Completing Humanities Longest Running Experiment

It started as a provincial experiment… and then it went viral.

 

Meme: a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition and replication in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.

Or, in other words a meme is the core idea or video, etc, that goes viral. The meaning of the word “meme” has itself behaved like a virus, evolving to evoke the idea of a seed paradigm, a thought that is a progenitor of a family of thoughts or models.

Our world is currently facing a sequence of oncoming calamities. Uncle Albert was on target when he pointed out that –

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”

– Albert Einstein

We simply must choose some radically new paths while letting go some deep and longstanding habits. I would go further to say that our tasks is to do this while accelerating our use of time (in an already accelerated world) and to do this we must actually gain control of several of our root memes. We HAVE to be WILLING TO QUESTION EVERYTHING. Including some sacred cows. Usually these fundamental thoughts are taken as A Priori (something that is so self-evident that it needs no proof.) But are they, really?

 “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

– Albert Einstein

Here are a few preliminary perspectives to help us move forward:

1. Axiom 1: It is not necessary to know how to do something to take it on and get it done. If that were so, we would have nothing, we would be nothing. If the inventor of the car needed to know how to make a car before setting out to invent it…there would currently be no autos. In every case the desire to create comes before knowing how to and then we create how to do it as we go. After that it’s a matter of repetition. Same goes for walking…first desire, then will to do it, then achievement.
2. Axiom 2: Until we step outside of the box, we may not know that there is a box, or that we are trapped in the box… with this there’s no way forward.
3. A posteriori 1: How do we step outside of the box when we’re barely aware of the box? Through the use of the mind as a tool rather than the mind using us as its tool. Our intuition can take us out of the box if we learn to use it instead of letting mind run us.

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

– Albert Einstein

OK, if we basically agree on these we’re suited up and prepared for our expedition. The destination…

The Money Meme

Money is not necessary.

Not even a little bit. It’s an experiment that we’ve engaged for several millennia that is finally coming to fruition. We now have all the necessary data that a rational scientist would need to come to some conclusions. However, very few of us are scientists and far fewer still are rational. We are, instead, human-beings and possess other strengths that we must come to utilize in time to, well, survive our research projects.

In fact, the only purpose I have been able to solidly identify for the current existence of money boils down to this simple point:

Money is designed to get people to do what they do NOT want to do.  It is a primary path to the usurpation of free will. I have done the math on this 7 ways from Sunday and that’s what it always boils down to.

So I have two simple questions for you (and I will pose them more than once – because ‘it’s a process’):

1. Are you pro free will?
2. Are you interested in or at least curios about life in a world beyond money?

I am not asking you for or presenting you with ways to get there. I am NOT interested in providing specific paths to get there. This tends to be the single biggest distraction that our resistance generates regarding this question. So with that out of the way…let’s  look at some of our primary blocks.

Some Common Concerns:

1. How would we pay for things or know what anything is worth without money?
2. How will we eat, have housing, survive?
3. In general terms how will we conduct business?
4. Are you suggesting Barter? That’s way too cumbersome!
5. I don’t see how we’d ever get there.
6. Do you have a BETTER idea!?

I’m going to reduce these to three broad categories:

1. How will we get there/Do you have a better idea? (Note Albert’s 2^nd quote and Axiom 1))
2. How will I get people to do those things I’m not willing or able to do?
3. How will I get my stuff?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mackle: [mak-uh l].

Noun: A blur in printing, as from a double impression.

Verb :  (Used with object), verb (used without object),mackled, mackling. To blur, as from a double impression in printing.

Transmission of Value

Supply and demand are the most common metrics for setting value. This is followed by the concept of ‘transmission of value’ which is predicated on the notion that money provides some stability of value. Some would say that the value is in the eye of the beholder and therefore we need a way to universally agree on that value and that without money (or some other abstract method of valuation) there would be no perception of value or there would be no way to share value.

With this we can see how we get our value from money. That is to say we value some people more and others less based on the amount of money that they have or can generate.  There are other criteria by which we assign value.

Yet transmission of value is based on the perception of lack, which is a created perception that is not real. In other words – “Transmission of value?” Why?

What Do We Truly Lack?

Certainly not diamonds.

Example: In the early 80’s I was a co-owner/operator of a business that hosted a (if not the first) gem stone market index. This was all about establishing the values of gem stones; many of which are used solely for investment purposes. Eventually we were approached by DeBeers Consolidated Mines. They wanted to purchase the system to secure a way to better control the valuation of diamonds which had been thought to be rare. In fact diamonds were not and are not rare. Of course the largest and clearest and most unique are rare but otherwise not. This had begun to come to light toward the end of the previous decade. To maintain their value by rarity, the cartel actually scuttled a ship load of some of their ‘best’ diamonds somewhere in the deepest part of the North Sea. Waste is one of the best ways to maintain lack.

Certainly not fuel.

Example: Many cars, trucks and even heavy equipment can be run almost as is on alcohol (ethanol). Ethanol can be distilled from organic matter grown for that purpose or food waste, even at a community based, local industrial, level. The American farming industry, in that era prior to its takeover by Agri-biz, was powered by pollution free alcohol until it was rerouted to petroleum during prohibition.

This was the fuel of choice throughout the US and much of Europe prior to the petroleum revolution (led by John D Rockefeller.) Alcohol was the fuel that powered German mobility during the Second World War; making severance of the fuel supply line almost impossible, since it was being produced provincially.

Currently the vast majority of cars on the road could be converted to alcohol. If it’s not already a Flex Fuel vehicle there may need to be modifications to the computer. Too much trouble for clean cheap fuel? I wonder why most of us have never heard of this.

Certainly not food.

Example: Here’s something you may not have known: In 2008, we grew enough food for 11 billion people. (Video version) We are a planet of approximately 7 billion people. What happened to the excess?

Funding the Cure

The principle of rapid breakdown and replace or breakdown and repair is nowhere better demonstrated than in marriage between the MedTech-Pharmaceutical and the Banking industries. There are so many approaches to this that we’ll need to pick one. How about researching disease cures?

We think that research is about finding ways to cure disease. It is not. Research is most often intended to create maintenance drugs and protocols. It is rapidly becoming clear that there will be no cure for AIDS and there will probably be no cure for cancer (at least until it can be replaced with something that we find at least as engaging and frightening; say for example – Ebola.) However we will have great success in developing maintenance pharmacology to sustain any illness or disease that shows up, for the duration of the patient’s life; and we will be ‘eternally’ grateful for these. That is to say we will go from being people to being patients, until death do us (patients and Big Pharma) part. As long as we are maintained on those drugs we will be paying money to the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries. All talk of cure soon degenerates into the incremental hope for one more day of survival. People will pay for survival every single day for the rest of their lives. A cure provides only a single payday. Cancer will never be cured. The common cold will never be cured. But we will forever generate wonder drugs to help us feel better while we harbor these necessary diseases. Why are they necessary? Is it natural? No. It’s fiscal. It’s by intention.

In Closing Part 1

I am grateful for the opportunity to finally begin this communication. Third time’s the charm.

I have tried to get this one out at least twice in the past. I’ve written this blog, in its entirety, and in each case prior to publication…the whole thing has disappeared. The first time it was somehow disappeared from two or three separate storage devices; two hard drives and one thumb drive. Nothing else seemed to have been lost. The second time vanished a hand written version on PAPER, while in the process of being transcribed to a digital file. Let me clarify by saying that I DON’T believe it was erased by the NSA or some other surveillance organization. And I seriously doubt it was tampered with by sprites, demons, ifreets, djinn, ghosts, archons or any other such characters. More likely than not it’s been my own unconscious resistance to enter this conversation, publicly. Although one can never know for certain.

But, what the hell. Let’s do this. Let’s talk about the unspeakable. Isn’t that what we do here?

Next

Next we’ll continue to examine the twists in our minds, those assumptions that have made this topic unthinkable. We’ll take a moment to muse what a world without money might look like; for example finding out how we might still manage to get our “stuff.” We’ll also get to what this has to do with free will. You may remember that we took a brief foray into that topic a little while back. We’ll meet a few pundits of the money topic (maybe one of them has some answers.) And finally we’ll circle back to find a reason for bringing to light what is, in any event, inevitable; the end of money.

Until next time… Bon fete’!

Extras:

This time all the relevant extras have been embedded in the text. For your convenience, they were:

One of Michael Pollen’s Food Rules which demonstrates that hunger is not based on true lack:

Here’s something you may not have known: In 2008, we grew enough food for 11 billion people.

