“The Birth of Hacksaw Ridge: How It All Began” by Gregory Crosby and Gene Church is a book about the childhood and teenage years of Desmond Doss, a much-admired and well-known hero of the 20th century who served as a combat medic in the US Army. This is a beautiful story about how he adhered to his principles as a Christian and saved many lives without lifting a weapon. Corporal Desmond T. Doss was the first “conscientious objector” to receive America’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, which was presented to him by His Excellency President Harry Truman in Washington, D.C., on October 12, 1945. An evangelical Christian with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, he studied the Bible regularly and knew God had a plan for him. Seventh-day Adventists believe their bodies to be the temples of the Holy Spirit, therefore, it is important for them to receive plenty of plant-based nutrition and exercise. They abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages and ingesting harmful addictive substances. Despite his religious beliefs, he refused to avoid being drafted into military service. He enlisted as a medic, but refused to work on the Sabbath or to train with a gun. Overcoming tremendous odds, Desmond Doss rescued 75 injured soldiers at Hacksaw Ridge in Okinawa, Japan, single-handedly dragging them one by one to the edge of a 400-foot (120-meter) steep slope to be lowered to safety. No matter how great the danger, he was willing to go after a wounded comrade. Desmond’s faith in God was rewarded. He never once fired a shot, but became the hero of heroes. The same soldiers who had humiliated him now praised him. His life story is one of personal conviction, integrity, and selfless love. In his later life, he led programs to benefit veterans and others which are detailed in the 2004 documentary, “The Conscientious Objector.” “Hacksaw Ridge” won the 2017 Academy Awards for Best Editing and Best Sound Mixing, and was nominated for four other categories, including Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Film.

Born on January 29, 1962, in Sulechow, Poland, Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk is one of Poland’s most successful and beloved novelists. In 2018, she received the Man Booker International Prize for the English translation of “Flights.” For her “narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life,” she was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature. Olga is also an animal-people’s rights activist and a vegetarian. Olga Tokarczuk’s 2009 novel “Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead” is written as a detective story while addressing issues regarding the treatment of animal-people by humans. The heading of each chapter is a William Blake quotation, selected from his poems to emphasize the importance of being close to the natural world. Explaining the message of her book, Olga Tokarczuk said: The deeper subject of this book, despite this criminal plot, hunting, and description of the Polish province, is morality. Olga writes in the first person, so the story is told through Janina’s point of view as she becomes involved in various criminal investigations. It asks the reader: What does it mean to be a human, or to be an animal-person, and what distinctions can be made between the two? Why is it a “sport” to take the lives of people from the deer kingdom yet “murder” to kill a human person? The book mentions that one can know a country by how it treats its animals. In an interview with the Nobel Prize, Olga Tokarczuk spoke about how the issue of sustainability appears in her work. “And after this book, many people told me that they became vegetarian, so it’s really something.” In 2017, “Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead” was made into the film “Spoor,” which won the Alfred Bauer Prize at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. American novelist, journalist, and Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx described this novel as: “Tokarczuk’s novel is funny, vivid, dangerous, and disturbing, and it raises some fierce questions about human behavior.”

Dr. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson is an ardent vegan and animal-people rights advocate. Since the early 1990s, he has written a number of books on the emotional life of animal-people and explored our relationship to the people from the animal kingdom. “I was visiting an animal sanctuary called ‘Animal Place’ in Northern California. It was a couple who started it, Kim Sturla and Ned Buyukmihci. When animals are on a sanctuary, they’re very different. They recognize that they’re safe. They are much happier, it’s obvious. And then I had the same experience with a cow once. And I wandered in, and they said, ‘Well, we have a model dairy, and we’d like you to visit.’ And I suddenly stopped, and I said, ‘What’s that terrible sound I hear?’ It sounded like screaming. ‘That’s a mother cow that’s calling her calf.’ She said, ‘Well she’s just given birth, and we need her milk, and she wants to give the milk to her calf.’ I mean, it was just obvious to anybody that it was cruel. When you realize the amount of suffering involved in any animal agriculture of any kind, it’s immense.” “I thought ‘The Face on Your Plate’ maybe wasn’t the best title because people don’t like to think that there’s a face on their plate, but there is, clearly. I mean, there’s a being there who’s been slaughtered for your pleasure. ‘Fish are cold-blooded; they don’t feel anything.’ That’s completely false and we know that now. Culum Brown, a very well-known scientist, professor of biology, has talked about fish emotions, and fish cognition, and fish memory, and he said fish have enormous memories. They have to, to be able to navigate and stay with the flock.” “Well, my wish for humanity was to stop denial. But if you can’t do that, at least change, make a change; it’s not so difficult. And every country I’ve been in the last few years, there are more and more vegan restaurants, there are more and more people interested in it – it’s a movement that will not die. Sooner or later, the world will go vegan. I’m sure of it.”

