Wellread Books is proud to announce the release of an important new title, The Revolutionary Legacy of Rosa Luxemburg. Rosa Luxemburg has often been misrepresented as an opponent of the October Revolution, standing for some sort of softer, anti-authoritarian Marxism as against that of Lenin and the Bolsheviks. In this book, Marie Fredrickson sets the record straight. Examining her ideas on the basis of what she actually wrote, the book reclaims Rosa Luxemburg as the revolutionary she was. You can order the book now from our website WellreadBooks.net for only £12.99 and you can get free shipping till the end of March with the code Rosa1871. Hello everyone and welcome back to Marxist Voice, the podcast of Socialist Appeal. In recent weeks there's been a social explosion in the country of Sri Lanka, spurred on by the deep economic crisis, as well as the inept and corrupt government of Goatabaya Rajapaksa. A spontaneous mass movement has emerged which has been the biggest Sri Lanka has seen in decades. The sort of social unrest that we're seeing now in Sri Lanka we can expect to see all around the world in the period to come. So it's important that we pay keen attention to these events and draw the lessons as they unfold. On that note, with us today is Ben Curry, a writer and activist with the International Marxist Tendency who has recently been reporting on these events for Marxist.com, the website of the IMT. Hi Ben, how's it going? I'm very well, Jack. How are you doing? Yeah, I'm great and it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast. So I guess just to jump straight into things, could you sort of explain what's happening in Sri Lanka right now and what are the latest developments? Yeah, well I mean events in Sri Lanka have been picking up pace really for the past few weeks. For the past month really you've seen protests on the streets of Sri Lanka and these protests are against the deplorable living conditions which people are facing. The country is essentially on the, well it has now actually declared that it's not going to repay its debts. It's declared bankruptcy effectively. It's run out of foreign reserves. And you're running out of basic essential goods, cooking fuel, petrol, diesel, electricity, blackouts that last well now up to 13 hours long in a day, bearing in mind of course there's only really 15 waking hours in the day. So the majority of the day the electricity is out and living conditions have become utterly desperate for the majority of people. Inflation is skyrocketing in double digits but food inflation is something like 30% and even the price of a candle has become unaffordable for vast parts of the population. So life has become unbearable and that really precipitated a massive explosion on the 31st of March. So the end of last month, two weeks ago almost exactly now, when you saw mass protests erupt spontaneously there was no leadership to this, no political party, no trade union or anything like that in the leadership. Just the masses have their back up against the wall and you had this explosion of anger and in particular the focus of that anger was the president and the prime minister. They're both brothers actually. They belong to a clan known as the Roger Paxchers. And there was a huge amount of anger demanding that these people resign saying where is our stolen money, pay for the debt with the Pandora dollars. In other words, a reference to the fact that this family has been implicated in the Pandora papers, embezzling money, public money and just a huge outburst of anger across Colombo, which is the capital city. In particular you had thousands of people descended upon the president's own personal residence and a state of emergency was quickly declared, a curfew which lasted the whole weekend and the government panicked, but the protests have only really escalated from there. The weekend after this explosion of anger in Colombo you saw an escalation of protests across the whole island and people from all backgrounds have been involved in this. Tamils, Christians, Muslims, it's cut across religious divisions, other divisions within society. All of the masses have been swept up with this, particularly the youth at the forefront of this movement. And it has caused a crisis in the government and in parliament as well. You've seen 42 MPs have resigned from the governing coalition. All of the vast majority of the ministers from the cabinet have resigned and the government's unable to find anyone to replace them with because basically no one wants to be tarred with association with the Rajapaksas. But it's not just the Rajapaksas themselves who have been the target of the anger of the masses. Another slogan that has come out from the streets as well as these slogans that really demonstrate a class anger has been as well as Go Home Gotta, which is a reference to the fact that he has gotta by a Rajapaksa, the president has American citizenship. He has a very nice life, has a residence in the United States, as does the rest of the members of his clan. That's what that's a reference to. The other slogan that's been raised as well is Go Home 225, a reference to the 225 MPs in the parliament. In other words, there's a massive distrust, not just of the governing pro-capitalist bourgeois party of the Rajapaksa clan, but of all of the bourgeois parties, a sick and tired anger towards the entire establishment that the opposition included who've tried to cloak themselves as if they're sympathetic to this mass movement. Of course, they're not sympathetic whatsoever. They've had their hand in preparing the conditions which are now making the suffering of the Sri Lankan people unbearable. This movement has reached a peak really last Saturday when you had 100,000 people marched in Colombo and particularly occupied a luxury park area on the beach side called Goreface Green, which is adjacent to the presidential secretariat building. That's been overwhelmingly youth. There's a sense of euphoria in this mass occupation basically. There's been a continuous occupation since then of tens of thousands of youth, particularly in the evenings. It's swelled to 40,000, 50,000 every night. That's been going on come rain or shine. It's the monsoon season is coming on in Sri Lanka at the moment and there's extremely heavy downpours as you can imagine. The people have stayed there despite that. They're continuing to occupy despite the fact that it is the Sinhala and the Tamil New Year now. Festivities are going on, but the masses are determined to stay on the streets until the Rajapaksa clan is ousted from power. Fundamentally, it is the crisis of capitalism which has driven the masses onto the streets. I'd just like to go back to something you said at the beginning there. You referenced state debts and this sort of bankruptcy. Basically, the government have declared bankruptcy. To whom do they owe this debt? I think I read in your article recently that the government have appealed to the IMF, for example, but also I know that China as well are quite heavily invested in the Sri Lankan economy as well. How does this tie basically to the different imperialist powers that have swayed the Sri Lankan economy? I think the