Maren Clawson on free time, speaking to your past and future self, systems of control, growth goodness, balance, inner juju, grounded woo, not being reactive anymore, attainment, path walking, and rocking things amazing.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/fylwd999j9d1fvd/NoveltyGenerators_ep049MarenClawson.mp3
As my work aims to spread over multiple areas of being conscious about everything, a major aspect of that is not only our mental health but our physical health. With our bodies being the temples that they are, this marks the first of numerous physical health product recommendations I aim to share which I have found personally extremely beneficial. In today's depleted water and soil age it is a good idea to supplement or take various vitamins in addition to engaging in proper diet and exercise. One can go totally overboard in this area and buy a deluge of various products which also get's quite costly quite quickly. Beyond Tangy Tangerine is great as a multi-vitamin + mineral complex powder or tablet which has a massive volume of good stuff in it all rolled into one.
Of course we all have variances on what we should be putting in our bodies so do your research if this is right for you. It does have a goofy name but is something to definitely look into.
Gnosis: (Greek γνώσις) knowledge. The knowledge we acquire through our own experience, as opposed to knowledge that we are told or believe in.
Due to the advent of the world wide internet tubes, it’s possible for anyone to study the most sacred and ancient knowledge. It is far from easy and will basically be antithetical to everything you have been told by modern society. Regarding which is correct, you can base your analysis on the outcome of "modern philosophy": take a look around to see what we have done with the world. To see the outcome of the ancient philosophy, of Gnosticism. GnosticTeachings.org has a series of lectures and courses in both spoken word and transcribed text form which encapsulate some of these teachings at one website. It’s all given away freely by Glorian Publishing, with just the simple request that you agree upon downloading them that you will donate some funds their way. They of course do this because I can tell that they know that you have free will and MUST HONOR YOUR CONTRACTS IN LIFE. For law is contract. By checking the download box, you are entering into contract with them.
Much of it is based on the gnostic teachings of Samuel Aun Weor, who wrote over sixty books of esotericism. Although like all things, its far from perfect, many of the courses can dance around the bush a bit and sometimes be very overly general or vague at getting at real specifics, it’s still worth your time. For gnosis will only really come from within.
"...in this day and age, it is very dangerous to just simply follow someone. What is best is to seek the Inner Master." - Samael Aun Weor, The Major Mysteries
Behold!!! The alchemical, and/or esoteric images used in the film Balanced Opposites. Bundled all nice for you in one download - http://www.mediafire.com/file/m63jabeooait11b/BalanacedOpposites2019ImageCollection.zip/file
Let me know anytime if you ever fancy to discuss some of the content directly one on one or even in a group dynamic over Skype.
Download the our documentary short film "Balanced Opposites" here - https://www.mediafire.com/file/h4d5t1s0kglrg2e/BalancedOpposites_edit_v058_1080p_H264.mov
1080p Quicktime in H264 compression. 554 megabytes.
Christian Stark on The Law of One / The Ra Contact, meditation, vibrational densities, paths of practice, and in the exclusive extension for Patrons, the archetypical mind and the tarot.
Direct download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/i06wa5yv9g6hg5u/AnInfinitePath_ep081ChristianStark_Patron.mp3
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An Infinite Path podcast official URL http://www.aninfinitepath.com
Spotify | iTunes | Google Play | Overcast FM | Stitcher | Player FM
Elevate yourself with a membership to nilesheckman.com, purchasing our current extended episode archive or essay volumes, or sharing a proactive review on iTunes.
Niles’ work can be found elsewhere on YouTube, Vimeo, and Patreon.
Here’s our affiliate link for Jambo Superfoods as well.
So this is a subject which fascinates. If you'd be interested in having a private discussion about alchemical / esoteric engraving and art please let me know. We could either do this one on one over Skype or Google Hangout or perhaps even as a group. Mainly to share thoughts, insights, discuss symbolism, and have a casual and generally fun chat etc...
Here's an open directory link to ALL of Manly Palmer Hall's audio lectures. You're welcome.
https://www.pscelebrities.com/Manly%20Hall%20Complete%20Lecture%20Series/
Here is a private link to some yet unreleased "outtakes" from our feature documentary film Transmutation. There are a few funny behind the scenes moments.
https://vimeo.com/311562637
password: outtakes
Making this film was nothing but joy. I give huge credit to my friend and colleague Neil Kramer for this. Basically he and I made this movie, so he's usually the sole person on screen for it while I'm the sole person directing him as well as the guy behind the camera. Gorilla Indie filmmaking all the way. Making a passion project together and most importantly always being proactive and easy going with one another - which these outtakes give a preview and flavor of. No matter how much budget projects get in the future, I will always try and keep the crews as small as possible and thus keep the pressures as low as possible as well. It doesn't mean it's not hard work, quite the opposite in fact as less people have to play more roles. However, uphill difficult work which you enjoy the process of doing will always result in good outcomes. Process orientation is key. It's not so much about a goal for the end result as it is a goal to be process oriented. Which we can all strive for with any side creative venture.
There are hundreds of Hollywood big production stories where the lead actor and director we're fighting constantly and hated each other by week 3 of a 6 month shoot. Klaus Kinski and Werner Herzog while making the 1982 film "Fitzcarraldo" come to mind. Extremely difficult to work with and heavily mentally unbalanced actor meltdown here. Funny how the end product was compromised as a result. It's the same story with dealing with mercurial movie studio executives, egomaniac directors, reactionary Producers, and the list goes... So the moral of the story take and away from all this is choose who you spend your time with in life and in collaborating with very carefully.
OFFICIAL SITE FOR THE FILM - https://www.transmutationfilm.com/
Filmed over three years and five continents, Transmutation explores mystical revelation amid the obstacles of mainstream culture. Sharing personal stories of individuals who have gone through profound life changes which have altered them for the better.
This feature documentary film explores the rarely-seen intimacies of deeply individualistic mystical experiences of everyday reality. A roving philosopher guides us through the striking forests, coastlines, deserts, and cities of the world, inviting us to embrace the intense mystery of our own existence. Is direct personal encounter with divinity a real thing? What secrets are buried in nature’s deep places? Why has mainstream culture sought to eradicate the awakened human? Is normality really our friend?
Josephine McCarthy on a modern school for magic, experience over intellect, secrecy, self-corrective systems, and in the exclusive extension for patrons, magical Egypt and powerful women in occultism.
Direct download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/1fvnpxx1j74ksge/AnInfinitePath_ep080JosephineMcCarthy_Patron.mp3
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An Infinite Path podcast official URL http://www.aninfinitepath.com
Spotify | iTunes | Google Play | Overcast FM | Stitcher | Player FM
Elevate yourself as a patron of nilesheckman.com, purchasing our current extended episode archive or essay volumes, or sharing a proactive review on iTunes.
Niles’ work can be found elsewhere on YouTube, Vimeo, and Patreon.
Here’s our affiliate link for Jambo Superfoods as well.
One of the perks of your amazing $10/month support is currently "Links to the best lecture/courses Niles has discovered. Per your request." The per your request part of that is really saying should you simply engage your will to ask me about them. As Sturgeon's Law states, 90% of everything is crap. That is no different for courses of any sort in any subject online. Let alone a course having to do with what one might call "spirituality" which can be very complicated and difficult to grasp. Over the years, I've found a few courses / lectures which are truly exceptional for sharing information which can allow one to continue to develop their Jedihood. There are currently three total and the aim with this post is to share the initial first one, (and the others in the future) in private exclusive Patron updates and tell you why each are so valuable.
The first course is on magic and is called "Quareia" and can be found at https://www.quareia.com.
It is structured in three parts, "Apprentice", "Initiate", and "Adept", and is simply a series of PDF files for download. I've always found information about real spiritual Jedi practice quite vague and really difficult to find information on which gives you the specific step-by-step HOW. This is likely to protect the knowledge by making it initiatory. This course however, feels like it's bypassing some of that. It is essentially a 1400+ page book on magic which gives you tools to do your own daily, weekly, monthly practices to move toward continuing to become the most actualized version of yourself possible. With detailed step-by-step lessons.
The creators of the course Josephine McCarthy and Frater Acher have given it away 100% for free as well with the goal of "advancing the education of the public in the UK and World Wide, in the subject of Mystical Magic/Western Esoteric Mysteries, including the concept of personal spiritual evolution, in a way that is accessible regardless of income, race, gender, religion or spiritual beliefs.” This is always a good sign as a real teacher of the great work will likely not charge you exorbitant amounts of money for the learning, but instead simply make you DO THE WORK. And boy does this course require you to do just that because what a staggering amount of work it is. It really is numerous years, if not a decade + of study and practice.