An epiphany led him to give up both his professorship and his analytic career in the early 1990s. Dr. Jeffrey Masson has since written a number of books on the emotional life of animal-people and explored our relationship to the animal-people kingdom. “So that began, I think, about 25 years ago. I started researching for a book that eventually came to be called ‘When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals.’ The book became a surprising bestseller, New York Times bestseller.” Dr. Masson’s book, “When Elephants Weep,” shows the complex emotional lives of animal-people in a way that can change the way the reader views these precious beings forever. “I think I became fascinated by the emotional lives of animals partly because it was so hard to understand the emotions of humans. They’re much more, I was about to say, complex, but I don’t think it’s more complex. They’re more devious. Dogs don’t pretend to hate you when they really love you, or pretend to love you when they really don’t.” “I called it ‘The Pig Who Sang to the Moon,’ and it was about the emotional lives of animals who ‘live’ – ‘live in,’ in quotation marks, on a farm because it’s not much of a life – and that’s what I discovered. I do not believe you can live on a farm, take care of animals, claim you love them, and then kill them one day, or send them off to be slaughtered. That, I mean the word ‘slaughter’ and love just don’t go together, and I realized that.” “The most important lesson we can learn from animals is simply that we are animals, too. We’re a different kind of animal. In some ways, we have qualities that surpass theirs; in some ways, they have qualities that surpass ours. But it’s really true: every animal lives in the moment. Animals don’t obsess about things they’ve done or things they’re going to do. It’s what they’re doing right now, and that is a lesson for us.”

Welcome to our show introducing “Freedom from Fear,” the collected writings by Her Excellency Aung San Suu Kyi, the beloved democratic icon and political leader in Myanmar, and a celebrated Nobel Peace Prize recipient. The book we introduce today, titled “Freedom From Fear,” was assembled and edited by her late husband Michael Aris and published in 1991, with additional material included in a 1995 edition. “Freedom From Fear” is divided into three parts. “Part One – The Inheritance” includes four articles. The first one, “My Father,” is a biographical portrait of Major General Bogyoke Aung San, the beloved national hero who dedicated his life to the independence of Myanmar. The next article, “My Country and People,” goes on to introduce many aspects of her country: the influence of Theravada Buddhism, and the people in Myanmar – their food, festivals, crafts, and arts, as well as beautiful Myanmar women wearing thanakha, a popular traditional beauty treatment. The third article in Part One of the book is a sophisticated research paper on the comparative study about intellectual life in Myanmar and India under colonialism. Finding a strong link between nationalism and intellectual development, Her Excellency Suu Kyi’s research is further illustrated in the next article, “Literature and Nationalism in Burma.” “Part Two – The Struggle” consists of a selection of documents composed by Aung San Suu Kyi, including “Freedom from Fear,” which commemorates the European Parliament’s award of the 1990 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. In these writings, we can see that Aung San Suu Kyi shares her father’s ideologies and is deeply influenced by Buddhism and Mahatma Gandhi, the “great apostle of non-violence” from India. After almost six years of detainment, Aung San Suu Kyi was released in July 1995. With “no resentment against anybody for anything,” her chosen response was forgiveness, reconciliation, and dialogue. In her first press conference, she gave the following statement, which is included in Part Three of the book: “I have always believed that the future stability and happiness of our nation depends entirely on the readiness of all parties to work towards reconciliation. […] Dialogue has undoubtedly been the key to a happy resolution of long-festering problems.”