Source: www.Upworthy.com

Alcohol, the pollution free, corporate free, easy to access fuel of past and future. Here you will find an interview with David Blume, author of “Alcohol Can Be A Gas.”

Source: www.TheHighersideChats.com

The real costs and worth of extending life. One economic look at what we are willing to pay to stay alive…and more.

Worth.

Source: www.Radiolab.org

Free Will Part One

Oh no…Free Will. What a bother…

Part One of the “Free Will” Series

FREE WILL

Means just that – Free Will!

Now that includes the use of one’s free will to give up that very same self-determination AND that plugs into other’s free will to impose their will on, well, you. If you exercise your free will to relinquish it (your free will) this can nicely dovetail with another’s (free) will to subjugate.

It’s all quite fair and galactically legal.

Now, if you relinquish your free will for, say, comfort or even luxury (fancy comfort), or perhaps for the illusion of power, and your keepers decide, at a later date, to take your stuff (‘cause it’s really their stuff), imprison, kill or even eat you – so be it. You chose to relinquish your free will.

If you decide to plead the case – ‘I didn’t see it coming’, or perhaps ‘He LIED to me!’ Well – Boo hoo.

If you think this is an academic topic, you are deeply asleep.

If you think this is a moot point, you have taken the blue pill and need not visit this blog conversation again… enjoy your life, see you on the other side.

What CAN one do to acquire (arguably – recover) one’s free will?

GAINING OR REGAINING FREE WILL

This is what a great number of blogs are about…though some are about capturing your free will, as stated above. So that (the former) being the case, let’s keep it as simple as possible.

1. Reconsider and choose again. Sincerely choose to regain your free will. If you choose this path, declare it out loud. Actually speak it.
2. Dig deep. Learn to look into your heart and ask yourself to give yourself an honest answer re. how and where you have relinquished your personal will. This option is not truly open to most people as most of us have lost the knack for hearing the truth; particularly from ourselves.
3. Learn to look for the signs of subjugation. Scour the news until you find someone, some group of people that you KNOW is subjugated by someone or something. For you this might be Republicans, or Democrats, or politicians who have sold themselves or those who believe in a fundamental religion (Christian, Islamic, a cult it doesn’t matter – whichever one sticks out for you.) Then begin to look for those signs that cause you to think that these people are subjugated. Jot these telltales down on a piece of paper. By the way – It IS important that you jot them down. Pretty much anyone using any of these recovery methods should do this piece.
4. Notice how YOU are subjugated. Notice that you THINK it’s necessary. Most of us believe that life must be filled with that which you don’t want as a trade to get some of what you DO want. And for the most part, most of us have certainly constructed a reality that validates that. Without trying to correct it, simply notice what you trade to live…or rather, survive.
5. Be honest with yourself about everything all the time. If you think you already are ask yourself these questions:
   • “_Your Name Here_, are you honest with me about everything?” Wait for an answer.
   • “_Your Name Here_, am I honest with you about everything?” Wait for the answer.

Now once you pose these questions continue to pay attention. Their answer will continue to pour in over time. Whenever you sincerely pay attention to your unconscious mind, particularly if you can suspend judgment for moments at a pop, it will reward you by perking up and giving you a real response. It’s rather like a child that has been neglected for a long time. If you change your ways and pay attention to and love it, it will eventually sense your sincerity and respond.

However if, with this question, you immediately hear the answer – ‘Why of course we’re honest with each other all the time,’ you have already taken the blue pill and you need not bore yourself with these conversations again.

I admit – this one’s a toughie. But it IS feasible and the rewards are high.

6. Get help from someone who is committed to your “empowerment.” This can be tricky. On one hand getting some good qualified support will tend to quicken your path. On the other hand people often trick themselves into joining those who are committed to subjugation. There are communities of sincere seekers; yet often even these are peppered with ‘those who know better’; you know, those who know what’s best for you. The key here, as well as with any of the above, is your sincerity and willingness to look at yourself and your world honestly, and the willingness to listen to your intuition. Self validate! It may take some practice to discern the difference between your intuition and those deprecating voices from the past. I emphasized the latter because it’s usually the louder of the two – certainly during the earlier stages of these practices.

OK… that’s all for Part One. Good luck to all of you who have chosen the Red Pill. Those that have chosen the Blue Pill don’t need my best wishes.

EXTRAS

Closing Number:  433

How to: Hacking Your Own Mind: A way back to choice

Recommended Podcast: When Free Will Plays Tricks on You. The Love and Radio Podcast.

Guest Web or Blog: Snap Judgment

If you found this one soothing, let me know.

If you found this one irritating, well, that’s good to know too.

And Then You Find Out Your New Neighbors Are…

In Case of Grizzly

 

Do not panic – your safety depends on remaining calm. If the bear clacks its teeth together, “woofs,” pants, growls or slaps its feet on the ground, it is warning you to back off.

• Do not run or make sudden movements.
• Back away very slowly.
• Talk quietly to the bear, do not shout.
• Group together, pick up small children
• Leave your pack on for added protection.
• Avoid direct eye contact with the bear

 

 

Have you ever experienced that moment when something that matters to you is, for the most part, out of your hands?

There comes a point when you look at a goal you’re attempting to achieve, or perhaps something you’ve been working to create and you see that you’ve done everything you can to make it happen…and now you just have to sit back and trust the process. Knowing that whatever comes out the other end will be the best possible result, no matter how it seems at first?

I would wager that you have. If you really haven’t had this experience you may be too young to be reading this material or you may want to look into what HH the Dalai Lama refers to as “Loving Kindness.” If the latter case fits you – stop here and look that up.

Recently that’s shown up for me as “I’ve done all I can do for now. Now it’s time to wait.” Patience and impatience are both necessary in the creative process.

Yeshua Takes a Nap

 

While We’re Waiting ….

About a year and a half ago, right in the middle of moving from our home of ten years (awkward) I hosted a retinue of angels. They were not announced as Archangels, though I must say they felt, to me like Archangels. Through several lives I have had dealings with angels in particular and other non-human or post-human ‘spirit’ forms as well. It has been alleged that one of my previous personalities (not this incarnation – this was a few centuries ago) was primarily responsible for retrieving the Enochian language, which is still used in some magickal circles, to this day, to commune with many life forms in the spirit world. Yet, I only became conscious of this, as contact with Angelic beings, about 3 or 4 years ago. I’d often had a sense that many of the ideas that moved through me were not ‘mine’ but I’d never delved into their source, I had some vague sense that they were ‘from out there’ – something from another level of energy and being other than my tethered base, here at the Daily Planet; same place we all work. This was particularly true once I became sharply attuned to music and eventually joined a band. I’d channel flows of experience; and because I rarely ‘practiced’ (only played) I would often suffer tremendous cramping in my hands and arms. Mid-concert my hands might lock-up, bringing members of our band to the rescue with blue valiums to ensure we’d complete our gig. What ever it was, it wanted to come through.

Finally and rather suddenly one morning a few year ago while writing I found a distinct and definitive voice coming through, that was not mine. Though my conversational capacity is not currently at its peak, I can still communicate with several Archangels (some very well known) and a few (as they are popularly referred to these days) ‘ascended masters.’

Recently I’ve come to understand that many angelic beings are headed for incarnation on several earths. Though I can speculate, I don’t fully understand what is meant by the use of plural earths – so no need to ask me what this means. I’ll tell you when I know more.

Though they have mastered higher dimensions they are coming here for the ‘physical experience.’ Before long many beings, that we think of as ‘of a higher order’ will be coming to earth to experience embodied enlightenment. The material plane has become and is about to become an even more interesting and perhaps crowded place; although who knows, given the plural earths buisness. Humans have a great deal to do with ‘selling’ the big move to matter. We have demonstrated something(s) that has drawn great interest. What do you think that could be?

Now would be a good time for us to stand, brush off our dusty genes, claim ourselves, be the masters that we intend to be and allow this world to metamorphose; as it is wont to do.

Extra Points

Great examples of modern day mastery:

• Cesar Millan, The Dog Whisperer
• Stacy London and Clinton Kelly with their team on What Not to Wear.

These people are masters who demonstrate transformation through their very specific windows; changing lives (in deep and meaningful ways that must make the psychiatric skin crawl); reshaping reality through their being.

