The Lancet must tell the truth about the origins of Covid-19

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Covid-19: We are not being told the truth about its origins

We cannot trust The Lancet to tell the truth about Covid-19, so long as Peter Daszak is leading the commission of enquiry on this subject.

It seems there is very real evidence that Covid-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, and did not occur in nature. It is a weaponized form of virus.

According to an article by Dr Joseph Mercola:

‘November 5, 2020, U.S. Right to Know (USRTK), an investigative public health nonprofit group, filed a lawsuit¹ against the National Institutes of Health after the agency failed to respond to its July 10, 2020, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

‘The USRTK’s lawsuit sought access to nonexempt records of gain-of-function experiments relating to the COVID-19 pandemic from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the EcoHealth Alliance, which partnered with and funded the Wuhan Institute.²

‘In a November 18, 2020, article,^3,4 USRTK reports that emails obtained prove EcoHealth Alliance employees were behind the plot to obscure the lab origin of SARS-CoV-2 by issuing a scientific statement condemning such inquiries as “conspiracy theory”:

“Emails obtained by U.S. Right to Know show that a statement⁵ in The Lancet authored by 27 prominent public health scientists condemning ‘conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin’ was organized by employees of EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit group that has received millions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer funding to genetically manipulate coronaviruses with scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The emails obtained via public records requests show that EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak drafted the Lancet statement, and that he intended it to ‘not be identifiable as coming from any one organization or person’⁶ but rather to be seen as ‘simply a letter from leading scientists.’⁷ Daszak wrote that he wanted ‘to avoid the appearance of a political statement.’⁸

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The problem with psychiatric drugs

How Little We Really Know About Psychiatric Drugs

Joanna Moncrieff reflects on what has and has not changed in the field of psychiatric drug treatment in the years between the first and newly published second edition of the Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Drugs.

Joanna Moncrieff By

Joanna Moncrieff, MD

October 6, 2020

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I am not opposed, in principle, to the use of psychiatric drugs. I believe, as I say in the book, that “some psychiatric drugs do help some people in some situations.” Having said this, I think it is likely that the vast majority of people who take psychiatric drugs derive little or no benefit from them, and yet are susceptible to all the harms they can induce.

Psychiatric drugs, the book It is people’s right to know how little we really know about these drugs. People should be informed that the story they have been told, implicitly or explicitly, about having an underlying chemical imbalance that drugs can correct is just that—a story—with very little evidence to back it up.

They need to know that these drugs are doing things to the brain that we do not understand properly, and people should be aware of how little research there has been into the long-term effects of the drugs and the difficulties of coming off them. I hope the second edition of A Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Drugs will enable people to make better-informed decisions about whether to start or continue these sorts of drugs.

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For more, please click this link: https://www.madinamerica.com/2020/10/how-little-we-really-know/?mc_cid=96593ebe8d&mc_eid=eeb578926d

Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

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Relaxation and de-tensing for health and happiness

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An occasional blog

6^th October 2020

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Tension can cause physical illnesses and emotional problems:

Relax your way to a better life!

By Renata Taylor-Byrne, Health and Lifestyle Coach-Counsellor

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A, Progressive muscle relaxation book, 2 I have been interested in relaxation systems since 1986, when I used Ainsley Mears’ Passive Progressive Relaxation system to cope of with the stress of preparing for a surgical operation for which I had been scheduled – (a hysterectomy). I found his system helped enormously to calm me down, and also to cope with the post-surgical pain.

I subsequently used various systems of audio-based relaxation, by various hypnotherapists, some from the US, and some (like Dr Robert Sharp, Paul McKenna and Glenn Harrold) from the UK. I have found these systems to be very good ways to reduce my stress level (when combined with Chinese exercises, stress reducing diet, and adequate sleep) in my role as a college lecturer for over thirty years.

Then, about a year ago, I rediscovered Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR), which I had encountered many years ago; and I began to experiment with this system. The results were so helpful that I began to do a lot of research on the subject, reading a dozen books directly on the subject, and seventy sources of related information in total.

Health coach, Renata Taylor-Byrne I then felt obliged to write a book about the amazing range of benefits of this system of de-tensing the body: based on my reading and my personal, daily experimentation. I wanted other people to benefit from using this easy to learn, re-energizing technique.

For example, PMR brings relief to insomniacs. It helps them sleep better, when the insomnia is caused by muscular tension and intrusive thoughts.

It also takes pressure off our internal organs; reduces anxiety, stress, and fatigue; and provides relief from pain and illness for those who haven’t been, and can’t be, helped by conventional medicine (for example tension headaches which have not responded to prescribed medication: (Bernstein, Borkovec and Hazlett-Stevens, 2000)[1].

