441 Comments

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Thank you for your help in articulating this viewpoint, that I know in my bones, is the world we must create. There is so much fear after a year and a half of the daily media narrative around so many deaths. I am just recently starting to be able to connect with a few family members and friends around my 'irresponsible' decision to focus on health and early treatment as prevention rather than counting on the one answer of Industrial Medicine. I have lived my adult life making this choice, but it has never been so scrutinized and judged as it is now. So often, I end up trying to protect loved ones from my thoughts and decision because the repercussions of their choice to take these shots may be so counter to good they are hoping to accomplish. It seems there is no point in making them feel awful should I, by chance, be successful conveying any part of my counter narrative. Yet even for those fully vaccinated that next fork in the road still beckons.

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I just read a lot of the comments and I have no desire to dispute. What I do want is a stop to the censorship and an accurate accounting of what's really happening and the freedom for people to make their own decisions concerning their own and their children's health. If you want to believe the jab is in your best interest, go for it, but quit trying to force it on those of us who don't want it, and don't try the emotional blackmail of saying we have to do it to protect others. If the jab were all that effective, why the fear of the unvaccinated?

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Examples of non-pharmacological treatment for depression include opening a window, watching less television, and taking a daily walk. We're very much at a moment for choosing a path.

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Many thanks, Charles. Just what I needed right now given how tough it is to hold the line where I live. May be faced with unpaid leave in a little more than a month but will not comply with their health edicts. I have conducted my own risk/benefit analysis and have decided that as a healthy 54 year old who eats well, practices yoga and meditates daily, gets plenty of sleep and supplements, this virus is not a threat to me. My body, my choice. I gave up on western medicine decades ago when I could see most md’s Were pill pushers, captured by big Pharma. One major opioid crisis and virus with an average age of death above 80 and a survival rate of 99.5% later confirms my decision was the right one. If there is a pandemic in North America, it is a pandemic of the obese! Thanks again for having the courage to state your position. It gave me a bit more hope

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“my personal opinion is that, even holding other variables constant, the risks and harms far outweigh the benefits”

Which risks and harms are those? This is a serious question, not sarcasm. I genuinely want to know what you’re talking about, because it is incredibly difficult to find a settling point within this debate, and vagueness like this from someone whose thought journey I’ve found deeply resonant, isn’t helping. At this point, the only reliable guide I can go with is simple, direct experience; that I and all I know who’ve had the vaccine, are just fine.

“ I would have to unfold a complex discussion of systemic bias in the information environment”

I would appreciate it if you would unfold this complex discussion, anyway. It is so, so hard to know what to trust in the info stream, where to find reliable information. Partly this is a perception thing, I believe. So much misinformation flying around on all sides, so much emotional manipulation, cherry picking, pandering to confirmation biases,…it feels to me like I can’t be sure of even what I’m sure of, any more. Maybe especially what I’m sure of. I would be very interested in reading your thoughts on this. If you’ve already published them somewhere, I’d like to know.

I at first wasn’t interested in getting the vaccine for Covid 19. I felt suspicious of the industrial medicine profit machine, and it’s motives, for one thing. And I had read claims of harm by some of the vaccines I’d received as a child, and looked into the supposed evidence to support these, and was feeling very uncertain and concerned, but also skeptical of everything coming from both the opposing ends of the debate. On top of this, I knew for sure that the vaccines I’d been giving my pets had been making them sick, and on researching everything I could find on both sides of that debate, found, among a couple other convincing situations, that the whole logic of vaccinating pets annually wasn’t logical at all. They do not need it, anymore than you or I do. How had I not recognized this fallacy all these years?? I started having my pets titred annually, instead, to check their ongoing immunity levels. When and if their immunity drops below a protective level, I have them immunized for that one virus. So far, that’s only happened once to one animal, in 8 yrs. So that was some evidence that vaccine companies aren’t playing fair and honest, and I held that awareness as I considered whether to get the Covid 19 vaccine as it became available to me. I decided to wait and see what would happen with those who chose to get it, over the next 6 mos to year. For the first several months after it was available to me, I did just that. I waited.

