Sometimes things are a matter of perspective, but oppressing the human spirit is always a losing proposition.

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Economics, Mental Health, Oppression, Politics, Psychology, Spirituality, Sustainability
(c) mrdoggs http://www.fotosearch.com

There has been a lot in the news the past few months about the Epstein files, Pizzagate and other similar tales of sordid human abuse and trafficking along with the apparent connection between these things and so many of the wealthy and politically powerful people in the world. It can make one wonder why people who have so much would engage in such horrible activities. The beginning of this post is addressing one logical connection from a psychological perspective.

Sometimes things are a matter of perspective.  For instance, to someone who has been taught to be afraid of the world, afraid of the natural processes in the world, afraid of the other people in the world, it might seem the most natural thing on Earth to strive to accumulate as much wealth and power, to control everything it is possible to control, in order to protect oneself from the threat of, well, life.   From such a perspective empathy, compassion, sympathy, or pity toward the general population of the world may well seem to be feelings and thoughts to be strictly avoided.  Anything that opens a person up to “them”; the dangerous masses which they perceive as waiting outside the gate to swarm them, to take what they deem that they have worked so hard to acquire, is something to be shunned, a disease to inoculate themselves against.  This logic does lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy to some degree.

How does one inoculate themself against warm, human emotions?  How can that shell be built?  Further, how can such an inhuman condition be maintained? We know, and can see in the behavior of infants that he feelings of empathy, compassion, sympathy are some of the most innately natural emotions for humans, It can even be said that these emotions are a big part of what differentiate us from other species. However, the solution to this dilemma is one that humanity has seen answered time and time again, war after war.  The answer is trauma.  Experiencing repeated, profound trauma; emotional, psychological, physical and/or chemical trauma, can go a long way toward producing that shell.  Just ask the warriors coming home from prolonged or extreme combat situations.  Such cutoff from one’s emotions is often one aspect of PTSD.  If, deep down inside, you have not been taught to be fearful of “the other”, of the general population of the world, if you are someone who has experienced love, genuine transcendent love, you don’t want to lose the ability to feel love and to share love, to care about others and be cared about.  So, victims of PTSD seek treatment.  Seek to get back in touch with feelings of empathy, compassion and love. They seek to get back in touch with the blessing or calm serenity down deep in their soul. 

But what if a person can’t remember ever knowing those feelings? What if they have been so traumatized by psychological, emotional, physical and or chemical abuse at an early age, or even neonatally, that they have been incapable of feeling anything but anxiety, resentment, envy, as long as they can remember? Would people who have been living in a sub-culture which holds empathy and compassion in contempt actually go so far as to engage in behaviors, even rituals, to emotionally and psychologically cutoff their offspring from these emotions? My guess is they not only would but that this is not all that uncommon in some of the most avaricious families and organizations in the world. I know this is hard for many people to believe; people who love their children and the children of their neighbors. It certainly is distasteful and something that many people, if not most, do not want to contemplate. That, by the way, is a protective factor for those engaging in such inhuman treatment of their own children and too often the children of others.

But if a person is someone who is seeking a state which allows you to relative comfort with engaging in inhuman behaviors toward people in general, then they don’t seek treatment for such a state of being. They seek to establish and maintain it.  They seek out trauma.  How does one find trauma?  Today it isn’t hard to find vicarious trauma.  There are movies, books, documentaries which show the horrors that exist through either natural disasters, or more often by human being committing inhuman acts toward other human beings.  Video footage from wars, of people who are in the process of experiencing a violent, cruel death.  “Snuff” films.  The more horror, terror, shock, the better…that is what helps emotionally/psychologically and spiritually numb a person to the natural human reactions to such things.  Watching children experience such horrible abuses can hold even a higher degree of trauma than watching adults go through them because children’s emotions are purer.  A healthy human being feels an affinity, a natural, protective feeling toward children.  But if you’re someone seeking to make yourself into someone devoid of such affinity for people in general that is just one more avenue of emotional ingress to your mind, your feelings, so that also needs to be cut off. 

However, vicarious traumatization isn’t enough after a while.  Like a drug addict with increasing tolerance, the person needs more, they need the real thing.  To a mentally, emotionally healthy person this reassertion of feelings of empathy, caring, is indicative of the beauty of the resilience of the human spirit.   But to someone seeking to not feel those aspects of the human spirit, of their spirit, who seek to not care, to be able to abuse others, to take from others what they need to live, to take their bodies for whatever pleasure or benefit they can extract from them, such feelings are counterproductive.  They want to be able to coolly assess every situation to find the opportunity for self-aggrandizement in it.  they have been taught or they have perceived, and believe, that one must always “win”, be the taker, not the giver.  So in order to get that next level of trauma induced emotional cutoff they need to be participating in the brutality, to witness first hand, to see, to hear, to feel the terror, the shock, the voluntary and involuntary pleading from “the other”. People who are experiencing horrors and abuses thought up by people like themselves, sometimes over many generations. Lineages of people who have been seeking and profiting from their ability to act inhumanly toward others.

Yet we’re all social beings, even the most ego driven, spiritually perverted, among us.  So, such people need companions, others like themselves who are seeking a state of being divorced from their most innate human spiritual senses in order to acquire without conscience.  We know those with similar appetites sometimes (often?) form groups; cabals, covens, whatever name they have found that most satisfies the needs of their egos.  Together they engage in rituals, some have a desire for elaborate settings and costumes in their efforts to convince themselves that they are doing something other than the grotesque, inhuman perversions which they are engaging in.  Wealth and power have become their goals if not their gods.  Wealth and power have become the narcotic with which they seek to soothe the pain of the emptiness which results from being so divorced from our own true spiritual reality.  In truth they have become a type of monster, a cutoff, sickened shell of a human being who feels a need to subjugate others, to take from them what they need to live, to reinforce their own desperate need to believe a delusion, to believe themselves to be superior to humanity in general.  

