Sons of God - We are the “Jesus” people will ever know

Sons of God

We are the “Jesus” people will ever know

God once had no hands, feet, nor heart.  He was a cold spirit in the clouds who knew little about Man he created.  Then Job cried out to him in anguish and woke up this distant spirit that created the universe.  God then walked on Earth as a Man to understand the warmth, feeling and sufferings of Man.  He bestowed gifts upon normal earthy men - these are called Charisma.  God was the most charismatic man because he brought gifts from being a god to Men.  His name meant, “The Help of Yahweh, the Anointed One.”  The transfer of these gifts from God to Man happened with the laying on of hands and hearts in the transfer of Charisma and Light from God to Man.    

Now, God has hands, feet, and a heart.  He also has eyes to see and ears to hear.  Because, God is in and through us.  We are the eyes, hands, feet, and heart of God.  We are the only “Jesus” people ever come in to contact with.  A distant spirit in the sky cannot speak to men, hear their pains and struggles, and share in their victories of conquest and warm friendship.  Spirits are cold.  Spirits are blind.  Spirits are deaf.  They can only contact us through a Person.  We who have been given the gift - the Charisma - shine the light of the Gods for our fellow creatures.

The other Revelation that comes with Charisma is that this flow of energy toward Man also goes in the opposite direction - we give God a gift also.  Through our hands, hearts and feet, God has direct contact with Man, and he can see with our eyes and hear with our ears.  Without this Charisma, the Gods are blind and deaf to Man.  They see us darkly through a stained glass, and vice versa - we see the Gods through the same veil.  

For this reason, Salvation, Nirvana, or any related State of Being, never comes through Doctrine or Argument or Scripture, or anything related to a Law or a Commandment.  It comes from the human touch.  It is a transfer of Charisma from one Man to another.  It is a sharing of Light, or Music and sound.  The voice, the hands, the style of the Charismatic Son of God are the paths through which God transfers his Presence, Power and Warmth, and vice versa - we allow God to experience our condition through ourselves.  

Without the Son of God, both Man and God are blind, without heart, and without music.  With the Son of God - we are the Sons of God, if we have the Charisma - and then the energy flows both ways and God and Man grow closer to each other in Relationship.

This is the Good News.

Explaining the United States to the Ignorant

An Ignorant American Elite

Those who are shocked by the Trump victory truly do not understand the United States.  Anyone in this category, excluding first generation immigrants and foreigners, we can call ignorant.  

So, before moving on, you will have to admit that you are an ignorant person if you are shocked by the Trump victory.  I am here to school you, because I know the United States very well.  Nobody knows the United States like I do.  Nobody is as well-read in American history as I am.  

The book you must read to understand the United States:

Albion's Seed

You cannot understand the United States without understanding this book’s premise. I will give a rough outline and explanation below.

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Four Principles of the United States:

1. The United States is composed of Four British-Seeded cultures.
2. Anyone who wishes to participate in the American system must belong to one of these Four Groups. 
3. The Four Groups of British Seeded cultures of the United States are as follows: Puritans, Southern Cavaliers, Quakers, and Scots-Irish.
4. All American politics is an argument among these Four Groups, Without any Exceptions Whatsoever.

I am not proposing an opinion here with the Four Principles, I am stating a Law of the Universe - specifically a Four Core Principles of the United States that are non-controversial and non-debatable.  

Corollaries of the Four Principles of the United States:

1. Anyone, regardless of birth or race, can become a member of any of the Four Groups by accepting and integrating into its culture and values.  (This is why anyone from anywhere in the world can become an American, by joining one of the Four Groups.)
2. Those not a member of one of the Four Groups does not participate in the American System.
3. Those not in one of the Four Groups have Zero Real Power in the United States.   
4. Those not in one of the Four Groups are not Genuinely American.  
5. Anyone with Real Power in the United States necessarily belongs to one of these Four Groups - without any exceptions.

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Presidential Examples

Presidential examples will give you a flavor of the personality type.

Donald Trump - Scots-Irish

Hillary Clinton - Puritan

Barack Obama - Quaker

George W. Bush - Puritan

Bill Clinton - Scots-Irish

George H.W. Bush - Puritan

Ronald Reagan - Scots-Irish

Jimmy Carter - Southern Cavalier

Gerald Ford - Quaker

Richard Nixon - Quaker

Lyndon Johnson - Scots-Irish

John Kennedy - Puritan

Dwight Eisenhower - Quaker

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Explanation of the Trump Victory

Anyone who knows the above deeply and with reflection will immediately recognize how Trump won the election, and what Hillary lost.  It was a battle for the hearts and minds of Quakers - Middle America, described as the pragmatic, nice, Midwesterner.  Whoever won this guy over won the election.  Why?  The Scots-Irish and the Southern Cavaliers were naturally with Trump by temperament and style.  The Puritan Yankees will NEVER accept Trump’s temperament and style.  Thus, he said, “Screw the Puritans, and I will take the other three!”

There, my friends is the explanation for the election.  Trump rallied a coalition of Scots-Irish, Souther Cavaliers, and Quakers to win.  Hillary lost the Quakers, and only retained the Puritans.  But, since the Puritans are the Faux Elites of the United States, controlling the media and the government power base, we heard their insane fantasies of an easy Hillary win up and until the vote count.  The Puritans are the only ones that are stunned because they are the Faux Elites and Faux Leaders, and suddenly, they wake up and find they do not have as much power as they thought.  Now, they are freaking out.

(Personally, I say, screw them, but that is my opinion.)

Election 2016 Notes

My prediction two days out was not magic, contrary to popular belief. I just looked at the 2012 electoral map and looked at what Romney won. I saw Ohio and Florida, and just added up the electoral votes if it went the other way - which should have been easy for a slightly stronger candidate than Romney. And that is what happened. Boring election, and boring results if you know basic math. Not even calculus or statistics.

Couple more notes. I also note that he swept the Midwest and Rust belt, except Illinois, which confirms a lot of what we chatted about for over a year: Trump is the classic working class union Democrat candidate. This has changed American politics and put Union Democrats under the same big tent as traditional Republican voters, which is an omen for the Democratic Party, if they do not come up with a strategic response. So, Trump pulled a Reagan here: pulled another demographic into the Republican ranks, which we must admit in retrospect, is quite genius because he pulled it off against all conventional wisdom. A good side effect is that this new Union working class influence in the Republican Party will attenuate the craziness of the so-called Evangelicals with more earthy common sense. The Democrats will also be seen as traitors if they pursue their conventional strategy of importing new voters. So, they will have to change their game or keep losing. This is a realignment on the order of Ronald Reagan in 1980 with the South being brought permanently into the tent. The narrative changes from the boring "liberal versus conservative" to "Local and National Interest First versus International Interest First." More respect for national uniqueness like Russia, France, China, English, Scottish, etc. And more respect for States Rights inside America, if I can guess. State uniqueness and autonomy should improve. American bullying of locals should be reduced a lot - perhaps a slashing of the CIA budget, and less American fraud and corruption in overseas elections. Politics comes closer to home rather than looking thousands of miles away at people we do not know nor care about. Bernie Sanders voters should feel more at home - not totally satisfied, but should feel left alone, more or less.

Actually, if Trump won Pennsylvania, the Democrats have been crushed as a national party. This is probably the biggest news of the night. If Trump took a Northeastern State (PA), he has entered the territory of the Democrat core, and has completely realigned politics. So, he killed the Republican Party in the primaries, and killed off the National Democrats in the General election if he took PA. This would be like Clinton winning Alabama or something like that. So, this changes the power dynamic of the last 36 years. So, look for this: The Democrats will get insane and push illegal and legal immigration (or they are dead) but this will be seen as treason at this point, so, it is not a good night to be a leftist Democrat - for the next 10 years or so, too. I did not see this coming - winning of Pennsylvania. Wow.

In conclusion, you cannot say he is crazy any longer. The guy is a freaking genius. Which is why his enemies will continue to be defeated because he rewrote the play book and they are playing by the old rule book. The guy just refuses to lose...

Earth's Vibrations in Time Lapse Beach Clips

I like this time lapse here, showing the violence and beauty of the Beaches and the clouds on a typical day that we do not sense because our human time sense is on a different frequency.

You can see the potential violence of the creation of the clouds for a storm.  The sun burns off some of the clouds at the upper end, while the water pushes moisture up to a certain level.  You can also see various bands of clouds at different levels moving in sometimes opposite directions.  Circles, vibrations, and frequencies - it is one thing to know this intellectually, but it is another to see it.  Notice how violent the shaking of the trees looks at the faster time lapse.  I assert that this is real - we cannot sense this as easily at the frequencies of minutes and seconds.  

The universe vibrates at speeds that we can barely comprehend.  We are in the conscious moment of minutes and seconds.  The other pieces of the universe vibrate at other frequencies much slower to our consciousness, but no less real and no less consequential.  I like to look at time lapse images of beaches and clouds.  This gives is a sense of the vibrations of trees, water, waves, cloud formations, and the sun flying across the sky.  When we have a nice sunny  and cool day, we think of this as relaxing and awesome - but in the time sequence of the earth, this is the bottom of a vibration that will snap back to freezing cold, night, storms, heavy clouds, etc.  The universe and the Earth is violent, when seen from another time base of say weeks, months or years.  

We are told the Creation of the Universe happened at the Big Bang.  So, objects began flying out from some origin point.  As the rocks, fire and debris got farther apart, gravity began pushing them together in circles and circular orbits around each other, if they have not already collided and formed a large spherical object already.  So rocks went around stars, and were spinning - Extreme hot facing the star, and extreme cold facing away from the star.  All kinds of gases collected together and collided and formed a large planet called Jupiter.  This giant with a large gravitational field protects the inner planets of the Solar System from many flying objects outside and inside of the Solar System.   

Earth is a womb - Mother Earth.  We have a thick atmosphere and lots of water that provide heat or thermal capacitance against the extremes of the other rocks out there in space like Mars and Venus and Mercury.  Our temperature ranges are quote mild, and thus, it can support life, which exists at or around the temperature of running water.  Now, running water temperature is rare in the universe - most things out there are extremely hot or extremely cold.  Not Earth - it is mild and somewhere in the improbable middle!   

Round and round we go, but Jupiter, our oceans and our atmosphere protects us against the more extreme elements of our universe!

Dark Night of the Soul II

Dark Night of the Soul II

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Why would anyone want anything to do with the Dark Night of the Soul?

There are a few sayings.  Pressure is what makes the diamond.  Heat is what purifies steel.  

It seems that suffering is a part of the human condition for all people.  Even the privileged and elite go through pain and turmoil between their successful ventures.  We may never see this, though, in many cases where there is a well-crafted advertising image.  

