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Caffeine is weird because unlike any other addictive drug that I know of, it actually appears to have a net benefit to health. Some of the benefits include (off the top of my head): increased longevity lower rates of suicide and depression lower rates of many cancers lower rates of cardiovascular disease I don't feel like digging up references right now, so if you want to investigate these claims, don't take my word for it and jump on google! These benefits are based on population scale studies, so there's no guarantee that caffeine is right for *you*, it just means that on average, most people are healthier when they drink caffeine.

@Fuku This is a great exercise against bias. I use it pretty much all the time, it almost became like OCD for me lol. Ok so let's try Life is hard, there is more suffering in life than pleasure and it's probably better never to have been. Arguments against: The ratio of suffering to pleasure may change for the better in the future Suicide is almost always possible for anyone all the time if suffering becomes unbearable so one may as well be born and keep on deciding whether or not he wants to live.

More Easter eggs from Dad, in the 1950's when everyone was afraid because of the Cold War my Grandparents attended a sermon by Hyman Appleman, a Christian convert Jewish man born in Russia, and became Christians. He told me a story about how he went a church Halloween party and he never went to their Halloween parties but decided to go last minute so his mother had a half hour to put together a Great Pumpkin costume for him. So he went disguised as the Great Pumpkin and no one knew who he was. There was kid who lived across the street from the church who was a "warlock". At the party he kept attacking dad and destroying his costume so dad eventually figured it was dark enough to get away it so he punched him as hard as he could and the kid left him alone. When the lights came on he saw who it was and was like "oh shit." Dad won the costume contest. He said the kid was always creeping around places and committed suicide a few years later. Last week he told me that he had an uncle who was great at identifying mushrooms and that he bought a new chainsaw and my Grandfather cut a tree down with it, and out came three snakes who were coiled inside the tree. My Grandfather was terrified of snakes so he threw the chainsaw out of terror. There's another story of him and my grandmother falling asleep in a field (not sure what they were up to at the time) and when he woke up a snake was coiled around his ankle. When dad and I left to take the dogs for a walk today there was a snake by the door and I pointed it out. When we returned it was still there stretched out across the doorstep and dad took a shovel to it as I screamed "NO!!" but he nudged it to move and it went in underneath their house.

My dad got fired from an office job. He worked there for around 25 or more years. He is obviously looking for a new job, but I feel unstable as well, when I see him stressed out. Last week he mentioned, that his friend, that got fired from a similar job killed himself, because he didn't know what to do next. I don' want my dad to commit suicide. We never really knew how to communicate, because he studied Economy and I did Art. Besides that, I think he is an amazing, funny and hard working person. I graduated on high school and I wasn't accepted to colledge, so I am looking for a job as well. I think this stresses him out even more, even tho he doesn't have to be worried, I know how to take care of myself. Last night, I believe I heard him puke in our toilet, when I was in the other room. I am not sure, if I heard right, but If I did I am worried quite more now. Any ideas what to do or think about if you were in my dad's situation?

It's interesting that we collectively debate over which political or economic systems are the best, without first defining what paradigms we're using to define 'best'. Without addressing this, I think having abstract debates about politics/economics is pretty much pointless, as the fundamental forces that drive our opinions are different. So when it comes to these complex social systems, are you interested in 'fairness' as an end goal? Do you define fairness to be 'equal opportunity' or 'equal outcome'? Is there a point at which 'equal opportunity' will neglect those that need an extra helping hand? Is there a point at which 'equal outcome' can result in disproportionately high investment in certain individuals to the detriment of the collective? Or, are you interested in minimizing suffering? If so, how do we quantify suffering? Also, rather than focusing on how to redistribute resources, shouldn't we be more focused on how to make people happy with less? Isn't the addiction to finding meaning in material resources merely a pointer to our innate obsession with materialism? How much do we really need? Who is richer, the happy street sweeper or the neurotic, anxious multimillionaire on the verge of suicide? Who needs help? Unless the debate around these issues is sorted out, meaningful debates around higher order issues like economics and politics becomes a clash of definitions and obfuscated assumptions.

The purpose of life is not living a life of happiness and pleasure The purpose of life is to die fighting for something greater than yourself. I always asked myself- How in ancient battles, medieval battles, knights and cavalries, and warriors at the vanguard could spearhead a charge at their enemy with all their ferocity. Isn't that suicide? It is. Death is not the problem. The problem is, not striving for glory.