This is a not-so-rare aspect of the so-called civilized world today.  A world in which two separate realities have emerged:  the reality of the predators and the reality of their prey. Actually the predators are as much parasitic as predatory but repeatedly calling them “predatory parasites” seems too long a descriptive term, so I’m using simply “predators” in this blog. Wealthy, educated predators know that if the prey truly realizes the schemes and mechanisms via which they prey upon the masses of people then the masses would likely turn on them.  Therefore the “successful” (at what is essentially suicidally destructive predatory/parasitic behavior) have realized the need to maintain public personas that inspire respect, sometimes even admiration.  But sooner or later the deprivation experienced by the “prey”, the people experiencing themselves and their loved ones perpetually suffering poverty, depression, sickness, or worse, all in a world of plenty, begins to dissolve whatever illusions the predators have put in place to try to conceal their true practices.  Oppression of the human spirit is a losing proposition. 

 It’s happened before in history.  Just in the past two hundred and fifty years there has been the American revolution, the French revolution, the Communist revolutions in Russia, China and Cuba and many more.  It’s not that the revolutionaries in all these cases were themselves immune from the sickness of mind and spirit which had so pervaded those who they were rebelling against. It’s not that well founded revolutions always result in a new, more equitable, enduring better world.  What we can learn from these events is often simply that put in a position to be able to see a way to do grab it, human beings are too often all too quick to be infected with a lust for wealth and power.  Too often a culture of “haves” and “have nots” is what emerges and the cycle begins again. 

This is something that has happened so often in human history one might believe that it is an inescapable human failing.  It isn’t.  It is a reality only when the people involved are ignorant enough of their true spiritual reality that they are susceptible to becoming overly enamored of the enticements of material pleasures.  It’s not that material pleasures are categorically bad or evil, they aren’t.  But just as an individual can overindulge in the pleasures of life and lose sight of taking care of their spiritual and physical health in the process, the same can happen with groups of people, with cultures. The mindset, the spiritual disease, of craving unlimited acquisition without proper regard for the wellbeing of others can be as contagious as any physical disease that there is.  As we can see by conditions in the world today, it can become a pandemic which infects even the people who are being preyed upon.  It can infect the very people who suffer the most from its presence in the world. It shouldn’t be too surprising though, the predators actively seek to encourage a “prey aspiring to predator”, attitude among the general population.  They use the media to portray extravagant wealth as the key to a happy life, the key to heaven on Earth.  They want the general population to envy them, idolize them, to try to emulate them, or if nothing else to be infected with their obsession with materialism.  They desire that the general population be perpetually blinded to the reality that there is another way, a better way; a way that nourishes and sustains the life and spirit of all who work at it. A way that does not require inhumanly preying upon the lives of others in order to truly enjoy the wonders, the blessings of life on this planet.    

It is such a profound truth that it bears repeating:  Oppression of the human spirit is a losing proposition. Ultimately that is true for every person on Earth or anywhere else.  A human spirit may be crushed, but like what looks like dead, dry grass after a drought, give it some love and care and watch it spring back, vibrant, vital, dynamic. If, by design or default, you work at oppressing others, or if you are oppressed: either way, you lose.  If you are successful at oppressing others you are losing because the actions involved in the acquisition of extravagant wealth do not honor nor uphold the true conditions of the human spiritual reality in its fullness.  You are not honoring your own spiritual reality. We are all one, interconnected, and ultimately the quality of our future, of anyone’s future, is tied to the quality of everyone’s future.

The illusion that the material world is all that there is can be the jumping off place to engaging in all manner of behaviors offensive to and counterproductive of a healthy spirit.  There are people who believe that when it comes to spirituality we are physical beings who are maybe in search of a spiritual aspect to our lives.  That is exactly the opposite of our reality!  We are spiritual beings who are incarnated in an effort to establish a physical reality for ourselves.  Why?  If for no other reason because it can be very enjoyable.  But tacitly agreeing to accept suffering tomorrow for some pleasure today is an idiot’s bargain.  Especially when it is unnecessary.  With wisdom and proper regard for one another we can have heaven on Earth without putting the wheels in motion to have to suffer farther “down the road”.  All it takes is some wisdom, maturity, humility, occasionally patience, and the willingness to put in the work, mentally and physically, to make it happen.  It doesn’t even require slaving away to put the work in, it just requires including putting some work in conscientiously and regularly.  As Jesus said: “My yoke is light and my burden is easy.”  He wasn’t talking about a yoke we put on to serve him.  He is referring to the yoke we put on, as he did, to righteously truly serve our divine spiritual reality; to truly be doing the best for our own happiness and wellbeing. We do have to take the time and attention to get to know ourselves, our spiritual reality as well as our physical reality (which is a creation of our spiritual reality). 

It is a task that we have to enter into with the understanding that we must speak and honor truth, always.  We need to recognize and embrace the central role that love occupies in a healthy spiritual reality. No more half-truths and manipulative myths.  It does include also educating ourselves around what keeps us physically healthy (because our body is our temple).  Overindulging as a habit doesn’t work to keep us healthy.  Think of it as we aren’t trying to get into heaven, we’re trying to learn how to manage living successfully so that the heaven we occupy doesn’t become a hell.  At this point in time, it is not hard to see that we haven’t been doing the best job of it. Especially when we realize that we are our brother’s, and sister’s, keepers.

(c) Alex Max, http://www.fotosearch.com

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Feeling overwhelmed with what the world is throwing at you? Don’t let all the “noise” cheat you from claiming your spiritual reality.

by kendunning, posted in Gratitude, Health, Law, Metaphysics, Personal Development, Spirituality

     Due to the internet and the speed of communication we are experiencing today, the average person is exposed to information regarding scientific breakthroughs, discoveries in our natural world, and innovations in myriad technologies at an unprecedented pace.  Sounds wonderful, right?  Not necessarily.  Our brains, our nervous systems, our thought processes have evolved over millennia experiencing, for the most part, a much slower pace of new information.   For all of our recorded history, until the past century, give or take a few years, there might well be months, years or decades between the news of one major advancement in our knowledge affecting an important area of our lives and the next.  Today, depending upon the websites one visits, new bits of potentially life changing information can be coming at us much faster than a human mind can begin to take it in, much less assimilate the meaning of it all.  It can be traumatic, and for many it is. 

     How do we cope with this reality?  For some the way is to ignore it. No doubt all of us have to pick and choose what we take in, or not.  Yet all of us are faced with a world in which, like it or not, changes are happening which will affect our lives.  Somewhere there are people paying attention to and working with all the information which we may choose to overlook.  Not because we’re incapable people, it’s because a person can only handle so much.  Where does that leave us? It means, ideally, we have to be able to trust that those advancing one potentially life changing area of our culture, our world, are going to be doing so in good faith with the rest of us.  Ideally those controlling all the various areas of development and change are working to be of service to human kind, not to exploit us. 

     But that is not always the case, in fact it, too often exploiting us seems to exactly be the goal.  All this at a time when corruption, lies, and exploitation of “the masses” is also happening at an unprecedented rate.  Part of what this reality reveals is that we have allowed morals and ethics, empathy, and love to fall to the wayside too often.  Exploiting others has become a culturally acceptable business model.  In terms of technology, commerce, ethics, and human wellbeing, it is something of a “perfect storm”. 

     Can we face and find solutions for this current, unhealthy reality which will not only allow us to survive it, but to nurture our humanity and our communities in the process?

     Some of the “fixes” being promoted at this time are as problematic, and as subject to exploitation, as the problems they are claiming to be remedies for.   One of the “fixes” we see some working at is censorship.  Often those engaging in it say their goal is to prevent “misinformation”.  The fact is censorship all too easily just leads to one group or another having the exclusive ability to ensure that only the “information”, truth or lies, that furthers their agenda is allowed in the media . 

     Coming to the truth of a controversial matter can be compared to grinding grain into flour.  It requires at least two opposing perspectives presenting point and counterpoint until what emerges is a hardy, vital perspective that has stood up to intense scrutiny.  Without that, what one tends to have is a single “story” which is not the complete story.  So many of the issues which breed controversial “conspiracy theories” are issues around which honest and open public debate, public scrutiny, has not been allowed to take place.  Such situations always involve the application of censorship by some people with particular interests that are working to control the public perception of the issue.  Censorship is all too easily not a solution, just another problem.

     Another proposed “fix” that is getting more attention is the idea of neural implants.  This is what I would call the “Frankenstein solution”.  It goes something like this:  meld a computer chip into a human brain and the person will have instant access to all the information on the internet.  Where to start on everything that can go wrong with this?  To begin with, as noted above, our minds, our nervous systems, have not evolved to work in such a manner.   You know those scenes in the movie “The Matrix” where Neo sits in the chair, a cable is plugged into his brain/nervous system, and he all but instantaneously is the happy recipient of encyclopedic knowledge of something or the other?  Maybe martial arts, maybe how to fly a helicopter.

    What would happen in real life is that the subject (more the victim), if they lived, would be catatonic, zombified.  Someone would have to feed them and bathe them for decades, if not the rest of their “life”.

    To use another movie metaphor, it would be something like the scene in the Indiana Jones movie “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in which the Russian psychic wants the aliens to psychically give “it all” to her.  All the knowledge that they possess.  When the aliens comply with her wishes, after being momentarily in awe of what she is receiving, she quickly is traumatized and ultimately goes up in flames. The flames part is good theatrics, I doubt but I really don’t know, if that would happen or not.  Keep in mind that there is energy involved. 

    What is notable about both of these “solutions” regarding the increasing exposure to information which we face in the world is that both of them tend to disregard the physiological/psychological/spiritual human reality which they propose to address.  Neither of them takes into consideration the individual human reality nor the collective human reality; which is the context for every individual human reality. 

   We humans aren’t designed to be high speed data processors which then assimilate the data into our biological functioning.  I want to make clear that phrase is not intended to minimize or denigrate what we are.  We are miraculous beings with miraculous capabilities.  Capabilities which precious few, if any, national cultures, religions, or, need I mention corporations, take fully into consideration.  Before we start trying to augment or “fix” what we are, perhaps we should first be putting more time and effort into finding out what that really is? 

    Possibly the main reason we don’t know more about what we are, is that somewhere in the past few decades, or centuries, human cultures have become largely fixated on the physical, corporeal, aspects of our lives.  We have reaped some significant rewards due to that focus.  I venture every person on Earth benefits from it in some way.  However, we have paid a dear price in the process.  The price of simultaneously largely ignoring the innate spiritual/energy aspect of our lives. 

     At some point in the past two millennia human civilization has reached a critical point in development where the levels of complexity in many different disciplines require developed societies to recognize the need for  specializations.  People began creating different professional/vocational specialties and those working within these specialties began being seen as the ones who could “take care of it”, whatever “it” is.  That trend included the need for specialists in technology, medicine, education and many other areas.  In Western civilization, the established religions of the day were all too happy to don that cloak relative to our “immortal soul”.  With identifiable variations to differentiate their “brand”, the primarily Catholic, Protestant and Islamic religions began worldwide, intensive recruitment into their respective congregations. 

     By this time however, the leaders of the religious movements knew well that what was going on involved more than the common person’s spiritual health and wellbeing.  Religious establishments are often accorded a great deal of trust by the people who subscribed to their particular doctrines.  That trust often enables the leaders of the various denominations and even individual churches, to sway people’s opinions on political issues as well.  Also people routinely trust the churches to employ wise and honest stewardship with the sometimes sizable monetary donations given to them.  Sometimes the trust (to do the right thing) members of the various congregations bestow on their religious leaders is honored, and good things take place.  Sometimes not so much. 

    Through the centuries an interesting phenomenon began to emerge in the Western religions until by the mid-twentieth century, it was pervasive throughout the United States and I believe large parts of Europe as well.  Getting to know and appreciate the fullness of one’s spiritual existence and all the miraculous aspects which it includes and involves, became greatly simplified down to what I am going to call simply “spiritual hygiene”.  I do not know if this happened by design or default, regardless, it fit in quite well with the pervasive, ongoing increase in focus on the material world. 

     It’s my understanding that in India, the “norm” within those inclined to pursue a spiritual path is that younger men work to provide for their families, and older men have the ability to spend much time, if they desire, upon spiritual studies.  The religious traditions which exist in India can get quite in depth regarding the nature of our spiritual reality.  I know enough to know that is a true statement.  An hour or two a week singing, listening to a sermon or engaging in a group discussion could barely scratch the surface of the knowledge that exists. This is not just true of some Indian religions, also of some other Eastern religions, and some Western religious traditions as well.  It can be easy to lose sight of the fact that the Western religious traditions may involve more than a crucifixion and a resurrection.

    I brought up the “norm” which I referenced above in an attempt to illustrate that if one chooses to enter into an in-depth exploration and study of our spiritual reality, it can be disruptive of any efforts to fit into the highly competitive, money oriented, working world which many, if not most, working people in the world face today.  Or vice-versa.  So having a national religious model which stays relatively superficial in terms of knowledge of our spiritual reality is harmonious with people spending most of their time and energy pursuing wealth, promotions, and material acquisitions.  It provides a pacifying illusion that one is taking care of their spiritual wellbeing while primarily freeing peoples’ minds to engage in commerce.  The problem is, we in the United States have been being taught this “Readers Digest condensed version” of our spiritual reality for so long, too many have lost sight of the fact that there is anything more.  And there is a lot more.

     One dismaying reality, an obstacle really, which many people in the United States face in both wanting to move deeper into understanding our spiritual reality is that spiritual phenomena are often demonized within the narrow understanding of this reality that many in positions of influence within churches and our culture put forward.  Ghosts (unincarnated spirits), telepathy, remote viewing, astral travel, spiritually affecting events in the world, even closely sharing spiritual experiences with someone else, energy healing, all of these things, these aspects of our natural, innate, beautiful spiritual reality have been demonized at some time or another. I venture they are being demonized somewhere as I write this.  So, if you’re a person wondering about whether or not to follow an interest further in learning about our spiritual reality, not only can you run into some difficulty in finding sound guidance, you may also experience some people trying to dissuade you from doing so!

     There is a phrase used in computer programming:  “garbage in, garbage out” (GIGO).  I find this phrase can be generalized to some other areas of our lives as well.  I think the study of our spiritual reality is one of these areas.  If within yourself you are bringing garbage motives to the endeavor, motives like a lust for power, for manipulating or controlling others, for vast wealth, for self-aggrandizement, while you may have some degree of success in your search, you will ultimately be contributing to some undesired results taking place.  If you enter into your search desiring to know more about yourself, your spiritual reality in order to be more whole, more healthy, more centered and grounded in your life, to experience your relationship with the Divine Creative Spirit, God, more fully, then I think you’ll be forever grateful that you chose this path.  Not that you may not experience setbacks, missteps, along the way, but if you persevere, stay centered in your motives and sound values, keep studying, you’ll find what you’re looking for and more.  With reason, love, honesty, and humility; not a false modesty, but a genuine perspective on who and what you are, of what we all are, as motives, true spiritual progress can take place. Progress which can continually provide new and valuable insights about our spiritual reality and the benefits to be gained by proper regard for it.

In summary, as a culture we have become way too enamored of our ability to understand, manipulate and exploit our material environment.  We have become imbalanced in our lives and in relationship with our natural and spiritual environment.  The answer to solving this existential crisis does not lie in more or faster manipulation and/or exploitation of our material world.  It lies in slowing down with our material pursuits, realizing that as a culture we know precious little about what we really are, about our innate spiritual heritage.  Too frequently we have become strangers to even ourselves.  The answer isn’t more religion either.  Again, it’s to enter into a serious, benevolently motivated, exploration of our deeply intimate and shared spiritual reality.  A reality that we are a part of and that we live within.  To find harmony and satisfying wellbeing within our lives, we need to understand our place within this reality.  We need to understand the ways of this reality.  And as we move forward in our understanding we will find answers and benefits beyond what we expected at the onset.  We don’t need neural implants, we just need to access and understand the spiritual heritage which has been freely given us.    

In looking for books, sources that can help you learn about our spiritual reality, some religious texts may be useful, or may not. Finding authors that speak to you, that you can relate to and whose writing helps you feel that you know more about our spiritual reality are like finding a vein of gold. Those authors may not be the same for everyone simply due to their writing style, word usage, or some particular “wrinkle” in their style.

Some authors I have benefited from are Baird T. Spaulding, Ram Dass, Alan Watts, Lobsang Rampa, Carlos Castenada, and Dr. Charles Francis Potter. This is not an exhaustive list, but may help you find some places to start!

Alien Invasion: Something we need to worry about or something major defense contractors want us to worry about?

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Economics, Government, Political Corruption, Politics, Psychology, Science, Technology, UFOs, UAP
Artwork Created by Microsoft Copilot

In 1965 I had the opportunity to travel from Indiana to New Mexico with a group of 14 Explorer Scouts and two Scoutmasters. Our final destination was the Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico. We were going to spend a number of days hiking in the mountains. We weren’t a wealthy group so we were saving money along the way whenever possible. One of the money saving things we did was to camp along the way rather than stay in motels. One night we were in Lubbock, Texas and had gotten permission to camp in one of the city parks. It was mid-August, the air was warm and the sky was clear. I loved to look at the night sky, in those days there was far less light pollution. We were sleeping on the ground, without tents, in a clearing with tall trees maybe 50 meters to my left and to my right. When it happened I think every other member of the group had gone to sleep.

A circle of yellow light which seemed to be the bottom of a craft appeared moving from right to left. It was maybe 50 meters above the treetops. I would estimate it to be approximately 20 meters in diameter. It made no sound at all. It was moving smoothly but it wasn’t moving particularly fast. At just about the same time that the first craft reached the perimeter of trees to my left, two more such craft appeared to my right. They were the same size and shape, with the same illumination, as the first craft. They were side by side, also moving smoothly and silently. The appearance and passage of all three craft took about 10 to 12 seconds. Even though the bottoms of all three circular craft were illuminated with a yellow light, they did not light up the trees nor the ground. I was in awe. I turned to a friend who was sleeping next to me, shook him, and asked him if he saw that! But he was sound asleep and there was no response. The next morning, I think I told him, and only him, of what I had seen. Decades later I did an online search and found an article in the Lubbock paper about the event. I wasn’t the only observer of what had happened.

Consequently, ever since I have had no reason to doubt the existence of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), or whatever name or acronym they may be referred to by. It is a fascinating and important subject. The past few decades there have been many good documentaries produced on the general subject of extraterrestrial (ET) visitation to Earth. I have grown to particularly appreciate Dr. Steven Greer’s efforts to bring honest, authentic information on the subject to light. One theme that Dr. Greer comes back to frequently is the theme of how those in political power and the corporate media in the U.S. are making something of an effort to villainize extraterrestrial beings. It’s not uncommon to find adjectives such as “terrifying” or “frightening” used in connection with possible ET sightings. And more to the point of this post, it’s not uncommon to see the word “invasion” used in regard to such sightings. Finding articles which speculate about, or warn of, an extraterrestrial invasion is not difficult.

