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Month: May 2014

THE PROBLEM WITH MUSIC STREAMING FROM A BUSINESS STANDPOINT

May 23, 2014

Regarding Spotify and Pandora and the like, we have been spending a LOT of time discussing and debating this issue. Just not here. I apologize for that. Unlike the “old days” where everything I did was memorialized here for the ages, social media has now taken over and the majority of my communications, thoughts, feelings ideas are now floating out there somewhere, be it Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr or even Pinterest. I encourage you, friend fan or foe, to search for me on those above cited platforms and connect so as to be more readily informed of what’s going on. With that said, I started a simple non-profit to inform and promote a fairer living wage compensation for the musical artist called FAIR PAY FOR FAIR PLAY. Feel free to connect with it on Facebook if it’s a cause you believe in. There you will be able to read more about this subject than you’re even aware exists at this time. but that’s a good thing. We need YOU to. We need everyone to.

Needless to say, pardon that you’ll be joining the conversation mid-stream. But as of today, here is the latest thought about this subject:

Granted we are in the initial phase of this new trend… (streaming taking over purchases…) BUT i do believe that as with all “new things” that it’s important for us to set the rules up fairly and equitably from the start, or else it’s much harder for us to change them later. Be it anything. The problem is that the whole thing is a sham. This idea that tech companies are perpetrating on regular people, that “music can be free”… the business model itself is severely flawed… THEY happen to exist in an industry where everything is “free”. Free apps, free games, etc, because it is funded by venture capitalists. So they are now trying to pass that on to an entirely different industry — the music business — and with other people’s products, i.e. other people’s intellectual property. And therein lay the problem.

It’s FINE if tech companies want to and can afford to give away their product for free for a year or more or forever because they see a bigger picture down the road (advertising revenue, an IPO); but it’s NOT fine to demand that of other people who they don’t even know, i.e. musical artists. The ONLY way they can offer “free music” to people — their prospective clientele — is by either offsetting their expenses — what they should be paying for their inventory, in this case the music — through other revenue sources like advertising OR by funding their business through venture capitalists. Which is fine. IF they are paying for their inventory. Which in this case, they are not. They’re just stealing it.

And by doing so they are programming an entire generation to believe that “music is free”, when in fact it’s not. Music actually costs a LOT to create. Financially. Besides all the other things that go into it. Like talent. What they’re going to end up with is a world where only really crappy music is popular because really good music will not be available for streaming if these practices continue for much longer. Just something to think about..

If you want to find out more about this issue and the problems we all face as music lovers if it continues in this direction, read this excellent article about Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and why he pulled his music off of Spotify: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jul/15/thom-yorke-spotify-twitter



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Uncategorized fair compensation for musicians, music streaming is stealing, Pandora, Radiohead, spotify, tech companies taking over music business, Thom Yorke

Dude, Astrology? Really?

May 23, 2014

The other day I happened to post something to FB regarding this new reading I got from this new astrologer I discovered by the name of, get this, Carole Devine. Yes that IS in fact her real name. And yes you should definitely look her up if 1, astrology is your thing and you’re looking for a good or 2, you’ve always been interested in it but have never found a good one. She’s mind boggingly good at what she does. Very scientific, honest, accurate, sincere and real. In any case, I make a random comment on FB about it and White Bear, who I have reconnected with over the last few years, as I’ve written about here in the past, makes the comment “Dude, Astrology? Really?” Which is pretty much what I would expect from him. It’s one of the many reasons why I love and admire him so much. He’s very left brained. Logic. Rational thinking. A real go-to person if you need facts and figures and an actual answer to something. Besides the fact that he’s also very lacking in the BS department. He states facts. Along with a modicum of opinion. Which are also almost always thought provoking and interesting as well.

In any case, seeing that it is something that I believe in — to a certain degree (see a previous post about the subject) and only if one doesn’t get carried away with it — I wanted to give him an honest answer. Something that might come in handy, be helpful. Long gone are the days where we concern ourselves with what others think. These are the days of true, free Personal Expression. So I just typed without thought, sharing as much as I could think of in the moment so as to relay to him the what and the why of it. Below is that response.

Dude I can SO see the “not believing in it” side — just as easy as the “believing in it” side. Totally. Because frankly the main access we have to it in the mainstream is through so called “horoscopes” which are just … fun, entertainment, no different than say the billboard music awards or “reading about how to give the best bl*wj*b in Cosmo”. Can’t possibly apply to any one individual, because they can literally apply to everyone. Get it. But the actual science of astrology — as in finding one who has been to school and mastered in it for a few decades = mind blowing. You find a good one and get your Natal Chart done… If they’re good at it, then it’s freaking insane how accurate they are. #1 So that can be tremendously helpful. In just having a better understanding of certain things you’ve “wondered about” for a long time, about yourself or about life in general.

#2 that then gives you AMMUNITION in the form of information that you can then use to discreate/let go of/release anything that you don’t particularly like about yourself or your life — for some reason, hearing WHAT it is and WHY it is from an objective third party really helps loosen the grip, adds some grease to something that may feel “stuck”. You know what i mean… things we’ve “struggled” with for years/decades, or that have boggled our mind since we can remember.

