Category: Mental Health

Mental health is not simply a matter of what is happening within an individual. It is also affected by our interaction with our world. Genuine, enduring mental health is a balancing act between the individual and their community. Let’s create our future with this in mind!

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 an unspecified number 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. A lot of this post is not pleasant, but it reflects a reality in our world. A lot of people would rather ignore this reality, but doing so is like ignoring a rabid animal in the midst of our cities and towns. We don’t need to obsess about it, but we should be aware. Awareness is the first step toward protecting ourselves from the human predators which exist in both low and high places.

Sometimes things are a matter of perspective.  For instance, to someone who has been taught, one way or another, 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 try to control everything it is possible, in order to protect oneself from the threat of, well, “the other”.   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 a blight on the Earth, or as waiting outside the gate to swarm them, to take what they have, one way or another, acquired; makes the general population of the world something to be held in contempt, feared, and any feelings of empathy or compassion toward the general population a disease to inoculate themselves against.  This logic tends to lead things toward to a self-fulfilling prophecy which only escalates the division, contempt and fear which now builds on both sides of the great imbalance.

How does one inoculate themself against essentail, life oriented human emotions?  How can such a hardened shell be built?  Further, how can such an inhuman condition be maintained? We know, and can see in the behavior of healthy infants that he feelings of empathy, compassion, sympathy are some of the most innate, natural emotions for humans, It can even be said that the development of these emotions is a significant part of what differentiates us from many other species. However, the solution to this dilemma is one that humanity has seen in world time and time again, war after war.  The answer is trauma.  Experiencing repeated, profound trauma; emotional, psychological, physical and/or chemical trauma, either acutely or chronically, and it can cause the physiology of such human emotions to experience shut down..  This is not uncommon among soldiers coming home from prolonged or extreme combat situations. Today one name that assign to such numbing or cut off from one’s emotions is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. 

If, deep down inside, you have not been taught, by instruction or experience, to be fearful of the general population. If you are someone who has experienced love, caring and being cared for, these are feelings that a healthy person doesn’t want to lose the ability to feel. A healthy person wants to freely care about others and be cared about in return.  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 of 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, or otherwise injured, by psychological, emotional, physical and or chemical abuse at an early age? Or even prenatally (such as with prenatal alcohol exposure), that they have been incapable of feeling empathy or compassion as long as they can remember? Would people who have been living in a sub-culture which holds empathy and compassion for the general population in contempt actually go so far as to engage in behaviors, even rituals, to emotionally and psychologically cutoff themselves and/or their offspring from these emotions? There is significant evidence that they not only would, but that this is not all that uncommon in some of the most avaricious individuals 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. A strong aversion or resistance on the part of people in the general population to seeing, hearing about, or thinking about such behaviors provides the perpetrators with a kind of invisibility. Healthy people who do not want to contemplate such aberration seem quick to accept that any allegations of such behavior is a fabrication of people who themselves must be psychologically disturbed.

But if a person is someone who is seeking a state which allows them to have sufficient psychological and emotional comfort while engaging in inhuman behaviors toward others, then they don’t seek treatment for the lack of experiencing empathy and compassion. Quite the contrary, they go to sometimes great efforts to seek, establish, reinforce and maintain it.  They seek out ways to inflict the emotionally disabling effects of PTSD upon themselves. One way is expose themselves to other people’s trauma.  Vicarious traumatization can inflict the same effects as first-hand trauma. Also, it is less life threatening. How does one expose themselves to such experiences of other people experiencing trauma?  Today it isn’t all that hard to find both fictional and actual written accounts and photos as well as audio and video recordings of people experiencing trauma.  There are movies, books, and documentaries which show the horrors that exist through either natural disasters, or more often by human beings committing inhuman acts toward other human beings.  Video footage from wars or videos of people who are in the process of experiencing a violent, cruel death in other ways. There are even “underground” film makers who plan and produce such films. These are all resources that assist to emotionally/psychologically and spiritually numb a person to the natural human reactions to suffering and death.  The literature informs us that watching children experience such horrible abuses can hold even a higher degree of sought after trauma than watching adults go through them. Reportedly, this is because children’s emotions are purer, more intense.  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, caring about children is just one more avenue of unwanted emotional access to your mind, your feelings. 

It seems that just as with building tolerance with a drug addiction, vicarious traumatization isn’t enough after a while.  Like a drug addict with increasing tolerance, the person needs more intensity in the traumatic realities that they are witnessing. What is known about this phenomenon informs us that some find themselves moving on to the real thing.  Another thing that we can know from the literature on human spirituality and sometimes by our own experiences, is that the positive aspects of the human spirit can be very resilient. To a mentally, emotionally healthy person this resilience of feelings such as love, empathy, caring, is indicative of the beauty of the human spirit.   But to someone seeking to not feel those aspects of the human spirit this natural resilience must seem something like the recurrence of disease. Such feelings are contrary to being able to abuse others, to take from others the things that others need to sustain their lives.  For some, if not all, abusers, there is reportedly a measure of perverted satisfaction the person also takes from inflicting mental/emotional/spiritual or economic suffering upon others. There is a likelihood that people who are participating in inflicting such horrors and abuses upon others are sometimes members of families or other groups who have been engaging in such behaviors over many generations. Lineages of people who have been honing, and profiting from, their ability to act inhumanly toward others.

We are all social beings, it is a deeply rooted part of being human. Why would it be any different for even the most ego driven, spiritually perverted, among us?  We know individuals engaging in such abusive, heinous behaviors sometimes (often?) form groups; cabals, covens, (corporations?) whatever name they have found that most satisfies the needs of their egos.  Together they engage in such behaviors, sometimes making a ritual out of it. Some have a desire for elaborate settings and costumes in their efforts. I assume this partially serves to convince themselves that they are doing something more sophisticated than the grotesque, inhuman perversions are engaging in.  Often it seems wealth and power are significant aspects of their goals.  Wealth and power can become a narcotic. One which is used to soothe the pain of the emptiness which results from being divorced from the true, ultimately inescapable, essential human spiritual reality.  The knowledge of the fact that there is a pervasive human spiritual reality, that it encompasses all people and has love, mutuality empathy and compassion as integral aspects of it, is an aspect of our reality that those who engage in such horrific behaviors have somehow had inadequate introduction and/or education in. As for the innate awareness of our spiritual reality which all have to some degree, it is this which the abusive behaviors, the rituals, are effective in obfuscating. In the 1960s “Do your own thing.” became a popular phrase. A wise woman who I had the privilege of knowing shared with me the perspective that the phrase is ridiculously unnecessary. Why? Because: try to stop doing your own thing. None of us can, it is as impossible as a thing can be. Likewise, ultimately, we can never separate ourselves from the universal creative spirit that we are all a part of and dwell within.

That is a part of the tragedy accompanying those who are engaging in inhuman activities toward others. Ultimately they are going to have to deal with fully realizing and reconciling those activities as beings within and part of the Divine Creative Spirit. We sometimes can judge ourselves more harshly than others might. What about when the offenses are as grievous as those referred to previously? I think it was with full realization of this that, when experiencing horrible torture and abuse on the cross, Jesus prayed to God and asked: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Today we are facing a world in which people have the free will to engage in denial, contempt for, and perversion of our innate spiritual reality. It’s almost as if two separate realities have emerged: the reality of the predators (abusers) and the reality of those being preyed upon. But to see these two aspects of the socio/economic reality of our world as separate realities is an illusion. It is all taking place within the reality of the Divine Creative Spirit and the laws of our spiritual reality will always ultimately assert themselves. In the meantime, how do we as human beings trying to successfully have lives within this reality deal with such heinous offenses against the minds, bodies and spirits of our brothers and sisters?

One obstacle we face in any efforts to curtail or remedy the occurrances of predatory abuse taking place is the those who are the most “successful” (at what are ultimately suicidally destructive predatory/parasitic behaviors) have realized the need to maintain public personas that inspire respect, sometimes even admiration. In part this is defensive camoflage, but it also is often necessary for abusers to put in place to be able to access their victims or the positions of power they need to carry out their abusive schemes.  History shows us though that sooner or later awareness of the reality around the abuses taking place, abuses experienced by the target popuations and their loved ones begins to grow. When this happens whatever illusions the predatory abusers have put in place to try to conceal their true practices are gradually seen through.   Oppression of the human spirit is a losing proposition. 

