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. 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?
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.
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.
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.
We are in the midst of a pandemic. Not COVID nor a new viral concoction those disposed to do so may be devising. It is a pandemic of mental/spiritual origin and effect. The infectious, destructive condition I’m referring to has been with us for millennia. It is a condition, a dis-ease if you will, which leaves many of those affected languishing in the belief that the “physical” world is our primary, if not our only reality. Or, others affected often see fit to engage in overly self-centered, sometimes brutal, schemes for personal gain. Schemes which ignore the damage such thoughts and actions are doing within our underlying spiritual reality. Damage which sooner or later expresses itself within our “physical” reality.
Above I put “physical” in quotation marks because, as with light waves which we can only see a certain portion of the full spectrum of, our physical reality also extends beyond the denser forms and actions we’re all accustomed to dealing with in our day to day lives. It extends into finer, more ethereal, spiritual aspects of our reality which those who are infected with the mental condition leading to the denial of this reality apparently find beyond their perception. Or possibly they have some perception of it but for reasons having to do with their enculturation choose to ignore such perceptions. Yet inescapably we affect and are affected by the finer, more ethereal aspects of our reality.
This condition, which results in a narrow window on our world, is a mental/spiritual condition which many seem to accept as part of the price for being a “good citizen” of a materialistic, competitive culture. I wonder how many people are receiving treatment both in outpatient and inpatient settings simply because they found themselves perceiving and finding reality and meaning within some of the forms and actions within the more ethereal aspects of our reality? How a person reacts to perceiving things outside the realm of what their culture may regard as normal is often determined by whether or not they primarily regard the world with an attitude of fear or an attitude of faith.
It is when we are able to stretch out our perceptions more fully into the finer, more ethereal/spiritual aspects of our existence, our reality, that we can discover many blessings and abilities which remain out of our reach when too many daily stressors push us into a withdrawn, shut-down state of being. When fear and anxiety are intrusive into our lives, we tend to draw in, to shut down some of the higher functioning parts of our mind, our being. This loss of so much of the potential richness of our lives is one of the cruelest of the collateral damages within a culture of competition.
We see so much cruelty, so much inhumanity resulting from people holding an attitude of fear, avarice, intolerance, that it is easy to be deceived into believing that these ways of relating to the world are the underlying, inescapable reality of our existence on Earth. They aren’t. Love is the underlying reality. However, when unguided by compassion and sound reason, even love can produce perverted, destructive actions. Such as when, as I have seen it expressed, we “love things and use people instead of loving people and using things”. Or when we love the experience of our own being yet choose to callously disregard the experiences of others.
Creating a culture of fear is relatively easy. Engage in violence, do things which blatantly and glaringly or subtly and insidiously injure people. Engage in actions which engender distrust. Use political/economic schemes with armed legions of enforcers to take away and control the goods and freedoms of the general population of entire nations (even your own). Those involved in the thinking patterns and behaviors which lead to the creation of cultures of fear are following their most self-centered, self-serving impulses with little or no concern for the effects which their actions impose upon, or evoke within others.
Creating a culture of love, compassion, and understanding is a harder task. The desire to do so usually is preceded by the awareness that we are all interrelated. For one thing, we are all a part of the environment which all other people live within. However, when we learn more about the energy/spiritual reality of our lives we understand how we are quite literally interconnected on an energetic/spiritual level. Someday I imagine there will books written about the effects each person’s spiritual energy contributes to our spiritual environment. We now know beyond a doubt that groups of people meditating in an area can reduce the crime rate. Manifesting a culture which is an expression of the positive, life-oriented aspects of our underlying spiritual reality requires people to be willing to put the time and effort into understanding themselves and others. It requires compassion and patience when facing difficult interpersonal situations. It requires tolerance of different practices and worldviews as long as those practices and worldviews are not inherently harmful to others. It requires people to have a rock-solid commitment to the well-being of others as well as one’s own.
Right now we are living in a world in which far too many are suffering under the pestilence of a culture of fear, avarice, intolerance. Many are reaping the bitter fruits of devoting time and energy into fear, hating and war. Many are reaping the bleak fruits resulting from the personal or cultural allotment of large amounts of human and material resources for the building and acquisition of weapons of destruction. The more energy, time and resources we pour into these things the more we see war and destruction proliferating around the world. After all the teachings, the warnings we have had through the ages from saints and prophets about reaping what we sow, this sorry reality should come as no surprise.
