Siamese Mirrors

The Love and how to Reach it.

2011-02-10T06:34:00.000-08:00

True Community-Why and How?

2011-01-16T14:06:00.000-08:00

Over the past year, I have been getting to know a group known as “The Community”. About 20 individuals live closely together in two houses, on 5 acres with gardens, outbuildings, storage areas and a classroom; there is also a sister group in New Mexico of about 30 individuals, where they have achieved almost total self-sufficiency. The group’s Teacher is a student of Gurdjieff who has created a framework for community around his teachings and modified the ideas around movement and dance, for the purpose of awakening and channeling vital energy, to include a running focus. As part of this process, Yo has taken some very ordinary humans and turned them into world class champion runners, specializing in winning “ultra-marathons” (races of 50 to 100 miles).

Every dinner is prepared by a small team and then eaten together as a group in the evening. Everyone eats the same food as everyone else, with no exceptions. There are daily/weekly schedules of work and recreational activities – everyone has a role and plays their part without objection. If someone decides they don’t want to be a part of the daily routine, they will leave the group. Bottom line, I have found this group to be an inspiration, and they have formed a very successful community through their daily practices of ego surrender and an unwavering focus on service to each other.

“...tens of thousands of small communities all over the world are trying to experiment with new ways of life, but most of them are failing...There is a need to associate... but unless a group or community has a higher purpose it is not possible for it to have equilibrium. If it is not a work group, it cannot maintain itself, because then the disruptive forces have nothing to balance them...if people say that there is something to be done, and if they all know that for it to be done it requires a community, then it can work...”

Needs of a New Age Community, J.G. Bennett, 1977

About 2.5 years ago, I decided I wanted to join a “community” that was centered in the place founded by my Teacher. I spent over $100K building a home at the Farm and was so busy with that project and running my own business in another State that I failed to notice something really important – the “community” I thought I was joining wasn’t any kind of cohesive group organized around the teachings at all, but more like a loosely organized “neighborhood”. After months of observation, and then being confronted with a basis for comparison through "The Community" described above, I suddenly realized there was no organized focus on living or learning the teachings, very few scheduled work activities with full participation expected from all the beneficiaries of the labors of a core group, not even agreement from many of the residents about why they were even living there (other than cheap rent!), and membership in the School our Teacher founded is no longer even required to take up residence. Our teacher even talked about the exact situation that has evolved since he passed on:

“...a group does not mean just an aggregation of persons on the ‘objective’ level. An aggregation of persons does not constitute a group. When an aggregation of persons on the ‘objective’ level has a cause or an interest held in common, and provided that they are all working for a purpose or cause or interest, there will emerge out of that aggregation of persons a ‘group spirit’. But an aggregation of persons where all are at sixes-and-sevens with each other will never form a group – never!”

--Excerpt from Membership Letters by Vitvan

Why is any of this relevant or even important here at Siamese Mirrors? Because I believe Les Visible has the right ideas about forming a group of like-minded individuals who are no longer interested in playing a mindless part in the current scheme of things – a group of capable, functional people who want a better, more sustainable existence and who want to feel like they are part of something with a higher purpose. Les outlined some good ideas about forming a “working group” in the post labeled ‘Getting Serious About Our Potential’ on 12/15/10:

“... a residential community with artistic and agrarian aspects devoted to a general consciousness raising and melding for the purpose of unveiling potential and realizing it, as well as having a good time... a teaching environment and a learning environment, without any specific or hierarchal separations as to the roles or importance of them... this community will possess living areas and the usual amenities along with a commercial kitchen and the various spin-offs that come out of it. It will have some land for growing things and various educational and recreational possibilities... This community should not only be self-sustaining but show a certain amount of profit in every available area...”

The vision as described by Visible appears to have potential to succeed, because it will be started from individuals who share similar viewpoints and clear awareness about the present worldly scheme of things along witha desire for a more spiritual existence, who will be working together to create something fresh and real. There are those of us who are very aware of a strong spiritual influence which is making us clearly see that things are not as they should be. It is past time to start cooperating with this Force and become its instruments of power and constructive change. However, as Bennett discusses in his book, it is not enough to form a viable community where the participants ‘tolerate’ each other and “live together because they have an interesting and diversified life. Beyond that, it is necessary to give all of us the confidence that there is a ‘higher power’, a spiritual power working in the world with which we can cooperate, that is helping us, that is concerned with the future of mankind...”

“Man didn’t come into this world for nothing. Man is an extraordinary achievement that has required long and difficult preparation. This achievement is not complete. It would be quite a considerable cosmic disaster if this experiment with man on this earth were to fail, and for this reason much is being done to prevent this experiment from failing – not because man deserves to survive, but because he is really needed.” (J.G. Bennett, Page 89)

In closing, I would highly recommend the referenced book by J.G. Bennett and general study of “Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way” to anyone who is truly interested in learning what it really takes to build a successful “community”. And, for those of us who have expressed an interest or feel drawn towards helping Les Visible make his vision a reality – each of us should ask ourselves, “what can I do right now to get this started?” The tire-kickers over at The New Shangri-La don't appear to be going anywhere, they probably just signed up to see what was going on – we need to form that “core group” that Visible talks about NOW.