More New Neighbors: Snowy Owls Moving to Florida

Having Fun with Angelic Incarnations

Perhaps every form of media, from paintings, books, movies, TV shows and even video games have portrayed human – angel contact, either to higher or disastrous effect. I like movies so here are just a few:

Helpful or Guardian Angels In Movies

A Life Less Ordinary 

It’s a Wonderful Life

The Heavenly Kid

Legion

Knowing

 

(Materiallly) Incarnating Angels

Wings of Desire and remake City of Angels

The Bishop’s Wife and remake The Preacher’s Wife

Michael

Meet Joe Black

Supernatural (TV Series – beginning Season 4, Ep 1) I find this handling creative, provacative and entertaiing.

Date with an Angel

 

Mischeivious Angels

Constantine

Dogma

The Prophecy series

Here’s a longer list of Angel related movies. Also see IMDB for more info.

What difference does this make?  Why do I bring this up now?  Wow…only a human or a cat would ask such a question. Kinda funny coming from a species that made the movie “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” possible!

 

Detect Magick: Addendum 1

Ooooo, I’m All Wobbley

Back in the late 60s one of the spokespersons for the Great Transition (the Hippy movement, Counter Culture, The Psychedelic Awakening, Yippy Culture, etc), by the name of Stephen Gaskin, identified the 11^th Commandment as “You do too know what I mean.” I would bring that up to date by rephrasing it – “You do know.” I’d guess Gaskin would amend that to ‘You do know and you know you know.’

That some people will look at this and remember that only a few days ago I also said something to the effect – ‘Knowing is the enemy of learning.’ Still true. The only way this boggles the mind is our insistence that if one thing is true the other must be false. And this takes us back to our conversation about dialectics. Duality is one of the strongholds of denial. Us vs. Them, This or That, Either/Or. These syllogisms run our lives and rob us of true and deep joy. I can’t even begin to enumerate the ways in which this carries on. So, I will stick with the topic at hand…Detecting Magick.

Many people believe that magick is antithetical to logic and rationality. It is not. It IS a larger set than rationality AND it does NOT exclude rationality. Mages must have an excellent and exquisite grasp of rationality to move forward or at least to not die. They must also be profoundly in touch with their intuitive, vaporous and fluid mind and emotions. Emotions are not bound by rationality. If you don’t know this for certain, you have not yet perceived yourself with an adequate rationality…It means you are overly balanced toward your emotion (an irrational need to appear more rational than you are) and have not addressed your intuition (where you would see the inter play between this oil and water set.) Does that bug you?

Either or?

You don’t need to sit with your chin on your hand to try to figure this out… just GET it… you can sense that this is so. You really do KNOW…but believe me, the mind in most humans is dead set against seeing this. Which brings me to the next point –

YOUR MIND IS NOT YOUR FRIEND

Well that speaks to a sacred cow of the intellectually well endowed. Your mind is no more your friend than that ‘pet’ tiger of Roy Horn’s was his friend. Roy was quoted as saying “Montecore is a great cat. Make sure no harm comes to Montecore.” I’m sure he was fond of that cat even as he lay bleeding in transit to the trauma unit…but I’m also sure he knew this cat was not his friend. In the moment your ‘friend’ shoots you, because you pissed him/her off, you may realize this is not your friend. Likewise our mind has many, many reflexes that do not serve us. Like a giant cat or a random meeting with a dragon, we do well to keep an eye on the mind; because this trickster has been known to be the cause of most suicides; almost universally perceived to be a logical decision by the subject. Don’t think too hard on this… you do too know what I mean.

Magick is alive and well in this world. It has been shape-shifting into a variety of paradigms; again, I can’t enumerate them. One of my favorite ‘hiding places of Magick’ is marketing. It’s most often a hiding place of “Dark” or “Black Magick” which is a type of magick that usually involves some form of eviscerating free will.  In lieu of the EXTRAS usually found at the end of these conversations, in this release I will simply include a relevant experience as follows:

DETECT THIS MAGICK

Note the Polymorphing (many forms) spells or Shape-shifting spells used to affect human thought and perception in the example link below. Polymorphing spells are used to change the form of oneself, an object or other living being, to cause it/them to look, feel or otherwise become recognizable as something or someone else. Shape-shifting usually refers to a magickal person or being who changes themselves; often as disguise or to gain the ‘power’ of the thing they’ve become. The practice of “passing” in the old South is an example of shape-shifting. Some shaman are noted for shape-shifting abilities and are reported to become various animals.

In the links below is a powerful polymorphic spell at work… see if you can detect the magick being done here and what kinds of effects it may have.  Does it seem to play at the edges of eroding free will? Has anyone died, or suffered quality of life in the process? Does it effect many or few?

Detect –

Upworthy version vs YouTube version. (I’m joking here…forming a duality/competition). This is a VERY short piece so no excuses for missing this doorway out of the dungeon.

This stuff would never work on me.

Guest Blog or Website: A Master of Weird splains it to you Lucy. Hahahahaha….

 

Detect Magick

Moments of extreme beauty happen more often than we acknowledge…too busy.  ‘Funny’ things happen all the time. Little oddities, quaint happenings, weirdness, etc. And we like to think of them that way. We laugh at them sometimes and put them on that shelf in the mind that’s set aside for “Weird Things” and go on about our business – the business of making life ‘normal.’

Anyway…. 

Last night I went to hear one of the great maestro teachers of our time, Dr. Claudio Naranjo, who was speaking at CIIS in SF. I’d never been there before, but it was on Mission Street, so how hard could it be to find. I was going with my friend, Meg, and so was scheduled to pick her up at 6:15 to make the 7:00 curtain. AOK. Leave home by 5:45, go along the coast highway; should be a breeze.

Reality sets in. I leave at 5:55. I decide to go across the City since traffic has been forgiving (last Friday I made it from the Northeast Bay area to my little coastal town in 75 minutes, including going out of my way to get gas; all during rush hour – ‘Weird.’) I don’t take the “Great Highway.” Now I’m in a parking lot heading into one of those

ganglia that make rush hour so much fun. Traffic continues to be horrendous and I’m nowhere near my pick up point by 6:40.

Long story short – I pick up my companion, we drive through SF rush hour to the place, park in downtown SF ½ block away and land in time to get decent seats and be in them well before festivities begin – 80% of which turns out to be about stuff Meg and I had talked about earlier that day. The precision of the synchronicity meant I had to move that event off the “Weird” shelf and put it into the “Uncanny” box.

One of my best spells, from earliest I can remember, has been “Detect Magic.” For those who have experience with the game Dungeons and Dragons, you may recall a spell of that name from the game. It grants the “magic user” the ability to sense when magic is present or has been present in a given area. Well that’s just a game, and perhaps a silly one at that; or not. However, I must admit the real Detect Magick as a talent that has served me well over the years. My current perception and understanding of magick stems, in great part, from this tiny, beginner’s spell functioning in ‘real’ life.

Don’t Get Stuck on What Magick is Supposed to Look Like and You’ll See More of It

We’ll talk more on this at a later date, but collapsing time and folding space do not necessarily show up as one might expect. These things occur as they occur. Great things are often hidden in plain sight. It’s like anything else. If you notice it, you will notice more. Awareness breeds awareness. If you dismiss it as just another weird thing… it will fall into the cute-box-of-weird-things. And that catch-all will accrue more and more of life until you finally achieve an existence devoid of all mystery in which everything, including our own bad behavior, is explained by two-dimensional scientists.  I wouldn’t wish that on my cat…who, by the way, does not have that problem.

I’ve seen things and been places – simply by noticing them. It all starts small.

You may think – “I know nothing of magic” (much less magick), or “why would I bother with this, I’m not going into theater,” or simply – “what difference does it make? Or perhaps, “how can I learn to do this?”

It’s not necessary to bore you with the nuts and bolts of ‘how to.’ However I will point in a useful direction; one that will come up in these chats again and again…

Release Fear and Exercise Curiosity 

A true interest in yourself, and the world around you will lead you to life. Learning is your friend and knowing is a very testy companion. Knowing does not get along well with learning…Learning creates flexibility, strength, excitement and wonder…knowing can stiffen your joints and weigh you down. Children learn and experience fabulous joy… adults sometimes know too much and nurse anxiety and depression for years at a time.

So instead of classifying things, in a usual way, that may seem a little off beat look at them again…just notice; also notice you don’t fully ‘get it.’ Notice that there may be fear in not getting it, in not knowing how, why, what about everything. We don’t need to ignore it because we don’t know. Get curious. And yes…you will find huge vistas of ‘got no clue,’ even about yourself. Instead of making sense of it – let your spider sense tingle… Noticing, that’s your Detect Magic spell.

Feel What’s Been Refused

Look in places near and far. Look into the eyes of your loved ones and pets. Look at things so simple it might escape your notice. Feel what’s been refused feeling –

One morning I went to the top of Haleakala, one of the taller volcanoes in Hawaii, about 40 minutes before dawn. It was crushingly cold at that time of day: freezing, up there in the dark. Slowly, began the daily-taken-for-granted miracle of the rising sun. It gleamed in a most magnanimous and silent blaze of cascading warmth; such a welcomed warmth – beaming unmistakably. Or so I thought. Out of the silence of a breathless crowd came the voice loud and clear, “IS IT UP YET?”

Oh, btw, all the magick you detect may not be…what we think of as wonderful stuff. Nonetheless, it is already present, whether you are aware of it or not. Trust your spider sense.

Now you’re getting the hang of it!

EXTRAS

Closing Number: 11, 12, 22

 Trivia: (Weird Facts #17) There are stars in the known universe that are cold enough to be touched by the human hand. Source

Guest Podcast: Snap Judgement, Snap #401

 Guest Web or Blog: Dove comments on seeing the beauty in ourselves –

The Upworthy Version

On You Tube

Commentary in which JazzyLittleDrops uses the Detect Magick spell regarding the Dove video. You may want to skim this at first.

Bring Back the Draft (with a small change)

 

 

 

 

It has been said: 

“You can’t inspire people if you are going to be uninspiring.” — @RBReich

So sue me.

I have here a way to raise the vibration of our world… to change society in such a profound way as to put the latest Govt. strike in a realistic perspective…

In fact – I GUARANTEE a noticeable change to an inarguably better world.

Yes, that’s right I said GUARANTEED.

The Proposal

Re-institute the draft, not as a lottery but one in which EVERYONE must participate to become or remain a citizen, for a period of two years. Do not draft specifically for the military. All races, creeds and class strata must participate.

Here’s the deal –

In order to continue to call yourself an American you MUST work in a direct service capacity for two years. This means waiting tables, working as a hospital attendant, cleaning and janitorial, secretarial, in a homeless shelter (preferably when people at there), as a Walmart greeter, as a barista, as an inhome caretaker…of someone not directly related, in customer service, on a Caltrans crew (the people who fix the roads) as a grade school teacher (3 grade or lower) as a childcare worker, as a pool cleaner, as a bus driver or most anywhere in the lower echelons of the transportation, food service, healthcare, hospitality, etc industries… in short anywhere that one serves others DIRECTLY.

No management jobs…those positions will tend to go to bright graduates of the Draft. No sneaky referential jobs, like the security guard who sits in front of a screen all day, as a ‘service to the public’, thereby skating the intention of this draft.

What IS the Intention Anyway?

The intention is simply to have everyone experience, first hand, what it is like to serve others. To cater to another member of our society’s whims, pleasures and needs. To help those of us who have forever been trapped on the receiving end of such services. This includes people of both the so-called ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ class strata as well.

Allow people to take it gradually since some of us, obviously, have NO idea of what serving (us) truly entails. In some cases people will have to start off with something simple, like retail counter work, or bagging groceries. Eventually these people, the slow starters, would gradually and graciously work their way up to care-taking a quadriplegic person, or autistic individuals, or even terminal ward children. If you feel the ‘yuck’, this area might be for you.

Phone work, though it avoids direct eye contact, works very well here anyway. Meter reader or business owner will not fly for this two year stint. You may, for example, be assigned to a restaurant in a staff position, as long as you are not the manager, or floor captain. A chef is a “D level” (director) or even “C level” (chief, as in chief executive or chief operational) management position.

Someone who is already a surgeon might have to work in a nursing capacity. Yes, I hear the “yeah buts” already. “What a waste of such talent… lives will be lost!” Doctors who have no understanding of what it means to be a patient or who have no empathy for the staff that serves them (as well as patients) are far more likely to hurt people. Ask around. Have some truly candid conversations with hospital staff to find out what really goes on. And, yes, I have done hospital inpatient work among other services.

And once you mention doctors you have to include lawyers…now turned paralegals and reception staff.

All of this is predicated on the notion that if we understood the skill, burden and rewards of true service, the world we live in would be a completely (repeat – COMPLETELY) different place. 90% of us would treat others, and  ourselves, very differently.

And THAT difference would be a monumental difference.

OK..so no need to say you’ve heard no constructive ideas for how one may actually change the world for the better in a non-violent way, today.

I’ve left a lot out of this draft first draft.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on what jobs should be place on the list of options, what you think the effects might be, people you know who would be or would have been changed by such a draft; or even why you think this is the dumbest idea you’ve ever heard. Whatever! Weigh in on this one… how could this be tweaked to become truly useful? Pro or con, I don’t care…just weigh in, and give us some feedback.

I never said it would be easy to implement.  I simply say that I believe, once instated, it would change our world for the better. And, btw… I’m all for that.

Extras

Closing Number: 8, 3 and 838

 Recommended Podcast: The Moth Podcast’s WarGames and Triste.

 Factoid: Nelson Mandela wasn’t removed from the US terror watch list until 2008. Source

 Guest Web or Blog: Zendesk (Ambient sound to bring you back to earth)

The Revelation Will Be Televised

The Short Form:

The short form is for the person on the go, who wants to know what this entry is about, but just doesn’t have the time to properly brush their teeth, let alone read all that follows.

The Breakdown:

1. The “Apocalypse” is already happening. It’s not as bad as previously advertised. Apocalypse means that which was obscured will be revealed.
2. Change is occurring all the time and much of that is not seen until… SUDDENLY everything shifts. Very much like when a couple breaks up and one of them (usually the man) says “WHAT?! You’re breaking up with me? Why?” Stuff has been going on all along, and the signs were there (she told you this was coming), but they (he) just didn’t (want to) see it. Now all is revealed. Like Global Warming or an Economic failure… the signs have been in our face all along… now.. REVELATION! This installment tells HOW that process works.
3. There ARE ways to weather this extremely well. And here is part one of how to do that. More to come in future editions.
4. Fun stuff for “extra credit.”

Now back to our previously scheduled broadcast:

 

The Revelation Will Be Televised…

Or Marxism, Revelation and the Protestant Reformation

That’s the title of a thesis I wrote back in 1978-1979 to earn an honorable discharge from grad school. It was, I thought, actually pretty interesting. In three sentences: Hegelian Dialectic is a philosophical or theological treatise (Hegel was a theologian – hence communism was predicated on a theological foundation) and ultimately an explanation of HOW the revealing (Revelation) of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth (KoHoE) is actually occurring. That method, he said, was through the balancing of (seeming) opposites; the thesis (a proposition or paradigm) with its antithesis (the seeming opposite) to form a synthesis (a new state or entity formed through the confrontation of these, one with the other.)

Perhaps the thing missing most from the great Communist-Socialist revolution was the very thing it most despised, the very thing within which its ideology was rooted…some sense of humanity that transcended (which means to include, fill and then move beyond – not bypass) a politically, mechanistically, technologically, economically limited view of itself. Perhaps they left out the ecologies of wind/water (Feng Shui) and our mysterious core self; that process that the renowned therapist, Fredrick “Fritz” Perls, might have called the “Gestalt” – that whole which is greater than the sum of its parts.

What ABOUT the (an) Apocalypse?

Bad Press for the Apocalypse, Then and Now

Apocalypse simply means ‘that which is revealed’, ‘revelation’ or “…translated literally from Greek, is a disclosure of knowledge, i.e., a lifting of the veil or revelation, although this sense did not enter English until the 14th century.^[1] In religious contexts it is usually a disclosure of something hidden.”[1] I think the latter is worth noting; the bit about “something hidden.” Eschatology is really quite powerful as a meditation. To look into it and not get worked up or dismissive…quite a balancing act; either direction is seductive.

The Apocalypse seems to be an event predicted by any of a number of “religions.” However, AN apocalypse is really an event that must occur based on developed and existing circumstances. It will tend to look larger than life, simply because it is a paradigm shift. A leap from one level of existence or experience to another. We are currently going through such a shift…and this is happening because it simply has to… like a mathematical event.

We now find it no great surprise that a simple “1” when added to another simple “1” results in something very specific that is not a 1 at all. Neither does it look like a 1 nor even two 1s (11.) Back in the day, everyone was shocked, the first time they realized this… a gathering of ones came out as a completely different number… believe me… it was NOT expected and caused some consternation, at the time.

Simplistically put, an apocalypse is a material manifestation point, or MMP. An MMP occurs when a sufficient change occurs (usually obscured or hidden, like climate change, or when a ‘lake overturns‘) within a system to cause that system to leap to a higher or lower state. In chemistry they have similar state referred to as the Energy of Activation. To get a batch of chemicals to stabilize at a higher state of energy… it must first rise above the original state of energy and then drop down to a stable state that is higher than the original …BUT lower than the energy it took to get there (see below… a picture is worth…)

Cool Graph

In the case of an apocalypse…things can get pretty crazy for a moment…and then will become ‘better,’ once they calm down, than they were before the shift.

Yes, the weather will get a little crazy. Yes, people will get somewhat frazzled. Yep, economy could be whacky, etc. The important thing to understand about all this is…

 

THINGS WILL BECOME AS WE THINK THEM TO BE.

IE. It is what we make it. Literally. Limited only by our beliefs.

And that ball is currently in play.

A good point to understand about an MMP (“Material Manifestation Point”) is this:

MMP’s shift according to attraction, not confrontation or competition. One MMP’s attraction to the next one (next state) can be ascending or descending. That is, in shifting from one state of being to another (one economy to another, one political reality to another, one cultural state to another, one consciousness level to another … for examples), from one MMP to another… it is (read: we are) attracted to either a higher or a lower state. See? It’s a choice; with a distinct outcome.

Or as M Gandhi said: ‘BE the change you seek.’

Do it today. No dawdling.

Everything is on sale. Everything is negotiable. This sale is final.

Coming soon: HOW to negotiate a great deal during this one time only Great Apocalyptic offer. Find out how you can get the deal you want.

If you COULD change the world…

---

[1] See Apocalypse, Wikipedia

Closing Number: 1155, 122

 

Trivia: Prices Per Ounce for Some Crazy Expensive Stuff

$ 1,602            Gold

$ 680               La Prairie Cellular Cream / Platinum Rare

$ 26                 Dom Perignon / Oenotheque Rose

$ 348               Petrossian / Special Reserve / Ossetra Caviar ($1,523/can)

$ 160               Iranian saffron

$106                French Winter “Perigord” Black Truffles

(Consumer Reports, as of September 2012)

Recommended Podcast: The Moth Podcast / George Lombardi – Mission to India; in which an unlikely young doctor is called to Calcutta to become “a rock star.”

More on living well: Ben Dunlap Talks about a Passionate Life

Factoid: 8 hugs a day will noticeably increase your body’s production of Oxytocin (not Oxycotin). Oxytocin is an elusive chemical produced in the body that is connected to love, bonding, trust, and trustworthiness; and even, to some extent, morality. Its increase can cause one to feel better, experience greater acceptance of others, have others behave with greater acceptance toward oneself, and increase an atmosphere of trust.

Guest Web or Blog: Think with Your Heart! Don’t make me hafta repeat this.

 Technically this is neither website nor blog…but it is as it is, this month.

Here’s something different from Willem Dafoe.

This Week At Etheldore

Alrighty Then

Currently, these conversations are primarily about the vast changes that are taking place in our world lately (sometimes spanning the past several millennia), the apocalypse (which, though many are still trying to deny it, is already afoot) and our species’ evolution. We’ll be covering this in smaller, shorter bites so we can wrap it up a little faster.  There’s still a section for extra credit at the end…Feeling it for the overachievers.

How We Roll

I’m so proud of my wife, Michele, who has been and still is, a committed materialist. She comes from some seriously hard working stock. She’s a tough one. And before my eyes she is metamorphosing into a truly competent magician. For those of you who know me pretty well, you know that I am of ‘magus’; one who lives the way of magick. I know, at first this sounds very woo-woo and special and all that…but I think not. I truly believe that we are all magi. Meaning that we are all creating our lives, this world and everything in it out of less than thin air. And we do this using (heretofore) mysterious processes, that we hardly (or don’t at all) understand. Why this is not apparent and how it becomes apparent is a large part of what these conversations are about.

I think her shift is based on having “seen” magick yield results and then work again, and again, over time. She’s pretty much a hardcore realist and could be from Missouri (“The Show-Me State”) considering her tolerance of Cali-chatter.

Regarding me; don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying I can make an elephant appear in your living room (unlikely; though let’s not say impossible.) But it has bailed us out of some pretty hairy situations and some truly funny ones as well. Humor is a great relaxer for the left brain.  It often takes big or otherwise notable experiences to fully persuade skeptics or even believers, for that matter. In fact, I lose my way on a daily basis. Let’s not forget that an airliner is off course 95% of the time and arrives at its destination only because it persists in  course correcting.

Right now we are doing magickal experiments together; testing theories, documenting our results. Having fun doing it. I’m happy about this, because I love few things as much as trying out some “mystical” hypothesis and getting a good result; and one of those things I love is teamwork.  Makes me feel like it’s a good world to be waking up in every day.

Oh, and btw, this scientific method is how mages have worked through the ages even unto this day; by methodical exercise with the intent of getting the process down well enough to replicate the result. AND we document everything… that’s what the journaling and big dusty books thing is about.

Also like “science” and daily life, there are intended and unintended results, while learning and experimenting. Then too there are good days and bad days; and energy don’t care… it just keeps serving up what I think is happening.

What do I do when I get in a ‘rut?’  Well, personally, I start suckin’ up all the inspiration I can get my eyes and ears on. In this, I rely heavily on my friends; and things like those you can find in “Extra Credit,” below.

I might be calling on you soon. Trawling for glee, whimsy, passion, love, your bright star.  Because when I show up on your doorstep, it’s usually because that’s what you are for me… you are a bright star.

Extra Credit:

Closing Number: 458            (I’m surprised no one asks about this).

Recommended Podcast: Ted Talks / Larry Smith / Why you will fail to have a great career

Factoid: Top Five Regrets of the Dying

1. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
2. I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.
3. I wish I had let myself be happier.
4. I wish I had had the courage to express my true self.
5. I wish I’d lived a life true to my dreams instead of what others expected of me.

Guest Web or Blog: Botto Bistro / An authentic Italian experience

Trivia: Jeanne d’Arc

Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d’Arc, ca. 1412[5] – 30 May 1431) came from an obscure village and rose to prominence when she was a teenager, and she did so as an uneducated peasant…she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years’ War, which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII of France.

 “No person of the Middle Ages, male or female, has been the subject of more study.”

Joan said she had received visions from God instructing her to support Charles VII and recover France from English domination late in the Hundred Years’ War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the dismissive attitude of veteran commanders and caused the lifting of the siege in only nine days. Several additional swift victories led to Charles VII’s coronation at Reims.

The extent of her actual military leadership is a subject of historical debate. Traditional historians, such as Édouard Perroy, conclude that she was a standard bearer whose primary effect was on morale.[30] This type of analysis usually relies on the condemnation trial testimony, where she stated that she preferred her standard to her sword. Recent scholarship that focuses on the nullification trial testimony asserts that the army’s commanders esteemed her as a skilled tactician and a successful strategist. Stephen W. Richey’s opinion is one example: “She proceeded to lead the army in an astounding series of victories that reversed the tide of the war.”[26] In either case, historians agree that the army enjoyed remarkable success during her brief career.

The trial record demonstrates her remarkable intellect. The transcript’s most famous exchange is an exercise in subtlety. “Asked if she knew she was in God’s grace, she answered: ‘If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.'”[50] The question is a scholarly trap. Church doctrine held that no one could be certain of being in God’s grace. If she had answered yes, then she would have convicted herself of heresy. If she had answered no, then she would have confessed her own guilt. Notary Boisguillaume later testified that at the moment the court heard this reply, “Those who were interrogating her were stupefied.

• 6 Visions

The technical reason for her execution … a Biblical clothing law.

More on Joan

To See or Not To See? That is the Question.

Before we begin, I offer my apology for the failings of the “subscribe to this blog” buttons. They are not working and I don’t know why. I will solve this problem. In the meantime you will receive notifications IF you have already been receiving them. If you have not been getting notifications let me know in a comment and I will make sure that you do get them.  Now… Let’s go!

Walk This Way

For every aspect of physicality in our world, there is an essence of spirituality causing it to be there. Since we currently live within the physical world, we are interacting with it on a near full-time basis. However, what we rarely discover are the spiritual foundations that anchor the physical world into existence. Our mind governs the interpretation of the spiritual world; however, spirituality usually plays a secondary role within our lives and is often completely ignored. This very low level of mental commitment explains why we do not ordinarily see, hear or feel the spiritual world. Our mind does exactly what it is told and that often means concentrating on exactly what we believe is more significant. The truth of the matter is that entire kingdoms of spirituality are breathing life into the world around us but we are unable to even recognize their existence.

