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Two More Executed In Iran This Morning For Protesting For Freedom & Equality — What We Can Do To Help

January 7, 2023

The so-called #IslamicRepublicofIran has been on a brutal, bloody war path for the last few months — ever since #Iranian citizens started taking to the streets and peacefully protesting for equal rights for women, and basic #HumanRights and freedom for all of its citizens.

#WomenLifeFreedom became a catchphrase and trending hashtag all over the world and Time Magazine named “the women of Iran” it’s Person of the Year.

But since those early days in September when the protests over the savage murder of 23 year old #MashaAmini first started, the people of Iran shifted their stance and started asking the world & those of us who have been supporting them to stop using the #IranProtests hashtag, stop referring to their movement as a protest and to start referring to it as the #IranRevolution Concerned citizens all over the world quickly obliged. #IranRevolution is never NOT trending on Twitter, with upwards of 1500 mentions per hour; and #IranProtests stopped trending months ago.

This was a BIG shift. And an important distinction. What started out as a protest against the Iranian government’s so called “morality police” arbitrarily beating women to death in the streets for not dressing the way they force them to, and against the practice itself of forcing women to wear “hijab” (a long coat past the knees and a head scarf), swiftly turned into a nationwide movement of the people demanding their freedom from the oppressive dictatorship of pseudo-religious men who took control of their government 43 years ago.

At first the government’s reaction was predictable: firing teargas and rubber bullets into the crowds of mostly very young people in their early teens to twenties to disperse them. When that didn’t work they began firing live rounds into the crowds and killing them or arbitrarily picking a few out of the crowds and beating them to death, leaving their bloodied and disfigured bodies lying in the streets as a reminder to others.

When this didn’t work and the crowds continued to get bigger, the #Khamenei government started knocking down doors of people’s homes, kidnapping the children suspected of “participating in protests”, taking them to undisclosed locations and beating them to death until their skulls were crushed in and their faces unrecognizable.

(Parenthetically to show just what a harsh and inhumane reality the people of Iran and the world at large is dealing with, the anguish for the family didn’t, doesn’t, end there; the local government doesn’t return the dead body to the family. Instead they claim they weren’t involved in the murder of said family member and don’t know where the body is, but “for a price” they can “see what they can do to find it”, forcing the families to pay exorbitant ransoms to get their children’s bodies back in order to have a proper burial and memorial. This has been going on for months and is still happening now.)

Officially over 650 young people, some as young as 10 years old, have been killed in this manner, though human rights groups estimate the number to be in the thousands at this point. The government has also targeted and killed doctors, lawyers, well-known journalists and authors, famous athletes and entertainers and anyone else suspected of being pro-equality, pro-freedom or pro-human rights.

And yet the crowds in the streets of cities all across the country continue to get bigger. And so too do the strikes, shutting down whole towns for days at a time. In response, the Iranian government started arresting people, immediately convicting them after mock trials that may only last an hour and handing out death sentences for public hangings.

Amnesty International says “all the convictions rely on forced confessions, beatings and torture”. Instead of arguing with this overtly recriminatory accusation, Iranian State media corroborates it and regularly broadcasts over radio and TV that all the defendants “have lost their rights to presumption of innocence, freedom from torture and other cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.”

This fact too marks a major turning point in the battle for Iran narrative. In the beginning the Iranian government had attempted to spin a tale to the people and the world that the marches and demonstrations were “riots” “planned and instigated by insurgents and infidels from Western nations” in an attempt to salvage solidarity with the general population. Once it became obvious to them that the people weren’t falling for it, the government has taken to a more extreme and overtly authoritarian stance, direct threats against the entire population broadcast over all state run media 24/7.

23 year old #MohsenShekari was the first Iranian publicly executed linked to the protests. He was accused of injuring a member of the government’s “Basij” (military police) and “waging war against God” ( #Moharebeh ).

Admittedly this is an absurd claim to make in modern times, reminiscent of the very reasons why “the dark ages” are called The Dark Ages. Wouldn’t one have to first show some or any kind of evidence that this “god” they speak of exists…? And then furthermore go on to prove that this god is so small minded and insecure that it actually cares if one infinitesimally small, insignificant human could hurt it’s feelings that badly before one goes killing someone? Especially in light of the fact that Shekari never spoke about or against any “gods”. Instead he was demonstrating for equality and freedom for PEOPLE, if anything a noble and godly act.

But no, the truth is that for thousands of years of human history, evil people who lust for power over others have been inventing and using various “gods” to justify barbaric and inhumane acts against their fellow humans. They throw on some silly looking costume, declare themselves “religious” in some way and out come the knives, spears, swords, guns, nooses, guillotines or what have you. It is said that religion is the opiate of the masses, but in a much larger, more profound way, religion is a fear and killing machine.

In the case of Iran, their preferred way of killing in the name of their god is to deliberately choose a large public square — more of a piazza really, where thousands of people go to shop, congregate and share meals together, string up one of their fellow citizens by a noose and publicly hang them to death in front of everybody and then leave the body dangling there as a warning to all that freedom liberty equality human rights and women’s rights are not on the agenda for them and even speaking about such things is punishable by death.

This is what they are threatening to do to internationally beloved Iranian footballer Nasr-Azadani #NasrAzadani who has also been sentenced to death by public execution. The government has already set up a construction crane used for public hangings in a public square in Isfahan to show they are serious about the charges and preparing to carry out his sentence.

In the case of 20 year old Moshen Shekari, the first to be executed, the government hung him from a crane in a prison yard in front of other guards and prisoners, for fear of compelling more intense uprisings by the citizenry. But for 23 year old Majidreza Rahnavard #MajidrezaRahnavard who was executed four days later, his was to be a public affair.

This morning two more Iranians accused of participating in demonstrations for freedom, human rights and women’s rights were executed in Iran. 21 year old karate champion #MohammadMehdiKarami and 20 year old volunteer children’s coach #SeyedMohammadHosseini were both hung to death.

Thus far 41 more protesters have received death sentences, according to statements from Iranian officials. Among those are THREE CHILDREN, who have all been accused of… wait for it…. “corruption on Earth.”

You read that right. The occupying forces of bearded little men cosplaying mullahs, ayatollahs and clerics who currently control the government and resources of Iran against the will of the country’s 85 million people are now sentencing children to the death penalty for “corruption on earth”.

Only a non-democratically elected group of fascist hard-liners could get away with proposing or even uttering such a ridiculously childish and inane charge. For if we weren’t discussing something very real, horrific and life threatening to real people, we’d be wetting ourselves laughing from the idea that there are those who can mention this phrase with a straight face and not burst into laughter themselves.

Clearly MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE by the international community and each and every one of us caring compassionate and humane citizens of the world if we want to sleep at night knowing we weren’t sitting back doing nothing while this barbaric treachery was transpiring.

For democratic or even non-democratic but caring nations all over the world, the actions are simple. A mere sampling of actions they can take TODAY are: immediately deport all Iranian nationals who are in their country working in the capacity of diplomats and close down the Iranian embassies in their country until the Iranian People’s Revolution is successful and completed, deport all Iranians who are in their country working on behalf of lobbying for the government of Iran or any other Iranian industry, levy heavy sanctions against these individuals preventing them from doing business or banking in their country or anything else, boycott all Iranian goods from being imported into their countries, and cut off all exports of goods into their country, issue strongly worded, uncompromising declarations of support for the people of Iran and their right to basic human rights, and condemnations of the current government and its actions against its people, immediately cut the Iranian government off from accessing all international banking and credit institutions, and perhaps most importantly issue a United Nations declaration of R2P (Right to Protection) which guarantees that all member states act quickly and collectively under the authority of the Security Council to use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means, to help to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

And this is just a start.

For the average citizen of earth, no matter what country you live in, who wants to support the Iranian people, go online and look for petitions that are asking your country and it’s leaders to take the above actions; email and write letters to your elected officials from the top down telling them you are expecting them to officially and publicly speak out and take more decisive actions to support and defend the Iranian people’s democratic revolution. Then share those petitions with your friends and on Social.

The United States government for example hasn’t done much of anything yet in this regard. There are plenty of Iran government and industry lobbyists living cushy lives in Washington D.C., as well as plenty of journalists and academic apologists for the Iran regime. Outing, deporting and sanctioning them would be a damn good start. But the US government needs to know that we the people actually care about this incredibly historic event and the Iranian people.

IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SHARE IT. A Tweet, an article, a news item or sound byte, an inspiring, moving or disturbing meme or photo…. Every time you see or read something about the struggle of the Iranian people and their battle for freedom and equal rights in this courageous people’s movement of their’s, PASS IT ON. Share it. Don’t let it stop with you. Together we can ALL help the people of Iran break the chains of oppression and tyranny and rise up to join us in becoming a free people. They’re counting on us.