Then, I changed my mind, and decided to go ahead and be vaccinated, for these reasons; 1. I believed, given the ongoing rates of infections, and what I know of human (civilization’s) nature, there was a strong enough likelihood that, at some point in the future, vaccination might be required for work, travel, etc., and I made a calculated choice to go ahead and do it early on, so as not to encounter a situation where it became a source of stress and urgency because I needed to do something where it was required; 2. Why this seemed a reasonable motivation for taking a vaccine that I actually still felt somewhat unsure of the safety of, was that honestly, I live in a world and a society where I am every day “forced” by necessity to engage in activities and expose myself to situations and things that I have good reason to suspect, or else I flat out know, are harmful to me—I chose the vaccine deliberately, knowing it is highly likely to protect me from something (Covid 19) I know can cause me great harm (from direct experience with people I personally know who’ve either died from it, or received what is known as “long-haul” damage from it), while also knowing that the harm the vaccine itself could cause, couldn’t be any worse than either the infection or my current life exposure to this civilization and it’s sicknesses.

I made a somewhat cynical, but logical choice, also knowing that I have already received numerous vaccines and their boosters in my lifetime, have not suffered terrible harm that I’m aware of, and have not gotten infected with any of the illnesses these vaccines are designed to protect against.

Do I think the vaccine companies are capable of cynically making profit off our collective suffering without much ethical hesitation? Possibly. It wouldn’t be the first time. Do I think it’s possible this new set of vaccines could convey harmful side effects that the medical establishment might ignore, conceal, or diminish? It’s possible. It’s happened before. As a holistic healer myself, I am painfully aware that there is a substantial bias in general against narratives that don’t support the dominant, techno-medical one of powerful control of human disease. Do I think it’s also possible, even if the above is true, that the vaccine is mostly safe, and definitely safer than Covid 19? It’s possible, yeah. So far, so good

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Thank you thank you everything you write Charles makes me feel like I am not alone in my thoughts and beliefs. Your eloquence and holistic understanding/appreciation of the natural order brings me such joy but also bewilderment when those around me don’t want to consider an alternative perspective and admire the virtue signaling that the pro Vax indoctrination has encouraged.

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“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental or spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.”

- John Stuart Mill

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Thank you Charles

It's good to feel your clarity and protection for what is good and life sustaining. It has always been beyond me how so many in the environmental movement can't join the dots between industrial medicine and its pollution of the human body and the pollution of the land. That incapacity for joined-up thinking is the divided self in action.

The whole concept of side-effects and collateral damage permeates all those normal, acceptable industrial philosophies, as if there couldn't imaginably be a solution that not only remedied the problem, but even had side-benefits and Did No Harm. I have said this about our health in some eco circles over the years and been deemed completely mad.

The opioid crisis, which killed 70,000 people in the USA in 2020, has shown us that people are in pain and we in actual health know that pain is a sign that something needs deep time and attention to be resolved. But it can be resolved and actually morph into great insight and wisdom -PTSW, post traumatic stress wisdom.

Too many in my own area of deep work, meditation, have long given up on enlightenment (what I view as complete healing) as something reachable, and so have contented themselves with teaching people how to cope (fit in) to this sick culture, thereby disabling them from actually having the strength to CHANGE the culture into something healthier.

The only good thing coming out of this terrible situation we find ourselves in is that it is lighting a fire under our butts and forcing us to wake up, take note, and put into action the precious wisdom traditions we've been blessed to come in contact with. They only work if we do the work they ask of us.

May we do the inner work necessary now to heal ourselves and transform the culture into something life-sustaining and beautiful.

I am praying for you here in Ireland.

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Everything I have ever felt, as an adult aware of the industrial systems we live in, exemplified in one article. Thank you so much for writing this and sharing it. This is what we need.

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Interesting article with many good points. I usually ask the people who don't want to hear my data, the test of truth is does it work? So in that context, how well do you like your life? Do you think a society with 54% of our children having a chronic illness, 1 in 36 with autism, 1 in 12 with food allergies, 1 in 285 having cancer, 1 in 12 having asthma, 1 in 5 having learning disabilities is a system that works well? I'm 74. When I was in my 20's, none of these were true. In the 60's and part of the 70's, a single wage earner could support a family. Now for the majority of people, it requires 2 at least and even then many struggle. Frankly, our system is failing in all of the things the same people who argue with me consider important.

There's an old argument that goes, "what's more important perception or reality?" Granted, perception does affect reality, but in the long run I find that if your perceptions are too far off from reality, reality will come back and kick you in the butt. It's called consequences. We are reaping the consequences of a system based on flawed assumptions and beliefs that has been around way too long.