As Vitvan once said, “the greatest boon in treading the path is to have the support of a group. Preserve it and cherish it if you ever get it...!”

Spiritual Basis of Nonviolent Communication

2011-01-11T11:49:00.000-08:00

A Question and Answer Session with Marshall B. Rosenberg, Ph.D.

Is spirituality important in the process of Nonviolent Communication?

I think it is important that people see that spirituality is at the base of Nonviolent Communication, and that they learn the mechanics of the process with that in mind. It’s really a spiritual practice that I am trying to show as a way of life. Even though we don’t mention this, people get seduced by the practice. Even if they practice this as a mechanical technique, they start to experience things between themselves and other people they weren’t able to experience before. So eventually they come to the spirituality of the process. They begin to see that it’s more than a communication process and realize it’s really an attempt to manifest a certain spirituality. So I have tried to integrate the spirituality into the training in a way that meets my need not to destroy the beauty of it through abstract philosophizing.

What does God mean to you?

I need a way to think of God that would work for me, other words or ways to look at this beauty, this powerful energy, and so my name for God is “Beloved Divine Energy.” For a while it was just Divine Energy but then I was reading some of the Eastern religions, and Eastern poets, and I loved how they had this personal, loving connection with this Energy. And I found that it added to me to call it “Beloved” Divine Energy. To me this Beloved Divine Energy is life, connection to life.

What is your favorite way of knowing Beloved Divine Energy?

It is how I connect with human beings. I know Beloved Divine Energy by connecting with human beings in a certain way. I not only see Divine Energy, I taste Divine Energy, I feel Divine Energy, and I am Divine Energy. I’m connected with Beloved Divine Energy when I connect with human beings in this certain way. Then God is very alive for me. Also talking with trees, talking with dogs and pigs, those are some of my other favorite ways.

How did you develop Nonviolent Communication?

Nonviolent Communication evolved from my attempt to get conscious of what this Beloved Divine Energy is and how to connect with it. I was very dissatisfied with clinical psychology because it is pathology based and I didn’t like its language. It didn’t give me a view of the beauty of human beings. So, after I got my degree I decided to go more in the direction of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.

I decided to look at this side and ask myself the scary question, “What are we and what are we meant to be?” I found that there was very little written about this in psychology. So I took a crash course in comparative religion because I saw they talked more about this question. And this word “love” kept coming up in each of them.

I used to hear the word love as many people use it in a religious sense like, “You should love everybody.” I used to get really annoyed at the word love. “Oh yeah, I’m supposed to love Hitler?” I didn’t know the words “New Age Bullshit” but I used what was my equivalent then. I tried to understand better what love means because I could see it had so much meaning for so many millions of people in all of these religions.

What is it, and how do you do this “love”?

Nonviolent Communication really came out of my attempt to understand this concept of love and how to manifest it, how to do it. I came to the conclusion that it was not just something you feel, but it is something we manifest, something we do, something we have. And what is this manifestation? It is giving of ourselves in a certain way.

What do you mean, “giving of ourselves”?

To me, giving of ourselves means an honest expression of what’s alive in us in this moment. It intrigues me why every culture asks upon greeting each other, “How are you?” It’s such an important question. What a gift it is to be able to know at any given moment what is alive in someone.

To give a gift of one’s self is a manifestation of love. It is when you reveal yourself nakedly and honestly, at any given moment, for no other purpose than as a gift of what’s alive in you. Not to blame, criticize, or punish. Just “Here I am, and here is what I would like.” This is my vulnerability at this moment. To me, that is a way of manifesting love.

And the other way we give of ourselves is through how we receive another person’s message. To receive it empathically, connecting with what’s alive in them, making no judgment. Just to hear what is alive in the other person and what they would like. So Nonviolent Communication is just a manifestation of what I understand love to be.

Nonviolent Communication came out of your desire to manifest love?

I was also helped by empirical research in psychology that defined the characteristics of healthy relationships and by studying people who were living manifestations of loving people. Out of these sources I pulled together this process that helped me to connect with people in what I could understand is a loving way.

And then I saw what happened when I did connect with people in this way. This beauty, this power, connected me with an energy that I choose to call Beloved Divine Energy. So Nonviolent Communication helps me stay connected with that beautiful Divine Energy within myself and to connect with it in others. And certainly when I connect that Divine Energy within myself with the Divine Energy in others, what happens then is the closest I know of what it is to be connected to God.

How do you prevent Ego from interfering with your connection with God?

By seeing Ego as very closely tied to the way my culture has trained me to think, and trained me to communicate. And how the culture has trained me to meet my needs in certain ways, to get my needs mixed up with certain strategies I might use to meet my needs. So I try to remain conscious of these three ways that the culture has programmed me to do things that really aren’t in my best interest, to function more from Ego than from my connection with Divine Energy. I have tried to learn ways for training myself to be conscious when I’m thinking in these culturally learned ways and I’ve incorporated these into Nonviolent Communication.

Then you believe that the language of our culture prevents us from knowing our Divine Energy more intimately?