I would rhetorically ask what we should do about it, but the answer is obvious: we need to start consistently sowing the words and actions which are exactly those which we genuinely would like to have returning to us and our loved ones. That’s all.
The United States has often been portrayed, and I believe seen by many, as being a nation of individual rights and liberties. The Bill of Rights (1st ten amendments to the Constitution) were a pretty enlightened and bold action in the face of “Old World” authoritarian monarchies and dictatorships. The right to freedom of speech, to bear arms, of religion, the protections of the accused in criminal investigations, these all represent a radical departure from the manipulative controls repressive authoritarian regimes routinely seek to impose. However, as wonderful and enlightened as they are, they fall short in a critical way of addressing possibly the most universal wrong that one individual or group has historically and contemporaneously waged upon another.
The Preamble to the Declaration of Independence evokes an essential spirit of human desire: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Allowing that the author used the word “men” to indicate all human beings, not just those of the male gender, these words evoke a sense of unity. A sense that all people should be embraced within a spirit of kinship and equality. But again, in a very essential way everything that followed ignored a grievous wrong which some individuals and groups have been imposing upon others for centuries. A wrong that has been practiced so pervasively among people around the world, that it seems to have been accepted, or neglected, even in the enlightened thinking of the 18th century American revolutionaries.
This is the inherent moral rightfulness of all who contribute their life’s time and energy to the sustaining and advancement of their civilization to reasonably and fairly reap of the benefits of that civilization. This is not to say that all should benefit equally from the fruits of an endeavor, because in either quality or quantity there undoubtedly are some whose contribution weighs more heavily in the achievement of the fruits of civilization. However, each and every individual’s most precious contribution is of their life’s time and energy. Whether it is sweeping floors, washing dishes, planting or harvesting crops, building necessary infrastructure, working in education, providing art and/or entertainment, seeking/understanding/disseminating spiritual truth, serving within the operation of government, serving to protect lives and property, working in the sciences to further human well-being, working in industry to invent and provide needed products, working in the care of others whose young age, illness or infirmity disallows them from engaging in adequate self-care, or any of the other myriad ways individuals engage themselves in the service of community and civilization: those engaging in these works are all significantly contributing to the sustaining and advancing of well-being within their communities and of civilization itself.
All of us, everyone of us alive on Earth today, has parents, grandparents and further ancestry who have given of their lives’ time and energies in the effort of establishing a viable human civilization here on Earth. Further, most, if not all, of them held the hope and desire that not only themselves, but that their children and their children’s children should share in the benefits of the civilization they were contributing to. So why, after all these centuries, after all the work, the strife, the good intentions that have gone into bringing us into our present time and place, aren’t the fruits of humankind’s combined efforts being shared more fully and fairly than they are?
At this point in time the inequity of the distribution of wealth among humanity is extreme. Around the world those who have sought after and grasped the reins of industry and government are showing themselves to be consumed by their egos and self-importance to the degree that they apparently hold in contempt the majority of humanity. The very same humanity responsible for the vast majority of the effort which has gone into the production of the wealth they now lay sole claim to. It is this inequity which is the most grievous wrong which even the enlightened revolutionary thinking of 18th century America overlooked.
Through the ages those in positions of power, governmental, industrial, even within the academic and religious establishments have imagined and devised myriad rationalizations and schemes to justify and implement their desire to acquire inordinate wealth and power. The myth of divinely ordained royalty, the creation of religious and other stratified social systems which use fear to achieve compliance from populations. The creation of a global predatory economic system which allows a relative few to control the vast majority of the world’s wealth. Even the withholding of technological developments which would allow greater freedom and well-being to the world’s population. All of these things have contributed to the economic, if not the literal, enslavement of children and adults. These things and more are going on the world today including within the United States.
Along with the above mentioned actions, those with the mind set to exploit whatever is exploitable are also engaged in the production of toxic products, including food products, and in the disposal of highly toxic waste in ways which are destroying vital natural resources and habitats. Relative to the degree worldwide pollution is taking place, the world’s recycling programs, while an admirable idea, are in many places weak, if they exist at all. There is a correlation to be drawn between the intellectual/mind toxic pollution which is being generated in the world today and the physical/chemical pollution which happening simultaneously.
