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Category: Religion and Spirituality

The Great Divide Between the Religious And The Divine

May 12, 2023

Hi Viking,

As you may have noticed, Princess Little Tree subtly cut me off mid-sentence with a “uhh…” this morning in our meeting. I’m accustomed to this, so it would be understandable if you didn’t notice it. And because I trust her implicitly, i stopped speaking. She felt I “was just about to get too passionate” in her words, and felt it best to cut me off.

I recognize My views are extreme and can be viewed as harsh because I dare To point out what would be the obvious to anyone who is not religious in the world, but I do so in a christian environment filled with christian people. That’s the only thing that makes it controversial in the least. And yet I admit I do Feel a tad of compunction for doing so, just out of consideration for the feelings of others who may not be aware of the things I say. 

But I get the feeling you do…

The problem for me, the problem for so many all over the world right now, are the people who vote to disaffiliate — why can’t they just say separate? — from the Methodist Church, ostensibly because they don’t support the church because they are about to revolutionarily change its 200 year bylaws to openly accept the LGBTQ community… and personally yes, I’ve been having a very tough time with this.

Hence my tens of hours of studies this past week trying to understand the whole big picture of why more than half the Methodist community nationally is right this very minute voting to leave Methodism…. I wanted to understand. Turns out, it appears they just don’t like gay people. Or at least they believe their “god” doesn’t like gay people.

And as many people have pointed out, there are only 3, at best, references to homosexuality in the entire Bible. So this idea that it’s “sinful” “in the eyes of a god” is a bit far fetched seeing how human beings wrote the damn thing in the first place. And even they didn’t dedicate more than 2-3 sentences to it in a book that’s thousands of pages and was written over a span of time of more 800 years.

So are human beings really anti-homosexuality because it’s Bible based or against their religion, or is it something else?

Princess Little Tree felt that I was On the verge of letting my passion get the best of me, saying something out of line or offensive to some folks. She recognized immediately that I was Aiming my speech toward certain kinds of people…. Which I was In a way. Trying to understand more than anything… because it breaks my heart. It’s NOT what I signed Up for. But she was right. Despite my own beliefs and feelings, it wasn’t appropriate for me to start demonizing others so outspokenly.

I started attending Christ Church in New York for research purposes because of that supernatural spiritual experience I speak of, yes. Voices whispering in your ear “What you’re feeling is God’s love. Ed God loves you so much…”, an event that last for a good 4-5 minutes. Over and over again they whispered these kinds of ideas into my ears. Who wouldn’t pay attention to something like this? Only a fool wouldn’t return that Sunday a few days later after an experience like that…. At the very least just to see if it happened again.

(And it did. This time the voices said things like “this is your home Ed. These people are your family…come closer to God who loves you. Stay…” So i stayed a little longer. Kept coming back. I was still skeptical and cynical of religion… But I kept Coming back. Out of respect of and honor to “my idea of a potential God” and this experience of these voices, not a “normal” thing and I recognized that. I did not want to be one of those people we read about who miss out on some incredible divine gift because they’re stubborn or close minded. And I was Right to do what I did. It was indeed some kind of divine blessing. I get it. And I have been blessed multiple times by the decision i made.

I can honestly say I believe in a Divine Force, that which others call “God”. And though my view is that this Divine Force is a scientific phenomenon like gravity or electricity and yet at the same time is also conscious like sentient beings i.e. think dark matter and energy if you want the major key to understanding God, I still believe we are all speaking about the same thing. And though no I have not figured out the puzzling problem of Theodicy, I believe we will eventually… it’s most likely due to what we vibrate in our consciousness… combined with higher purposes that we are not or can not fathom from this level of Awareness….

And yes I can often FEEL the presence of, hear the voice of and connect with this Divine Force. I get what a gift that is. So yes in that respect I am “religious” or at least spiritual or “of God”, or “of believing in a God”. But again, as “a force with sentience and consciousness.”

But I became a Methodist precisely BECAUSE the church had such a wide diversity and gays were a big part of the congregation. It was the opposite of how “Christianity” is and is viewed in this country. Gay people serving me Communion?!?! Work trips alongside blacks and Hispanics and Indians and Asians?!?! It was a revelation to me. Black people taking me and welcoming me to their home country in africa?!?! So humbled. So grateful for those whispers…

But then all this. The plastic bags come off the faces and it is revealed that nothing’s changed. 

American Christians for the most part are still exactly what the rest of us, the majority of us, in America believe them to be. Using religion to be the problem, and never part of the solution. Always dragging the rest of us back hundreds of years. 

And trust me when I say that the rest of us, the majority of the American population are extremely resentful of having to deal with Christians and these shenanigans. Whether it’s Trump or Israel or gays or immigration or abortion, Americans do not look fondly on religious people, specifically Christians and the negative influence they have on society as a whole.

Then there are people like me who totally don’t make sense and boggle the mind of the “regular folk”. After 20 years they still think I’m “undercover for some secret project” or why else would I “attend a church”… when I’m clearly on the opposite side on all the issues, including the intellectual side of proclaiming there to be some invisible all knowing higher power. It doesn’t go over well in academic or intellectual circles. It’s baffling to 99.9% of my friends.

But I try to explain that “some churches are different” AND “because I had a supernatural spiritual experience” they would be perfectly fine had that happened to me through Krishna Consciousness or Buddhism or Avatar or Baha’i or Hinduism etc…. 

So why not accept that it happened to me through Christianity?!? Hell, I get it. It’s not optimal. It’s not what we expected. It’s not aligned with being “cool” nor “intellectual”. I get it. But it’s real. And it’s honest. 

And it’s better to be honest about finding God through something as uncool as American Christianity than it is to walk around pretending that you’ve found God through practicing buddhist meditation yoga and sat sangs when you’ve never even heard the whispers or felt the Presence, which is what so many do.

The point is it’s worked up until this point because CC has always been so progressive, so ahead of the curve, caught up (almost) with modern society and the progress we’ve made. As you stated, we are still in perpetual repentance because of some of the mistakes we made in the past. I LOVE that. I can totally get on board with that. Especially if we continue. As has been hinted at regarding this 2024 General Conference and the potential changes the church might make. 

Do people have any idea how revolutionary that is?!?! How exemplary that is to the world? The leadership it shows and will show? 

For once the christian church actually shows the world it supports what’s RIGHT instead of old-world backwoods dogma?!? 

People like me can step out of the shadows and consider the idea of embracing and connecting with a divine force…tens of thousands of them… hundreds of thousands worldwide. Hungry for spiritual fulfillment but far too ashamed to get even close to a religion because religions are far too close minded and exclusionary and harmful.

Because “the church”, i.e. “religion” will no longer be “the dark hearted uncompassionate unintelligent enemy” we’re always fighting. Religious people have no idea they’re viewed that way. Or maybe they do, but they just persist in their “who cares? We’re right because we have Jesus on our side and we’ll be proved right when He returns or in the afterlife”…. Which just further stokes the flames of the viewpoint that “religious people are ignorant and batshit crazy”. That’s the general viewpoint of Christians in America or Jews or Muslims. There are simply way too many fallacies involved in leaping toward embracing it.

I haven’t minded being part of that group in the minds of some because at CC we are NOT part of that group. We stand out and rise above because we truly are different. 

But all this “separating from the UMC Organization because it’s too progressive” threatens the ability of people like me to stay true and loyal to the whole affair, not just Methodism, but Christianity as well.

After all, if it’s always going to be on the side of stifling equality and human rights then how can people like me stay a part of it? Let alone not openly fight it publicly? 

So yes I got a little too passionate. I said some things in the wrong way. I was a bit too challenging… but it’s precisely because I’m fully on board with us aligning with the ideals of the Gospels. And I’d like us to preserve that. 

Banning abortion or banning pastors from marrying gay couples or banning gay people from becoming clergy is NOT aligned with the ideals Jesus preached while he was alive. 

And yes I’ve read what Paul says in Romans about gay people and I could Care less what Saul-Paul said. He’s not the foundation of the faith and practice. Jesus is. 

I’m tired of this. Tired of the fight. Tired of the struggle. Tired of talking about it. Tired of writing about it.

More later.

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At Its Core Royalty Is An Attempt To Legitimize Human Abominations and Those Who Commit Them – But Does It Work?

May 6, 2023

Yesterday a man called Charles in Great Britain paid for one of the most lavish and expensive parties of all time to have the people around him call him “king”. Never mind that “king” is as made up as the Easter Bunny and at this point in time his new title won’t have any actual value or meaning to the other inhabitants of the country. He paid for a truckload of media attention, the affair lasted hours and filled the streets for miles. For a few brief hours you had people as important as prime ministers talking about something as imaginary and unimportant as Superman.

There were two kinds of people in attendance. Those who were paid to be there, like priests, pastors, bishops, magistrates, various politicians and civil servants, press people, handlers, costume designers, most dressed up in the most ridiculous costumes that looked right out of Alice in Wonderland — all there to lend legitimacy to the ridiculous claims being made. Then there were the masses. Some well known and successful, most not so much. They just wanted to be at the party. Or get a glimpse of it.

Manmade things tend to come and go in human societies, based slightly on the mood of the people, and more impactfully the power of whoever’s in control at the time, and the willingness to wield that power, to perpetuate the myths that keep these ideas in circulation. Marvel Comics superheroes are an example of the first. People who walk around calling themselves royal are an example of the latter.

The most important thing to understand about what some call “royalty” is that it isn’t real. It’s as unreal and manmade as Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy. It doesn’t matter that millions of people say they believe in it… unlike facts… people, places, things, scientific realities, etc., royalty does not actually exist. As with any other manmade things, royalty only exists for as long as other people decide to go along with it.

If you have any doubt, run it by the Alien Test. If a being from another planet that was more intelligent than our’s visited earth, there’d come a time when they’d want to understand everything about us and our home. Perhaps we’d even explain some of it to them. Though I doubt it. They’d view and handle us the same way we view and handle insects or animals. For the most part, earth and the various living beings that inhabit it would be easy to understand within hours to this alien. He’d collect and categorize data about the natural elements that exist here, how much water, oxygen and hydrogen there was, the force of gravitational pull and solar rays would be measured, anything remarkable or useful about the living organisms, humans being one of them. Most importantly the alien would be looking for real data about real things that have value of some kind.

At no time would this alien ever be able to understand or be talked into understanding this idea that humans call “royalty”. There are plenty of human beings the alien would probably have an interest in or at least find real and valuable enough to sort and categorize. Scientists, those with special abilities like athletes or musicians, maybe the best of the best thinkers… Politicians of only the highest order — presidents and prime ministers — would be sorted, but viewed as nothing more than a means to communicate to the masses of living organisms and to keep the peace during his exploration. He would not care what they had to say.

Those labeled “royalty” by themselves and others would not be given a second thought. No data collected. Nothing to learn. Nothing to categorize. They would not be separated from the pack of billions of other humans.

The Alien Test is always a good go-to to ascertain the reality or importance of something.

The ideas surrounding royalty have only been around for a few thousand years, and though not based in reality and completely manmade, are forced upon a people through a variety of different means. This would be a good launching point to discuss indoctrination and mind control to explain how small groups of humans are able to control large masses of millions of people.

At its essence, when broken down to its core for ease of understanding, “royalty” implies two things: one who possesses the most wealth (of whichever assets and currency are most valuable at the time, in that region of the world), and one who possesses the most power… power to control the most people, power to pass and veto the very laws that govern whole countries or empires, power to influence the most people of wealth and influence, and power to inspire the most fear.

These are the makings of king, queen, prince, princess, et al. All made up words that in reality refer to nothing real except the people who refer to themselves with these labels. The people are real, sure. The labels are not. People have just been talked into believing they are.

People ask me all the time how we can claim royalty is not real after they just witnessed some so called queen die or a guy who calls himself a “prince” gallivanting through California with a Hollywood actress promoting a tell-all book. “They’re real people,” they proclaim. And yes of course they are real people. And yes they refer to themselves as being “royal” and hope others do too. But it’s a myth they made up. It’s fairytale. The more people go along with it, the more real it seems to become. But it never becomes real like gravity, or heart disease, or radiowaves or chimpanzees.

You or I could walk around starting today demanding everyone call us the Hope Saviors. And I guarantee you nobody is going to do it. It’s going to be pretty obvious that we made it up. But what if we had a vast fortune and we paid for hundreds of press releases to be announced as “news” every day around the world about us? Yes then people would actually start to walk around talking about the Hope Saviors. We could easily become “something”, because human beings can be talked into just about anything if you keep telling them to. But it wouldn’t be perceived as being real. It would still just be a name we gave ourselves.

But within months they’d start to pay us millions of dollars to make public appearances, be guest stars on their TV shows, endorse their products. Hope Saviors would be a thing. That’s how easy it is to make something up completely from scratch and get everybody to start referring to it as if it’s real.

After that we could go deeper into the myth making. We could say we were descended from great gods from other solar systems. We would need no proof. People would automatically start talking about it and accept it as reality. There are plenty of “gods” right now who don’t exist but modern humans claim are real. The key is, and this might be one of the most important points of the matter, it isn’t difficult to brainwash a whole people into believing whatever you want them to. But it does take time. And money. And the threat of force and harm.