#3 If they’re really good, your SIGN will have VERY little to do with who YOU are… (if they’re not good, then yeah they’ll talk all about your “sign” yada yada yada. But that’s all bs. Might as well pick up Cosmo.) A good one, a scientist, will go WAY deeper and really delve into the deep shiite, in terms of things that you may totally take for granted… #4 so that’s always a hoot, just a blast or #5 might tell you something that is SO deeply repressed or embedded in your subconscious that you’ve never really given it any thought at all until they say it and then BAM!!! you’re like “holy crap you’re right!!!” – which again you can then either keep it or choose to let it go.

#6 Bearing in mind that we are all at different levels of evolution — in this life AND in our collection of lifetimes (only IF you believe in reincarnation or the transmigration of the soul… it may not apply to someone who doesn’t believe in that… for all we know, THEY might actually NOT have multiple lifetimes — this is the secret to it all btw, yep, right here on FB, for free, the secret to it all has been revealed on a cloudy Friday afternoon… but nope there is no ONE truth in the universe of consciousness that applies to ALL people — it’s all up to each individual and what they believe. The universe is large enough to encompass all of the myriad beliefs that consciousness holds. Reincarnation, heaven, hell, turn to dust and die after one life, whatever YOU choose… despite what others may believe… the insistence that “what I believe is the “one true way” is just insecurity on the part of the person who is saying it IMHO). So yes, if we are all at different levels/stages in our evolution in this life and in our collection of lifetimes, then SOME of what they will say “may apply” and some of it we may have already “evolved out of it” (which is how it is phrased) BUT a really GOOD astrologer will even be able to discern WHICH is the case for YOU — whether THAT which they see in your chart applies to you or if “you’re over it” (even though it’s still indicated in your chart, as in “should apply”) But again, i am referring to the REALLY GOOD ones…

So it’s not like “whatever your chart says, so you are”. These are just maps… helpful roadmaps, sea charts. If it doesn’t ring true then it doesn’t ring true for you… Only YOU know if it applies to you or not. #6 Everyone has and uses “different tools” to process and maneuver through life — to evolve so to speak. Some may use pure logic and rational thinking, some may use a lot of emotion, some may use religion and prayer, or spirituality and meditation, some may use magic/witchcraft (which i assert is slightly different than religion… (I’ve tried both)), some may use so-called “self-help” tools such as psychology, psychiatry (and perhaps medication), EST, Life Spring, Landmark ,Avatar, Sedona Method, Abraham, Tony Robbins, Dyer, et al. (I’ve done them all; because i dig researching that kind of stuff…). So as long as the person has SOME type of tool(s) at their disposal to manifest and transition and transform… i.e. a way to manipulate life experiences to their liking…even if it’s just good old fashioned Will Power (which is an often overlooked resource/tool) then astrology can be a great addition to that toolbox. It’s like an “inside look or screening on YOU”.

#7 Once you get through your whole Natal Chart and have good mastery over it, i.e. have evolved out of the bad characteristics of your chart and have increased/taken full advantage of the good characteristics of your chart, you can then move on to having them run a Progress Chart for you — which is where the “celestial bodies” have moved to since you were born until now — as in “your current chart” — this isn’t as much about WHO you are, but more about “what is happening” to YOU now, like this year and next… So it can really help shed light on “what the f*&k happened when one minute I was flying high and everything was going great and then all of a sudden I lost my job and my son fell out of a tree and broke his leg???” or whatever. For each it will be different of course.

#8 But that’s the thing: a truly great astrologer will NOT ask YOU any questions. Instead they will just tell you what the Progress Chart is saying… And if they’re really good, it’s usually spot on to what’s actually happening in your life. And no i’m not speaking of things that are “so broad vast relative” that they can apply to anyone at any time… On the contrary, they’re usually things that are so specific that they either TOTALLY apply to YOU or they’re just not very good at what they do. As in they might say to you: “You’re presently writing a book? With three Virgos? All females? But it’s not a novel…It’s a non-fiction book? Does this make any sense?” And VOI-f*^king-LA, sure enough, at that moment in time I happened to be writing a very large non-fiction book with three Virgos, all female. And you’re like “how the heck do you KNOW that???” And they’re like “I can see it right here…” And if you care about such things, you can ask them to SHOW you what exactly they are looking at that shows them “writing” “book” “with others” “virgos” “women” “non-fiction, not a novel” “helpful or not helpful” “profitable or not profitable”. Because all those things will be present in that chart.

#9 Yes this particular area of science has gotten that good. I am truly awed by it on the rare occasion that i meet one who is THAT good.

#10 BEWARE and forewarned. A really good one is HONEST. They don’t hold back based on “what you may like or not like to hear”. You’re hiring them to hear “what’s up”. Sometimes what’s up may not be always good, as we all well know from living life… So I only recommend astrology to people who are strong brave and have their shit together.

#11 But again, remember, it’s all up to US. WE control it all. (talk about chicken or egg paradox…!!!) Everything that they see, that is there, is only “a potential”. It’s not written in stone. So if you hear something “bad” –something that you don’t prefer, it doesn’t mean that it’s GOING to happen. It just means that “it could happen if you’re not prepared for it and you continue in the same direction you’re currently heading in.”

As in, #12 it’s a damn good way to be prepared and forewarned about things that we might be able to prevent if we only knew were potentialities in the first place.  It gives us opportunities to shift realities that we wouldn’t normally be able to even know about had we not checked out “what the stars had to say”. For all these reasons and probably more, yes, I dig it on the rare occasion that I’m in the mood for it. Which for me personally is about once every five to seven years. I find it helpful.