As we develop ourselves through our lives and our mind, our heart, and our will, if we are truly serious about the great work of self-transformation we will BE DOING THINGS (through will) that allow us to connect to what you might say is "divine." Magic is really the final frontier of that will work as the magician trains themselves to work with the four elements, Earth, Air, Water, and Fire esoterically. We can only get so far by ourselves and need teachers, or wise elders to help us along our journey and those who are seeking any sort of mystery school type education would behoove themselves to dive into this information.
While I am always a student of these things and don't claim I'm a magician, I am extremely interested in magic and have not vetted the entire course. However, at the time of this writing I've been doing it for about 6 months, and although still in the early stages, have found it very beneficial. I also have all the PDF files downloaded already and am happy to send them your way to expedite getting the course to you if interested. All you need to do is ask. I also have Josephine McCarthy scheduled to come on the podcast in the first quarter 2019 so keep an ear out for that!
***This marks the first episode of the podcast in which the first hour or so of an episode will be free, but the full conversation will be exclusively available for the $2+ full version of the Patrons here on Patreon. The will happen on certain episodes going forward. Thanks very much for the support.
Greg Carlwood on creating your own job, elevating conspiratorial thinking, control and suppression systems, and in the exclusive extension for patrons, forbidden cancer treatments and cures.
Direct download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/hu57wew2cy8p8hk/AnInfinitePath_ep078GregCarlwood_Patron.mp3
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An Infinite Path podcast official URL http://www.aninfinitepath.com
Spotify | iTunes | Google Play | Overcast FM | Stitcher | Player FM
Elevate yourself with a membership to nilesheckman.com, purchasing our current extended episode archive or essay volumes, or sharing a proactive review on iTunes.
Niles’ work can be found elsewhere on YouTube, Vimeo, and Patreon.
Here’s our affiliate link for Jambo Superfoods as well.
Dave Monds is a hidden gem on the internet. His blog and podcast, The Here and Now are great. Yet, they suffer from having a very generic name. In the podcast space, it's also a name of two other podcasts, one on National Public Radio and the other a Ram Dass podcast. So to date his show is very obscure and unknown. Yet it is really good so please do check them out and perhaps send some love his way at very least in the form of clicking 5 stars for his podcast in iTunes.
https://thehereandnow2017.com/
https://thehereandnowpodcast.buzzsprout.com/
He and I had been corresponding due to the similar nature of our outputs. With his show consisting of mainly solo monologue episodes similar to our spoken-word essays. As podcasting involves sending audio creations out into the digital either and then usually not getting much feedback, the medium can really feel like you're on the dark side of the moon. So show hosts really do need to cross-promote one another and we decided to do a co-share and appear on each others ventures. Here's mine chatting on his and he will be on our upcoming episode 103.
Sweet illustration of Harry and I. And the Lecia M of course.
My mate, chap, patron, and friend of the show Harry McInley, guest on recent episode 99 of An Infinite Path, has started his own podcast called Unboxing With Harry McInley. Which is a great double metaphor for both going multiple "rounds" of conversation in regards to the sport of boxing as well as a reference for thinking outside the box. Which he is aiming to have his guests do.
Harry's goal is to keep the podcast a bit more broad appeal while still being open to fresh out of the box ideas. So having a weird esotericist on wouldn't necessarily be broadly appealing, but I tried to keep it a bit more tame in case there was a larger audience of homo-normalice listening. That being said, we still might have made Harry a tiny bit nervous about releasing this one. Which his mom may not approve of. But hey, my mom stopped listening to An Infinite Path years ago - Yet, we still both love our mothers.
Podcast Download - https://www.hpsbrands.com/unboxing/kupa9k8m23t8h5spdtzfcswf8yycig See how externally handsome Harry is at his InstaDouche - https://www.instagram.com/harrymcinley/
It’s with a very saddened and heavy heart as I write this and speak this that I share that a friend of mine, Ryan Geist Bozajin has passed away. He was 39 years old.
Ryan is someone who I had known since late college, having attended the same university I did, and with us both having worked in similar fields, as he was one of very few people whose career track was extremely similar to my own. With both of us having extensive production experience as well as on set supervision experience in regards to various capacities in film and commercial post-production work.
He and I had collaborated together in several capacities, first meeting on a mutual friend’s ridiculously beyond goofy project, a condom commercial called Space Jizz. Yes, read into that title just as you’d like. It’s not up front and center on the filmmaking resume with Transmutation, and to my knowledge has to this day never been completed, but I have shot a commercial called Space Jizz. As it was exactly what you might think. A raunchy spec ad involving semen floating through zero gravity in a spaceship. It was a single day green screen shoot which I was the director of photography on with Ryan being the Visual Effects Supervisor. It was a super fun project which we worked on as a group of college friends. We later worked once each together at a small Lucasfilm subcontractor as well as an augmented reality company in San Francisco which he and I have both been members of.
He and I not only jived on professional and work related wavelengths but he is especially relevant to my personal work because he himself was on episode 15 of the podcast as well in the early Novelty Generators days. Which to my knowledge was the first time he’d ever spoken publicly about some of his more obscure interests. Which I pride myself on having done numerous times. Pulling people out of the intellectual closet that is. So very sadly, he is now the first guest from the podcast who has passed away.
His LLC RGB Media, and small production company was a contributing factor to the second episode of our documentary series Shamans of the Global Village as well. RGB Media, which stood for Ryan Geist Bozajian Media (which was also surely a play on the common post production color dynamic of Red, Green, and Blue) being in the front credits for the episode.
The circumstances surrounding his death are a bit uncertain and may very well always remain that way. As it was from a car accident near Mt. Shasta and he was driving very late at night alone. To make this a bit sadly synchronistic, while writing this I listened to another recording of him in conversation in which he referenced Andy Weir’s story story The Egg. “The opening line of which read, You were on your way home when you died. It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless.”
Death is part of life. Not an end. But a reboot. But the saddest part of death in this life, especially young death, is the time lost from what you would have gotten to spend together. That’s certainly the saddest part of having a child pass away young for example. As they would have had so much time still left in the hour glass than an old timer would.
While Ryan was in the material realm he loved many things. One was Ken Wilber and philosophical word salads. Another was the work of Stanley Kubrick. Biggest Kubrick fan I’d ever met. We had many conversations about the master filmmaker and his works. Another thing he loved was being a socialite. Ryan was a social butterfly to say the least. He knew practically everyone. He wasn't the type of guy that I could tell you would do the thing directly, but what he could do is connect you up with 10 people each of which would be a perfect match to help you with steps along the way in order to accomplish the task. He’s the type of employee a company would bring on board because of their personal rolodex. Thus, Facebook was an often used tool in his arsenal. He was one of those dudes who used it a great deal. Not solely as his only tool of communication but more as an initial vector for physical meet up.
After his passing, there has been a deluge of Boz’s friends and acquaintances posting about him on his page there. With a private group regarding him created as well. Which also very wonderfully put together a group memorial ceremony for him. A silver lining of memorials is they bring folks together who may not have otherwise met around the nucleus of the one who has passed away. Just like the life of a great star, all things must come to an end, and digital pages that cease to be maintained tend to eventually fizzle out in the near future. Those types of things are initially something like that of a high school yearbook, where folks will swing in, leave a thought felt remark and then move on with their own lives. But this page, will continue sitting there in 1’s and 0’s. His old posts will continue to be there. As though they were now left by some kind of ghost.
This is a strange factor now upon us in the age of people sharing their activities on whatever series of interconnected blogs they choose to upload their tid bits to. It is weird enough if the ghost posted sporadically and you, having looked at their back posts after their passing, get a very sporadic glimpse into their thought processes and activities. Yet it’s high strangeness if the ghost was a daily poster, because then suddenly, their frequent data stream just hard stops.
There was a story of young man who was up in a cherry bucket on a very windy day. I don’t recall the context of what he was doing but do recall he was Tweeting updates from his phone while up there. Including saying things like “geez these winds are crazy strong” just moments before the bucket blew over and toppled resulting in him dying from the fall.
Another college friend of mine who had passed away, from diabetes nonetheless, a skinny guy who I distinctly remember eating nothing but McDonalds constantly during those collegiate years, continues to have a three plus year old cobweb covered Facebook page which seems like it will always continue to be there even though he’s left his meat suit and can’t keyboard mudra onto it any longer. Unless a family member somehow knew his password who could then go and delete it if they felt the need. Instead, the page now has a banner at the top of it giving notice that it’s now archived as a memorialized account. Which when visiting feels a bit like you’re inside the funeral home or tombstone in cyberspace.
