Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, San Diego, 1978. That's me to the left with beard and beads. I am Leslie Goldman, Your Enchanted Gardener
Professor Edmond Bordeaux Szekely was for me the father of the Essene Renaissance and his work and writings had a profound influence on my own development and work in the world.
I was first introduced to the "Essene Gospel of Peace," one of the books he wrote, in a small café in Canoga Park California. I was a student at Cal State Northridge then still San Fernando Valley State College. I was beginning to have signs of arthritis. The year was around 1971, Western Medical doctors were prescribing drugs that were tearing up my gut. I couldn't see myself continuing on this path. Something else was calling me. I had been drawn to nature since I was a kid, and later to environmental causes, but never had I been called so deeply in a clear direction as when the philosophy and lifestyle of the ancient communitarians known as the Essenes showed up for me. I learned later that their two industries were knowledge and healing. It was this my soul was seeking.
In my last years of college, my friend Janice Hinkston, was deeply involved in wanting to preserve the history and future of the Santa Susana mountain Pass, an old stagecoach trail in Chatsworth California not far from Canoga Park. We met when i was working for a small community newspaper called the San Fernando Sun. Janice was passionate about wanting to get that stagecoach trail on the historic register. I helped her. I researched and wrote an original local history that she said led to a state park being created that preserved 1000's of acres.
She began to take me into this a café called Follow Your Heart that was run by close friends.
MICHAEL BESANCON INTRODUCED ME TO "THE ESSENE GOSPEL OF PEACE"
Michael Becancon with me, Leslie, 2012 at the Natural Product Expo Wes
One of the partners of the restaurant/café was Michael Besancon who became my original avocado sandwich maker. He introduced me to a book called "The Essene Gospel of Peace." Michael, before he retired in 2012 from working for Whole Foods Market, was Senior Global Vice President of Purchasing, Communications and Distribution and responsible for aspects of their Green Mission that influenced many practices of this, our largest natural food chain. After losing contact for decades, I reached out to him. Michael was speaking at a prestigious conference in San Diego. I brought him a ripe avocado and Follow Your Heart Grapeseed spread, a product that cafe developed. Michael was happy to see me and again made us an avocado sandwich. He vision, friendship, and Essene walk never changed.
"The Essene Gospel of Peace" was one of the first books on the subject of Natural Healing that came my way. The book described approaches ascribed to a great teacher who was identified as the man Jesus.
Even though at the time I was somewhat divorced from my Jewish roots, I found the book too much for me, As the decades have gone by, many more Jewish people are taking a second look at Jesus as a rabbi, Some of what he taught are Jewish teachings. The teachings in this book set such a high standard of discipline--that included eating a diet of uncooked raw food and purification diet-- that it was beyond anything I might fathom because of my own food inclinations or addictions. I was drawn to the nature teachings that the book described.
"The Essene Gospel of Peace" in its day was said to have been responsible for creating more vegetarians than any other book in history. The author of the book was Edmond Bordeaux Szekely. I met him years later in 1978. He called this book and his other books spiritual ammunition. The Essenes, I was to learn later, were a hub with many spokes. They were not a religion as much as a way of living. Although history associates them with being a Jewish sect that pre-dated modern Christianity, they are a way of being in the world. I experience souls within every tradition that express Essene values, values that honor the human impulse to live in peace with nature as well as live in harmony with cosmic vital forces.
My College year Activities Brought me in Witness with History Events of the 60's Early 70's
1965-1972 were my college years. I majored in extracurricular affairs as well as Journalism and English. Events outside the classroom shaped me as much as what I learned in the classroom. I was following Essene values before I ever heard that word.
In my earlier years in college, I spent the summer of 1968, called the Summer of Love, as a Volunteer in Service to America, a VISTA Associate, in San Francisco. While chaperoning youth one night, we visited the Avalon Ballroon. One of the musical icons of the 60's, Janis Joplin, was performing. At Cal State Northridge. a few years later, I was involved in shutting down our campus when four students were killed at a place called Kent State. That was during the latter years of the Vietnam war. On the San Fernando Sun newspaper, in 1971, I had another amazing experience.
The editor of the paper went into the hospital for about two weeks in February. These were the only two weeks I worked as a professional journalist in this life on a working newspaper. My life and outlook were shaped by the San Fernando Valley earthquake.
