subtle and supreme yoga. Whereas gross yoga involves combating agents of demonic possession, subtle yoga is nothing more or less than a body of techniques for entering into and taking over other people’s bodies. As for supreme yoga, this is a process that involves superhuman female predators, called yoginīs, who eat people! By means of their supreme yoga, this text says, the yoginīs consume the sins of the body that would otherwise bind a person to suffering rebirth, and so open the way for the tantric practitioner’s identity with Śiva, that is, for his transformation into a god on earth. In this ninth-century source, there is no discussion whatsoever of postures or breath control, the prime markers of yoga as we know it today; and its discussion of the cakras appears, not in its chapter on the three yogas, but rather in its seventh chapter on dhyāna (“meditation”)! More troubling still, the third- to fourth-century YS and Bhagavad Gītā (Bhg), the two most widely cited textual sources for “classical yoga,” virtually ignore postures and breath control, each devoting a total of fewer than ten verses to these practices. They are far more concerned with the issue of human salvation, realized through the theory and practice of meditation in the YS and through concentration on the god Kṛṣṇa in the BhG.
INDIAN FOUNDATIONS OF YOGA THEORY AND PRACTICE
Clearly something is missing here. There is a gap between ancient, “classical,” yoga traditions and yoga as we know it. In order to understand the disconnect between then and now, we would do well to go back to the earliest uses of the term yoga, which are found in texts far more ancient than the YS or Bhg. here I am referring to India’s earliest scriptures, the Vedas. In the circa fifteenth-century BCE Ṛg Veda (RV), yoga meant, before all else, the yoke one placed on a draft animal – a bullock or warhorse – to yoke it to a plow or chariot. The resemblance of these terms is not fortuitous: the Sanskrit “yoga” is a cognate of the English “yoke,” because Sanskrit and English both belong to the Indo-European language family (which is why the Sanskrit mātṛ resembles the English “mother,” sveda looks like “sweat,” udara – “belly” in Sanskrit – looks like “udder,” and so forth). In the same scripture, we see the term’s meaning expanded through metonymy, with “yoga” being applied to the entire conveyance or “rig” of a war chariot: to the yoke itself, the team of horses or bullocks, and the chariot with its many straps and harnesses. and, because such chariots were only “yoked” (yukta) in times of war, an important Vedic usage of the term yoga was “wartime,” in contrast to kṣema, “peacetime.”
The Vedic reading of yoga as one’s war chariot or rig came to be incorporated into the warrior ideology of ancient India. In the Mahābhārata, India’s 200 BCE – 400 CE “national epic,” we find the earliest narrative accounts of the battlefield apotheosis of heroic chariot warriors. This was, like the Greek Iliad, an epic of battle, and so it was appropriate that the glorification of a warrior who died fighting his enemies be showcased here. What is interesting with respect to the history of the term yoga is that in these narratives, the warrior who knew he was about to die was said to become yoga-yukta, literally “yoked to yoga,” with “yoga” once again meaning a chariot. This time, however, it was not the warrior’s own chariot that carried him up to the highest heaven, reserved for gods and heroes alone. Rather, it was a celestial “yoga,” a divine chariot, that carried him upward in a burst of light to and through the sun, and on to the realm of the gods <“Were the eye not of the sun, How could we behold the light? If God’s might and ours were not as one, How could His work enchant our sight?” - Goethe>. Warriors were not the sole individuals of the Vedic age to have chariots called “yogas.” The gods, too, were said to shuttle across the heavens and between heaven and earth on yogas. Furthermore, the Vedic priests who sang the Vedic hymns related their practice to the yoga of the warrior aristocrats who were their patrons. In their hymns, they describe themselves as “yoking” their minds to poetic inspiration and so journeying – if only with their mind’s eye or cognitive apparatus – across the metaphorical distance that separated the world of the gods from the words of their hymns. a striking image of their poetic journeys is found in a verse from a late Rigvedic hymn, in which the poet-priests describe themselves as “hitched up” (yukta) and standing on their chariot shafts as they sally forth on a vision quest across the universe. [*6. Ṛg Veda 5.46.1, quoted in David Gordon White, Sinister Yogis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), pp. 59-67. The authoritative translation of the Ṛg Veda is Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India, 3 vols. (New York: oxford University Press, 2014).]
The earliest extant systematic account of yoga, and a bridge from the earlier Vedic uses of the term, is found in the Hindu Kaṭhaka Upaniṣad (KU), a scripture dating from about the third century BCE. Here, the god of death reveals what is termed the “entire yoga regimen” to a young ascetic named Naciketas. In the course of his teaching, death compares the relationship between the self, body, intellect, and so forth to the relationship between a rider, his chariot, charioteer, etc. (KU 3.3–9), a comparison which approximates that made by Plato in his Phaedrus (246a-256e). Three elements of this text set the agenda for much of what constitutes yoga in the centuries that follow. First, it introduces a sort of yogic physiology, calling the body a “fort with eleven gates” and evoking “a person the size of a thumb” who, dwelling within, is worshiped by all the gods (KU 4.12; 5.1, 3). Second, it identifies that individual person within with the universal Person (Puruṣa) or absolute Being (Brahman), asserting that This is what sustains life (KU 5.5, 8–10). Third, it describes the hierarchy of mind-body constituents – the senses, mind, intellect, etc – that comprise the foundational categories of India’s ancient Sāṃkhya philosophy, whose metaphysical system grounds the yoga of the YS, BhG, and other texts and schools (KU 3.10–11; 6.7–8). Because these categories were hierarchically ordered, the realization of higher states of consciousness was, in this early context, tantamount to an ascension through levels of outer space, and so we also find in this and other early Upaniṣads the concept of yoga as a technique for both “inner” and “outer” ascent. These same sources also introduce the use of acoustic spells or formulas (mantras), the most prominent among these being the syllable AUṂ or OṂ , the acoustic form of the supreme brahman. In the following centuries, mantras would become progressively incorporated into yogic theory and practice, in the medieval Tantras, as well as in the Yoga Upaniṣads.
Following this circa third-century BCE watershed, textual references to yoga multiply rapidly in Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist sources, reaching a critical mass some seven hundred to one thousand years later. It was during this initial burst that most of the perennial principles of yoga theory – as well as many elements of yoga practice – were originally formulated. Toward the latter end of this period, one sees the emergence of the earliest yoga systems, in the YS; the third- to fourth-century scriptures of the Buddhist Yogācāra school and fourth- to fifth-century Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosa; and the Yogadṛṣṭisamuccaya of the eighth-century Jain author Haribhadra. although it may be slightly later than the Yogācāra canon, the YS’s tightly ordered series of aphorisms is so remarkable and comprehensive as to be identified as “classical yoga.” also known as pātañjala yoga (“Patañjalian yoga”) in recognition of its putative compiler Patañjali, it lays out a program of “eight-limbed” (aṣṭāṅga) meditative practice that has been reprised in countless works and teachings, from tenth-century Java, Indonesia to nineteenth-century New York City.
The Yogācāra (“Yoga Practice”) school of Mahāyāna Buddhism was the earliest Buddhist tradition to employ the term yoga to denote its philosophical system. Also known as Vijñānavāda (“Doctrine of Consciousness”), Yogācāra offered a systematic analysis of perception and consciousness together with a set of meditative disciplines designed to eliminate the cognitive errors blocking liberation from suffering existence. Yogācāra’s eight-stage meditative practice itself was not termed yoga, however, but rather “calmness” (śamatha) or “insight” (vipaśyanā) meditation. The Yogācāra analysis of consciousness has many points in common with the more or less coeval YS, and there can be no doubt that cross-pollination occurred across religious boundaries in these matters. The Yogavāsiṣṭha (“Vasiṣṭha’s Teachings on Yoga”) – a circa tenth-century Hindu work from Kashmir that combined analytical and practical teachings on “yoga” with vivid mythological accounts illustrative of its analysis of consciousness – takes positions similar to those of Yogācāra concerning errors of perception and the human inability to distinguish between our flawed apprehension of reality and Reality itself.
The Jains were the last of India’s great religions to employ the term yoga to imply anything remotely resembling “classical” formulations of yoga theory and practice. The earliest Jain uses of the term, found in Umāsvāti’s fourth- to fifth-century Tattvārthasūtra (6.1–2), the earliest extant systematic work of Jain philosophy, defined yoga as “activity of the body, speech, and mind.” as such, yoga was, in early Jain parlance, actually an impediment to liberation. here, yoga could only be overcome through its opposite, ayoga (“non-yoga,” inaction) – that is, through meditation (jhāṇa; dhyāna), asceticism, and other practices of purification to undo the effects of earlier activity. While strongly influenced by the YS, Haribhadra’s circa 750 Yogadṛṣṭisamuccaya, the earliest systematic Jain work on yoga, nonetheless retained much of Umāsvāti’s terminology, even as it referred to observance of the path as yogācāra.
This is not to say that between the fourth century BCE and the second to fourth centuries CE, neither the Buddhists nor the Jains were engaging in practices that we might today identify as yoga. To the contrary, early Buddhist sources like the Majjhima Nikāya – the “Middle-length Sayings” attributed to the Buddha himself – are replete with references to self-mortification and meditation as practiced by the Jains, which the Buddha condemned and contrasted to his own set of four meditations. In the Aṅguttara Nikāya (“Gradual Sayings”), another body of instruction attributed to the Buddha, one finds descriptions of jhāyins (“meditators,” “experientialists”) that closely resemble early Hindu descriptions of practitioners of yoga. Their ascetic practices – never termed yoga in these early sources – were likely innovated within the various itinerant śramana groups that circulated in the eastern Gangetic basin in the latter half of the first millennium BCE.
Even as the term yoga began to appear with increasing frequency between 300 BCE and 400 CE, its meaning was far from fixed. It is only in later centuries that a relatively systematic yoga nomenclature became established among Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains. By the beginning of the fifth century, the basic principles of yoga were more or less in place, with most of what followed being variations on that original core. Here, we would do well to outline these principles, which have persisted through time and across traditions for some two thousand years. They may be summarized as follows:

1. Yoga as an analysis of perception and cognition.

Yoga is an analysis of the dysfunctional nature of everyday perception and cognition, which lies at the root of suffering, the existential conundrum whose solution is the goal of every school of Indian philosophy. Once one comprehends the cause(s) of the problem, one can solve it through philosophical analysis combined with meditative practice.
At bottom, India’s many yoga traditions are soteriologies, doctrines of salvation, concerning the attainment of release from suffering existence and the cycle of rebirths (saṃsāra). The problem of suffering existence and the allied doctrine of cyclic rebirth emerges about five centuries before the beginning of the Common era, in the early Upaniṣads as well as the original teachings of the Jain founder Mahāvıra and the Buddhist founder Gautama Buddha. The same teachings that posit the problem of suffering existence also offer a solution to the problem, which may be summarized by the word “gnosis” (jñāna or prajñā in Sanskrit; paññā in Pali). as such, these are also to be counted among the earliest Indian epistemologies, philosophical theories of what constitutes authentic knowledge. Gnosis – transcendent, immediate, non-conventional knowledge of ultimate Reality, of the reality behind appearances – is the key to salvation in all of these early soteriologies, as well as in India’s leading philosophical schools, many of which emerged in the centuries around the beginning of the Common era. As such, these may be termed gnoseologies, theories of salvation through knowledge, in which to know the truth (i.e., that in spite of appearances, one is, in fact, not trapped in suffering existence) is to realize it in fact. The classic example of such a transformation is that of the Buddha: by realizing the Four noble Truths, he became the “awakened” or “enlightened one” (Buddha), and so was liberated from future rebirths, realizing the definitive extinction of suffering (nibbāna; nirvāṇa) at the end of his life.
In all of these systems, the necessary condition for gnosis is the disengagement of one’s cognitive apparatus from sense impressions and base matter (including the matter of the body). an important distinguishing characteristic of all Indian philosophical systems is the axiom that the mind or mental capacity (manas, citta) is part of the body**: it is the “sixth sense,” which, located in the heart, is tethered to the senses of hearing, seeing, tasting, touching, and smelling, as well as their associated bodily organs.** What this means is that Indian philosophy rejects the mind-body distinction. In doing so, however, it does embrace another distinction. This is the distinction between the mind-body complex on the one hand, and a higher cognitive apparatus – called buddhi (“intellect”), antaḥkaraṇa, vijñāna (both translatable as “consciousness”), etc. – on the other. In these early sources, the term yoga is often used to designate the theory and practice of disengaging the higher cognitive apparatus from the thrall of matter, the body, and the senses (including mind). Yoga is a regimen or discipline that trains the cognitive apparatus to perceive clearly, which leads to true cognition, which in turn leads to salvation, release from suffering existence. Yoga is not the sole term for this type of training, however. In early Buddhist and Jain scriptures as well as many early Hindu sources, the term dhyāna (jhāna in the Pali of early Buddhist teachings, jhāṇa in the ardhamagadhi vernacular of early Jain scripture), most commonly translated as “meditation,” was far more frequently employed. So it is that Hindu sources like the BhG and YS, as well as a number of Buddhist Mahāyāna works, frequently use yoga, dhyāna, and bhāvanā (“cultivation,” “contemplation”) more or less synonymously, while early Jain and Buddhist texts employ the term dhyāna in its various spellings, exclusively. Both the YS and the noble eightfold Path of Buddhism also employ the term samādhi (“concentration”) for the culminating stage of meditation. At this stage, all objects have been removed from consciousness, which thereafter continues to exist in isolation (kaivalyam), forever liberated from all worldly entanglements. Kaivalyam is also employed in Jain soteriology for the final state of the fully purified liberated soul.
The BhG, the philosophical charter of “classical” Hindu theism, uses the term yoga in the broad sense of “discipline” or “path,” and teaches that the paths of gnosis (jñāna-yoga) and action (karma-yoga) are inferior to the path of devotion to an all-powerful and benevolent supreme being (bhakti-yoga). however, here as well, it is the constant training of the cognitive faculties – to meditatively concentrate on god in order to accurately perceive him as the ground of all being and knowledge – that brings about salvation. In this teaching, revealed by none other than the supreme being Kṛṣṇa himself, the devotee whose disciplined meditation is focused on god alone is often referred to as a yogin. The BhG is possibly the first but by no means the last body of teaching to use the term yoga preceded by an adjective or modifier (karma-, jñāna-, bhakti-), thereby acknowledging – but also creating – a variety of yogas.

