Tag: Conscious Living

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.

With all the publicity child trafficking has received the past few decades, how does it continue to be as prevalent as it is in the world today?

by kendunning, posted in Child Trafficking, Political Corruption

I recently went to see the movie “The Sound of Freedom”. In spite of the fact that some of the harshest, most obscene atrocities taking place with trafficked children today are not portrayed in the movie, it is still a gritty, hard-hitting portrayal of one of the most heinous activities taking place in the world today. The movie is presented as being a plea to the world to gear up and stop this horrifying international criminal enterprise. In the movie, and in real life, Tim Ballard showed the world what can be done with a few dedicated law enforcement officers and even a little official support.

I did a search on “documentaries about human trafficking”. I turned up over 400 done in 2023 alone. Child/human trafficking has been around for at least the past few millennia if not longer. Books and documentaries about human trafficking and the atrocities committed by those engaged in it have been being written and produced for the past few decades. Longer if only looking at the books written. The knowledge that human trafficking, including child trafficking, has been going on for a long time and involves horrendously abusive criminal behavior has been around for a long time. U.S. Presidents, heads of the F.B.I., C.I.A., the U.S. Department of Justice, and U.S. Attorney Generals have undoubtedly been aware of it, and how heinous it is, for decades. The head of Homeland Security and Countless Chief’s of Police are undoubtedly aware it’s going on. So why is it still a booming business here in the U.S.?

Please bear with me here…

Back in the 1980’s, when the War on Drugs was relatively new and often portrayed in dramatic, if not glamorous ways, the cocaine trafficking taking place in southern Florida was frequently headline news. “Miami Vice”, which was one of the top T.V. shows at that time, focused mainly on cocaine trafficking taking place in southern Florida. Radio news reports on the trafficking were also common. One day I happened to be listening to a radio news show broadcast out of Spokane, WA, and a report was aired about a Federal Agent, I apologize that I can’t recall if the Agent was in the D.E.A. or the F.B.I. or his name, who had attempted to unravel the sometimes complex money trails resulting from cocaine trafficking. The Agent being interviewed claimed that he had been successful. Yet it seemed he was incredulous, if not dismayed. He stated that after successfully tracking the big money flowing out of south Florida he found that, paraphrasing his statement: “When it reached it’s final destination, whether it was legally gotten money or illegally gotten money, really big money always went to the same overseas bank accounts, the same people”. Considering how we have been seeing the monopolization of major industries increasing over the past few decades, is the Agent’s statement really all that unthinkable, or even surprising?

Maybe you’re asking what does cocaine trafficking in the 1980’s have to do with human trafficking in the 21st century? You may already know or have figured it out. However, I’m going to connect a few more dots.

In 1995 Cathy O’Brien and Mark Phillips published a book entitled “Trance Formation of America”. In it Cathy O’Brien makes allegations, in varying degrees of detail, about the abuses she endured as a subject/victim of the MK Ultra mind-control program in the U.S. When I say varying degrees of detail I need to add that quite often the details are very specific and she names names. Some of those named in the book as perpetrators of mental, physical and/or sexual abuse include: Gerald Ford, Pierre Trudeau, George H.W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Hillary Clinton, Vincente Fox, Kris Kristofferson, Jimmy Buffett, and others. She further alleges that some of the abuse which she is quite explicit about took place in the White House.

These are what some might call “just allegations”. While this is true that at this time they must be regarded as allegations, it is also true that while she is very specific in many (most?) cases about what took place and who the alleged perpetrator(s) were, those named have not publicly denied any of the allegations nor has the book been challenged, sued in a court of law, or forced out of publication. This regardless of the fact that many, if not most, of the persons named have attorneys readily available. When the book was published some who are alleged as perpetrators might even have been able to direct the Department of Justice to see that the book was quashed. That evidently didn’t happen. Why? If you were a public figure and someone published some of the most heinous allegations possible against you including that you participated in torture and murder, and, assuming that they were false allegations, given that you have good attorneys at hand who can get such allegations shut down very quickly wouldn’t you do so? In addition Ms. O’Brien alleges that her experiences included her involuntary involvement in the illegal trafficking of drugs which many of these people were engaged in. Ms. O’Brien is not the only person who has written a book about personal experiences as a subject/victim within the MK Ultra program.