We now continue our interview with Glen Merzer, as he elaborates on the science and the historical evidence concerning animal-people livestock raising, the leading cause of climate change. “This is the cover of “Food is Climate.” We know that all that area, including this Sahara, used to be forest. Did it turn into a desert a million years ago? No, it turned into a desert in the last 10,000 years. This was done by animal agriculture. And we have to stop it before we do it to the rest of the Earth.” “Now think of the current pandemic that we’re going through. There are two theories about why we have this COVID-19 pandemic. Either way, if we had left the bats alone, we wouldn’t be suffering this problem, and this is a huge problem. How many millions of people are going to die because of this pandemic? How many people are going to lose their jobs, or already have lost their jobs, because of the pandemic? So, we need to leave the Earth alone; the biodiversity will come back, the water cycle will be restored, the air will be restored, and our climate emergency will end if we just do the simple thing of realizing that we shouldn’t be eating animals in the first place. It’s not how we’re designed. It’ll be good for the planet and the Earth will heal itself. That is the only solution to the climate crisis.” Dr. Sailesh Rao, director of Climate Healers, a vegan and a Shining World Award for Earth Protection Laureate, has stated that if we don’t mitigate the climate crisis by 2026, then we will reach a tipping point where we cannot do much more in the way of preventative measures. “Dr. Rao has put a target date of 2026 of turning the world vegan. And that’s a difficult task, but we have to try. And then the politicians will follow.” “And we need animal agriculture to fold in order for the Earth to heal itself. And so, I say to all your listeners: Please, if you’re not vegan already, go vegan. There are many reasons to go vegan: for your health, for the environment, for the animals. But now there’s one reason above all: in order to breathe.”

Glen Merzer is a playwright, screenwriter, and author. His new book, “Food Is Climate: A Response to Al Gore, Bill Gates, Paul Hawken, and the Conventional Narrative on Climate Change,” addresses the climate emergency threatening civilization, as well as the key to solving this urgent problem. “Animal agriculture causes about 87% of the global warming greenhouse gases. And methane is up to 120 times as powerful a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide. The animal waste gives off methane and nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide is 300 times as powerful a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide. But the pasture maintenance fires bring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and they degrade the soil. And we’re turning that land slowly into desert.” “Food is what determines our land use. We have a climate emergency now, and the solution is to leave as much of the Earth alone as we can. But how can we do that? And the grazing land is actually 37% of the non-ice land surface of the Earth. And if we didn’t eat fish, then we can leave the oceans alone. If we just eat plant foods, which are the healthiest foods for the human body, we can leave 80% of the Earth alone, and the climate will heal.” In August 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a new report about the planetary situation. “Now, the Earth used to have 6 trillion trees. And it now has about 3 trillion trees. The leading cause of deforestation is animal agriculture. And once the forests come back on the grazing land, they will sequester more carbon dioxide than we’re currently emitting, and the soil will get healthier, and the soil stores twice as much carbon as the trees.” All information concerning the scientific evidence of climate change and its solution is in Supreme Master Ching Hai’s Book, “From Crisis to Peace.” As Glen Merzer highlights in “Food Is Climate,” it is paramount for us as individuals to adopt plant-based diets in order to reverse global warming. “Well, we can’t wait for the politicians or the policymakers. So, we the people have to lead. We have to just stop the demand for meat. That’s the only solution.”