Oh yes, definitely. I think our language makes it really hard, especially the language given to us by the cultural training most of us seem to have gone through, and the associations “God” brings up for people. Judgmental, or right/wrong thinking is one of the hardest things I’ve found to overcome in teaching Nonviolent Communication over the years. The people that I work with have all gone to schools and churches and it’s very easy for them, if they like Nonviolent Communication, to say it’s the “right way” to communicate. It’s very easy to think that Nonviolent Communication is the goal.

I’ve altered a Buddhist parable that relates to this question. Imagine a beautiful, whole, and sacred place. And imagine that you could really know God when you are in that place. But let’s say that there is a river between you and that place and you’d like to get to that place but you’ve got to get over this river to do it. So you get a raft, and this raft is a real handy tool to get you over the river. Once you’re across the river you can walk the rest of the several miles to this beautiful place. But the Buddhist parable ends by saying that, “One is a fool who continues on to the sacred place carrying the raft on their back.”

Nonviolent Communication is a tool to get me over my cultural training so I can get to the place. It’s not the place. If we get addicted to the raft, attached to the raft, it makes it harder to get to the place. People just learning the process of Nonviolent Communication can forget all about the place. If they get too locked into the raft, the process becomes mechanical. Nonviolent Communication is one of the most powerful tools that I’ve found for connecting with people in a way that helps me get to the place where we are connected to the Divine, where what we do toward one another comes out of Divine Energy. That’s the place I want to get to.

Is this the spiritual basis of Nonviolent Communication?

The spiritual basis for me is that I’m trying to connect with the Divine Energy in others and connect them with the Divine in me, because I believe that when we are really connected with that Divinity within each other and ourselves, that people enjoy contributing to one another’s well being more than anything else. So for me, if we’re connected with the Divine in others and ourselves, we are going to enjoy what happens, and that’s the spiritual basis. In this place violence is impossible.

Is this lack of connection to Divine Energy responsible for violence in the world?

I would say it this way: I think we have been given the gift of choice to create the world of our choosing. And we’ve been given all of this great and abundant world for creating a world of joy and nurturing. To me, the violence in the world comes about when we get alienated or disconnected from this Energy. How do we get connected when we are educated to be disconnected? I believe it’s our cultural conditioning and education that disconnects us from God, especially our education about God.

Walter Wink writes about how domination cultures use certain teachings about God to maintain oppression. That’s why Bishops and Kings have often been closely related. The Kings needed the Bishops to justify the oppression, to interpret the holy books in ways that justified punishment, domination, and so forth.

How do we overcome this conditioning?

I’m often in between people in a lot of pain. I remember working with twenty Serbians and twenty Croatians. Some of the people there had family members killed by the other side and they all had generations of poison pumped into their heads about the other side. They spent three days expressing their rage and pain to each other. Fortunately we were there about seven days.

One word I haven’t used yet in speaking about this is the word “inevitability”. So many times I have seen that no matter what has happened, if people connect in this certain way that it is inevitable that they will end up enjoying giving to one another. It is inevitable. For me my work is like watching the magic show. It’s too beautiful for words.

But sometimes this Divine Energy doesn’t work as fast as I think it should. I remember sitting there in the middle of all this rage and pain and thinking, “Divine Energy, if you can heal all this stuff why are you taking so long, why are you putting these people through this?” And the Energy spoke to me, and it said, “You just do what you can to connect. Bring your energy in. Connect and help the other people connect and let me take care of the rest.” But even though that was going on in one part of my brain, I knew joy was inevitable. If we could just keep getting connected to our own Divine Energy and to each other’s.

And it happened. It happened with great beauty. The last day everybody was talking about joy. And many of them said, “You know I thought I was never going to feel joy again after what we’ve been through.” This was the theme on everybody’s lips. So that evening the twenty Serbians and twenty Croatians, who seven days earlier had only unimaginable pain in relation to one another, celebrated the joy of life together.

We gain this connection to each other by knowing God?

Here again I want to stay away from intellectualizing about God. If by “knowing God” we mean this intimate connection with Beloved Divine Energy, then we gain every second as experiencing heaven.

The heaven I gain from knowing God is this inevitability, to know it is inevitable, that no matter what the hell is going on that if we get to this level of connection with each other, if we get in touch with each other’s Divine Energy, it’s inevitable that we will enjoy giving and we’ll give back to life. I’ve been through such ugly stuff with people that I don’t get worried about it anymore, it’s inevitable. If we get that quality of connection, we’ll like where it gets us.

It amazes me how effective it is. I could tell you similar examples between the extremist Israelis, both politically and religiously, and the same on the Palestinian side, and between the Hutus and the Tutsis, and the Christian tribe in Nigeria. With all of them it amazes me how easy it is to bring about this reconciliation and healing. Once again, all we have to do is get both sides connected to the other person’s needs. To me the needs are the quickest, closest way to getting in connection with that Divine Energy. Everyone has the same needs. The needs come because we’re alive.

How do you get enemies to recognize that they need to give to each other?