Even if things are going well, it seems that the natural progression is the necessity of adversity before cashing in on any advantage or fortune.  Furthermore, the higher one ascends, it seems like each threshold to cross before the next breakthrough has an even stiffer price to pay.

The entire universe seems to rotate at extremes.  We live on a comfortable planet protected by Jupiter from objects flying at us from outer space.  Our atmosphere provides another layer of protection as that of a womb.  But for the most part, things in the universe are either extremely hot or extremely cold.  There is no room for average or the middle.  Even on Earth, it is strange that we complain of bad weather or climate change, if that is to be believed.  However, the strange thing is our expectation.  Why should we expect normal weather?  We live in Earth womb protection under extremely unlikely conditions.  Thus, when normal things happen in the universe - burning up, freezing up, destruction, explosions, collisions - why are we so shocked?  

Thus, if we want to rise high - to escape the atmosphere of the Earth - we must increase the risk of catastrophe.  Day and night go together.  

When the ruins are cleared after a catastrophe, what is left is really strong.  When the war is over, strong men remain and take over the next age.  Those who survive the deepest sorrow rise up like the phoenix stronger than ever.  

Clash of the Titans Movie

The cosmic point of the movie was that Zeus feeds upon our worship and love, while Hades, feeds upon our fear and pain.  Zeus and Hades are brothers - brother Gods.

Anyone staring into the eyes of Medusa turns to stone.

Man revolted against the Gods.  So, Zeus disguised himself and raped the queen of xxx, she thinking he was the King.  He impregnated her.  After the birth of this bastard son, Perseus, the king had his wife killed, and apparently the son too.  Little known to him, Perseus survived because he was a demigod.

Perseus was discovered by a fisherman and they took him in as a son.  Io watches over him his entire life.

Hades comes out of the heavens and kills the adopted family of Perseus, but Perseus survives.  He vows revenge against Hades.

Hades comes into the palace of the city of Argos and tells them they must sacrifice the princess to the Gods or he will unleash the awful sea monster called The Cracken to destroy Argos.

But, there is a Demi-God in Argos!  Zeus find out about the revolt of his brother, Hades, and secretly helps out Perseus and gives him a magic sword and a Pegasus (flying horse).

Perseus and fellow warriors make a journey to the underworlds to cut of the head of Medusa and bring it back to Argos for the final showdown with Hades.  Everyone is killed, but Perseus.  When Hades releases the Cracken upon Argos, Perseus mounts the Pegasus and flies out to meet the sea monster.  As the sea monster prepares to destroy Argos, Perseus holds up the head of Medusa to the Cracken, and the sea monster turns to stone.  It is destroyed!  Hades comes up to Perseus and says, "Don't you know I am a God!  I will live forever!"  Perseus replies, "But, not here!"  Then he hits Hades with the magic sword, and he falls from the heavens back to the underworld where he belongs.

This movie is a good epic on the level of Lord of the Rings in grandeur and aim.  The Age of Warriors and Gods!

Faith from Eastern Orthodox Brothers

We Westerners learned about Faith from the Catholic and Protestant traditions.  It is something akin to an act of Will.  Belief in something despite external proof.

In the Catholic Tradition, perhaps the most developed one out there, we find these concepts from Wikipedia, quoting Thomas Aquinas, "It is "the act of the intellect assenting to a Divine truth owing to the movement of the will, which is itself moved by the grace of God"

As I get more Zen in my middle age, practicing meditative techniques, and integrating more spiritual rituals into my days and weeks, this statement by Aquinas just seems weird.  Then, there is the classic scripture reference from Hebrews (quoting from my memory), "Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen."  Perhaps the Authorized Version of the translation is bad, which is quite common in English translations.  (When I looked up the Greek terms of this passage, it seems to me to be more in line with Faith being "Intuitive Truth" as the Eastern brothers claim, just by the mentioning of the word "hypostasis" in the original passage.  Some of the English translations are very bad, using the word assurance as a translation of the word hypostasis!)

Now, what do our Eastern brothers have to say about Faith?  Faith is one of the energies of the Divine, it is one of the Gifts (Charisma) given from the divine.  It is Intuitive Truth.  Yes!  This actually resonates as closer to the intent of the concept.

Those who are involved in creating things know what this is.  After days, weeks, months, or years of struggling with a particular problem, issue, or concept, suddenly, out of nowhere, the entire Path Forward appears in our imaginations, and we know the path to pursue to completion.  (If you get the term hypostasis, this will resonate with you also.)

Intuitive Truth is like this.

You may also be in a situation, and suddenly, you are consumed with a Revelation that goes like this, "Something is wrong with this picture."  And, at that moment, you know something is going on or something has to change.  The strange thing is that you will know this with Absolute Certainty.

So after a few years of meditative practices getting to the state of Zen (use your own term here!), we come to know things with absolute certainty, but that are not provable in a materialistic sense of the term.  It is an Intuitive Truth.  Only those with the Gift (Charisma) of receiving the Truth know this, and only they can communicate among themselves about this Intuitive Truth.

Thus is the Gift (Charisma) of Faith!

Now, tell me, my dear reader, if this makes more sense than what local churches teach.  Also, our crazy adversaries called New Atheists typically harp on the non-issue of Faith being the absence of proof.

No!  Faith has the fundamental quality of hypostasis!  Intuitive Truth!

Classical Charisma

Eastern Orthodox Friend

A Greek friend of mine and I were talking the other day.  We were talking about spirituality.  He is, of course, Greek Orthodox.  We were talking about understanding spirituality, scripture translations, and how some spiritual concepts require advanced spirituality to understand.