Getting back to so called royalty, they started to perpetuate similar myth making regarding gods early on in their creation of the idea of royalty. But “gods” too were a fairly new manmade concept. So they could be equally played with and manipulated.

Because of these so called “royal people” possessing such vast sums of wealth and power collected through the millennia they took to equating themselves with imaginary “gods” and “goddesses” that were invisible but lived way up high in the skies in order to further confuse and confound simpler people and inspire even more obedience and fear. It’s one thing to declare one’s agency and sovereign rights and disobey someone who calls themselves a king or shah or pharaoh or emperor. It’s another thing to disobey a “god”. This was the idea. They could also attribute magical powers to these gods and claim they would harm or torture you in an imaginary afterlife if you didn’t obey the king. Crafty.

Many of these manmade ideas still hold sway over the hearts and minds of modern peoples in todays world. They haunt and disturb them. It’s a harmful practice, perpetuating these ideas for some selfish personal or organizational gain; gaslighting at the extreme.

In the early days, the first kings — those from the Mesopotamian region of the world and later the Middle East, took it one step further and chose to declare that they themselves were gods and goddesses. Human on the outside, but a “god” on the inside. They’d throw around the word “divine”, another manmade concept.

When the world sped ahead of these primitive ideas of “human gods” who call themselves “royal”, these self described royals began to tone down the fairytales and instead started going with the idea that they were put into their position of power by “divine mandate” i.e. an invisible god or goddess demanded that they and only they should be the “king” or “Queen”. An equally unrealistic and ridiculous idea. But plenty of people still fall for it.

And what did they mean by that exactly? They meant that they were in charge. Of everything. Even the modern so called royal family of Great Britain still abides by this belief and expects the millions of the country’s inhabitants to do so as well.

During this guy Charles’s big to-do yesterday in England, he had a variety of different religious guys dressed up in a variety of colorful costumes participating in a whole host of different manmade rituals to conflate the royalty concept with the religious. They weren’t just trying to include religion in the elaborate ceremony. They were deliberately using misleading language and convoluted sentences to conjoin the two, as if royalty and religion were one and the same thing.

Truth be told, they aren’t too far apart. Both were invented by ambitious humans, lustful for wealth, power and control in outrageous power-grabs. Neither has any basis in fact or reality. Both are the stuff of myths and fairytales. Both’s sole purpose is to gain and control as much wealth, power and influence as possible. Over the last 1500 years, the Catholic religion, which was and is still just a different and more manipulative way of saying Roman Empire, was so interbred with royalty — the pope is a kind of king himself, or king of kings, that it was hard to discern who had more power, the so called pope of the Roman Catholic Church or the so called emperor of the Roman Empire.

The amount of control they’ve wielded in everyday people’s lives through the centuries is shocking. In perhaps the biggest con of all time, religion and royalty are still allowed to exist.

One might ask, how on earth does one measly human get hundreds of thousands or even millions of other humans to believe in such childish non-factual drivel? History answers the question with ease. Through any means necessary.

The very first step usually comes in the form of brute force, violent domination and subjugation. The very first humans who called themselves “king”, those men in Mesopotamia who changed their names to Sargon to symbolize they were “kings” (there was no word for king at the time… Calling yourself “Sargon” had the same meaning) were all able to do so because they killed anyone who got in their way. Once they killed someone, they could then steal their land and assets, which added to their personal fortune. They also could do this to whole villages, kill, enslave those not killed and steal their belongings to increase their fortune.

Eventually words did begin to be invented for these kinds of men. Both the Sumerian words Ensi and Lugal formed in the 3rd or 4th millennia to describe these men who killed raped tortured enslaved and stole enough to be rulers of small areas of land and peoples. The loose translation to English is King. There was also pharaoh and emperor. And so it began.

Eventually men of equal ambition, heartlessness and ignobility rose up from other areas because they wanted what these other men, these so called kings, had. Their goal: kill them, steal what they had and call themselves king. And this goes on up until the present day. Manmade or not, there is absolutely nothing more vile nor more dangerous or deadly in the human species throughout its history than those who call themselves “royal”.

As the idea of “royalty” and its many benefits to the self-named receiver of the title spreads throughout human societies on planet earth, brute force is still the primary manner which is used to obtain said title. They use their stolen wealth to hire soldiers and assassins, amassing whole armies, raiding and pillaging other towns or cities, eventually whole other regions and countries, to kill their so called “royals” or rulers or leaders, and to steal yet more wealth for themselves. This turns into what we now refer to as war. Something very real indeed. By the time they are done, these so called royals possess more of the world’s wealth than anyone on earth. And people will call them anything they demand they do.

Eventually it becomes more complicated and nuanced to stay “royal” for long. After all, everyone wants it, nobody can explain exactly what it is or means because it’s all manmade, so they change the rules all the time. Brute force and domination is still the primary way to get it… you steal it for yourself.

Pretty soon becoming and staying “royal” begins to demand simultaneous assassinations bribes and payoffs in addition to raiding and conquering. Anyone who poses a threat to someone’s claim to rule is killed off, oftentimes their family killed as well. Others who still pose a threat but are almost as strong or powerful in their own right i.e. those who also have large sums of wealth and influence and can thus afford an army of their own, are offered large sums of money that may also come with some meaningless title and some land. This is where we get the ideas of dukes and duchesses, lords and ladies. “The court” as it is called. Manmade and unreal. Just made up crap to justify being a murderous monster or someone who assists a murderous monster. But very “real” in how this imaginary title affects the lives of others.

In this light, one can begin to see that the invention of the idea of royalty is 1, a way to communicate to large masses of people who’s in charge. Who’s in charge equates to who has the means and the lack of character enough to murder a lot of people or do anything else they need to in order to stay in charge, and 2, “royal” is a way to begin to legitimize the ghastly deadly and inhumane things people do to stay in power.

They call themselves “royal”. They say they’re descended from invisible “gods”. They wear elaborate costumes to deliberately stand out and not fit in, as if at a costume party. They invent a large catalogue of manmade legends and myths about what it means to be “royal”… in reality it means they are vastly more evil and wicked than even mass murderers or serial killers, but they take deliberate aims to legitimize their cruelty, murdering and domination of others. They come out into the open as they steal bribe blackmail rape enslave and murder and claim it all as “divine right” to do so… because they’re “royal”.

It’s a fascinating paradox. Society lives by a set of laws which apply to everyone to keep things civil. Except those who call themselves royal. For them these laws don’t apply. Why? Because they’re royal. After a while you begin to see the picture. Royals are known for being as stupid as rocks due to the inbreeding; but the original invention of the idea was a rather ingenious one. Create a way to legitimize the most criminal behavior on earth by the sheer ungodly amassing of wealth through any means necessary, use wealth to pay everybody off, kill whoever gets in your way, bribe or blackmail others, all the while claiming to be doing such by a demand from some invisible god or gods.

At one point, this man Charles who threw the lavish party yesterday to name himself “king”, recites some phrases expressing allegiance to The Church Of England, religion itself being another pillar of this vastly wealthy and corrupt empire, saying something to the effect of “The ways of gentleness and the paths of peace….” which had me laughing out loud uncontrollably, because the United Kingdom, or Great Britain, is one of the most notoriously barbarous, wicked and deadly empires in human history. There hasn’t been anything gentle or peaceful about it since Rome found and conquered it 2000 years ago.

Some may ask, if royalty doesn’t exist, then why am I able to see it? Hear it? Read about it? Watch it on TV? Well that’s the thing… as with many ideas and concepts that are manmade, we can have experiences of such things… and yet at the same time recognize that they aren’t real, are not based in fact. The various manmade religions throughout human history are also seen from this point of view. They come and they go over time, their existence only recognized as it suits the rulers of the world to continue perpetuating the idea. When they, the rulers of the world, are done with said religion, the people are told to stop recognizing it, and it rather quickly fades away, after a generation or two, transforms from ideology to idea to memory to dust.

From such knowledge, we can gather a few truths about what is meant by people who refer to themselves as “royalty”. They are by the very nature of their willingness to do so unabashedly ambitious, competitive, self-serving, greedy, selfish and corrupt. More so they are what we would normally call dark-hearted, primitively evil, barbaric, unwavering in their lust for power at all costs, human or otherwise.

The very title itself exists as a way of acknowledging the deceit, thievery, bribery, extortion, kidnapping, rape, murder, and plundering of such people. Due to the massive wealth that these individuals are able to collect when they abandon all human decency, human values and moral codes, and by the end any human attributes whatsoever, they needed a way to describe and title themselves to distinguish themselves from everyone else in their region.

The so-called British royal family is said to rule over the people of Great Britain, and also the entire so-called United Kingdom. (Granted there isn’t much left of this kingdom left…). In return the people pay approximately $100 million dollars a year to “maintain them” so to speak, though their personal salaries are upwards of $90-100 million per year. Their collected personal wealth is surprisingly low at least by American standards at only $30 billion. But who really knows…?

This current family, the Sax-Coburgs, who occupy the title of “royalty” in Great Britain are Germans. And they’ve ruled Great Britain for over 350 years. They changed their name from Sax-Coburg to Windsor, naming themselves after a Castle, once again to fool the people they ruled over, this time into forgetting they were being ruled by Germans. They chose to do this just before the First World War, since after all that war was being fought against Germany. By that point in history the Germans had ruled over most of europe and its people for over 900 years. Occupying both seats of power of the United Kingdom and the Roman Empire — ever since King Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Roman Empire.

The fact that an entire “royal” family can just change its name and decree everyone forget their old name and their heritage and start referring to them as another name is amazing really…. But also a sad and shocking testament to just how weak willed and distracted human beings are. And why they are so easily controlled.

There are at present 25 other so called royal families ruling over countries besides Great Britain, the people’s of said countries just as aware of the barbarous histories of these ruling families — the Saud family of Arabia is one of them, and just as aware of how unreal and manmade the concept of “royalty” is. One day in the not too distant future humanity will rid itself of this wretched tradition and create for itself a world composed of regional democracies worldwide where Justice freedom liberty equality and human rights are a given. Royalty will be viewed with as much distaste as slavery or the Inquisition. Hopefully this will be soon.

O

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Alternative History, Current Events, Politics and Government, Religion and Spirituality, World Affairs egypt, emperor, king Charles, kings, Lugal, Mesopotamia, pharaohs, queens, royal, royalty, royalty doesn’t exist, royalty legitimizes treachery, Sargon, sultan

What a Better World This Would Be

May 1, 2023

“Let the churches of the world [and the religions] stop trying to outstrip each other in the number of their adherents, the size of their sanctuary, the abundance of wealth. If we must compete, let us compete to see which can move toward the greatest attainment of truth, the greatest service of the poor, and the greatest salvation of the soul and bodies of men. If the Church entered this type of competition we can imagine what a better world this would be.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

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On the First Day of Lent — New Hope Awaits

February 22, 2023

Right around the corner, in everybody’s life, lie infinite possibilities, the sum of humanity’s free will and nature’s chaotic elegance and disorder. God let there be a miracle just on the other side.

When you have done your best and still feel all your resources have been exhausted, a mental, emotional and spiritual hunger abides with you. God please help me feel sated and fulfilled.

Memories flood in and out of our hearts and minds, reflecting on better times, worse times, similar times; when we found God, felt God, lost God, mourned for God. God please find me again.

We are often in awe of how life can be so beautiful and easy at times, yet so difficult and challenging, even tragic, at other times. The path to true peace is the wisdom that leads us to an acceptance of the miraculous cohabitation of good and bad, divine and evil, noble and barbarous, healthy and sickly. God please help me find wisdom.

Despite this knowing, despite our acceptance of the contradictory flow of life, we have an irrational yet instinctual desire for everyone we know to be doing well; to be good and noble, strong and healthy. God please abide within everyone I know; keep them safe Lord.

And somewhere inside us there exists this divine hope that continues to lift us up even when we cannot lift ourselves, a spiritual hopefulness that transcends the physical or mental. It presses us to courageously keep moving forward, compels us to keep fighting for noble goals and causes, inspires us to keep standing up when we get knocked down. God thank you for the courage and strength.

Perhaps it’s a genetic addition that evolved in us 200,000 years ago; or instead a Divine Spark imprinted within us a million years ago by a higher power. Whatever its origins, this eternal spark of spiritual hope never seems to go out. God please help me keep hope alive within me and everyone I love.

Amen and amen

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

2
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

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Making the World a Better Place Starts With Committing and Consistently Showing Up

December 21, 2022

Dearest Avatar friends, This morning, while participating in this “morning prayer group” thing on Zoom that started about 2 years ago with the onset of Covid and just kept growing and growing, I kept having this recurring thought: “what if we as Avatars approached our day to day lives with the same amount of commitment to participating as this morning prayer group does…? Imagine the possibilities…!”

I started to feel excitement inside.

Let me say for the record, since we all know each other from various Avatar Courses and that’s our particular connection point, that I’m not what one would call religious in any way, which admittedly does create a rather peculiar and surreal, if not downright controversial experience for everyone in this prayer group at times whenever we end up in more social conversations.

Everyone else who participates IS religious, grew up religious, believes or at least “has faith” in all the various tenets of some “religion”, and they take it very seriously. It’s serious reality to them. Whereas with me, I sincerely don’t get how anyone could say they think any of the ideas propagated by the thousands of manmade religions throughout human history hold any truth at all with a straight face. It all seems downright farcical to me, as I’m sure it does to anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of history and how these different religions originated.

But that comes with two caveats: one, I do and frankly always have had an intuitive feel and sense of something larger than us that seems to exist in our universe… a larger more all encompassing presence or consciousness that everyone can tap into, feel and connect with. The Tao if you will. A divine presence. Source. The Force. The Divine. Some kind of permanent pervasive energy that exists both outside of us and yet within us all at the same time. So I’m always interested in exploring that. Going deeper into it. To see what transpires….

Two, prayer in and of itself most likely didn’t start off as a religious practice in our slow and steady evolution as a species… even though it’s been co-opted by the major religions now, and commingled with ideologies like “worship” etc., In reality prayer is just another word for and form of focused attention on one particular thing, idea, thought or no-thought, with a variety of different goals… freeing or clearing the mind in order to transcend consciousness and experience pure awareness for a moment or two; or to connect with some kind of higher power within consciousness or pure awareness; or to seek comfort and serenity in times of trauma worry or stress; or to harness enough free attention particles in order to deliberately create something preferred for ourselves or someone else or the world or the environment around us….

As Avatars we understand perhaps better than anyone else the power of deliberately focused attention to create shift and transform reality. So the idea of prayer as a practice fascinates me. Regardless of religion, I dont see or feel any harm in prayer. Opposite. I see it as a noble goal, an intriguing ontological experiment from a scientific perspective… rather than a religious practice. The idea of committing to this experiment on a daily basis, again similar to meditation or even using the Avatar tools, is intriguing. A fascinating way to explore its possibilities and see what might transpire.

So…. This morning prayer group I speak of literally started out as a kind of survival or connection practice due to those sudden Covid lockdowns and the fear and unknowns associated with all of us suddenly faced with a mysterious global pandemic we knew nothing about. The future became very realistically uncertain for all of us in every corner of the world. A 5-10 minute gathering to “pray” with others, whether we even knew them or not, seemed an appropriate and beneficial idea.

The entire experience, done online over some kind of multi-person video service like Zoom or Skype etc. only lasts about ten minutes. That’s it. But every day Monday to Friday like clockwork. And not only has it not stopped after almost two years now, the attendance keeps growing. People from all over the US, many in different time zones. Everyone finds a way to show up for it. No matter where they are in the world or what “time” it is.

Consistency is the key to it I’ve noticed. No matter what happens to be “happening” in everybody’s day to day lives, or in the world at that particular moment, everyone finds a way to log into this thing. They might be out jogging, or at a parent’s house who just passed away, or in the car or on the subway, or just getting out of the shower (seriously), or still locked down in their home, by themselves or with a few family members….

But there they are, logged into Zoom, prepared to pray or meditate or at least listen for ten minutes; and then on with their day.

It’s been very educational for me, from a consciousness and cultural exploration perspective. It’s a fascinating little societal anomaly, this odd comittment people have to attend. But why?

As a longtime Avatar, we’ve tried a variety of different things through the years to try to encourage or grow “community” among all the Avatars all over the world, to increase connection, add consistency and (most excitingly perhaps) explore the possibilities of gathering the consciousness of many Avatars together at the exact same time to focus their attention on any one thing in order to create something(s).

Though at the same time, the tools themselves encourage a life deliberately lived, dependent on no one but one’s self. And that’s one of the most important and powerful aspects of awakening to the knowledge in the Avatar materials — suddenly not needing something or someone outside of one’s self in order to feel better or self improve or become more successful or happier or become enlightened or transcend….

For me there was enormous power in discovering this inherent ability we all possessed as a species but just never knew about because at some point we stopped passing it on to ourselves and generations that came afterwards. It was very freeing, liberating, empowering. Awakening to the reality that it was we who possessed all the answers and power to change shift transform create and discreate our individual and shared realities. Mind blowing really. As each of you already know.

But what about the power of community, connection with others, the potential for bigger reality shifts through working together, through harnessing the power of many working together toward one reality…?

In NYC we had a long-running Avatar Wizards group that met once a month. Going back about 15 years now. It went on for years. Because of its consistency and reliability, it really did foster a sense of community and for a few years got 25-40 people together from a rather large geographical area every month without fail. I can now say, looking back having had the experience, that it was an empowering experience, as well as a heart warming and comforting human connection and community experience as well.

My interest in sharing this with you all is in what could be achieved, in consciousness, and in each person’s day to day lives, and in the broader world that we live in and share with billions of others, if we as Avatars made that same kind of commitment to “regular practice”, just as this strange little morning prayer group i referenced earlier does..? Not a daily thing. But perhaps weekly, or monthly…

Consistency and reliability seem to be key. Those factors, consistency and reliability, come from commitment and dedication. Commitment and dedication come from a shared belief in the overarching mission or goal or perceived value or benefit, by at least one or two or more people.

I definitely feel a deep sense of perceived value and benefit from the regular practice of using the avatar tools; even just from regular reminders of the knowledge base that comes from re-reading and studying the materials.

So next up would be some kind of commitment to do or practice “something”. The kind of commitment that leads to the creation of something consistent and reliable for self and others. For whatever reason, it almost doesn’t seem to matter WHAT “it” is, if it is reliably consistent, people will tune in or participate in it. THAT is a mind blowing realization.

If a small group started that practice, freely permitted other like-minded folks to participate whenever they wanted to and invited others to do the same, the materials being studied more, the knowledge and insights being explored and digested more, the practice and using of the tools happening more, and more consistently…. imagine the possibilities.

Now that’s a noble goal. A potentiality that absolutely intrigues and fascinates me. Just we in this tiny little group live in 6 different countries. That is so random and yet cool. Based on the time zones, we as a group basically encircle the entire globe.

I propose that when each of us get a chance to contemplate it, let’s share what day(s) and time(s) we think might work best for us to do something…. Weekends keep popping up for me, that might “work best”…. But then I keep remembering that those morning prayer group Zooms take place at 8am on weekdays, which seems crazy considering most people have 9-5 jobs on weekdays. It goes to show that when the perceived benefit is strong enough, no normally idealized limitation of the “real world” will hold people back from committing to and doing something.

We already know that attention out, on making the world a better place, is a little known secret path to self improvement and making our own lives a better place. We also know the opposite is true: attention on self, a deliberate unselfish commitment to being the best we can be as individuals is a little known secret path to making the outside world a better place.

What if we did both? Simultaneously. Not limited to one in any moment in the typical binary fashion of going from one extreme to the other the way we as people tend to usually do — in one period working wholeheartedly on self and our own personal lives, then in a sudden “revelation” of guilt over how selfish we’ve been we jump to the other side and sacrifice everything in our personal lives for some bigger world transforming volunteer activity or cause… we all know the drill and how it plays out….

What if instead we do it more elegantly..? Every moment of every day is dedicated to taking care of self, as good stewards taking full responsibility for self and family and friends and community, knowing this is how healthy societies and civilizations thrive, but at the same time we commit to regular shared group gatherings and activities toward bigger goals with the intention to focus our collective attention on making the outside world we live in a better place? And we do it with dedication and commitment, creating a reliable stable reference point that in time is so dependable that it’s downright predictable.

From here the real question, the exciting next question , is what do we want to create? What changes and improvements do we want to see in the world? To start lead captain or lend ourselves to? I can think of many. And I dare say that inherent in the question is an understanding that the answer is not limited to just one.

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Studying God or The Divine Force From a Scientific Perspective

April 18, 2022

Hi Stephen.

        Listening to the sermon yesterday, even in the half awake state I was In for most of it, I could not help be reminded (remembering that you had indeed shared this with me 18 years ago when I first stumbled in) that we both not only “heard a voice” but heard the same words. “This is your home. You are home.” I also Remember quite clearly you telling me that plenty of others before and after you over the years had similar experiences…. 

          The implications, if we expand beyond the confines of the everyday and view it from a more empirical study perspective, seem to me to be enormous, deep, profound. I.E. what in the heck is going on there? If one leaves “religion” outside the door a few minutes to explore these supernatural events, looking for a solution, are we talking angels? Spirits? A Divine Force? The building is haunted? Something in the air that alters and confounds the participants’ mind? Some sort of psychoactive chemical…? 

          I probably lost you there. But listening to you so passionately relaying that story yesterday and hearing you speak of the exact same experience I had With the exact same words…. Boy has it had me contemplating…. From a more objective and scientific viewpoint.     

         Of course I’m also fine just chalking it up to “there’s a divine force dwelling inside that space and if you listen carefully and your heart is open, you can hear it.” 

Precisely Because it wasn’t just “the voice” that so captivated me that first day. It actually had more to do with the giant all encompassing feeling of love that swept over my physical body — I now describe it as similar to if i had taken 4-5 hits of Ecstasy (but I had Not) — accompanied by a flurry of voices whispering in both of my ears “this is God’s love. God loves you so much…” for a good 5 minutes. THAT was actually the first experience that i describe as “supernatural”. On a weekday no less. Alone in this giant though eerily quiet building.

         It would be hard to not return to the place for a service after experiencing something like that. Even if just out of scientific curiosity. 

         I am Working on an idea. I find it hard now, after hearing you share yesterday, to keep this private and just between us. We’re not just talking about “good vibes”. Nor are we speaking of any kind of standard religious dogma or indoctrination. It’s something altogether different. 

         And I’ll tell you this: if that can happen to someone like me, so thoroughly committed to intellectual purity, logic and reason and entirely not-religious, then there are many others who deserve the same experience and benefits. 

For the last 18 years I have Kept all of this very private due to how strongly people in arts letters academia and entertainment judge such things. But I’m done doing that. Hearing you relay yesterday the exact same experience that I had changed something in me. At once I suddenly Felt selfish for not speaking about it more often.

        Me doing that, withholding like that… often talking about Enlightenment and Consciousness Expansion in the public but never discussing “religious experiences”…. well it’s pretense. Out of resistance. It’s not AS genuine as one could be. I see that now. 

        It’s out of integrity in a way…. Being gifted with the knowledge of a specific power and withholding it from others out of resistance to being judged. It’s self concern with no concern for the health and well-being of others. 

That’s all I wanted to initially get across to you. 

E

        So how would i attempt to describe it? That’s the question…. If I were to attempt to communicate it to more logical rational people who normally don’t pay attention to such things….

         Something like “there appears to be another force in the universe in addition to gravity and electromagnetism and the nuclear forces. But this fifth force appears to have both consciousness and awareness, and an ability to communicate with other forms of consciousness, or at the very least with human consciousness. It can speak. And additionally it has the uncanny ability to alter consciousness through apparently subtle vibrational shifts…. 

        “Though we cannot be sure if this force is limited to just the earthly plane or if it does in fact permeate the entire universe like the other forces. 

        “For the sake of simplicity one could label it “the divine force” or “a divine force” since its primary function seems to be spiritual enlightenment of consciousness. Is it capable of other things? We don’t yet know. Can it be harnessed or put to use? Still unknown. 

         “But it is becoming extremely difficult to deny the existence of this force in the face of such blatant real world experiences of it. 

        “We need to be objectively studying this force in more Socratic and scientific methods on a more consistent and constant basis. The same way we studied gravity and the other forces. 

        “There is absolutely no reason for us to remain in the dark about this fifth force, blindly dismiss it as “beyond our grasp of understanding” and thus relegate it to the murky world of the supernatural or religious. That is a mistake in reason we are making. 

        “The sooner we recognize that the divine force can be studied scientifically just as any other force, the sooner we will have a better understanding of it and it’s possible benefits to humankind. 

        “An analogous subject would be the way astrology with all its myths and legends, false assumptions and fairy tales, slowly evolved into the more rational scientific study of astronomy. We find ourselves in a similar situation with this divine force. It is time to set the myths legends and religious ideologies aside for a more nobler pursuit of a scientific understanding of the divine.

        “Obviously the biggest obstacles to this goal have been created by how misused and abused the words “god” and “gods” have been over the last 7,000 years. So step one would be to just stop using those words in the scientific study of the divine force. All they do is confuse and muddy the subject being studied, bringing up peoples’ worst memories and fears about indoctrination and control. 

         “There is also a possibility that this fifth force may also be the grease that got the universe moving to begin with…. The awareness of awareness of all that is created matter and movement, just as awareness still does. Create both movement and matter that is. 

         “Now we’re in the domain of a priori…. But it is still a valid point all these centuries later. Awareness becomes aware of itself, becomes consciousness, and consciousness as it is always want to do begins to expand and create. First matter. Then movement. Shifting back and forth between consciousness and awareness…. It is not entirely out of realm of possibility. And in fact it’s easier to believe than the current scientific theory that “non-conscious matter just exploded out of nothing in a Big Bang and self created”. That seems a highly unlikely theory. We need both awareness and consciousness to create. We know this now.” 