— Ed Hale

Christianity Needs to Evolve or Will Splinter Into Extinction

May 27, 2019

The original title of this post was “Christianity Is Making Progress Towards Enlightenment… But Needs to Do it Faster”. But after the final read-thru edit, that didn’t quite seem to sum up its core message. It’s important to note however that the reason for the original title is because despite the ideas expressed below, especially regarding the apparent backwards direction many christian churches around the world are moving in, along with seemingly every other major world religion, there are plenty of others, just not in the majority, that are making great strides toward becoming more progressively minded institutions that embody the highest ideals of enlightenment, or what we might call an enlightened humanism for the modern world we live in. Refuges for both the spiritually hungry and compassionate AND the liberally minded intellectual. It’s not all bad news out there. There just happens to be a lot less of them than there are the more rigidly close minded so called fundamentalist types.

If one is not specifically a Christian, or better put, an actively participating Christian, then it would be easy to not notice what has been happening in the various denominations of the larger world of Christendom over the last few years. That’s a given. And one would have a valid excuse for not being up to date on the latest and greatest hits of the Christian world. After all, a healthy majority of people – especially in the united states and in The West in general have moved to a more non-religious secularism in the modern world we live in, due in part to the fact that for thousands of years we as humans have witnessed religion in all its various shapes and forms do almost nothing but cause great pain in the world. So this mass shift towards what is known as secular humanism or the now popular “spiritual but not religious” makes sense.

But there are massive shifts that are taking place in the Christian world (and in the Muslim and Buddhist communities) presently that are important to take note of due to the transcendent nature of the very real threat they pose of infringing on the basic rights and freedoms of our fellow man. Regardless of whether one is religious or not. Some of these radical movements further right unfortunately align with similar shifts within other world religions and the more fervent nationalist fervor that is taking place politically around the world. Various Christian protestant denominations are beginning to swing further toward what they consider a more “conservative” fundamentalist or evangelical agenda. And these moves have the potential to have larger reverberations socially that extend beyond the confines of their local church community.

It shouldn’t matter where a person is being hurt or neglected; only that when it becomes known, that there are those who are willing to reach out and come to their aid.

Three states in the US have already made moves this year that come very close to banning abortion, Georgia, Alabama and then Missouri. Which would be shocking to learn, except for the fact that we are now being bombarded by such an onslaught of so much shocking news on a daily and even hourly basis that much of it seems to go over our heads.

Christians and the LGBTQ Community

In regards to the LGBTQ community, The United Methodist Church recently convened late last year to announce that they intend to make their “rules” stricter to allow less inclusion, fewer rights and permit less tolerance of people of this persuasion. You can read more about it here: United Methodist court upholds Traditional Plan’s ban on LGBTQ clergy, same sex marriage

more “Christianity Needs to Evolve or Will Splinter Into Extinction”

Quick Notes on the Real Origins of Humankind and the God Concept

August 4, 2014

Haven’t pieced these thoughts together yet. Just note taking. But thought it better to copy and paste here rather than not. (I am literally sitting on hundreds and hundreds of pages in various places on my phone or hard drives that have not yet made it to the Transcendence Diaries. So in order to prevent that from continuing to happen, this — though perhaps tending to lead to some confusion in reading comprehension — shall be the fix, quick copy and pastes when a lack of time necessitates. I can always come back later and edit or amend).

Yes still studying… No not that, that, that or that. BUT this: So it turns out that the Abrahamic Torah/Bible/Qur’an stories of Genesis, Creation, the Flood, Moses, the Tower of Babel and hundreds of others are copied literally word for word from ancient Sumerian texts written thousands of years before. Maybe this was already common knowledge (?), but i honestly had no idea… Mind blown. This is not “Jewish oral history of their ancestors written down by scribes”, nor the “word of God (capital G) transcribed by man”, but rather ancient stories (true or not is arguable) from clay tablets written between 4000 and 2700 BC in Sumer. And there are tens of thousands of these being translated still… It ALL seems to go back to and originally come from the Sumerians. (Modern day Iraq…. Go figure).

And yes, undoubtedly the first humans to do just about everything — writing, advanced math, create the alphabet, astronomy, physics, human history, astrology, ad infinitum — were people of color.

Which makes me wonder…is THIS one of the reasons why, as we are growing up in the West, are we taught the later versions of these inventions by the Romans or the Greeks or the Hebrews? As in “has it been a conspiracy all this time to misinform people just WHO created and discovered everything? To be more exact, to HIDE the fact that it was actually people of color…?

OR… Is it simply due to the fact that this is fairly new data and “we” just didn’t know all this when we were in school? I mean this IS fairly new data… Many of these clay tablets are still being translated today….

I’d venture to say its a little bit of both probably.

For example we know that the entire book of Genesis was taken from two different sources, which were written over 500 years apart (500 BC and 1000 BC approx.) but both told very similar stories… So ancient Jewish scribes and then modern scholars spliced the two together to create one fluid though confusing work. Hence the repeated passages of many of the stories AND the many contradictions.

But they’ve now traced these stories back to their origins — as far back as 2700 BC — nearly 5000 years ago, 2000 years earlier than when we thought they were written. Amazing. All from the Sumerian culture (which then turned into the Babylonian culture etc), and all written down in the three different alphabets and languages that the Sumerians slowly evolved over time — first cuneiform, then eventually the more advanced Phoenician (phonetic) alphabet that so many cultures used as their starting ground for their own language and alphabet.

We have always been told that the Hebrews / Israelites eventually discovered writing and when they did they started writing down their oral history. “The Gods created human beings from clay and earth”, “created woman afterwards from the rib of man” = Sumerian. “Moses abandoned by his mother in a basket sealed with pitch and let loose in a River to be adopted by a Queen…” = ancient Sumerian. “The plagues of blood etc” “The flood that killed off nearly everything on earth” = Sumerian. But now we are learning that they were in fact just writing down these stories that had been around for thousands of years before; furthermore even their alphabet and language is largely based on Sumerian. The numbers. The letters. The months of the year. It’s crazy.

Now here’s where it becomes “Matrixy”. In all of these original stories, the Sumerian ones, they claim that what they are saying is TRUE. We are told that these are all “myths”… Some believe that. Others more orthodox — Jewish, Christian and Muslim– believe them to be actual history. But they are NOT Jewish history. That we can be sure of. (I know. That opens up a whole shelf of cans of worms for a LOT of people who NEED this to be Jewish history, especially Christians and Muslims)….

At some point the Jews DID start focusing in on this idea of “one god instead of many” — most likely gotten from the Persian Mede people and their Zoroastrian religion (first known stories of “one good god versus one evil god). So they’ve now got this monotheistic ideology going… But the stories they’ve adopted all speak of “gods” — as in multiple gods, i.e. “The gods who created mankind”. Even the Jewish biblical Genesis story of creation has more than one god in it. “We” “us” “let us make them in our image” etc. But the Jews liked this idea of ONE god just as persian Zoroastrianism did. So they began changing the stories to reflect that it was ONE god who was doing all these things. But the stories they are all taken from all refer to a “group of gods” “who come from the sky in spaceships” etc. And this is where they claim to have gotten all their knowledge and technology etc.

Besides elaborate written histories and explanations they also drew tens of thousands of pictures to show their history — our history. They show things like the entire solar system w all ten planets (most of which we wouldn’t “discover” until modern optics in at least the 1500s onward). And yes this is why many are still searching for this mysterious tenth planet — Nibiru — because they even knew about Jupiters moons and Saturn’s rings. Things we didn’t know about till 4500 years later.

Furthermore these gods are giant, like twice the height of humans. They have space helmets on and space suits and they are often depicted in space ships. Jet propulsion is even discussed. It’s all quite mind boggling.

The kings of Sumer all lived to be 900 to thousands of years. Sounds familiar right?

Of course at some point “the powers that be” of both Israel (the priestly order of the temple) AND then Rome did away with all this talk of multiple gods who came from the sky and genetically created mankind. They transformed these historic stories of origin into a more esoteric “wrathful vengeful judging god figure who sees everything and only they (the rabbis/priests) can communicate with etc and created all these laws that most people still believe in today.

But in reality that was just a power-grab to control the masses through fear and we most likely have very good logical rational sources now for where we come from, why we were made, who made us, etc. And it has nothing to do with the “God” of Israel or Catholicism or Christianity or Islam. He at least was a very useful tool being passed down through the ages becoming all the more powerful as larger and larger empires used “him” (who was really “them”) to gain control of land money people and resources.

Which of course begs us to now ask “so when we are in church or synagogue and praying, just who the hell are we praying to?!?”

Spiritual Fulfillment and Enlightenment Versus Religion

May 12, 2014

Nine times out of ten when you tell someone that you’ve had numerous spiritually fulfilling experiences or have achieved enlightenment you’re statement will be met with a doubtful scoff. A cynical laugh and a brush off. You might even encounter anger or righteous indignation by the mere mention of it. After all, true spiritual enlightenment is nearly impossible but for a few select souls; like the Dalai Llama. People are more than willing to believe that the Dalai Llama or the so-called “Buddha” had spiritual enlightenment experiences. But a regular ole normal person? Impossible. And yet the majority of people on planet earth, even those here in the West, still profess to believing in a god and belonging to a religion — many even attend a church regularly. But they find the idea of enlightenment, true spiritual fulfillment very hard to believe in. Especially in others. Why the disconnect?