His stance was that scripture translations were dangerous, and it should be understood in the Greek language.  I tend to agree with the little I know about subtle meanings of certain greek words.  He said the passages that are difficult to understand requires talking to someone with a certain level of Charisma who can understand the difficult passages.

Starters

Thus, the great conversation and my journey into the word Charisma began!

When the Greek word is used, it has a few different meanings, my Greek friend confirmed.  It can be a free gift without a thought of reciprocation.  It can mean graceful.  It can mean unmerited favor.

Opening Up

If we open up this word, we find many delightful things.  The word for Christ, Christos, means the anointed one.  Charity, or Caritas is also of a similar sound.  The gift of the Holy Spirit - the Holy Breath, is the "Charisma of the Holy Breath." It is as if God breathes within you as you then shine with grace.  The word Karma also seems to be related intuitively to Charisma with very similar consonant rhythms.  Thus, there is a field of meanings for Charisma, since it defies strict definition.  It has an Eastern mysterious flavor to it.  It goes beyond, over and under the conscious mind and directly to the soul and spirit.

Max Weber

Max Weber described three kinds of power.  (1) Bureaucratic Authority based upon laws rules and procedures, (2) Traditional Authority based upon feudalism, personal relationships,  honor, contests, war, etc, and (3) Charismatic Authority, based upon a person's unique abilities and talents.

Charismatic Authority derives from a person's divinely granted talents and gifts.  It is somewhat undefinable, and only descriptive, because it is mysterious.  These people can lead nations, or smaller organizations and groups.  Some modern examples include Tony Robbins, Steve Jobs, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan.  Others possessing the gift: Franklin Roosevelt, George Patton, Douglas MacArthur, and Winston Churchill.  Charismatic women include Marylyn Monroe, Madonna, Mother Theresa, Princess Diana, and Elizabeth Taylor.

Note that this list contains people that are not necessarily the most physically attractive people.  However, in all case, their personalities are all larger than life, and in almost all cases, continued even after their physical features faded with age.

Charm

The root of the word charm comes from the Latin, carmen, which means a song, verse or incantation.  However, if you know your French, you also know the word chanter.  Chanter means to sing.  The root of Chant appears to be the Latin canere, which means to sing.  So, we have a field of words and meanings here with the word charm.  This cluster of words, related to carmen, appear even closer in consonant structure to the word karma.

Charity

Charity comes from the Latin caritas, one of the the Three Theological Virtues of classical Christianity.  The equivalent Greek term is agape.  In reading modern scripture, it is a very strange thing to see this term translated into the English word, love.  This is quite bizarre and disturbing once you understand what the word really means.  The Modern English meaning refers almost solely to giving to the poor and less fortunate, which is quite bizarre from the original meaning of the term.

The idea of Charity is Divine Love, given as a free gift.  What is a Free Gift?  Charisma!

Olivia Fox Cabane

She wrote the very pragmatic, and authority text on charisma, called The Charisma Myth.  She claims that there are three elements to Charisma: Presence, Power and Warmth.  Power and Warmth seem obvious to normal people, but Presence is hard to define.

The way I see it is that Presence is a description of the natural capacities and talents given to a person that makes him Charismatic, if he first possesses the two other elements of Power and Warmth.

First Century Christians

There is some research suggesting that the spread, power, and sustaining element of first century christianity was the Charisma of its leaders, and to some extent the followers.  Apparently, Rudolph Sohm, the forerunner of Max Weber, made this claim.  

As the story goes, Jesus Christ was the Fountainhead of the Charisma.  He transferred this Charisma to the Apostles and Disciples.  These unique powers of personality and talent enabled them to spread the Gospel to the entire Roman Empire in record time, by sheer force of personality and individual and collective talent, all contained within the concept of Charisma - personal gifts granted by the Gods, and then given to the world as a gift.  

Over time, this charismatic authority, power, and vision, was encapsulated within ritual and praxis within the Liturgy.  Some of it was encoded in writing called "scripture."  Apparently after the initial glow of talent and charisma waned, Traditional Authority took over, as it does all institutions, and Christianity became an institution with books, hierarchy, procedures, bureaucracy, etc.  This is apparently the natural progression of all Charismatic movements: initial charisma gives way to tradition and codified bureaucracy.  

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Perhaps the same can be said of Mohamet.  The Prophet of Islam was a charismatic leader that conquered half the word in record time.  This is pure natural or divine talent, we rarely see.  

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Perhaps history would unfold into a boring progression, mostly predictable, if it were not for charismatic individuals with specially, divinely inspired gifts and powers that stir up our souls and imaginations, and show us a new way of life, blasting away all previous traditions, into a new way of life, which is to be encoded into Tradition after the First, Second or third generation of charismatic leaders fade away.

Everything you Know is Wrong

It is fun to catch some people who consider themselves enlightened into a trap they cannot even see after they are trapped!

Consider this - you believe that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and all the planets in the Solar System revolve around the Sun.  All those ignorant priests before Galileo were insane to think the Sun revolved around the Earth!  Oh Ye fools!

If I choose the place I am standing as the center of the universe, then, I can say with Absolute Certainty and scientific truth that the sun revolves around the Earth, and the entire Universe revolves around me.  Think about this and pause.  If you do not get this, you have a problem!

We can choose the origin and coordinates of the center of anything - even the universe - as anywhere we like.  And, we have violated no laws.

Next time you read about those ignorant people who believed everything in he universe revolved around the Earth, consider the author to be caught up in his own trap.  It is a false narrative.

What does this false narrative do?  It stimulates Neophilia - the belief that something that is new is good simply because it is new.  Neophilia never takes into any consideration that on a downward trajectory of quality with respect to time, anything new is Inferior.  

So, how do we know that something is superior or inferior to something else?  It is very simple.  Which serves its purpose better?  The answer!

For most of human history, it has been superior to believe that the Earth is the center of the Universe. It still is.  It serves its purpose perfectly.  There is no reason for us to need the Sun to be the center of the Solar System or even the Universe.  There is no reason, nor good purpose.  A jet flying from Montreal to Moscow certainly better use some reference on the Earth as the center of the Universe!  If it uses the Sun as the center of the universe, it will have horrible consequences!

Another false narrative is that people thought the Earth was flat before Columbus sailed to the New World.  This is also false.  Nobody ever believed the Earth was flat.  Think about that for a moment.

You are dizzy.  You are trapped in a Media Hypnosis making you believe dumb shit that cannot possibly be true.  How many other things you believe are false?

Our teachers and the Mass Media will ask us to deny the things right in front of our eyes.

That is one of the signals - are these people causing me to doubt my experience?  The other signal is the denial of timeless principles and practices that have kept humans alive for a long time.  Look for these clues to determine the liars.

Whither Ignorance?

When you investigate certain issues down to the bone, you can usually arrive at the Truth - usually.  However, the discipline and time involved is enormous.  

Emotional and psychological questions can get hairy.  However, questions of biology and physical science are easy to investigate and arrive at something akin to Absolute Truth.  Physics is complete.  After figuring out Quantum Physics, that area of science was complete.  We may discover some goofy particle here and there, but nothing changes or adds to our knowledge of the universe.  

Any question with regard to biology simply takes experiment and observation.  Any variations are between the specifics of the specimens and not the fundamentals of the science.  

Which brings us to the question - with all the advertising and BS out there that is plainly a lie, what do we do?  We do not have the time to investigate everything, even if we have the scientific and analytical skills to investigate.  There is just too much life to live to look into everything.  

Think about your area of expertise.  Now, recall the last time the mass media reported on something that you are an expert on.  How much of it was true?  Probably none of it.  

Think of an event you were a part of that the mass media reported on.  How much of it was true?  Probably 20% of it at best.  The job of news factories is to sell advertisements - not to report facts.  Never forget this.  The job of corporations is to keep the organization alive - no matter what and whatever it takes.  

Perhaps it all comes back to the Agency Problem.  There is no neutral source.  Every source of information has embedded within it the people and the organization that produced it.  Nothing is pure.  The original idea of science was pure information.  Now that science is complete, we are left with selling products that we can create using scientific knowledge.  Thus, all the smog of advertisement and news.  What did I tell you?  News is selling advertisements, and NOT reporting facts!  

Even Facebook has algorithms to select topics for your news feed.  You are not seeing everything your friends post.  You are seeing what Facebook wants you to see to optimize advertisement selling.  

So, the next time you deem someone ignorant of something you think you know - you need to pause.  Perhaps you too are a victim of advertisement misinformation if you consume a lot of media.  We all do.  Thus, we are all misinformed.  We are all ignorant.  

We live in a post-scientific age.  This means we are in the age of selling.  Every piece of information we consume tries to sell us something.  We are all caught up in the web of impure information.
  

Alternative to Meditation

Everyone who meditates or practices self-hypnosis understands the basics of Eye Fixation.  You stare at a Cross, a pendant, a candle, or simply at a dot on the wall.

However, sometimes the ecstatic effect does not always come - perhaps 80% of the time for me.  This is the point where you get divine revelation - or intuition or whatever you want to call it-  upon certain concepts, topics, or current problems in your life.   

I have found a technique that gives about 80% of the effect of meditation, but with perhaps 10% of the time required.  Mentalist Ehud Segev describes it in his book, "9 Steps to Influence: A Mentalists's Guide for Every Man."  

How does it work?  It is very simple.  I will describe the way I do it, taking hints from Ehud's procedure.  

• Fill up a transparent glass with water.  Ensure you can see the top of the water level.
• Get a timer - a smart phone will work.
• Set the timer for one minute. 
• Get in front of a mirror where you can see your face down to the bottom of your neck
• Place the glass of water in front of you.  
• Grasp the glass of water.
• Extend your arm fully to a comfortable position with the glass of water.
• Bring the glass level to about the image of your chin in the mirror.
• Hold the glass as steady as possible for one minute.  
• Stare at a point behind the bridge of your nose to an imaginary point two inches (five centimeters) behind your nose bridge.
• Trigger the timer.
• Gaze at the point behind your nose bridge for as long as you can.
• In your peripheral vision, watch the water level, and try to keep the glass of water as steady as possible.
• Rest for about 15 seconds and change hands.
• Repeat the procedure with the other hand.

I often wait for another hour or so and repeat the exercise.  I do this perhaps twice or three times in a day.

What is the benefit?  You get an approximate benefit you would get with Eye Fixation meditation, but it is faster, if you are in a time crunch, or if you do not have the energy for a full meditation session.  You also gain a powerful silent confidence in face to face conversations, because your eye movement, head movement and face movements will be under absolute control during the conversation - it is hard to put a price on supreme confidence in a face to face conversation.

There you go.  Have fun!

