I just finished listening to Joe Rogan’s interview with Bob Lazar, a man who claims to have worked at a super-secret military installation some miles from Area 51 called S4, where he was tasked with reverse-engineering a UFO propulsion system.
What a great article, Charles! In reading the comments debunking your UFO thesis, unfortunately, they missed the point of your article, imo.
The last 2.5 years has given me the opportunity to listen to the “other side of the debate.” People that I would normally “compartmentalize” into a social/political/ideological groups in the past have turned out to be the most intelligent and rational people. The last 2.5yrs has exposed fallacies and lies, but at the same time introduced me to new ideas and friends. Your article does a great job encapsulating this process.
I studied to be a high school art/ English teacher back in the 80’s. I walked away from the public school system because I could not stand the way the entire system was designed to teach each subject in isolation. I felt that it was making the kids dumber and less likely to make connections. A number of years later I read John Taylor Gatto and did a deeper dive into the history of the public school system and realized, of course, it was deliberately designed to suppress creative thought.
I love John Taylor Gatto! And I had the same thought about silo knowledge in the schools. I was just rewatching a couple of my episodes that talk about JTG, which I'll post in case you're interested:
Six Levels of Reality on Jeremy Gilbert: Expands on Jeremy's ideological critique of education by citing John Taylor Gatto on mass compulsory schooling as mental colonization. https://youtu.be/5aVIwLwQBk4
From FOMO to JOMO: the Joy of Missing Out: This one quotes JTG on reading for power.
I’m a (former?) far left progressive who lived in a deeply conservative town in upper east TN for decades. I loved it there. Raised my kids there. Loved my neighbors, the forests and farms and fields, the community. But as our country headed into deep division so did my life in this community. It became clear that our family was no longer welcome or accepted in our small industrial town, despite our deep community involvement and commitment.
My reaction was wrong-headed but protective: Anger. Protect my children. Leave as soon as possible. And we did, but to an equally divisive state because that was where the job was.
I was fortunate to have had a serious health meltdown accompanied by a return to meditation and deep spiritual searching. And what kept coming through to me was ‘let go’. I continue to follow this gentle command. Not at all perfectly, but as best as I can. This essay speaks eloquently to that. I believe that it is in the space of vulnerability and surrender and openness to what is possible, but only together, that our survival and future will be co-created.
I’ll add that many of my conservative friends from TN and beyond are now my daily companions. We ‘hash it out’, feel every emotion together, grow together. It’s hard work, surrendering and listening. We are specks, the smallest points of light, a tiny bit of fractal, doing the hard work in our stuttering, faulty way. But it feels right.
Well, IDK about when your community stopped welcoming you or why. Might be, if this was during COVID1984, because the left has mostly been all about that, and has gleefully destroyed many of our lives or trust in people and society maybe forever.
I can admit I’d have a VERY hard time trusting anyone who describes as a far left progressive, those people are and have been destroying everything to the point where I wonder if meaningful recovery is possible and nondystopia is possible.
In reconciling with these people, did this involve seeing that your ideology will always lead to Shanghai, and that we realized this first and therefore aren’t idiots? Or do you still fancy yourself as above us if you’re a newcomer to the idea that bodily autonomy and leaving people alone are in fact good? Because I’ve seen soooo much of that from newcomers, this discounting of anyone who tried earlier to stop this madness…it’s frankly leaving me wishing I’d dropped dead in 2020 without ever learning about just how deep the rot is.
Actually no, this was many years before Covid. It involved having a child who realized they were gay in a community where this was still deemed unacceptable.
I feel your frustration, and I promise you I did not hold high any sort of progressive left flag. We were quiet, good neighbors who loved our community. I don’t think our community or coworkers knew or were concerned about our political persuasion, and it simply didn’t matter. Until it suddenly did. I can happily report that our child’s gayness no longer matters in that community — they are deeply loved and remembered fondly by many.
If it helps, please know that I see quite vividly and with deep pain and embarrassment the problems and disconnect and hypocrisy displayed by many on the left. (I also see problems displayed by many on the right.) I no longer categorize myself because quite frankly I don’t know what I am. Probably more left than right, but I often now wonder. I’m increasingly a person who just does not know. I’d rather listen and learn, think and ask, rather than proclaim. Unfortunately I’m a flawed human, and so do find myself occasionally proclaiming, and always more than I’d like. I’m getting there, slowly.
I long for us all to reach a place of softness and compassion where we can remember that we are all in this together. We are all each other’s neighbor. And I really mean that. I don’t think my former political party embodies this philosophy. They claim it still, but they do not live it or genuinely mean it. I hope they will one day recognize their disconnect. In the meantime, perhaps the rest of us can all get beyond politics; appreciate and enjoy one another again. This is my dream and my goal.
I don’t know if this is possible without there being a reckoning of sorts with the Branch Covidians…I’m not really ready to forgive and forget unless they prove they’ve LEARNED something and aren’t going to go feral again the next time the TV tells them to and it really sucks but I don’t know HOW to move on without that…this is like long COVID but actually real
Marianthi, your gut feeling is spot on - I wouldn’t count on this happening any time soon. I wish I could believe they were ready, but everyone, left and right, is stubbornly, deeply dug in.
I’m in such a crazy place of in-between: My friends and family on the left are incredulous and see my questioning and my unvaxxed state as a betrayal. (btw from personal experience let me say that Long Covid is real. So is Covid vaccine injury)They are less reachable than my friends on the right. My friends on the right are far less vocal and know all about betrayal. But their anger and guarded space scares me just as much as the left’s unfathomable intolerance. Anger simmers everywhere. There are problems on both sides. Both sides are right.
I’m a place of grief and hope. Deep grief over what looks like inevitable suffering ahead. But I need hope to know that, come WWIII or Civil War II or systems and civilization unraveling, many of us will, at varying points along our shared trajectory as a species, choose our better, loving, forgiving natures.
I find that my favorite way to ‘bridge the divide’, also the most productive, is to get to know and love in a personal and neighborly way someone who holds completely opposite political views. Share a meal, a coffee, or have a walk in the woods or in a field together. You and I do not hold opposite views, but I wish you and I could meet in person and talk. Since we cannot, let me express my gratitude to you for this conversation.
Thank you for challenging me and talking so genuinely and openly with me.
The reason many of us have dug in and have an angry guarded space is because we really don’t have anywhere to go…if we retreat anymore, there just isn’t anywhere worth being.
I currently have grief, and anger…hope was never really the easiest thing to have, especially lately…might be I’m just plain tired anymore
And yes, we do seemingly have more in common than I have with some I’ve met in real life…politically, I just can’t bring myself to sit with mandate enjoyers…anyone wants to have what I would consider a spirited yet reasonable political discussion can’t be in favour of forcing lethal injections on people, there’s unfortunately nothing really left TO say to any that won’t admit they were wrong about that now
I guess what I’m trying to find the right words to express is this:
*Please find your place that is worth being.*
Your words are perfect. It’s what you long for and what we all need and, I think, deserve.
And please don’t retreat. Ever. Just soften. Look around for what you love, and immerse yourself in that. Our bodies and souls need to be nurtured and refueled by what really matters to us, what inspires and uplifts and opens us. Not by what angers us. Try to avoid for significant periods each day what riles you and replace it with activities that soothe and inspire you.
And find your people.
Everyone on every side everywhere is angry and dug in.
I won’t go into the particulars of why I’ve entered my own liminal space of standing back and assessing. I will say that I am thankful that every thing I used to feel sure of I no longer do. My people inhabit this space, and they are rare. But very often, delightfully often, I run across those who are still as dug in as I used to be — at first beloved friends and neighbors from the past and now new neighbors — those who now physically know me, or those who share history with me and are kindly concerned about why I now inhabit a different space — and our conversations and time together are so healing. I learn and grow just being with them. We learn from one another. This is where the softness comes in. I love being with those who are open to quiet and thought and questioning.
Find your people. Find those who inspire and challenge you. Not those who rile you into righteous anger, but those who question why we are all so dangerously riled. Those who you feel are wise and kind. There are far more of these good souls out there than we realize. They are quiet; not on the angry fringes. They are thoughtful and worried. They love to laugh. They are often doing quiet work of service, usually paid very little.
I’ve also been hurt and betrayed so I understand every one of the arguments for standing up, fighting back, getting even. None of these protective angry reactions heal us. They may protect us in the short term, but they are not a healthy life strategy. They keep us trapped in the angry space, vacillating between victim and fighter, with no progress made toward healing and growth.
The media, our government, our corporations and every one of our institutions no longer appear to be trustworthy, and they have not been for quite some time. Our civilization is breaking down. All in time do, in truth.
We are in a dark time. Chaos and suffering are upon us and ahead, I think, because we’ve made, as a species, self-serving decisions filled with hubris and greed. As an environmentalist, I grieve. We’re in pronounced ecological overshoot because we have lost our sacred and deeper understanding of life, of our Earth home. We’ve lost the necessity of community, of shared and personal responsibility. As a mother I grieve. My children, highly educated, hard-working and community-focused and kind, will never experience the world my mother knew or that I knew.
We are in a time between worlds, between paradigms, between what was and what can be. If there is still time for us to regroup I give thanks. And if not, I pray that remnants of human communities working toward ‘the infinite game’ will carry on for the rest of us.
I’d like to think that we all are on Charles’s substack not just because he is unvaccinated and questions the status quo but because he also speaks of the more beautiful world that we know is possible. He wants us to think deeper.
