When Will Your Real Independence Day Be?

Independence Day, as we celebrate it in the U.S.A., is really a kind of arbitrary acknowledgement of a mythical, political event. It celebrates one country’s “freedom” from another country’s set of rules and demands – a release from a theoretical form of enslavement. Ironically, our country was simultaneously being built towards its “independence” on the backs of actual (not in any way theoretical) slaves, abducted from their happy homes in Africa, and pressed into hard labor upon pain of death. When their independence day – Juneteenth – was is another story, based on their supposed "release." It seems every day now, people just want to be free; but it's only the freedom to move around as you wish that comes from outside conditions... 

In truth, none of these outside events mark a true Independence Day or release, as many of us continue to struggle to reach material standards for happiness and fulfillment—material “progress,” material “accomplishment,” material “gratification.” (That’s a lot of “important” stuff in quotation marks, isn’t it?)

Your real Independence Day comes, or will come, when these things happen:

When you are released from the material expectations of “who you are supposed to be.”

When you are released from the patently insane manipulations of the “powerful” and the political to impose standards and expectations on you that, in reality, have little or nothing to do with real happiness and fulfillment.

When you escape the harsh self-judgment that accompanies the arbitrary, often unnatural material expectations enforced by a culture that’s based on delusions.

When you release yourself from an entirely unwarranted sense of self-entitlement that falsely places you above your fellow human beings, and their actual rights and needs.

When you allow every other form of Life to live as an expression of Divine Consciousness, without imposing your own selfish cravings on their right to live life freely.

When you can simply live in your authentic, Divine nature—being who you really are, and allowing the same consideration of everyone else you encounter, without imposing material judgments, comparisons, or expectations.

When you release this Divine Planet from the grip of your own selfish needs, and contribute to that planetary liberation on a collective basis, acknowledging everyone’s right to share equally in the Earth’s resources; and recognizing all of our responsibility to act as considerate and compassionate stewards of our Mother Earth. 

           When, through self awareness and meditation, you can escape the harsh process of uncontrolled serial thought, and identify with your true, serene inner self.

When you realize the destruction of the obstacles we build to experiencing the true force of Love in our lives—that is, when you can simply share the real wants and pleasures of this life with those you love—and with everyone (and everything) else!

Even if you can just try to begin to check the main points of personal freedom off that list (but then, they all are main points…), then you can really wish yourself—and everybody else,

a Happy Independence Day!

The latest book: How to Get to Heaven (Without Really Dying), Wisdom From a Near-Death Survivor from Llewellyn Worldwide can be ordered direct on this page or online; and the first book: How to Survive Life (and Death), A Guide To Happiness In This World and Beyond is available the same ways – but ask for them it at your local bookstore!  

Coping With Lunatic Leaders—This World's Like a Spiritual Elementary School

Our world seems like a pretty crazy place these days, with everything changing so fast—and particularly with all the lunatic leaders grabbing headlines. As population grows, it's inevitable that life is changing a little everyday, but when it comes to the sanity of many of the world's leaders (or often the apparent lack of it), some things may never change. If you think our global leaders are crazy now, imagine witnessing the fall of the Roman Empire and the antics of very disturbed people like Caligula or Nero (God bless 'em), the scourge of Ivan the Terrible, or the atrocities of Hitler's Holocaust.

There's one simple cause for this phenomenon that applies to all of human experience: that human expression originates from a wide spectrum of awareness—its beauties are enhanced by the degree of spirituality with which life is lived, its sufferings are exacerbated by the lack of that spiritual connection by some humans to what we might call Divine Consciousness.

Our most pressing difficulties arise from the fact that as more people appear on the planet, there are more people who delusionally associate themselves strictly with material aspects of living, and feel that they live separate lives—independent of all other life, and our shared Consciousness. They're trapped in the delusional primacy of our limited human intellects, and fall prey to the constraints of their egos and their unconscious desires for gratification and "control."

The result is that the spiritually sickest individuals are more driven (than spiritually-balanced folks) to act out their delusions of control and selfish gratification in order to ameliorate the personal sufferings of their karma—the cause and effect of their past and present life-actions. So we find it's often profoundly dis-eased people that are pathologically driven to gain positions of political power, because it's so much more important for them to try to control Life—to gratify the dictates of their self-centered delusions. The tragic lack of Consciousness in a minority of humans is what exacerbates all suffering in the world, and prevents the spontaneous realization of the kind of Paradise the Earth started out as—and is meant to be.

This relatively small minority is the cause of the self-destruction that has always plagued humanity, and is likely to continue to do so. I won't detail all their excesses (you probably know already), let's just say it has to do with hoarding resources, starting wars, exploiting Nature (and people), rigging elections, etc., etc. The world is often "led" by terminally self-centered sociopaths, and unfortunately, we have always been brought along on their lunatic ride.

The good news is that the ever-overwhelming majority of human beings never experience these lunatic impulses; so there are two very promising realities being created by the rising, shared Consciousness spreading into the world. The first lay in the forms of natural spiritual evolution evident in the level of environmental awareness—the growth of compassionate self-realization practices, such as yoga and meditation; the expanded understanding of the sentience of all the Earth's life and inherent magic of its quantum physical nature; the intuitive movement toward clean energy; and the instantaneous connections of technology.

The second reality is also a result of growing population—there are simply more highly spiritually-evolved souls present in this world everyday. These unstoppable evolutionary changes bode very well for the future of humanity on Earth, it's just that we must also suffer the destructive growing pains of the spiritually disconnected.

The bad news is that these people will never go away. This unconscious minority has always been amongst us, and always will be—that's the nature of human life, cycling through existence on Earth. Their persistence comes from the penetrating sense of fear they trade in, and in the seductive promise that there is a material solution to suffering, when real solutions are actually found in our spiritual nature.

The good news is that they aren't really the world's leaders—they're material impostors. The true leaders quietly, intuitively embody spiritual solutions. In terms of the profound evolution of all living things, every community's inevitable growing alignment with Divine Consciousness comes about not as a result of the fearful manipulations of misdirected charismatic demagogues, but as an energetic shift in the direction of a simple majority of the species—towards survival and spiritual evolution. The school, the flock, the majority of people, simply heads toward the light.

It wouldn't be wrong to imagine this world as a metaphoric elementary school, with grades one through six attending simultaneously, except in humanity's expression, everyone are "adults." The truth is (as always), a minority of particularly power-hungry, unconscious students aren't adults at all, they're spiritual children, acting out their unformed nature, responding to baseless fears and provocations. They answer a reactive urge to control things, and become destructive when they are forced to confront the fact: You can't control the Universe. That's not what's really going on here.

The sixth grade and the second grade are all here together, but no sixth-grader can change the karmic trajectory of any other student, they can only point them toward the light, by demonstrating the spiritually-liberating, growth-inducing principles of kindness, honesty, humility, compassion, forgiveness, and selfless service.

They can only—we can only (as we always have and always will)—try our very best to hold this persistently nasty mess together with Love, until the great flood of Divine Consciousness changes the world. 

That is why we're here—to realize the transformative power of Love.

The book: How to Survive Life (and Death), A Guide To Happiness In This World and Beyond is now available everywhere, but ask for it it at your local bookstore! How to Get to Heaven (Without Really Dying) is due out early 2018, from Llewellyn Worldwide.

Politics & Family – Cognitive Dissonance, The Stockholm Syndrome, and the Challenge to Cultural Evolution

If we're ever going to resolve to face the problems of our increasingly divided planet, we'll have to get busy right away. The biggest problem we face isn't just with wealth inequity and the "one percent" we rarely see, it's with the twenty-seven percent of our fellow citizens we know quite well. In fact, some may be friends or family members we must constantly interact with, and it's a real challenge to confront deep pathological divisions with those we ought to love the most.

It's pretty clear that the obstacles preventing cultural equanimity and responsible stewardship of our country and our planet are generated by multinational corporations, whose financial power is based on perpetuating destructively anachronistic systems of resource management and social division. That's quite a mouthful, isn't it? Toppling the entrenched power structure would be a lot to bite off all at once, and couldn't be done quickly without making a real mess, so what's the most expedient way to go about it?

Saying that it starts with you and me may sound silly, since we probably all started changing a long time ago. The real problem we have is in convincing all those beautiful people that don't agree with us. People who for some crazy reason seem to think fascism and environmental destruction are good ideas. Let's start with some awareness about what we're up against, namely certain difficulties that are part of human nature.

