Jul 7, 2022·edited Jul 7, 2022Liked by Charles Eisenstein
What puzzles me most is how many people stick to one firmly built set of belief concerning the pandemic and the vaccination. Once they have chosen side, it seems no new facts or personal experience seem to be able to affect them any more. Here is my story. I am a scientist by training (a geologist) and I have initially more or less trusted the official Covid narrative. I hated the lockdown measures and the masks from the very beginning though and thought that much of the restrictions were quite over the top. So my initial hope was that the vaccination would be the way out of the regime of Covid restrictions and therefore I was looking forward to become vaccinated. But then things started to change. I had quite a strong reaction to the second Moderna shot and my father became very ill from the Pfizer shot. He developed inflammation of the spine, temporary paralysis of the arms, and seizures about 10 days after the second Pfizer shot. He ended up 3 weeks in hospital and after that he had a chronic inflammation that could not be tamed again. He died 6 months later. I started reading alternative sources of information and what I read, together with my own experience, made me to reject ever getting a booster shot and never letting our 9 year old son getting this vaccine. Then I caught Covid in February this year and this was no more than a moderate flu. I had worse flu in the past. The way I caught it was also interesting. Our son got if from another child in elementary school. That child is the son of a medical doctor who is completely aligned with the official narrative. And of course that child was double vaccinated and wears the mask all the time. So in summary my personal experience was that these vaccinations are useless in stopping infection, had very bad side effects and the Covid infection was not that bad after all. Now I am a firm critic of the vaccinations and I rather leave my country with my family rather than giving in to any future mandatory Covid vaccination.
Hmm, you don't sound like the caricature of the frothing-at-the-mouth hysterical anti-vaxxer. Thank you for sharing this story. It illustrates well that people DO change their minds sometimes, usually because of events that impact them personally.
I am terribly sorry about your father.
I think there are millions of people like you out there who have seen themselves or their loved ones personally impacted by the vaccine. We are not merely "vaccine hesitant." We are more in the camp of "over my dead body!" And when the CDC still maintains that only 9 deaths have been confirmed from the shots and that adverse events are 'extremely rare,' our trust in the entire system is nil.; We are tired of being gaslit. You seem rather measured yet adamant in your statements, but there is a lot of fury out there among people who were harmed and then told it didn't happen.
Are we sure yet that this is not a false correlation fallacy? It seems damaging to assume that each person who has died after receiving a vaccination has done so as a direct result of the shot.
We can be sure however, that there has been a large amount of falsification around the recorded 'deaths' accountable to covid infection. We are told even by authorities that anybody who tests positive for the covid pathogen and subsequently dies, is recorded as a 'covid death', gunshots and car accidents included. Mind blowing in its' twisted corruption and deliberately intended to make covid look like a terrifying disease.
Justin, at least you can share your personal experience here and for some these kind of reactions happened. Then they get censored or de-platformed on social media for reporting their own experience! If there is a rationale, it is that their experience is anecdotal though I suspect it is more sinister - it is to silence negative press about the vaccines.
Do you see how dehumanizing it is to have a painful experience, real to you, and then be censored because your experience doesn't fit that narrative? That is fucking evil, IMO. Charles is right that there is a smoldering magma pool of resentment in the body politic over how we have been treated by the Pharma Mafia in our government and media.
I am vaxxed and boosted and had a reaction to the 2nd shot (Moderna) when I developed severe chronic lower back and hip pain and sciatica. My chiropractor said this has happened to a lot of his patients. I did get the 3rd booster and I can say that I did not get COVID nor do I have any particular objections to vaccines in general. But I am disgusted at how the government has treated Americans. Really, if Texas where I live started a secession movement I would be on board in a New York minute because I really hate this country now.
Is your mention of the supposed athletes-killed-by-vaccination your firsthand account? I will not dismiss your personal account as you described above, but if you are mentioning the athletes because their story is in some way parallel to your own, I urge you not to hide your narrative behind generic debunked news stories in order to garner support for your own difficulties. I wish you the best with your struggles, though! And I'm sorry to hear about Texas, but I think you'll find that many people on "both sides" feel the same as people do in Texas in regards to disappointment towards this country. It's not - nor has it ever been - Texas vs all others.
"Debunked" news stories? Are you saying that athletes haven't died in larger numbers than usual? Or are you trying to assert that it's been "proven" somehow that a recent vaccine could not have caused their heart attacks? Please give your evidence for either assertion.
I agree. I'm concerned that so many of the responses I see sound just like conspiracy theorists. The scary "they" are sweeping the "truth" under the rug. Worldwide, involving thousands of people. Not likely.
Hi Jim, again. We are so beyond terms like 'conspiracy theorists' at this point, it's time to move on. It's just a wet blanket thrown by those who feel threatened by what's being said. It doesn't staunch the fire. If you can't join the dots by now between the various nefarious groups of capitalists, ruling families and all the thousands of greedy sycophants drawn into their spheres, leading to suffering of all kinds, economic and social tyranny and the raping of the planet's resources then I am sad. We were all born into the system (engineered by the groups mentioned above), which is why it's so disturbing to accept the entirety of everything one believes has been based on what the system wants us to believe. Some of us see that now and want out. We don't respect or trust those who have levered themselves into positions of power whose policies serve only corporate interests. The promises by incumbent leaders to address the problems of the ordinary person and the beleaguered planet stymied by the rabid lobbyists, we watch our homes get foreclosed while bankers get paid out (with our money!), social media giants use their dividing and distracting tactics and the poor get poorer and more disenfranchised, while the top 0.001% keep growing fatter and fatter as they eat the world. Your social and political freedoms are being eroded whether you accept that or not. You may choose to sweep that under the rug but I will not.
We just don't trust this type of report. It is to us, clearly covid narrative cleansing and a cover up. That's part of the problem, trustworthy news reportage is all subjective and dependant upon who is funding it. What is the agenda of the media organisation/journalist? etc etc. For me, even without knowing the full details of the sportsmen dropping dead in spectacular view, it is enough to witness as this is something that I have NEVER been made aware of before. A player dropping dead on a pitch would make the 'news' no matter what era it played out in. Is it just coincidence that this event has happened multiple times since vaccine rollouts began? My instinct says no. I think if vax proponents were a bit more inclined to accept there is evidence of vax damage and death, this would help keep a bridge between those who are deeply suspicious and afraid of the the jab.
I had a similar trajectory. I also began with a general trust in "the experts" around Covid issues. I watched the vaccination rollout from SE Asia, where it was all academic for us because we had no or limited vaccine supplies early on. I then read a NYT article about an outbreak in the Seychelles islands following mass rollout of the Chinese inactivated virus vaccine. The general tone of the article was that this was a scandal, as the clinical trial results suggested this should not happen. Then the exact same thing happened in Israel, where they had a big Pfizer rollout.
But the response was much different. Rather than treating this as the scandal it was, the establishment ignored it altogether and then seamlessly shifted to the "well, it protects against severe illness and death," which were not even endpoints in the clinical trials. Joe Biden's "pandemic of the unvaccinated" speech and the ACLU NYT op-ed ADVOCATING vaccine mandates, in the wake of what should have been treated as a scandal, were too much for me. By this time, I saw the entire Covid response as a function of mass pathology rather than rational policy.
This revelation turned my whole worldview on its head. I now see how much pathology lies behind much of what us "educated liberals" accept as fact. I now see that, unbeknownst to me at the time, I had a religious upbringing. And this is a particularly dangerous religion because none of its adherents realize that they are following patterns laid down by corrupt religious institutions since the beginning of human history. Jung and Girard, in particular, present very helpful frameworks for seeing this all for what it is. And contemporary writers like Eisenstein and Kingsnorth are doing a fantastic job explaining what is happening in real time. This is important work. We need to keep shining a light on the psychopathology and primitive impulses disguised by the trappings of "science" so that more and more people experience this paradigm shift.
"I now see that, unbeknownst to me at the time, I had a religious upbringing. And this is a particularly dangerous religion because none of its adherents realize that they are following patterns laid down by corrupt religious institutions since the beginning of human history."
Thank you for this measured and really helpful comment. It has always seemed odd to me that religion is allowed to stand without being held to account. If you claim to believe in a virgin birth and a resurrection, this is seen as something 'good', you have 'faith' and conviction which is protected in most countries by law. There are no calls to back up your beliefs with science. 'Blind faith' is even lauded as a virtue. One of the most annoying things about the last 2.5 years has been the cry 'I follow the science'. What most really mean when they say that from a place of complete ignorance about what the 'science' actually is, is 'I have blind faith in the science presented to me by the government and their propagandist media'. As there is a precedent set by religion which cannot be questioned, the 'covid science' claim is allowed to fly, no questioning accepted. No matter that most cannot back up what they have faith in, nor countenance the awkward truth that in a truly scientific community, there is no concluson without robust inquiry and debate, we are expected to put up and shut with the righteous ignorance that is shutting us down and ignoring our fears and claims.
I was raised religious but with an underlying moderate/rule-bending ethic that I would later come to realize was highly atypical. For me, the idea of blindly following dogma, even in a religious context, is almost unfathomable. I literally can't comprehend how someone processes life that way.
So it's always been automatic for me to recognize proponents of the dominant "scientific" and "medical" paradigms as fundamentalists - and I mean that literally, i.e: that they're identical to religious fundamentalists.
I think the issue that undergirds the covid response requires a zooming-out so that we can understand the way the bounds of science's rationalist-materialist framework were originally drawn and why. I've found the work of scientist Rupert Sheldrake to be quite instructive here. I would recommend his lecture on pet telepathy -- it has nothing whatsoever to do with covid, and it's amusing. But it also goes to show that people can be guided into a state of institutional blindness to something that's right under our noses.
If the subject of pet telepathy sounds out-there or fruity to you, understand that Sheldrake is a formally trained, elite-educated scientist who was very much a proponent of the viewpoint that anything we can't see/hear/touch is "complete rubbish" -- until he started performing experiments of his own. (He explains his journey in the link below.)
The conception of the universe as a lifeless mechanism is a default assumption and a leap of faith just as much as any creation "myth" that's out there. And when you go back hundreds of years to when that framework first took hold, you begin to see how we got to where we are now.
I have no idea what Sheldrake's position on the covid vaccines is, and I hope he wouldn't feel misrepresented to have his work cited in this context, but regardless there would be no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I highly recommend him.
He wrote a critically important essay on vaccines called "The Vaccine Moment" https://www.paulkingsnorth.net/vaccine--it got him a lot of attention, more than he'd expected. I think the original essay has now been compiled with 2 others (3 in all), all with the same title, but that first one really stands out and is worth a read. It was so insightful while being incredibly reasonable also that I sent it to family members (none hostile) in an effort for me to help them understand why I'd made the choice I'd made.
So sorry to hear about your father Thomas. I have heard so many stories similar to yours, and am in pain around the current state of humanity's disconnections from each other and Nature..
As for you being puzzled by the many people who stick firmly to their beliefs once they have made them, there is a scientific reason for that. It has to do with our brain's neural network system and how it develops from early childhood. It a long and complex ecosystem, but essentially we are wired to perceive only that which doesn't threaten our survival state, that includes our ego beliefs. It's called confirmation bias and it truly is wired into our brains and psyches, unless we are psychologically grounded and strong enough to be able to perceive being wrong. There is a lot of information about this and the other variables that impact human perceptions and actions. I personally believe it's time for us to be edu-cared about how our neuro-psycho-social ecosystem in the spiritual container of this magnificent planet affects our relationships toward ourselves, each other and Nature. The more we understand our nature and how it is governed by Natural laws, the more compassionate, caring and connected we would become to everything and everyone around us, beginning with ourselves. Wishing you well.
Thank you for sharing your family’s heartache. I’m so sorry.
Our story is similar - Pfizer 2nd dose, large stroke, my daughter’s career and normal life ended. I refused the vaccine after this. I caught Covid from my now triple vaccinated husband and now suffer with long Covid. So I fully grasp the potential seriousness and disconnect at both ends of the spectrum.
I think we all need a long pause together. We need to light our own candles of peace and hope for others. We need to sit for awhile. No anger, no blame, just collective reflection and grieving time. Together.
Early on a very close coworker of mine's mother received her first "shot". She collapsed immediately and died the next day. A close relative of mine received her first shot on a Wednesday, died that Sunday. The shots are "effective" for sure, but their purpose is not the reduction of disease, but something far sinister.
Curious whether these were reported to VAERS. A lot of such stories I hear, the doctors said it was unrelated, or no one bothered to report it because everyone assumed filing the report was someone else's responsibility.
My brother-in-law died from an "unexpected sudden heart attack." This happened about 5 months after his first booster. More friends have died from either sudden or unexpected brain bleeds, strokes, or heart attacks. They and their families are all faithful Covidians so no connection, autopsy, or report was ever made for any of them. There is no definite way to know whether the shots exacerbated already existing conditions that they were not known to have or if the shots themselves caused their deaths. Or, indeed, if these deaths would have simply occurred. The deaths all occurred after a 3 to 7 months after the injections.
Right, there is no way for us to know for sure. The way to know would be if medical researchers take notice of the safety signals and start doing autopsies. One thing we can say for sure though, is that if the vaccines ARE causing the excess deaths, there is no mechanism by which the authorities would know it. Because they have disabled all those mechanisms.
Thanks for replying to me. I have watched video of a British funeral director talk about what he's been finding. Can you explain what mechanisms? Thanks
I am a physician/surgeon and have changed my stance radically regarding the vaccination. Having had a degree in Molecular Biology and Immunology in undergrad, I felt there was some good science behind the mRNA vaccine. I was in the front lines of the early waves of the pandemic and saw many people contract COVID and die. Some of these patients were in string denial that COVID was real. I did get the vaccines (Moderna x2) but no booster. I wanted to believe in the science and have trust. On the flip side, it was also required in order to keep my hospital priviledges in my state. My family got their shots too.
As time went on during the pandemic, I became weary of the fear state and the lack of leadership and communication as well as the perpetuation of fear. There was little data backing up any suggestions, rules were made up and modified along the way. It is now to the point where it is endemic and will be around forever.
I now feel duped by the fear mongering and ignorance. I understand the views on both sides and feel comapssion for both. I refuse to get any other shots unless they truly show benefit with a low risk profile (and I dont think that is going to happen).
I hope at some point there is a post mortem evaulation of what happened and why the decisions were made so that we can learn to avoid this catastrophe from happening again and so both sides can heal and come together again.
Thank you. I’m living within the tension of both sides. too. Personally damaged by Covid, daughter severely damaged by vaccine.
I doubt a post mortem evaluation will take place in helpful time. Even within my own family of physicians and journalists and scientists, I don’t see the reflection. Everyone is exhausted. No time to stop and reflect. All are still on board with the status quo despite the fact that we are all now caring for our most loving and independent free spirit soul, also unfortunately a physician and who underwent vaccination enthusiastically.
The disconnect ..
I don’t know where to begin.
This is what we all are missing out on, this in-between space of the impossible pause. Stillness amidst extreme polarized tension. It’s essential now, and so difficult.
Yes. I think the disconnect is very palpable. I believe the cause of a lot of our societal woes (the pandemic response, mass shootings, race issues, drug addiciton) is the result of the lack of leadership and direction as well as the loss of culture, sense of community, and lack of meaningful connection.
I am kind of where you are at. I was not skeptical of the vaccine until I saw the medical industrial complex launch a full court press on us, including the shutdown of dissenting views and non narrative experience. I did get triple x, probably won't do it again. But mostly I'm disgusted with the CDC and the FDA and will never believe a thing they say again.
While I think leaving your country is extreme, at least in reading this I found a real balance in what you said. I see your reasons for your thoughts. I admit being critical of Charles in this, what I have read seems so slanted and biased and without any reasoning for his stand. That is not what I would ever have expected from him. However, thank you. My concerns are the level of fear that I see on both sides just keeps ratcheting up. You speak of personal experiences that made you decide that the vaccines were bad. Those experiences may be outliers. The vast majority of my friends have had all the shots and none have had any issues what so ever. It all comes back to fear. We as a society have lost our faith.
May I ask in what have we lost our faith? For all those who put their faith in the vaccine and became sick, how did faith help them? For all the faithful vaxxed and boosted who have had or have covid, how did it help them? Faith is often called upon when there is something that we cannot prove, so to lose or hold it seems to be a contrary notion for somebody arguing that we should put our faith in vaccines. I would argue that plenty of people are displaying faith in some way or other - even if that's just to get out bed everyday and muddle along in a society that is now barely functioning - we just don't all have faith in the same thing. You may mean that we don't have faith in the same thing/s as you but that's ok, isn't it? And by the way, fear does not cause an adverse reaction.
Interesting that you pick a word to respond to instead of the issues. Did anyone who was informed actually think that by getting the shots you would never get sick? NO, and this was said, over and over again. Faith isn't the issue, I didn't bring it up as a claim. Oh and did anyone ever say that there wasn't down sides, that there wasn't the possibility of adverse reactions? NO again. I don't get the misunderstanding of things that were said over and over again.
Maybe things were reported differently where you are. Here the message was definitely ‘take the shot to stay covid free, stop transmission and to NOT get sick’. None of these claims have panned out as true. Interestingly, you raise an issue that is high on my radar - the selling of vaccines to prevent sickness has bred a kind of default expectation that sickness from pathogens in the natural world is unusual and avoidable - and C-19 may have been waiting in a Chinese bat to get to market and start a pandemic, we still don’t know. A whole generation (or two) have graduated and are graduating from childhood with immune systems perhaps never fully tested by a swathe of very survivable illnesses, including ‘flu. I am a proponent of creating as strong a natural immunity as possible and accepting that being sick is a very important part of life. Spoiler alert: we do all die of something sooner or later. Corrupt global pharma, arms dealing and agricultural industries assist in many of the things we die from, including variously, starvation, war, over-medication and poisoning leading to cancers. Thanks for returning me to issues.
“Now I am a firm critic of the vaccines”. ie sticking to one side, fanatically. Probably you never stop talking about it and people are starting to avoid you. Family and friends now dread seeing you but feel obliged to keep the relationship hoping you eventually take an interest in something other than vaccines. Try not mentioning vaccines for a couple of weeks…..
Being a firm critic of something doesn't necessarily involve fanaticism. Given the strength and dominance of the pro-vaccine narrative I'd say some firmness from critics is justified. "Probably you never stop talking about it..." is a bit presumptuous, as well.
I developed chronic lower back, hip sciatica after my 2nd Moderna. It is still with me, too, though not as bad. For a while last Fall I thought I was headed for a walker or worse.
It is going to take the vaccinated and unvaccinated, left and right, as many of us as possible, to excise from America the woke globalist dragon that has weaponized Science as the fuel for breathing fire. It wishes to enslave us all. It would require a bimonthly multibooster for every illness under the sun, to have access to the currency, to purchase the essentials to survive, like food, water and shelter. It would depopulate the earth to save the earth. It must be stopped.
Jen's story moved me to tears-- my own family had a rocky journey as well, with both daughters getting vaccinated and my husband and I refusing to do so-- for all the reasons you cite here. But rather than fight, I promised not to criticize their choice if they would not criticize mine. Thank God, it worked. We are still a coherent and caring family. (Ironically, both daughters and their children (also adults) have had Covid even after vaccination. I forbear to say "I told you so.")
As a therapist, I talk with people on both sides of the divide. When they ask my opinion, I tell them: "I believe people should do what they feel is best." The reason I do that is because in my own fight against cancer, which began in 1983, I refused medical intervention. By 1985 I was whole and healthy again. That was 39 years ago. Cancer and the choice I made catalyzed and continue to inspire the work I do now. What I have learned in the years since is that our minds are incredibly powerful. If we believe that a vaccine will help us, it probably will-- mentally if in no other way-- and believing that may keep us healthy. If we believe that it will make us ill, that is very likely to happen. I believed that with Spirit's guidance, I would survive cancer-- and I did. A healthy diet, meditation, time in Nature, and faith were my medicines.
That is why I agree that if we can come together, we will heal ourselves and our world. The trick is to believe that it's possible.
Charles I am grateful for your thoughtful analysis of our current collective dilemma: how do we continue to exist as genuine biological humans without destroying ourselves. I believe we are at one of those crucial evolutionary bottlenecks where, like it or not, we - to quote Pogo from the Vietnam War Era - “have met the enemy and the enemy is US.” But, I think you may have left out an important element in the story: “we” that is the vast majority of humanity, are NOT collectively responsible for the evils manifesting now. A tiny percentage of humans - IF they are in fact human by any definition - are responsible because they have 99.999% of the power and have made deliberate decisions that are, in fact evil and only have malign intentions towards us. THEY bear the preponderant responsibility for the suicidal predicament we are in because THEY are orchestrating it. When in war one must identify the enemy. THE ENEMY IS NOT, AS POGO MISTAKENLY SAID, “US.” The enemy of humanity is a non-human evil force, “powers and principalities” NOT some dark corner of our psyche, or original sin. These things - yes, Klaus Schwab and his minions including high-functioning autists like Yuval Noah Hariri, are NOT HUMAN. Utterly lacking remorse or empathy, they are dna psychopaths, demons, and evil. They are the enemy. This must be recognized and understood if we are to survive. We have caught an infection and it is called “psychopathy.” It must be destroyed utterly.
I've thought about this a lot. My question is: what in human nature allows these psychopaths to exercise their power? After all, it is not that they have bigger muscles or X-men superpowers. Whatever power they have, they have through our acquiescence. One of the main ways psychopathic individuals (or corporations or governments) rule is by harnessing the primal force of mob dynamics, tribalism, us-versus-them thinking, etc. Maybe this is THE main way they rule. i often give the example of my fourth grade class where everyone decided kent was "weird" and had "cootiest." The class bullies exploited this idea, but they didn't originate it. And the rest of the class shunned Kent. Some gleefully joined in, others passively thought, "I guess everyone couldn't be wrong, he must be weird," and others thought Kent was perfectly fine but still dared not associate with him lest we be contaminated.
As long as this kind of psychology is in place, we will forever be vulnerable to psychopathic forces seeking to control us.
Brandon Smith at alt-market has been writing about this for several years (the basic requirement of being a psychopath in order to assume leadership positions in politics/business/academia etc).
It's rampant...and their ability to exercise power lies in the reality that the vast majority of humanity (not being psychopathic) can't even imagine that our "leaders" would be that way...it's an interesting dilemma and there aren't any easy solutions.
This gets to the core issue facing humanity. We systematically elevate people to the top echelons of our institutions primarily based on their swagger, their ability to spout complete bullshit with unwavering confidence. While there is a base competence threshold to get in the game, those who truly excel due so on the strength of their dark triad personality traits rather than superior competence or moral character. We pretend as a society that we value competence and morality, but in practice we value narcissism, Machiavelianism, and psychopathy. Until we start entrusting our institutions to those quite, unsure, reluctant, self-reflective, cautious, ethical, conscientious, independent, competent people who are generally not welcome and definitely not promoted in these institutions, we will continue on our current disastrous trajectory.
Exactly that is why we have a psychopathic society that is getting progressively and rapidly more & more sick. Psychopaths are rewarded for their ruthlessness and percolate to the top, especially in certain roles, thereby reinforcing and buttressing deviant dysfunctional hateful systems. Before we get to replacing these things & their minions within society however, we must first get rid of them. I respectfully suggest that intelligent decent people need to talk about how we can disconnect from these things & the systems they control - starve them out - without becoming psychopaths ourselves, which is always a danger.
I agree and these conversations are happening. Especially among the young with families. It is sort of off the radar in that it seems to be relatively small groups who already had issues with mainstream culture long before covid and have been trying to figure out sustainable and healthy ways to survive and raise families in an increasingly toxic world where they sometimes have to have three jobs just to pay rent! Forget about owning land. These young folks are highly creative and determined tho. Of course many of us oldsters are too but we are also tired. I am drawing alot of inspiration from these small groups of determined young folks who are trying various ways to sanely survive. It has also been an incredible opportunity to bridge the generational divide.
So, WE give the psychopaths their power? Our problem is rooted in OUR PSYCHOLOGY? These things & what they do are Jungian manifestations of our dark side? What if they are not? What if it is not? I’m not saying we should be passive, I’m not saying we shouldn’t buck up. Far from it. I’m saying this force is not of our making. It is not human. Part of the trick & big lie is this thing is masquerading as human. That is why people are paralyzed, hypnotized. It’s beyond imagining. They just can’t believe humans could be so evil. And they are right. It is not human. Possibly taking on human form, animating what appears to be human, adroitly playing on human psychology. Let’s say it is an alien force. Primal. Other. I believe this goes way way beyond our built-in flaws & psychological feedback loops. It is our enemy, known by its absolute lack of empathy or remorse. Ruthless desire for power. Hatred of us. Hatred of Life itself. This is not merely our projection n the screen. The enemy is not hidden in our psychology though it plays on our vulnerabilities, weaponizing our best qualities against us. The “people” doing all these horrible things ARE NOT HUMAN. They must be destroyed utterly. Our lives and continued existence on this planet depend upon it.
that's right, we give them their power. When we awaken to our own true power, when we connect to the Source of real power, then they will no longer have power over us. Their power comes ultimately from lies. We have the innate capacity on the soul level to distinguish lies from truth.
They are parasites and they derive their power from us, our bodies, minds and spirits. They are not going to change their ways simply because we change our attitudes or mental state. They will continue their relentless predations until we are destroyed. We must recognize we are in a battle for our very survival with deadly powerful intelligent cold enemies. We must recognize the enemy and then take all action on all fronts to disconnect them from us, a vital source of their energy. We must pull their plug, get them off our jugular veins, period.
I partly agree with this. They won't change their ways simply because we change our mental state. It is more like that when we change our mental state, we will realize our power, and we will act on that power.
we have the power to chose, love, truth in every moment in regard to every situation. as ram das said. "be Here NOW". eckert tolle. The Power of Now. in this moment lies our power. to chose Love or Fear. no past, no future to make the decision needed NOW. we can talk about "it". but ultimately we need to be aware in this moment . we need to take back our projections which is showing us the world we see.
Not Charles, and I agree with your belief in the presence of an evil alien force in the world. However, what percentage of the population do you believe is being puppeteered by this evil force? If it's as many as a third or even half the population, then in my opinion the situation is hopeless. If it's a very small percentage, however, then what Charles said still applies. We have to ask ourselves what it is about the psychology of all the normal people and the structure of the systems that govern us (which depend on the cooperation of normal people) that allows the puppets of evil to gain so much power over us collectively. The ultimate cause may not be with us, but it may not be the case that we can even act against the ultimate cause. Even if we could reliably identify and kill off all the puppets of evil (doubtful, especially considering how good evil is at scapegoating, projection, and every other means of deflecting blame and warping perceptions), how are we supposed to prevent new puppets of evil from coming into being? The only way I can see is that somehow all the normal people who hopefully make up the majority of the population have to find a way to adjust ourselves to make our society inhospitable to evil -- not by identifying it and killing it off wherever we see it, since that process may be a never ending battle which can very easily be twisted by the evil into a weapon against the good -- but by recognizing the psychological processes of normal people and the structures of the systems supported by normal people that allow evil to gain a foothold in the world and work its magic on us. And that's mostly the kinds of solutions that Charles advocates for.
Those who rule us and have since the beginning of history know us very well. Our psychology is being manipulated subtly and brutally all the time, especially in the epoch of mass communication and technology. Evil doesn’t “gain a foothold” it HAS had an established power base for millennia. They believe we exist for their benefit to do with as they wish regardless of our wishes or thoughts. In fact, they think we are their property. Are we? It is time we find out.
I agree that a majority of humanity isn't responsible for current evils manifesting but a lack of empathy or psychopathy doesn't make someone non-human. Those features are part of the human experience even if they aren't shared by a majority.
I disagree. Lack of empathy and remorse, the main signs of psychopathy, enable the person to commit acts others with normal human empathy & remorse are emotionally constrained from doing. There are signs that the state of psychopathy is genetically based, resulting in a measurable defect in the area of the brain responsible for these emotions. In other words, these people are defective mutants. If our situation were not so dire caused by these things, we could afford to empathize with them. We must recognize and understand this is our enemy, disguised as human. No, they are not human by definition. They want to destroy us - and they are. That is a fact.
We have a different definition of human, then. Most people would not redefine human to exclude those with genetic defects, and frankly this seems an obviously bad path to go down. I think that cognitive or strategic empathy (vs. an emotional 'feel their pain' empathy) is useful when trying to understand anyone, even those doing great harm (thought not sufficient since we need to examine larger systems that enable the sociopaths to rise to the top).
The schism between the vaxxed and unvaxxed, and doubters and accepters reflects an internal schism and a schism that lies at the heart of humanity. We are all doubter and accepters. We all contain the elements of loyalty and independence. Human nature is designed to be comprised of yin and yang, confidence and doubt, trust and suspicion. Duality is bred in the bone. The challenge is not to deny that duality and remain in a place of dynamic doubt.
But if we are to adopt a humanistic stance, there can be no room for condemnation, devaluation, and vilification. There can only be room for understanding, and improving our communication skills. In the forum of ideas, those who can not maintain respect for others, fail to respect themselves too. Not playing by the rules disqualifies you from participation in the exchange of ideas. Much as we condemn those who condemn others, we should learn not to condemn them for their condemnation but understand them and set limits on them. Or else we become like them. These abusers are deluded, in that they have denied their own dual nature and have embraced a monistic view of the world and themselves. The challenge is to gently get them to see the errors of their own thinking, while simultaneously being open to learning our own mistaken understandings. The spirit of charity, empathy and humanity will enable a conversation to take place (sometimes, but only with those who are not too emotionally activated) but judgment will snuff out any hope for enlightenment. Indeed, some are so deep into denial that they are unreachable. In this case, the default system should always be respect, because respect comes from love and love is the life force that sustains all that is important. It resonates with the spirit that makes our world a wonderful place.
It's opposite can only lead to a dark place. As has always the case, the essential problem humans face is what to do with our anger? How do we keep it from dividing us internally from our own loving nature? How do we keep it from hurting others? How do we transform it into something positive so it doesn't corrode us inside with resentment? I believe there is no resolution to this. It is an eternal question, a koan, which like sailing a ship on a windy sea, requires constant adjustment and adaptation to the vicissitudes of the natural world. It is the game of life, and alas, we all play it badly at times. We are in a constant struggle against our own human weaknesses to become better people. There will always be room for improvement.
yes, what to do with our anger, that is a good question. I think its holy force is neutralized when it is diverted onto hate. Anger is a response to a boundary violation. It is the sacred No.
Understanding of the proper role of anger- as a legitimate human defensive response to real threats to personal boundaries - is a critical insight. Attaining it in a 12 Step program transformed my management of relationships and provided me with the basis for a sense of security within the social matrix. I wish the same for many. It can defuse the 'all against all' perception and reactivity that leads to the situation that has developed in the US. Reclaiming the right to the anger response when it is appropriate is vital to personal empowerment. And only the disempowered defer to the dictats of corrupt authority.
Your question about what to do with our anger is great! Anger breeds so much hate that it is difficult to turn that around. I believe that in order for the anger of our country to dissipate we need to begin with self reflection and forgiveness. Not an easy thing to do but both will lead to compassion and understanding.
This series is fast becoming a medicament to my heart ❤️ ! When I see a new essay in my inbox I become enlivened, enthusiastic, and hopeful! You have captured the essential sentiment of so many of us who’ve found ourselves lonely, ostracized, and maligned, Charles! As we work through our bafflement, bewilderment, befuddlement, many of us are just scratching our heads…?!
I haven’t judged harshly one single friend, family member, nor loved one for their decision to accept the official state remedy for this dreaded virus?! Yet, I’m continually ostracized and banished from friend groups and full access to society, simply for my insistence on body autonomy; coincidentally, a current topic of heated debate!
I don’t know if it’s worth noting that I haven’t had so much as a sniffle in over 2-years, and I counted one ☝🏽 cold in 15-years! As someone who has survived pharmaceutical injury (Cipro) resulting in life-threatening ischemic colitis and sepsis, with a subsequent ‘Crohn’s’ diagnosis, I’ve had this autoimmune disorder described to me by Dr. Cowan (yes, THAT Dr. Cowan!) as “hypervigilant” immune response. Meaning, an immune system can work too well and, in my case, become exquisitely intolerant of toxicity, particularly petrochemical and synthetic drugs. It also explains why I don’t get colds and flus. When the pandemic hit, I knew I’d be fine. My fear of the virus was, on a scale of 1-10, at threat level zero. It has remained at zero, even as I’ve been exposed to active cases.
It’s definitely worth noting that Dr. Cowan has single-handedly been responsible for the majority of my recovery from my near-death experience, and indeed helped guide me through not only a reversal of symptoms, but some of the best digestive health I’ve ever experienced! I’m certainly not interested in compromising my vitality to risky experimental biotech! That is my right. If others choose options that suit their situation, that’s not my business. We all have our unique experiences.
Charles, Thanks for continuing to write into the Space in Between Stories. I have been thinking very similar things as the folks you quote who have lost all hope. I see absolutely nothing that I've been taught, that I've witnessed in my lifetime, that I have to live through day to day, that gives me any hope, or makes me feel that we have taken any concrete steps toward moving beyond Girarding scapegoating. Everything I've learned I've had to unlearn, and most of what I do these days is try to sit still and breathe and wait and observe, and when someone asserts some kind of truth, patiently unravel it and let it sit there, neither true no untrue, just an assertion that someone has made. "Well, clearly, this is a sign of hope," is just as untrue as "Clearly, this is a sign of the evildoers." This latest essay of yours make me think of the life of Jesus. I have strong Christian affiliations, but I don't self-identify as Christian. But, this essay and the study you've made of Girardian tendencies in society, to me, speaks directly to the wisdom and foolishness of the cross. The cross is a symbol of violence of the state against an individual. It was not originally a symbol of personal, individual salvation. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he offered his own body, in complete love, against state violence and mass hysteria. I see absolutely no sign that Christianity today is anything other than poorly disguised patriarchy or feel-good carnival tickets to heaven; and yet, I still find huge power in the symbol of the cross. We are supposed to take up our own crosses and follow in the path. And, we have to do it completely devoid of hope, because there will be no visible signs. Yet, as Wendell Berry says, the shape of our hope is exactly the shape of our despair. The hope comes only through the fact that, as you have written, our hearts know better, despite no outward visible evidence.
Some theologians believe the Christ story precisely subverts the Scapegoat pattern because in that story the victim, rather than being vilified in legend as the evil one, is shown as innocent, illuminating (1) the fundamental innocence of all victims, and (2) that this could happen to anyone, regardless of how guilty or innocent one is. I wrote about this in depth in A Temple of this Earth. https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/a-temple-of-this-earth
I feel well disposed to a lot of what you have written. I do get so bothered though by Christianity - even though you do say you don't identify as one. I am sad that you are clearly struggling with hopelessness and many days now I join you there. I just cannot find the hope in any of Christianity. Indeed, what was the point of Jesus' 'sacrifice'? The hysteria of the Christian message - salvation through blind obedience rewarded by eternal life - leaves us with nothing useful to help us navigate life on earth. The only life we can be sure we have. Everything good that Jesus stood for has been corrupted and used as a tool to inflict unspeakable suffering on indigenous peoples everywhere - and these are the people we should be prostrating ourselves before, begging to be taught how to get back to living in right relation with nature and each other. We can argue about sacrificial practises perhaps! The act of crucifixion itself has been used as a reason for the 'holy' to inflict physical harm upon themselves, which I think, is evidence of great sickness. I understand you are not advocating Christianity - but I don't even think the symbolism of cross-bearing is helpful. Imagine though, instead of bearing a cross, which is self-righteous and negatively disposed towards the belief that we are all smeared with sin and have are doomed to fail without it, we strive to believe that we are at the core, decent, loving and designed to want to bond with each other. Why don't we all try to 'carry' each other.
For all the New Age spirituality in the world, I'm not "prostrating" myself before any other human being, indigenous or otherwise. That's part of the point of liberation for me.
Fair enough, I wanted to evoke an image that reminds us what evils have been committed in the name of Christianity. There's nothing New Agey about what I'm talking about. I ain't prostrating myself before some unseen god either.
Whilst I agree wholeheartedly with your analysis of the wrongs done in the name of organised Christianity (Churchianity), there is, for me, deep sublime truth in the message of Christ. Christ as the bearer of Christ- Consciousness : self-less, kind, open, tolerant , inclusive, non-judging. This Christ Impulse transcends the narrow bounds of petty religions, allowing each of us to become sovereign individuals living and growing together with other sovereign individuals. Independent, free but hoping and striving for community, community based on respect, brotherliness, freedom and equality.
And…. for me this Christ energy is intimately connected to the Spirit of the Earth; Christ perhaps even being ithe spirit of the Earth. This means, obviously, that the terrible acts done by missionaries etc upon indigenous peoples who have the deepest, purest connection to nature is deeply unchristian.
I’m not quite sure why I’m saying this - I’m not trying to persuade anyone of anything, perhaps rather speaking up for the Christ impulse of pure selfless love. To my mind there is nothing wrong with that! Obviously difficult to attain for a mere mortal like me, but something to aspire to… something that gives me hope. And yes, it might sound abstract and sentimental, but for me it is a real inspiring energy that I can connect to and work with, in any and all relationships with both people and nature.
Thanks Michael, for your reply. When people talk about the love of Christ, I am always left wishing I understood what they are talking about. I just don't see it. Where does Jesus really show that? His life is shown as an array of miracles of healing, the blind to see, the lame to walk, the 3000 to be fed with a loaf and a couple of fishes and so on. This is the stuff of a comic book hero, a construct of wishful superhumanism. His final act of death is followed by the most superhuman feat of all - resurrection. The claim to end all claims, 'Hurrah! Christianity wins, it conquers death!' How does that 'save' all mankind? (I need to also mention here, the issue of human life before Christ.) Look around us now. Why should what amounts to little more than a non-verifiable account be held in such awe? It was a cult of personality. I can't go past all the violent, sickening things done in the name of that belief system, I just can't. The mass killings, cruelty to children, the suppression of women, absolution of evil, the greed, the destruction of other cultures and so much more done in the name of Christ. I am amazed (and impressed) that you take the positives you do from it but I cannot join you there. Pure, selfless love is inflated and attached to the Christ story by those who want to control people. Everything is ok in the name of.... I wouldn't put so much importance on the nature of love to be pure and selfless. Actions, whether they be called kindness, generosity or love are just as important and very, very common among us 'mere' mortals. Don't belittle yourself! Perhaps this is even more impressive than a 'son of God'. In the end, it all worked out for Christ. He lived again and will for all eternity, he got to hang with his dad and billions of people worship him. I just cannot believe any of it and prefer to find my inspiration in the myriad of other places there are to find it. I suppose in the end, it doesn't matter what it is that inspires you towards being a loving human in any and all relationships and I bet you are decent and flawed person very like me. I like your use of 'Churchianity', a great new word. :-)
I have nothing much to add except I like your point about mere mortals. I think it was false modesty on my part, which is not a particularly attractive or helpful trait to have. Because actually I think I am an amazing person,( like all of us); thank you for reminding me. Working on it!
As to the Christ Impulse, I have no clever argument except to say that all religions get hijacked by humanity, and Christianity probably the most of all. But in my view that’s all it is - a hijacking; the real essences of all spiritual teachers (Buddha, Christ, Mohammed, Jehovah, Mother Earth, Angels, and others I don’t yet know about) remain as realities in the world. Finding a way to those realities is a journey each of us has to take alone, hence no clever suggestions.
Thank you for your amazement and for being impressed by my views, (it feels quite good to be recognised sometimes!!! ) And thank you for your clear and deep sadness that you feel about the distortion of true Christ energy….and your eloquent speaking of it. Important!
And finally, I’m quite excited that in this conversation we haven’t mentioned the C word once!! How cool is that???!
Haha! No, we didn't! Thanks, Michael for hearing me out. I don't usually fully reveal how I feel about the other C word (the one we are discussing :-)) and it felt really good to be honest. I don't regard myself as qualified in a scholarly way, so I just let my heart roll out the words. The Churchianity that filled my childhood failed me - or I failed it, or both - and I do have to own all I say is just my response to my experience. I cannot refuse to see that you and many like you, are doing the important work of taking what is the best part of it, the reminder to remaining loving and respectful of all people. I feel your patience and kindness, so thank you for that.
A tough call. I personally believe that the daughter in your example is "wrong" (ignorant, not up on the facts), but in her thinking she's protecting her child. It's impossible to see her as the "bad guy", no matter how wrong she might be. Her mother is dying. If I were the mother, I know what my choice would be. Every case is unique. Can we imagine a world in which everyone knows the best thing to do? I don't think so. The hysteria around covid (IMHO) is totally unfounded, yet we live in a culture that accepts it. Can we "educate" the masses, make them able to see the "truth", for that matter, is it truth? I think so, but that's me. Most people don't have Charles's ability to evaluate information, something he often fails to realize. It's a sad state that we live in. I know very bright people who want everyone vaccinated, because their fear outweighs their reasoning ability.
I often wonder about what you've said here: " Most people don't have Charles's ability to evaluate information," It puzzles me how unequal the abilities have been distributed. When conversing online with a group like this many things can be discussed, but in my real life there are so many people who I can find no way at all to communicate with about these same topics. I wonder if these individuals do not need to think about the same things to be fully themselves, or if they are stunted, damaged, or somehow oppressed by circumstances? I don't want to foolishly assume that everyone needs to be similar to me, but it sure does seem that something is terribly wrong and many don't even notice.
Well, the same's true for me, some people I can communicate with, some I don't even try. I taught for many years (mainly 18-25 yr olds) and came to the conclusion that there's a normal distribution of intelligence among people. It's not that some are stunted or damaged, they just cannot evaluate information. They're happy being told what to do, what to think. Unfortunately the people telling them what to do and think about covid are (IMHO) wrong, or purposely misleading them. On the other hand, many of my former colleagues buy into the vaccine story (not all, thankfully), one with a Ph.D. in cell biology, another with a master's in genetics. Perhaps they don't look closely enough at what's going down, or at the data, they are time limited for sure.
I wasn't thinking of intelligence, as measured by our schools and tests and degrees. Plenty of people who rank very high in that regard that I cannot communicate with. The best explanation I have found is Ian McGilchrist's work about left brain and right brain. It explains a lot but it doesn't help us know what to do about the situation and in some ways has made me feel even more powerless to bridge the divide. I'm thinking that the only way to communicate sometimes is just to live out what I see to be true and let the living of it speak for itself. Not only relating to Covid but also materialism, status, beauty... all these different issues that I feel so strongly about.
Covid (or any infectious disease) vaccination is a tricky question. It's a very different issue from something like abortion, which is nobody's business but the parent's. People feel threatened by the unvaxed. Personally I feel like if you're vaccinated, in theory you should be protected, so unvaccinated people pose little or no threat. This "disease" has been so hyped up and the vaccinations are so uneffective, Charles's title to this and the previous essay are spot on. It occurred to me after I wrote the last response about taking the time to look at the data, the only reason I did pay such close attention to it was that I was traveling by train right through the thick of it in 2020. I paid close attention, and saw nothing to fear. Of course I don't get flu shots or mammograms or colonoscopies or any of that, for me, doctors are people you go to when sick and not just a little bug, they're normal. I worked in health care when it changed so drastically, changes in how insurance paid, control by big pharma, "preventative care" (which prevents nothing), took over. These days it's out of control.
I agree. Also important information about covid was highly censored from the very beginning. Most folks just did not have time to go digging for legitimate alternative viewpoints which often directly contradicted the mainstream narrative. The medical professionals and scientists around the world who dared questioned that narrative were quickly and brutally silenced or rendered ineffectual in the larger conversation. Fauci's emails clearly show that even within our own health agencies, dissenting voices were quickly smothered and deliberate smear campaigns were instigated to discredit any dissenters. From day one both the UK and the US brought out the domestic terrorist club against anyone who shared covid 'disinformation'. Which of course meant anyone who challenged the narrative no matter how credentialed and experienced they were. I personally was outcasted and attacked by my own community simply for saying that alot of important covid data was being censored and misrepresented. I was told I was now a 'danger' to the community by even daring to point out blatant censorship!
It's clear that the narrative on everything is censored, from covid to big ag, politics, you name it. It's frightening. Why people can't see it is a mystery to me, or why they ignore it. Lots of folks do see, make jokes about it, then carry on. Bret Weinstein (who I don't always agree with) said something the other day that rang true: it's a "storm the cockpit" moment in history. We don't all have to agree on everything, but the big picture is very clear.
Of course it occurs to me, I can't say "if I were the mother I know what I'd do" because I'm not her, I don't know all her circumstances. It's a tough decision one would wish she didn't have to make, but she does. In a perfect world, it wouldn't be, but then it's not ever perfect. In fact, it's often really messed up.
I read some of the comments and I do think you presented a balanced debate . I was vaccinated and yet was not supportive of mandates , especially as we progressed to a more endemicity . I work with disabled adults and my son is also disabled therefore any “ fence “ no matter how small was important to apply . However observation of the virus and its effect on society at large did not confirm for me the validlity of any kind of mandate . Since having the vaccination I have had COViD but it’s severity only lasting 24 hours , this is vital for me as my son has a pacemaker in his heart and is prone to pneumonia . I wonder if anyone else presented with these choices would have done differently . My previous job as a soldier required me to have a range of vaccinations that the general public never have , I felt it was the same as regards my personal life that I get vaccinated . Infection is not prevented however my son also got covid and thank god it didn’t extend to severe disease . My needs are met and I would not think the research convinces me that universal application was necessary . However the data never stands still and I continue to read more of the studies that arise now with bigger populations . I remain flexible yet not to the point where I could support mandates or young children receiving the vaccine .
However I’ve tried to reach out to the unvaccinated to maintain friendships and relationships and in fact I’ve been marginalised truly and fully . Even to the point where this week I got into a dicscussion with a guy at local fruit store who turned away from me and called me be of “ them” .
I’m not completely beaten however in my outlook, to me it’s vital love and friendship rise above these binaries . My research is extensive and my searches are in BMJ and also Lancet and pub med . I extend beyond this to embrace the qualitative with the empirical . This has led me to believe that lockdowns are unesscessaty and ineffective and harmful to society . Masks are not effective or ineffective but they have variable application and really personal choice , it’s rather relative than an absolute . How do we get together ? Well the one thing we must admit is even though our information is wide and varied it all comes from the same little digital boxes . We need to suspect the origin of this always as manipulation and mass hypnosis is based on “ my phone is always right “! - is it ???
Thanks for this comment. One thing it might convey to people who condemn the vaccinated is that the choice to vaccinate, even if not mandated, was not a free choice. Because the information you were given upon which to make your decision was highly biased and manipulated. You made the best choice you could based on the information you trusted. Perhaps as with Thomas above, you will make different choices as the truth becomes more available. Who could blame you for making the choice you did?
Charles, this a gracious answer and, at the same time, I believe you're making an assumption about the information that vaccinated people have. What makes you believe that someone who chose to vaccinate had only biased and manipulated information? Do you believe it's possible that someone might have looked at a wide array of information and then chose to vaccinate or do you believe that everyone who had the same information you had would choose not to?
It is hard for me to imagine people choosing to vaccinate if they had the information I do. However, the "information" I speak of isn't entirely factual data on the vaccines, or even the knowledge of corruption and manipulation of the data. It also includes systems of thought, unsound paradigms that most people don't know are unsound, and so foth.
It sounds to me like what it comes down to is that no one who has your information and worldview would (voluntarily) vaccinate.
You asked in another comment for examples of how you unintentionally "belittle" -- I see a hint of that here where you assert the unsoundness of other people's paradigms as a matter of fact (that they're too ignorant to realize) rather than as a matter of your subjective opinion. It put me on the defensive a little.
It is also true that if I had their information and worldview, I would make the same decision they did. That is not belittling. It is, however, incumbent on me to share my information and worldview. People may not accept it, but I cannot stay silent when (as I see it) people are being lied to.
I think the issue at hand is one of equanimity. When we feel that if not for the grace of my own experiences, I would believe and behave exactly the same as this other person does ...only then does something big shifts inside of us. When that is how we are approaching life, we do not come across as condemning others for their beliefs. Instead there is honor and respect for everyone no matter what. If we believe in the idea of an inherently bad or good person, or even inherently good or bad choices we are acting as if we have perfect knowledge which we know is impossible. At all times it comes down to seeing people as doing the best they can, from that place when you talk about your beliefs there is great respect for others without it being about one's egotism and that is when we can truly change the world. Without that, we're just serving as a mirror to all that we see in the world.
I feel the same as Erica. I have appreciated opportunities to feel the twinge of condescension, belittling and judgement from anti vaccination folks. And I am so sorry for the ways I may be doing the same. And despite our efforts to conduct a conversation without these judgmental spikes- I don’t see it ( feel it) happening.
I will continue to read “ north sides” and continue to seek a wide horizon.
As devils advocate I would ask you- how can you be so sure that you know the ‘truth’? It does feel a bit patronising… and a bit confusing. Are you advocating ‘Inter-being’ or are you advocating ‘inter-being as long as you learn to see my truth’? This makes me uncomfortable… it’s not something I personally want to do.
And…. in relation to truth and lies: I feel it is a symptom of our binary world that we believe in only one truth, I have a feeling their are many truths… and that they evolve too!!
Very complicated and annoying I’ll admit, but perhaps helpful for our initiatory possibilities?
When you put it that way, it doesn't come across to me as belittling. But when there's a subtle assertion that your worldview is superior to someone else's, it carries an implicit judgment of the other as inferior.
Charles, I love you and I have to say that reading you and meeting you has been hugely inspiring in my life. And I love what you say about how the main issue is how we polarize each other into good and bad people and how we want to scapegoat people.
But on this issue, it seems like you had already made up your mind that the vaccines were going to be bad back in March 2020 when you wrote Coronation. How much of this "information" and data about vaccines and ideas about systems of thought and unsound paradigms did you already have back then?
Your new covid-era audience seems extremely one sided to me and ready to scapegoat left and right.
In fact, I initially thought mRNA vaccines might possibly be less toxic than traditional vaccines, because they don't need all the toxic adjuvants and preservatives. It turned out I was mistaken. They are much worse. That would have been obvious from the start if Pfizer hadn't manipulated the studies.
I have in fact been skeptical of vaccines since the 1990s, and wrote a bit about it in The Ascent of Humanity, which I wrote in the early 2000s. My overall views on vaccination have not changed. It's just that it wasn't that "political" until recently.
Curious where you see the scapegoating happening. I haven't seen a lot of it in the comments, except for a few who are fixated on the narrative of a elite satanic cabal. Those folks are a small minority of my "new audience," and in fact they criticize me for not endorsing that narrative.
I just read the industrial medicine article and everything in there makes sense to me and you address everything in a larger context there. So I feel relieved after reading it.
My personal choice is to take the vaccine and do as many of the other things as possible to stay healthy so I still don't understand why these particular vaccines or the masks are the fork in the road.
Thank you Charles, I appreciate you replying even though I wrote something critical and my comment wasn't super gracious.
I don't know how you can be so definite and categorical about how the mRNA vaccines are much worse, or just really bad overall. I don't want to get into that because people have been cherry picking data and information. But you are acknowledging here that part of the data you used to arrive to that conclusion is something about how "those" people have an unsound paradigm and system of thought. Does this mean that you personally feel have a sound paradigm and system of thought that allows you to see beyond all the published data that the vaccines actually have bad outcomes and are not currently preventing hospitalizations and deaths ?
I am not a good writer/thinker and I do not know how to express subtle nuances like you and a lot of other people do.
However, my vague, intuitive understanding of how all this works is that the moment that somebody becomes really sure of their own worldview at the expense of the possibility of other worldviews possibly being correct, that's exactly the moment of danger, the risk of dehumanizing people who are not "getting" it. And I think this is a big part of what I have been hearing you say for years.
I would like to understand how you hold within you both the deep belief that it is crucial not to dehumanize the people who have a different experience or reality, and the intensity and level of conviction with which you take one side in this particular realm. For example, not that this is the most important one, just one example: is there anything left that you are open to that might get you to consider the possibility of the mRNA vaccines having been helpful in preventing deaths and hospitalizations?
I don't know how to point out a specific example of scapegoating in the comments, to me that feels obvious in the general tone of most of the people who are aggrieved here about how much they had to suffer because they didn't want to wear masks or didn't want to get vaccinated.
Even just your assertion that the "violence" was asymmetrical feels like scapegoating to me. I know you like to make big picture comparisons, like you keep using the hunger comparison.
So if I was to try to make a similarly risky comparison, I would say something like: it looks like a certain number of people in affluent countries have experienced a negative interaction with their government and some of their fellow citizens, how is this different in scale or gravity to all the other historical examples or even current examples of how the capitalist ( or communist) or whatever system is oppressing people and causing harm?
How is having to wear a mask more outrageous and worthy of drawing a line in the sand than systemic racism, corporate takeover of politics, the shit that they call food in this country, the ongoing destruction of living ecosystems ?
How is that even worthy of your attention and brilliance compared to all the other issues? How do you not lose the big message of trying to understand the other side and try to not get polarized?
One possibility is that there are people who are used to having privilege and used to not being inconvenienced in anyway and they seem to get somewhat easily outraged. What is the Venn diagram of the intersection between your new audience ( if there is one) and those kind of people?
I grew up in communist Romania so having to wear a mask does not feel like an existential imposition on my freedom.
Thank you Charles i am learning how to discern truth from knowledge .Like Socrates I accept a fluid position with knowledge . A beautiful example of differences that became friendship and understanding was the relationship between
I just wanted to say that this line you wrote touched me: "I've tried to reach out to the unvaccinated to maintain friendships and relationships". And I am very sorry that you have not been met with appreciation. Unvaxxed myself, I wish old friends would reach out to me and say something like "I want you to know I still value your friendship and I'm still here for you" even if they don't 'fully support' my choice. I realize it takes something for them to do that and I would appreciate it a lot. BTW I do have one friend who said from the start, even though she is *terrified* of Covid (quite needlessly, IMO), "I love you and I want to understand". And I feel no distance from her - if anything, I feel we are closer than before. And we still disagree.
Thank you , It’s been a difficult time , initially I had many reservations as regards vaccination , however my personal circumstances made it difficult for me to hold that stance .
I do hope we can all move towards a better position . Of course there are difficulties when 2 people hold opposing views , yet friendship can be maintained . Look at Martin Mcguiness and Ian Paisley
I understand & empathize with the experiences of being ostracized by vaccination status. I was censored from participating in a celebration of her life when my mother died. I traveled 5. 5 hours, attended the small, family graveside service & was told not to attend the get-together at my sister's home following the funeral. About 40 people in her neighborhood were there. I tested negative before the funeral. I asked how many had tested recently for me to be excluded? Didn't matter to them because all were allegedly vaccinated. Didn't bother arguing this illogic. My sister & her husband showed no compassion for how I felt & they were suffering the same loss. According to them, my choice not to be vaccinated (true) & they were responsible for providing safety for the guests. Again I said I just tested negative. So, it was more about punishing than it was safety.
I was all alone, devastated by my mother's death & excluded from any comfort while my sister was surrounded by family & friends. Hurt a lot & still does. Hard to accept this coldness from my sister.
Gerri, what a devastating experience for you. I had something similar in that I was forced to resign from my hiking group…..through our weekly walks for 10 years and our social gatherings and camping trips, they had become my confidants, support community and ‘friends’. Initially, I was at a total loss, felt excluded, missing out and victimised. At my (inoculated) daughter’s suggestion, I dropped the victim role (it still quietly surfaces at times) and have tried to organise other walking friends and just looked at it differently. ‘They are missing out on my company and input into the group. In fact, they have just felt safe enough to change the rules and invite me back saying how much they missed me , etc 🙄 How sad for your sister to have missed the comfort of your presence, your shared memories and love. How sad for her to have not found away to be there for you. These situations are such an opportunity to come into our true power and find that inner strength and resilience. BTW, I want peace and harmony, so I will occasionally join them for particular walks, but I’m certainly going to continue this journey I have now begun. I hope you can find your way to heal land create the life you truly deserve. Blessings and best wishes
Sheila, don't know why my reply didn't show. Trying again. Thank you for writing. Appreciate you understanding. Felt like I was stabbed through the heart. So sorry about your hiking group. Ten years is quite a loss! Hurts deeply. Sounds like you have a wise daughter. Heartening they missed you & invited you back. Good you feel you can join occasionally. Great you found other walking friends. Hope they offer comradery you had before. Stay well with your head high.
I can't tell you how many times I've read a experience so similar to yours. I cannot begin to understand that kind of hurt and rejection. Bless you! I don't know it if helps but there are many families going through the same thing: all the vaccinated are welcomed and the un-vaccinated are shunned. What a terrible thing to do to someone who has lost a loved one!!!!
All I can say is that I am sorry, that she was wrong and that, sadly, Karma will take care of that and her.
I couldn't ever forgive her, if you/Charles can, good for you/him.
I have the same situation now with my father and decided to keep up appearances while internally having pronounced him dead for me.
Imo, within the family and with formerly very best friends, such a resort to shallowness is probably the best course of action now, it requires some phoney acting on my part, but at least it doesn't open more and bigger cans of worms.
In those few instances, I am willing to pay that price and go that route.
With 'friends', I see it differently.
I do not really bemoan their loss or feel that I am on the receiving end or am being excluded by them.
To the contrary.
I do not want to have anything to do with them anymore, or can't take them serious anymore depending on their level of advocacy for my discrimination, and it is me who is cutting the ties, not them.
Thanks, Jay. I posted a reply that didn't show. Been waiting for karma for a long time. I think karma may be another magical thinking to bring solace. Or it takes too long to witness karmic results to know if it's true or a fairy tale.
Actually, at this point, I haven't forgiven her. Best I can do is say f**ck her. I tried to understand her side, but can't because I was healthy, tested neg that day, had no symptoms, no risk to anyone. All I see is illogic & insensitivity to cast me out alone. There was the brand of self-righteous that also made it difficult to swallow.
Sorry about your father. Think I share how you feel. Understand how the line of least resistance is often best. Prevents hurt from going deeper. My route to mental health was cutting my father out of my life because would never have been resolved & just further pain. If we divorce partners, end negative friendships, why are we bound to painful blood relationships?
Good you removed yourself from friends who really weren't. Healthy move, kudos.
Until we really understand that we are part of an organism called Gaia and are totally interconnected and interdependent upon it for our wellbeing and even our very life and take actions from that gnosis, we will continue to destroy ourselves and the planet. Pandemania is a symptom of the much larger disease called separation.
I absolutely agree. This is a primary lesson I take from Covid. Viruses are part of us and we of them, they are inextricably woven through our DNA and evolution as humans beings. To believe we can 'overcome' them is symptomatic of our ignorance, arrogance and separation. It goes right back to christian injunctions to 'conquer' nature. Pandemania is absolutely a symptom of a much larger disease. Thank you!
Sorry Charles, but it seems like you live in a different universe than me.
Any coercion, hatred and discrimination in those regards was and is entirely one-sided.
None of us mask or vaccine refusers ever demanded that a masked or vaccinated person does the same.
We might mock them for it on the basis of our usually much deeper research, but we never ever argued for taking away their choices, only they did and do this with ours.
And not just despite the ever more visible ineffectiveness, harm and ridiculousness of them, but seemingly most often even more so as the fact that their choices have been terrible becomes more visible. I said from the start that my red line is a vaxx mandate, that I want nothing to do anymore with anyone who ever was in favour of it. I have extended my disgust and contempt to everyone who participated and tolerated the ensuing discrimination- probably also because I would originally not have deemed that discrimination and its tolerance possible in today's world and by my circle of 'progressive' 'professionals'.
If, as and when people seriously apologize for their complicity, I might half-heartedly be able to forgive them and do 'business' with them again, but I will never forget and will still hold a much revised and lower opinion of them- you can't change (my) human nature here, declarations that 'everything will then be fine again between us' are imho just deluded and phoney.
I don't think our views are so very different. In Part 1 I pointed to exactly what you are saying here: there is a profound asymmetry between the two sides. One has the power of the entire establishment, the other does not. One is trying to force the other to do something, the other is not.
It would be gratifying for people to apologize for their complicity. More than that, it would be a good sign that people are ready to examine their role in what happened. Ultimately though, we have to realize that at bottom we are all human. At this moment you and I are probably complicit in horrors that we aren't even aware of. We think we are doing our best in light of our knowledge of the global political and ecological situation. But we don't know what we don't know. What are the conditions that will allow us to awaken to our own complicity? What are the conditions that will help us really take responsibility for it? Is it the mocking hatred of those who saw it all along?
Jay, sadly it is true that there are numbers of 'anti-vaxxers' and 'anti-maskers' who are discriminating against and sometimes blaming and shaming those who did get the covid vaccine for whatever reason, and/or who continue to mask. It sounds like that is not happening around you, but I have seen it happening in my area. I was invited to lead a ceremony at an event recently that refused to admit the vaccinated or allow any masks to be worn at all. They advertised their event as 'spike protein free' and told me that about 400 people would be attending. Considering this event is to be in a blue county of a blue state that is alot of people to be promoting that type of, imo completely erroneous propaganda and predjudice form the other direction. I declined the invitation because I simply cannot support discrimnation based on vaccination status in either direction. whether vaxxed or unvaxxed. Yes, collectively the discrimination has been overwhelmingly against the unvaxxed. But there is still plenty of predjudice against the vaxed from some folks who believe that the vaccinated present a real danger of 'shedding' the toxic elements of the vaccine onto them. Yes the vaccinated do shed as has been proven with other vaccines, but there is no possible way to avoid it unless we live in a sealed bubble. We are living in a soup of toxicity including spike proteins all around us. The idea that someone can actually hold a 'spike protein free' event and thus protect themselves from being exposed to covid from the vaccinated, is completely ludicrous and for me illustrates yet another level of this insanity.
Rainbow, this is indeed ridiculous and such events are really unheard of and probably illegal anyway here in Europe.
To me, ANY discrimination is just plain wrong- sadly, those harping on the most about this simple principle in the past were and still are the most actively this principle forgetting people.
Last year for example, when it became clearer that the vaccinated can still spread and are therefore indeed the hidden and therefore more likely and more dangerous superspreaders in nightclubs etc., I have made the point that while objectively only they should then get refused or tested as a condition for access, this non-discrimination principle demands that everyone should be admitted and tested instead.
I would also never exclude or shun a vaxxed person just because of his vaxxed status.
Intellectually, I can't take them (or rather the uncoerced) very serious anymore, especially so now and those who are refusing to even contemplate connecting the side effect dots when they become ill, but I would always want them to be able to continue to get their shots if they so desire.
With masks, the situation is a bit different, imho.
Mask mandates were the first and are the most visible assault on our bodily autonomy, the mask was introduced primarily as a Gessler hat.
If you continue to wear a mask now, imho, you demonstrate a support of this assault and a desire to re-establish these mandates, their dehumanisation, coercion, illegal ignorance of exemptions and hatred practiced towards the exempt and that now unquestionable obedience to government authority- no wonder the Germans are planning this mandate's reintroduction and most Germans are already clamouring for it.
So, they are solely about virtue signalling, politics, tribal identification etc. at this point.
This is even more unacceptable and unforgivable in light of their now so obvious inefficiency, harm and ridiculousness in theory and, above all, practice- again, people, in particular medical professionals who still claim otherwise have completely lost my respect and are probably just evil and part of the evil agenda.
There is simy no reason to and no excuse for still pulling one out of your bag or trouser pocket, for wearing one when you are alone in your car, when going through a restaurant and then taking it off at the table, when shopping masked with your unmasked partner etc..
If you are truly afraid, I respect that but expect you to do thorough research then, whether on Covid (IFR) the 'vaccines' or masks, otherwise, you do not really take this serious and are just faking your fear to blend in with the herd or to make a political statement.
With regard to masks, that then means you must know by now that you must wash your hands 3x per exchange of one, that they can't protect others, are totally useless for anyone with a beard, and that only P100 ones, or fitted N95s with filter, plus full PPE and goggles!, can protect you, for up to 40 minutes (new Australian study). You will then behave accordingly (no restaurant, no flight etc.) and have my acceptance of your fear, as well as my pity for your psychosis.
My beef with you then starts again, if you want to mandate your psychotic behaviour for everyone.
Thank you for your response Jay. I completely agree about stopping the masks mandates totally. I and others have worked hard here locally to try to stop them and prevent them from coming back. I also agree that most masks in most situations for most people are pretty useless and that they do cause measurable psycho-social and physical distress. So I am 1000% against forced masking. However, if someone wants to wear a mask over their face, or ridiculous goggles or a gas mask or have an unkempt bush of a beard with food remains in it or tattoo their face, get injected with botox and have a permanent smile and grossly inflated lips, I just don't care. That is entirely up to them. I might cringe when I look at them, but that is my problem not theirs. And yes maybe those who continue to wear masks are visibly supporting the whole crazy thing, but then those who get face lifts are supporting the whole insanity of eternal youth too. As long as they don't force me to get a face lift or wear a mask or get vaccinated etc and they don't reject me for not doing so; I'm going to learn to live with what they choose to do; even if I'm not terribly comfortable with their choice.
Jabs are a personal medical decision for all, and no one’s business besides the individual. Masking is a bit different. We have never covered our faces in public in western society. This is abnormal behaviour culturally and socially. That being said, people can still wear them, but at the same time I have the right to not allow them in my home.
I agree Steve. There are many things that we should be free to disallow or allow in our own homes for whatever reason. However in basically public venues and spaces I believe folks should be allowed to wear or not wear whatever they want within the limits of basic decency. The mask thing is frustrating and I find myself often avoiding interactions with folks who are still masked; which is my own personal choice and right. Just as it is thiers to continue wearing one. Personally I would be fine if folks wanted to walk around naked, but then that is just me and somehow I don't think western society is ready for that one either. I have a friend who works in our local supposed 'health' coop where they turned into the mask nazis and vaccine radicals. She needed the job and had to comply and had to wear a mask 9 hours a day every day, plus take twice weekly covid tests because she was unvaxxed, while her fellow vaxxed employees did not. She was also shamed and ostracized by other employees quite regularly at work. Anyway I asked her if the forced masking bothered alot. She said no, not really because working with the public as she has for years she has had to wear a sort of polite 'mask' everyday anyway and to her mind all the cloth masking did was make the mask wearing that we were all already collectively doing, more visible and tangible. And while she was glad to stop wearing the mask because it was physically uncomfortable in many ways, she had to relearn how to school her facial expressions all over again, because she had gotten used to being able to hide her real expressions behind the cloth mask. So just a little different perspective on that.
Yes, it has become a security blanket for many, but that doesn’t normalise it. Again, we have never covered our faces in public for millennia, and there are reasons for that. Just a thought. Imagine if you tried walking into a bank with a mask on three years ago…..
I would like to put in a plug for those who (i hope) change their tune, acknowledge the errors in their behavior and judgement, and seek reunion. As time goes on, this will be harder and harder to do on an individual basis, and I think if that attempt were sincere, it should be acknowledged in kind. Sure it's probably a good idea to remember that misstep they took, in the interest of self-preservation and all, but to me, anyone who sincerely acknowledges their mistakes and goes against the grain to make that acknowledgement deserves another chance. Otherwise, that grudge could be a toxic seed for the next great "us vs them" disruption. I hope that didn't come off as preachy or anything. I resonate with your sentiment, just desperately seeking a solution.
Yes, I agree. But let me know when you experience just one person sincerely acknowledging their misstep or mistake. I am simply asking if anyone has experienced just one person coming forward with this sentiment. I am still waiting.
My children's pediatrician just did this. He said, "I used to trust the CDC more than any other source, they were the gold standard. But not now.... politics have influenced medicine and that is totally wrong. I don't know where this situation will end up."
He said this to me in private. I don't know how much he has said publicly. He at one time (a year ago) was open to the benefits of the covid vax for teens, though not pushy. So he has truly changed.
Did he change, or just remember his medical training? This was a massive failure from almost the entirety of the medical field. It’s a nice that a few are slowly coming around after two years, but a bit too little and too late…
Why does everyone who changes their mind have to acknolwedge a "misstep" or "mistake"? Why can't it be the reasoned result of further deliberation, acts of empathy, or the discovery of new evidence?
Your phrasing here embeds the polarization, suggesting a sort of madness of anyone who sees things differently from yourself.
Not at all, I totally see your point and agree. I just see a lower likelihood of that happening and less than such sincerity in most cases. I suppose the personal ability to really forgive correlates with that sincerity, and also an apologizing person's level of complicity as well as the personal harm such a person might have suffered through the vaccine in particular, at least in my case.
If I was not feeling so desperate, I would have waited for Part 2 to comment! Thank you Charles especially for the last bit here.
I strive to not judge and categorize. I've maintained that the best way to relate to another person (any sentient being!) is to treat them as themselves, not generalize, not lump into any bigger more abstract group in which they do not belong. So far in my life I accrued plenty of evidence that being specific is the best way (and that includes being a Chinese Medicine practitioner - I have clinical evidence that when I treat the patient this way, they react/benefit in proportion.)
What I would like to discuss and address is the coercion of masks, distancing, even injecting medication into one's body. Many readers have commented that they understand both sides. What I do not understand and do not accept on a soul level is the coercion. One of the biggest fallacies I know of is when one person (or a group) decides they know better, they decide for others what is best for others. No one knows what's better for me than me. I repeat this to my patients. It helps me to hear these words spoken aloud.
On occasion, when I went a bit further by asking them direct questions, I've had patients decide to not return. A voice tells me that they are afraid to go there. Something about taking responsibility and really examining oneself is terrifying to them. But planting the seed is a positive act - at least I sincerely hope so. I really think there's no other quest more important than to find out who we truly are.
I do not want to live in isolation, I do not want to voluntarily separate myself from society. I try to interact with people and I still behave according to HIPAA - each person's medical information is their private information. The only problem develops when others think I am a disease carrier even though I am healthy. And that I have to prove that I am healthy with a medical test. How did we get there so fast? Never in history has healthy people harmed others by transmitting a disease! This is simply a fact, an observation which has never been proven otherwise.
We are dangerously close to being discriminated on every level of society due to our medical history. What will be that world like? Before my imagination goes down that dark hole, I look forward to your comments.
Beautiful post. Enjoyed it. Really, how did we get to having to prove we're healthy? The horrible suspicion of disease lurking in every person is a shattering worldview. We know what the toll is. How did we get to isolating the healthy, instead of the sick? Crazy.
Indeed, coercion is deadening. While it's easy to say identify coercion, don't allow yourself to be coerced, examine the underpinnings of manipulation & fear, this isn't something most are able to do. And many don't the choice not to be coerced when jobs are on the line. People become easily overwhelmed when sorting through confusion especially when it's amplified by fear. We want clear answers. Of course, the simplest answer may not be the correct answer. Very sadly for humans, critical thinking is discouraged.
I futilely waited for artists to rise up with protest music to reach the masses as used to happen. Nada. News commentators I previously trusted continued the coercion & shaming. Should have been a red flag warning to everyone to only hear one narrative, aka propaganda.
Throughout this ordeal, I, like others, have mostly experienced a deep sadness. Sadness for what we've all lost & are losing (medical privacy being prime), sadness for children being bombarded with paranoia & bizarre controls.
I continue to be simply blown away by your ability to paint truth with such compassion and hope. "Especially at this time when vaccination clearly offers no protection against getting Covid, the ostracism of the unvaccinated draws from something beyond mere fear of catching a disease. The vaccine is a badge of in-group inclusion, the sanctifying ritual by which one is recognized as fully human. Historically, this is no anomaly. Many cultures require some kind of ritual to be accepted as a full member of the tribe. Refusing the ritual renders one into an unperson.
Today, leading institutions have hijacked that ritualistic impulse toward ends of profit and power. Within families too, vaccination and other symbols of conformity become tools of dominance and abuse."
These 2 paragraphs sum up what I believe is the root cause - the lack of meaningful ritual in a society that yearns so deeply for it, it will accept any substitute for inclusion into a group. In every indigenous culture, initiation was a time of facing death so you could see what you were made of, and if you survived initiation, you came back to the tribe with an unshakeable sense of who you were at your core. Many of us have self-initiated over and over again, but without the wisdom of the elders, those initiations can cost us with PTSD, a sense of being crazy, not fitting in, etc.
You personify the absolute best of elder wisdom at a time when we most need it. If we could see this pandemania as an initiation, perhaps we could learn something about ourselves that needs to be faced - out inability to accept information that disagrees with our invested beliefs; our need to see the world in victim/victimizer paradigms; our refusal to look at cause and effect; our intense reluctance to believe we might be just hypnotized enough to be pawns in a game we are completely unaware of......the list goes on. 2020 was extremely hard for me, I lost 95% of my community. I did my work for over a year and came out with a peace and joy unfelt previously. One person at a time, I am gathering with my tribe and choosing to put my energy into the things I can control - making every effort to be kinder, creating beauty with Nature and my neighborhood and sharing what I can with those who have less. The awakening is here, and I see more and more people shaking the scales from their eyes and suddenly finding themselves living in a world of such awe and wonder that we can't help but join hands and celebrate.
"Pandemania has shown us that we have not yet evolved in consciousness beyond our ancient scapegoating patterns. That revelation is a precious opportunity. How can we consciously turn away from what we do not see? Now we see it."
A thoughtful post. However your underlying assumptions about humans and evolution don't register as true for me. There is a bigger piece to this story - behind the scenes, on a grand scale, cosmic even - and that is that we don't have only a human source on this planet. A non-human source has been here and has infiltrated our civilizations at the highest levels and is behind this reality show of manufactured crises, intent on depopulation and controlling the remaining by turning them into transhumans. Those in the vaxx camp are effectively prisoners of war, whose minds have been captured. Why some of us were alert to this attempted global take over and others not, is a larger question. However once this non-human source is gone - and it will go - we will discover again what it is to be human. We haven't been outside the effects of this other presence for a long long time. Humanity is on the rise. Sadly there will be far fewer of us, by the time this other source loses its grip. My two cents.
As I've said in response to other comments, whether or not what you say is true (and I am not discarding it), we have to ask what makes us so vulnerable to manipulation. They exercise their power only because we acquiesce. When we become sovereign and source our choices from the knowledge in the body and through spiritual connection, we will no longer succumb to mass formation, mob psychology, and other patterns by which they control us. And as I have said, the reflex of us-versus-them thinking is one of the way they exercise control. Divide and conquer.
I fully agree we've agreed to manipulation, though for most unknowingly. Divide vs conquer is of course a strategy that keeps us looking at and fighting with each other; rather than behind the curtain. There is however a genuine divide. And we can't love our way out of our controllers grip. We will need to identity them, and understand how we've been played. We also don't need to fight our way out - a natural impulse will be restored that will translate into standing up and claiming our own sovereignty. Saying no to what is clearly wrong and supporting what is right.
I think the difference here is I'm suggesting the ways in which 'they' control us, are not natural patterns humans created. They were created for us to entrap us. They want us to feel its our fault, we are deficient, we are weak. That's what we inherited via them and their systems, which all amount to perpetual programming misdirecting us away from who we really are.
When I read the account of the mother-daughter conflict I thought the mother should have written the account on a beautiful stationary placed it in an enticing envelope and mailed it off to Dr. Wallensky at her home address. Because I do think there is "blame" to be passed out and she is one who needs to hear what damage she has done to peoples.
Again, Kathleen, I think you and I are reading the same materials and coming to very similar conclusions. Onward to the ascension!
I fear we are cementing a bifurcation in place here on Earth. I don't see two sides to Jen's story, I see existence in separate realities. There are those who firmly believe the injection will stymie transmission, there are those who firmly believe the injection will create negative efficacy with potential toxicity, and then many still in between either still undecided or apathetic. That last group has a big range to it, the spectrum in between, and that is the group I have the most hope for in breaking this historical pattern of scapegoating and dehumanization. I'm not trying to separate everyone even further here into categories, just an observation: how can one be expected to break a pattern if these deeply held convictions can dwell in comfortable echo chambers?
Another aspect to what you say is that when people or their loved ones are harmed, it breaks them (or can break them) out of the echo chamber. Reality isn't only what we believe it to be. Sometimes the real world invades our castle of story.
Certainly, but the harm component awakening only goes in one direction; those who have been sounding the alarm on the dangers to mass vaccination will feel vindicated/bolstered by these accounts of harm, and the bifurcation becomes more solidified, despite the crossover by some. Also, if this further becomes the trend that we are seeing now (increasing number of accounts of harm) then we will truly have a global reckoning on our hands. Hard to see a way out of this particular division of "us vs them"...
I suppose it depends on what the "real world" evolves into next, and how much of the projected reality matches our shared experienced reality.
I think it has actually already crossed the tipping point. there are millions of people who do not voice it, but will NEVER get vaxxed again. People who never questioned it before. I'm in the minority who have been anti-vax since, let's see, 1996.
It's been curious to me that some family/friends that reluctantly accepted my choice to not get the Covid jab can't allow that same personal choice with other vaccines. They have been alarmed and resorted to name calling when they realized that my adult daughter is not vaccinating their children. A choice that she spent 2 years researching before having children.
By affirming that other vaccines are good, people can establish to themselves their 'belonging' in the ranks of the good and rational people. "At least I'm not an anti-vaxxer across the board, it is just this one mRNA vaccine that might have problems enough to excuse my crazy aunt."
My feeling is that the keyword here is respect. We should respect each others' choices, and lack of knowledge and understand that nobody knows the ultimate truth. People do change their minds. Lots of people got it and then felt regret on their decision and changed their minds.
I didn't take the vaccine at all and everyone in my surrounding has got it.
I feel that if the government and media keep pushing this devision based on "science", I might have to literally hide in the mountains. Because it is this narrative that gives rise to this division.
I hear you. Moved to a farm house in a remote area of Australia in Feb and never dreamed how good it feels to be doing what’s been on my mind for several years. Have realised even without the crazy chaos, I’d be living simple with dirty hands. This is it - up at 5am in the freezing weather looking up at the crystalline pre-dawn stars, crying as Venus rises, chanting a prayer of gratitude.
That's exactly where I'm at now. It's hard not to imagine much of society going to war over this and other divisions in the near future, and hunkering down & establishing loving communities seems to be the best way to maintain sanity while striving for a better future.
Regardless of the future, practicing respect (even in the face of it's absence) is going to be vital.
What puzzles me most is how many people stick to one firmly built set of belief concerning the pandemic and the vaccination. Once they have chosen side, it seems no new facts or personal experience seem to be able to affect them any more. Here is my story. I am a scientist by training (a geologist) and I have initially more or less trusted the official Covid narrative. I hated the lockdown measures and the masks from the very beginning though and thought that much of the restrictions were quite over the top. So my initial hope was that the vaccination would be the way out of the regime of Covid restrictions and therefore I was looking forward to become vaccinated. But then things started to change. I had quite a strong reaction to the second Moderna shot and my father became very ill from the Pfizer shot. He developed inflammation of the spine, temporary paralysis of the arms, and seizures about 10 days after the second Pfizer shot. He ended up 3 weeks in hospital and after that he had a chronic inflammation that could not be tamed again. He died 6 months later. I started reading alternative sources of information and what I read, together with my own experience, made me to reject ever getting a booster shot and never letting our 9 year old son getting this vaccine. Then I caught Covid in February this year and this was no more than a moderate flu. I had worse flu in the past. The way I caught it was also interesting. Our son got if from another child in elementary school. That child is the son of a medical doctor who is completely aligned with the official narrative. And of course that child was double vaccinated and wears the mask all the time. So in summary my personal experience was that these vaccinations are useless in stopping infection, had very bad side effects and the Covid infection was not that bad after all. Now I am a firm critic of the vaccinations and I rather leave my country with my family rather than giving in to any future mandatory Covid vaccination.
Hmm, you don't sound like the caricature of the frothing-at-the-mouth hysterical anti-vaxxer. Thank you for sharing this story. It illustrates well that people DO change their minds sometimes, usually because of events that impact them personally.
I am terribly sorry about your father.
I think there are millions of people like you out there who have seen themselves or their loved ones personally impacted by the vaccine. We are not merely "vaccine hesitant." We are more in the camp of "over my dead body!" And when the CDC still maintains that only 9 deaths have been confirmed from the shots and that adverse events are 'extremely rare,' our trust in the entire system is nil.; We are tired of being gaslit. You seem rather measured yet adamant in your statements, but there is a lot of fury out there among people who were harmed and then told it didn't happen.
Like how many young athletes need to drop dead on the field before people start to question the vax mafia?
Are we sure yet that this is not a false correlation fallacy? It seems damaging to assume that each person who has died after receiving a vaccination has done so as a direct result of the shot.
This is beyond correlation. Start digging into the data. This is being swept under the rug, and dismissed as “misinformation”.
Totally. Sounds like we all need to "do our own research"
We can be sure however, that there has been a large amount of falsification around the recorded 'deaths' accountable to covid infection. We are told even by authorities that anybody who tests positive for the covid pathogen and subsequently dies, is recorded as a 'covid death', gunshots and car accidents included. Mind blowing in its' twisted corruption and deliberately intended to make covid look like a terrifying disease.
Justin, at least you can share your personal experience here and for some these kind of reactions happened. Then they get censored or de-platformed on social media for reporting their own experience! If there is a rationale, it is that their experience is anecdotal though I suspect it is more sinister - it is to silence negative press about the vaccines.
Do you see how dehumanizing it is to have a painful experience, real to you, and then be censored because your experience doesn't fit that narrative? That is fucking evil, IMO. Charles is right that there is a smoldering magma pool of resentment in the body politic over how we have been treated by the Pharma Mafia in our government and media.
I am vaxxed and boosted and had a reaction to the 2nd shot (Moderna) when I developed severe chronic lower back and hip pain and sciatica. My chiropractor said this has happened to a lot of his patients. I did get the 3rd booster and I can say that I did not get COVID nor do I have any particular objections to vaccines in general. But I am disgusted at how the government has treated Americans. Really, if Texas where I live started a secession movement I would be on board in a New York minute because I really hate this country now.
Is your mention of the supposed athletes-killed-by-vaccination your firsthand account? I will not dismiss your personal account as you described above, but if you are mentioning the athletes because their story is in some way parallel to your own, I urge you not to hide your narrative behind generic debunked news stories in order to garner support for your own difficulties. I wish you the best with your struggles, though! And I'm sorry to hear about Texas, but I think you'll find that many people on "both sides" feel the same as people do in Texas in regards to disappointment towards this country. It's not - nor has it ever been - Texas vs all others.
"Debunked" news stories? Are you saying that athletes haven't died in larger numbers than usual? Or are you trying to assert that it's been "proven" somehow that a recent vaccine could not have caused their heart attacks? Please give your evidence for either assertion.
I agree. I'm concerned that so many of the responses I see sound just like conspiracy theorists. The scary "they" are sweeping the "truth" under the rug. Worldwide, involving thousands of people. Not likely.
Hi Jim, again. We are so beyond terms like 'conspiracy theorists' at this point, it's time to move on. It's just a wet blanket thrown by those who feel threatened by what's being said. It doesn't staunch the fire. If you can't join the dots by now between the various nefarious groups of capitalists, ruling families and all the thousands of greedy sycophants drawn into their spheres, leading to suffering of all kinds, economic and social tyranny and the raping of the planet's resources then I am sad. We were all born into the system (engineered by the groups mentioned above), which is why it's so disturbing to accept the entirety of everything one believes has been based on what the system wants us to believe. Some of us see that now and want out. We don't respect or trust those who have levered themselves into positions of power whose policies serve only corporate interests. The promises by incumbent leaders to address the problems of the ordinary person and the beleaguered planet stymied by the rabid lobbyists, we watch our homes get foreclosed while bankers get paid out (with our money!), social media giants use their dividing and distracting tactics and the poor get poorer and more disenfranchised, while the top 0.001% keep growing fatter and fatter as they eat the world. Your social and political freedoms are being eroded whether you accept that or not. You may choose to sweep that under the rug but I will not.
💯 🙏🏻
The gap between conspiracy and the news is getting shorter every day :)
On average, I think it was around 3 months during 2020 and 2021.
Please share more of the story.
https://www.tctmd.com/news/reports-sudden-deaths-among-athletes-after-covid-19-vax-are-misinformation
We just don't trust this type of report. It is to us, clearly covid narrative cleansing and a cover up. That's part of the problem, trustworthy news reportage is all subjective and dependant upon who is funding it. What is the agenda of the media organisation/journalist? etc etc. For me, even without knowing the full details of the sportsmen dropping dead in spectacular view, it is enough to witness as this is something that I have NEVER been made aware of before. A player dropping dead on a pitch would make the 'news' no matter what era it played out in. Is it just coincidence that this event has happened multiple times since vaccine rollouts began? My instinct says no. I think if vax proponents were a bit more inclined to accept there is evidence of vax damage and death, this would help keep a bridge between those who are deeply suspicious and afraid of the the jab.
People see this and think that the information backs what they want, even when it doesn't because they don't read it.
I had a similar trajectory. I also began with a general trust in "the experts" around Covid issues. I watched the vaccination rollout from SE Asia, where it was all academic for us because we had no or limited vaccine supplies early on. I then read a NYT article about an outbreak in the Seychelles islands following mass rollout of the Chinese inactivated virus vaccine. The general tone of the article was that this was a scandal, as the clinical trial results suggested this should not happen. Then the exact same thing happened in Israel, where they had a big Pfizer rollout.
But the response was much different. Rather than treating this as the scandal it was, the establishment ignored it altogether and then seamlessly shifted to the "well, it protects against severe illness and death," which were not even endpoints in the clinical trials. Joe Biden's "pandemic of the unvaccinated" speech and the ACLU NYT op-ed ADVOCATING vaccine mandates, in the wake of what should have been treated as a scandal, were too much for me. By this time, I saw the entire Covid response as a function of mass pathology rather than rational policy.
This revelation turned my whole worldview on its head. I now see how much pathology lies behind much of what us "educated liberals" accept as fact. I now see that, unbeknownst to me at the time, I had a religious upbringing. And this is a particularly dangerous religion because none of its adherents realize that they are following patterns laid down by corrupt religious institutions since the beginning of human history. Jung and Girard, in particular, present very helpful frameworks for seeing this all for what it is. And contemporary writers like Eisenstein and Kingsnorth are doing a fantastic job explaining what is happening in real time. This is important work. We need to keep shining a light on the psychopathology and primitive impulses disguised by the trappings of "science" so that more and more people experience this paradigm shift.
"I now see that, unbeknownst to me at the time, I had a religious upbringing. And this is a particularly dangerous religion because none of its adherents realize that they are following patterns laid down by corrupt religious institutions since the beginning of human history."
Well said!
Thank you for this measured and really helpful comment. It has always seemed odd to me that religion is allowed to stand without being held to account. If you claim to believe in a virgin birth and a resurrection, this is seen as something 'good', you have 'faith' and conviction which is protected in most countries by law. There are no calls to back up your beliefs with science. 'Blind faith' is even lauded as a virtue. One of the most annoying things about the last 2.5 years has been the cry 'I follow the science'. What most really mean when they say that from a place of complete ignorance about what the 'science' actually is, is 'I have blind faith in the science presented to me by the government and their propagandist media'. As there is a precedent set by religion which cannot be questioned, the 'covid science' claim is allowed to fly, no questioning accepted. No matter that most cannot back up what they have faith in, nor countenance the awkward truth that in a truly scientific community, there is no concluson without robust inquiry and debate, we are expected to put up and shut with the righteous ignorance that is shutting us down and ignoring our fears and claims.
I was raised religious but with an underlying moderate/rule-bending ethic that I would later come to realize was highly atypical. For me, the idea of blindly following dogma, even in a religious context, is almost unfathomable. I literally can't comprehend how someone processes life that way.
So it's always been automatic for me to recognize proponents of the dominant "scientific" and "medical" paradigms as fundamentalists - and I mean that literally, i.e: that they're identical to religious fundamentalists.
I think the issue that undergirds the covid response requires a zooming-out so that we can understand the way the bounds of science's rationalist-materialist framework were originally drawn and why. I've found the work of scientist Rupert Sheldrake to be quite instructive here. I would recommend his lecture on pet telepathy -- it has nothing whatsoever to do with covid, and it's amusing. But it also goes to show that people can be guided into a state of institutional blindness to something that's right under our noses.
If the subject of pet telepathy sounds out-there or fruity to you, understand that Sheldrake is a formally trained, elite-educated scientist who was very much a proponent of the viewpoint that anything we can't see/hear/touch is "complete rubbish" -- until he started performing experiments of his own. (He explains his journey in the link below.)
The conception of the universe as a lifeless mechanism is a default assumption and a leap of faith just as much as any creation "myth" that's out there. And when you go back hundreds of years to when that framework first took hold, you begin to see how we got to where we are now.
I have no idea what Sheldrake's position on the covid vaccines is, and I hope he wouldn't feel misrepresented to have his work cited in this context, but regardless there would be no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I highly recommend him.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2vNAwpWto2PVWeF3qBb4UR?si=0HCLtJNBRLqRS9Jsz7sp6Q&utm_source=copy-link
Yes. I have empathy for the victims of the more dangerous virus......the mass pathology.
Everything you said feels right on the nose. Thank you for sharing. Who is Kingsnoth? I'd like to check out his/her work.
He wrote a critically important essay on vaccines called "The Vaccine Moment" https://www.paulkingsnorth.net/vaccine--it got him a lot of attention, more than he'd expected. I think the original essay has now been compiled with 2 others (3 in all), all with the same title, but that first one really stands out and is worth a read. It was so insightful while being incredibly reasonable also that I sent it to family members (none hostile) in an effort for me to help them understand why I'd made the choice I'd made.
https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=substack_profile?utm_source=%2Fprofile%2F15572817-paul-kingsnorth&utm_medium=reader2
Paul Kingsnorth. There is at least one great discussion between him and Charles available on Youtube.
Amen!
So sorry to hear about your father Thomas. I have heard so many stories similar to yours, and am in pain around the current state of humanity's disconnections from each other and Nature..
As for you being puzzled by the many people who stick firmly to their beliefs once they have made them, there is a scientific reason for that. It has to do with our brain's neural network system and how it develops from early childhood. It a long and complex ecosystem, but essentially we are wired to perceive only that which doesn't threaten our survival state, that includes our ego beliefs. It's called confirmation bias and it truly is wired into our brains and psyches, unless we are psychologically grounded and strong enough to be able to perceive being wrong. There is a lot of information about this and the other variables that impact human perceptions and actions. I personally believe it's time for us to be edu-cared about how our neuro-psycho-social ecosystem in the spiritual container of this magnificent planet affects our relationships toward ourselves, each other and Nature. The more we understand our nature and how it is governed by Natural laws, the more compassionate, caring and connected we would become to everything and everyone around us, beginning with ourselves. Wishing you well.
Thank you for sharing your family’s heartache. I’m so sorry.
Our story is similar - Pfizer 2nd dose, large stroke, my daughter’s career and normal life ended. I refused the vaccine after this. I caught Covid from my now triple vaccinated husband and now suffer with long Covid. So I fully grasp the potential seriousness and disconnect at both ends of the spectrum.
I think we all need a long pause together. We need to light our own candles of peace and hope for others. We need to sit for awhile. No anger, no blame, just collective reflection and grieving time. Together.
Beautifully said, Jenny. I agree about the long pause.
Early on a very close coworker of mine's mother received her first "shot". She collapsed immediately and died the next day. A close relative of mine received her first shot on a Wednesday, died that Sunday. The shots are "effective" for sure, but their purpose is not the reduction of disease, but something far sinister.
Curious whether these were reported to VAERS. A lot of such stories I hear, the doctors said it was unrelated, or no one bothered to report it because everyone assumed filing the report was someone else's responsibility.
My brother-in-law died from an "unexpected sudden heart attack." This happened about 5 months after his first booster. More friends have died from either sudden or unexpected brain bleeds, strokes, or heart attacks. They and their families are all faithful Covidians so no connection, autopsy, or report was ever made for any of them. There is no definite way to know whether the shots exacerbated already existing conditions that they were not known to have or if the shots themselves caused their deaths. Or, indeed, if these deaths would have simply occurred. The deaths all occurred after a 3 to 7 months after the injections.
Right, there is no way for us to know for sure. The way to know would be if medical researchers take notice of the safety signals and start doing autopsies. One thing we can say for sure though, is that if the vaccines ARE causing the excess deaths, there is no mechanism by which the authorities would know it. Because they have disabled all those mechanisms.
Thanks for replying to me. I have watched video of a British funeral director talk about what he's been finding. Can you explain what mechanisms? Thanks
We are seeing evil genius at work for sure. Perhaps those affected will make the connection one day.
I don't actually know, but I can ask the questions.
I am a physician/surgeon and have changed my stance radically regarding the vaccination. Having had a degree in Molecular Biology and Immunology in undergrad, I felt there was some good science behind the mRNA vaccine. I was in the front lines of the early waves of the pandemic and saw many people contract COVID and die. Some of these patients were in string denial that COVID was real. I did get the vaccines (Moderna x2) but no booster. I wanted to believe in the science and have trust. On the flip side, it was also required in order to keep my hospital priviledges in my state. My family got their shots too.
As time went on during the pandemic, I became weary of the fear state and the lack of leadership and communication as well as the perpetuation of fear. There was little data backing up any suggestions, rules were made up and modified along the way. It is now to the point where it is endemic and will be around forever.
I now feel duped by the fear mongering and ignorance. I understand the views on both sides and feel comapssion for both. I refuse to get any other shots unless they truly show benefit with a low risk profile (and I dont think that is going to happen).
I hope at some point there is a post mortem evaulation of what happened and why the decisions were made so that we can learn to avoid this catastrophe from happening again and so both sides can heal and come together again.
Thank you. I’m living within the tension of both sides. too. Personally damaged by Covid, daughter severely damaged by vaccine.
I doubt a post mortem evaluation will take place in helpful time. Even within my own family of physicians and journalists and scientists, I don’t see the reflection. Everyone is exhausted. No time to stop and reflect. All are still on board with the status quo despite the fact that we are all now caring for our most loving and independent free spirit soul, also unfortunately a physician and who underwent vaccination enthusiastically.
The disconnect ..
I don’t know where to begin.
This is what we all are missing out on, this in-between space of the impossible pause. Stillness amidst extreme polarized tension. It’s essential now, and so difficult.
Yes. I think the disconnect is very palpable. I believe the cause of a lot of our societal woes (the pandemic response, mass shootings, race issues, drug addiciton) is the result of the lack of leadership and direction as well as the loss of culture, sense of community, and lack of meaningful connection.
thanks for this sober, balanced viewpoint.
I am kind of where you are at. I was not skeptical of the vaccine until I saw the medical industrial complex launch a full court press on us, including the shutdown of dissenting views and non narrative experience. I did get triple x, probably won't do it again. But mostly I'm disgusted with the CDC and the FDA and will never believe a thing they say again.
While I think leaving your country is extreme, at least in reading this I found a real balance in what you said. I see your reasons for your thoughts. I admit being critical of Charles in this, what I have read seems so slanted and biased and without any reasoning for his stand. That is not what I would ever have expected from him. However, thank you. My concerns are the level of fear that I see on both sides just keeps ratcheting up. You speak of personal experiences that made you decide that the vaccines were bad. Those experiences may be outliers. The vast majority of my friends have had all the shots and none have had any issues what so ever. It all comes back to fear. We as a society have lost our faith.
May I ask in what have we lost our faith? For all those who put their faith in the vaccine and became sick, how did faith help them? For all the faithful vaxxed and boosted who have had or have covid, how did it help them? Faith is often called upon when there is something that we cannot prove, so to lose or hold it seems to be a contrary notion for somebody arguing that we should put our faith in vaccines. I would argue that plenty of people are displaying faith in some way or other - even if that's just to get out bed everyday and muddle along in a society that is now barely functioning - we just don't all have faith in the same thing. You may mean that we don't have faith in the same thing/s as you but that's ok, isn't it? And by the way, fear does not cause an adverse reaction.
Interesting that you pick a word to respond to instead of the issues. Did anyone who was informed actually think that by getting the shots you would never get sick? NO, and this was said, over and over again. Faith isn't the issue, I didn't bring it up as a claim. Oh and did anyone ever say that there wasn't down sides, that there wasn't the possibility of adverse reactions? NO again. I don't get the misunderstanding of things that were said over and over again.
Maybe things were reported differently where you are. Here the message was definitely ‘take the shot to stay covid free, stop transmission and to NOT get sick’. None of these claims have panned out as true. Interestingly, you raise an issue that is high on my radar - the selling of vaccines to prevent sickness has bred a kind of default expectation that sickness from pathogens in the natural world is unusual and avoidable - and C-19 may have been waiting in a Chinese bat to get to market and start a pandemic, we still don’t know. A whole generation (or two) have graduated and are graduating from childhood with immune systems perhaps never fully tested by a swathe of very survivable illnesses, including ‘flu. I am a proponent of creating as strong a natural immunity as possible and accepting that being sick is a very important part of life. Spoiler alert: we do all die of something sooner or later. Corrupt global pharma, arms dealing and agricultural industries assist in many of the things we die from, including variously, starvation, war, over-medication and poisoning leading to cancers. Thanks for returning me to issues.
“Now I am a firm critic of the vaccines”. ie sticking to one side, fanatically. Probably you never stop talking about it and people are starting to avoid you. Family and friends now dread seeing you but feel obliged to keep the relationship hoping you eventually take an interest in something other than vaccines. Try not mentioning vaccines for a couple of weeks…..
Being a firm critic of something doesn't necessarily involve fanaticism. Given the strength and dominance of the pro-vaccine narrative I'd say some firmness from critics is justified. "Probably you never stop talking about it..." is a bit presumptuous, as well.
That happens with sports teams and politics, too :)
I developed chronic lower back, hip sciatica after my 2nd Moderna. It is still with me, too, though not as bad. For a while last Fall I thought I was headed for a walker or worse.
It is going to take the vaccinated and unvaccinated, left and right, as many of us as possible, to excise from America the woke globalist dragon that has weaponized Science as the fuel for breathing fire. It wishes to enslave us all. It would require a bimonthly multibooster for every illness under the sun, to have access to the currency, to purchase the essentials to survive, like food, water and shelter. It would depopulate the earth to save the earth. It must be stopped.
Jen's story moved me to tears-- my own family had a rocky journey as well, with both daughters getting vaccinated and my husband and I refusing to do so-- for all the reasons you cite here. But rather than fight, I promised not to criticize their choice if they would not criticize mine. Thank God, it worked. We are still a coherent and caring family. (Ironically, both daughters and their children (also adults) have had Covid even after vaccination. I forbear to say "I told you so.")
As a therapist, I talk with people on both sides of the divide. When they ask my opinion, I tell them: "I believe people should do what they feel is best." The reason I do that is because in my own fight against cancer, which began in 1983, I refused medical intervention. By 1985 I was whole and healthy again. That was 39 years ago. Cancer and the choice I made catalyzed and continue to inspire the work I do now. What I have learned in the years since is that our minds are incredibly powerful. If we believe that a vaccine will help us, it probably will-- mentally if in no other way-- and believing that may keep us healthy. If we believe that it will make us ill, that is very likely to happen. I believed that with Spirit's guidance, I would survive cancer-- and I did. A healthy diet, meditation, time in Nature, and faith were my medicines.
That is why I agree that if we can come together, we will heal ourselves and our world. The trick is to believe that it's possible.
What a wonderful story. Thank you for sharing.
Charles I am grateful for your thoughtful analysis of our current collective dilemma: how do we continue to exist as genuine biological humans without destroying ourselves. I believe we are at one of those crucial evolutionary bottlenecks where, like it or not, we - to quote Pogo from the Vietnam War Era - “have met the enemy and the enemy is US.” But, I think you may have left out an important element in the story: “we” that is the vast majority of humanity, are NOT collectively responsible for the evils manifesting now. A tiny percentage of humans - IF they are in fact human by any definition - are responsible because they have 99.999% of the power and have made deliberate decisions that are, in fact evil and only have malign intentions towards us. THEY bear the preponderant responsibility for the suicidal predicament we are in because THEY are orchestrating it. When in war one must identify the enemy. THE ENEMY IS NOT, AS POGO MISTAKENLY SAID, “US.” The enemy of humanity is a non-human evil force, “powers and principalities” NOT some dark corner of our psyche, or original sin. These things - yes, Klaus Schwab and his minions including high-functioning autists like Yuval Noah Hariri, are NOT HUMAN. Utterly lacking remorse or empathy, they are dna psychopaths, demons, and evil. They are the enemy. This must be recognized and understood if we are to survive. We have caught an infection and it is called “psychopathy.” It must be destroyed utterly.
I've thought about this a lot. My question is: what in human nature allows these psychopaths to exercise their power? After all, it is not that they have bigger muscles or X-men superpowers. Whatever power they have, they have through our acquiescence. One of the main ways psychopathic individuals (or corporations or governments) rule is by harnessing the primal force of mob dynamics, tribalism, us-versus-them thinking, etc. Maybe this is THE main way they rule. i often give the example of my fourth grade class where everyone decided kent was "weird" and had "cootiest." The class bullies exploited this idea, but they didn't originate it. And the rest of the class shunned Kent. Some gleefully joined in, others passively thought, "I guess everyone couldn't be wrong, he must be weird," and others thought Kent was perfectly fine but still dared not associate with him lest we be contaminated.
As long as this kind of psychology is in place, we will forever be vulnerable to psychopathic forces seeking to control us.
Brandon Smith at alt-market has been writing about this for several years (the basic requirement of being a psychopath in order to assume leadership positions in politics/business/academia etc).
It's rampant...and their ability to exercise power lies in the reality that the vast majority of humanity (not being psychopathic) can't even imagine that our "leaders" would be that way...it's an interesting dilemma and there aren't any easy solutions.
This gets to the core issue facing humanity. We systematically elevate people to the top echelons of our institutions primarily based on their swagger, their ability to spout complete bullshit with unwavering confidence. While there is a base competence threshold to get in the game, those who truly excel due so on the strength of their dark triad personality traits rather than superior competence or moral character. We pretend as a society that we value competence and morality, but in practice we value narcissism, Machiavelianism, and psychopathy. Until we start entrusting our institutions to those quite, unsure, reluctant, self-reflective, cautious, ethical, conscientious, independent, competent people who are generally not welcome and definitely not promoted in these institutions, we will continue on our current disastrous trajectory.
Exactly that is why we have a psychopathic society that is getting progressively and rapidly more & more sick. Psychopaths are rewarded for their ruthlessness and percolate to the top, especially in certain roles, thereby reinforcing and buttressing deviant dysfunctional hateful systems. Before we get to replacing these things & their minions within society however, we must first get rid of them. I respectfully suggest that intelligent decent people need to talk about how we can disconnect from these things & the systems they control - starve them out - without becoming psychopaths ourselves, which is always a danger.
I agree and these conversations are happening. Especially among the young with families. It is sort of off the radar in that it seems to be relatively small groups who already had issues with mainstream culture long before covid and have been trying to figure out sustainable and healthy ways to survive and raise families in an increasingly toxic world where they sometimes have to have three jobs just to pay rent! Forget about owning land. These young folks are highly creative and determined tho. Of course many of us oldsters are too but we are also tired. I am drawing alot of inspiration from these small groups of determined young folks who are trying various ways to sanely survive. It has also been an incredible opportunity to bridge the generational divide.
Yes the people are truly inspirational in their creativity, good will & determination to find a better way.
So, WE give the psychopaths their power? Our problem is rooted in OUR PSYCHOLOGY? These things & what they do are Jungian manifestations of our dark side? What if they are not? What if it is not? I’m not saying we should be passive, I’m not saying we shouldn’t buck up. Far from it. I’m saying this force is not of our making. It is not human. Part of the trick & big lie is this thing is masquerading as human. That is why people are paralyzed, hypnotized. It’s beyond imagining. They just can’t believe humans could be so evil. And they are right. It is not human. Possibly taking on human form, animating what appears to be human, adroitly playing on human psychology. Let’s say it is an alien force. Primal. Other. I believe this goes way way beyond our built-in flaws & psychological feedback loops. It is our enemy, known by its absolute lack of empathy or remorse. Ruthless desire for power. Hatred of us. Hatred of Life itself. This is not merely our projection n the screen. The enemy is not hidden in our psychology though it plays on our vulnerabilities, weaponizing our best qualities against us. The “people” doing all these horrible things ARE NOT HUMAN. They must be destroyed utterly. Our lives and continued existence on this planet depend upon it.
that's right, we give them their power. When we awaken to our own true power, when we connect to the Source of real power, then they will no longer have power over us. Their power comes ultimately from lies. We have the innate capacity on the soul level to distinguish lies from truth.
They are parasites and they derive their power from us, our bodies, minds and spirits. They are not going to change their ways simply because we change our attitudes or mental state. They will continue their relentless predations until we are destroyed. We must recognize we are in a battle for our very survival with deadly powerful intelligent cold enemies. We must recognize the enemy and then take all action on all fronts to disconnect them from us, a vital source of their energy. We must pull their plug, get them off our jugular veins, period.
I partly agree with this. They won't change their ways simply because we change our mental state. It is more like that when we change our mental state, we will realize our power, and we will act on that power.
Agreed. But there is no way to avoid the fact that in this world in this dimension, the next step is action.
we have the power to chose, love, truth in every moment in regard to every situation. as ram das said. "be Here NOW". eckert tolle. The Power of Now. in this moment lies our power. to chose Love or Fear. no past, no future to make the decision needed NOW. we can talk about "it". but ultimately we need to be aware in this moment . we need to take back our projections which is showing us the world we see.
Indeed - and then we need to take action
indeed
Not Charles, and I agree with your belief in the presence of an evil alien force in the world. However, what percentage of the population do you believe is being puppeteered by this evil force? If it's as many as a third or even half the population, then in my opinion the situation is hopeless. If it's a very small percentage, however, then what Charles said still applies. We have to ask ourselves what it is about the psychology of all the normal people and the structure of the systems that govern us (which depend on the cooperation of normal people) that allows the puppets of evil to gain so much power over us collectively. The ultimate cause may not be with us, but it may not be the case that we can even act against the ultimate cause. Even if we could reliably identify and kill off all the puppets of evil (doubtful, especially considering how good evil is at scapegoating, projection, and every other means of deflecting blame and warping perceptions), how are we supposed to prevent new puppets of evil from coming into being? The only way I can see is that somehow all the normal people who hopefully make up the majority of the population have to find a way to adjust ourselves to make our society inhospitable to evil -- not by identifying it and killing it off wherever we see it, since that process may be a never ending battle which can very easily be twisted by the evil into a weapon against the good -- but by recognizing the psychological processes of normal people and the structures of the systems supported by normal people that allow evil to gain a foothold in the world and work its magic on us. And that's mostly the kinds of solutions that Charles advocates for.
Those who rule us and have since the beginning of history know us very well. Our psychology is being manipulated subtly and brutally all the time, especially in the epoch of mass communication and technology. Evil doesn’t “gain a foothold” it HAS had an established power base for millennia. They believe we exist for their benefit to do with as they wish regardless of our wishes or thoughts. In fact, they think we are their property. Are we? It is time we find out.
By getting out the guillotines?
The guillotines have already been gotten out - for us
I agree that a majority of humanity isn't responsible for current evils manifesting but a lack of empathy or psychopathy doesn't make someone non-human. Those features are part of the human experience even if they aren't shared by a majority.
I disagree. Lack of empathy and remorse, the main signs of psychopathy, enable the person to commit acts others with normal human empathy & remorse are emotionally constrained from doing. There are signs that the state of psychopathy is genetically based, resulting in a measurable defect in the area of the brain responsible for these emotions. In other words, these people are defective mutants. If our situation were not so dire caused by these things, we could afford to empathize with them. We must recognize and understand this is our enemy, disguised as human. No, they are not human by definition. They want to destroy us - and they are. That is a fact.
We have a different definition of human, then. Most people would not redefine human to exclude those with genetic defects, and frankly this seems an obviously bad path to go down. I think that cognitive or strategic empathy (vs. an emotional 'feel their pain' empathy) is useful when trying to understand anyone, even those doing great harm (thought not sufficient since we need to examine larger systems that enable the sociopaths to rise to the top).
The schism between the vaxxed and unvaxxed, and doubters and accepters reflects an internal schism and a schism that lies at the heart of humanity. We are all doubter and accepters. We all contain the elements of loyalty and independence. Human nature is designed to be comprised of yin and yang, confidence and doubt, trust and suspicion. Duality is bred in the bone. The challenge is not to deny that duality and remain in a place of dynamic doubt.
But if we are to adopt a humanistic stance, there can be no room for condemnation, devaluation, and vilification. There can only be room for understanding, and improving our communication skills. In the forum of ideas, those who can not maintain respect for others, fail to respect themselves too. Not playing by the rules disqualifies you from participation in the exchange of ideas. Much as we condemn those who condemn others, we should learn not to condemn them for their condemnation but understand them and set limits on them. Or else we become like them. These abusers are deluded, in that they have denied their own dual nature and have embraced a monistic view of the world and themselves. The challenge is to gently get them to see the errors of their own thinking, while simultaneously being open to learning our own mistaken understandings. The spirit of charity, empathy and humanity will enable a conversation to take place (sometimes, but only with those who are not too emotionally activated) but judgment will snuff out any hope for enlightenment. Indeed, some are so deep into denial that they are unreachable. In this case, the default system should always be respect, because respect comes from love and love is the life force that sustains all that is important. It resonates with the spirit that makes our world a wonderful place.
It's opposite can only lead to a dark place. As has always the case, the essential problem humans face is what to do with our anger? How do we keep it from dividing us internally from our own loving nature? How do we keep it from hurting others? How do we transform it into something positive so it doesn't corrode us inside with resentment? I believe there is no resolution to this. It is an eternal question, a koan, which like sailing a ship on a windy sea, requires constant adjustment and adaptation to the vicissitudes of the natural world. It is the game of life, and alas, we all play it badly at times. We are in a constant struggle against our own human weaknesses to become better people. There will always be room for improvement.
yes, what to do with our anger, that is a good question. I think its holy force is neutralized when it is diverted onto hate. Anger is a response to a boundary violation. It is the sacred No.
Understanding of the proper role of anger- as a legitimate human defensive response to real threats to personal boundaries - is a critical insight. Attaining it in a 12 Step program transformed my management of relationships and provided me with the basis for a sense of security within the social matrix. I wish the same for many. It can defuse the 'all against all' perception and reactivity that leads to the situation that has developed in the US. Reclaiming the right to the anger response when it is appropriate is vital to personal empowerment. And only the disempowered defer to the dictats of corrupt authority.
Your question about what to do with our anger is great! Anger breeds so much hate that it is difficult to turn that around. I believe that in order for the anger of our country to dissipate we need to begin with self reflection and forgiveness. Not an easy thing to do but both will lead to compassion and understanding.
This series is fast becoming a medicament to my heart ❤️ ! When I see a new essay in my inbox I become enlivened, enthusiastic, and hopeful! You have captured the essential sentiment of so many of us who’ve found ourselves lonely, ostracized, and maligned, Charles! As we work through our bafflement, bewilderment, befuddlement, many of us are just scratching our heads…?!
I haven’t judged harshly one single friend, family member, nor loved one for their decision to accept the official state remedy for this dreaded virus?! Yet, I’m continually ostracized and banished from friend groups and full access to society, simply for my insistence on body autonomy; coincidentally, a current topic of heated debate!
I don’t know if it’s worth noting that I haven’t had so much as a sniffle in over 2-years, and I counted one ☝🏽 cold in 15-years! As someone who has survived pharmaceutical injury (Cipro) resulting in life-threatening ischemic colitis and sepsis, with a subsequent ‘Crohn’s’ diagnosis, I’ve had this autoimmune disorder described to me by Dr. Cowan (yes, THAT Dr. Cowan!) as “hypervigilant” immune response. Meaning, an immune system can work too well and, in my case, become exquisitely intolerant of toxicity, particularly petrochemical and synthetic drugs. It also explains why I don’t get colds and flus. When the pandemic hit, I knew I’d be fine. My fear of the virus was, on a scale of 1-10, at threat level zero. It has remained at zero, even as I’ve been exposed to active cases.
It’s definitely worth noting that Dr. Cowan has single-handedly been responsible for the majority of my recovery from my near-death experience, and indeed helped guide me through not only a reversal of symptoms, but some of the best digestive health I’ve ever experienced! I’m certainly not interested in compromising my vitality to risky experimental biotech! That is my right. If others choose options that suit their situation, that’s not my business. We all have our unique experiences.
Godspeed Charles, and thank you 🙏🏽 !!
Charles, Thanks for continuing to write into the Space in Between Stories. I have been thinking very similar things as the folks you quote who have lost all hope. I see absolutely nothing that I've been taught, that I've witnessed in my lifetime, that I have to live through day to day, that gives me any hope, or makes me feel that we have taken any concrete steps toward moving beyond Girarding scapegoating. Everything I've learned I've had to unlearn, and most of what I do these days is try to sit still and breathe and wait and observe, and when someone asserts some kind of truth, patiently unravel it and let it sit there, neither true no untrue, just an assertion that someone has made. "Well, clearly, this is a sign of hope," is just as untrue as "Clearly, this is a sign of the evildoers." This latest essay of yours make me think of the life of Jesus. I have strong Christian affiliations, but I don't self-identify as Christian. But, this essay and the study you've made of Girardian tendencies in society, to me, speaks directly to the wisdom and foolishness of the cross. The cross is a symbol of violence of the state against an individual. It was not originally a symbol of personal, individual salvation. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he offered his own body, in complete love, against state violence and mass hysteria. I see absolutely no sign that Christianity today is anything other than poorly disguised patriarchy or feel-good carnival tickets to heaven; and yet, I still find huge power in the symbol of the cross. We are supposed to take up our own crosses and follow in the path. And, we have to do it completely devoid of hope, because there will be no visible signs. Yet, as Wendell Berry says, the shape of our hope is exactly the shape of our despair. The hope comes only through the fact that, as you have written, our hearts know better, despite no outward visible evidence.
Some theologians believe the Christ story precisely subverts the Scapegoat pattern because in that story the victim, rather than being vilified in legend as the evil one, is shown as innocent, illuminating (1) the fundamental innocence of all victims, and (2) that this could happen to anyone, regardless of how guilty or innocent one is. I wrote about this in depth in A Temple of this Earth. https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/a-temple-of-this-earth
I feel well disposed to a lot of what you have written. I do get so bothered though by Christianity - even though you do say you don't identify as one. I am sad that you are clearly struggling with hopelessness and many days now I join you there. I just cannot find the hope in any of Christianity. Indeed, what was the point of Jesus' 'sacrifice'? The hysteria of the Christian message - salvation through blind obedience rewarded by eternal life - leaves us with nothing useful to help us navigate life on earth. The only life we can be sure we have. Everything good that Jesus stood for has been corrupted and used as a tool to inflict unspeakable suffering on indigenous peoples everywhere - and these are the people we should be prostrating ourselves before, begging to be taught how to get back to living in right relation with nature and each other. We can argue about sacrificial practises perhaps! The act of crucifixion itself has been used as a reason for the 'holy' to inflict physical harm upon themselves, which I think, is evidence of great sickness. I understand you are not advocating Christianity - but I don't even think the symbolism of cross-bearing is helpful. Imagine though, instead of bearing a cross, which is self-righteous and negatively disposed towards the belief that we are all smeared with sin and have are doomed to fail without it, we strive to believe that we are at the core, decent, loving and designed to want to bond with each other. Why don't we all try to 'carry' each other.
For all the New Age spirituality in the world, I'm not "prostrating" myself before any other human being, indigenous or otherwise. That's part of the point of liberation for me.
With you on that Sistersmith!
Fair enough, I wanted to evoke an image that reminds us what evils have been committed in the name of Christianity. There's nothing New Agey about what I'm talking about. I ain't prostrating myself before some unseen god either.
Whilst I agree wholeheartedly with your analysis of the wrongs done in the name of organised Christianity (Churchianity), there is, for me, deep sublime truth in the message of Christ. Christ as the bearer of Christ- Consciousness : self-less, kind, open, tolerant , inclusive, non-judging. This Christ Impulse transcends the narrow bounds of petty religions, allowing each of us to become sovereign individuals living and growing together with other sovereign individuals. Independent, free but hoping and striving for community, community based on respect, brotherliness, freedom and equality.
And…. for me this Christ energy is intimately connected to the Spirit of the Earth; Christ perhaps even being ithe spirit of the Earth. This means, obviously, that the terrible acts done by missionaries etc upon indigenous peoples who have the deepest, purest connection to nature is deeply unchristian.
I’m not quite sure why I’m saying this - I’m not trying to persuade anyone of anything, perhaps rather speaking up for the Christ impulse of pure selfless love. To my mind there is nothing wrong with that! Obviously difficult to attain for a mere mortal like me, but something to aspire to… something that gives me hope. And yes, it might sound abstract and sentimental, but for me it is a real inspiring energy that I can connect to and work with, in any and all relationships with both people and nature.
Pure, selfless love.
Thanks Michael, for your reply. When people talk about the love of Christ, I am always left wishing I understood what they are talking about. I just don't see it. Where does Jesus really show that? His life is shown as an array of miracles of healing, the blind to see, the lame to walk, the 3000 to be fed with a loaf and a couple of fishes and so on. This is the stuff of a comic book hero, a construct of wishful superhumanism. His final act of death is followed by the most superhuman feat of all - resurrection. The claim to end all claims, 'Hurrah! Christianity wins, it conquers death!' How does that 'save' all mankind? (I need to also mention here, the issue of human life before Christ.) Look around us now. Why should what amounts to little more than a non-verifiable account be held in such awe? It was a cult of personality. I can't go past all the violent, sickening things done in the name of that belief system, I just can't. The mass killings, cruelty to children, the suppression of women, absolution of evil, the greed, the destruction of other cultures and so much more done in the name of Christ. I am amazed (and impressed) that you take the positives you do from it but I cannot join you there. Pure, selfless love is inflated and attached to the Christ story by those who want to control people. Everything is ok in the name of.... I wouldn't put so much importance on the nature of love to be pure and selfless. Actions, whether they be called kindness, generosity or love are just as important and very, very common among us 'mere' mortals. Don't belittle yourself! Perhaps this is even more impressive than a 'son of God'. In the end, it all worked out for Christ. He lived again and will for all eternity, he got to hang with his dad and billions of people worship him. I just cannot believe any of it and prefer to find my inspiration in the myriad of other places there are to find it. I suppose in the end, it doesn't matter what it is that inspires you towards being a loving human in any and all relationships and I bet you are decent and flawed person very like me. I like your use of 'Churchianity', a great new word. :-)
Thank you Bromumsy for this forthright reply.
I have nothing much to add except I like your point about mere mortals. I think it was false modesty on my part, which is not a particularly attractive or helpful trait to have. Because actually I think I am an amazing person,( like all of us); thank you for reminding me. Working on it!
As to the Christ Impulse, I have no clever argument except to say that all religions get hijacked by humanity, and Christianity probably the most of all. But in my view that’s all it is - a hijacking; the real essences of all spiritual teachers (Buddha, Christ, Mohammed, Jehovah, Mother Earth, Angels, and others I don’t yet know about) remain as realities in the world. Finding a way to those realities is a journey each of us has to take alone, hence no clever suggestions.
Thank you for your amazement and for being impressed by my views, (it feels quite good to be recognised sometimes!!! ) And thank you for your clear and deep sadness that you feel about the distortion of true Christ energy….and your eloquent speaking of it. Important!
And finally, I’m quite excited that in this conversation we haven’t mentioned the C word once!! How cool is that???!
Haha! No, we didn't! Thanks, Michael for hearing me out. I don't usually fully reveal how I feel about the other C word (the one we are discussing :-)) and it felt really good to be honest. I don't regard myself as qualified in a scholarly way, so I just let my heart roll out the words. The Churchianity that filled my childhood failed me - or I failed it, or both - and I do have to own all I say is just my response to my experience. I cannot refuse to see that you and many like you, are doing the important work of taking what is the best part of it, the reminder to remaining loving and respectful of all people. I feel your patience and kindness, so thank you for that.
A tough call. I personally believe that the daughter in your example is "wrong" (ignorant, not up on the facts), but in her thinking she's protecting her child. It's impossible to see her as the "bad guy", no matter how wrong she might be. Her mother is dying. If I were the mother, I know what my choice would be. Every case is unique. Can we imagine a world in which everyone knows the best thing to do? I don't think so. The hysteria around covid (IMHO) is totally unfounded, yet we live in a culture that accepts it. Can we "educate" the masses, make them able to see the "truth", for that matter, is it truth? I think so, but that's me. Most people don't have Charles's ability to evaluate information, something he often fails to realize. It's a sad state that we live in. I know very bright people who want everyone vaccinated, because their fear outweighs their reasoning ability.
I often wonder about what you've said here: " Most people don't have Charles's ability to evaluate information," It puzzles me how unequal the abilities have been distributed. When conversing online with a group like this many things can be discussed, but in my real life there are so many people who I can find no way at all to communicate with about these same topics. I wonder if these individuals do not need to think about the same things to be fully themselves, or if they are stunted, damaged, or somehow oppressed by circumstances? I don't want to foolishly assume that everyone needs to be similar to me, but it sure does seem that something is terribly wrong and many don't even notice.
Well, the same's true for me, some people I can communicate with, some I don't even try. I taught for many years (mainly 18-25 yr olds) and came to the conclusion that there's a normal distribution of intelligence among people. It's not that some are stunted or damaged, they just cannot evaluate information. They're happy being told what to do, what to think. Unfortunately the people telling them what to do and think about covid are (IMHO) wrong, or purposely misleading them. On the other hand, many of my former colleagues buy into the vaccine story (not all, thankfully), one with a Ph.D. in cell biology, another with a master's in genetics. Perhaps they don't look closely enough at what's going down, or at the data, they are time limited for sure.
I wasn't thinking of intelligence, as measured by our schools and tests and degrees. Plenty of people who rank very high in that regard that I cannot communicate with. The best explanation I have found is Ian McGilchrist's work about left brain and right brain. It explains a lot but it doesn't help us know what to do about the situation and in some ways has made me feel even more powerless to bridge the divide. I'm thinking that the only way to communicate sometimes is just to live out what I see to be true and let the living of it speak for itself. Not only relating to Covid but also materialism, status, beauty... all these different issues that I feel so strongly about.
Covid (or any infectious disease) vaccination is a tricky question. It's a very different issue from something like abortion, which is nobody's business but the parent's. People feel threatened by the unvaxed. Personally I feel like if you're vaccinated, in theory you should be protected, so unvaccinated people pose little or no threat. This "disease" has been so hyped up and the vaccinations are so uneffective, Charles's title to this and the previous essay are spot on. It occurred to me after I wrote the last response about taking the time to look at the data, the only reason I did pay such close attention to it was that I was traveling by train right through the thick of it in 2020. I paid close attention, and saw nothing to fear. Of course I don't get flu shots or mammograms or colonoscopies or any of that, for me, doctors are people you go to when sick and not just a little bug, they're normal. I worked in health care when it changed so drastically, changes in how insurance paid, control by big pharma, "preventative care" (which prevents nothing), took over. These days it's out of control.
I agree. Also important information about covid was highly censored from the very beginning. Most folks just did not have time to go digging for legitimate alternative viewpoints which often directly contradicted the mainstream narrative. The medical professionals and scientists around the world who dared questioned that narrative were quickly and brutally silenced or rendered ineffectual in the larger conversation. Fauci's emails clearly show that even within our own health agencies, dissenting voices were quickly smothered and deliberate smear campaigns were instigated to discredit any dissenters. From day one both the UK and the US brought out the domestic terrorist club against anyone who shared covid 'disinformation'. Which of course meant anyone who challenged the narrative no matter how credentialed and experienced they were. I personally was outcasted and attacked by my own community simply for saying that alot of important covid data was being censored and misrepresented. I was told I was now a 'danger' to the community by even daring to point out blatant censorship!
It's clear that the narrative on everything is censored, from covid to big ag, politics, you name it. It's frightening. Why people can't see it is a mystery to me, or why they ignore it. Lots of folks do see, make jokes about it, then carry on. Bret Weinstein (who I don't always agree with) said something the other day that rang true: it's a "storm the cockpit" moment in history. We don't all have to agree on everything, but the big picture is very clear.
Of course it occurs to me, I can't say "if I were the mother I know what I'd do" because I'm not her, I don't know all her circumstances. It's a tough decision one would wish she didn't have to make, but she does. In a perfect world, it wouldn't be, but then it's not ever perfect. In fact, it's often really messed up.
Ain't that the truth!
Poignant! I think many of us came here in response to the dearth of civil discourse…?!
Respectful debate, dialogue, and discourse is our only path outta the darkness, regardless of whether we ultimately agree with one another!
Absolutely!
I read some of the comments and I do think you presented a balanced debate . I was vaccinated and yet was not supportive of mandates , especially as we progressed to a more endemicity . I work with disabled adults and my son is also disabled therefore any “ fence “ no matter how small was important to apply . However observation of the virus and its effect on society at large did not confirm for me the validlity of any kind of mandate . Since having the vaccination I have had COViD but it’s severity only lasting 24 hours , this is vital for me as my son has a pacemaker in his heart and is prone to pneumonia . I wonder if anyone else presented with these choices would have done differently . My previous job as a soldier required me to have a range of vaccinations that the general public never have , I felt it was the same as regards my personal life that I get vaccinated . Infection is not prevented however my son also got covid and thank god it didn’t extend to severe disease . My needs are met and I would not think the research convinces me that universal application was necessary . However the data never stands still and I continue to read more of the studies that arise now with bigger populations . I remain flexible yet not to the point where I could support mandates or young children receiving the vaccine .
However I’ve tried to reach out to the unvaccinated to maintain friendships and relationships and in fact I’ve been marginalised truly and fully . Even to the point where this week I got into a dicscussion with a guy at local fruit store who turned away from me and called me be of “ them” .
I’m not completely beaten however in my outlook, to me it’s vital love and friendship rise above these binaries . My research is extensive and my searches are in BMJ and also Lancet and pub med . I extend beyond this to embrace the qualitative with the empirical . This has led me to believe that lockdowns are unesscessaty and ineffective and harmful to society . Masks are not effective or ineffective but they have variable application and really personal choice , it’s rather relative than an absolute . How do we get together ? Well the one thing we must admit is even though our information is wide and varied it all comes from the same little digital boxes . We need to suspect the origin of this always as manipulation and mass hypnosis is based on “ my phone is always right “! - is it ???
Thanks for this comment. One thing it might convey to people who condemn the vaccinated is that the choice to vaccinate, even if not mandated, was not a free choice. Because the information you were given upon which to make your decision was highly biased and manipulated. You made the best choice you could based on the information you trusted. Perhaps as with Thomas above, you will make different choices as the truth becomes more available. Who could blame you for making the choice you did?
Charles, this a gracious answer and, at the same time, I believe you're making an assumption about the information that vaccinated people have. What makes you believe that someone who chose to vaccinate had only biased and manipulated information? Do you believe it's possible that someone might have looked at a wide array of information and then chose to vaccinate or do you believe that everyone who had the same information you had would choose not to?
It is hard for me to imagine people choosing to vaccinate if they had the information I do. However, the "information" I speak of isn't entirely factual data on the vaccines, or even the knowledge of corruption and manipulation of the data. It also includes systems of thought, unsound paradigms that most people don't know are unsound, and so foth.
It sounds to me like what it comes down to is that no one who has your information and worldview would (voluntarily) vaccinate.
You asked in another comment for examples of how you unintentionally "belittle" -- I see a hint of that here where you assert the unsoundness of other people's paradigms as a matter of fact (that they're too ignorant to realize) rather than as a matter of your subjective opinion. It put me on the defensive a little.
It is also true that if I had their information and worldview, I would make the same decision they did. That is not belittling. It is, however, incumbent on me to share my information and worldview. People may not accept it, but I cannot stay silent when (as I see it) people are being lied to.
I think the issue at hand is one of equanimity. When we feel that if not for the grace of my own experiences, I would believe and behave exactly the same as this other person does ...only then does something big shifts inside of us. When that is how we are approaching life, we do not come across as condemning others for their beliefs. Instead there is honor and respect for everyone no matter what. If we believe in the idea of an inherently bad or good person, or even inherently good or bad choices we are acting as if we have perfect knowledge which we know is impossible. At all times it comes down to seeing people as doing the best they can, from that place when you talk about your beliefs there is great respect for others without it being about one's egotism and that is when we can truly change the world. Without that, we're just serving as a mirror to all that we see in the world.
I feel the same as Erica. I have appreciated opportunities to feel the twinge of condescension, belittling and judgement from anti vaccination folks. And I am so sorry for the ways I may be doing the same. And despite our efforts to conduct a conversation without these judgmental spikes- I don’t see it ( feel it) happening.
I will continue to read “ north sides” and continue to seek a wide horizon.
As devils advocate I would ask you- how can you be so sure that you know the ‘truth’? It does feel a bit patronising… and a bit confusing. Are you advocating ‘Inter-being’ or are you advocating ‘inter-being as long as you learn to see my truth’? This makes me uncomfortable… it’s not something I personally want to do.
And…. in relation to truth and lies: I feel it is a symptom of our binary world that we believe in only one truth, I have a feeling their are many truths… and that they evolve too!!
Very complicated and annoying I’ll admit, but perhaps helpful for our initiatory possibilities?
When you put it that way, it doesn't come across to me as belittling. But when there's a subtle assertion that your worldview is superior to someone else's, it carries an implicit judgment of the other as inferior.
Charles, I love you and I have to say that reading you and meeting you has been hugely inspiring in my life. And I love what you say about how the main issue is how we polarize each other into good and bad people and how we want to scapegoat people.
But on this issue, it seems like you had already made up your mind that the vaccines were going to be bad back in March 2020 when you wrote Coronation. How much of this "information" and data about vaccines and ideas about systems of thought and unsound paradigms did you already have back then?
Your new covid-era audience seems extremely one sided to me and ready to scapegoat left and right.
In fact, I initially thought mRNA vaccines might possibly be less toxic than traditional vaccines, because they don't need all the toxic adjuvants and preservatives. It turned out I was mistaken. They are much worse. That would have been obvious from the start if Pfizer hadn't manipulated the studies.
I have in fact been skeptical of vaccines since the 1990s, and wrote a bit about it in The Ascent of Humanity, which I wrote in the early 2000s. My overall views on vaccination have not changed. It's just that it wasn't that "political" until recently.
The article that most thoroughly addresses this issue is "Beyond Industrial Medicine." https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/beyond-industrial-medicine
Curious where you see the scapegoating happening. I haven't seen a lot of it in the comments, except for a few who are fixated on the narrative of a elite satanic cabal. Those folks are a small minority of my "new audience," and in fact they criticize me for not endorsing that narrative.
I just read the industrial medicine article and everything in there makes sense to me and you address everything in a larger context there. So I feel relieved after reading it.
My personal choice is to take the vaccine and do as many of the other things as possible to stay healthy so I still don't understand why these particular vaccines or the masks are the fork in the road.
Thank you Charles, I appreciate you replying even though I wrote something critical and my comment wasn't super gracious.
I don't know how you can be so definite and categorical about how the mRNA vaccines are much worse, or just really bad overall. I don't want to get into that because people have been cherry picking data and information. But you are acknowledging here that part of the data you used to arrive to that conclusion is something about how "those" people have an unsound paradigm and system of thought. Does this mean that you personally feel have a sound paradigm and system of thought that allows you to see beyond all the published data that the vaccines actually have bad outcomes and are not currently preventing hospitalizations and deaths ?
I am not a good writer/thinker and I do not know how to express subtle nuances like you and a lot of other people do.
However, my vague, intuitive understanding of how all this works is that the moment that somebody becomes really sure of their own worldview at the expense of the possibility of other worldviews possibly being correct, that's exactly the moment of danger, the risk of dehumanizing people who are not "getting" it. And I think this is a big part of what I have been hearing you say for years.
I would like to understand how you hold within you both the deep belief that it is crucial not to dehumanize the people who have a different experience or reality, and the intensity and level of conviction with which you take one side in this particular realm. For example, not that this is the most important one, just one example: is there anything left that you are open to that might get you to consider the possibility of the mRNA vaccines having been helpful in preventing deaths and hospitalizations?
I don't know how to point out a specific example of scapegoating in the comments, to me that feels obvious in the general tone of most of the people who are aggrieved here about how much they had to suffer because they didn't want to wear masks or didn't want to get vaccinated.
Even just your assertion that the "violence" was asymmetrical feels like scapegoating to me. I know you like to make big picture comparisons, like you keep using the hunger comparison.
So if I was to try to make a similarly risky comparison, I would say something like: it looks like a certain number of people in affluent countries have experienced a negative interaction with their government and some of their fellow citizens, how is this different in scale or gravity to all the other historical examples or even current examples of how the capitalist ( or communist) or whatever system is oppressing people and causing harm?
How is having to wear a mask more outrageous and worthy of drawing a line in the sand than systemic racism, corporate takeover of politics, the shit that they call food in this country, the ongoing destruction of living ecosystems ?
How is that even worthy of your attention and brilliance compared to all the other issues? How do you not lose the big message of trying to understand the other side and try to not get polarized?
One possibility is that there are people who are used to having privilege and used to not being inconvenienced in anyway and they seem to get somewhat easily outraged. What is the Venn diagram of the intersection between your new audience ( if there is one) and those kind of people?
I grew up in communist Romania so having to wear a mask does not feel like an existential imposition on my freedom.
Thank you Charles i am learning how to discern truth from knowledge .Like Socrates I accept a fluid position with knowledge . A beautiful example of differences that became friendship and understanding was the relationship between
Martin Mcguiness and Ian Paisley
I just wanted to say that this line you wrote touched me: "I've tried to reach out to the unvaccinated to maintain friendships and relationships". And I am very sorry that you have not been met with appreciation. Unvaxxed myself, I wish old friends would reach out to me and say something like "I want you to know I still value your friendship and I'm still here for you" even if they don't 'fully support' my choice. I realize it takes something for them to do that and I would appreciate it a lot. BTW I do have one friend who said from the start, even though she is *terrified* of Covid (quite needlessly, IMO), "I love you and I want to understand". And I feel no distance from her - if anything, I feel we are closer than before. And we still disagree.
Thank you , It’s been a difficult time , initially I had many reservations as regards vaccination , however my personal circumstances made it difficult for me to hold that stance .
I do hope we can all move towards a better position . Of course there are difficulties when 2 people hold opposing views , yet friendship can be maintained . Look at Martin Mcguiness and Ian Paisley
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/03/martin-mcguinness-ian-paisley/520257/
Thank you. I have vaccinated and unvaccinated friends and they are my family because my family is far away. You will find your people.
I understand & empathize with the experiences of being ostracized by vaccination status. I was censored from participating in a celebration of her life when my mother died. I traveled 5. 5 hours, attended the small, family graveside service & was told not to attend the get-together at my sister's home following the funeral. About 40 people in her neighborhood were there. I tested negative before the funeral. I asked how many had tested recently for me to be excluded? Didn't matter to them because all were allegedly vaccinated. Didn't bother arguing this illogic. My sister & her husband showed no compassion for how I felt & they were suffering the same loss. According to them, my choice not to be vaccinated (true) & they were responsible for providing safety for the guests. Again I said I just tested negative. So, it was more about punishing than it was safety.
I was all alone, devastated by my mother's death & excluded from any comfort while my sister was surrounded by family & friends. Hurt a lot & still does. Hard to accept this coldness from my sister.
Gerri, what a devastating experience for you. I had something similar in that I was forced to resign from my hiking group…..through our weekly walks for 10 years and our social gatherings and camping trips, they had become my confidants, support community and ‘friends’. Initially, I was at a total loss, felt excluded, missing out and victimised. At my (inoculated) daughter’s suggestion, I dropped the victim role (it still quietly surfaces at times) and have tried to organise other walking friends and just looked at it differently. ‘They are missing out on my company and input into the group. In fact, they have just felt safe enough to change the rules and invite me back saying how much they missed me , etc 🙄 How sad for your sister to have missed the comfort of your presence, your shared memories and love. How sad for her to have not found away to be there for you. These situations are such an opportunity to come into our true power and find that inner strength and resilience. BTW, I want peace and harmony, so I will occasionally join them for particular walks, but I’m certainly going to continue this journey I have now begun. I hope you can find your way to heal land create the life you truly deserve. Blessings and best wishes
Sheila, don't know why my reply didn't show. Trying again. Thank you for writing. Appreciate you understanding. Felt like I was stabbed through the heart. So sorry about your hiking group. Ten years is quite a loss! Hurts deeply. Sounds like you have a wise daughter. Heartening they missed you & invited you back. Good you feel you can join occasionally. Great you found other walking friends. Hope they offer comradery you had before. Stay well with your head high.
I can't tell you how many times I've read a experience so similar to yours. I cannot begin to understand that kind of hurt and rejection. Bless you! I don't know it if helps but there are many families going through the same thing: all the vaccinated are welcomed and the un-vaccinated are shunned. What a terrible thing to do to someone who has lost a loved one!!!!
Thank you, Kat for your kindness. It does help not feeling alone being rejected.
All I can say is that I am sorry, that she was wrong and that, sadly, Karma will take care of that and her.
I couldn't ever forgive her, if you/Charles can, good for you/him.
I have the same situation now with my father and decided to keep up appearances while internally having pronounced him dead for me.
Imo, within the family and with formerly very best friends, such a resort to shallowness is probably the best course of action now, it requires some phoney acting on my part, but at least it doesn't open more and bigger cans of worms.
In those few instances, I am willing to pay that price and go that route.
With 'friends', I see it differently.
I do not really bemoan their loss or feel that I am on the receiving end or am being excluded by them.
To the contrary.
I do not want to have anything to do with them anymore, or can't take them serious anymore depending on their level of advocacy for my discrimination, and it is me who is cutting the ties, not them.
Thanks, Jay. I posted a reply that didn't show. Been waiting for karma for a long time. I think karma may be another magical thinking to bring solace. Or it takes too long to witness karmic results to know if it's true or a fairy tale.
Actually, at this point, I haven't forgiven her. Best I can do is say f**ck her. I tried to understand her side, but can't because I was healthy, tested neg that day, had no symptoms, no risk to anyone. All I see is illogic & insensitivity to cast me out alone. There was the brand of self-righteous that also made it difficult to swallow.
Sorry about your father. Think I share how you feel. Understand how the line of least resistance is often best. Prevents hurt from going deeper. My route to mental health was cutting my father out of my life because would never have been resolved & just further pain. If we divorce partners, end negative friendships, why are we bound to painful blood relationships?
Good you removed yourself from friends who really weren't. Healthy move, kudos.
This ⬆️
Thanks for your post. Stuff of nightmares and just as ungraspable.
Thank you.
That's a really painful experience, I feel for you.
Thanks.
Until we really understand that we are part of an organism called Gaia and are totally interconnected and interdependent upon it for our wellbeing and even our very life and take actions from that gnosis, we will continue to destroy ourselves and the planet. Pandemania is a symptom of the much larger disease called separation.
I absolutely agree. This is a primary lesson I take from Covid. Viruses are part of us and we of them, they are inextricably woven through our DNA and evolution as humans beings. To believe we can 'overcome' them is symptomatic of our ignorance, arrogance and separation. It goes right back to christian injunctions to 'conquer' nature. Pandemania is absolutely a symptom of a much larger disease. Thank you!
Sorry Charles, but it seems like you live in a different universe than me.
Any coercion, hatred and discrimination in those regards was and is entirely one-sided.
None of us mask or vaccine refusers ever demanded that a masked or vaccinated person does the same.
We might mock them for it on the basis of our usually much deeper research, but we never ever argued for taking away their choices, only they did and do this with ours.
And not just despite the ever more visible ineffectiveness, harm and ridiculousness of them, but seemingly most often even more so as the fact that their choices have been terrible becomes more visible. I said from the start that my red line is a vaxx mandate, that I want nothing to do anymore with anyone who ever was in favour of it. I have extended my disgust and contempt to everyone who participated and tolerated the ensuing discrimination- probably also because I would originally not have deemed that discrimination and its tolerance possible in today's world and by my circle of 'progressive' 'professionals'.
If, as and when people seriously apologize for their complicity, I might half-heartedly be able to forgive them and do 'business' with them again, but I will never forget and will still hold a much revised and lower opinion of them- you can't change (my) human nature here, declarations that 'everything will then be fine again between us' are imho just deluded and phoney.
I don't think our views are so very different. In Part 1 I pointed to exactly what you are saying here: there is a profound asymmetry between the two sides. One has the power of the entire establishment, the other does not. One is trying to force the other to do something, the other is not.
It would be gratifying for people to apologize for their complicity. More than that, it would be a good sign that people are ready to examine their role in what happened. Ultimately though, we have to realize that at bottom we are all human. At this moment you and I are probably complicit in horrors that we aren't even aware of. We think we are doing our best in light of our knowledge of the global political and ecological situation. But we don't know what we don't know. What are the conditions that will allow us to awaken to our own complicity? What are the conditions that will help us really take responsibility for it? Is it the mocking hatred of those who saw it all along?
Jay, sadly it is true that there are numbers of 'anti-vaxxers' and 'anti-maskers' who are discriminating against and sometimes blaming and shaming those who did get the covid vaccine for whatever reason, and/or who continue to mask. It sounds like that is not happening around you, but I have seen it happening in my area. I was invited to lead a ceremony at an event recently that refused to admit the vaccinated or allow any masks to be worn at all. They advertised their event as 'spike protein free' and told me that about 400 people would be attending. Considering this event is to be in a blue county of a blue state that is alot of people to be promoting that type of, imo completely erroneous propaganda and predjudice form the other direction. I declined the invitation because I simply cannot support discrimnation based on vaccination status in either direction. whether vaxxed or unvaxxed. Yes, collectively the discrimination has been overwhelmingly against the unvaxxed. But there is still plenty of predjudice against the vaxed from some folks who believe that the vaccinated present a real danger of 'shedding' the toxic elements of the vaccine onto them. Yes the vaccinated do shed as has been proven with other vaccines, but there is no possible way to avoid it unless we live in a sealed bubble. We are living in a soup of toxicity including spike proteins all around us. The idea that someone can actually hold a 'spike protein free' event and thus protect themselves from being exposed to covid from the vaccinated, is completely ludicrous and for me illustrates yet another level of this insanity.
Rainbow, this is indeed ridiculous and such events are really unheard of and probably illegal anyway here in Europe.
To me, ANY discrimination is just plain wrong- sadly, those harping on the most about this simple principle in the past were and still are the most actively this principle forgetting people.
Last year for example, when it became clearer that the vaccinated can still spread and are therefore indeed the hidden and therefore more likely and more dangerous superspreaders in nightclubs etc., I have made the point that while objectively only they should then get refused or tested as a condition for access, this non-discrimination principle demands that everyone should be admitted and tested instead.
I would also never exclude or shun a vaxxed person just because of his vaxxed status.
Intellectually, I can't take them (or rather the uncoerced) very serious anymore, especially so now and those who are refusing to even contemplate connecting the side effect dots when they become ill, but I would always want them to be able to continue to get their shots if they so desire.
With masks, the situation is a bit different, imho.
Mask mandates were the first and are the most visible assault on our bodily autonomy, the mask was introduced primarily as a Gessler hat.
If you continue to wear a mask now, imho, you demonstrate a support of this assault and a desire to re-establish these mandates, their dehumanisation, coercion, illegal ignorance of exemptions and hatred practiced towards the exempt and that now unquestionable obedience to government authority- no wonder the Germans are planning this mandate's reintroduction and most Germans are already clamouring for it.
So, they are solely about virtue signalling, politics, tribal identification etc. at this point.
This is even more unacceptable and unforgivable in light of their now so obvious inefficiency, harm and ridiculousness in theory and, above all, practice- again, people, in particular medical professionals who still claim otherwise have completely lost my respect and are probably just evil and part of the evil agenda.
There is simy no reason to and no excuse for still pulling one out of your bag or trouser pocket, for wearing one when you are alone in your car, when going through a restaurant and then taking it off at the table, when shopping masked with your unmasked partner etc..
If you are truly afraid, I respect that but expect you to do thorough research then, whether on Covid (IFR) the 'vaccines' or masks, otherwise, you do not really take this serious and are just faking your fear to blend in with the herd or to make a political statement.
With regard to masks, that then means you must know by now that you must wash your hands 3x per exchange of one, that they can't protect others, are totally useless for anyone with a beard, and that only P100 ones, or fitted N95s with filter, plus full PPE and goggles!, can protect you, for up to 40 minutes (new Australian study). You will then behave accordingly (no restaurant, no flight etc.) and have my acceptance of your fear, as well as my pity for your psychosis.
My beef with you then starts again, if you want to mandate your psychotic behaviour for everyone.
Thank you for your response Jay. I completely agree about stopping the masks mandates totally. I and others have worked hard here locally to try to stop them and prevent them from coming back. I also agree that most masks in most situations for most people are pretty useless and that they do cause measurable psycho-social and physical distress. So I am 1000% against forced masking. However, if someone wants to wear a mask over their face, or ridiculous goggles or a gas mask or have an unkempt bush of a beard with food remains in it or tattoo their face, get injected with botox and have a permanent smile and grossly inflated lips, I just don't care. That is entirely up to them. I might cringe when I look at them, but that is my problem not theirs. And yes maybe those who continue to wear masks are visibly supporting the whole crazy thing, but then those who get face lifts are supporting the whole insanity of eternal youth too. As long as they don't force me to get a face lift or wear a mask or get vaccinated etc and they don't reject me for not doing so; I'm going to learn to live with what they choose to do; even if I'm not terribly comfortable with their choice.
Jabs are a personal medical decision for all, and no one’s business besides the individual. Masking is a bit different. We have never covered our faces in public in western society. This is abnormal behaviour culturally and socially. That being said, people can still wear them, but at the same time I have the right to not allow them in my home.
I agree Steve. There are many things that we should be free to disallow or allow in our own homes for whatever reason. However in basically public venues and spaces I believe folks should be allowed to wear or not wear whatever they want within the limits of basic decency. The mask thing is frustrating and I find myself often avoiding interactions with folks who are still masked; which is my own personal choice and right. Just as it is thiers to continue wearing one. Personally I would be fine if folks wanted to walk around naked, but then that is just me and somehow I don't think western society is ready for that one either. I have a friend who works in our local supposed 'health' coop where they turned into the mask nazis and vaccine radicals. She needed the job and had to comply and had to wear a mask 9 hours a day every day, plus take twice weekly covid tests because she was unvaxxed, while her fellow vaxxed employees did not. She was also shamed and ostracized by other employees quite regularly at work. Anyway I asked her if the forced masking bothered alot. She said no, not really because working with the public as she has for years she has had to wear a sort of polite 'mask' everyday anyway and to her mind all the cloth masking did was make the mask wearing that we were all already collectively doing, more visible and tangible. And while she was glad to stop wearing the mask because it was physically uncomfortable in many ways, she had to relearn how to school her facial expressions all over again, because she had gotten used to being able to hide her real expressions behind the cloth mask. So just a little different perspective on that.
Yes, it has become a security blanket for many, but that doesn’t normalise it. Again, we have never covered our faces in public for millennia, and there are reasons for that. Just a thought. Imagine if you tried walking into a bank with a mask on three years ago…..
I would like to put in a plug for those who (i hope) change their tune, acknowledge the errors in their behavior and judgement, and seek reunion. As time goes on, this will be harder and harder to do on an individual basis, and I think if that attempt were sincere, it should be acknowledged in kind. Sure it's probably a good idea to remember that misstep they took, in the interest of self-preservation and all, but to me, anyone who sincerely acknowledges their mistakes and goes against the grain to make that acknowledgement deserves another chance. Otherwise, that grudge could be a toxic seed for the next great "us vs them" disruption. I hope that didn't come off as preachy or anything. I resonate with your sentiment, just desperately seeking a solution.
Yes, I agree. But let me know when you experience just one person sincerely acknowledging their misstep or mistake. I am simply asking if anyone has experienced just one person coming forward with this sentiment. I am still waiting.
My children's pediatrician just did this. He said, "I used to trust the CDC more than any other source, they were the gold standard. But not now.... politics have influenced medicine and that is totally wrong. I don't know where this situation will end up."
He said this to me in private. I don't know how much he has said publicly. He at one time (a year ago) was open to the benefits of the covid vax for teens, though not pushy. So he has truly changed.
Did he change, or just remember his medical training? This was a massive failure from almost the entirety of the medical field. It’s a nice that a few are slowly coming around after two years, but a bit too little and too late…
You will be waiting a very long time…..
Why does everyone who changes their mind have to acknolwedge a "misstep" or "mistake"? Why can't it be the reasoned result of further deliberation, acts of empathy, or the discovery of new evidence?
Your phrasing here embeds the polarization, suggesting a sort of madness of anyone who sees things differently from yourself.
I was quoting Charles. I would be hopeful if just one person asked me about my choice to remain unvaccinated.
Not at all, I totally see your point and agree. I just see a lower likelihood of that happening and less than such sincerity in most cases. I suppose the personal ability to really forgive correlates with that sincerity, and also an apologizing person's level of complicity as well as the personal harm such a person might have suffered through the vaccine in particular, at least in my case.
If I was not feeling so desperate, I would have waited for Part 2 to comment! Thank you Charles especially for the last bit here.
I strive to not judge and categorize. I've maintained that the best way to relate to another person (any sentient being!) is to treat them as themselves, not generalize, not lump into any bigger more abstract group in which they do not belong. So far in my life I accrued plenty of evidence that being specific is the best way (and that includes being a Chinese Medicine practitioner - I have clinical evidence that when I treat the patient this way, they react/benefit in proportion.)
What I would like to discuss and address is the coercion of masks, distancing, even injecting medication into one's body. Many readers have commented that they understand both sides. What I do not understand and do not accept on a soul level is the coercion. One of the biggest fallacies I know of is when one person (or a group) decides they know better, they decide for others what is best for others. No one knows what's better for me than me. I repeat this to my patients. It helps me to hear these words spoken aloud.
On occasion, when I went a bit further by asking them direct questions, I've had patients decide to not return. A voice tells me that they are afraid to go there. Something about taking responsibility and really examining oneself is terrifying to them. But planting the seed is a positive act - at least I sincerely hope so. I really think there's no other quest more important than to find out who we truly are.
I do not want to live in isolation, I do not want to voluntarily separate myself from society. I try to interact with people and I still behave according to HIPAA - each person's medical information is their private information. The only problem develops when others think I am a disease carrier even though I am healthy. And that I have to prove that I am healthy with a medical test. How did we get there so fast? Never in history has healthy people harmed others by transmitting a disease! This is simply a fact, an observation which has never been proven otherwise.
We are dangerously close to being discriminated on every level of society due to our medical history. What will be that world like? Before my imagination goes down that dark hole, I look forward to your comments.
Beautiful post. Enjoyed it. Really, how did we get to having to prove we're healthy? The horrible suspicion of disease lurking in every person is a shattering worldview. We know what the toll is. How did we get to isolating the healthy, instead of the sick? Crazy.
Indeed, coercion is deadening. While it's easy to say identify coercion, don't allow yourself to be coerced, examine the underpinnings of manipulation & fear, this isn't something most are able to do. And many don't the choice not to be coerced when jobs are on the line. People become easily overwhelmed when sorting through confusion especially when it's amplified by fear. We want clear answers. Of course, the simplest answer may not be the correct answer. Very sadly for humans, critical thinking is discouraged.
I futilely waited for artists to rise up with protest music to reach the masses as used to happen. Nada. News commentators I previously trusted continued the coercion & shaming. Should have been a red flag warning to everyone to only hear one narrative, aka propaganda.
Throughout this ordeal, I, like others, have mostly experienced a deep sadness. Sadness for what we've all lost & are losing (medical privacy being prime), sadness for children being bombarded with paranoia & bizarre controls.
There is art and music being created, but you have to go looking for it, as it is not being supported in a way to reach the masses.
Where? Can you point me to some?
I continue to be simply blown away by your ability to paint truth with such compassion and hope. "Especially at this time when vaccination clearly offers no protection against getting Covid, the ostracism of the unvaccinated draws from something beyond mere fear of catching a disease. The vaccine is a badge of in-group inclusion, the sanctifying ritual by which one is recognized as fully human. Historically, this is no anomaly. Many cultures require some kind of ritual to be accepted as a full member of the tribe. Refusing the ritual renders one into an unperson.
Today, leading institutions have hijacked that ritualistic impulse toward ends of profit and power. Within families too, vaccination and other symbols of conformity become tools of dominance and abuse."
These 2 paragraphs sum up what I believe is the root cause - the lack of meaningful ritual in a society that yearns so deeply for it, it will accept any substitute for inclusion into a group. In every indigenous culture, initiation was a time of facing death so you could see what you were made of, and if you survived initiation, you came back to the tribe with an unshakeable sense of who you were at your core. Many of us have self-initiated over and over again, but without the wisdom of the elders, those initiations can cost us with PTSD, a sense of being crazy, not fitting in, etc.
You personify the absolute best of elder wisdom at a time when we most need it. If we could see this pandemania as an initiation, perhaps we could learn something about ourselves that needs to be faced - out inability to accept information that disagrees with our invested beliefs; our need to see the world in victim/victimizer paradigms; our refusal to look at cause and effect; our intense reluctance to believe we might be just hypnotized enough to be pawns in a game we are completely unaware of......the list goes on. 2020 was extremely hard for me, I lost 95% of my community. I did my work for over a year and came out with a peace and joy unfelt previously. One person at a time, I am gathering with my tribe and choosing to put my energy into the things I can control - making every effort to be kinder, creating beauty with Nature and my neighborhood and sharing what I can with those who have less. The awakening is here, and I see more and more people shaking the scales from their eyes and suddenly finding themselves living in a world of such awe and wonder that we can't help but join hands and celebrate.
Lovely, thank you!
"Pandemania has shown us that we have not yet evolved in consciousness beyond our ancient scapegoating patterns. That revelation is a precious opportunity. How can we consciously turn away from what we do not see? Now we see it."
A thoughtful post. However your underlying assumptions about humans and evolution don't register as true for me. There is a bigger piece to this story - behind the scenes, on a grand scale, cosmic even - and that is that we don't have only a human source on this planet. A non-human source has been here and has infiltrated our civilizations at the highest levels and is behind this reality show of manufactured crises, intent on depopulation and controlling the remaining by turning them into transhumans. Those in the vaxx camp are effectively prisoners of war, whose minds have been captured. Why some of us were alert to this attempted global take over and others not, is a larger question. However once this non-human source is gone - and it will go - we will discover again what it is to be human. We haven't been outside the effects of this other presence for a long long time. Humanity is on the rise. Sadly there will be far fewer of us, by the time this other source loses its grip. My two cents.
Thank you.
As I've said in response to other comments, whether or not what you say is true (and I am not discarding it), we have to ask what makes us so vulnerable to manipulation. They exercise their power only because we acquiesce. When we become sovereign and source our choices from the knowledge in the body and through spiritual connection, we will no longer succumb to mass formation, mob psychology, and other patterns by which they control us. And as I have said, the reflex of us-versus-them thinking is one of the way they exercise control. Divide and conquer.
I fully agree we've agreed to manipulation, though for most unknowingly. Divide vs conquer is of course a strategy that keeps us looking at and fighting with each other; rather than behind the curtain. There is however a genuine divide. And we can't love our way out of our controllers grip. We will need to identity them, and understand how we've been played. We also don't need to fight our way out - a natural impulse will be restored that will translate into standing up and claiming our own sovereignty. Saying no to what is clearly wrong and supporting what is right.
I think the difference here is I'm suggesting the ways in which 'they' control us, are not natural patterns humans created. They were created for us to entrap us. They want us to feel its our fault, we are deficient, we are weak. That's what we inherited via them and their systems, which all amount to perpetual programming misdirecting us away from who we really are.
When I read the account of the mother-daughter conflict I thought the mother should have written the account on a beautiful stationary placed it in an enticing envelope and mailed it off to Dr. Wallensky at her home address. Because I do think there is "blame" to be passed out and she is one who needs to hear what damage she has done to peoples.
Again, Kathleen, I think you and I are reading the same materials and coming to very similar conclusions. Onward to the ascension!
I like that idea. I doubt Wallensky though, has the human empathy required to receive it. Could she play the roles she plays if she did?
Thanks, Amy. 😊
I fear we are cementing a bifurcation in place here on Earth. I don't see two sides to Jen's story, I see existence in separate realities. There are those who firmly believe the injection will stymie transmission, there are those who firmly believe the injection will create negative efficacy with potential toxicity, and then many still in between either still undecided or apathetic. That last group has a big range to it, the spectrum in between, and that is the group I have the most hope for in breaking this historical pattern of scapegoating and dehumanization. I'm not trying to separate everyone even further here into categories, just an observation: how can one be expected to break a pattern if these deeply held convictions can dwell in comfortable echo chambers?
Another aspect to what you say is that when people or their loved ones are harmed, it breaks them (or can break them) out of the echo chamber. Reality isn't only what we believe it to be. Sometimes the real world invades our castle of story.
Certainly, but the harm component awakening only goes in one direction; those who have been sounding the alarm on the dangers to mass vaccination will feel vindicated/bolstered by these accounts of harm, and the bifurcation becomes more solidified, despite the crossover by some. Also, if this further becomes the trend that we are seeing now (increasing number of accounts of harm) then we will truly have a global reckoning on our hands. Hard to see a way out of this particular division of "us vs them"...
I suppose it depends on what the "real world" evolves into next, and how much of the projected reality matches our shared experienced reality.
I think it has actually already crossed the tipping point. there are millions of people who do not voice it, but will NEVER get vaxxed again. People who never questioned it before. I'm in the minority who have been anti-vax since, let's see, 1996.
It's been curious to me that some family/friends that reluctantly accepted my choice to not get the Covid jab can't allow that same personal choice with other vaccines. They have been alarmed and resorted to name calling when they realized that my adult daughter is not vaccinating their children. A choice that she spent 2 years researching before having children.
By affirming that other vaccines are good, people can establish to themselves their 'belonging' in the ranks of the good and rational people. "At least I'm not an anti-vaxxer across the board, it is just this one mRNA vaccine that might have problems enough to excuse my crazy aunt."
I couldn't get the like function to work so I will simply say that I am one of the millions.
(I have found that refreshing the page fixes that. Of course, it also makes it a project to find where you were in the comments sequence.)
My feeling is that the keyword here is respect. We should respect each others' choices, and lack of knowledge and understand that nobody knows the ultimate truth. People do change their minds. Lots of people got it and then felt regret on their decision and changed their minds.
I didn't take the vaccine at all and everyone in my surrounding has got it.
I feel that if the government and media keep pushing this devision based on "science", I might have to literally hide in the mountains. Because it is this narrative that gives rise to this division.
I hear you. Moved to a farm house in a remote area of Australia in Feb and never dreamed how good it feels to be doing what’s been on my mind for several years. Have realised even without the crazy chaos, I’d be living simple with dirty hands. This is it - up at 5am in the freezing weather looking up at the crystalline pre-dawn stars, crying as Venus rises, chanting a prayer of gratitude.
That's exactly where I'm at now. It's hard not to imagine much of society going to war over this and other divisions in the near future, and hunkering down & establishing loving communities seems to be the best way to maintain sanity while striving for a better future.
Regardless of the future, practicing respect (even in the face of it's absence) is going to be vital.