Carl Ruiz was a quite known somewhat famous celebrity chef, who died of a heart attack in 2019 at 44 from clogged arteries. He was a prolific and frequent poster on Twitter where many of his updates there were of course food related. Often showing pictures of food which no human being should be eating - Such as hot dogs, donuts, triple factory farmed cheese burgers, cans of sweetened tea, and you get the picture. A post right before his passing reads “Absolutely perfect hand cut french fries in homemade gravy. Be still my cold dead black heart”. So he basically was documenting his demise and the baby step record is out there.
The comedian Ducan Trussell, whose one of those gaggle of funny guys in LA who have all become more well known by orbiting around another comedian who also happens to be the world’s most famous podcaster, had this amazing and somewhat now legendary episode of his podcast Ducan Trussell’s Family Hour where he had his dying mother on just a very short time before her passing. I remember listening to the episode when it came out and it’s stuck with me years later now. It has actually subsequently been adapted into the final episode of a Netflix show he co-created called The Midnight Gospel. Which speaks quite philosophically regarding the topic of death.
His mother had an incredible maturity about her certain imminent passing. Claiming she felt most alive before her physical death. She had completely decoupled from suffering by letting go and having complete acceptance of her passing. Even suggesting a turning toward death. Saying it’s not going to hurt you and that it’s a tremendous teacher. Her having been a psychologist, and lily a good one, really showed. And you could tell by her powerful near final words, that she was a very special lady. So the ghost of her will always live in a documented way through I’m sure numerous private family channels and memories as well as that public conversation.
While it seems to be the style of many to post on someone’s wall after their passing, spending time leaving what is a very here today gone tomorrow ephemeral drop in the ocean, then moving on with their own lives, it’s much more the style of this writer and narrator to put together this essay regarding, as something that will hopefully be more long lasting and a bit more of a time capsule.
Modernity in the Western World has such a terror of death. Knowing my parents are at their age where any day now, either of them could go. Hopefully they have another good decade in them, yet at their state each day later in life should be thought of as a gift for sure.
While Ryan had much of a life off social media and many people knew him at surface level, his real life, was never fully known to many. Just as many men never really disclose their intimate thoughts to one another in conversation, as it’s generally a constant to say you’re doing fine even when you have many hardships and mishaps going on in your life below the surface. Much of which you feel as though you can’t talk to many of your acquaintances about. This is something I will on occasion say to someone who is consulting with me about themselves. As it’s so important to have friends or acquaintances you can talk to about what’s really going on in your real life.
So however Ryan went out. Whatever his state of mind and heart right toward the end. Even though there are no coincidences and everything happens for a reason, it’s hard to really concritize that when someone shuffles off what may be their mortal coil suddenly. And early. Why would Ryan chose to go or want to go if that is the case? Very hard not to feel deep sadness when I think that if I could go back and tell Ryan he would not live to see his 40th birthday. I do wish I knew all the details about what was happening in his life. Although, like many of us, there was some shadow there, and I will say that in the last half dozen or so encounters with Ryan, our conversations were increasingly strange, the light and bright side of him will be missed. His personality. His humor, his fun, his winning smile. His radiance. The good times we had together with circles of mutual friends. And much more. You were always so kind to me brother. You are said to have put the Meta in the Metaverse. Much love and until we meet again.
The OSes, consisting of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos, are three pillars of persuasion. They stem from Rhetoric, or Ars Rhetorica, an ancient Greek treatise on the art of persuasion, given credit to Aristotle, through his Corpus Aristotelicum, otherwise known as the collection of his works. We are going to lay out a list of logical fallacies in the next private essay, but before we do so it is important to define these terms publicly.
Ethos or the ethical appeal, means to convince an audience of the author’s credibility or character. By who they are.
Pathos or the emotional appeal, means to persuade an audience by appealing to their emotions. By what they feel.
Logos or the appeal to logic, means to convince an audience by use of logic or reason. By what they think.
Much of storytelling harkens back to Aristotle’s “Poetics.” Which has laid the foundation for classical theatre writing, and other forms of modern storytelling such as cinema. In it, Aristotle wrote:
Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself.
These three pillars are at the root of “idea selling” much of which today has been diluted into what has become advertising. As there is no other field which aims to persuade more and advertising is now about telling a story in order to sell a product.
Ethos, being the greek word for character, is often considered the character or spokesperson delivering information. Ethos means someone knows more than you, and is trustworthy, and reliable. This is great if it's from a wise elder, or just plain amazingly illuminated human, but bad when it’s from supposed experts or a superior character in their field. Professors, medical professionals, gurus, or worst of all, celebrities. This is why you often see a famous person in an ad seen on camera or doing the ads narration rather than just someone
like your sister or brother. The spokesperson is said to validate the product and unlock trust to the “consumer” by having apparent weight and authority. And unconscious people will listen to them. Whether or not they have product-specific expertise such as a famous actor trying to sell you power tools, or something way outside and having nothing to do with their area of expertise.
Pathos is used in persuading folks for a cause or moral responsibility. Appealing and pulling at their heart strings of empathy. Beer commercials are famous for this one. Trying to always tie their brand with American heritage. Or ordinary everyday people, cut from the same cloth as the majority of the audience. Here’s a statement before you by someone one stage or in an old school TV commercial about sick starving children in Africa, with flies all over their face. Help them! Or oftentimes using animals and loving cute baby ones at that to make you appeal to a moral message. Pathos is king in what’s called bandwagon advertising, which is you, as the observer and agreeing with their message, is then felt to be on the winning team or popular opinion. Both recurring logical fallacies have been used as key tools of propaganda through time.
Logos usually tries to be pointing out facts to back up a claim. Which through time have not really been facts, but prevced scientific facts which far too often then not, end up being some level of psyto science. Like drink your milk, its full of calcium for strong bones. Which give very gross oversimplifications to a more complex and multi-layered nutricional issue. Or the old school 19080’s propaganda campaign of this is your brain showing an egg in its shell, and this is your brain on drugs showing the egg being cracked and put into the frying pan. Implying something that is supposedly logical based on pre-existing mis-conceptions. Statistics, surveys, facts, and historical data can make a product seem like a more reasonable decision. Whether the data is sound or not is another story.
These modalities are often used together, for like the infinity stones from the Marvel universe, they work best when unified. There was a famous 1970’s American commercial of a native american riding a canoe down a river, looking like it could have been out of the old american times before it was settles by Europeans. He gets out of the canoe onto a beach which is covered in trach, and walks over to a freeway packed with cars, revealing it’s modern times, and a vehicle driving by throws a bag of trash out the window which lands at his feet. He’s then seen breaking the fourth wall as it’s called in theatre and cinema, with us going from objective to subjective, meaning looking at the audience or camera, and a tear is seen coming from his eye.
It was very common in the 1950’s to have a family go out to a public park for a picnic and then subsequently leave their trash strewn everywhere, this “dump your trash anywhere you want” mindset, continued into the 60’s and then started to more enter the public consciousness in the 19070’s for example. And this commercial, which was actually a public service announcement for 71 things you can do to mitigate pollution, was a result of the general populous starting to care more about the issue and then have public trash cans installed ubiquitously in American towns and cities. This campaign was extremely successful. As it used Ethos, the native american figure - A type of person who is stereotypically to this day seen as being "one with nature" or an authority on the subject, Pathos, saying hey all this trash everywhere is making out public spaces un-atractive and having a detrimental effect on the environment, and Logos, showing that this was a common occurrence which at a societal level needed to change. As a result from political movements of the time and successful campaigns such as this one, into the 80’s and 90’s it became standard operating procedure to put your trash into a garbage can and to this day if you do not, you are the prick. Future advertising campaigns into the early 2000’s have done the same for recycling and composting, and into the 20teens for now removing use of plastic bags and straws all together.
So obviously these can be used for good or bad ends. And it's good to know how they are deployed. Usually separated by the numerator denominator line of are they trying to sell me something, or are they just providing me with useful and truly educational information.
When I write and then speak, I always try to insert rays of bright illumination to what may be a stormy cloud over the reader or listener. This is achieved partially by exhibiting an inherent truth in what I’m saying. So even if you’ve never heard it before, aren’t sure about it, or it’s just plain over your head, there is something about my work which rings true for you. This manifests itself in each of the aforementioned modes. As it's better to inspire first, persuade second, and promote third instead of doing each of those steps the other way around.
Nearly all people are controlled by outer suggestions, and not by inner realizations. Ordinary man thinks only what he sees others do, and hears others say. We must all learn so to control the inner life that outside things do not make an impression upon our mentalities.
