Tag: Health

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The three-body problem explains a great deal of why Robert F. Kennedy Jr., or any serious third-party candidate, experiences considerable resistance from the “Establishment”.

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Personal Development, Politics, Science, Spirituality

First, let me define my terminology.  By “Establishment” I mean those entrenched, politically and financially powerful people who jealously guard those aspects of the status-quo which are structured to serve their desires for the ongoing or increased acquisition of worldly wealth and power.  Other terms which I’ve heard used to describe elements of this segment of the world’s population are:  the military-industrial complex, the oligarchy, the 1/10th of 1 percenters, and I’m sure there are other terms used especially in different countries.  Since WWII this segment of the population has done exactly what President Eisenhower warned us about in his 1961 farewell address :  “This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience…[while] we recognize the imperative need for this development…We must not fail to comprehend its grave implications we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence…The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”  Now, from the vantage point of the 21st century, we can say with confidence that President Eisenhower had 20/20 foresight on this issue. 

How does a segment of the population who all have similar, and often overlapping, interests in seeing certain aspects of the world’s socio-economic condition remain at the current status-quo go about accomplishing their goal?  In a word:  control.  Control the banks, the media, elected and unelected officials holding key governmental offices, people holding key leadership positions within the military, the major industries including the energy industry.  Control every thing you can that has to do with the economic, political and the religious/spiritual aspects of public life.  And then, every so often, engage in an exercise in which you make behavioral demands upon the general public using rationales which have no solid foundation in reality just to get the public used to accepting orders blindly.  New technologies make possible levels of monitoring of the behaviors of private citizens which would have been impossible in the 1960’s. 

However, even with the utility of modern surveillance technologies, the ability to sway public opinion using the mainstream media and exotic chemical and electromagnetic technologies, the ability to manipulate what does and does not get into school textbooks, with all this and more, there still are limits on how much any person or group of people, no matter how wealthy or influential, are able to control the masses of humanity.  Within any group of people there are variables of experiences, education, and interests which can serve to foil external attempts to overly control a large population. Which brings us to the three-body problem.

In physics it is exponentially harder to predict the movement of three masses orbiting each other than it is to predict the movement of two masses orbiting each other.  These challenges are known, respectively, as the three-body problem and the two-body problem.  We can learn from this that even when we are talking about objects which are inanimate mass, there are a variety of forces which can come into play.   trying to predict the behavior of three objects orbiting each other is very difficult.  Co-Pilot AI has these things to say regarding the three-body problem:  “…while the two-body problem is a straightforward calculation, the three-body problem requires complex numerical simulations and does not have a one-size-fits-all solution, making it exponentially harder to predict.”  

So, if coming up with a long-term prediction of the movements of three masses orbiting each other is very hard if not impossible, if your task is to predict the movement of masses over an extended period of time wouldn’t you appreciate it if you could trim the problem down from three to only two masses?  Then, imagine how much harder even the two-body problem becomes if you’re dealing with human beings rather than inanimate objects.  Inanimate objects whose essential characteristics are fixed and predictable. 

With any two or more humans variations within their internal ecology and worldview are not only possible they are likely if not inevitable. Also changes to those conditions can and do occur at any given moment.  Such variations, especially spontaneous changes within those variations, produce unpredictable independent variables: chaos.   We can safely say that it is exponentially more complex to predict, never mind control, the movements of three people as opposed to only two. 

When the “body” in question is group of people, such as a political party, then any attempt at predicting or controlling that body is going to depend largely upon having one or more key “influencers” within the group. Even then, factors beyond the control of those who wish to exert it can enter in and confound things.  

Think about it, if a relatively small, covert group of people have invested countless hours of research, a great deal of financial investment and managed to acquire great power and influence within not just one, but two major political parties, how willing would you be to simply surrender that control? Especially if the exercise of power and influence within those two parties translated into enormous power and influence within the involved nation. What the realities inherent in three-body problem ensure is that if a third viable political party emerges within that system you better be prepared to expend exponentially greater amounts of human and financial resources if you want to maintain the same degree of power and influence which you have become accustomed to, For those wishing to control the system I don’t think it would be overstating things to say that is a monumental problem. When the system in question is the electoral and political system of the United States, I submit that for the average citizen desiring the system to work in the manner we have been taught that it is supposed to, the three-body problem becomes a great blessing.

