A pouf is a style of hair which came about in 18th Century France. First used by Marie Antoinette, it became popular among the wealthy women of France. 

Developed in conjunction with hairdresser Monsieur Leonard, the pouf consisted of a scaffolding made from wire, cloth, gauze, horsehair and fake hair, with the wearer’s own hair teased high off the forehead. On top of this huge confection of hair was a display of feathers, flowers, vegetables or other objects designed to express a topical message. For example, Marie-Antoinette commissioned a huge pouf showcasing an intricate hairdo displaying a French frigate that won a key victory against the British in June 1778.

The pouf was adapted by woman of class based on current events. For example, during the American Revolution poufs included model ships to show support for the Americans and their war against the British. During the French Revolution women took the pouf hairstyle and turned it to their favours to support the revolution. The pouf became popular among many women across Europe and the United Kingdom.

It was not an easy hairstyle to adopt. The underlying contraption was heavy and difficult to sleep in. Marie Antoinette would have had to wrap her head in a huge bandage-like wrap and sleep semi-upright. And since grease was used to glue the hair in place, the pouf was impossible to wash and fostered breeding grounds for vermin. But this did not stop other women from emulating the French Queen of Fashion. One lady of the court declared “I shall never again wear anything but vegetables! It looks so simple, and is so much more natural than flowers!”

Unfortunately, the pouf also corresponded to a time of bad harvests and harsh winters in France. Appearing at the opera, theatre and parties in her wedding cake-like coiffure, Marie Antoinette flouted her lifestyle in the face of a starving nation. It was particularly horrifying to hungry peasants that the whiteness of the pouf coiffure came from flour. Popular opinion turned from admiration to distaste and Marie Antoinette’s willingness to consider more serious matters was questioned.

Kensho is a Japanese term for enlightenment experiences, most commonly used within the confines of Zen Buddhism. It generally refers to the realization of nonduality of subject and object. Frequently used in juxtaposition with satori, there is sometimes a distinction made between the two in that some consider satori to be qualitatively deeper. 

Kensho itself has been said to be a blissful realization where a person’s inner nature, the original pure mind, is directly known as an illuminating emptiness which is dynamic and immanent in the world. Kenshō experiences are tiered, in that they escalate from initial glimpses into the nature of mind to an experience of emptiness.

Working towards this realisation is usually a lengthy process of meditation and introspection under guidance of a Zen or other Buddhist teacher, usually in intensive retreats. The methods used differ depending upon the tradition and practice. Soto tends towards a gradual approach preferring to let the experiences happen on their own while Rinzai tends toward the use of Koans or a set Koan question as a technique to bring the experience sooner.

Which methods are more appropriate for any given student are made by which lineage of Zen the student practices as well as what seems most appropriate by the student’s teacher. It should be noted that the Kensho experience is not limited to Japanese Zen Buddhism traditions and occurs in many traditions as well as outside of Buddhist practice.

Kensho may also be spontaneous, upon hearing or reading some significant phrase, or as result of a profound dream. For example, Zen lore describes the Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng’s spontaneous experience of kensho upon hearing a phrase of the Diamond sutra.

Koans are a technique that can be used as meditation aids, particularly in the Rinzai tradition. For example, one koan is known as ‘Who am I’, since it is this question that guides the enquiry into one’s true nature. The realization that there is no ‘I’ that is doing the thinking, but rather that the thinking process brings forth the illusion of an ‘I’, is a step on the way to Kensho.

It is not unusual for various hallucinations and psychological disturbances to arise prior to true kensho. These are referred to as makyo. Distinguishing these delusions from actual kensho is the primary function of the teacher, as the student may be erroneously convinced they have realized kensho.