Other allegations of the involvement of persons in high political office in drug and human trafficking come from the late Ted Gunderson. At one time Mr. Gunderson was the head of the Los Angeles F.B.I. Office. Mr. Gunderson’s exposure to the more covert aspects of drug and human trafficking reportedly didn’t occur until he had retired from the F.B.I. and gone into private investigating. In the area of illegal drug trafficking Mr. Gunderson’s investigation resulted in him making statements which amount to allegations that Bill and Hillary Clinton were heavily involved. At some point Mr. Gunderson became particularly interested in the numbers of missing children in the U.S. and did some in depth investigating. He reported discovering the involvement of high ranking political personages in the transportation and abuse of abducted children. Mr. Gunderson made several videos about his work and findings which, the last time I checked, are still available online.

Almost everyone in the U.S. is aware of the Jeffrey Epstein/Ghislane Maxwell pedophile network and the reported involvement of many high ranking political personages, captains of industry, and well-known personalities from the entertainment business. It must be stated that having flown on Epstein’s plane does not constitute a de-facto allegation that person was involved in child abuse or rape. However, it does potentially open one up to being investigated for such activity.

So why haven’t Ms. O’Brien’s and Ted Gunderson’s allegations been thoroughly and objectively investigated? Why haven’t any of the people Ms. O’Brien named moved within the court system to erase her book from the face of the Earth? Could it be the last thing they want is a day in court? In all of these allegations the honesty and integrity of at least a few Secret Service Agents is also called into question. Ted Gunderson made some allegations in this regard about some of the deaths of Agents which occurred at the siege in Waco, Texas at the Branch Davidian compound.

Which brings us back to the question of how, with all the tools and manpower law enforcement agencies worldwide possess, does this international atrocity of millions of abducted, raped, beaten, tortured and sometimes murdered children continue as an ongoing reality? For an answer to this question we find a major clue in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s statement: “In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it does, you can bet it was planned that way.” With this last sentence I imagine I have either lost or am in the process of losing a few readers. To suggest that brutal child abductions continue to take place in the world because some leaders of nations, captains of banking and industry, some of the wealthiest and most politically powerful men and women on the planet want it to continue, is going to be a concept some, possibly many, people just do not want to, or are unable, to consider. Yet it is the only logical explanation which takes in all the factors necessary to encompass the vast level of child abductions and trafficking which is taking place.

In the media what we are conditioned to expect is that the people who engage in drug trafficking and human trafficking are of the fringe element of society. Occasionally some rogue, apparently “upstanding” citizen may be involved, but, in the movies and TV shows anyway, those cases are presented as rare and the men and women of law enforcement will inevitably root them out. Even in the movie “The Sound of Freedom”, we see Tim Ballard exclusively spending his energies investigating in and among the more sordid and disreputable people and places. Even with that condition being met, the movie had a hard time finding it’s way into theaters. Imagine what problems it would have faced if it had implicated the rich and powerful who inhabit the halls of power? I doubt very much it would have ever seen the light of day. Cathy O’Brien and Mark Phillips have stated they needed to self-publish their book “Trance Formation of America” because they realized that if they sold it to an established publishing house it would never have been published.

Of course not all the men and women working in all the various elected positions, governmental offices, law enforcement, and the media are corrupt. However, the current reality around child trafficking suggests, if not demands, that some in key positions with the power to decide what large scale investigations take place, who they investigate and to what lengths, are entirely complicit in the ongoing international child trafficking. Maybe they are directly involved, maybe they are taking money from those who are, or maybe their boss does and they are just “following orders”, but in the end the result is the kidnapping, selling, rape and torture of millions of children a year continues.

If we as a species continue to allow the very worst crimes against humanity to continue because it offends our sensibilities and deeply held beliefs to even look at what is taking place, then aren’t we all a part of the problem?

I have no doubt that Tim Ballard is not the only Federal law enforcement agent to have a conscience and who actually cares about the people we expect law enforcement to be involved in the protection of. I imagine there are many. However, if their “superiors” insist on keeping them shackled and blinded, unable to pursue the leads that would take them to the top profiteers, the true forces behind child trafficking in the world today, can we expect the problem will be addressed? No, we can’t. The same principle applies to many, if not all, of the most profitable international criminal enterprises in the world today.