For one thing, there seems to be a thick line separating what people believe about “God” and how people think about spiritual enlightenment. Perhaps in days past, religion and spirituality used to be tied together, like next of kin. But in modern times, they seem as estranged as Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Existing in different worlds and for completely different purposes. Religion in today’s world seems more to address one’s morals and ethics, along with a sense of community and social status, than it does one’s spiritual fulfillment. Once a person starts on the path of the seeker, searching for truth and spiritual fulfillment, they seem to leave the major religions of the world behind and enter into an alternate world more akin to the esoteric and supernatural. But why? When did religion cut the cord from simple spiritual fulfillment? And what exactly is spiritual fulfillment? What is enlightenment for that matter?

There are countless misconceptions about spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment in human mass consciousness. Erroneous assumptions or flat out lies in the form of myths, legends and fairytales that have been indoctrinated into human hearts and minds for centuries and some even for millennia. Very little of what has been written in the way of religion or spirituality is true or even of any use. One learns this fact very quickly once on the path. Almost all of these false facts and erroneous conclusions with very few exceptions come from and are promoted by one form or another of what we call “the world religions”. No matter where we live on planet earth, there is at least one or more “god legends” that is commonly promoted by one or more of these religions. No one, no matter where they happen to be born and grow up on planet earth, is immune from it. Because we are aware that over the last five thousand years human beings have believed in no less than one to five thousand different “gods” — bearing over ten thousand different names by some accounts, it is ironic that each generation is well aware of the numerous “false gods” that humankind “used to believe in”, but they still persist in believing that the NEW god that they believe in NOW is the “one true god” — not one of those old-fashioned “false gods” of the past. This is red flag number one. It’s a presumptuousness that is both sad and laughable.

This is not to say that true spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment is not possible, for as many can and have attested to through the ages right through to today, it certainly is possible. For some it is easy. For others it seems a bumpy, rocky, long and challenging road. This difference probably has more to do with the beliefs a person holds, whether consciously or unconsciously, than anything else.

One of the first questions we need to ask is, is a “god” even necessary to achieve true spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment? Ask a Buddhist and they will reply “no”. Ask someone who practices any of the Big Four major religions of the world — Judaism, Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism — and they will emphatically reply “Yes, absolutely. A god is absolutely necessary”. To them, spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment has more to do with their god and their religion than anything else. They go together. One can’t exist without the other. Their religion is their spiritual fulfillment. The god of their chosen religion — whether deliberately chosen or indoctrinated — is the focus of, reason for and cause of their spiritual fulfillment. Which begs another question: is practicing a religion and/or worshiping a god the same as what we refer to as “spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment”? The answer seems to be both yes and no.

For some, practicing a religion, believing in the tenets of a particular religious faith, is less about spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment in the here-now than it is about achieving that state of being in the “after life”. They freely admit and proselytize that the life that we currently inhabit in the here-now on planet earth, in these minds and bodies, is meant to be one of sacrifice in order to achieve spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment in the future, after one passes on and dies. This has always struck an odd chord for me personally. There seems to be a major disconnect in this particular belief, even though it is one that is shared by billions of people. Why would we be here if the only purpose was to suffer and struggle through it with nothing to look forward to but the end of it all?

If we examine this belief and the possible origins of it, it is clear that it has very solid and practical applications. When the world’s religions were first formed, life WAS hard, challenging, full of suffering and struggle. The promise of true happiness and fulfillment in the afterlife if one just persevered in this life offered hope. That hope kept people alive, at least long enough to procreate and continue the perpetuation of the species. An important role duty of any living thing. If one is raised to believe that life has no purpose other than struggle and suffering, with no promise of anything at the end of the road, why go on? Why even bother to live until tomorrow? But if one is led to believe from an early age that all one need do is persist in living life to their best ability for as long as they are here and THEN they will be REWARDED with an eternity of infinite bliss and fulfillment in an “afterlife”, then they just might stick around and give it a go. At least long enough to procreate.

But of course, that’s not the only requirement. There’s a catch. Besides sticking around, one is also asked to “believe as we believe, follow these specific sets of rules and laws AND defend them, even to your death if need be” and THEN “you will most certainly be rewarded with an afterlife of eternal bliss and the fulfillment of your greatest dreams and aspirations”. For this, human beings are offered the most outlandish rewards in the “afterlife”, ranging from “seventy-two virgin girls to serve your every wish and command”, to “giant houses one streets paved with gold that sit upon the clouds of heaven”, to “becoming one with God the almighty”. This is a second practical reason for and application of fostering in people a belief that true spiritual fulfillment comes “not in this life, but in the afterlife”: the ability to control those people through heavy indoctrination while they are alive by holding out a reward in the afterlife for them that is just out of reach.

Promote a few men among them to a higher status to act as watchdogs and overseers — priests, bishops, cardinals, rabbis, imams — and a pyramid-like hierarchy of control is made easily possible, where the few can control the many. Throw in some early indoctrination of some form of punishment — either in this life, such as banishment from one’s society, torture or death, or in the afterlife, such as “an eternity in hell” — and along with the reward factor, this control is made even easier.

Now spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment in THIS life, here-now, is no longer even desired or contemplated. Everyone is so concerned with this “eternity in an afterlife” that they’ve completely let go of one of the most rational and reasonable human considerations: personal happiness and fulfillment here-now. This is a misconception about life that has plagued humankind for thousands of years, ever since the first major religions were formed; and most don’t even give it a second thought.

But some do. In the modern times that we live in, at least in areas of the world where it is politically allowed — such as in democracies and republics, some people began to contemplate these belief systems taken for granted for so long and by so many and came to conclude that they were implausible at best, downright false propaganda at worst. Ideas such as existentialism — the idea that only what we are able to see, touch, hear, taste, smell or measure in the here-now is all that is; everything else is illusion — began to pop up. Ideas such as agnosticism — the simple notion that we don’t know what we don’t know but are open to anything if at some point it should become clear to be true to us; and even atheism — a sort of anti-religious faith that is just as unreasonable and illogical as religious faith is when it is broken down — a determined belief that one is SURE that a god does not exist. (talk about silly: non-religious people bad mouthing religious people for believing that “God definitely exists” when they are sure that “a god doesn’t exist”. Both flying by the seat of their pants on nothing but faith and faith alone, sure of themselves for no other reason than they want to be, neither of them with any proof to back up their claim. But these are all important steps on the path to spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment.

Most people are often religious as children, atheists when they reach their teens or twenties, and eventually settle into a comfortable agnosticism once they mature. But some reach further. The quest for true spiritual enlightenment.

Breaking the shackles of religious belief based purely on indoctrination, or fear of a torturous afterlife, is a major step, an important one, a necessary one if one is to ever achieve true spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment. But one needn’t throw out the baby with the bathwater, though one can hardly blame them if they are want to do so at first. It’s a predictable first step — once given the freedom to do so, that first illuminating moment when one realizes that the door to the jail cell is no longer locked, some just run out, never look back and never stop running. They stay in perpetual resistance to being held down and controlled by indoctrinated beliefs that make no logical sense to them. But what of spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment? Ahhhh, that’s the baby, lying there in a puddle of water struggling for each breath after it’s been tossed out and abandoned. Ask any atheist or agnostic about spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment and they’ll tell you that “it’s all a crock of bs”. They “believe in the here-now”. Happiness is to be created by each individual on their own terms in whatever way they desire. And for them, if it serves them, let it be. Not everyone desires spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment. Some are content with just being here, with being alive. And in a way that kind of state of being is an enviable one.

But what about those of us who do long for something more? Once we recognize that the door to the cell is no longer locked, must we too run and never look back? Freeing ourselves of religion and the suffocating false beliefs and illogical assumptions of them does not necessarily imply that we no longer desire true spiritual fulfillment. The fact of the matter is that religion and spiritual fulfillment CAN go hand in hand. But one just doesn’t necessarily equal the other, nor is one required for the other, and vice versa. They are entirely separate animals. Moreso than most religious folks would care to admit. That is why the idea of spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment is so rarely brought up in religious circles.

In fact, after decades of study, research and practice, one begins to realize that though spiritual fulfillment is quite possible through the practice of any one of the numerous world religions that dominate human consciousness at this time or any other time throughout our history, it may be easier to achieve withOUT the practice of a religion at all. For a myriad of reasons. As noted above, spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment is NOT necessarily the number one goal of the world’s major religions in the first place. Some of them freely admit this. Their goal instead is to offer such things in an alleged afterlife.

One also realizes eventually along the path that almost everything that has ever been written about the nature of “god’ or divinity or enlightenment is made up. Especially the stuff of religion. A good rule of thumb: whoever wrote it most likely made it up. Or they’re simply passing on ideas that someone else made up. Many claim that they’re simply acting as a vessel for a “god”, that everything they’ve written was not only divinely inspired, but actually written BY a god. By THE God. It’s an astounding reality when you step away from it for a moment. That an entire race of beings can become so indoctrinated by a belief that they can accept such an outlandish claim. Especially when you sit down and actually read the things that this God supposedly wrote.

