Click on image to see the presentation from The Kepler Conference for Astrological Research, Jan 2017.

[Edit: a crazy further reduction in RMSE was achieved by finally using a neural net. The quick write-up of that can be seen here.

A full journal article was just approved for publication (March 2018). It will be referenced in the bibliography.]

To hear the audio of the misspellings, download the original file below and mouse over on the second red graph.

For those who might have missed it, here is a copy of my remarks at the successful bending spoons event today at the joint Parapsychological Association  and Society for Scientific Exploration conference held here in Boulder. I twisted the fork during my demonstration.

Presented at the Society for Scientific Exploration 2016 summer conference here in Boulder, Colorado.

A few weeks ago, I did an interview with the lovely Kanyakumari Ayurveda school.

A student read the interview and asked a very good question of her own:

Funny that you mention in the interview that as a teenager, astrology seemed embarrassing. I wonder when such sentiment started building? This reminded me of my classmate's comment. He is an Ivy league graduate who's not doing very well in life. He said "Astrology is too unscientific to me." My inside caption answer to that was "That's why you missed out on 3 big startup exit opportunities." My personal suspicion is that 1) on the surface, industrialization called for humans who just do what they are told, so the ruling class assigned prestige on things that push people further away from success like institutionalized education 2) or, more importantly, there was a cosmic change at some point (perhaps French revolution? End of feudalism?) that somehow pushed certain souls into higher state of consciousness and certain others into "employee" state of mind, to make the industrialization possible to begin with. I think something like this happened again when startup bubble started (division of super smart who use every wisdom passed down to mankind and super dumb thinking institutionalized "knowledge" enlighten them - like myself getting an MBA for a high price). What do you think cause that embarrssement in your young self?

Here is my answer:

Ah, that is a really cool question. I would say it is a bit of both. (Note the rise of the industrialist illuminati with the "Age of Reason".) The best politicians, religionists, industrialists, and businesspeople always​ have used astrology.

The separation of the "everyday people" from astrology probably did occur around the end of feudalism with the rise of industrialism and "Reason".

​My recent ancestors came from a time/space that was still somewhat feudal (early 1900's rural Slovakia, the last place in Europe to get Christianity fully and still not a "Reasonable" place), and the occult was and continues to be quite active in these communities.

​Even in the USA, where far-Eastern Europeans formed very strong communities, such as the pocket of Western PA in which I grew up, there is a deep abiding respect for and use of herbs, organic/biodynamic farming, astrology, and magic.

Remember that the library of the Vatican is covered with a beautiful astrology mural. It and others like it are all dated to 16th Century, an apex of astrological influence from right before the Age of Reason. Perhaps the installation of the separation of the everyday people from astrology  is a result of this apex of astrology, a kind of great peaking awareness of the ​power​ of astrology and a development of a long game of maximizing its power by the most resourced people. Industrialism also took everyday people away from the lessons of wild land and Nature, including the hidden lessons.

​I kind of consider myself one of the first Millennials, so to speak, where, 20 years ahead of the curve, I dropped academia for something much more cool, difficult, and truly worthwhile. As such, I have done things for reasons that I consider ancient: is it true? is it beautiful? is it eternal?  As a teenager, I shied away from astrology simply with a teenager's keen sense of the social: my friends were all science geeks like myself and I wanted to join the whole lot of them in conversation and not stick out.

It is only when we grew up, literally and metaphorically, did their and my respect for, and language and understanding of, these hidden spaces such as astrology grow and develop too. 

Also, how my parents did astrology seemed more about the immediate, the material. The truth, beauty, and eternity of Vedic astrology was not yet shown  to me. And theoretical science as a  field did show those traits to me. I am grateful for that knowledge now for their practical aspects and am only sad for the years of yearning, for the chasm in my life when science was all I had before Vedic astrology appeared, but as a friend points out, without that time, I would not be where I am today.

In a similar way, I am not angry at the Illuminati and the industrialists, et al. ​When astrology has a full comeback, it will be all the sweeter for having been tested.

Offered through Ayurved Sadhana Vidyalaya for a group that is both online and in-person.

We are only a week into each. (They are separate courses.)

There are full past recordings of each.

See http://ayurvedsadhana.com/sanskrit-and-jyotish/ for more.

1.08 by 1.08 inches square as per instructions, with baille;
​
Sanskrit numerals form the magic square associated with the holy planet Jupiter and the holy number three.

There are yantras for the Sun, Moon, and Venus as well. All other grahas ("planets" in Jyotish or Vedic astrology) are also available by request.
​
These are available in many varieties of silver and gold, including very inexpensive plated versions.

For more information, see the book Numerology by Harish Johari.  Here, here, and here are some more sites worth reading.

A Let's Wing It Production.

Organic Oats
Organic Soy Flour
Organic Coconut Flour
Organic Yogurt
Organic Sugar
Baking Yeast
Ghee or Oil
Organic Vanilla and/or Almond Extract (optional)
Organic Raisins (optional)
Organic Almond Slices (optional)
Egg (optional)

Mix about 1 cup each of the flours. Then include about 2 1/2 tbsp of yeast (if you are at altitude - less, I think, if you are not). Add about 1 cup of yogurt, 1 - 2 tbsp ghee or oil, and the 1 egg if you are doing that, along with about 1 tbsp of the extract(s). Mix in about 1/4 cup of the sugar and raisins and/or almond slices each. Knead using your favorite method, by hand or in a bread maker.

Add water if it is too dry and extra flour of your favorite type if it is too wet. Making some previous loaves is probably the best way to know if either of those are happening.

Bake at least 1 hour and 15 minutes on light setting in the bread maker if that is what you are using. If you are using an oven, use the equivalent temperature. Godspeed in trying to find out what that is. (I think it might be around 350-375 Fahrenheit.) If you are going this route, keep an eye out for done-ness as soon as 45 minutes in.

Let substantially cool before slicing.

I did this quick project for a friend who wanted to know the best place to put her dollars to get the most protein.

The raw USDA source data can be found here.

Some immediate surprises:

• how proteinaceous native Inuit foods are (it's ok to make up words here, isn't it?),
• restaurant cole slaw is below fruit pie by ratio,
• fish and meat rank higher than I knew, but not as high as soy. (What do you think of soy? And its various and manifold controversies? I, for one, have eaten meat more recently than soy, sadly enough in some ways),
• scary to think that this is the US diet option set,
• rock on, pumpkin seeds!
• rock on, spirulina!
• what is "raw cisco" anyway?
• I don't even want to think about "raw, turtle, green".

Download the spreadsheet here: