Forever Young

                                                           Forever Young

 

 

 

                                     

                                 

 

                                  "It takes a long time to become young."

 

                                                                   Pablo Picasso

Bob Dylan is the poet laureate of my generation, he sucks as a performer, but his visionary channeling of the most sublime idyllic elements of the radical, revolutionary 60's and 70's are embodied in his music and lyrics. He blew the lid off the folk scene in the early 60's, and was an Einstein to the Newtonian mainstream folk artists.

One of his best in my view is Forever Young, it is a blessing, prayer, and celebration of holistic, conscious youth that is beyond time and chronology, it is about the Archetype of what a parent wishes and intends for their child, and what a child can carry throughout their life if they set their navigational GPS to these coordinates.

I've sang this song for 100's of people for all kinds of occasions, and I have developed a mastery at being able to transmit the feeling tone of the song in a way that is healing and transformative. So yesterday, as I turned 59, my beloved suggested I sing the song to myself. It was very healing and transformative for me as I was consciously transmitting to myself what has become second nature for me to give to others. All vestiges of my self-negating, unworthy, shame based data were challenged as I serenaded my little boy, adolescent, adult, and elder self. I cried myself through the song, but persevered in completing it, just as I would when I get chocked up when performing.

I'll present the lyrics here in the first person, and invite all of you with gifting yourself with your own rendition to yourself. There is only One!

May God Bless and keep me always, may my wishes all come true.

May I always do for others and let others do for me.

May I build a ladder to the stars, and climb on every rung,

And may I stay forever young, may I stay forever young.

May I grow up to be righteous, may I grow up to be true.

May I always know the truth, and see the light surrounding me.

May I always be courageous stand upright and be strong.

And may I stay forever young, may I stay forever young.

May my hands always be busy, may my feet always be swift.

May I have a strong foundation when the winds of changes shift.

May my heart always be happy, may my song always be sung.

And may I stay forever young, may I stay forever young.

 

 

                           

The Twilight Zone

                                                       The Twilight Zone

 

 

                      

                                   

"Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence."

                                                        William Blake

Human life and reality in general is multidimensional. We have a tendency to get stuck in certain grooves, channels, and habits and think that is the only dimension, but as William James said (I'm paraphrasing); “There is a thin veil separating us from multidimensional reality, all you need do is apply the requisite stimulus and you will be transported.”

The dimensions that are beyond what is known to man are the most interesting ones to me such as; dreams, mythology, meditative states, states induced by hallucinogens, enlightening experience, deep love and friendship connections, animal bonding and interspecies communion, artistic inspiration into the sublime, nature mysticism, spiritual ecstasy, etc. These dimensions feel more normal than 'normal'. They break through the barrios of what we have been conditioned to accept as the “real world,” which can be extremely depressing!

Even in the very mundane Zen tradition, there is the idea of; “Before enlightenment, I chopped wood, carried water, after enlightenment, I chopped wood, carried water.” But the difference in an enlightening being chopping wood is all the difference in the world! In the 12-steps, we talk about living life on life's terms, which leads to serenity. Being serene is certainly another dimension than the larger world, which is anything but serene!

As Blake said; “To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, And Eternity in an hour...” Our challenge toward awakening is to lean toward the infinite and recognize the macro in the micro and vice verse.

We know on a deep level that we are created in God's image, that we have divinity within us, even as frail limited human beings. We are challenged to find the Buddhist middle path between light and shadow, science and superstition, the place between the pit of man's fears, and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination, it is an area which we call...The Twilight Zone.

 

 

                                  

Addiction

                                                       Addiction

                                   

          "I'm convinced now that virtually every destructive behavior and addiction I battled off and on for years was rooted in my (well-earned) insecurity."
                                                                     Beth Moore

To address the disease of addiction we will start with the ideas of awareness, relationship, intention, and outcome. One's awareness in relation to whatever behavior or substance is greatly diminished or absent in the process addiction, others can see clearly that we have a problem but we can't, so we must start with some process that builds awareness. This can only happen if we allow some new information to come into our system, often this is precipitated by a crisis or some deep reflection/introspection about our lives.

The relationship part of addiction is that we have a relationship with whatever is our addiction, whether it's a behavior or a substance, we are in relationship to and with it, so we must find a way to honestly assess how that relationship is going, is it abusive, dysfunctional, toxic etc.? If so, we again must have some way of getting new information and behavior into our current level of relationship. The research is very clear that there is not one way to approach recovery, abstinence is not something that should be proposed or 'required' for everyone, however, for a great many people they will respond and need a group like the 12-steps in which people are oriented toward abstinence. But in the long game, there's only a 10% recovery rate for that approach, and that sucks as a percentage!

A person should assess their intentions with relation to their addiction, that is to say they should be able to be bone honest about what, how, and why they do what they do. People do drugs and addictive behaviors because they deliver (at least for a while), a certain level of fulfillment. In addiction that fulfillment rapidly drops off to the point where a person can get to where they hate the substance, themselves, and everything associated with their addiction, yet they continue to do it, that is one way of describing a 'bottom' as it's stated in the 12-steps.

The outcome or results are the last piece in this introduction to this subject. What kind of results are directly related to a person's addiction? If they have had problems with health, marriage, work, and self-esteem, then clearly the cost is outweighing whatever “benefits” they may have deluded themselves into thinking. Each person must come to this realization within themselves, no one can make a person realize the damage an addiction has caused. This is where separation and detachment from an addict is what is most needed, yet it is the hardest thing to practice for loved ones, friends, and family of the addict.

Again, related to our culture and modern society, we are a compulsive culture that strokes people for all kinds of dysfunctional behaviors. A recent study of CEO's found they exhibit an array of psychopathic tendencies that were needed for them to rise to the level they are in their field, these include;
1) being able to easily put on a “mask” of normality that is likable and pleasant, doing good deeds to surreptitiously gain trust, 2) a false believe that they are smarter than they actually are, 3) a need for constant stimulation, action, busyness, 4) distorting the truth and rationalizing the need to do this, 5) using cunning and manipulation to get people to do what they want, 6) feigning guilt but really feeling no genuine compunction over their behaviors that effect others, 7) a general indifference to emotions, positively or negatively, an inability to empathize 8) parasitic lifestyle using others to get what they want or rise in status, 9) behavioral control problems, indulgence and promiscuity to extremes.

These are symptomatic behaviors of addiction as well as people who are considered successful in our culture, doesn't that give us pause to consider what our cultural norms should be, and how we should be educating and socializing our children?


                                  

Quantum Principles

                                                     Quantum Principles

 

 

                                         

                “As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”   Albert Einstein

From early into the 60's there has been a lot of interest in the ideas of Quantum Physics and the relationship to philosophy, psychology, and general explorations about the nature of reality. There has also been a lot of undue liberties taken with quantum principles and over generalizing them to make a case for everything from "you create your reality", to soul mates and beyond. I'm interested in the metaphoric aspects of quantum physics as well as perceptual cognition as it applies to cognitive psychology.

So let's look at some broad strokes with regard to some basic quantum principles and apply them to the human domain.

1) Particles are waves, and vice versa. This is the idea that includes the atomistic idea of 'things,' as well as the energetic fields, and waviness of processes. This principle is a call to always be looking and tracking the content as well as the process of our human experience. This plays out between men and women in that men tend to be very rational, concrete, and goal oriented and women tend to be more communal, relational and feeling oriented. Men need to balance their sense of the wave like nature of processes, and women need to balance their sense of goals, things, and the agency of doing.

2) Quantum states are discrete. The “quantum” in quantum physics refers to the fact that everything in quantum physics comes in discrete amounts. This is very much a masculine type of principle in that these quantum states are cut and dried, no leeway in a half, quarter, or eighth of a quantum state, you're going to get a whole number amount of one state vs. another, there's no in between. This is a contradiction in a sense of the wave like nature of reality, because waves are not discrete, they're wavy, but this is the nature of the quantum world, like life, it is fraught with paradox. No matter what you do, you will only ever detect a quantum system in one of a number of special 'allowed' states.

3) Probability is all we ever know. Now we're back to uncertainty, which is to say that when we are studying/measuring quantum states it is only probabilistic, so there's no certainty with one answer. The reader will see how we're jumping back and forth between firm, fixed, ideas, perceptions, and mystery, paradox, subjectivity. When physicists use quantum mechanics to predict the results of an experiment, the only thing they can predict is the probability of detecting each of the possible outcomes. "Given an experiment in which an electron will end up in one of two places, we can say that there is a 17% probability of finding it at point A and an 83% probability of finding it at point B, but we can never say for sure that a single given electron will definitely end up at A or definitely end up at B. No matter how careful we are to prepare each electron in exactly the same way, we can never say definitively what the outcome of the experiment will be. Each new electron is a completely new experiment, and the final outcome is random." This is the nature of human relationships and communication, we can only give it our best shot at meaning and intention and let the chips fall where they may!

4) Measurement determines reality. When we see something through a certain filter, the filter, model, and tools of perception will influence and create to an extent what we're objectively trying to understand and assess. So don't take your models very seriously, the map is not the territory!


5) Quantum correlations are non-local. One of the strangest and most important consequences of quantum mechanics is the idea of “entanglement.” "When two quantum particles interact in the right way, their states will depend on one another, no matter how far apart they are. You can hold one particle in Princeton and send the other to Paris, and measure them simultaneously, and the outcome of the measurement in Princeton will absolutely and unequivocally determine the outcome of the measurement in Paris, and vice verse." This is a statement of the ultimate connectivity of reality as well as the oneness of the universe.


6) Everything not forbidden is mandatory. "A quantum particle moving from point A to point B will take absolutely every possible path from A to B, at the same time. This includes paths that involve highly improbable events like electron-positron pairs appearing out of nowhere, and disappearing again. The full theory of quantum electro-dynamics (QED) involves contributions from every possible process, even the ridiculously unlikely ones." Included in oneness is simultaneity, our conceptions of linear time is an illusion, there is only space/time/matter/energy that is a fabric of tightly woven events, circumstances, and cause and effects all happening at the same time. This becomes apparent to us sometimes as pre-cognitions, Deja Vu, miracles and synchronicities.