Hope this answers your question.

 



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Uncategorized Abraham, astrology, avatar course, benefits of, evolving, Natal Charts, Progress Charts, reincarnation, Sedona Method, the secret to life, transmigration of the soul, Why and how astrology works

Don’t Hate the Atheist — Love Them

May 15, 2014

It’s easy to feel insulted when one hears a callous derogatory remark made about God or religion when one is a believer. It’s a natural reaction. Even if we ourselves aren’t perfect in our faith — we’ll get to that problematic concept of “faith” later — and/or struggle with our beliefs, if we are a practicing or actively religious or spiritual person it just plain stings a little when you hear someone insult religion in general or God. As if they know. Which we know they don’t. Not anymore than we do. It’s the casual callousness of it that feels disrespectful. That’s what hurts. We may not even be that into it ourselves. Or perhaps we’re a three times a weeker seeker. Either way it’s just plain rude no matter how you slice it. No different than if you heard the same person insulting someone you loved or in your family. That kind of hurt. Which of course it is. People take their religion and their spirituality, their relationship with God, seriously. To many people their religious community is their family. And so too is their belief in whatever God they believe exists. It’s a heartless callous hardened heart that is capable of insulting religion or the God concept in mixed company. Such as on social networks like Facebook or Twitter or what have you. Especially when it is unsolicited. I’ve always found it a rather distasteful act.

Of course it’s their right to do so. Their opinion and their ability to express it publicly is protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Just as all of ours is. And that’s a very very good thing. It doesn’t make it hurt any less I’m sure. But it’s important to remember that we live in a relatively “free society”. [Quotes due to how quickly these once taken for granted freedoms are disappearing over the last 14 years. It’s more appearance and political-speak now than reality. Truth is that any number of covert or secret “intelligence agencies” — whether we’ve heard of them or not — could enter every single one of our homes at a moments notice, search through our home and ransack our most prized possessions, arrest us, and cart any one of us to a known or secret prison here or in another country and we may or may not be ever be heard from again. There are more laws on the books now that permit that than ones that protect us FROM that happening. That’s just how things are in the “post 9/11 America”.]

But that’s not the point. We’ve already established in numerous other posts that for anyone to claim they’re an “atheist” is as radical and extreme as any bible thumping born again christian or stone throwing Muslim. They assert that they KNOW that God “does not exist”. Funny. I know plenty of Christians who aren’t even 100% sure if God exists or not. I’ll take the word and trust the nobility of someone who is that intelligent and bold any day over someone so ignorant as to claim that they know for sure that there is NO God. That’s just plain lack of intelligence. It takes just as much “faith” to believe something does NOT exist just because they can’t see it as it does to believe something DOES exist that they can’t see. We can’t SEE atoms. And we couldn’t for thousands of years and yet we predicted their existence as far back as when Greece ruled the world. Long before we could “see” them with modern microscopes.

Same thing with the earth being round. Sure the doubters said that it was most definitely flat because that’s what it LOOKED LIKE. I get it. It feels safer only believing in what you can see. You’ve been duped before and it’s not gonna happen again. So from now on it’s “I’ll only believe it when I see it”. Smart.

Except that it’s not. Smart. It’s just plain ignorance. Which is why we can’t blame atheists. They’re radical nature inspires them to make such bold proof-less claims the same way that a Muslim’s inspires him to believe that “women should be covered in black clothing from head to foot in public in order to stay pure”. It’s a radical nature compounded by a lack of intellect. Which is ironic when one considers that most atheists consider themselves “intellectuals”, or to be “more intellectually driven” than theists. But as explained above that’s a misconception.

Another aspect of the bigger picture debate — one that isn’t discussed often — is this: the primary reason why any atheist out of a thousand, take your pick, does NOT believe in God is because they have NEVER EXPERIENCED GOD. As stated above. They claim they “don’t believe in such a thing because they can’t see it”. Which means they never have. One assumes that also means they’ve never heard God either. They’ve never felt God. Never touched Him/Her/It. In other words they’ve never had a God experience. You see where this is headed…

Their problem isn’t necessarily JUST a lack of intelligence — though that’s a big one obviously, as explained above: an intelligent person doesn’t claim to know something for sure that is unknowable at a specific moment in history. There is not enough certainty either way for anyone to know or NOT know. So sure it’s a lack of intelligence to make such a clueless claim.

But what it really comes down to is this: the existence of God isn’t unknowable to all of us. Only to some. While it is true that a vast majority of religious people of all faith traditions steer their spiritual beliefs by way of “faith”, there are some who have seen God, have heard It, or felt It. They’ve had viable tangible God experiences. And THAT’S why they believe in God. Not because of “faith”. But because to them God is as real as their right hand or the nose on their face.

I KNOW this to be true not because I have faith. I personally have very little faith. I’ve always found it to be a rather weak cop out, faith. “To believe in something based on nothing or no evidence, solely because you believe in it.” Not really my thing. But rather it’s because I can honestly say that I once shared the atheist’s vehement disrespect and dislike of all things religious. I thought that God the concept was a cop out. A crutch used only by weak people who couldn’t find steady ground or security within and by themselves. Mentally this made perfect sense. There are plenty of examples and reasons in the world that help support the belief that we are alone in a vast expansive empty and lonely universe — no God to help us when we’re down or heal the sick or feed the hungry. Just random joy and pain. Happiness and sorrow. Ups and downs as random and arbitrary as heads or tails. Chaos in a quantum world. Just as some scientists have been proposing for decades. Think Chaos Theory or Quantum Mechanics.

But then something miraculous happened. I don’t use the term lightly. Miraculous because after years and years of searching, studying, seeking and praying God found me. I didn’t find God. Nor find religion. God found me. Why? I don’t know. I sometimes feel guilty and undeserving to be one of the few who can claim that I don’t believe in God because of faith but rather because I have experienced Him/Her/It. In person. Tangible. Measurable. Viable. As real as the sound of my breath when all is quiet.

I just wrote a more detailed account of the experience in the previous post of these Diaries. It’s all there. Everything I can remember. Which is everything. Experiences like the are not something one forgets easily.

This account I spoke of wasn’t the first time I had a tangible experience of God. Nor was it the last. They don’t happen often. I admit. I’d prefer if God were there whenever and wherever I wanted Him to be. And maybe He is. Maybe It is. In fact I am certain that this Divine Force, which we presently call God and personify with all our human attributes simply because we are too young still to know any better — and too frightened of just how gigantic magnificent and powerful It might be, IS with us all the time. Not only with us, but IN us. As we are in HIM/IT. OF HIM/HER/IT. Most likely we are ONE with It and don’t yet know it. Or not.

With that said — and because I can feel you asking — I will share that everytime I have personally ever seen or heard God it did sound and feel like something separate from me. Not JUST something that was a part of me. But something that was at the same time inside of me AND outside of and separate from me.

Yes of course one could claim these experiences were an illusion, or delusion, hallucinations brought on by stress or delusions of grandeur or wishful thinking. We humans have a marvelously twisted imagination. So much so that we both imagine what God is and then teach it to ourselves as children through made up legends and fairytales like the bible and the Qur’an AND at the same time turn around and call the first person who sees or talks with this God “crazy”. And we’ve created a whole catalog of mental illnesses to project onto each other in order to sound more clinical and credible when we are labeling another person “insane” if they admit to seeing or hearing God. It’s an awe inspiring paradox created by a deep seated shared human fear of the unknown. We all want to believe in God, and curse those who claim not to; but claim to have seen and talked with God, you better RUN. Fast. Just a perplexing species human beings still are.

So sure, every single experience could be classified as a hallucination if you will, and yet what is love? Is it not real? Or is it too illusion? Hallucination…? We can’t see it. Nor measure it. But we can feel it. We can see the effect of it. There are some scientists among us who believe that love is nothing but a chemical reaction in the body of the being experiencing it and because of THIS they hypothesize that love just may be nothing but temporary illusion brought about by chemicals in the body. But I dare say that anyone who has ever experienced real love in all of its various forms would find this explanation severely lacking.

Which is the real point of all this… circling back to bring the message home. The last thing in the world we should feel toward atheists is hurt or anger, blame or hate. They are simply expressing their reality — which is to say they have never experienced God before. They have never seen or heard or felt the presence of the Divine. That is not something to be hurt or angered by. But rather something to feel sorry for. To pity. To empathize with. To pray for. Who among us has not at one time or another felt betrayed or abandoned by God because He/She/It has not shown up when we needed It the most? Imagine NEVER having had an experience of God… Never experiencing anything Divine… Of course they’re angry. Bitter. Vehement in their claim that no such thing exists. It’s a natural reaction. As extreme as it is to claim that something doesn’t exist just because you’ve never seen it, it does at the same time seem a rational reaction — especially if those around you are filled with joy and excitement over having experienced such a thing. Envy probably plays a role too.

Behind every hard boiled atheist is most likely an aching heart of a someone who once sought out God but got no answer and is now hardened and filled with sorrow and anger. Denying the existence of something which has denied you, in any context, seems a rational and logical reaction. Extreme? Yes. But we are fragile creatures still.

The answer is love. And then more love. And a sincere prayer that every one who longs to know God in their life is gifted with that opportunity one day.

 



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Uncategorized atheists, Atheists are radical extremists, Christians, God experiences, Hearing God, love an illusion, Muslims, pity atheists, Seeing God

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.

 



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Uncategorized avatar course, Bagadvagita, enlightenmnent, false assumptions, god writing through man, hallucinogens, Hinduism, islam, Judaism, sacred books, the bible, the nature of God, the Qu'an, world religions

An American Arab Spring — The New American Revolution

May 6, 2014

Yes… we can go on and on posting what’s wrong with America in the 21st century on various social media as we do till we’re blue in the face. But who are we reaching? Others just like us. And since we already know all this and we can’t help but constantly remind each other of these same issues day after day, what good is it actually doing? Nada. Sharing what this corrupt senator or that corrupt White House did yesterday or last month or what they plan to do in the future is old hat. It’s boring. And more importantly it’s not getting us anywhere. It’s a tired charade because we’re frightened of what we really need to do. The real post that we should be sharing by now is WHAT the SOLUTION is. And what is the PLAN? How are we going to stop it all? From the inside it appears that we have generally four options:

1. We can say “fuck it”… since we already know how it works just join the system and profit from it and then use that money to bring the bastards down or at least cause major some pain. (Incorporate yourself. It’s cheap and easy. Pay no taxes just as corporations are want to do. Then invest in the same “assets” that we’re supposedly so upset about being sold off to “the others”. Become the “others”. Then use that money to fuck with them through lobbying and campaign financing away their criminal systems. (As an example I made a 400% I shit you not profit last week alone from investing in Nat Gas, which I intend to use a small portion of to donate to Josh Fox so he can keep making his excellent Anti-fracking films.)) This is but one example. Stop complaining about the rich. It’s annoying for one. And you wouldn’t be so eager to if you were one of them. Become one and fight the aspects of the system that you don’t like from the inside. It’s much more enjoyable than staying poor and complaining. Money is the only tool or weapon that has any authority left on planet earth; at least when speaking of government — especially American government.

2. Fight for the truth to get out and slowly re-indoctrinate / wake up the masses who are allowing these hideous manipulations to persist — wake them up in order to slowly change things in the methodical legal democratic manner that is still (at present at least) our right. And our obligation. But… how long will that take? Let’s face it, the majority of the country is still completely in the dark. They believe that 9/11 was carried out by Osama Bib Laden and a rogue band of AL Quaeda “terrorists”. And that’s if we’re lucky. Some of them still believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for it. Many of us have friends who actually went to Iraq to kill people because of it. Our friends in the military. It wasn’t their fault that they didn’t know what was really going on. The country was panicked at the time. They were impassioned. And they naeively believed their president and his henchman in the government. They considered themselves patriots. They knew no better. Many of them have reconsidered that mistake. But not all of them.

If we use the timeline of the past as our gauge and add the element of exponential growth that seems inherent in the evolution of human thought to their rate of awakening…how long will this transformation take? Yes it seems lost at this point. BUT the people are slowly winning in certain arenas… Which should definitely give us hope. Legal cannabis and same sex marriage and the recent raising of the minimum wage in several major cities are all good examples; so too are Vermont and New York’s ban on fracking good recent examples.But let’s face facts: this option is the LONG road. At the rate we’re going now, we will NEVER see true justice, truth or honesty, integrity or freedom in our lifetimes in the United States. It only gets worse from here. Regardless of the small strides we appear to be making here and there, they are making much more progress in the opposite direction.

[We must also remember that we’ve got a long road ahead of us in terms of just correcting the sins of our past. They are too numerous to mention in any one article. But just as a “for instance”, the American government, or the parties currently in power posing as such, better put, have spent over one trillion dollars on the so-called war on drugs, and have imprisoned thirty seven million American citizens for non-violent drug related “crimes”. Most of them black or Latino, all of them poor. And all facilitated by a for-profit government and industry that makes money from arresting the least among us and keeping them in these prisons for as long as they can. Contrast this with the fact that none of the individuals responsible for the Great Recession of 2008 served any time in jail or prison. This is a shocking statistic. And not something we can miraculously erase from our tainted history. Nope. The best we can do is stop the madness and perhaps idealistically even start freeing all those imprisoned for non-violent drug related crimes and if necessary create more programs to rehabilitate them. Rather than keeping them locked up in a cage like animals or criminals. And this is just one of thousands of treacherous treasons that have been committed in our name in broad daylight right before our eyes.]

3. Say fuck it again but in an entirely different manner and just ditch out of the system. Leave the grid as they say. Attempt to get out of the system completely — if that’s even possible at this point. Become as bad as we perceive “they” are. Not in joining them as in #1. But in fighting against them. In other words just go total anarchistic on their asses. Hack their networks. Bring down their machines. Whole companies. Especially government ones. Vandalize and blow up their buildings, and hell while we’re at it go vigilante on the worst of them–the truly wicked, the obviously wretched, the liars the crooks the killers– take them out of the picture entirely. For every drone strike on an innocent civilian village we take out one or more of them. But all covertly. Anonymous meets Anarchist Cookbook meets Fight Club meets Weather Underground. This option may have moral implications that may seem objectionable to some. Break glass only the case of an emergency. (Though at the time of this writing many who understand what we are facing have already begun this option… Some may choose to join them.)

 

4. We mobilize as many as there are who are truly ready on a national level and we start a new Continental Congress and Army for a full on no-holds barred revolt to take the country back. Then we totally reboot the system. From scratch. Let’s face it. For as noble as the so-called founding father’s ideals were, the system failed. Somewhere down the line, it got sold out to the almighty dollar and succumbed to the power that absolutely corrupts. So we erase it all and start over. One day the world awakens to an Arab Styled Spring in the United States of America. We make a formal announcement to the current government-select that they are to immediately resign or be arrested for treason and we march forward and try to do it peaceably; if that doesn’t work then we use force, just as we did in the first Revolutionary War. It’s not like we don’t know HOW. It’s been happening all over the world around us for a few years now. The trick is that with all our talk, we’re all well too aware of that little secret that gnaws away at us in the dark of night: an Arab Spring may have worked in Tunisia or Egypt or Libya. But there’s no way in hell it would ever work in the United States. THIS is why we the people who know just how bad things have gotten continue to share the corruption and treachory with one another on social media or in small random occasional demonstrations and marches, but don’t take any real actions. FEAR. And for good reason.

The American government is too powerful militarily we tell ourselves, and too wealthy (a strange irony considering it’s broke and in debt for trillions of dollars. (See that’s the thing… If WE don’t do this, it’s only a matter of time before another more powerful country who has it more put together than the United States and who is owed trillions of dollars does it TO us. And in that case WE the People will have NO say in what happens to us.)) What’s more, we assume, the American government is just too far gone, too wicked and too corrupt to respect the demands of it’s people. They’d kill us all. And they’d arrest whoever was left. The only way a President Barack Obama or any future president or any other government official for that matter is ever going to step down is if they are forced out by the people. Forcibly. In their minds, regardless of what they do, bad or horrible, wicked or illegal, they’re not going anywhere. No matter what The People want.

Another obstacle that truly stands in our way is that to some who consider themselves patriotic this kind of talk seems treasonous. They believe in America still. They believe in the two-party system and the three branches of the government system. They understand that in the first American Revolution we were fighting for our freedom from a foreign nation, Great Britain, but in this case we would be fighting our own government. A government we have been indoctrinated to believe and believe in since the day we were born. What they don’t seem to realize is that that America is long gone. Those branches of government are long gone. The United States that we live in today is completely controlled by powerful big money, multi-national corporations that hold no allegiance to the United States of America. The so-called government officials who supposedly work for us haven’t worked for us for decades. They are slaves to these large nearly invisible corporations that answer to no one. To revolt against them is not only the right thing to do, to take the country back, but it’s our moral responsibility as patriotic Americans.

With this option we the people will obviously lose. As we saw during the Boston Bombing charade this current crop of impostors has no problem instituting marshal law and firing upon anyone who gets in their way, including it’s own citizens. We will all die and be branded “traitors and terrorists” in the short term history books. BUT…  this first revolt will inspire a whole new wave of The People — a much larger one — to rise up to do it again. And THEY just might win. If they don’t. another one will rise up yet again, and they will be an even larger group. Eventually The People will become so large — just as they did in countries all over the Middle East during the Arab Spring — that our winning will become inevitable.

These are our choices. Which one are we currently choosing…? NONE OF THE ABOVE. Right now, most people tell themselves that we’re working on option #2… But are we really? And if we are, how’s that working out for us? How long until we resort to 3 and then 4…? What will it take? In fact that’s an interesting question to ponder: What did it take for Chechnya, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Crimea, etc to revolt? What HAD to happen?

And secondly, what is the primary key or factor that determines whether The People WIN or LOSE? It’s certainly not “more fire power”. These nations who effectively rid themselves of corrupt ruling governments just as we now need to do had very little fire power for the most part. It appears to be “a united majority” — of citizens who refuse to shut up or go home regardless of what the government does to them or tells them to do.  So there’s some good fodder for middle of the night contemplation as we begin to plan. Solution. That’s what we need now. Not more sharing of what’s wrong. See you on the battlefield.

– Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone 8s Custom

 

 



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Uncategorized American Spring, Arab Spring, egypt, libya, New American Revolution, New Continental Army, New Continental Congress, people's revolt, Revolutionary War, Tunisia

Free Will Versus Astrology

May 4, 2014

One of the longtime astrologers I used for many years, a beautiful soul, and well known celeb in that small world, by the name of Karen Pavlus, passed on a few years ago. I miss her. She wasn’t just “great at what she did”, but she was also a good person, caring and kind hearted. Because I tend to believe that a chart reading is only as good as the person doing the reading, I have not had my progress chart pulled or read since 2007. Karen was very good at what she did. Uncanny really. Knew things that were spot on that someone could only know IF someone else told them about it… But she saw these things in the charts. She’d ask me out of the blue, “You’re working on some project that has to do with writing, perhaps a new book, along with three Virgos…Do you know what I’m talking about?” And I’d respond, “Uh… Yeah… I’m writing a book right now with three different friends who are all Virgos! How do you know that?!” She’d just exhale and laugh and reply, “Well it’s not rocket science honey. I can see it right here in your chart…” Things like that… There’s just no explaining it away. It’s a valid science, or art, or whatever one wants to label it.

Now of course, I may tend to believe this more than the average person, simply because I was raised around this kind of thing since I was born. My whole family was into it, probably for hundreds or even thousands of years. It’s only in the last 100 years that humanity has steered away from regularly using and considering astrology as a viable science; once that split came about between astrology and astronomy. Which was a good thing. To be sure. But it doesn’t necessarily negate the validity of astrology. It just separates them into two different camps. One focuses on examining the universe as a whole, looking for the latest “truths” that can further our understanding of the universe and everything in it; and one focuses on how the movement of certain celestial bodies in the sky affect us and everything else around us.

As a kid I remember reading and flipping through books by people such as Edgar Cayce, Linda Goodman, Ruth Montgomery, Nostradamus and numerous others since before I could walk. All of these so-called paranormal and supernatural books intrigued me to no end. It was as if two distinct worlds existed: the mainstream world out THERE… what we see on TV and read in magazines and hear about in school, and this other secret world that I was reading about in these books, where people could read minds and see the future and channel spirits. The two worlds didn’t seem to connect in any way. The mainstream world didn’t seem to know anything about this other supernatural world that existed. But the supernatural world seemed to know everything about the mainstream world. People had been predicting events to come for thousands of years. Some people knew this. Most people didn’t.