Gotta go. More later.

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Taking Up The Cross

February 28, 2021

Lent has officially begun for those who celebrate it. For non-Christians, look at it as a very long red carpet that takes 40 days to walk down and eventually leads to and ends at the death and alleged Reserection of the Jewish rebel Jesus of Nazareth, what in the commercial world is known as Easter.
Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, events most people have heard of, are all related to this holiday of the Christian faith tradition.
[For historical clarification, “Easter” is a much older pagan holiday that predates Christianity by hundreds of years that was annexed by the Romans. For hundreds of years prior to Jesus it celebrated the spring equinox and the rebirth of the goddess from winter’s crone to spring’s beautiful young goddess of the harvest. Persians still celebrate the original intention of the holiday in Norooz. (The Romans also pulled the same switcharoo when they turned the centuries old holiday of Yule, which celebrated the winter equinox and the goddess Mithras, into “Christmas”, not having any idea of the actual birth day of Jesus, a fact we are still in the dark about. But don’t shoot the messenger. These are just important points of fact for context.)]
Over the past week we have once again started to personally participate in different small groups and forums with spiritually like minded folk to more deeply explore Lent and the Lenten practice.
[Note: Despite my more extreme cynical skeptical and agnostic views of the christian faith tradition from knowing far too well the questionable origins of it, I still find the opportunity to gain deeply needed spiritual fulfillment and social engagement from the practice helpful. And helpful is always good. So rather than let the gross imperial nature of Christianity as a whole (and lest we forget, Christianity, especially as it relates to the wicked and nefarious Holy Roman Empire, Vatican and Catholic Church, has been one of the most destructive and harmful institutions in human history, full stop) darken my heart and bar me from something that might do me some good, I embrace the more noble paths it has to offer, just as I do with Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, Hinduism, Krishnaism, and even Islam. All heinously brutal and deadly power structures, but each offering their own moments of sublimely poetic spiritual nuggets.
If you got through that last paragraph head intact, gold star for you!
This last week the discussion subject has been about “what does it mean to take up the cross” as Jesus advised? We’ve heard a variety of answers from people.
One point of note we encountered was interesting: there’s a real distinction between the common phrases “to take up the cross” and “your cross to bear”, even though many people use the phrases interchangeably. “To take up the cross” implies more of a mission. Something you proactively do. “Your cross to bear” has a more passive implication, implying a burden you must carry whether you want to or not. Very different indeed.
The one thing I heard from others more than anything that stuck my attention was how people in today’s modern world have shifted in their own minds the meaning of Jesus’s admonition to “take up the cross” into a more new age call to “get more active and ambitious in achieving their own goals.” As if he was some metaphysical self-help guru or success coach helping people become wealthier or more successful.
That’s a rather peculiar take on a message that came from a man who encouraged his followers to abandon their jobs, money, homes and worldly possessions to more wholeheartedly go out and serve people. I copied and pasted some comments I made this week to various friends in some group chats below…
I believe it’s obvious what taking up the cross means in this context of following Jesus and what he advised. “Loving God with all your heart and serving your neighbor as yourself”. I.E. helping others. Serving those in need. Helping your community.
It’s not really about the self at all, and certainly not about ones personal ambitions. Volunteer. Serve others. Help wherever there is a need. Forget the self and reach out to and for other peoples. Give everything you have and more.
Jesus wasn’t talking about our personal goals or primaries. That’s just the new age materialistic view modern people turn it into because they’re so afraid of giving up their materialistic way of life so they can’t even consider what it really means. We’ve turned Jesus into a new age motivational speaker ala Joel Osteen because that better suits our mentality and desires in this day and age. But it couldn’t be more removed from his actual teachings.
What did Jesus ask Simon / peter to do? Get primary about catching more fish?!?! Hell no. He said quit fishing altogether and come follow me and help me HELP PEOPLE.
What about Saul/PAUL? Did he ask Saul to get more ambitious about working for the Romans and Jews to go kill even more Christians? Heck no. He blinded him for three days to get his attention and told him to join him in helping people get closer to God, become better people, and spread the good word of love and forgiveness and charity and giving.
Did he ask Matthew to get more primary about collecting even more taxes and make even more money for himself to rise up higher in his career? No. He said quit collecting taxes, forget your career and come follow me and let’s help some people.
Personal success and collecting money ONLY helps in so far as it permits us more time to be of service to others and make the world a better place. Collecting houses and material possessions is the exact opposite of taking up the cross. It’s a burden that distracts us from taking up the cross and helping make a positive difference in the world around us.
Think of the TV show Billions. These are the exact people Jesus would be going after if he were alive today.
Someone replied to me: “well Jesus taking the up the cross was HIS mission. My taking up the cross may be different. He didn’t say “go feed people.”” But of course, yes he did. That’s exactly what he said. And he certainly didn’t say “hey go create your own mission and if that’s becoming super successful and rich so you can live in a giant house ten times bigger than your own needs, so be it, that’s your cross.”
The cross just represents his moving forward with his ministry despite the fact that he knew he was going to be killed (on the cross). And he encouraged and sometimes pleaded for others to join him. So we have to ask “what was his ministry?”
His ministry was helping people.
He could have quit. Started playing by the rules. To avoid getting killed. But he didn’t. He went forward toward the cross. Kept on with his ministry.
Of course it wasn’t just about feeding people… it was also…

