People around the world were shocked by the events of last Tuesday’s election, and to be honest I was among them. In confusion and disbelief, I turned to my family and friends in person, over phone, on social media, and in the midst of so many impassioned voices, one message has stuck out to me:
Hope.
As the dust settled after the enormous metaphorical blast that was last Tuesday’s election, I stood silent amidst the rubble of my own thoughts and beliefs. I stood in my kitchen, in my life, and everything was in exactly the same place but everything felt so different.
Slowly, daring to rise from the dusty rubble was this tiny, quiet thought: “how could I have missed this?”
I never considered the possibility that what happened, might happen. Because I missed this, I missed a huge opportunity to prepare myself mentally and emotionally for what might happen, for how it might affect me, my family, my friends. I missed something that seemed so distant but now that it’s here it is so unmissably huge that many people don’t know how they’ll get over it.
Here’s the thing: I was in denial.
Denial (with a few rare and extreme exceptions) doesn’t serve us. It will never serve us to avoid something simply because looking at it, considering it, planning for it might cause us discomfort. Denial is how things stay the same, it’s how we keep ourselves in the same still, stuck place. Denial does not help us envision the future; it does not help us move forward. Denial keeps us from recognizing the opportunities in new challenges; it keeps us where we are, with our gaze stubbornly fixated on what is known and comfortable, on the past.
We are meant to grow.
Sometimes in healing, the hardest lesson to learn is not a lesson at all; sometimes the hardest thing to do is to practice growing. To be in the process of growing, of changing, of moving forward requires moments of discomfort.
Denial keeps us focused on the past because it’s safe, because it’s well-charted territory. There is no fear of change in the past.
Growing means moving forward, turning your gaze toward the future to focus on where you are going. It is uncertain, and this can be much scarier than the past, which holds no uncertainty.
Anytime a person truly engages in her or his healing process, there will come a time when she or he is challenged by this fear, and can easily be coaxed back into old habits, an old lifestyle.
This is because healing requires us to
look squarely at what we’ve held in denial
consciously assess it and make a decision: is this (behaviour, food, relationship etc.) good for me?
to move forward, allowing this new information to guide the steps we take into our future.
To return to hope:
As long as we are alive, there is reason to hope.
Hope and strength feed each other.
As we heal, we move out of denial and towards our future. As we practice the art of growing we notice the fear that may have been hiding behind denial.
As we notice the fear and find better ways to deal with it, we become stronger.
As we heal, we become stronger and our capacity to hope does too.
When we act from a place of strength and hope, we invite goodness into the world.
Relationships are a gift whether you are on the giving end or the receiving end. Being able to share consciousness with another human being is a balancing act. There are 5 common ways of transmuting emotional energies that may cause conflicts within a relationship.
What do you do if you are suddenly the recipient of unwarranted anger or negative emotions? Our innate programming usually leads us to defend ourselves which is a natural deflection and return of these negative energies. One of the ego’s roles is that of protection and this action creates a behavioral pattern that can be broken with awareness and intention.
Emotions are energy-in-motion and are the unique tool of the human body that allows it to feel and create. Those that carry a high vibration have less negative energy and therefore exhibit less negative emotions. These people were either born a “saint” and never held anything against anyone else or they had a lot of work to do to get them to where they are now.
There aren’t many saints on the planet at this time, although the numbers are rapidly growing because people are recognizing these 5 ways of transmuting emotional energies and are learning to deal with them in a whole new way:
Anger– This is the most common way to expel negative energies. This is usually triggered when someone gets their feelings hurt or when a deep seeded emotion of abuse from childhood or even from a past life is triggered.
Crying– Some people may cry to release painful memories. This seems to be more of the female population that allows themselves to do this, as men have been programmed to think that they need to be macho. When a man falls in love through a relationship or with the birth of a child for example, the heart chakra opens and allows for crying to be a valuable tool in transforming energies. Again, it is not as important to know where these energies came from as it is to allow them to pass through and be expelled.
Sarcasm– This is a quick witted way to move through negative energy using a little humor and laughter. It is a paradoxical way to let an energy out while at the same time transmuting it with laughter which is of a high vibration. Eventually someone who has removed their lower vibrational energy will not use this tool.
Passive aggressive behavior– People who act submissive and indecisive to draw in conflict are using this as a tool to move energy without creating the conflict themselves. The ego likes to do this because it then says, “see, I didn’t start this argument. This is not my fault”. Those that are being passive aggressive are usually not aware of their actions and always think of themselves as the victim.
Depression– The state of depression is the mind’s way of making the person’s world stop at a particular vibration so that it can be examined. This may involve long periods of isolation and deep unhappiness. Chronic depression is an extreme way to trigger a person to see that something has to change. The holistic way to deal with depression is to move that energy that is perpetually stuck. Many times the cause of the energy has to be uncovered and depression serves as the clue that this energy must be looked at on a deeper level in order to heal the underlying cause. Psychology, energy healing, and hypnosis or past life regression are better ways to heal depression rather than pharmaceuticals which only relieve symptoms of depression. In severe cases of depression, a mix of both pharmaceuticals and therapy may be necessary for a period of time, especially in those who have suicidal thoughts.
The thing to focus on if you are the recipient of someone expelling negative energy toward you is to learn how to not take it on as your own. This involves recognizing that you can serve them by being the witness of the anger or sarcasm tool used to say “pay attention to me, I am hurting and I have energy I need to transmute”.
Sometimes our jobs as loving soul mates means that we agreed to provide situation that trigger these emotions to come to the surface. Realizing this puts us in the right frame of mind to observe rather than react. If this becomes a repeated pattern with the person then it is showing that they are not completely letting go of the energy and you may need to assist them a little further by talking about it or perhaps with some energy work with them.
Another service you can provide is to create a shield of protection that not only keeps the energy out of your aura but also transmutes it as well. Here is a way to create a shield that you can put up daily.
Take several deep breaths, breathing in through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. Now imagine that you are a tree and that your feet and toes are roots that go deep within the Earth. Connect with the core of the Earth (the Earth’s heart) and imagine her energies coming back up through your roots, into your root chakra, sexual chakra, sacral charka, and finally settling into your heart. Imagine that you have a column of golden white light coming in through the top of your head that comes form Source (All That Is, God, or whatever name you choose). Imagine this light comes also comes through your oversoul and higher self into your crown chakra, then into your third eye, throat chakra, and meets the Earth’s energy in your heart. Turn the mixture of this energy into a ball of golden light that you then expand as a force field around you that keeps you protected. Intend that all negative energies that come your way are absorbed on the exterior of that force field and sent down into the planet to be transmuted. (There are loving elementals that do this as their service to the planet that can handle these types of energies.) Take a few deep breaths and thank the Universe and all beings that are working with you in your highest good for helping to transmute energies for all beings that need it who come around your energy field. You are now a walking transmutation golden bubble of Source energy, grounded into the planet!
Don’t take anything personally- Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that we attract what is most like ourselves on a vibrational standpoint. If someone is angry with you, perhaps it may be a reflection of your own anger and they are giving you a clue by matching your vibration. This is a great gift because it can trigger the need to look deeper within yourself to see what still needs to be healed.
It is imperative that we learn how to be responsible with our own energies, thoughts, and actions. Intention and action to recognize and react differently to situations will break down the programming that has ./.kept us in a cycle of dissonance and unhappiness.
Our external world is a reflection of our inner world. As we shift the energy within, our external world has to change. The place of transformation is the heart center, which is made up of the highest vibration of love. Find your heart center and exist within it, and watch the world around you along with all of those that are in it either change to match it or leave your reality.
I have learned in the past couple of years that nothing ever stays the same. Even after we start practicing mindfulness, we have our good and bad days.
People often tell me that sometimes they are still anxious, even after practicing peace for such a long time. They feel bad for it and want to eliminate it completely. But the truth is that anxiety, just like any other human feeling, cannot be eliminated completely. Because it is natural. And there’s nothing wrong with it, just like there’s nothing wrong with any other human feeling.
I have my own set of fears, just like everybody else does. Sometime I feel like my mind just picks a random worry off its big shelf of worries to bother me with. The shelf is never empty, it always has something to throw at me. I don’t think it will ever be empty. And that’s okay.
What I realized is that it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that the shelf is full. It doesn’t matter what the mind throws at you. And I’m going one step further: It doesn’t even matter what life itself throws at you. Because there is only one thing that matters, one thing that determines life.
And that is how we react to it.
This was one of the very first reminders I’ve written in my meditation diary: “Life is determined by our reactions to it.” Because many things are out of our control, even our thoughts sometimes. But what will always remain in our control is our reactions. And through our reactions, we make life.
Let’s look at an example. Imagine a person who is scared of public speaking because of what people might think about her. That’s a very common fear. Now imagine that person going up to speak and messing up in the worst possible way. This is our main situation. There are two ways to go from there.
She either collapses mentally and scolds herself for being so stupid, never really getting over it, making it into one of her most horrible memories. Or she can shrug it off, accept with peace that it happened and move on. Will anyone in the audience care? No, everyone will forget after a short time. Of course they will, because it’s not a big deal. It’s nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Nothing is nearly as big of a deal as our minds make it out to be. It’s good to remember that, so when the time comes, we can choose to react with peace. What happens doesn’t matter as long as we choose to react to it with peace. Because whatever we react to in such a way will become a peaceful experience.
This is one of the most important things I’ve learned and I still remember what a freeing experience it has been to realize it. I don’t have to suffer. I don’t have to panic. I don’t have to worry. I can choose to react with peace. To anything. Inside and outside of me.
“Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional,” is one of my favorite quotes. Because it’s so true. Things will happen, everyone goes through pain, hardship, bad thoughts, uncomfortable feelings. But those don’t determine a life. What determines a life is how we react to all these things. Because that makes all the difference in the world.
(A guided meditation on the same topic can be found here:
“Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it.” – Lou Holtz
President Franklin D. Roosevelt told the nation in the depths of the Great Depression, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” While people remember these famous words, they often don’t recall what he said next: “— nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” Note the interesting use of the word “paralyzes.” When FDR was paralyzed from polio at the age of 39, his life changed irrevocably. He must have been terrified — but he overcame those fears and became one of our nation’s greatest leaders.
Mind-body connection
Anxiety starts in your brain, but affects your entire body. When you’re anxious, your heart races, your stomach flutters, and you might feel your blood pressure rise. You lose the ability to think straight and truly assess a situation. Relieve some of your fears by maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Eat nutritionally sound foods, exercise, and get as much rest as possible. Helping your body won’t necessarily alleviate all of your anxiety, but it is a step in the right direction. Avoid alcohol, opiates and other forms of numbing yourself. They may quell your fears for a short time, but only make things worse in the long run.
Name your fears
What is it that you are afraid of? Failure, romance, finances and health — these are common anxiety triggers, but there are a host of others. If you name your fears, it gives you the opportunity to confront them. You may realize that some of your fears are groundless, but that doesn’t make them vanish. Think about why you are afraid, what is the worst-case scenario, and how likely any of these issues are to actually occur. You’ll get a better perspective on your state of mind.
Practice meditation
Meditation can help manage your fears. If you’re unable to sleep, use the time to meditate instead. Those panicky moments and bad thoughts will come, but over time, they’ll lessen in severity. Eventually, sleep is less of a struggle.Banish negativity
Get rid of the influences in your life that feed your fears. If there are toxic people around you, avoid them. As the old song goes: “Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative, don’t mess with Mister In-Between.” That song was a hit in 1944, when the world was at war. Seventy-two years later, it’s still good advice.
Give yourself time
There’s a reason older people are generally calmer than younger folks. Experience shows them that life has an odd way of working out. People have a fear of failure if they haven’t reached specific goals by a certain age. That might be career, marriage, children — it’s another long list. Reduce your anxiety by “going with the flow.” That doesn’t mean you give up your goals, but realize that things happen when they are supposed to, not when you want them. If you fight the flow, you are only fighting yourself. Allow yourself to enjoy the ride, and remember there’s a reason that patience is a virtue.
Envy is poison
Envy and jealousy are often used interchangeably, but the latter has a sexual connotation. Comparing yourself to others in your peer group and finding yourself wanting is a great cause of anxiety, but resist it. You can’t really know the true interior life of another. Friends and acquaintances may not realize you’re anxious, unless you tell them. The people you envy may suffer more anxiety than you do. Conquer envy and anxiety, and make the best life possible for yourself. In the end, it is never the material things that count, but the kindness and joy you bring to others.
Reward yourself
When you’ve successfully faced a fear, give yourself a reward. It doesn’t have to be a major indulgence, just an acknowledgment that you’ve tackled a fear and won. More victories lie in the future.
The purpose of Life is to Live! But upon arrival on this Earth it quickly becomes apparent that this is not the agenda. Ninety nine percent of what’s going on here is not about enhancing human creative potential, but about suppressing it.
It’s about stepping onto an invisible ladder whose rungs form the seemingly inviolable rules of a stagnant, pyramid posturing status quo. A status quo which has almost nothing to do with growing, but a lot to do with decaying. With becoming a well adapted slave in a world whose task masters are kings of a two-dimensional sub reality.
That reality consists of a monotonous fixation on the acquisition of power, money, prestige and preeminence. A world in which a quite deadly lack of awareness remains the prevailing condition; ruthlessly maintained by a small cabal in whose interests it is to keep things exactly as they are, lest some unguarded rebellion should dislodge them from their imperious, sterile thrones.
However the life force is strong. It cannot and will not tolerate eternal repression. Wherever fissures appear in the status quo, it bubbles up and declares itself to be the messenger of truth. “This is our World. We are breaking free and shining a light on the path to be manifest.”
So what is it that is still holding back so many from actually making that illumined path manifest?
Fear
Breaking through the cozy similitudes of a largely routine, safe existence, takes courage and conviction. There is no ‘easy way’ to truth. But the thought of venturing into a deeper side of one’s self – and of jumping into new paradigms of external involvement – often arouses a sense of fear.
Honest internal and external exploration bring things to the surface that many would rather leave buried and, as far as possible, forgotten.
Such embarkations into previously uncharted territories are, for many, an unsettling experience; one where our deeper intuition appears to be at odds with our mundane fixations. Where the inner call to be awake clashes with all too easily accepted patterns of day-to-day existence. Patterns whose ‘successful’ completion ironically, require that one remains largely asleep!
Fear can – and does – create the single largest block to the manifestation of our basic consciousness.
The manifestation of consciousness is not a passive affair, it demands taking action. ‘An action that speaks louder than words.’ And here’s where the next level of inner, fear based resistance kicks-in and tries to hold us back from making a stand. Tries to prevent our involvement in positive acts of resistance in response to the further erosion of the planet’s life support system. And to the further erosion of essential facets of daily life right in our own back yards.
Overcoming the hold which the fear factor exerts upon us is, I believe, the single greatest step we can make towards the emancipation of the true self and a rising consciousness. There are one hundred and one different ways of doing it, but recognition of the paralysis it causes in us is a major first step.
Low Self-Confidence
There are many amongst those longing for both internal and external change who fall at the first hurdle due to a seeming lack of self-confidence. A lack of self-esteem. But this need not be, for this sense of ‘lack’ is a trick played upon us by a wayward ‘second self’. A little devil who has acquired entry into our subconscious and is damned if he is going to quit without a fight!
He’s a cunning one alright, because he disguises himself as our actual thoughts; making us believe that ‘we’ can’t do such and such – because ‘we’ are not capable – ‘we’ are not good enough.. But it ain’t the real us speaking, it’s the little demon which Carlos Castaneda refers to as “a foreign installation”. And yes, it is a foreign installation. And a devilishly clever little trickster to boot!
Try putting a proposal (to yourself ) to do something for which you feel a great need, but have not as yet taken the step of actually putting into practice. Now, as soon as the foreign installation kicks in with “But I can’t .. it’s really not possible..” you know it’s that little Lucifer fellow. He’s tricking you into believing that ‘you’ arrived at this prognosis, when actually he did. “But I can’t..” Yep – that’s him!
Once you know this you’re on your way. Once you disentangle your real self from that foreign installation – you have one foot on the path to the promised land. No ‘but’s’ – unless you feel a positive urge to boot that little demon in the butt!
Laziness
Yes, well, let’s admit it, getting off one’s ‘butt’ and getting going isn’t the easiest for some people. But most forms of laziness stem from being unmotivated and unwilling to make the effort to become motivated.
There are certain days when we all feel it; days when the energy seems to be drained out of us and nothing really comes to our rescue to kick the mood. But that form of ‘enforced’ lack of motivation can be in our best interests, as it may well stem from too many days of over exertion without a break.
It’s not the same as the kind of in-built lack of get up and go which afflicts millions, sometimes for long periods of their lives. This disease, and it is such, is more often than not associated with being ‘too comfortable’. Too wrapped up in one’s own self-interested state of material well-being to ever consider doing something for the good of the greater whole.
This affliction is particularly prevalent amongst those who feel safest when operating in a club-like atmosphere where maintaining a public face of cheery conviviality acts as an insurance policy to protect against ever having to think and act ‘outside the box’. To ever get truly serious about the dire nature of the predicaments faced by mankind and mankind’s planet – and indeed one’s own neglected soul.
For these beings, the only thing to jolt them out of their lethargy, is a disaster. And so it is that millions will in fact face just such a disaster, as a form of karmic retribution for failing to make use of the gifts bestowed upon them.
This form of ‘waking up as a last resort’ is clearly to be avoided. Our World needs action in the here and now – and not years of inaction in never-never land.
Being Different
Here’s another barnacle encrusted old anchor chain that’s been holding back the evolution of large segments of often thoughtful individuals .. for far too long.
So it starts with worrying about what other people might think about one, especially if one is intending to embark upon something which fails to conform to the politically correct menu of the day. It’s a form of paralysis which blocks any instinct to move away from ‘herd mentality syndrome’ with its rigid confirmation to what are considered ‘acceptable’ parameters of behavior.
So powerful, for many, is the pull of trying to appear normal, that few openings exist for the true individual to ever emerge. What a tragic waste of human potential!
The prevalence of this condition is particularly well suited to the goals of the centralized control system. The one which sets the agenda of daily life on our planet. It plays into the hands of the top-down politics of persuasion through ensuring basic conformity with whatever the majority might be up to. Not daring to ever speak-out against even the most fool hardy propositions and practices, lest one should appear ‘different’, is a disaster area of global proportions, especially in the face of ill-conceived and often abject acts of destruction which we witness almost every day of our lives.