The Modern Error

Materialism is the modern error - the error of the Modern Era!

Preaching to the choir is all we can do.  Argument does not work - only reproduction in numbers of those who know the Absolute Truth to the point of an overwhelming crushing force of the Forces of Lies. 

Spirituality always wins in the long run.  The problem is generational mutations that seem to swamp out Spirituality before Darwin, or God, wipes the mutants from the face of the Earth.  

The greatest Truths are the simplest ones.  The number 6 - take this for example.  Where in physical space is the number 6?  You cannot find it in physical space.  Thus, there are non-material existents.  thus, Materialism is false.  Do you have evidence of the existence of the number 6?  No.  Do you have data to support the existence of the number 6?  No.  Numbers exist in the abstract realm of mathematics and have absolutely no physical attributes.  

Thus, we have demonstrated simply that we are capable of reasoning and thinking in a completely non-material way that is absolutely true.  Nobody can claim the non-existence of the number 6.  

Thus, there are areas of study - sciences - where data and evidence are completely irrelevant - and completely absurd.  (For advanced philosophers, we all know that even in the sciences, one cannot only use data or evidence, but that is for another time.)  

Thus, taking about things we know are absolutely true, but outside of the realm of the physical sciences, is perfectly acceptable, and in many cases, a superior form of thinking and reasoning.  

Closing ourselves off to non-material reasoning makes us half human.  And, half humans will not survive the Next Inevitable Darwinian purge.  The ancients said, "without a vision my people perish."  And, this means, in modern terms, we humans who do not conform to the conditions of survival, will not survive.  

Human survival in all places and all times requires non-physical reasoning.  Or, death.  

What shall you do?  Focus on Meaning and Vision.  Very simple, but sometimes hard.

Favorite Spiritual Ritual

Meditation - I have been doing this in one way or another for over 10 years.  I have developed a few methods that work for me, and here I will describe my favorite one that rarely disappoints, when performed mindfully.

1. Prepare a hot bath.  Ensure that the water will cover your stomach, even if slightly.  Ensure that the water is hot, but not quite scalding.  
2. Get into the hot bath and lay there for 5 minutes.  Breath regularly, and do not force any muscle within your body.
3. Breath a deeply as you can without discomfort 4 times.    Place a normal breath between deep breaths - Deep (1), normal, Deep (2), normal, Deep (3), normal, Deep (4)
4. Perform Progressive Muscle Relaxation.  This is a common technique you can search for online, but let’s briefly describe my technique here.  Begin at the top of the head.  Relax all muscles from the top of th ahead to the chin.  Take a few moments to do this loosen everything up until none of the muscles are doing anything whatsoever.  This is not as easy as it sounds!  Then, proceed to the neck, loosen all muscles.  Sweep downward like a scanning machine and progressively loosen the muscles you are focusing on with your imaginary scanner.  Keep on going downward until you reach your toes in the same fasion.
5. Do absolutely nothing for 2 minutes.  If you feel any group of muscles tensing up during this period, bring your focus to that muscle group and relax those muscles.
6. Perform Eye Fixation.  Again, this is a common technique searchable elsewhere, but I describe my own here.  I focus upon a cross pendant my son gave me for father’s day.  I see it in my mind.  I do not let any other image into the mind.  I bring it closer to my face.  I let it grow - larger and larger to the point I can climb onto it, it is so big.  Then, I direct my energy to the object.  I pour forth energy into the object.  I then change the colors of the pendant.  White, red, yellow, black, blue, green, etc.  I then change the brightness of the object.  I do this until I reach a point of satisfaction and complete relaxation.

Often, during point (6), you will receive a revelation from your intuition (or God or the universe).  Sometimes you will receive many revelations.  Often this is a problem completely solved in your life, and at other times, it is a new idea to think about for days or weeks to develop from a creative perspective.

Also, during point (6), you will often feel as if you ego is dissolving into nothing.  Your sense of self may change, and you become more in touch with another spect of consciousness you can rarely access any other way.

Enjoy!  I hope you experiment with meditation and find your own way with what works for you.

Writing as Obsession

We do not write because we want.  We do not write for fortune or fame.  We do not write for things external.

We write because we must.  

There is a deep compulsion to put thoughts to words.  When thoughts float around in the head, they do not appear as real as when committed to paper.  As they are put to paper, they acquire energy and power and life that as floating thoughts, they are close to nothing.  Once put to paper, they are no longer the same thoughts.  This is often shocking to we writers.  We think, then write, and then are shocked to see the thought written.  It is a different kind of reality.  Thoughts are fleeting.  Fleeting thoughts written often create fear.  Temporary things becoming potentially immortal is not something we humans know quite how to deal with effectively.  An immortal person is called a god.  An immortal thought is written as word, and we do not have a special word to call this uncanny transition.  

Once I paused and took note of the attitude of non-writers toward the written word.  It strikes fear in many.  Talking is fleeting - like the wind.  The written word seems permanent and unchanging.  Writing is also a different reality.  Since its significance is in permanence, to a non-writer, this is uncanny.  I read my thoughts from journals 20 years ago.  I was the thinker of the thoughts, so thus, they seem somewhat real, but frozen in time.  The problem is that non-writers do not remember the events.  Remembrance of some events to the non-writer strikes great fear in many.  Thus, we writers are scary to many people.  When words pour out, we know that they come quickly, and we are accustomed to change.  But to the non-writer reading words, these things appear scary and real.  The fact that something is captured as a thought in time seems to be a capturing of the soul.  