1. Yoga as the raising and expansion of consciousness.

Through analytical inquiry and meditative practice, the lower organs or apparatus of human cognition are suppressed, allowing for higher, less obstructed levels of perception and cognition to shine forth. here, consciousness raising on a cognitive level is seen to be simultaneous with the “physical” rise of the consciousness or self through ever-higher levels or realms of cosmic space. Reaching the level of consciousness of a god, for example, is tantamount to rising to that deity’s cosmological level, to the atmospheric or heavenly world that deity inhabits. This is a concept that likely flowed from the experience of the Vedic poets, who, by “yoking” their minds to poetic inspiration, were empowered to journey to the farthest reaches of the universe. The physical rise of the dying yoga-yukta chariot warrior to the highest cosmic plane may have also contributed to the formulation of this idea.
Another implication of this concept is the notion that the expansion of consciousness is tantamount to the expansion of the self to the point that one’s body or person becomes coextensive with the entire universe. The 289th chapter of the twelfth book of the Mahābhārata concludes with a description of just such an expansion, and one finds a similar description in the Jain Umāsvāti’s fourth- to fifth century Praśamaratiprakaraṇa. Several Mahāyāna Buddhist sources contain accounts of enlightened beings whose “constructed bodies” (nirmāṇakāya) expand to fill the universe; and the Bhg’s description of the god Krsna’s universal body (viśvarūpa), through which he displays his “masterful yoga,” is of the same order.
Also in this regard, it should be noted that attention to the breath has been a key element of the theory and practice of meditation from the earliest times. Mindfulness of one’s breathing is introduced in such early sources as the Majjhima Nikāya as a fundamental component of Theravāda Buddhist meditation. In early Hindu sources as well, controlling and stilling the breath is a prime technique for calming the mind and turning it inward, away from the distractions of sensory perception . Ātman, the term for the “self ” or “soul” in the classical Upaniṣads and later works, is etymologically linked to the Sanskrit verb *an, “breathe,” and it is via breath channels (nāḍīs) leading up from the heart – channels that merge with the rays of the sun – that the self is released from the body at death to merge with the absolute (brahman) at the summit of the universe (Chāndogya Upaniṣad 8.6.1-6). These descriptions of the breath channels also lie at the origin of yogic or “subtle” body physiology, which would become fleshed out in great detail in India’s medieval tantric scriptures. In these and later works, the breath-propelled self’s rise through the levels of the universe would become completely internalized, with the spinal column doubling as the universal axis mundi, and the practitioner’s own cranial vault becoming the place of the absolute brahman and locus of immortality.

