With bird ‘flu striking fear into many people around the world, and politicians flapping ineffectually, as they do, what’s the true situation with this disease?

Normally, we’d seek medical opinion, but that’s split down the middle. Maybe, then, the academic specialists, the virologists? No, they’re fighting each other too. Where can we go for sound advice on bird ‘flu?

On a website called “Supernatural” you’d expect a bit more than physics. A touch of metaphysics is called for here. Where else, then, than Jonathan Cainer, an astrolger we’ve written about before.

Jonathan is quite blunt in his opinions and predictions, which gives you a chance to hold him to them. He was spot on about the aftermath of the London bombings last year. So what are his views about bird ‘flu:

“Bird Flu is not going to be a problem on anywhere near the scale that some folk fear. Nor, though, is it an entirely false alarm,” he says.

The disease will be contained by medical science and may not mutate into a spread-by-human form. We can all sleep sound in our beds and not get too alarmed by reports that it’s on our doorstep.

That’s a relief. The latest case is Europe was just 70 miles from my door.

An ectoplasm face.

Is (or was) ectoplasm a truly supernatural phenomenon, or was it an elaborate fraud, as many asserted?

Ectoplasm enjoyed huge public interest in the 19th century when spiritualism was at its height. It comprised a sort of ineffable substance that (usually) emerged from a medium’s mouth, often forming a human shape. The photograph shown is of a head appearing to come out of the back of the neck of the materialization medium, Eva C. According to the medium, the face belonged to an entity named “Estelle”.

This experiment, conducted with Mme. Bisson and Professor Schrenck-Notzing as observers, was performed December 30, 1911.

Readers are invited to form their own conclusions on the authenticity of the image.

The following piece is from The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rimpoche and contain some interesting ideas (experiences?) about the nature of dreams and sleep:

There are numerous examples in the Tibetan tradition of practitioners who received teachings in dreams. Often the dreams come in sequence, each night’s dream starting where the previous night’s dream ends, and in this way transmitting entire, detailed teachings until a precise and appropriate point of completion is reached, at which point the dreams stop. Volumes of teachings have been “discovered” this way, including many of the practices that Tibetans have been doing for cen­turies. This is what we call “mind treasure” (gong-ter).stabilize in consciousness without identifying with the conventional self. The practitioner whose clarity is unobscured by karmic traces and samsaric dreams has access to the wisdom inherent in conscious­ness itself.

Authentic teachings discovered in dream do not come from the in­tellect. It is not like going to the library and doing research and then writing a book, using the intellect to collect and synthesize informa­tion as a scholar might. Although many good teachings come from the intellect, they are not considered mind treasures. The wisdom of the Buddhas is self-originated, rising from the depths of conscious­ness, complete in itself. This does not mean that mind treasure teach­ings will not resemble existing teachings, for they will. Furthermore, these teachings can be found in different cultures and in different his­torical periods, and can be similar even though they do not inform each other. Historians work to trace a teaching back in time in order to point out how it was influenced by a similar teaching, where the his­torical connection took place, and so on, and often they find such a link. But the underlying truth is that these teachings arise spontane­ously from humans when they reach a certain point in their individual development. The teachings are inherent in the foundational wisdom that any culture can eventually access. They are not only Buddhist or Bon teachings; they are teachings for all humans.

If we have the karma to help other beings, the teachings from a dream may be of benefit to others. But it may also be the case, if we have karma with a lineage, for example, that the teachings discovered in a dream will be particularly for our own practice, perhaps as a spe­cific remedy to overcome a particular obstacle.

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John Simm (left) and Philip Glenister, stars of Life on Mars.

Now here’s a rarity: a brilliant supernatural comedy on the BBC: Life on Mars.

TV viewers in Britain will already know about this exceptionally well-written show with the superb acting of Philip Glenister as a tough thief-taking cop from the pre-PC era of the 1970s.

Here’s how the BBC describes the show: “John Simm stars as Sam Tyler, a driven and ambitious young detective, determined to keep the streets of 21st Century Manchester safe. But after a near fatal car accident, he wakes up, dazed and confused, in 1973. Has he gone back in time? Is he in a coma? Or has he simply gone insane?”

Glenister dominates the screen as the old-school Detective Chief Inspector who gets results. Lines like: “The first one who speaks is guilty,” make this drama a total delight to watch.

The supernatural element, which involves the politically “correct”, 21st-century cop, John Simm, almost disappears as the sheer verve of old-style policing takes centre stage.

Wherever you are, if you get a chance to watch this, don’t miss.