Living in the Moment

I tried reading "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle, I really did. I got as far as him describing getting enlightened, and then spending two years sitting on a park bench in a state of bliss. I assume he got up for food and bodily functions now and then, but that's how he put it, if memory serves me.
And I thought: "He did not have to go home to cook dinner and change nappies, did he now?"

I have no pretension of getting enlightened in this incarnation. I am content to muddle through as best I can, trying a be a half decent human being. I love history, both personal and collective. There is much talk in New Age circles about the necessity to "Let Go of the Past" in order to be fully Here and Now. Conversations may also rail against a thing called "ego", mentioned in the same dark tone in which health nuts talk about "chemicals".

I understand the need to let go of regrets and resentment, but give me one good reason why I should let go of that which made me what I am today? I cherish my past. I enjoy each day and  I like riffling through the slide show of memory.

For us humble dwellers in the third dimension, each moment of Now carries its own past and its own future. Past and future do not have to detract from the present, they may enrich it. Literature is made of this. 

As for that horrid thing called ego, it is simply the individual functioning in time and space. It may well be that All is One on some level of existence. But for now, if you stub your big toe I may sympathize but I do not physically feel your pain.

My thanks to Melanie Boxall for the introduction to David Mitchell's soap box on this topic. It is hilarious.
http://youtu.be/6HTt6QJqzxk

Why Sedona gives me the creeps

I wrote this a few years ago, and wanted to refer to it in a blog today. To my surprise it had never made it to this platform. So here goes.


We are frequent listeners to "Coast to Coast" radio and generally enjoy exploring the unusual as well as celebrating the daily.


We were doing an RV trip to the region, and Sedona was high on the list of must-see. The town is supposed to be surrounded by energy vortexes where people have interesting psychic experiences. New Agers flock there.

The landscape with the famous red rocks and lots of leafy greenery is indeed stunning. No complaints there. The place is a tourist trap, but we were tourists so we have no right to whine about that.

We couldn't feel anything from lying around on Bell Rock, but  I have to admit that my psychic channels are blocked. The fact that I cannot feel something does not mean no energy is there.

It took me a while to realize why the place made me feel uneasy. 

Too much "Love and Light". Too many people like myself, your basic fuzzy healer-astrologer-herbalist-bleeding-heart-liberal. There has to be contrast. There has to be balance. The place lacks both. It is just not real.

Sedona has laws against anything ugly. Things you will not find in Sedona:

A field littered with old cars and dilapidated tractors because the parts might come in handy some day.

Guys in greasy work clothes on their way home from a day in the mill or the woods. The kind of guy who truly makes the world go around, and don't you forget it.

Pickup trucks with a load of firewood and a dead deer on top, signs of a self-sufficient life style.


In short, Sedona is in desperate need of some honest down-to-earth blue collar rednecks.

Spy vs Spy: fun (not) with conflicting conspiracy theories

Ever since a good friend shoved David Icke into my hands, some of his way-out-there ideas have taken up residence in the back of my mind.

Please note the careful language: I  would much prefer to dismiss his and similar notions with howls of disdainful laughter. While I am utterly indifferent to royalty, I prefer to think of the Queen as portrayed by Helen Mirren rather than as an evil shape-shifting reptilian. (I warned you this stuff is way-out-there)

However, given the absurdity of human history the idea of a secret not-quite-human hierarchy calling the shots, with the ultimate intention of creating as much misery as possible, makes as much sense as anything else.
It is said that "Against stupidity, the gods themselves battle in vain." What if 'the gods' are more interested in encouraging it than in fighting it?

In this model of reality, humanity's real power is its ability to raise vibrations. We have more chances of getting out of the trap of common misery by opening our hearts and focusing our minds on a desired outcome than by any direct battle. The Powers That Be  (TPTB) ridicule the realm of the esoteric, while using its power themselves. Humanity is encouraged to waste its energy on ineffective ways, like politics, to better its lot.

That, in a nut shell, is one conspiracy view of the world.
Now the flip side.

How about some quotes by Frederick Douglass for a start.

"I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."
"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
"Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.""Without a struggle, there can be no progress."


We, meaning the citizens of the post-WWII North Atlantic civilization, have come of age in a world where many rights were taken for granted. 

It is easy to forget that such basics as the right to form labour unions, truly universal suffrage, access to contraceptives, to name just a few, had to be fought for.
The gains that were made always involved the dreary, painstaking work of political organizing. They took time, effort, and people literally taking to the streets in great numbers. Lives were put in the balance. Lives were lost.

So here is an opposite conspiracy theory: TPTB encourage fuzzy New Age thinking in the population in order to better control them. The psychological-industrial complex has been thriving on a climate of mass narcissicm. Are you happy
enough yet? No? Come for therapy!

A more in-depth blog is brewing on the concept that "you create your own reality."  For now let's just observe this: people who  feel 100% responsible for everything that happens to them may be less inclined to connect the dots to the big economic/political picture. Did you just lose your job because the plant moved to China? Never mind getting together with other displaced workers to see what can be done politically. You must not have been 'manifesting' right!

Are we having fun yet?