Saturday, May 31, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Sacred cactus under threat of “psychedelic renaissance”

Published 19 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff

The peyote cactus has been considered a sacred medicinal plant by local cultures in North America since ancient times. However, the plant is now said to be under threat of overexploitation mainly due to its growing popularity and a renaissance in the West for psychedelic drugs, where the peyote cactus has gone far beyond its traditional contexts.

Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) is a succulent plant in the cactus family. The blue-green cactus grows naturally in the southwestern United States and down to central Mexico. It contains several alkaloids, including the hallucinogenic substance mescaline. The plant is slow-growing and can take up to thirty years to flower, but if allowed to thrive it can live for over a hundred years. In Sweden, the plant is legal to grow, but not to cultivate or extract mescaline from. Due to its psychoactive properties, the plant is completely banned from possession in the United States.

At the same time, for over 2 000 years, peyote has been used in religious and ceremonial contexts and for its medicinal properties, as has the closely related San Pedro cactus (Trichocereus pachanoi), originally named by the Inca as Wachuma but later named after St. Per, San Pedro, in adaptation to the Spanish Christianization of the region.

Peyote cactus has been used ceremonially and medicinally mainly by indigenous tribes in North America, including the Huichol, an indigenous people in Mexico. In 1994, an exemption was created in the United States in the form of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, which made it legal to use, possess and even transport peyote for traditional religious purposes.

For example, the Native American Church (NAC) is a syncretic religious movement in the United States which, in accordance with this legislation, combines traditional indigenous beliefs with elements of Christianity. It is particularly strongly associated with the Peyote, and has sometimes even been referred to as “Peyotism”. Around 400,000 people are estimated to be affiliated with NAC in some form today.

According to the NAC, there is a story of an Apache woman who fell behind her group during a forced removal by the US government under the Indian Removal Act in the 1830s. The woman was dehydrated, malnourished and near death, but just as she was about to give up, she heard the peyote speak to her and, according to the story, she survived and then took the plant to the Apache medicine men and elders, who began to meditate and pray with it.

– It gave us hope and helped us process our thoughts, emotions and life purpose, Adrian Primeaux, who is from the Yankton Sioux and Apache tribe, explains to AP News.

Described as sacrament

Frank Dayish, former vice president of the Navajo Nation and chairman of the Council of the Peyote Way of Life Coalition, compares peyote to communion as a sacrament in Christianity.

– Peyote is my religion, he says. Everything in my life has been based on prayers through that sacrament.

In both NAC and Huichol’s culture, the plant is considered a bridge between the human and spiritual worlds. In the NAC, peyote is typically consumed during sacred night ceremonies in a hogan, a traditional Navajo building, or a teepee. The ritual usually begins around eight o’clock in the evening and includes prayer, singing and sacramental consumption of peyote. The effect of mescaline lasts for ten to twelve hours and is said to induce spiritual or philosophical insights as well as visual experiences. The ritual ends in the morning with a communion breakfast.

Since 1846, the official Mexican pharmacopoeia has also recommended the use of peyote extract in microdoses as a tonic for the heart. The plant is also used medicinally to relieve fever, healing of wounds, bone fractures and rheumatism. At the same time, according to WebMD, there is currently limited scientific documentation on the medicinal properties of the plant.

Overexploitation

Over the past two decades, there have been concerns about the lack of availability of peyote, pointing out that illegal and excessive harvesting threatens the species and has destroyed significant parts of its sensitive habitat. Members of the Native American Church say the situation has worsened as new groups use it in health rituals.

In Mexico, the peyote is said to have been overexploited to the point that it is now classified as critically endangered and there is now a heated debate about whether the peyote should be cultivated outside its natural habitat. Scientists argue that cultivation is necessary to protect the species, while the NAC believes it would weaken the plant’s sacred position, with many members of the NAC considering the plant’s habitat to be of great importance. Hershel Clark, Secretary of the Teesto Chapter of the Azee Bee Nahagha of Diné Nation in Arizona, believes that the ceremonial protocols they follow were given by the grace of the Creator and have been preserved in their storytelling.

– That’s why we don’t support greenhouses, growing it outside its natural habitat or synthesizing it to make pills, he says.