But here’s the thing, it is also not hard to find pictures of ancient cave art which is believed to depict alien beings. I linked to one example, or just do a search on “ancient cave art alien beings”. There are also quite a number of renaissance paintings which depict a UFO in them. Or, again, do your own search on paintings which depict UFOs. There are reports of people either sighting UFOs or having an encounter with the occupants of UFOs from just about every, if not every, continent going back decades if not centuries. The point is that metallic UFOs and alien beings with large heads and large dark eyes are nothing new. There is no question that the intelligence behind the UFO phenomena obviously has a much greater understanding of technology and physics than we do. Or maybe I need to add more than any people are readily admitting to. That is an important distinction for a reason I’ll get to. If there are people here on Earth, today, who possess the knowledge and skill to build and operate such craft, it is a relatively recent development. I would estimate no older than the mid twentieth century at the most. (I realize that raises the question of what did I see in Lubbock, Texas?)

Which brings us to a very important question. Why would beings who have outclassed us technologically for centuries wait until we might have the means to defend ourselves against them to try to invade us? Does that make any sense? These beings obviously possess the intellectual faculty to think logically. They undoubtedly have been able to watch the ongoing development of technology here on Earth. Those who have been studying the UFO phenomenon for decades state that there was a significant increase in UFO activity following the detonation of nuclear devices on Earth. I don’t think we Earthlings possess any propulsion technology that would come as a surprise to them. Nor any weapons technology for that matter.

But if we can be made to believe that some extraterrestrials have done exactly that: picked this point in time to decide to invade Earth, then the weapons industries can ask for billions of dollars, or rubles or yuan or pounds or Euros to protect us. And you know what? They’d get it. At least from the folks controlling the biggest military spenders among governments today. That is some significant motivation to those who are only interested in how such actions affect them and not the world at large.

Consider all that as context to the reality that according to people such Bob Lazar, Dr. Steven Greer, David Grusch, and others, we do have back engineered alien technology from crashed UFOs and possibly other sources. We do have craft which are being produced here on Earth using that acquired technology which look and act almost identical to the alien craft. And despite all the emphatic statements to the contrary, there are people within the halls of government within the U.S. and I suspect Russia, China and others who are aware of this.

If tomorrow a small fleet of UFOs, UAPs shows up over a major city on Earth and begin firing laser weapons or directed energy weapons, or sonic blasts, or electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) or a combination of these things, who do you think the people in the city are going to think is attacking them? At that moment I doubt if there will be much consideration given to whether or not the attack is coming from alien beings, or is a “false flag” attack by zealous, callous, profiteering defense contractors as a part of a high-tech sales pitch to the world. A “sales pitch” intended to frighten populations and motivate them to cry out for protection from their respective governments. At that moment, in the heat of the attack, the corporate media outlets around the world will pick up the narrative of an “alien attack” and those controlling the situation will run with it all the way to the bank.

There is another element involved which people who lust for control over others would be attracted to, that is the willingness of frightened people to give up any human rights or freedoms they may have at that time for a promise of protection. That is an important topic for another time, another post.

As hard as it may be to believe, the “invasion” scenario described above is a very real possibility that humanity should be aware of.

Liberty

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Economics, Government, Law, Oppression, Personal Development, Politics, Spirituality
Photo by Ken Dunning

I am writing again on the subject of liberty as opposed to the general concept of freedom. I feel the importance of realizing the difference between the two, and the primary, essential nature of liberty, cannot be overstated. Without the existence of liberty in our lives, any other freedom is conditional upon being allowed by the agreement of our oppressors. How can I say this? Because if we do not have liberty we are, by definition, oppressed. And if we are oppressed politically, economically, or militarily, we do not have liberty.

Some might consider this too fine a point, but it really isn’t. In fact, it is a monumental issue when we really get into the details of it. In the preambles to both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, the Founders made it clear that “liberty” was a primary value that they sought to secure in the new nation. They do not write that they were seeking “freedom”, if they had meant freedom they would have written “freedom”. They knew about freedom. But they didn’t, they wrote that they were seeking to “…secure the blessings of liberty…”

What is the difference between liberty and freedom? Liberty is a specific type of freedom. It is the freedom from unjust oppression. The type of unjust oppression which many of the Founders, or their parents, had experienced at the hands of the monarchs, the aristocracy in Britain and which was still be waged upon the colonists in the land that would become the United States of America.

There is a place where liberty and freedom become mutually exclusive. That is when someone wants to claim the freedom to infringe upon the liberty of others. In other words, they seek to exercise some sort of political, religious, military or economic power, which they have used their freedom of some sort to acquire, to oppress another’s ability to reasonably engage in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Such actions of oppressing other, vulnerable, people seem to be a very common occurrence in the world when some individual(s) or group(s) are allowed to acquire an inordinate amount of political or military power or economic wealth.

The inherent conflict with the stated intentions of the Founders can be made to appear non-existent when people are led to conflate liberty with freedom. Redefining longstanding, traditional terminology seems to be a common ploy in the efforts by special interests to unjustly impose their agendas upon others. Two other recent examples are the redefining of “pandemic” and “vaccine”.

We in the United States are fortunate that the Founders of this nation cared about liberty as a primary value. We do not honor them, or ourselves, when we allow liberty to be redefined and abused in order to allow some to pursue their overly self-serving dreams of wealth and power. All too often this is defended in the United States by the phrase “It’s a free country.”

But if we can recapture, rekindle the desire for liberty for all so clearly expressed by our nation’s Founders. If we can thoughtfully work to make it a reality, with thoughtful expression and thoughtful restraint we can achieve the great nation that the Founders dreamed of and fought for. But not if we allow a false allegiance to unbridled freedom lead us down the path of our own worst impulses.

This essay is dealing exclusively with the role that the importance of liberty played in the birth of the United States. The fact that it was a primary value within the hearts and minds of the Founders of this country, does not in any way indicate that I do not know that many other people in other countries have also dreamed of, worked and fought for, liberty in their nations. Liberty is not something that one people or nation can hold a franchise on. In fact, it is only when many people around the world can realize a fair and just existence of liberty within their lives and their nations that such liberty may be truly secure for any of us.