Tony Martin is the editor of “Growing Green International,” a magazine published twice a year by the British educational charity Vegan Organic Network. Established in 1996, Vegan Organic Network strives for food to be grown the “veganic” way, or vegan and organic. “Veganic gardening is growing without any pesticides or without any animal input such as manures, blood, bone, fish meal, etc.” Tony Martin has been leading a compassionate vegan lifestyle for more than 35 years. “There are various benefits of avoiding animal products. For instance, you won’t have heard of ‘mad carrot disease,’ but you’ve certainly heard of mad cow disease, chickenpox, and other diseases, where bacteria/viruses get mutated and take host in humans – so there’s that risk. There’s also the risk of animal manures containing large amounts of bacteria, which can cause salmonella, for instance, if salads, etc. aren’t cleaned properly. And it’s not just the fact that it’s the suffering of the animals that goes in there, but a lot of these animals are treated regularly with antibiotics and other nasties, which will then end up in the food chain.” There are many safer plant-based methods to fertilize crops, such as vegan composting. “And grass clippings are high in nitrogen, which is one of the important resources that we need for vegan compost. Insects and worms in the garden can be very beneficial to growing. In nature, there is a balance. ‘No-dig’ appeals to vegans because you’re not harming animals. From a nutritional point of view, some of the easiest things to grow are things like spinach, peas, etc.” Supreme Master Ching Hai frequently encourages growing vegan produce, such as in the following lecture, given in 2008 in France. “Okay, so now, you try to plant those vegetables that bear fruits, like beans, pumpkins and stuff, cucumbers, those things that bear fruit and simple, easy. So it becomes a habit. And then you will eat your own produce, and it’s also good for the time being because we’re short of food everywhere. In case something happens, you will have sufficient food for yourself.”

We are honored to have Professor Damian Pophristov with us again, as he continues to discuss his research findings. “In ‘The Secret Book,’ Jesus Christ does not call it exactly ‘rebirth,’ but says ‘coming back,’ when each soul must learn its lesson and find another such higher soul which has already undergone these tests to lead him to what Jesus Christ calls ‘perfect humanity.’ Subsequently, it becomes clear that under perfect humanity, He means the Universal White Brotherhood. They are highly purified and on a universal scale are responsible for two things: Truth and Love. At different times, among different cultures, They come down to Earth to correct or guide people in the right direction of a life connected with the Divine reality. The Bogomils repeated it centuries later in a slightly different version: ‘No matter what happens in your life, rejoice, fellow, because this is your chance to correct what you did wrong before.’ Free will is in the Divine plan. The third point is very important: this is the presence of the feminine energy, absolutely equal to the male from the very beginning. This is the so-called Wisdom of God, or Sofia.” The Bogomils preached equality in poverty and a modest, simple life that included keeping a vegetarian diet and avoiding alcohol. They were known as keen missionaries and traveled extensively to teach their form of Christianity, healing the sick as they went. “He (Boyan Maga) consecrated 21 of his future Bogomil apostles in the new doctrine, and the spread of the Bogomil Doctrine began. It reappears on the surface, so to speak, in the early 20th century with the teachings of the spiritual Master Beinsa Douno, known by His secular name Peter Deunov. Izgreva is the place where the White Brotherhood gathered. It preserves the basic spiritual principles of the Bogomil Doctrine. It is also a modern teaching that is already widespread in almost 130 countries around the world.” “Adding 700 makes 2021, i.e., we are contemporaries of the emergence or rebirth of this Bogomil spiritual impulse, which began already in 1247. A new era is coming in humanity in which prejudice, racial, class, ethnicity, will disappear. And to know the power of love, they must know themselves as Divine creatures.”

