What a friggin' gift you are, Charles. And Ben, thank you infinitely for inspiring this in Charles. Deeply impactful. Hard for me to understand how someone can deliver this message with such eloquence and authenticity and yet they themselves still feel they need to be reminded........
I know -or I think - Charles is not keen on movements and organised structures around his messages but I would love to find some kind of community of people who share his views and hopes and invitations. So many thanks to you both for the gifts you give us and ARE
Yes, organizing can be a form of devotion to what need to be. We have our intentional community here in Calgary. Our name is Herding Cats Collective. We come together help each other right now to hold more unto this realization of what life is AND to connect with others who are building from this new/ancient story of the world.
Herding Cats Collective, what a fabulous title! I will share with friends in Canada. Here in Santa Fe, NM we have The Unmasked Group, which I find is like a "beyond-blood family" place to gather with other heartfelt individuals that appreciate human interaction. This reality has gotten so strange.
Hi Jake! Yes, indeed, so good to discover other like minded/hearted peeps. Email Michael -> michael@unmasked.icu or sign up at the website-> https://unmasked.icu/ They are very slow at getting back to people. If you email me (roxana@illuminatedperfume.com) I can send you the most recent newsletter
We certainly need to congregate and commune and support one another. I just learned about "The Thursday Groups" which are essentially gatherings to create parallel socieites. These particular groups were started by Dr. Pam Popper - she apparently will help anyone form such a group - based upon an objection to medical tyranny and with the goal of forming community and supporting the local economy. Here is her email: pampopper@msn.com
I welcome any other suggestions for forming these conenctions both near our homes and accross the world.
PS - Charles - thank you for the magnificent film. I have already shared four times and will keep spreading your heartfelt and universal message.
There is a Mighty Network set up by Charles and his former spouse Patsy, called NAAS: the new and ancient story. You can join that. Sometimes gatherings are organized by people in the same geographic region. I went to one and it was soul-filling.
This is a beautiful sentiment and one I relate to from afar. It all spoke to me until....community. And with that I ask: Who among you are "elderly?" It is easier to find community when you are not old. Even before Covid, older people found themselves separated from community, not always by choice or orientation . It is so much worse now, especially for people like my parents who are over 80. I never understood why old people moved into over 55 ghettos; now I get it. Once I entered the world of the old (especially, as a woman), I became invisible,. I do not say this as a victim, but only as a warning. Find your community (and your true love) now because you will probably not find it when you are old.
I think maybe what you are getting at is that to have a meaningful, fulfilling, and happy life, one needs to be honest with themselves. Which is amazingly hard thing to do.
I think that sincere prayer used to help people strive toward this, because if one was communicating with an all powerful being that can't be fooled or misled, one tended to be more honest with oneself.
With the current world's loss of faith, we have also lost our ability to pray and therefore lost a very useful tool to help us be honest with ourselves. I am not religious, but I have done my best to understand the value that religion brings to humanity. And I think one of the top things on the list is prayer's ability to help us be honest to ourselves, for at least a short time.
In today's "God is dead" world it is very difficult for a person to be honest with themselves. I think this is why so many focus on the meaningless. As we grow older it becomes harder and harder to be honest with oneself. Social media rewards us fooling ourselves. We can post pictures and stories of the lies we tell ourselves and get 'likes' from all of our 'friends'. It can become impossible to extricate ourselves from the lies.
When you speak of artist perusing a state of devotion and not performing for the critics. I think that is what I mean by self-honesty.
Lying to ourselves lead to lying to others and pretty soon you have a lot nothing in the world.
Yes, I had a similar experience! What was spoken about here went in much deeper and more profoundly than I was expecting and invoked a depth of wisdom in thoughts and feelings that was just so self-affirming. I would also tend to agree that the way the message was wrapped up in with the visuals and the (awesome) and very well timed music was a significant contributing factor.
Exquisite. Ben brings your words to life with true artistry. It is profound and uplifting. My only suggestion would be to have more diversity of the characters in age and beauty. Almost all the people featured were young and beautiful and most of the women wore make up, even when supposedly at home alone and depressed. This may be because you needed to use stock images and video, as it must be expensive to film people yourself and difficult in the age of covid.
The only thing I don't resonate with Charles, is your views on covid, which I find perplexing. Of course humans need connection, but where I live, hospitals are overflowing, the health system is collapsing and health professionals and workers are desperate. Out of consideration for them we need to be cautious about gathering now and pivot to meed our social needs without making that storm worse.
An "age" is an awful long time to wait for someone else to give you permission to live and love without fear of death, fear of hospitals filling up, fear of health systems collapsing, fear of health workers being desperate, fear of "storms" getting worse, fear of thinking/acting on your own recognizance, fear of the disapproval of others, fear of oneself as a walking pathogen, fear of others as walking pathogens, fear of those who are not afraid....
So when/where does all the fear end for you? Who is in control of your inner world?
Charles' words come from his decision long ago to courageously walk an "unauthorized" path of personal discovery. The depth of beauty & truth he has found along this path has brought him "forbidden knowledge" that breaks the stranglehold of ones' allegiance to common-thought authoritarian mind-sets and re-focuses it alignment with natural life forces.
Nature is not a corporate (human thought-created) entity. Nature is real and not subject to laws that us silly humans dream up for ourselves. So Charles says something that doesn't "resonate" with you. No great mystery there. Our inner "bells" can only ring in tune with our chosen masters' voice. You are always free to disregard this unnerving, clanging bell that demands obedience in both thought and action and choose instead to step outside, walk into a forest, sit for a while and listen for a new one.
Jenni, I really appreciate your response, in particular your second paragraph. My wife works in healthcare, often in our hospital, and I have multiple friends & family who are doctors and work in hospitals. They all speak to what you are saying - maxed out capacity, and healthcare workers burning out from covid patients and how covid exacerbates the challenge of caring of everyone else's acute needs. It is indeed very perplexing that so many people just don't seem to believe that is true, worth caring about, or worth being cautious about.
And Edgar, Jenni didn't say anything that indicates fear. She said, "Out of consideration for them we need to be cautious...." Consideration. Perhaps you interpret her awareness of the realities inside hospitals as fearful, because you think that should be the natural response? I'm not super anxious about it all, but I do have a strong sense of solidarity to heed the pleas of healthcare professionals for us to take it easy and not overwhelm them.
Also Edgar, you write, "Charles says something that doesn't "resonate" with you. No great mystery there. Our inner "bells" can only ring in tune with our chosen masters' voice." How is being aware of a hospital's capacity to care for the sick seen by you as obedience to a 'chosen master's voice'?
"How is being aware of a hospital's capacity to care for the sick seen by you as obedience to a 'chosen master's voice'?"
My words indicated nothing of the kind.
If being considerate is a consideration, then one might consider that requiring/mandating/social-pressuring others to engage in behavior that they feel is self-harming is not at all considerate.
Let me say this as well: If I were sitting in a crowded hospital dying and uncared for, the last thing on my mind would be to set blame upon other people for my situation.
Thanks for your reply. You rationalize what didn't resonate for Jenni (the fact that hospitals being overwhelmed in her region make Charles' stance on covid quite reckless) as being due to due to our 'inner bells' ringing 'in tune with our chosen master's voice'.
Thanks Mateo for your reasoned and kind responses.
'Edgar', as Mateo pointed out, you didn't respond to what I actually said, but what you assumed I meant. If you don't want people blaming (which I don't feel I was), perhaps stop pointing a judgemental finger yourself.
Shocking lack of self-awareness displayed here by both of you. This is precisely what is at the root of this divide we are seeing. There is nothing I can say that will make you see what pains you to see within yourselves: unacknowledged fear masked by so-called caring consideration.
Everyone on earth is just being human. I am not saying you (or anyone else) is "bad". We are just all on different levels of self-awareness according to how/where we choose to focus it.
There is nothing more to say here lest my words vex you further. I can only hope that both of you examine that which is within you as fervently as you do what is outside yourselves.
Living in fear is unhealthy and distorts rational thought. This is all I'm saying. I hope you find a way to calm yourselves when you see others choosing to act on their own personal wisdom rather than blindly obey orders that come from "on high" from folks who arrogantly believe their wisdom is superior to others and ought to be adopted by everyone.
The choices other people make, regardless of your judgment of them, are not your domain. I hope you are able to make peace with that. Otherwise at some point you will find yourself filled with zealous, righteous fervor doing very nasty things to others without a second thought.
I am so inspired by your words and the way you migrate in the world dear Charles, there is a deep resonance on a soul level. I have been noticing a collective expansion happening where we are starting to hear each other and ourselves more, a fine tuning of our antenna. What I have learned in alchemical studies is that we project our reality and that those around us are mirrors, or mirror back aspects of our selves. Within that construct, what you/we are experiencing is perfectly in line with that tenant.
I get it, all of what Charles is saying! So tell me this, according to ancient texts and Indigenous peoples, the Human collective has had four tries, so far, and we are living in the fourth world. And then there are the Yugas, the Earth within our solar system floating in the Milky Way Galaxy, continually going through these Yuga cycles! Why the heck are we here?
Thank you, just thank you Charles . In times of great turmoil, of loss , of rising cynicism and despair about the human world, you have given me hope and a pointer to what might be . Bless you
What a friggin' gift you are, Charles. And Ben, thank you infinitely for inspiring this in Charles. Deeply impactful. Hard for me to understand how someone can deliver this message with such eloquence and authenticity and yet they themselves still feel they need to be reminded........
I know -or I think - Charles is not keen on movements and organised structures around his messages but I would love to find some kind of community of people who share his views and hopes and invitations. So many thanks to you both for the gifts you give us and ARE
Yes, organizing can be a form of devotion to what need to be. We have our intentional community here in Calgary. Our name is Herding Cats Collective. We come together help each other right now to hold more unto this realization of what life is AND to connect with others who are building from this new/ancient story of the world.
Herding Cats Collective, what a fabulous title! I will share with friends in Canada. Here in Santa Fe, NM we have The Unmasked Group, which I find is like a "beyond-blood family" place to gather with other heartfelt individuals that appreciate human interaction. This reality has gotten so strange.
It’s a pleasure to meet a fellow Santa Fean! I’d love to know more about the ‘Unmasked Group. How can I do that?
Hi Jake! Yes, indeed, so good to discover other like minded/hearted peeps. Email Michael -> michael@unmasked.icu or sign up at the website-> https://unmasked.icu/ They are very slow at getting back to people. If you email me (roxana@illuminatedperfume.com) I can send you the most recent newsletter
We certainly need to congregate and commune and support one another. I just learned about "The Thursday Groups" which are essentially gatherings to create parallel socieites. These particular groups were started by Dr. Pam Popper - she apparently will help anyone form such a group - based upon an objection to medical tyranny and with the goal of forming community and supporting the local economy. Here is her email: pampopper@msn.com
I welcome any other suggestions for forming these conenctions both near our homes and accross the world.
PS - Charles - thank you for the magnificent film. I have already shared four times and will keep spreading your heartfelt and universal message.
there is the new and old story mighty network: NAAS
There is a Mighty Network set up by Charles and his former spouse Patsy, called NAAS: the new and ancient story. You can join that. Sometimes gatherings are organized by people in the same geographic region. I went to one and it was soul-filling.
The easiest donation to online material I've ever made. Beautiful. I'll be sharing this again and again. Thank you.
This is a beautiful sentiment and one I relate to from afar. It all spoke to me until....community. And with that I ask: Who among you are "elderly?" It is easier to find community when you are not old. Even before Covid, older people found themselves separated from community, not always by choice or orientation . It is so much worse now, especially for people like my parents who are over 80. I never understood why old people moved into over 55 ghettos; now I get it. Once I entered the world of the old (especially, as a woman), I became invisible,. I do not say this as a victim, but only as a warning. Find your community (and your true love) now because you will probably not find it when you are old.
I feel this. I haven't given up on finding my community.
I think maybe what you are getting at is that to have a meaningful, fulfilling, and happy life, one needs to be honest with themselves. Which is amazingly hard thing to do.
I think that sincere prayer used to help people strive toward this, because if one was communicating with an all powerful being that can't be fooled or misled, one tended to be more honest with oneself.
With the current world's loss of faith, we have also lost our ability to pray and therefore lost a very useful tool to help us be honest with ourselves. I am not religious, but I have done my best to understand the value that religion brings to humanity. And I think one of the top things on the list is prayer's ability to help us be honest to ourselves, for at least a short time.
In today's "God is dead" world it is very difficult for a person to be honest with themselves. I think this is why so many focus on the meaningless. As we grow older it becomes harder and harder to be honest with oneself. Social media rewards us fooling ourselves. We can post pictures and stories of the lies we tell ourselves and get 'likes' from all of our 'friends'. It can become impossible to extricate ourselves from the lies.
When you speak of artist perusing a state of devotion and not performing for the critics. I think that is what I mean by self-honesty.
Lying to ourselves lead to lying to others and pretty soon you have a lot nothing in the world.
Such beauty... Thank you, Charles. Thank you, Ben.
Yes, I had a similar experience! What was spoken about here went in much deeper and more profoundly than I was expecting and invoked a depth of wisdom in thoughts and feelings that was just so self-affirming. I would also tend to agree that the way the message was wrapped up in with the visuals and the (awesome) and very well timed music was a significant contributing factor.
Yes, I agree, the words paired with the visuals and very special sound scape.
Stunning ! Thank you deeply.
Exquisite. Ben brings your words to life with true artistry. It is profound and uplifting. My only suggestion would be to have more diversity of the characters in age and beauty. Almost all the people featured were young and beautiful and most of the women wore make up, even when supposedly at home alone and depressed. This may be because you needed to use stock images and video, as it must be expensive to film people yourself and difficult in the age of covid.
The only thing I don't resonate with Charles, is your views on covid, which I find perplexing. Of course humans need connection, but where I live, hospitals are overflowing, the health system is collapsing and health professionals and workers are desperate. Out of consideration for them we need to be cautious about gathering now and pivot to meed our social needs without making that storm worse.
"in the age of covid" whoa.
Dear Jenni,
An "age" is an awful long time to wait for someone else to give you permission to live and love without fear of death, fear of hospitals filling up, fear of health systems collapsing, fear of health workers being desperate, fear of "storms" getting worse, fear of thinking/acting on your own recognizance, fear of the disapproval of others, fear of oneself as a walking pathogen, fear of others as walking pathogens, fear of those who are not afraid....
So when/where does all the fear end for you? Who is in control of your inner world?
Charles' words come from his decision long ago to courageously walk an "unauthorized" path of personal discovery. The depth of beauty & truth he has found along this path has brought him "forbidden knowledge" that breaks the stranglehold of ones' allegiance to common-thought authoritarian mind-sets and re-focuses it alignment with natural life forces.
Nature is not a corporate (human thought-created) entity. Nature is real and not subject to laws that us silly humans dream up for ourselves. So Charles says something that doesn't "resonate" with you. No great mystery there. Our inner "bells" can only ring in tune with our chosen masters' voice. You are always free to disregard this unnerving, clanging bell that demands obedience in both thought and action and choose instead to step outside, walk into a forest, sit for a while and listen for a new one.
Jenni, I really appreciate your response, in particular your second paragraph. My wife works in healthcare, often in our hospital, and I have multiple friends & family who are doctors and work in hospitals. They all speak to what you are saying - maxed out capacity, and healthcare workers burning out from covid patients and how covid exacerbates the challenge of caring of everyone else's acute needs. It is indeed very perplexing that so many people just don't seem to believe that is true, worth caring about, or worth being cautious about.
And Edgar, Jenni didn't say anything that indicates fear. She said, "Out of consideration for them we need to be cautious...." Consideration. Perhaps you interpret her awareness of the realities inside hospitals as fearful, because you think that should be the natural response? I'm not super anxious about it all, but I do have a strong sense of solidarity to heed the pleas of healthcare professionals for us to take it easy and not overwhelm them.
Also Edgar, you write, "Charles says something that doesn't "resonate" with you. No great mystery there. Our inner "bells" can only ring in tune with our chosen masters' voice." How is being aware of a hospital's capacity to care for the sick seen by you as obedience to a 'chosen master's voice'?
Hi Mateo--
"How is being aware of a hospital's capacity to care for the sick seen by you as obedience to a 'chosen master's voice'?"
My words indicated nothing of the kind.
If being considerate is a consideration, then one might consider that requiring/mandating/social-pressuring others to engage in behavior that they feel is self-harming is not at all considerate.
Let me say this as well: If I were sitting in a crowded hospital dying and uncared for, the last thing on my mind would be to set blame upon other people for my situation.
Thanks for your reply. You rationalize what didn't resonate for Jenni (the fact that hospitals being overwhelmed in her region make Charles' stance on covid quite reckless) as being due to due to our 'inner bells' ringing 'in tune with our chosen master's voice'.
Thanks Mateo for your reasoned and kind responses.
'Edgar', as Mateo pointed out, you didn't respond to what I actually said, but what you assumed I meant. If you don't want people blaming (which I don't feel I was), perhaps stop pointing a judgemental finger yourself.
Shocking lack of self-awareness displayed here by both of you. This is precisely what is at the root of this divide we are seeing. There is nothing I can say that will make you see what pains you to see within yourselves: unacknowledged fear masked by so-called caring consideration.
Everyone on earth is just being human. I am not saying you (or anyone else) is "bad". We are just all on different levels of self-awareness according to how/where we choose to focus it.
There is nothing more to say here lest my words vex you further. I can only hope that both of you examine that which is within you as fervently as you do what is outside yourselves.
Living in fear is unhealthy and distorts rational thought. This is all I'm saying. I hope you find a way to calm yourselves when you see others choosing to act on their own personal wisdom rather than blindly obey orders that come from "on high" from folks who arrogantly believe their wisdom is superior to others and ought to be adopted by everyone.
The choices other people make, regardless of your judgment of them, are not your domain. I hope you are able to make peace with that. Otherwise at some point you will find yourself filled with zealous, righteous fervor doing very nasty things to others without a second thought.
Thank you Charles. Thank you Ben.
beautiful words. beautiful images. beautiful world. beautiful potential. just dark times.
Thank you! I am so grateful for you and Ben and this work, this moving piece really touched me deeply. So needed today.
I am so inspired by your words and the way you migrate in the world dear Charles, there is a deep resonance on a soul level. I have been noticing a collective expansion happening where we are starting to hear each other and ourselves more, a fine tuning of our antenna. What I have learned in alchemical studies is that we project our reality and that those around us are mirrors, or mirror back aspects of our selves. Within that construct, what you/we are experiencing is perfectly in line with that tenant.
I get it, all of what Charles is saying! So tell me this, according to ancient texts and Indigenous peoples, the Human collective has had four tries, so far, and we are living in the fourth world. And then there are the Yugas, the Earth within our solar system floating in the Milky Way Galaxy, continually going through these Yuga cycles! Why the heck are we here?
Thank you, just thank you Charles . In times of great turmoil, of loss , of rising cynicism and despair about the human world, you have given me hope and a pointer to what might be . Bless you
Thank you Charles and Ben. My wish for the earth is that every being has the opportunity to watch this film.