I’ve got news for those who suffer this affliction: you’re not going to be your own best friend in later life if you fail to make the effort to overcome your shyness now. Because either the frustration will build up to the point where sickness intervenes, or you accept becoming just another number amongst the robotic crowd. A crowd that operates without any true emotions ever breaking the surface.
That’s an ugly choice to have in front of one. So why not break free today? Stop hiding your light under a bushel; step out and let it shine!
You’ll be amazed at how much brighter everything becomes once one ceases trying to be like Mr, Mrs or Ms Normal..
Stuck in the Wrong Job
This one’s a major energy sucker, as anyone in this position surely realizes. The inventor of the 9 to 5 work day sure came up with a clever control mechanism for keeping mankind terminally preoccupied. Preoccupied with ‘earning a living’ – pretty much 24/7.
What the hell is this? Shackled to a desk in a neon lit air-conditioned sterile office building with only a computer as work mate? Or maybe not quite as dull as that, but nevertheless, enforced and usually slavish routine day after day. A routine that ultimately only succeeds in bringing in more dosh to a business or corporation whose end product is just one of millions steadily destroying the health and welfare of planet Earth and most of her occupants. Get the hell out of there – and fast!
Better to be on the street than in this kind of prison. Better (by far) to be working for yourself, not for someone who is only out to use you, prior to installing a robot a year or two down the road. The kind of robots that don’t ask for wages. You know. They’re even better than the one’s that do, like you.
The typical 9 to 5 job leaves no time for the type of deep reflection required to move forward into a state of conscious awareness. How could it – when 90% of one’s energy is used-up fighting to survive in the job market jungle. The rat race.
Our survival as human beings demands more than the monthly pay cheque. It demands that we are able to hear the voice of our true selves, and then turn its message to good effect in helping to shift the tide of history in a positive direction. Away from the neo-liberal capitalist money-making machine and into something which calls forth a true power of awakening, sharing and social responsibility.
The Skeptical Intellectual
“I can see that it won’t work.” Yes, sure you can! Because you made-up your mind years ago that there’s really no point in getting involved in any remotely idealistic initiative, since such initiatives are all doomed to failure at the hands of Mr Realism and his “I know best” crew.
There’s something more than faintly fatalistic about our skeptical intellectual. Strange really, to build a pedestal for one’s self and then set it in a concrete plinth, so as to be impervious to the swirling current of a life force which is capable of bringing ‘a mountain to Mohamed’ if that’s what’s really needed.
“Prove it”. And when he says that, you know that everything which follows is something ‘you’ have to do – never him. For him, proof is actually never good enough anyway, because the mind which demands answers without ever trying to find them itself, is a sad and polluted vessel; badly in need of a full immersion detox.
Yet many of these sorts of people are just the one’s to become bankers, army corporals, political strategists, bureaucrats, professors and civil servants. They are the glue that holds together the status quo. Very reliable at carrying out their duties and ensuring that nothing too imaginative or spontaneous ever gets in amongst the automated cogs and wheels of the sanitized status quo.
The best cure for such individuals is to suffer an insufferable shock .. like falling in love. Is it possible? Something that shakes them to their roots and causes a little volcano to erupt deep within. That which is capable of blowing away the densely packed layers which have caused a crust of cynicism to form over buried benign feelings of compassion, joy, creativity and yes, love. Something which turns on its head all the false pride of an over indulged, obese ego.
Lack of Passion
This is very bad news. Nothing, but nothing, truly meaningful comes into being without someone, somewhere, having a strong desire to bring to life their deepest needs. The manifestation of our inner powers is all about following through on that which inspires us. Inspires us to take action, to create meaningful change.
That should be the very definition of ‘living’ of ‘being alive’. All the rest is shadow boxing with phantoms. And happy are these phantoms to be given so much unearned attention.
It is passion which created life in the first place. Passion is the precondition for all genuinely creative acts. It is the motor of universal movement. It is the dance of life!
Yet, for tens of millions of human souls it remains an almost entirely missing ingredient. And if, God forbid, it should ever rear its beautiful head, it is greeted with as much indifference as its recipient can possibly muster!
Come on! Sustained intent, fueled as it is by passion, poses a massively intrusive threat on the control system’s determination to keep the lid on human emancipation. It is the key without which we cannot unlock the door behind which we have for so long been imprisoned.
Look, I’m not talking about ‘having a blast’, going to a rave, or even getting worked-up about something nasty going on in the neighbourhood. The architects of control have arranged all the outlets you will ever need to ‘let off steam’; such sporadic outbursts of passion are well catered for.
No, I’m talking about a deeply sustained burning intent which simply will not die; once you’ve given it your recognition and grasped the implications of its transformative powers.
It’s the reason I write these essays. A deep need to share a vision of something. Something out of the ordinary. Sharing my thoughts and aspirations with you, dear reader. That’s all part and parcel of this passion – which catches fire in those who are ready to burn.
That’s it! And it all bubbles up from a place which is inseparable from Source. It is Source. Passion is ‘the original energy’.
So how could one hope to Live Life without this primary force playing its fundamental role in everything one does. I can barely imagine. It’s not possible. For whatever that thing is which happens between the time when we are born (on Earth) and the time we depart (from Earth) – it is not Life unless it is inspired by passion. It is a fake.
And, due to the fact that so many feel the need to fake their way through life, our World is starved of direction. There are too few helmsmen. It is largely direction-less. The only forces to bring direction into this vacuum are the masters of control. The architects of fear. The instigators of war, oppression and violence.
Quite simply, it is the lack of ‘we the people’s’ ability to sustain a passionate commitment to taking forward the callings of our destinies which is responsible for a global take-over by the preeminent despotic masters of oppression and control.
If we want to ensure their days are numbered, and we surely do, we must dig deep. Yes, dig deep, always keeping victory firmly in our sights. The despots cannot endure a sustained barrage of many awakened souls. They fall away, exposed as the hollow cardboard shells which they really are.
Big Brother is watching you and he wants you to believe that if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear.