short answer is that the Sri Lankan state is in debt to a whole number of capitalist interests, to Western imperialism, to Western capitalist, to Indian capitalist, to Japanese capitalist, and also, yes, to China as well. Of course, it's the latter in particular which is inflated in the Western media because, of course, China is the main bogeyman of Western capitalism, but in fact, only 10% of Sri Lanka's debt is actually to China. You have this narrative that is kind of put forward in the Western media that you have this Chinese debt trap, basically, that China is lending money to so-called third world developing countries, and that when they are unable to pay these things, that then various parts of the infrastructure are given over to China, and a famous example of that is the port on the southern coast of Sri Lanka. But actually, large parts of Sri Lanka's infrastructure have been given over, not just to Chinese capitalists, but also to Indian capitalists, to American capitalists. Sri Lanka is a playground for foreign imperialism fundamentally. But I think there's nothing unique, really, about the crisis in Sri Lanka. In many ways, it reflects similar processes which we're seeing going on around the world everywhere. And in many ways, Sri Lanka, I think, shows much of the world its own future. It's obviously in a very acute phase of this economic crisis. But it's the same fundamental driving forces that we've seen going on everywhere in 2020, of course, when the pandemic first erupted onto the scene, you had a situation where the rich countries could, to a certain extent, cushion themselves. They could bail out their own domestic capitalists. They could even bail out workers to a certain extent. And of course, you did see a ballooning of state debt, but you didn't have the layers of fat in these poorer countries, and they were hit in a number of ways that the rich countries were not. Each country in its own particular way. In Sri Lanka, for example, you saw a complete drying up of tourism, which was a big sector of the economy. That had already been massively impacted by the Easter bombings in 2019 in Colombo, which obviously deterred a lot of tourists from going there. You saw remittances dry up, not just of course in Sri Lanka, but Sri Lanka in particular, one of the biggest exports, if you can describe it as that, is remittances, human labour. It's workers that go abroad and then send money back, but many of those workers returned home with the onset of the pandemic to bail out basically the Sri Lankan capitalists, which by the way, the Rajapaksas, when they came in, on the back of the bombings in 2019, they had the overwhelming support of the Sri Lankan capitalists last. One of the first things they did was introduce massive tax cuts to benefit the Sri Lankan capitalists. They had the backing of the Sri Lankan ruling class. They introduced these tax cuts, and of course that then immediately preceded the pandemic. You had this sort of combination of government income already being slashed because of these tax cuts to the rich. Then of course, government income also collapsing and foreign reserves dwindling because of a massive accumulation of debt and also the main exports being impacted by the pandemic. From all of these different angles, you see the crisis of capitalism has caused a real crisis basically of government finances.  It's just like we see in Britain today. Of course Britain has been lurching from one crisis to the next, from Brexit to the Scottish independence referendum, one thing after another, political scandals and sleaze.  And we see the same thing in Sri Lanka. Yes, it is the crisis of capitalism, but it's also aggravated by the crudeness, the ignorance, the stupidity, the corruption of the ruling clique itself. There's been a very important factor in that situation. But there's nothing fundamentally unique, I don't think, about the situation here. What we're seeing is countries around the world are facing a similar situation where they are being poorer countries, particularly since 2020, are being crushed by huge amounts of debt on the one hand, and on the other side of course massive spiraling inflation, which is precisely what we see in Sri Lanka. It's interesting too, the countries that have come with a certain amount of money to try and bail out Sri Lanka have been India on the one hand and also Bangladesh, which has lent several hundred million pounds worth of its foreign reserves to Sri Lanka. Now why is that? For one reason and one reason only is that these countries in the region want to basically help bridge this social explosion. They are worried about the contagion of revolution basically. So there's nothing fundamentally unique about Sri Lanka in that respect. Yeah, I think that's a very important point to make. Now just to go on to the response of the government to this movement, you've mentioned their ineptitude and their crudeness. What has been the response to this movement? I've seen incidents online, for example, the government using quite heavy handed measures to deal with these protests, which have been in large part a very peaceful protest. I think I saw a tweet where there were some armed forces with automatic weapons, for example. So it seems at least to me that the response has been so far one of repression, but has there been any attempt at sort of a carrot and stick approach where there's promises of reforms, for example? It seems like Rajapaksar is in a pretty awkward situation. He's back into a corner now. A lot of his own ministers and so on don't really want to help him anymore. So what lies ahead for the government and what has their response been so far? I think that the first thing is it's worth taking a step back. The Rajapaksars were in power before in 2005 to 2015. Actually it was the brother of the current president, Mahinda Rajapaksar, who was the president at that time. You see how these people just rotate positions. It's your turn now to be president and I'll be prime minister and then you can be financed. You can see this rotten clique, this family that are in power, the sheer nepotism of this government. But when they were in power then, they enacted an extremely brutal regime. In 2009 they put an end to the war in the northeast, crushing the Tamil population, carrying out all sorts of atrocities to finally snuff out the Civil War against the Tamil Tigers. Not only that, but in 2019, they came to power in two elections in 2019 and in 2020. You had elections which brought the Rajapaksars once more into government. They came to government on the basis of really right-wing chauvinist demagogy after these terrorist attacks, which is uncertain who's the author of these attacks by the way. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for these bombings in Easter 2019. On the back of that you had a wave of anti-Muslim riots, burnings of Korans and sacking of mosques and this sort of stuff. A chauvinist wave and there is some indication that, there's some suggestion I should say that actually the state may have had a hand in this and it wouldn't be the first time that we've seen the ruling class, the turn of blind eye to terrorist attacks or terrorist conspiracies in order to ride the wave of chauvinism that follows in their wake. But on the back of these attacks in 2019, that was when the Rajapaksars came to power. They came to power on the back of basically fear of going back to the violence. They said to people, we were the ones who put an end to the Civil War back in 2009. Vote for us, otherwise there's going to be a return to this violence. We will be the ones who will protect the Sinhala Buddhist majority of Sri Lanka against the other groups who want to deprive you of your rights and so forth. So it was really on the back of this chauvinist wave, racial division, all of this sort of stuff. Now one of the most remarkable features of this mass movement has been precisely the fact that it is cut across all of this racist poison, everything like that. This mass protest and occupation in gold face green, you see Christians, Muslims, Tamils, as well as even young members of the, from the young monks, Buddhist monks turning up to the protest as well. Incidentally that the hierarchy of the Buddhist hierarchy are reviled actually because of the role they've played in bigging up the Rajapaksars. But there's been unity across the divisions that the ruling class and particularly the Rajapaksars have attempted to spread in society. And so the, yeah, there's been an attempt to sort of, you know, demagogy on the part of the Rajapaksars. They've tried to sort of spread poison and this sort of thing and division. But the masses are resisting this. They've seen through this game. They've had several years of this sort of, you know, verbiage of this sort of, these sort of speeches and now look at their conditions. They're not, they're determined not to be divided in this sort of manner. But yes, the immediate response of the government was to issue threats. It was to denounce the protests, particularly a couple of weeks ago when they were outside the doors of the president. And the Monday after you had huge protests all around Colombo and else across the island in fact. And outside many of the minister's houses, those ministers shortly after resigned, but you had big protests of people outside the houses. And they were denouncing these as the result of violent agitators and extremists where there has been violence. It seems, of course, it's actually been on the part of the states who've used tear gas and water cannon and this sort of thing. And also have tried to infiltrate the protests with agent provocateurs to try to justify repression. But they've had to move quite carefully the Rajapaksars because there have been indications of members of the police force actually cheering on the protests and this sort of thing. Small indications of the mood, but it's not quite clear that the rank and file of the police and of the armed forces are 100% in spirit with the Rajapaksars. They are affected by the inflation. They're affected by the long power cuts. They're affected by all of these things. They're affected not just the working class, but also middle class layers and all different sections of society. Yeah, I'd also like to ask as well what has been the response of the other parties and organisations as well. You mentioned that some of the parties in parliament have tried to co-op this movement to an extent. I think members of the SJB, which is one of the opposition parties, a bourgeois opposition party, have been holding their placards and mimicking the slogans that have been thrown up by this mass movement. Do you think this is going to work or do you think the masses are just going to see straight through this? Well, yeah, I think that the attitude of the opposition has been to sort of try to present themselves as on the side of the people. But they've had a much easier time of it when they've been in the parliamentary chamber than when they've been outside on the streets. You have had attempts by opposition MPs to turn up on the streets and they have been by and large chased off and given very little time by the protesters. And in fact, one of the key slogans that has been raised has been precisely this slogan out with the 225, out with all of the MPs. And the SJB, the main opposition, actually comes from the UMP, which is basically the traditional party of the Sri Lankan capitalist class. Now they are accusing the Rajapaksas of playing with chauvinism and of strengthening the presidency to create this authoritarian presidential system. But they were the ones who started along this route. They were the ones who have, just like we see all around the world, the liberals and the centre-grounds, complaining about the Trumps and the Boris Johnson's and Brexiteers and the Marine Le Pen's. Not remembering the fact, of course, it was they who allowed these people to rise to power. They were the ones, they flirted with chauvinism, they've attacked the working class, they've discredited themselves, they've opened the ground for these demagogues. So the parties like the UMP now calling itself the SJB, they've prepared the grounds for the people like the Rajapaksas. So they have a much easier time pretending that they're on the side of the people when they're in the parliamentary chamber. But their aim is fundamentally the same as the Rajapaksas, that their means of achieving it is different. They want to get the masses off the street, whereas the Rajapaksas are biding their time and trying to prepare the ground for repression, which is very difficult when the mass movement is so strong and moving forward. The opposition wants to tie this movement up in the parliamentary games, in preparing the ground for, you know, we need to change the constitution, we need to introduce an amendment to the constitution to clip the wings of the president, this sort of thing, as if there is some improved perfect bourgeois democracy that is possible in Sri Lanka. The Bonaparte's character of the Sri Lankan constitution, and it does concentrate a lot of power in what is called the executive presidency, is an expression of the fact that the social polarization in Sri Lanka is and has been for decades extremely acute and the only way to achieve a certain semblance of stability is to place a lot of power in the executive and in the presidency. That is what has caused the rise of this increasingly authoritarian presidential system that you see in Sri Lanka. So what we would say is that the masses should have no trust in any of these opposition parties and no illusion that you can create some better, more perfect bourgeois democracy in Sri Lanka. In actual fact, this crisis is, as I mentioned before, you know, it is a crisis of capitalism and it's only the working class that can fundamentally offer a way out. Now, there is something very progressive in this slogan of, you know, out with the 225 MPs. It shows a healthy distrust of all of the bourgeois parties, but it also has its weak side as well because it's not just enough to know what you're against, you have to know what you are for as well. And the masses instinctively rejecting all parties and all organisations, that has a healthy side. It means that the movement can't be co-opted, it means it can't be bought off, but it also has a very weak side as well