Ronald David Laing was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illness, in particular, the experience of psychosis. Laing’s views on the causes and treatment of serious mental dysfunction, greatly influenced by existential philosophy, ran counter to the psychiatric orthodoxy of the day by taking the expressed feelings of the individual patient or client as valid descriptions of lived experience rather than simply as symptoms of some separate or underlying disorder. Often associated with the anti-psychiatry movement, he himself rejected the label as such, as did certain others critical of conventional psychiatry at the time. He wanted to challenge the core values of a psychiatry which considers mental illness as primarily a biological phenomenon of no social, intellectual or political significance.

Laing was a critic of psychiatric diagnosis, arguing that diagnosis of a mental disorder contradicted accepted medical procedure. Diagnosis was made on the basis of behavior or conduct, and examination and ancillary tests that traditionally precede diagnosis of viable pathologies like broken bones or pneumonia occurred after the diagnosis of mental disorder. Hence, according to Laing, psychiatry was founded on a false epistemology of illness diagnosed by conduct but treated biologically.

The fact that medical doctors had annexed mental disorders did not mean they were practicing medicine. Hence, the popular term “medical model of mental illness” is oxymoronic, since, according to Laing, diagnosis of mental illness did not follow the traditional medical model. The notion that biological psychiatry is a real science or a genuine branch of medicine has been challenged by other critics as well.

He never denied the existence of mental illness, but viewed it in a radically different light from his contemporaries. For Laing, mental illness could be a transformative episode whereby the process of undergoing mental distress was compared to a shamanic journey. The traveler could return from the journey with important insights, and may have become a wiser and more grounded person as a result. This was consistent with the critique of the alleged dubious validity of “value judgements” prevalent in Western society, which was common among academics in the 1960s and 1970s.

Laing argued that the strange behavior and seemingly confused speech of people undergoing a psychotic episode were ultimately understandable as an attempt to communicate worries and concerns, often in situations where this was not possible or not permitted. Laing stressed the role of society, and particularly the family, in the development of madness. He argued that individuals can often be put in impossible situations where they are unable to conform to the conflicting expectations of their peers, leading to a “lose-lose situation” and immense mental distress for the individuals concerned. The perceived symptoms of schizophrenia were therefore an expression of this distress, and should be valued as a cathartic and transformative experience.

Ceanothus is a genus of about 50–60 species of shrubs or small trees in the buckthorn family. The genus is confined to North America, the center of its distribution in California, with some species in the eastern United States and others extending as far south as Guatemala. Most are shrubs 2-9 feet tall, but can be small trees up to 18–21 feet.

The flowers are tiny and produced in large, dense clusters that are reported to be intensely fragant almost to the point of being nauseating, and are said to resemble the odor of “boiling honey in an enclosed area”. The seeds of this plant can lie dormant for hundreds of years, and Ceanothus species are typically dependent on forest fires to trigger germination of its seeds.

Ceanothus is also a good source of nutrition for deer, specifically mule deer on the west coast. However, the leaves are not as nutritious from late spring to early fall as they are in early spring. Porcupines and quail have also been seen eating stems and seeds of these shrubs. The leaves are a good source of protein and the stems and leaves have been found to contain a high amount of calcium.

Ceanothus was known as “red root” by many Native American tribes due to the color of the inner root bark, and was used as a medicine for treating lymphatic disorders, ovarian cysts, fibroid tumors, and tonsillitis. Clinical studies of the alkaloid compounds in Ceanothus has verified its effectiveness in treating high blood pressure and lymphatic blockages.

Native Americans used the dried leaves of this plant as a herbal tea, and early pioneers used the plant as a substitute for black tea. Miwok Indians of California made baskets from Ceanothus branches. It has also been used by North American tribes to ease childbirth. Ceanothus has been demonstrated to be very effective in relieving inflammation and irritation from infections of the mouth and throat.

The phrase plastic shaman is a pejorative colloquialism used for individuals who try to pass themselves off as shamans, or other traditional spiritual leaders, but who actually have no genuine connection to the traditions they claim to represent. Rather, plastic shamans use the mystique of these cultural traditions, and the legitimate curiosity of sincere seekers, for personal gain. This exploitation of students and traditional culture can involve the selling of fake spiritual ceremonies, fake artifacts, fictional accounts in books, illegitimate tours of sacred sites, and often the chance to buy spiritual titles.