7) Quantum physics is not magic. Even though quantum physics is very weird, the bedrock principles of physics are still intact: energy is still conserved, entropy still increases, and nothing can move faster than the speed of light. The quantum model is an extension of Newton's model, it includes and transcends, just as trans-personal psychology includes the psychology of ego and personality.

           “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”   Carl Sagan


                       

Big Mind

                                                          Big Mind

                          

                              "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."

                                                                            Oscar Wilde

 

 

Now we are ready to continue merrily merrily down the stream realizing the dreaminess of life. With the first pass and second coat of paint, the reader should recognize what the merry prankster is up to in our rude awakening. We are constructing a theory of mind in a sense, just as nature is, by nature, structural and pattern making, so to is the human mind and consciousness a structural framework. Jung attempted with profound results to map the collective consciousness that is our psychic genome. So we to, are building a structure that is a vehicle of consciousness. This vehicle cannot be conceptual, which is a real paradox because we are using words, ideas, images, and thoughts to convey something that is far beyond concept, it must be a felt experience of being, as in when Gandhi says; "Be the change you want to see in the world."

I'm interested in supporting myself and others to see that the Emperor is indeed wearing no clothes and trying to pull off the most elaborate hoax of all time, namely that we should go along and trust the plan they have for us, kinda like Bush telling us that he and Brownie 'had things covered' in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina.

The party lines, status quo, traditions, and institutions such as schools, churches, professions, corporations, and infinite bureaucracies do not have our best interests in mind, they seek control, conformity, compliance, and the ability to manipulate with self- serving, ethnocentric, and manipulative intentions.

To awaken to this fact is a shock to the system, like taking hallucinogenic drugs. The literally overnight shut down the U.S. government imposed on hallucinogenic drugs and academic, pharmacological research is an example of the organized power that can be imposed on people that is a far cry from any democratic or scientific consensus. So now that we are once again beginning to re-start this research for such patients as terminally ill cancer patients, we are getting quick results, but we had a 30 year hiatus that put us far behind where we could have been.

Rude Awakening is an invitation and road map to being able to identify with the infinite, to move from our limitations, dysfunctions, conditioned, Pavlovian reflexes to the Source of everything that arises and passes and arises again, in Buddhism this is called Big Mind.

I am helping people move away from thinking, judging, being attached, being polarized to a mind that includes all that stuff but also transcends it. Jung talked about how the first half of life is a process of building the ego and the second half about getting rid of it. First half being in and of the world, second half being free of our attachments, data, fears, and compulsions, and moving merrily down the existential stream of consciousness toward the inevitable mortality of our physical bodies.

 

We become more interested in being, feeling, and loving than we are in thinking, seeking, acquiring, and controlling. This is a shift from our usual software to being like Christ when he said; “I am the way,” or Buddha when he said; “I'm awake.” We move from speaking as the self to speaking/thinking about the self in the 3^rd person. We are less involved in our story or script, we can try things out as possible script rewrites, but we're more interested in the production of the whole drama/entertainment of life. It's such a production isn't it?!

 

 

                            

                        

 

                                      

Summary #2

                                                              Summary #2

 

 

                                            

                           “It isn't by getting out of the world that we become enlightened, but by getting into the world…by getting so tuned in that we can ride the waves of our existence and never get tossed because we become the waves.”   Ken Kesey

Rude awakening is the re-cognition of your mechanical, robotic, unconscious, conditioned ego personality and the movement of a free, wakeful, curious, questioning and self-observing consciousness.

Doing things differently will build this awareness, such as getting up on the other side of bed.

This awareness gives us hope, we don’t have to allow ourselves to be ruled by negative, self-diminishing, or shamming voices, we can build relationships based on honesty and equality, but we need to start with ourselves.

It is a courageous act to see, speak, and move yourself into and through the world as an empowered agent of change. By facing yourself in your interior, intrapersonally, you build equality within yourself, so with this inner equality, you naturally will treat others as you would want to be treated.

A humility of character will help you accept the fact that most of life is beyond your control. Accepting this fact is a radical acceptance and letting go of your false attachments and illusory control.

“Knock knock.”

“Who's there?”

“Control freak, now you say control freak who!”

This radical acceptance is, as it were, a 1^st step admitting your powerlessness, starting recovery and seeing that you/we are out of control! aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Now you are experiencing freedom from illusion and it is blissful! The dance of Shiva is the unified dance of polarity; light/dark, right/wrong, male/female, creation/destruction. We must all face the dark side of our moon to become enlightened.

Enlightenment is demonstrated by compassion. To see another as equal and relate to them with empathy brings kindness and understanding into a hostile world. Two other aspects of enlightenment are freedom from worry and the experience of more synchronicity, experience of one integral whole.

Adolescents experience a surreal, fragmented, and stressed world that is unsafe. We all need to be mentors and elders to help adolescents through their initiation into adulthood. Seeing and pointing out the good in an adolescent has a huge effect!

Our culture is trying to raise itself out of an adolescent level of consciousness. If we can move away from a polarized belief that we should all join hands and sing Kumbaya, to a recognition that  every person and group is exactly where they need to be, we're not here to necessarily win elections or convince others to be like us.