Do Not Conflate Liberty with Freedom

by kendunning, posted in Community, Economics, Government, Oppression, Politics, Spirituality, Sustainability

In the U.S.A. there is a great travesty taking place within our thinking and within our expressions.  That is the conflation of “liberty” with “freedom”.  They are not the same and they were not when the Founding Fathers of the United States fought for the blessings of liberty. Not freedom, liberty. 

Liberty is the freedom from oppressive restrictions upon one’s way of life.  This in no way states nor implies the freedom to do whatever one wants to do.  Oppression is the unjust infliction of hardship and constraint upon a subordinate group.

Some freedoms, including unbridled freedom in the marketplace, are what enable some to acquire an inordinate amount of wealth and power which then enables them to oppress others.

In order to preserve our liberty, We the People must predominantly agree our liberty is a precious thing to be preserved.  As Liberty is a paramount value in the United States as expressed in both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, if any subgroup decides otherwise and acquires and exercises the means to subvert the value of liberty within our culture, for one citizen or the entirety of the citizenry, they are violating that paramount freedom. They have entered into actively subverting the values and principles that the United States was founded upon.  They have set upon overturning our nation, our culture, and our lives.   When this occurs it is usually being engaged in by individuals or groups who have been acquiring inordinate amounts of wealth and then using that wealth to acquire (buy) inordinate political influence.

It’s not that capitalism is inherently bad.  It’s that the men and women practicing it must recognize the implicit social compact necessary to preserve our essential liberty:  they should not take too much.  They should not “drain the economic well”.  This is important to ensure that the average citizens of the U.S.  do not become impoverished and economically enslaved.  But impoverishment and economic slavery is happening pervasively in the U.S.A. and elsewhere in the world.

Sacrificing the American peoples’ hard-won liberty for the freedom of unbridled predatory capitalism is a travesty and a grievous insult to all of the men and women who have worked and fought to establish and preserve liberty for us and future generations. 

Empaths vs Logicians: A conflict which requires resolution for sustainability.

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Economics, Environment, Mental Health, Personal Development, Politics, Psychology, Spirituality, Sustainability
c-alexmax-www.fotosearch.com

When the Empaths (I feel strongly that…) within society find themselves intensely opposed to what the Logicians (logic tells us that…) within a society are proposing, that society is facing an existential problem. The same is true when the situation is reversed. How long the society may have before it suffers serious, if not irreparable harm, may vary but is a function of the intensity of the conflict.

Why does such a conflict weigh so heavily for the health of a society? Because both our feelings and our intellect exist for the primary purpose of counseling us on what pathway we should take in any given situation. To fail to give adequate consideration to either aspect of our innate guidance systems does not bode well. That is true whether the “we” is more accurately an “I’; an individual facing an internal conflict between their feelings and intellect, or an entire society in which the people more oriented toward a feeling/emotional experience of the world are at odds with the people more oriented toward an intellectual/logic related experience of the world. Such a conflict on either the intrapersonal or interpersonal level is an expression of the plight addressed by the axiom: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” (Paraphrasing the Biblical reference Mark 3:25).

To put this in simpler terms, when the “warm and fuzzy” of an issue finds itself intensely opposed to the “cold and objective” of an issue, or vice versa, it does not bode well. Something significant is being missed (overlooked or ignored) most likely by the people on both sides of the issue. One thing that can be counted on if both sides are working in good faith, is that both sides of the conflict are, to a greater or lesser extent, grounded in reality. Another thing that can be counted on is that if those on both sides of such an issue would calmly sit down and the Logicians would try to empathize to understand the strong feelings of the Empaths, and the Empaths would try to see the reasoning of the Logicians, the chance for the best possible outcome becomes a possibility. In all likelihood when such an agreement is able to be worked out neither side is going to find their original position completely vindicated. However, neither side is going to find their original position completely invalidated either. The scales may tip more one way than the other, or not.

That being said, it is conceivable that one side may be completely right and the other completely wrong IF one side is not being completely honest. Or, if one side is attempting to further a covert agenda. If either side is pursuing special interests of some kind that also stands to confound the situation. Further, if the special interests are overly represented in the outcome, the outcome will not have the authenticity, the same potential, to produce the degree of favorable outcome it would have if that weren’t the case. If both the feelings and intellect, when expressed in authentic form, are working toward the wellbeing of the “whole”, any efforts to artificially distort those efforts, one way or the other, will distort and/or warp the authenticity and the effectiveness of the outcome. The “whole” will not be honestly nor optimally served. Whether the “whole” in question is an individual or a society.

For those who have been heavily indoctrinated in the pre-quantum physics illusion of separation and individualism, the proposition that a society may be a single interconnected organism and that all the citizens within that society are to a significant extent, as cells within a body, may seem subversive to some egocentric agenda or another. However, having said that, don’t conflate “interconnected” with “the same”. While all people share, to a greater or lesser extent, many common characteristics, we also have aspects to our authentic selves which, when taken altogether, are unique to us as individuals. That’s why over regimentation of a society is ultimately doomed to failure. But just as over regimentation does not create a viable society for human beings to live within, neither does anarchy. If we want healthy, viable societies, the recognition and honoring of the basic, mutually shared aspects of our lives is the bedrock upon which the basic structures of a healthy, vibrant, viable society, one which also provides room for the diversity so necessary to a healthy society, must be built.

When we know enough about ourselves and our mutuality, and we find the viable balance wherein we are honoring both the mutually shared aspects of our being and the more individual aspects, we will be a lot closer to being able to create the wonderful, viable lives within a wonderful, viable society that we have the potential to create. Until then we are allowing the illusions, the fears, the hatreds, the perversions, the distortions which in large part, if not in totality, are birthed by the lies and abuses which we have too often inflicted upon one another, control our present and our future.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Public Health in the U.S. An overdue overhaul of a corrupted system.

by kendunning, posted in Community, Economics, Healthcare, Medicine, Politics, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Science

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is increasingly having the allegation leveled at him that he is destroying the Public Health system in the U.S. What is actually happening is that he is destroying the carefully and insidiously crafted illusion of a public health system that has been incrementally foisted upon the American public by profiteers. Profiteers from within a healthcare system which only exists with the trust of the public it is meant to serve. Yet increasingly the true recipients of the benefits served up by the system is becoming an issue.