I'd like to say, believe whatever you want and you reap the consequences, but unfortunately, it seems those proponents of a failing system just won't let the rest of us go on with our lives. It's sort of like racism and sexism. People believed women were weaker and had to be protected and not allowed to direct their own lives. They weren't as smart or responsible as men. So how did they try to prove it? They prevented women from access to education, self-empowerment, political and economic power. What's worse, the dominant culture had to make women believe they were inferior to men. The same went for racism. So now what's happening? We are locked out of schools, medical offices, governmental buildings, free travel etc. because we don't accept the "authorized narrative" about Covid-19 and the gene therapy jab. Our spokespeople are deplatformed, vilified, muzzled. If we are so wrong, why are the powers that be so afraid of us exercising our voice? Why must everyone's lives be controlled by a fear driven scenario?

I could go on, but that may be a waste of energy and time. I will repeat: If your perceptions are too far from the truth, truth/reality, will come back and kick you in the butt and just like disease rates are skyrocketing (and I don't mean Covid), the consequences facing us will most likely destroy life as we know it. Climate change including rising sea levels; destruction of our topsoil; the inundation of toxicity from pesticides and industrial sources; the reduction of nutrients in our food; the alteration of the magnetic fields our species evolved with; economic and political systems that no longer meet the needs of people and the times, are all coming together at this time creating a perfect storm.

Hopefully this will shake people loose from outdated paradigms and free us to create a better world.

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I always start reading your essays and end up completely absorbed, nodding my head in recognition and appreciating you putting so eloquently much of what I'm also feeling.

In gratitude 🙏

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I love the way you call wyt people back to nature. However, as an indigenous person who is connected to indigenous communities still living their traditions, using their natural medicines, I receive messages all the time that they have no Medicines that work against COVID. Most North and South Native Americans, African tribes, and Asian tribes, see COVID as another smallpox, and tribes are locked down and vaccinating as many as they can. What would you suggest for them? Most tribal people don't have the money to buy supplements, go to fancy reiki, sound healing, light frequency, massage spas, retreats, workshops. They can't afford supplements, and have often been forced onto lands that are arid and can't support healthy agriculture. What will your new society do about that? Here in the western U.S., rivers and aquifers are drying up due to climate chaos. Mass migration has already begun. Without clean water, or enough water, the west is fast becoming a dust bowl. Yes, all these things need action, not talk. We're talking ourselves to extinction. So how do you propose we implement all your suggestions RIGHT NOW? We don't have much time left. Indigenous, and even biblical, prophecies have foretold the times we're in now many centuries ago, yet we've continued down the path of self destruction. We're tired of talk. We've been loving as naturally as possible forever, except where colonization has prevented it. So now I'm asking, What are you who are waking up to your own embedded colonial privilege going to DO about it?

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A friend who was feeling a bit off, (not deeply depressed), just off for a couple of weeks, was just offered SSRIs from her doctor, because, well you know, "your serotonin could be low." Aka.. your fluids are low... time to go to the shop. She was ready to start taking them, before she was willing to try changing her diet, exercising or meditating, getting better sleep, or anything. I offered... "why don't you try the other stuff 1st... and consider the SSRIs as a last-ditch effort. This article was a nice boost to that argument.

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This is one of the best essays I have read that describes the many issues that are of concern to me regarding modern day medicine and the many reasons why such issues are not black and white as portrayed by the media but rather quite gray.

As an engineer and a scientist for a half century I designed a lot of complex, leading edge electronic equipment used in very complex systems for military and commercial applications. Such a career teaches you very quickly that you must look at every facet of what the long term impacts are of every design you create, otherwise someone could be harmed or even die from your creation. Unfortunately this is not the case in modern medicine for a variety of reasons, which are quite eloquently discussed by Charles Eisenstein in this essay. It’s complicated yet always presented by powerful interests and their media counterparts as simple thereby asking us to “just trust us.” I don’t.

Another recent post by Sylvia Forest reflects my sentiments exactly. Can someone point me to the interview with Dr Zach?

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Charles, thank you for another brilliant, beautifully presented 'opinion' ;). You always seem to write precisely what I am trying to articulate to myself (I'm not yet at the point of making my views public as it is such a hostile environment; being a scientist doesn't help). Having you in my corner has been an enormous blessing, a solid rock to lean against. Thank you.

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