It helps with stomach and digestive problems, test and exam anxiety, and handling the pressures of public performance, including sports performance, and musical performance anxiety, and all forms of public speaking.

Dr Edmund Jacobson, PMR creator This book is brief, easy to read and concisely summarises the priceless insights of Dr Edmund Jacobson, who researched the amazing health benefits of relaxation for over seventy years, at the Universities of Harvard and Chicago, in the US, in the early part of the last century. In 1936 he set up his own institute to research scientific relaxation.

And in my researches I found several more recent books on this subject, by authors who want to keep this system alive; and lots of research articles, from the past few years, which verified the amazing benefits of this system.

My book is written in an easy to understand language. It summarizes the scientific research (with case studies and research experiments) which provide lots of evidence of the effectiveness of this system.

It teaches you how to develop this easily-acquired skill of relaxation which rids your body and mind of toxic tension.

The numerous benefits include the following:

– Lowered stress levels;

– Lowered blood pressure and heart rate;

– Decreased muscle tension;

– Reduced fatigue and anxiety;

– Improved quality of life and reduced blood pressure among people with heart disease;

– Reduced migraine headaches;

– Reduces some forms of chronic pain;

– Improved sleep, and insomnia relief;

– Help with smoking cessation;

– Improvement in cognitive (thinking) performance for people with dementia;

– Increasing or activating the production of opiates (or our innate pain killers);

– Promoting optimal immune function.

– Improving public performance skills for athletes, sportspeople, actors, teachers, students and media presenters;

– And increased mental and physical energy and the development of a feeling of well-being and autonomy.

A, Progressive muscle relaxation book, 2 I am sure that if you experiment with this system, you will make enormous gains for a few minutes of practice each day. And to learn it is very, very cheap. Once learned, it will strengthen you for the rest of your life with a few minutes of daily practice.

It sounds invaluable, doesn’t it? I have written a page of information about this book. Please take a look at how to Relax Your Way to a Better Life!

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That’s all for now.

Renata,

Renata Taylor-Byrne

Lifestyle & Health Coach-Counsellor

ABC Coaching and Counselling Services

ABC Bookstore Online UK

The Institute for E-CENT (Research and publishing)

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Endnote

[1] Bernstein, D.A., Borkovec, T.D., and Hazlett-Stevens, H. (2000) New Directions in Progressive Relaxation Training. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers.

Covid-19 stress debunks psychiatric diagnoses

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When society makes us sick, should we then allow “specialists” to blame us, and call us “patients” with “mental illnesses”?

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Coronavirus poses a challenge to psychiatric and psychological diagnoses of anxiety and depression

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Promoting an article from the ‘Mad in America’ blog:

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COVID-19 Challenges Our Faulty Assumptions About Normative Wellbeing

Sadie Cathcart, Author at Mad In America Lucy Johnstone addresses how limitations to models for psychological health and treatment have been spotlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic–which may not be a bad thing.

Sadie Cathcart

September 21, 2020

In a manuscript recently accepted to BJPsych Bulletin, released in a pre-print format, psychologist Lucy Johnstone calls for a drastic shift in the discourse surrounding wellbeing in the context of COVID-19. She writes that the conceptualization of the COVID-19 pandemic as parallel yet separate from an epidemic of “mental health” has the effect of minimizing appreciation for contextual determinants of distress. According to Johnstone:

“In the current jargon, popular in both psychology and psychiatry, we need a [re]formulation – a shift from ‘patient with illness’ to ‘person with a problem.’”

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For more, please click this link: COVID-19 Challenges Our Faulty Assumptions About Normative Wellbeing.***

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Telling stories about childhood trauma can heal your life

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ABC Bookstore Blog Post

2nd July 2020 (Updated on 6th August 2021)

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The circle of life, and the value of stories: The silent witness of early childhood trauma

By Jim Byrne, Doctor of Counselling: Copyright (c) Jim Byrne 2020

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Introduction

Telling stories is good psychotherapy I believe that each of us is a silent witness of our early childhood experiences. We do not know what happened to us unless and until somebody helps us to make a story or stories out of our raw experiences.

You may have noticed this phenomenon: Sometimes in a cop show, or murder mystery, on TV, there’s a witness who knows something which is relevant to solving the crime or mystery. But this witness is unaware that they have witnessed something which is very important, which could be helpful in solving the case.

I believe each of us is like that witness. Let me explain:

Recently I’ve been reading three books that deal with complex, post-traumatic stress disorder:

Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score.

Judith Herman’s Trauma and Recovery.

And Pete Walker’s Complex PTSD: From surviving to thriving.

One of the things that struck me about all three books is that each of the authors have to tell a personal story to illustrate the journey that got them to study trauma. There is nothing impersonal about their expertise; and their personal stories underpin their professional practices.

