A new scientific study from Princeton researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page has finally put some science behind the recently popular argument that the United States isn’t a democracy any more. And they’ve found that in fact, America is basically an oligarchy. An oligarchy is a system where power is effectively wielded by a small number of individuals defined by their status called oligarchs. Members of the oligarchy are the rich, the well connected and the politically powerful, as well as particularly well placed individuals in institutions like banking and finance or the military. As Gilens and Page write, “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.” In other words, their statistics say your opinion literally does not matter. No surprises here, but glad to see these concepts are making their way into the mainstream.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/87719/princeton-concludes-what-kind-of-government-america-really-has-and-it-s-not-a-democracy

Josh and his 5 brothers (Joel, Jesse, Jon, Jordan, and Jared) developed Charlotte’s Web, It is a strain of medical marijuana processed into a marijuana extract. It was created for medical usage to give patients the benefits without the high. Charlotte, the first one to try it, was having 300 grand mal seizures a week…Her parents and physicians now say her seizures were reduced to two to three per month after using medical marijuana. They now have 93 families with epileptic children using marijuana daily. Hundreds are on a waiting list and thousands are calling.. They have been termed “marijuana refugees”.

Source ~ Natalie Fawn Danelishen

“Western culture has criminalized and demonized all experiences involving altered states of consciousness and any substances that put us into an altered state of consciousness. And this is clearly a war over consciousness that’s going on. It’s clear that our societies have an investment in preventing us from exploring where altered states of consciousness will lead us. Perhaps there is a deep fear that if we do explore those altered states of consciousness, we will not accept the power structures and the fairytale illusion of material wealth that we’re all brought up to pursue as though that’s the only thing to existence. If I, as an individual, am not sovereign over my consciousness, if I cannot decide what to do with my consciousness, which is the heart of my being, then I am not free, and I need not talk about freedom or living in a free society, or such issues as democracy, if my society will not allow me to explore my consciousness. If, in an altered state of consciousness, my behavior is disruptive in the public arena, then that behavior should rightly be controlled by society. But the personal and private exploration of our own consciousness is our own business, in my view, and is not the business of the State.” ~Graham Hancock