1. Yoga as a path to omniscience.

Once it was established that true perception or true cognition enables a self’s enhanced or enlightened consciousness to rise or expand to reach and penetrate distant regions of space – to see and know things as they truly are beyond the illusory limitations imposed by a deluded mind and sense perceptions – there were no limits to the places to which consciousness could go. These “places” included past and future times, locations distant and hidden, and even places invisible to view. This insight became the foundation for theorizing the type of extrasensory perception known as “yogi perception” (yogipratyakṣa), which is in many Indian epistemological systems the highest of the “true cognitions” (pramāṇas), in other words, the supreme and most irrefutable of all possible sources of knowledge. For the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika school, the earliest Hindu philosophical school to fully analyze this basis for transcendent knowledge, yogi perception is what permitted the Vedic seers (ṛṣis) to apprehend, in a single panoptical act of perception, the entirety of the Vedic revelation, which was tantamount to viewing the entire universe simultaneously, in all its parts. For the Buddhists, it was this that provided the Buddha and other enlightened beings with the “buddha-eye” or “divine eye,” which granted them of a vision of the true nature of reality. For the early seventh-century Mādhyamika philosopher Candrakīrti, yogi perception afforded direct and profound insight into his school’s highest truth, that is, into the emptiness (śunyatā) of things and concepts, as well as relationships between things and concepts. Yogi perception remained the subject of lively debate among Hindu and Buddhist philosophers well into the medieval period.
It was a widely held precept among ascetic traditions that extrasensory insight into the ultimate nature of reality, a sort of omniscience, could be attained through meditative practice. here, there were two schools of thought concerning the attainment of such insight. The Jains and a number of Hindu and Buddhist schools asserted that the person, self, or consciousness was luminous by nature and innately possessed of perfect perception and insight, and that the path to liberation simply comprised the realization of one’s innate qualities and capacities. Others, including Theravāda and Sarvāstivāda Buddhists, maintained that the path of asceticism and the practice of meditation were necessary to purge cognition of its inborn defilements, and that only once this difficult work had been completed could yogi perception and omniscience arise. In the former case, meditation was the means to realizing the divine within, one’s innate Buddha nature, to see the universe as Self, and so forth. In the latter, the resulting extrasensory insight allowed the ontologically imperfect practitioner to clearly see and truly know a god or Buddha that nonetheless remained Wholly Other. Through such knowledge one could, in the parlance of many of the dualist Hindu tantric schools, “become a god in order to worship god” – but one could never, contra the claims of the non-dualist schools, become God.

1. Yoga as a technique for entering into other bodies, generating multiple bodies, and the attainment of other supernatural accomplishments.

The classical Indian understanding of everyday perception (pratyakṣa) was similar to the extramission theory of the ancient Greeks. In both systems, the site at which visual perception occurs is not the surface of the retina or the junction of the optic nerve with the brain’s visual nuclei, but rather the contours of the perceived object. This means, for example, that when I am viewing a tree, a ray of perception emitted from my eye “con-forms” to the surface of the tree. The ray brings the image of the tree back to my eye, which communicates it to my mind, which in turn communicates it to my inner self or consciousness. In the case of yogi perception, the practice of yoga enhances this process (in some cases, establishing an unmediated connection between consciousness and the perceived object), such that the viewer not only sees things as they truly are, but is also able to directly see through the surface of things into their innermost being. For non-Buddhists, this especially applies to the perception of one’s own inner self as well as the selves or souls – to say nothing of the minds – of others. From here, it is but a short step to conceiving of the viewer possessed of the power of yogi perception – texts often call him a yogi – as possessing the power to physically penetrate, with his enhanced cognitive apparatus intact, into other people’s bodies. This is the theory underlying the tantric practice of “subtle yoga” described at the beginning of this essay. But in fact, the earliest references in all of Indian literature to individuals explicitly called yogis are Mahābhārata tales of Hindu and Buddhist hermits who take over other people’s bodies in just this way; and it is noteworthy that when yogis enter into other people’s bodies, they are said to do so through rays emanating from their eyes. The epic also asserts that a yogi so empowered can take over several thousand bodies simultaneously, and “walk the earth with all of them.” Buddhist sources describe the same phenomenon with the important difference that the enlightened being creates multiple bodies rather than taking over those belonging to other creatures. This is a notion already elaborated in an early Buddhist work, the Sāmaññaphalasutta, a teaching contained in the Dīgha Nikāya (the “Longer Sayings” of the Buddha), according to which a monk who has completed the four Buddhist meditations gains, among other things, the power to self-multiply. Several of the key terms found in this text reappear, with specific reference to yoga and yogis, in the 100 BCE–200 CE ayurvedic classic, the Caraka Saṃhitā.
The ability to enter into and control the bodies of other creatures is but one of the supernatural powers (iddhis in Pali; siddhis or vibhūtis in Sanskrit) that flow from the power of extrasensory perception (abhiññā in Pali; abhijñā in Sanskrit). Others include the power of flight, clairaudience, telepathy, invisibility, and the recollection of past lives – precisely the sorts of powers that the yogis of Indian legend have been said to possess. here, it is helpful to introduce the difference between “yogi practice” and “yoga practice,” which has been implicit to South Asian thought and practice since the beginning of the Common era, the period in which the terms “yogi” and “yogi perception” first appeared in the Indian scriptural record. On the one hand, “yoga practice” essentially denotes a program of mind training and meditation issuing in the realization of enlightenment, liberation, or isolation from the world of suffering existence. Yoga practice is the practical application of the theoretical precepts of the various yogic soteriologies, epistemologies, and gnoseologies presented in analytical works like the YS and the teachings of the various Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain philosophical schools. Yogi practice on the other hand concerns the supernatural powers that empower yogis to take over other creatures’ bodies and so forth. Nearly every one of the earliest narrative descriptions of yogis and their practices underscore the axiom that the penetration of other bodies is the sine qua non of yoga. The cleavage between these two more or less incompatible bodies of theory and practice can be traced back to early Buddhist sources, which speak of a rivalry between meditating “experimentalists” (jhāyins) and “speculatives” (dhammayogas). In medieval Tantra, the same division obtained, this time between practitioners whose meditative practice led to gnosis and identity with the divine on the one hand, and on the other, practitioners – referred to as yogis or sādhakas – whose goal was this-worldly supernatural power in one’s now invulnerable, ageless, and adamantine human body. The gulf between yoga practice and yogi practice never ceased to widen over the centuries, such that, by the time of the British Raj, India’s hordes of yogis were considered by India’s elites to be little more than common criminals, with their fraudulent practices utterly at odds with the “true” science of yoga, which, revealed in the YS, was practiced by none, save perhaps for a handful of isolated hermits living high in the Himalayas. These four sets of concepts and practices form the core and foundational vocabulary of nearly every yoga tradition, school, or system, with all that follow the fourth- to seventh-century watershed – of the YS and various foundational Buddhist and Jain works on meditation and yogi perception – simply variations and expansions on this common core.
[To be continued… Medieval Developments]