Many years ago, I had a set of serendipitous experiences which unearthed some strange stories from my own ‘internal silent witness’. The first happened in Bangladesh in 1977. Up to that point, nobody had ever expressed any curiosity about my life. And I had – consequently – no story about life, which I could know and share with the world.

Asking others about their stories is good therapy I met Carla in Bangladesh, and she was intensely curious about my life, and especially my childhood. I told her some bits and pieces from the very edges of my conscious awareness, and she was appalled at how painful my childhood had been – how physically and emotionally I’d been abused. I was amazed at the emotions that came up them: the painful memories that welled back. What I had taken to be ‘normal life’ turned out to be quite brutally unusual – or at least not how children should be raised, by parents who love their children, and want them to be happy.

Two years later, back in the UK, I met Renata (my wonderful wife of 34 years), and she was studying various disciplines, including Gestalt therapy. As a result, she was able to help me to explore my childhood some more. Out of my conversations with Renata, I got a lot of little stories about my weird childhood: some funny; some saddening; and some angering.

Front cover,1 Over time, two major stories emerged: My Story of Origins (as a country boy in a city school, who failed to make a single friend in ten years of schooling). And My Story of Relationship (especially my insecure attachment to my cruel mother). Both of these stories now appear in a forthcoming book, which you can read about here: Recovery from Childhood Trauma: How I healed my heart and mind – and how you can heal yourself.

Later, I expanded those two stories to include a good deal of my journey from birth to eventual relationship happiness:

Fictionalized autobiography of an Irish Catholic boy: The autobiography of a traumatized child.

Title: Metal Dog – Long Road Home

By Jim Byrne (writing through his alter ego, Daniel O’Beeve)

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Metal Dog - Autobiogprahical story by Jim Byrne

In 1968, at the age of 22 years, I went inside (the fish and chip shop in Blackpool), blinking the rain out of my eyes, and immediately recognized the leopard-skin coat and black fishnet tights on the raven-haired customer in front of me at the counter. She lived in the house next to the one in which I was lodging. I’d seen her come and go a few times as I sat at the table in the bay window, eating my breakfast or my evening meal.

She had the appearance of an actress or model. Tall, elegant, heavily made-up, and she walked with a wiggle, in extremely high, black, patent leather stiletto heels. As I stood behind her on the queue, she ordered cod and chips. Then I ordered the same. She turned to look at me and said, “Horrible weather!”

I agreed.

Her fish and chips were wrapped within seconds; she paid; and she headed for the door.

My fish and chips were wrapped next, and I followed suit.

I did not expect her to be waiting at the exit to speak to me…

For more information, please click this link: Fictionalized autobiography – Metal Dog, Long Road back to near normality.***.

And, at the moment, I am rewriting another of my books, which is designed as a self-help guide for individuals who want to work on their childhood trauma. You can read some information about that book here: Transforming Traumatic Dragons: How to recover from a history of trauma – using a whole body-brain-mind approach

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And then there is my new book about how to heal your own childhood trauma:

Transforming Traumatic Dragons:

How to recover from a history of trauma – using a whole body-brain-mind approach

By Jim Byrne, Doctor of Counselling

Cover of Drafons book, 2012 Over a period of more than 22 years of professional practice, Dr Jim Byrne has developed and refined a DIY (self-help) approach to resolving your own childhood trauma. This book will help you to understand what childhood developmental trauma is; how it relates to insecure attachment and dysfunction of the right brain; and how to work on childhood trauma using a whole body, brain, mind approach. This book outlines three major therapeutic processes, at three graded levels of emotional disturbance (from mild to intense), which you can progressively (and slowly and gradually) work through, in the form of journal writing, and related processes of body-awareness, body activity, sleep, diet and exercise solutions, and deep relaxation.

Dragons are fearsome, mythical animals which terrify those who contemplate them. Childhood developmental trauma is like a dragon in the basement of your mind, which constantly frightens you (from below the level of your conscious awareness, so that it feels like the terror is here, and now; but it’s not!).

This self-help book explains that you would be able to damp down this fright and panic, if you’d had the right kind of attachment experience with your mother in the first couple of years of your life! And this book teaches you how to get your trauma under control today, despite the lack of an attuned and attentive mother!

For more information, please click this link: Childhood developmental trauma: Facing and defeating dragons.***

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Without the curiosity of Carla and Renata, all of my unknown stories would still be festering inside of my neurotic, subconscious mind-brain-body; instead of having been externalized, ventilated, and healed.

What kinds of stories does your Silent Witness have in raw, gut-feeling form, which could benefit from being written up, or talked out?

What happened to you that needs to be aired and witnessed by a caring other?

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That’s all for today.

Best wishes,

Jim

Dr Jim Byrne, Doctor of Counselling, Authorship Coach and Trauma Therapist

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