because, of course, the masses need a leadership. They need a party, not of the type of the bourgeois parties, but a party of the working class to offer a clear program, to offer a clear way out for the masses. You mentioned that the movement is strong, but of course, you know, it is spontaneous as well and there is a healthy element to that. But, you know, it seems to me that it isn't, you know, very organised at this stage. Has there been any sort of like political expression, any kind of political leadership that's been offered by any of the sort of existing parties, the trade unions or anything basically at the minute, because it seems to me like without that leadership and without a sort of program to give this movement cohesion and sustain it, that it will just fizzle out like many of these movements do. So, does anything exist currently? And yeah, what will it take for this movement to carry on forward? Well, I mean, there are opposition parties that exist in Sri Lanka. There is a party, for example, called the JVP, which actually, if you look at Sri Lankan, this is the tragedy of Sri Lankan history, is that you have had massive left-wing parties, even Trotskyist parties. You had the LSSP, the Lanka-Sama Samajya Party, was actually a party which, you know, it was a Trotskyist party, it was a section of the Fourth International. And in the 1950s, it led a heroic struggle of the workers. And in 1953, I believe, they led a hartal, which was basically a general strike in Sri Lanka. But that party betrayed it, sold out, and it went into a government which was a popular front with the bourgeois parties. And that led to it becoming discredited. And the rise actually of the Maoists, the JVP party, who launched a number of insurrections basically in their own way, they tried to seize power, but they fundamentally had an incorrect conception of how to seize power. They tried to carry out these insurrections disconnected from the masses, mostly based in the youth. They were crushed as a result of that. Now, this party continues to exist, but its program is a traditional Stalinist program of two-stage approach, basically. What we need first is a bourgeois democratic revolution, which creates the best conditions for bourgeois democracy and capitalist development, presumably, in Sri Lanka. But as I said, the point is that there cannot be any perfection or any further development, really, of capitalism on the basis of capitalism in Sri Lanka. It is capitalism as a world system. There's imperialism, which is dragging society down, which is draining the lifeblood out of the country, which is sucking out its foreign reserves and leaving the people in pitch darkness at night. It's capitalism as a system. As a global system, there isn't some special kind of national capitalism or capitalism with a smiling face. There's only one global capitalist system, and that system is dragging Sri Lanka into the maya, as it is all other countries around the world. But this party, up until the recent wave of protests, was gaining to a certain extent. But it too has found it very difficult to intervene in these protests. It's tried to do so. In Goreface Green, for example, it's sent its members down, but they're not able to present themselves clearly as a party. And it too has been discredited to a certain extent in the process of this mass movement. But its program is basically, well, we need, in two or three years' time, we need to elect a new president. You need to elect us as president or what have you. Complete parliamentary cretinism, while the masses are on the street. To call for the masses to vote for your party in two or three years' time is completely reactionary. It's to diffuse the movement, to sow illusions in parliamentarism. When really, if we look at the situation now, power is in the hands of the masses in Sri Lanka. The fact of the matter is they're simply not conscious of this fact and that no party is giving it an expression and no trade union is actually giving it an expression. What is interesting about this occupation of Goreface Green in Colombo is the initial protest on the weekend, of course, when everyone's off work, you have 100,000 people marching down to Goreface Green. Now you have a small, you've had a camp established there with tents and so on and it's very similar to what you've seen in the Occupy movement and these sort of things that we're maybe familiar with in other countries. Where there has been spontaneous organization by the masses. You have kitchens established, mobile phone charging areas, rest areas, shelter and raincoats for when the torrential rain comes down. So there is the capacity for organization. But the fact is that this occupation dwindles to a few thousand during the day and it's in the evening at night when people are off work because there is no general strike going on, people are still going to work and then they come down and it swells to tens of thousands of people in the evenings and at night time. In other words, the trade unions are not providing a lead whatsoever and in this situation if the trade unions were to provide a lead because in many instances workers are going down independently without being called to go down to Goreface Green in Colombo by the, they're just doing so spontaneously. If the trade unions began agitating in all of the workplaces called mass assemblies in all of the workplaces explains the needs for an all out general strike to bring down the Rajapaksa regime established workplace committees in all of the workplaces and called for their establishment in every community, in every fishing village, in every single part of the country and then connected up these committees the working class would have power in its hands and everything that is accidental about this mass movement would be brushed aside and it would be stamped with a clear class character and the working class would bring the rest of the masses in behind it behind a program for what? A program to basically abolish capitalism in Sri Lanka to take over the commanding heights of the economy and one of the articles that I wrote recently you have these positive statements coming out from all of the big capitalists in Sri Lanka like the biggest supermarket was saying how it respects the rights of its employees to go down there it's like you, the biggest supermarket that's ratcheting up prices to squeeze the Sri Lankan people to make your profits, the bigger power companies it reminds me actually of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States where all of the masses are on the street burning down police precincts and extremely radical moods and then you have Nike and Ben and Jerry's and stuff like that putting Black Lives Matter and all of their stuff it's the same sort of thing but I think if the working class came in in an organized way it would clarify all of that it would bring clarity to the movement but unfortunately as we see in many countries as we see all around the world the leadership of the working class is the decisive block in the movement moving forward fundamentally and if the movement doesn't move forward then it has to move backwards we're at a bit of an impasse at the moment the