Cognitive Dissonance is the official name given to that sad tendency of people to join in efforts and opinions that are actually harmful to their own circumstances, usually to allow them to dissociate from uncomfortable truths. It's kind of a volatile [and dependable] character glitch, and as such is often exploited. Patriotism, religion, racism, xenophobia, financial and sexual insecurities are all activators of Cognitive Dissonance. So you see Washington think-tanks and Wall Street corporate advertisers using them aggressively, and very effectively.

"Ignoring one's...self-interest may seem a suicidal move to you and me, but viewed in a different way it is...a sacrifice to a holier cause."

Thomas Frank, What's Wrong With Kansas?

At it's worst, in terms of the political divisions in our country, Cognitive Dissonance can engender "The Stockholm Syndrome" – the pathological identification of a victim with their tormentors. A 2007 FBI Hostage Barricade Database study indicated that in 73% of abduction and kidnap cases the victims did not develop Stockholm Syndrome, which leaves a very substantial 27% subject to the irrational, self-destructive tendency to side with their exploiters. Not coincidentally, that's quite close to the number of people who identify themselves as Republicans. If you don't, you are part of the substantial 73% majority. (See: FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 7/2007, Vol.76, #7)

But what can we do we do to change those minds? You know that when you try to convince someone they're wrong about something obvious, their Cognitive Dissonance kicks in, their warped defenses arise, and there's little chance of moving them an inch. In fact, they feel even more strongly that they are right, and though you may be sincerely trying to help, they become even more convinced that your intentions are subversive and threatening. Unfortunately, a lot of human beings operate from that fearful dynamic, that "partisan pathology." It's a destructive mental illness we haven't quite figured how to cure yet, but the original designers of Fox News, and generations of Republican operatives to follow, have perfected how to manipulate it through ever more media outlets.

So we've got to take a careful, even therapeutic approach – a healing approach; and as healing is a spiritual activity, when we talk about "cultural evolution" we're really talking about our mutual spiritual evolution, which is the source of all the solutions to our deepest challenges. That's where it does start – with just you and me. In short, we use Love, and Time – Compassion, Honesty, Forgiveness...all that good stuff.

Even though a friend or family member has identified with destructive, irrational influences, we do still share mostly common ground with them. Kindly, calmly maintain sane boundaries – stand your ground – but never engage in the energy of confrontation. Let them be right if they need to be, and often in that quiet moment of irrational "victory," the folly of their delusion resonates uncomfortably and gives them a chance to realize the power of your point – that the fault really comes from a manipulative third party that they don't have nearly as much in common with as they have with you. But it all takes time – we can't rush it.

Practice restraint and let things go; but be reliable – Show up for family commitments, remember special occasions, be available to help – expecting nothing in return. Sincerely be there for them (without ever being patronizing), as though it were for a person you were helping recover from a painful injury. Make your arguments subtly, by personally demonstrating that your point of view reflects good character in every other facet of your life, aside from your politics or philosophy.

Caring, consistent, and compassionate action will support any point you want to make much more effectively than a documented factoid or a raised voice. If you can be an example of reason and sanity, then the 99% of what you have in common will solidify in their experience. When we're not trying to win, the calm understanding and honest, fact-based considerations we occupy carry the profound power of a more truthful engagement in life, on every level. The real insanity becomes much more obvious, in comparison to the sanity grounded in spiritual principles.

Ultimately we are dealing with the pathology of trauma and dissociation which is such a profound part of every persons personal karma, which cannot be changed from outside the troubled soul, but only from within – through that person's awareness. Only by applying your own awareness of these complex issues with compassionate identification (life is hard for everyone), soon you may be surprised to find that generosity of spirit can enter the heart and mind of the very person who was at one time so vehemently set against you. With that we might "occupy" the Red States, the less fortunate, the middle class, the upper middle class, the Independents, the "moderate" Re-publicans (are there any left out there?) We might even occupy "The Right" and the 1%... After all – we are all the same thing: the large 73% majority of heart-based "Radical Left-Wingers." 

In the meantime, VOTE like all Life depends upon it!

"Spiritual power moulds physical and material conditions, but spiritual power is never in a hurry.