“About the Bogomils from ‘Mouth to Ear’” is dedicated to an exceptional part of Bulgaria’s spiritual legacy, the Bogomil Doctrine. Published in 2018, the fascinating book is the fruit of Professor Damian Pophristov’s many years of research. “The first is that there are no sacrifices in Orphism – not of animals, let alone of humans.” Ancient spiritual Master Orpheus did not personally transcribe any of His teachings. But some of the major principles are referred to in subsequent philosophic writings by Plato, Empedocles, and the Pythagorean teachings which form the main source of information about Orphism. Renowned Greek philosopher Plato wrote about the vegetarian diet of the Orphics in His book “Laws:” “It was a kind of Orphic life, as it was called, that was led by those of our kind who were alive at that time, taking freely of all things that had not life, but abstaining from all that had life.” “What is Orphism? The musical rhythm 7/8 resonates with a person’s heart chakra, which at the same time synchronizes with the pulsation of the super-celestial spheres. The unique thing about Orphism is the way of purification. This, as I said, is done through music.” “Wherever there are Thracian tribes, Orpheus’s teachings became their main belief. This continued until the 1st century AD, when the first Apostles of Jesus Christ, or the first preachers of Christ’s teachings. arrived in our lands in the Balkans. Apostle Paul also arrived in our lands. It is safe to say that the first successors of the early Christian teaching were the Thracians. The upgrade is expressed in the fact that this time, the Word, the Divine Word, has been downloaded to the people in an understandable, accessible language, so that it can be distributed to all. This is evidenced by over 900 early Christian churches, dated by archaeologists by all possible analysis to the period between the 4th to 6th centuries, i.e., the period when Christianity became the official religion. Early Christianity recognizes karma and reincarnation. We know it from the so-called ‘Secret Book of John,’ the same John the Theologian who wrote the canonical Gospel, who records his one-on-one conversations with Jesus Christ.”

For generations, children and adults have enjoyed nursery rhymes. The catchy melodies and lyrics are passed down from generation to generation throughout the world, a way to preserve cultural values and traditions. It is said that nursery rhymes have an important role in the development of early childhood. In the era of veganism, Kate Foster, a vegan, and author of the book “Vegan Nursery Rhymes” thoughtfully adapted traditional nursery rhymes as a means to teach adults and children vegan values. What was it that prompted Kate to write the book, “Vegan Nursery Rhymes”? “‘Vegan Nursery Rhymes’ really happened after my son was born. And then when he was a baby, I would read him all sorts of books, including nursery rhyme books. And then noticed that a lot of the nursery rhymes didn't have a vegan message. They weren't vegan friendly.” Kate tells us her side of the vegan story. “I became vegan 10 years ago when I met my husband and he's been vegan most of his life. And when I met him, he sort of introduced me to things and made me think about things I'd never really thought about before. For instance, the dairy industry and the ag (animal agriculture) industry, I didn't realize all the cruelties that were involved in those industries. The book, “Vegan Nursery Rhymes” includes 50 poems and songs which are written and illustrated by Kate. Some of them are funny, others heart-breaking, and all of them will make you think. “Really my wish is to encourage people to be kind to all creatures and to extend their compassion to all creatures and everybody on Earth. You know, rather than just pets, all the animals that they think are cute. And just to sort of realize that all animals matter and that all lives are important.” With “Vegan Nursery Rhymes,” the tender-hearted Kate has reminded us that children are the future. Therefore, it is very important to instill moral values in them. Also, animals, children, and grownups all have the right to live a kinder and more considerate life together.

“This is Kitti. She is about two and a half years old. She was rescued from a small garden, where she was bred to be sold, and then used for her eggs, and at the end she would have been slaughtered. I had a rescued chicken before Lotti, and we wanted to get a companion for Lotti, so we got Kitti.” “It happened that Lotti became very sick and died in the summer, and Kitti could not really get over Lotti’s death. And that is why eventually she became an indoor chicken. When Lotti was very sick, she was sitting on the sofa for many weeks, and Kitti was sitting with her and did not leave her side. First, people would not even believe how sensitive these little beings are.” “She was sitting beside Lotti, and she did not leave for many days; she only ate what I took there for her. She was cleaning Lotti’s feathers because Lotti could not do it for herself anymore. And it was the saddest thing when we finally buried Lotti. Kitti would not leave the sofa.” “I would like to write an article about how many empty gardens there are. When I take my dogs here for a walk, I see a lot of nice gardens, and they are so empty. And each one of those could house three to four chickens, two geese, and a couple of cats. This way everybody could adopt animals, and life would be much more beautiful.” “By the way, I have a very important lecture, which is for the vegans. It is called ‘Being at Peace with a Non-Vegan World.’ You can watch it on YouTube. It is about how not to make war with each other. Because conflict never really has any winner. In my opinion, it is very important that we turn towards non-vegans with help instead of making them feel guilty or being angry at them.” “How could we not be angry about all the things that people do to animals? But this anger does not bring the world forward. We need to work on it inside, so we don’t communicate out of anger, but rather out of love and help.”