These things: lies, greed, exploitation, and pollution, have gone on to a greater or lesser degree for centuries. However, in the 21st century, technology which allows for the mass dissemination of information, or misinformation, along with advances in transportation technology and weaponry, has exponentially amplified the abilities of those with the mind set and who are positioned to do so to exploit the financial systems, resources and the people of the world. Further, to do so in ways that are homicidal in their callousness toward vast elements of humanity.
Those in power might say that they are doing nothing illegal. Which is always an easier statement to make when you control the lawmakers and the laws. The thing is, legal or illegal, does the current state of economic inequity and callousness toward human well-being represent what humanity in general wants or needs to be experiencing in the world? Now or in the future?
That’s up to us, isn’t it? All of us. What kind of world do we want to live in? What kind of world do we want our children and children’s children to grow up in? What kind of species is the human race? One that is so lacking in intellectual ability that recognition of what is or is not conducive to our happiness and survival is beyond our ability to comprehend or act upon? I don’t think so, I certainly hope not. Reasonable expectations as far as a work week goes with reasonable reimbursement. A worker who works a 40 or more hr. work week does not really have a reasonable opportunity to explore and develop their life to it’s fullest. 24 hours over three days would be more in keeping with a balanced life. And for that a worker should be able to afford to live comfortably. To have the time and money for housing, food, recreational pursuits, ongoing personal development, and spiritual development. These are things a healthy, vibrant person requires to stay vital.
However, both as individuals and as populations, we have been and are able to be manipulated. Too many working, contributing, people are kept busy worrying about having a roof over their heads and food to eat. By design or default, we often are too distracted, too exhausted to pay adequate attention to the long-range agendas which others are putting in place around us. Agendas which are too often aimed at serving a minority of people at the expense of many.
We need to discipline ourselves to pay attention. We need to ask questions about any and every program, policy, and action our governments and industries engage in. We need to own our heritage of being descendants of the people who have with their sweat and blood, their lives’ energy built the civilizations and the wealth of the world. And I venture that at no time were our ancestors thinking that the purpose of their life was to forget about themselves, their families, their loved ones, and simply feed the greed of a few. So the question becomes: what do we see as our purpose?
We need to recognize in this increasingly connected world that we are one people: the human race. We need to take on that awareness and act upon it in all our dealings. We need to treat each other with compassion. We need to consistently work toward health, education and enlightenment, for ourselves and all around us, within all aspects of our lives. To do so is to own our very humanity and to work at being the enlightened architects of our future.
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.
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.
We are living in a world sickened, diseased by greed, war, poverty, lies, people turned against their neighbors, their brothers and sisters. We have become a splintered, fractured, fearful population inhabiting what is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful planets in the galaxy…and gradually killing it. Through human greed and thoughtlessness humanity has been imparting to the planet itself the diseased reality which has taken over the lives of many, many humans.
Why is this going on? Too many lies, too much greed, too little recognition of one of the central truths of our existence. What truth? The truth that we are all part of the same living reality. The truth that we are all interconnected, interdependent. That just as disease can wreck and kill the corporeal body of a single human being, just as cells not cooperating with each other, not working together to sustain the health and wellbeing of the whole body can result in the demise of the body, people not cooperating, not working together to sustain the wellbeing of the interconnected body of life upon our planet is working toward the destruction of us all. Just as wounds and sores inflicted upon our personal body open the path to insidious infections and further disease, the cultural wounds and sores of violence, war, poverty, lies, a lack of survival-oriented regard for the consequences of our actions, these things open pathways to insidious infections and disease within our human cultures.
If humanity is ever going to find a solid footing on this planet from which to build a future, we must abandon the prioritization of personal acquisition of wealth and align our values and our actions with the promotion and sustenance of healthy individuals within a larger, healthy community. We need to realize that we are all only as cells within the larger body of our human community. It’s time we own our reality and begin to make it the wondrous reality it has the potential to be. We can build communities, a human culture, which strive to create and sustain conditions conducive to human wellbeing for the totality of humanity. When, as the body of humanity, we begin working together, recognizing our commonality, our mutuality, we can begin fully realizing the wondrous potentials of health, creativity and enjoyment which we are capable of.
The past only defines or confines us if we lose sight of our inherent ability to improve our lives as individuals and as a community.
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