I'm reading a book called "Bangkok 8" by John Burdett, it's a mystery, and I don't usually read them, but heard a review on npr and picked it up at the library, main character is a Thai detective who'se mother was a Bangkok prostitute and father an American GI on leave from VietNam. Fun read. Anyway, there's one part where the cop is remembering the teachings of his abbot -- he was a Buddhist monk before becoming a cop, a drug dealer before becoming a monk -- where the abbot says: "There will be a massive shift of power from West to East in the middle of the twenty-first century, caused not by war or economics, but by a suble alteration of consciousness....the internal destruction of Western society will have reached such a pass that most of your resources will be concentrated on managing loonies." 8-) -- Harmon Seaver CyberShamanix http://www.cybershamanix.com