 We can see that process taking place in some of the major societal upheavals of the past two hundred and fifty years. The American revolution, the French revolution, the Communist revolutions in Russia, China and Cuba and many more are some extreme examples of what can happen when an abused population becomes activated against the abuse and abusers.  However, we can also learn from these events that the revolutionaries in all these cases themselves were not immune from the sickness of mind and spirit which had so pervaded those who they were rebelling against. It’s not that revolutions with just causes always result in a new, more equitable, enduring better world.  What we can learn from these events is that regrettably, too often put in a position to be able to see a way to grab them, human beings are too often all too quick to be infected with a lust for wealth and power.  Too often a repeat of the 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.  One criterion that is always in place when such repetition occurs is that the people involved are ignorant enough of the true nature of our 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 most negatively affected by it.  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 want to emulate them. To be infected with an obsession with materialism.  They desire that the general population be perpetually blinded to the reality that there is any other way. Particularly 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 it will spring back, vibrant, vital, dynamic. If, by design or default, you work at oppressing others, you are working toward your own eventual demise.  If you are successful at oppressing others you are defeating yourself because the actions involved in the acquisition of extravagant wealth do not honor nor uphold the true conditions of our spiritual reality.  You are not honoring your own spiritual reality. We are all 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, is often 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, or maybe not, 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 to, by design or default, tacitly agree 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. The mental and physical work to make it a reality.  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 work within our divine spiritual reality. To truly be doing the best for our own happiness and wellbeing. Part of our task is that we do have to put in the work to get to know ourselves, our spiritual reality, as well as our physical reality (which is a creation of our spiritual reality). 

We have to realize 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 also includes 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’re working to learn how to live with enough awareness and love to prevent the heaven we occupy from becoming 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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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.

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? 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 its 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.

Thoughts from Alaska: Are you ready to take on becoming an activist for your own health and wellbeing?

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Economics, Environment, Health, Mental Health, Personal Development, Politics, Psychology, Science, Spirituality, Survival, Sustainability
Photo: Ken Dunning 2024

9/25/2024, Timely update: This just came through from the Fluoride Action Network: “After a precedent-setting 7-year legal battle in federal court, an historic ruling by the United States District Court of the Northern District of California has ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take regulatory action to eliminate the “unreasonable risk” to the health of children posed by the practice of water fluoridation.“

This good news, boding well for the mental and physical health of Americans, may not necessarily mean that the practice of fluoridating public water supplies will now cease. I hope it does, however, we will see. I encourage you to read the rest of this post to both have some grasp of the reason for this verdict and to be forearmed if your local water supply does not act in compliance with this ruling.

I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to visit Alaska for the past week or so. I’m not staying in a city but rather in a rural location. I was in Alaska once before around 1999, it is easy to see there has been a lot growth in the cities, Juneau and Anchorage, since that period of time. I am guessing the same is true for a number of the more rural areas. It has gone through my mind that the influx of newcomers is taking the “Frontier” out of “The Last Frontier”. Still, Alaska is a major departure from the more populated areas in the lower 48. There is a seemingly never-ending bounty of natural beauty.

Once, years ago, I built a small cabin in a sparsely populated county in Eastern Washington State. I lived in it for a couple of years. It was an experience I relish but I’m glad to be in a more comfortable situation these days. Running water and indoor plumbing are nice additions to one’s home! That being said, being here in Alaska now is providing many flashbacks to those days in the cabin. Days of living life on a more basic level than most people in the United States. In a more basic environment a person’s more basic needs come front and center. We can get in touch, in a very personal way, with the real needs, as opposed to wants, of human life. Shelter, warmth, food, water, companionship, these are all must-haves for every person walking the Earth. To be missing any one of these is to have our lives on an extinction curve. If we’re missing food and water the curve is often more pronounced than if we’re missing shelter, but that is not always the case. It depends upon our environment.

For people who have always enjoyed the comforts of housing, transportation, regular and dependable meals, these things can quickly become taken for granted. Our minds often then busy themselves with other aspects of our culture. Things that can and often do become the focus of our attention might be things such as: what are the latest styles in clothing? What sports teams are on a winning or losing streak? What are the celebrities of the culture doing? Who are they dating, marrying, divorcing? One that seems to occupy a lot of minds is “how can I get more money?” These are some of the issues which consume some people’s time and energy.

However, at this time in the U.S. we’re seeing what happens when the basic material comforts of life, comforts people often have taken for granted, start to become less available, maybe even unobtainable. We’re seeing what can happen when ourselves and/or people around us being to experience stress and anxiety over meeting basic needs on an ongoing basis. We’re seeing individuals and groups begin to look around, to look for other individuals or groups which they may find some reason to blame for the stress and anxiety they’re feeling. The fact is, there are some individuals and groups which have a great deal of responsibility for the growing difficulty so very many are having obtaining the basic needs of life. But none of them are people or groups the average citizen is likely to encounter in their day to day travels and meetings. The hatreds and divisiveness we’re seeing in the U.S. in our streets, the growing number of impulsive reactions, sometimes violent, are usually based on relatively superficial criteria. Or on differences in values and/or opinions which, in the long run, have some importance but are not the things, the more fundamental issues, which are driving the deep anxieties and stresses that are so pervasive today. Fundamental issues such as the lack of safe, secure housing and nutritious, non-toxic food.

One other aspect of being closer to the Earth, closer to a life in which the basics play a larger role in day to day life is the realization of how little people in general in the United States seem to be upset by the increasing infringement taking place upon our housing and food safety and security. Such a beautiful world, such a beautiful country and such a heinously greed driven, corrupt and callous human management of it all. I find myself wondering: with so much anxiety and stress at large where are the focused, large scale efforts at correcting the wrongs taking place? Are people just blind, in denial, or expecting someone else; maybe a “nanny state” to take care of it all?

We the People do have the power, the right to engage in addressing blatantly wrong actions which are taking place within our communities, our nation. Blatant wrongs such as the poisoning of our soil, air and water, our food and our bodies. Blatant wrongs such as turning the nation that should be our home into just one giant, extortionate “profit” machine for a relative few who are somehow infected with insatiable greed.

There are, I’m sure, many contributing factors to the apparent complacency and apathy toward the deteriorating basic conditions of life in the U.S. I think there are a number of contributing psychological and sociological reasons. Some of these include the rise in the direction of public attention by the majority of media toward relatively trivial subjects and issues. Another is the amount of time people have to spend working in order to just keep up with expenses. It leaves people exhausted and just looking for relief, relaxation and/or entertainment at the end of the working day. And there is one insidious, almost imperceptible but significant factor, one contributing reason which I think is majorly overlooked: it is the role the fluoridation of most of the U.S. public water supplies plays in it all.

Fluoride is, among other things, a neurotoxin. This is proven in a multitude of studies most, if not all, of which can be found on the website of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). The past few years this toxicity has been connected with lowering the I.Q.’s of children who were/are prenatally exposed to fluoridated water and other fluoridated products. There is an argument by those advocating for fluoridation that the low level found in most fluoridated water in the U.S. is too low to cause the I.Q. lowering, but this is an unsupported hypothesis. The fact is that dosages of fluoride for expectant mothers, along with everyone else, is impossible to regulate. This is because due to it’s use in around 70% of U.S. public water systems, fluoride has become pervasive in processed food and beverages. Even so-called “organic” foods and many bottled waters, beers and wines. Somewhere along the line the added fluoride in products (resulting from the fluoridated water used in growing/processing) was given an exemption from being required to be included in the ingredients of such products. When cooking with fluoridated water, such as making rice or pasta, when the water is boiled the fluoride does not boil away, it concentrates in the remaining water and the food being prepared. Also our bodies readily absorb fluoride when we shower or bathe in fluoridated water. So there are too many avenues of exposing ourselves to varying levels of fluoride intake for anyone to claim the dosages Americans are consuming is regulated. It should be mentioned here that fluoride is a poison in the same category as arsenic and lead.

So what? What does the reality around fluoridation have to do with all the other problems named earlier in this post? It is my hypothesis that the pervasive fluoridation to which Americans are exposed has an effect of producing a docility and compliant nature. A docility which those in industries engaging in fluoridation and other chemical, “legal” and/or economically abusive practices are enjoying the benefit of.* The days when large numbers of Americans were up in arms about DDT, tobacco, civil rights and the war in Vietnam were in the early days of fluoridation. Now, after a few more decades of fluoride consumption grievous abuses within our culture seem to be regularly overlooked. Our tax dollars are being used to create billionaires, in part through exorbitant defense spending and endless wars, we are being constantly exposed to toxic additives in our food and beverages, prices are rising much faster than wages, homeless camps are springing up all around the country. These are just to name a few examples of ongoing abuse taking place and the American public is largely silent. Why?