This is the reality facing the people and the American political process at this time. Increasingly over the past few decades we have seen the Presidential election process become harder and harder for any aspiring candidate who is outside the mainstream political current to become a viable candidate for the Presidency or any elected position on the Federal level. Two major events which helped bring about this reality one is the repeal of the fairness doctrine of the Federal Communications Commission which became a policy in 1949. This doctrine “…was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that fairly reflected differing viewpoints.”, Wikipedia. While there were controversies which emerged regarding the doctrine, rather than amending it where it may have rightfully required doing so, in 1987 the decsion was made within the FCC to abolish it. This decision made coverage by the media of elections, candidates and their views something totally up to the discretion of whoever controlled any particular media outlet. What this translates into in today’s reality of increasingly monopolized big corporation media is that we hear what they want us to hear and we see what they want us to see. What we are seeing is that the mainstream media is all but completely ignoring RFK Jr.’s candidacy. Further that whenever there is some mention of his positions it is usually in the form of pejoratives and cartoons which ridicule but never explain. This prejudiced closed system fighting to maintain a dominance over our political reality is a manifestation of what President Eisenhower was warning us about in his farewell address.

The second major event which has assisted in increasing the control a relative few are wielding within the U.S. Presidential/Congressional election process was the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling on the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC). This ruling in essence turned the possibility of running a campaign to be elected to any Federal office into an exclusive club for the extravagantly wealthy. If a candidate is not extravagantly wealthy, to have any chance of success at all it is all but required that they have sufficient backing from people who are. These days it seems “donating” extravagant funds into any candidate’s campaign coffers is akin to investing in that candidate as a business venture. While the emergence of a viable third (fourth, fifth, etc.) party does not in and of itself do away with the Citizens United v. FEC ruling, by negatively affecting the ability of any group to predict and control the total field of candidates running for Federal office it increases the chances that someone with a mindset more sympathetic to the living conditions of average Americans might be elected to office. Which might lead to an effort to see that ruling repealed.

One thing American citizens need to be aware of is that while some or possibly even many of the people who have acquired this “unwarranted influence” are Americans by birth or naturalization, that cannot be said for the totality of those that have done so. Also, whether they are U.S. citizens or not, their actions are not limited in any way to affairs within the United States.  Their agendas and their actions are transnational. 

I would venture that even if RFK Jr’s political aims were largely consistent with the goals of those exercising unwarranted influence his candidacy might well still be regarded as problematic by them.  This is due to the aforementioned three-body problem and the complications inherent in allowing a viable third party to emerge within the American political system.  But RFK Jr.’s stated political aims clearly aren’t all that consistent with the goals of those, again, wielding unwarranted influence within the governmental policies and practices of the United States.  The same could have been (and was) said of the aims of his uncle, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his father Robert F. Kennedy in their political careers.  I, for one, do not want to see the violence that befell these two Kennedy brothers in the 1960’s, or any violence at all, become a reality within the election or political processes in our current time.  We ought to be able to use our reasoning abilities to conceive of and work with positive aims and actions that benefit all of humanity.  To do anything less is to fail, again, to recognize the truth within another, lesser-known quote from President Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell address:  “…America’s leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.” 

Lastly, I would like to call attention to the subject of chaos and what it means in regard to the health of the American culture.  First, there are a few different interpretations of the world “chaos”. The online Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines chaos as: 

“1 a: a state of utter confusion

the blackout caused chaos throughout the city

b: a confused mass or mixture

a chaos of television antennas

2 a often capitalized : a state of things in which chance is supreme

especially : the confused unorganized state of primordial matter before the creation of distinct forms…”

b : the inherent unpredictability in the behavior of a complex natural system (such as the atmosphere, boiling water, or the beating heart)” (My italics.)

I think that quite possibly the average person’s mental image of chaos is something like a scene in a movie in which a 200 ft. tall reptile emerges from the ocean and begins wreaking havoc.  The behavior of the populace is usually quite chaotic in such scenes.  This type of chaos is what is defined in “1 a” above.   

However, I think the best definition for the type of chaos which people who are oriented toward predicting and controlling a governmental, cultural or other human involved situation are facing is that found in “2 b” above.  “Inherent unpredictability” does not lend itself well to attempts at control.  Yet, as stated in the definition, this type of chaos is inherent in the behavior of a complex system. This implies that the behaviors we think of as “chaos” in a complex system are in fact essential aspects of the processes of growth and development within these systems. These “chaotic” behaviors are meant to be present and if curtailed it is at the risk of jeapordizing the natural processes at work up to and including the health, the viability of any living organism.

