text:
Consciousness based approach: An overview
Alok Pandey
"A consciousness stands behind the brute machine."
—Sri Aurobindo: Savitri
(An introduction to the book on Consciousness based approaches to health)
The tent house of matter:
The modern scientific view of the human body is taken so much for granted that we hardly ever pause to consider that the body could be viewed from so many other standpoints. There is little doubt that modern medicine has been remarkable in making accurate observations about the material processes that govern the body. The grey area however is the inferences it has drawn from those observations. The inferences suffer the serious lacuna of being drawn upon a presumptuous premise of the sole reality of matter as we know it and its processes. The material world–view seen in isolation is much like a tent house hanging in mid-air with a vast and frightening unknown space within and around it. It is neither rooted to the ground below nor supported by a rope from above. Such is the figure of human body drawn by our present day Science.
Thus, we are told today of the inevitable fatalism of our genetic make–up. Convincing voices from some of the most sophisticated laboratories shout at us (or hypnotise us in believing) that our minutest reactions, from the first rush of love to the fits of post-partum blues; the immune response and the allergic response; the excess proliferation of cells as in Cancer or their under development are all written somewhere in the genetic script of our destiny waiting for its hour to unfold. We are but our genes and our true identity is our genetic identity. Sounds familiar, — like the racism of the old world in a new guise.
And yet, ask the astute geneticist about identical twins that are Nature's clones in a way and you have elaborate theories to explain (or explain away) the difference in psychological make-up, self–experience and the world-view of these genetically identical but psychologically different people. Multifactorial, we are told, a term no better than guess work. A guessing within boundaries of course. The boundaries are the walls of matter; the tent-house hanging in mid-air. The space within and around, the forces at play that hold and support and even build the fabric of the tent – house are yet a forbidden territory. To probe them, even to question about them is a taboo, an unscientific speculation!
But not for long!
The materialist view of matter itself has led us to the point where fact and fantasy, the tangible and the intangible begin to mingle. The solidity of matter vanishes into the atomic void. The atomic void in turn collapses into a world of energy dancing in empty space. The seeming orderliness, the fixity of sequences, the links of cause and effect, the so-called laws are nothing else but a trick of the brain, an illusion woven by the senses and supported by a limiting mind that cannot observe the totality and the whole as one movement. Or perhaps they are habits mimicking cause and effect! The mind only perceives events successively and divides them on the basis of the time of observation into a past, present and future. Thus it sees a person coming in contact with someone having flu, it sees next this person himself begin to show signs and symptoms of flu. It therefore feels it logical to presume that flu is contagious and spreads from one person to another. Further based upon the nature of the physical contact it feels that it can safely conclude about the mode of transmission. Finally, it administers a drug to the patient and sees a curative response repeated in a 'statistically significant way' and again feels confident in patenting a physical remedy to cure us of a physical illness with a physical cause. Right?
Wrong! We can imagine / consider a scenario as vast as Time itself. At least from the time since man appeared upon earth. Then, if we could somehow see how the symptoms of illness and 'illnesses' itself are a pattern thrown up during certain spaces of time, we may observe many new and unknown factors. The upsurge in the flu virus, the lowering of our body defenses, the epidemic may all be linked to a third or fourth factor, for example war, that we fail to see or co-relate since we observe things in small spaces of time. Ischemic heart disease is another case in point. It is barely a few decades back that the medical pundits were convinced about smoking, obesity and dietary habits as being the prime factor in causing / precipitating a heart attack. The pattern however changed soon enough within a few decades. The clinician began to see more and younger people, appearing physically quite fit with no history of smoking suffering from major coronary blocks. And consequently they discovered a new factor – the type A personality. It was the kind of person created by the competitive world of today; a person driven by time, critical of everyone and everything with no time to release his emotional life. These persons had blocked their emotions, at least the positive ones and the blocked coronaries well reflected and recorded this inner state. So things began to fall in place. Smoking, wrong eating habits and IHD were all common symptoms of an unknown factor, — an impoverished and constricted emotional life driven by the mad rush of ambition. It is then that people began to observe and understand why quite a few people escaped an assault on their hearts despite the ghee, despite the nicotine and of course, despite being as obese as Sumo wrestlers.
But then where are the limits of the behind and the beyond. Our physical probes, even the most accurate and the minutest ones stop at the threshold of the mind. They paused at the doorsteps of that grey passage where thoughts, feelings, attitudes mingle with molecular currents and electro-magnetic waves within the brain and reach out from there through a complex neuro-circuitry to the remotest cell. And do they stop there? Or penetrate deeper touching the nucleus with its genetic core? We yet do not know and may never know as long as we limit our science to a study of physical vibrations alone. The vibrations of thoughts and feelings may and do affect our cells without the necessary support of a material medium just as the feelings aroused in one person can awaken and engulf another person who is emotionally or physically close without the aid of a physical medium. Or, perhaps just as the vibrations of an 'ultrasound' can go right upto the cells and resonate back without any visible physical evidence of penetration. So much for 'Evidence Based Medicine'. Evidence, yes, but physical evidence alone that is the question! The answer is not easy and may not remain easy so long as our probe is limited only to physical data and molecular chemistry. We need to dig deeper, and deeper into the dumb and dark depths of matter, beyond the cellular mechanisms and processes, beyond genes and electrical currents, beyond molecules and electrons, beyond the vast unknown that almost frighteningly occupies with a fathomless emptiness our physical atomic and sub-atomic space. The Seer-poet probing thus, illumining by the inner Light of the Self the fathomless dark unknown beautifully observes:
Only by electric hordes your world is run?
But they are motes and spark-whirls of a light,
A Fire of which your nebula and your Sun
Are glints and flame-drops scattered eremite.
Veiled by the unseen Light act other Powers,
An Air of endless movement unbegun
Expanding and contracting in Time-hours,
And the intangible ether of the One.
These surface findings-screen phenomenon
Are Nature's offered reasons but behind
Her occult mysteries lurk safe unknown
To the crude handling of the empiric Mind.
All yet discovered are but mire and trace
Of the eternal Energy in her race?
—Sri Aurobindo: Collected Poems; p. 166 Discoveries of Science I
The deeper probe:
A day may well arrive when we are able to map each and every gene that determines some physical attribute and psychological event. We may also find the key that triggers into an amazing and unbelievable order the genetic concert and fine tunes the music of life down to the minutest details of its melody. We may, with stretches of imaginative fiction filling the factual gaps, relate each mental event to a precise neurochemical pathway. Perhaps, we may rather discover the varying intensity of molecular movements and electrical currents in the same pathway correlating with forming the material basis for an essentially mental experience. Having done that and thereby manipulating the chemistry to alter physiological events and psychological experience, we may sit back and congratulate ourselves at the wonders of molecular biology and its extreme limits!
But where are the limits!
The extreme limit is only a limit of our creative insight. As the horizons recede, the unknown is pushed a little further. And so will it be as long as we extend our gaze outward and outward. But where is the centre of this ever expanding circle of infinity? For having answered all questions about the mechanism we would still have the most fundamental question left unanswered, - "Who or what is this Self that experiences the mental events?" "Who is the witness, the thinker, the dreamer, the doer, the seer?" Confining ourselves to the chemistry we may move within the confines of a closed system with no issue or scope of any authentic evolution and certainly none of a Self-experience, A group of cells, tissues, organs and even a totality of all these functioning in perfect order and harmony does not lead to the sense of self. Just as a conglomeration of all the atoms and elements in the physical universe dos not explain a single movement of life. However life can and does explain the movement of the cosmos, the forces holding it, the forces moving it apart, - the breath of life expanding and contracting the living pulsating universe.
So too with the entire physiological processes and events of life. Mind can explain the logic behind the magical movements of life. Yet all the processes of life, in plants and animals and all the genes from the yeast to the ape cannot explain the logic of logic itself.
And what lies beyond the logic of logic itself and hold the key to the magic of the Infinite and the finite in a single embrace? What is it that can explain the gaps in our mind's logic, the gaps in the rhythms of life and the gaps in our understanding of matter itself. This gap in our knowledge as well as the gap within the atom is filled by consciousness. Consciousness explains thought and mind and life and matter itself. Since it is Consciousness that has become these things. In the deeper view of things it is indeed Consciousness that becomes all these myriad phenomenon, physical, psychological or any other.