This post is not intended to be a glaring indictment of the people and/or classes of people mentioned in it. I, as a private citizen, could not even begin to compile the evidence it would require to support that. What I do hope is that in reading this your curiosity is piqued and you will be more receptive when news reports and/or articles appear before you which add to the growing body of evidence, circumstantial or without supporting physical evidence as they may be. We have to remember any rich and powerful personages who inhabit the halls of power, who are engaged in or complicit in human trafficking, are not idiots. I’m sure they can figure out how to cover their tracks fairly well. The U.S. Office of Justice Programs estimates between 300,000 and 400,000 children are trafficked across international borders each year. That is substantially more children than there are people of all ages in the population of Spokane, Washington. A city of children are being trafficked each year. How? How can all the national police forces, the intelligence services, the various immigration and customs services be so blind, so incapable as to allow this to go on? The organization ERASE Child Trafficking and the United Nations (UN) both seem to concur that only 1 or 2% of these victims are ever rescued.

Are we cursed in this world with an international body of highly incompetent law enforcement officers? Or are some in positions capable of steering such investigations down dead-end avenues doing just that? Making sure the cash flow from this lucrative, atrocity filled business continues to line the pockets of the “right people”?

The Congressional Hearings on UAP are fraught with the same worn-out denials and obfuscations which sincere investigators into these phenomena have faced for decades.

by kendunning, posted in Community, Economics, Integrity, Politics, Science, UFOs, UAP

We need to stop giving equal time to the “flat earthers” of Ufology.  The “flat earthers” are those who directly or indirectly attempt to negate all the evidence which has been brought forward by hundreds of conscientious men and women over the past few decades.  Sometimes this negation is expressed by feigning a genuine, healthy interest in the subject and then repeating the worn-out, nihilistic mantra: “Wouldn’t it be great if we had evidence.”

Is it just me reaching this conclusion at this time? I’ve been interested in our beautiful night sky, space, UFO’s (UAP or whatever name is currently in vogue) for decades. I’ve read books and articles, watched videos and documentaries, listened to authoritative people describe their first-hand experiences with alien technology and, in a smaller number of cases, with extraterrestrial beings. A lot of the first-hand accounts come from ex-military personnel who have had distinguished careers. There are the many brave whistleblowers who risk much professionally and personally to come forward with their first-person accounts. Additionally, there are so very many people from all over the world who don’t and have never worked in a profession which would particularly lend them to encountering extraterrestrial craft or beings, yet they have. And again, taking personal and/or professional risks, they speak out.

Why?  I believe it is significantly due to an underlying realization that it matters. Having a reality-based understanding of the world we live in matters. Knowing where our tax dollars are spent matters. As the de facto financiers of so much of the effort that has gone into the investigation of the extraterrestrial phenomena, we deserve to know what our money is being spent on. Which evidently includes the acquisition of extraterrestrial technology and the subsequent research and development which has taken place. Humanity should, by all rights, be able to reap any and all benefits from this technology which stands to improve the quality of lives around the world.  Benefits which, from all reports, will improve our efforts toward a cleaner and healthier environment.

Yes, there are some people who for whatever reason offer up untrue, fabricated information or intentional misinformation. But as with any new field of natural science, with repeated exposure to the samples coming in from the field, one increases in ability to discern a fabrication from an authentic article. That being said, this task is becoming more difficult with the deployment of human built and operated gravity drive vehicles and the technological advances in the ability to create convincing illusions.  It is our great misfortune that there are unscrupulous people who already have and as long as they can continue to engage in employing such technology in their efforts to confuse the public and obfuscate reality will do so. This becomes an even more grievous assault on the citizenry when we consider that we the citizenry have footed the bill for much, if not all, of this technology. However, overcoming such heinous efforts at confusing and disorienting our understanding of the world we live in is not an insurmountable task.  A lot of people are working to counter such despicable actions with their continued efforts toward sharing the genuine knowledge that is available.  I want to add that as a mental health professional I find the efforts at confusing people about our reality to be as heinous and as dangerous an assault on our minds as is the assault upon our bodies by those who persist in polluting our environment and the products we consume.

Thankfully there are many people with a genuine, healthy interest in “UAP” who have spent countless hours pursuing this area of study.  To you who are also on this path who haven’t experienced this already, I can state with assurance that there comes a point in which the accumulated knowledge which has been brought to light by all the aforementioned contributors moves a person from curiosity to certainty. There is such an abundance of evidence, ranging from the credible to the undeniable, that for any person who wants to represent themself as a serious student of this field of knowledge, much less represent themself as an expert in the field, to engage in overlooking, or in any way stating or insinuating that such evidence does not exist reveals themself as a charlatan or worse: someone who is intentionally working to undermine the perceptions and credibility of a great many intelligent, astute, honorable people.

Just as we have stopped lending an iota of credibility to “flat earthers”, it’s time we stopped lending an iota credibility to those whose presentations directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, serve to downplay, obfuscate, or deny the realities which conscientious people have brought forward. We need to be aware that sometimes the obfuscations and denials are done by someone pretending to be an “expert” who presents how wonderful it would be if we only knew for sure that intelligent life existed in other places in the universe. Such a presentation is a de facto refutation of the accumulated knowledge and evidence that has come forward over decades. Knowledge and evidence that authoritatively speaks to the reality that contact has taken place between extraterrestrial beings and people from Earth.

Lastly, much more is known about extraterrestrial life and human contact by those involved with and jealously guarding the “black” programs.  This includes the knowledge that some highly advanced technology (relative to what is in general use) has been gained and is being employed in a covert manner.  This will continue with the technological imbalance between covert technology and what is widely known increasing. This dual reality which has been created constitutes the very reality of a relative handful of men and women acquiring the very “unwarranted influence” which President Eisenhower warned us of in his farewell address.  “We the People” need to wake up to this reality, step out of the darkness and denial, and demand full disclosure of, and inclusion in the management of, the knowledge and technologies which have been and are being acquired from contact with extraterrestrial beings.  For the sake of humanity.

Lies, Profits, and Protecting the Integrity of Our Place in the World

by kendunning, posted in Economics, Politics, Psychology

During my lifetime I have witnessed the people of the U.S. and the world be lied to frequently via “mainstream” media. Lied to by individuals and groups who occupy the positions of Governmental and industrial power. Some of the events which stand out in this regard are:

The JFK assassination.

The Gulf of Tonkin attack.

The Oklahoma City Bombing.

The events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The origins of the COVID virus.

The safety and efficacy of the mRNA vaccines.

In all cases the stories put forward, the lies, have served clearly served the agendas of a minority of people within the military/industrial/governmental complex. All of the lies have served to increase fear, division and often hatred within the general population of the U.S. Some of the lies have promoted hatred toward the people of other countries. In at least three cases, the lies have been used to promote military action, war, against the people of other countries. All of the lies serve to demonstrate to any and all who are paying attention, that those occupying key seats of governmental/military and industrial power and influence in the U.S. are not interested in the wellbeing of the general population of the U.S. Nor are they interested in the genuine wellbeing of the people in any other country. They have their own, narrow, self-serving agendas and will lie to further them. Their lies have resulted in the suffering, maiming, and deaths of multitudes of men, women and children in other countries along with the lives of Americans.

It is the responsibility of all citizens who want to see our nation, we as a people, regain a positive, healthful quality of life to wise up to these calculated manipulations of our hearts and minds. Read, watch, listen, learn, think through, and always follow the money. With the desire and the effort to do so, we can become invulnerable to such manipulations. When being asked to hate or kill, or to be ready to die for some agenda or cause being promoted by those in political power and parroted by the “mainstream” media, ask yourself four things:

1. Are the reasons being given to promote a war real or is there evidence to reasonably believe that the reasons/events which are the basis for the call to war are being manipulated or even created by those putting forward the call to war?

2. Is it really in the best interest of myself, my family, my community to follow the direction being put forward? Why, or why not? (Or does it seem to primarily serve some other peoples’ agenda of acquisition of wealth and power?)

3. If there is a real, immediate, compelling problem, is there a better solution to the problem than that of violence, death and destruction?

Healing the world, saving the world, call it what you will Jeremy Griffith presents a summation of the work of scientists, religions, poets, and others that rings true.

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Psychology, Science
Image (c) AlexMax http://www.fotosearch.com

This post is dedicated to facilitating people viewing the one hour six minute video of Jeremy Griffith’s abstract of this summation. It is filled with research, reason, love and optimism. Coming from the primary perspective of biology, it explains much about our present and historical human condition. Further, this explanation serves to free humankind from deeply embedded, internalized conflicts and self-condemnation.

I truly hope you will take the time to view this video and tell others about it. This is genuinely information the world needs to have.

Jeremy Griffith, the interview.