masses are on the street in large numbers but of course they can't stay there indefinitely they either have to move forward in a decisive way or they have to move backward and when they move backwards the reactionaries who've been waiting in the wing because they're not strong enough at the moment they're demoralized, they've lost confidence they will gain confidence in themselves and of course we've seen the Rajapaksas what they're capable of in Goreface Green there is a gallery of the portraits of journalists killed in the last Rajapaksa government from 2005 to 2015 they're an extremely brutal reactionary and repressive regime they are waiting to get their revenge against this movement and if the movement doesn't move forward and it is forced to take a step back and people become exhausted, they become tired they go home as inevitably they must if there isn't a decisive breakthrough then the regime will be there and they will be ready to exert its revenge so that's the key question is the question of working class leadership Yeah, I entirely agree Is there anything else that you'd like to say? Any final points? Well, I suppose my only final point would be that of course the struggle in Sri Lanka is part of a global struggle all around the world there are many lessons from it you can see that the situation in Sri Lanka it bears many similarities to the Arab Spring of ten years ago it bears many similarities to the movements that we've seen in 2019 in Chile, in Iraq and elsewhere it is part of a global struggle to fight against capitalism it's part of the same struggle that we're involved in in every part of the world as the international Marxist tendency we do have a small group of supporters in Sri Lanka who are doing their best to build the forces of Marxism and I would simply appeal to comrades listening and sympathisers who are listening if you haven't already joined the international Marxist tendency or socialist appeal in Britain or the international Marxist tendency in any part of the world, join us and help us build this organisation because the work that we're doing to build here will also help to build in Sri Lanka it will help to build in all other parts of the world so that's the final thing I'd like to end on is to appeal to join this organisation and help to build that revolutionary leadership that the working class needs to transform society so I think we'll leave it there for this week's episode thanks very much Ben for coming on the podcast thank you very much as well if you'd like to stay to date with the constantly moving situation in Sri Lanka then please head to marxist.com the website of the international Marxist tendency where you can find regular news and analysis from a Marxist perspective dealing not just with the events in Sri Lanka but indeed across the world to find out more head to the link in the show notes of this podcast and if you agree with the analysis and the perspectives that Ben has put forward and you want to help to build the forces of Marxism worldwide to carry out a socialist programme I would encourage you to get involved with the international Marxist tendency which is organised in many different countries across the world on that note we're also pleased to announce that the IMT's International Marxist University will return this year promising four days of exciting talks on the fundamental principles of Marxism including Marxist economics dialectical materialism the philosophy of Marxism as well as historical materialism the Marxist understanding of history it's only by understanding and using the method of Marxism that we can make sense of the turmoil that surrounds us today and provide a practical basis to the fight for our future so if this sounds like something you'd be interested in head to the link in our show notes to find out more make sure you stay tuned for upcoming episodes on the fall of Afghanistan as well as the French elections and thanks once again for listening to Marxist Voice the podcast of socialist appeal


Ever since the controversy started with Trisha Patis claiming that she has dissociative identity disorder, I've heard a couple things. One of them is that Trisha Patis is merely acting and pretending that she has dissociative identity disorder. And another thing I've heard is that there are actually brain studies around the diagnosis of DID. So I started to ask myself, what would actually happen if you compared the brains of Trisha Patis and dissociia did? What is up, everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, my channel is all about mental health. And typically what I try to do is provide different tools and resources to help you improve your mental and emotional well-being like I do for myself. I actually made a video yesterday about sleep habits to help with depression and anxiety. But today, we're going to be researching dissociative identity disorder. Anyways, if you're into any of that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. Alright, so those of you who aren't caught up to date, Trisha Patis claimed that she had dissociative identity disorder. She actually self-diagnosed. Recently, Edwin from Edwin's Generation actually interviewed Trisha Patis's ex-girlfriend who has dissociative identity disorder. I highly recommend that you check it out. They actually did a live stream as well. But anyways, Trisha Patis linked a video claiming that dissociia did, was faking this and all that kind of stuff. But again, I was told that there are actually a lot of brain studies around this. And I am a big nerd.  So that's what I spent most of my morning doing, was looking into some of the research around dissociative identity disorder. And I actually found this very interesting one. But anyways, and we'll circle back to this at the end, but the only way to really tell is if you put the dissociative and Trisha Patis in brain scans and saw what was actually going on, and we'll explain how this study went. But is that likely to happen? Not really, because you can't just walk in and say, yo, give me a brain scan. It takes a lot of money. But I mentioned this in another video, Logan Paul actually did that and Logan Paul is rich. Now, although Trisha Patis isn't making Logan Paul money, Trisha Patis does have some extra money laying around. So if Trisha Patis wanted to, she could actually go and try to recreate this study. All right. But anyways, let's jump into this study. So the first thing is the study comes from 2012. And yeah, it started out by talking about a little bit of the controversy around dissociative identity disorder. So it says dissociative identity disorder is a disputed psychiatric disorder. Research findings and clinical observations suggest that DID involves an authentic mental disorder related to factors such as traumatization and disrupted attachment. A compelling view indicates that DID is due to fantasy pronus suggestibility suggestion and role playing. Here we examine whether dissociative identity state dependent psychobiological features in DID can be induced in high or low fantasy prone individuals by instructed and motivated role playing and suggestion. So basically what they're saying is there is some controversy around the diagnosis saying that people who show symptoms of DID, they are easily able to act, such as what people are saying about Trisha Patis. Trisha Patis is also an actress. All right. But yeah, they say that their suggestibility and acting might play a role. So they wanted to test that theory out by doing some brain scans. So basically what they did was they got three groups of people. They got a group of people with dissociative identity disorder. They got people who are high fantasy prone and they got people who are low fantasy prone. So you have people with the actual disorder, people who would be into like larping, like live action role playing or an actor or actress, and then they got eight people who are just like, man. So basically the way you can think about it is they got 11 people like dissociative DID, 10 people like Trisha Patis, and eight people like me. I'm not an actor. I'm not into fantasy role playing or anything like that. And they compared all of these different groups in this study. So another one of the debates that they brought up was, despite its inclusion in the diagnostic statistical manual for mental disorders, the DSM-5, the genuineness of dissociative identity disorder continues to be disputed. Supporters of the diametrically opposed trauma-related and non-trauma-related views have been engaged since decades in a passionate debate regarding its validity as a mental disorder and whether it is related to traumatization or to fantasy proneness, suggestibility, suggestion, and simulation.  They wanted to measure that in people with dissociative identity disorder compared to the brain states of people who are fantasy prone. All right. So for the groups who are high and low in fantasy proneness, they told them act as if the you I've been addressing thus far is one of those people. And as if the you I've been talking to is unaware of the other co-inhabitants. When I provide a signal for contacting another co-inhabitant, act as though you are another person. So basically, they had people with dissociative identity disorder when they were switching different identity states. They monitored that. But then on the other hand, for the people in the groups for high and low fantasy proneness, they told them to act as if, you know, hey, this is you. Okay. But when we cue you and what they did was they did some memory stimulation and they evolved like trauma related memories and everything like that. And they said, like act as if you are two different people. The other person that you're switching to is a completely different person who was unaware of this conversation. All right. So part of this, what they found was when they did this, there was like little to no hippocampal response. So the hippocampus in the brain is responsible for memories. Okay. So those with dissociative identity disorder had a low hippocampal response, which means when switching to those states, it wasn't pulling the memories in the same way that it was for people with high and low fantasy proneness. So basically people with high and low fantasy proneness, when they would switch, you could see from the brain scan that it was pulling memories, right? Because that is something that is automatic, right?  You see what I mean? When you are told, okay, now we're going to talk to this other person, your brain is automatically pulling these memories, but those with dissociative identity disorder, that wasn't happening. The hippocampal reaction or response wasn't as high as it was for those who were faking, all right, who were active. So what did they find? So they found some differences between how the brain works for those with dissociative identity disorder and those who were high and low fantasy prone. What was interesting, here's what I found really, really interesting about this was people who were high in fantasy proneness actually had brains less similar to those with low fantasy proneness when compared to those with dissociative identity disorder, all right?  You take somebody like me who isn't into fantasy or role playing or acting or anything like that. My brain would actually be closer to somebody with dissociative identity disorder when going through those states and this research and this experiment. So these researchers also argue against the socio-cognitive view of dissociative identity disorder believing that it is based on societal or cultural factors, right? One of the arguments is that people just do switch caught on camera or like meet my Alters videos, you know, because it's like a thing, right? It's a thing on YouTube. But what they're saying is that this isn't really an influencer. This doesn't help people better imitate the brains of people with dissociative identity disorder. And basically the final findings, the final conclusion of all this says this, the findings are at odds with the idea that differences among the different types of dissociative identity states in DID can be explained by high fantasy proneness, motivated role enactment and suggestion that indicate that DID does not have a socio-cultural origin. So again, this is one of many studies. They've done a bunch of studies on this. I was looking through. I just found this one kind of interesting because they compared it to like somebody who like is regularly acting and playing out a role.  If you liked this video, just let me know down in the comments. I am somebody who is not well versed in dissociative identity disorder, although I have worked with many, many people with different psychological disorders, haven't worked with anybody who had dissociative identity disorder. And I like learning. I like educating myself about different mental health disorders. It helps me be a little bit more empathetic, you know? Like a lot of us just focus on our illness, right? I focus on my anxiety, my depression, my addiction. These are the things that I care about, right? Like a lot of us care about our thing. So what I try to do, I try to educate myself on other disorders just so I can have a better understanding of what other people are going through.  Like we're all in this together, right? So the best thing we can do is learn about this, especially if we come into contact with somebody with this disorder, understanding a little bit more can help us be there for them. All right? But anyways, to conclude this video, like I said, the only way to really prove what's really going on is to take Tricia Payness and put her in an FMORI brain scan and run her through an experiment like this. But like I said, Tricia Payness has a few extra dollars to throw around. Maybe not do a video, a music video here or there. Probably enough money to do a brain scan. But hey, I'm just saying. All right? But anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up if you're new. Make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And a huge, huge thank you to everybody who supports the channel over on Patreon, as well as everybody who supports the channel by buying my mental health books at therewiredsoul.com and everybody who supports the channel by buying the Rewired Soul merch from the merch store. You're all awesome. Thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.


