鄉愁四韻咖啡館

For those who have been diagnosed to have gallstones in your gallbladder, and who have been approached by the health specialist who suggested that you can flush your gallstones via natural way, please read this article before you do so.

I am one of them, and here is my experience.

Two weeks ago I went for my ultrasound scan, and was diagnosed to have a gallstone measuring 1.14 cm across in my gallbladder next to the duct. Like many others, I went for the natural treatment suggested. The regimen is all over the net, you can find it yourself. In brief, the treament procedure suggests:

1. Consume at least 4 apples (or equivalent juice) per day for five days. Apple juice is said to be able to soften the gallstone. I consumed equivalent to 8 apples per day, just to be at the safe side.

2. On the sixth day, fast from 2pm. At 6pm and 8pm, take 1 teaspoon Epsom salt mix with water. At 10pm, drink a full cup of mixed five to eight fresh lemon juice with olive oil. Lemon juice is to break the stones down to smaller pieces so they are easier to flush out. Olive oil helps to produce large amount of bile to flush the stones out of the gallbladder to the intestine.

3. On the seventh day, the stones will be flushed out following pass motion, and these stones are green colour and floating on the water surface. There will be multiple of them, with the size of pea.

Yes, I followed these procedure, and yes, these stones did come out. I flushed away some, but there were still tens of them. If you google “gallstones” on the net, look for little-green-pea like gallstones, that’s similar to mine.

I was confused, that I had only one big gallstone detected but I flushed out multiple of them? The explanation given was, they are too small to be detected by ultrasound machine. I bought the explanation despite the fact that the ultrasound machine is capable of detecting a stone as small as 2mm, told by the radiographer.

Anyway, this regimen works, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately it doesn’t, I am sorry. The so-called gallstones is not gallstone afterall. They are merely crystalized substance formed via a process call saponification, loosely translated to soap-like formation, between the olive oil and the lemon. In my case, I left the so-called gallstones on the newspaper, it disolved over days, and dissapeared after a few days, leaving behind a stack of oily newspaper.

But how do I prove that my gallstone was not flushed out?　Simple, I back my above statement via the second ultrasound scan. Yes, the stone is still there, as big as it was. In fact, when I went back to the hospital the second time, the doctor and the rediographer were smiling at me. The doctor asked: “Now you have done your traditional treatment. So when do you want to schedule for the operation?” The radiograher asked: “You came two weeks ago and you are here today, you must have tried the traditional treatment, didn’t you?… oh yeah, I can see on the screen that the stone is still here, unchanged. I am sorry.”

My advice, don’t waste your time with this remedy, go to see doctor when you develop symptons of gallsone.

兩天前的報導，臺灣自稱『王老師』的王超弘預測二零一一年五月十一號臺灣會有十四級大地震，臺灣會裂成兩半云云。結果當然甚麼都沒有發生。

本來這種垃圾發表的垃圾預測根本沒有新聞價值，全世界每一天都有人在做這樣的垃圾預測。但是好煽風點火的媒體在之前將它放大一百倍，造成臺灣人心惶惶，大家都去囤糧食，買貨柜箱，以防萬一。結果之後被騙的信徒群眾都聲討王老師，要將他法辦。

我當然不是說王老師沒有錯，可是與其聲討他，不如檢討自己為甚麼會去相信這些九流人說的九流騙話。這世界太多這樣的人，生存法則驅使下，永遠也清除不完。

雖然這看起來與宗教沒有甚麼就直接的關系，但是就是因為宗教的廣泛推廣流傳，讓人們潛意識裏都接受沒有邏輯的事情。

倘若教育制度夠完善，人們邏輯意識提高，不單是王老師騙局而已，刮刮樂騙局、中彩票騙局、銀行存款騙局、繼承遺產騙局、世界末日騙局、外星人騙局、水晶石騙局等都不會有成功的機會。

又被問起猴子如何進化成為人類。我沒見過，真的不知道。不過可以運用一點想像力。

我盡量用最寫實簡單的例子解釋人類如何由猴子進化而來。不過你需要跟我一樣運用一點點的想像力，一面讀一面想像。

幾百萬年前，猴子的種類越來越多樣化。有黑猩猩、紅毛猩猩、大猩猩、等等。物種一多樣化，弱肉強食也免不了。在大量繁殖下，森林就越顯得擁擠。一部分強勢的猴子開始攻擊弱小的猴子，驅逐牠們，甚至將牠們當作食物。