I watched an entire city appear to fall in upon itself when infrastructures collapsed within minutes, Water had to be delivered in beer trucks. Electricity was out. Threats of a damn breaking forced people, who had never spoken to each other, into the streets in nightgowns and some out of their homes to live side by side on cots.
I was allowed beyond police lines and saw that under catastrophic conditions, the best in people rises to the surface. The entire city seemed to come together to help one another and practice this basic principle of the Essenes, love one another.
Fast-forward more than 40 years to these moments in time. You will see a profound breaking down of infrastructures and systems. While numbers of us are living as an earthquake waiting to happen, more and more people, one by one, are waking up to the reality that modern conventional medicine as well as modern agricultural practices are at war against nature. The modern push toward a technology that rearranges genes and fundamentally disorients our relationship to food, food growing, and soil have erased 1000 of years in the history of people from many traditions who looked to nature for healing and self-healing. I believe that surgery and drugs can be valuable. I would not be walking today had it not been for conventional surgery that gave me the ability to walk again. I see conventional medicine as a heroic measure that gave me more time to learn from mistakes and do better. Conventional medicine does not replace traditional medicine. A ounce of prevention, and learning how to use natural methods of healing, are still essential.
What I learned from the San Fernando Valley Earthquake of 1971
There is an underlying teaching that I learned from that San Fernando Earthquake of 1971. Friendship is a River that knows no borders. When we continually resurrect walls between us and others, be in those in our families, in our communities, and between nations, or attempt to establish rules of medicine where science is not grounded in the soil, when we attempt to beat the natural system, nature will intimately and intimately re-establish her power.
Professor Szekely expressed this teaching this way:
“Our adaptation to the natural forces
is a question of existence or non-existence.
We cannot transform the universe or nature so that they
adapt themselves to us; on the contrary, we must adapt ourselves
to nature and her laws.”
-Edmond Bordeaux Szekely.
“Nuestra adaptación a las fuerzas de la naturaleza
Es una cuestión de existencia o no existencia.
No podemos transformar el universo o la naturaleza a fin de que
se adaptan a nosotros, por el contrario, tenemos que adaptarnos
a la naturaleza y sus leyes. ”
-Edmond Bordeaux Szekely.
FORCED TO FIND NATURAL WAYS
My first real job after college, involved leaving the city. In spite of my journalistic talents, and having won national awards in college as a writer, my health was taking me to another place. I was being forced to find natural ways, I believe the essential living principles of the Essenes and the work of Edmond Bordeaux Szekely were calling me.
Today, Urban farming is a reality and growing our own food more practical than ever. The very principles he wrote about, and summations of his work are essential now.
SZEKELY: HIS WORK INFLUENCED MANY PEOPLE AND HIS PEERS INCLUDING THE WORK OF DR BERNARD JENSEN
Szekely has been called the father of the Essene Renaissance. Many today, have heard the word, Essene through the rediscovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. I've called him the modern Essene renaissance prophet. His work influenced many people and his peers, including the work of Dr. Bernard Jensen who lived not far from Professor Szekely in San Diego county,
DR. BERNARD JENSEN ENTERED MY LIFE IN 1972
1908-2001, Dr. Bernard Jensen had a great influence on my life He was spiritually in the Essene Stream.
Both Edmond Bordeaux Szekely and Dr. Bernard Jensen were masters of the natural healing arts. Both were in the Health Sanitarium Tradition. This was an American as well as a European trend where people would come out to nature, stay in nature, and learn health practices that made it possible for the body to heal itself. Both men loved the Essenes.
Prof Szekely and his wife Deborah had moved to Tecate, Mexico seeking safety in 1940 from the storm clouds of war.
They begin their work not far from the US border on parcels of land where they could sustain themselves through food growing and helping people remember how to live healthy lives. Rancho La Puerta is now the number one destination spa in the world. It is a health resort that began as the Essene School of Life. That was its name for the first 10 years of its existence. The Ranch, as it is called, will have its 75th birthday in 2015.
By the time I met Dr. Bernard Jensen in 1972 Professor Szekely was no longer treating patients.
