I love the articles by the Asia Online journalist Pepe Escobar (1, picture) and I intend to read everything that he has written, at least what he has written on-line. I have posted a number of interviews of Escobar at my youtube-channel WolkenZwemmer (2) in which he gives his perspective on international politics.

In an article called 'The Occupy Iran Fast and Furious Plot (extended)'(3) he presents a tongue-in-cheek account of the incredible incredulousness of the allegations that Iran would be behind some vague assassination plot by a Us/Iranian car-salesman (Mansour Arabsiar) from Texas who would have tried to hire a Mexican Drugs Dealer Hit man who would have had to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington!

This amazingly creative story was discussed in an interview with Pepe Escobar and Mike Adams from Natural News (4).

Since I prefer to playfully use at least some element from his reports in these 'introspective internet'-articles, I have taken out the part that mentions the DEA. The American Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA) seems to have spread all over the world, with about the same goals as the CIA: getting information and influencing the important people in various countries into the direction that is useful for American interests.

Some DEA-agent would have acted as if he were part of the Mexican Zetas drug Cartel and this Iranian man, Arabsiar, would have said that he was acting in behalve of the Iranian government.

FROM DEA TO DHEA
When I was reading Pepe's article the acronym 'DEA' reminded me of another acronym that I have recently come across, namely 'DHEA'. This DHEA stands for 'dehydro-epiandrosterone'(5) and is a hormone that seems to counteract the effects of the stress-hormone Cortisol. According to a paper by the Heart-Math Institute (6, 8) DHEA is sometimes called 'the anti-aging' hormone. In one of their intriguing experiments they found that people who are able to produce a harmonious heart rate with a high variability produced far more DHEA (100% increase) and less cortisol (-23%) (6).

It is interesting to note that DHEA is found to be deficient in people with diseases like obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, Alzheimer's and others. If you would call cortisol the stress-hormone, you might call DHEA, the anti-stress hormone. Another funny thing is that they both have the same precursor, namely 'pregnenolone'. It seems that depending on the level of stress this molecule is used to build either Cortisol or DHEA.

Some members of the American Congress - probably due to the lobbying of the pharmaceutical industry - have tried to make DHEA into a prescription drug, which eventually failed. If you would be able to create more heart-coherence your body produces more DHEA with all its natural benificient effects. To me it seems that there is no need to take in any DHEA-pills to fool the body, the only thing you need is to allow sensations like appreciation, compassion or love into your system. I guess other heart-virtues will have the same DHEA-releasing effects (7).

FOOTNOTES*
(1) Articles by Pepe Escobar on Asia Online at http://www.atimes.com/atimes/others/Escobar.html
(2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRMlVI5SJGE (one example of an interview with Escobar)
(3) http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MJ14Ak02.html
(4) Mike Adams Interview with Pepe Escobar (Natural News TV), see http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=A8AA1909025FBC8815D447D7C8E41851
(5) Read more about at DHEA's own wikipediapage at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehydroepiandrosterone
(6) Heart-Math Institute, pages 27-29 (http://www.heartmath.org/research/science-of-the-heart/emotional-balance-health.html)
(7) Read the wonderfully inspiring 'Living from the Heart' at http://eventtemples.com/downloads/pdf/Living_from_the_Heart_%28e%29.pdf
(8) Voor de Nederlandse lezers: http://noetiek.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/de-hartritme-variatie-golven-van-het-hart/


(*) In order to put a halt to the mindless hyperlinking craze that internet activates I ask the interested reader to take some time before jumping to another store. Some time to contemplate on the contents just read. If you are interested to know more about a certain topic you can copy and paste the URL, which has a mild semblance to picking up a new book from the library shelves.