At the same time, many also advocate for the decriminalization of the cactus among other things to facilitate its cultivation. Particularly in Western countries, psychedelic substances, also known as entheogens, such as psilocybin, have gained strong recognition with a surge in research into the treatment of mental disorders such as depression. In Australia, for example, MDMA and psilocybin were approved for medical use last year. In Brazil, research has also been conducted on the traditional drink ayahuasca, based on Amazonian plants, and its effects on depression. Indigenous people in the Amazon region of Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador have used the drink for therapeutic and spiritual purposes since ancient times.

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WakeUpTV aims to challenge the Nordic establishment media

Published 29 May 2025
– By Editorial Staff
According to Oddane, the focus of the TV house will be on news and social programs as well as investigative documentaries and interviews.

The creators behind the WakeUpGlobe channel, the Nordic network WakeUpFriends, and the WakeUpConference announce that they are planning to build a new Nordic television network focused on “truth and awareness”.

The stated goal is extremely ambitious – they say they want to seriously challenge and offer an alternative to the major Nordic TV companies with their millions of viewers.

It’s time to build a new Nordic TV house under the WakeUpTV brand that can seriously challenge the big Nordic commercial and state-owned players, such as SVT, TV4, DR in Denmark, and NRK in Norway”, says founder Michael Oddane in a press release.

With WakeUpTV, we want to take everything to a whole new level, where we will operate in professional TV studios on a par with the major TV houses in an environment where the masses feel at home”, he continues.

According to Oddane, hundreds of millions of people around the world have lost confidence in the narratives broadcast by traditional channels and are instead looking for new alternatives.

We will create truth-focused and life-affirming TV that will both be a force for changing society for the better and help people develop both personally and spiritually”, he says.

“Traditional media obscures and distorts”

The plans began five years ago, and the property where the TV station will be built is located in a scenic area outside Lund. Two large TV studios, control rooms, and offices will be built on the property.

Initially, the TV station will have five permanent employees, and various external presenters will be brought in for different projects. It will launch its own streaming service but will also broadcast much of its content via social media to achieve the widest possible reach.

Our focus will, as always, be on uncovering the truth about what is happening in the world and sharing knowledge about personal and spiritual development. It is quite obvious that traditional media both obscures and distorts the truth, contrary to the mission they claim to have. They seem to operate largely according to the wishes of those in power and have lost their function as the third estate. Even spiritual and personal development seem to fall outside the scope of public service and commercial television, which is highly remarkable”, Oddane continues.

Holistic health and alternative medicine

WakeUpTV will also focus on areas such as holistic health, alternative medicine, and treatments – but not on sports or pure entertainment programs.

There will be news-related and socially oriented programs, investigative documentaries, and interviews. There are also plans for debate programs and talk shows with live audiences and, as I said, a separate section where we will share knowledge about spiritual and personal development together with a large number of Nordic actors. Everything will be packaged with high production values”.

Oddane is now trying to attract investors – both micro-investors and those who are willing to invest larger sums. However, it is currently unclear when the TV station is expected to be ready and start broadcasting programs.

Israel’s Eurovision public vote record sparks suspicion of coordinated campaign

Published 20 May 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Israeli representative Yuval Raphael performing at this year's Eurovision.

Israel’s contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 has become a hot topic – not only for its performance, but also for the record-high number of votes from the audience. Now, suspicions are growing that organized campaigns may have influenced the result.

According to the Schibsted newspaper SvD, both experts and Eurovision fans have reacted to Israel receiving so many votes from TV viewers. Israel’s representative Yuval Raphael won the public vote by a large margin, but Austria took home the final victory thanks to higher scores from the jury groups.

As in Malmö last year, Israel’s entry was controversial even before the final, mainly because of the ongoing war in Gaza.

It is worth noting that Yuval Raphael survived the Hamas attack at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, and she says that the experience has shaped her and her entry, “New Day Will Rise”, which she believes carries a strong message of hope and reconstruction.

EBU will investigate

According to SvD, there are suspicions of coordinated efforts on platforms such as Telegram, Facebook, and X, where users have shared instructions on how to vote from different countries and use VPN services to circumvent geographical restrictions.

Similar patterns have been seen in previous years, but this year’s mobilization is described as unusually extensive. There have also been reports of automated bots and paid advertisements targeting the Eurovision audience.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the contest, has confirmed that it is following up on the information and analyzing voting patterns. In a statement, the EBU says it has advanced systems to detect and stop cheating, but that it always reviews its procedures after the contest.