Dr. Bernard Jensen was also seeing patients during the 1940s. He continued through the late 80s to see patients in Los Angeles and at his Hidden Valley Health Ranch in Escondido, California. He would teach as well as offer a place that became the last resort--a place to go-- for many people to get their health back.
Guest came to Dr Jensen in dire need and I among them. He gave me some simple writing assignments. He basically left me alone for at least six months in the natural environment of the ranch and within an amazing community of staff and new guests while I re-oriented my health. The guests were freshets of grace, new energy bringing new people to meet who were often fountains of knowledge. This was the first time I slowed down, took off my clothes in nature, and discovered the healing power of the sun on my body.
Dr, Jensen would monitor fasts, do bowel cleanses, and introduce the most basic practices of super soil enriched organic food, food that he knew was medicine and had therapeutic quality.
Dr Jensen knew his supplements and used them like magic bullets to help people see that feeling better was possible; but he did not rely on supplements. He recommended a Daily Balanced Living Regimen that was based on lifestyle change. He admired Hippocrites, the father of medicine, who followed the path of food as medicine.
He would ask people to emmerse themselves in nature for three days before he saw them in the office. He often said that 50% of their complaints had disappeared by the time they came in for their first office visit.
We have a long way to go to return what we call organic food to get the kind of results the masters of healing reported. If you look at the early writings of Dr. Jensen and his peers, as well as the writings of Professor Szekely, you will find many references to results obtained with foods that were whole, pure, and natural. There are many books with recipes for specific foods for rebuilding specific organs. We have less and less power in the food today because the soil is depleted. Even food grown by organic principles today has its limits to achieve therapeutic results. I also believe, it was the very act of growing the food itself that was inherently healing.
Many of the fundamental principles of both Dr. Bernard Jensen and Edmond Bordeaux Szekely were based on Essenes practices. I believe the teachings of the Essenes are something that people find when they are in deep need for healing. The practices Dr. Jensen prescribed and that are shown in his books, were some of the same that had been prescribed in "The Essene Gospel of Peace" and many other health traditions.
During summers, Dr Jensen would teach seminars. Doctors and students came to learn his brand of wholistic comprehensive nutrition as well as iridology, a healing art and science that was known among the Essenes of ancient times as well as practiced by many other cultures.
DR BERNARD PAID HOMAGE TO PROFESSOR EDMOND BORDEAUX SZEKELY
Dr. Bernard Jensen was a peer of Edmond Bordeaux Szekely. Dr. Bernard Jensen would frequently talk about the Essenes and he seldom mentioned the Essenes without speaking the name of Professor Szekely.
Both men were charismatic teachers and they knew one each other.
Professor Szekely would go on archeological trips and Dr Jensen also traveled a great deal. Dr Jensen told a story about one trip they took together.
They were traveling deep into Mexico. They were in a small airplane and the pilot was having difficulty keeping the plane in the air. It may have been bad gasoline. They went down a number of times. Dr Jensen was concerned. The pilot was not concerned. The pilot said, "A man who is meant to drown will not die in a plane crash. Dr. Jensen did not feel reassured, however he liked that story enough to tell it.
Dr. Bernard Jensen called Professor Szekely a walking encyclopedia. Both men lived in what I call the Essene stream.
THE ESSENE STREAM
Both Edmond Bordeaux Szekely and Dr Bernard Jensen were deeply inspired men who drew from the fount of wisdom I call the Essene stream. They were both prolific writers and many of their books and writings still remain. Professor Szekely's wrote many books about the Essenes, and in his early days at Rancho La Puerta he would issue newsletters and little booklets. Szekely honored great minds from many historic periods.
"The Essene Renaissance" was the name for one series of these short booklets. i have reprinted a page below about the Essences and their worldview, as he expressed it.
I had a very unique relationship with Dr. Bernard Jensen. I have often called him my spiritual father. I had a few personal conversations with Professor Szekely as well. I attended two of his San Diego three day seminars.
Dr. Jensen and I were like father and son as far as the teachings of nature. The Essenes were a common ground between us. It meant a lot to him that I had met professor szekely and become one of his Essene minister.