The Role of Fastener Suppliers in the Automotive Industry

Experts have always proved the importance of security especially when it comes to the fastening industry. Though some different categories and sectors utilize the components in numerous applications, the importance of practical fasteners comes as a priority.
One of the largest industries that contribute to the market of fasteners is the automotive industry. The extreme demand for automotive fasteners requires the best and uncompromised quality. With the strict measures and standards on automotive fasteners, a growing need for knowledge has been crucially important.
Fastener suppliers play the role to keep individuals and organizations aware of plenty of adequate procedures for using automotive fasteners. The use of fastening mechanical devices shouldn’t be overlooked as they ensure the safety and success of an assembly. With the millions of variations of automotive fasteners nowadays, basic features remain a standard, some of which are that they should provide durability and efficiency.

What are Automotive Fasteners?

With millions and counting vehicles around the globe, the need for automotive fasteners will be never at ease especially when economical developments are on the rise. The automotive industry talks about the vast variety of components that can function with the help of high-quality fasteners. Examples are types of screws, bolts, nuts, rivets, all kinds of security fasteners, etc. The complex variation of these devices is applied in major parts of vehicles like engine, steering, transmission, chassis, interior rim, frame, and more.
Automotive fasteners do not only provide security in assembly but also efficiency and functionality. The overall task of keeping parts together to successfully function as a whole relies on fasteners. This concludes how important for products to have key characteristics that deflect damage and destruction. Generally, excellent automotive fasteners are highly corrosion-resistant, have high-tensile strength, are durable, and in some applications should be able to resist extreme torque.
Every fastener used in the industry depends on its assembly type. Most parts are even custom-made by fastener manufacturers to fit and suit the application. Of this, the importance of having accurate fastening supplies should be greatly emphasized more often. When having to deal with automotive fastening, there is no other option than to consult professionals for the best results for your project.

Wholesale Automotive Fasteners Supplier

As wide as the market of fasteners is, nowadays finding a good supplier to source them is firstly the biggest step to enable the success of a project. The quality of screws or bolts for automotive use should be analyzed as to how they are manufactured. Therefore, to have the best quality automotive fasteners you should first know your fastener supplier.
The USA is known to be one of the best quality fastener manufacturers around. There are thousands of fastener suppliers located in America alone, but today even small factories from different countries have the same capabilities and follow the same practices or standards in manufacturing. And best of all, logistics and delivery are not an issue anymore.
Prince Fastener Manufacturing Co., Ltd is a professional company with over 35 years of experience in the industry. The company has wide capabilities in meeting the demands of different ranges of applications for fasteners and exceptional service in providing the best customer satisfaction. When looking for a reliable supplier that can provide accurate specifications of different types of fasteners, Prince Fastener can be your one-stop fastening source.
Contact us today to know more information. We can accommodate the basic and critical fastening essentials in standard and non-standard qualities, even when you have intricate demands on the specification, design, etc.

Good morning folks,

Tube Updates

District Line: No service between Turnham Green and Richmond due to a signal failure at Kew Gardens. London Underground tickets accepted on buses and South West Train services via any reasonable routes. MINOR DELAYS between Upminster and Wimbledon / Ealing Broadway due to earlier faulty trains. GOOD SERVICE on the rest of the line.
London Overground: No service between Richmond and South Acton while we fix a signal failure in the Kew Gardens. GOOD SERVICE on all other routes.