Journalist asked critical questions about Israel – banned from Eurovision

The situation in Gaza

Published 15 May 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Journalist Szymon Stellmaszyk, banned from Eurovision 2025.

Polish journalist Szymon Stellmaszyk has been denied accreditation for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Basel. He believes this is due to a critical question he asked Israeli artist Eden Golan last year – something the EBU denies.

Szymon Stellmaszyk has covered the Eurovision Song Contest for 20 years and runs both the Facebook page “Let’s talk about ESC” and the industry website “Radio Newsletter”. This year, for the first time, he has been denied accreditation to cover the contest in Basel.

The background, according to Stellmaszyk himself, is a critical question he asked Israel’s contestant, Eden Golan, during Eurovision in Malmö last year. He asked whether Golan, given the political situation and the war in Gaza, thought her presence could pose a security risk to other participants and the audience.

The question attracted attention and was criticized by some, but Stellmaszyk emphasizes that it was not intended to be offensive or “anti-Semitic”. In an email to Stellmaszyk, which the Swedish state broadcaster SVT has seen, the EBU justifies its decision by saying that the platforms Stellmaszyk uses do not have sufficient reach.

“Restriction”

Szymon Stellmaszyk himself is convinced that the EBU is making excuses and that it is in fact about the question he asked last year.

– This is some kind of revenge and, in practice, a restriction of freedom of expression, he says.

It should also be noted that this year’s EBU media handbook contains a new rule stating that published content must be “respectful” towards Eurovision and the EBU. Eurovision boss Martin Green says the wording is unfortunate and promises that it will be reworded for next year.

At the same time, he does not want to comment on individual cases, but points out that there are a limited number of places for journalists.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 will be held in Basel, Switzerland.

Bizarre children’s series described as “digital drug”

Cultural revolution in the West

Published 10 May 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The characters of the children's series Cocomelon with its abnormal proportions.

The children’s series Cocomelon attracts young children around the world with its colorful animations and catchy songs. Despite its enormous popularity, criticism of the series is growing, with some warnings that its extreme editing could have a very negative effect on children’s brains.

More and more parents and experts are questioning the extremely fast pace of Cocomelon and whether the mass-produced style is really good for young minds, or whether it risks overstimulating children and making them restless.

One of the major objections to Cocomelon is its rapid editing technique, where camera angles change every two to three seconds. This is a hectic and exaggerated pace that is unfortunately all too common in modern children’s entertainment, but here it is taken to a new level.

According to a study by PubMed Central (PMC), the executive functions of 4-year-olds, such as self-control and working memory, are at risk of being severely impaired after being exposed to fast-paced clips for too long.

Many parents also report that their children become agitated after watching children’s series such as Cocomelon, and there is plenty of criticism on social media platforms such as X.

Mass-produced aesthetics

Other research also indicates that rapid camera and clip changes can negatively affect young children’s concentration. The fast pace is no accident either. Cocomelon is designed to capture children’s attention, but some argue that it now goes too far.

According to Findmykids.org, the constant impressions can trigger dopamine release, causing children to seek the same quick rewards even outside the screen – something that can make it harder for them to focus on calmer activities such as reading or playing.

In addition to the pace, the series’ aesthetics have also been criticized. Like most animated productions today, the characters have disproportionately large heads and overly cheerful expressions, which some find unpleasant.

For many parents and viewers, it feels like the series is made on an assembly line where quantity takes precedence over quality, resulting in an aesthetic that is more frightening than charming.

Opinions are divided

Unlike traditional cartoons such as Scooby-Doo, Cocomelon is animated in a way that prioritizes quantity over quality, which is evident in the disproportionate characters and the assembly line feel.

Opinions about Cocomelon are divided. Some experts, such as Rebecca Cowan at Walden University, argue that there is insufficient evidence to single out Cocomelon as the problem – instead, it is total screen time that may be harmful.

– Without empirical research on the show Cocomelon, there is no data to substantiate claims that this show is overstimulating due to the pace of the scenes, she says.

But others warn that the series’ pace and overstimulating elements can have a very negative impact on children’s development, especially in terms of concentration and calmness.

Cocomelon may seem like an easy solution for entertaining young children, but it is worth considering what the fast pace and mass-produced style do to young viewers.

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