The issue of fluoridation is an excellent place for people wanting to do something which makes a difference in their community to hone their skills. This is because the information needed to show the wrongness of fluoridation is readily available and it is usually a local issue. If a person decides to enter into such activism to protect the health of themselves and their family, that person will probably be surprised at the resistance they meet and where it stems from. For instance, this is from the FAN website: “Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976, a group of non-profits and individuals petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2016 to end the addition of fluoridation chemicals into U.S. drinking water due to fluoride’s neurotoxicity. The EPA rejected the petition. In response the groups sued the EPA in Federal Court in 2017. Evidence on fluoride’s neurotoxicity was heard by the Court in two phases: a 7-day trial in June 2020, and a 14-day trial in February 2024. As of May 2024, a judgment from the court has yet to be rendered.” I know growing up in the U.S. I always thought the EPA was established to protect Americans from toxic substances.

Yet this isn’t the only instance of the EPA acting in the interest of protecting the practice of fluoridation in the face of compelling evidence of negative health effects from fluoride consumption. Before the issue of fluoride’s neurotoxicity was being brought forward, in the 1970:s, Dean Burk, a biochemist who worked for a while with the National Cancer Society, along with biochemist John Yiamouyiannis expressed their concerns about fluoride being a carcinogenic substance. Later epidemiologists from the National Cancer Institute claimed to have refuted their findings. However, in 1990 a Senior Science Advisor at the EPA itself, Dr. William Marcus, “…lost his position after he documented that the Office of Drinking Water-approved and EPA-backed practice of adding fluoride to the nation’s drinking water supplies could lead to an increase in cancer rates…”. Reportedly Dr. Marcus became interested in this issue when a report came across his desk which involved using fluoride to give cancer to rats. It turns out rats are highly resistant to cancer and it takes a substance particularly capable of doing so to give rats cancer. These events are just a very few, but significant, items in the history of water fluoridation. For a more comprehensive chronology of this history

It all begs the question: What is going on within the EPA that lends them to so passionately defend the practice of pervasively exposing the American public to a known virulent carcinogen and neurotoxin?

Be aware the erosion of our health and wellbeing by fluoride is not a quick process, which is one reason it is so easy to deny and for people to believe the denials. This also means however that recovery from fluoride toxicity is not a quick process. But this in no way diminishes the importance of engaging in the process of actively working for clean water for healthy bodies and minds.

Well, I’m going back to looking out my window and enjoying the natural beauty of Alaska. I hope you have a long and healthy life. And I hope you’re ready to become active in the defense of the safety of your water, food and environment to assist in achieving it.

  • About my hypothesis: There used to be, 10 or more years ago, a report on the internet that after the Second World War personnel of our military/government learned of the Nazi’s use of fluoride in the Jewish ghettos and the prisoner of war camps. The reason given for doing this is that the Nazi’s believed (knew) that by doing so it heightened docility/compliant behavior among those affected. At the same time there was a report online that the Russians discovered the same information and that after the war they began experimenting with fluoridating the water in one or more their prisons. That report which I found online (but have been unable to lately) stated that after two years of fluoridated water difficult prisoners became much more docile/compliant. The report further stated that if they then removed the fluoride for two years the increase in docility stayed the same. This is consistent with what is known about how fluoride accumulates quickly and deteriorates slowly when it is in the human body. It is worth noting that sodium fluoride is also a potent antiglycolytic agent. That is, it prevents the body’s cells from breaking down and thereby using sugar for energy. I would not be surprised if this isn’t a part of the mechanism whereby fluoride produces an effect of increased docility in humans. Because the reports I mention here are, to the best of my knowledge, now unavailable online, my hypothesis of the production of an increased state of docility produced by fluoride becomes less supported by available facts. It is interesting to note however that instances of other people referring to such use of fluoride by the Nazi’s and denials of such a report do still exist online.

While there are hypotheses being put forward by those on both sides of the fluoride issue, the evidence of fluoride’s being a poison, it’s neurotoxicity and carcinogenic ability are fact. Without water fluoridation the benefits of topical application of fluoride for whatever dental benefits it may provide are still readily available via toothpastes and mouth rinses.

In summary, it’s not that there is not evidence of fluoride’s toxicity. The reality is that there is so much evidence that someone being exposed to it for the first time might quite possibly think that it can’t be true. That if it is true they would have been told about it already! Regardless, there is a bounty of evidence that fluoride is toxic and thoroughly capable of causing harm within the human body. There is also circumstantial evidence such as the rising prevalence of cancers in the U.S. and the drop in U.S. I.Q. score and academic ranking relative to other countries, which suggest it has already been at work doing such damage. Does it make any sense to continue to indiscriminately dose so many people with this toxic substance?

