Category Archives: Mental Health

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Want Immortality? Cloning Yourself is Not the Answer!

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The issue of cloning has largely fallen off the radar, but for a while in the 1990’s, with the news of Dolly the cloned sheep, it was.

Then, there were stories which either had cloning as an issue or where something akin to it was being employed, either physically or mentally, such as the book and movie, “The Boys From Brazil”, and of course, the “Jurassic Park” series. And, there is the idea of cloning oneself to gain immortality or to make someone who thinks and acts the same.

But can this really be done? The making of a viable clone? Yes, it’s possible though the science today is still in its infancy. And no, you can’t make yourself immortal, nor can you produce a “personality twin” of yourself, either, through cloning.

All cloning does, if successful, is produce a biological twin of the person or animal, or organ or body part, being cloned, that is much younger than the original.

So, if you cloned yourself, you would not gain immortality, as the clone would not be you. It would only be a genetic copy of you and younger by as many years as you are old. You would not be seeing or feeling through the clone any more than you do through any other person. The clone is a separate being.

So, would a clone think and act as you? Again, no. Mentally, the clone could be anyone. And it would not likely matter even if the clone were raised in a duplicate way and environment as you. This is why the story, “The Boys From Brazil” could not possibly be made true. There are just too many variables within the human mind itself so that even a duplicated environment and parenting style, and even putting the same kind of people in the right places and times, if that could even be done, would not guarantee a clone being the same kind of person as the original!

So, to those who want to ban cloning because of fears of someone creating another Hitler, or of wealthy people using their money to buy immortality and having yet another advantage over the poor and middle class, your fears are completely unjustified.

What cloning can do, is bring about the possibility of making duplicate organs and body parts for people whose organs are failing. This would mean no more need for transplants, no waiting for new organs, and no fear of new organs and body parts being rejected! In addition, the stem cell controversy could also be ended, as stem cells could simply be cloned to fill the need.

This is why the banning of all forms of cloning is a bad idea!

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And thanks for reading! 🙂

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Are all Lies Bad?

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Don’t you just hate being lied to? I sure do. But, and this is a big “but“, I haven’t been offended by all lies told to me. Why? Because some lies were told to keep pleasant surprises as surprises, for one.

Most lies are bad, but some are good. I was told that the club I belonged to was changing its meeting place. I went to the new place and was treated to a surprise party for my birthday one year. It was great! It happens all the time.

Also, we tell “white” lies. These are lies to avoid offending people or to prevent people, often older parents or grandparents from worrying. Can you imagine if we always spoke our thoughts. Saying to Aunt Marge, “Your hat looks dumb and too big for your head!”, when she asks you what you think, or saying, “Cousin Tom and his girlfriend lived together before they were married.” to your old-fashioned grandfather, or saying how dangerous your job in law enforcement can be to your worrying grandmother, will only cause trouble.

Of course, the truth may still come out and, in the above examples, the idea shouldn’t be to deny the truth as much as to lessen the full impact of the truth.

In that last example of your law enforcement career, God forbid if you are killed, everyone knows that your grandmother won’t accept the idea that you just decided to take a very long trip without any communication with her or anyone else when you’ve always been a stickler for keeping contact with all family members. What needs to be done is to gradually let her know what your career is and assure her that you are taking extra care to protect yourself.

But what these white lies can do is to prevent the truth from being too blunt. Instead, in all 3 examples, the truth can be brought out in stages so the recipients won’t suffer as much mental shock with the resulting tumult in the family.

And of course, your child home alone telling an inquiring stranger on the phone that you are home in the shower is also a very good lie.

So, there are times when the lie can be more helpful than the truth. Just something to think about.

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Thanks for reading!  🙂

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Freedom to Grieve

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There was a death in my family recently. Oftentimes, when there’s such a tragedy, people, especially those closest to the one who passed on, are bombarded with often well-meaning advice on how to grieve. They may hear things such as, “You have to cry”, or, “You must pray”, or “You must do this,… wear that…have this type of ceremony”, etc.

Luckily, for me, there was very little of this, for which I am grateful. You see, everyone grieves in their own way, and just because one grieves in any particular way that is different, doesn’t mean they love the deceased person any less. Not everyone has a funeral. Not everyone wears black. Not everyone grieves for the same amount of time or to the same degree all of the time.

So, to keep this short, my advice is, to let people grieve in their own way. Please. They’ll appreciate this as greater respect, and they are more likely to respect you in turn.

Thanks for reading.

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