 Chaudhary, Sufian (2013-01-12), World of Archangels

In case you’re new to this conversation, we’ve been talking about what is seen (heard, felt, etc.) and what is not seen, what we allow and what we block from our awareness, AND whether or not what is NOT seen is worth our attention at all.  We haven’t really addressed the latter yet.  Do you believe there is more than what we ordinarily perceive and, most importantly, does it matter? That’s the real question, isn’t it? If it doesn’t matter, it makes no difference whether we perceive it or not, or even if it exists.

Last time we took a look at the invisible American Holocaust, the genocidal attempt to exterminate the earlier inhabitants of this hemisphere. And we also saw how this can affect our willingness to grasp whether or not there may be other intelligent life in the vastness of a virtually infinite universe.

To summarize: our human history shows that when we meet new people and we have a technological edge we tend to kill them rather than play well (see “Trivia,” below.1) This, in turn, leaves us with few options other than to slip into denial about the possibility of visitation from other, more technologically advanced visitors; and anyone who can get here, from there, is more technologically advanced.

Back to the question at hand: does it matter whether we actually perceive what is in front of us?

Let me pose a hypothetical –

If you find yourself in a room with a cobra, would you rather be in there with the lights on… or in there with the lights off?

– Marsh (Circa 2003)

It’s a choice; and not choosing, well, that’s a choice too.

Now a hypothesis:  We are spirit manifesting a body NOT a body with a spirit.

At first this may seem like an insignificant distinction; so what if we are a spirit with a body or body with a spirit? It’s all the same, isn’t it? No, not really.  If you don’t get that right away… give it some time. It’s been a useful parable for me.

Briefly, so that we may continue, this could be likened to being the driver of a car heading up the Big Sur coast (whether a Ferrari or an old VW Beetle – it doesn’t matter.) The car is useful for accessing the view and the adventure…but the car cannot HAVE the adventure or appreciate the view. We are grateful for the car, yet the real enjoyment and experience is for the occupant.  When the ride is over and the car parked, with no inhabitant, what use is there in talking to the car? An uninhabited car is (hopefully) inert. Even though its driver may be nowhere to be seen; I assure you, they are around…somewhere.

This leads me to believe that the drivers and passengers of cars are actually of greater value (in our human perspective) than any car, no matter how expensive, robust, beautiful or even necessary. So, by analogy, the “driver” of the body and personality (our vehicle) is the primary agent.

I’ve had numerous experiences to subjectively validate this assertion (spirit in body not body with a spirit) and here I’ll share a funny one.

One evening, while having dinner with friends, I was offered a mind altering fumar, apparently branded as “Train Wreck.” I was assured that this was one of the best of its sort and was urged to give it a spin.  I thanked my friends and ‘just said no,’ taking a pass on what had become for me a rare opportunity.  Michele, my wife, assured them that indeed, I was not much fun when high; which quelled the subject for a while. Eventually we left the restaurant and walked our friends to their car which was in a nearby, three story, cement parking garage. As we arrived they broke out the ‘Wreck’ and for the 4th or 5th time that evening offered me a wee taste of this blarney.  ‘Oh WTF’, I thought, the evening’s over, I don’t have enough time to make a complete ass of myself and it might be interesting to sample the current state of the art (oh yes I was, once upon a time, quite the connoisseur.)  After the first toke I should have been forewarned when that slight taste of greed and impatience kicked in.  Though it felt like quite a bit of time had passed since that first inhalation (yes, I did inhale) there was, actually, hardly any lapse until I began to perseverate on getting ‘just one more toke…and who was hogging it, anyway?’ Sadly the second toke did come around… and yes, I took it. Big Mistake… sort of.

Almost immediately I could no longer identify my surroundings… though I could recognize the people I was with, even if they were behaving strangely…”Oh right,” I thought, “I remember how this goes.”  Finally, Michele notices that indeed her prophecy had come to pass; I was no longer my gregarious self, and so she offered to drive us home. As she walked away toward our car and I stepped forward something unusual happened;

Dr. Strange

something crystalline and clear.  “I” ‘stepped out’, away from the car, but my body did not. In the blink of an eye, Elvis had left the building. My body fell to the ground – dead weight…absolutely emptied of me. Michele reports that my head hit the cement and bounced (methinks perhaps a bit exaggerated – though I was not in it, so I can’t say much better than she.)  I was marveling at this moment, thinking it to be so much like what was portrayed in the “Dr. Strange” comics I loved in my youth. I’d just ‘stepped’ right out of my body! Then I saw and felt a woman across the parking lot, with her shopping bag and heard her say “Is he alright? Does he need to go to a hospital?” alarm in her voice.  Immediately I thought, “What!? Hospital!? Oh, HELL no!’ And with that I snapped back, as if by a giant rubber band, into “my” body, which (again, by rubber band) sat straight up in a gravity defying single movement… and then I began to laugh uproariously; I was truly amused and elated. NEVER had I experienced such a lucid OBE in which I’d actually turned to see my body, over there, as clearly as I was seeing everyone else standing, freaking out and looking at it (‘my body’) too.  There I stood, laughing and clear as a bell, inside; and not a scratch, not a lump, nor even the hint of a bruise. We continued home and I thanked Michele for transporting me so safely and gingerly back to home base.  Thank you, honey.

But things have never been the same since.  Nothing changed rapidly. In fact before this I’d had a lifetime of strange and interesting experiences… been out of my body before too, and would again…but I’d never looked back and taken the opportunity to SEE my body when I was out on a spacewalk. This, for me, made all the difference in the world. Oh, yes.(See Recommended Podcast, below²).

Now normally I might have said, “Who are you going to believe, science or your lying eyes?” because I know the eye (like any of our 5 basic senses) can play tricks on us -so why not let reason (read: habit) prevail. But in this case, I did not see it with my “Lying” eyes. I saw it with far better eyes.  It was with the certainty of twins separated at birth meeting for the first time…they JUST KNOW. You’ve probably had a comparable experience yourself.

WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW CAN’T HURT YOU

Does anybody really believe this anymore? We act as though we do, but does anyone really still believe this Prayer of Denial? Taking into account some of the creation stories (the Judeo-Christian Eden story, for example) and the onus place on knowledge, I can appreciate the will to devolve to easier happier times.) However, it seems we are well committed to the path of knowledge and might just as well push on to the other side, rather than swim for home².  Toward that end, one last proposition…

PAYING ATTENTION AND FINER DISTINCTIONS WILL PAY-OFF

Just simply paying attention will win you kudos from the Source of All Things. Yes, that alone, will garner a response. And that’s a good thing. I make of point of saying that IS a good thing because I know that some of us (myself included, from time to time) are shy and don’t necessarily see anything good in showing up on the universal radar. Fly in undercover we think (don’t even say it…speaking is too loud and may cause me to show up on that radar.) Sometimes we may feel that the best way to stay out of view is to deny that there could be anyone here but … well, ‘me.’ At other times things may seem very Us and Them. But frankly, all that’s just your mind messing with you. Loosen your grip on duality for just a moment and it’s easy to see, “They” are a lot like “Us.” We are all very much alike and yet unique; very different in some ways. I am that too.

You can only see these distinctions by paying attention.  We will only see these better by paying attention to what we do not already see. Where to look? For some it may be by listening, a little more closely outside self and a little further inside, for some perhaps by asking oneself, “How do I even feel about what I am reading here?” For another perhaps by asking (no one in particular) sincerely – “What more is there for me to see/hear/feel/know, now?” and then waiting for and expecting an answer. The trick to any of these is – sincerity, which is akin to love and imbues your inquiry with profound energy.  If you undertake this halfheartedly you will receive a very tiny, quiet, and hard to hear answer…but if you are willing to take a leap, as my friend, Haiku Kwon, says “Life’s a Risk…and I’m All In,” you will be pleasantly surprised.

¹Today’s Trivia:  The (Native) American Holocaust (as discussed in our last blog) is not the only one of its sort that you may not have known about. The term “genocide” was coined to describe the mass killing of the Armenians in modern day Turkey in 1915. An estimated 1 to 2 million were killed, wiping out much of the Armenian people’s heritage and history.

