This is long and in some parts quite dense. I’m not sure if audio is the best format for it. The written version is here.To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. With thanks, Charles
Charles, thank you! I loved your original post but I’m grateful to also have the audio.
You don’t need this right now but I’ll say it anyway, having listened to one of your more recent and excellent interviews. I ask you to be very careful to not diss some of your dedicated followers by saying you’ve been down some rabbit holes but have now dismissed them. Please don’t leave these folks behind - please don’t alienate some of your followers who thought that’s where you still were. Explain to them. It’s important for you to speak your truth in a more gentle way. I’m not sure how to go about this but please try to be more careful with your language. You are an interesting and compelling combination of abrupt and conciliatory, deep but still clearly human like the rest of us.
I suggest, because I need to do this myself (and what else do we suggest than what we ourselves need to practice!), to focus on an open heart and on kindness. I think it’s your openness and depth but perhaps more important your vulnerability that draw many of us to you. I believe you to be someone who is training us how to be gatherers and igniters into the new, but also pausers as we together enter the deep. No one left behind.
I understand the importance of clarity, of standing up and setting boundaries. But I also know about the far more critical importance of having an open heart. Of being vulnerable and open but with inner strength ..
I’m asking the impossible. But this is where we are, right? That point of potential alchemical change. Or not. Regardless, kindness and openness are always the better path.
I just don’t want to leave anyone behind. Please don’t leave anyone behind.
I don't get it, why so few comments here on such a beautiful and timely essay? Perhaps, like me up until recently, no one is on substack? This essay is poignant and hopeful. You speak deep truths that resonate without having to dig into them and decide, "is this true?". Thank you Charles for your work and beautiful words.
still a hippie! born a rebel in 1947. graduated high school 1965, was a beatnik first, coffee houses, jazz clubs, lawrence ferlinghetti . already, anti-establishment then a hippie, bob dylan my first guru of sorts. i wove baskets, was a back to lander, lived in commune in canada. i live on 10 acres now in a passive solar home. do pottery, sew, still a hippie. to sum it up, i have been composting since 1969 and my compost piles are some of my most treasured possessions!
as for technology, i have been called a technophobe, a luddite to name a few. i recall when the calculator made it onto the scene. something told me not to go there. knowing that if i relied on this apparatus to do my math, i was going to lose something. i recall having dinner with a friend and when the check came she pulled out her calculator to figure out how to leave a 20%tip. and this was a highly intelligent woman. then computers arrived. the first time i spent an hour or more on it, i had horrible eye strain. i took homeopathic ruta and it helped. and i do not feel it any more when i am on the computer. however, i am certain that it is not the best thing for my eyes. i have adapted! then gps. i recall when i used it for the first time, though i resisted. i got to my destination thru its guidance. but i realized that i had no awareness of how i got there!! i recently read a study done on taxi drivers. those who used a gps had less brain mass than those who did not!!! the last example is the cell phone. i was contented with my little flip phone. but my husband, a techie for sure, thought i should have a smart phone. i got it but i only use it when i go out. and then mostly to hear music. otherwise it is shut off and in my handbag. i do not text and i do not give out my cell number. i have a land line and tell people to use it if they need to reach me as my cell phone is not on!!! not too long ago , my 8 year old grand child asked me why i did not carry my cell phone with me at all times. she noticed that i never have it with me. she thought it strange as most of the people in her life always had their cell phones on and were in constant communication with it and others!! i found that to be telling and sad. i wont go into my views on air conditioning, but you can guess what they are!!!
many years ago i read an article in a buddhist magazine . it spoke of a buddhist organization that went into prisons. they spoke about their feelings that it was important to focus on the solutions and not the problems. they mentioned many organizations that spent their time in negativity and judgement about the problems and how much time it took up this impacted me in a big way. now i am not saying that i do not fall into that category of looking at what is wrong, talking about the problems. dwelling on negativity. but when i have awareness, i see that it does not serve me or anyone else. and i am grateful for the opportunity to do something different.
in your articles about transhumanism. i was reminded of all the ways that technology is not serving mankind. being one who shuns technology, i found it alarming to hear how insidious it is and certainly how dangerous. i have the information . it reinforces my ambition to choose wisely
i trust my instincts and know that we can make a change . we can step away from our phones, our computers, open our windows and let in the fresh air. and have the bird songs heal our weary souls. we are given a choice in every moment . as the late and great leonard cohen said in his song. steer away. "month by month, day by day, thought by thought". we have been called to do this. to make the most beautiful world that our heart knows is possible. we have the information, there is no one to fight. no others to change. we need only to make the choice for love, and peace whenever we remember. we are truly ONE. and our choice for love will bring the change we long for. as the rastas say. ONE LOVE. ONE HEART. ONE DESTINY. still a hippie!
Charles, thank you! I loved your original post but I’m grateful to also have the audio.
You don’t need this right now but I’ll say it anyway, having listened to one of your more recent and excellent interviews. I ask you to be very careful to not diss some of your dedicated followers by saying you’ve been down some rabbit holes but have now dismissed them. Please don’t leave these folks behind - please don’t alienate some of your followers who thought that’s where you still were. Explain to them. It’s important for you to speak your truth in a more gentle way. I’m not sure how to go about this but please try to be more careful with your language. You are an interesting and compelling combination of abrupt and conciliatory, deep but still clearly human like the rest of us.