Another good rule of thumb: if you know more about the mechanics of the universe than a God who claimed to write through humans, chances are no such thing happened. And such is the case with the sacred writings of the so called “holy books” of all the world’s major religions. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, a holy book of both the Christian and Jewish faith has TWO known authors, two different stories of the “creation of the world” story, two different stories of Noah and the Ark, etc etc. (Yes, of course there’s a possibility that “God wrote through” two different humans, telling the same story, just in case one of them died before they finished publishing. But let’s not speak of possibilities here.) The simple truth is that we all now know more than God supposedly did just two-thousand years ago. And the same goes for the Bagadvagita, the Hindu holy book. That’s an even more outlandish story. Flying monkeys and talking elephants. And the same goes for The Qu’ran. Talk about man creating god and then projecting his own culture and its beliefs onto this god in order to exert power over others. That book is a veritable dictionary entry for man-made religious mumbo jumbo. But so too are the rest of the so called holy books of the world’s major religions. None are exempt from the ridiculous factor. Except for one.

The Tao Te Ching. But by most people’s accounts this is no longer a sacred book of one of the major religions of the world. Perhaps it’s too intelligent. Too rationale. Too modest. Too non-fiction to be considered “truth” by religious people. (irony deliberate). It doesn’t claim to know everything or to be able to solve all the worlds problems. But it is one hell of an intelligent work. Definitely the most sacred, deep, and truthful. And at one time Taoism was considered a world religion. Now it’s shoved into the “non-theist camp” along with Buddhism. For whatever reason most people consider religion to equate “believing in a God”. Though that’s not true either. Scientology is allowed to be called a religion for God’s sake. There’s another one of those red flags.

This idea that a god wrote holy books through human hands may fly for some… indeed we all know deeply religious people; many who I respect and admire greatly. There is a strong desire in human consciousness to believe in a force or entity more powerful than us — it is a temptation that we all succumb to in our weakest moments — AND to be told what to do and what to believe. It is certainly easier than figuring these things out for ourselves. (There’s real work involved in that.) So throw them a book and tell them “god wrote it” and they’ll come running. They’ll devour it. The “Holy Bible” is the best selling book of all time in the history of the human race. There is a logical practical reason for this, as noted above. But what are they running to? What are they devouring? Is it true spiritual fulfillment? Is it enlightenment? Or is it simply the promise of rewards at a later date? In the afterlife? Or is it simple comfort? Belonging to something bigger? A sense of community? A pat on the back with an implied message that “you’re alright, you’re a good person because you believe”. These are powerful motivators. So powerful in fact that they can lead someone off the path of spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment and smack into a church pew every Sunday.

Many will tell you that true spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment isn’t possible in this life. Some will be very religious. Some will be atheists. They will be highly skeptical if you relay to them that you believe that YOU’VE experienced it yourself. For whatever reason, there seems to be a belief floating around, quite solidly, in mass consciousness that “enlightenment is hard”. Why? Perhaps because life was so hard for we humans for so long… (consider how recent this current stage of peace, freedom and ease of the modern world is in the very long history of humankind…) Or perhaps it’s because the major religions of the world have pounded it into consciousness with such persistence for so long that people started to believe it. If spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment is hard, then we need a religion to get there. Along with that need comes a dependance on that religion

Consider for a moment how Tibetan Buddhists for example believe that they must “give up all material possessions and pleasures and isolate themselves from the rest of society and meditate for hours everyday for years” in order to achieve enlightenment. This of course is a ridiculous notion. Completely made up. By someone, human, at some point in history. And then passed down and perpetuated through the ages by others. Not a bit of truth to it. And yet millions adhere to this belief. The same is true for Sikhs. They even go so far as to change their name. Many sects of Hinduism such as Krishna devotees have similar beliefs. They give up literally everything material for the promise of spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment.

This is not to say that it doesn’t work. It may work. It may not. But it does illustrate how solidly this belief that “enlightenment is difficult to achieve” is planted in mass consciousness. People tell themselves that because enlightenment is so difficult to achieve, if I go to great lengths to achieve it and sacrifice a lot, then surely I may possibly achieve it. When all along it’s right in front of them. In front of all of us. More on that in a few. But first…

Let us remember, regardless of who it is that is telling us that “spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment is hard to achieve” or what they are or where they come from, it doesn’t matter. Because, again, that’s just their belief. And one person’s beliefs have nothing to do with another’s. They’re not applicable. Not relevant. Entirely unimportant. That’s an important something to recognize and never forget. Maybe the most important. Many of us on planet earth are free to believe whatever we want to religiously. But some still are not afforded that liberty. Regardless of what position one is in — because of where they live or how they were raised — it is still just as important to remember: no one can tell another what the truth is regarding spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment. It’s all bullshit unless it rings true to YOU. Some may have to fake it. Just to stay alive. Think modern day Islamic societies, (not all of them), where religious beliefs are forced upon their citizens whether they like it or not. Or think The Middle Ages or The Dark Ages, where professing to not being a Christian meant torture, imprisonment or death.

The greatest irony of them all is that a few hundred years before that, the exact same people who were torturing others for NOT being Christian — the Roman Empire disguised as “the catholic church” and all it’s minions, Spain for instance — were doing the exact opposite: torturing and murdering others for BEING a Christian. If that doesn’t open one’s eyes and shed light on just how full of shit the whole system is, then nothing will. Let them be. Enlightenment is not their thing. Being told what to do and doing it in order to feel good about themselves is more important to these individuals than spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment. Walk away and wish them peace and a good life.

The truth is that there is no one-size-fits-all magic formula to spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment. No spell or incantation, no prayer or ritual, no practice or meditation that is foolproof if you only do it properly and do it long enough. Anyone on the path who is honest with themselves will attest to this in a quiet moment of vulnerable peace and truthfulness. Spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment is up to each individual. It may look and feel a little different to each of us. Each may come to it from a slightly different path. But in the bigger picture it always seems to vibrate the same message and generate the same general ideas: unconditional love, peace, acceptance, tolerance and compassion for others… a knowing that all is well, that time is relative, that we are all one, all part of the same thing, whatever that may be, that we are all made of the same stuff, all here for a purpose and yet no purpose. The infinite all that is. The I Am of the I Am. Here before it all. Still here. Here after it’s all gone. Creation embodied. Living breathing pulsating vibrating creation energy. This is the stuff of enlightenment. But usually not the stuff of religion. That’s an odd conundrum.

No matter where a person comes from and how they got there, every attempt to recount what true spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment is, sounds and feels relatively the same. It’s uncanny but also refreshing. No matter what time period they lived in or what culture they existed in. Some include a “god” — some form of divinity — in their telling of it; some don’t. Some choose instead to believe that “we are all God”. Most do actually. That God is both separate from us and yet we are all a part of It, a piece of it; tiny fractional particles of some kind of divinity, a “divine force”. This is what has been recounted by those who have sought true spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment. Almost always the same. And usually quite removed from anything that remotely resembles the major religions of the world. It seems there is a wide chasm between spiritual fulfillment and religion or even what religion portends to offer.

Again, not to dismiss the possibility of the two going hand in hand. Certainly possible. I personally have experienced moments of pure spiritually fulfilling bliss and enlightenment through a variety of ways. More often than not, I did NOT have these experiences through the “study” of spiritual material or religious works, nor through the practicing of religion per se. The first few were from mind enhancing drugs, or hallucinogens; LSD, mushrooms, etc. An easy way to access those areas of the brain where such experiences seem to take place, granted. Soon after, I longed to have the same experiences without the use of medicinals, for I felt that if it were possible with the use of said chemicals then it should also be possible without them. If not, then perhaps it wasn’t really enlightenment at all, but just a momentary mental state created by a drug. Let’s face it, cocaine, heroine, marijuana and many pharmaceuticals can also create within the human mind relative states of “bliss”. Not necessarily “enlightenment” per se, that’s for sure. But some very groovy feelings. So off I ventured looking for an even purer, cleaner, truer enlightenment.

The next few times I had the experience of what I would genuinely refer to as “enlightenment” was while using the Avatar tools, after a few days of being on an Avatar Course. No hallucinogens or mind altering drugs. No chemicals. Just a profound desire to achieve enlightenment — as in I really wanted “it” and I was willing to do whatever it takes — and a willingness to be as open minded and vulnerable as one possibly could, like bamboo as opposed to oak. These experiences were even more “spiritually fulfilling” and powerful than the ones I experienced previously, more enlightening. Cleaner. Those experiences of enlightenment that we have on hallucinogens seem to open our hearts and minds to the possibilities of these states, of this knowledge, this knowing. But when we come down, as the drug slowly withdraws from our system, though we never forget what we experienced, it is difficult to hang onto that state of being. It becomes a memory. Rather than a way of being. With Avatar, I have found that simply using the tools and given the right environment I could achieve that state of being repeatedly.