How are we to probe Consciousness? It is evident that if consciousness is anterior and superior to phenomenon then naturally any amount of investigation of one phenomenon by other phenomenal means will not lead us to any definite conclusion. Consciousness would always escape the grasp of phenomenon. Or we may at most understand only that much of 'It' as is involved in the process of the phenomenon, yet it is possible to study and understand consciousness and, having done that, it is possible to understand and know each and every phenomenon from the perspective of consciousness. Not only can one understand better, one can relate better, master better, this phenomenal world with the help of consciousness because consciousness is, in its essence, not only awareness or knowledge but also the force, the primal Conscious-Force that assumes and becomes the limited mind force and awareness and consciousness or life force and body force, etc, etc. We have an analogy here. When the physical scientist began to perceive matter not as matter alone but as one pole of matter–energy continuum, they could understand better, manipulate better, the world of physical phenomenon. So too when we begin to understand physical matter not just as matter–energy but as matter–energy– consciousness, we would understand even better. For consciousness is not just in the mental world nor it is a chance by–product of an aberrant gland acting in conjunction with the brilliant babble of a billion neurons. Consciousness is there in the instinct of the beast holding it in a cyclic chain of oneness with the rest of the biological world. Consciousness is also there in the gaps between atoms and molecules and in the seemingly empty space within the atom upholding this ocean of quarks and electrons and drifting particles of energy and weaving them all together with the fabric of ether.
Properties vs. quality: the unseen factor
If matter is nothing else but a condensation of consciousness (just as ice crystals are condensed vapour), each and every form has its correlate in terms of consciousness as well. While a phenomenal study of matter, can give us its quantitative attributes (for example weight, shape, properties, etc), the qualitative aspects of matter or any material form can only be rightly and fully understood in terms of consciousness. The ancient seers knew it well. So, when they worshipped a stone idol they saw in it a living expression of the Deity behind the form. It was not just another stone for them that can be hurled to hurt or huddled with other stones to build a wall. By appeal to the attribute of consciousness, they could use the stone idol to receive earthly and unearthly boons. As if the stone suddenly came alive and were changed with a power that exceeded even the limited average human consciousness. On its obverse side, totems and amulets were charmed (charged) by people through an inner act of consciousness giving it properties to harm or heal. Elaborate studies existed that even classified metals and stones into categories that could attract and hold helpful or harmful vibrations of consciousness. The use of marble in places of worship because of its property to receive and hold spiritual vibrations is well known. Of course, it is understood that the object had to be charged by those who had a capacity to do so. And when a patient having faith and receptivity in the method used the amulet or the stone he could receive the vibrations of consciousness entrapped in it. So much so that instances are on record wherein a glass of plain water, a small leaf of Tulsi (a sacred plant), the marigold flower (and other flowers as well), a thread, or for that matter any material object could be used to heal even difficult cases. We all have witnessed these things but chose to ignore since the bandage of a material science had covered our eye. But the bandage does get ripped of, the scales begin to fall of, the dust is cleared and we begin to truly se and know instead of, as we do now, know and se or rather still worse, think and see. Most of the time we see only the heap of dust thrown into our eyes as facts of truth but fail to see the force of wind behind and the luminous sun above. Or else we give the name of chance to our ignorance (or unwillingness to probe and know). Perhaps we feel safe within the limits of our material well till it collapses into the water underground and we suddenly see a very different, much vaster horizon and the world. The walls of the well are nothing else but the limits of our faith for in the end it is faith that precedes knowledge and not vice verse. Thus, we see and observe what we wish to see and observe. We draw inferences based on what will strengthen and support our basic belief about life. We see matter as matter alone because it absolves us of all except a minimum material responsibility. The Nihil womb of atom is after all a cosy place to rest if we wish to pass off the burden of our life to a mechanical inconscient force of Nature. But we can equally and with greater force of mastery see matter as an act of consciousness and thereby open doors of our science to a conscious handling of the forces of life. Thus, we can use pure material means to master sea-storm, a flood, an earthquake, or the rain and gale. We can equally approach these seemingly material phenomenon from the pole of consciousness. We can then master the sea, the wind, the rain, the earth and the sky by an appeal to the consciousness behind these phenomenal forms. Or else, we can integrate both using matter as an instrument and means to hold and convey a particular mode of energy, a certain vibration of consciousness. Matter and material means are like a vehicle carrying different personages and housing different personalities. And in each age mankind has used it differently. It has observed the same matter from one or the other of many points of views and supported by the faith of the Age created mental systems, sciences and philosophies. After all each age had its own unique and successful system of science, valid for that epoch of time but denied and denounced in another age. Each system of science, of medicine, is nothing else but a special way of looking at the same phenomenon. The real truth however escapes unobserved since it is not trapped in the phenomena at all. Each system is valid and invalid depending upon the age and the faith mankind puts into it. So too, each system is only one line of force that the One Force chooses to make itself available and accessible to humanity. Each system is nothing else but a certain bridge thrown across to fill the gap between the mental consciousness of man and the higher consciousness that is present everywhere but unseen and unfelt by us. The system is more like a movement in the wind that makes us aware of the air upon which our very existence depends, even though unseen and unfelt by us routinely. The 'movement' makes us sense what is otherwise insensible to our crude and limited senses. We however start relying too much on the 'movement' and not on that which moves and that which is the movement. Now it blows in one direction, now from another. And we look helplessly for the direction and search with a hopeless despair if the direction changes. But the thing that gives life is always there. Perhaps, we would do better if we stopped looking for directions and rather looked at the thing itself. Perhaps, we would recover much faster and better if we stopped relying so much on this or that system and rather put our trust in 'That' which acts through all the systems and acts even when we have dispensed away with them. For at the end of our search we discover only two things holding as an indispensable and solid pillar the different bridges and roads we take towards health and wholeness. On this side, it is the pillar of 'faith', while on the other side it is the pillar of 'Grace'. All the rest is a dispensable necessity in between. Systems are interim truths that change from time to time. But Faith and Grace are the eternal unchangeables that forever endure.
Towards a holistic view:
Neither is complete without the other. We need to understand matter afresh in terms of consciousness. We also need to extract the latent possibilities of consciousness and translate them in material terms. Not just consciousness as we know it today, that is the limited mental awareness. But also not just the material matter or physical matter that our limited senses are accustomed to experience through evolutionary conditioning but also subtler matter appropriate to other planes of existence.
The consciousness approach (if one may say so for want of a better name) therefore opens the doors to a much vaster understanding and mastery of the forces around us. It is a completer understanding and therefore truly holistic. All other forms of knowing are limited and therefore valid within a limited range and for a limited time. Even a combination of all the systems is not holistic since there will always be many other systems that are undiscovered or forgotten and lost through which consciousness can travel or has traveled once. Many pathways and by-lanes are yet to manifest since the One Consciousness is potentially infinite and can use all methods and no method or infinite methods if you please! To know the One Consciousness is therefore to know all in essence and principles. To know the parts is only to know intermediary details whose both ends are missing from our sight. And to know the One Consciousness, the only known way is to identify with 'It' through whatever method. True knowledge therefore begins with knowledge of the One Consciousness that has become the many. And true science accordingly is the knowledge of the relationships of the One Consciousness in its application with the many.
In other word, not only our self-view and world-view but also our understanding and means of mastery over phenomenon depends largely upon the level of consciousness with which we are habitually or instinctively identified. This identification varies from species to species, from race to race, from one period of Time to another; but also varies from individual to individual. The variation can sometimes be so marked as to make some individuals very distinctly different (for good or worse) from the age and the environment in which they are born or live. This creates one kind of disequilibrium at a social and psychological level and continues in the form of a seeking, (sometimes even a restless seeking or rebellion with its own share of experimentation and error) till the individual consciousness either discovers its own type in the world, or if a rarer variety, isolates himself or creates its own kind around it. Our extension into other bodies and minds is not only through the physical unit and genes but also and perhaps even more commonly and importantly through consciousness. Consciousness reproduces itself into other bodies through a continuous interchange of which we are largely unaware. That can explain many things about individual and group psychology if we wish to. Also many of the seeming anomalies of life arise because of an apparent dislocation of our inner consciousness from the outer; or the consciousness of the different parts of our being. A wide and generous heart may find itself stifled when surrounded with mean and selfish thoughts, within or around it. A high and clear thinking may get pulled back by narrow and limited perceptions and feelings arising within or in those around him. A strong and noble vital may feel frustrated when its natural impulse is curbed in a cramped up environment or a weak and fragile body. And, of course, a body full of natural ease and grace may loose its innate beauty due to a rough vital misusing it. All these and so many other forms of disequilibrium of consciousness may arise in a human being leading to various forms of inner and outer maladies of the body and mind. A disease, from a consciousness perspective is essentially an inner disequilibrium. This inner disequilibrium sometimes translates itself as the aberrant movement of molecules, genes, chemistry and physiology. Whether this disequilibrium is triggered by inner or outer causes matters little for in essence it is always an inability of the inner to respond to the challenge from outside. And at a certain point, the sharp distinctions we draw between inner and outer, within and without, ourselves and others begin to fall and we see all as a single extension, a single oneness and a single plan.