If you’re already actively involved with working to help balance the inequities and prevent/clean up the pollution that is taking place in the U.S., kudos and thank you.

How did the United States take such a wrong turn?

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Economics, Environment, Mental Health, Personal Development, Politics, Psychology, Science, Spirituality, Sustainability, War

As the song says, “War, huh, good God, y’all, what is it good for?” Something war most certainly is, is the violent introduction of some, if not all, of humankind’s most ill-conceived, lowest frequency, motivations into the spiritual/physical realm of our planet. Into our communities, into our lives.

The act of war, or acts of violence on an interpersonal level, without exception result in vibrations of dissonance reverberating within our energetic/spiritual environment. The traumas which war produces can, and too often do, resonate within generations becoming a self-perpetuating source of hatred and violence. The result is traumatized people blindly acting out of impulse to perpetuate more trauma and on and on.

How different our world would be if following the Second World War the United States had decided to “be the change we (the vast majority of people on Earth) want to see in the world.” How different the world would be if the United States had decided to model what an evolved, educated, caring nation could be instead of deciding to try to accomplish global domination via military might. How did a nation so blessed as the United States in the period after the Second World War take such a wrong turn? It isn’t what the people wanted. In 1960 we voted for a man who promised to take the path of an evolved, educated, caring nation. The early 1960’s with John F. Kennedy in the White House and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the pulpit, held so much promise for an enlightened future for humanity. Under Kennedy, foreign policy meant constructive cultural exchange. What we have seen foreign policy devolve into the past few decades is vicious attacks upon whatever nations aren’t getting into lockstep with the wealth/power/control aspirations of a coalition of a relative few of the world’s wealthiest and most politically powerful.

We, as a people in the United States and around the world, need to stop engaging in, or supporting, the madness of materialism, imperialism, competition and profiteering that has become commonplace in our world. We are, all of us, children of the Universal Divine Creative Spirit. We are all brothers and sisters in the spirit. We are all connected by the energy/spirit that we are made up of and that we live within. Sooner or later the cruelties expressed and the suffering taking place anywhere in the world are going to touch all of us.

At our core, our needs as human beings aren’t all that different. We do have differences in appearance: skin color, hair color, eye color, height, weight, and other physical attributes. We also have differences in the way we relate to the world. Some people are more intellectual, some more physical, some more visual, some more auditory. These differences may affect one’s values, likes and dislikes. They can affect who we seek out for companionship. All of these differences together lend each of us a certain uniqueness. And thank goodness, what a drab, boring place this Earth might be if we all were in lockstep with how we view the world, our likes and dislikes.

However, at our core, we are all of the same ilk. In order to be healthy, we all need clean air, clean water, nutritious food, shelter from extreme weather conditions. We all need to have other people we socialize with, share our thoughts and feelings with. We all need to love and to be loved. While we all may enjoy periods of isolation, some may say they don’t need socialization or love at all. However, that condition, if it exists at all, is rare. Abraham Maslow recognized these shared needs among people and produced his “Hierarchy of Needs” to help us all understand them, and ourselves.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Our natural way of relating to one another is copacetically. Babies and young children don’t want war. They know instinctively that it is not good for them. It’s only after we become acculturated into competition, envy, jealousy, greed, hate, essentially all the things that trauma and deprivation (also a form of trauma) nurture in the world that we as adults begin to imagine that there is gain in violence and war. When we know love, belonging, we don’t want to throw that away to go kill someone, somewhere, in order to try to achieve some ill-begotten, grandiose plan. Or more ridiculously to devote our lives to support someone else’s ill-begotten, grandiose plan.

We cannot fully develop as human beings when the higher functioning capabilities of our brains are diminished due to trauma. Do we want to keep living in a manner more suited to the beasts of the field while we live in a universe of unlimited possibilities? If so, all we need to do is build and sustain a culture of competition rather than cooperation. To keep on warring instead of working together. To keep on destroying each other rather than honoring the innate kinship of all of humanity, of all life.

It is when people are mistreated, traumatized, deprived, destitute, suffering, and/or deluded that fear, greed, callousness, and myriad other negative thoughts/feelings/and motivations arise. Competition as cultural norm breeds these all of these things and more. Within a framework of a few basic laws, within a culture of people who are thinking in terms of mutuality, trust, fairness, and compassion, the wondrous possibilities of this world are endless.