  • speaking truth to power against lies, money grubbing, being greedy and materialistic instead of sharing ones money with others who are needy.
  • encouraging people to be honest, have integrity, be more virtuous, less villainous.
  • encouraging people to not be greedy with their time but using it to volunteer and help others…. and help the community around them.
  • helping people not be so self focused on personal success and fame and approval but to humble themselves to get closer to god and serve those who are more needy.
    That was his whole trip.
    It’s hard for us now because we live in a deliberately materialistically society based on consumer capitalism to keep everyone buying so the society runs smoothly. So we’re blinded by that. So that other way of living is hard for us to contemplate let alone even consider imagining for ourselves. I get it. I’m the worst.
    But I do remain hopeful that every step I take in the direction of helping others and selfless service brings me closer to at least knowing that cross is there to take up. I even look at the little things… marching for Black Lives Matter, or LGBTQ rights, donations to Feeding America, taking those few extra minutes each day to sing happy birthday to people, or calling older folks who are in lockdown and might be lonely, remembering to text friends to tell them they’re awesome and I appreciate them.
    The thing is that we live in a very public and very selfish and competitive world now. Its always been this way. But it’s gotten much much worse. Getting a lot of money and fame has become the predominate way to stand out and feel good about yourself or others. Gone are the days when good deeds make someone cool or famous or popular.
    I’m Gen X, and if there’s one primary aspect of Gen X it’s that we shunned attention. Being UNcool and UNpopular were our calling cards. We tried hard to NOT try hard. We absolutely disdained the money grubbing extreme bougiouse ambitious trying and showing off of the boomers. Hence the nickname Slackers.
    It’s not that we didn’t care. We cared. A lot. We just didn’t care about those kinds of things. We did hallucinogens to explore consciousness. Our focus was the intellect the spirit the community the climate justice and quality rights for all. The world. Our souls.
    When we think of the anti-heroes of generation x we think of Matt Dillon in The Outsiders or Judd Nelson in Breakfast Club or Tyler Durden in Fight Club. Three of my personal favs. Deliberarely shunning the materialistic societal norms of working hard to buy more stuff and climb the corporate ladder to look better in the eyes of others.
    Get that new car. Lease it if you can’t afford it. Buy that new house. Brag about your new job so you can tell your friends about it over dinner at that new place in town. Made me sick back then as a kid. Still makes me sick.
    There’s also Ferris Beuller… skip school which is what society says you’re supposed to be doing and instead go take advantage of being alive and enjoy it. The boomers were materialistic posers. Authenticity and sucking the nectar out of each minute was our thing.
    NOW it’s all changed of course. The new gens are not just focused but obsessed with proving to other people they exist and they’re relevant by showing it off publicly and from getting the approval of others. They don’t go look at mountains. They Instagram mountains. If they happen to see a mountain while they’re at it, so be it. But that’s not the goal. It’s a sad state of affairs. And we’re all to blame for letting things get this bad for them.
    The end result being that they’re so obsessed with keeping up appearances to prove their self worth through the eyes of others that service to others has all but left their cultural consciousness. If they march for some cause it’s to get a good shot for Snapchat or Insta, more like attending a rave.
    Social media celebrities and influencers have become their heroes. You ask “so what’s their cause? What’s their big mission?” And they respond “what? Being famous silly!” It’s fucked up.
    I’ll share a little anecdote with you here because it’s appropriate for where we’re at in this post. Our oldest daughter was in lockdown with us for almost a year. And one day my music career came up.
    Fast forwarding twenty minutes into the conversation she asks me “hold on now! You and your band deliberately tried to NOT have hit songs?!?! What the f*^k?!?” “Yeah dude. If I heard us skating too close to something that sounded commercial I knew we were on the wrong track and I’d change it up to make it more experimental or artistic. Our goal wasn’t to have hits. It was to be cool, smart, artistic. More like Picasso or Einstein or David Lynch.” “But You’re IN the music business! Having hits is your goal!” “Nah dude. Being known as brilliant artists is our goal little dude. Ask mom.”
    Princess Little Tree chimed in: “Honey I couldn’t believe it either. When I first met Ed and he told me about Rise and Shine and how he was singing in ten different languages and the songs were all five to ten minutes long… I asked him “how is thst ever going to be played on the radio?” And he replied “well hopefully it never will be.” I couldn’t believe it! I thought he was joking! But he wasn’t. His goals were totally different than what we normally think for musicians. He thought he was Michaelangelo! I had to BEG him to make ONE album just for me that was commercial. Just as a favor to me. Which he did thank God. Ballad On Third Avenue. But i had to produce it for them!!!! So we could eat and have a roof over our heads! Silly boy!”
    So yeah that’s a bit off topic. But it exemplifies the differences in generations. Gen X takes pride in shunning the cultural norms of fitting in, sucking the corporate teet to show off for the approval of others. Celebrity means nothing if you didn’t get there authentically and organically and on your own terms.
    And to us there has to be a big dose of being of service. Helping others. To serving the world. We take up the cross by not giving in to societal pressures that tell you that you have to show off or fit in or be somebody in the eyes of others regardless of what you’re actually doing to help people or not.
    We are committed and determined to work tirelessly till everyone enjoys equal rights, till homelessness and hunger are eradicated, till everyone is accepted and embraced for who they are, till political lobbying is outlawed, till politicians start actually working for us as they’re supposed to, till the imperialistic power structures that have dominated human society are brought to their knees. So corporations don’t pay 40% fewer taxes than hard working struggling people, and on and on and on. We’ve accomplished a lot. But we’re just getting started. Join us.

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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

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The Meaning of Christmas

December 25, 2018

Just finished watching one of those Hallmark Channel-type Christmas movies, called Paper Angels, and I must sheepishly confess that I am all warm and fuzzy smiles here pondering various aspects of what we’ve come to call the Christmas Spirit.

Perhaps we take a pause and consider making Christmas less about Santa, elves and reindeer, and more about matters of the heart that seem to be universally agreed upon ideals, regardless of age, race, nationality or religion… Some ideas that come to mind…

* No matter what the excuse, nobody deserves to be a victim of domestic abuse. And no matter how challenging or scary it may be, you’ve gotta get yourself out of there. You’re worth it. 

* Life doesn’t always work out the way we planned. That was never guaranteed. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

* We can live truly joyful, fulfilling lives whether rich, poor or somewhere in between. Though we certainly obsess over it more than just about anything else, it’s not about the money.

* Giving, helping & serving others is a magical phenomenon in how great it makes us feel.

* That idea that we must “give in secret”… forget you ever heard it. There’s nothing wrong with celebrating how much joy you feel because you made someone’s day or year even. And that joy… is contagious.

* No matter how busy we are, time always finds a way to magically allow more of itself for noble acts like helping another.

* Sometimes helping someone can be as simple as a smile, a prayer or a few kind words.

* Other times serving others may require a major investment of time, attention & energy. Either way it’s a gift we should never deprive ourselves of.

* That little voice in the back of your head, listen to it. That feeling in your heart that you just can’t shake… Our Intuition. Honor it.

* Family & friendship just might be the most valuable gifts we’re blessed with. And for whatever reason, we’re blessed with many.

* We haven’t quite figured out the mechanics of it, but there is a power in prayer that is undeniable. And despite their claims, no religion has a monopoly on it. It’s an activity that is freely available to anyone anywhere anytime, religious or not.

* When we’re in flow and feeling good from doing the right thing, we tend to often end up at the right place at the right time, for ourselves AND others.

* Not everyone is as nice or kind as you are. No one ever said they would be. But those are things that no one can ever take away from you. You’ll just have to be extra nice & kind for those who are still struggling to get there.

* We all “need” sometimes. That’s life. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help when we need it. (No one ever died from not having enough pride.)

* A lot more people love and care about you than you probably realize. And you deserve every bit of it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU

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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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