Ernest Shurtleff Holmes - Creative Mind And Success
A definition of the news could be stated as “Recent account; fresh information of something that has lately taken place at a distance, or of something before unknown.”
And since every day has, give or take, millions or very least multiple hundreds of thousands of interesting “going ons” happening throughout Earth, which of those items is rising most to the surface? That’s in order to isolate a couple dozen of those action items at local or global levels worth sharing on that day. So then the next question is, who is making those decisions and why? Is it coming from few locations, or is it coming from an entire society of individuals?
Like any centralized source of big power, regardless of what that is or what side of the political spectrum it comes from, or what it’s role is, it disempowers those who are subservient to it. On the other side of that coin, many thousand or millions of individual nodes, must rely on their substance of content to be noticed and that in regards to journalism, will then work to really inform and empower others at their similar socioeconomic level.
As we have seen an increasing consolidation of everything in virtually every industry in the last century, the news media is certainly no exception to that rule. This is a result of many decades of bad political decisions which help the man, but screw you dear listener. Over the course of this decline, the news has become less about bottom up journalism and instead more about top down infotainment. Due to this business model creating a system which helps the smallest sliver percentage of economically successful folks, the tiny capstone of the commerce pyramid for example, such as the Godzillionair, but screws everyone else, the pyramid has now been turned upside down. It’s de-spiritualized, foundationally untrue, commercial revenue model has become about being paid for by advertisers instead of being paid as a neutral or balanced public service, like a public utility.
Edward R Murrow warned of commercialism in the news. Murrow achieved his legendary status by taking on the witch-hunting Sen. Joseph McCarthy at the height of the Red Scare. He was not afraid to face the fire. It was Murrow's ardent belief in the decision-making capabilities of the American people that drove him. He saw it as the media's responsibility to get the people the facts so that they could make informed decisions. “If we entrust it to those who”, as Murrow noted, “seek only to profit from it without regard to their moral duties, we will suffer the consequences of mass delusion”.
Even though democracy is mob rule which disregards the fallacy of the majority, it’s better than end result left wing communism or end result right wing fascism and you can’t have a resemblance of democracy without a free and open press. Thus, The Society of Professional Journalists are said to be a forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair, thorough, and acts with integrity. The Society declares these four principles as the foundation of ethical journalism and encourages their use in its practice by all people in all media. They are to:
Seek Truth and Report it
Minimize Harm
Act Independently
Be Accountable and Transparent
If the "news" you are watching does not meet at a bare minimum these ethics it is NOT news. PERIOD. All corporate owned media (CNN, RT, MSNBC, BBC, Fox, ABC, Al Jazeera, Sky News, etc...) are all "infotainment" and with only very rare cracks of journalism peeking through these entities which only happens as scraps and leftovers. It takes We, The People, constantly and consistently calling out the big business media on a regular basis to force them to change. Or even better, permanently turning all of it off and throwing live broadcast television anything into the dumpster or digital trash bin. Comedian Bill Hicks said it best.
Since telling the truth gets you little to nowhere within an untrue society, the top down media now does the opposite of Seeking Truth and Report it, Minimizing Harm, Acting Independently, and Being Accountable and Transparent. They create false perceptions, maximizing harm, while acting on behalf of their financieres, in complete opacity. Because its centralized owned by the pyramid capstone hierarchy within commercial commerce, it only cares about other figures who are pyramid capstone hierarchical within commercial commerce. Thus, it generally focuses all its time on a single digit amount of people, one of whom will always be the commander and chief of the United States. The CEO of the corporation, and placating to them and whatever current administration. The run-up to the Iraq War was the most perfect example of this you could ask for. Where things that a 5 year old could tell were blatantly false become so ecco chambered by establishment media figures that the joker spirals of watching television make one think they’re in a carnival of funhouse distorted mirrors.
Those media figures, sitting behind on air desks, used to have journalistic integrity like Walter Cronkite or Murrow, but now they're just hard-core nationalists bobblehead talking point repeater puppets, who’s baby pool shallow depth of subject matter is on the same par with sports broadcasters and scorn any ideas that suggest their country is at fault for anything. The very suggestion that the United States of America might have done anything to provoke rational hatred against it by dropping a $50,000 bomb from a $19,000,000 plane which costs $6000/hr to operate on brown People in Yemen who make $1 per day is heresy to them.
Since real objective journalism must search out the truth in all instances no matter the subject, it can now only be found from obscure independent sources. Usually having to rely on bottom up crowdsource or subscription the same way the old school newspapers did. As the larger now digital newspapers have had to adapt their business model from exclusively just subscription, they and the large network news sources now make the majority of their revenue by traffic and clicks via dollars for advertisers. More clicks and page views, means more advertising revenue. The sad truth is that today's media is thus loyal only to spectacle, and conflagrations attract more eyeballs than in-depth analysis. One way to maximize that element, is by spreading fear. The two moons of Mars (if they are even physical bodies) are Phobos and Deimos. Which translates Fear and Terror.
It’s always wise to take precautions in turbulent times. As having some supplies on hand is never a bad idea. Not like a doomsday fear-based prepper but because homesteading will never go out of style. But constant fear based worry triggers the immune response and the daily barrage of untempered bad news is a kind of psychological warfare designed to keep people in a constant state of disempowerment, always looking to their “authorities” to tell them what’s going on and/or fix the problem.
It’s easy to feel stressed and buffeted by the turbulent events constantly playing out. At the time of this writing much of the world is under a media inspired umbrella of terror due to a world wide virus scare, creating more economic strain on bottom up small business and lower and middle classes that were already being redlined with economic instability and mandating increased social isolation in a post-truth compartmentalized Capitalist society that has for decades has been causing increased compartmentalization and social isolation.
Regardless of the severity of any situation, and whatever it’s origin, however illusory or true, global pandemic scares affect our minds way more than our bodies. With our various countrymen freaking out based on risks that are usually at least a smokescreen or at most not actually at all the real case. Knowing what’s really going on by having a plethora of valid information available through armies of outstanding journalists is key. For to accurately identify a problem is to half fix it. Yet, if an unreliable backwards media is pushing something, we must realize there’s more to the story. Most major world events have always had one side of the coin which were publically told, with the other side being hidden and oftentimes only de-occulted out of the forgotten shadows of history years later. A situation’s legitimacy is derived by no one having anything to gain, especially in terms of money and power collection. So seeing the big business stock market eat shit via mass fear means this might actually be another layer of mother nature pushing back. Yet, the tell that things are fishy is if each supposed solution draws the noose of tyranny much tighter around the necks of what has become an ignorant and gullible populace.
Charles Mackay was a Scottish poet, journalist, and author is remembered mainly for his book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Written in 1841, it chronicles various events that swept the masses into collective mania, such as the Mississippi Meltdown, the South Sea Bubble, and other striking examples of crowd psychology and the power of unchecked emotion. As human nature hasn’t changed over time, this book provides a head’s up with regard to how collective hysteria develops and is worth your time.
More than any other contagion, fear seems to be one of those very contagious emotions. The top down media knows this and thus they are a Phobos and Deimos generating machine. Anything that spreads fear is deeply suspect. For example, us burning fossil fuels is asinine and shows what an immature society we are as slaves to the fossil fuel and petrol chemical industries instead of moving in droves to cleaner forms of energy but same goes with climate DOOM. Something is a bit weird there. That doesn't mean we all need to sound like paid shills for the fossil fuel industry and say, “hey, it’s not man made at all and is just a ploy for a global carbon tax, burn as much carbon as you want!” because pollution, factory farming, and deforestation, all fueled by heavy amounts of pollution are FUBAR and regardless of climate change’s causes, bad diet, pollution, and stress are the core causes of mental and physical sickness in people and a green revolution would reduce those things regardless of climate being anthropocentric, natural, or both.
The brown revolution industrial hierarchical 20th century lifestyle that we were unsustainably drifting along with as mother earth fights back is collapsing and that is forward progress. This will be a time of turmoil and thus transformation, and our communities will need self-leadership. It’s all about surrender and trust. Even those of us that know the current way of living is wrong, that capitalism, inequity, ego and the battery farm of consciousness we live in is unsustainable, even then we still hold on. To the comfort zones, to micro changes, to wanting change and yet we collectively resist it. Until it is thrust upon us by our environment.
One can tell how healthy a culture is by how mentally and physically healthy its people are, how it treats mother nature and her inhabitants, the quality of the art it outputs, and how it treats real journalists. The human spirit is incredibly resilient and our traditional wisdoms have always sustained us. We have drifted so far from nature since the onslaught of the industrial and then commercial revolution, our bodies now reflect the imbalance, which is inevitable when we become divorced from nature’s laws. This makes us more vulnerable to physical and mental sickness because our inner terrain is compromised.
