I just shared your essay on Facebook and it was scary. I can no longer, quietly put my mask on and watch our children be psychologically harmed. The consequences of this will be very serious if we continue to blindly follow this unprecedented course of action, particularly for the young and the vulnerable.
Masking – especially children - One of many aspects of this worldwide soap opera that is false, deliberate, evil.
From what I can tell, scores are snapping out of their hypnosis daily.
From what I can also tell, many of the awakening also realize that 'going back to normal' is not something they now want to do… no longer an option... because they now see, having briefly been thrust out of it, that that old 'normal' is in so many ways abnormal, pathological, evil.
And irremediable.
Result? We each gather with whomever we can truly relate well and deeply, and create millions of distinctly new (and typically quite small) communities... communicating, trading and honoring each for its vision, beauty and degree of success or failure. Millions of communities, each vying for harmony within integrity, practical success within philosophical idealism. A home to choose for everyone - to each his own.
The concepts of nation-state, mass democracy and one-size-fits-all-whether-you-like-it-or-not governance now being rejected and destroyed for the unworkable leviathan that it is (and always was), small tribes/communities will be springing up everywhere.
Small, tightly knit tribes/communities, because that is the human social arrangement that actually works (Dunbar's number: https://www.npr.org/2011/06/04/136723316/dont-believe-facebook-you-only-have-150-friends) (And no, the theoretical world of 'science' has not debunked Dunbar's number... practical reality affirms and confirms it... which in itself sheds some light on current pandemic-related 'science' and how statist/collectivists/authoritarians/psychopaths love using selective 'science' to buttress their collectivist utopian control fantasies.)
Not only do tribes/small communities work best in countless practical ways, it is important that everyone knows everyone else, at least to some reasonable degree. That way those with malignant narcissistic-psychopathic tendencies are spotted quickly and kept in check, or best eliminated.
(Frankly, the primary reasons for social failure are the malig-narcs and psychopaths in our world. Study is warranted for everyone about this topic.)
Communities/Tribes/Groups of like-minded people all pledging to adhere to Principles firmly founded upon Individual Rights and private property, because it is the Individual that actually exists, not collective and collectivist thought forms which only exist in the mental sphere, ultimately used for manipulative and abusive utilitarian purposes. Much better, in theory and practice, if we give equal or more weight to what actually exists rather than only ephemeral concepts. Golden Rule and Silver Rule social conduct has the best shot to actually work and evolve when applied in like-minded like-knitted communities. And the Iron Rule (might makes right) shall be spread among all (equality under Natural Law, and all equally and competently armed) so as to balance out the Iron Rule tendency for armed, stronger people to coercively dominate/dictate.
Of course, those owning and practicing their individual rights may voluntarily choose to come together as a collective, consciously sacrificing some of their individual rights for ‘the good of the collective.’ That is their right… and they will reap whatever sustainable success they might be able to create. Good luck!
Hi BDev-- just read the jakubw.com piece. Sharp guy indeed, yet he makes no mention of the wheel hub that the marketplace revolves around: corrupted "money".
Jakubs' "Why This May Change" section includes every influential factor except this one. "Money" creation (in quotes, as in "so-called", conceptual only, unreal) remaining in the control of despotic hands wipes out the possibility of the changes described.
Natural prosperity in the human realm (marketplace determines value), will be denied as long as the only means of storing wealth remains a medium of exchange created, controlled and dictated at will by predatory humans.
"Give me control of a nations money supply and I care not who makes its' laws."
-- some Rothschild or other
Translation: "Money" control is the root of all power-by-force. Top-down control of money means that everybody except those at the top are subjected to constant parasitic/vampiric wealth siphoning. In order to survive, all value producers have no choice but to pass on the blood-sucking damage to the folks at the end of the line.
"If the people of a nation were to comprehend the truth behind "money", there would be revolution by morning." (possibly botched, but essentially accurate words spoken by Henry Ford Sr.)
EAP - Spot on. Money is the blood in the economic vascular system. If the blood is corrupt, so will be every organ it touches.
So yeah, you are correct. The primary and fundamental practical issue to get straight and narrow is the monetary system. The only way to solve that problem is to eliminate those who currently control it, and resume commodity currency.
Sheila, you may be aware, but for others reading this, the mask for children "science narrative" got blown to hell in Atlantic Magazine. Google "The CDC’s Flawed Case for Wearing Masks in School." The curtain continues to be pulled back!
Thank you, Charles, from a fellow bullied kid (perhaps even smaller at age 12 than you).
Real Life story about standing up:
Like lots of people, I sucked it up and wore a mask for a couple of weeks during the beginning of all this. When it became apparent to me that the whole story didn't hold up to even the quickest looks at the facts, I concluded it was yet another authoritarian con job and decided to live normally. I got yelled at here and there for no mask, even got thrown out of stores a time or two. It hurt, but I found ways to dance around it all, finding stores that bullied you only with a sign on the door. When I ran into friends I hadn't seen in a while and they stop before we hug hello and ask me if I'm jabbed up, I'd lie and say "Yes!" because I can't bear the pain of not being hugged.
Last month I decided on a last minute whim to join some friends in Death Valley Nat'l Park. This meant I didn't pack much in the way of necessities knowing that I could get by for a couple days on whatever they sold at the fuel station. Well, turns out the fuel station is run by the Nat'l Park system. You could get gas outside but inside the store was 100% gov't employees.
I walk in without a mask anyway.
Not 3 steps in and: "SIR! YOU HAVE TO WEAR A MASK!" I keep walking. Got to get a couple jugs of water, right?
"SIR! WE HAVE A MASK HERE FOR YOU! PLEASE PUT IT ON!" I ignore the guy. He comes after me and blocks my way to the cashier. Everyone in the store turns their head to watch. We are face to face, chest to chest. He is bigger.
"Aren't you supposed to stay 6 ft. away from me? You are breaking your own rules." He backs off. I walk around him toward the cashier who is behind a Plexiglas screen. The guy continues to yell at me. He obviously knows that yelling causes a scene which increases my discomfort. Nevertheless, I continue to ignore him. My body is shaking. Some people in the store snort and shake their heads. I wait my turn. My turn comes. I approach the cashier, fully prepared that he may not ring it up and thus deny me water in the desert.
But he rings it up. I notice that his mask is "off the nose", mouth only. Did I notice a twinkle in his eye, perhaps one of enjoyment at watching his boss standing over me in frustrated distress as the cashier hands me my change? I believe I did. I smiled back and walk out of there, still shaking.
The next morning the sun came blazing out and I realized I didn't bring a hat. Oh no! There's only the one store and I gotta go back in there? Oh well, I head back over. One of my friends joins me. As we approach the store, I tell him to "let the chaos unfold and don't intervene" as he puts on a mask and I do not.
This time, there is a line outside. The same guy guards the door. Only 10 people are allowed in the store at a time and there are 3 people in line. My friend gets in line and I open the door and attempt entry. The guy slams the door on my foot (lucky I am wearing sturdy boots) and pins it there.
I ask him: "So that's what you are going to do? Assault me?" He remains in place, my foot stuck and his weight against it. People pull out their phones and start videos. He is determined this time that I will not enter. It's a standoff. Except, he forgot that customers inside would need to exit. A guy inside knocks on the door to come out and the guard opens the door. I duck in. He follows me and starts yelling again. "SIR!"
More stares, more disapproving tsk's, comments and head-shaking from the customers inside. Again, my body starts shaking. I look at the hats. Nobody is on my side, or if they are, they are silent about it. This time, the guy gives up and goes back outside to guard the door because people are starting to walk in without his permission. He shoos them out while I select a hat. In the cashier line I stand behind a woman who I'd heard make a comment "There's one in every crowd!" when I entered. Annoyed by remembering that, I said to her backside, in a mocking ladylike voice: "There's one in every crowd." Not the nicest thing I ever did, but I did do that.
She turns around and looks at me.
I tell her "Hey, I've been hearing crap like that ever since I was a little kid."
Not the slightest bit shaken, she says through her mask:
"You know, I don't really care if you wear a mask or not. Just stating that there's one in every crowd."
One what? I didn't know and I didn't ask her. A non-conformist? Fair enough then. I thanked her for saying at least that much.
Outside I find that the door guy has summoned a Nat'l Park Ranger, possibly his immediate superior. They stand in front of my path and block my way. The ranger is a woman who launches into what strikes me as a prepared speech. Out of respect I listen to a few lines of it: "....we all have to do this, there is no choice...." like Mommy trying to reason with her misbehaving child.
Politely as I can, I interrupt her and tell her that I am not going to understand what she is saying anymore than she is going to understand my point of view and that this is not a problem. We can think differently and still respect each other. I walked around them and they let me go.
But this is not fun! It is scary and I hate doing it. It does not feel good at all. But if I don't do it, I can't look myself in the mirror and still see the same person I have fought my whole life to be:
Me. A peaceful, natural human being. The day I Iet other people tell me who I am or that I have to obey them and be approved of, I'm as good as dead.
Thanks for sharing and thanks for standing up ! Second to last paragraph says it all! We ultimately have to answer to ourselves. If you can’t live up to your own values and morals you’re already dead in my opinion.
Thanks for writing this. I post and comment, write emails etc on medical studies etc showing the deficiencies of the main narrative but haven’t had to be overt with my disobedience. (Vax passports come into affect here soon but we don’t have the disease (western Australia) so haven’t had to wear masks for ages.) It will take courage and easier done when there is more than one, like in my group actions of civil disobedience and trespassing as an environmental activist.
Wow, I am inspired by your bravery! Most of my life I have tried to live by the rules and let other people bully me so hearing your story is really exciting for me. And even though I can sense that you were disappointed in some of your behaviors, at least you did it! That's more than I can say for me, although I have stood up to bullies in the past in personal relationships and actually had good results. Thanks for sharing your story.
Thank you, Susan. Can't go wrong standing up for yourself. Sadly, bullying is the way of the world and will remain so as long as people see fit to play power games. To me, this game is foul, ugly & anti-human ~ the essence of inner cowardice & lack of compassion. It is powerlessness desperately trying to feel powerful at the expense of another. It is the addiction of predators, psychopaths, law enforcement/justice officials, military/political/religious cult leaders (& all their citizens/denizens), corporate climbers, etc.
Very much like junkies require a constant supply of dope, power-minded folk require new victims as the feeling of power obtained by force soon dissipates back into their inner reality: painful, hopeless despair of the unwanted & unloved. Pull back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz and he's just a pitiful thing isn't he?-- a sticky black glob of self-loathing masquerading as some kind of kingsh*t badass.
You & I, what do we do? Hopefully, we see 'em coming and avoid them. Failing that, we run until you can't anymore and then you turn & stand your ground and either fight or let them take out their misery on you. It's a rough way to live, but hey, you're in good company, Susan-- take it from JC, it's the only way to stay beautiful on the inside. In the end, this is all that matters.
I loved what you wrote there! It gives me hope just to hear another human being talk that way. Thank you so much, Edgar. You made my day. And that is why I have always been a believer in JC, though I'm not so crazy about his fan club.
"fan club"-- ha! great way to describe christianity, Susan. Gotta agree with you there, 100%. One way we tear down authentic, so-called "remarkable" people is to raise them to such mythical/legendary heights as to render them non-human, inaccessible and god-like through excessive admiration. The simple beauty of the human being then gets smothered, choked to death by the "love" expressed by fandom in the form of fakery/imitation, idolization and cartoonish ubiquity. The higher one is held aloft by worshipping admirers, the more remote he/she becomes and the essence of their life & message is lost.
So the story goes, divinity is only for sages, prophets, saints, artists of great renown and suchlike. Nonsense! Of course, every human being is divine. How could we be otherwise? We've only to pull our head out of our butt, remove it from the dark, stinky place where mass insane humanity says to keep it, then stand up straight & be what we are.
You aren't understanding how we get out of this. Using fiat at a government owned store, to purchase bottled water that was presumably manufactured by coca cola, nestle, or other large corporation, isn't it. Next time use a bottle from home and fill it from the tap.
This essay is one of the most amazing pieces I have ever read. I can't thank you enough. I am one of the healthcare workers that have held in line in NYC and lost my job and am proud of myself!
Wonderful wonderful essay .. and was so happy to see it shared by Dr Meryl Nass, one of my favorite people bringing solid information, who is similar to Charles in following things through the depths and bringing back full threads of truth, with integrity all the way. Nass is more on the data and medical malfeasance and how we're being lied to in those realms. Diane, bless you for holding the line. I'm also in NYC .. so many here are vaxxed (and masked outdoors), it feels quite lonely here now ... yet there are awakenings and there have been some protests with powerful energy ...
“I am a hole in a flute that the Christ's breath moves through; listen to this music.” - Hafiz, Persian poet. Charles, this quote first comes to mind when I read this piece. Christ just being the word here to represent that Higher Power (or Logos as you mention in your piece) that moves through us and uses us as instruments to deliver its wisdom. From where I stand, this piece is sheer genius and has comforted me greatly. Your works have been nourishing to me since the days of Occupy when I first stumbled upon your works as a teenager. My heart is filled with gratitude to stand with you and many others in this space of courage and defiance, a space of saying, "No, we choose a different world." I have been going through a sort of a recluse phase over the past year, a phase of withdrawal and healing, away from the public eye, away from content creation, but there is a growing sense within me that "the time approaches". Thank you, Charles, for your ritual drawing a line in the sand and giving words to many of what they intuitively sense, one of your great gifts to the world.
Wow this is, for me, one of the most powerful essays you've written. (not that the others aren't). I had almost the same bullying experience--youngest, smallest in 9th grade, and female and the new kid. Horrible bullying by both boys & girls. And I DID fight back, physically, which was a joke. It was almost like my fighting back with fists was only illustrating my weakness. I had to reach a point of clearheaded anger instead of the diffuse frustration and fear I'd been feeling, and had to just literally say, FUCK OFF I don't care anymore. Or something to that effect. And it did stop. There's a dance of abuse and victimization and getting caught sometimes in the frustration of being bullied is part of that dance, even though you think you're trying to get out of it. And the same goes for the covid bullying nonsense. Which I've been fighting in my own small way, ever since it started and my gut said: "something's wrong." But, like torture, the illogic of the mandates very much depend on keeping you either fearful or frustrated--confused in any event.
A couple of comments. I am a child from an abusive family. I strongly suspect my resistance comes from that history, and there's nothing wrong with that. Experience with abuse teaches you what it looks like and not to tolerate it. Secondly, you are exactly right that we decide when this is over. I realized that some time ago. I am not waiting for the government to give me my rights and freedoms back, even if I cannot access some of them now. I am living my life as normally as possible and defying vaccines, masks, testing, and quarantines.
A poor dear lady in my Bible study group last night wanted to pray that "things would go back to normal". I told her they would when we decide they will. If we wait for the government to give us our freedoms back, we'll be waiting forever.
Oh Susanna, I come from an abusive family too- a covert narcissistic mother and an alcoholic father. I have wondered why I could so easily see through the lies and manipulations and came to the same conclusion.
The genius of the founders of our country (USA) was that they recognized and were honest with themselves about the human nature. (A supreme act of bravery.) They recognized that humans, no matter their good intentions, will abuse power if not checked. Thus, they designed, not a democracy, but a representative republic with powers checked between legislative, executive and judicial. And distributed between federal and state responsibilities.
Unfortunately we threw that away with the progressive movement starting in the early 1900's. We have now progressed to a tyranny of unelected administrators and a single administrative state, with the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the federal and most state governments going along for the ride, remaining for the most part figureheads trying to remain relevant be repeating the dictates of the administrative state tyrants.
The problem I see is that most of us 'subjects' of the administrative state do not realize who the real tyrants are. They continually think the next election has a chance of restoring order. Until we recognize who the real tyrants are we can't stand up to them.
And yes, Naiyasan. Our immediate concern is this, IMO:
As we likely have several millions of people who are Awake (clearly see the falsity and also see what needs to be done to remedy), and multi-millions more who are in the midst of awakening (different degrees of seeing and understanding the problem), consequently we've got a LOT of people who are sad, angry, frustrated and adrenalinized-proactive.
The Old Normal is rapidly dying/being killed.
The New Normal (for TPTB) is already extremely well thought out and planned - they have poured countless billions of dollars, time and effort into fleshing out their technofascist plans. (See https://www.weforum.org/strategic-intelligence/).
The New Possibility (for the Awakened/Awakening) is not only still a developing embryo in the egg, our New has not been given much dedicated thought for our present circumstances.
What to do?
IMO, we can directly apply age-old wisdom of Natural Law into some serious and intense brainstorming about what we need to do. The Principles are there for everyone to contemplate. Human nature is fairly well hard-wired, with a development track fairly well laid out (See Spiral Dynamics: https://fee.org/articles/spiral-dynamics-an-overview/).
Shall we create our new reality in much better concordance with human nature and natural law? Or rehash the same old-same old?
I too was a 90 lb bullied kid, but...as my father showed me one night coon hunting. "Watch what happens when the dogs go after the coon" he said. The 20 lb coon whooped the dogs the first go round. Dogs twice to three times his size! The difference in dogs and humans, a dog is absolutely relentless.
My point though, is you're right. Fighting back against human bullies will end it. I fought back every time and ended the abusive interactions. Rare was a bully a hound dog, but on occasion some were, and it required ever more resolved, [and a few bloody noses, along with some loose teeth] but watching that coon the night of the hunt gave me the courage to stand my ground.
If a 20lb coon could stand against foes thrice his size, so to, could this 90 lb. boy.
My wife and I both are vax free, and will remain so. We never wear mask. If stores require them to shop there, we turn around and leave. More, need to turn around and leave.
Put an end to following the norm, and stop shopping where those rules are enforced. Period.
Brother. You continue to offer distress into a distressed world. Gabor Mate said, "Safety isn't the absence of threat, but the presence of connection." You used to fan the flames of inquiry and reasoning into such connection, but this period has overwhelmed that in you, dear brother. You've fallen into a wounded, "us and them", self-congratulatory place, and your reasoning is frantic, playing with vengeful currents of public opinion. For everyone's sake, I hope you turn toward what is most beautiful in your life and take the next step.
If i were to read your comment as an inquiry about yourself (rather than charles) I hear you're distressed because you disagree with this piece when you used to agree, that your upset because you're not on the us part of them and this makes you feel frantic and that to get over this you're going to focus on what is beautiful for you in your life.
maybe that resonates or not, but i can tell you that this paice makes me feel seen and connected and hopeful and i don't feel i need to tel charles to find beauty or anything. like im imagining he has it covered.
Hi Maven... I'm happy that this piece meets your needs for being seen, and that you feel content and comfortable with his offering. I mention my hope that he turn to what is beautiful because that used to be his encouragement to *us*. If you're interested i could respond. 1) For me, working together in Truth and Compassion isn't about 'agreeing', so no.... I didn't "used to agree". And I don't feel distressed. In this last year with Charles I feel sad. I think he's retreating in the 'comfort' of "us and them"... I value compassionate cooperation. (2) And no... I'm not upset because I'm "not on the "us" side"... I reject - as Charles used to inspire me to do - the conduct that even inspires such framing. So no, it's not franticness over here. I'm not the one drawing lines in the sand and saying which side are you on. (3) I *will* turn toward what is beautiful in my life. I'm Grieving, because Charles used to be part of that. I learned and grew with his offerings, and it's not that I merely "don't agree" with these recent works, but that I think Charles has fallen into a place that is out of alignment with the heart of his prior offering. This speaks to me of shadow material and wound - not mere change... and because I care about him and the people who have learned and grown together, I share my comment.
thanks for clarifying and i think i understand what you're expressing. I happen to disagree, in that i am okay with the us and them discourse. it exists and is felt very acutely by the unvaccinated at this time. and to clarify on my end, I am in no way comfortable or content with what's happening. i also don't feel charles is comfortable either by the accute us and them mindset that is much closer reality for people than it was 4 years ago. thankyou for so thoughtfully expressing your grief and may it take shape into your dreams as we fall into winter.
To contribute to this thread, but certainly not to speak for Charles, these are extraordinarily distressing times and they call for keen and honest evaulation. Calling a spade a spade is not, to me, us versus them thinking. It is something much more practical - get up on your roof and turn on the hose - there is a fire blazing out there and it's coming for your house.
Thanks Tamra... Is equating the energies of the moment as a bully/victim relationship a keen evaluation? I'm not denying the capacity of humans to bully, nor for our institutions to represent our shadow sides, but to me this evaluation with its patriotic calls for allegiance, defiance and dubious comparisons with compassionate revolutionaries of the past is anything but keen. I believe he's being honest, but we all have friends who honestly speak out of their wounds during periods of their life. I've taken Charles' work vary seriously and gratefully for 12 years, and my discomfort comes from what strikes me as gestures which are out of alignment with *his own* integrity and past principles.
Ravenseen - People change with the times. Perhaps you are not in I alignment with Charles' current perspectives? and that's just fine. The essay serves as a prompt for the ripples of contemplation and conversation it stimulates. I am grateful this is a safe forum to respectfully express how the world events feel to each of us.
You asked me whether "equating the energies of the moment as a bully/victim relationship" is a keen evaluation for Charles to make. My answer is that words are never sufficient to express what is sensed. They are only a pale echo of what we felt on the inside where it was crystalized, succinct and pure. But, to me, it definitely feels like the walls are closing in on individuals all over the world who merely wish to express themselves without fear of reprisal.
It might be that we take turns being bully and victim. At this time, I perceive that the rights of the many are being capriciously diminished by the whims of a relative few with prodigious resources, connections across industries, and an insatiable thirst for power. Thus, calls to wake up out of the trance that stifles our collective ability to say "no" are keenly needed.
Raveseen. You’re right that Charles has done something in this essay that he does not normally do. I have followed Charles’ work for many years, read his books, attended his talks and workshops when possible. What I have always heard from Charles was a non-violent msg. A msg to feel into our hearts and reach out to our brothers and sisters from that place. That has always been true for Charles, and it remains true today. Just because he uses us vs. them doesn’t mean he is going back on his teaching. When there is a power so great that the vast majority of the world succumb to it, not questioning, simply accepting that this is what ‘must’ happen - even though this thing has an average IFR of 0.15-0.2% who in the vast majority of cases are the elderly (80+) with children at almost no risk but for the vaccines, and there is complete asymmetry in the decision to lock down to stop the spread without calculating the devastation it causes.
Charles, like all of us, recognises this movement is causing more agony that the thing it is meant to be protecting against. Maybe he has changed. Maybe he has never been called into action like this before. Maybe you don’t see what we all see, or aren’t bothering to look. We are. Charles is. Thank god he is.
As far as I see it, Integrity has a LOT to do with Principle, and Principle has a LOT to do with 1) Me NOT harming others, and 2) Me stopping people who ARE harming others.
#1 is obviously non-violent, and #2 is ideally non-violent... but sometimes #2 requires violence, serious violence, and rightly, justifiably so.
To make it simple and clear: If someone... anyone... forcefully attempts to inject some foreign sh*t into my body without my full permission and consent, I will stop him, permanently if necessary. And if I see someone else being forcefully injected, one who clearly and decisively rejects permission and consent for that to happen, I will intervene on his behalf with whatever force is necessary to stop that injection, including lethal force.
Those are not moments to sit down nicely with a cup of tea and debate morality and non-violence. The moral and ethical situation is clear. Firm, decisive Action is required.
"If you join us, you will be witness to a most marvelous paradox. The transition to a more beautiful world is a mass awakening into sovereignty..."
^Who is "us" and what steps does one have to take to join "us"? It sounds like, in practice, you're primarily saying that "us" is people who don't get vaccinated, don't wear masks, and don't social distance. Is that accurate?
If so, isn't it possible for people who are vaccinated, who wear masks, and who social distance to do it from a place of sovereignty — out of personal desire? Why then make the divide about vaccines, masks, and social distancing? (Or perhaps I'm missing something obvious?)
If you're doing those things (i.e. complying) of your own volition, only you know that. I mean, I hear that from the compliant all the time - that 'THEY are choosing'.
I see that something else is going on, to be honest. Empire works very hard, spends a LOT of money - toward the effort of replacing the individual human will with that of the corporate state. Most people don't notice they're not making their own choices. That's exactly how it works. It's actually quite painful when you DO notice. It doesn't happen because someone on the internet calls you a 'slave' - or tells you to 'wake up'. It happens, excruciatingly - when your child is fine one moment before being vaccinated, then convulses and becomes a brain-damaged vegetable the next minute. And all the white coats around you are gaslighting you as if they didn't notice. As if YOU are crazy - and everyone around you, and in the media - joins in the chant that 'vaccines don't cause autism, you idiot' and everyone turns their back on you as your life is turned upside down. Then they tell you 'Autism is a gift', but they're not changing the diapers on your 16 year old who needs round the clock care.
A mind becomes sovereign when it's so insulted by the farce of Empire that it has no choice but to do a full accounting of 'what is real' in the world - what is trustworthy in the world.
Anyone who is getting a covid shot has not reached that point yet - I'm sorry. Maybe it happens later. Who knows. The other stuff (masks, social distancing - those things you might still do out of kindness for others, like going along with the existence of Santa for a child) can sort of get a pass.
As you said, if people want to pretend that masking up and anti-social distancing is worth doing because they believe it is scientifically legitimate and kind to others, so be it. Whatever. https://twitter.com/ianmSC
But when it comes to injections of toxic materials, violating one's bodily integrity, now we are talking fundamental issues of person, property and sanctity. The line in the sand is clear and unequivocal in all circumstances. That's why we have a Nuremburg Code.
Voluntarily allow some stranger to cross your line? Perfectly fine. Your choice.
Coercively demand that I submit to some stranger coercively crossing my line? Absolutely prohibited. Instant karma will result.
Did this experience you're describing with vaccines and autism happen to you? If so, I'm sorry. That's devastating.
People who've contracted Covid have devastating stories as well. For instance, a former coworker of mine got the disease early in the pandemic and was hospitalized. He fell unconscious and hovered on the cusp of death for 23 days.
No, thank goodness. It's the lived experience of several good friends (one actually has 2 children damaged by vaccines administered on the same day).
But it is devastating, and happens with regularity.
Your story is as well. What is especially devastating about both stories is that neither had to happen.
There have been treatment options available from the beginning - that would have very likely saved your friend's life. It has been estimated that about 85% of people who died from (or with) Covid could have been saved with simple, effective treatments. I used Ivermectin / Quercetin / Vitamins D & C & Zinc when I contracted Covid in August and was sick for 3 days. This Ivermectin protocol was the primary protocol used in Uttar Pradesh, India. 300 million people. Excellent results. Ask any Indian from there. The government handed out kits for each home. And if you consult Google, you'll see the usual suspects lying about it.
So having a friend succumb, as terrible as that is - isn't a good justification for taking a shot that it's manufacturer bears no legal responsibility for - when the policy of the vast majority of hospitals has been to deny early treatment, send people home and only treat them when they couldn't breathe. By then it's so so late.
Now they're using monoclonal antibodies with good efficacy. - BUT YOU HAVE TO ASK FOR THEM. Why on earth would you have to demand a treatment that works, but would otherwise be withheld?
I have argued these points into the ground and it does no good. Unless you already see what's happening... I know what drives the belief and trust - and fear. It's a deep issue. But it's not my issue. I wish you the best.
I understood the divide to be more about standing up to the bullies and the tyrannical enforcement of such strategies. The freedom to choose those attempted mitigations can still be supported in this beautiful world.
You're right that many leaders have overstated the effectiveness of masks (especially cloth masks), social distancing, and vaccines.
And yet based on what I can see from the data (see Your Local Epidemiologist, for instance), adoption of N95 masks, certain types of social distancing, and vaccines have decreased case counts and death counts.
So politicians are in a bind: If the data is right, people will die and/or get sicker without these safety measures, but people will also (understandably) fight attempts to enforce these measures.
Given this, should they back away from enforcement? If so, should they also back away from enforcing things like seatbelts and motorcycle helmets? People who see us all as separate individuals will likely say yes, while those who see the collective as one whole might say no.
'So politicians are in a bind: If the data is right, people will die and/or get sicker without these safety measures, but people will also (understandably) fight attempts to enforce these measures.'
Politicians are definitely in a bind - to exclusively sanction ineffective, expensive, harmful treatments as the only option - and politicize and derail any other treatment options.
Because those treatment options, having proven successful - would not furnish justification for lockdowns, mandates and other invasive measures.
I would say that despite Charles being personally unvaccinated (from what I can tell from his other writing) that he is generally wanting to appeal to a larger sense of sovereignty - and to use a quote from the paragraph above, a sovereignty where we “claim by example what a human being is.”
“How would I claim by example what a human being is right now, in my unique set of circumstances?” Is the question I am asking myself right now.
From my extensive research, your #1 is not true (though endlessly touted as true by MSM), and being proven to be more and more false with almost every recent study; your #2 is incomplete, as the vaxxes don't stop any viruses from spreading, the 'leaky' vaccines are the cause of more variants, and neither do they stop infections from occurring, which makes them pretty much useless as far as being a 'vaccine'; and your #3 doesn't matter at all because Omicron 'disease' is extremely mild for nearly everyone, making it irrelevant in the larger scheme of things. Omicron is most certainly not worthy of epidemic or pandemic status, any more than the common cold would be epi or pandemic worthy.
So anyway, my point with the https://twitter.com/ianmSC link was to demonstrate very clearly, using conventionally obtained data, that masks, lockdowns, distancing, vaxxes, vax passports and whatnot are completely irrelevant and useless from a medical POV, and worse-than-useless (i.e. very destructive) from a socio-political POV. These ham-handed measures are hurting and killing people all over the world. Of course, folks like yourself are perfectly within your right to utilize whatever protective measures you feel are necessary for your health and well-being. Go right ahead. But there is absolutely no valid reason to demand 'protective' measures of those people who do not want to use them. It's totalitarian theater, and those of us who see that want no part of it. If it is forced upon us, there will be hell to pay for anyone involved in these punitive measures - the instigators, the enforcers and the cheerleading sycophants.
I am waiting for a movement of people powered by nondualism and pluralism that transcends this dualism of victim and abuser because the other side is using the same logic except reverse. Having an opposing side is not liberating. Transcendence of duality is true liberation. Rather than looking at man vs. man, consider dependent reality asserting power over dependent reality. The means are the same though - suffering.
Why are we using so much precious life energy as a society to wrestle with the question of whether vaccines are good or bad? They are obviously both and/or neither. I imagine a stronger argument could be made for or against the mandates but the mandates both go too far and not far enough depending on what camp you're in. Again, we arrive at both and/or neither.
So I think the real awakening is to nonduality and pluralism. To that end, your voice and everyone's who resonates with its relative truth are essential to dig our heals so deep into duality until we find there is nothing left to hold in opposition. When that happens I don't know. It's likely longer than my mind can comprehend. Charles, I do trust your depth of wisdom and your track record of risks taken in using your influence that you will recognize this deeper truth when the time is right.
'Why are we using so much precious life energy as a society to wrestle with the question of whether vaccines are good or bad?'
You could ask why so much energy is being spent to force them on sovereign beings who have made another choice?
There is no way to spiritually bypass the fact that there are people in positions of enormous power making untold billions by controlling the narrative about this disease. And they demand obedience to their narrative, and will use force to make you comply with it.
There are some who won't obey. The point is - you can't obey your way out of their exercise of power. And you can't make them into anything else - you can't make them into saviors or saints or even benign. Those people are on their own journeys. Maybe they actually are psychopaths or sociopaths. I would argue that it's likely, considering what they've done.
Essentially, on the spirit level, we're one. But on this plane, they anchor Ahrimanic energy by choice. One of control, dehumanization, annihilation of free will. So there's that. That exists - you can't really defeat it, except in yourself. That's the challenge - non-capitulation and non-violence.
That is another great question to ask, Naiyasan, and I really appreciate your emphasis on noncapitulation and nonviolence.
I'm just trying to understand how so much energy and Charles' work got collapsed onto this singular topic. This is just another example of how those dark energies take form at scale (slavery, mass incarceration, environmental degradation). I know it's the most in our face right now, and it might be a justice issue that has hit home the most for Charles and the demographics of his followers. For me the narrow focus on externalized, shiney targets takes away from all the other places this energy takes root, especially in myself and those around me, as you say that's the only place we really can trascend. Also I think we can lose touch with the truth that we all are the victims and the abusers, and how that can influence our thoughts, words, and actions. The slippery slope are everywhere, and Charles does point this out some.
David, you seem to be taking a stance that says, "Take the above and beyond non-dualistic path, cuz the low-vibe dualistic path is limited to the fight of opposites and ultimately not truly effective.
But I'm sure that you know that any action taken, on any level, has effects, kickbacks and consequences on all other levels. Thus, action at any level, if done with sincerity and integrity (whatever that person can authentically muster), adds to the net 'rightness' quotient.
IOW, if someone is firmly operating in a state of dualistic consciousness, but is utterly convicted, committed, sincere and authentic in his action, then that action is both powerfully integrous to him (giving him an evolutionary boost), AND powerfully integrous to the larger evolving consciousness of the human collective (giving it an evolutionary boost).
What is important is authentic integrity in thought and action. Right Action the Buddhists call it. With complete awakening into non-duality, right action is automatic. Until then, it usually requires an event such as Charles describes - breaking through layers of fear into courageous action - to get the intense feel and knowledge of what Right Action really is, and means.
BDev - I really appreciate your responses. They open me and also help me clarify where I'm at.
I guess in terms of path selection, I am trying to say, "yes, take any path, and be aware of all paths." I'm not advocating for Charles to change much of what he's said already, just to add more context about how this particular thread fits in with a whole mosaic of right action. Otherwise, the path selected is over-glorified and more exclusive.
There has been a shift in Charles followers which is to be expected given the shift in him. Since then, I've struggled to find a home in the conversation... actually struggling to find a home anywhere in this hyperpolarized window of time. My biased perception of this blog feels pretty narrowly focus to me. I see lots of comments like "perfect essay" and "you've said exactly what I've been trying to put into words". I see Charles' essays as really interesting (and inherently flawed) starting points. Part of the new world I hope to create is that everyone is more in their own power so that the focus is less on a bifuricated response of whether to put Charles up on some pedestal or try to completely knock him down.
I was hesitant to start this thread because I didn't know how it would be received. I'm grateful for the critical and welcoming comments of you and others.
I've been following your back and forth and have appreciated the conversation. The spiritual path I follow focuses on the development of spiritual beings in the world, and spiritual beings that transcend the world. Both are true, both are potentials. I think some people lean one way and some the other. Some are drawn to their spiritual development in the world, using the issues, rubs and conflicts of the world as and avenue to dissolving the personality so one can live engaging from qualities of essential strength, essential love, essential contact, essential power etc. Other people are more drawn to transcending the world, discovering the vast peace, love, creativity that we fundamentally are beyond this world and brief human existence. Sometimes it's our "destiny" in this current life to more fully recognize one or the other; recognize our true personal spiritual selves, or our boundlessness and transcendence.
I think if we have started out leaning one way or another, we can begin to bring our spiritual depth and practice to the other thread of development. I haven't followed Charles closely over the years, but I have read his last four or five sub stacks. Perhaps something like that is happening with him.
I've also thought there may be a new spiritual realization evolving on this earth, necessary for human beings to survive in our current form. A spiritual realization of communities that includes evolving wisdom fof the head, heart and belly. And transcending our everyday narcissism/ self-concern and survival instincts. That may be in the cards for us human beings, it may not. 🙏😊 Take good care. 💕
Perhaps you might say, "yes, take any path, and tolerate all non-coercive paths." ??
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Charles most certainly feels that his current path is his Right Path... at least until it evolves further (maybe tomorrow :-). The 'Path' issue for every person always boils down to a couple of profound questions, "Is it truly, authentically right for me," and "Does it truly and authentically jive harmoniously with higher Universal Principles (Natural Law)?"
We each answer that to the best of our ability at every moment.
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I have only recently come across Charles' writing. What is the shift/change in him you are talking about? From what perspective in the past to what perspective presently?
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Assuming your clear intention to keep your own evolution moving at high speed, your Home will not be found in any perspective for any comfortable length of time. Get used to it!
You will regularly find yourself agreeing and disagreeing with parts of every essay out there... cuz your own scope of awareness is growing radically.
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Your initial 'hesitation to start this thread' is a perfect example of what Charles is saying - breaking through fear of inaction. The insistent and authentic urge to state your truth not only shattered some bit of fear lodged inside you, but it also stimulated and encouraged others to do the same. Bravo. That's what we're all here for.
Thanks for the great dialogue on this thread! Just wanted to respond and say that Charles most recent article is the explicit context I was looking for.
You have a very strong and beautiful point. However life, especially for most people, is dual. The physical reality we live in is limited by nature and when one can see beyond those limitation there’s a non dual existence.
You reach non duality by fully understanding duality. Charles message here is helping people to understand their dual role and by that enabling a non dual perspective.
We’re not limited by nature to victim-abuser roles. But when one is caught up in it (as happens now very strongly with any vax related) it’s a good starting point.
Whenever writing about the deeper intricacies of any subject, it is very easy to purposefully or accidentally jump back and forth btw a dualistic and non-dualistic perspective. The integrous author will ideally say what level he is writing from, so there is no confusion. It's not a good idea to demean a dualistic response as inferior, whilst then self-righteously sitting on the imaginary throne of non-duality, refusing or ignoring the harms done all around oneself in our dualistic reality. So many have fallen into the belief trap that non-dual awareness means dismissing the conflicts of duality as illusory and irrelevant. The truly awakened clearly sees the dualistic situation for what it is, but ALSO may choose to act decisively in it; i.e. Right Action.
As you said, we're all gonna get caught up in our conflicts, one way or another. What's the point of life without conflict? :-) That's what we're here for. And we've all got one helluva conflict boiling all around us right now.....
Yes, I resonate very much with what you’re saying here. One cannot see non dual without realising the dual and the key word is realising. And inferior/superior perspectives are dualistic in themselves of course.
I think that a writer does not need to declare what level they are writing from especially if 1) they trust the intelligence of their reader 2) they write from different levels at once.
I read this article again and I think it’s carefully crafted and it is possible indeed to see his invitation to step out of the loop of being either a victim or an abuser. It can also serve as a first awakening call for someone to see that they were caught in a role. A jumping board to transcendence.
Thanks for your response Shelly. I guess I just believe Charles could go further into creating that context of the dual within the non-dual. I have followed his work for years because of the expansiveness of his thought. While he presents this moment for him as a period of new understanding, it feels to me as a narrowing. That's totally cool as long as that non-dual context keeps up with the pace. The acknowledgement of his past trauma that might be triggered by his place in this is really helpful context though.
I read it again, David. In my understanding, practicing no duality for 20 years, I see that he maybe not using a non dual language but in fact it is a very much call for no dualism. The framework of abuser-victim serves for the higher point which is initiation. I see the article as an invitation to step out of these two roles in order to discover true (unconditional) freedom.
I think I commented separately somewhere here that one of the biggest problems is that many victims don’t actually see themselves as victims. It’s a very complex psychology. I’m familiar with it very closely from my work as a therapeutic coach, meeting many women who’ve been subject to abuse and neglect. It may be difficult to understand if you haven’t had that experience but it can take some stripping of defence mechanism to see how one steps into the victim role (just to make sure it’s clear I do not say that when someone’s being abused they step into the victim role but rather there’s a replay of roles later on in life). So when I apply this framework to the vax scenario I can easily see how people who defend the governments coercive method they actually don’t see themselves victim at all! That’s a big hole, in my view, in using this framework for the current situation. Besides the fact that it is a brilliant article!
I wonder, David, what would be a non dual point that you feel would make it more complete or transcendent ? If you feel like sharing 🙏
Thanks for all of this Shelly. Taking it all in and savoring. Just wanted to respond and say that Charles most recent article is the explicit context I was looking for.
D - Perhaps this time in our lives is a strong, roller coaster descent into stark duality in order to pristinely clarify principle, intent and integrity for many many millions of people... thus paving the way for awakening individuals to co-create a 'much closer to non-duality' reality for all who can see it and wish to join it and make it happen.
In any case, it's crystal clear to me that the carrot-on-a-stick dangled in front of people to 'return to normal' is a ruse. Not only is the previous normal a pathetically abusive reality in countless ways (which I am certainly not interested in returning to), but it is a reality that TPTB are intent on eliminating anyway. So, the only outcome of this worldwide experiment is that those of us not interested in their Great Regret technofascist surveillance utopia must create our own preferred reality... because there is nothing viable 'to go back to.'
(I laid out a possible framework in my reply to Sheila Edwards above.)
Dear Charles - I have followed you, with great appreciation, for many years. But this is the ground you choose to stand on now? Covid bullying? Why are you not talking about the taking of the right to vote from thousands of people? Why are you not talking about the Republican Party's slide into fascism and authoritarianism? Why are you not talking about the loss of our democracy? If you truly wish to move the needle from othering to more love, as you always have espoused before, why do you OTHER those of us who choose the vaccine as an ally and assistant to our immune systems, and find it to be so? I'm a caregiver for my 92-yr-old mom. I choose vaccination and masking as a way to protect myself to protect her. I am MUCH more concerned about the loss of voting rights, gerrymandering, obstruction in Congress to the passage of policies that PROMOTE greater health and well being for us all, including our environment. It looks to me like you are looking through a distorted lens at this time. You don't acknowledge the violence, and threatened violence from the "anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers" - which in my view, is much worse than the "COVID bullying" you speak of. What are you reading that you aren't seeing this? It seems like you are limiting your "newsfeed" to what confirms your current biases. This doesn't feel like you, as I have experienced you in the past. It feels like you are off the rails of your own teachings, your own integrity, into some tunnel view. I deeply hope and pray you return to your more balanced views. That you return to love. That you return to teaching us not to OTHER each other. This is not that.
So many points that come to mind- 1. Audience is global- I live in Australia which I thought was a democracy but as Charles points out, this has been eroded gradually. To restrict his essay comments to the USA neglects people of other countries needs. We (WA) have had strict border closures and very little to none community spread. Thousands of nurses and other health workers have been stood down from years of diligent work because they are not prepared to be part of this experiment. Others have submitted reluctantly because they have children to feed. We not only know in our hearts that this wrong, we understand the science, we recognise propaganda and being silenced by our regulatory body AHPRA-speak out and you will lose your license. 2. I live with and care for my 92 year old mother. She doesn’t take medication, hasn’t ever been vaccinated (maybe tetanus??) and has a functioning if not aging immune system. The vax does not stop the spread and would not stop myself or her getting it. She would rather people do what is right for their own bodies/health and not think of her. 3. I think something is making it hard for many people to see what is glaringly obvious to others- both sides. I find it beyond belief that people think the vax will save them - based on studies and articles published in medical journals, testimonies by medical specialists and front line workers. Friends who post the mainstream public health narrative usually quote/link newspaper articles or journalist reports. Many studies show one thing but conclude that despite all the evidence vax should be continued (requirement to keep their funding). 4. I have been called a Nazi just because I attended a rally where there were maybe a handful out of over 25,000 peaceful protestors against the mandates. Mainstream media portrays what they want. Sure there are some extreme views and ways of being amongst those not consenting but that is true for all of society. I could go on and list so much more - check out Kennedy’s book The Real Anthony Fauci.
Never does he say that the vaxxed are the other. This is about powers we are all subject to. If the entire world can be brought to heel why would they need such crude tools as gerrymandering and taking away voting rights when a few unelected “infectious disease experts” can take away literally every right we have overnight?
Further, "This is about powers we are all subject to..." is the longer range and FAR larger issue. Until humanity can get past its Stockholm Syndrome disease of authority worship, we shall replay the same old tiresome, debilitating, deadly script we have played for millennia.
Anti-vax and anti-mask violence is highlighted and magnified. I've never personally seen it. However i've both seen and experienced Covid bullying despite being polite, smiling and going on with my business.
I agree. Have been following Charles for a long time, and this feels like a disappointing departure from who I've know him to be. I can accept some of the critique, but to casually declare that masks don't provide some protection to people is not something I can accept in the face of the many studies that show that they do.
Here are come meta analyses using a range of resources to conclude that masks, in conjunction with other public health preventative measures, is effective in reducing the transmission of COVID-19 at the population level https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2776536
Brownstone research has written a few articles collecting the research and studies that masks and other restrictive measures do not work. This shows that the science is not settled yet. Since these restrictive measures cause harm, should we be following them without settled science?
OSHA normally requires that a person go through a medical examination in order to wear a mask for employment. The lack of oxygen and increased CO2 uptake puts a strain on the cardiopulmonary system. CO2 and O2 balance is sensitively regulated in our bodies.
Thanks for sharing, I’ll take a look at those when I get a chance . One thing that I noticed at first glance is each of those studies you listed were done in 2020 or later. It’s just interesting that these measures weren’t used or found to be effective in 2017-2018 when some 80k died from the flu.
Forget about 'studies' for a moment, and look at real world results. This guy's website is loaded with charts based solely on govt data clearly demonstrating that masks and lockdowns are absolutely pointless: https://twitter.com/ianmSC
Scroll down through the many examples. Here are a couple of appetizers:
Thank you for your strong voice and compassion Ariana I am not understanding much anything Charles is saying these days unfortunately and as someone who has followed his work for more than 20 years he is definitely off the rails of his own teachings. I know that he is not as certain about what he writes, but most people do not.
The pandemic context surrounding this piece is eliciting a defensive response from readers who agree with the measures taken and thus see nothing wrong with the way that governments are treating their citizens. This reaction causes said readers to miss the true message (and strength) of the piece, which lies in its use of the pandemic response as but another episode in the long march of fascism through history (and by fascism I mean the ascension of the merged corporation and state and the absolute subjugation of citizens, not the scare word pinned on Trump and conservatives to distract from the actual fascism brewing in boardrooms and halls of government everywhere).
The assertion that there are bigger issues in the world and the resulting confusion and frustration around Charles’ focus on this issue reflects ignorance of the true gravity of what has happened to the most basic components of our freedom, sovereignty, and agency.
A more careful re-reading of the piece may reveal to the reader which archetype they are currently playing in this latest psychodrama.
I think your opening line is a stretch... first of all... I don't see 'defensive' responses... secondly, agreeing with measures taken (which ones? which area?) doesn't necessarily equal seeing "nothing wrong" with the way that governments are treating their citizens. The level of coherence, connection and cogent inquiry being engendered here is staggeringly low. It has been replaced by romantic and alluring lines like "it is time!" That type of connection is mere "mob mentality" to use one of Charles recent memes... but you're starting the "good mob," right Charles? People just have to "join you?"
For my part, I've been stocking up on - and dispensing - Ivermectin + a vitamin cocktail to my friends and family who get Covid. It does work. It turns the disease into a 48 hour cold. And not even a bad one. The government knows that. If YOU don't already know that - if you haven't been following the Drs who are using it, all over the world (and with excellent results) then you might think what is happening is justified. What's happening? NY legislators voting on Jan. 5 to allow INDEFINITE detention of 'at risk' people. 'At risk' being defined by the governor. These measures, or similar ones are being enacted all over the world, and it has NOTHING to do with a treatable virus that our elected officials (and their pharma sponsors) allowed hundreds of thousands to die of.
That's not hyperbole.
Nothing at all will end the virus. It's endemic. It's here to stay. Not going away, ever. Protect yourself from it, it's not hard to do.
Perhaps your compassion can be broadened to those who are being artificially scared out of their minds, forced to comply with bizarre and harmful lifestyle mandates, and threatened with career and livelihood destruction if they do not comply with medical tyranny that fails to work in any case?
A more in-depth examination of what is really going on is warranted. There is plenty of accurate information available, if you are willing to seek it out.
Ahh, the "do your research!" meme of the Trump generation. No. I would rather deal with real world traumas, not potentialities, such as my elders dying due to this virus, human grief and loss, and selfish people who scream about medical tyranny but who will overwhelm the system in a second if they get sick. And people like Charles who do NOTHING to help stop this virus but complain.
Our elders who died from the virus - the vast majority of them - didn't have to die. Life saving medicines were knowingly withheld from them. Early treatment could have saved those peoples' lives.
You have to already know this on some level - and your mind won't allow you to integrate that information because it's too painful. Otherwise - why even bring up Trump's name? Has anyone else?
Pay attention: There is a category, like a file folder in your mind, where you have been instructed to place all information that makes you uncomfortable.
Anything that runs counter to the establishment narrative (as reported by the media) and causes you to feel dissonance, makes your sense of reality, your very identity - feel threatened - goes in that folder, the Trump folder. And that folder is wrapped in a spell of aversion and suspicion - 'racism', fear of 'Russian collusion' etc. so that you never look at the contents of that folder.
You might think you sound like a deep thinker but it's actually kind of creepy and intrusive pseudo psychology and I think you have a miserable lonesome life, no family, loved ones, people who care, otherwise why spend time online conversing with a lost bewitched dope like me? Please don't bother responding
You have no idea what I am saying, and what inside you is writing these things, and I have no reason to wish you good luck since we make our own meaning. Please bug off.
Do you live in Australia? I liked the association to bullying but would say it is beyond bullying. Young people who have suffered severe adverse injuries are still mandated to have another shot or they lose their job, right to be a part os ‘normal’ society. Totalitarianism is here and I am witnessing it with my own senses.
It's funny how simple disagreement with the current measures transforms you into a Republican. Having never voted for a Republican in my life, it's almost funny that now I can be characterized as far right because of my opposition to mask and vaccine mandates. Even "funnier" is that I just returned to the US from the UK where the government continues to impose measures similar to those in the US, despite having a "Conservative" government. And the final humorous moment comes from me having moved to Indiana, a red state, in order to minimize the impact of mandates on my life.
Your efforts to convince people we are being bullied are only making things worse in my opinion. I recognize there is conflicting information about vaccines and COVID mitigation measures. I stay informed and I make my own decisions. To imply that anyone interested in protecting themselves and others is submitting to the will of bullies is quite a stretch. Public health should not be political, but too late. Instead of finding a way to incorporate your desire for less mandates along with proven strategies to protect vulnerable populations, you sow decisiveness and anger.
I see the article as a kind of "meta warning" to all of us. Yes, authorities are often taking what they consider to be important health steps, but when they threaten people with, say, job losses (i.e. Biden's mandate) if you don't take something into your body, isn't that... bullying?
You don't want to do it, someone else is forcing you to do it. How clear does it need to be? If this is a point that requires dancing around and equivocating, then I suspect sanity has been lost.
Weird that I have to explain this, but taking things away from people until they agree to do what you demand isn't giving them a "choice". It's punishing them until they comply with your demands. Normally we call this type of behavior manipulation and abuse.
I don't think so, but that's because I mostly agree with those measures. I equate it to a workplace in which employees are asked to do certain things in order to keep themselves and their coworkers safe. Not sure "bullying" is the right word for the situation we are describing, but so as not to confuse things, I feel "bullied" by people who refuse to take the smallest steps to protect vulnerable family members and to help society in general deal with a worldwide, public health crisis while telling me I need to stay home if I don't want to get sick. I agree with you authorities can go too far and that we should all be informed and be aware of those threats. It just seems that no one is interested in a middle way in which the best ideas from people with differing views can be incorporated into a viable public policy.
It just seems like you're not open to information (of which there is a TON) that none of those interventions being mandated are helpful (and are actually harmful) and there have been better, cheaper, more effective ones all along.
So those people you accuse of not being interested in a middle way - that's you. The middle way would be to pay attention to what IS working, by people who have been employing those strategies.
Nope. Too late for that. It started with the "Patriot" Act and it will get worse unless we stand up. I hope you are protesting the treatment of Julian Assange. He's an example of what can happen to an individual when power is out of control, as it is now with the mandates.
In the bigger picture it is NOT a deadly virus. 99.9+% survive it, most without any problem. The natural immunity acquired from normal infection is exponentially better and infinitely longer lasting than anything a vax can provide. There are plenty of other diseases you'd do better to focus on.
And the prevention and mitigation strategies are laughably pointless and ineffective. (See: https://twitter.com/ianmSC )
Whatever vaxxes you have already submitted to are now useless against the virus... but they do remain in your body, creating trillions of very harmful spike proteins. So there's that.
It's a very well planned and executed ploy by major tyrants in our world to take full control of the planet, with the assistance of thousands of sycophantic petty tyrants in place in governments the world over. Governments are explicitly created to be populated by petty tyrants.
But it seems like you've defined yourself into a corner in two ways:
1. The virus will not "end." It is now endemic throughout the world, in both human beings and animal reservoirs. It will continue to spread and mutate, no matter what human beings do.
2. Covid is not the only, nor even the worst risk we all face. And "safety" from one virus is not the only objective that people may choose to go after. Normally, human beings balance multiple risks and multiple objectives.
I, for one, am interested in that best ideas from differing views thought. How can I realize that when everything is mandated? Do you see this interest from those issuing mandates.
Exactly. My history of bullying in the past helped me realize what was happening in the current situation. Once I saw the pattern again, the stones fell from my eyes. Can't unsee it now.
I was referring to vaccines, masking and social distancing. While I know there is disagreement on this, I believe that these measures in certain situations mitigate the spread of disease. I am not one who believes there is a conspiracy to keep people unwell. Re: vaccines, in particular, long discussion about the scientific method, clinical trials, the stringent approval process, etc. would be beyond the scope of this discussion. I have seen all of Charles' references and citations to "prove" his point, but there are just as many to disprove it. My main concern is the divisiveness and hatred that has risen around this issue when I would think we share the goal of reducing deaths and overwhelming the medical system with sick people.
You would think that we share the goal of reducing deaths. Whom do you think does not share that goal? The differences seem to me are about how best to accomplish that shared goal. You are onboard with the opinions of those in power. Fine. But, opinions are the powerful are not always accurate. You reference that there are just as many citations to disprove Charles’ point. The same can be said about the strategies you suggest work in some situations. To me, the differences in opinion center around the coercive strategies employed by governments. Try imaging these strategies being employed against you in another situation.
My comment about reducing deaths was to respect the notion that I don't know what other people think; I am only assuming most good people would want to reduce deaths. I agree the differences in opinion revolve mostly around strategies, but one thing I've learned here and elsewhere, is that we all have beliefs that others will disagree with and that minds aren't going to be changed by conversations like this one. Thanks for responding.
I can understand why you might believe those measures are effective but it’s just that, a belief. Believe what you want but masks and distancing do more harm than good. And on a very basic level it’s quite clear that vaccines are not doing what they claimed they would.
As someone who suffers from PTSD, I can assure you that masks have done me no good. I was attacked by someone whose face was obscured. Seeing masked faces puts me into fight/flight mode. Even though I'm over 65, I would much rather take any risk of covid than live in hyperarousal.
You make a good argument, but I believe you are mistaken about the claimed pretext for all these current health measures.
I'd like to recommend a book which I think ranks as one of the most comprehensive accounts of the whole, sorry, covid saga: Pseudo Pandemic, by Iain Davis. It's available free, as a PDF.
I think you'll be surprised, if not shocked, at just how significantly we've been misled, from day one.
"... I would think we share the goal of reducing deaths..."
Death happens. It'll happen soon enough for me, and for you.
Principles, however, outlast death. Therefore I consider Principle to be a higher priority than fear of death. Principles such as liberty, free will, free choice, my body is my property, the Golden Rule, the Silver Rule, personal integrity, etc.
I also find it hard to comment as the thought of reducing deaths as a goal seems terribly misplaced in our over acculturation. this makes discussions where high context language sharing is necessary yet not available pointless. but I do appreciate your composure.
WooooHooo you are on fire. This is all that I think, and more. This is really what I’ve thought since day one, a long time ago. I’m standing in the sand imagining that solid path rising to meet me. I still feel like I’m flying solo, much of the time. But thanks to your strong voice I know that isn’t true. I hope I’m strong enough by the time the path finds me.
I’d love you to explore some visioning of the future/present, once more people are travelling a similar path. Not where we are going, but who we are BEING or BEcoming
The last part moved me to tears. It's not about conquest or vanquishing an enemy, or triumphing as victorious over evil, or turning the tables on the victimizers, but it's the birthing of the New. Meet You at the rise... on the path..... .
As to footnote No. 4, I think most of us relate to a feeling of having power over us through school and other forms of indoctrination that have led to our collective malaise and inertia. It is up to each of us to realize our compensations and heal them.
Wheter it be called bullying or something else, public health policy is not currently helpful or benign and it needs to be reisted and redirected.
I just shared your essay on Facebook and it was scary. I can no longer, quietly put my mask on and watch our children be psychologically harmed. The consequences of this will be very serious if we continue to blindly follow this unprecedented course of action, particularly for the young and the vulnerable.
GOOOOD. Non-cooperation with what is humiliating. Prayers... for you and your family.
Masking – especially children - One of many aspects of this worldwide soap opera that is false, deliberate, evil.
From what I can tell, scores are snapping out of their hypnosis daily.
From what I can also tell, many of the awakening also realize that 'going back to normal' is not something they now want to do… no longer an option... because they now see, having briefly been thrust out of it, that that old 'normal' is in so many ways abnormal, pathological, evil.
And irremediable.
Result? We each gather with whomever we can truly relate well and deeply, and create millions of distinctly new (and typically quite small) communities... communicating, trading and honoring each for its vision, beauty and degree of success or failure. Millions of communities, each vying for harmony within integrity, practical success within philosophical idealism. A home to choose for everyone - to each his own.
The concepts of nation-state, mass democracy and one-size-fits-all-whether-you-like-it-or-not governance now being rejected and destroyed for the unworkable leviathan that it is (and always was), small tribes/communities will be springing up everywhere.
Small, tightly knit tribes/communities, because that is the human social arrangement that actually works (Dunbar's number: https://www.npr.org/2011/06/04/136723316/dont-believe-facebook-you-only-have-150-friends) (And no, the theoretical world of 'science' has not debunked Dunbar's number... practical reality affirms and confirms it... which in itself sheds some light on current pandemic-related 'science' and how statist/collectivists/authoritarians/psychopaths love using selective 'science' to buttress their collectivist utopian control fantasies.)
Not only do tribes/small communities work best in countless practical ways, it is important that everyone knows everyone else, at least to some reasonable degree. That way those with malignant narcissistic-psychopathic tendencies are spotted quickly and kept in check, or best eliminated.
(Frankly, the primary reasons for social failure are the malig-narcs and psychopaths in our world. Study is warranted for everyone about this topic.)
Communities/Tribes/Groups of like-minded people all pledging to adhere to Principles firmly founded upon Individual Rights and private property, because it is the Individual that actually exists, not collective and collectivist thought forms which only exist in the mental sphere, ultimately used for manipulative and abusive utilitarian purposes. Much better, in theory and practice, if we give equal or more weight to what actually exists rather than only ephemeral concepts. Golden Rule and Silver Rule social conduct has the best shot to actually work and evolve when applied in like-minded like-knitted communities. And the Iron Rule (might makes right) shall be spread among all (equality under Natural Law, and all equally and competently armed) so as to balance out the Iron Rule tendency for armed, stronger people to coercively dominate/dictate.
Of course, those owning and practicing their individual rights may voluntarily choose to come together as a collective, consciously sacrificing some of their individual rights for ‘the good of the collective.’ That is their right… and they will reap whatever sustainable success they might be able to create. Good luck!
(For a similar and much better description of what I am trying to say, check out this beautiful little essay from a very sharp guy: http://www.jakubw.com/2013/12/why-almost-everyone-believes-in.html )
Hi BDev-- just read the jakubw.com piece. Sharp guy indeed, yet he makes no mention of the wheel hub that the marketplace revolves around: corrupted "money".
Jakubs' "Why This May Change" section includes every influential factor except this one. "Money" creation (in quotes, as in "so-called", conceptual only, unreal) remaining in the control of despotic hands wipes out the possibility of the changes described.
Natural prosperity in the human realm (marketplace determines value), will be denied as long as the only means of storing wealth remains a medium of exchange created, controlled and dictated at will by predatory humans.
"Give me control of a nations money supply and I care not who makes its' laws."
-- some Rothschild or other
Translation: "Money" control is the root of all power-by-force. Top-down control of money means that everybody except those at the top are subjected to constant parasitic/vampiric wealth siphoning. In order to survive, all value producers have no choice but to pass on the blood-sucking damage to the folks at the end of the line.
"If the people of a nation were to comprehend the truth behind "money", there would be revolution by morning." (possibly botched, but essentially accurate words spoken by Henry Ford Sr.)
EAP - Spot on. Money is the blood in the economic vascular system. If the blood is corrupt, so will be every organ it touches.
So yeah, you are correct. The primary and fundamental practical issue to get straight and narrow is the monetary system. The only way to solve that problem is to eliminate those who currently control it, and resume commodity currency.
Yes that is definitely happening here in South Australia - groups with loving, courage and creativity of new ways their pervading ethos(es?)
Sheila, you may be aware, but for others reading this, the mask for children "science narrative" got blown to hell in Atlantic Magazine. Google "The CDC’s Flawed Case for Wearing Masks in School." The curtain continues to be pulled back!
Thank you, Charles, from a fellow bullied kid (perhaps even smaller at age 12 than you).
Real Life story about standing up:
Like lots of people, I sucked it up and wore a mask for a couple of weeks during the beginning of all this. When it became apparent to me that the whole story didn't hold up to even the quickest looks at the facts, I concluded it was yet another authoritarian con job and decided to live normally. I got yelled at here and there for no mask, even got thrown out of stores a time or two. It hurt, but I found ways to dance around it all, finding stores that bullied you only with a sign on the door. When I ran into friends I hadn't seen in a while and they stop before we hug hello and ask me if I'm jabbed up, I'd lie and say "Yes!" because I can't bear the pain of not being hugged.
Last month I decided on a last minute whim to join some friends in Death Valley Nat'l Park. This meant I didn't pack much in the way of necessities knowing that I could get by for a couple days on whatever they sold at the fuel station. Well, turns out the fuel station is run by the Nat'l Park system. You could get gas outside but inside the store was 100% gov't employees.
I walk in without a mask anyway.
Not 3 steps in and: "SIR! YOU HAVE TO WEAR A MASK!" I keep walking. Got to get a couple jugs of water, right?
"SIR! WE HAVE A MASK HERE FOR YOU! PLEASE PUT IT ON!" I ignore the guy. He comes after me and blocks my way to the cashier. Everyone in the store turns their head to watch. We are face to face, chest to chest. He is bigger.
"Aren't you supposed to stay 6 ft. away from me? You are breaking your own rules." He backs off. I walk around him toward the cashier who is behind a Plexiglas screen. The guy continues to yell at me. He obviously knows that yelling causes a scene which increases my discomfort. Nevertheless, I continue to ignore him. My body is shaking. Some people in the store snort and shake their heads. I wait my turn. My turn comes. I approach the cashier, fully prepared that he may not ring it up and thus deny me water in the desert.
But he rings it up. I notice that his mask is "off the nose", mouth only. Did I notice a twinkle in his eye, perhaps one of enjoyment at watching his boss standing over me in frustrated distress as the cashier hands me my change? I believe I did. I smiled back and walk out of there, still shaking.
The next morning the sun came blazing out and I realized I didn't bring a hat. Oh no! There's only the one store and I gotta go back in there? Oh well, I head back over. One of my friends joins me. As we approach the store, I tell him to "let the chaos unfold and don't intervene" as he puts on a mask and I do not.
This time, there is a line outside. The same guy guards the door. Only 10 people are allowed in the store at a time and there are 3 people in line. My friend gets in line and I open the door and attempt entry. The guy slams the door on my foot (lucky I am wearing sturdy boots) and pins it there.
I ask him: "So that's what you are going to do? Assault me?" He remains in place, my foot stuck and his weight against it. People pull out their phones and start videos. He is determined this time that I will not enter. It's a standoff. Except, he forgot that customers inside would need to exit. A guy inside knocks on the door to come out and the guard opens the door. I duck in. He follows me and starts yelling again. "SIR!"
More stares, more disapproving tsk's, comments and head-shaking from the customers inside. Again, my body starts shaking. I look at the hats. Nobody is on my side, or if they are, they are silent about it. This time, the guy gives up and goes back outside to guard the door because people are starting to walk in without his permission. He shoos them out while I select a hat. In the cashier line I stand behind a woman who I'd heard make a comment "There's one in every crowd!" when I entered. Annoyed by remembering that, I said to her backside, in a mocking ladylike voice: "There's one in every crowd." Not the nicest thing I ever did, but I did do that.
She turns around and looks at me.
I tell her "Hey, I've been hearing crap like that ever since I was a little kid."
Not the slightest bit shaken, she says through her mask:
"You know, I don't really care if you wear a mask or not. Just stating that there's one in every crowd."
One what? I didn't know and I didn't ask her. A non-conformist? Fair enough then. I thanked her for saying at least that much.
Outside I find that the door guy has summoned a Nat'l Park Ranger, possibly his immediate superior. They stand in front of my path and block my way. The ranger is a woman who launches into what strikes me as a prepared speech. Out of respect I listen to a few lines of it: "....we all have to do this, there is no choice...." like Mommy trying to reason with her misbehaving child.
Politely as I can, I interrupt her and tell her that I am not going to understand what she is saying anymore than she is going to understand my point of view and that this is not a problem. We can think differently and still respect each other. I walked around them and they let me go.
But this is not fun! It is scary and I hate doing it. It does not feel good at all. But if I don't do it, I can't look myself in the mirror and still see the same person I have fought my whole life to be:
Me. A peaceful, natural human being. The day I Iet other people tell me who I am or that I have to obey them and be approved of, I'm as good as dead.
Wow! That is such a moving little story.
I felt I was standing right next to you, in that store.
You are so brave and so identifiably human. I applaud you to the rafters.
Love your courage and perseverance.
Thanks for sharing and thanks for standing up ! Second to last paragraph says it all! We ultimately have to answer to ourselves. If you can’t live up to your own values and morals you’re already dead in my opinion.
Thanks for writing this. I post and comment, write emails etc on medical studies etc showing the deficiencies of the main narrative but haven’t had to be overt with my disobedience. (Vax passports come into affect here soon but we don’t have the disease (western Australia) so haven’t had to wear masks for ages.) It will take courage and easier done when there is more than one, like in my group actions of civil disobedience and trespassing as an environmental activist.
What courage and inspiration. It's not easy, but it can be done.
Awesome story. Just posted it in a family text string so I can watch some heads explode. https://youtu.be/mMorZnGxhv4
thank you stealthmouse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pKPNnk-JhE
Wow, I am inspired by your bravery! Most of my life I have tried to live by the rules and let other people bully me so hearing your story is really exciting for me. And even though I can sense that you were disappointed in some of your behaviors, at least you did it! That's more than I can say for me, although I have stood up to bullies in the past in personal relationships and actually had good results. Thanks for sharing your story.
Thank you, Susan. Can't go wrong standing up for yourself. Sadly, bullying is the way of the world and will remain so as long as people see fit to play power games. To me, this game is foul, ugly & anti-human ~ the essence of inner cowardice & lack of compassion. It is powerlessness desperately trying to feel powerful at the expense of another. It is the addiction of predators, psychopaths, law enforcement/justice officials, military/political/religious cult leaders (& all their citizens/denizens), corporate climbers, etc.
Very much like junkies require a constant supply of dope, power-minded folk require new victims as the feeling of power obtained by force soon dissipates back into their inner reality: painful, hopeless despair of the unwanted & unloved. Pull back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz and he's just a pitiful thing isn't he?-- a sticky black glob of self-loathing masquerading as some kind of kingsh*t badass.
You & I, what do we do? Hopefully, we see 'em coming and avoid them. Failing that, we run until you can't anymore and then you turn & stand your ground and either fight or let them take out their misery on you. It's a rough way to live, but hey, you're in good company, Susan-- take it from JC, it's the only way to stay beautiful on the inside. In the end, this is all that matters.
I loved what you wrote there! It gives me hope just to hear another human being talk that way. Thank you so much, Edgar. You made my day. And that is why I have always been a believer in JC, though I'm not so crazy about his fan club.
"fan club"-- ha! great way to describe christianity, Susan. Gotta agree with you there, 100%. One way we tear down authentic, so-called "remarkable" people is to raise them to such mythical/legendary heights as to render them non-human, inaccessible and god-like through excessive admiration. The simple beauty of the human being then gets smothered, choked to death by the "love" expressed by fandom in the form of fakery/imitation, idolization and cartoonish ubiquity. The higher one is held aloft by worshipping admirers, the more remote he/she becomes and the essence of their life & message is lost.
So the story goes, divinity is only for sages, prophets, saints, artists of great renown and suchlike. Nonsense! Of course, every human being is divine. How could we be otherwise? We've only to pull our head out of our butt, remove it from the dark, stinky place where mass insane humanity says to keep it, then stand up straight & be what we are.
Maybe one day not too far from today I can stand up - at least a little - like you did!
Go for it, Jens-- definitely good for the soul. All you need is sturdy footwear.
🙄
You aren't understanding how we get out of this. Using fiat at a government owned store, to purchase bottled water that was presumably manufactured by coca cola, nestle, or other large corporation, isn't it. Next time use a bottle from home and fill it from the tap.
So you lie about being vaccinated then hug people. Wow you people really are the zombies we have been warned about.
This essay is one of the most amazing pieces I have ever read. I can't thank you enough. I am one of the healthcare workers that have held in line in NYC and lost my job and am proud of myself!
Wonderful wonderful essay .. and was so happy to see it shared by Dr Meryl Nass, one of my favorite people bringing solid information, who is similar to Charles in following things through the depths and bringing back full threads of truth, with integrity all the way. Nass is more on the data and medical malfeasance and how we're being lied to in those realms. Diane, bless you for holding the line. I'm also in NYC .. so many here are vaxxed (and masked outdoors), it feels quite lonely here now ... yet there are awakenings and there have been some protests with powerful energy ...
Can you provide a link to follow Dr Nass?
I too, love what Dr Nass is doing. That's how I found Charles' blog..
Here ya go...http://anthraxvaccine.blogspot.com/
Thank you! 💕
“I am a hole in a flute that the Christ's breath moves through; listen to this music.” - Hafiz, Persian poet. Charles, this quote first comes to mind when I read this piece. Christ just being the word here to represent that Higher Power (or Logos as you mention in your piece) that moves through us and uses us as instruments to deliver its wisdom. From where I stand, this piece is sheer genius and has comforted me greatly. Your works have been nourishing to me since the days of Occupy when I first stumbled upon your works as a teenager. My heart is filled with gratitude to stand with you and many others in this space of courage and defiance, a space of saying, "No, we choose a different world." I have been going through a sort of a recluse phase over the past year, a phase of withdrawal and healing, away from the public eye, away from content creation, but there is a growing sense within me that "the time approaches". Thank you, Charles, for your ritual drawing a line in the sand and giving words to many of what they intuitively sense, one of your great gifts to the world.
Terrence McKenna suggested we simply say: "No, it's not going to be that way; it is going to be THIS way."
Wow this is, for me, one of the most powerful essays you've written. (not that the others aren't). I had almost the same bullying experience--youngest, smallest in 9th grade, and female and the new kid. Horrible bullying by both boys & girls. And I DID fight back, physically, which was a joke. It was almost like my fighting back with fists was only illustrating my weakness. I had to reach a point of clearheaded anger instead of the diffuse frustration and fear I'd been feeling, and had to just literally say, FUCK OFF I don't care anymore. Or something to that effect. And it did stop. There's a dance of abuse and victimization and getting caught sometimes in the frustration of being bullied is part of that dance, even though you think you're trying to get out of it. And the same goes for the covid bullying nonsense. Which I've been fighting in my own small way, ever since it started and my gut said: "something's wrong." But, like torture, the illogic of the mandates very much depend on keeping you either fearful or frustrated--confused in any event.
Anyway, blah blah blah. Thank you for this!
A couple of comments. I am a child from an abusive family. I strongly suspect my resistance comes from that history, and there's nothing wrong with that. Experience with abuse teaches you what it looks like and not to tolerate it. Secondly, you are exactly right that we decide when this is over. I realized that some time ago. I am not waiting for the government to give me my rights and freedoms back, even if I cannot access some of them now. I am living my life as normally as possible and defying vaccines, masks, testing, and quarantines.
A poor dear lady in my Bible study group last night wanted to pray that "things would go back to normal". I told her they would when we decide they will. If we wait for the government to give us our freedoms back, we'll be waiting forever.
Oh Susanna, I come from an abusive family too- a covert narcissistic mother and an alcoholic father. I have wondered why I could so easily see through the lies and manipulations and came to the same conclusion.
The genius of the founders of our country (USA) was that they recognized and were honest with themselves about the human nature. (A supreme act of bravery.) They recognized that humans, no matter their good intentions, will abuse power if not checked. Thus, they designed, not a democracy, but a representative republic with powers checked between legislative, executive and judicial. And distributed between federal and state responsibilities.
Unfortunately we threw that away with the progressive movement starting in the early 1900's. We have now progressed to a tyranny of unelected administrators and a single administrative state, with the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the federal and most state governments going along for the ride, remaining for the most part figureheads trying to remain relevant be repeating the dictates of the administrative state tyrants.
The problem I see is that most of us 'subjects' of the administrative state do not realize who the real tyrants are. They continually think the next election has a chance of restoring order. Until we recognize who the real tyrants are we can't stand up to them.
Exactly. I do believe the mask has come off, but not everyone has noticed. Yet.
Excellent, J.O.
And yes, Naiyasan. Our immediate concern is this, IMO:
As we likely have several millions of people who are Awake (clearly see the falsity and also see what needs to be done to remedy), and multi-millions more who are in the midst of awakening (different degrees of seeing and understanding the problem), consequently we've got a LOT of people who are sad, angry, frustrated and adrenalinized-proactive.
The Old Normal is rapidly dying/being killed.
The New Normal (for TPTB) is already extremely well thought out and planned - they have poured countless billions of dollars, time and effort into fleshing out their technofascist plans. (See https://www.weforum.org/strategic-intelligence/).
The New Possibility (for the Awakened/Awakening) is not only still a developing embryo in the egg, our New has not been given much dedicated thought for our present circumstances.
What to do?
IMO, we can directly apply age-old wisdom of Natural Law into some serious and intense brainstorming about what we need to do. The Principles are there for everyone to contemplate. Human nature is fairly well hard-wired, with a development track fairly well laid out (See Spiral Dynamics: https://fee.org/articles/spiral-dynamics-an-overview/).
Shall we create our new reality in much better concordance with human nature and natural law? Or rehash the same old-same old?
I too was a 90 lb bullied kid, but...as my father showed me one night coon hunting. "Watch what happens when the dogs go after the coon" he said. The 20 lb coon whooped the dogs the first go round. Dogs twice to three times his size! The difference in dogs and humans, a dog is absolutely relentless.
My point though, is you're right. Fighting back against human bullies will end it. I fought back every time and ended the abusive interactions. Rare was a bully a hound dog, but on occasion some were, and it required ever more resolved, [and a few bloody noses, along with some loose teeth] but watching that coon the night of the hunt gave me the courage to stand my ground.
If a 20lb coon could stand against foes thrice his size, so to, could this 90 lb. boy.
My wife and I both are vax free, and will remain so. We never wear mask. If stores require them to shop there, we turn around and leave. More, need to turn around and leave.
Put an end to following the norm, and stop shopping where those rules are enforced. Period.
Brother. You continue to offer distress into a distressed world. Gabor Mate said, "Safety isn't the absence of threat, but the presence of connection." You used to fan the flames of inquiry and reasoning into such connection, but this period has overwhelmed that in you, dear brother. You've fallen into a wounded, "us and them", self-congratulatory place, and your reasoning is frantic, playing with vengeful currents of public opinion. For everyone's sake, I hope you turn toward what is most beautiful in your life and take the next step.
If i were to read your comment as an inquiry about yourself (rather than charles) I hear you're distressed because you disagree with this piece when you used to agree, that your upset because you're not on the us part of them and this makes you feel frantic and that to get over this you're going to focus on what is beautiful for you in your life.
maybe that resonates or not, but i can tell you that this paice makes me feel seen and connected and hopeful and i don't feel i need to tel charles to find beauty or anything. like im imagining he has it covered.
Hi Maven... I'm happy that this piece meets your needs for being seen, and that you feel content and comfortable with his offering. I mention my hope that he turn to what is beautiful because that used to be his encouragement to *us*. If you're interested i could respond. 1) For me, working together in Truth and Compassion isn't about 'agreeing', so no.... I didn't "used to agree". And I don't feel distressed. In this last year with Charles I feel sad. I think he's retreating in the 'comfort' of "us and them"... I value compassionate cooperation. (2) And no... I'm not upset because I'm "not on the "us" side"... I reject - as Charles used to inspire me to do - the conduct that even inspires such framing. So no, it's not franticness over here. I'm not the one drawing lines in the sand and saying which side are you on. (3) I *will* turn toward what is beautiful in my life. I'm Grieving, because Charles used to be part of that. I learned and grew with his offerings, and it's not that I merely "don't agree" with these recent works, but that I think Charles has fallen into a place that is out of alignment with the heart of his prior offering. This speaks to me of shadow material and wound - not mere change... and because I care about him and the people who have learned and grown together, I share my comment.
thanks for clarifying and i think i understand what you're expressing. I happen to disagree, in that i am okay with the us and them discourse. it exists and is felt very acutely by the unvaccinated at this time. and to clarify on my end, I am in no way comfortable or content with what's happening. i also don't feel charles is comfortable either by the accute us and them mindset that is much closer reality for people than it was 4 years ago. thankyou for so thoughtfully expressing your grief and may it take shape into your dreams as we fall into winter.
To contribute to this thread, but certainly not to speak for Charles, these are extraordinarily distressing times and they call for keen and honest evaulation. Calling a spade a spade is not, to me, us versus them thinking. It is something much more practical - get up on your roof and turn on the hose - there is a fire blazing out there and it's coming for your house.
Thanks Tamra... Is equating the energies of the moment as a bully/victim relationship a keen evaluation? I'm not denying the capacity of humans to bully, nor for our institutions to represent our shadow sides, but to me this evaluation with its patriotic calls for allegiance, defiance and dubious comparisons with compassionate revolutionaries of the past is anything but keen. I believe he's being honest, but we all have friends who honestly speak out of their wounds during periods of their life. I've taken Charles' work vary seriously and gratefully for 12 years, and my discomfort comes from what strikes me as gestures which are out of alignment with *his own* integrity and past principles.
Ravenseen - People change with the times. Perhaps you are not in I alignment with Charles' current perspectives? and that's just fine. The essay serves as a prompt for the ripples of contemplation and conversation it stimulates. I am grateful this is a safe forum to respectfully express how the world events feel to each of us.
You asked me whether "equating the energies of the moment as a bully/victim relationship" is a keen evaluation for Charles to make. My answer is that words are never sufficient to express what is sensed. They are only a pale echo of what we felt on the inside where it was crystalized, succinct and pure. But, to me, it definitely feels like the walls are closing in on individuals all over the world who merely wish to express themselves without fear of reprisal.
It might be that we take turns being bully and victim. At this time, I perceive that the rights of the many are being capriciously diminished by the whims of a relative few with prodigious resources, connections across industries, and an insatiable thirst for power. Thus, calls to wake up out of the trance that stifles our collective ability to say "no" are keenly needed.
Raveseen. You’re right that Charles has done something in this essay that he does not normally do. I have followed Charles’ work for many years, read his books, attended his talks and workshops when possible. What I have always heard from Charles was a non-violent msg. A msg to feel into our hearts and reach out to our brothers and sisters from that place. That has always been true for Charles, and it remains true today. Just because he uses us vs. them doesn’t mean he is going back on his teaching. When there is a power so great that the vast majority of the world succumb to it, not questioning, simply accepting that this is what ‘must’ happen - even though this thing has an average IFR of 0.15-0.2% who in the vast majority of cases are the elderly (80+) with children at almost no risk but for the vaccines, and there is complete asymmetry in the decision to lock down to stop the spread without calculating the devastation it causes.
Charles, like all of us, recognises this movement is causing more agony that the thing it is meant to be protecting against. Maybe he has changed. Maybe he has never been called into action like this before. Maybe you don’t see what we all see, or aren’t bothering to look. We are. Charles is. Thank god he is.
As far as I see it, Integrity has a LOT to do with Principle, and Principle has a LOT to do with 1) Me NOT harming others, and 2) Me stopping people who ARE harming others.
#1 is obviously non-violent, and #2 is ideally non-violent... but sometimes #2 requires violence, serious violence, and rightly, justifiably so.
To make it simple and clear: If someone... anyone... forcefully attempts to inject some foreign sh*t into my body without my full permission and consent, I will stop him, permanently if necessary. And if I see someone else being forcefully injected, one who clearly and decisively rejects permission and consent for that to happen, I will intervene on his behalf with whatever force is necessary to stop that injection, including lethal force.
Those are not moments to sit down nicely with a cup of tea and debate morality and non-violence. The moral and ethical situation is clear. Firm, decisive Action is required.
thx maven... a small clarification, I meant "content with what's happening in the essay... with what Charles is doing here."
We need a Ravenseen substack!
"If you join us, you will be witness to a most marvelous paradox. The transition to a more beautiful world is a mass awakening into sovereignty..."
^Who is "us" and what steps does one have to take to join "us"? It sounds like, in practice, you're primarily saying that "us" is people who don't get vaccinated, don't wear masks, and don't social distance. Is that accurate?
If so, isn't it possible for people who are vaccinated, who wear masks, and who social distance to do it from a place of sovereignty — out of personal desire? Why then make the divide about vaccines, masks, and social distancing? (Or perhaps I'm missing something obvious?)
If you're doing those things (i.e. complying) of your own volition, only you know that. I mean, I hear that from the compliant all the time - that 'THEY are choosing'.
I see that something else is going on, to be honest. Empire works very hard, spends a LOT of money - toward the effort of replacing the individual human will with that of the corporate state. Most people don't notice they're not making their own choices. That's exactly how it works. It's actually quite painful when you DO notice. It doesn't happen because someone on the internet calls you a 'slave' - or tells you to 'wake up'. It happens, excruciatingly - when your child is fine one moment before being vaccinated, then convulses and becomes a brain-damaged vegetable the next minute. And all the white coats around you are gaslighting you as if they didn't notice. As if YOU are crazy - and everyone around you, and in the media - joins in the chant that 'vaccines don't cause autism, you idiot' and everyone turns their back on you as your life is turned upside down. Then they tell you 'Autism is a gift', but they're not changing the diapers on your 16 year old who needs round the clock care.
A mind becomes sovereign when it's so insulted by the farce of Empire that it has no choice but to do a full accounting of 'what is real' in the world - what is trustworthy in the world.
Anyone who is getting a covid shot has not reached that point yet - I'm sorry. Maybe it happens later. Who knows. The other stuff (masks, social distancing - those things you might still do out of kindness for others, like going along with the existence of Santa for a child) can sort of get a pass.
100 upvotes for that reply, Naiyasan.
As you said, if people want to pretend that masking up and anti-social distancing is worth doing because they believe it is scientifically legitimate and kind to others, so be it. Whatever. https://twitter.com/ianmSC
But when it comes to injections of toxic materials, violating one's bodily integrity, now we are talking fundamental issues of person, property and sanctity. The line in the sand is clear and unequivocal in all circumstances. That's why we have a Nuremburg Code.
Voluntarily allow some stranger to cross your line? Perfectly fine. Your choice.
Coercively demand that I submit to some stranger coercively crossing my line? Absolutely prohibited. Instant karma will result.
Did this experience you're describing with vaccines and autism happen to you? If so, I'm sorry. That's devastating.
People who've contracted Covid have devastating stories as well. For instance, a former coworker of mine got the disease early in the pandemic and was hospitalized. He fell unconscious and hovered on the cusp of death for 23 days.
No, thank goodness. It's the lived experience of several good friends (one actually has 2 children damaged by vaccines administered on the same day).
But it is devastating, and happens with regularity.
Your story is as well. What is especially devastating about both stories is that neither had to happen.
There have been treatment options available from the beginning - that would have very likely saved your friend's life. It has been estimated that about 85% of people who died from (or with) Covid could have been saved with simple, effective treatments. I used Ivermectin / Quercetin / Vitamins D & C & Zinc when I contracted Covid in August and was sick for 3 days. This Ivermectin protocol was the primary protocol used in Uttar Pradesh, India. 300 million people. Excellent results. Ask any Indian from there. The government handed out kits for each home. And if you consult Google, you'll see the usual suspects lying about it.
So having a friend succumb, as terrible as that is - isn't a good justification for taking a shot that it's manufacturer bears no legal responsibility for - when the policy of the vast majority of hospitals has been to deny early treatment, send people home and only treat them when they couldn't breathe. By then it's so so late.
Now they're using monoclonal antibodies with good efficacy. - BUT YOU HAVE TO ASK FOR THEM. Why on earth would you have to demand a treatment that works, but would otherwise be withheld?
I have argued these points into the ground and it does no good. Unless you already see what's happening... I know what drives the belief and trust - and fear. It's a deep issue. But it's not my issue. I wish you the best.
Thanks for sharing. I wish you the best as well.
If you have a 16 year old child with autism (mine is 18) you are both stupid, cruel and selfish to NOT get vaccinated for their sake alone
You are still in the slowly boiling pot.
I understood the divide to be more about standing up to the bullies and the tyrannical enforcement of such strategies. The freedom to choose those attempted mitigations can still be supported in this beautiful world.
If the divide is about the enforcement of such strategies, why not focus on that?
I think it's difficult to separate. If the strategies worked as well as hoped, how much heavy-handed enforcement would be necessary?
You're right that many leaders have overstated the effectiveness of masks (especially cloth masks), social distancing, and vaccines.
And yet based on what I can see from the data (see Your Local Epidemiologist, for instance), adoption of N95 masks, certain types of social distancing, and vaccines have decreased case counts and death counts.
So politicians are in a bind: If the data is right, people will die and/or get sicker without these safety measures, but people will also (understandably) fight attempts to enforce these measures.
Given this, should they back away from enforcement? If so, should they also back away from enforcing things like seatbelts and motorcycle helmets? People who see us all as separate individuals will likely say yes, while those who see the collective as one whole might say no.
'So politicians are in a bind: If the data is right, people will die and/or get sicker without these safety measures, but people will also (understandably) fight attempts to enforce these measures.'
Politicians are definitely in a bind - to exclusively sanction ineffective, expensive, harmful treatments as the only option - and politicize and derail any other treatment options.
Because those treatment options, having proven successful - would not furnish justification for lockdowns, mandates and other invasive measures.
Life is filled with risk and conflict. Increasing individual maturity results as each individual deals with their risks and conflicts.
I, for one, am not interested in what some stranger (called a politician) has to say about it. He/She can handle their own risks and conflicts.
I would say that despite Charles being personally unvaccinated (from what I can tell from his other writing) that he is generally wanting to appeal to a larger sense of sovereignty - and to use a quote from the paragraph above, a sovereignty where we “claim by example what a human being is.”
“How would I claim by example what a human being is right now, in my unique set of circumstances?” Is the question I am asking myself right now.
Jon, you do realize that the pathogen was manufactured?
If you would like to spend 15 minutes pondering the graphs on this page, it will change your mind completely: https://twitter.com/ianmSC
Three things can be true at the same time:
1) Our current vaccines reduce the harm of Covid, saving the lives of the most vulnerable and decreasing rates of long-term downsides from Covid.
2) Our current vaccines don't stop new variants from spreading.
3) Omicron is exponentially more contagious than prior variants.
From my extensive research, your #1 is not true (though endlessly touted as true by MSM), and being proven to be more and more false with almost every recent study; your #2 is incomplete, as the vaxxes don't stop any viruses from spreading, the 'leaky' vaccines are the cause of more variants, and neither do they stop infections from occurring, which makes them pretty much useless as far as being a 'vaccine'; and your #3 doesn't matter at all because Omicron 'disease' is extremely mild for nearly everyone, making it irrelevant in the larger scheme of things. Omicron is most certainly not worthy of epidemic or pandemic status, any more than the common cold would be epi or pandemic worthy.
So anyway, my point with the https://twitter.com/ianmSC link was to demonstrate very clearly, using conventionally obtained data, that masks, lockdowns, distancing, vaxxes, vax passports and whatnot are completely irrelevant and useless from a medical POV, and worse-than-useless (i.e. very destructive) from a socio-political POV. These ham-handed measures are hurting and killing people all over the world. Of course, folks like yourself are perfectly within your right to utilize whatever protective measures you feel are necessary for your health and well-being. Go right ahead. But there is absolutely no valid reason to demand 'protective' measures of those people who do not want to use them. It's totalitarian theater, and those of us who see that want no part of it. If it is forced upon us, there will be hell to pay for anyone involved in these punitive measures - the instigators, the enforcers and the cheerleading sycophants.
it's patriotic schlock... filling in the need to belong rather than the uncomfortable process of discernment and sensitivity.
Nope.
I am waiting for a movement of people powered by nondualism and pluralism that transcends this dualism of victim and abuser because the other side is using the same logic except reverse. Having an opposing side is not liberating. Transcendence of duality is true liberation. Rather than looking at man vs. man, consider dependent reality asserting power over dependent reality. The means are the same though - suffering.
Why are we using so much precious life energy as a society to wrestle with the question of whether vaccines are good or bad? They are obviously both and/or neither. I imagine a stronger argument could be made for or against the mandates but the mandates both go too far and not far enough depending on what camp you're in. Again, we arrive at both and/or neither.
So I think the real awakening is to nonduality and pluralism. To that end, your voice and everyone's who resonates with its relative truth are essential to dig our heals so deep into duality until we find there is nothing left to hold in opposition. When that happens I don't know. It's likely longer than my mind can comprehend. Charles, I do trust your depth of wisdom and your track record of risks taken in using your influence that you will recognize this deeper truth when the time is right.
'Why are we using so much precious life energy as a society to wrestle with the question of whether vaccines are good or bad?'
You could ask why so much energy is being spent to force them on sovereign beings who have made another choice?
There is no way to spiritually bypass the fact that there are people in positions of enormous power making untold billions by controlling the narrative about this disease. And they demand obedience to their narrative, and will use force to make you comply with it.
There are some who won't obey. The point is - you can't obey your way out of their exercise of power. And you can't make them into anything else - you can't make them into saviors or saints or even benign. Those people are on their own journeys. Maybe they actually are psychopaths or sociopaths. I would argue that it's likely, considering what they've done.
Essentially, on the spirit level, we're one. But on this plane, they anchor Ahrimanic energy by choice. One of control, dehumanization, annihilation of free will. So there's that. That exists - you can't really defeat it, except in yourself. That's the challenge - non-capitulation and non-violence.
That is another great question to ask, Naiyasan, and I really appreciate your emphasis on noncapitulation and nonviolence.
I'm just trying to understand how so much energy and Charles' work got collapsed onto this singular topic. This is just another example of how those dark energies take form at scale (slavery, mass incarceration, environmental degradation). I know it's the most in our face right now, and it might be a justice issue that has hit home the most for Charles and the demographics of his followers. For me the narrow focus on externalized, shiney targets takes away from all the other places this energy takes root, especially in myself and those around me, as you say that's the only place we really can trascend. Also I think we can lose touch with the truth that we all are the victims and the abusers, and how that can influence our thoughts, words, and actions. The slippery slope are everywhere, and Charles does point this out some.
David, you seem to be taking a stance that says, "Take the above and beyond non-dualistic path, cuz the low-vibe dualistic path is limited to the fight of opposites and ultimately not truly effective.
But I'm sure that you know that any action taken, on any level, has effects, kickbacks and consequences on all other levels. Thus, action at any level, if done with sincerity and integrity (whatever that person can authentically muster), adds to the net 'rightness' quotient.
IOW, if someone is firmly operating in a state of dualistic consciousness, but is utterly convicted, committed, sincere and authentic in his action, then that action is both powerfully integrous to him (giving him an evolutionary boost), AND powerfully integrous to the larger evolving consciousness of the human collective (giving it an evolutionary boost).
What is important is authentic integrity in thought and action. Right Action the Buddhists call it. With complete awakening into non-duality, right action is automatic. Until then, it usually requires an event such as Charles describes - breaking through layers of fear into courageous action - to get the intense feel and knowledge of what Right Action really is, and means.
BDev - I really appreciate your responses. They open me and also help me clarify where I'm at.
I guess in terms of path selection, I am trying to say, "yes, take any path, and be aware of all paths." I'm not advocating for Charles to change much of what he's said already, just to add more context about how this particular thread fits in with a whole mosaic of right action. Otherwise, the path selected is over-glorified and more exclusive.
There has been a shift in Charles followers which is to be expected given the shift in him. Since then, I've struggled to find a home in the conversation... actually struggling to find a home anywhere in this hyperpolarized window of time. My biased perception of this blog feels pretty narrowly focus to me. I see lots of comments like "perfect essay" and "you've said exactly what I've been trying to put into words". I see Charles' essays as really interesting (and inherently flawed) starting points. Part of the new world I hope to create is that everyone is more in their own power so that the focus is less on a bifuricated response of whether to put Charles up on some pedestal or try to completely knock him down.
I was hesitant to start this thread because I didn't know how it would be received. I'm grateful for the critical and welcoming comments of you and others.
I've been following your back and forth and have appreciated the conversation. The spiritual path I follow focuses on the development of spiritual beings in the world, and spiritual beings that transcend the world. Both are true, both are potentials. I think some people lean one way and some the other. Some are drawn to their spiritual development in the world, using the issues, rubs and conflicts of the world as and avenue to dissolving the personality so one can live engaging from qualities of essential strength, essential love, essential contact, essential power etc. Other people are more drawn to transcending the world, discovering the vast peace, love, creativity that we fundamentally are beyond this world and brief human existence. Sometimes it's our "destiny" in this current life to more fully recognize one or the other; recognize our true personal spiritual selves, or our boundlessness and transcendence.
I think if we have started out leaning one way or another, we can begin to bring our spiritual depth and practice to the other thread of development. I haven't followed Charles closely over the years, but I have read his last four or five sub stacks. Perhaps something like that is happening with him.
I've also thought there may be a new spiritual realization evolving on this earth, necessary for human beings to survive in our current form. A spiritual realization of communities that includes evolving wisdom fof the head, heart and belly. And transcending our everyday narcissism/ self-concern and survival instincts. That may be in the cards for us human beings, it may not. 🙏😊 Take good care. 💕
Good on ya, Mate.
Let me reply to a few of your comments:
Perhaps you might say, "yes, take any path, and tolerate all non-coercive paths." ??
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Charles most certainly feels that his current path is his Right Path... at least until it evolves further (maybe tomorrow :-). The 'Path' issue for every person always boils down to a couple of profound questions, "Is it truly, authentically right for me," and "Does it truly and authentically jive harmoniously with higher Universal Principles (Natural Law)?"
We each answer that to the best of our ability at every moment.
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I have only recently come across Charles' writing. What is the shift/change in him you are talking about? From what perspective in the past to what perspective presently?
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Assuming your clear intention to keep your own evolution moving at high speed, your Home will not be found in any perspective for any comfortable length of time. Get used to it!
You will regularly find yourself agreeing and disagreeing with parts of every essay out there... cuz your own scope of awareness is growing radically.
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Your initial 'hesitation to start this thread' is a perfect example of what Charles is saying - breaking through fear of inaction. The insistent and authentic urge to state your truth not only shattered some bit of fear lodged inside you, but it also stimulated and encouraged others to do the same. Bravo. That's what we're all here for.
Thanks for the great dialogue on this thread! Just wanted to respond and say that Charles most recent article is the explicit context I was looking for.
You have a very strong and beautiful point. However life, especially for most people, is dual. The physical reality we live in is limited by nature and when one can see beyond those limitation there’s a non dual existence.
You reach non duality by fully understanding duality. Charles message here is helping people to understand their dual role and by that enabling a non dual perspective.
We’re not limited by nature to victim-abuser roles. But when one is caught up in it (as happens now very strongly with any vax related) it’s a good starting point.
Good one, Shelly.
Whenever writing about the deeper intricacies of any subject, it is very easy to purposefully or accidentally jump back and forth btw a dualistic and non-dualistic perspective. The integrous author will ideally say what level he is writing from, so there is no confusion. It's not a good idea to demean a dualistic response as inferior, whilst then self-righteously sitting on the imaginary throne of non-duality, refusing or ignoring the harms done all around oneself in our dualistic reality. So many have fallen into the belief trap that non-dual awareness means dismissing the conflicts of duality as illusory and irrelevant. The truly awakened clearly sees the dualistic situation for what it is, but ALSO may choose to act decisively in it; i.e. Right Action.
As you said, we're all gonna get caught up in our conflicts, one way or another. What's the point of life without conflict? :-) That's what we're here for. And we've all got one helluva conflict boiling all around us right now.....
Yes, I resonate very much with what you’re saying here. One cannot see non dual without realising the dual and the key word is realising. And inferior/superior perspectives are dualistic in themselves of course.
I think that a writer does not need to declare what level they are writing from especially if 1) they trust the intelligence of their reader 2) they write from different levels at once.
I read this article again and I think it’s carefully crafted and it is possible indeed to see his invitation to step out of the loop of being either a victim or an abuser. It can also serve as a first awakening call for someone to see that they were caught in a role. A jumping board to transcendence.
Thanks for your response Shelly. I guess I just believe Charles could go further into creating that context of the dual within the non-dual. I have followed his work for years because of the expansiveness of his thought. While he presents this moment for him as a period of new understanding, it feels to me as a narrowing. That's totally cool as long as that non-dual context keeps up with the pace. The acknowledgement of his past trauma that might be triggered by his place in this is really helpful context though.
I read it again, David. In my understanding, practicing no duality for 20 years, I see that he maybe not using a non dual language but in fact it is a very much call for no dualism. The framework of abuser-victim serves for the higher point which is initiation. I see the article as an invitation to step out of these two roles in order to discover true (unconditional) freedom.
I think I commented separately somewhere here that one of the biggest problems is that many victims don’t actually see themselves as victims. It’s a very complex psychology. I’m familiar with it very closely from my work as a therapeutic coach, meeting many women who’ve been subject to abuse and neglect. It may be difficult to understand if you haven’t had that experience but it can take some stripping of defence mechanism to see how one steps into the victim role (just to make sure it’s clear I do not say that when someone’s being abused they step into the victim role but rather there’s a replay of roles later on in life). So when I apply this framework to the vax scenario I can easily see how people who defend the governments coercive method they actually don’t see themselves victim at all! That’s a big hole, in my view, in using this framework for the current situation. Besides the fact that it is a brilliant article!
I wonder, David, what would be a non dual point that you feel would make it more complete or transcendent ? If you feel like sharing 🙏
Thanks for all of this Shelly. Taking it all in and savoring. Just wanted to respond and say that Charles most recent article is the explicit context I was looking for.
D - Perhaps this time in our lives is a strong, roller coaster descent into stark duality in order to pristinely clarify principle, intent and integrity for many many millions of people... thus paving the way for awakening individuals to co-create a 'much closer to non-duality' reality for all who can see it and wish to join it and make it happen.
In any case, it's crystal clear to me that the carrot-on-a-stick dangled in front of people to 'return to normal' is a ruse. Not only is the previous normal a pathetically abusive reality in countless ways (which I am certainly not interested in returning to), but it is a reality that TPTB are intent on eliminating anyway. So, the only outcome of this worldwide experiment is that those of us not interested in their Great Regret technofascist surveillance utopia must create our own preferred reality... because there is nothing viable 'to go back to.'
(I laid out a possible framework in my reply to Sheila Edwards above.)
Dear Charles - I have followed you, with great appreciation, for many years. But this is the ground you choose to stand on now? Covid bullying? Why are you not talking about the taking of the right to vote from thousands of people? Why are you not talking about the Republican Party's slide into fascism and authoritarianism? Why are you not talking about the loss of our democracy? If you truly wish to move the needle from othering to more love, as you always have espoused before, why do you OTHER those of us who choose the vaccine as an ally and assistant to our immune systems, and find it to be so? I'm a caregiver for my 92-yr-old mom. I choose vaccination and masking as a way to protect myself to protect her. I am MUCH more concerned about the loss of voting rights, gerrymandering, obstruction in Congress to the passage of policies that PROMOTE greater health and well being for us all, including our environment. It looks to me like you are looking through a distorted lens at this time. You don't acknowledge the violence, and threatened violence from the "anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers" - which in my view, is much worse than the "COVID bullying" you speak of. What are you reading that you aren't seeing this? It seems like you are limiting your "newsfeed" to what confirms your current biases. This doesn't feel like you, as I have experienced you in the past. It feels like you are off the rails of your own teachings, your own integrity, into some tunnel view. I deeply hope and pray you return to your more balanced views. That you return to love. That you return to teaching us not to OTHER each other. This is not that.
So many points that come to mind- 1. Audience is global- I live in Australia which I thought was a democracy but as Charles points out, this has been eroded gradually. To restrict his essay comments to the USA neglects people of other countries needs. We (WA) have had strict border closures and very little to none community spread. Thousands of nurses and other health workers have been stood down from years of diligent work because they are not prepared to be part of this experiment. Others have submitted reluctantly because they have children to feed. We not only know in our hearts that this wrong, we understand the science, we recognise propaganda and being silenced by our regulatory body AHPRA-speak out and you will lose your license. 2. I live with and care for my 92 year old mother. She doesn’t take medication, hasn’t ever been vaccinated (maybe tetanus??) and has a functioning if not aging immune system. The vax does not stop the spread and would not stop myself or her getting it. She would rather people do what is right for their own bodies/health and not think of her. 3. I think something is making it hard for many people to see what is glaringly obvious to others- both sides. I find it beyond belief that people think the vax will save them - based on studies and articles published in medical journals, testimonies by medical specialists and front line workers. Friends who post the mainstream public health narrative usually quote/link newspaper articles or journalist reports. Many studies show one thing but conclude that despite all the evidence vax should be continued (requirement to keep their funding). 4. I have been called a Nazi just because I attended a rally where there were maybe a handful out of over 25,000 peaceful protestors against the mandates. Mainstream media portrays what they want. Sure there are some extreme views and ways of being amongst those not consenting but that is true for all of society. I could go on and list so much more - check out Kennedy’s book The Real Anthony Fauci.
Never does he say that the vaxxed are the other. This is about powers we are all subject to. If the entire world can be brought to heel why would they need such crude tools as gerrymandering and taking away voting rights when a few unelected “infectious disease experts” can take away literally every right we have overnight?
Further, "This is about powers we are all subject to..." is the longer range and FAR larger issue. Until humanity can get past its Stockholm Syndrome disease of authority worship, we shall replay the same old tiresome, debilitating, deadly script we have played for millennia.
https://hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM
The true spiritual home of humanity is anarchy.
Anarchy means 'Without Rulers.'
But not enough aspiring souls are ready for that... yet.
Anti-vax and anti-mask violence is highlighted and magnified. I've never personally seen it. However i've both seen and experienced Covid bullying despite being polite, smiling and going on with my business.
That was my thought as well. And I've seen covid bullying applied to those least able to resist it.
I agree. Have been following Charles for a long time, and this feels like a disappointing departure from who I've know him to be. I can accept some of the critique, but to casually declare that masks don't provide some protection to people is not something I can accept in the face of the many studies that show that they do.
Please provide said studies
Here are come meta analyses using a range of resources to conclude that masks, in conjunction with other public health preventative measures, is effective in reducing the transmission of COVID-19 at the population level https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2776536
https://www.pnas.org/content/118/4/e2014564118
https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj-2021-068302#
Brownstone research has written a few articles collecting the research and studies that masks and other restrictive measures do not work. This shows that the science is not settled yet. Since these restrictive measures cause harm, should we be following them without settled science?
OSHA normally requires that a person go through a medical examination in order to wear a mask for employment. The lack of oxygen and increased CO2 uptake puts a strain on the cardiopulmonary system. CO2 and O2 balance is sensitively regulated in our bodies.
https://brownstone.org/articles/more-than-400-studies-on-the-failure-of-compulsory-covid-interventions/
https://brownstone.org/articles/masks-before-and-after-things-they-became-political/
https://brownstone.org/articles/why-mask-mandates-should-be-immediately-banned/
Thanks for sharing, I’ll take a look at those when I get a chance . One thing that I noticed at first glance is each of those studies you listed were done in 2020 or later. It’s just interesting that these measures weren’t used or found to be effective in 2017-2018 when some 80k died from the flu.
I was looking for the most up to date info, so I didn't search for earlier studies.
Forget about 'studies' for a moment, and look at real world results. This guy's website is loaded with charts based solely on govt data clearly demonstrating that masks and lockdowns are absolutely pointless: https://twitter.com/ianmSC
Scroll down through the many examples. Here are a couple of appetizers:
https://twitter.com/ianmSC/status/1471553219138490373
https://twitter.com/ianmSC/status/1471542198382436354
Yeah!!
Thank you for your strong voice and compassion Ariana I am not understanding much anything Charles is saying these days unfortunately and as someone who has followed his work for more than 20 years he is definitely off the rails of his own teachings. I know that he is not as certain about what he writes, but most people do not.
The pandemic context surrounding this piece is eliciting a defensive response from readers who agree with the measures taken and thus see nothing wrong with the way that governments are treating their citizens. This reaction causes said readers to miss the true message (and strength) of the piece, which lies in its use of the pandemic response as but another episode in the long march of fascism through history (and by fascism I mean the ascension of the merged corporation and state and the absolute subjugation of citizens, not the scare word pinned on Trump and conservatives to distract from the actual fascism brewing in boardrooms and halls of government everywhere).
The assertion that there are bigger issues in the world and the resulting confusion and frustration around Charles’ focus on this issue reflects ignorance of the true gravity of what has happened to the most basic components of our freedom, sovereignty, and agency.
A more careful re-reading of the piece may reveal to the reader which archetype they are currently playing in this latest psychodrama.
I think your opening line is a stretch... first of all... I don't see 'defensive' responses... secondly, agreeing with measures taken (which ones? which area?) doesn't necessarily equal seeing "nothing wrong" with the way that governments are treating their citizens. The level of coherence, connection and cogent inquiry being engendered here is staggeringly low. It has been replaced by romantic and alluring lines like "it is time!" That type of connection is mere "mob mentality" to use one of Charles recent memes... but you're starting the "good mob," right Charles? People just have to "join you?"
And your point is what, exactly? And how does it relate to Charles?
Don't mince words. Spit it out.
I will spit it out. What are you doing to help yourself and others to end the virus?
For my part, I've been stocking up on - and dispensing - Ivermectin + a vitamin cocktail to my friends and family who get Covid. It does work. It turns the disease into a 48 hour cold. And not even a bad one. The government knows that. If YOU don't already know that - if you haven't been following the Drs who are using it, all over the world (and with excellent results) then you might think what is happening is justified. What's happening? NY legislators voting on Jan. 5 to allow INDEFINITE detention of 'at risk' people. 'At risk' being defined by the governor. These measures, or similar ones are being enacted all over the world, and it has NOTHING to do with a treatable virus that our elected officials (and their pharma sponsors) allowed hundreds of thousands to die of.
That's not hyperbole.
Nothing at all will end the virus. It's endemic. It's here to stay. Not going away, ever. Protect yourself from it, it's not hard to do.
You might want to research The Great Reset while you're at it.
Because that's what this is about.
It's not about a virus at all.
You would not believe me if I told you.
Let it go.
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Also, nothing you or I 'do' affects the cyclical virulence patterns of viral pathogens. IOW, 'virus gonna virus.'
If you are wise enough to study the data charts on this webpage, it will become clear to you.
https://twitter.com/ianmSC
Then, perhaps, you can chill.
Excellent comment - and I couldn't agree more!
Perhaps your compassion can be broadened to those who are being artificially scared out of their minds, forced to comply with bizarre and harmful lifestyle mandates, and threatened with career and livelihood destruction if they do not comply with medical tyranny that fails to work in any case?
A more in-depth examination of what is really going on is warranted. There is plenty of accurate information available, if you are willing to seek it out.
Ahh, the "do your research!" meme of the Trump generation. No. I would rather deal with real world traumas, not potentialities, such as my elders dying due to this virus, human grief and loss, and selfish people who scream about medical tyranny but who will overwhelm the system in a second if they get sick. And people like Charles who do NOTHING to help stop this virus but complain.
Our elders who died from the virus - the vast majority of them - didn't have to die. Life saving medicines were knowingly withheld from them. Early treatment could have saved those peoples' lives.
You have to already know this on some level - and your mind won't allow you to integrate that information because it's too painful. Otherwise - why even bring up Trump's name? Has anyone else?
Pay attention: There is a category, like a file folder in your mind, where you have been instructed to place all information that makes you uncomfortable.
Anything that runs counter to the establishment narrative (as reported by the media) and causes you to feel dissonance, makes your sense of reality, your very identity - feel threatened - goes in that folder, the Trump folder. And that folder is wrapped in a spell of aversion and suspicion - 'racism', fear of 'Russian collusion' etc. so that you never look at the contents of that folder.
Examine this for yourself.
You might think you sound like a deep thinker but it's actually kind of creepy and intrusive pseudo psychology and I think you have a miserable lonesome life, no family, loved ones, people who care, otherwise why spend time online conversing with a lost bewitched dope like me? Please don't bother responding
cognitive dissonance isn't pseudo-psychology... you know it's true. you believe a fairy tale not of your own devising. good luck with that.
You have no idea what you are saying, and what inside you is saying it, but good luck to you.
You have no idea what I am saying, and what inside you is writing these things, and I have no reason to wish you good luck since we make our own meaning. Please bug off.
yep. exactly.
Nah. He's right.
I don't hear Ariana heartfelt sharing making this about "right/wrong" thinking... why are you introducing it?
How about uplifting the conversation from right/left - liberal/conservative - progressive/alt-right low vibe dualisms?
Do you live in Australia? I liked the association to bullying but would say it is beyond bullying. Young people who have suffered severe adverse injuries are still mandated to have another shot or they lose their job, right to be a part os ‘normal’ society. Totalitarianism is here and I am witnessing it with my own senses.
Yes. This plandemic is far worse than 9/10ths of the world care to realize.
It's funny how simple disagreement with the current measures transforms you into a Republican. Having never voted for a Republican in my life, it's almost funny that now I can be characterized as far right because of my opposition to mask and vaccine mandates. Even "funnier" is that I just returned to the US from the UK where the government continues to impose measures similar to those in the US, despite having a "Conservative" government. And the final humorous moment comes from me having moved to Indiana, a red state, in order to minimize the impact of mandates on my life.
Your efforts to convince people we are being bullied are only making things worse in my opinion. I recognize there is conflicting information about vaccines and COVID mitigation measures. I stay informed and I make my own decisions. To imply that anyone interested in protecting themselves and others is submitting to the will of bullies is quite a stretch. Public health should not be political, but too late. Instead of finding a way to incorporate your desire for less mandates along with proven strategies to protect vulnerable populations, you sow decisiveness and anger.
I see the article as a kind of "meta warning" to all of us. Yes, authorities are often taking what they consider to be important health steps, but when they threaten people with, say, job losses (i.e. Biden's mandate) if you don't take something into your body, isn't that... bullying?
Of course it is 'bullying.'
You don't want to do it, someone else is forcing you to do it. How clear does it need to be? If this is a point that requires dancing around and equivocating, then I suspect sanity has been lost.
Weird that I have to explain this, but taking things away from people until they agree to do what you demand isn't giving them a "choice". It's punishing them until they comply with your demands. Normally we call this type of behavior manipulation and abuse.
I don't think so, but that's because I mostly agree with those measures. I equate it to a workplace in which employees are asked to do certain things in order to keep themselves and their coworkers safe. Not sure "bullying" is the right word for the situation we are describing, but so as not to confuse things, I feel "bullied" by people who refuse to take the smallest steps to protect vulnerable family members and to help society in general deal with a worldwide, public health crisis while telling me I need to stay home if I don't want to get sick. I agree with you authorities can go too far and that we should all be informed and be aware of those threats. It just seems that no one is interested in a middle way in which the best ideas from people with differing views can be incorporated into a viable public policy.
It just seems like you're not open to information (of which there is a TON) that none of those interventions being mandated are helpful (and are actually harmful) and there have been better, cheaper, more effective ones all along.
So those people you accuse of not being interested in a middle way - that's you. The middle way would be to pay attention to what IS working, by people who have been employing those strategies.
Nope. Too late for that. It started with the "Patriot" Act and it will get worse unless we stand up. I hope you are protesting the treatment of Julian Assange. He's an example of what can happen to an individual when power is out of control, as it is now with the mandates.
There is no middle way unfortunately. The choice is very clear in my opinion. Either you support support human sovereignty or you don’t.
That's interesting. I think that you either support the end of this deadly virus by doing EVERYTHING YOU CAN or you don't.
In the bigger picture it is NOT a deadly virus. 99.9+% survive it, most without any problem. The natural immunity acquired from normal infection is exponentially better and infinitely longer lasting than anything a vax can provide. There are plenty of other diseases you'd do better to focus on.
And the prevention and mitigation strategies are laughably pointless and ineffective. (See: https://twitter.com/ianmSC )
Whatever vaxxes you have already submitted to are now useless against the virus... but they do remain in your body, creating trillions of very harmful spike proteins. So there's that.
It's a very well planned and executed ploy by major tyrants in our world to take full control of the planet, with the assistance of thousands of sycophantic petty tyrants in place in governments the world over. Governments are explicitly created to be populated by petty tyrants.
Yup I turned off the TV and miraculously my troubles went away
But it seems like you've defined yourself into a corner in two ways:
1. The virus will not "end." It is now endemic throughout the world, in both human beings and animal reservoirs. It will continue to spread and mutate, no matter what human beings do.
2. Covid is not the only, nor even the worst risk we all face. And "safety" from one virus is not the only objective that people may choose to go after. Normally, human beings balance multiple risks and multiple objectives.
I, for one, am interested in that best ideas from differing views thought. How can I realize that when everything is mandated? Do you see this interest from those issuing mandates.
The outrageous degree of censorship automatically and immediately tells any intelligent person that things are extremely wrong...
Yes, indeed, Kati B.
Thank you for taking the trouble to say what so many of us 'heretics' hold to be true.
Thanks Kati! I didn’t have the energy to go into such detail. Very well said !!
Outstanding reply! Passionate. That's what is needed right now.
perfectly stated.
Maybe this will help you see
https://odysee.com/@QuantumRhino:9/Dr.-Peter-McCullough-with-Joe-Rogan---The-Joe-Rogan-Experience--1747:b
You don’t have to convince someone who’s being bullied that they are being bullied.
What will happen to your life when the moment comes that you stop agreeing with the measures? Should I stand by as you’re bullied? Who will?
Exactly. My history of bullying in the past helped me realize what was happening in the current situation. Once I saw the pattern again, the stones fell from my eyes. Can't unsee it now.
What are those “proven” strategies, please?
I was referring to vaccines, masking and social distancing. While I know there is disagreement on this, I believe that these measures in certain situations mitigate the spread of disease. I am not one who believes there is a conspiracy to keep people unwell. Re: vaccines, in particular, long discussion about the scientific method, clinical trials, the stringent approval process, etc. would be beyond the scope of this discussion. I have seen all of Charles' references and citations to "prove" his point, but there are just as many to disprove it. My main concern is the divisiveness and hatred that has risen around this issue when I would think we share the goal of reducing deaths and overwhelming the medical system with sick people.
You would think that we share the goal of reducing deaths. Whom do you think does not share that goal? The differences seem to me are about how best to accomplish that shared goal. You are onboard with the opinions of those in power. Fine. But, opinions are the powerful are not always accurate. You reference that there are just as many citations to disprove Charles’ point. The same can be said about the strategies you suggest work in some situations. To me, the differences in opinion center around the coercive strategies employed by governments. Try imaging these strategies being employed against you in another situation.
My comment about reducing deaths was to respect the notion that I don't know what other people think; I am only assuming most good people would want to reduce deaths. I agree the differences in opinion revolve mostly around strategies, but one thing I've learned here and elsewhere, is that we all have beliefs that others will disagree with and that minds aren't going to be changed by conversations like this one. Thanks for responding.
I can understand why you might believe those measures are effective but it’s just that, a belief. Believe what you want but masks and distancing do more harm than good. And on a very basic level it’s quite clear that vaccines are not doing what they claimed they would.
As someone who suffers from PTSD, I can assure you that masks have done me no good. I was attacked by someone whose face was obscured. Seeing masked faces puts me into fight/flight mode. Even though I'm over 65, I would much rather take any risk of covid than live in hyperarousal.
Hi Susan,
You make a good argument, but I believe you are mistaken about the claimed pretext for all these current health measures.
I'd like to recommend a book which I think ranks as one of the most comprehensive accounts of the whole, sorry, covid saga: Pseudo Pandemic, by Iain Davis. It's available free, as a PDF.
I think you'll be surprised, if not shocked, at just how significantly we've been misled, from day one.
All the best.
Thanks for your reasonable response.
"... I would think we share the goal of reducing deaths..."
Death happens. It'll happen soon enough for me, and for you.
Principles, however, outlast death. Therefore I consider Principle to be a higher priority than fear of death. Principles such as liberty, free will, free choice, my body is my property, the Golden Rule, the Silver Rule, personal integrity, etc.
Thanks for your clarity and composure susan
I also find it hard to comment as the thought of reducing deaths as a goal seems terribly misplaced in our over acculturation. this makes discussions where high context language sharing is necessary yet not available pointless. but I do appreciate your composure.
exactly
WooooHooo you are on fire. This is all that I think, and more. This is really what I’ve thought since day one, a long time ago. I’m standing in the sand imagining that solid path rising to meet me. I still feel like I’m flying solo, much of the time. But thanks to your strong voice I know that isn’t true. I hope I’m strong enough by the time the path finds me.
I’d love you to explore some visioning of the future/present, once more people are travelling a similar path. Not where we are going, but who we are BEING or BEcoming
Thank you Charles, you are the best xx
The last part moved me to tears. It's not about conquest or vanquishing an enemy, or triumphing as victorious over evil, or turning the tables on the victimizers, but it's the birthing of the New. Meet You at the rise... on the path..... .
Powerful, insightful and right on target Charles.
As to footnote No. 4, I think most of us relate to a feeling of having power over us through school and other forms of indoctrination that have led to our collective malaise and inertia. It is up to each of us to realize our compensations and heal them.
Wheter it be called bullying or something else, public health policy is not currently helpful or benign and it needs to be reisted and redirected.