My grandparents had psychics on retainer, the same way one keeps an accountant or an attorney on retainer. Whenever someone in the family would get sick, or get into any kind of trouble or turmoil, my grandfather would tell my grandmother, “Deary get Ruby on the phone.” Ruby was one of my grandparents’ primary long-time psychics. They’d speak with her and dig into the situation a little bit, usually not needing to say anything more than “Can you see what’s happening with Sister?” Sister is what they used to call my mom. And sure enough Ruby would then begin to just explain exactly what was happening in her life as if she was living with us for months; she knew what was happening, she knew why it was happening; and she could usually see the various possibilities for its outcome. It was always mind-boggling to me that these women possessed this skill. To be fair, a little later in life I met many others, some of whom were men. So it isn’t necessarily a gender thing.

Needless to say, because of these experiences early on, I have always had a strong belief in our potential to have these abilities. Since those days, I have spoken to countless psychics. Some are great. Some are average. And some just aren’t any good at all. Usually you can tell how good one is simply by how easy or hard it is to get an appointment with them. A good one, like John Edward or Hans Christian King, is very hard to get an appointment with. They may have waiting lists that go out a full year just to speak with them for an hour. The good ones always do. (And yes, if you’re more in the public eye, it is usually easier to get yourself an appointment slipped in. That’s just how it is. One of the perks of living life publicly as opposed to privately I assume. Why I’m really not sure. Money certainly never guides their decision making process. None of them seem the least bit concerned with money. I think it’s nothing more than just intrigue frankly. They’re as intrigued to speak with us as we are to speak with them… Sometimes. Sometimes they don’t seem to give a s*t. Which i respect too.)

Because of the nature of my job, I have been very lucky to have connected with and become friends with some of the most well-known or “famous” psychics, mediums, channelers, working today. Hans Christian King, Micki Dahne, John Edward, Echo Bodine et al….. they’re all wonderful people. And very gifted. I have just recently gotten to know Steven Forest — who seems like a very nice person. Very real, down to earth, sincere and kind-hearted. To me, each of these beautiful people proves that there is more to this so-called phenomenon than pure luck or chance. We just have not yet discovered the scientific mechanism(s) at play that make it work. There is a “something” there that renders it totally plausible that what they do is measurably verifiable, that it isn’t just a fluke. Luckily there are numerous scientific organizations around the world now that are attempting to pin down exactly what is scientifically happening inside these gifted people that makes it possible for them to do these incredible things. ( See Noetic Institute or Dr. Rupert Sheldrake to name just two off the top of my head…) It’s only a matter of time before we understand the science behind it as well as we do the inner-workings of the atom or why the universe is expanding. Once it’s verified by science, then I believe even hardcore mainstreamers, skeptics and rationalists will succumb and start acknowledging that it’s no more “supernatural” than gravity or magnetism is.

After a while one begins to understand full well the difference between a “psychic” and an astrologer… I actually tend to trust the readings of good astrologers more than “psychics”. The primary reason why is two-fold: number one, psychics tend to read minds. They have mastered the art of accessing and using our Intuitive Mode of Consciousness. We ALL have access to this viewpoint — the viewpoint of Intuitive Mode. But not many of us can access it easily. Doing so enables them to both read minds AND see the future, some of them at least. So the reading is going to be influenced by whatever the person they are doing the reading for is thinking, feeling, afraid of or hoping for at the time. This isn’t a foolproof system. In fact, it’s far from it. The reading can be too compromised because of this. Another factor is that psychics tend to have a real problem with “time”; they can SEE what’s going to happen, but they can’t tell WHEN it is…. they “see” or “feel” or see visions of different things, different events… but it’s difficult for them to ascertain WHEN these things are going to actually HAPPEN. They may be telling you about something that is going to happen ten years from now… Not very helpful in the here-now. And sometimes they might even be “seeing” something that has already happened. Helpful if you still have something to integrate about that event and need more clarity on it, but not very helpful if you’re looking for insight into things in the here-now.

Still another reason is because astrologers if they’re GOOD, JUST read the charts. They don’t add anything from their own personal perspective. They just practice the science of reading the charts. Psychics cannot help but add their own ideas and feelings… So the reading is also going to be limited to that. Astrologers tend to give the same reading over and over again regarding the same time period because they’re again, just reading a chart. Why should the information change? It shouldn’t. But a psychic I have noticed might give a completely different reading regarding the same time period a day or two later… Why? Because again they are reading the mind of the person, as opposed to just reading a chart. Sticking to the science.

Of course a good astrologer is only as good as their chart reading capabilities are. And that’s key. That’s the difference between one who is good and one who is GREAT. Experience seems to play a really important role in it. And so too does even a slight gift in terms of being able to tap into that Intuitive Mode of Consciousness. Being able to tap into the mind of the person even just a little seems to really help. But not enough where they are reading your mind. Then you might as well be speaking with a psychic. Psychics tend to care too much or at least pay attention too much to what the person on the other end wants or hopes for or fears. These things should NOT play a role in a good reading. After all, we are speaking to them precisely because we want to get OUT of our own heads and get some objective third-party feedback from another. I’ve found that a great astrologer is just as difficult to find as a good doctor or anything else. There are tens of thousands of them out there (hundreds of thousands perhaps?). But the good ones really stand out. Unfortunately 90% (perhaps higher…?) of them are average at best. Karen, the one I mention above, was fantastic. That’s why I haven’t spoken to one since she died. Just haven’t had the time to do the research necessary to find another really good one. (Until these last couple of weeks that is. Which is what compelled me to write this post… More on that later…)