This is a lie, of course, and as we move deeper into the era of state sponsored technological surveillance, we see more evidence that the loss of privacy and confidence in inter-personal communications is transforming the individual into a compliant, self-policing ward of the state.
In one of the first empirical scientific studies to provide concrete evidence of the ‘chilling effects’ that government surveillance has on internet users, Oxford University professor Jon Penney looked at Wikipedia search data and traffic patterns before and after the 2013 revelations by Edward Snowden regarding widespread NSA surveillance of the internet. The results demonstrated an immediate trend towards self-censorship, as traffic and searches for terms like ‘Al Qaeda,’ ‘car bomb,’ and ‘Taliban’ showed nearly instant and mentionable decline.
The changes were statistically significant enough to indicate that many people automatically alter their own behavior upon realizing that a punitive authoritarian organization is monitoring them for legitimate or perceived wrongdoings.
“If people are spooked or deterred from learning about important policy matters like terrorism and national security, this is a real threat to proper democratic debate.” – Jon Penney
In 2013, the organization Pen America conducted a survey of writers in the United States showing that many were already self-censoring themselves in an increasingly oppressive atmosphere of government surveillance. The fear of being caught up in a dragnet of legal and financial problems was sufficient enough for many to change their tone and content, even though no direct physical threat existed.
“The results of this survey—the beginning of a broader investigation into the harms of surveillance—substantiate PEN’s concerns: writers are not only overwhelmingly worried about government surveillance, but are engaging in self-censorship as a result.” [Source]
Commenting on the effects of authoritarian governments which heavily surveil their citizens, Pen America also notes that, “historically, from writers and intellectuals in the Soviet Bloc, and contemporaneously from writers, thinkers, and artists in China, Iran, and elsewhere—aggressive surveillance regimes limit discourse and distort the flow of information and ideas.” This is without question the intended aim of such programs.
That study also included data which indicated how people curtail their online behavior and interactions with other people out of fear of being persecuted by the nanny state:
“Smaller percentages of those surveyed described already changing their day-to-day behavior: 28 percent said they had “curtailed or avoided activities on social media,” with another 12 percent saying they had seriously considered doing it; similar percentages said they had steered clear of certain topics in phone calls or email (24 percent had done so; 9 percent had seriously considered it).” [Source]
Furthermore, in a 2015 study by the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) examining how awareness of government surveillance affected people’s use of Google, the world’s most widely used internet search engine, researchers concluded that, “users were less likely to search using search terms that they believed might get them in trouble with the US government.”
In general, people’s behavior also changes in ways more favorable to an authoritarian government when surveillance both online and in the real world is as ubiquitous as it already is in American society. The state draws power from a compliant, acquiescent, and self-policing public, and when mass surveillance is applied to the citizenry, with the predictable result of creating a more submissive and conformist citizenry.
This idea was effectively brought to life in George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel, 1984, where the primary surveillance device of the individual was the telescreen, a digital device located in every home that could receive and transmit audio and video, giving individuals zero privacy in their own homes. The beauty of omnipotent surveillance such as this was that the government did not even have to actually be monitoring an individual, because the simple fact that they could be listening and watching was enough to frighten a person into voluntary compliance and self-censorship.
“There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You have to live – did live, from habit that became instinct – in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.” – George Orwell, 1984
This principle is coming to fruition in our modern world in the form of the internet and social media. Couple this with the creation and publication of government watch lists of all flavors, where people can be arbitrarily restricted from travel, or worse, and we are marching headlong into a brave new world where freedom is tightly constricted not by law, but by a creeping ambiguous fear of what may happen to us if we step out of line. We are creating a society where people may have legally protected free speech, but they dare not use it.
“There is a reason governments, corporations, and multiple other entities of authority crave surveillance. It’s precisely because the possibility of being monitored radically changes individual and collective behavior. Specifically, that possibility breeds fear and fosters collective conformity. That’s always been intuitively clear. Now, there is mounting empirical evidence proving it.” – Glen Greenwald
It’s amazing how people have been backed into a corner by this barrage of social programming and outright intimidation. People actually feel apologetic about speaking the truth when it counters the politically correct entrained mass mindset of the world today.
Telling someone the truth is the most loving thing anyone can do. Of course it needs to be done wisely so as not to give a ready excuse for holding on to their illusion. That’s a clever mechanism that needs to be avoided. But there is also a time the truth hurts but still needs to be said. If it hurts, so be it. To withhold the truth from someone who is clearly in need of it is the most unloving and self serving thing any of us can do.
Let the chips fall where they may. Telling the truth is a fundamental form of love.
Taking Authority is Contrarian in a Spineless, Programmed World
I often think about this, the need for all of us who have awakened to take authority in our awareness and live in it fully and boldly. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve been conditioned with. The collective mind is built on dependence and allegiance to imposed authority. This is nothing less than fear and submission programming.
From Pavlovian bells ringing between classes and fire and atom bomb drills as school children, to stop lights and sirens wailing in the streets and figures in uniforms, it’s all conditioning. Think about those strange costumes of authority figures we were entrained to “respect” – from religious garb and battle gear to dark suits and lab coats with “degrees” behind their names – these authorities were to be implicitly trusted as well as feared and obeyed.
The conditioning runs deep. And needs to be shirked.
The result of this programming which we can see all around us is a weak, limp and spineless humanity, willing to go along with whatever program comes next, with just enough free range within their confined space to give the illusion of freedom and autonomy. Very clever, very insidious and completely debilitating.
Entrapment, Intimidation and Assumptive Posturing
These are all mechanisms of subjugation. Devious baited traps of entangled low-level left brained arguments, all with assumptive conclusions. You’ll often hear “why can’t you consider both sides?” as if there’s some sort of neutral ground to a life threatening situation, all in an attempt to neutralize your conviction which is contrary to theirs. Have “they” fully considered” both sides? Total hypocrisy.
This type of mind manipulation leads the unsuspecting subject into mental and social cages of seemingly logical yet conflicting conclusions, often accompanied by just plain bullying with the projected atmosphere of unquestionable authority. It’s a nasty response system to these mechanisms that’s been engrained into humanity, both the thinking and the unthinking. We’re dealing with a very deep spiritual source of disinformation that works on the unsuspecting, the overly programmed and those who are self justifying and self serving.