Yet, for convenience we speak of individual pathologies and individual diseases. In reality not only the individual's but also a larger disequilibrium within the humanity of which he is a part. No man is an island and that is much truer of our inner being. All the same, the human body is a symbol and an instrument. As a symbol it reflects faithfully the truth of our inner being, our inner strengths and weaknesses, our unique inheritance (psychological as well) and constitution, above all, it reflects the changes in our thoughts and feelings and impulses in the pattern of our consciousness. As an instrument it can be likened to a machine (as science does see it but unfortunately as an inconscient machine alone) driven by various forces, - physical, vital, mental, spiritual forces of consciousness. When it opens too much to the forces of a lower order, in short, forces of division, and disintegration, it falls ill. The nature of illness then becomes a symbolic pointer to the level of consciousness at which the forces of disintegration are active. Thus, when we use our mouth and tongue to project very harsh and crude vibrations, the teeth and oral cavity become susceptible to decay and illness. When we hold tight our feelings and let ourselves be governed by the choke of excessive ambition, we develop tight and choked coronaries hurting our heart. The stifling smoke of anger (and proneness to it) can stifle our lungs. Depression depresses every healthy function in general but specifically the immune and the cardiovascular system. Anxiety erodes the stomach and G I tract in general. The fire of desire finishes the bodily fuel much too early than warranted. Unkindness, jealousy, hate, fear, greed and lust in general attack the abdominal organs just as a weak and selfish sentimentalism adversely affects our liver. And so on and so forth.
Equally, an opening of the body and mind to a higher spiritual or a deeper soul-consciousness can protect and heal and strengthen and succour. One may do it through prayers, meditation, contact with someone inwardly developed, but it works best when the opening comes naturally and spontaneously as an inner need of the soul. This way, the illness can itself become one of the gateways to a deeper consciousness, a turning point that helps us depart from our ordinary mental to a higher spiritual consciousness. To put the whole thing in an apparent paradoxical reconciliation, we may say that the price of opening to the lower forces is illness and the prize of illness is a possibility of opening to the higher forces, out of sheer necessity. This alone (and not the theories of god's curse and punishment) justifies the presence of pain and illness in a world built by an All compassionate God and woven by His consciousness with the fabric of Love. This alone justifies our passage through the hell of suffering as a short cut to heaven, a rough and bumpy road through which we move ahead when our feet are unwilling to trod the smooth and sunlit path.
The healer and the healed:
(The trilogy of Agent-Host-Environment (A new vision))
The healer therefore has a threefold task. First, to understand the truth and level of inner dislocation from the outer illness. By doing so, he assists the patient's entry into his own inner life and its unique features. Second, to induce faith and assist in opening the patient through the rickety and narrow wicket gate of illness to the higher and deeper forces of health and healing. Here he may use whatever means or system comes naturally to him and to which the patient himself may be receptive. Thirdly, and most importantly, he cannot accomplish the first two tasks unless he himself is open and progressing towards deeper and higher zones of consciousness. If the physician is himself entrapped in a narrow and limited self-view and world–view, he obviously cannot become a truly powerful catalyst for the inner change. To work upon others one has to work upon oneself for in fact there are no others but the One carrying the all. And each particle and unit of this all that liberates itself from its fears and bondage automatically helps liberate others. Besides, we can give to the world only that which we have. Only one who has peace and harmony can potentially impart these to others. Only the strong can give strength to others.
"Only they who save themselves can others save."
For the rest there is the usual physical view of health and illness, physical remedies and drugs, physical doctors knowing and replacing body parts with astounding precision but who miss the 'One' and the 'whole'.
Just as we have the individual consciousness of the doctor and the patient so also there is the collective consciousness of the environment in which each of us dwells (our psychological dwelling place). The vibrations of consciousness and the quality of forces that cohabit and surround our inner dwelling are of importance in health and healing. This environmental consciousness may exist in a certain place as a formation from the past. Or else and in addition it is largely created by the consciousness of the patient and the people around him including the health care personnel. Interestingly, there is a reciprocal effect between our physical and psychological environment. A clean and simple environment full of sunlight and fresh air may well be conducive in attracting forces of beauty and harmony and health. So can certain colours and patterns and designs attract vibrations of peace and strength. The lighting of incense is not just a symbolic act of worship but a concrete physical means to purify the atmosphere. Equally, and in an obverse way, dirt, smoke, alcohol may make us ill not just by physical means alone but even more through a secret affinity to forces of disorder, confusion and disintegration. A whole world of consciousness based preventive hygiene waiting to be explored!
To conclude or to begin:
Finally, at the end of this day, the debate continues about which came first, - consciousness or matter. The ghost of Phineus Gage still haunts the scientific world. And so the miracle cures and sudden conversions of history like St. Paul and King Ashoka. The phenomenon of Hitlers and Bin Ladens on the one hand and that of a Buddha and Christ on the other hand continue to baffle the average humanity. Not to speak of the various hue and ranges through which the spectra of this world moves reflecting the shades of the viewer's glass. Like the subjective-objective and the impersonal–personal dilemma it is unlikely to be resolved at the level at which we stand today. The mental consciousness of man stands at a strange cross-road. For below man there are no questions and therefore no answers. The problem and the solution move in a narrow arc of a modicum of few necessities. The animal does not carry the burden of its past nor the load of a future destiny. So too, beyond man, there is no need of answers even as there are no questions. Since all is self-explained, self-known in the light of a luminous Self there. But here, in man, the mental self is like a blind man moving through a virgin forest with sometimes the staff of faith and at other times the touch of a half-lit ignorance full of reasoned guesses as his support. The eye of knowledge is however missing and therefore he knows not his map or his compass. He feels ever unsure in the midst of a thousand million cosmic forces around him. He sees nothing in the atomic space and stumbles over each idea that holds him for a while. His knowledge only pushes the unknown further and 'the Thing' always escapes his infant grasp. He knows not who he is why he is or perhaps even where he is. Yet, unlike the animals he is aware that he is. And this is the source of his misery. He therefore has questions but no definite answers; problems with temporary solutions but no resolution of the enigma's knot which ties his fate. He is defeated in the midst of his conquests and having fallen and failed finds himself victorious. Diseases and germs multiply even as drugs and remedies do. He only plays at pushing death for a while till it stares at his face again in another form mocking at his efforts.
The issue cannot be resolved at the level of the mental man. The mental man must rise and become the spiritual man or man–divine to undo the Gordian knot. The script of the earth indeed seems to be written in double terms, — the material and the spiritual. Both must embrace each other to complete each other. And that seems possible only in the common matrix of consciousness. Otherwise we have to rest content with playing with the mud of the earth or the mud of the stars and forget about the path of light that links the two.
This however cannot be. The debate over 'Consciousness' may now be divided 50-50 in two camps. But there is a growing effort to genuinely link the two. The debate and the effort are themselves indicative that the resolution is near. It may not be just round the corner. And truly speaking how do 20, 40, 50 or a 100 years matter so long as we as a race are moving forward. How does it matter whether we, as we know ourselves personally today would live to see the resolution. In the consciousness view of things we all will be there as we have always been speaking and working and sensing through one body or another, through one form or another. The worm is nothing else but a fore-runner and precursor of the now extinct dinosaurs. So too, the dolphin and the ape are nothing else but humans in disguise awaiting the hour of evolutionary knock that would shatter the simian mask and disclose the human face of analysis and reason from behind. And who or what is man? The Infinite wearing a finite mask! God denying his godhead; the divine wearing the shape of a limited intelligence and power. It is in a right answer to this question that there lies the true answer to all questions. And on the answer to this question rests the future of science and of man too!
The Sphinx calls to man and to his science:
"… Thou thinkest term and end for thee are not
But though thy pride is great
Thou hast forgot
The Sphinx that waits for thee beside the way
All questions thou mayst answer, but one day
Her question shall await thee; that reply
For they who cannot die
She slays them and their mangled bodies lie
Upon the highways of eternity
Therefore if thou wouldst live
Answer first this one thing
Who are thou in this dungeon laboring?"
—Sri Aurobindo: Collected Poems, A vision of Science