Though the term plastic shaman originated among Native American and First Nations activists, and is most often applied to people posing as Native American medicine men and women, the term has also been applied to those posing as other types of traditional and alternative healers. People who have been referred to as plastic shamans include fraudulent spiritual advisors, seers, psychics, or other practitioners of non-traditional modalities of spirituality and healing who are operating on a fraudulent basis.

Critics of those who have been called plastic shamans believe one danger is that students who come to learn from plastic shamans may be exposing themselves to physical, as well as psychological and emotional risk. This is because the methods used by a fraudulent teacher may have been invented, adapted or stolen from other cultures and taught without reference to a real tradition, or to the precautions such a tradition would normally have in place in regard to sacred ceremonies and guidelines for ethical behavior.

Those using the term plastic shaman to describe these sorts of fraudulent teachers and exploiters of traditional cultures believe plastic shamans are also dangerous because they harm the reputations of the cultures and communities they claim to represent. There is evidence that fraudulent and sometimes criminal acts have been committed by a number of these imposters. They commit financial fraud and thus victomize participants. It is also claimed by traditional peoples that in some cases these plastic shamans may be using corrupt, negative and sometimes harmful aspects of authentic practices.

Transmigration of the soul is similar to the philosophy of reincarnation. The idea of transmigration of the soul comes from the ancient Greeks. In transmigration after death, the soul drinks from the river Lethe and loses all past memories of their previous life while in Hades, or the underworld, and then moves transmigrates into another human form and is reborn. It was thought the soul had been, and always would be, eternal, having no beginning or end.

Some psychic mediums of a variety of religious persuasions and some Spiritualists believe in transmigration of the soul but hold that reincarnation is an anomaly if it occurs at all.

The believed nature of the soul has a significant impact on the Hindu belief of transmigration. In Hinduism, a soul is both immutable and eternal and thus the character of a soul from a previous life is imprinted on the new one.

Buddhists, however, do not subscribe to the concept of universal Atman, Soul, or Self or the individual atman, soul or self. Thus, the concept of transmigration differs from Hinduism on this fundamental point. The Buddhist concept of transmigration, rather, is understood as the effect of karma, karma being defined as volitional action.

Transmigration, although not directly referred to as such, has been used frequently to the point of being an overblown cliché in the sense of people “switching bodies,” in which the identities of two or more characters transmigrate to each others bodies. This concept has been used many times in various films.

An examination of transmigration in the arts, perhaps more directly spiritual than the popular culture aspect above, was author Philip K. Dick’s novel The Transmigration of Timothy Archer.

Wasps of the genus Sphex, commonly known as digger wasps, are predator insects that sting and paralyze prey insects. There are over 130 known digger wasp species. In preparation for egg laying they construct a protected nest in dry soil. Some species dig nests in the ground, while others use pre-existing holes. They then stock the nest with captured insects. Typically the prey are left alive, but paralyzed by wasp toxins. When the wasp larvae hatch, they feed on the paralyzed insects.

A well-known species of digger wasp is the great golden digger which is found in North America. The developing wasps spend the winter in their nest. When the new generation of adults emerge, they contain the genetically-programmed behaviors that are required to carry out another season of nest building. During the summer, a female might build as many as half a dozen nests, each with several compartments for her eggs. The building and provisioning of the nests takes place in a stereotypical, step-by-step fashion.

Some Sphex wasps drop a paralyzed insect near the opening of the nest. Before taking provisions into the nest, the Sphex first inspects the nest, leaving the prey outside. During the wasp’s inspection of the nest an experimenter can move the prey a few inches away from the opening of the nest. When the Sphex emerges from the nest ready to drag in the prey, it finds the prey missing. The Sphex quickly locates the moved prey, but now its behavioral “program” has been reset. After dragging the prey back to the opening of the nest, once again the Sphex is compelled to inspect the nest, so the prey is again dropped and left outside during another stereotypical inspection of the nest.