Weather Updates

Today will see a dull and damp start with spells of rain or drizzle. Turning drier in the afternoon, with cloud breaking up in places to give some brighter spells. A windy day with some strong gusts.
Tonight, cloud and showery rain will push in from the west, this heavy in places. It will soon clear eastwards, leaving it largely clear and dry with just the small chance of a shower. Windy.
Morning: 11C
Evening: 14C

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/Lodge

I’ve signed up for the Verified Fan Onsale they ticketmaster & got a text & today that gave me both my access code, as well as a link to purchase the tickets. Rather than the link taking my to Ticketmaster, it takes me to Toyota Center’s website. I’m really just confused, that if i try buying tickets thru Toyota’s website, would it give me anywhere to enter that access code?
When tickets drop on Toyota’s site, will it ask for my code just as Ticketmaster would?
Is anybody else attending their Houston show having this problem? Any tips? :(

How is eveyones first thoughts? From reading the description a couple weeks back I thought she'd be completely unusable from losing speed up and shield on s1, I didn't see that they reduced the dash count though
I find her dashes do a ton more damage per on beat now, so she seems even more.eaely game deadly, unless the other team all comes and yours doesn't, obviously.
But so far I've played 3 games with 3 MVPs today, first game original build, JG boots, not finished, genius, concentrated and then realize the difference in regen so went oracle. Then build varied from born cause of enemy composition. Dominance, and winter to help with Esme, Balmonds and Hayabusa .
Second game start the same, but realized at water creep her dashes do a ton to enemies at level 2 so I went straight for oracle to Regen more early and have my.. way to escape sort of back. Also the cd reduce and def is always nice.
This worked wonderfully. Unsure if the enemy (mythic 655 at that game) was that bad or not but I ended ,12-1-15 mvp.
So did it again the next and it worked, not as well as the other team picked kaja, Franco and minsi. Which was only for me. So my team carried through that
I'm ranting, but I believe her nerf was, not to bad at all. We will see I'm coming games. What's everyone else's thoughts?

So, here is my story Initially about 2 years ago i noticed that i can't hold erection longer than 10 sec or 30 sec This thing freaked me out but i didn't pay much attention to it but then things started getting worse day by day
•My mood swings •Depression •Anxiety •Fatigue •And above all erection problems rarely morning wood •Low confidence •Low muscles mass •My weight was 63 kg age 22
And i kept ignoring it and then about an year ago i realized that i have pain in my left side of scrotum but the pain was so mild that sometimes it is not even notice-able
In august 2022 pain became more often and sightly intense and i went to get medical check up Doc prescribed me
Testosterone level test Sperm analysis And USG scrotum
My testosterone level came 253 ng/ml and reference range was 2 to 8 My ultrasound show 3rd grade left side varicocele And my testicles size was 3.8cm right and 3.4cm left
But my sperm analysis came normal according to doctor 50% good motility 10% sluggish 40% dead
180 millions sperm per ejaculation
April 22, 2023 I got the varicocele surgery and since then No improvement I didn't get Testosterone test after surgery but there is no improvement in mood and erection and morning wood
Nothing...........
Today I'm going to get Testosterone test again if it come low again then i will think about TRt
Bur i heard that trt cause low sperm count and testicular atrophy.......
Should i wait to see improvement from varicocele surgery or.....
I wanna kill myself.....
Sorry for my English

For those that are interested in the gray area of online money making, I have decided to create a small tutorial on how to make some money with free movie streaming sites
Another reason for this post is that i've been seeing posts asking for ways that one can make money online with a limited budget and i thought that this would be a useful resource for such people.
I went ahead to create a landing page and a movie streaming leech site that essentially allows for free movie streaming. You can edit the CSS and HTML to add ads, content lockers, offer walls, donation pages etc as you see fit.
Since the site is hot linking to other websites with the content, I think no laws are being broken here.
A portfolio of free movie streaming niche sites that haven’t been up for a long time has been making $400 to $4000 a month. This can be more if marketing was more aggressive.
I have provided the complete source code for the movie sites on the links below if you want to try your hand at it.
If you are non technical and need a hand at hosting the site (node JS and MongoDB for the back-end, bootstrap for the UI ), you can always DM me and I can set it up for you.
So here we go:
There’s a certain user who is making an average of $500 a month with a few niche sites. He is monetizing it with a single popup over a 24 hour period meaning that the daily income could be much higher if he was more aggressive with ad serving. There’s also no mention of up-selling using email meaning that the income from the streaming sites would even go to $x,xxx per day if he exploited them to the max.
Here’s an attached screenshot of income from streaming sites HERE
why you should consider creating a few niche movie streaming sites