When you get people connected at that level it’s hard to maintain those “enemy” images. Nonviolent Communication in its purity is the most powerful, quickest way I’ve found to get people to go from life alienated ways of thinking where they want to hurt each other, to enjoying giving to each other.

When you have a couple of people facing each other, Hutu and Tutsi, and their families have been killed by each other, it’s amazing that in two or three hours we can get them nurturing each other. It’s inevitable. Inevitable. That’s why I use this approach.

It amazes me how simple it is given the amount of suffering that has gone on, and how quickly it can happen. Nonviolent Communication really quickly heals when people have experienced a lot of pain. This motivates me to want to make it happen even more quickly because the way we’re doing it now still takes a while.

How do we get this done more quickly with the other 800,000 Hutus and Tutsis, and the rest of the planet? I would like to explore what would happen if we could make movies or television shows of this process, because I’ve seen that when two people go through the process with other people watching, that vicarious learning, healing and reconciliations happen. So I would like to explore ways to use the media to get masses of people to go quickly through this process together.

Have you encountered any cultural or language barriers to this process?

This amazes me how few and how little they are. When I first started to teach this process in another language I really doubted that it could be done. I remember the first time I was in Europe I was going to go first to Munich and then to Geneva. My colleague and I both doubted that we could get this through in another language. She was going to do it in French and I would be there for her to ask me questions if something came up. I was going to at least try to see if we could go through translators. But it worked so well without any problems, and I find the same thing everywhere. So I just don’t worry about it, I’ll do it in English and you translate it and it works very well. I can’t think of any culture that we’ve had any problem with other than little things, but not with the essence of it. Not only have we had no problem but also there are repeated variations of people saying that this is essentially what their religion says. It’s old stuff, they know this stuff, and they’re grateful for this manifestation, but it’s nothing new.

Do you believe a spiritual practice is important for practicing nonviolence?

I recommend in all workshops that people take time to ask themselves this question, “How do I choose to connect with other human beings?” and to be as conscious as they can about that. To make sure it’s their choice and not the way they’ve been programmed to choose. Really, what is the way you would choose to connect with other human beings?

Gratitude also plays a big role for me. If I express gratitude when I am conscious of the human act that I want to express it for, consciousness of how I feel when the act occurs, whether it’s my act or someone else’s, and what needs of mine it fulfills, then expressing gratitude fills me with consciousness of the power that we human beings have to enrich lives. It makes me aware that we are Divine Energy, that we have such power to make life wonderful, and that there is nothing we like better than to do just that.

To me, that is powerful evidence of our Divine Energy, that we have this power to make life so wonderful, and that there is nothing we like more. That’s why part of my spiritual practice is just to be conscious of gratitude.

How basic is this need to give to one another?

I think the need to enrich life is one of the most basic and powerful needs we all have. Now another way to say this is that we need to act from the Divine Energy within us. And I think that when we “are” that Divine Energy that there is nothing we like more, nothing in which we find more joy, than enriching life, than using our immense power to enrich life.

But when we are trying to meet this need of ours to “live” this Divine Energy, trying to contribute to life, there is a request that goes with it. We have a request for feedback from whichever creature whose life we are trying to enrich. We want to know in fact, “Is my intention and my action being fulfilled?” Was there fulfillment?

In our culture that request gets distorted into our thinking that we have a “need” for the other person to love us for what we’ve done, to appreciate what we’ve done, to approve of us for what we’ve done. And that distorts and screws up the beauty of the whole process. It wasn’t their approval that we needed. Our very intent was to use our energy to enrich life. But we need the feedback. How do I know my effort was successful unless I get feedback?

And I can use this feedback to help me know if I am coming out of Divine Energy. I know that I am coming out of Divine Energy when I value criticism as much as a thank you.

Marshall B. Rosenberg, Ph.D.

Helen Thomas Does Zion.

2010-12-24T00:58:00.001-08:00

The Royal Lizard Emporium of the Feckless Doom.

2010-12-24T00:58:00.000-08:00

Les Visible's Big Ticket Item.

2010-12-24T00:57:00.000-08:00

Getting Serious about our Potential.

2010-12-15T06:23:00.005-08:00

Inasmuch as this is a personal posting, with wider application of course (grin), I thought I would put it here at Siamese Mirrors. I want to outline what I am going to be engaged in for the next several months and invite anyone who may be interested in participating at whatever level may be useful. I would like to ask only those competent in the areas of concern to respond so I don’t have to go through a lot of vetting. It’s important that everything come off in as professional a manner as possible.

The point of my efforts is to help initiate the flagship prototype of The New Shangri-La. What that is, is a residential community with artistic and agrarian aspects devoted to a general consciousness raising and melding for the purpose of unveiling potential and realizing it, as well as having a good time. It’s a teaching environment and a learning environment, without any specific or hierarchal separations as to the roles or importance of them. We want a casual freedom with respect for the disciplines offered.