NEW DELHI, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Wednesday that India hopes to strengthen military cooperation with China and make concerted efforts to uphold peace and stability in border areas.
Parrikar made the comments during a meeting here with Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission.
Sun is in India to attend the 8th meeting of China-India Defense and Security Consultation.
Parrikar said India and China have enjoyed a long history of friendship and his country values its ties with China. He called on the two countries and militaries to conduct more exchanges so as to further enhance bilateral cooperation in various fields.
Sun Jianguo, for his part, said that the leaders of the two countries have met on many occasions in recent year and reached important consensus on enhancing bilateral strategic communication, deepening friendly and pragmatic cooperation and seeking common development.
"China adheres to a peaceful development path and also a defensive defense policy," the senior Chinese military official said, highlighting that China carries out the concept of "amity, sincerity, sharing in prosperity, and inclusiveness" in neighborhood diplomacy.
Under the guidance of their leaders, China and India have been making progress in various fields including defense and the two countries have been committed to advancing their strategic cooperative partnership, he said.


text:
Q: Jackson serialize exclude object from list Following JSON have some parent and child relationship (sample data)

*

*"id": 1050 is child because it has "parentId": 1051

*"id": 1051 is parent because it has "parentId": null

Like this i have huge data
      {
        "statusCode": 200,
        "statusMessage": "Success",
        "dataCount": 0,
        "data": null,
        "dataList": [
          {
            "id": 1050,
            "parentId": 1051,
            "questionInfo": {
              "id": 1050,
              "description": "--",
              "question": "--",
              "answersInfo": [
                {
                  "id": 2041,
                  "description": "--",
                  "isCorrect": "--",
                  "name": "--",
                  "subQuestions": []
                },
                {
                  "id": 2040,
                  "description": "--",
                  "isCorrect": "--",
                  "name": "--",
                  "subQuestions": []
                }
              ]
            }
          },
          {
            "id": 1051,
            "parentId": null,
            "questionInfo": {
              "id": 1051,
              "description": "--",
              "question": "--",
              "answersInfo": [
                {
                  "id": 2024,
                  "description": "--",
                  "isCorrect": "--",
                  "name": "--",
                  "subQuestions": []
                },
                {
                  "id": 2023,
                  "description": "--",
                  "isCorrect": "--",
                  "name": "--",
                  "subQuestions": [
                    {
                      "id": 1050,
                      "parentId": 1051,
                      "questionInfo": {
                        "id": 1050,
                        "description": "--",
                        "question": "--",
                        "answersInfo": [
                          {
                            "id": 2041,
                            "description": "--",
                            "isCorrect": "--",
                            "name": "--",
                            "subQuestions": []
                          },
                          {
                            "id": 2040,
                            "description": "--",
                            "isCorrect": "--",
                            "name": "--",
                            "subQuestions": []
                          }
                        ]
                      }
                    }
                  ]
                }
              ]
            }
          },
          {
            "-------": "-------"
          }
        ],
        "dataMap": null
      }

My requirement is need to remove child records from parent position where parentId has some value ("parentId": 1051), because these child info coming in parent sub info those records are not parents
      {
        "statusCode": 200,
        "statusMessage": "Success",
        "dataCount": 0,
        "data": null,
        "dataList": [
          {
            "id": 1051,
            "parentId": null,
            "questionInfo": {
              "id": 1051,
              "description": "--",
              "question": "--",
              "answersInfo": [
                {
                  "id": 2024,
                  "description": "--",
                  "isCorrect": "--",
                  "name": "--",
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Iam using Spring MVC + Hibernate criteria API + Jackson library
So, can anyone please tell me the best way to exclude objects (complete object based on some condition) from list while serialization ??

A: As we talked with @Developer, the best way to answer this problem will be to serialize all the objects, using some tool, just as ObjectMapper from Jackson, and once the List is built, iterate over it to have only the elements you want to keep.
Perfomance-wise, that's not the best thing, but this will make sure you won't miss any wanted items

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Today we look at a cool scene from an early storyline in Garth Ennis and John McCrea's Hitman.
The storyline "10,000 Bullets" took place over issues #4-7 of Hitman, and was notable in the way that it really turned the title on its ear only four issues into the book!
The basic gist of the plot is that Johnny Navarone, perhaps the world's greatest hitman, is hired to take out the hero of the book, Tommy Monaghan (the titular hitman in the comic).
Ennis makes sure to demonstrate just how badly Tommy is mismatched here. Navarone is a specialty killer - he only kills other hitmen, and he's just phenomenal.
What an offbeat way to end a showdown by Ennis, who seems to love going for the zig when everyone expects the zag.
McCrea depicted it as awesome as ever!


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Some of our guest rooms feature bathrooms with a walk-in shower, which features a glass shower door and Courtyard bath amenities.
Our guest room bathrooms feature modern vanities and complimentary bath amenities.
Ask us about reserving a guest room featuring an accessible bathtub.
Double/double suites have a separate bedroom with two double beds featuring thicker mattresses and luxury bedding.
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Our comfortable king suites feature a separate bedroom with a king bed and a chair.
Our signature GoBoard®, an interactive, touch-screen informational display panel, allows you to access driving directions, view Greensboro weather, find a restaurant and catch up on all the latest news.
Propel your productivity at our business center featuring printers and computers with complimentary Wi-Fi.
Choose from our wide selection of snacks, drinks and microwavable meals at our 24-hour market.
Satisfy your appetite with a delicious meal at The Bistro. We serve breakfast and dinner options as well as StarbucksⓇ coffee and handcrafted cocktails.
Keep up with your exercise routine by swimming some heart-pumping laps at our outdoor pool. Dry off afterwards with our complimentary towel service.
Travel just 4 miles to discover the latest fashion trends at Four Seasons Town Center Mall.
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An exciting adventure awaits at Greensboro Science Center featuring an aquarium, museum and zoo. Enjoy a family-friendly experience at Skywild ropes course and the OmniSphere Theater.
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Host your business meeting or social gathering of up to 40 people in one of our event spaces. Take advantage of our catering options and AV equipment.