Words are magic.  With the proper craftsman, words can bring nations to heel, inspire an army, and conquer the world.  Words are dangerous.  Words are more weaponized than what soldiers use.  Napoleon once said that one writer was a strong as a platoon of 1000 men with guns.  

The magic, the creation, the remembrance, the play with the past, present and the future - we writers must write because we participate in this magic - the most powerful and real magic imaginable.

Dark Night of the Soul

When you choose a spiritual path, you choose the cyclic nature of Spirit.  The spirit is wind or breath traditionally speaking.  The wind blows when it blows, and it is still when it is still.  We have no control over the wind.  

Thus, if we ascend the heights of Spirit, we also accept the depths.  It is like going out to the Sea - you ride the crest and the trough of the waves.

The Dark Night of the Soul - what is this?  Nothing works.  Prayer, ritual, meditation, charity - nothing works.  Everything that once worked from where you draw strength no longer works.  Nobody understands you.  Even those who have gone through the Dark Night have no concept because the Dark Night has a strange way of annihilating the Ego to the point where we do not clearly recall the Dark Night - it is like a half remembered dream that does not seem quite real - we may even doubt it ever happened.  This is what happens when Ego fades and all is left is the Void - the For Itself, the Abyss, or whatever words we attach to it.  

Others only see the Persona - our face to the World.  They cannot perceive - perhaps even conceive - that we experience the Void, the Abyss, the Nothing, the No Thing.   

Mortification of the Flesh on a Bike

Someone once said that cyclists all had demons they fought with the act of cycling itself.  Hard exercise is often mortification of the flesh. And, so it is.

Today I was riding my road bike along the backroads around Avery Island, Louisiana.  I rode almost 15 miles.  It was hot, and I had ridden 11 miles yesterday along a similar route.  

The route was the typical desolation of this area of the country: stagnant bayous, tall weeds, bad pavement, humidity, intense heat, dumped trash, patched trailers, and the sound of cicadas.  The water stank with brackish putridity.  

In all this desolation, you think - especially on a bike.  I was pushing myself.  I had to.  It was unpleasant riding on bad pavement; my hands shook and my bones rattled as if I were using a jackhammer.  

Mortification of the flesh!  The spirit is freed!  It is like fasting, or some ritual of deprivation.  You find out what is important, and what is not.  Your perspective widens and you see clearly things you had not when the flesh was not mortified.  When the environment all around you is devoid of meaning, the spirit arrives and fills the void.  The desert is where all the major religions began.  Since nature abhors a vacuum, our desolate areas become settings of spiritual renewal - if only for a while, or for longer.

Often, we find strength in situations that appear intolerable at the time.  Of course, afterward is always when we realize this.  If we realized this in the moment, it would not be the same, and it would not have the same effect.  We cannot realize it in any case because of the nature of the ebb and flow of spiritual stress and spiritual flourishing.  One gives rise to the other in a regular rhythm.  

Spirit and Life Part I

Spirit and Life Part I

One test of spirituality is when one walks into a building or into a conversation.  Can you breathe?  Is the air fresh from a spirit perspective?  Or, do you feel boxed in, on edge, nervous, or uncanny?  These are signs for spirituality or lack thereof.  

The older we get, the closer we come - to giving birth to a spirit being - in death.  Thus, we develop better understanding of spirit as we age - especially as we cross the threshold of middle age.  

In Latin as well as Greek (spiritus, pneuma) it refers to breath.  To truly understand Spirit, we must understand the original and universal meaning of the words with the same referent.  Thus, Spirit, means breath.  It is the air we breathe.  Thus, Holy Spirit is Holy Breath.  

We see the importance of this breathing in meditative practices.  Almost all of them have breath exercises.  Sometimes you focus on the breath.  Sometimes you breathe deeply.  Often breath walking is used.  Taking deep breaths is also common.  Correct or elegant ways of breathing is also taught among many.

Thus, to be spiritual is connected to being able to breathe - literally and figuratively.  Even the animals know that when something hisses, it is signaling that it is alive and ready for action - it is not dead and ready to be eaten!

Breath and wind are fluids.  Often, another way to understand spirit is the use of water - another fluid.  Baptism is with water.  Many meditative and therapeutic practices use water - massage, aroma therapy, a spa, steam rooms, cold showers, and the like.  

Thus, Spirit is formless, and we cannot get our hands around it - literally and figuratively.  It is undefined.  It changes.  It takes the form of the container, or no form when flowing or blowing.  

One word of caution is Spirit as Fire.  In the New Testament, during the Day of Pentecost, Spirit is referred to as Fire.  What happens when something catches fire?  It is consumed - destroyed.  Often fire provides warmth for comfort and cooking, but it is dangerous.  Thus, Spirit as Fire is dangerous lest we be burned.  So what is Spirit as Fire?  It is warmth and energy.  

Fire, like air and water, is a fluidic substance that has no set form or shape, and is in harmony with the other symbols, as long as we can perceive their commonality - fluid, flowing, undefined, uncontained, life-giving, refreshing, formless, flowing or blowing.

Thus, Spirituality in our lives should have some strong symbolic reference to these substances - the universal one is breath and Air, followed by Water, and lastly, Fire.

As before, a good test of spirituality is when one walks into a building or into a conversation.  Can you breathe?  Is the air fresh from a spirit perspective?  Or, do you feel boxed in, on edge, nervous, or uncanny?  These are signs for spirituality or lack thereof.  