What stories are we telling our collective selves that have brought us to this place? What stories can heal us, change this?
I think that the dark is what we all must prepare ourselves to enter, together. Not kicking and fighting. Like birth, and death, the dark, the unknown, is a rite of passage we’ve all chosen to go through at this time. Unfortunately we’ve chosen a difficult birth/death. We enter this dark together.
But there is light ahead.
Since I am a spiritual person I don’t think our brain and body perceptions are everything. I see far more ahead for us as souls, both individually and collectively. I think we are a gifted species that has for now lost its way. We may make it, we may not. But the progress toward the good, the beautiful, the wise will continue. It will all be okay.
Yes, much sketchy stuff going on, and much of it by corporations with profit as their bottom line, regardless of what it does to our earth or to our health. This is our sad state. There is, within our existing economic system, no thought or incentive directed toward responsibility, or concern for the myriad unintended consequences. And unfortunately we, every single one of us, due to the society that we all inhabit due to our collective choices and forced choices, encourage them to carry on. We have been forced into a no-choice existence.
I don’t think humans are programmed for evil. We are a species gifted with tools leading to promise and hope. Some of us go the evil route, maybe, but we rationalize our way forward, thinking ‘Well, everyone else does it’.
It becomes an issue of selfishness. Protection. Throwing up walls when what we need is opening and vulnerability.
So much suffering in the world... Needlessly. I hope we can break out of this Patriarchy, which has devolved into a horrible evil... I am hearing (well, reading) both your words and Marianthi's words and feeling that you are both being genuine...
I used to be a Dem, and then became an Independent for years; the recent change of the Democratic Party is shocking and quite off-putting, and is nothing I recognize as coming out of a democratic source, but perhaps is utterly subsumed by the "Covid Party," which I consider to be more or less Nazi. Seems to me it's the same families of the former Nazis that are behind all this hellish behavior of the past few years and the current days... A revival of sorts, and not welcome in any way... Not by me, anyway.
I am clueless about the nazi connection and right now don’t find myself able to blame others.
I think we all need to turn within … What do we hate or fear within others that could be a mirror to our own fears? (I have many.)
This question is thrown to the wind because the world has gone haywire. We are living in a time between worlds. It’s surreal civilization breakdown time. And this is my main focus: When the shit hits the fan, what is our gut response? Love or fear?
I think our future depends on each of us choosing to do the right thing .. the kind thing.
The Nazi connection is simple: BEFORE the Nazis, there were the eugenicists, planning for a kind of cleaning up of the human species, but getting the mentally ill, the vegetative, the somehow Not Okay people out of the gene pool... by taking them out. Hitler didn't think up all that stuff, he was coached. The eugenicists from that time came from earlier times, and their children and grandchildren are the eugenicists of today, more or less, give or take a few families or individuals. Nazis are famous for two things, as far as I'm concerned: Their belief in a "superior race" that should be In Charge of everyone else (naturally, it's themselves), and their belief that "useless eaters" should be euthanized, so to create One Race of human beings, the Superior Race, and all the rest must go-- except for a few kept around to be the slaves for the Superior Race! These are the folks that have brought us this time of insanity. They are feeding it, egging it on, causing it, after decades of preparation.
They cannot win. I believe that very strongly. Fascists never seem to learn that fascism doesn't last very long. It comes from sick minds, and we seem to have trouble recognizing this, and figuring out how to keep this from happening (hint: stop letting a handful of people have so much wealth, and stop allowing wealth to be concentrated in a handful of people's control). We will have to go through this, and it will be painful, and then perhaps we can actually learn from it and begin a New Age. What's really too bad is how much suffering we must endure before we can get to the other side of it... The kind thing, you got it. That's what life is all about, in my opinion! We have to learn to let go of fear and focus on LOVE. They hate that! ;)
Thank you! I realize now I knew much of that. The Buffalo shooting showed us just how embedded this mindset of fear and need for control is, in this country and worldwide.
How does this relate to Covid? I don’t see Biden or Fauci as nazis or fascists. I see them as flawed human beings, just as I am, just as the Buffalo shooter is, doing our best but often blind to wider deeper thinking and trapped in self protection. Right now I think the virus that caused the original Covid illness, in human-changed form, escaped from the Wuhan lab. I think that Fauci is covering his ass regarding gain of function (for what purpose and true function?) research. I am furious that Covid vaccine injuries are being denied and ignored by government, health agencies, media and the corporations that make the vaccines. Lying (and lab-manipulation of viruses for undisclosed reasons) is a sign of immaturity — a need for control and protection and often selfish greed, a manifestation of fear, and it pervades all levels of government, politics, industry. It’s a shadow aspect of human nature that all levels of our society unfortunately rewards and feeds. I suspect that many who are in positions of corporate and government power are gifted in certain ways but woefully lacking in the qualities that enable us to be fully human: compassion, a desire to search always for meaning and purpose and service, a regular practice of ways to lessen or calm our more selfish, fear-driven aspects, a deep commitment to learning how to collaborate, to discern consensus, in order to contribute to the greater good.
My suggestion never goes over well but I’ll say it anyway:
We need to find a way, a place within ourselves, to forgive and feel kindness toward the Nazis, the fascists, the Hitlers of this world. We need to find a way to hold them in our hearts as human beings who have good qualities, too. This does not mean that we do not stand strong against their atrocities and work for change. This means recognizing that these people are not evil. They were babies and children once. They experienced joy and pain, just as the rest of us have. They are fellow human beings on the journey. We each travel vitally needed, unique and intertwining paths, each and every path important, toward the same .. Beautiful world that we know is possible. Every single one of our stories, our collection of experiences, absolutely matter, and the important thing for those of us who long for change, to be of service, is to practice with dedication and care the human qualities that embrace the new (old?) collective story/stories we now so desperately need. Love is stronger than hate, always.
I mention this possibility to my friends on the left about Trump etc., and it’s a rare person who does not become angry with me, or choose to not talk to me anymore, or decide with pity and disdain that I’ve gone over to the dark side. Same with my friends on the right regarding Fauci or Biden etc.
It’s important that we move beyond politics which is ultimately divisive and polarized due to our current environment and systems, and work together on our pressing predicaments and problems.
Talking generally here:
We are a species gifted with much potential. It’s well past time that we each buckle up and turn within, see that what we fear most actually lives within. Healing and love and compassion begin there, and then inevitably and beautifully expands outward.
I thought this piece was interesting, and I wonder why Parenti's perspective seems so rare. To me, it's just common sense and sanity.
The COVID craziness doesn't seem at all "left" to me. It's people who have identified as at least *sort of* leftist flushing a huge amount of what they used to believe. It's just weird. If you're skeptical of Monsanto, why would you click your heels and salute Merck?
Thank you for giving me pause for thought. It's difficult these days to know, from a comment on a blog, just what people are actually all about. I'm still being surprised by the words and/or actions of people I thought I understood saying and doing things that are shocking to me in their hatefulness...
The discounting you speak of is something I am very, very familiar with myself. The "cancellation" of my worthiness as a human being has happened on numerous occasions, most recently in a very ugly and long-term way. Please know that however long it may take, and through whatever hellish waters we may have to wade, there will be a day when we finally break out of the lies, the hate, the oppression, the EVIL that is currently running rampant through our lives... Because we always do, somehow. I will never give up hope. It may not happen in my lifetime, but I believe it will happen. I'm sending you some Love, if you want to embrace it. If you don't trust me, it's okay. xo
You are loved, and we need you. No one can harm your beautiful deep soul. Please know that.
I’ve been harmed, too. Many of us have. You are not alone.
This is our time, we outsiders, to look within, to find ‘our god’, our purpose, our connection to our better, more beautiful story, our deeper reason for being here.
You have a rare combination of intellect and sensitivity.
I am grateful for our connection from afar. I believe such connections are forever.
I’m with you in your suffering and searching .. xo
Thank you. I am reminded of a song from some years ago... very catchy, as well it should be... The chorus goes "I get knocked down! But I get up again-- you're never gonna keep me down!" And repeats. (Now this will be in my head for days! LOL) But it's true. I got knocked down, by people I trusted, my family-- But I'm not dead yet. And tomorrow I'm going to begin a little quest, to do something that is really a very strong recurring theme for me lately: Resist Not Evil... Work Around It! I'm back on my feet. Wound-licking can't go on forever. And your words are soooo kind. (My intellect comes out best when I write... speaking it is a whole 'nuther thing.) I am grateful for your companionship from a distance! You're my sister, and I love this kind of "accidental connection." ^_^
You're so lovely! Let's do keep in touch. If you trust me, sign up for my posts. From there I can see your email, and I'll send you one, and you'll have mine. I live in Western WA, across Puget Sound from Seattle. It's very beautiful here, I should post more photos on my page... My rhodies are blooming! ^_^ I'll have to go take some snaps and post them today. I'm going to visit an attorney today... which might be the first step in "working around the evil." ;) Wish me luck!
If it’s not to happen in my lifetime, then I simply don’t want my lifetime to be long. And at this point, as soon as we get a society that leaves people alone again, let’s us wander off into the woods and doesn’t pursue, I think I will simply have to leave.
At the very least, if I’m going to be surrounded by strangers, I want them to be ones I’ve never met…
I so get it, believe me. I'm going through a hell right now that is partly to do with what's happening in my country (US) and a lot to do with my own family. I think of my family situation as a microcosm of the country, or the world, at large... devastation, confusion, terror, and a desire to strike back, but at the wrong targets...
I do think it will get worse before it gets better, and that means I will likely be part of the group that gets the hardest crush... I'm doing my best to keep from being subsumed by sorrow and resentment and anger-- and it's the anger that's keeping me from giving up. Because somehow the hope is connected to the anger.
I've always felt very understanding toward people who take themselves off to the next "phase," or whatever it is. I don't believe in some kind of god that would punish us for taking ourselves out of suffering. I don't want to give up, but I also don't want to live in a hellish way.
So far, I am hanging on. Today I'm starting to sell all my "stuff." And I find myself wondering if I simply put a male name on my resume, if that might help me find work...
As for the resume, I’m pretty sure that depends on the field, and for some companies, put on there that you ID as female and that will get a callback and it IS true…the worst I’ve encountered while jobsearching is seeing some say that they require everyone to be vaxxed…I get sad and SO angry at that
I definitely get the anger thing, I think that’s why I DIDNT end it in 2020…felt too much like letting the assholes win. While I don’t think any gods are happy with suicide, I don’t think there’s eternal punishment…maybe you get sent back to try again, or have to sit in a corner and think about what you did, or biblically accurate angels just stare at you with many many disappointed 👁👁👁👁👁👁👁s…IDK but I don’t buy the eternal suffering model either
You hit the nail... "Are you vaxxed"? HELL, no. Will I wear a fucking mask all day? HELL, no. If that's the choice, I sell my stuff and I won't look back.
I felt the tingle of recognition and reassurance all over when I read your letter. Thank you for your courage, honesty and generosity. We depend on each other to grow beyond our crippled pasts.
"Trauma and ideology have riven the modern self and modern society into fragments, which take refuge in social and psychic compartments."
When I read this, my first thought was that "the modern self" was borne of trauma and is a symptom of trauma. The modern self, as a concept and an image, is the concept and image of 'self' as interior and world as exterior. The very essence of 'the modern self' is thus alienation, separation, fragmentation, division....
The principal ameliorative alternative image and concept of 'self' would, in my opinion, have to consist of two basic elements, aspects or components. It would have to unite what we've come to call "interiority" with what we call "the world ('out there') and it would have to preserve, honor, respect and incorporate (embody) alterity, or the distinction between individual people (and other living beings). This seems quite paradoxical to the mind of a modern self. And it is!
The self is actually cosmic, not isolated and alienated. While localized in an individual it is not self-enclosed nor self-contained. It is continuous with the whole of the cosmos, undivided... and in radical relationship with all things, all beings. But the modern self feels itself contained within an 'interior', separate and alone. It learns this way of being through enculturation and indoctrination. Myriad ideologies grow out of this nucleus, and they all have the same basic shape: e.g., anthropocentrism, economics rooted in competition and conquest, etc.
The essence of the modern self is alienation. And alienation is essentially traumatic. The only thing for a modern self to do is to let go and fall into radical relatedness of a cosmic sort. Which isn't so hard to do, really, since this radical relatedness is our innate nature.
Glad to know my words were helpful for you, Pauline. If only more people were able to see that this is what has happened to us and understand it! Sigh.
Some ideology has CAUSED trauma and without acknowledging this and without them being willing to make amends and learn something, I don’t see how it’s possible or even fair to demand those of us harmed by COVID1984 reconcile with the left
Bob lazar, who knows, he seems genuine, but there's genuine people who think Jesus etc talk to them. Genuine does not equal sane, being ridiculed does not equal truth either. These are all huge logical fallacies.
Officially confirmed? Haha, did you know that those videos of jets chasing the objects were flown not by military pilots but "contractors"? But if you believe UFOs are real, you will ignore that shady fact.
Talk about trust, sure, that's a problem even among those who think they are on the path of truth. I wanted to believe in things and refused to consider that I trick myself like the masses who might believe in more widely held ideas.
John keel who was big on the mothman investigations went deep into investigating abductions for a long time and eventually realized that it's a psychological phenomenon, just like religious experiences. You cannot assume that what people think is true is really true once you've studied psychology, mainly the issue of how big groups promote group think/ archetypes. Before it was angels, fairies, demons, gods... Today it's UFOs and spirit guides...
Eyewitness testimony is inaccurate, even under hypnosis. Why? Because our brains edit memories to fit our internal paradigm.
I think it was from a summary written by RAW, which I saved because it explains why all of the "proof" of et is so fragile like ghosts etc.
The best way to handle looking into phenomena is to adopt RAW: "I BELIEVE NOTHING"
that doesn't mean to blind yourself to things, it means to not blind yourself to see what you expect in reality based on your beliefs. You see what you want to see and not see what you deny, as our minds interpret what the senses provide and we try to fit it into the internal map that we have of "reality"
"Daimonic Reality
Daimonic Reality by Patrick Harpur examines UFOs and a wide variety of “paranormal” phenomena from a rather unique angle. Although Harpur never fully defines the daimonic—“the daimonic that can be defined is not the true daimonic,” as Lao-Tse would say—it seems to exist both inside us and outside us. Like the Greek daemon and unlike the Christian demon, it takes both good/healing and bad/terrifying forms, depending on our commitment to rationalistic ego states.
In a sense, the daimonic is like the collective unconscious of Carl Jung, inside us as a part of our total self that the ego wishes to deny, outside us in all the other humans who ever existed and in the dreams, myths, and arts of all the world. But Harpur follows Irish poet (and Golden Dawn alumnus) W. B. Yeats as often as he follows Jung, and traces some of his ideas back to Giordano Bruno and the alchemical/hermetic mystics of the Renaissance. The daimonic is just a bit more personalized and individualized than Jung’s species unconscious.
Harpur’s major thesis is that unless we recognize the daimonic (make friends with it, Jung would say) it takes increasingly malignant and terrifying forms. For instance, the Greys of UFO abduction lore, he says, are deliberately mirroring our ego-centered and “scientistic” age—showing no emotions of the humans they experiment upon, just as the ideal science student feels no emotion and has no concern with the emotions of the animal being tortured in his laboratory.
Despite dealing with many subjects common to conspiracy theories, this book does not quite fit into that category. We are the conspirators, so to speak. We have repressed the most creative part of ourselves and now it is escaping in terrifying forms"
Love your comment and I agree. We understand so little about consciousness and beyond, and we are serious bypassers of shadow, grief, fear, etc. Such an adolescent species. It’s well past time for us to grow up.
I have a brain clearly not as adept as yours, but let me suggest that you also comment on the last half of this essay. I’d love to know your thoughts about healing and new positive directions for humanity. We now live in a created world spun unfathomable, untrustworthy and absolutely disconnected from deep sacred incarnation on a planet showing us every sign of turmoil and rebalance.
Can our species rebalance in time? Step back into letting go and listening? What is our collective purpose? Do we have one?
"This brings us back to the question of Individuation as defined by Jung, Neumann, Hillman and others.
According to Frankl, Individuation is only attained when the Will-to-Power transmutes into the Will-to-Meaning.
Although we have one or two individuals embodying the Will-to-Meaning in society, we must actively encourage more people to awaken it. This calls for the transformation of our society and upgrading of our educational system.
The person who awakens the Will-to-Meaning directs his will in productive ways and is never motivated by a desire to control and oppress anyone. He does not try to free others, only to awaken their love of freedom. To do any more is to violate a person's will and freedom. Today's "teachers" do this continually, and love doing so. If a subordinate demonstrates a Will-to-Meaning, they'll soon find themselves quashed. They will be denied the grades required to move ahead.
These acts of sabotage were worrisome to philosophers of the Existentialist school. They referred to the silenced and ostracized man as the "Outsider." His very search for meaning alienates him from the rest of humankind. It's not the way he wants things to be, but it's the way the world prefers it. You don't want us to do the thinking for you, then beat it buddy!
In some cases the Outsider can feel so isolated that he becomes neurotic. Occasionally, he can become psychotic."
Thank you so much, Rob. I absolutely agree, and I look forward to reading Michael Sarion’s articles.
Yes, we don’t seem at all patient or wise enough to more deeply understand the problems (predicaments) we face. And this is the crucial first step. I feel deep anguish over the suffering, confusion, anger and fear that are ahead.
I am one of those Outsiders, as I’m sure you are. I think that many or most who gravitate to Charles and his deep and thoughtful (and kind) writing are as well. It’s a lonely and disillusioning place. I’m working to view my loneliness as a sign to be less self-focused. This is in itself difficult, but getting out in nature always recenters me. And I am continually refreshed and amazed when I find kindred spirits in surprising and delightfully diverse places.
Is it okay to define individuation as learning to be fully human? The humans we are intended to be? To me this would certainly require ‘soft focus’, the openness and flow, the relaxing of boundaries that Charles heads us toward ..
I find it difficult to separate the sacred from the philosophical ‘good’. Or from science, for that matter.
When we see those UFO's, we must say "Straighten Up and Fly Right!!!" heh heh I'm NOT trying to undermine what you're saying, either. I find it very, very interesting! Thanks for your comments.
Whether shared greater consciousness or manifested agreed upon physical reality, it certainly feels like a message ..
One of my favorite facts/myths is about our nuclear missile sites being unexplainably shut down during our country’s times of greatest trigger finger stress.
Interesting take. Good that you have the guts to say these things on this post! Cheers. I will neither agree nor disagree, because I don't have to do either one. ;)
Standing aside from conventional beliefs we can seem to enter a world more metaphysical than physical . Yet I think we ignore the signs , rythyms around us everyday that point to laws which surpass our individual existence .
Citing this example of hidden and commonly presented science and the chasm between , Charles has illustrated how it is evident that “ trust “ regarding what is true is broken both ways ; those who are conventional may choose to rate those who have challenging information and suspicions as conspirators, those with these alternative beliefs then choose to believe that those who adopt the more common ideology are somehow inadvertently in cahoots with the authorities by proxy . I agree with Charles summary of these polarities , they actually prevent progress , this way good things medicine can be denied to everyone on the basis that this group refuse to believe there’s any good in it , the refusal being self propagated . Additionally those who access these technologies or medicine are unable to allow creative thought that might question their own suitability to the “ product “ or see the morality of its impact on society in general . This is a way we can all be lost . The mere idea of an advanced civilisation shouldn’t cause havoc but keep us alive to watching the skies , the dreams of intergalactic travel and community a tangible reality . The technologies also a shared asset for the earth rather than one National interest .
It does really reflect what we see in relation to vaccination , instead of discourse and sharing or structured ethics we have division and beliefs from both sides which ring the alarm bells of danger to me . Online apart from the balanced arguments we exchange here I am unable to find a group that’s not essentially tribal or so anarchist that we can exchange with intelligence that reveals anything useful .
Yet again Charles has illustrated the problem with” division “ , the source of “ compartmentalisation the source of war the source of tears . Thank you again Charles for your work it’s always a breath of fresh air
I have been following Ekhart Tolle lately, one of several teachers and masters (including you, Charles) who are amongst us at this time. While it has seemed so overwhelming to live through this time period, it is becoming evident to me that the turmoil and outrage might be serving a purpose, that being a way to shake humanity up so hard that individuals will finally surrender and seek out that which has been missing all along in us and which has coalesced collectively into the world we see now. We are missing the connection with our true selves, the self that is inexpressibly vast compared to the egoic self with which we identify so hard and so exclusively. The mind & ego were meant only to be the tools with which we navigate our physical existences. They were never meant to make us forget that we are consciousness itself, perfect and knowing. We have traded that in to put our ego above all else and to live in a world where we either feel inferior or superior to others, not realizing that there is one consciousness and that we are all ripples in the ocean of it. We are connected in a profound way with each other. There is a reason that we are all here right now. We chose to be, so let’s figure this thing out.
Wonderful Charles. the exercise of truth even if it hurts deserves a concerted and courageous effort from all of us. We are the Earth and such re integration of our personal realities on some level allows the Earth herself to renew; to regenerate as we, parts of her expression come back on line with our purposes. Thanks for putting things together so gracefully. Regards Pete
This is incredibly powerful and it’s serendipitous that it would arrive in my inbox this morning. I was trying to reconcile my own divided mind and having trouble accepting truths about the past few years, and this essay laid bare the core structural problem inside of me, as well as some really beautiful encouragement regarding the result of de-compartmentalization that I can say I have seen first hand to be true/coming true. Thank you for the continued gift of your writing.
I recently read "The Sun Thief" by Cara St Louis Farelly, a novel based on real-life events on the subject of chemtrails. The deliberate compartmentalisation of knowledge, preventing anyone working on particular projects knowing what the others were doing, is clearly described in this book. Definitely a tactic of anyone wanting to control others on a grand scale.
What I wonder about the UFO information coming out is how much this is the deliberate building up of a narrative that will be used to scare us into giving more power to the state. I have heard this from various channelers and psychics - it seems to be common knowledge in such circles that the next big scam story will be that of evil aliens invading and good ones saving us in cooperation with our lovely governments. And they also say that we are ourselves the aliens - kind of like Charles's story of A Gathering of the Tribe, and that it is all to be understood on a very different level from that of the literal one. So I remain sceptical about everything we will hear - plagues, wars, alien invasions.... They are all a ploy to convince us how helpless we are and distract us from what we are really doing here.
I heartily adopt this flavour of scepticism as well, the litmus test for which is very simple: is this story motivated by love or fear?
If fear, the story is egoic in nature (a story of separation as Charles would phrase it), springing from unconsciousness to constrict our play. This may seem odd, that so many of our activities are motivated by an impulse counter to our nature and well-being. But a glimpse at the Tao Te Ching will remind us that in this world of duality, any and every quality has a mutually defining opposite, even love, even self.
I have heard that too. Aliens will be the next excuse for expanding control over citizens.
The thing is, I have heard and read many other predictions too. From the same kind of sources. None of them have materialized. I predict that neither will this one.
I've been contemplating the role of war and the military in shaping so many aspects of our societies and cultures. The development of the pattern which is war and militaries extends into prehistory, but certainly it has 'evolved' a great deal since the emergence of modern nation states and technological industrialism.
Today, of course, we have a deep habit (all over the world) of assuming that weak nations will be invaded, militarily dominated.... So merely to survive as a nation it is generally regarded as necessary to have a big, powerful and strong military, or at least to have the promise of protection from a nation or nations which do have this. (Russia's current war with Ukraine comes to mind as I write.)
If UFOs are real, and if the government and/or corporations have been secretly seeking to reverse engineer their propulsion systems, surely the secrecy must relate to the notion of 'national security' in relation to the hope of having technological superiority over any enemies which may arise.
But the boundary between security (defense) and offence (exploitation of others) appears not to be at all clear in practice. Modern nation states are in competitive relation to one another, after all.
More and more I am doubting that we humans can extricate ourselves from our collective omnicidal habits without essentially putting an end to competition between nation states, or groupings of nation states. Somehow, we will have to enter into true cooperation between nations, which would initiate the process in which nation states as we now know them will simply dissolve, because they can serve no meaningful function without their basis in competition, war, and the fear of being invaded by a dominating neighbor.
The root of our collective problems is a certain mistaken way of conceiving of "the other," and thus of "the self". If we don't shift at this most fundamental level I suspect our species, and most of life on the planet now, will become extinct.
What if these UFO's are actually from another dimension? What if there are MANY other dimensions? What if what we think we see is only a tiny bit of a whole 'nuther world, but we can't go there, because we're not advanced enough? I mean, look at us... Our technology is what it is, but our spiritual/social/interpersonal maturity is... well, less than "mature," I would say. I mean, we're STILL lying, waging war, letting people starve, hurting, killing... We're due for a serious growth spurt, folks. Maybe in a few thousand more years we can manage something like contact with ... whatever/whomever. We're like TODDLERS.
Bless you Charles for your passion to make the invisible visible and the many ways you come at this mystical phenomenon. It is very difficult in today's world for people to embrace the invisible as REAL. This is why it is hard to see that the Corona virus is real on two levels. The invisible reality is that the the illusion of separation has gone viral and taken on form in the collective human soul, as you have said. To try and compartmentalize these realities without addressing both is futile as we are seeing. The Climate is changing on two levels. What we think we see "out there" is actually a manifestation/mirror of what is happening in the human psyche collectively. The polarization is increasing and manifesting in the weather as more violent and extreme patterns of hate and rage against the "other." The violence isn't "out there" somewhere its in the soul of humanity as we separate ourselves from God, nature and one another. Bringing these two realities in to some kind of balance and harmony requires a return to the "Womb," the Source from which all life arises. We are actually still in this womb where the expansiveness allows us to see all possibility and potential, all form that is possible. We are scrolling through all possibility trying to see our true Self in the mirror or our soul. We are searching for the original form and our longing to see it is the discontent we feel because we haven't found it. This form is actually a Divine Dance between Lovers/others which is equal, mutual, reciprocal in an economy of resource to meet all needs of both. This dance of give and take has created the space, the womb and the time we need to freely choose our destiny.
We can't "think" our way into this relationship. We have to experience it, get quiet enough and hear the invitation to enter the depths of Silence where we will find our way Home.
Charles, I so appreciate your speaking to this deep pathology of cultural compartmentalization and the resulting centralized control of perception that creates individual and social paralysis. I am reminded of my self-designed graduate study to weave together an education that crossed the compartmentalized curriculum of several departments--to pursue my quest for answers. Interestingly, the dean of the graduate school called me in his office and said I had set a record for being "unclassified" and suggested I "finish up" while also sharing with a wink that he had been part of some secret gov operation that started with the words, "Blue". I have recently learned of several covert programs that started with the word, "Blue...don't know which was his. My "takeaway" point here is that my refusal to be compartmentalized was a threat to something hidden of which he had been a part and now as dean of graduate study he was guarding.
What a great article, Charles! In reading the comments debunking your UFO thesis, unfortunately, they missed the point of your article, imo.
The last 2.5 years has given me the opportunity to listen to the “other side of the debate.” People that I would normally “compartmentalize” into a social/political/ideological groups in the past have turned out to be the most intelligent and rational people. The last 2.5yrs has exposed fallacies and lies, but at the same time introduced me to new ideas and friends. Your article does a great job encapsulating this process.
Thank you.
My sentiments exactly! This is what I am discovering too! Excellent article! Thanks for putting it out there Charles.
Ditto! Exactly, much to my surprise - fallacies and lies I didn't know I'd told myself!
I studied to be a high school art/ English teacher back in the 80’s. I walked away from the public school system because I could not stand the way the entire system was designed to teach each subject in isolation. I felt that it was making the kids dumber and less likely to make connections. A number of years later I read John Taylor Gatto and did a deeper dive into the history of the public school system and realized, of course, it was deliberately designed to suppress creative thought.
I love John Taylor Gatto! And I had the same thought about silo knowledge in the schools. I was just rewatching a couple of my episodes that talk about JTG, which I'll post in case you're interested:
Six Levels of Reality on Jeremy Gilbert: Expands on Jeremy's ideological critique of education by citing John Taylor Gatto on mass compulsory schooling as mental colonization. https://youtu.be/5aVIwLwQBk4
From FOMO to JOMO: the Joy of Missing Out: This one quotes JTG on reading for power.
https://youtu.be/5ZGY7uPs8K4
Thanks!
Beautiful essay. Thank you.
I’m a (former?) far left progressive who lived in a deeply conservative town in upper east TN for decades. I loved it there. Raised my kids there. Loved my neighbors, the forests and farms and fields, the community. But as our country headed into deep division so did my life in this community. It became clear that our family was no longer welcome or accepted in our small industrial town, despite our deep community involvement and commitment.
My reaction was wrong-headed but protective: Anger. Protect my children. Leave as soon as possible. And we did, but to an equally divisive state because that was where the job was.
I was fortunate to have had a serious health meltdown accompanied by a return to meditation and deep spiritual searching. And what kept coming through to me was ‘let go’. I continue to follow this gentle command. Not at all perfectly, but as best as I can. This essay speaks eloquently to that. I believe that it is in the space of vulnerability and surrender and openness to what is possible, but only together, that our survival and future will be co-created.
I’ll add that many of my conservative friends from TN and beyond are now my daily companions. We ‘hash it out’, feel every emotion together, grow together. It’s hard work, surrendering and listening. We are specks, the smallest points of light, a tiny bit of fractal, doing the hard work in our stuttering, faulty way. But it feels right.
I love this. It heals me a bit, from a distance. xo
Thank you so much. Your reply heals me, too. Blessings, xo
Well, IDK about when your community stopped welcoming you or why. Might be, if this was during COVID1984, because the left has mostly been all about that, and has gleefully destroyed many of our lives or trust in people and society maybe forever.
I can admit I’d have a VERY hard time trusting anyone who describes as a far left progressive, those people are and have been destroying everything to the point where I wonder if meaningful recovery is possible and nondystopia is possible.
In reconciling with these people, did this involve seeing that your ideology will always lead to Shanghai, and that we realized this first and therefore aren’t idiots? Or do you still fancy yourself as above us if you’re a newcomer to the idea that bodily autonomy and leaving people alone are in fact good? Because I’ve seen soooo much of that from newcomers, this discounting of anyone who tried earlier to stop this madness…it’s frankly leaving me wishing I’d dropped dead in 2020 without ever learning about just how deep the rot is.
Actually no, this was many years before Covid. It involved having a child who realized they were gay in a community where this was still deemed unacceptable.
I feel your frustration, and I promise you I did not hold high any sort of progressive left flag. We were quiet, good neighbors who loved our community. I don’t think our community or coworkers knew or were concerned about our political persuasion, and it simply didn’t matter. Until it suddenly did. I can happily report that our child’s gayness no longer matters in that community — they are deeply loved and remembered fondly by many.
If it helps, please know that I see quite vividly and with deep pain and embarrassment the problems and disconnect and hypocrisy displayed by many on the left. (I also see problems displayed by many on the right.) I no longer categorize myself because quite frankly I don’t know what I am. Probably more left than right, but I often now wonder. I’m increasingly a person who just does not know. I’d rather listen and learn, think and ask, rather than proclaim. Unfortunately I’m a flawed human, and so do find myself occasionally proclaiming, and always more than I’d like. I’m getting there, slowly.
I long for us all to reach a place of softness and compassion where we can remember that we are all in this together. We are all each other’s neighbor. And I really mean that. I don’t think my former political party embodies this philosophy. They claim it still, but they do not live it or genuinely mean it. I hope they will one day recognize their disconnect. In the meantime, perhaps the rest of us can all get beyond politics; appreciate and enjoy one another again. This is my dream and my goal.
I don’t know if this is possible without there being a reckoning of sorts with the Branch Covidians…I’m not really ready to forgive and forget unless they prove they’ve LEARNED something and aren’t going to go feral again the next time the TV tells them to and it really sucks but I don’t know HOW to move on without that…this is like long COVID but actually real
Marianthi, your gut feeling is spot on - I wouldn’t count on this happening any time soon. I wish I could believe they were ready, but everyone, left and right, is stubbornly, deeply dug in.
I’m in such a crazy place of in-between: My friends and family on the left are incredulous and see my questioning and my unvaxxed state as a betrayal. (btw from personal experience let me say that Long Covid is real. So is Covid vaccine injury)They are less reachable than my friends on the right. My friends on the right are far less vocal and know all about betrayal. But their anger and guarded space scares me just as much as the left’s unfathomable intolerance. Anger simmers everywhere. There are problems on both sides. Both sides are right.
I’m a place of grief and hope. Deep grief over what looks like inevitable suffering ahead. But I need hope to know that, come WWIII or Civil War II or systems and civilization unraveling, many of us will, at varying points along our shared trajectory as a species, choose our better, loving, forgiving natures.
I find that my favorite way to ‘bridge the divide’, also the most productive, is to get to know and love in a personal and neighborly way someone who holds completely opposite political views. Share a meal, a coffee, or have a walk in the woods or in a field together. You and I do not hold opposite views, but I wish you and I could meet in person and talk. Since we cannot, let me express my gratitude to you for this conversation.
Thank you for challenging me and talking so genuinely and openly with me.
The reason many of us have dug in and have an angry guarded space is because we really don’t have anywhere to go…if we retreat anymore, there just isn’t anywhere worth being.
I currently have grief, and anger…hope was never really the easiest thing to have, especially lately…might be I’m just plain tired anymore
And yes, we do seemingly have more in common than I have with some I’ve met in real life…politically, I just can’t bring myself to sit with mandate enjoyers…anyone wants to have what I would consider a spirited yet reasonable political discussion can’t be in favour of forcing lethal injections on people, there’s unfortunately nothing really left TO say to any that won’t admit they were wrong about that now
And maybe one day, all the sane people can meet
Oh my I hear you.
I guess what I’m trying to find the right words to express is this:
*Please find your place that is worth being.*
Your words are perfect. It’s what you long for and what we all need and, I think, deserve.
And please don’t retreat. Ever. Just soften. Look around for what you love, and immerse yourself in that. Our bodies and souls need to be nurtured and refueled by what really matters to us, what inspires and uplifts and opens us. Not by what angers us. Try to avoid for significant periods each day what riles you and replace it with activities that soothe and inspire you.
And find your people.
Everyone on every side everywhere is angry and dug in.
I won’t go into the particulars of why I’ve entered my own liminal space of standing back and assessing. I will say that I am thankful that every thing I used to feel sure of I no longer do. My people inhabit this space, and they are rare. But very often, delightfully often, I run across those who are still as dug in as I used to be — at first beloved friends and neighbors from the past and now new neighbors — those who now physically know me, or those who share history with me and are kindly concerned about why I now inhabit a different space — and our conversations and time together are so healing. I learn and grow just being with them. We learn from one another. This is where the softness comes in. I love being with those who are open to quiet and thought and questioning.
Find your people. Find those who inspire and challenge you. Not those who rile you into righteous anger, but those who question why we are all so dangerously riled. Those who you feel are wise and kind. There are far more of these good souls out there than we realize. They are quiet; not on the angry fringes. They are thoughtful and worried. They love to laugh. They are often doing quiet work of service, usually paid very little.
I’ve also been hurt and betrayed so I understand every one of the arguments for standing up, fighting back, getting even. None of these protective angry reactions heal us. They may protect us in the short term, but they are not a healthy life strategy. They keep us trapped in the angry space, vacillating between victim and fighter, with no progress made toward healing and growth.
The media, our government, our corporations and every one of our institutions no longer appear to be trustworthy, and they have not been for quite some time. Our civilization is breaking down. All in time do, in truth.
We are in a dark time. Chaos and suffering are upon us and ahead, I think, because we’ve made, as a species, self-serving decisions filled with hubris and greed. As an environmentalist, I grieve. We’re in pronounced ecological overshoot because we have lost our sacred and deeper understanding of life, of our Earth home. We’ve lost the necessity of community, of shared and personal responsibility. As a mother I grieve. My children, highly educated, hard-working and community-focused and kind, will never experience the world my mother knew or that I knew.
We are in a time between worlds, between paradigms, between what was and what can be. If there is still time for us to regroup I give thanks. And if not, I pray that remnants of human communities working toward ‘the infinite game’ will carry on for the rest of us.
I’d like to think that we all are on Charles’s substack not just because he is unvaccinated and questions the status quo but because he also speaks of the more beautiful world that we know is possible. He wants us to think deeper.
What stories are we telling our collective selves that have brought us to this place? What stories can heal us, change this?
I think that the dark is what we all must prepare ourselves to enter, together. Not kicking and fighting. Like birth, and death, the dark, the unknown, is a rite of passage we’ve all chosen to go through at this time. Unfortunately we’ve chosen a difficult birth/death. We enter this dark together.
But there is light ahead.
Since I am a spiritual person I don’t think our brain and body perceptions are everything. I see far more ahead for us as souls, both individually and collectively. I think we are a gifted species that has for now lost its way. We may make it, we may not. But the progress toward the good, the beautiful, the wise will continue. It will all be okay.
Covid symptoms and symptoms of EMF poisoning are the same. FYI. There's a LOT of very sketchy stuff going on since March of 2020.
Yes, much sketchy stuff going on, and much of it by corporations with profit as their bottom line, regardless of what it does to our earth or to our health. This is our sad state. There is, within our existing economic system, no thought or incentive directed toward responsibility, or concern for the myriad unintended consequences. And unfortunately we, every single one of us, due to the society that we all inhabit due to our collective choices and forced choices, encourage them to carry on. We have been forced into a no-choice existence.
I don’t think humans are programmed for evil. We are a species gifted with tools leading to promise and hope. Some of us go the evil route, maybe, but we rationalize our way forward, thinking ‘Well, everyone else does it’.
It becomes an issue of selfishness. Protection. Throwing up walls when what we need is opening and vulnerability.
I know I react to my phone. I’m an EMF sufferer.
I get it.
I hear you.
Where do we go from here?
So much suffering in the world... Needlessly. I hope we can break out of this Patriarchy, which has devolved into a horrible evil... I am hearing (well, reading) both your words and Marianthi's words and feeling that you are both being genuine...
I used to be a Dem, and then became an Independent for years; the recent change of the Democratic Party is shocking and quite off-putting, and is nothing I recognize as coming out of a democratic source, but perhaps is utterly subsumed by the "Covid Party," which I consider to be more or less Nazi. Seems to me it's the same families of the former Nazis that are behind all this hellish behavior of the past few years and the current days... A revival of sorts, and not welcome in any way... Not by me, anyway.
Your reply is very deep, and beautiful.
So much unneeded suffering.
I am clueless about the nazi connection and right now don’t find myself able to blame others.
I think we all need to turn within … What do we hate or fear within others that could be a mirror to our own fears? (I have many.)
This question is thrown to the wind because the world has gone haywire. We are living in a time between worlds. It’s surreal civilization breakdown time. And this is my main focus: When the shit hits the fan, what is our gut response? Love or fear?
I think our future depends on each of us choosing to do the right thing .. the kind thing.
The Nazi connection is simple: BEFORE the Nazis, there were the eugenicists, planning for a kind of cleaning up of the human species, but getting the mentally ill, the vegetative, the somehow Not Okay people out of the gene pool... by taking them out. Hitler didn't think up all that stuff, he was coached. The eugenicists from that time came from earlier times, and their children and grandchildren are the eugenicists of today, more or less, give or take a few families or individuals. Nazis are famous for two things, as far as I'm concerned: Their belief in a "superior race" that should be In Charge of everyone else (naturally, it's themselves), and their belief that "useless eaters" should be euthanized, so to create One Race of human beings, the Superior Race, and all the rest must go-- except for a few kept around to be the slaves for the Superior Race! These are the folks that have brought us this time of insanity. They are feeding it, egging it on, causing it, after decades of preparation.
They cannot win. I believe that very strongly. Fascists never seem to learn that fascism doesn't last very long. It comes from sick minds, and we seem to have trouble recognizing this, and figuring out how to keep this from happening (hint: stop letting a handful of people have so much wealth, and stop allowing wealth to be concentrated in a handful of people's control). We will have to go through this, and it will be painful, and then perhaps we can actually learn from it and begin a New Age. What's really too bad is how much suffering we must endure before we can get to the other side of it... The kind thing, you got it. That's what life is all about, in my opinion! We have to learn to let go of fear and focus on LOVE. They hate that! ;)
Thank you! I realize now I knew much of that. The Buffalo shooting showed us just how embedded this mindset of fear and need for control is, in this country and worldwide.
How does this relate to Covid? I don’t see Biden or Fauci as nazis or fascists. I see them as flawed human beings, just as I am, just as the Buffalo shooter is, doing our best but often blind to wider deeper thinking and trapped in self protection. Right now I think the virus that caused the original Covid illness, in human-changed form, escaped from the Wuhan lab. I think that Fauci is covering his ass regarding gain of function (for what purpose and true function?) research. I am furious that Covid vaccine injuries are being denied and ignored by government, health agencies, media and the corporations that make the vaccines. Lying (and lab-manipulation of viruses for undisclosed reasons) is a sign of immaturity — a need for control and protection and often selfish greed, a manifestation of fear, and it pervades all levels of government, politics, industry. It’s a shadow aspect of human nature that all levels of our society unfortunately rewards and feeds. I suspect that many who are in positions of corporate and government power are gifted in certain ways but woefully lacking in the qualities that enable us to be fully human: compassion, a desire to search always for meaning and purpose and service, a regular practice of ways to lessen or calm our more selfish, fear-driven aspects, a deep commitment to learning how to collaborate, to discern consensus, in order to contribute to the greater good.
My suggestion never goes over well but I’ll say it anyway:
We need to find a way, a place within ourselves, to forgive and feel kindness toward the Nazis, the fascists, the Hitlers of this world. We need to find a way to hold them in our hearts as human beings who have good qualities, too. This does not mean that we do not stand strong against their atrocities and work for change. This means recognizing that these people are not evil. They were babies and children once. They experienced joy and pain, just as the rest of us have. They are fellow human beings on the journey. We each travel vitally needed, unique and intertwining paths, each and every path important, toward the same .. Beautiful world that we know is possible. Every single one of our stories, our collection of experiences, absolutely matter, and the important thing for those of us who long for change, to be of service, is to practice with dedication and care the human qualities that embrace the new (old?) collective story/stories we now so desperately need. Love is stronger than hate, always.
I mention this possibility to my friends on the left about Trump etc., and it’s a rare person who does not become angry with me, or choose to not talk to me anymore, or decide with pity and disdain that I’ve gone over to the dark side. Same with my friends on the right regarding Fauci or Biden etc.
It’s important that we move beyond politics which is ultimately divisive and polarized due to our current environment and systems, and work together on our pressing predicaments and problems.
Talking generally here:
We are a species gifted with much potential. It’s well past time that we each buckle up and turn within, see that what we fear most actually lives within. Healing and love and compassion begin there, and then inevitably and beautifully expands outward.
I thought this piece was interesting, and I wonder why Parenti's perspective seems so rare. To me, it's just common sense and sanity.
The COVID craziness doesn't seem at all "left" to me. It's people who have identified as at least *sort of* leftist flushing a huge amount of what they used to believe. It's just weird. If you're skeptical of Monsanto, why would you click your heels and salute Merck?
https://thegrayzone.com/2022/03/31/left-covid-lockdowns-mind-autopsy/
Thank you for giving me pause for thought. It's difficult these days to know, from a comment on a blog, just what people are actually all about. I'm still being surprised by the words and/or actions of people I thought I understood saying and doing things that are shocking to me in their hatefulness...
The discounting you speak of is something I am very, very familiar with myself. The "cancellation" of my worthiness as a human being has happened on numerous occasions, most recently in a very ugly and long-term way. Please know that however long it may take, and through whatever hellish waters we may have to wade, there will be a day when we finally break out of the lies, the hate, the oppression, the EVIL that is currently running rampant through our lives... Because we always do, somehow. I will never give up hope. It may not happen in my lifetime, but I believe it will happen. I'm sending you some Love, if you want to embrace it. If you don't trust me, it's okay. xo
You are loved, and we need you. No one can harm your beautiful deep soul. Please know that.
I’ve been harmed, too. Many of us have. You are not alone.
This is our time, we outsiders, to look within, to find ‘our god’, our purpose, our connection to our better, more beautiful story, our deeper reason for being here.
You have a rare combination of intellect and sensitivity.
I am grateful for our connection from afar. I believe such connections are forever.
I’m with you in your suffering and searching .. xo
Thank you. I am reminded of a song from some years ago... very catchy, as well it should be... The chorus goes "I get knocked down! But I get up again-- you're never gonna keep me down!" And repeats. (Now this will be in my head for days! LOL) But it's true. I got knocked down, by people I trusted, my family-- But I'm not dead yet. And tomorrow I'm going to begin a little quest, to do something that is really a very strong recurring theme for me lately: Resist Not Evil... Work Around It! I'm back on my feet. Wound-licking can't go on forever. And your words are soooo kind. (My intellect comes out best when I write... speaking it is a whole 'nuther thing.) I am grateful for your companionship from a distance! You're my sister, and I love this kind of "accidental connection." ^_^
Oh I am so happy to hear from you! Your project sounds perfect. I’m with you from afar! :)
I’ve found that what you concentrate on, focus on, is what you give power to. And concentrating on evil is - well.
Please let me know what you find, what you choose to focus on, in your workaround.
We will have lots to share.
I’m with you.
You're so lovely! Let's do keep in touch. If you trust me, sign up for my posts. From there I can see your email, and I'll send you one, and you'll have mine. I live in Western WA, across Puget Sound from Seattle. It's very beautiful here, I should post more photos on my page... My rhodies are blooming! ^_^ I'll have to go take some snaps and post them today. I'm going to visit an attorney today... which might be the first step in "working around the evil." ;) Wish me luck!
If it’s not to happen in my lifetime, then I simply don’t want my lifetime to be long. And at this point, as soon as we get a society that leaves people alone again, let’s us wander off into the woods and doesn’t pursue, I think I will simply have to leave.
At the very least, if I’m going to be surrounded by strangers, I want them to be ones I’ve never met…
I so get it, believe me. I'm going through a hell right now that is partly to do with what's happening in my country (US) and a lot to do with my own family. I think of my family situation as a microcosm of the country, or the world, at large... devastation, confusion, terror, and a desire to strike back, but at the wrong targets...
I do think it will get worse before it gets better, and that means I will likely be part of the group that gets the hardest crush... I'm doing my best to keep from being subsumed by sorrow and resentment and anger-- and it's the anger that's keeping me from giving up. Because somehow the hope is connected to the anger.
I've always felt very understanding toward people who take themselves off to the next "phase," or whatever it is. I don't believe in some kind of god that would punish us for taking ourselves out of suffering. I don't want to give up, but I also don't want to live in a hellish way.
So far, I am hanging on. Today I'm starting to sell all my "stuff." And I find myself wondering if I simply put a male name on my resume, if that might help me find work...
Hang onto that anger for now if it helps you to keep going. It’s a powerful energy that says ‘I am’.
You are very much a beautiful
I AM.
You are an amazing human being. I wish we lived in the same neighborhood. I’d love to take long slow walks with you and invite you to dinner.
Kindred spirit. Beautiful soul.
Please take that in. Do not lose hope.
You are meant to be here in these divisive difficult times. We need you.
Sending you love.
xo
Tearing up. xo
As for the resume, I’m pretty sure that depends on the field, and for some companies, put on there that you ID as female and that will get a callback and it IS true…the worst I’ve encountered while jobsearching is seeing some say that they require everyone to be vaxxed…I get sad and SO angry at that
I definitely get the anger thing, I think that’s why I DIDNT end it in 2020…felt too much like letting the assholes win. While I don’t think any gods are happy with suicide, I don’t think there’s eternal punishment…maybe you get sent back to try again, or have to sit in a corner and think about what you did, or biblically accurate angels just stare at you with many many disappointed 👁👁👁👁👁👁👁s…IDK but I don’t buy the eternal suffering model either
You hit the nail... "Are you vaxxed"? HELL, no. Will I wear a fucking mask all day? HELL, no. If that's the choice, I sell my stuff and I won't look back.
I felt the tingle of recognition and reassurance all over when I read your letter. Thank you for your courage, honesty and generosity. We depend on each other to grow beyond our crippled pasts.
Pauline, thank you so much. Your reply is a gift I treasure.
"Trauma and ideology have riven the modern self and modern society into fragments, which take refuge in social and psychic compartments."
When I read this, my first thought was that "the modern self" was borne of trauma and is a symptom of trauma. The modern self, as a concept and an image, is the concept and image of 'self' as interior and world as exterior. The very essence of 'the modern self' is thus alienation, separation, fragmentation, division....
The principal ameliorative alternative image and concept of 'self' would, in my opinion, have to consist of two basic elements, aspects or components. It would have to unite what we've come to call "interiority" with what we call "the world ('out there') and it would have to preserve, honor, respect and incorporate (embody) alterity, or the distinction between individual people (and other living beings). This seems quite paradoxical to the mind of a modern self. And it is!
The self is actually cosmic, not isolated and alienated. While localized in an individual it is not self-enclosed nor self-contained. It is continuous with the whole of the cosmos, undivided... and in radical relationship with all things, all beings. But the modern self feels itself contained within an 'interior', separate and alone. It learns this way of being through enculturation and indoctrination. Myriad ideologies grow out of this nucleus, and they all have the same basic shape: e.g., anthropocentrism, economics rooted in competition and conquest, etc.
The essence of the modern self is alienation. And alienation is essentially traumatic. The only thing for a modern self to do is to let go and fall into radical relatedness of a cosmic sort. Which isn't so hard to do, really, since this radical relatedness is our innate nature.
Excellent and helpful analysis and summation. Thank you for sharing our deep insight so eloquently.
Glad to know my words were helpful for you, Pauline. If only more people were able to see that this is what has happened to us and understand it! Sigh.
I too found this a very helpful insight and analysis. Thanks!
Some ideology has CAUSED trauma and without acknowledging this and without them being willing to make amends and learn something, I don’t see how it’s possible or even fair to demand those of us harmed by COVID1984 reconcile with the left
Bob lazar, who knows, he seems genuine, but there's genuine people who think Jesus etc talk to them. Genuine does not equal sane, being ridiculed does not equal truth either. These are all huge logical fallacies.
Officially confirmed? Haha, did you know that those videos of jets chasing the objects were flown not by military pilots but "contractors"? But if you believe UFOs are real, you will ignore that shady fact.
Talk about trust, sure, that's a problem even among those who think they are on the path of truth. I wanted to believe in things and refused to consider that I trick myself like the masses who might believe in more widely held ideas.
John keel who was big on the mothman investigations went deep into investigating abductions for a long time and eventually realized that it's a psychological phenomenon, just like religious experiences. You cannot assume that what people think is true is really true once you've studied psychology, mainly the issue of how big groups promote group think/ archetypes. Before it was angels, fairies, demons, gods... Today it's UFOs and spirit guides...
Eyewitness testimony is inaccurate, even under hypnosis. Why? Because our brains edit memories to fit our internal paradigm.
I think it was from a summary written by RAW, which I saved because it explains why all of the "proof" of et is so fragile like ghosts etc.
The best way to handle looking into phenomena is to adopt RAW: "I BELIEVE NOTHING"
that doesn't mean to blind yourself to things, it means to not blind yourself to see what you expect in reality based on your beliefs. You see what you want to see and not see what you deny, as our minds interpret what the senses provide and we try to fit it into the internal map that we have of "reality"
"Daimonic Reality
Daimonic Reality by Patrick Harpur examines UFOs and a wide variety of “paranormal” phenomena from a rather unique angle. Although Harpur never fully defines the daimonic—“the daimonic that can be defined is not the true daimonic,” as Lao-Tse would say—it seems to exist both inside us and outside us. Like the Greek daemon and unlike the Christian demon, it takes both good/healing and bad/terrifying forms, depending on our commitment to rationalistic ego states.
In a sense, the daimonic is like the collective unconscious of Carl Jung, inside us as a part of our total self that the ego wishes to deny, outside us in all the other humans who ever existed and in the dreams, myths, and arts of all the world. But Harpur follows Irish poet (and Golden Dawn alumnus) W. B. Yeats as often as he follows Jung, and traces some of his ideas back to Giordano Bruno and the alchemical/hermetic mystics of the Renaissance. The daimonic is just a bit more personalized and individualized than Jung’s species unconscious.
Harpur’s major thesis is that unless we recognize the daimonic (make friends with it, Jung would say) it takes increasingly malignant and terrifying forms. For instance, the Greys of UFO abduction lore, he says, are deliberately mirroring our ego-centered and “scientistic” age—showing no emotions of the humans they experiment upon, just as the ideal science student feels no emotion and has no concern with the emotions of the animal being tortured in his laboratory.
Despite dealing with many subjects common to conspiracy theories, this book does not quite fit into that category. We are the conspirators, so to speak. We have repressed the most creative part of ourselves and now it is escaping in terrifying forms"
Jesus talks to me too;)
Love your comment and I agree. We understand so little about consciousness and beyond, and we are serious bypassers of shadow, grief, fear, etc. Such an adolescent species. It’s well past time for us to grow up.
I have a brain clearly not as adept as yours, but let me suggest that you also comment on the last half of this essay. I’d love to know your thoughts about healing and new positive directions for humanity. We now live in a created world spun unfathomable, untrustworthy and absolutely disconnected from deep sacred incarnation on a planet showing us every sign of turmoil and rebalance.
Can our species rebalance in time? Step back into letting go and listening? What is our collective purpose? Do we have one?
I think before we find a solution, we need to see what doesn't work or what causes more issues.
Individuation is key. We're so easily lead down the next solution offered by the next guru or "genius".
Here's a site with good stuff... https://www.michaeltsarion.com/articles.html
And this article gave me hope, as I am seeing more and more people wake up to their own beliefs...
https://www.michaeltsarion.com/individuation.html
"This brings us back to the question of Individuation as defined by Jung, Neumann, Hillman and others.
According to Frankl, Individuation is only attained when the Will-to-Power transmutes into the Will-to-Meaning.
Although we have one or two individuals embodying the Will-to-Meaning in society, we must actively encourage more people to awaken it. This calls for the transformation of our society and upgrading of our educational system.
The person who awakens the Will-to-Meaning directs his will in productive ways and is never motivated by a desire to control and oppress anyone. He does not try to free others, only to awaken their love of freedom. To do any more is to violate a person's will and freedom. Today's "teachers" do this continually, and love doing so. If a subordinate demonstrates a Will-to-Meaning, they'll soon find themselves quashed. They will be denied the grades required to move ahead.
These acts of sabotage were worrisome to philosophers of the Existentialist school. They referred to the silenced and ostracized man as the "Outsider." His very search for meaning alienates him from the rest of humankind. It's not the way he wants things to be, but it's the way the world prefers it. You don't want us to do the thinking for you, then beat it buddy!
In some cases the Outsider can feel so isolated that he becomes neurotic. Occasionally, he can become psychotic."
Thank you so much, Rob. I absolutely agree, and I look forward to reading Michael Sarion’s articles.
Yes, we don’t seem at all patient or wise enough to more deeply understand the problems (predicaments) we face. And this is the crucial first step. I feel deep anguish over the suffering, confusion, anger and fear that are ahead.
I am one of those Outsiders, as I’m sure you are. I think that many or most who gravitate to Charles and his deep and thoughtful (and kind) writing are as well. It’s a lonely and disillusioning place. I’m working to view my loneliness as a sign to be less self-focused. This is in itself difficult, but getting out in nature always recenters me. And I am continually refreshed and amazed when I find kindred spirits in surprising and delightfully diverse places.
Thanks again.
Is it okay to define individuation as learning to be fully human? The humans we are intended to be? To me this would certainly require ‘soft focus’, the openness and flow, the relaxing of boundaries that Charles heads us toward ..
I find it difficult to separate the sacred from the philosophical ‘good’. Or from science, for that matter.
When we see those UFO's, we must say "Straighten Up and Fly Right!!!" heh heh I'm NOT trying to undermine what you're saying, either. I find it very, very interesting! Thanks for your comments.
Whether shared greater consciousness or manifested agreed upon physical reality, it certainly feels like a message ..
One of my favorite facts/myths is about our nuclear missile sites being unexplainably shut down during our country’s times of greatest trigger finger stress.
With me it’s generally God the Father, though Jesus and the Holy Spirit get involved at times.
☯️🫣✌🏻
Interesting take. Good that you have the guts to say these things on this post! Cheers. I will neither agree nor disagree, because I don't have to do either one. ;)
Standing aside from conventional beliefs we can seem to enter a world more metaphysical than physical . Yet I think we ignore the signs , rythyms around us everyday that point to laws which surpass our individual existence .
Citing this example of hidden and commonly presented science and the chasm between , Charles has illustrated how it is evident that “ trust “ regarding what is true is broken both ways ; those who are conventional may choose to rate those who have challenging information and suspicions as conspirators, those with these alternative beliefs then choose to believe that those who adopt the more common ideology are somehow inadvertently in cahoots with the authorities by proxy . I agree with Charles summary of these polarities , they actually prevent progress , this way good things medicine can be denied to everyone on the basis that this group refuse to believe there’s any good in it , the refusal being self propagated . Additionally those who access these technologies or medicine are unable to allow creative thought that might question their own suitability to the “ product “ or see the morality of its impact on society in general . This is a way we can all be lost . The mere idea of an advanced civilisation shouldn’t cause havoc but keep us alive to watching the skies , the dreams of intergalactic travel and community a tangible reality . The technologies also a shared asset for the earth rather than one National interest .
It does really reflect what we see in relation to vaccination , instead of discourse and sharing or structured ethics we have division and beliefs from both sides which ring the alarm bells of danger to me . Online apart from the balanced arguments we exchange here I am unable to find a group that’s not essentially tribal or so anarchist that we can exchange with intelligence that reveals anything useful .
Yet again Charles has illustrated the problem with” division “ , the source of “ compartmentalisation the source of war the source of tears . Thank you again Charles for your work it’s always a breath of fresh air
I have been following Ekhart Tolle lately, one of several teachers and masters (including you, Charles) who are amongst us at this time. While it has seemed so overwhelming to live through this time period, it is becoming evident to me that the turmoil and outrage might be serving a purpose, that being a way to shake humanity up so hard that individuals will finally surrender and seek out that which has been missing all along in us and which has coalesced collectively into the world we see now. We are missing the connection with our true selves, the self that is inexpressibly vast compared to the egoic self with which we identify so hard and so exclusively. The mind & ego were meant only to be the tools with which we navigate our physical existences. They were never meant to make us forget that we are consciousness itself, perfect and knowing. We have traded that in to put our ego above all else and to live in a world where we either feel inferior or superior to others, not realizing that there is one consciousness and that we are all ripples in the ocean of it. We are connected in a profound way with each other. There is a reason that we are all here right now. We chose to be, so let’s figure this thing out.
As I inhale this message every cell in my body relaxes…the words express what I know but can’t articulate. So grateful.
Wonderful Charles. the exercise of truth even if it hurts deserves a concerted and courageous effort from all of us. We are the Earth and such re integration of our personal realities on some level allows the Earth herself to renew; to regenerate as we, parts of her expression come back on line with our purposes. Thanks for putting things together so gracefully. Regards Pete
This is incredibly powerful and it’s serendipitous that it would arrive in my inbox this morning. I was trying to reconcile my own divided mind and having trouble accepting truths about the past few years, and this essay laid bare the core structural problem inside of me, as well as some really beautiful encouragement regarding the result of de-compartmentalization that I can say I have seen first hand to be true/coming true. Thank you for the continued gift of your writing.
I recently read "The Sun Thief" by Cara St Louis Farelly, a novel based on real-life events on the subject of chemtrails. The deliberate compartmentalisation of knowledge, preventing anyone working on particular projects knowing what the others were doing, is clearly described in this book. Definitely a tactic of anyone wanting to control others on a grand scale.
What I wonder about the UFO information coming out is how much this is the deliberate building up of a narrative that will be used to scare us into giving more power to the state. I have heard this from various channelers and psychics - it seems to be common knowledge in such circles that the next big scam story will be that of evil aliens invading and good ones saving us in cooperation with our lovely governments. And they also say that we are ourselves the aliens - kind of like Charles's story of A Gathering of the Tribe, and that it is all to be understood on a very different level from that of the literal one. So I remain sceptical about everything we will hear - plagues, wars, alien invasions.... They are all a ploy to convince us how helpless we are and distract us from what we are really doing here.
I heartily adopt this flavour of scepticism as well, the litmus test for which is very simple: is this story motivated by love or fear?
If fear, the story is egoic in nature (a story of separation as Charles would phrase it), springing from unconsciousness to constrict our play. This may seem odd, that so many of our activities are motivated by an impulse counter to our nature and well-being. But a glimpse at the Tao Te Ching will remind us that in this world of duality, any and every quality has a mutually defining opposite, even love, even self.
I have heard that too. Aliens will be the next excuse for expanding control over citizens.
The thing is, I have heard and read many other predictions too. From the same kind of sources. None of them have materialized. I predict that neither will this one.
I've been contemplating the role of war and the military in shaping so many aspects of our societies and cultures. The development of the pattern which is war and militaries extends into prehistory, but certainly it has 'evolved' a great deal since the emergence of modern nation states and technological industrialism.
Today, of course, we have a deep habit (all over the world) of assuming that weak nations will be invaded, militarily dominated.... So merely to survive as a nation it is generally regarded as necessary to have a big, powerful and strong military, or at least to have the promise of protection from a nation or nations which do have this. (Russia's current war with Ukraine comes to mind as I write.)
If UFOs are real, and if the government and/or corporations have been secretly seeking to reverse engineer their propulsion systems, surely the secrecy must relate to the notion of 'national security' in relation to the hope of having technological superiority over any enemies which may arise.
But the boundary between security (defense) and offence (exploitation of others) appears not to be at all clear in practice. Modern nation states are in competitive relation to one another, after all.
More and more I am doubting that we humans can extricate ourselves from our collective omnicidal habits without essentially putting an end to competition between nation states, or groupings of nation states. Somehow, we will have to enter into true cooperation between nations, which would initiate the process in which nation states as we now know them will simply dissolve, because they can serve no meaningful function without their basis in competition, war, and the fear of being invaded by a dominating neighbor.
The root of our collective problems is a certain mistaken way of conceiving of "the other," and thus of "the self". If we don't shift at this most fundamental level I suspect our species, and most of life on the planet now, will become extinct.
Thanks for echoing my own conviction that "other" and "away" are obsolete.
"With each stage of its construction, life got better and better". Nope...
What if these UFO's are actually from another dimension? What if there are MANY other dimensions? What if what we think we see is only a tiny bit of a whole 'nuther world, but we can't go there, because we're not advanced enough? I mean, look at us... Our technology is what it is, but our spiritual/social/interpersonal maturity is... well, less than "mature," I would say. I mean, we're STILL lying, waging war, letting people starve, hurting, killing... We're due for a serious growth spurt, folks. Maybe in a few thousand more years we can manage something like contact with ... whatever/whomever. We're like TODDLERS.
Bless you Charles for your passion to make the invisible visible and the many ways you come at this mystical phenomenon. It is very difficult in today's world for people to embrace the invisible as REAL. This is why it is hard to see that the Corona virus is real on two levels. The invisible reality is that the the illusion of separation has gone viral and taken on form in the collective human soul, as you have said. To try and compartmentalize these realities without addressing both is futile as we are seeing. The Climate is changing on two levels. What we think we see "out there" is actually a manifestation/mirror of what is happening in the human psyche collectively. The polarization is increasing and manifesting in the weather as more violent and extreme patterns of hate and rage against the "other." The violence isn't "out there" somewhere its in the soul of humanity as we separate ourselves from God, nature and one another. Bringing these two realities in to some kind of balance and harmony requires a return to the "Womb," the Source from which all life arises. We are actually still in this womb where the expansiveness allows us to see all possibility and potential, all form that is possible. We are scrolling through all possibility trying to see our true Self in the mirror or our soul. We are searching for the original form and our longing to see it is the discontent we feel because we haven't found it. This form is actually a Divine Dance between Lovers/others which is equal, mutual, reciprocal in an economy of resource to meet all needs of both. This dance of give and take has created the space, the womb and the time we need to freely choose our destiny.
We can't "think" our way into this relationship. We have to experience it, get quiet enough and hear the invitation to enter the depths of Silence where we will find our way Home.
Charles, I so appreciate your speaking to this deep pathology of cultural compartmentalization and the resulting centralized control of perception that creates individual and social paralysis. I am reminded of my self-designed graduate study to weave together an education that crossed the compartmentalized curriculum of several departments--to pursue my quest for answers. Interestingly, the dean of the graduate school called me in his office and said I had set a record for being "unclassified" and suggested I "finish up" while also sharing with a wink that he had been part of some secret gov operation that started with the words, "Blue". I have recently learned of several covert programs that started with the word, "Blue...don't know which was his. My "takeaway" point here is that my refusal to be compartmentalized was a threat to something hidden of which he had been a part and now as dean of graduate study he was guarding.