From did-you-kno.tumblr.com

Today’s Factoid:  Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service, 816 F.Supp. 432 (W.D.Tex., 1993), is a legal case that resulted from a raid by the United States Secret Service on the Austin headquarters of Steve Jackson Games in 1990. Along with Operation Sundevil, the Steve Jackson Raid was one of a series of independent^[1] law-enforcement operations that were influential in the foundation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Steve Jackson Games was raided on March 1, 1990 because Loyd Blankenship, who was writing the role playing game supplement GURPS Cyberpunk for the company, was a target of a crackdown. Blankenship, known in hacking circles as The Mentor, was a former member of the Legion of Doom hacker group. He had run a Bulletin board system (BBS) from his home called The Phoenix Project, which had helped distribute the popular underground ezine Phrack. In 1989 it published the contents of a text file, stolen from BellSouth, containing information about the E911 emergency response system. The file only contained administrative contact information, and Bell South later had to admit in court that they sold copies to the public for $13. However, the government agents feared that the stolen document could be used to teach crackers how to compromise the E911 system (a claim that is disputed because of the non-technical nature of the document), and Bell South claimed that the dissemination of the data caused thousands of dollars in monetary damages.

In 1993, Steve Jackson Games vs. The Secret Service finally came to trial. Steve Jackson Games was represented by the Austin firm of George, Donaldson & Ford. The lead counsel was Pete Kennedy. Steve Jackson Games won two out of the three counts. Steve Jackson Games was awarded $50,000 in damages and $250,000 in attorney’s fees. The third count dealing with interception of e-mail was overturned in October 1994 by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The judge also reprimanded the Secret Service, calling their warrant preparation “sloppy”, suggesting that they needed “better education” regarding relevant statutes, and finding that they had no basis to suspect Steve Jackson Games of any wrongdoing.

Although the Steve Jackson Games raid was not a part of Operation Sundevil, this law enforcement effort, which spanned two years, has a tarnished image owing to a lack of successful prosecutions and questionable procedures.

See also: Bruce Sterling‘s book The Hacker Crackdown (ISBN 0-553-56370-X) for a detailed account of these events.

²Today’s Recommended podcast:  Stroke of Insight – Don’t Miss This One!

Today’s Recommended Website:  Tiny Buddha

Today’s Closing Number: 9

Escape Routes Along de’ Nile

I was talking with one of my closest friends recently (read: today) and appreciating so much about who we are. We are SO different and yet so similar.

OK, that’s really cheating, because that is exactly what I would and could say about everyone close to me… and then the rest of us jamokes on this planet (read: We’re all monkeys on this rock.) Hell, I even bear some resemblances to dogs and cats I’ve known.

Another tip.  I’m an Eneagram “Nine.”  That means nothing to most of us monkeys on THIS rock – so I’ll say one thing about what this has to do with me.  It simply means I’m somewhat “empathic.”  I like to think of this as being a fast learner, but “actually” I know better. It’s very specific.  I pick up states of being from those around me and particularly those I’m close to. I have to pay attention, often, to whose thought I’m thinking…sounds arcane;  you get used to it over time. That means making fewer mistakes (“Hey! that doesn’t sound like MY imagination…that’s not MY idea…etc”) while gaining more of the benefits.

What benefits? 

Well, to begin with, those mentioned at the front of this piece.  A real sense of how we really are so much alike and how we really are different and how much of that can exist in the same place at the same time.  I have come to revel in the disparity.  When we disagree, I don’t mind. AND I don’t believe (98% of the time) that you REALLY ought to see it my way.  How come, you should? I say: “If we agree on everything, there’s one too many of us in this world.” Whereas I believe that there are just the right number of us right here, right now.  I know exactly how this flies in the face of ZPG – Zero Population Growth, for those of you too young or too old to get that reference.  I understand the popular point of view that holds the proliferation of humanity to be the root of the destruction of the planet. I get the argument that we are a destructive species that overpopulates, pollutes and then eats everything in its path, thereby consuming the greater part or yea the entirety of Mom Earth’s bounty.

But if you REALLY believe that you’ve got to back abortion, you’ve got to affirm the death penalty (yes, Les Mis, that’s right, for stealing bread), you’ve got to back genocide and warfare at almost every level. Some will argue that this will only exacerbate the problem by leaving fallout and dead bodies around everywhere…thereby burgeoning pollution (and of course the ever popular Zombie Apocalypse)… but to that I’d just say – ‘Ya gotta break some eggs…’  If you believe we are the pariah, you just have to back a reasonable solution, and I don’t mean more “Democracy (read: “Hunger”) Games to determine how clever marketing can finger some race or class or other ‘minority’ for the fall guy and who should be voted off the island (now I’m really in trouble.) You really just gotta go all “Soylent Green” about it.  And yeah, that means YOUR mothers, father, sons, daughter, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and BFFs (I still DO NOT know what those initials stand for.)  Just pick a number outa the hat and take the recommended dose.  But see, no one wants to do that…especially not the ZPG folk.  Criticize the Chinese and Indians (east) if you want, but decimating the female population WILL truly drop the expansion of the species. (Fewer child-bearers and the remaining men, it has been shown, will fight to the death for the remaining women…you know we will).

So sorry, you’ve been voted off the island.

Wait, wait, before you forget…I’m the guy who, from the beginning, said that I believe that there are JUST ENOUGH of us here now. The balance, though in motion, is still in place. Yes, species are dying. It has always been so. Always! We just haven’t been around long enough to get that. Because we are still baby monkeys on this rock. Masters of the Universe? If you say so, but nonetheless, babies monkey’s on this rock (and I mean no insult to either one of my creationist readers) and as such we are as yet developing a realistic, or even decently optimistic point of view regarding ourselves.

Which brings me to the real point of this missive (I’ve taken to liking the movies and TV shows that place the credits, blithely, in the middle or end of the show) which is to address –

Why, In a Technological Age of (seeming) Enlightenment There Remains Such a Widespread Rational Materialist Skepticism Regarding the Existence and Occasional Presence of “Extra Terrestrial” Intelligence?

Pithy title, yes? Ok, not so much…nonetheless…in a single gesture I would reiterate that D’ Nile is not just a river in Egypt.  Yes… we will eventually take a trip back to the land of the Gypsy, but before we do…  let’s make a stop right here in the Americas so we can take a quick look at the success of just one of the movements in the concerto of the Great Ongoing Human Holocaust.

As of late, I have been reading about the American Holocaust; the extermination of 90 some percent of the indigenous population of the Americas between the 16th and 21st centuries.

Here are a few Cliff Notes on my investigations to date.

Cristobal Columbo (Christopher Columbus), the entrepreneur and loan mark credited with the initial occupation of the land later to be called the Americas,  wrote this about the native peoples he found here, to his benefactors, the Spanish Sovereigns:

         ” They are so artless and free with all they possess, that no one would believe it without seeing it. Of anything they have, if you ask them for it, they never say no; rather they invite the person to share it, and show as much love as if they were giving their hearts; and whether the thing be of value or of small price, at once they are content with whatever little thing of whatever kind be given to them.”

Columbus thought that these people were a living expression of God, and the word Indian actually comes from the Spanish in Deos, or in God… Michele de Cuneo, a compatriot of Columbus on the Admiral’s second voyage, wrote in a letter that when the ship anchored, the native people came out “to greet the ships with gifts of fish and fruit, as if we had been brothers.” In Columbus’s logs from his first voyage, he is continually astounded by the kind and thoughtful ways of the people he meets. Here are a few excerpts: “And the people are all so gentle” (October 13, 1492). And a week later we find, “… these are the friendliest people.”

Apparently this was true wherever he went, for two months later on December 21, 1492, he entered the following:

“There cannot be better or more gentle people than these anywhere in the world… . The chiefs are men of few words and fine manners, it is a marvel.” In other entries, he comments on the cleanliness and comeliness of the people, of the beauty of their villages and their housing. In October 1492 he writes, “The houses of these Indians are the most beautiful I have ever seen… . They are well swept and quite clean inside, and the furnishings are arranged in good order.” So, even by the best of European standards, the natives were clean, mannerly, hospitable, and generous to a fault…

Now, the experience of being greeted with kindness and generosity was substantially the same for all the Europeans arriving on these shores, whether it be in the Caribbean or on the continents. In 1584, the Englishman Arthur Barlowe, after arriving in what is now called Virginia and taking possession of the land for the Queen—of course, the Powhatans and other tribes living there were not consulted on the matter—wrote about his first encounter with the Indians:

 “We were entertained with all love and kindness and with as much bounty, after their manner, as they could possibly devise. We found the people most gentle, loving and faithful, void of all guile and treason, and such as lived after the manner of the Golden Age … a more kind and loving people there can not be found in the world, as far as we have hitherto had trial.”

Kaltreider, Kurt (1998-09-01). American Indian Prophecies (Kindle Locations various 970-1002). Hay House. Kindle Edition.