The next time I experienced true spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment — and perhaps the most powerful experience thus far in my life — was actually in a church. (Yes, shock… Tell me about it. I was the last person in the world to expect that.) It was certainly not what I was expecting. By then I had already developed the ability of discerning the difference between intuition and mind chatter, and made it a practice to always listen to my intuition. I was told to go in a church as I was walking by it. So I did. I sat there for a few minutes, looking around, admiring the architecture, at first a totally intellectual experience. All from the mind. Within minutes I felt chills all over my body, a state of pure bliss, of feeling more love, more beloved, than I ever have before. It was ecstasy. (Better than the drug Ecstasy. Much better… truly. And I don’t say that lightly.) A voice whispered in my ear, “This is how much God loves you Ed. God loves you so so much…” This went on for quite a while. The same words, over and over, slightly different wording, but the same intention. Ten minutes or more. I bathed in it. I was not scared. I was enraptured, in heaven. In love. Filled with joy. Tears slowly streamed from my eyes. There was no denying it. This was a truly supernatural enlightenment experience. A few minutes later I came to realize that I had been sitting there for a half hour or more — I probably looked ridiculous to any onlookers — my head was bowed, drooling slightly, tears pouring down my cheeks.

I had many more spiritually fulfilling enlightenment experiences after that in that same location, hearing voices — not really voices as much as messages. There is just something special there. God speaks. His presence is there. It’s an otherworldly experience. One no one who occasions the place takes lightly. This is why I have always contended that those who do not believe in God or a Divine Force or enlightenment or anything else supernatural feel this way because they simply have not had any experiences like this. They have every right not to believe. They’ve never had any to believe. They’re trapped in their mind. Attempting to think it through. Never realizing that enlightenment is not a think-it thing. It’s a feel-it thing. One can’t think their way to enlightenment. Book reading may be interesting. But it doesn’t get us anywhere. You’d have a better shot at experiencing true enlightenment from sitting on a hilltop in a beautiful locale for a few minutes or hours and just meditating on the nature of the universe than you would from reading a book. This is why I don’t blame those who don’t believe; never judge them. They’re simply acting on what they know.

But I’ll tell you this. If one desires to experience enlightenment, it is possible. And chances are, they will. If one longs to know God, to know the nature of the Divine, it is possible. And chances are, they will. Because it is. It’s an isness. I sometimes wonder if not all things are possible, if not all things that the mind can conceive are a potential isness. If we just allow them to be. After all, it is we who are creating what we are experiencing. Long for Divinity enough and there’s a good chance that you’ll take actions to one day experience it. You’ll create the belief and through that, the experience.

Joel Osteen Teaches Avatar and Abraham Hicks

February 9, 2014

Over the weekend I was watching the excellent “Ascent of Money” documentary, when in the corner of my eye I spotted another video that also looked interesting; several in fact. Even though I was completely entrenched in The Ascent of Money movie, I didn’t want to forget about this other one that caught my eye. So as not to miss it, I clicked on it in order to share it publicly, to FB or Twitter or even Instagram, and ask people to let me know if it was any good or not. That video was entitled “Our History is Not What We Think“. As soon as I clicked on it to save to a playlist and share it I found myself completely captivated by its content. It’s one hell of a ride. So I began watching IT instead. (Don’t you hate when that happens?)

Most of it is stuff that we’ve already seen or heard before. It’s more than a tad challenging for yours truly at this point to find anything I haven’t already seen or heard of or studied– outside of the ever expanding “tech” underworld that is. Much of the material in this one hour animated presentation seems to be based on the work of Drunvalo Melchizedek. This guy is WAY out there, mind you. By most people’s account he’d be considered a total crackpot, IF they’d heard of him or his work, which they haven’t. His focus is on something he terms The Flower of Life, a pseudo-science theory roughly arranged around sacred geometry, tantric sex and ancient alien theories. I had first started studying him back in the mid-nineties, long before there was a thriving internet or animated YouTube presentations to lend credibility to outlandish claims. Back then we would trade paperback books and pamphlets, rough-copied VHS tapes or snail-mailed cheaply printed newsprint quarterly newsletters in this very hush-hush underground world of alternate history and conspiracy theories. Now there are whole TV shows and networks dedicated to this kind of thinking. Like all things once “niche” it too has become rather mainstream.

In a nutshell the basic idea of this particular “alternate history” movie is that humankind has forgotten it’s real history and has instead embraced the much newer history that the major religions and empires of the world have put forth more recently in our history — think Roman Empire, Christendom, Islam or the British Empire. Nothing too outlandish about that. Perfectly believable premise frankly. Anyone who has really studied the underbelly of human history understands that our true history has been lost for ages and replaced by a revisionist history that is always being written and rewritten by whichever group happens to be in control at the time; in other words — the meanest strongest toughest or cruelest people at any given time in our slow evolution as a species rewrites our shared history in their own image and demands that everyone believe. And for the most part, most people do.

But from that first point of feasibility, the documentary leaps out onto a slippery slope so outlandish that it’s more entertainment than believable academic study. It questions how the ancient Sumerian and Egyptian cultures were so advanced, how the Mayans were able to create the world’s most accurate calendar or have an understanding of the precession of the equinox; brings into light ideas about alternate universes, higher dimensions, the Tree of Life, the Flower of Life, the Merkaba, the Talmud, the Kabala, Ascended Masters, Spirit Guides, you name it. It even asserts that the Hebrews are a non-earthly lifeform that emigrated to earth tens of thousands of years ago, along with the Martians and the Greys. Nothing new in here. Heard it all before. Just all put together quite neatly and succinctly. For the pure pleasure of taking the trip, it’s more than enjoyable, and if this kind of knowledge does interest you, there are tidbits here and there that are interesting.

I was fascinated by the onslaught of comments in the right-hand column by people infuriated that anyone would or could possibly believe such “nonsense” — especially the religious lot of them. They spoke as if the video’s very existence was an insult to their life. Many engaged in endless debates with others filled with angry tirades, misspelled words, red herrings, non-sequitors, slippery slope assertions, ad hominem attacks and insults and the worst grammar this side of kindergarten. I’ve never understood the merit of arguing with someone who you don’t know personally, will never meet and whom you have nothing in common with. Especially when you’re in a public place and on their turf. It’s one thing, if that’s your schtick and you wholeheartedly disagree with what you consider blatant misinformation. But if you’re a practicing theist, you’ve already stepped out onto the ledge and into the land Oz. So why bother starting a fight with people who have absolutely no conception of your view of the world and no intention of changing theirs? More than anything, the video — though it claims to offer a realistic alternative take on human history if one just opens their mind — is so far fetched that I can’t believe anyone would take it any more seriously than the latest sci-fi flick. I certainly don’t get why anyone would bother arguing the merits of such outlandish claims. Especially when they themselves are already professing to believe equally outlandish belief systems such as any of the Big Four religions that have so preoccupied humankind over the last two-thousand years.

It did get me thinking though. About a subject that I have been meaning to write about for some time. What we find on planet earth presently is a variety of different groups of people who each believe a different set of religious or spiritual beliefs or principles that all seem opposed to one another — which has been one of the major causes of war and bloodshed in our short recorded history on earth. Christians will tell you that new agers are all wrong; as will Muslims or other theist types. New Agers will claim that those who practice any of the Big Four religions are brainwashed and closed-minded. Atheists consider the whole lot of them crackpots. Which I think is hilarious since atheism itself is just as whacky and far fetched a religion as any of the Big Three or Four (depending on if you include Hinduism in the group). It’s just the opposite side of the same coin, Atheism that is. There is a God. There isn’t a God. Okay…. prove it. Right? Impossible on either side. So I tend to be more open minded, choosing instead to take the “honestly I have no idea” view. You can’t prove there is no “god” any more than you can prove that there is a “god”. Taking either side is pointless and reeks of ignorance, or at least a mind that is not very well thought out.

For example we know that Christianity is not an original idea, but a ragtag amalgam of different belief systems that stem from primarily paganism, Egyptian, Persian, Greek and Roman mythology. Islam is pretty much the same thing but just the 7th century Arabian’s version of it. Judaism stems from Persia’s Zoroastrianism along with a variety of ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Sumerian, and Pagan beliefs with a good lot of ancient Greek mathematics thrown into it, which lends a more mystical feel to the more esoteric aspects of it, and a hell of a lot of “our God is the best and strongest and he likes us the best” type of survivalist rhetoric. Judaism is very Darwinian in that respect: cultural survival of the fittest speak disguised as religion.

All the major Big Four religions currently being obsessed over by human beings have much in common and tend to agree more than disagree when you break them all down. The primary difference between them all is that THEIR GOD just happens to be “the best” and prefer THEM as “his chosen people” more than any other people. There’s an anthropological irony to it all that is so obvious that it makes it hard not to laugh when pondering or writing about it. If there had not been so much human life lost and so much misery caused by all of them through the centuries, this laughter would be a bit easier and not always feel so distasteful. But one just cannot get beyond the fact that as hysterically irrational and laughable modern religious systems are, they’re also extremely dangerous to the general survival of the human species in general; especially if you don’t happen to subscribe to one of them at any given moment in history — depending on who is in control at the time. Presently it’s the Christians and Jews running things with the Muslims in a close second. The Hindus have given up being in control in modern times, so they’re perfectly content letting their religious beliefs play second fiddle to the rest of them and being a punch-line to numerous jokes about “how many Gods they have” etc. In this respect, Hinduism has more a chance of serving the sincere seeker more simply because the religion itself has less need to prove it’s rightness or political import and believers can focus more on just using the beneficial aspects of the belief system to their own personal advantage rather than worry about how strong of a grip the religion itself has on the mechanisms of modern society or its politics.