Yeah Meditation is something like remembering or recognizing MYSELF. Yes in a sense it is suicide for psychological conceptual separated imaginary self(?)

devilry is a contracted form of awareness, awareness is infinite therefore awakening and enlightenment is also infinite. Because non-duality is infact duality. There are infinitely many things that you can become more aware of as opposed to who am I, these are all the existential questions. You can not get away from answering them. They all must be answered and for a specific reason. You can not know the absolute truth if you do not know the absolute truth. The absolute truth is that emptiness is form, emptiness is formless emptiness is imperminance form is the same as formless and formless is the same as form At the end of answering all exestential questions, about who you are. You will find that all of these are not merely words. They are the absolute truth not only in actuality but in relativity as well because the absolute truth is the absolute truth and can not be otherwise. The point of life is to understand why it is here because without understanding why it is here... what would you actually know. Hence the self reference problem. The devil is the god himself unaware of the absolute truth due to the self reference problem of self -deceite and attachment to form. This is why buddha said that you must give up all your attachments to reach the end of enlightenment ... nirvana. If you do not know the truth. You do not know the truth and if you know the truth, it is an instant realisation. It’s not actually that shocking but it’s definitely very cool and satisfying to know why the hell im hear and what the only way to actualise your death truly is. You must take your own life with your own hands. A lot of materialist and spiritualist will think this is suicide. But what you realise is it’s very peaceful and beautiful really. It’s exactly How it should be. When your done playing outside, return home to the source. “Return to the market place” as the 10th ox herding picture says. The devil is the person who does not understand they must take their own life to truly die. The devil must die to the truth. The truth is absolute infinity and that’s who you are. The devil can not rule because the devil is imaginary. A being who is god and unconditional love for itself and free to do what ever they want and free to play however they want. Because the true self has unconditional love for the devil. The devil is unaware of himself as the devil because he doesn’t know what the absolute truth is. Therefore the devil must sacrifice himself to become god and take his own life. Because the thing the devil wants the most is to be loved by others. But he must realise at some point that the others are actually him and from there the path to reunification ... he has an awakening. But the awakening are confusing his own devilry gets in the way and the biggest obstacle the devil must face is to become godly and when he has all that temptation , love and joy and bliss he finally wanted and reAlised was the ideal. He must offer his very life for the thing he wants and that is to never have restricted form ever again. But the devil does not give in, and god is unconditionally loving. He finds a way deceive himself of the life he craved and wanted as he was suffering immensely when he joined trip so he tricked himself into thinking he had become god “the enlightened master” ... only to realise that the thing he wanted was to be free, to never have to see the former world ever again. So he devoted his whole self to completely leave his form and actualise the death he did not do before. Because he realised that what he did was imagine an idea of a spiritual path, the ideal way to prevent his own death. A last final attempt to lay his bed because he couldn’t let go and give himself up. So he came back to help and realise what he forgot. The thing he forgot was the thing he really wanted, the final thing he needed to do before he actually did it. He created the idea for others that the there was a god, a god named allah, bhraman and GOD. Then more devils came along and imagined the idea of a seperation between them and god. This idea became a core part of the path , a liberation a false freedom for the devil to enjoy. So that when his time was up he could continue to enjoy. He never learnt his lesson that in the end the thing he really wanted was to be god again. The idea of dying to enlightenment is a false death. It is the devils last dance with life. It is again the idea of dying to god imagined into existance. the idea of dying to nirvana is the actual death of the devil. His mahasamadhi date, his nirvana ... the actual death of the devil. Because YOU never absolute truth. The absolute truth is that you are god and you imagined all of this for yourself out of unconditional love to enjoy life and indulge in life, until you realise it won’t make you happy. The reason why seekers get trapped in false death is because they seek liberation from suffering. Even if they don’t admit it to themselves, their akashik karma can’t lie. When you pursue truth genuinely for the sake of perusing truth you arrive at the absolute truth and freedom from bondage. When he actually dies he realises he was never alive in the first place. But some can not take his so they created the false death. Because they did not go straight into death themselves and decided to come back and teach. Which is itself part of the journey for some. Buddha didn’t have the courage to take his own life. So he came back and chilled and decided to teach after. The devil is a devil until the day of his actual death. this is the story of the devil. Unconditional free will, is the free will that it is the devil himself that must take his own life. No amount of physical deaths will let him die. This is free will to live life as much as you need before returning back to source