Anna Bonifert is one of the best-known Hungarian vegan animal activists. She is the author of several books and articles on animal welfare and veganism, including “Why Vegan?: Questions about veganism you haven’t dared to ask yet,” which was published in 2014. “My big dream was the ‘Book of Animal Rights Activists.’ I have always wanted to become a writer, but I have never been interested enough in any topic to sit down and write about it until we came to animal protection, veganism. And I was so interested in it that I could write a book about it from beginning to end.” “My third book is the counterpart of this book. It is ‘I Will Become Vegan’ and in parentheses says, ‘A handbook for beginners.’ It tends to give practical help for becoming vegan. So, the first one persuades, it tries to give the reasons, and the second one tries to give the know-how. So, it tries to help those who want to become vegan, but who do not know how yet. And both of these can be downloaded in PDF from the Vegan Animal Rights Activists website.” “I highly recommend everybody to start saving poultry, geese, chickens. It is best if one has a garden. But it can be done even in an apartment. You need to invest some energy, you need to pay attention, you need to change your life a little bit. But it is still better for them than to go to the slaughterhouse.” Anna lives with 15 animals, some of whom she rescued from animal farms. She tells us about one such family member, Vilmos the rooster. “Yes, because while he was living inside, he almost destroyed my laptop. They enjoy that a lot, tapping on the keyboard, especially when it makes some sound, they are absolutely enchanted by that. Roosters are tremendously intelligent. They don’t leave you alone, the same way that a kitten doesn’t leave you alone; they are always there, checking out everything. While Vilmos was living inside, he followed me everywhere. He was always there and would jump up and then sit on my lap.”

Clemens Arvay’s most recent books address the current COVID-19 pandemic. “We Can Do Better” is about the environmental and social problems that led to the COVID-19 crisis. “COVID-19 Vaccines: Hope or Risk?” is a science-based book on the problems and open questions about vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. Both became bestsellers immediately after publication.In “Biophilia in the City,” Clemens mentions how to bring the healing forces of nature into our cities. “Respect for the trees and for the animals that live in the forest and in nature; that we go there with the feeling that we should also learn something from nature and walk through nature with dignity, and that we are aware that we are not the only species on this planet; that there are many species that we have endangered through our lifestyle, that we have taken away their habitat. And it is not only about our health; it is also about the health, and life, and rights, of other species.”Clemens shares with us his experience of creating music in the forest, surrounded by the animals. “Forest music combines the effects of the forest, the relaxing effect and the creativity-enhancing effect of the forest, with music. Also, we are more creative in the forest. It is a wonderful experience when the frogs or the birds join in, and to make music in a group, or sometimes even alone in the forest, is a very moving experience.”Clemens tells us what is, for him, the most important message of the forest. “For me, the most important message of the forest is really that we appreciate diversity, that we recognize that we are part of this precious diversity. Biodiversity, ecology only works through diversity, not through making everything the same. Like this, everyone can be their authentic selves and appreciate their otherness, their individuality – for me, this is a very important message of the forest. In this context, the message of nature is also that you are OK the way you are.”

His book entitled “The Biophilia Effect: A Scientific and Spiritual Exploration of the Healing Bond Between Humans and Nature” was published in 2015 and became a bestseller. We are honored to have Clemens Arvay with us to explain these remarkable discoveries. “It is true that just looking at a tree through a window or in a large photo can have a positive effect on our self-healing powers. This also explains why a study going back to the 1980s showed that patients recover faster after operations if they can look at a tree, or a green area with a tree, from the hospital window. That is a very significant study.” Clemens Arvay’s book “Growing up With the Trees to the Sky,” published in 2019, is about forest therapy for children on the autistic spectrum. “And in 2014, my little son Jonny was born, and he, too, is autistic. And then I started to intensively study methods from forest therapy, from forest medicine, applying them to the topic of autism. The forest lowers the cortisol levels. This is a wonderful basis to get closer to them so that they can open up. And on this foundation, autistic children can be helped through the diversity of nature, especially sensory diversity. Autism is also a perceptual disorder, and if you train the nervous system through sensory experiences, then the cognitive development is also improved, and the whole range of problems associated with autism slowly fades into the background.” The “International Handbook of Forest Therapy,” published in 2019 and edited by renowned scientists, contains two articles by Clemens Arvay, including one on his specialist field, eco-psychosomatics. “We are part of nature, we are connected to nature, and human existence without natural habitats would be completely unthinkable. I wish that there could be a clinic just like this, where the experience of nature plays a very central part, and where people could then retreat.”