To get back to this documentary, if we forget the more primitive legends and myths associated with the religions explored in it, it’s mind boggling how mathematically advanced early humans were when you begin to study the more esoteric Judaic writings. PI, The Golden Mean and the Fibonacci Sequence all come into play in early Judaism, which is more than impressive and suspicious. Advanced stuff for a people supposedly extremely “primitive” and still given to animal sacrificing and blanket misogyny. But again, the perception we have today of Judaism or Christianity is the “modern accepted view” of Judeo-Christian beliefs, AFTER both the rabbis of that day AND the Roman Empire stripped anything remotely intelligent from the writings or teachings offered to the masses. [This in and of itself is one of the greatest cons and conspiracies perpetrated on humans by humans in the history of humankind.] The real meat of both these religions is available to anyone interested in digging a bit deeper. Some of it can be quite advanced. It’s just not knowledge you’ll find being preached about or taught in modern churches or synagogues. Instead you get Noah and the Ark, Adam and Eve, Joseph’s magic coat and Jesus being born in a manger on December 25th when just about everyone knows that Jesus wasn’t even born in the winter, let alone December. But for now these principles seem to work for most people. If they only knew…

Speaking personally, it’s no big secret that I personally practice a loose version of Christianity, belong to the Methodist denomination and even attend and volunteer at a real church on a regular basis. It’s also no great mystery that I’m also an avid student of Avatar, Abraham Hicks, Sedona Method, quantum mechanics, witchcraft and high magic, ancient alien theory and just about anything “new age”, supernatural or paranormal if it interests me. I justify such apparent contradictions in my own belief system by stating that “it works for me”. And in the end, whatever works for you and doesn’t hurt anyone else, should be tolerated by others no matter how different it may be from what works for them. That’s the truly libertarian way to view the world and our fellow man. Frankly I don’t really see that much contradiction between Christian theology and New Age thinking, IF you understand the basics underneath them all.

You just have to, one, go to the roots — learn the history — the real history, and two, learn how to read between the lines. Let’s take two rather popular –though seemingly opposite and contradictory — viewpoints and break them down to show just how similar they really are. On the one hand we have the Theist viewpoint: this would include any of the Big Four religions of modern humankind, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam. All contend that a great and powerful all-knowing/seeing God exists who can hear our inner-most thoughts, hopes, dreams, fears and desires and does his or her best to intercede in our lives when we need it. If we pray to him or her, we have a better chance of experiencing the life of our dreams; because “God answers our prayers”. Take Joel Osteen as an example of your average Christian leader. Osteen is a friend. He’s someone I admire. [Though I must admit he sadly disappointed me a few years ago when he publicly flip-flopped on his views of homosexuals and “God’s view of them”, stating “I have plenty of homosexuals in my congregation and God loves all of his flock equally, I’m sure. But I couldn’t in good conscience attend a wedding or officiate at a wedding between two same-sex couples, because I believe that homosexuality is a sin.” This was a very different viewpoint than what Joel had previously professed just a few short months before. He was obviously feeling the heat from the bigger community of Christian pastors around the country — the so-called Moral Majority or Christian Right. Too bad. Because up until that point, Joel really held a great advantage over the rest of this group, even gaining access to people like me, those in the world of the intelligencia who would normally never even give someone like him the time of day. But I’m still holding out hope for Joel. One day he’s going to regret ever saying something so silly and small-minded. I trust in his connection with the Divine. He’s going to come around…]

So… Joel Osteen. He leads the largest congregation of Christians in the United States. He’s adored by millions and apparently hated by an equal number of people who find his brand of Christianity too wish-washy and easy. These types prefer a more stern and conservative “God” construct. They think that Joel is “perverting God’s word”. Little do they know that we’ve been doing that since the moment that we decided to attempt to write down “god’s thoughts” in the first place. As if. Joel preaches a very New Age version of Christianity. Yet he still calls it Christianity. His style has caught on with millions of people all over the world. He focuses less on God’s wrath and more on God’s love. The reason why this has caught such fire with so many people all over the world is because this idea resonates with something that we as human beings have been feeling in our hearts about our own view of “god” for hundreds of years. We just couldn’t shout it out loud because up until Joel (and plenty of others before him to be fair) came along, it just didn’t seem to vibe with what the general consensus of “god” was in mass consciousness. The Unity Church had been preaching this same thing for a hundred years at least. So too had Marianne Williamson and plenty of others. Joel just took it mainstream by cloaking it in traditional Christianity.

Personally, I’ve always found Joel to be an admirable person and an inspiring speaker. His sermons, though never as intelligent or thought provoking as say Stephen Bauman’s — perhaps the most intellectual Christian speaker of our time, are always moving and inspiring. One thing is certain about him: he wholeheartedly believes in a Divine Power in the universe that knows us, loves us and we can access from this dimension (call it the earthly dimension) through prayer. If one prays enough, they can create the life that they desire because God answers our prayers. He claims that his mother cured herself of cancer through prayer — that God cured her of cancer — and that the doctors and hospitals have confirmed this fact and consider it “a miracle”. I have no problem believing this. But perhaps not for the same reasons that Joel and his mother do.

Let’s take the other side of the coin: the so-called New Age theories about the mechanics of the universe. We can use Avatar as an example of it, or the Sedona Method, or Abraham Hicks or even the recent New Age phenomenon of the century — that movie The Secret. The basic theory of all these systems is that “we ourselves are creating our own reality based on our beliefs or vibrations”. If we change our beliefs, if we change our vibrations, we can change our experiences. That’s it in a nutshell. Some belief systems subscribe to a Divine Power at play. And some don’t, instead choosing to skip over that whole paradigm. Some call this divine power “The Universe” or “The Great Spirit” or “The Force” or “Source”…. None of that really matters. What matters is that these systems promote a more pro-active technique for reality creation, i.e. rather than praying to a God to create our lives for us, we create our own lives based on our beliefs and our general vibration. To me this ideology has always felt much less like a victim mentality than pure religiosity, which tends to promote a more sublimated approach to beingness; one must sublimate themselves to this divine all powerful force in the universe to be in “good favor” with it.

We can dissect the pros and cons of both systems ad infinitum, going as deep as humankind ever has, quote the greats and the not so greats till we’re blue in the face and our ego is as big as a hot air balloon, and still not actually get anywhere. This is called “going to seminary” or “becoming a rabbi or an Imam or a priest” in the religious world or “becoming ordained” in the New Age world. A lot of studying and memorizing things that other men made up. But we’re going to skip over all that and head right to the main thesis.

These two systems, the Theist view versus the New Age view, seem diametrically opposed to one another. One preaches a higher power is in control of everything — in an almost fatalistic sense, and one preaches that WE are actually in control of everything that happens to us. I tend to fall right smack dab in the middle of these two groups. Or completely outside of them. Depending on how one looks at it. Being an avid student of science, especially more advanced and esoteric quantum physics, I believe it is only a matter of time before science discovers that there really is a “Divine Force” in the universe. Einstein called it the Unified Field Theory — he was looking for the “fifth force” in the universe that controls the other four forces (those being gravity, electro-magnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces) and helps them to all work together. At present science is having a tough time figuring out how the current four forces in the universe all work together so seamlessly when they appear to be so opposed to each other. Especially gravity. He believed that there was a fifth force at play that we just hadn’t discovered yet. Science has come very close as of late to discovering this fifth force. Some assert that Dark Matter and Dark Forces are that fifth force. Some say that we’re still hypothesizing and haven’t proven the existence of Dark Matter or the Dark Forces. Some say that we have yet to discover this fifth force. Some claim that it may lie in the boson, the so-called “god particle”. Personally I don’t think that possessing a knowledge of the names of things is half as important as having an understanding of how it all works. An innate tangible or palpable understanding, as in knowing how to harness the power of these systems, regardless of whether one knows the names that man has arbitrarily attached to them or not.

Either way, I believe there is a good chance that in our lifetimes we will discover this fifth force, and that yes indeed it will tie all the other ones together quite neatly and explain a lot of what we have heretofore considered mysteries of the cosmos. Will it be “God”? Well that all depends on how attached one is to needing to believe that “God” resembles human beings. See, that’s the problem with modern theists’ view of “god”. They seem to have an uncontrollable and inexplicable need for “god” to resemble humankind. They’re all caught up in that whole “God created Man in his image” nonsense. So they’re expecting “god” to be a living breathing intelligent life-like organism. Fat chance. As I have explored numerous times here already, God is most likely a force alright, a mighty big and powerful one; but he/she/it is probably much less life-like and much more like “consciousness” itself. Without the need for an external body or vehicle to get around in. In fact, if I had to guess, I would say that “God” is probably just a giant ball or cluster of all consciousness that’s ever existed since the existence of the universe itself. And in that respect, “god” would not be physical at all. Though that shouldn’t stop scientists from searching for it. They’re definitely onto something in their exploration of Dark Matter or anti-matter and these mysterious bosons. The invisible equal to all things that are visible in the known universe.