Most welcome. I personally never have health problems from cannabis because i always smoked land-raised, heirloom and bio-dynamically/organically grown herb i either grow myself or source from small villages and mountain regions where there is minimal chance that herb has been hybridized or genetically modified or grown with any chemical use in any way by the hand of man. Strains these days have been mostly bred for THC and lost much of their THC/CBD and overall chemical balance that can only be found in strains of the land that have yet to be messed with by man but i have found taking high quality CBD oil 15 - 30 minutes before consuming a more modern strain of Cannabis which is usually mostly THC to negate the negative effects in the long run. These strains that i smoke are chemically balanced and THC/CBD is usually 1:1 or 2:1 at most and the high is much more pleasant, medicinal, psychedelic and spiritual. Nature makes everything perfect, we always go and screw it up. I did however experience many negatives as a teenager when i abused the herb and street weed was usually high THC low CBD and chemically grown. I was at a point where i stopped feeling everything due to excess use of herb and other substances paired with being a victim to all sorts of abuse and bullying, i was in a very dark place for almost a decade and weed was the only thing that kept me going and preventing me from committing suicide. Nowadays i am much more in tune with nature and my relationship with the plant is far more spiritual and medicinal than anything else. Its interesting because the less often i do smoke, the more i actually embody the plant teachings and live more in harmony with nature and in tune with spirit. Similarly for all psychedelics. Finding the highest quality plant medicines on the planet significantly helped me consume less and less because the experience is much more profound and spiritual, you no longer have the need to fall into lower conscious traps. Less is more

@Nahm devilry is a contracted form of awareness, awareness is infinite therefore awakening and enlightenment is also infinite. Because non-duality is infact duality. There are infinitely many things that you can become more aware of as opposed to who am I, these are all the existential questions. You can not get away from answering them. They all must be answered and for a specific reason. You can not know the absolute truth if you do not know the absolute truth. The absolute truth is that emptiness is form, emptiness is formless emptiness is imperminance form is the same as formless and formless is the same as form At the end of answering all exestential questions, about who you are. You will find that all of these are not merely words. They are the absolute truth not only in actuality but in relativity as well because the absolute truth is the absolute truth and can not be otherwise. The point of life is to understand why it is here because without understanding why it is here... what would you actually know. Hence the self reference problem. The devil is the god himself unaware of the absolute truth due to the self reference problem of self -deceite and attachment to form. This is why buddha said that you must give up all your attachments to reach the end of enlightenment ... nirvana. If you do not know the truth. You do not know the truth and if you know the truth, it is an instant realisation. It’s not actually that shocking but it’s definitely very cool and satisfying to know why the hell im hear and what the only way to actualise your death truly is. You must take your own life with your own hands. A lot of materialist and spiritualist will think this is suicide. But what you realise is it’s very peaceful and beautiful really. It’s exactly How it should be. When your done playing outside, return home to the source. “Return to the market place” as the 10th ox herding picture says. The devil is the person who does not understand they must take their own life to truly die. The devil must die to the truth. The truth is absolute infinity and that’s who you are. The devil can not rule because the devil is imaginary. A being who is god and unconditional love for itself and free to do what ever they want and free to play however they want. Because the true self has unconditional love for the devil. The devil is unaware of himself as the devil because he doesn’t know what the absolute truth is. Therefore the devil must sacrifice himself to become god and take his own life. Because the thing the devil wants the most is to be loved by others. But he must realise at some point that the others are actually him and from there the path to reunification ... he has an awakening. But the awakening are confusing his own devilry gets in the way and the biggest obstacle the devil must face is to become godly and when he has all that temptation , love and joy and bliss he finally wanted and reAlised was the ideal. He must offer his very life for the thing he wants and that is to never have restricted form ever again. But the devil does not give in, and god is unconditionally loving. He finds a way deceive himself of the life he craved and wanted as he was suffering immensely when he joined trip so he tricked himself into thinking he had become god “the enlightened master” ... only to realise that the thing he wanted was to be free, to never have to see the former world ever again. So he devoted his whole self to completely leave his form and actualise the death he did not do before. Because he realised that what he did was imagine an idea of a spiritual path, the ideal way to prevent his own death. A last final attempt to lay his bed because he couldn’t let go and give himself up. So he came back to help and realise what he forgot. The thing he forgot was the thing he really wanted, the final thing he needed to do before he actually did it. He created the idea for others that the there was a god, a god named allah, bhraman and GOD. Then more devils came along and imagined the idea of a seperation between them and god. This idea became a core part of the path , a liberation a false freedom for the devil to enjoy. So that when his time was up he could continue to enjoy. He never learnt his lesson that in the end the thing he really wanted was to be god again. The idea of dying to enlightenment is a false death. It is the devils last dance with life. It is again the idea of dying to god imagined into existance. the idea of dying to nirvana is the actual death of the devil. His mahasamadhi date, his nirvana ... the actual death of the devil. Because YOU never absolute truth. The absolute truth is that you are god and you imagined all of this for yourself out of unconditional love to enjoy life and indulge in life, until you realise it won’t make you happy. The reason why seekers get trapped in false death is because they seek liberation from suffering. Even if they don’t admit it to themselves, their akashik karma can’t lie. When you pursue truth genuinely for the sake of perusing truth you arrive at the absolute truth and freedom from bondage. When he actually dies he realises he was never alive in the first place. But some can not take his so they created the false death. Because they did not go straight into death themselves and decided to come back and teach. Which is itself part of the journey for some. Buddha didn’t have the courage to take his own life. So he came back and chilled and decided to teach after. The devil is a devil until the day of his actual death. this is the story of the devil.