The technocratic takeover of the U.S.A. and other countries.

by kendunning, posted in Community, Covid-19, Law, Oppression, Politics, Psychology

Apparently driven by questionable motives including the profit motives of big pharma, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) along with the cooperation and involvement of various Governors and other governmental office holders, have turned the United States into an authoritarian nightmare that people who lived during the first 60 years of the twentieth century would not recognize. The dream of a “Beacon on the Hill” has devolved into an anything goes scramble for wealth and power. The COVID debacle has been working to play upon fear and bring out the worst in many government officials. Not just in the U.S., also in other countries. After firing people from their jobs because they would not concede to an invasive medical procedure (COVID vaccines), they now bemoan the lack of workers. And after instituting sweeping quarantines which resulted in the permanent closure of many small businesses and much loss of income, poverty and homelessness is a true pandemic. Perhaps one reason people are having difficulty recognizing the money/power grab that is taking place is the fact that it is playing out on a global scale. The means to implement such a scheme have not been available until now. The developments which enable such a scheme include; large international corporations, big media controlled by a few corporations, a large percentage of the world’s wealth captured by a small group of people, politicians dependent upon corporate donations to maintain viability in the arena of big money election campaigns, the list goes on.

Following the example set by historical authoritarian dictators, those behind the curtain of the COVID/”vaccine” campaign fear common people engaging in critical thinking and especially fear information contradictory to their agendas being widely disseminated. They are engaging in grievous violations of the First Amendment guarantee of free speech (among other constitutional protections) and are engaging in defamation and witch hunts of medical and scientific professionals who dare spread information which contradicts the “mainstream” narrative around COVID and the vaccines. Their actions demonstrate the dystopian, authoritarian practices we who grew up during the 1950’s and 60’s were told are some of the methods which communist, totalitarian governments use to brainwash and control their populations.

Now, on the international scene, the G20 has agreed to institute “vaccine passports” purportedly to boost travel and tourism. It seems to me to be placing an artificial constraint on the free flow of people in the world. I grew up watching black and white movies and television shows in which fascist soldiers would come onto trains demanding to see people’s “papers”. I recently experienced something similar on a train trip from Denmark to Germany. At the German border officers walked the aisles of the train to make sure passengers were putting on masks. Even though the passengers had been traveling for some time without masks. When returning to Denmark the authoritarian absurdity of it all was demonstrated again when, at the Danish border, almost all, if not all, passengers removed the masks we were forced to wear in Germany.

We aren’t being protected from COVID, we are being trained to comply. To comply mindlessly and without critical thought. I used to wonder how 6 million Jewish people could allow themselves to be rounded up and marched into ovens. I wondered how the good people, the average citizens, of Germany, Austria and some other countries could have sat by while such an atrocity took place. The answer is to be found simply by taking a hard look at what is happening in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Germany and other countries in which the dictatorial, authoritarian medical technocracy is exerting itself. In the process it is pretty effectively transforming the U.S. constitution from the law of the land into a mere list of suggestions.

Principles or Personalities?

by kendunning, posted in Community, Personal Development, Politics, Psychology, Spirituality

Books, magazines, radio, television, computers, they all have, to a greater or lesser extent, contributed to the phenomena of masses of people becoming enamored with a personality which they have been exposed to via that medium. In the past, in the days in which books, magazines and then radio were the primary media, authors and radio personalities might become famous, even loved, for their contributions. However, the advent of movies, television, and now computers and cell phones has exponentially increased the phenomenon of “consumers” not only liking, or loving, but idolizing the personalities whose faces and words fill these media.

In doing a computer search on the definition of “idolize”, the following definition, attributed to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition. came up on “Wordnik”: “To regard with great or uncritical admiration or devotion.” The descriptor “uncritical” is the key word to why such idolization (of anyone or anything) is not something conducive to genuinely healthy individuals nor a healthy culture. I think all of us, with a few seconds of thought, can come up with the name of a personality that has been the recipient of such idolization in the past and/or the present. I would venture that very often those who are not caught up in the idolization of a particular person can plainly see the downside of such idolization. However, interestingly, even those who can plainly see the downside, the “error” if you will, of idolizing one personality may be actively involved in the idolization of another. In such cases it is a recognition of the imperfections of the object of the idolization, rather than a recognition of the pitfalls inherent in the act of idolization itself. The American practice of idolization is so pervasive, so entrenched, that within certain (many?) Christian churches the idolization of Jesus has become more important than adherence to the vital principles he taught.