So let us say that there is this pulsating Divine Power or Force in the universe that just IS…. It’s an “isness” more than a physical being. It’s most likely “being-less” that still “is”. But that doesn’t preclude it from being “something”. It could still be a very powerful force, perhaps the all-powerful force that theists have postulated for millennia. It just might not be a living breathing organic being in the human being/animal sense of the word. This is why some New Age thinkers tend to just refer to it as “the universe”. I personally don’t prefer this label, “the universe”, because as we already know that the universe as we currently label it is nothing but a giant vacuum that holds all that is. This force either exists inside of “the universe” — is a part of it, OR exists OUTside of it and holds all that is, including the universe, inside of IT. Either way, we fit in somewhere in this equation, albeit quite possibly in a very small near miniscule way. And there’s a good chance that WE as living breathing organic life-streams with access to consciousness can access this powerful force.

THIS is why prayer works. AND this is also why creating and discreating and changing our beliefs and vibration works. Either technique is going to achieve some kind of result, because both techniques summon this force. Some might say that through prayer they are accessing “God” and that “God is granting their wish to come true” because they’ve been good pray-ers. Others might say that because they’ve changed their beliefs and are thus vibrating more closely to that which they wish to experience that THEY are then more easily able to create the outcomes they desire. Both techniques seem to “work”.

In my humble opinion, both parties are doing pretty much the same thing. They’re just calling it different things. If a person walks around all day asserting that “God is my protector. God wants me to be healthy and happy and prosperous. God loves me and takes care of me”, and they experience this, are they not just talking themselves into believing this? And through believing this, are they not then vibrating this? In turn creating it as a reality? No different really than someone else who skips the “god” part of the equation entirely and simply asserts “I deserve to be happy and healthy and prosperous. I am filled with love. My life is wonderful”. They too experience the same outcome. Why? Because through constant affirmation of said statements they are slowly shifting their beliefs toward these vibrations and hence creating these experiences for themselves.

Both are really doing the same thing. Whether they include a “god” in it or not. Perhaps there is a great and all powerful force at play. This force is indeed helping to control and sustain the other four forces in the universe AND consciousness itself. Through connecting with and aligning with this force, any conscious being can create reality. Through affirming good things, we are attaching ourselves in consciousness to the more positive aspect of this force and using it to help create the outcomes that we desire in our lives that we consider to be “good”. And vice versa. Plenty of very bad things have been created in the world in the “name of God” and have manifested. Slavery, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, the Genocide of the Native Americans… How do we explain “God” being all-good when humans have consistently used this force called “god” to do some very bad things throughout history? Unless this force doesn’t actually judge whether things are “good” or “bad”. Perhaps as some people claim, “god” is just a force that doesn’t recognize the duality of good and bad. I sincerely doubt it. But that’s just me wishful-thinking — attaching my own human views of good and bad onto my desired view of what “god” might be like. Not very fair to “god”. But how can I help it? I want there to be a “god” and I want him/her/it to be “good”. The problem of course is that one person’s “good” is another person’s “bad” is another person’s “who cares”.

If we choose instead to view “god” as a pure force… a pure energy… one that can be harnessed for both good or bad… by any organic organism — and I hesitate to limit consciousness to being solely organic in nature only — so instead let’s change that to “any state of consciousness”… — then what that means is that anyone or anything that extends enough will and effort to access this “god force” can do so and can use it to create whatever they so choose. Think Star Wars and the idea of “the Force”. When Joel Osteen advises us to walk around all day affirming how much god loves us and how much god wants us to succeed and be happy, in essence he’s really just advising us to do whatever it takes to change our “state” (Tony Robbins and NLP) or change our vibration (The Secret and Abraham Hicks) or change our beliefs (Avatar and Sedona Method) in order to create the reality that we prefer. He’s just using the “god” idea because it’s been so pre-programmed and indoctrinated into human consciousness for so many thousands of years. So for many people, it really helps them to think that “god” is at play in their lives. What they’re really doing of course is changing their state or beliefs or vibrations. And in exchange for them doing this, they can sometimes experience that their greatest wishes and desires come true in their lives. Why? They claim it’s because God answers prayers. But it might just be that they’ve begun to align themselves or their vibration with that which they prefer to experience through incessant affirmation and thought THROUGH praying. [Ultimately does it really make a difference?]

Or perhaps there really IS a “god” in the universe and that’s why prayer works AND that’s why affirmations and changing our state or beliefs or vibration helps — because through doing so we are more readily attaching our own consciousness to “god’s” and he in turn is picking up on what we’re sending out and rewarding us by granting us our deepest desires and wishes. Who knows?

The simple truth is that NO ONE really knows. Anyone who claims to know — be that person a rabbi or pastor or priest or pope or Imam or spiritual leader — is not being honest. They’re lying. At best they’re fooling themselves, through latching on to a quasi-state of a mass-consciousness belief system, participating in a state of mass hypnosis, no different than they did when they claimed “god supported and condoned slavery”. At worst, they know they’re not being honest, but benefitting too greatly from it to admit it. But in reality, most any intelligent or rational person we’d ever sit down in a quiet place with and talk one to one with would admit that they have no more a clue as to if a “god” exists in the world than the next person. And that’s perfectly fine. In fact, it’s preferable to someone who would swear up and down that they really believe that they KNOW that a “god” exists. After all, one day we’re going to be called out on this belief. And “god” help the man whose bluff is called and they can’t summon the power of this great and all powerful “god” when they need to. Best to keep the jury out on this one I say.

But absolutely nothing wrong with admitting that we’d LOVE for there to be a “god” in the universe, regardless of what form it decides to take or not take, visible or invisible. The real meat of the issue is that it does appear that we ARE capable of creating our experiences, our lives, our day to day experiences and circumstances… and the “how” is in our beliefs and vibrations. The true scientific mechanisms of how all this works we will leave to the scientists as we always have. One day I am sure they will figure it all out and let us know what’s really going on. In the meantime, we at least have a clue as to how to make things work out better for ourselves or at least more in our favor. And that’s a very good thing.

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April 2, 2005

The pope is dead. (I don’t like to use the term ‘the pope’ these days – as if everyone is supposed to know what ‘the pope’ means… if we said ‘the doctor’ when speaking about some witch doctor in Zimbabwe would everyone in the world know who that was? no. of course not. so instead let us offer the same respect to the catholic church as we would any other religion of humankind. Not more not less. Perhaps we should call him ‘the leader of the catholic church,’ which is, after all, in the end, all he is.) Tens of thousands mourn in St. peters square. It seems like just yesterday when Giovanna and I were skipping through St. Peters high on hash and Italian beer in the wee hours of the night, splashing in the fountains and jumping from square to square. “are you a catholic,” I ask her. “isn’t everyone a catholic here?” “of course I’m not a catholic,” she shouts back at me in her sexy thick Italian accent, as if I had offended her. she tells me how the idea that Italy is all catholic is a myth perpetrated by the church, that at this point in history the people of Italy are nothing now, they are no religion. They believe in God and Jesus but they sure as hell don’t believe in the catholic church. they are waiting to be liberated by some new religion or by a regenerated catholic church willing to represent the people rather than rule them with outdated patriarchic ideologies no longer relevant or acceptable to most. [looking back now I find it fascinating how many people stood in line at St. peters to mourn the death of this pope; certainly some of them must be catholic…]

She went on to tell me how many Italians are scared shitless of the catholic church [hey its not just Italians…] and would never dare speak up against them as we do in America—in that we are lucky in America she tells me, but at the same time they don’t go to church or pay much attention to anything that has to do with the church. Indeed this idea is so well known that I even had read the same thing in my American tour guide when first visiting the country. at this point the church is relegated to births and weddings and deaths and that’s about it. the people are waiting for something to inspire them and revitalize them once more. having been raised a catholic myself I noticed the same thing here in America. People didn’t seem to care much about the church here in the states. it seemed very matter of fact growing up… Catholics weren’t inspired; obligated maybe, but never inspired. The last dark veil around the beautiful face of humanity is religion; Catholicism and Islam and Christianity. We need to honor and respect our brethren’s beliefs but keep the truth in the back of our minds. Hold a candle for the light of truth to one day shine on humanity.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/06/pope.main/index.html

For me I stand in awe and amazement at how newsworthy this event appears to the world. the man stood against same sex marriage, abortion, birth control, women becoming preists – he still promoted this very sexist patriarchal heirechy where men were above women, the obligation of celibacy for the presithood.. which leads to… denial and then, well, you know what… and so many other modern and progressive ideas, and so to me, he stood against humankind itself in a lot of ways. Still, with that said, he united a lot of people and gave them hope… he was against the imperialist invasion of Iraq, good for him. he is against capital punishment, good for him. that actually makes sense given his stand against abortion, as opposed to most conservative Americans, who reveal the glitch in their thinking machinery by admitting being against abortion but pro-capital punishment… The person called the pope leads one of the richest, most powerful, sinister, and dangerous organizations in the world – the catholic church – what’s left of the gasping roman empire still today; a thinly veiled euphemism at best to those in the know. most people don’t even know that not only is the catholic church one of the richest companies in the world, they are also secretly their own COUNTRY. Just over the top crazy evil shit this company/country-disguised-as-a-religion has pulled off over the last two thousand years… but they won’t mention this on CNN or any other news network. The truth is only uttered under the breath of those brave enough to even have the thought in their heads.