When we human beings set out to control one aspect of nature or another we have to be aware that any overly intrusive, overly rigid type of control, relative to the nature of the subject of control, is most likely going to have a profound deleterious effect on the thing we are trying to control. One example of this is that if people are compelled to think in a rigidly controlled manner. What we have seen historically is that their creativity is going to suffer for it. Back in the days of the Cold War (approx. 1945-1989) between the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, this was a criticism often levelled at the more rigidly controlled cultures within the Eastern Bloc. A perusal of the music and the art which were being produced within the Western and Eastern Blocs provides a clear reference point on the truth in that criticism. It’s not that no worthwhile music or art was being produced within the Eastern Bloc, however, at the same time the West was enjoying an explosion of creativity in these and many other areas.

In order to have a healthy human culture it is necessary to find a viable balance between structure and freedom. The cultures within the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War obviously went too far down the path of rigid structure. Some might say certain behaviors, such as the Hippie subculture taking place in the Western Bloc went too far toward individual freedom. But I would say that in order to have a healthy, viable human culture we must have the tolerance to allow for the exploration of radical departures from some norms at any given time. However, there is real danger to the health of a culture posed by the extremes of either overly dismissing cultural organization and structure, which is at one end of what might be called a structure-freedom continuum, or to trying to impose a pervasive totalitarian rule on the other.

At this time those with “unwarranted influence” are currently moving us toward an ever-increasing culture of totalitarian control. Citizens United, the criteria for a candidate to be included in the nationally broadcast debates, the monopolization of our national media along with the control/censorship which has attended this development are all serving to restrict not just the number of candidates in a Presidential election, these factors are even determining to a very great extent who is allowed to be among that number. It seems that one of the goals of those moving us toward a totalitarian state is that the common U.S. citizen may have a choice between two candidates but both of those candidates will have been vetted and approved by those controlling the system.

As controls tighten within our culture, every new rule and/or development that limits the freedoms of and/or diminishes the economic health of the general public works to further quash the inherent desire for freedom and creativity within all of humanity.

That is why Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s third party bid for the Presidency at this time is such an important thing. Almost regardless of his platform just his presence in the field of viable candidates serves to bring alive the three-body problem on the national political scene. If he is elected that will be a significant step in loosening the controls those with unwarranted influence have imposed and interfering with the imposition of further totalitarian policies. More directly, RFK Jr.’s stated goals include several which further threaten the agendas of those with or seeking unwarranted political/cultural influence.

These things explain a lot about why the Establishment is endeavoring so diligently to consign RFK Jr. to obscurity. The act of denying him traditional Secret Service protection is just one more indicator of the level of threat they perceive in him. Those holding unwarranted influence within the United States have no desire to relinquish any of their ever-tightening political/cultural control. Political/cultural control which is to a significant extent enabled by the predictability and controllability of Presidential and Congressional elections being limited to a two-body problem.

It is time we address the underlying pandemic of our age.

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

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. 

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.

In today’s worldwide culture of pervasive greed, deceit and competition, is it still possible to genuinely be of service to one’s community?

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

The short answer: yes! However…

How many average citizens foresaw the kind of dystopian world we are facing in 2022?.  There were some prophets who did foresee such a world, Biblical prophets and prophets within other spiritual disciplines.  There were prophets within literature and other media.  George Orwell for one, and others whose names aren’t coming to me at this time.  In the United States of America, and in many other countries, the agencies, laws, standards of community behavior which humanity as a whole has been working to develop for centuries, millennia, have to a great degree been perverted.  In every field of human endeavor, the various disciplines and fields of science; medicine, public health, banking, insurance, education, psychology, sociology, religion, agriculture, energy production, communication, journalism, and government, have all to a significant extent seen their original purposes, their organizing principles, deviated from the service of promoting the well being of individuals, communities, and societies to the service of the acquisition of power and wealth by a relative few. A relative few who are willing, and increasingly able, to inflict whatever injustices, assaults, and other harms upon humanity they deem necessary or desirable in order to achieve their aims. 

Medicine is no longer about the health of the patient, it is increasingly about turning a profit.  Public health is about seeing that regulations which would hamper the machinations of the profit motive of industry do not become reality.  Agriculture is no longer about the production of healthful, wholesome, nutritious food, it is about producing profit.  Energy production is not about producing clean, abundant energy for communities and industry, it is about keeping the profits flowing to owners of the existing obsolete energy production systems.  Psychology is not primarily about increasing our understanding of human mental functioning in order to promote health and well-being, it has shifted to primarily serving the goals of manipulating populations to serve the agendas of those relative few in their pursuit of power and wealth.  Communication: the media, television, radio, movies, and journalism have in large measure become merely the public relations devices for that relative few.  Education has become about children learning how to follow the rules and perform the tasks within industry and the military which they foresee needing.  Banking and insurance are no longer primarily about providing services which help keep individuals, communities, and societies economically whole and healthy but are, again, turned to serving the acquisition of power and wealth by those relative few.  Within religion, the saying that religion is the opiate of the masses has never been more applicable.  And government? There may never have been a time when more governments around the world, most assuredly including the Government of the United States of America, have prostituted themselves more completely to the interests of the moneyed few.

It is necessary to qualify the above statements with the statement that every single field of endeavor which is mentioned above still has practitioners, workers, who are motivated and struggling to serve the benevolent goals which generally were present when that field of endeavor came into being.  And we certainly need more. 

Again, however…

The challenge facing individuals who aspire to a life of benevolent service is the increasing power within the respective systems of those whose hearts and minds are captured by the lures of wealth and power. Too often such individuals have captured the reins of control within the respective endeavor and use that control to render even those of genuinely benevolent motive subservient to their agendas. 

Can a person of genuinely good intent manage to negotiate the obstacle course of perversions within their field of study and manage to acquire useful knowledge and bring their aspiration of genuine public service to fruition?  Yes, just as it has been possible at any time in all of human existence, it is possible now.  However, for such individuals to be able to keep the integrity of their honorable purpose, it requires work.  Work in developing self awareness and a constant vigilance for the sometimes subtle, sometimes tempting, and sometimes intimidating attempts at corrupting that honorable purpose and their (your) personal integrity, which they (you) will face.

Of all the challenges a person who genuinely seeks to serve humanity, and of course earn a decent living will face, the one which manages to derail the honest intentions of the greatest number of people is the lure of greed.  Either you will be expected to accept as normal the greed of the people whom you work for; to serve it and feed it.  Or you will be groomed to believe that you deserve an inordinate, exorbitant income yourself.  And of course your bosses deserve more because, well, they’re your bosses.  Contemporary civilization has not only almost completely ignored all the warnings of the prophets and sages against greed, it has been glorified.  

It is an inescapable reality that no matter the nobility nor the utility of the products or services which an individual or group of individuals may contribute to a people, the benefits provided can be ultimately outweighed by the harms done if the economic costs to provide the product or services captures an inordinate amount of the economic resources of those purchasing those products or services.

To withstand the lures, temptations and intimidation of those who have captured enormous wealth and power, largely through their narrow focus on the pursuit of those things, it helps greatly to have some understanding of the true, enduring nature of our existence. The more, the better.  There are enduring, spiritual reasons why, for centuries, actions such as lying, stealing, cheating, greed, murder; in general harming other people through overly self-centered actions, have been discouraged.  Someone might say, of course they were discouraged, they are wrong.  However, why are they wrong?  Are they wrong merely because they defy some arbitrary rules which humans made up because they seemed like the thing to do?  No, the reasons run deeper than that.  The reasons such actions have been so universally discouraged through the ages have to do with the interconnected nature of humanity.  Routinely and callously engaging in actions which foster distrust, hatred, fear, and poverty in others erodes the spiritual/social fabric we all need to be healthy. The spiritual/social fabric we need in order to achieve our highest potential as a species on this planet.

In summary, it is possible to have a life of service to humanity. Not one of self-sacrifice, but one in which worthwhile service is rewarded with a worthwhile wage. However, there is no shortage of individuals, groups, corporations, who will strive to see that service turned to their exclusive benefit regardless of however harmful the result may be to humanity as a whole. They are skilled at appealing to a person’s ego in achieving that goal. Such individuals, groups, corporations are regrettably short sighted. They have yet to realize that ultimately such an agenda is as harmful to them as to those whose well-being they routinely hold in contempt.

The solution to this situation is one which spiritual leaders and many religions have been proclaiming for centuries, not always phrased exactly the same, the meaning is: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Applying this concept to our lives is not always as simple as saying it. It takes effort, self-knowledge. However, ultimately, we see everyday in many horrible situations around the world where the alternative leads us. It’s time to embrace idealism.

News from the battlefront…

by kendunning, posted in Covid-19, Health, Healthcare, Medicine, Science, Vaccines

What Dr. David Martin has to share is not good news. It is not what most people want to hear. However, the salient question is “is it true”? While truth stands whether or not anyone chooses to believe it, as individuals we all make our own decisions on what we believe or don’t believe. In the important, worldwide, discussions around COVID and the mRNA vaccines I hope you will take the time to investigate what is being put forward by doctors and scientists on both sides of the discussion.

I am dedicating this post to expanding the viewership of this interview of Dr. David Martin. It is approximately 1 hr. in length. I hope you will view it and consider/research the assertions made within it.

An interview on the current lawsuit in the U.S. regarding the COVID/VAX campaign.

More information on mRNA writing itself into the DNA:

Pfizer mRNA vaccine goes into liver and changes into DNA, Swedish study finds

Doctors explaining the Swedish discovery on a talk show.

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

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

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

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

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

The imperative need to recognize that we are an interconnected people.

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Environment, Health, Personal Development, Science, Spirituality, Unified Field
Image (c) AlexMax http://www.fotosearch.com

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A personal Q and A around COVID and the vaccines.

by kendunning, posted in Community, Covid-19, Health, Healthcare, Medicine, Science, Vaccines
Image: (c) solarseven http://www.fotosearch.com

After a couple years of reading and listening to the information being put forward by the media and by many doctors and other highly qualified scientists and researchers, I decided to do a Q and A type format to share what I have learned so far regarding COVID and the mRNA vaccines. These answers may seem vague. They are not intended to be definitive. For the average person on the street, trying to find definitive answers around COVID and the vaccines can be a little like trying to grab an eel. There is no shortage of “true believers” on either side of the vaccine issue looking to proselytize you. It behooves all of us to look into this subject from both the pro and con perspectives. Possibly this Q and A can help you begin to formulate a viable risk/benefit analysis for your own decisions. Keep in mind that all my opinions are based upon information which I have found published by either medical doctors or other qualified professionals who took the time to address the COVID issue. We all need to vet the professionals we choose to believe in this convoluted, controversial issue.

Q. Does COVID exist? A. Yes. There seems to be little dispute among qualified doctors and scientists that the COVID virus exists.

Q. Are some people dying from COVID? A. Yes.

Q. Do some people survive COVID without having been vaccinated? A. Yes.

Q. Does having been vaccinated reduce the severity of symptoms if contracting COVID? A. For some, not for all.

Q. Are there some lasting adverse health effects from having had COVID? A. For some.

Q. Are there risks associated with taking the vaccines? A. Yes. For some more than others.

Q. Are some people dying from the vaccines? A. Yes.

Q. Are some people experiencing severe, but non-fatal, adverse effects from the vaccines? A. Yes.

Q. Do all people who receive the vaccines experience lasting, adverse side effects? A. No.

Q. Does being vaccinated mean that you cannot transmit COVID to others? A. No.

Q. Do the vaccine manufacturers, or the governments which mandate vaccines, stand behind them by paying for losses due to adverse side effects? A. No. (This was something which was determined before the vaccines were released.)

Q. Is it more dangerous for a school aged child to be vaccinated than to contract COVID? A. It depends upon the child. For some children, taking the vaccine has produced tragic results.

Q. Are there effective treatments, other than vaccines, which are being used to protect people from COVID? A. Yes.

Q. Are these “other than vaccine” treatments safe and effective? A. Some are definitely safer and more effective than others.

Q. Can my doctor tell me if I am someone at a greater or lesser risk for adverse side effects if I am trying to decide whether or not to be vaccinated? A. With the amount of time that vaccinations have been taking place, and with the tens of thousands of cases of those who have experienced adverse side effects available for review, one might tend to think so. However, ask your doctor.

Q. If, due to pre-existing conditions, I believe I am at higher risk for an adverse reaction to the vaccines, will my doctor prescribe one or more of the medications which are showing efficacy in treating COVID? A. Ask your doctor. Good luck with that.

Q. Is the blanket statement that the vaccines are safe and effective true? A. No. Results in both areas, safety and effectiveness, can and do vary, sometimes greatly, from individual to individual.

Q. Especially with relatively safe and effective alternative treatments available, why isn’t the highly regarded practice of individual treatment plans, which take an individual’s existing health issues and personal lifestyle choices into account, being used when prescribing, or administering, mRNA vaccines? A. Good question.

Q. Is it true the sale of vaccines is producing extravagant profits for some? A. Yes.

Again, this Q and A presentation is not meant to be a definitive review of the topics presented. In fact, it may well produce more questions for you than answers. If so, that can be a good thing if you follow through and research the information, both pro and con, on the questions you have.