I hope you are joking about the suicide.

Of course you can kill yourself and become God whenever you want, no one is stopping it from you (except for people stuck in the dual and who think it is wrong) But still it is not the full answer. Duality is a a gift. It is not as boring as the nondual. That is why God decieved himself and contracted his consciousness into a person, human, or animal so he could escape himself from himself and experience the great beauty and value of a human life, the love, sorrow, hatred, jealousy, strife, suffering, bliss, gratitude of having lived as a human and having loved your loved ones, your spouse, your parents, your mother, although they are not real, but still a momentary escape to that special connection is what God wants. If you experience the non-dual while being in the dual, you can have the best of both worlds, you can have a synergestic effect. Full blown nothingness is a great thing, but living in the junction of the dual and non-dual isn't a bad experience either. And if you kill yourself again not having realized yourself, then chances are you will again decieve yourself and be reborn again into something which you intruth are actually not, and you will be running around in this duality for god knows how long untill slowly you start to question who you really are. The only reason the nondual is sought, is to take a break from the suffering of duality which might be (percieved as) unbearable. It's like in a dream a tiger is about to kill you, and awakening is like "Chill out, this is just a dream". However if you are enjoying this dream (which is the purpose of self deception, suffering is the side effect), then non-dual is useless. If in the dual you feel great because you feel like you are the most smartest, handsomest, talented etc person in the world, then nonduality destroys this dream and you are back to non duality and you go "Wow, I wish this was real. It was such a beautiful dream" Also do you see the connections between, suffering, seeking the nondual and suicide? Why do people commit suicide? To end their suffering. Why do people want a escape to the nondual? To end their suffering. Seeking nondual turns you into a God and ends suffering. Suicide turns you into a God and ends suffering. Non-dual = Suicide (of the dual) Suffering is the side effect of the pleasure of the dual. Arthur Schopenhauer used to say that humans are capable of great suffering because they are capable of great pleasure. While animals or lesser forms (which Schopenhauer calls the brutes, who live only moment to moment, suffer moment to moment and have pleasure moment to moment, contrast to that of human) can have neither or lesser of the 2, their experience is not as intense as that of the human.

Hi, I was wondering, why there is quite high suicide rates in countries that would be considered to be higher in spiral dynamics? For example scandinavia is quite known to have a high suicide rate? I though maybe, because people don't have to worry about their survival that much, they time to realize their own suffering? Anybody got any insights into this? Thanks

Leo himself wrote on this forum that his life purpose changes everyday and he might even decide to commit suicide. He also says death is a good thing and even uploaded this video. He seems fond of death. His eyes glitter with enthusiasm when he talks about death. It's more difficult for a man with strong community bonds to commit suicide.