Check out this photo:

grim right? but why? All of the former American presidents have flown in to sit and stare at the passed on priest’s body… but none of them are catholic… what is going on here? any guesses? Would they do the same if the leader of the Hindu religion died? Would they do it if the ayatollah died? Prob not. o.k., obviously not. not now. but I bet they would do it if the dali lama died.. yes? but still they won’t help the dali lama in his quest to free his country from the clutches of tyrannical empirical china… well that’s because china has more money than Tibet. And the catholic church has more money than both… the photo and the reality it portrays is quite startling… why are these men putting on such a show to mourn the loss of the leader of the catholic church when they weren’t even catholic?

Well, after studying his life the last few days maybe its just because he was such a great guy. and maybe its because he was so dedicated to promoting peace. He even issued a number of apologies on behalf of the catholic church over the last ten years for the horrors perpetrated by Catholics over the last two thousand years to the rest of humanity. That’s just fucking amazing. that alone makes him a good guy. better than many that preceded him. for sure.

I keep my eyes on the prize at the end of the right and wrong game when humans will no longer be satisfied being ruled by archaic dogma, but instead will choose self rule and self governance on all levels in their lives. But those days may still be quite a number of years away from us at this point in our slow evolution. People are religious I remind myself. This is real. It is I who lives in another world. the world is still in the world. and though I don’t see it, even I am in that world. I just pretend not to know it. people, I remind myself, are religious here on earth still. and dogma is king. Beaurocracy is king. Hierarchies are king.

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February 22, 2005

A few things I’ve observed. when you are in love, it is all you think about. another thing. when you fall in love with someone you experience something called jealousy. I had forgotten about jealousy. But it is real. As unenlightened and untranscendent as it may be, its like a ghost that creeps up on you when you’re sleeping, and its hard to shake off.

Current read: Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi … this book is cool because it is in the form of one giant comic book, about a hundred and fifty page history of modern Iran. So its not so scholarly. Just a good read of the facts with an attempt to be very light-hearted and whimsical… which lightens the otherwise tragic events being relayed. I am inspired from the learning, but horrified at what I have learned. Lots of data to process.

Quickly:
– the Iranians are not Arabs, like many of the other middle eastern countries. They are Persians, or Aryans. The name Iran comes from the word Aryan. The Arabs/Muslims invaded in 636 and forced their Muslim religion onto them – they were Zoroastrians before that – which as we’ve already discussed is very similar to Judaism/Christianity.
– since that time they had always been ruled by one monarchy or dynasty or another. But the people wanted to rule, they wanted a democracy. In the 1930s it looked as though the people were going to have a revolution and take over the country from the then-emperor, and turn it into a republic or democracy so the people could rule. Just like the United States.
– But England and the United States came in and bribed the revolutionaries into keeping it a monarchy instead of a democracy because they wanted the oil. So they promised their support of the revolution and lots of money in exchange for free access and first rights to all of this oil they were finding. So they basically turned the government from one monarchy into another overnight, but one they could control. The people didn’t get to rule themselves after all. instead they were now being ruled by England and America thinly veiled as being through this new monarchy, the Shaw.
– this went on for fifty years and the dictatorship was pretty brutal. The American CIA helped teach the Iranian government spy and torture techniques in order to capture and torture and kill anyone who was trying to win the country back for the people so they could become a democracy like we are. they were just trying to be like us, but our government was working to stop them from doing that because they were controlling the dictatorship/monarchy that was in charge so they could get the oil. crazy stuff.
– in 1979 the people finally took over in the great revolution and overthrew the shaw. But they did it through this whole Islamic thing….using religious fervor and fundamentalism to empower them to do so…. so bye bye shaw but hello crazy Muslims.
– soon after the take over they took the Americans hostage as a way to get back at us for how we killed and tortured so many of them for so long. growing up in America we aren’t told any of this of course. we are taught that they took us hostage because they are crazy fuckers. They forget to mention that our government was lying to the whole world and killing and torturing them and keeping their people in a dictatorship for fifty years even though they wanted their own democracy. So of course they were mad and they took a bunch of people hostage. I remember seeing the American flags burning on TV as a tiny boy and thinking ‘gosh how scary. Who would want to do that to us?’ I understand now. they weren’t doing it to ‘us’ but they were doing it to our government. Our uncontrolled crazy ass government that does whatever it wants to in our name and then we the people pay the price for it.
– o.k. so then Saddam Hussein of Iraq decides to invade Iran in 1980 because they have permission from the United States. not only do they have permission, the American government is offering money and weapons and anything else Saddam wants in order to get him to take over the country of Iran. One assumes the US government’s plan was to get Iraq to take over Iran and then to take over Iraq and we would have both countries under our belt. So for eight years the US gov secretly supported the Iraqis against the Iranians… out of the frying pan and into the fire these US government guys are. from one mess to another.

one thing is this. Iran is Iran. Its not America. In a way none of this has to be my business. So with that said, suffice it to say that Iran will be Iran and we will be America. But as an American at heart, the aspects that involve America are the aspects of the story that still touch me the deepest. I cannot help but be affected by the history of Iran as we, our government, directly relate to these people’s lives and futures….

So where are we with this? I mean, as an American… as a person…. as a human… its 7am. I sit here in the dark and type in the dead quiet. For some reason I wake up super early now… no matter how late I go to bed… this can only be a good thing. I’m listening to this amazing Persian classical music right now as I type, the music is fast and pulsing, the vocals haunting and ancient sounding; my thoughts are fast… just need to get it down…

obviously I feel lied to. have to let that go. we have to face it and let it go. we are being lied to. it was all a lie. The Iranians taking our people hostage because they are crazy and evil… that was a lie. It was we who were being crazy and evil and they were reacting to that after fifty years under the persecution and control of the US and England tyrannical clutches… so we were lied to and we are still being lied to. o.k. but we have no choice in this. we’re not going to be taking over our government anytime soon. they have shown that to us time and time again. the days of the people of America controlling America are over. they lie to us. we have to face it, accept it. they are lying murdering thieving fuckhead bastards, as most governments of the earth seem to be, — in their defense I will offer that maybe they aren’t aware of it because I believe their webs of deception are so twisted and interwoven at this point that most of them don’t even know what the hell is going on.

Zoroastrianism

February 15, 2005

O.k. check it. while studying Iran, and then Persia, I came upon the old religion of Zoroastrianism. This is the original religion of Iran/Persia; before all the invasions from other countries/religions/armies — for a while they were forced into Christianity because of the Roman invasions, and then the final Muslim/Arabian invasion that turned almost the entire country into believers in Islam. But before this they were Zoroastrians. don’t pay attention to the details if you don’t want to. just read this. you’re not going to believe it: This is from 1700 BC, long before the formal religions of Judaism, Islam, or Christianity were developed:

”In his writings Zoroaster speaks of an ethical and moral opposition between Asha (“order”), which he equates with righteousness, and Drug (“confusion”), which he equates with evil and the lie. Zoroaster personifies this dualism in a pair of spirits called Ahura Mazda (“Wise Lord,” known as Ohrmazd in Middle Persian), and Angra Mainyu (“Evil Spirit,” known as Ahriman in Middle Persian). See also Persian Language.

According to Zoroastrian doctrine, Ahura Mazda is a perfect, rational, and omniscient (all-knowing) entity. Thus, Zoroastrians believe that Angra Mainyu created sin, disease, death, and similar evils. Ahura Mazda is said to have created six Amesha Spentas (“Holy Immortals”), who represent aspects of material creation, in addition to other minor spiritual beings who assist in protecting the world and all creatures. Angra Mainyu is said to have produced numerous Daevas (demonic spirits), who represent aspects of pain, suffering, and death, to attack Ahura Mazda’s creations.

Zoroastrians believe that Ahura Mazda created humans as allies in the cosmic struggle against evil and that humanity will be resurrected and granted immortality once evil has been defeated. They further view the material world as a trap into which evil has been lured and in which evil will undergo defeat by divinities and humans working together. Zoroastrianism preaches that when someone dies his or her soul undergoes individual judgment based on actions while alive. If the soul’s good deeds are greater than its evil deeds, it enters paradise. If the soul’s evil deeds outweigh the good done while alive, it is cast into hell to await the day of universal judgment. In cases where a soul’s good deeds equal its evil deeds, it is consigned to limbo.

Close to the end of time a savior will resurrect the dead, Zoroastrianism claims. Ahura Mazda will descend to earth with the other good spirits. Each sinner, having already suffered in hell or limbo after death, will be purified. Thereafter, immortality will be granted to all humans. Ahura Mazda, the holy immortals, and other divine beings will annihilate the demons and force Angra Mainyu to scuttle back into hell, which will then be sealed.

The Zoroastrian doctrine of heaven, hell, and limbo influenced the other faiths. Islam absorbed not only the ideas of heaven, hell, and limbo, but also the scheme of individual judgment at a celestial bridge and the notion of final, universal judgment. Christianity further assimilated the Zoroastrian belief of heaven, hell, purgatory, individual judgment, the soul’s afterlife and the appearance of a savior, resurrection, and eternal life at the end of the world.”

TheTranscendenceDiaries

Tag: islam

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