One thing that I have seen over the past 7+ decades is that over that time there seems have been few, if any, originally honorable, originally beneficially effective public agency or elected office that have been immune from being usurped and turned to the service of corrupt profiteers if enough money is involved. Most, if not all, of the public officials, elected or appointed, who are at the forefront of the currently ongoing attempt to smear RFK Jr. and his efforts at reform have in the past and/or are currently directly or indirectly benefiting significantly from the vast sums of money that the corrupt profiteers are spending. Spending to keep their sordid, immensely financially profitable, businesses and schemes untouched by reform. Corrupt profiteers who influence or control so much of the health and medical and related industry in the U.S.

Over my lifetime I’ve witnessed the E.P.A., the C.D.C. and much of the medical industry as a whole go from admired, honorable, public services to agents of aforementioned profiteers. Profiteers who engage in practices which create and sustain widespread chronic illness in the American population. Apparently because that is how the most money is to be had.

Right now the E.P.A. is engaged in challenging the verdict from a Federal Court Case in the 9th District Court in California that ruled that fluoride presents an unreasonable risk to the health of children. If I hadn’t witnessed part of it taking place, E.P.A. attorneys working to allow the continuance of the insertion of one of the most toxic substances around into public water supplies, I would have a hard time believing that allegation. I happened to be able to view, via Zoom, the closing arguments. The Judge stated that the videos of the proceedings would be made available on the Court’s website. But again, as happens so often when there are people whose covert interests and methods wilt in the light of public scrutiny, somewhere in the process, there was an intervention and they have been censored.

If you’re still under the hypnotic illusion that “fluoridation is safe” check out the work done by Phyllis Mullenix regarding fluorides effect on cognition and Jennifer Luke’s discoveries regarding fluoride and the pineal gland. Also the information regarding fluoride’s carcinogenic properties brought forward, some decades ago, by Dean Burk an American biochemist, medical researcher, and a cancer researcher at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and the National Cancer Institute. An issue most recently brought forward by William Marcus, M.D. who at the time worked at the E.P.A. He has had to pay dearly for his breaking lockstep with the “orthodox” litany that “fluoridation is safe”. There is so much more. Look into fluoride toxicity and the thyroid and the kidneys. Look into how fluoride renders bones and teeth more brittle.

But as horrible as the criminal fluoride scam being run on the American public is, it is only one of the issues involved with the usurpation of American medicine. The issues being most ardently defended/protected by those profiting from the involved practices, are the dangers, toxicity, of the COVID vaccines and other vaccines which RFK Jr. is exposing. Dangers due to the presence of mercury and aluminum. And, in extreme cases, dangers engineered into the vaccines to serve some covert agenda of those manufacturing them. These abuses of the public trust have been going on, with knowledge by at least key people in the pharmaceutical industry. And undoubtedly people working within agencies, such as the C.D.C., who American children are encouraged to trust via direct education to that effect and indirectly through their “white hat” portrayal in movies and other media.

I venture a lot of the people whose efforts are essential to keeping this ugly, perverted system alive really have no idea of the current nature of the system they’re serving. They are still seeing the efforts going on within those agencies as being what it was, at least what the public believed it to be, at the time of the agencies’ creation. That being said, not knowing and not wanting to know are two very different things. Willful ignorance and the best interests of the American public are diametrically opposed when it comes to the issues RFK Jr. is exposing within the American healthcare system.

Gratitude

by kendunning, posted in Community, Environment, Gratitude, Mental Health, Spirituality, Sustainability

Gratitude. It doesn’t have to be award ceremonies, brass bands, medals, trophies, plaques, etc. It can be as simple as saying “good job”, “that looks great”, “thank you for doing that”. Although, I think the more specific the gratitude is the more sincerity it may communicate. The thing is, we all need it. We all need it and I venture most of us don’t get our MDR (minimum daily requirement). And when we live within a population which is suffering for lack of recognition and gratitude it becomes even harder to find. Yet it is a resource which we all have the ability to produce more of!

Sometimes a group of people, a family, a business, a corporation, may try implementing a standardized form of displaying recognition and/or gratitude. As a culture we have some holidays which offer the opportunity to express gratitude: Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Thanksgiving to name a few. Birthdays may offer an opportunity to give someone some overdue recognition. These things are generally great, however, they are always made better when they hold some sincere, spontaneous gratitude. You know, the kind that touches you where you live and warms you. Have you ever received that type of gratitude? I hope so. It’s worth noting that possibly nothing can make another person feel grateful for having you in their life like giving that person some deserved gratitude and recognition. Just like the way it works with so many other emotions, gratitude breeds gratitude.

The more sincere, the more thought out, the more the giver of the gratitude actually feels the offering, the greater the potential the gratitude has of making a positive difference in the life of the recipient. Expressions of gratitude that are given out with shallowness of thought, mechanical in nature, can fall away from the recipient like colored confetti dropped from the ceiling. A piece or two may find a spot to stick to for a while. If the person is hungry for gratitude (and who isn’t) they may be slower to brush it off. But if they don’t it will in it’s own, usually short, time fall away.

Gratitude is like food, the higher the quality the greater the good when taken in.

So, let’s all of us get better at recognizing the truly good and beneficial things that others are doing that affect us and show some gratitude! Maybe some of those things are things for which the person receives a paycheck: like the mail person, the friendly checker at the store, the garbage pick up folks, a nurse, doctor or teacher to name a few. (A comprehensive list of the jobs people do which genuinely help better the quality of our lives would be way too long for this blog post.) Nevertheless, if what they are doing is something for which you feel gratitude for it’s affect in your life, let them know. We need more people doing things, paid or unpaid, which have a positive affect in our lives. And, maybe some of those who are doing jobs which aren’t contributing positively to the quality of our lives will begin to realize they’d like some of the really great thing called gratitude they see taking place. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Vladimir Putin is not Russia and Donald Trump is not the United States

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Donald Trump, Environment, Health, Mental Health, Personal Development, Politics, Psychology, Spirituality, Sustainability, Vladimir Putin
(C) Alex Max, http://www.fotosearch. com

When did it happen? When did people around the world begin to identify an entire nation on the basis of the character of whomever happens to occupy high political office within that nation? It’s as ridiculous a practice as trying to characterize the ocean on the basis of the behavior of a single fish. It always, absolutely always, provides us with a distorted, inaccurate, conception of the nation concerned.

