Many who've tried to explain it, have said empty open ended statements like "It's a new and enriching way of life" or "It's a new philosophy that is both uplifting and fulfilling!" alas, those statements are empty and don't really answer the issue.

The DNA of Epica is the DMA. DMA stands for Dynamic Mental Attitude.
It is NOT the same as a Positive Mental Attitude (PMA). If all it took for an uplifted life was to be positive all the time, then the world would be a whistling Disney tunes all day and giving out flowers and balloons.

Face it, it's a dirty gritty world out there and though it has it's ups and downs, we as a species need a mindset in which we can actually cope with it. By cope, I don't mean happy pills (prescription drugs), I mean having the mental attitude, aptitude and fortitude to go forth throughout the day without a) pretending to see it through rose colored glasses and b) crumbling under the pressure.

What if you could just actually try and enjoy life no matter what it threw at you? Imagine the possibilities?

Remember way back when I first attempted to explain the Epical philosophy? Basically, I was explaining that, as it has been written; " all the worlds a stage and we are mere players in it" and we were here to star in our own theatrical performance. This does not mean "be a Drama Queen". It means simply this: Take the mundane and have fun with it. Change your mindset to as if you always had a movie camera trained on your every movement. Imagine a boom microphone above your head recording what you said for an audience to listen. How would you speak? How would you act? Would you cower in fear or thrust out your chest in pride as if to proclaim yourself a real life thespian?

I'll use this as a preamble as in upcoming posts I will go further in how you can be the role you've always wanted to play... but in real life. Oh and gang? You can play the villain and you don't have to lose to the good guys in this one.

Brace yourself. The answers are on the way.

Either way, there's something big on the horizon. In a few days time, it shall be posted.

"Who is God?"

I bet you can't. Now I don't mean replying "Hey, everybody knows who GOD is. He's that all powerful guy with the long hair and the white beard that's Jesus' dad!" I don't mean replying that god is Allah, Buddha, Yahweh, Jehovah, Goya, Uranus, Thor, Odin, Satan, Zeus, Coronas, Mattes, Apollo, Aries, Athena, Bast, Belial, Leviathan, Thea or Astaroth, just to name a few.

These names were given by man to give an understandable persona to the forces greater than we believed to exist. A line from the XTC song "Dear God" spelled it out rather poignantly: "Did you make mankind after we made YOU". There is no real proof of these gods or even their names. IN the same instance, technology has not led us to believe differently as to their existence either.

What we DO know scientifically is that there are unseen forces in the universe. What we do know is that first and foremost there are energies abound in the universe and it's dimensions that clearly show themselves however unexplained.

Epicalists or Epicans are "hedonistic humanists". We believe that first and foremost, the answers lie within ourselves. Shakespeare once said: "The fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves". He could never have been more correct. But not only our faults, but our successes and how we choose to overcome adversity or difficulty.

Epicans are not Satanists under the conventional terms or understandings, nor are they Christians either. They are also neither agnostic nor atheist as they have a belief system in forces of nature and science and the possibilities of beings greater than ourselves.

Let me first sum it up that Epicalism is the ability to live life in an epic way. Similar to the drama of a movie only without the chaos. Your life doesn't have to be the mundane humdrum life it seems to be. You seek out Epicalism when you feel depressed or that you have no hope or are seeking answers where you feel there are none. You do not chase faiths that ask for money yet offer no proof for answers or seek unproven deities for help. You seek to find the solutions within you, and recognize that not only is accepting change the secret to success, but that recognizing opportunity and seizing it is the key to luck.

Someone had to dream it. Then they had to make a plan. Then they made it real. Your life can be like this also.

No one says you have to invent anything. No one says you have to do something so avante guarde... You simply must follow a dream. Your dream. The one you feel most passionate about. An Epicalist believes that his or her dream is obtainable in some form or another and in some way, shape or manner.

to tell the tales of those over run

to avenge those scorned, the victimized ones

and gather strength 'til the battle is won

to oppose the followers of the almighty Son.

Let your anger be useful, let ye know pride

Let you never bow down or be forced to hide

Let the world know our coming, and though they have tried

Let them know ye undaunted, accept your dark side.

Why does the cinema and television excite us so? Because they bring to us escapism. They bring to us a reality more exciting than our own. It's all "make believe" and yet...why is this? Pretending you are someone you are not is just that...pretending. Life is not a game of "cowboys and Indians" or "cops and robbers" unless you actually ARE one of those. But what life IS is an adventure. How you plan to capitalize on that adventure is up to you. Your mind is such a powerful tool. It's a vast synaptic computing machine. It can create true virtual reality. All you have to do is close your eyes and raise the curtain on the theater of the mind.

Now what if you went one step further? What if you actually were what you wished to be? What if you actually created your own action or dramatic adventure? That in itself is the meaning of life...to give it meaning. Yes. The meaning of life is to give life meaning. It's that simple.

I can hear many screaming at the preceding words, yelling; "HEY! How can I become my own Superhero?" Well I believe there are formulas to everything. The formula for this is broken into several steps:

The power of sex is both essential and detrimental. The greatest weakness to mankind is it's carnal desires. One should not be bested by it and should think more towards using it rather than being its victim.

"YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!!! Star Wars Episode III: The revenge of the Sith

I find it odd, how superhero and science fiction movies or action films in general for that matter, can only be inspirational or useful on the philosophical sense when it is in relation to what we find to be fantasy. When I watch a drama, there's such hardship that tugs at the heart strings or instills anger, and yet, there is no extraordinary situation in which a triumph is reached. In fantasy, there are overwhelming odds that can only be defeated by an extraordinary person or event or ability. Why is this?

Mental prowess is a powerful tool. Not simply intellect, but imagination. The imagination is the magnified manifestation of the power wrought of that tool. Whatever you believe yourself to be is so.

What Was Supposed to Be 'Like Another Christmas'

As rescue workers tried to get to the men, families waited at the Sago Baptist Church during an emotional two-day vigil.

Hatfield late Wednesday afternoon gave reporters a timeline of events to explain how the mixed messages — most likely derived from jubilant rescue and command center workers calling friends and relatives, officials believe — about the miners' fate could have been relayed to the church:

Project Epical is a culmination of the musical and philosophical thoughts, scribings, musings and sonnets of D'Sar, the Darkstar.

The project itself, simply put, is a music style that celebrates sorrow and exudes raw emotion as a release from day to day stress and tension.

3. Manners; ways.