All are devious responses and affirmations of severely entropic forces – mental, spiritual and physical designs to break down our natural spiritual state. The need to see and wake up to these is absolutely imperative.
It happens in all walks of life. The mind weave of guilt tripping and subordination programming is admittedly slippery and surreal, but very very present. The effects are everywhere.
What we witness in these usurping rulers posturing themselves as authority figures is a perfect manifestation of this form of falsely based intimidation which trickles down through society right into interpersonal relationships. It’s taught and reinforced from birth because it’s unnatural and must be learned and is essential to the control system. It’s an imposed false paradigm born in lies and perpetrated by lies. It’s literally an illusion perpetrated by nothing but fabricated innuendo, continued reinforcement, and backed by brute force, the extension of which is their hierarchy of control supported by a mechanized policing military machine.
Again, this is a woefully misused mimic of the true power of loving empowerment, a false projection in this 3-D reality play we’re all playing a part in.
We are an intrinsic element of the true Authority and it’s time we took our rightful place.
Awaken and Take Authority
We need to be proactive and confidently assertive in our convictions. We cannot waver or bend to these influences, however complex, corrosive or intimidating they may be. Ours is to defy the lie, denounce the liars, expose the agenda, and march on in full confidence in the Truth and freedoms we’ve been endowed with. Forget national altruism and the futile law-riddled political and religious maze, ours is to stand as parts of the creative universal Source itself – autonomous, free thinking, creative and imaginative agents of love and positive change.
We have far greater and more powerful tools, even weapons, at our disposal than we realize. When thinking about this I was reminded of the light saber we saw popularized in the Star Wars films. My problem with that imagery is that the dark side has an equally powerful light weapon. That’s not true. Their sabers should have had a black beam. There’s power there, but only operable in dark places. It cannot stand up to the power of light and would easily be cut to shreds by the wand of Truth and Light.
We have such a weapon. If you’ve ever seen adepts use the power of chi to literally knock people backwards, as well as wonderfully heal, you’ve seen it in action. Sure, the interdimensionals have influences at their disposal we are now becoming familiar with, but they cannot affect those living in the full light of awakened truth.
What arouses this truth force within us is living it and not compromising or living apologetically on the defensive, riddled with doubt about our calling or capabilities.
There’s much to learn for all of us but this tremendous resource awaits our activation. And it has everything to do with taking and using the authority with which we’ve been endowed.
The Time to Decide is Now – Always Now
Either you’re on board or you’re not. Either you’re compromised and impotent and left languishing on the banks of the river of truth….or not, and in allowing the spontaneous process of creative activation.
The choice is ours. What we’re up against has been clearly spelled out to us in this massive awakening and sharing of empowering and enlightening information we’re experiencing. At that point either we utilize it, or we succumb. There’s no standing still in this current. We either stand strong and forge ahead upstream or get washed over the falls in the polluted river of lies.
It’s ours to decide. Empower and help change the course of now, or hide in shame, doubt and disgusting fear and self-serving self pity.
Personally, I have no pity for the liars and those who adamantly defend the lie and thereby exert this oppressive system on others. They are the problem. We and the truth we bear are the solution. We must treat those who’ve been subverted with love, but love takes many forms, and telling and living the Truth are intrinsic to it, come what may.
And take heart. The reign of the dark forces of the Kali Yuga (or age of vice) is over. What we’re witnessing is its death throes. The cycle is ending and this is our time to come forth, but it will be a challenge as we pass through the debris of ages past and its remnant psycho-spiritual effects on our planet.
Let’s help these dark minions on their way to oblivion in style. When we disconnect, disengage and do not comply but rather stand confidently and boldly in the truth we know and then move forward proactively, their fabrication of deceit will shred, shatter and fall to our feet.
My lightsaber’s turned on and burning furiously. How’s yours? It simply awaits activation.
It’s time to awaken the weapons of loving truth – and wield them with full authority.
Trump Couldn’t Have Asked for a Better Media Climate: All Fear, All the Time
03/01/2016 11:19
Dan Gillmor Professor of Practice, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Arizona State University
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A few weeks ago, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof weighed in on who is to blame for the poisoning of American politics.
“The G.O.P. Created Donald Trump,” blared the headline. In recent decades, Kristof wrote, Republican leaders “pried open a Pandora’s box, a toxic politics of fear and resentment, sometimes brewed with a tinge of racial animus, and they could never satisfy the unrealistic expectations that they nurtured among supporters.”
True enough, but incomplete. The lies and predations of the power elite have given voters ample reason to be angry. Almost every major institution in American society, including government and big business, has failed in some fundamental ways. That so many voters have gravitated toward a bigoted, egomaniacal liar like Trump — and may do so again today on Super Tuesday — points us toward another failed institution with which Kristof is intimately familiar: the nation’s newsrooms.
Crime-infested local news programming has continued even in an era of plummeting crime rates in America.
I know this terrain, too, as a longtime journalist — and, more recently, as someone who’s trying to help people navigate the flood of information and misinformation in a digital world. And I’m not talking here (for the most part) about the Rush Limbaugh-led radio cadre, more recently joined by Fox News and a host of right-wing websites that can be counted on to spew fear and loathing. Their role has been corrosive enough, but at least they’re not pretending to be fair or balanced.
No, I’m talking more about the traditional media organizations — newspapers and local TV news in particular — that have spectacularly failed to do their jobs in recent decades. They, too, have contributed to the accelerating meltdown of societal norms.
They’ve been outright complicit in creating the current political environment. When news organizations haven’t been obsessed with celebrities — Trump was an expert celebrity before moving into politics, they’ve catered to fear. When their coverage of politics and policy hasn’t been about who’s winning and losing, it’s been stenography, writing down the words of the powerful and quoting “two sides” in a story even when one is lying. And nuance? What’s that?
For the most part, local TV news would need a huge upgrade just to achieve mediocrity. But its willful badness deserves special mention and no small amount of contempt. It’s been years since local stations made any pretense of serving the public trust. Sure, they provide the services of the weather report and sports scores, along with some infotainment — mostly celebrity voyeurism — and, occasionally, the kind of news and information their communities truly need.
