According to Quantum Possibilities, “Clairgustance is the ability to taste substances without putting them in your the mouth.” The premise is that some people possess special insight to perceive the essence of something from the ethereal realm through instinctive taste, minimizing the need to use memory to catalogue them within the interior mind.

Part of the problem is that this particular claim contains obvious flaws which distracts from its credibility. How can one identify flavor without having first placed something on the tongue allowing texture, form and smell to be recalled at a later time? It is inconceivable to be able to do this unless some base of reference, dependent on memory is created to guide the interpretation of qualities unique to a substance.

In general, clairvoyance is closely associated with paranormal studies historically found in most cultures. Clairvoyants are often defined as religious or shamanistic individuals who meditate and are able to  exert high levels of personal discipline. They can also exist as the focus of cults who proclaim them as having “clear experiences,” strongly suggesting that their pronouncements are reliable and above suspicion. These people attract large numbers of individuals uncertain about the future, seeking those who they think can access energies that can help them avoid pain and suffering by creating  better choices or convincing illusions foretold from such a vision.

According to some historical documents, the earliest record of clairvoyance was made by Marquis de Puységur, who in 1784 was treating a peasant man, Victor Race, identified with feeble intelligence. It was reported that when in treatment, Race would enter a trance state and undergo personality changes that made him noticeably articulate. He proceeded to diagnosis his own disease and prescribe a course of treatment, as well as many illnesses of strangers. When the trance ended, he returned to his limited mental capacity totally unaware of anything he had said.

Although Puységur used the term clairvoyance, there is no evidence to support a belief in the paranormal since he was a follower of Franz Mesmer, the founder of the Mesmerism school of thought which included certain spiritual phenomena and magnétisme animal as its basis. The evolution of Mesmer’s ideas and practices led Scottish surgeon James Braid to develop hypnosis, a respected tool of psychiatry, in 1842.

There are a number qualities identified as part of the clairvoyant experience. They are usually refinements of the known senses of hearing, seeing, touching, taste and smell, extending into some realm that can only be individually perceived. They can suggest images from the past, visions of the future or be connected to objects such an heirloom.

Most skeptics argue that clairvoyance is the result of self delusion and a failure to consider chance occurrence, “If you test a clairvoyant in a scientific experiment, they will inevitably get a number of answers correct during a series of trials, much like the 20% chance of picking the correct possibility in a multiple choice test with five unknown choices.” This does not mean that there are any special abilities at work other than guessing. Non believers are quick to suggest that the clairvoyant experience should be amenable to established scientific scrutiny in order to be considered valid.

Try and explain that to someone who has had such an event that changed the course of their life and opened them to things they never knew they had. For them, there is no need to justify their ability since they implicitly understand the solitary and unique nature of the introspective experience.

Recently, when President Obama was asked about the Top Kill Project, the plan to plug the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico, he declared, “If it’s successful, and there are no guarantees, it should greatly reduce or eliminate the flow of oil streaming into the Gulf from the sea floor, but if it’s not, there are other approaches that may be viable.” Never-the-less, this situation has focused attention on the necessity for seeking alternative fuel sources even though it will cause a great deal of pain from the costly changes in lifestyle required to kick the dependence on oil.

One way to resolve the global reliance on fossil fuels was suggested in a popular 1951 novel by British writer John Wyndhum who was relatively unknown until The Day Of The Triffids catapulted him from literary obscurity and established him as a major fiction writer. The public saw the book as a science fiction post apocalyptic satire about cultural dependence on the products of the industrial revolution while others contended it to be a play about how karma unfolds for those who did not open there eyes to see what was approaching.

The Triffids, a fictional creation of Wyndhum are described as large venomous plants genetically manipulated by industry controlled farms as a substitute for petroleum. “They can communicate through sound and have three feet which allows them mobility with poisonous tentacles that kill their prey and consume its flesh.”

The pivotal event that occurs is a dazzling display of lights in the sky from a passing comet that destroys the optic nerve and renders anyone who views them blind. Only a few on the planet are unaffected as the horrific consequences lead to the escape and proliferation of the triffids that seek humans as a source of food and display a remarkable ability for enhancing their intelligence with each successive generation by sharpening their predatory nature as ruthless hunters.

The first film adaption of the novel was in 1963 and starred Howard Keel, most known as the lead actor in a long string of MGM musicals of the 1950′s including Showboat and Kiss Me Kate, and who went on to television notoriety playing the second husband of Miss Ellie, matriarch of the Ewing clan on Dallas. This version was considered more of a horror movie that brought the triffid spores to Earth from the meteor shower much like the pods in The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956). “Triffids are portrayed as aliens, and come from outer space, depicted as carnivorous monsters, evil in nature.” But few elements of the  original novel were in the script which had a happy ending when it was discovered that seawater turned the triffids into mush. The salvation of the human race presented in narrative form is similar to the microbes that miraculously ended The martian invasion in The War Of The Worlds (1953).

In December 2009 the BBC aired a made for TV miniseries which was never shown in the United States. This production  is  much more faithful to the 1951 book. It lays responsibility for the creation of the triffids on scientists and oil companies too quick to hail the discovery of triffid oil as the silver bullet to the crisis while doing nothing to change consumer consciousness except by transferring the dependence from fossil fuel to triffid oil, also regulated by the oil industry.