We will continue to have species' ego death and rebirth of the old and will have to embrace new ways of being which are really ancient ways of being. On a species level we are entering the medicine of trust, change, acceptance, and there is a gift deep in all this if we embrace it. Everything we know is falling away to make way for the new. We are in the chrysalis stage, when the caterpillar lets go, when it has to transform into the thing that is being born that it cannot even imagine. There is no other way forward to do this without jettisoning “mind killing” fear and terror. A rejection of Phobos and Deimos.
The hand of eternal progress is brushing the cobwebs from the corridors of time and is again revealing to the human race the mysteries of being. As there is "nothing new under the sun," the searchlight of Truth is bringing to light only what has been known to the few in all generations. The time has now come when the few must become the many. The whole world, from the least to the greatest, must know the Truth, so that man may understand the great laws that govern his life. He must learn to control his own destiny, to heal his own body and bring happiness to his own soul. Ignorance must vanish and understanding must be ushered in. Man is no longer to be governed by anything outside himself. Creeds, doctrines, churches, institutions, organizations, governments are all being changed to give place to the realization of the individual. There is a power in and through all that is working this great transformation. All that will not measure up to the standard must fall by its own weight; all that is in line with the Truth must still prosper. The time is at hand; we are in the greatest age of all history; we are in the age of the unifying of all people and all things into the "Ever Present One." "The temple not made with hands" is now being silently built by the emancipated souls of this planet.
The following is an attempt to explain what each soul must discover for himself, that he stands in the midst of an eternal creative power which presses itself around his own thought, and casts back to him glorified all that he thinks. If it awakens within the consciousness of one single individual the realization that the mind of the Universe (which is the only mind that there is) is his own mind; that the creative power of this mind is his also; that the manifestation of this mind is his own individuality; that the love and power and peace of this mind is within himself, it will not be written in vain. May it then do much in simplifying and bringing to light some of the deeper mysteries and meanings of life.
Ernest Shurtleff Holmes wrote these words on October 1, 1918 from his book Creative Mind and Success. A text which is very worth your time.
Holmes was an American New Thought writer, teacher, and leader. He was the founder of a Spiritual movement known as Religious Science, part of the greater New Thought movement, whose spiritual philosophy is known as "The Science of Mind."
Much like Neville Goddard, Holmes taught New Thought in a Christian context in his church, so hence the heaviness of the use of the word “God” here. It’s always nice to see someone who claims they are a Cristian actually embodying the teachings of Christianity. Which Holmes often did and is quite rare. Although, like everyone, he was not perfect, his legacy lives on in a beneficial way to many. Peeking at some of the online presence of those who
continue to share his writings, it’s all about truth, strength, contentment, healing, love, reason, proactivity, empowerment, joy, etc... It’s not about putting bible passages on sniper scopes, stoning women, anti-gay picketing, or putting up prison guard tower walls around Palestine like you see from de-spiritualized religious fundamentalists.
The primary teaching of New Thought is that physical form is created by a Universal Mind, or as Holmes would say, God, which manifests, or literally reflects, the dominant system of all living persons. In his book, the Science of Mind, Holmes described this force as:
There is a Universal Mind, Spirit, Intelligence, that is the origin of everything: It is First Cause. It is God. This Universal Life and Energy finds an outlet in and through all that is energized, and through everything that lives.
Holmes argued that human beings have access to the power of this Universal Mind by directing their thoughts, in particular, their contention about the present or the future. In his book, he described this as follows:
Experience has taught us that the subjective tendency of this intelligent Law of creative force may consciously be directed and definitively used. This is the greatest discovery of all time.
In his book, the Science of Mind, Holmes explains how it is possible to direct this power by controlling one's thoughts. A sustained belief in a particular outcome will invariably create that outcome. In other words, good events proceed from thoughts of good while evil events proceed from thoughts of evil. In the Science of Mind, Holmes emphasized the importance of focusing in the long term on the good:
Never look at that which you do not wish to experience. No matter what the false condition may be, it must be refuted. The proper kind of denial is based upon the recognition that, in reality, there is no limitation, for Mind can as easily make a planet as an acorn. The Infinite knows no difference between a million dollars and a penny. It only knows that IT IS.
In order to get results, Holmes emphasized that it was necessary to think one specific thought, with complete certainty. If one is continually thinking different thoughts, the Universal Mind will not have a dominant belief that it can manifest, or create, in the physical world. Holmes explained this idea as follows, in his book, Creative Mind:
So plastic is mind, so receptive, that the slightest thought makes an impression upon it. People who think many kinds of thought must expect to receive a confused manifestation in their lives. If a gardener plants a thousand kinds of seeds, he will get a thousand kinds of plants; it is the same in mind.
Man is surrounded by a great universal thought power which returns to him always just as he thinks. So plastic, so receptive is this mind, that it takes the slightest impression and moulds it into conditions. There are two things in man which his thought affects, his body and his environment. At all times he is given absolute control over these two things, and from the effect of his thought upon them he cannot hope to escape.
At first, being ignorant of this fact, he binds himself by a misuse of the laws of his being; but as he begins to see that he himself is responsible for all that comes to him on the path of life, he begins to control his thought, which in its turn acts on the universal substance to create for him a new world.
The great soul is learning more and more to dare to fling out into mind a divine idea of himself, and to see himself perfect and whole.
Wise words from over 100 years ago at the time of this recording. Even if much of new thought scientifically is proven to be bollocks, and that has yet to happen, it’s still great training for being a proactive glass half full person who looks on the bright side of life, treating all encounters and obstacles with the realizations of abundance in their life. For even if brining event into manifestation by causative thoughts is actually not the case, one is still a nicer person in the process, at very least.
Is new thought perfect? Of course not. One could criticize only focusing on good as being new agey with the ostrich sticking its head in the sand to hide. Shadow and negativity must be looked at, acknowledge and worked through. For knowledge of a problem is half the solution, and we learn more from the yin than we do the yang. In our own lives and in the aggregate. For example, a group of Christian dogmatists who completely refuse to acknowledge or even consider the anthropogenic aspects of climate change. Or individually, Holmes himself had said “I believe in the healing of the sick through the power of the Mind. I believe in the control of conditions through the power of the Mind.” So, can you simply heal stage four cancer by thinking it will be all good. Of course not. Or can you?
In the East, especially in China, it’s common for elders to not be told by their doctors that they have a terminal disease, for when the scientific modern medicine diagnosis is revealed to the patient, it’s become known culturally that the vast majority of the time the patient will die quicker. The 2019 film The Farewell is a story focused around this dynamic. Although quite controversial in China, one could say that there is a reason this practice has been adopted over the generations. Because it works, for faith and love are dominant positive thoughts while fear is a dominant negative thought. There are also visualization exercises one can do to help alleviate disease from the body. Visualizing darkness or blackness in the affected areas and re-occurringly meditating on seeing and feeling it be purged from within. That is way more esoterically powerful than sitting in your hospital room sulking staring out
the window in depression or anger or regret. In likelihood, it’s probably a multistage approach. Where diet and exercise also play crucial roles, combined with certain potential holistic or drug based applications also factoring in, with positive thoughts being another layer to the puzzle. But a key layer at that.
One final note here, especially important to note for the ladies. It’s very common when reading old texts to have them framed in the language of what at first glance seems to be male dominated language. Stating this “God” character as a male, always speaking of mankind as “man” and saying only “he” and never “she”. The Webster’s 1828 definition of man is Mankind; the human race; the whole species of human beings; beings distinguished from all other animals by the powers of reason and speech, as well as by their shape and dignified aspect. So this of course speaks to both women and men when saying man on equal footing. It’s not uncommon for actresses these days to actually prefer the title of actor. Which in the classic definition is gender neutral. There is a benefit to this thinking because it jettisons the misguided use of the etymology of the feminine spelled by adding additional letters to the masculine. Such as wo-man adding to man, or fe-male adding letters to male, or s-he adding letter to he. Implying the male came first and the woman came second. So the words mankind or man are intended to give originality to both simultaneously. What a beautiful thing.
Do you think its of the utmost importance to ask questions? Why is something done this way? How can we improve what’s not working well? Have you ever noticed how rarely multiple questions are asked of you by others in conversation? How much of your life is spent around boring and uninteresting people? Too much? Do you feel energetically drained or amplified around certain individual non player bot characters within the system?