Yesterday, the stock market turned a blind eye to the chaotic and deadly scene unfolding on Capitol Hill, and it's a trend that appears to be continuing at open today. Just take a look at the numbers now for the stock market up just over a hundred points right there, and things seem to be looking good. Melissa Armo, CEO and founder of the Stock Swoosh joins us now to break down just how the latest political headlines are impacting the market. Melissa, really nice to see you because often you're joining us on the phone. The other thing to sort of factor in is that, you know, that joint session of Congress did wrap up in the wee hours of the morning to one more step closer to the confirming Biden as the next president. The next thing is the inauguration. So just talk about the chaos that took place in the capital yesterday. Were you surprised that investors sort of seem to be looking past it? Well, the market did sell off for a brief, brief period yesterday when they stormed the capital. It recovered, and obviously we recovered a lot today from that. But there was a shakeup in the market from that yesterday. But the market really has been so bullish recently just because of the fact that vaccine rolled out. And so the market just shrugged it off, as if nothing ever happened. And today I think the market is relieved that the Biden confirmation is over with, and now they're looking to see what exactly are the policies that the new administration is going to put forth tax wise? Our corporate tax is going to go up. What is going to happen? We need more specifics from the new administration. So with the US markets seemingly unbothered by what's happened in DC. And I sort of think that, Melissa, that the market is always sort of forward thinking and factors in many things that often people don't think about that they probably the market factored in that Joe Biden was going to be confirmed the next president of the United States. And as far as fundamentals are concerned, yes, we are suffering through a really bad dip in the economy because of COVID-19. But fundamentals for some companies remain fairly, fairly strong. We're talking about fundamentals and companies. We're getting into earnings season. Earning season begins next week. You're going to see bank earnings next week. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, they report next week. So we'll we'll see what they say, because remember a lot of people had been behind in their bills due to the pandemic. They pushed off the mortgage floor closures. They extended that to the end of January for the federal government. And in New York, they extended that to May 1st. But I think it's very problematic for many of these states that are still shut down or 50 percent shut down if people cannot get back to work. I think it's great. The vaccine is rolling out. I think that people are starting to take it. But in the end, you've seen shutdowns in the UK. So shut downs in Japan. Hopefully, the United States will not have to have another nationwide shutdown. That would be one thing that I would say would negatively affect these very bullish markets. The number one deciding factor for the markets in 2021 is going to be very similar to 2020. It's going to be COVID. So as great as earnings might be for some of the companies like Big Tech, you have Zoom, Target saw a huge rally yesterday. A Walmart is an uptrend. Amazon, some of these companies have taken advantage of unfortunately the pandemic and they've been selling, selling, selling, selling, selling like crazy. And the stocks have been rallying, but there's many other industries that are still suffering and they need to recover. Airlines is one of them. Travel hospitality and what remains to be seen really, are we going to get back to normal in the next six months? Is it going to take into the fall of 2021? Are we going to be in the situation for another 12 months? Because that, I think, would eventually come to roost in these very bullish markets. So as I pointed out, Congress has now confirmed president elect Joe Biden's win. The Democrats will take control of the Senate with the to run off election wins in Georgia. Democrats have promised a robust stimulus. They wanted $2,000 checks for everyone if they make good on their promise. What sort of ripple effect can we foresee? Can we predict in the economy and the markets? Well, that's a good point. That could be another reason really why the market's rallying today, too. Usually you have any of a divided Congress, though, it's better for markets because you don't see really a huge, massive impact or changes. And that's why I stated earlier. I think it's really important to find out what are going to be the implications of the possibility of tax hikes with the Biden administration. The two thousand stimulus checks. I wish Congress would have passed that in 2020. I don't think $600 that they gave people is enough. That's barely half of a rent for many, many people in the larger cities. And it really was not enough. People are suffering right now. You have the unemployment claims out this morning. Still around 700,000 plus claims week over week. These just numbers have got to go down. I've been saying this and we've talked about it before and I feel like I keep continue to repeat myself, but people got to get back to work for several reasons. One, they need to be able to pay their bills. Two, it's not good for people to be inside their homes all the time.  It helps people to motivate them to get out of bed in the morning. But we're set up as social individuals. We need to get out and and we can take the necessary precautions. We can wear the mask. We can social distance. I think it's important for people to get back to work. Melissa Arbo, always great to have you.  Those seem to have had a profound effect even here in New York City, Manhattan, specifically, where the numbers have inched up a bit. But there are nothing like what we saw back in March when there was a full lockdown in effect. You know, so so your point about how the market is seeing it and how the market could potentially react if they if governors and mayors decide to impose a lockdown is a really important one. So we thank you for appearing here and offering your analysis. Thanks for having me. Stay safe, everyone. You too.