The infamous “rabbit hole”: created by the frequent and grievous practice of deception. Maintained by the practice of blind obedience.

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Mental Health, Personal Development, Politics, Spirituality, Sustainability
Image: (c) Dazdraperma http://www.fotosearch.com

If you pay much attention at all to the reports, investigative journalism, conspiracy theories and undeniable conspiracy reality that is increasingly present in many different media these days, sooner or later you are going encounter the term “rabbit hole”. The rabbit hole is, metaphorically speaking, the long dark tunnel (of information, facts) that one must work one’s way through to penetrate the superficial, artificial, mental image of the world which certain aspects of the government, media and various other industries, do their best to assure is the one which most people of the world carry with them. Those who have dared delve into the realms of the realities which are kept hidden as well as possible from the average citizen often pay a price. I’m not referring to sinister operatives who abduct people from their homes and hide them away in some covert prison or another. Or who maybe kill them. Although those atrocities are documented to have happened to honest, caring individuals who have uncovered and revealed truths, or produced products, which certain powerful individuals did not wish to see revealed. Just ask Julian Assange about that, if you can get to him in whatever dark hole he’s being imprisoned in. You might ask Cathy O’Brien, or Dr. Jeffrey R. McDonald, except he’s locked up for life. Or Stanley Meyers, or Ted Gunderson, but they’re dead.

The list could go on and on. But that is not the price which I am focusing on in this article. The price I am referring to is the breakdown of one’s internalized worldview. A reality which can often be a far more traumatic, disorienting experience than the mere mention of it even hints at. It can leave a person isolated, paranoid, unable to function well in day-to-day life. Or it might even prove fatal if the resulting debilitation is not successfully remedied. I think some intuitively sense that digging too deep into the affairs of the world might hold unpleasant consequences and consequently they avoid doing so. They usually also avoid listening for too long to someone who has been actively digging. But there are those whose thirst for knowledge, whose need to feel informed, connected with the actual reality of what is going on around them, is so compelling that they are going to seek the truth. Period.

The fact is, it seems that for those in positions of worldly power; governmental, economic, military, or even religious power, the methods they often utilize in dealing with the general public are to deceive, inveigle and obfuscate.

The vulnerability which many of us have is that we have allowed ourselves to internalize the system’s explanation of what’s going on in the world as absolute reality. If we could genuinely rely upon the system to be honest with us, we would not be at such a risk of finding ourselves traumatized and disoriented by the eventual emergence of reality. Unfortunately, in the U.S. and many other places that is not the case. I venture many people in the U.S. and many other countries are experiencing some degree of traumatization following coming face to face with actual reality. Some are experiencing severe symptoms resulting from it.

What can we do to protect ourselves from, or to help heal ourselves from the very real attempts to instill us with an illusory worldview and the inevitable cognitive dissonance we face as a result? To begin with, stop blindly believing in the proclamations coming from those who hold high office. The current dismal global reality is that if there is big money involved there are almost certainly big lies and deep corruption involved. We need to question, investigate, analyze, be skeptical, get grounded in grassroots level reality. Honor the basic values of truth, honesty, fairness, neighborliness. Recognize, understand, and express to the very best of our abilities, our mutuality here on this planet. If we’re not thinking “all for one and one for all” on a global level, we’re thinking “all for none and none for all”, and that is not going to serve us well.

Lies, deceit, greed, corruption are not the unavoidable way of life on planet Earth. They are what humankind through either short-sighted participation, ignorance, complacency or apathy have allowed to become widely manifest. It is important to realize that the use of such corrupt methods are not new to this century, or even this millennium. Our current world culture has seen such methods employed in the pursuit and the exercise of worldly power for millennia, possibly since the beginning of recorded history. But that does not in any way indicate that such behaviors are unavoidable or insurmountable. We, as a species, have overcome many of the challenges which, through our ignorance in whatever developmental stage we were in at the time, we have found ourselves facing. Human beings are responsible for the poisonous corruption when and where it is taking place, and we as human beings can see it stopped. It requires our will to do so and our efforts to be consciously aware and constantly endeavoring. Constantly endeavoring to refuse to participate in the thinking and practices which are undermining our nations, our communities, and our lives. And constantly endeavoring to replace such behaviors with positive, sustaining, honesty, truth and an applied understanding of our mutuality.