Meanwhile, back in Europe, another genocidal storm was brewing –

… just as Columbus was sailing to the New World, the same King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella who commissioned his voyage issued an edict expelling all the Jews from Spain, upon pain of death, unless they converted to Catholicism.

And in the “New World” everything suddenly changed –

“… a few decades after Columbus arrived, the indigenous cultures he found had all but vanished.

The real destruction began after his second voyage, which left for the Americas in 1493. This time there were 17 ships and about 1,200 men. The arriving Spaniards were shown the same kindness and humanity as on the previous voyage, but this decency was not reciprocated, and in a generation’s time, millions of native peoples were dead, and nearly every Caribbean island thoroughly devoid of its original inhabitants.

When Columbus returned from the Caribbean, the news of gold and a paradise spread like wildfire across Europe. The Spanish Crown was under severe financial stress, and the thought of untold fields of gold and wealth from commerce fired the Crown’s imagination, not to mention the people’s. Columbus was swamped with volunteers for the second voyage, unlike the first. And in short order, the imagination of Rome was also fired, and the thought of converts and more wealth for the Church brought His Holiness, the Pope, and with him, of course, God onto the scene. On May 3, 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued the infamous Bull Inter Caetera, which granted the monarchs of Spain the right to possess, own, and exploit any part of the Earth not already under the control of a Christian nation. Being “infallible,” the Pope could do this with “certain knowledge and out of the fullness of our apostolic power, by the authority of Almighty God.” The unsuspecting inhabitants of these unknown lands were to be brought into the Catholic fold and “trained in good morals.” Naturally, this kind of thinking and greed soon spread throughout all of Europe.

… King Henry VII, himself a devout Catholic, was not to be left out, so he granted a commission to John Cabot “to conquer, occupy and possess the lands of the ‘heathens and infidels.’” Henry’s expressed motive was simply to acquire “dominion, title and jurisdiction of the same.” Here is where the genocide of the native peoples began in earnest, and over 500 years later it is still going on.

… Armed with the blessings of the Church, Columbus traveled to many Caribbean islands. In each place, he would read a fearsome document giving the Church and the Monarchy of Spain the right to seize the lands, and if necessary, kill the occupants… This is a document called the Requerimiento. As you can read, it states that the people must accept the truth of Christianity and unquestionably acknowledge the authority of both the Pope and the Monarchy of Spain. That the people did not understand the Spanish tongue did not matter a whit to either Columbus or the subsequent conquistadors. Their “ignorance” of the language was apparently viewed as more evidence of their inferior nature. Acknowledgment and acceptance of the statements read to them was expected to be both complete and without hesitation or reservation. Were it not, which one can scarcely imagine it could be, since no one understood the meaning of the words, the following was then read:

         “I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your country and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and Their Highnesses.

“We shall take you and your wives and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as Their Highnesses may command. And we shall take your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can, as to vassals who do not obey and refuse to receive their lord and resist and contradict him.

Truly, some priests objected –

In Santo Domingo, in a little makeshift church with a thatched roof, Father Antonio de Montesinos spoke the following words to his congregation of Spaniards in 1511:

          “Tell me by what right, by what law do you keep these Indians in such cruel, such horrible bondage? By what authority have you waged such detestable wars against these peoples, who lived quietly and peacefully on land that was their own? Wars in which you destroyed incalculable numbers of them by homicide and slaughters surpassing anything in history? Why do you keep them so oppressed and exhausted, not giving them enough to eat, not curing the illnesses they develop from the excessive labor you force upon them, so that they pass away—no you murder them!—in order to extract and obtain gold every single day? … Are you not bound to love them as yourselves? Why can’t you comprehend this? Why are you lost in this deep lethargic sleep? Rest assured, in this state you can no more be saved than the Moors or Turks, who do not have faith in Jesus Christ and do not desire it.”

Kaltreider, Kurt (1998-09-01). American Indian Prophecies (Kindle Locations 1013-1058). Hay House. Kindle Edition.

The American Holocaust continues to this day, the conclusion to this tale is not yet written.

Throughout  human history, the story varies little. This has been the tale of the European expansion into and decimation of the Americas.  Yet, from the Incursion in Australia, New Zealand, the Steppes of Finland and the inordinate spread of Genghis Khan’s gene pool (“His military conquests were frequently characterized by the wholesale slaughter of the vanquished.” – Hillary Mayell, National Geographic, 02/14/2003) the way in which we, humans, meet new peoples and make friends tends to bear a striking similarity.

So I Say, Little Wonder…

…that we cleave to our irrational idea, using every logic at our disposal, that we are alone, as sentient, intelligent, technological, soul bearing beings in this galaxy, let alone this perceivable universe, much less any universe.

Given infinity, what are the odds?

Don’t think too hard on this.

If we consider the possibility of a society of alien life form showing up on our doorstep, with superior technology (a given, since they showed up on our doorstep; something completely out of our reach) what must the outcome NECESSARILY be?  If in the back of our collective mind (read: Collective Unconscious) we see what we MUST see, based on our collective experience (whether from the perpetrator or victim end of the continuum), how else can it represent anything other than the complete annihilation of anything and everything we hold dear?

That’s the way we’ve done it time and again. That’s how it’s done, right?  So if they ARE out there, we are lunch.

What options do we really have?

Denial, of course. What else?

A Truly Modest Proposal

Perhaps a complete change of heart…regarding ourselves, here and now.  Perhaps we can review the various operations manuals for the survival of the beings of The Great Blue-Green space vehicle.  I posit that most religious text, every spiritual treatise is actually an attempt at documenting a given sect’s perceptions re what it takes to safely traverse a vastly indeterminate expanse in a finite (in our case spherical) space faring vessel. Currently I am not concerned with matters of destination. Nor am I concerned with the credentials of the author(s) (gasp.) I think we would do well to get over whether or not a fellow by the name of God or a gal by the name of Goddess, etc , etc, etc, wrote it in whatever language we find it. Just get over that piece…it’s so not necessary.

But then, how do we evaluate it…how can we bring “good judgment”  to bear?

Instead of arguing over which of the operations manuals is the right one, I have a modest proposal.  Let’s use, to begin with, what I like to call “The Punch Card Method.”

In the old days (aka – back in the day) computers were programmed using punch cards.  These were uniformly shaped cards with holes in them, each card signifying some idea. If we consider each seed idea, from each spiritual system to be one punch card and we put them all together in a neat stack, and then shine a light on that stack of cards… you will see that some light, IE some of the holes, go all the way through.

The holes that go all the way through are those concepts that are absolutely necessary for the survival of “the monkeys on this rock.”  This technique for deciphering the Ops Manual Overview is greatly aided by getting over trying to nail down the name of the author(s) that supposedly dictated each card. Just look to see what holds true for all or the greatest number of the manuals.

Once we begin to understand the manuals we will know what to look for in OUR behavior towards anyone we meet out here. And we can stop believing that “I” is the only thing out here. Then we can learn to play well with others.

Then we will build it AND

When They come… we won’t have to fear that “They” is “Us.”

OK… now, shake it off.

Today’s trivia: The first two paragraphs are a “tip of the Hatlo Hat” to the Great Beast,  the Cauldron Keeper, who is my beloved Frater.  It’s a useful (in this case)joke about the very real interplay between that which is vague and that which is true.  I step lightly here… as much to preserve the honor of accurate imprecision as, the numina of a (long won) relationship.  In other words, “Be excellent with each other.”

Todays closing number: 910

Today’s recommended podcast:  Radiolab – Are You Sure

Today’s Factoid:

Q: Aren’t the great ancient pyramids found in both Egypt and in South America?

A: That’s only partially correct.  In fact, given what we currently know, within a latitudinal band around the earth (as far north as southern France and as far south as central Bolivia) we find several thousand pyramids that range from taller, more slender “masculine” forms to the shorter more stable “feminine” forms yet all similar in design, geometry and measurements.  A cursory head count locates 250 pyramids in Shansi, China, dozens in the middle Indian Ocean (Mauritius), some in the Canary Islands, in Northern Sudan, 155 in Egypt, 350 in Peru and Bolivia with 10 thousand found in Central America, thus far; and of course many more.  Even Vikings had mysterious pyramid centers, that differed in design and layout from “normal” Viking complexes.

Additional factors to take into pyramid explorations: Other than this concentration near the equator, many, many more pyramids are to be found in other seats of human culture. Patterns of design can be traced across cultural and geographical divides that raise far more questions than current science can comfortably answer.  The techniques for building these are astoundingly and puzzlingly precise for the ages in which they were built. Look here for an interesting pyramid map.