Why does it matter? One very important reason is that if a person can be led to believe that it is the idolization, the worship, of a personality that is important, rather than the study and consideration of the vital principles which they proclaim, then a person can be led to violate genuinely vital principles necessary to a healthy person or culture when told to do so by the object of idolization. Or by another person or an agency which they believe represent the object of idolization.

Beware of any person or organization which holds up a personality as someone to be idolized. Both as individuals and as a culture we are much better served by having concern with the principles which enlightened and loving teachers, saints and prophets, through the ages, have brought forward. Principles such persons have endeavored to direct and encourage people to the study and understanding of.

The Family Potluck

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Economics, Health, Politics, Spirituality
Image (c) AlexMax http://www.fotosearch.com

Maybe some have never experienced a large family potluck. I know many have, however, unfortunately, there are probably some who haven’t. If you’re one of them, I hope as your life proceeds you have the opportunity to do so. A large family potluck provides an excellent analogy for how world economics should operate.

First, everybody should contribute. If not in supplying the food, in helping with the set-up or the clean-up. For the most part though, in my experience, participants either individually or as a component family of the larger family group, bring some kind of food. The result can be the most wonderful, varied, delicious collection of edibles one may have ever seen. A dizzying collection of aromas, colors, textures, and finally tastes. It can be difficult knowing where to start, what to put on one’s plate. Some may pick a selective and limited menu, opting for three or four items. While the plates of others may be a microcosm of the dizzying kaleidoscope of food displayed on the serving table. Large family potlucks can be some of the most wonderful feasts, both of food and of fellowship, that one can experience. As long as everyone is considerate, no one takes an inordinate amount of food, then everyone finds themselves delightfully filled.

But what if someone decided that they were going to take all of one of the items rather than a sampling of many offerings? That would put a crimp in things. Or what if someone said that because they had supplied the dinnerware, all the other family members should pay them an exorbitant fee to participate? Maybe someone in the family invented the fork and they want two-thirds of all the food as recompense? (Maybe they should be sent to their room and told to eat their forks?) Maybe someone is an excellent pastry chef and feels that because they have contributed such excellent pies they should be first in line and allowed to fill five plates; one for now and four for later? Or, maybe the elder family members feel age should determine the serving order and if, after they eat their fill and fill a few take-home containers the younger members can fight over the scraps? Or maybe it’s the reverse and the more youthful, belligerent family members forcibly commandeer the table and to hell with everyone else?

Family potlucks should not, and I venture rarely do, require someone to be the “food police”. Oh, sometimes it may require a parent to admonish a child that, for their own good, they should not just fill up on pie. However, generally everyone recognizes the flow and the balance of the gathering and with appropriate consideration for others, things simply flow smoothly and wonderfully.

Do you see where this is going?

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.

Our unsustainable, schizoid, economic reality.

by kendunning, posted in Community, Economics, Oppression, Personal Development, Politics, Spirituality, Sustainability
Photo: Ken Dunning

I was listening to a program on Public Radio this morning. The reality of refugee children, their usually traumatic, desperate life experiences were being detailed. I suppose, for someone living in the U.S. or another country which refugees are fleeing to, one reaction to such a presentation is to feel good that safer harbor is being offered. That is a good thing. However, that is not an ultimate answer to the problem which the current masses of refugees are a symptom of. The overriding problem is the creation of nonviable, unsafe, violent, often deadly conditions in the countries, cultures, and communities from which the refugees are fleeing.

I’m sure that some analysts can point to a myriad of reasons for the horrible conditions which are manifesting in country after country around the world. The Ukraine is the latest country receiving world wide news attention to be experiencing such a descent into hellish conditions. I am fairly confident that there are other countries, other populations, also experiencing such a descent at this time which are not receiving such wide news coverage.