Airbnb has quickly become the budget-conscious traveler's go-to option. Airbnb basically connects people who have spare rooms with people who need a place to crash. You get to have an email exchange with your potential host, set up the room reservation, and go live like a local for a bit.
The Airbnb experience has a lot to recommend it. Renting a place from a resident means you get an authentic local experience. Odds are, you've also got someone who can point you towards things to do in town, and how to get to them. Your chances for privacy are also a lot higher. You still get to meet new people, but it's a much more controlled interaction than being thrown into a room with a bunch of strangers.
The experience can vary greatly with Airbnb, however. There's a chance that your host might be unpleasant in ways you didn't anticipate or weren't able to infer from your correspondence. Pricing can be tricky, too. Hosts get to add additional fees to the cost of boarding, and while those are stated up front, the way they're laid out on the website makes cost comparisons difficult. You don't always know how many other bedrooms/guests there will be, which can be awkward. And at this point, Airbnb isn't always cheaper than getting a hotel.
Hostels have traditionally been a budget-conscious traveler's first option. You pay a relatively small amount of money to stay in a dormitory-style room. Visitors share an area, usually with 3 other people. They're a lot more common across Europe than they are in the United States, for a variety of cultural reasons. Accommodations can be a bit spartan, but you're not traveling to stay in your room anyway, and it's a great way to meet new people.
Hostels are cheap. That is, and always has been, the biggest draw of the hostel "experience." That said, there's a lot to recommend. Travelers coming from the United States have a pretty grim view of what a hostel is. Any travel abroad will show just how removed from reality that viewpoint is. In countries with a thriving hostel culture, it can be a rewarding social experience. Most hostel tenants are college students, and an easygoing atmosphere tends to permeate the residences. Hostel reservations are more ironclad that Airbnb reservations, and the sites that let you book and review hostels all heavily favor lodgers over the lodgings, so you get a pretty honest assessment of what you're getting into.
That said, the experience has its drawbacks. While it is possible to get a private room in some hostels, odds are you won't have a lot of time or space to yourself. This might not be the best option for introverts—or honeymooners. That same easygoing, collegiate atmosphere can turn sour at times when the youth and high spirits of your fellow lodgers boil over into drunken revelry or loud relationship problems.
Not to mention, if you're coming from the U.S., with its lack of hostel culture, you'll probably receive a lot of flak for your decision. Your friends will question the choice until you too begin to wonder if maybe hostels really are that scary. Once you get there and realize they aren't, you still have to contend with your mom texting you every ten minutes to make sure you haven't been murdered, all the while racking up international data charges.
Honestly, this is something to take on a case-by-case basis. Do research on the specific place you're traveling to. More importantly, know yourself—if you crave attention, hostels may be the way to go. If you're more introverted, Airbnb might be better. Either way, there's strong potential for a great cost-effective visit.


Citizens Memorial Health Care Foundation, Bolivar, long-term care facilities are ranked in the top 10 percent nationally for overall customer satisfaction according to National Research Corporation.
CMH's six long-term care facilities and one residential care facility received the 2013-2014 Excellence in Action award, which recognizes long-term care and senior living organizations that achieve high levels of excellence. The award is especially significant because the satisfaction database through My InnerView by NRC is the largest in the United States more than 8,500 facilities that are surveyed annually.
The CMH long-term care and residential care facilities include: Ash Grove Health Care Facility, Ash Grove; Butterfield Residential Care Facility, Bolivar; Citizens Memorial Health Care Facility, Bolivar; Colonial Springs Health Care Facility, Buffalo; Community Springs Health Care Facility, El Dorado Springs; Lake Stockton Healthcare Facility, Stockton; and Parkview Health Care Facility, Bolivar.


Taking an innovative approach as part of a whole building solution to achieve U-values can not only meet or exceed Building Regulation and prevent heat loss, but also improve design and build efficiencies offering an overall superior result. Annemarie Shotton, Category Group Manager for insulation at CCF, discusses methods of insulating walls and the benefits new products are bringing to market.
When it comes to insulating a new-build, materials change of use or refurbishment project; architects, specifiers and building contractors all know the importance of adhering to the Building Regulations. In particular, when focussing on meeting U-values, in accordance with Approved Document Part L (Conservation of Fuel and Power) there are a lot of products and construction methods to consider for roof, floor and wall solutions. Choosing products that maximise the effectiveness of performance, are easy to install and make the best use of space, is essential especially when every inch of the build area counts. In particular, wall insulation has a wealth of gain to be made if chosen with care.
Meeting and even exceeding U-value specifications is very important as failure to do so will have serious repercussions on building conformity, energy usage and the comfort of occupants. There are lots of different methods and construction types available, with each product and method differing from the next. This is where expert advice at the planning stages can help towards generating the best overall U-value and ensure the space is used to its full potential.
Building external walls with cavities that can be filled with insulation, whether partially filled or fully filled, has been the method of choice for a number of years now. Insulation innovations on the market, have been developed in-line with this method, to include higher performance insulation offering either thinner insulation to achieve the same U-value or improved performance at traditional thicknesses.
This is important to factor at the specification and planning stages as it allows architects and builders even greater design freedom while still achieving the desired U-value. This is because choosing products carefully will help to maintain the ideal cavity size of around 100mm. Any larger and this can impact the plot size of the building and other product details too, which can then encroach on precious internal living or working space. The added benefit of cavity wall insulation is that it can also be an acoustic insulator, protecting the building from letting in unwanted exterior and interior noise.
For older builds whereby a solid wall has been constructed and doesn't allow for cavity wall insulation, external wall insulation (EWI) and cladding solutions are increasingly available as is a range of internal wall insulation (IWI) solutions that can be added to help reduce heat loss and improve efficiency. To maximise energy efficiency further, it is recommended that the roof and floors are also insulated as part of a whole building solution.
Importantly, choosing a reputable manufacturer will mean specification support is always available. This will ensure that the most appropriate insulation product to meet the set U- values is always recommended, with added thought around Building Regulations. Innovative products for example, the Kingspan Kooltherm Lower Lambda product range can offer a reduced thickness of insulation to achieve the desired U-value or air tightness solutions to help control airflow through a building, can make all the difference.
Getting to grips with U-value calculations and wider support will also be guaranteed when choosing a quality manufacturer and distributor. CCF has a wide range of insulation expertise and product support available in branches or through its dedicated insulation sales team.
Whether a new-build project or bringing Britain's ageing building stock up to date, the insulation options on the market will energy fit buildings, which can deliver heat and monetary savings throughout the life of the property. It is down to architects, specifiers and building contractors now to take advantage of the products available on the market to create better insulated and more efficient solutions to meet the building requirements.
Click here for tips on how to calculate U-Values & R-Values, information on building regulations as well as CCF's very own Insulation Solutions Guide.