We now continue our interview with Clemens Arvay, as he examines the health effects of the forest on our bodies as well as our minds. “The bioactive substances of the trees, they have proven to be effective not only for our immune system, but also for our heart health. For example, they cause a substance called DHEA, dehydroepiandrosterone, to be increasingly produced in the adrenal cortex. And this is a protective substance for the heart that has been proven to keep our blood vessels elastic and can thus protect against coronary heart disease and heart attacks.”He now shares with us some exercises that we can do in the forest to benefit from its health-enhancing powers. “These exercises are full-body breathing exercises where the whole body opens up and closes again when you exhale. And all of this in combination with smooth, elegant movements, which then also activates our cardiovascular system, is the best way to come into contact with the stimuli of nature and make ourselves receptive to them. Basically, however, in order to enjoy the positive effects of the forest, one does not have to do any special exercises. You can also walk in the forest, relax, do sports in the forest, meditate in the forest, or do autogenic training and other relaxation exercises, etc. So there are numerous studies that show that just the sight of nature, the sight of the forest, of other landscapes, has an effect on our nervous system which improves our defenses and also our self-healing rate.”Clemens tells how the forest is a perfect place for meditation. “You can meditate anywhere in the forest, of course. This, for example, is the perfect place for meditation. Atop this tree trunk, and there is the sky, the treetops, with open eyes, or with your eyes closed. The interesting thing is that meditation in the forest with open eyes works especially well, easier than in a room, because, as has been proven, the impressions of nature increase alpha wave activity. So I would recommend to everyone to meditate according to their own mood and desire, or to do a walking meditation, where you concentrate on the forest path, in the fashion of the flow experience.”

One of the pioneers of forest therapy is Austrian biologist and author Clemens G. Arvay. His work centers on the relationship between humans and nature. Devoted to forest medicine, Clemens Arvay examines the health effects of the forest on our bodies as well as our minds. Today we are very honored to have Clemens Arvay on Supreme Master Television, as he shares how his relationship with nature began.“Forest medicine, or forest therapy, is an approach where one integrates, very deliberately, an experience of nature with a therapeutic concept to treat both physical and psychological problems. Because the forest is full of bioactive substances. You could say it is an outright pharmacy of active substances. And we do know this: These substances that come from the trees, from the humus, from the roots, from other plants, also from soil organisms; they are very important for our immune function, for our heart health, for our nervous system, and for many other parts of the body. Even at the cellular level, they actually have a regenerative and healing effect. There are studies that show, for example, that people who are clinically diagnosed with depression, benefit greatly from walking in the forest.”“In my opinion, the combination of water and forest is especially successful, because the depth of the lake – for example, the peace and quiet that the lake radiates – combines with the effect of nature’s greenery. There is also a study that shows that, for example, children suffering from asthma, up to four months of age, experience a significant improvement in their symptoms when they have been able to take a short or two-week curative stay at a waterfall.”“The immune defense of the trees also seems to be known to our immune system. It also reacts to the terpenes of the forest by strengthening its immune defenses. Actually, we also breathe in the soil microbes, because they are stirred up and we swallow them down, and they become part of our intestinal ecosystem. They also have proven to have a significant effect on our immune system. They train our immune system, they improve it.”