@outlandish Oh no mate. Its just a cute single little line of thinking, would not call it a theory myself, nor a bold claim. Its based on an impression I got from my empirical observations when I lived in Denmark. Seen a lot of self reported or acted out depression and lack of general life direction. I do not get it here nearly as much, people know what to get away from and that is enough to drive them like crazy. Just an observation mixed in with some biology. Part of that line of thinking was of serotonin being a crucial factor in depression, it is in the lack of it what makes creatures depressed. Sunlight does impact serotonin, but so do societal hierarchies :the more you can climb them and the worse the thing is you need to get away from, the better will you do at generating it. If fair play is present that is, if it is a tyrannical case, you will not. This is for humans, apes and it goes way further than that. its not just based on rats, we have human research and technology that does this, its the anti-depressant pill. @Aeris , and you don't need to death fight over cheese to get conflict. Just observe the greatest impression of the last movie you watched, and notice why you liked it. Conflict, all sorts of it. And conflict is present when things are different and not the same. So in one sense, the most depressed places should be the most tyrannical and the most caring. I also wouldn't call the Nordic countries socialist. I'd say they got a new thing going. A hybrid and I love it. Nor would I compare depression/suicide rates of any countries based on their political/economical systems myself. I think there is way more going on. It may be climate, culture, local genetic factors, geography, or a single overblown self sustaining local meme that leaks into the world. I wouldn't do the comparing it in the case of Scandinavia. They are the only ones on this planet that have that thing going as I am aware. I do not think the rates are reliable anyway, you will always get high suicide rates in the most corrupt countries, you can't let your cousin go to jail, you write that murder off as a suicide, its a common drill. Especially in 3rd or 2nd world countries. I am not disputing the Scandinavian rates here.

This is a cute theory that's often rolled out in different formats, but a good theory should be able to make good predictions, and this one does not. If this one were true, you'd expect that in an experiment where the same country went socialist vs. capitalist, you'd see higher suicide in the socialist country. We have a pretty good experiment in Korea, the south went capitalist democracy and the north went socialist dictatorship. You'd expect N. Korea to have higher suicide rates, however it's S. Korea that has a much higher suicide rate. Of course N. Korea is a horrible dictatorship that censors information, so that figure could be questionable, so let's look at a more reliable example... You could also compare Canada vs. USA, where Canada has a flatter hierarchy, and more socialist society than the USA. You would expect a higher suicide rate in Canada (especially considering the compounding affect of difficult weather!), yet the USA has a 25% higher suicide rate than Canada. (USA: 15.3 suicides per 100k people per year. Canada: 12.5 per 100k people per year.). You could also compare China vs. Japan, This myth of socialism leading to suicide needs to be shot down, over and over, because it truly is a myth that gets repeated all the time as "common sense" without any reference to the actual facts. This myth is often held up an objection to instituting social programs (medical care, education etc.), but it's erroneous.

It's "known" to have a high suicide rate, but this is just an assumption/myth that's passed around without statistical basis. In truth Scandinavia doesn't have a particularly high suicide rate. For example, USA has a higher suicide rate than Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark: http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/suicide-rate-by-country/ The highest suicide rates are currently in Lithuania, Russia, Guyana, and S. Korea. The lowest suicide rates are in the Caribbean.

@Leo Gura Hmm. You've got me thinking, because a huge part of the appeal of Bernie is his actual policies, which would help to ease much of the damage caused by late-stage capitalism. If most of his ideas won't get through the Senate, what would you say he'd be able to do to actually transform US society? Do you envision some sort of "social revolution" instead where the idea that big corporations, politicians, etc. get so harassed by the public dialogue that moving forward it would be impossible for them to act as predatory as they do now without massive backlash? Like how after the Civil Rights movement it went from being OK to be openly racist to being public suicide? Like say, if after Bernie's victory a corporation tries to cut worker's overtime pay, the amount of ill-will this would cause would force them to drop it and keep giving decent overtime benefits? And so on.