text:
Revenge- Disgrace (3×16)
"Grace is at the core of tragedy."
Things are always dramatic at the opera… No scratch that at the Hamptons….Actually, scratch that, things are always dramatic when they involve the Grayson's. But the drama is even better when you've played the enemy into thinking they've won when they really haven't. That's the case with this week's Emily's faked pregnancy tip. She's got them right where she wants them. Sidenote; does anyone else feel like Revenge is turning into the a more sophisticated version of Gossip Girl? Gossip Girl 2.0 Hamptons edition?
After Emily found out that Daniel had pictures of her and Aiden making out, she was upset that the ball wasn't in her court. Even worse, that she was so preoccupied with her black-outs that she didn't even notice Daniel had a PI following her. Instead of lettingthe Grayson's leak some secrets about Emily, she decided to take matters into her own hands and leaked the medical records of her 'fake' pregnancy. She immediately became the talk of the town for trying to keep her man with the oldest trick in the book. Victoria took this opportunity to publicly chew Emily out and Daniel served his beloved wife with divorce papers.
But Emily's unwillingness to accept a huge sum of money to leave quietly raised her speculations. Emily wasn't after the money, she was targeting the Grayson family. Well sherlock, that took you about four years. Actually, I'm quite surprised as to how Victoria pieced the pieces of Emily's puzzle together. She hasn't reached the actual answer, but she's on the right track thinking that Emily came into their lives because of something to do with David Clarke. Well, its actually quite proposterous to think that anything at the Hamptons doesn't have something to do with David.
One of her puzzle pieces became our next clue! Victoria mentioned it was strange Emily was targeting the Graysons, dating Aiden Mathis, best friends with Amanda Clarke, and living in the old Clarke home. Wait, what does Aiden Mathis have to do with this? According to Victoria, Aiden's father was the one that planted the bomb on the plane that killed David Clarke. Mind=blown. Victoria has a piece of the puzzle that Emily doesn't even know exists. Does Aiden know about his fathers involvement? Is that why Takeda found him to help Emily? How did his father's know the Grayson's? I mean, this revelation is huge!!!! I wonder how Emily will stumble upon the evidence. Was his father pictured in that photograph she used to cross off people?
It feels like were getting closer and closer to a series finale, which is totally understandable given that this show doesn't have the same drive as it did in season one and two. Sometimes it feels like this storyline is getting stretched thin, but I feel like all these connections to the murder of David Clarke might revive it a bit and give the show a well deserved finale when their time comes. More and more people are somehow involved in the murder than we previously believed; directly or indirectly. If Emily really wants this revenge, how far is she willing to go? Could she really betray the love of her life Aiden, to avenge her fathers death? Would Aiden be mad? Would he join her? After all, from the looks of it, his father is long dead.
Which brings us to Jack, another one of Emily's "love" interests whose been dragged into her revenge plot. Jack's always been against Emily continuing her mission as he doesn't want to lose anymore loved ones. First he loses Amanda because of the Grayson's, than Declan. But wouldn't that make him want to take down the Grayson's for good? Not if it meant putting his baby in danger. Yet after spending some time with his mother, he realizes she too was involved in the David Clarke scandal, yet unlike most people in the Hamptons who helped take him down, she was trying to free him. After she went to see him in jail, she was arrested for a DUI the next day although she wasn't drunk and the rest is history.Now that she's back in the Hamptons and sees how determined Emily is to do right by Amanda's father, she wants to help get his name cleared. Plus, the Grayson's deserve everything that's coming to them. Her attitude motivates Jack to be on Team Emily now. Secretly, I think she knows Emily's true identity.
Jack steals the archives for Emily, despite her pleas not to get involved. It's annoying because if it wasn't for the people on Team Emily, she wouldn't have gotten as far as she has. Team Emily is growing with each coming episode. With Emily out of the Grayson manor, she needs all the allies she can get. After all, its all going to boil down to Team Emily vs. the Graysons!
The big twist this week links Pascal, Margeoux's father, to Aiden's father and to the whole David Clarke murder. Pascal isn't just going to up and leave the Hamptons now that Conrad has exposed him at Voulez and pretty much forced him to work with him. Also, lets not forget Conrad knows Pascal's deepest darkest secret; that Pascal's hands aren't all that clean. When looking through the stolen archives, Emily finds a note that states "took care of NWM." She matches up the writing of that note to the one she received on her wedding day from Pascal. Knowing what we know about Aiden's dad, we can kind of infer that NWM stands for his father's initials.
After Emily informs Jack about Pascal's involvement, she thinks Jack will step back and ask Em's not to go after his girlfriends family, but instead he just says they'll have to avoid collateral damage. Yes, they'll like as in the two of them. As in behind Margeoux back. As in Jack and Emily. As in Jack the badass has come to life! I loved guy next door Jack, but involved in the mission Jack is just as hot!!
This episode felt like a game changer. I feel like things will really just fall into place for Em's now. Instead of Emily vs. Graysons, we know have a strong team backing Emily up, who know she's working for a greater cause. Everyone sticking by her is trully passionate about the cause and they'll go to great lengths. She's got this great, strong army. And the Grayson's well, their known to go to extremes as well to protect themselves. Additionally, the dynamic of all of these characters is so fascinating because their so intertwined. Jack for example would never get along with a girl like Margeoux. And despite loving her so much he knows the right thing to do. While Margeoux is tag teaming with the enemy, Daniel, in order to get back at her father. And her father is trying to get into the enemies pants. Small towns I tell ya.
-Pascal swooning over Victoria and Conrad trying to bribe him by offering him his wife is gross. All of it. But even worse, the fact that Victoria thinks she's hot shit and every man wants her. No hunny, no one likes you.
– Daniel's pathetic. Whatever happened to Sarah?
– What does Em's have planned for the Graysons? Why does she want them thinking they won?
– Anyone else make the correlation that when Emily exposed herself, she ran off from the ball like Cinderella. She's also involved with the Grayson's which can easily be compared to the evil step-sisters and step-mother. Well played writers!
– Can Stevie be trusted?
Related Topics:revenge disgrace review recaprevenge disgrace episode 16 season 3revenge 3x16opera revengeemily and vicotria showdownemily and daniel divorcepascal and conradpascal involved in david clarkaiden mathis father bomb david clarkejack and margeouxstevie and jackfake pregnancy leakemily cinderella
Revenge- Addiction (3×17)
Revenge- Struggle (3×15)
Revenge- Blood (3×18)
A 'Revenge' Virtual Reunion Is Happening in February with Emily Vancamp, Josh Bowman, and More
Emily Thorne, is that you?
After six years, Hampton's finest are back together again. The cast of 'Revenge' is reuniting virtually this February. The best part? You can be a part of it.
Join Emily Vancamp (Amanda Clarke/ Emily Thorne), Josh Bowman (Daniel Grayson), Nick Wechsler (Jack Porter), and Barry Sloane (Aiden Mathis) on February 6, 2021 for the fun-filled festivities!
Fans will be able to play video games with Barry nd Josh! Per the invite, you can "Play Co-Op or Free-For-All in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with Barry" or "Play FIFA World Cup with Josh Bowman!"
You can also take part in 1-on-1 virtual hangouts with 2.5 minutes with Josh, Nick, or Barry.
There's an option to snag autographs from Josh, Emily, Barry, or Nick or opt for a personalized video message, which also makes a great gift.
And you can even commemorate the day with a T-Shirt!
According to Vancamp's Instagram story, a portion of the proceeds will benefit St. Jude's, so not only are you getting to catch up with your favorite characters, but it's also for a good cause!
CredIt: Emily Vancamp screenshot Instagram story
For more information, check out Tixr.com!
Revenge- Two Graves (4×23)
And just like that, we close the chapter of Revenge. We say goodbye to Victoria Grayson, David Clarke, Emily Thorne and most importantly Amanda Clarke. Can I say I'm totally content with the ending? Yes and no.
Amanda said, when you embark on the path or revenge, always dig two graves. One for Victoria- may she rest in peace. The other, for Amanda and all the parts of herself she lost along the way. That was metaphorical. The second grave, was for her father, David Clarke, who got a piece of her back that was gone before the revenge. In the end, she gained time to get to know him, but lost him to the cancer. You always lose something while gaining something else.
But let's reverse a little shall we. We picked up this final episode with Amanda admitting that she was guilty of killing Victoria after finding out Ben had been murdered. She knew the only way to end this once and for all was to get transferred to a maximum security prison and break out with Nolan and Jack's help.