Evolved consciousness sees the appropriate stage and level of all consciousness and builds bridges, tools, resources, and supports should people choose to use them.

A culture that pays attention to themselves, others, and the environment rather than miniature, computerized mind suckers could become the new norm. That would be a 'normal' of epic proportions!

 

                                     

Freedom #3

                                                              Freedom #3

                                        

              Nasrudin walked into a house and exclaimed, "The moon is more useful than the sun." "Why?" he was asked. "Because at night we need the light more."

Freedom is liberation from yourself to yourself. There are many versions of this concept such as when Christ says; “Be in the world but not of it.” The self and world to be liberated from is the one of the indulgent ego, the fragmented, isolated, fear based sense of separation and all the attendant dysfunctional adaptations such as Facebook and Twitter. The self to abide in is the higher self, the self that is able to watch, observe, and dispassionately be entertained by the drama that is human life. This self is a witnessing consciousness watching itself, a consciousness that knows that everything is but a play of one unitary stuff in a myriad sea of diverse configurations.

The witnessing self is the archetype of the King/Queen, this awareness has the capacity to steward the kingdom, that is to oversee the big picture both within and without and to apportion resources to attend to the needs of self and environment. The King archetype is God residing within you as you. The Kingdom of Heaven is within.

St. Francis said; “That which you are looking for is that which is looking.” This is a reference to this inner, meta awareness that is cultivated in practices like meditation, yoga, and psychotherapy, it is the practice of building self-awareness, and it is the thing we most take for granted and assume that we are naturally self-aware, when actually, we are far from it most the time. Our culture is a self-unaware culture, one that does everything possible to distract and trick us into believing that we are aware. The greatest way to enslave people is to make them think they're free.

There is a lot of mythology around the gods hiding humanity's divinity and power from them lest they compete with the gods, occasionally a mortal will steal something from the gods which really pisses them off, such as Prometheus stealing fire, or Eve eating from the tree of knowledge. The best place the gods could hide humanity's divinity from them is of course within them, they'd never think to look there!

Yet every tradition tells us explicitly that within is exactly where we need to look, this is the path to freedom, but it is paradoxically where we have the hardest time seeing clearly. We have constructed what Wilber calls The Atman Project, which is an elaborate, endless game of looking in all the wrong places. Much like Nasrudin the wise fool who was asked why he was down on his hands and knees under a street lamp. He replied that he had lost his keys, the curious stranger then asked him where he had last had his keys and Nasrudin said; “Back in the dark alley, but the light is so much better here under the street lamp.”

The way to freedom is through the exploration and relationship with one's darkness, not with our convenient and familiar light.

                    

                                                  

                                    

                                           

Freedom #2

                                                               Freedom #2

 

                    

                             

                            "Freedom is the right to tell people what they don't want to hear."
                                                                                       George Orwell      

Freedom presents herself powerful and grounded. Her voice is kind, clear and direct, her words tethered and directed by the winds of passion and change. She looks right into your soul and dares you to look back with the same honesty and authenticity. Freedom will not be anyone other than who she is.

As a meal, freedom is a banquet of wild and rare delicacies, spices from unknown places, exotic, undomesticated wild meat that would have killed, if itself had not become prey. Wine of such vintage and bouquet that just the smell and sip bring ecstatic intoxication. The nourishment from the meal of freedom is light and filling, a sustaining infusion that builds blood, muscle and bone and helps the mind focus.

The music freedom makes is bold and soothing, a steady rhythm that builds in intensity and crescendo to orgasmic heights and then declines to soft interludes of space and mystery. Freedom's sound is clarion as brass and tempered as the aged wood of Stradivarius, with piercing highs and resonant cello lows.

In vehicular form, freedom has a powerful engine with German engineering and efficiency, a plush interior not overstated and ornate but sleek and sexy. The vehicle is a ride of pleasure and thrill, an extension of the driver, the vehicle will respond on a dime, so training is required to master the maneuvers. Only the highest octane fuel will suffice for this kind of machinery and maintenance is a spiritual discipline.

As freedom morphs into nature she is our sustaining planet in all her glory. The mysteries of weather, majesty of oceans, beauty of sky and water configure in the greatest show that is life. All patterns, cycles and rhythms are the acts, scenery, costumes and actors on this magnificent stage. Humility is the only price of admission, but it is the price that will be exacted if it is not paid willingly.

Epically Normal #2

                                                                   Epically Normal #2

                                 

              

                “Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.”  

                                                                                                   j.k. Rowling

My emphasis on relational experience in terms of intimacy, is a large part of what I’d consider epically normal about me. I mentioned previously that science moved from an object oriented stance, with predictable paths and states, to a quantized, statistical probability that had uncertainty built into the fabric of reality. This new science emphasized glacial, geological time in which rock cycles, water cycles, weather patterns, tectonic plate movement, and biologic natural selection moved as  a very unpredictable river of time with random results. Energy was equated with matter, and space/time was relative. The great unifying vision of physics is a grand unified field theory in which everything is, well, unified, that is, related and connected. 

To be unified psychologically, is to be focused on oneness, to be subjectively oriented, not so much objectivity. Objectivity, masculine energy, extraversion, doing, thinking, and talking is the dominant polarity in our culture, it is pathologically out of balance. What is needed is more emphasis on the subjective, introversion, feminine energy, being, feeling, and silence to bring equilibrium (you may ask, rightly so, how silence could be equated with femininity!)

This movement is a feeling, relational focus, it requires a great deal of presence, sensitivity, intuition, empathy, and the ability to be stimulated yet contained. We have to get over our Adam and Eve, shame over nakedness data, this equates sexuality and nature with the devil, we should rather embrace a tantric vision of including what is "forbidden", this means reviewing our data banks and purging fraudulent data. This is the kind of skill set that psychologists call emotional intelligence. Emotional intell is one of the biggest things we're rapidly loosing through our addiction to technology. We are rapidly loosing the ability, (and many kids never have had the ability to begin with), to provide training, modeling, and learning about what it is to send and receive epically normal human signals.

Oh, you may say, “we send/receive thousands of signals daily, millions!”

But we really don't send the kind of signals bonobos are sending when they're communally grooming each other. These mammalian signals are multi and extra sensory, they have evolved over millions of years. They relate to the amygdala and what's called the mammalian part of the brain.

This rapid changing of our relational skill set is epically abnormal, it requires immediate attention! There is some movement to try and get people motivated to turn off techno Wally World for some time each day. That's a good start, but we also need to learn, and relearn if necessary, how to pay attention and focus on another human being (or dog, or tree, or earth), and let them know we care about them, see, hear, feel, need them. Then listen and really listen and try and understand, let the person know you understand, ask them “Have I got it right?” Be willing to accept feedback.

                                        

                                        

Levels Of Consciousness #2

                                             Levels Of Consciousness #2

 

                                    

                   “One thing: you have to walk, and create the way by your walking; you will not find a ready-made path. It is not so cheap, to reach to the ultimate realization of truth. You will have to create the path by walking yourself; the path is not ready-made, lying there and waiting for you. It is just like the sky: the birds fly, but they don't leave any footprints. You cannot follow them; there are no footprints left behind.”   Osho

Let's begin with the difference between states and stages of consciousness; a state is a passing experience such as infatuation, being moved by a movie, an orgasm, being high on a particular drug etc. These experiences are certainly valuable, but they in no way describe a level of consciousness. A stage is something one is substantiated in, such as riding a bike, achieving mastery with a musical instrument, learning a foreign language, etc. Although stages do have up and down states that may foreshadow the next level, they are like floors in a high rise building such as the 7^th or 9^th floor.

Consciousness is developing in the direction from dense to subtle realms, from physical, to emotional, to mental, to compassion, to spiritual power, spiritual seeing, and ultimate enlightening oneness. From unconscious, to subconscious, to conscious, to supra conscious. Our human experience is heading toward greater expansion, greater power, and maximum bliss magnification, sounds good doesn't it!

But evolution first goes through involution, which in the 12 steps is called; "reaching your bottom," this means becoming or experiencing what you are not, before you start to recover and be who you are. This is a movement from becoming to being, the trajectory is toward greater awakening, focus, and the ability to consciously direct power. We are moving toward greater and greater affirmation and inclusivity of life vs. isolation, fragmentation and the density of separation. This movement is from ego centric, to ethnocentric, to world centric, to cosmocentric. Most of the world is caught up in tribal, us/them, ethnocentric, gang war mentality, my family, my team, my country, my race, my political party, my flag, my sexual identity, etc., this is Biblical density, negativity, and ignorance and only creates more polarity.

A sign of evolving consciousness is the ability to take multiple perspectives and truly feel what it's like in that perspective, even if you strongly disagree. This is why I'm so excited about movies and T.V. these days, because there are the most incredible shows that really do quality work in giving us a felt experience of other realities, unfortunately I don't see a lot of carry over for people practicing taking other perspectives outside in the real world.

On a scientific level, we experience states of consciousness every night when we go through waking, falling asleep, dreaming (R.E.M), dreamless sleep (most restful), and waking up. In between this we will have circadian rhythms, moods, and many varied states of consciousness. It is possible for a person to have a predominate dreaming (Theta) brainwave pattern while they are awake, this substantiation would demonstrate one is at an advanced stage of conscious awareness. Masterful artists are able to dip into this state to derive profound inspiration, but they are not generally able to maintain it. We can track states of consciousness using technology such as an E.E.G. which will show us Beta, Alpha, Theta, and Delta brain wave patterns and synchronization of left and right hemispheres of the brain, each progressive state is considerably slower, more powerful, and yields higher expansion and pleasure. We can use an E.K.G. machine to see heart wave variability, that is to track how much each heart wave varies, which indicates deep levels of relaxation and wakefulness.

Our challenge is the same challenge one faces in meditation, which is being deeply relaxed and highly alert. Meditation is the fast track to evolving your consciousness, it is a practice of noticing what's happening in the present moment. It is not possible to really notice much of anything when you're texting and driving, multitasking, feeling stressed, pressured and driven, while the world moves at break neck speed.

Consciousness is slow and simple, it is highly focused on one thing in the moment, there is a feeling of lightness and buoyancy, humor, spontaneity, and compassion lead to skillful means.

                              

Adolescence #2

                                                       Adolescence #2

              

                    “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”

                                                                                                  Albert Einstein

 

I'll indulge myself and give an autobiographical run through of some of my adolescence to highlight some points. My adolescence, like everyone else, was fraught with what seemed like epically high highs and epically low lows. I say “what seemed like,” because that is indicative of the developing adolescent brain, the immaturity to accurately assess and gauge one's subjective experience with much objectivity is sorely lacking. This is why it is unreasonable for parents and adults to expect that adolescents will think, perceive and feel like adults do, it's not going to happen.

Foremost in my adolescence was insecurity, masked in faked, affected, and pretentious Uber security and coolness. I struggled to fit in and yet didn't want to fit in, so everything that I was a part of i.e. sports, family, acting, academia, I tried to hold myself on the fringe and not be the card carrying party member. This gave me the false illusion that I was unique and different.

One of the highlights that was a game changer for me was, for some unknown reason, my dad encouraged me to take up the practice of meditation. At that time in the '70's in the San Francisco bay area Transcendental Meditation was up and coming, so I began what was to become a life long practice for me. I mention this because an essential part of helping teens is helping them to find something that they can grab onto and call their own. My dad was able to see something in me that related to the practice of meditation and he facilitated my connection to it. It is also noteworthy to mention that my dad never has had any interest in meditation, so this was purely my thing.

Other game changing, life saving protective factors that I had as a teen was music, theatre, sports, and an intellectual passion to learn (even though I had little interest in learning what was required in school). My early interest in psychology was fueled by me having a cool friend who's dad was a shrink, as well as my dad buying me a bunch of psychology books and getting me a subscription to Psychology Today. Even though I was playing out the role of family hero and struggled with identity and self esteem, these protective activities and interests I had played a huge part in me surviving, and I do mean surviving my adolescence. I had teachers throughout my school years that saw me and took the time to encourage me, they gave me something that I could say allowed me to believe in and to come to know myself.

My particular story is one in which I believe is unusually fortunate, I don't believe adolescents in general have near as much help as I did, and they suffer as a result.

I'll save some of the horror stories for another time, use your imagination for the time being.

 

 

                        

Zim For Dummies #2

                                                            Zim For Dummies #2

 

 

                                         

 

                                        “The degree to which I can create relationships, which facilitate the growth of others as separate persons, is a measure of the growth I have achieved in myself.”
                                                                                                             Carl Rogers

One of my core values comes through when I first make contact with a person, this is the value of relationship. Because people reach out to me for help I must be available energetically from the first few seconds of contact. Getting to know me is to know that a great deal of my work is in the relational arena, like Carl Rogers, I have found the apex as well as the foundation of therapeutic work is at the relational level. But this is not restricted to therapeutic relationships, this is true in ALL relationships.

This extends into any field of science, because in the 20^th century, science moved from an orientation of reality composed of objects that moved in predictable paths and outcomes, to reality being composed not of things, but of relationships, fields, and forces.

Most of human life is lived in some contextual relationship. When we were first conceived, we began a relationship with our environment, first in utero, commensurable with all the sensory and bio-chemical/hormonal connections, as well as right after birth, and the attendant sense of warmth and safety that we either had or different have. This was our welcome to human life after deplanning experience that most of us don't remember.

So rocket science answer to first question of relational wisdom I practice is; warmth and safety, this is the remedy for the degrees of coldness and fear we may have experienced (see Joseph Chilton Pierce's book "The Magical Child" for an excellent and at times scary look at birth practiced in America in the prior century). Next I practice a desire to understand, not in my own terms, but as a good Margret Meade type of cultural anthropologist would, seek to be free as much as possible from my own cultural biases, and seek to understand the “other” on their own terms. I am transparent with my own thoughts and feelings and this facilitates a transparency from others. Acceptance of others and deep empathy encourages others to explore and express themselves. I'm certainly not pretending that I'm able to convey, practice or transmit these qualities all the time, at times what I convey is the opposite, but my core values and aspirations are to set my intentions to be as loving, clear, and honest as I'm capable of.

The human body and soul are wired for growth, learning, expression, and integration, this is what has been optimally selected for fitness, survival and propagation. This wiring in the psyche is the move toward wholeness, and every nuance of the human soul is geared in this direction. Dreams, symbols, art, science, political structures and religion are creations of our individual and collective need to be whole, happy, and fulfilled in our human form.

Unfortunately, we have gotten a little side tracked in this most conscious direction, so there are shamans, scientists, artists and seers of all sorts that have day jobs attempting to realign our errant space craft.

Research has validated the outcomes that quality therapeutic relational experience helps people become more effective and integrated with less neurotic symptoms, feeling more healthy and more the person they which to be, with more self-awareness and confidence. This leads to greater awareness of others and the ability to form quality relationships. Openness to experience is greater and one is less likely to repress or deny what one is experiencing. This person has less stress in life and they are able to recover from stress with higher resiliency. A maturity and integrity is observed by friends and loved ones as well as an ability to meet situations more creatively.

 

"I would like to tell you what I often told you when you were much younger: I like you just the way you are." Mister Rogers

 

 

 

                                                 

Polarity #2

                                            

                                                                       Polarity #2                                          
                                                 
                                            

This cosmic dance of Shiva is called 'Anandatandava,' meaning the Dance of Bliss, and symbolizes the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction, as well as the daily rhythm of birth and death.

“Polarity, or action and reaction, we meet in every part of nature; in darkness and light; in heat and cold; in the ebb and flow of water; in male and female; in the equation of quantity and quality; in the fluids of the animal body; in the systole and diastole of a heart beat.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

In order to have experience as a human being we must have contrast, to feel joy we must reference sorrow, to feel love we must know fear and hatred. This is like the negative of a photograph (before digital photography), which was the necessary substrate before the positive image could be produced.

Jung said; “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious,” this is a key aspect of dealing with our polarity of light and darkness. Our ego functions in a way that pulls us toward what we think we want, need, or like and pushes us away from what repels us, but true psychological growth comes from a confrontation with our shadow. Jung described the shadow as those elements of our psyche that the ego doesn't approve of. Think of a time when you were shamed about something that you thought was a perfectly great interest, expression, opinion, or feeling. Let's say you were trying out your voice singing with others and someone said “You can't sing, you sound horrible!” you will have the painful contrast of your initial impulse to sing and then a big door slammed on that impulse. If you were young and didn't have enough power to protect yourself you most likely internalized that message and it became a life long belief.

Facing and engaging one's shadow is a conscious act of going into the parts of your psyche that have remained dormant, repressed, or compartmentalized. This is an alchemical process of reconciling opposites. So there is a part of your psyche that wants to sing, express, and be heard and another part that says “You can't sing, you sound horrible, just be quiet and listen.” These two aspects need to get to know each other and hear what it is they feel and need. You might have a dream in which you try to sing and others are laughing at you, again those are two aspects within one psyche.

Emerson also said; “What you are comes to you.” This is a law of attraction in which your being will magnetically pull to you what and who you are at your core. When people are having symptoms they are trying to heal, the symptoms themselves are the cure, this was another of Jung's insights. What we perceive of as symptoms that we are trying to get rid of carry the very seeds of their own transformation, making the unconscious conscious is the key to that transformation, this is kind of a psychological homeopathy.

Be mindful of your own tendency to polarize and separate into neat packages of good/bad, right/wrong, dems/republicans, etc. see everything as a play of one consciousness delighting in it's own expressions of diversity, seeing itself in opposites, and coming back to itself as a unity, this is the dance of creation.

                                    


                                 

Loosing Control #2

                                         Loosing Control #2

 

 

                                

Evolution is an unpredictable machinery. It is fraught with; 1) random punctuated periods of equilibrium, in which there is an emerging order and thriving adaptation and, 2) periods of instability, chaos, catastrophe, and extinction, guess which one we're in?

 

Our modern/post-modern culture in my view is behind door #2. This is not a doomsday message, it's just an honest point of view. If I were accessing our culture as I would assess an individual I would be treating, I would say we are a narcissistic personality with borderline features and delusions of grandeur, we have extreme ADHD as evidenced by our inability to be still and pay attention for more than 22.3 seconds. We are actively suicidal and need to be on 24/7 watch. We have severe substance dependency, eating disorders, and body dysmorphic symptoms. We meet criteria for depression, anxiety, mood instability, and PTSD. Extreme family of origin issues that will warrant family therapy are recommended. Anti-social, as well as concurrent co-dependency are demonstrated, whose simultaneity presents with Schizoid features, (Rule out psychopathic serial killing tendencies).
 

Physically, we are morbidly obese and anorexic simultaneously, we have coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and are hypoglycemic. Our nervous system is fried (not a clinical term), and we have poor posture and misalignment due to sedentary or unsafe manual labor which causes horrendous back problems and all the joints to ache. Internally we have huge digestive disorders, ulcers, colitis, heart burn, and flatulence. We are allergic to nature, including being allergic to ourselves.
 

So, this seems out of control to me and it is worth a first step admission of out of control powerlessness. The book “Out Of Control” by Kevin Kelly was one of about 7 books that were required reading for the cast of the film “The Matrix.” In this book there is a discussion of a non-zero sum game, which is how evolution works. The conflict and instability of organisms and their environment, predator and prey, symbiotic relationships, etc. means the ecologic whole can reward (or cripple) all members.
 

We are brainwashed into being competitive, when the clear evolutionary advantage is to cooperate. In terms of loss of control, it's where we're at on the map, the acknowledgment and acceptance is the first step in cure. It is that moment of reckoning after the Doctor or whomever has given you some frank, objective news/feedback about something that totally sucks!
 

This is the heroic call to the adventure that is healing, awakening, being humble, and using your gift of life to it's fullest. We have to recognize what we've lost before we can recover it. Modern technology is taking things from us at a staggering pace, all under the guise that it is making our lives fuller. The biggest theft is our humanity itself, the mammalian brain that is organized in primates to recognize, give and receive social cues on very sophisticated multisensory, and vibrational attunement (such as with Eco location) pathways is being lost.
 

 

Other thefts are attention, wisdom, socially connected, intimate, and communal relationships, intuition, creative inspiration, and emotional well being. This comprises a spiritual crisis, much like when the addict reaches his bottom (see Anne Wilson Schaef's book "When Society Becomes An Addict). The 12-steps idea of a High Power was informed by C.G. Jung in a letter he wrote to Bill W., I'm paraphrasing; “ it will only be through a spiritual awakening that an addict can recover, he cannot do it through his will, this is the instrument through which his disease was originally caused.”

Equality #2

                                                            Equality #2


"Even The Comfort of a Stone Would Be A Gain", Atlantic Coast, Brooklyn

"Through her photography, artist Nona Faustine investigates such convoluted spaces, with pasts and presents that don't quite line up. Her photo series, titled "White Shoes," revisits many of the New York locations once plagued by slavery -- from City Hall to the Supreme Court -- capturing the traces that may or may not have been left behind."

This is also a historic week in that the Confederate flag flown at the S.C. state capital was removed due to an overwhelming majority opinion that it is a symbol of hate. The fight for equality is an ongoing part of human evolution. For us to consider the majority and well being of the greater good is a foundation of a democratic society, however most of our culture is governed by elite special interests and as such constitutes anything but an egalitarian democracy.

This week also saw a sad commentary on one of the top "Ethical bodies" in my field that the American psychology association colluded with the Pentagon, CIA, and the Bush administration to devise "ethical" guidelines to support post-9/11 interrogation techniques that have since been labeled as torture.

The fight for equality extends into interpersonal relationships also, the dynamics of abuse in relationships is constituted by power and control over another vs. equality and shared power with another. Parents, teachers, preachers, politicians, etc often exert a sense of entitled control over their flock. They use fear, intimidation, mind control and media manipulation to exact conformity and compliance. The leaders and innovators in our evolutionary progression are the ones that question, rebel, fight, and resist oppression at every turn. This doesn't lend itself to being well thought of by the establishment!

Equality also extends in the intrapersonal realm, that is the domain of one's own psyche. For within each of us are a multitude of thoughts, voices, and parts that can and do war and enslave each other. Think of a time when you were gripped by a mood or obsessive thoughts that literally hijacked your consciousness resulting in impulsivity, lost sleep, depression, or words spoken in the heat of passion that inflict permanent damage, this is clearly a case of inequality and self-oppression. The world inside a person's head, heart, and soul is the place to launch an activism of equality, having self acceptance, celebration, and a working dialogue and relationship with the different parts of oneself is a foundation of equality. If you don't have this, you will project all your insecurities, self-hate, fear, and prejudice onto others, this is the basis of all racism.

Nona Faustine is able to reclaim her own dignity, body, and soul through her art and so by doing she is a leading revolutionary in the fight for her race and all of us who feel enslaved in so many ways. Think of her courage and unrestrained self-acceptance and use this as a springboard for your own expressions of freedom and equality.

Hope #2

                                                            Hope #2

 

                

                   
       

 

 

How do we find hope in our darkest moments, when the dominant polarity is negative and pushing aside any vestige of affirmation? This is a process of swimming upstream against a very strong current. It is important to first recognize where you are on the map, which is, if you are feeling hopeless, that's where you are. Don't try and be any other place. This sounds hopeless in and of itself, but it is the recognition and acceptance that leads one out of the abyss.

The human mind and psyche is composed of a multitude of voices, tones, moods, and thoughts, many of them are in agreement or at least voting with the majority, but a few are very strong and grandstanding in their declarations and opinions, they are waging war so to speak, ready to take everyone else down with them. This is where an inner dialogue needs to happen. You must find the wherewithall to engage the negative voice in a conversation without trying to suppress or give into it's demands.

The recent animated movie Inside Out takes a fun and comical view of the workings of the mind, but it is no laughing matter when one is in the depths of despair and not aware that their inner ship of awareness has been highjacked. So we must build into our daily lives, people, places, and things that will remind us and give us cues of direction to find our way out of the dark forest of depression and hopelessness.

Having friends, counselors, family, pets, and hobbies will redirect our negativity back toward hope. Relationships based on honesty, trust and safety in which people give each other honest, kind feedback is very healthy. Writing is also an excellent way to narrate your experience without becoming lost in it, but we must take action of some sort, otherwise the mood, thoughts, or voices will build in momentum and intensity.

Every person should have a plan like a fire escape to take specific evasive maneuvers when they are hit with a spiralling mood. This plan should be discussed with others, written, and placed in view so you can go right to it when needed. A simple plan might include; 1) Call my counselor, 2) Go for a walk, 3) Write down my feelings, 4) Take 20 deep breaths, 5) Take a long bath with candles, 6) Write down 10 things I like about myself, 7) Play with my dog, etc.

Then you must rally yourself to follow through with your plan, there will be a part of you that will not want to do it, you have to talk to that part and say “I hear you, but I'm in charge right now and this is what I'm going to do for us.” Trust me, that part will thank you in the morning!