The old cliché about local news’ obsession with murder and mayhem is still accurate: ‘If it bleeds it leads.’
But by and large, the old cliché about local news’ obsession with murder and mayhem is still accurate: “If it bleeds it leads.” On a recent visit to Phoenix, I watched an early-morning news show that went from one crime story to another. Oh, there was a fire, too.
Crime-infested local news programming has continued even in an era of plummeting crime rates in America. And so, over the past 20-plus years, the local news helped feed a tough-on-crime atmosphere that stripped away crucial civil liberties — including most of our Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures — and kept other serious issues off the air.
Network and news-channel journalism has devolved, meanwhile. Terrorism, far less likely to affect an average citizen than domestic crime, has become all too much the focus. After the shootings in San Bernardino, CNN adopted coverage that could be called “all fear, all the time” (my expression, not theirs). When I could stomach tuning in, I saw segment after segment that made a foul-enough crime sound like an attack for the ages, presaging truly mass jihadist carnage on our streets.
Even Kristof’s Times, normally the finest of our journalism institutions, has jumped aboard the Be Afraid bandwagon. The newspaper invited its readers to write in about how much they feared being targeted in a mass shooting and never mentioned in the subsequent story the extreme unlikelihood of this happening to any individual.
Terrorism, far less likely to affect an average citizen than domestic crime, has become all too much the focus.
The Trumps of our culture couldn’t have asked for a better media climate in which to wage war on the political establishment, immigrants, Muslims and truth. Our media lap it up, handing the demagogues the megaphones; they drive ratings and mouse clicks.
Journalists are having qualms, at least. In the past few months, there has been quite a bit of “what should we do about Trump?” conversation in public and private settings. At some level, journalists recognize that they can’t — or at least shouldn’t — sit still as Trump and other candidates lie and pitch the kinds of authoritarian “solutions” that would lead to drastic curbs on liberty.
The right response, however, would take most political reporters and editors out of their comfort zones, where they profess what my friend, the press critic and reviewer Jay Rosen, calls the “view from nowhere” — being above it all and opting not to know or care who’s telling the truth. Reporters behave as if they have an absurd obligation to let politicians attack fundamental liberties, without which robust journalism can’t exist in the first place, without pushing back.
The Trumps of our culture couldn’t have asked for a better media climate in which to wage war on the political establishment, immigrants, Muslims and truth.
Issues such as freedom of expression, freedom to associate and more are in jeopardy in an era of pervasive surveillance and increasingly centralized control of technology and communications. If journalists want to keep their jobs, journalists have to be activists on these very issues, and shouldn’t call themselves journalists if they don’t.
Media people should see candidate extremism as an opportunity, not a dilemma. “Trump may well represent one moment where clickbait and accountability journalism form a partnership,” Erik Wemple, Washington Post media critic, wrote a few days ago. “To understand Trump’s wide-ranging awfulness, after all, you need to present wide-ranging coverage.” (A comedian recently made a good-faith effort to do just that.)
So what should journalists do about Trump? They should do their jobs.
Time once again appears to be behaving strangely. Not just the surreal blender of the whirled news, but the little slippages here and there, abrupt realizations that it’s not the time or date you thought it was. Things like that. Are you noticing? Time moving very quickly, strange sort of head spinning feelings when trying to track your thoughts, memory lapses, sense of fatigue for no good reason, or ringing in the ears with a touch of vertigo? It’s freaky. There are a lot of influences at work right now. Some good, some bad.
Perhaps we may have hit the edge of the wormhole in some sense. Or are there competing wormholes?
That’s an exotic thought perhaps. But that’s what appears to be happening in many ways. The overall perspective of the awakening was easier to see from afar just a year or two ago. Now the picture is getting muddled and appears like a hodgepodge of swirling influences and resultant reactions. Things are mixing together like the colors in a young child’s finger painting.
It’s apparently because we have entered some kind of vortex perhaps, where time and space subduct like esoteric tectonic plates. What we’re seeing in the surreal whirled about us is just another manifestation. The rapid acceleration of their plan is designed to throw us off, much like fast changing scenes in an action movie. If you get swept into it the results can be distracting and very disempowering.
We need to be careful to dodge the spiraling flak while maneuvering into and even reveling in the true energetic vortex. It’s nothing to fear as long as we’re aware of what’s going on around us and stay on our toes. The changes are changing and the winds are picking up.
It’s a great time for letting go – but it will not be a pleasant ride for those who refuse to loosen their grip.
Mixed Signals
Who knows the full plan? But we can track and watch and learn and experience. Knowing it’s all just a ride will save our spiritual hineys and keep our engines cooled during all this insanity.
It’s a strange dichotomy – watching the pre-placed dominoes fall yet being so enraptured with the awakening that’s happening, with so many catching on to what’s really going on. That’s the part I like to tune into but I have to admit this other stuff whirling around us doesn’t make it easy.
It’s clearly happening at a faster rate as the whirled stage antics escalate, yet it’s hard to put your finger on in many ways with all the crap we’re being told and so many swallowing the almost unavoidable fear propaganda campaign being waged. Some of those strange vibes you’re feeling are all the antennas picking up and resonating with this fear channel as the war on consciousness escalates. These and other signals interact causing a kind of wave interference.
Steer clear of it. That is not the wormhole to be anywhere near.
What we’re being shown by the big media projector is the exact opposite of what’s really going on. Thankfully dot connecting makes things very plain, and when you learn to speak that language, damn it’s clear.
Don’t Get Sucked In
Funny thing about a wormhole – it can be a good one or a not so good one. These exterior manufactured influences are obviously meant towards more control and containment. Conversely, the positive spiritual influences are drawing us to deeper understandings, but they’re subtle and not that easy to identify in such an environment.
Discernment is the key, but it takes manning the rudder and sails intelligently. The threats to the alternative and independent media they’re making aren’t anything new. Clearly they’ve pre-decided this staged Paris event would be a kick off to the next level of many of their programs. Massively increased war budgets are passing without a whimper of consensus or protest while the NATO countries try to make an end run to occupy Syria and overthrow Assad and stave off Russia’s clean up job, something no one else would do since as we know ISIS is the West’s creation.
All while initiating draconian clampdowns anywhere and everywhere they can, fueled by continued terror events around the world which we’ll no doubt be seeing a lot more of to keep this tide of confusion rolling out.