“We’re always learning something. Just the other day, we saw where some whales were actually rescuing seals from orcas. And so we find out all of these things, and we think, ‘Gosh, they’re really just like us, except they have superpowers that we don’t understand.’ ”“The relationship at the moment between humankind, this human supremacist attitude we have, and the rest of the animals – because we are just one animal among many, but we’re all here together – is not as it should be. And we are all neighbors; we should all be friends, we should all be colleagues, if you will. But what we need to do is just show respect, understanding, consideration, and allow everybody to be themselves. Because each individual has their own group, their own culture, their own language.” “Our strength is that we work at the grassroots. We know the power of the consumer, that every individual is important in this struggle to have the animals recognized and respected. And so, when we educate the man at the bus stop, the woman buying groceries, the lawyer, the student, they are the force that will change legislation. Legislation is the last thing to change.”PETA has achieved many remarkable milestones. In 2010, PETA went undercover in laboratories, releasing alarming facts that resulted in Utah legislators conclusively voting to ensure that homeless cats and dogs housed in governmental shelters are never again sold to laboratories. In 2011, PETA cited the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution for the first time to stop the slavery of nonhuman animals in captivity. The plaintiffs were five orca whales, captured and forced to perform for human entertainment.“If you have kindness in your heart, then expand it, please. So please, walk the walk with us, come on board and be an animal rights activist, even if you’re taking baby steps in that direction.”

“When we were children, many of us read stories and we watched cartoons of animals who had mythological, wondrous superpowers. And what “Animalkind” does is it sets out to show us that real animals, not mythological ones, do have superpowers. We don’t have to go into space to look for intelligent forms of life. They’re all around us, right here on Earth. More is the pity that we ignore their feelings, their intelligence, and we make them into shoes, or snacks.” Continuing our interview, Ingrid Newkirk speaks about how much research has been put into “Animalkind” and what has been achieved for the animals. “They fascinate me. So you learn these things through research, but the talents of animals, I was always collecting their amazing journeys; that they have 300 million sense receptors in their noses to our maybe six to eight million, that they can find their way home in mysterious ways, across a country, across a continent, across an ocean. They can sense things that we will have never been able to sense. How wonderful! What examples they are for us!” In 2019, a new whole-body model frog, called SynFrog, was simulated by PETA and SynDaver. Already used in American high schools and middle schools as an educational tool, SynFrog has abolished the need to traumatically dissect real animals. PETA is always doing amazing things, leading the world in animal protection. Ingrid Newkirk now shares some of the stories that have touched and inspired her. “Well, there are so many. And I hear emails, we get mail, people are always telling us, ‘I picked up one of your magazines, the “PETA Global Animal Times,” and it changed my whole life.’ That is what keeps me going, that’s what I think influences other people.”

A well-known organization which promotes veganism and the banishment of fur is the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA. The president and co-founder, Ingrid Newkirk, is a Shining World Compassion Award recipient. PETA has adhered to a simple principle since its inception, “Animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way.” This amazing organization inspires millions of people across the world. In January 2020, Ingrid Newkirk and bestselling author Gene Stone co-authored the book: “Animalkind: Remarkable Discoveries about Animals and Revolutionary New Ways to Show Them Compassion.” Today we are especially honored to have Ingrid Newkirk take time out of her incredibly busy schedule to speak with us about this book. “It’s my pleasure, because of course I’ve long followed Supreme Master, and I think Her videos and Her books are the greatest educational tools.” “Well, “Animalkind” came out for PETA’s fortieth anniversary, and I thought it was time to have a new, big book that explained some of the things we’ve learned about animals in recent years. We didn’t know about low frequency radio waves, for example, for years and years, millennia. And yet, birds can detect low frequency radio waves and navigate by them. So I wanted to write something that said, ‘Here they are, with amazing ability, and then here’s what you can do to make sure that they don’t suffer needlessly.’” “We have to remember, of course, that animals are so special. They don’t spoil the environment the way that we do. Those things alone should make us think twice about what we do to them.” “And the root cause of all our problems is greed and prejudice. We’re disrespectful of the rainforest and all who live in there. The disrespect comes from when you look at the live market. That we’re all in this together. I am you, only different, but not different in any important way.”