Between 1977-1979 the professor had a yearly Seminar that he organized under what he was now calling the International Biogenic Society. At the same time, he organized the Essenes under a religious structure and was still ordaining ministers. In the seminars, he could tell by my questions, that I had been trained in the natural healing arts. Their was a recommended course of training, but when he heard that I knew and had ghost written a number of books for Dr. Bernard Jensen, he ordained me quickly.
He was revising some of his teachings and attributed these teachings to his association with Romain Roland, a nobel peace prize winner who worked fervently for peace during the WW 1 period.
This quote from Roland Epitomized the Essene Stream for me:
"Let us seek truth everywhere;
let us cull it wherever we can find its blossom
or its seed. Having Found the seed,
let us scatter it to the winds of heaven.
Wheresoever it may blow, it will germinate.
There is no lack in this wide universe of souls
that will form the new ground."
--Romain Rolland,
From "The Forerunners"
Nobel Peace Prize for Literature, 1917
I know that because of my own dire health need I was drawn to Dr Bernard Jensen, and through him, guided to Professor Szekely.
Much of my own work came from these foundational pillars who alerted me and thousands of others to our essential soul origins that emanate through the Essene writings and a forthcoming Essene Renaissance that I do not associate with any particular religious sect but more with the return to nature.
In later years, I was drawn to other sources of Essene Wisdom. I came to recognize that the health of our planet will come from the recovery of Sacred Seeds.
By this I mean Sacred Souls who have fundamental living relationships to nature. Growing literal Sacred Seeds, heirloom original seeds is a direct path to re-establishing the natural connection between the sacredness of the soul and the sanctity of the seed.
1000 Years of Peace will always be possible for our human race one way or another because this is our destiny. This is one of the Essene principles, affirming that beauty will triumph. Whether human beings are here on earth to enjoy the peace is another story. The Essene Soul Group as I name it, will forever be here, past, present, and future, to be as exemplars of doing good in the world.
MY CONTRIBUTION TO THE ESSENE RENAISSANCE
I want to give credit to Professor Szekely for inspiring the kernel of my own Essene work that constantly reemerges through the years in ongoing simple metaphors as basic as a grain of wheat and what we can learn from a grain of ancient wheat.
In one of his seminal teachings, "The Legend of Zoroaster," produced in 1947 and later reissued as "The Essene Book of Asha," Szekely writes about a distraught king with a war ravaged mind. A great gardener gives the king a few kernels of wheat and shares the teaching that in this kernel can be found the secrets of life fulfillment.
My work, Plant Your Dream, is based on this story.
Szekely writes:
“If you watch the growth of this seed…
you will find that there is an indestructible
and mysterious power in it–the power of life.
If you watch long enough,
you will see that the grain disappears
and is replaced by a plant
which will triumph over
all obstacles and opposition–
which will grow higher and higher
and higher because it has life within it.”
from “The Book of Asha,”
by Edmond S. Bordeaux
(Edmond B. Szekely)
You, Too, Must One Day Cease to Be Your Present Self.
“You, too, must one day cease to be your present self,
so that you may become a richer personality,
in pursuance of the law that life always creates more life,
truth more abundant truth, the seed more abundant seeds.
This is one answer to your problems given by the grain of
wheat–Professor Edmond B. Szekely,
“The Legend of Zoroaster”
i say that the Seed Turns into the Plant…
The Dream Grows as the Plant Grows...
so Plant Your Dream! Plant a seed. Grow a whole new world.
FOLLOWERS OF THE ESSENE WAY
There were many years i studied esoteric Essene teachings, and met numbers in the Essene stream, most who never called Essene Ways. I also came home to find a home within Jewish renewal values. The "Zayde," grandfather of Jewish renewal once told me that the Essenes inspired him to create some of his early Jewish renewal ideas. I also found a home in the friendship of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. a beloved rabbi with a fervent messiah as well as cabalistic orientation. My own reverence for the seed and nature echoes and translates into a similar fervency.
I will describe some of my relationships with these teachers, some living, some who I have not seen in many years. I know my life has been led by an inner guidance on a a trajectory through a life that has been witness to history in the making.
That is why I consider myself an archivist for the History of Peace on Earth, and my photography, images of Peace.