When Victoria found out Amanda was out of jail, she began taking precautions. But, eventually, her heart got in the way of things. Margaux had set everything up; she got Victoria a passport and a private jet out of town. But, Victoria decided to attend her own funeral where she heard Louise speak fondly of her. She decided she didn't want her to mourn her death, so she asked Margaux to bring Louise to her. She was obviously really shocked, but agreed to keep Victoria's secret.
Victoria admitted to putting her mothers body in the explosion, hence the dental records that came back linking the body to Victoria. Before she sacrificed her mothers corpse, she went to visit her in the hospital. I didn't really get the point of this whole scene and only really figured that Victoria had the same relationship with Emily as her mother had with her. Plus, she'd also failed as a mother with all of her children, but her weakness was that heart of hers, which ultimately got her killed.
When Amanda learned that Victoria used her mother, things were really set in motion. Nolan figured out that Margaux was helping Victoria by hiring hit-woman White Gold. When they realized White Gold was coming for Emily, it was too late. Thankfully, David made the call to 911 and they saved Jack, who did quite the job defending himself from the assailant.
This led Amanda to make the ultimate choice- she was ready to kill Victoria. But how? How would she find out where she was hiding. Louise! After finding out Victoria had played her, she realized that Nolan had been right the whole time; Victoria was a manipulative bitch who didn't care about anyone but herself. She physically brought Amanda to Victoria's hiding place and I couldn't have been more proud. At this point, Victoria knew she was going to die– you could see it in Amanda's eyes. She was done playing- she knew the only way to end this once and for all was to end Victoria. As she was about to pull the trigger, David shot Victoria. As she lay dying, she used her last breath to pick up a gun and shoot Amanda.
Okay, at this point, I was like holy crap, Amanda cannot die. We've come so far. Done so much. Four-years worth of revenging…. They can't both die at the same time right? Right! Amanda was saved, spent a lot of time with David in his last few months before the cancer took him, reconnected with Charlotte and married Jack.
Sort of perfect ending if you think about it. She got her revenge, she got to know her dad, she got rid of the bitch and she got the boy. Sure, she lost a lot of people along the way and part of herself, but I feel like it was worth it. She knew what she was getting herself into when she started this whole thing. And that's what's most important.
Louise finally redeemed herself. Margaux also took the high road, helping Nolan bring down White Gold and turning herself in in honor of Daniel. She wanted to be proud of the person she was and helping Victoria destroyed her soul. It's funny if you think about it. Victoria thought she had all these minions who seemed faithful but weren't because eventually, they realized they were fighting for the wrong thing. Amanda was painted as this evil person, but she did everything out of love. Victoria, she did it for self-preservation and she wasn't afraid to throw anyone under the bus.
As Amanda and Jack jetted off into the sunset, after having a beautiful wedding with Carl as the ring bearer, she had a terrifying dream. At least, I hope it's a dream. In it, the doctor thanks Charlotte for agreeing to use her mothers heart for a heart transplant to save Amanda. It seems rather ridiculous that they would include this though and maybe, Amanda's heart really does belong to Victoria now. Maybe in a funny way, she ended up having to save her. And this was Charlotte's way of getting back at her mother. Or, it's just a reminder that she'll never shake Victoria. Either way, we'll never know and I guess its left up to interpretation.
As for Nolan, I feel like that was also left open for a possible spinoff show. He was so worried about what he would do after revenge since he got so good at it and Amanda made sure to send a guy his way that a. could be a potential love interest and b. needs help getting revenge for his mother. Oh, how things never change.
Were you satisfied with the series finale? Are you happy Amanda and Jack ended up together? Do you wish David Clarke made it through? Are you glad Victoria is finally 5 feet under? You know she never stood a chance against Amanda. I say, I'll be content with the finale because Amanda, well, she pretty much got everything she wanted and more. I raise my glass to you Ms. Clarke!
Revenge- Plea (4×22)
Alright Revengers, are you ready for the end? Next week is the series finale of Revenge and I am completely devastated. While I agree, the show needs to end, I don't think all of my questions can be answered in one episode. I don't think the closure I need from this weeks episode can come in 45 minutes! With that being said, lets tackle the biggest moments of this weeks episode…
Louise got smart for one second and figured out that Victoria might be faking her own death. Who knew Louise could consider Victoria as anything but an "angel." That didn't last long however because she told Margaux that she found a hoodie similar to the one Ems wore when she allegedly attacked Victoria and the French liar once again fooled Louise into believing bull. Ugh get it together Lou-Lou!
After all this time, you'd think I wouldn't be surprised by Emily's bold decisions, but I still am. Why did she think switching her ankle monitor was a good idea? I don't care how good Nolan is at his job, you know she's going to get caught. You know Ben won't let up and he'll come to check on her. She was asking for trouble. If she involved Nolan and Jack in this for years, she could at least accept their help. Although I guess it's a good thing they didn't go cause they would end up dead.
Charlotte Greyson returned and it was tragic and totally useless. Rehab has done wonders for her yeah. She turned over a new leaf and is "helping" people, but did we really need to see her just to know that she didn't care if her mom "died" again. She might be the smartest person in the Hamptons knowing her mom is capable of faking her own death just to get ahead.
Jack willingly helping Emily, believing her and bringing down Margaux was sweet to see. Thank god he finally came to his senses. And Margaux was key in Emily finding out how Victoria got away with such an elaborate plan. Also, how the hell does Emily know how to get keys in jail and stuff? Her life skills are on a pro level, for real.
David only has 6 months to live… give or take since the cancer has spread to his brain. This pissed me off. Emily did all of this just to lose her father to cancer? And without even getting a decent amount of time with him? I call BS!
Emily finally told Jack she had feelings for him and it wasn't all that it should have been. When they kissed the nigh Sammy died, it still felt real. Then Emily fell in love with Aiden and now seeing her "want" Jack seems delusional and totally passionless. Boo.
Can you honestly believe Margaux stooped down so low? She was even the one who attacked Victoria just to frame Emily. And she's using her magazine to expose that truth. It's so sad since she was actually a pretty legit character before hitching her wagon to Victoria's.
So the bitch isn't really dead. She's totally alive. Victoria is alive. We knew that, we speculated, but it was still really shocking seeing her casually walk out of the shower only to come face to face with Ben.
Who was in disbelief because this whole time he thought Emily was crazy but she was actually telling the truth. She was the one he should have trusted. Unfortunately, when he finally realized all of that he was stabbed by Courtney Love's character and died. Oh Ben. He never even saw it coming which makes him a crap cop. But it was still sad. Let's just say Emily won't be happy to hear about this and there's one more person just gone that could have corroborated Emily's story! So, how will she get out? How will she prove her innocence?
Do you think Emily will die next week? The episode is called Two Graves which links back to the very first quote of the show… When starting Revenge, always dig two graves. Is one for Victoria and one for her? For her dad? For her old identity- Emily Thorne? I'd be super pissed if Emily, Nolan or Jack died… I'd literally take my red sharpie out and start avenging them. But, the promo doesn't look too promising for either Victoria, Jack or Ems. What do you think? Use this week to mental prepare yourselves!
2. Victoria is alive. I mean, we speculated it would happen, but seeing her casually walk out of the bathroom still stunned us.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The sunny resort of Quinta do Lago which lies on the southern coast of Portugal has been a favourite with celebrities over the years. Pop stars such as Elton John, Madonna and George Michael are rumoured to have property in Quinta do Lago, as well as the famous footballers Alan Shearer and Luis Figo, and so the prices for real estate here are accordingly expensive. There are also plenty of English people in Quinta do Lago and the resort has many amenities to cater to holiday makers and residents. These include everything from restaurants serving all types of international dishes to interior decorators offices.
Quinta do Lago is near to two busy holiday establishments. One is called Vale do Lobo and the other is the Almancil and if you have hired a car you can easily make the short trip to see them. To the east of Almancil is the church of São Lourenço which is covered inside with outstanding 18th Century ceramic tiles. It is a fine example of Algarvian Architecture and is certainly worth a visit.
Car Hire Quinta do Lago is available with all the modern features and benefits you would expect from a high quality vehicle. Cars come with central locking, ABS and power steering and you can get cars with good air con to cope with the hot summer months of Algarve - Portugal. All cars have full third party insurance so you never need to worry about getting into an unavoidable minor accident. Liability cover is also included.