White Eagle, The Quiet Mind

Here's an excellent article on Cognitive Dissonance and the Stockholm Syndrome by Dr. Joseph Carver



The latest book: How to Get to Heaven (Without Really Dying), Wisdom From a Near-Death Survivor from Llewellyn Worldwide can be ordered direct on this page or online; and the first book: How to Survive Life (and Death), A Guide To Happiness In This World and Beyond is available the same ways – but ask for them it at your local bookstore!

Tales: The (Spiritual) Three Musketeers

Kindness, Tolerance, and Acceptance are kind of like the Three Musketeers of spiritual protection. Don't ask me which one's Porthos or Athos or Aramis, but suffice to say, you are probably D'Artagnan in that mix (as you'd like to join their crew). There is no assault by any evil Robespierre that these three can't out-maneuver and overcome. There's no army of worries or fears that together (with you joining in), they can't defeat.

"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness."

The Dalai Lama

Kindness is probably the most readily accessible and the easiest to summon up, since we all know we're capable of it spontaneously. As an action, it's the most actively proactive because we can always simply use it all the time. When we're as kind as we can possibly be to everyone we meet, without being at all patronizing, we energize our lives and the lives we touch with a positivity that's absolutely transformative. Kindness flows into people and situations like a calming, lubricating emollient – yet just below that smooth surface it packs a real punch - the underlying positive power to support a soul or a situation with unshakeable solidity. Just ask the Mahatma, as kindness is the proactive element of the Hindu concept of ahimsa (absolute nonviolence) that he based his revolution of human consciousness on.

Try it, apply it, give it a test-drive for at least a couple of days, and watch the way it changes your life – dramatically improving it so much that you never would have believed it could be so easy...and fun. You'll discover that there's a secret world, a conspiracy of kindly like-mindedness constantly at work in the world, right under your nose.

Next is Tolerance, and tolerance is simply identification. The destruction of separateness. Tolerance is compassion and forgiveness, neatly wrapped into one.

If you just give it a little thought, you can easily see how most of our difficulties, personally and culturally, are self created, coming about as the result of feeling that we're separate and somehow special or different from everyone else, when naturally nothing could be further from the truth. To paraphrase what I believe is the single wisest thing Ronald Reagan ever said: If the Earth were under attack by aliens from another planet, how long do you think it would take us to get over all our differences?

That's easy to answer, don't you agree? Every uncomfortable difference would disappear almost immediately, as we would unite to protect our beautiful home. When we look at the Earth and all it's inhabitants in that context, we see the foolishness in considering ourselves different from one another at all. Everyone is literally in (or on) the same blue boat, going about the exact same business of being, with the same thoughts, fears, and joys determined by our slightly different sensory identifications and experiences.

And unfortunately our planet is under attack right now by an inhuman invader called Fear – the sick army of the collective Ego that takes the form of elitism, exploitation, greed, and prejudice. As is often pointed out, it's the result of humans doing, not of humans being.

"Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself."

Robert G. Ingersoll

Lastly, Acceptance is the toughest to come by, often seeming to make the least sense in light of the basic injustices of Life. And it's true – some things just aren't fair or right, but nonetheless they still simply are. So Acceptance requires a sort of vigilance, of continuously turning it over. Simply put, it's open-heartedness, just allowing life to be as it is, as it always will be, and keeping on the lookout for what is inspired by Love, and what isn't. 

In that sense, there's never anything attacking us personally – just "Life on Life's terms," and the ongoing challenge to find the Love constantly flowing around and through us. The Love that lays just beneath the noisy surface artifice of ego and unconscious self-centeredness. Acceptance is a kind of surrender – as a strategy. Joining up with the energy and power of that underlying Love. Joining the winning side. Acceptance is essential in redefining "success" as a practical, and grace-filled state of being.

So there's Kindness,Tolerance, Acceptance, and you. And all together, there is just is no problem in Life that we can't  resolve. With all that in mind, what was the battle-cry of the Musketeers?  Oh yeah...

"All for one, and one for all!"



Read about concepts like these and much more in: How to Get to Heaven (Without Really Dying), Wisdom From a Near-Death Survivor  from Llewellyn Worldwide available direct on this page, or online. The first book: How to Survive Life (and Death), A Guide To Happiness In This World and Beyond is available the same ways – but ask for it at your local bookstore!