1. ppl like movies and they like free things. All it takes is a single tweet or mention to go viral
2. very little investment is needed. The scripts in the links below cost around $20 for a fully functional site
3. high likelihood of making money

why you maybe shouldn’t make movie streaming sites

1. You might have to deal with the legality of said sites in your country
2. hosting can be expensive if your site starts getting traction or if you decide to self host content
3. getting an affiliate network that works for your kind of traffic might be tricky, although not impossible.
4. There’s a lot of competition in the space meaning that you have to niche down e.g maybe make a site for a certain type of scifi movie

What you need to build the site

1. a domain – from what I’ve seen, you should choose from one of the following TLDs: .com, .site, .to, .today, .ru, .it, .pw, .ac, .ws . It seems that these are harder to be taken down than others but you are free to experiment with others
2. a hosting provider: you should use an offshore bulletproof hosting provider just to be safe.
3. a website/ script: you can either code one yourself or buy a starter kit. If you want a kit, there’s one in the links section below
4. something to sell: this can be anything e.g en eBook, an online course, an affiliate product etc. I personally have sold a lot of self published KDP ebooks. Also I have found some success with the CPAgrip affiliate network. What I did is change the script around and put some movies behind an offer wall.
5. A themoviedb.org API key: This free API key is gotten on the API section of the aforementioned site. The streaming site provider uses this free API to list movie details. You can set up a free account here

A word about the provided starter kit
The starter kit in the links below is a fully functional movie streaming website and landing page combo.
The landing page is made with normal CSS and HTML so uploading it to a static hosting provider should be straightforward.
The actual streaming site is a NodeJS, ExpressJS app hooked up to a MongoDB database. The site is hot linking to a third party hosting site for simplicity and also to solve the legal dilemma of hosting such content.
The MongoDB database code is ready to do but the code that connects to it is commented out because you need a unique connection string to connect to it. The site can still work without the db connection since it’s being used to collect emails and user data. You can always DM me to set up a custom db for you if you so need to.
I hosted the landing page and the steaming site on Vercel and Render respectively and it was fairly easy to do. There are many YouTube videos that explain in better detail how to do this.
As always, if you have any questions on how to host the sites, you can always DM me for clarifications.
The following are the live versions of the starter kit templates being offered:
landing page – here
streaming site - here
The easiest way is to use a CI solution with GitHub to the hosting platform. This set up process varies from platform to platform and there’s no need to go into the details in this non technical tutorial
getting traffic
I used the 3 major things to get traffic. They include:

1. SEO
2. influencer marketing on TikTok
3. YouTuber traffic

SEO
The only SEO I did was in the web pages. I made sure I used proper words in the websites without coming off as spammy. There was no off-page SEO because I was opting to go with word of mouth as the main traffic source.
YouTube Traffic
I used a website called channel crawler (just google it). It has a free tier that gives a list of YouTube channels based on, among other things, niche and YouTube subscriber count.
I figured that I should go for smaller YouTubers since the larger ones tend to already have monetized their channels with all sorts of things (membership sites, affiliate links etc). I decided to go for niche channels with under 50k subs that didn't have much of a monetization strategy.
After getting a list of YouTubers, the email extraction was repetitive and time consuming. I'd go to the channel, go to the about page and reveal the email. After doing this a number of times, YT would ask me to solve a capta. I wanted to write a bot to automate this but I decided to first do it manually to see if the idea would pan out.
Now, I noticed that YT only allows you to get about 10 emails every 24 hours. How I went around this was by creating another channel. A new channel on the same account meant a new profile that I could extract around 10 more emails. YT allows around around 50 (or is it 75) channels for a single account. So that means one can extract >500 emails per day with one email account (very tedious by hand, a python script would have made this much easier)
I extracted around around 1200 emails with this method and put them in an excel sheet.
Next came the cold emailing.
I made sure that the email copy had the following characteristics:

1. short, about 100 to 200 words
2. got straight to the point (no fluff words like ‘how is your day’)
3. had a clear call to action. In this case, I wanted a video review and a link on the description

I should also add that I used gmail to send out the emails. I don't think the emails were going to spam because I wasn't send too many from one account. around 40 per email account.
TikTok traffic
I basically opened an account and started following and cold messaging small TikTok creators until some decided to review the extension.
While I got some leads here, most of the traffic has come from the previous 2 traffic sources.
resources needed:
Here are the links to the resources you’ll need if you want to try this method for yourself
required:
movie streaming site starter kit (paid, very little for a fully working site)– here
movie streaming site starter kit (free but content locked) - here
movie list API key (free) - here
optional
MongoDB connection string (free) - here