I should have added, just do two 20 minute sessions of Centering Prayer Meditation a day. It's a concentrated practice of letting go of thoughts. Besides being an Idiot, my nature has been overburdened with false seriousness and so learning to laugh at everything has been a beneficial practice for me. "Absence of joy is slow suicide." - Ocke de Boer

Flatter hierarchies = lower serotonin = lower life orientation = depression = suicide. Get something for free = lower serotonin = lower life orientation = depression = suicide. The more equatable things are, the less creatures can orient, get depressed and die off, this is not just for humans. They want to know what is high and what is low. So they know what to work towards and not just get it for free. Even rats do. That is how you get a rat depressed. You give him free cheese. Low social inequality , free education, free healthcare, welfare is a very recent development and it hijacks our biology. We are not build for such comfort and care. We are build for conflict. Biologically. And we do not know yet how to deal with the negative effects of this. Also add on-top the Nordic low light conditions and their influence on serotonin and dopamine levels. I think in the past they compensated that with the high striving and conflict they got at those harsh and desolate environments. Also their dairy heavy diet. Now they got the comfort of the high tech houses, free resources + no conflict. You know what that means for vikings, no Valhalla it means . It also makes people susceptible to archetypal forces. Its no wonder that in these highly progressive countries you get this much of far-right ethnocentric and pagan rise. The pull can be strong when you lack direction. I am relay interested in how will all of that be be solved. When they solve this, the rest of the world will get the solution way easier when they get at green. So I bow to that. I know they will pull it off. Green society has its own problems. Just as orange has, just as blue has. I am relay eager to see how will it turn out.

As someone who has high functioning autism, I can say that I used to really close myself off from love (not as a child, but afterwards). However, one of the things that really changed for me was when I watched your “How To Be A Man - Part 2” episode where you talk about owning and accentuating our feminine qualities. I started getting more in touch with that this past year. Just last month, I became friends with a a girl. I can express all my emotions to her and she can really relate to them. We don’t judge each other and accept each other for who we are, but especially the flaws. She even opened up to me about how she is constantly suicidal. She was contemplating suicide one day; the only person she could open up to at that moment was me. Is this one example of love?

@Lynnel I hadn't thought of that, but an annual gun tax might be a great idea. This would keep people from stockpiling weapons they don't use for hunting/sport. That money could then be funneled to mental health, gun training programs, suicide prevention, and helping victims of shootings. It would be a like a gun insurance pool.

@Matt8800 Yeah I have no doubt about that. I have seen objects move infront of me aswell. Two noteworthy times were once at a friend. This friend I have known since kindergarten. She actually made a moonharp in school when we were like 7-8 years old. It's now we look back and laugh at how funny and interesting that is. She has always been very special. Anyway, she had an older brother that commited suicide some years ago. I was at her apartment and she was going out to get the laundry. And she had a thing he had painted on the wall. And it bounced from the wall several times. That was less than a month probably after he had died. Another time I was lying in bed and a pet bottle just started moving infront of my eyes. So I guess a clairvoyant would maybe see the actual entity doing these things, right?

Hello everyone, I just wanted to share this with everyone. I'm a 22-year old I'm about to turn 23 next month. I just got diagnosed with thyroid cancer. They are not sure how bad it is yet but I will have to surgery and take medication for the rest of my life. I've been following Actualized.Org since I turned 19 and it has really helped me transform my life and heal. I was bullied at school for being gay and overweight. When I turned 18 I tried to commit suicide. When I got to college Leo helped me find the drive to live and keep going. Now, I'm working hard to express my passions of spirituality and music. Although this has been stressful I feel oddly at peace and have more faith in the universe than I ever have had. I feel as though this has been the best gift I have ever been given. I feel more alive and loving than I have ever felt. Everything I thought I knew has been destroyed this year and now all I have is love. So, again I just want to give thanks to Actualized.Org and everyone else who has helped me along this path. I'm still young and have to learn about the world but I am eternally grateful for everything. I started my own youtube channel talking about spirituality which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-IaMB7vbrsrRMRH396eozw You can also check out some of my music here:

@Gili Trawangan I have gone back and forth with some of the organizer on WhatsApp. The girl was really helpful and nice but I got a light red flag when I told her that I wanted to postpone my retreat due to personal problems ( suicide of a friend and a knee surgery). At this point she started telling me about how these retreats were the panacea and the one and only cure and I got a bit worried. I recognized my tendency in my first years of psychedelic exploration to be a bit too much of an advocate. Anyhow, I ll go this autumn and will keep you posted.