Through our cooperation and obedience, we are the strength of our oppressors.

If you have to ignore world events to maintain a positive attitude…

by kendunning, posted in Community, Economics, Environment, Health, Mental Health, Politics, Psychology, Spirituality, Unified Field

If you have to ignore world events in order to maintain a positive attitude, you’re in trouble on two fronts.

1. As technology has given unprecedented access, for good and for evil, to nations, communities and people worldwide, isolationism has become obsolete. There has never been a time when personal involvement in political and economic affairs has been more important. Right now it may look hopeless because things have gotten out of hand, but that is an illusion. The Divine Creative Spirit flows through us all and through the entirety of our world. We are affected by it and we affect it. Our thoughts, our words our deeds, all these things create ripples thoughout our world. We are either acting consciously or unconsciously. It’s time we take back the creative processes of our world to thoughtfully form the world we want for ourselves and our loved ones. Even the thoughts we hold make a difference.

2. If internally you are overly vulnerable to the spiritual content of the individuals and groups who are engaging in hurtful, destructive, and maliciously manipulative actions, you are out of touch with your own, personal, source of strength and renewal. It’s time to get back in touch with the spiritual reality you are a valuable part of. The Divine Creative Spirit, God, is ever present, the strength and resilience of this Great Spirit, is available to all who seek it. There are many books, articles and videos made by others who are seeking and have found various valuable spiritual realities which they are sharing for the benefit of all. I have found “The Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East”, by Baird Spalding to be a source of strength. I’ve been told “A Course in Miracles” is also a valuable source. There are many, many more. And, there are men and women, ministers, priests, rabbis, imams, shamans, not all, but many, who also are personally in touch with the Divine Creative Spirit and can be valuable in offering information, suggestions and support to us on our path to a greater understanding and more enlightened participation in our own lives and in the world at large. Beware of any who claim to be a necessary intermediary between yourself and the Divine Creative Spirit! Embrace those who encourage and aid you in the development of your own personal awareness and connection.

Vital, thinking human beings are not meant to be turned into mindless automatons.

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Manifesting our Future, Mental Health, Personal Development, Politics, Psychology, Spirituality, Sustainability
A path in the beautiful North Cascades.

We are consigning children’s education to school systems which teach them to blindly trust and obey the people who occupy the governmental offices within our society.

For the survival of the human race, that needs to stop. Governments and the people who work within them are only beneficial to a society to the extent that their primary goals are the genuine health and well-being of the society which they serve. This necessarily means working within certain parameters. An essential quality which must be present within the parameters any and all governmental bodies operate within is truthfulness. Hand in hand with truthfulness is openness. Merely saying that the government is not going to allow it’s citizens to know what the criteria are that governmental officials are considering in their decision making does not meet those criteria. Not even close. Somewhere along the line, since the second world war, Americans allowed the Government to take the stance that America is on a permanent war footing and that the type of secrecy which was put in place during the war needed to exist on an ongoing basis. This culture of secrecy creates a fertile ground for corruption, lies, misdirection and unexplained actions. If we treat the whole world as a real or potential enemy, we create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I believe John F. Kennedy either intuitively or intellectually knew this. One of his primary goals was to take America out of the war-mindedness which had continued after WWII ended, and put America and the world on a course for true, sustainable, friendships and harmonious coexistence between all nations. This flew in the face of the aspirations of wealth and power hungry, militant, individuals who believed they saw a path to their desired version of the future. A path which President Kennedy firmly rejected. Having any nation, or group, especially any with predatory economic goals, act as an ongoing dominant overlord of the people of the world is not a viable, sustainable condition. It is clearly something most people in the world will loathe and reject if an attempt is made to force it upon them.

For sound mental, physical and spiritual health, people desire, need, to feel a vital, reciprocal, interaction with their environment, their world. That desire/need is an innate quality of being born into the human race. However, the connection to, the awareness of, this quality can be dulled. Through repetitive instruction from trusted adults and authority figures, a child’s attention can be redirected from this innate desire designed to support and sustain human beings throughout life, to a dependency upon the declarations of those aspiring to godlike power within the lives of others. However, this innate desire of humanity cannot be dulled indefinitely.

The first allegiance a person should learn is the allegiance to the positive human values we know work toward creating and sustaining healthy people and healthy communities: honesty, fairness, intelligence, analytical thinking, reason, compassion, ingenuity, resilience, strength, love and kindness.