In this version as in the original novel, the plants did not come from outer space, nor are they monsters, but rather a species that comply  with the same biology that bacteria and virus’s have   evolved based on the scientific principle of adaptation. All this as a blind human race succumbs to the cattle call of their triffid predators reminiscent of the morlocks in H. G. Wells, The Time Machine.

The 2009 made for TV film stars two members of the Redgrave family, Jolie Richardson and her mother Vanessa Redgrave in a small but pivotal role as a mother superior who claims to hear the word of God and delivers blind people to the triffids as a human sacrifice to prevent the carnivores from overrunning the abbey she heads. Redgrave, considered by many as the foremost English speaking actress of the twentieth century is also well known for her controversial political and social activism which plays well in this role.

The breakdown of society, its moral foundations and the lines of good and evil are drawn differently in this intelligent production, with superb action and special effects, although the climax does not end as happily as it did for the 1961 film. The population of the planet is consumed and only a small community of sighted people survive on the Isle of White as reality deals a blow to those blinded by the consequences of corporate greed , cultural addiction and disregard for ecological balance.

Aside from water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage with a history steeped in rituals about the simple task of boiling water and dropping leaves into the pot.

According to myth, the emperor Shen Nung of China, who scholars say was well versed in science and the arts, ordered all of his subjects to boil water before drinking. Some historians believe this was based on a knowledge of medicine and the life cycle of germs. Others speculate that, “while the emperor was resting one day after traveling with an elaborate entourage, leaves from a nearby bush fell into the cauldron of boiling water being prepared for him. The monarch, noticing the flavourful aroma and dark color, ordered his food tasters to sample the drink. When the emperor finally sipped it himself, convinced that the tasters were not poisoned, he said ‘this is good.’”

It wasn’t until the Ch’a Ching was written in 800 A. D. by the renowned Lu Yu, an orphan raised by scholarly Buddhist monks in one of China’s finest monasteries. His training as an observer reflected a Zen Buddhist upbringing and led to the first comprehensive book written about tea and its evolution in culture. He recorded the various methods of it’s cultivation and preparation in ancient China that was eventually exported to imperial Japan by Zen missionaries, projecting Lu to near sainthood within his own lifetime.

Although this discovery was a step towards the development of herbal knowledge and the infancy of pharmaceuticals, Lu Yu still considered his life a failure and without meaning. Perhaps it was the realization that in all its glory, tea is nothing more then water with variable solvents open to interpretation when the liquid is poured from the cup and the clumps of leaves left behind reveal clues about the life cycle of whoever was drinking from the cup. This may have also been the origin of reading tea leaves, a form of divination.

Knowing what to say or do at any given moment is a worthy objective to aspire to. Unfortunately, events don’t occur exactly in the same way twice as unknown factors reveal themselves. Perhaps a reasonable goal, from a philosophical perspective, divinely guided or not, would be to quickly notice the obvious patterns and allow the subtle ones which can also effect the outcome, to be perceived. Then, reasonable reactions become subconscious and instinctive as individual sentience, added infinitely, approaches the collective unconscious.

The problem with saying anything specific is that it excludes a great deal in the process. Using a formula with constants identified as proven facts, and variables, all unknowns, allows a range of possibilities to describe a more expansive reality; But they also run  the risk of being too generic to be identified as facts or taken seriously as individual predictions, which is why symbols incorporate  the most, limited less by specifics and open to a broader interpretations. Likewise, once something is said, its difficult to take it back, which is why its probably better to think more and say less.

Agni in Sanskrit means fire, also the name of a Vedic god with the power to transmute form by breaking down its component elements and dispersing the atoms toward oblivion. Although this may be a view of cosmology riddled with paganism, cosmic events such as an eclipse predicted a thousand years ago by ancient civilizations also suggests a scientific model.

The sun evokes the image of Agni as it travels on its revolutionary path along with other celestial bodies extending varying degrees of gravitational force on each other just as the magnetism of the planet Jupiter exerts enough attraction to cause many cosmic perturbations such as comets to avoid a collision with Earth.

According to Greek Mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity against their wishes. The three planes of existence known in myth are ruled by Hades, Zeus and Poseidon who are brothers often portrayed as angry and jealous when competing for dominion. This may be the reason for dividing the three domains in the first place. Hades controls the underworld, Zeus reigns over the air and earth while Poseidon is the master of the oceans, seas and horses. Perhaps this implies that with a knowledge of fire mortals have the capacity to evolve and become co-creators with the gods.

The Bible also refers to fire in Luke’s story of Lazarus and the rich man, expressing “Sheol”, Hades in Hebrew, which had first been viewed as dark and gloomy with little if any relationship to the afterlife and its rewards or punishments. Now it is understood as a state of comfort for the righteous, “in the bosom of Abraham” and of torment for the wicked, “of anguish in the flame.” Could this be a reference to cause an effect, also known in eastern philosophy as the law of karma?

Fire, at its heart is a force that clarifies everything and expresses the duality of creative and destructive principles without exerting a value judgement about which form of its nature is intrinsically good or bad  since fire is an element that has no personality attributed to it such as consciousness or the capacity to think.

Each of the four elements express duality differently. Water is associated with emotions and the imbalance that results from its instability, air symbolizes the knowledge we are capable of learning or fail to learn all of which may or may not lead to wisdom (earth).  However there must be a fifth element that permeates the others by making them possible to exist in a way similar to stem cells which are the primordial substance that all other cells differentiate from.