whereas over here in the next series you can see now here we have it's come down to 30 so on this option this has come down to 30 so this is not bad at all and Goldman Sachs wants to move up obviously I'm going to keep an option ready at 190 and that would be a 38 Delta so let's in fact it's I think it's punching up I say we just take five contracts get in right now and we are going into the series which has nine days left for expiry all right so 2.48 all right we got it so here we are we have Goldman Sachs and we have and we have Bank of America over here and even here you can see a little bit of crush happening that's why we are moving down on the option prices also over here so it might take a little bit of a beating there we're not actually taking too much of a beating we have a 2.35 the mark is 2.44 that's not too bad that's not too bad but let's just keep an eye out on this because I want to see how this volatility crush happens on this trade we should see it come down even further we may get a chance to double down as well if Goldman doesn't move up let's just take a look and see 180 and this was a trade mark price 2.35 so it's about a $1,200 trade and so it may not be a bad time to double down if it goes about 20% so that would be about 250 down Goldman is moving up let's see what we have 220 or it's coming on to 160 perhaps maybe just add two contracts if you're looking at you know just getting some advantage there because Goldman will move up I think given the so two contracts at 212, 212 doesn't seem to be all right so yeah exactly you should get 1.91 or it shouldn't have been 212 no I added two contracts I didn't double down I added two to it if it goes down more I'll add three which would be the you know the doubling down would be complete at that point but I wanted to take advantage of slightly lower prices so I just added two to it okay so we are at 188 and you can see it's gone up let's just go take a look at what we have well this is great guys this is great our trade is 7 into 2 14 so $1,500 trade this is a $1,500 trade and we have 700 right there so we have a 50% shot right there this is this is as good as as you can expect now I you know like I said if you wanted to be creative with it now you're getting $2 for this you know this is a day trading you know environment I'm thinking here we have a great profit it's close to $700 that's 50% of the trade so all of that can be done and actually you know we should do these kind of tactics when there is something wrong that is happening to the trade because at this point it really you know it doesn't make sense to play or now it's gone up to 60% ROI we got to take profit out of this so I'm going to take 4 contracts off and take it out at 330 and book some profits there because this is just a great profit you don't want to miss out on this so we have 330 the mark is 3.38 so we actually should get a better better price on the on the trade let's just wait okay there we go or it didn't give us a better price it gave it at 330 itself but that's okay we've booked at least half of the profit here now if we see any weakness in fact I do see some weakness coming into the S&P I mean each person has to decide like how do you want to deal with the situation if you ask me in this day trading scenario you get 50-60% you just take it and run you know I mean it's perfect so while all those fancy techniques are all very good techniques no doubt but for a day trading environment it really doesn't make sense to complicate things you got your profit and you know you got to run so let's see if it can push up a little bit more and we can get closer to the $800 if that's the case yeah S&P wants to move up but look at this this is a significant bar closing in the middle so definitely some of that you know must be selling over there so let's take a look at the market watch overall sentiment here it's taking some time to calculate I would say 678, Goldman is still punching up it wants to punch up at least 723, 753 I tell you what folks I'm just going to close it okay I'm just going to close it this it really yeah we could have closed it in one shot but you know this is what we did $753 that's over I would say okay 50% let's just say 50% after you know after commissions and everything so all right so that that was a good trade on Goldman Sachs and I will of course keep this market watch charts and all open right here so if you want a free trial of this day trading signal service you can go to this Bitly link it's bitly slash day hyphen signals now the day and the D and the S has to be capitals and once you go there you can get a free trial you need to sign up there and you'll get a free trial and at the end of one week if you don't want to continue you can just send us an email at info at option tiger.com and we'll give you a full refund so once again the bitly link is bitly slash day hyphen signals with the D and S in caps thank you


Between 1832 and 1844, Joseph Smith and some of his closest friends recorded at least nine accounts of Joseph's first vision experience, given on different occasions to different audiences. The most detailed of these accounts, written in 1838, has been published in a volume of scripture called The Pearl of Great Price. What you're about to see draws upon all of the written first vision accounts to provide additional perspectives and insights into this remarkable event. My name is Joseph Smith. When I was young, there was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the subject of religion. My mind became seriously impressed with regard to the welfare of my soul. I pondered many things in my heart. I felt too mourn for my own sins and the sins of the world, but upon inquiring about the plan of salvation I found that there was a great clash in religious sentiment. This was grief to my soul. I knew not who was right or who was wrong, and I considered it of the first importance that I should be right in matters that involved eternal consequences. I wanted to get religion too. I wanted to feel and shout like the rest, but could feel nothing. I was one day reading the epistle of James. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given him. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart after I retired into the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me and finding myself alone. I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I cried unto the Lord for mercy, for there was none else to whom I could go to obtain mercy. It was the first time in my life that I had made the attempt to pray vocally. Immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue, so I could not speak. My mind filled with doubts and all manner of inappropriate images. It seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction, but exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me. Lord! My mouth was open. Have mercy on me. And my tongue live right. Forgive me. Joseph, this is my beloved son. Hear him. Joseph, thy sins are forgiven thee. Behold, I am the Lord of glory. I was crucified for the world, that all those who believe on my name may have eternal life, the world life in sin. They have turned aside from the gospel and keep not my commandments. They draw near to me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me. They teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. Go not after them. Wait patiently. At a future time, the complete truth of the gospel will be revealed to you. When the light had departed, I had no strength and calm filled my mind. My soul was filled with love. For many days I could rejoice with great joy, and the Lord was with me. I had received a promise that the fullness of the gospel should at some future time be made known unto me. And I had actually seen a light. And in the midst of that light, I saw two personages. And they did, in reality, speak to me. I knew it, and I knew God knew it. And I could not tonight.