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Fundamentals of the Age of Aquarius, Part Two

This entry expands upon my previous prophecy concerning the outline of the New Age of Aquarius.  This is not a joke, by the way.  A sweeping view of history and the development of several strands over the past 1000 to 3000 years suggest in outline what is to come.

Oh come, history!

The West began with the Protestant Revolution of Martin Luther.  This was about 500 years ago.  An explosion and spread of knowledge happened with the invention of the printing press of Gutenberg.  We cannot fathom what this means in total.  For thousands of years, books cost one million dollars.  Labor required scribes, carefully trained over generations, to create and copy books.  The rich near centers of learning with books controlled all knowledge.  The only way to learn was memorization after you had access to the books in the libraries.  Most people were ignorant and really had no need to read.  

Thus, now any bit of knowledge could spread to the four corners of the Earth, and cheaply.  We can make paperback books for less than $5 even today and spread them far and wide.  There was an elite still - those who could control the presses.  However, with the invention of Internet, it seems the old guards of the press have lost their control and we are in the midst of a great struggle over who controls information - if it is even possible.  

One can now live in Wyoming and read the finest books ever written in any age and in any language.  

So, books launched the Protestant Revolution.  It played itself out until the 1960’s when the Age of Aquarius dawned.  Things truly changed at that time.  Vatican II changed everything, also.  Since the Catholic Church is the repository of all Western morality and ethics, this is what makes any significant changes with the Catholic Church world-changing.  Ignorant people generally do not understand this, but learned people who know history understand that a civilization has a center.  The center of the West is the Catholic Church, and it has been for hundreds of years.  The major philosophical center of the West is Paris, because the center of all Western philosophy is Thomas Aquinas.  Again, ignorant people have no concept of this, but we who have studied hard, know this to be a fact as definite as the sun rising in the morning.  

The man to unite all of this Western narrative into something digestible was Jacques Barzun, in his magisterial book, “From Dawn to Decadence.”  Again, an ignorant people cannot understand this, but we who have studied long and hard, know this as a fact.  

One must scan the ages of time, and integrate all observed patterns into a whole.  Learned people will see the same thing, although in sometimes different perspectives, but they will observe the same grand statue, as it were.  In these things, there is no personal opinion; there is only perspective and taste.

What drives the West?  Is it science?  No!  It is philosophy.  The ignorant think it is science, but the worthies know it is philosophy.  Philosophy answers and poses our fundamental questions, and not science.  Science is a branch of philosophy, and is under the authority of Philosophy, as it always was and always has been.  

So, if Aquinas was the most important philosopher in the Catholic Church, who was the most influential philosopher is the West that got everything started?  Rene Descartes.  Of course it is!  He opened up the fundamental Western question of the Cogito, and the mind-body duality.  We now know the paradox of the Mind in the Vat, which is why the Movie The Matrix is perhaps the finest in tackling and illustrating Western philosophy.   

Aside from Descartes, who was the most influential philosopher?  Immanuel Kant. Everyone knows this who is in the know about history.  Kant’s famous opening of the question of things-in-themselves put everyone’s mind into a pretzel for a few hundred years.  Hegel, the systems builder in German philosophy was simply writing footnotes to Kant.  What philosopher caused several strands of inquiry that enriched outlives in the area of spirit, and even science and religion?  Arthur Schopenhauer!  He was the intellectual Father of Darwin, Nietzsche, and Freud!  

Who was the most important scientist of ALL TIME?  Issac Newton.  Nobody comes close, and nobody ever will in the foreseeable future of the next 1000 years.  It is dazzling at the effects of everything physical we have as a result of Newton, the perfect Genius!  

Who was the most influential man in law in the last 500 years?  Napoleon!  Read about the Napoleonic Code, and its basis of law in virtually every country in Europe. 

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What does all this mean for the coming Age of Aquarius?  Well, the West in one word is Hope.  It is an offshoot of Christianity in the hope of creating art, and in the conquest of nature.

What shall the next age be - this Age of Aquarius?  Immortality, my friends.  This is the next stage and the quest of the next 2000 years.  It took Christianity about 1500 years to realize the Hope on Earth itself actualized as the achievements of the West in Art, Philosophy, and Technology.  We solved the problem of starvation, infant deaths, an infectious diseases.  The next step is the conquest of Death itself.

Some believe in the anti-aging movement that this will come from drugs and science.  And, this may play some part in it, but it will take more than that.  We will still want to fuck out brains out and have tons of kids, so we will have to solve the problem of living forever and fucking and having more kids than the land masses can handle.  How will we solve this?  We will have to learn how to populate other areas of the universe.  It will take a long time to figure out all this shit.  To live on the moon is a big deal even now.  Just think how long it will take us to understand how to populate Mars and some of the near Earth asteroids.  2000 years may not be long enough.  But, in the quest for immortality, it will have to be done, since we cannot help but want to fuck our brains out as a species.  

Immortality is a technical issue, a spiritual issue, a pragmatic issue, and several other problems come with it.  It will take all the brainpower to solve in the next 2000 years.  The Gods will challenge us because we are supposed to be Mortals.  We will have to fight the Gods and wrestle and steal from them the Gift of Immortality.  The Gods will perhaps kill off large segments of humanity is this great struggle.  But, struggle we must, because the Gods will not give it to us - we will have to fucking take it!

Let us end this post.  Vodka has helped in its writing, and now it is time to retire for the night!  

Sleep tight.   Much love to all of you out there!