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Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication
Oxford Research Encyclopedias Communication
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Health and Risk Communication
Intergroup Communication
International/Global Communication
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Organizational Communication
Communication and Culture (1)
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Keywords: structure x
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Structuration Theory and Health and Risk Messaging
Joel Iverson, Tomeka Robinson, and Steven J. Venette
Risk can be defined using a mathematical formula—probability multiplied by consequences. An essential element of risk communication is a focus on messages within organizations. However, many health-related risks such as Ebola extend beyond an individual organization and risk is better understood as a social construction cogenerated within and between systems. Therefore, the process is influenced by systemic and supra-systemic values and predilections. Risk from a structurational perspective allows an understanding of the public as well as organizational responses to risk. Structuration theory provides a useful lens to move beyond seeing organizations as something that flows within an organization to understanding how organizations are enacted through communication. Structuration theory articulates the connections between systems and structures through the action of agents, whose practices produce and reproduce the rules and resources of social life. Within the structuration tradition, organizational communication scholars have shifted to an understanding of the communicative constitution of organizations (CCO). Specifically, one of the theories of CCO is the Four Flows Model. The four flows highlight the ways people enact organizations and provide a means to analyze the various ways communication constitutes organizations. The four flows are membership negotiation, activity coordination, reflexive self-structuring, and institutional positioning. Membership negotiation enacts the inner members and outsiders at a basic level including socialization, identity, and assimilation. Activity coordination produces collective action around a specific goal. Reflexive self-structuring is the decentralized enactment of structures for the organization through the communication of policies. Institutional positioning covers the macro-level actions where people in the organization act as an entity within the environment. When considering the public reaction to Ebola, a simple way to evaluate risk perception is the intersection of dread and control. The U.S. public considered Ebola a serious risk. From a structuration perspective, the viral nature of twitter, media coverage, and public discussion generated resources for fear to be exacerbated. Structuration theory allows us to position the risk beliefs as rules and resources that are reproduced through discourse. The organizational implications fall primarily into the two flows of institutional positioning and reflexive self-structuring. For institutional positioning, U.S. healthcare organizations faced general public dread and perceived lack of control. Within the United States multiple policies and procedures were changed, thus fulfilling the second flow of organizational self-structuring. The Ebola risk had a significant impact on the communicative constitution of health-care organizations in the United States and beyond. Overall, risk is communicatively constituted, as are organizations. The interplay between risk and health-care organizations is evident through the analysis of American cases of Ebola. Structuration theory provides a means for exploring and understanding the communicative nature of risk and situates that risk within the larger systems of organizations.
Overview in Critical and Cultural Organizational Communication
Majia Nadesan
In 2009, one of the most powerful executives in the world, Goldman Sach's CEO Lloyd Blankfein, asserted that his firm was "doing God's work." This comment was made in the wake of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, a crisis that Goldman Sachs and other U.S. and European investment banks played important roles in creating. The comment's audacity did not escape notice, raising eyebrows even in the mainstream news media given its historical situatedness at the tail end of the crisis. Although Blankfein's comment was coded negatively in the cultural consciousness, it was also represented as iconic of the culture of Wall Street's "Masters of the Universe," as referred to in the popular vernacular. Blankfein's comment is deployed to illustrate the conceptual models and methodologies of those fields of study known as critical and cultural organizational communication research. These closely coupled but distinct fields of study will be delimited with special attention to their objects of investigation and methodological deployments using this example. Cultural and critical organizational communication represent closely coupled fields of study defined primarily by their phenomena or objects of study—organizational communications. Scholarship maps and analyzes communications to understand how organizations are constituted through communications that decide organizational policies, programs, practices, and values. Typically, organizational communications include all formal and informal signifying systems produced by members of the particular organization under investigation. Cultural approaches to organizational communication emphasize how these communications produce meaning and experience, while critical approaches address the systemic and historically sedimented power relations that are inscribed and reproduced through organizational communication signifying systems. Organizational communication scholarship from a cultural approach would ordinarily seek to represent the organizational culture primarily using ethnographic methods aimed at disclosing an organization's employee articulations, rituals, performances, and other circulations of symbol systems in the course of workaday life. However, the challenges to accessing Goldman Sach's hallow grounds might defeat even the most intrepid ethnographer. Lacking direct access to the day-to-day practices and experiences of investment bankers, challenges of access to work-a-day spaces have encouraged researchers to adopt rhetorical and/or discourse analytical methods to understand the culture as represented in available cultural texts, such as internal communications, press announcements, available corporate policies, shareholder reports, and so on. Ethnographies of communication and rhetorical/discourse analysis together represent the primary nonfunctionalist methodologies commonly used to study how organizational meanings are produced, disseminated, and transformed. Across disciplines, organizational cultural analysis, particularly when pursued ethnographically, is typically rooted in an interpretive tradition known as verstehen, which understands meaning as agentively produced through a temporally emergent fusion of subjective horizons. Culture is therefore regarded as emergent and is believed to be actively constructed by its interlocutors, who are afforded great agency within the tradition of verstehen. The emergent aspects of culture are fertile and seed subcultures that produce novel cultural performances as members delineate symbolic boundaries. Power is regarded by this tradition as largely visible to the everyday interpretive gaze, although admittedly fixed in institutions by rules, roles, and norms. The relatively visible character of institutional power hierarchies is believed to beget open conflict when disagreement exists over the legitimacy of power relations. Power is believed to circulate visibly and is thus subject to re-negotiation. This emergent and negotiated social ontology encourages researchers to adopt a pluralist view of power and a more relativistic approach to evaluating the social implications of specific organizational cultures. However, the Blankfein example raises complex moral questions about organizational cultures. Does everyone at Goldman Sachs really think they are doing God's work? If they do, what does that actually mean, and is it a good thing for society given the firm's demonstrable appetite for risk? More deeply, what are the conditions of possibility for the CEO of one of the world's most powerful organizations saying that his firm is pursuing God's work? Critical organizational communication adopts the methods of verstehen, in addition to methods from other critical traditions, but interjects ethical interrogation of systemic inequities in access to power and resources that are found across many social institutions and are deeply embedded historically. For example, a critical scholar might interrogate whether Goldman Sach's cultural exceptionalism is found across the financial sector's elite organizations and then seek to explore the roots of this exceptionalism in historical event and power trajectories. The critical scholar might address the systemic effects of a risk-seeking culture that is rooted in the collective belief it is doing God's work. Critical organizational communication research seeks to understand how organizational communications naturalize or reify particular organizational interests, elevating them above the interests of other stakeholders who are consequently denied equitable opportunities for agency. Cultural and critical organizational communication studies have prioritized various discourse-based methodologies over the last 20 or so years. The challenges with ethnographic access may have helped drive this shift, which has been decried by those who see discourse analysis as too disconnected from the daily performances and meaning-makings of organizational members. However, the primary challenge facing these fields of study is the one long recognized as the "container metaphor" (Smith & Turner, 1995). The study of organizational communication too often represents its field of study as a self-contained syntagm—a closed signifying system—that too narrowly delimits boundaries of investigation to communications produced in and by particular organizational members with less examination of the material and symbolic embeddedness of those organizational communications within a wider social milieu of networked systems and historically embedded social structures. In essence, organizational communication has struggled to embed its observations of discrete communications/practices within more encompassing and/or networked social systems and structures.
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