THE ESSENE RENAISSANCE IS HERE FOR US NOW
At times when Dr. Bernard Jensen was in transition he spoke the name "Essene." I was In the room with him at his upper hidden Valley Ranch during the time when he was letting go of the ranch below at the old Hidden Valley Health Ranch. This was a tumultuous sad time for him. He was giving up on dreams he has yearned for, and if there was any achilles heel I noted then, it was that he, as many of us, are a One Man Show. Most of us lack community experiences in sharing leadership and this becomes increasingly difficult with the personal baggage we each carry. I know this from personal experience during my many years holding a dream for an Enchanted Garden Intentional Community on 1/3 acre near San Diego State University. I have lived here since the 80's.
When Dr. Bernard Jensen was letting go of more than 100 acres and keeping 12 above. He spoke of the Essenes in his final talk before he let go of the property below.
At this time of seeming crisis and transition in so many of our lives, including my own, the Essene teachings ring true.
If we are to see 1000 years years of peace, it will come through hundred of individuals each taking their dreams out of the box, or as i say now, out of the Pizza Box. You will find massive food reform that will benefit from the Essene Renaissance inspiration of both Dr. Bernard Jensen and Edmond Bordeaux Szekely.
It will also come through 1000 upon thousands of individuals growing food and returning to a model of community farming practices that are locally based and turn away from models of centralized food growing that are essentially antagonistic to nature.
If you look deep enough into the spiritual traditions of the original founding gardeners of the US, you will find Essene Soul Group activity at work.
Within every spiritual path you will find them, the seekers of the Essene Way.
WHEN THE ROMANS WERE COMING THE ESSENES STOPPED TO DOT THEIR "I' and "T" IN THE SACRED WRITINGS, PUT THEM AWAY IN CLAY POTS,
AND KNOW THEY WOULD REDISCOVERED
This story also rings true:
When the Romans were headed in the direction of Kumran, an Essene community of many, they came presumably to destroy. A number of the Essene archivists stayed behind to make sure that what has come down in history and known as the Dead Sea Scrolls would be discovered again later.
This was their attitude toward life. Life is eternal. It continues, no matter what.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were rediscovered in 1947. This was the same year that "The Legend of Zoroaster" was first printed, that story that speaks about a master gardener who inspired a nation to regain sanity through returning to its natural ways. It was a simple seed that awakened a king to become a king again through becoming his very own Sacred Seed nature.
I was born in 1947 around the same month as the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. My purpose the year of 2015 is to Win back our Sacred Seeds. I will begin with strengthening my own Sacred Seed.
Roman Roland wrote a book about "The Forerunners." In that book he names many of the greats of his day.
I affirm and Bless that we each hold history in your hands. We can plant a seed to grow a positive humanity through taking our own destined dreams out of the box and out of the package.
May you be recorded not only in the Book of Life, the essential book of life, and also in the Book of Peace. May what you do with the gift of your life inspire a 1000 years of peace.
Nature asks that we take our dreams off the shelf now
One of my favorite Essene Teachings is this:
How more beautiful would the world be
if All the heirloom seeds sitting
on shelves in packages became
the plants they could be?
How much more Soul would there be
in the world if we allowed our
inner Seed Dreams to come out of their
‘packages’ and grow the ‘plants’ they can be?
How much passion and life would we feel?
How more peaceful and healthy would the
world be? Mother Earth says, “Plant Your
Dream!” because your Soul is intended to be
a fully-expressive heirloom seed
in her cornucopia of earthly abundance.
She wants you fully growing
in the world now.
--Leslie Goldman
Your Enchanted Gardener
© Leslie Goldman, 2012
Sending love on this December 31, 2014, New Year's Eve.
Revised, the morning of Jan. 1 2015.
Let's Welcome in, our #Bestyearyet.
"I send my best and my highest wishes for Leslie Goldman and his endeavors. He is seeking the best. He gives his bests, and lives in the highest most of the time. He work is to be commended. He is working for humanity's good. He is one of Humanity's servants. He definitely acclaims that man can be happy and healthy, wise and fruit bearing when he follows the spiritual laws of forgiveness. He returns love for whatever comes his way. He is to be Blessed for all of the advancement he has made during his lifetime. It is a pleasure to know him and to send a Blessing along for the work that he is accomplishing."