At the time of this writing the holidays have just occurred. During this time it's customary for us to spend time with folks we may not see that often. Extended family, friends back in town, etc... Many of them will talk about shit. Saying little to nothing about anything. Discussing small town and thus likely, but not always, small mindedness, or maybe their work dynamics, or perhaps which shows their watching to be entertained. Maybe there will be some room splitting discussions of politics or religion. But every once in a while, you might have a conversation about something that is not within the narrow canyons of average thought. In order to have one of those conversations, it cannot be unilateral, if you know that word - being any doctrine or agenda that supports one-sided action. It must be a reciprocal discussion, of give and take, statement and question, to rise up out of a shallow canyon and see some level of horizon.
It always makes me question why in these real social dynamics, how few folks actually ask you questions about yourself. We know due to the massive narcissism epidemic, many just want to talk about themselves and what’s going on in their own lives, perhaps not even tracking how much the others in the conversation are interested in what they are saying. For to keep another pair of ears interested during a discussion at a party, or around a dinner table, or even in a work environment, the speaking party must not just project, but also be willing to receive. Their ears must function as much if not more than their mouth. For we have two ears and one mouth and they are to be used proportionately. This entails asking multiple if not frequent questions of others.
Asking questions means you're interested. You care. In reality, many non player characters of normality don’t really care beyond perhaps the standard, “what have you been up to?” surface level inquiry. Questions breed curiosity. They help you learn. The answers feed you information and help you establish a
growth mindset in life. In most social situations, surface level questions may be peppered a bit, but deeper and real questions are rare. This can be because of a fear based mindset, and fear breeds contempt. In the professional workplace especially its common for new recruits to be scared to ask because the moment they ask reveals they don’t know something. In that environment, this will surely be to a potential group of onlookers, fellow students or colleagues. Yet, wanting to know is will engagement. A put forth or effort to show you want that growth based improvement, and that you care.
I have some distant acquaintances, who could be called family members, who don’t ask each other much. Their more than happy to ramble on about the dynamics of what’s going on in their small town. Such as “hey there’s a new teller at the bank”. It’s small town and often but not always small mind syndrome. They ask a bit of each other who they see periodically or once in person at most per year, but they have a general attitude to not pry. For it would be thought of as being too nosy. Due to this bland brain dynamic within their family, which is one of putting in a basic minimum effort, they don’t know that much about each other. I ask them questions about their relationships and social situations and they can’t answer those questions about one another. Let alone know anything more personal about their family members such as their hidden struggles, potential depressions, or even the broad brush strokes of their financial situations. And these are siblings who over the years have drifted apart and are just not that close to one another. They certainly don’t know much about me as a distant family member, who will always stay distant to them. Which is probably a good thing since they have some religious dogma and I could be said to be an occultist or at the very least am someone with occult interests. Their none inquisitive nature does feel to me like they simply just don’t care about learning that much about yours truly, but from their narrower, shallower, and less sophisticated point of view, it’s because they seem to think that others will just tell them things without them having to ask.
As we get more developed, strong willed, and independent, we save the answers to the deepest questions for those who really have the ears to ear. This is of course old knowledge dating back all the way to the ancient mystery traditions. For the deepest answers require the deepest questions and the profane are not developed enough to even be able to ask deep questions. Those that have some level of answer for those questions, learn to not volunteer the information, unless it’s worth transmitting to one who can accept, process, and do something with the data. So I in my life have learned to volunteer almost nothing unless
it’s asked of me. Regarding anything. Basic day to day activities, advantageous things learned, new cool discoveries, and certainly also regarding matters of perennial philosophy as Manly P. Hall Called it or Ageless wisdom as Paul Foster Case called it.
The advice “don’t explain or complain” is an old adage which when first examined may seem a bit off or inaccurate. For reactionary complaining is not going to get you anywhere in any dynamic, as a Virgo I know this. For a problem with Virgo’s is they can be very whiny and needy. So knowledge of that can help you work on an area of potential weakness. But explaining why you did something is good correct? Only if it’s asked of you. Explanations are best followed by questions, in a teacher student relationship.
Can you tell us more? Sure will do... For a period of time, I lived at a quit upscale and non-dumpy trailer park while working on fixing up a house. This was in our small 20 foot silver Airstream trailer. If you’re not familiar with what that is, just picture a giant silver Twinkie. They are very well made rigs, and we always worked to keep it clean and our space the same. Minimalist. Japanese tidy. Clean space for a clean mind. There was another rig or coach, as their also often times called, which looked quite old and junky just a couple spaces away. Not well maintained, weathered, cardboard over some of the windows, a couple of the wheels removed propped up on cinder blocks, an old shed behind it, etc... It was one of the few rigs in the trailer park which looked like the owners had been living there full time for a very long time out of necessity and not by choice or just because they were passing through on a road trip adventure. I had seen one of the owners walking about here and there on occasion, an old timer who looked like he would be old man Winters who owned the haunted amusement park out of an episode of Scooby Doo. Disheveled with mad scientist hair. The one and only interaction I ever had with him was a brief few line exchange, where he did not inquire with me in any way, asking get to know you questions, because he didn’t care, but instead the second sentence out of his mouth was to make a comment about how he could never afford to do something. So he instantly defined himself to me by his scarcity (which is really his perceived scarcity) and what he couldn't do. He over explained, without me asking, in a reactionary way, his life baggage to a complete stranger and I was able to instantly tell he was a debtor, in a less than ideal living situation because of his frame of mind.
This is a similar classic dynamic to bad date syndrome. Where a guy and gal are at a restaurant and the woman is a blabbermouth valley girl Chatty Cathy doll, unilaterally explaining away all aspects of various social minutia of her life without the reciprocation of ever wanting to know anything about the man she’s supposedly there to get to know. As many men know, shallow women just want to talk about themselves, so talking to unsophisticated women in social environments, which 99.999% of the time take place in dens of alcohol distribution, can far too often consists of just listening by nodding and looking interested. So for how much dating sucks, it’s still good practice for becoming a better listener.
Another instance at the trailer park involved me bringing my two small dogs over to the pool in the height of balls hot summer. It was 100+ degrees so it would have been irresponsible to leave them in the rig which would essentially be like leaving them in a hot car. No one else was at the rather nice little pool with an unfortunate ugly chain link fence around it. So I brought the dogs in and tide them up in the corner in the shade. A few minutes later, an employee from the trailer park came out and told me I couldn't have the dogs in the pool area. My response was “why?” He gave the usual non player character “company policy” response which is euphemistic code for, the owner decided so, or a group of people sitting around a table at the high level of this skyscraper decide so. The second I asked him “could you please explain or elaborate on that?” he couldn’t. His statement fell apart. There was no more intellectual depth there.
For there is massive power in asking why. Play the why game with anyone as see how quickly they can’t answer. It’s usually after two or three rounds. “Why do I have to go to church?” “Because we said so”. But “Why?” “Because we always have and it’s the way it has to be.” “How do you even know god is real?” “Shut up kid, just believe.”
By asking “why”, you set up your mind to be ready for change. Youngsters who ask why have a bright future ahead if they continue asking why into adulthood. Always needing to know the “why’s” through life make one much more powerful and leads to increased sovereignty. Breaking through the shallow glass ceilings of meaningful and uncomfortable questions that many people want to say, but don’t know how. It is the predecessor of future lives of depth free of dogmas. For asking is a great stimulator to get deeper into anyone’s thought processes. One major head cracking along our life’s journeys, is as we mature continuing to
ask questions, we come to the realization that very few people have any real answers.
To go further down the rabbit hole, every exchange you have in life is an offer and acceptance. A contract. In commerce is you ask questions, you remain, powerful, a king. If you frame everything as a question, you remain in honor, without arguing, or going silent, and are essentially offering a conditional acceptance to the offer. Which it puts the conditional acceptance back on the other party to answer. “Do you know why I pulled you over today”, “I’m not sure officer, can you please inform?”, “you were speeding.” “Was I speeding and do you have proof of my speed?”, “I have it on radar.” “Can I see the radar readout please?” “Sure.” “Can I also see some identification please?”, “Why do you need to see my identification?”, “Are you refusing to identify yourself?”
If one gives respect, and stands in honor, without being argumentative, questions have huge power. As shown from this example. Especially in a court of law. Which is a game inside a court as much as a tennis court is a game within a court. A fantastic cultural reference of this appears in a scene in the 1990 Monty Python film Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Here’s the scene in its entirety.
Now here, whoever continues asking questions, without making statements, wins the game don’t they? Statement 0-1. This is because asking questions remains you in honor as a creditor, while making statements is being an argumentative debtor. If you go through life arguing, not questioning much of anything, that’s not going to be a very fulfilling life.