I suggest, because I need to do this myself (and what else do we suggest than what we ourselves need to practice!), to focus on an open heart and on kindness. I think it’s your openness and depth but perhaps more important your vulnerability that draw many of us to you. I believe you to be someone who is training us how to be gatherers and igniters into the new, but also pausers as we together enter the deep. No one left behind.
I understand the importance of clarity, of standing up and setting boundaries. But I also know about the far more critical importance of having an open heart. Of being vulnerable and open but with inner strength ..
I’m asking the impossible. But this is where we are, right? That point of potential alchemical change. Or not. Regardless, kindness and openness are always the better path.
I just don’t want to leave anyone behind. Please don’t leave anyone behind.
How would you respond to Alison and Leo with regards to the implications of "interspecies currency" and bio-informational engineering in the context of efforts to gamify our interaction with nature in the emerging data economy? Alison and Leo break down the systems, symbols and organizations involved in this must-watch, maiden episode of the 53˚ Degree. https://youtu.be/jlid9JC-aCw. Or, where the capital actually originates for Soulbound Tokens and the challenges with constructed polarized narratives: https://youtu.be/rh8ydL28N5g and here: https://odysee.com/@TechNOcracyNow:d/Polarity-is-Key-as-Human%2B-Catalyst:6?r=A5uUJzm67Qr8X6BzBtJ3FkAz4rA7AXHP
I don't get it, why so few comments here on such a beautiful and timely essay? Perhaps, like me up until recently, no one is on substack? This essay is poignant and hopeful. You speak deep truths that resonate without having to dig into them and decide, "is this true?". Thank you Charles for your work and beautiful words.
Long live the hippies and typewriters!
Many want a secure future founded in safety, yet a safe is a metal box. Total control eventually leads to no control over one's circumstances.
still a hippie! born a rebel in 1947. graduated high school 1965, was a beatnik first, coffee houses, jazz clubs, lawrence ferlinghetti . already, anti-establishment then a hippie, bob dylan my first guru of sorts. i wove baskets, was a back to lander, lived in commune in canada. i live on 10 acres now in a passive solar home. do pottery, sew, still a hippie. to sum it up, i have been composting since 1969 and my compost piles are some of my most treasured possessions!
as for technology, i have been called a technophobe, a luddite to name a few. i recall when the calculator made it onto the scene. something told me not to go there. knowing that if i relied on this apparatus to do my math, i was going to lose something. i recall having dinner with a friend and when the check came she pulled out her calculator to figure out how to leave a 20%tip. and this was a highly intelligent woman. then computers arrived. the first time i spent an hour or more on it, i had horrible eye strain. i took homeopathic ruta and it helped. and i do not feel it any more when i am on the computer. however, i am certain that it is not the best thing for my eyes. i have adapted! then gps. i recall when i used it for the first time, though i resisted. i got to my destination thru its guidance. but i realized that i had no awareness of how i got there!! i recently read a study done on taxi drivers. those who used a gps had less brain mass than those who did not!!! the last example is the cell phone. i was contented with my little flip phone. but my husband, a techie for sure, thought i should have a smart phone. i got it but i only use it when i go out. and then mostly to hear music. otherwise it is shut off and in my handbag. i do not text and i do not give out my cell number. i have a land line and tell people to use it if they need to reach me as my cell phone is not on!!! not too long ago , my 8 year old grand child asked me why i did not carry my cell phone with me at all times. she noticed that i never have it with me. she thought it strange as most of the people in her life always had their cell phones on and were in constant communication with it and others!! i found that to be telling and sad. i wont go into my views on air conditioning, but you can guess what they are!!!
many years ago i read an article in a buddhist magazine . it spoke of a buddhist organization that went into prisons. they spoke about their feelings that it was important to focus on the solutions and not the problems. they mentioned many organizations that spent their time in negativity and judgement about the problems and how much time it took up this impacted me in a big way. now i am not saying that i do not fall into that category of looking at what is wrong, talking about the problems. dwelling on negativity. but when i have awareness, i see that it does not serve me or anyone else. and i am grateful for the opportunity to do something different.
in your articles about transhumanism. i was reminded of all the ways that technology is not serving mankind. being one who shuns technology, i found it alarming to hear how insidious it is and certainly how dangerous. i have the information . it reinforces my ambition to choose wisely
i trust my instincts and know that we can make a change . we can step away from our phones, our computers, open our windows and let in the fresh air. and have the bird songs heal our weary souls. we are given a choice in every moment . as the late and great leonard cohen said in his song. steer away. "month by month, day by day, thought by thought". we have been called to do this. to make the most beautiful world that our heart knows is possible. we have the information, there is no one to fight. no others to change. we need only to make the choice for love, and peace whenever we remember. we are truly ONE. and our choice for love will bring the change we long for. as the rastas say. ONE LOVE. ONE HEART. ONE DESTINY. still a hippie!
just finished listening . inspired to write more. soon come