Ideally, this community will possess living areas and the usual amenities along with a commercial kitchen and the various spin-offs that come out of it. It will have some land for growing things and various educational and recreational possibilities. The intent is to start off with a core group that has been vetted for the purpose and then see where that takes us. This community should not only be self-sustaining but show a certain amount of profit in every available area. I’m being very general because specifics can come later. I’ve got a number of viable ideas that will insure self sufficiency and profit. I’m pretty secure about the concepts in hand and have a great deal of faith in those who will be a part of it. The community will have residence spaces for all full time residents and guest locations for everyone else who only wants to come and see and check it out as a prelude to joining or being an occasional visitor.

We’ll start small with between half a dozen and two dozen people and keep it that way until it gets rolling. The prototype should probably remain at an optimum number. Its purpose is to present a template for those wishing to do it in other locations. The prototype will probably be in Germany or a very nearby country. Third world efforts will come later but would not be ideal for a prototype.

I’ve decided to work at funding this effort based on my own artistic works. To this end a commercial website is presently being constructed by a professional in the field. It will offer for sale 3 books in the beginning, with more to follow, as well as some blog compilations; ‘best of’ kind of thing. There will be audio books, electronic PDF copies and hard copy (actually quality paperback) offerings of the same.

13 musical CDs will be offered from a companion site which will take care of all CD pressings, sales and shipment and take a fee for this service. Five more CDs are in the process of being recorded and an American band is going to be recording the music to some number of songs already in release and I will add the vocals and send them back to them for backup vocals and mix-down.

A collection of my New York TV shows is going to be digitized and also offered for sale. There are a few other items under consideration but we are going to draw the line at T-shirts and coffee mugs (grin).

Certain people are going to be investing capital in bringing this entire construction about and they will be remunerated by a percentage of the pure profit from the sales of the items with a grace period of several months before that goes into operation. Never kill your project by too much of anything too soon. Slow and easy makes for rapid and sure.

Here’s what is needed if you are interested in being a part of it.

A professional book editor who understands the flow and impact of a literary work within its genre. Two of the books are of a type of occult crime thriller, which is a vehicle for the transmission of ideas about what has been going on in the world, Dostoyevsky, Orwell and others have used this medium to get certain ideas across and so have many more. The other book is a non-fiction work dealing with living on this planet at this time.

Competent proof readers with a wide knowledge of English; there are already several people who have offered their services in this regard.

A half a dozen people who enjoy reading novels for entertainment and enjoy crime thrillers and all sorts of works with wide commercial appeal. I need you to tell me what you liked and didn’t like. Please do not offer your services unless you are the sort of person who routinely curls up with an entertaining book and know what it is that makes it an entertaining book. I’m not looking for people who read the classics, although that is fine too. I’m looking for people who go to the bookstore and buy works by Thomas Harris, Cormac McCarthy, Michael Connolly, Irvine Welsh, Brett Easton Ellis and any writer who has wide commercial appeal in the contemporary sense. My intention has always been to write gripping, can’t put it down, fare and the first book delivered that to a lot of people but some of you are squeamish and don’t get that I am using these books as vehicles for something else.

A few people who read a lot of self help and spiritual books and have an abiding interest in this field.

Small investors and/or patrons are welcome in order to defray the cost of bringing the books out in print. The start up shouldn’t be that large since I am intending to use this company because I have already seen how fine their work is and because they will handle mailing the books out and getting them to distributors.

This is the company- http://www.lightningsource.com/default.aspx and here is a news release about them- http://www.lightningsource.com/NewsItem.aspx?id=CST109

A competent studio engineer who can do professional mastering of songs and albums.

That about does it. Most of the work is already finished and just needs editing, proofing, mastering and the like.

I have several large websites that have offered free advertising because they support this work and that is a big gift since it will bring these products before the attention of tens of thousands of people every day.

I realize a lot of people want to help but please don’t offer your services unless you have the chops in any particular area. Investors and patrons are immune to this restriction (grin).

If I don’t invite you to help out in the beginning here, please do not be angry with me. There are a lot of offers to consider and I want to keep the whole beginning initiative small, except for investors and patrons (grin). Heh heh...

Anyway, there’ll be all kinds of transparency and other people besides me will monitor expenses and inflow. No one is going to get taken except, possibly, to another planet.

If you have any questions then please comment. If you have other concerns or offers please email me at lesvisible@gmail.com

Thank you for the time you took to read this post.

Cooking the History Books: The Thanksgiving Massacre.

2010-11-25T07:54:00.000-08:00

Is All That Turkey and Stuffing a Celebration of Genocide?

The Boss of all Things

2010-09-21T07:43:00.000-07:00

This is a Google translate from a Dutch webpage; so sorry for the 'crummy' english ;)

My summary: 'Why the New Shangri-La?'

The boss of all things
by Pieter Stuurman - Anarchiel.com

A man can turn his attention to many things. And of all those things which he can choose to focus his attention, he chooses in most cases the subject with the highest priority.

For anyone who takes the trouble for people watching, can not but be clear then that this topic, the topic of money ". Money is the boss of things.

Money plays a central role in the life of modern man. Perhaps, life is not quite the man of money, but almost surely. It determines where you grew up, where you go to school, with whom you deal, you go to live, what work you do, and so on.

Of course there are people who deny that money plays a leading role in their lives, but people who say that are always people with money again. And so it is again the money factor that is decisive. Without money because you can not say money is unimportant to you.

Let's admit it: Money is a key event on one when it comes to our attention. And that's not crazy.

Money provides us with access to all skills and efforts of other people. And without the skills and efforts can no man living. This extremely broad palette of skills and efforts of others, we simply need to exist. In our time and money is the only lifeline to the existing first necessity of life. It is the portal to the possibility of survival.

As I said, no man without the skills of others. And although we have our appreciation for our own individual inclined to believe otherwise, no human being autonomous. Indeed, people are no autonomous beings. No man can take care of themselves.

Of course we think in our consumerist culture and time to need a lot more things than we really need, but even for the most basic things, then we still can not survive on our own skills alone.

These basic needs are:

The need for food: eating and drinking.
The need for protection against elements: shelter and clothing.
The need for energy: heating and cooking food.

No man can own, without using the skills of others in these three needs. Some people have a few of the skills. Thus it is possible that someone grows his own vegetables. But can he be his own iron ore to exhume his tools out of it? Build his own house? His own brick baking? His own fuel for that mine to bake bricks, tools to forge and heat themselves? Grow its own cotton, as yarn spinning, yarn and then weave it into cloth and then make clothes? Etc..

It can not. Just go after what you use every day, and how much you could make them yourself. And why should anyone use the labor of others to survive.

That is why we have to work. Of what you might, you always get more than you need. Of what you can not always less. Work is nothing more than the exchange of what you might, against which you can not. And this is an exchange system is necessary.

It is not so much money we need, but it is labor (skill + effort) of others that we need. Money works as a portal for access thereto.

Where any exchange system at a time the only existing system, any exchange of labor is walking through that system. It is the only entrance, the only gateway to become our life. And in this situation we are now.

In principle, there is nothing wrong with that. As long as that port but for everyone. As long as that port but enables the exchange, as long as that port that facilitates exchange.

Money is the only way to survive, and is the boss of things. But the boss of things itself has a boss. The gateway to survive a gatekeeper. Anyone who trades must be through him. He has power over any port, and can restrict access. The gatekeeper has therefore a monopoly on the exchange ability of the efforts of all people.

Which facilitates the exchange and not just gatekeeper. Gatekeeper who asks them to exchange a portion of the truth. Every time an effort has to be exchanged against another effort, requires a part on the gatekeeper. Without an effort themselves. That implies that people are less labor of others back in exchange for the work they themselves have done. That they have a portion of their time working for the gatekeeper, and for nothing in exchange. And work without anything to get a name: slavery. All people should use the port that hot money ", this part-time slave.

And because the gatekeeper has the exclusive right to provide access to the port, he can ask what he wants. And the more he asks, the less people work in exchange for their labor. And how difficult it is to be the basic needs. The more claims the gatekeeper, the more people will have to work to survive. And the more value they will attach to the access gate to survive: money. And that is the gatekeeper very good. His power grows.

The gatekeeper controls access to the labor of others. This access is money, and the gatekeeper is the one who controlled that money. The gatekeeper is the banking cartel. The club of central banks the exclusive right to create money.

Banks add nothing of value (= labor), but only provide a system for the exchange of value (= labor) as possible. But because they have value (= labor) demand, they not only facilitate but also parasitism. And thus they make the exchange of value (= labor) just harder, instead of easier. Everyone must now provide far more work than he gets back to work. Everyone is put on short rations, but the gatekeeper.

The gatekeeper has thus obtained a large labor supply. Money is nothing more than a voucher for future work. And since everyone wants access to that work, the gatekeeper it rewarding others and thereby to do what he wants. To his own discretion. He can buy them accomplices. Henchmen to force the people to keep their attention at the gate and collect the toll. He mentions that accomplices: governments.

Money is a tool. A medium of exchange. But because of the scarcity created by the bankers, the attention of people all focused on that product. And no longer on the target. The goal is nothing more than gaining access to the skills and efforts of other people. Even if there is any money, even if the gates are closed, then all existing pagan skills that people have yet to exist. And those skills will ultimately real. The created scarcity is no real shortage. The shortage created just seems scarce because the attention of people all focused on the waist, instead of the target.

Once people get this in mind when they see that there is an abundance which is what they really need, they will logically choose another agent. You would think.

The only port that currently exists is a system that is centuries old. A system that is parasitic on the employment of people. This scarcity causes. A system that was invented long ago and the then current technology reflected. But today's technology now offers many more possibilities. Yet the monetary system is still the only existing exchange system. Despite all the disadvantages.

To be fair exchange to take place, there is no more than a good accounting system is needed. A system that administers what someone has done and what he is owed. An administration that is accessible to everyone, and that can work without gatekeepers. A collective system owned by no one, and thus everyone. A system that little web developer and a few days can be made functional.

All that it takes, is redirecting our attention. Redirecting attention to the means (money), to focus on the goal: access to employment for others in exchange for work yourself. The realization that we do not always need through that gate. That we need not be blackmailed. We do not need gatekeepers. That all we really need, just available.

And then we are the boss of things. And then the old man, the gatekeeper (with his accomplices) are parasitic existence to give up work and have to make to survive.

Since our attention will be based on the qualities of everyone (which, of course, bottom line) we become aware that we are not autonomous beings. That we need each other. That we have a functioning organism. We will learn to appreciate each other rather than compete. Competing is unnecessary because there is no shortage exists. Skills and efforts are indeed as many as there are people there. And that will have an effect on everything that drives people.

"The little boy who couldn't see."

2010-09-19T05:53:00.000-07:00

From An Arab Woman Blues - Reflections is a Sealed Bottle:

It has been an excruciatingly painful 3 days. I keep the mask on, go through the motions but inside I am ripped apart...again and again...

Z (a young cousin), his wife and their little boy arrived from Baghdad a few days ago.

Z. has some very serious health problems, ever since he was illegally arrested and imprisoned for over 3 months, on no charges. Since that day, he developed a grave illness - the doctor wrote in his report : "patient developed symptoms following shock..."

His wife W. had much difficulty conceiving, doctors blamed it on "stress", "stress due to environmental circumstances."

She finally got pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy. A sweet little thing, a withdrawn, fearful, quiet, sweet little thing.

They are on a medical visit here. Other people travel for leisure, but Iraqis travel for medical reasons - medical "tourism".

Little A. is unwell - very unwell. Now a little over 2 years old, he can't see no more...his vision degenerated rapidly...in a rush, the family arrives for a miracle solution.

Little A. is taken to a specialist, the doctor runs a battery of tests, shakes his head and marks in his dossier :"cecity - cause unknown." The doctor then says to the befuddled parents : " it must be toxicity related "

That's it - little A. is blind. He will never be able to see no more...he will not see the blue of the sky, the budding of flowers, little insects crawling on green grass, the pink icing on birthday cakes, nor the multi colors of drawing crayons...that's it, A. will live in total obscurity for the rest of his living days -- the toxic obscurity of Liberation.

Father and son are doomed...they are doomed because someone somewhere decided so...decided this was going to be their fate - toxic countries with toxic people decided so.

After the final medical verdict, little A. stayed at our place. Mom switched on the TV and kids cartoons were on. Little A. hearing the little voices of fun from afar, from some distance, tugged at Mom's pleading "Bibi, Bibi - (grandma), ashoof shwaya - (me see a little)."

Then, little A. started rubbing his little swollen eyes, swollen from too many ophthalmological exams, with his little knuckles, hoping to clear his vision...

I later caught my mother stifling, silencing, her cries in the dark, in the obscurity...

Dropping in

2010-09-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd stop by and say hello. I don't want to give the impression that I just set this up and had no intention of coming around on a regular basis. man, my head is really clear these days. I noticed it when I did my radio show last night and then again today at Origami.

A few days ago I was talking with Lord Surya who is a friend of mine and I found that out in Italy. Of all of my invisible friends, he is the one I can hear best. I was talking to him about the depression I experience and asking him if there was anything he could do about it. He told me he most certainly could but that I had to ask, so I did.

Interestingly, since that time my mood has grown increasingly better each day. It is getting very noticeable to me. Having the sun for a friend is a fantastic thing. I don't doubt there are people who would think me mad. I often think of myself as being similar to William Blake who had all kinds of odd things like this going on. He used to answer his door naked, saying he had regained, "the pristine innocence of my youth". I haven't gotten around to that yet, although I've no hesitation about doing it. I used to do it when the Jehovah's Witnesses came to the door. They'd ask if it was okay to come in and talk to me about yadda yadda and I would then open the door fully and say "Sure, as long as it's okay for me to be naked when you do it."

Digressing I guess. But in any case, my invisible friends are very real to me and I can see the salutary benefits that come along with that. I have begun to discover that I haven't asked for things that are mine and of which I was unaware. I'm learning to discover how to locate and identify these things and then request them. It's pretty interesting.

'How You don't know; but still do'

2010-08-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

Spent last weekend very, very deep in the rabbithole.... it was raining 'cats and dogs' anyway ;-)

If you are ready for a truly amazing way of finding out some more about 'How You don't know, but still do' I can sincerely recommend this site:

http://coralcastlecode.com/index.html

This site dives deep into Ed Leedskalnin's "Coral Castle" mystery ...and manages to explain this 'simple' principle in an extremely beautiful graphical way!!

It will take you a couple of hours to read the site, but it's well worth your time!! (if time exists that is ;-)

Update:

A good start is this short video.

OneLove

New (well it's been around a while) Website

2010-08-25T19:30:00.000-07:00

It's called Reality Sandwich and while every article might not be everyone's cup of tea, a wide dose insures that someone will find something of value.

A list of the most commented articles lately includes:

Are You Afraid Yet?

2010-08-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

Wow. Just got done watching a couple Youtube videos and a few things sprung to mind. I don't know if this is the type of thing that is appropriate here, but I'm gonna toss it out anyway.

After watching a gentleman named Louie Gomert freak out about the latest "threat" to our great nation ("Terror Babies" - I kid you not!), it occurred to me that what has been taking place in our country via media and propaganda (redundant, I know) is an attempt to instill the same wild paranoia in all of us that exists in the mindset of a certain group of individuals that refer to themselves as Jews.