In spiritual teachings there is the dynamic of cataphatic and apophatic. With cataphatic being directly telling and apophatic being attained by negation. Putting the question back on the student and getting them to have to figure it out for themselves. I once spent numerous weeks with a teacher of mine. 1 on 1. The more I probed, the more he talked. At one point he highlighted how outstanding it was that I was asking so many questions and quality ones at that. Why? Because I listened and asked the right questions. Being given answers that I knew would then require change.
I Started a podcast so I could ask people who I was interested in questions, in order to learn more about then, their processes, and what makes them tick in order to then see that reflecting within myself. To fill what at the time I couldn't vocalize but certainly just felt was a void that was resultant by others that hadn’t asked me those similar things. Which has been very enriching, fulfilling, intellectually stimulating, and perhaps prevented me from committing seppuku years ago. And as a trade off, relationships have been built which consist of others doing sending that same energy my way. Using me as a source to be able to answer some questions. With deep insights shared, knowledge being learned, and then things upon those discussions being built.
The quality of your life is the quality of your questions. Never stop asking questions. Never stop looking for knowledge. Never discount who will provide you the answers. There will be disappointment along the way, its natural but it should not be due to lack of effort from your side. My dear friend James Ferran said it best when he mentioned, truly listening is a great gift that you can give someone on their journey.
This essay will be discussing the barbaric practice of male circumcision which if you’ve had done to you, was due to your father continuing the cycle of pain which was done to him.
As you can tell from that statement this will not have professional journalistic objectivity nor will it be from the standpoint of a watch what I say medical professional. But instead as someone who is quite passionate about this issue because of being constantly mind boggled at how many people who still are so ignorant to this practice, by knowing the benefits of never having part of my dick cut off, and also having a wife who is in the field of Obstetrics and Gynecology who occasionally has direct unhappy stories regarding this subject because her partner in her practice sadly placates to it. Bearing witness to the screams of a freshly circumcised baby which are like nothing you’ve ever heard. Welcome to the 3D realm newborn. Hahaha!
So what does this particular topic has to do with an overlying theme of these essays? It’s an issue of physical consciousness. Also a deconstruction of one of the wrongs of religion’s dogma through spiritual philosophy. This is being penned and spoken on to raise awareness about because the amount of people who live in the US who still think this is normal not to mention acceptable to do to a child is staggering. It’s also extra good for the beautiful devine ladies to hear because women don't of course have reference points on this and may have only had interaction with non natural male genitalia and thus blindly follow their husbands in regards to making this decision for their own sons.
This will also be the most X rated reality tunnel essay to date so if you have sensitive ears about things related to sexy time, slang about our anatomy, and detailed descriptions of how it works, definitely turn this off now. It will also hopefully inject some comedy interwoven as an attempt to bypass any conditioning systems. Some of it you might consider to be TMI, too much info, but we must be specific and detailed to understand overstand the issue. It may also be a bit contentious and thus controversial because like your thoughts on abortion, both are very tied in with people's belief systems, otherwise known as their indoctrination systems. We do honor and respect the 10% of religion which at its esoteric core is beautiful and shares wonderful allegorical life stories. But the following will highlight some religious practices which go way too far up koo koo creek.
Male circumcision is the removal of the foreskin from the human penis. Most males throughout the world are not circumcised. With the exception of parts of the Middle East, Africa, Israel, and the United States because this unnecessary practice stems primarily from Judaism and Muslim faiths and has had splash damage to other non-Jews and Muslims in those countries from the waves of those rocks dropped in the pond. In the last half century the rates of it have been dropping as the species has become a bit more conscious to its horribleness. It is primarily an exclusively religious ritual, although it is actually quite rare in Mexico for example, so Catholicism gets an extremely surprisingly warranted pat on the back for that. It has always been quite sparse in Europe and its past colonies, because they got through much of their holy warring many centuries ago while the Middle East, Africa, Israel, and the United States are still a bit in the sandbox of maturity around low resonate exoteric dogma running much of their politics and beliefs. For example, a woman named Paula White, a televangelist pastor from the state of Florida doesn't know anything about spirituality and is the spiritual advisor to the current President of the United States. By the way, have you ever noticed that the word belief, which much like alien, has lie in the middle of the word? As in your being told a lie.
At the time of this writing, 2019, according to the false Roman calendar as opposed to the lunisolar calendar, which follows both moon phases and the time of the solar year dating back to at least the 2nd century AD, and had to be banned by the Romans as it indicated obvious druidic practices, in America there are still many folks who circumcised standard operating procedure to a beautiful male newborn. Most people that are pro-circumcision don't even really know why and if they think they do it's based off of ultra weak and flawed superstitions. These opponents of un-intact penises, claim circumcision is done for numerous reasons, one of which is health and hygiene purposes. Back in the day, in the dark ages and into Victorian era Europe, most people didn’t shower much. Hygiene was not good. So women got heinous yeast infections which stunk up the whole room and guys would get this gross white cheese buildup in the foreskin of their dicks cause they didn't shower for weeks on end. It’s called smegma. Both sexes often also had greasy long Tales from the Cripkeeper hair and would go days with of poo caked on their buttholes and didn't change their underwear much. A classic example of hygiene misuse is when the new settlers came over to rape and pillage the Americas, the native americans (who they backwards called savages) were quite clean and the europeans off the ships stunk hellishly awful. So smelling like the mentally Ill homeless vagrant who might be seen hanging out at Venice Beach in Los Angeles today was somewhat standard operating procedure for many Europeans of the time.
Weather 500 years ago or today, if a little male kid refuses to shower for about a week, there is a possibility of the milky cheesy smegma building up inside the foreskin, (wine and cheese with crackers anyone?) but that’s essentially the male version of the common female yeast infection and we are not advocating cutting off women’s vagina levia for that are we? So this hygiene argument might have made a shred of since then, but regardless of time period or even the invention of soap in ancient Babylon and Egypt, one could always go jump in a lake or river to clean off. As hygiene has improved all these problems went away if one so chose to adopt daily cleaning to thus not have hippie stink. Yet bizarrely, today, as most people shower regularly there is still this urban legend misguided superstition that circumcision is important for hygiene. Saying that you need to cut off foreskin for hygiene is so nonsensical it’s like saying you need to cut off your ears because of a small possibility of ear wax build up instead of regular soap scrubbing and using the occasional cue tip.
Another common ultra weak argument in favor of non-intact circumcised penis is aesthetics. Not to sound like the sinister child traffickers who operate in the shadows of politics and entertainment who send out weird coded e-mails and tweets, but it’s important to give some details for evolution of growth, uncircumcised prepubescent little boy penis does look weird. When a boy is a baby, the size of his penis to his body is really tiny, and the foreskin typically looks extra long. A bit like an anteater's nose or the nose of the character from the 1980’s American sitcom series Alf. With extra rolls of skin that hang down beyond the tiny shaft and look super wrinkly. Almost like a penis with some sort of extra larval extension attached. Since so many men in the US in the baby boomer generation had been circumcised that they have gotten used to rarely seeing a penis the way nature made it, an 80’s high school slang nickname for an intact, uncircumcised penis became Alf Nose.
The foreskin is a sheath that the head of the penis sits inside for protection against day to day activity. As a male gets older and hits puberty, it’s no shock his dick gets bigger, and the foreskin becomes less predominant. So even though most women think most dicks look weird regardless of being circumcised or uncircumcised, these comments around improved aesthetics become obsolete regardless when a boy becomes a man because his dick gets longer and his foreskin gets shorter because the two typically don’t grow proportionally. As we know, everyone’s physicality and geometry is a bit different, dicks vary in size and foreskins can vary a bit in size. The soft flaccid penis (your everyday, to and fro positioning) of any uncircumcised male in day to day life, typically looks like the circumcised one, with the head usually partially or fully visible. With only a minor remaining flap of skin covering the hat of the head.
Removing the foreskin from a pediatric penis has much larger effects for the adult penis. Let’s say we were watching the show Game of Thrones and were all about being in front of flaccid full grown man’s penises. A cut and uncut crotch of two identical sized men would be almost identical in terms of style. Except intact penisis have a nice flesh look from the head to the shaft, un-intact ones usually have a darker purple head. This is due to keratinization. A hardening similar to fingernails and hair. Which causes that skin to be highly desensitized. So if you are circumcised, you have a much less sensitized head of your dick cause its been rubbing around inside your armor your whole life without its natural protective cover. One very common difference is the head of the intact penis will be soft and healthy looking and the un-intact circumcised one in a best case scenario will be dry and rigid and likely slightly bulgy looking around the head. In less than ideal circumcision operations it will also perhaps have a discoloration scar on the shaft below the head or in a botched circumcision, there is a floating bridge of skin that connects the head to the shaft or even a ringed canyon lumpy unevenness to the shaft, or in an absolute worst case scenario the complete loss of the organ. Just type botched circumcision into a non safe search engine if you want to see photographic evidence of these staggeringly unfortunate events.