This iteration can be repeated again and again, with the Sphex never seeming to notice what is going on, never able to escape from its genetically-programmed sequence of behaviors. Some writers in the philosophy of mind, most notably Daniel Dennett, have cited the behavior of this animal for their arguments about human and animal free will. Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett have used this mechanistic behavior as an example of how seemingly thoughtful behavior can actually be quite mindless, the opposite of the human behavioral flexibility that we experience as free will.

In addition to this seemingly instinctive and programmed behavior, the Sphex has been shown, as in some Jean Henri Fabre studies, not to count how many crickets it collects for its nest. Although the wasp instinctively searches for four crickets, it cannot take into account a lost cricket, whether the cricket has been lost to ants or flies or simply been misplaced. Sphex drags its cricket prey towards its burrow by the antennae. If the antennae of the cricket are cut off, the wasp would not think to continue to pull its prey by a leg.

The navigation abilities and other behavior of Sphex were studied by the ethologist Nico Tinbergen, as explained and demonstrated by Richard Dawkins in the 1991 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, Growing Up in the Universe.

Space burial is a burial procedure in which a small sample of the cremated ashes of the deceased are placed in a capsule the size of a tube of lipstick and are launched into space using a rocket. As of 2004, samples of about 150 people have been “buried” in space.

The effort and cost of launching an object into space is very high. Furthermore, the cost is directly related to the payload, i.e. the mass of the object. Therefore various measures are taken to reduce the mass of the burial. The corpse is cremated, reducing the mass of the remains to about 5% of the initial mass. Also, only a small sample of the ashes is included, typically only about 5 grams. The remainder of the ashes can be buried conventionally in the earth or in the sea.

The second factor greatly influencing the cost includes the target location of the payload. Most burials do not actually leave the gravitational field of the earth but only achieve an orbit around earth. The capsules containing the samples of the remains circle the earth, until the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere have slowed down the capsules, and they reenter the atmosphere. The capsules burn up upon reentry similar to a shooting star, and the ashes are scattered in the atmosphere. The time between launch and reentry depends on the orbit of the satellite, and can vary widely. The first burial reentered after only 5 years, but other burials are not expected to reenter in less than 250 years.

There are a number of alternative options if a reentry into the earth atmosphere is not desired. All of them are more complex and expensive than a burial in earth orbit. If an object leaves the gravitational field of the earth, it enters the gravitational field of another body in space. The closest object near the earth for that purpose is the moon. Although the moon is technically also in the gravitational field of the earth, it will not hit the earth within any human timeframe. A service is available for space burial on the moon. As of 2005, the only person buried this way is Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, best known for co-discovering the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.

The practice of space burials began at the end of the 20th century as the technical difficulties and costs involved in launching an object into space previously made it unfeasible. The first space burial Earthview 01: The Founders Flight was launched on April 21, 1997. An aircraft carried a modified Pegasus rocket containing samples of the remains of 24 people to an altitude of 38,000 ft above the Canary Islands. Famous people buried on this flight were Gene Roddenberry and Timothy Leary.

The second space burial was the burial of a sample of the remains of Dr. Eugene Shoemaker on the moon by the Lunar Prospector probe, launched on January 7, 1999 by a three-stage Athena rocket. The probe containing scientific instruments and the ashes of Dr. Shoemaker impacted the moon near the lunar south pole on 4:52 a.m. Central Daylight Time, July 31, 1999.

Currently, only one company, Space Services Inc., offers space burials. Space Services took over the assets of Celestis, Inc., which launched four flights from 1997 to 2001. As science progresses it is expected that the cost and difficulties of space burials will be reduced, and other companies may enter the market.