Seeing both good and evil in all, it has been difficult to single any one group out as being more troublesome than any other, but the patterns that have emerged are without any room for speculation at this point. As we watch the world spin further into chaos, the group that identifies first as "Jew" seems to have, throughout history, been at the forefront of the main thing that keeps us at each other's throats - seeing their fellows as "other". Along with this view comes an almost pathological paranoia and sense of persecution that is being pushed to the front of the American mindset and is showing itself to be a form of mental illness in my opinion.

For people to actually believe that we as Americans are hated worldwide simply due to our exceptionalism is the height of ignorance, and works to absolve us of any responsibility for the actions of our "elected" representation. To see terrorists everywhere and also to claim to be under the constant threat of attack only because of jealousy of our magnificent society is, in a word, fucking insane (OK, that was 2 words but it felt necessary). We are to believe that we are simply victims and that the only way to be safe is to shut everyone else out by force if needed.

Are we unique in the world by virtue of our superior intellect, our willingness to work harder than anyone else, and because God has blessed us over all else, or is this just more bullshit to keep us in opposition to the rest of humanity? From what I can see, any notion of the USA being "better" than anyone else is laughable. We are without honor, without any history that does not contain a legacy of violence and conquest, and with little prospect of advancing further without a complete ground-up restoration of the way we live. It is time to start over and stop thinking we are somehow apart from and better than the rest, or in other words, it is time to learn what it is like to be a member of a world community rather than seeking to create our own version of an ideal society in the rest of the world because we would then somehow be "safer" and the rest of the world wants to be just like us because we are so awesome.

As we contemplate what our ideal community would look like, let us consider the models of abject failure that have gone before, and have led us to this place of small, fractured groups around the world focused on what is different rather than what we share in common. Seeing our differences and honoring each other in spite of them is our challenge, I think, and one that has not been met with much success to this point. I would wish to exist in a society that truly celebrates the "other", even though that distinction is mostly false at its core.

Oh, and the other thing I learned was that just about every medical, agricultural, and technical advance or invention was created by Jews, so we should be super thankful that such a group exists to bring the rest of us along into this wondrous modern world. Gee thanks, guys.

Please don't be afraid. At least not of the "others". Leave that to the lunatics like Gomert and the Zionists he serves.

Z

The New Shangri-La

2010-08-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

My friends,

I believe it is time to revisit the New Shangri-La and possibly formulate plans and make God laugh. Property values have dropped so much here in Europe that it is now possible to purchase something of considerable value for not a great deal of money. I am talking about 2 million Euro which I do not consider a lot of money and which is not a lot of money.

We have now almost 300 members at the new Shangri-La and I do not doubt that there are some numbers of people who are not members who would be very much interested in being members of a workable and self sustaining community. I plan to begin asking for figures from those interested in terms of what they might be willing to spend in respect of something like this and also to get an idea of how many people would consider a move or at least the prospect of regular visitations each year for some months or so.

Because of the state of the world I am not contemplating anywhere but Europe at the moment and mostly somewhere around the Bodensee which is bordered by 3 countries. It is quite possible to find a hotel with restaurant that will accommodate a minimum of fifty people and provide opportunities for income via all sorts of inventive ideas that I and others who come here possess.

I have started this new blog as a means of discussing this and/or anything really but my intention was to sway the general mind in this direction for a little while anyway. Those of you who wish to become regular authors here need only to email me and I will send you permissions. I am making one rule and that is if you don't contribute for a month or more I will remove you but I will also restore you as soon as you ask me again (grin).

I am making a public appeal for any patron/sugar daddy/ guilt plagued rich guy or lady or anyone who is not intending to weasel in for nefarious purpose to consider giving us two million Euro for this community. I have set that as the bottom line and expect to pay no more than 1.5 for the property but require some operating expenses prior to self sufficiency. I know right now that there are people who can liquidate their holdings of one sort or another and make this happen and there are a number of these among our readership.

Anyone familiar with grant proposals or canny ways of extracting capital for this venture are welcome to present their ideas. Any money given must be given free and clear with no intent to control whatever but there will be no intent for the money to be used in any but the most productive ways with transparent bookkeeping.

I consider Michael Astera's book "The Ideal Soil" to be an important component of what we are contemplating and will be publishing a review of it shortly so as to garner interest and open some mental doors for those willing to have it happen.

I think that covers the opening measure and look forward to co-authors granting new movements and so on and so forth for the fulfillment of the symphony.

Read the comments, too.

2010-08-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

NASA: Future Strategic Issues: Detonate Seabed Methane to “Produce Tactical/Strategic Level Tidal Waves Against Littoral Regions”

Or link to the URL: http://cryptogon.com/?p=16971

2010-08-12T06:15:00.000-07:00

About love

Love has no form.
It has no desire, no want.

There is nothing you can DO
You can only BE love.

Yesterday and tomorrow cannot be filled with love
Only the present moment.

It is between words and changing emotions,
Always here.
♥

Everyone has a story to tell, a need to connect.
I would like to thank Les for making this space available.

Much love to all those who "appear" on these pages.
Gudrun