As a male gets aroused, which happens quite often, and the penis becomes erect, the foreskin slides down the shaft and looks identical as an un-intact circumcised one. However, the head can still slide in and out of the foreskin. This is wonderful for masterbation. An intact penis can be masterbated very easily. An un-intact circumcised one must use lubricants. There are larger spiritual implications on masterbation and the expulsion of the sexual energy. The serpent is an esoteric symbol of the inner kundalini energy which can be transmuted if that energy is saved. But the 10,000 foot on masterbation, specifically male masterbation, is that it’s perfectly healthy up to a point. And like anything in life, if abused or overused, through extensive animal lust, can be a detrimental process. It’s no wonder the internet has made pornography so ubiquitous these days, where every teenager has exposure to it just a few clicks away.
What circumcision is really about however is a dulling of sexual gratification but even more so a determinant to male masterbation from uptight and staunch religious zealots who in a grossly off balanced way advocate zero mastubation claiming the practice is a complete sin. Foreskin has millions of sensitive nerve endings. More than any other part of the body. If you have a foreskin, all you have to do to jack off, squeeze one out, masterbate, etc is pull your foreskin back and forth. No lube required. You also keep heightened sensitivity your whole life so the process is easier and quicker than if you are masturbating circumcised.
The foreskin is thus an important and functional body part, protecting the head of the penis from injury and aiding in moisture and lubrication. Circumcision also diminishes sexual pleasure later in life. If you are circumcised you are also desensitized, which carries over into being more difficult for your partner in sex. Since male foreskin acts as a moisture retention for the female during intercourse. Holding in wetness during the outward part of each sexual trust. So it helps women stay wet longer and allows the males advanced to be more gentle. Rather than potential deep dick thrusting which likely more only benefits the male and can oftentimes be painful for the female as her natural moistness is reduced and causes hard chafing. So if you're listening to this while cut thinking, he man I’ve had no problems in my sex life with what you speak of, do relize your sex would feel even better if you had your foreskin. Not too mention not living up to your masterbatorual capability. So it’s kind of like you won't ever be able to know what your missing. If you’re a father who has had your son cut you have effectively made his life of potential wonderful balanced and infrequent masterbastion not as grand. So cut off the tips of his fingertips while your at it.
Claims that circumcision prevents HIV have repeatedly been proven to be trivial. STD’s in general are spread through the pineal opening or through infected skin contact, regardless of how much skin is there or if something is trapped in small rolls of skin. Only abstinence or safe sex, including the use of condoms, can prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Some of which are the gifts that keep on giving. On this note, when you’re in college and people are passing around a pot pipe or bong, think twice before you take a hit off that thing. As oral herpes can be transmitted by sharing a pipe, drink, or even a kiss.
To focus a bit more on the Judaistic aspect of this, because Judaism is basically ground zero for this practice, we find its origin in the book of Genesis. Just 17 chapters into the Torah, Abraham receives a strange command from God: You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. No reason given other than, as God says, it will be a sign of the Eternal covenant between God and Abraham and all of his descendants. The text makes it clear that circumcision must occur on the eighth day of life and falls to every Jewish male. No exception. Those who choose not to obey this commandment, continues their patriarchal God, will be cut off from the Jewish people for breaking this sacred agreement. Abraham. The same Abraham who later accepts God’s command to take his son, Isaac, on a three day camping trip and sacrifice him. Without asking a single question. (Spoiler Alert: For those who have yet to read the story, Isaac lives.) Nor does Abe ask any questions about circumcising himself and committing all future generations to the same act. Not. A. Single. Question. We, on the other hand, have plenty of questions. Starting with “why?”
According to Jewish law, which like all Abrahamic religions has some good things and some ridiculously immature and infantile things, the foreskin should be buried after a brit milah. The rite is considered of such importance that in Orthodox communities, the body of an uncircumcised Jewish male will sometimes be circumcised before burial. They will literally circumcise a corpse.
On the absolutely weirdest and even more bonkers than that front. Many of you may know but it has to be mentioned, there is a ritual within some ultra orthodox jewish faiths where a baby is circumcised and then the Rabbi will take a sip of alcohol and literally blow the child briefly, in the creepy mouth raping child fucking pedo since. For what they claim is a disinfectant by putting alcohol to the fresh wound. But why deliver it orally? Remember the gift that keeps on giving which we just mentioned? Oral herpes, which is yes, incurable and with you for life, there have been cases of infants contracting herpes from their rabbi’s. So this ultra crazy process is a clear example of too much religion. In some indigenous cultures they do even weirder things with young boys which they also consider normal. So go figure.
A teacher of mine once said “Does a God who has conceived and born intimate witness to all manifestation and life throughout the vast multi-dimensional realms of ineffable splendor – over countless aeons and through infinite iterations of mind-boggling dynamic evolution – really care what individual human beings choose to eat, drink, wear, say or believe? Let alone what they choose to do with their genitals? I would suggest that the answer is no. God doesn’t mind at all. Not even a tiny little bit.”
My wife had a Jewish lesbian couple as patients who you would think would be less old fashioned and a bit more hip to new change and society software upgrades. Yet they still had their son circumcised! To really put this in perspective think about female circumcision, as most often practiced in Africa. How would we feel if a gay male couple wanted to circumcised their daughter like they do in Africa with a unsanitary or even sanitary razor blade? One can compare the male foreskin as being the male equivalent of the female clitorus. So if you are cutting of your son’s foreskin you are cutting off your daughter’s clit. Every female is a woman on the outside and a male on the inside. Ever male is a man on the outside and a woman on the inside. This is not only in terms of esoteric qualities and emotions but has physical aspects as well. Men have nipples for example which are not functional. Women’s clitoriouses are basically a little female dick, and those vary in size by the way, as a real hermaphrodite will likely have a vagina with a large clit that’s basically a little mirco-penis in front of it, and men have a female clit in their butt which is their prostate. This is why gay men enjoy anal sex because of the stimulation in that area of the prostate, so this is why it apparently it feels better in the butt for dudes then it does for the gals. Aren't you glad you’re learning this information?
Also esoterically, the removal of the foreskin is the physical aspect of the male that is the inner and outer labia and the symbolic allegory of the divine feminine being removed. Which happens from Judisim and Islam which exoterically are surprise, surprise, patriarchal. There are many physical reasons beyond this such as keeping the illusion of an erect penis on the male from birth and to keep them sex driven and thus expelling the fluids from the spine and brain to keep them from ever waking up as they "spill their seed" every chance they get. So the penis foreskin is the physical allegory of the divine feminine shorn from that being.
It is a sacred act that binds our sons and daughters to the thousands of generations who preceded them, and the generations to follow. Patriarchal lies and refusal of orthodoxy to admit that something from its past has been wrong, to acknowledge that is to acknowledge that it and perhaps more of its shaky dogmas may be wrong as well.
Freedom of religion is not freedom to ignore human rights. Whatever the rationale, forced removal of healthy genital tissue from any child – male or female – is unethical. Boys have the same right as girls to an intact body, and to be spared this inhumane, unnecessary surgery which they were too young to consent too. Thus many who oppose the permanent alteration of children's genitals do so because they believe in universal human rights.
Plastic surgery at a consenting age is a wonderful modern technological privilege for correcting damage from accidents and terrible injuries. Scars, burns, etc… Doing it cosmetically is a slippery slope. If a young person’s self esteem is heavily hindered by jug ears, a large hook nose, or a labiaplasty because the inner and outer folds of her vulva are so large her crotch bump creates a self esteem issue around wearing her yoga pants and a procedure can help that, then fair enough and there is still a place for the use of this technology cosmetically. Especially if it helps a young adult have higher self esteem about their physicality. But those who have had unnecessary or excessive plastic surgery are doing it because they are externally manifesting their internal mental damage and sickness. Just look and the face of the “spiritual” advisor mentioned earlier. Circumcision is basically no different.
All children, regardless of their ethnicity or culture, have the right to be protected from bodily harm and cutting a baby’s genitals creates immediate health risks. There is no link between circumcision and better health and their is no reason to cut anything off from a newborn other than the umbilical cord. Or let if fall of naturally for that matter. Call this what you want, a rant, a soapbox, a preach, a high horse, if this has done an ever so slight part to help make inquisitive minds think more and thus hopefully be able to feel a little more, then it’s helping those with ears to hear. Do please stop this cycle if this was done to you. As there is nothing more wonderful than a man who was circumcised choosing to not carry that onto his own sons.