--Dr. Bernard Jensen
May 18, 1999
Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Salomi, Grandfather of the Jewish Renewal Movement gave Blessing as Maggid of the Enchanted Garden in 1995.
To Eliezer Ben Shlomo–Prophet of the Enchanted Garden. Magid-
with my blessings,
Rabbi Zalman Schacter- Salomi,
writing at the first Kallah in Ft. Collins,
Colorado, 1997.
“Urban shaman, Leslie Goldman, communes with God in his Magic Garden, coaxing healing from herbs and plants and writes verse blossoms that lift the heart, touch the soul, and somehow gladden the wounded
spirit weeping in us” –Rabbi Zalman M. Schacter-Shalomi
“Your words, your poems, inituitively, inherently speak an old new voice from deep within our tradition and our faith. You share your very personal dialogue with God, and touch the deeply personal in each of us.” Rabbi Stan Levy, B¹nai Horin Community.
³When the Messiah comes, Leslie will be his MC!”
–Rabbi Schlomo Carlebach, the world¹s most traveled Jew
“Let us Make Our Entire, Miraculous Planet into an Enchanted Garden!”–Robert Muller, UN Undersecretary General in 1982
AIMS AND PRINCIPLES OF THE MODERN ESSENE RENAISSANCE
by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely
from Booklet Number One of the Esssene Renaissance
© 1946 by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, 2nd edition 1957
1. We hold the view that it is possible for every human being, by judicious use of the best available methods of hygiene and individual improvement, to better himself.
2 We hold the view that the worth of individuals determines the worth of societies and conditions the effectiveness of public institutions.
3. We hold the view that every man* owes a duty to himself, to the community, and to the future of the race, to make his improvement the essential task of his life.
*and woman
4. We hold the view that achievement is in direct proportion to the efforts of each individual and that this work of improvement produces a sure gain in happiness.
5. We hold the view that the surest guide in man's efforts to improve himself is the study of the laws of nature and in faithful adherence to what they prescribe.
6. We hold the view that human thought and human will have considerable power, and that they should be used consciously in the services of good, that is to say, in the service of the force that leads nature toward ever higher forms of manifestation.
7. We firmly believe that progress is irresistible, and that the triumph of beauty over ugliness, of truth over error, of good over egotism and hatred, are certain.
8. We hold the view that expansive love, fraternity, and co-operation are the only effective means of collective progress, and that nothing true, beautiful, or good can be built upon hatred, rivalry, revenge, party factionalism, or oppression.
9. We hold the view that universal sympathy exists for every sincere effort to do good, even when it seems to be in opposition, and that the ways of realizing a better future are as numerous as are human temperaments.
10. We hold the view that by strengthening the good, we progressively get rid of the evil.
5:12 am
December 30, 2014
started…
LINKS
MICHAEL BESANCON FAIR TRADE
http://fairtradeusa.org/press-room/press_release/former-whole-foods-market-executive-michael-besancon-joins-fair-trade-usa-b
DR BERNARD JENSEN, MORE ON HIS GIFT
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=2037207
ON JANICE HINKSTON
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1705995
FROM PLANT YOUR DREAM ARCHIVES
THE REVERSAL PROCESS AS TAUGHT BY DR. BERNARD JENSEN
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=2018436
For a link to the Rebbe’s work, please see:
SHLOMO CARLEBACH FOUNDATION
The mission of The Shlomo Carlebach Foundation is to preserve and disseminate the teachings, music and stories of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, zt"l, and to develop communities which will share the love and joy which he radiated.
http://shlomocarlebachfoundation.org
On Receiving a U.N. Peace Medal for the work I would do in my Life
http://curezone.com/ig/i.asp?i=74972
I tell this story here
http://lesliegoldman.com/AboutLeslie/id33.htm
MY ESSENE BIOGRAPHY
http://plantyourdream.net/?page_id=10296
RABBI SHLOMO CARLEBACH, HE MADE SPACE FOR ME
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=2026136
MY STORY DEPARTURE FROM COLLEGE
to be written here:
PLANTING THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY WITH LESLIE GOLDMAN YOUREG
http://www.curezone.org/blogs/fm.asp?i=2224895
ESSENTIAL LIVING BEGINS WITH ME
2014
http://plantyourdream.net/?p=19556
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