Vladimir Putin is not Russia. Donald Trump is not the United States. Nor was Joe Biden, Barack Obama, nor any other President. Likewise Xi Jinping is not China and Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not the Ukraine. Droupadi Murmu is not India. No single man nor woman ever has nor ever will be the sum total of the nation which they find themselves in a position of leadership within. And so it goes with every single nation on the face of the Earth.

A nation is the people who live within it. A nation is the people who farm the land, occupy the cities, build the houses, clean the streets, cook the food, create the art, attend the concerts, eat at the restaurants, and generally participate in all the activities which sustain, enliven and enlighten the bodies and spirits, the hearts and minds, of the citizenry. If you travel the world it doesn’t take long to realize that the citizenry of every nation on Earth is pretty much the same. We breath, we eat, we love, we work, we play, we worry, we laugh, we eat, we read, we celebrate,  we grieve. With our work, with the time and energy of our lives, we strive in myriad ways to improve our lives and the lives of others within our communities. So why do we, the citizenry of the nations of the world, allow the misbegotten, and often grandiose, aspirations, or the fears, of one person or group of people to lead us into conflict with one another? Conflicts which obliterate so much of what we and our ancestors have worked so hard to build? Cities, homes, farms, shops, restaurants, concert halls, hospitals, schools, the productions, the dreams, of so many people over so long a period of time. And then there are the human costs, the suffering, the deaths of so very many including family and loved ones.

War, conflict, any extreme competition which theatens the life or well-being of the citizens of any nation, or even a single individual, is something which threatens the life and well-being of us all. Why? Because the spirit of competition for territory or other worldly wealth inevitably leads to larger conflicts. Larger conflicts which lay the stepping stones on the road to war. It is like a contagious virus which spreads through the hearts and minds of people who are vulnerable to it. It breeds fear of those whom we perceive, or more often are told, want to take something from us which we hold dear. And we human beings have an innate tendency to try to destroy, to kill, that which we fear. On the other hand, to want others to fear us is inescapably, no matter how much we may think otherwise, to lead others to desire to destroy us.

We cannot fully develop our innate capacities as human beings when we live our lives burdened by fear; experiencing the stresses and debilitation, the actual trauma, which fear inevitably brings into our lives.

It’s high time we average people, average citizens, the true builders of civilizations, stop letting ourselves be blind followers of those among us with the most needy egos, the most avaricious among us, the most callous among us. It’s time we see through the half truths and outright lies the bought and paid for media outlets insistently try to present to us as reality. It’s time we realize our shared divine heritage here on this planet and treat ourselves and the planet with the love and respect we, and it, rightfully deserve.

Why We Need Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Economics, Environment, Medicine, Mental Health, Politics, Science, Vaccines
c-solarseven-www.fotosearch.com

With Robert F. Kennedy’s confirmation hearings taking place, if you’re paying any attention to them, we hear a lot about whether or not vaccines cause autism. The “orthodox” position is that they do not. The position RFK Jr. apparently is taking is that, at the very least, that is a question yet to be answered. I have spent a great deal of my life studying subjects directly, or indirectly, related to mental health. I am very interested in this question regarding vaccines and autism. I am aware that there are many studies which exist that purportedly show that there is no connection between vaccines and autism. That being said, further investigation into the matter, with the help of Microsoft’s AI, I don’t think it’s possible for a rationale person objectively investigating the issue to arrive at a sound position that there is no connection. In fact, it seems, the more I dig, that a connection is highly likely. But not one that has been sought out nor measured, to either prove or disprove, to any degree of certainty.

What we do know is that ethyl mercury and aluminum are present in some vaccines. We also know that heavy metals in general have been found to have a correlation with autism. We also know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the average person in an American city is exposed to a myriad of toxins in their environment, in their food, water and/or air, every day. Benzene for one, and many others. We also know that these toxins can interact with each other, sometimes in a synergistic fashion thereby creating an even higher degree of toxic burden upon the body of every man, woman, and child present in that city. So, just as with Aesop’s Fable of the crow and the pitcher of water, every stone that goes into the pitcher increases the water level within the pitcher (the body burden of toxins) until the water reaches the top and is available for the crow to consume. Or, in other words, the toxic burden reaches the point at which symptoms of one or more diseases appear with a person’s body.

Some of the diseases which we either conclusively know or have compelling reason to believe can be brought about in this manner include: cancer, autism, kidney disease, liver disease, heart disease, hypo-thyroidism, neurologic disorders, skin diseases, ADHD, and more. In fact, there is something so entirely synchronistic about the increasing prevalence of so many diseases in the population of all ages in the United States and the prevalence of so many toxic substances in our environment, that trying to assert that there is no correlation is a fool’s errand.

Also, if trying to authoritatively assert that the toxin in YOUR product is not correlated with any particular disease, the question becomes “how do you know that?”. Of course, when there is such a toxic “soup” concerned, it is possible to try to obfuscate which toxin, singularly or in conjunction with another toxin, are correlated with one or more of the ailments which are so pervasive in the American culture today.  Regarding any lack of studies in this area, there is a saying that goes: “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”. This certainly seems applicable in this situation. As mentioned above, the increasing toxic burden presented by the pollution/toxic substances within our total environment and the increasing prevalence of so many diseases, are so synchronistic that trying to assert no correlation is like saying the rain does not contribute to the flowers growing. But trying to tease out the individual roles of the various toxins is somewhat like a courtyard filled with rioters throwing rocks and you want to find out who threw the rock that broke your window. I need to add that while such a feat of detective work is theoretically possible, I can find no evidence of one having been done regarding the heavy metals in some vaccines and autism.

In conclusion, the results found when measuring the effects of individual substances in pristine laboratory conditions does not, in any way, guarantee what the results are going to be when that substance is added to the toxic soup that has become the ambient environment in most, if not all, American cities. This is why we need Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to have a wide latitude of action in his efforts to ‘Make American Healthy Again”. We need  someone to step in and to get all the toxins out of what we are eating, drinking, breathing and being injected with.  Then, maybe, certain toxins may be able to be allowed for certain critical uses in a very limited, genuinely safe and responsible manner. But not the near free-for-all of toxic threats we are experiencing in the United States today.