But what about free will? Aren’t we capable of creating our own experiences through our beliefs? Yes, of course we are. (As a sidenote, even this idea is foreign to most people. Tell them that it is THEY who are creating all of their experiences based on what they BELIEVE and most will tell you that you’re crazy. That’s taking way too much responsibility for most people. But let us assume that for this post, we take it for granted that each of us is creating our lives, all of the experiences in our lives, based on our beliefs…) So how can astrology have any credence whatsoever if we are creating our lives and have “free will”? THAT’s the quandary isn’t it?  I personally DO give more credit to free will, good decision making, healthy actions and mental/emotional/spiritual state than any influence that celestial bodies may exert on our day to day lives.  I still believe that these celestial influences CAN at the very least give us insight into various “possibilities”… things that MAY or MAY NOT happen to us… But it is WE who make that decision.

Astrology –regardless of HOW it works…(my guess is that it has something to do with gravity, the gravitational influence that celestial bodies exert on us — physically emotionally and mentally, just as the moon’s gravitational force exerts an influence on the earth’s ocean tides…) — has an uncanny ability to tell us WHO we are and who we are NOT. If one can get their hands on a good reading of their Natal Chart and get to know themselves early on, they can then begin to focus on making the most use of their strengths and as on minimizing their possible weaknesses. After a few years, overcoming one’s innate weaknesses or challenges, one is what is known as “evolved”. If a person has knowledge of their own Natal Chart and has spent considerable time perfecting themselves, overcoming weaknesses and challenges and temptations, they are called “evolved” in the world of astrology. “Unevolved” if they have yet to explore this data. Some people of course don’t need to learn about such things from astrology; they just become aware of it from an early age and decide from then on to not fall prey to being tempted by these potential weaknesses. Thus a person can be “evolved” in the world of astrology withOUT having to be familiar with their Natal Chart or even know what “sign” they are. Self improvement IS after all self improvement. And it doesn’t matter how one gets there.

But in terms of real enlightenment, really “BEING THERE”, it certainly helps to have it all laid out in front of you. Strengths, weaknesses, temptations, fears, tendencies, skills, gifts, talents, all the various possibilities of what makes you YOU. We can then be very deliberate about changing what it is that we DON”T like about ourselves and improving aspects of ourselves that we do like or think are fabulous. True Superhero stuff. One doesn’t talk to an astrologer in order to be told what’s GOING to happen. One talks to an astrologer in order to find out what MIGHT happen. Potentialities. Free Will is still at play. Perhaps it’s the strongest force in the universe. The Will. Astrology just helps gives us insight into what our various strengths and weaknesses are AND into timing. As it is said, there is a time for sowing, a time for reaping, a time for every season under heaven. Imagine being able to KNOW when the BEST time for such and such might be. We have all heard plenty of stories about someone being warned that between one date and another that there is a high likelihood of them being in some kind of accident, so they are extra careful during that period and sure enough they “almost get into an accident” but because they were careful, they are okay; they survive.

[Of course there is a question begged here as to just WHAT caused the accident…. Was it “written in the stars” and the astrologer just happened to “see it” and hence it happened just as they predicted? Or did it only transpire because the person was told about it and then created it because the worm had already been implanted in their mind? That’s one that has boggled philosophers since time began. Since almost everyone in the world gets into one or more accidents in their life, regardless of whether or not they ever speak with an astrologer or not, I would tend to lean towards believing that the astrologer just “saw” that it was potentiating at that specific time and the person was able to avoid it due to knowing about it beforehand. But that’s just me. Like most things in this life, it’s probably a healthy combination of both possibilities that contributes to this phenomenon.]

We have to remember that regardless of how accurate an astrological reading IS for someone, it is still THEY who determine WHO they are and what happens to them. My own personal belief is that the more information we have to work with, the better it is for us. If I am told that I “have an uncanny gift of communication and I thrive in the public” and I’m spending most of my time alone working on repairing car engines, I’m probably not making the best use of my time or innate abilities. Or vice versa. Chances are if I switched to doing something more involved with the communication and the public I would just generally feel better, be happier, and through that I would in turn help more people just from being happier. This to me is really the key to it all. We already know that there is no better way to feel good than to be in service. But we’ve also learned that there is no better way to be in service than when we feel good and are happy.

[As a footnote, I do NOT believe that a person can do a very good job at reading their OWN charts — UNLESS they literally do that for a living and have mastered the art and skill of it. (And even then, it would seem to me that there still might be some “dissonance” in the reading one might give themselves simply because it would be very difficult for anyone to be completely objective when reading their own chart. How can we help but infuse our own personal desires, hopes, dreams, fears, resistances, fantasies and other real and imagined ideas and feelings into the reading…?) Hence I have never bothered to take the time to focus on trying to “master” astrological chart reading myself, but instead I leave it to others who specialize in it. But that’s just me.]



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A private little world for me… a private little world for you. The online journals and musings of singer-songwriter author and activist Ed Hale. The Transcendence Diaries have been posting regularly online since 2001. Comments are always welcomed. And so are YOU.

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