由於沒有立足之地，弱小的猴子被逼的往下逃，由樹上逃離到樹下，就像現今的難民一樣。經過一代又一代，不能適應樹下生活的都被生吞活剝了，反之則得以逃生。

不過樹下的生活也並非那麼舒適寫意，還是有其他猛獸攻擊。被攻擊的猴子們反抗之際雙手自然的亂抓，不經意的抓到身邊的大石頭，一揮就擊中猛獸的腦袋，『嚎』的一聲猛獸就被擊死，屢試不爽。漸漸的，懂得善用雙腳行走、能有效的騰出雙手拿石頭反抗的猴子得以生存，反之則淘汰。經過一代一代的淘汰下來，樹下的猴子們都已是用雙腳行走的那一群了。這一群猴子，科學家稱它們為『人猿』，介於人類及猿類之間的種類。前一陣子出土的化石，走出非洲南部那個『夏娃』就是這時候的種類。

由抓起石頭的那一刻起，弱者變成強者、獵物變成獵人。自此地球的歷史就改寫了。猴子們開始懂得利用武器獵殺比牠們更兇猛的野獸、懂得圍攻、懂得削尖樹枝、綁上石頭當武器、懂得生火、進而懂得圈養獵來的動物。

這些不是一朝一夕的事情，而是幾百萬年的逐漸的競爭、淘汰、演變而來的。越有效利用雙手雙腳武器、懂得分工合作的種類逐漸取代競爭力差的種類。這種競爭到今天還在發生著。不過由於現代有了『政治』這個概念，沒有實際競爭力的不但能生存，還能更大量的繁殖。所以進化跟演變不是根據一成不變的模式。唯一不變的進化真理是『物競天擇、適者生存』。

毛髮逐漸退化則純粹是因為它保溫的功用已經漸漸的被動物的毛皮取代。因為有了毛皮的關係，體毛少的種類也不會凍死。毛髮的逐漸無作用加上它匿藏細菌導致高死亡率，另外或許有審美觀的因素在內，體毛多的種類就逐漸的被淘汰。最後進化為今天的人類。

報章報導，一位前美國宇航局太空人訪談時證實外星人曾經訪問過地球，當然引起了一陣騷動。為了加強故事的說服力，報導沒有指出這位前太空人本身一直是超自然現象的狂熱份子。

不過話又說回來，我心底還是希望真的有外星人訪問過地球，還希望他們站出來給全世界看。

理由呢？希望可以借外星人來搖醒宗教狂熱份子的天堂夢。告訴他們沒有天堂，沒有他們心目中的神祗。地球人的所作所為，無論他們如何極力否認、極力地認為他們是神的孩子，事實上這一切都只是物競天擇的生存本能而已。

當然，宗教狂熱的領導人沒有那麼快就會投降。他們肯定會拿出種種的理由來銜接外星人與神的關係。譬如說外星人是神的使者，或是神的另一個產品。至於如何解釋聖經裡上帝只創造了亞當夏娃，你不要問我，我不是領導人。反正最後總會有人相信那些故事。

或者他們最終會誘導外星人成為他們的一份子，跟他們一起膜拜？要朝哪個方向膜拜？這又是另一個棘手的問題了。

曾經寫過一篇關於賽巴巴的文章。現在他老人家去世了，也不用再落井下石了。

說點他的外傳。聽說賽巴巴去世之前的那幾年，都是身不由己，受人控制。

一個龐大的企業，不是賽老一個人能經營的。他的背後有許多參謀臣子幫他出主意撈錢。這跟任何企業一開始總是創辦人全權控制，之後企業一膨脹，權力就落在董事局是一樣的。

賽老後期只落得成為一個形象、一個傀儡、一個魔術師的角色。已經沒有了實際的控制權。他甚至沒有自主權，一切任人擺佈。

他的去世是否代表了一個龐大企業的日落？應該不會。他去世之前好一段時間裏已經非常虛弱，董事局應該早已安排好一切了。

信徒們會減少嗎？應該也不會。因為賽巴巴在他們的心目中早已升格為神。他那會流出粉末的的畫報早已派得斷貨。

會有接班人嗎？也有這個可能性。賽巴巴少年時期起就自稱為印度十七世紀末的精神導師舍迪賽巴巴（Shirdi Sai Baba）的轉世。他的本名為薩迪亞納拉亞納。拉祖（Sathyanarayana Raju），為此特地拋棄父親的名字，改名為薩迪亞。賽巴巴（Sathya Sai Baba），一直沿用至今。