Analysts can take a great amount of time and energy pointing at historical events, cultural proclivities, past wars, historical animosities, and assigning current ravages to such causation can all seem very convincing, and hopelessly complex and irreconcilable. I’m not saying that there are not real contributing reasons to be found in such analyses. However, whenever there is a population experiencing cultural deterioration and the rise of hellish conditions, there are causative factors which are not so complex, culturally specific, nor so perplexing and/or mysterious. There are a few key factors which are common to all such descents into hell being experienced in countries, and among populations, around the world. These factors are:

  • People who occupy key social/political/economic positions that are infected by a compelling lust for the acquisition of wealth and power.
  • Persons of similar mindset who hope to share in the plunder by adopting a subservient attitude toward those waging campaigns of acquisition of wealth and power upon the world.
  • A callous disregard or contempt for the lives and well-being of the general populations held by those involved in the quest for wealth and power and those that support them.
  • An inability, or unwillingness, on the part of the population to resist the depletion and/or destruction of their communities and lives. Sometimes segments of the population may support the cruelty and violence on the part of those in power toward other segments of the population. Thereby becoming accessories in the descent into hell of their country, and ultimately of themselves. This can be the result of a strategy of divide and conquer being implemented by those in power.
  • A desire to exact retribution/revenge on the part of the persecuted segment of the population toward their persecutors. This opens the door for an ongoing cycle of violence, misery, and hell on Earth.

It is important to note that while material wealth and cultural/political power are the currencies of such situations, the driving forces involved are spiritual. The greed, lust, hate, contempt for the lives of others, that underlie all such situations are symptomatic of a toxic, ailing, spiritual reality. One in which all affected know little or no peace nor harmony with the world around them. In essence, the internal spiritual toxicity and sickness of those in power becomes expressed in the conditions of the countries and populations over which they wield power/authority. It is not required to somehow address all the historical factors for healing to occur. What is required is for the persons in the here-and-now, the present, to recognize the destructive reality consistently brought into the world when people lose sight of the innate spiritual need for people to treat one another as we want to be treated. For people to adopt life oriented, life affirming, egalitarian values and actions. To recognize the pervasive divine spirit of life that flows through and connects all life on Earth and throughout the universe.

It may present as a simple proposition, however, it entails people voluntarily, with dedication and commitment, entering into a monitoring of their own thoughts, feelings, and actions. It requires consciously transforming intentionally or inadvertently destructive and/or malevolent motives into benevolent ones. Reorienting the thinking and behavioral patterns that have engendered the descent into hell. It is imminently possible, it does require commitment, dedication and work. I would suggest to anyone entering into that discipline, that a place to start is in recognizing when any thoughts or feelings which entail doing direct or indirect harm to others to take place within your mind then redirect that energy into addressing the provocative issues in a constructive, benevolent manner. What on Earth could be a motive powerful enough to motivate a person to such a reorientation? The realization of what the world can be if humankind can succeed in such a transformation. Studying the works of the saints, prophets, healers, shaman, can help provide material to aide in redefining, reorienting, one’s ingrained, dysfunctional, self-destructive thinking patterns.

So where does the “schizoid” aspect of it all enter in? Contemplate this: in the U.S. and some other Western countries, tax dollars are used, public money, to spend extravagantly on military purposes which often seem to be in support of corporate agendas. Agendas which too often involve killing people and destroying infrastructure in poorer, often Middle Eastern, African, and Asian countries. While there may be some form of industry which takes place as a result, this industry is too often predatory. With a priority on corporate profits the resources, both material and human, of the affected nation are plundered with the nation being left poorer, often fragmented and further traumatized.

“We the People”, via the Government and U.S. corporations allow, subsidize and/or provide weapons or literally are the military force for much, of the murderous destruction that is taking place in the world. Then we have fund raisers and charities and offer refuge to the hapless victims of the enterprises of those enterprises. Band aid responses to sledgehammer blows. If that isn’t schizoid nothing is. However, then we the citizens of the countries in which are home to the persons, corporations, who are the actual driving forces behind all the carnage, the principle profiteers of the plundering and carnage taking place, may feel resentment to the refugees of that plunder and carnage. A resentment born of the perception of increasingly scarce resources going toward foreigners who have not earned those resources.

Often the general populations of the U.S. and other involved Western countries may have an apathetic attitude toward it all, or even support the carnage. Usually while under the trance of the professionally thought out, compelling narratives, those most directly involved and profiting from the carnage are broadcasting. And it gets even worse, The very same people and corporations that are driving and profiting from the aforementioned carnage are also driving and profiting from the policies and practices which are creating the aforementioned increasing scarcity of housing, jobs and other resources in the U.S. and other involved Western Countries.

Most of the work being done to support these wealth and power driven individuals and corporations is being done by people whose own lives, or those of their children, grandchildren are, or will be, negatively affected by the fruits of their labors. It is as irrational a situation as could exist.

We, the people of the world, need to come to our senses, stop aiding and abetting the madness, and treat each other fairly, with understanding and compassion.