Your Personal Choice
So, we’re again at a crossroads, a place we should all be familiar with since we’re constantly having to make decisions on what to let into our spiritual field. It’s important to be aware of what’s supposedly, yes supposedly, going on but more importantly it’s a time to dig deep and remain grounded in loving, encouraging truth.
And revel in it.
The whirlpools are spinning. We’re continually swept into more choices, and it’s much like vortecies pulling us in different directions. Most importantly, we’re being pulled into a wormhole of Truth and Transformation, one we’ve been in for some time, and we can’t lose track of that.
So what do you do? Run in fear and hide from what could be a path to a greater reality and cling to the old world addictions to whateverthehell keeps you entrapped and ensnared?
Or venture on.
It’s an easy choice for me, thankfully. Adventure towards freedom vs trudging towards slavery should be a clear cut decision for anyone who’s even half awake. That may not be clear to those being played like pawns in the whirled matrix but it’s always obvious to the awakened.
Don’t let yourself get confused or discouraged by all of this. We’re sailing through very choppy waters and we need to move forward with dead reckoning, knowing our direction and with full confidence in the ships of our lives – even if it leads to heretofore unexplored territory as we navigate around the whirlpools of deceit.
Conscious, awakened truth calls, and it’s a place of safe refuge in times of rapid change and seeming uncertainty.
The psoas major muscle (pronounced “so-as”) is often referred to as the deepest core, or as yoga therapist and film-maker Danielle Olson states, the “muscle of the soul.” This core-stabilizing muscle located near the hip bone affects mobility, structural balance, joint function, flexibility, and much more. In addition to its function to help keep the body upright and moving, the psoas is believed to allow you to connect with the present moment especially when it is stretched out and tension is released from the body.
Research indicates that the psoas is vital to our psychological wellbeing in addition to structural health. Liz Koch, author of The Psoas Book, states that our psoas “literally embodies our deepest urge for survival, and more profoundly, our elemental desire to flourish.” This means that there is a lot more to the psoas than one might initially think. It is entirely possible to harness healing pranic energy and improve mental health by keeping the psoas healthy.
Where is the Psoas?
The psoas is the principal muscle associated with physical stability. It stretches from the legs to the spine and is the only muscle connecting the legs to the spinal column. The muscle flares out from the T12 vertebrae, follows down the five lumbar vertebrae, before attaching to the top of the thigh bone.
The Reptilian Connection
In addition to connecting the legs and spine, the psoas is connected to the diaphragm. Breathing is modulated at the diaphragm, and it is also the location where many physical symptoms associated with fear and anxiety manifest. Koch believes that this is due to the direct link between the psoas and the most ancient part of our brain stem and spinal cord, called the reptilian brain.
According to Koch, “Long before the spoken word or the organizing capacity of the cortex developed, the reptilian brain, known for its survival instincts, maintained our essential core functioning.” The way we live today, constantly rushing, competing and achieving, has the psoas in a constant “fight or flight” state.
Issues Associated with Chronic Psoas Stress
Trapped in a constant “flight or fight” state, psoas muscles are stressed and constricted, almost from the time of birth. As Koch notes, “this situation is exacerbated by many things in our modern lifestyle, from car seats to constrictive clothing, from chairs to shoes that distort our posture, curtail our natural movements and further constrict our psoas.” This lifelong chronic stress put on the psoas can lead to many problems like back, hip, or knee pain, and even digestive issues and dysfunctional breathing. It could also be a major cause why people suffer from chronic physical pain.
The physical body is not the only part of you that suffers from a chronically-stressed psoas. The psoas is much more than a muscle used for structural stability. It influences every element of life, from how you feel, to how you look at the world, and even how you treat others. A variety of problems have been associated with a chronically-stressed psoas muscle: it can negatively affect your emotional state; it can impact your interpersonal relationships; and it can influence your general contentment with life. Awareness that a healthy psoas is important to emotional wellness, as well as physical health, is the first step towards ensuring that we give this muscle the attention it deserves.
Koch states, “Whether you suffer from sore back or anxiety, from knee strain or exhaustion, there’s a good chance that a constricted psoas might be contributing to your woes.”
Fear and the Psoas
Since the psoas is closely linked to our “fight or flight” mechanism, fear can be over-represented in those with a constricted psoas.
It is an emotion that manifests itself in the most unusual ways and can “lock” itself into the body resulting in both physical and emotional tension. By restoring balance to your psoas muscles, you are likely to release this pent up tension, which can have a profound effect on releasing unfounded fearfulness about life, and thus improve both your physical and mental wellbeing. You will feel a greater sense of inner peace, along with fewer muscle aches and strains.
The Connection to the Energetic Body
Lengthening and releasing your psoas grounds you to the Earth, which is filled with healing and revitalizing energy, thus allowing you to balance your pranic energy and enabling you to feel more present in the moment. Proper structural stability attributed to a healthy psoas allows prana to flow, unimpeded, throughout the body, allowing for proper distribution of vital energy. In the physical sense, when the body can properly support itself, movement is less-restricted and requires less effort, thus leaving you more energetic.
Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times
Our understanding of the psoas is by no means new knowledge. In fact, it is more akin to ancient wisdom that was either lost or discarded over time. Yoga shows us explicitly that ancient gurus understood the importance of releasing contracted psoas muscles. Ancient yoga asanas, or postures, that are now practiced all around the world, focus on lengthening and releasing psoas muscles and restoring comfort and balance to the entire body. With consistent practice, you can learn how to isolate this muscle, which can be immensely useful and healing in the long run.
Yoga is also a great way to measure the current health of the psoas. There are many postures, such as tree (Vrksasana), which cannot be properly achieved if the psoas is contracted. If you are practicing a sitting or standing yoga pose and feel strain in either your knees or lower back (or both), then there’s a good chance that your psoas is constricted and needs more of your attention.
The psoas is an important, yet often unknown, muscle that plays a vital role in physical health and mental wellbeing. The cumulative effect of neglecting this muscle is physical and mental stress and tension, which manifests itself in our society as anxiety, depression, chronic back pain, knee pain, digestive distress, respiratory problems, etc.
from his book of the same name:
