Long Hot Summer?

Looks like this summer will be long and hot, at least weather-wise. Whether or not civilization as we know it begins to break down is an open question.

Predictions have abounded over the past months and years, of the dollar collapsing, the Eurozone imploding, and the entire global economic house of cards simply melting down in the aftermath. The debts that are owed are staggering, and the rampant fraud involving derivatives and bogus bonds are even more so.

Last time I checked, things were still proceeding fairly normally. The stock market still holds at a decent level, and unemployment seems to be easing a bit. Dunn Brothers still sells my favorite mocha with ice cream, and life is generally good.

Will the big meltdown finally occur this year? Those who understand the huge shift in consciousness realize that drastic change is inevitable as the old order collapses, but I for one am still holding out hope for a more gradual changeover. The "Preppers" that are building bunkers probably have it figured wrong; their vision of life is based on the old order of fear and scarcity and fails to take into account the higher energies filtering in. If things indeed collapse rapidly, their bunkers will just become tombs anyway.

There is a new way of looking at the material world, one that does not require predatory competition to acquire one's share. This is the reality that is beginning to emerge, if one has eyes to see it. Perhaps the reality that one experiences varies according to expectations.

A quick note on the ObamaCare Supreme court ruling: This is a fault line along which the toxic and phony partisan battle will be raging throughout the year. It's entertaining to watch the Repubs wince and stutter at the sight of one of their own (Chief Justice Roberts) apparently defecting to the enemy's side. However, as much as progressives like myself favor reforms to the health care system, ObamaCare is not the answer. It creates a huge new bureaucratic entity by merging power centers in Insurance, large Health Care Providers, Big Pharma and regulatory agencies in government. It does not work in favor of individuals or small-scale health providers. The only bright side I see is the possibility that the entire bloated system will break down, while alternative care emerges as an important player.

Mittens Romney is a truly pathetic figure, who bends over backward to kiss the derriere of every power broker. He actually designed the forerunner of ObamaCare in Massachusetts, while now attempting to outdo the most rabid conservatives with his rhetoric. Progressives will stick with Obama, but it doesn't matter who wins. The same boss is in charge no matter what. How much real change have you seen coming from Obama? Guantanamo Bay is still in business, the wars continue to rage, and we now have an even more onerous detention law in place than even Bush-Cheney imagined.

Politics is merely an act to divert our attention. The real powers that be are not to be seen.

Lynn

Send In The Clowns



Here we are at "Super Tuesday", during yet another disgusting presidential primary season that insults the voters. Looks like Romney will pick up most of the states today, while the Newter appears to be eking out a meaningless win in his home state of Georgia.

Does any of it even matter? Gingrich and Santorum command followings in various extreme categories, such as most theocratic, most loony and most corrupt. Of course none of this nonsense is electable.

Romney, the least common denominator consensus candidate, puts on an amusing show of attempting to talk tough and resolute, while simultaneously kissing every ass associated with the halls of power. The reptilian minds that dominate the Republican electorate expect their candidate to sound angry, coarse, and simple-minded. It doesn't hurt a Republican candidate to start out wealthy, but coming from an elitist background creates a challenge to dumb-down sufficiently to please the rabble. Occasional slips of how many luxury cars he's collected or how many millions of "hard earned" money he has socked away in the Caymans really doesn't help.

It really doesn't matter. Would a Romney administration govern any differently than Obama? Probably about as different as Obama has been from Bush - not enough to matter.

Bush lied and plunged the nation into costly, senseless wars, and has any of that changed? Political rhetoric aside, Bush ran up the deficit, bailed out the Banksters, and lined the pockets of Big Pharma with Medicare legislation. Obama - more of the same, and ObamaCare simply expanded on a familiar theme.

So what would the Republican clowns do any different? None has proposed anything meaningful to help those who are struggling economically. More tax cuts for the rich - give me a break. All, save for one notable exception, would continue to beat the war drums and even escalate into WWIII if possible.

We hear a lot of rhetoric about reducing the size and intrusiveness of the federal government, but who speaks against the Patriot Act (save Ron Paul)? Who dares criticize the TSA, a  massive, intrusive bureaucracy that costs increasing billions?

Ron Paul is actually the only candidate who makes any sense at all. Many of his libertarian ideas are worthy of discussion, although his Austrian School economic philosophy would tank the economy further into depression. But why not stop the endless wars and bring the troops home? Why not halt the phony war on drugs, which only maintains high prices for druglords and pork barrel funding for law enforcement agencies? Why not begin to dismantle the massive security state that was erected following 9/11?

Any candidate who broaches those last few issues gets my attention. The rest of them will simply continue their circus act. To hell with them all.

Lynn

2012: Looking out my window at the year ahead

The much-anticipated year of 2012 is finally upon us, but I'm not making any predictions about what will occur in the months ahead. One thing I am certain about is that the world is shifting and changing at an accelerating pace, and chaotic energy abounds. Whether this is deemed favorable or not depends on where your vested interest lies. One can surf the waves of chaos, or be swamped by them.

The global financial system creaks and groans. Will the Eurozone implode, and bring down the rest of the system? When you look at the staggering debt totals involved, it seems merely a matter of time. Not only is Europe trapped in a debt gridlock, but the US as well. Again, the numbers - $600 quadrillion in toxic derivatives are estimated to be on the books. Any sudden shock could lead to a domino effect like the one that nearly melted down the world as we know it in 2008.

The US government now pays nearly 20% of revenue toward interest on the national debt, and this is while interest rates remain near zero. What if investors grow weary of lending their money for free, and hold out for higher rates? If rates climb even a few percentage points, it could be game over US, really quickly.

It seems clear to me that the Banksters are merely holding things together for now with duct tape and bailing wire. It's very difficult to imagine a path out of debt gridlock that doesn't involve massive collapse, runaway inflation, or currency devaluation. What their end game could be is a mystery to me.

This blog is not about doom and gloom. We are observing the end of an age, and the eventual result could be a very good thing for humanity. The Banksters and criminals that run the world are faced with an end game of some sort regardless. They may scheme to maintain power by tightening the screws on the 99%(witness the military rendition of citizens provision in the defense authorization bill, or proposals to censor the Internet). Whatever draconian tactics they may resort to, they cannot stop the shift in consciousness.

I've been trying to understand just what the Shift entails. Very strange things are occuring in my own reality, and reports are surfacing that others experience it too. It's as if the very structures that maintain physical reality in this dimension are dissolving.

Dolores Cannon has channeled a large amount of data via hypnosis regarding the Shift. In coming articles, I'll be taking a look at this topic, and attempt to sort out the most likely scenario.

FAITH DEFINED

My recent critique on the underpinnings of Christianity may lead some to conclude that I’m somewhat akin to Richard Dawkins or the recently departed Christopher Hitchins.  Although I do find some of their deconstructions  of religion interesting, I’m actually far more influenced by authors such as Bernard Haisch. As I stressed earlier in the series, religion tends to inhibit true spirituality, which I’m quite passionate about.

I have certainly done my share of deconstruction of my own beliefs, but the question arises as to whether and what form of faith can endure once religious structure is stripped away.

What is faith? The 11^th chapter of Hebrews opens with, ”Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. This seems as good of a definition as any.

The ubiquitous consciousness that pervades the universe, which Haisch postulates in his “God Theory”, is unseen by the materialist’s eyes. Haisch maintains that the theory is testable, and his book is really a modern affirmation of classic Hermetic thought.

So the spiritualist has “faith” that an unseen structure underpins the physical universe, and that certain “evidence” can be cited to support this belief. The evidence points to an immense and organized structure of reality, consisting of myriad levels and dimensions. We take the grand totality of this wondrous universe to be God, but the key difference with theistic religion is that all collectively is God rather than ruled over by a mercurial human-projected version of God.

As for the practice of placing one’s faith in Christ or various patron saints, the primary question to ask is whether or not this is of benefit to the believer. Powerful miracles are often attributed to prayer or beseeching upon a religious figure, and I’ve seen many such examples myself. But wherein does the power originate? Spiritual wisdom teaches that as souls, we possess unlimited creative powers. When we pour our energies into the archetype of our choosing – be it Jesus, Mary, Archangels, etc – we charge them with power. They become props on the stage of our personal reality. Whether these entities exist within their own reality is irrelevant, for it is largely our own power we are working with.

Unfortunately, by shifting focus to external deities and icons, religion disempowers the believer and encourages subservience to their particular hierarchy in order to obtain God’s favor. For those who find this works for them, so be it. For those who are curious to push their boundaries outward a bit, the Unknown Country awaits to be explored. It is for the latter that this is written.

Reasons To Disbelieve

Continuing the Series "Why Religion Will Soon Be Obsolete"

Basic points covered thus far include: Religion replaced the enlightenment that was once widespread on the Earth, and it tends to displace true spirituality. People are often drawn to religion because they sense there is more to life then the material world, but the spiritual answers received from religion are false or incomplete.

Christianity claims to have an exclusive corner on spiritual truth, based on the assumption that they follow the "One True God" and that their Bible is the "One True Source of Teaching and Inspiration". They are intolerent toward any other spiritual teaching, and teach that everyone who rejects their teachings will experience God's wrath as they burn forever in Hell.

Christianity claims to have been founded by followers of Jesus that knew him while alive, as well as those who had visions of him after his death (such as the Apostle Paul). Even if these claims are accepted on face value, there are serious internal inconsistancies when the Blbilical accounts are scrutinized. Also, when looked at through broader historical context, the basic tenets of Christian belief crop up repeatedly in older religions, as if ancient traditions were plagarized and blended into a composite Roman Catholic faith.

There is even room for serious doubt that the historical Jesus even existed. Certainly there were "wisdom teachers" of that era offering worthy material such as found in "The Sermon on the Mount", and it's plausible that one or more "Zealot" types were executed for stirring rebellion against Rome based on Jewish Messianic prophecies. The Jesus of the Gospels could easily be an assembled composite of these.

To summarize my perspective, here is my list of...
Reasons to Disbelieve
(Couldn’t resist the pun on a common phrase used by Christian apologetics websites)

·         Christianity is based on human concepts and borrows from older Greco-Roman “mystery” religions, such as Mithraism, Eleusian & Dionysian mysteries, and the Phrygian cult of Cybele. Early Church leaders such as Tertullian and Irenaeus were aware this was a problem, and so resorted to claims that the Devil went back in time to plant Christian teaching in the older mysteries. "Diabolic Mimicry" was the term they used in acknowleging these startling parallels.

·         Christianity constructs and projects an all-powerful theistic God with many human characteristics (emotions ranging from love to angry vengeance to hatred,  often jealous and violent-sounding)

·         Christianity teaches that the creator places us on Earth for one lifetime, and we will face eternal damnation if we fail to pass the narrow set of criteria that they preach.

·         Christianity teaches that the entire Bible was inspired by God, yet the composition of the New Testament was arrived at through wrangling by powerful competing factions at the Council of Nicea. The Old Testament contains many references to God commanding the slaughter of men, women and children along with other unthinkable atrocities. It is difficult to square the “God is Love” message of the Gospels with the violence and hatred spewing forth from the Old Testament God.

·         The Gospels were supposedly derived from first-hand oral or written accounts of the life of Jesus in Palestine, but they were written hundreds of years later in another language (Greek) by people living in other parts of the world (Greece, Turkey or Asia Minor).

·         The Gospels follow a liturgical pattern that suggests that they were written to conform to Old Testament prophetic literature concerning the expected advent of the Messiah (anointed king). Liturgy and history are not the same thing.

·         As much as Protestants may distance themselves from Catholicism, the Bible and the core of their teachings and traditions have a common ancestry, having passed through the narrow sieve of the early Roman Catholic Church.

·         There is scant historical support for the Gospel narrative, and no “chain of custody” linking purported events in the Gospel with the earliest  written manuscripts. Christian apologists and theologians engage in an amazing spectacle of “circular reasoning” in their defense of the Faith.

·         Christianity disempowers adherents by teaching that we are sinful, worthless and utterly helpless outside of their system of authority.

Next in the series: Faith Defined

The Sea

A VAST SIMILITUDE INTERLOCKS ALL

On the beach at night alone, As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song, As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and of the future.

A vast similitude interlocks all, All distances of space however wide, All distances of time, All souls, all living bodies though they be ever so different, All nations, all identities that have existed or may exist, All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future, This vast interlude spans them, and always has spanned, And shall forever span them and shall compactly hold and enclose them.

From “A Sea Symphony” by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Lyrics from Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”

Taking a break from the ongoing series on religion becoming obsolete, I will try balancing the discussion of “things to disbelieve” with some positive spiritual material. It may sound ironic, but my primary motivation for leaving Christianity was a passion for deeper spirituality. Here is an example of something that certainly sparked passion and wonderment in my ongoing journey…

When I first encountered Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony, I had just finished reading “Journey of Souls” and “Destiny of Souls” by Michael Newton for the first time. Wide-eyed with amazement at how vastly different life suddenly seemed from a spiritual perspective, hearing Walt Whitman’s metaphor of the soul’s journey upon the seas of life simply blew me away.

Still fresh in my mind was Newton’s account of bittersweet parting as a soul prepares for a new incarnation. Then to hear the poet’s words sung…

Sail forth, steer for the deep waters only, Reckless O Soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me, For we are bound, where mariner has not yet dared to go, And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

O my brave Soul! O farther, farther sail! O darling joy, but safe! Are they not all the seas of God? O farther, farther, farther sail!

Such poignant emotion! This imagery puts life in true perspective, for this is the core of what it’s all about. Leaving behind the safety and security of home to venture forth on an uncertain and risky journey, knowing there will be pain and hardship. Some take on too much and fail in spectacular fashion, but who can judge? All began their journey with high hopes and lofty expectations. Thusly we weave the rich tapestry of life, riding the waves from crest to trough. The true significance of this undertaking may not be fully understood until the finish. “Bravery” stands out as a key word in Whitman’s ode to the soul:

Flaunt out, O sea, your separate flags of nations! Flaunt out visible as ever the various flags and ship-signals! But do you reserve especially for yourself and for the soul of man one flag above all the rest, A spiritual woven signal for all nations, emblem of man elate above death, Token of all brave captains and of all intrepid sailors and mates, And of all that went down doing their duty, Reminiscent of them, twined from all intrepid captains young or old, A pennant universal, subtly waving all the time, o'er all brave sailors, All seas, all ships.

Why religion will soon be obsolete: Focus on Christianity

This is written as the Christmas season winds into full swing. Nativity scenes pop up beside homes and churches, depicting the Christ child lying in a manger. Various decorations feature related themes; Angels announcing the advent, Wise Men traveling from afar to confer blessing upon the newborn king, donkeys and cattle looking in at the scene.

Celebrating the religious aspect of Christmas is a time-honored tradition, but despite orthodox belief to the contrary, this tradition is not based upon historical events. In fact, the entire historicity of Jesus and events depicted in the Gospels is open to serious question and doubt.

The reader may wonder why this even matters enough to write articles about. Couldn’t I promote my own spiritual beliefs without criticizing an established orthodox faith, which is embraced by millions?

Certainly, I could and generally do. However, in order to fully illustrate what it means to raise the vibrational level and spiritual awareness of this planet (The Ascension Shift), it’s relevant to examine the lack of spirituality found in major religions. I am loath to criticize that which I have not experienced, but I happened to have been a solid adherent of orthodox Christianity for over 40 years. Everything I have to say on this subject concerns belief and practice that I once fully embraced. Furthermore, my only reason for parting ways with Christianity was a desire to explore spirituality. In my experience, organized Christianity impedes the path toward deeper spirituality.

And so, driven by a desire for deeper spirituality and curiosity as to the ultimate reason for being here in human form, I began to entertain a wider range of possibilities. No sooner had I began to consider data from a wider perspective, I was shocked at how ingrained and circular orthodox reasoning really is. I was surprised at how weak the arguments are for historicity and legitimacy of the Gospels.  The clincher came when I finally understood that the most basic, essential facts of spiritual life are not even taught by the church. If anything, the spiritual truth that I now embrace would be condemned as heresy!

An important point to stress: I’m not trying to convert anyone to my belief system. As I understand the process of the soul’s incarnation into physicality, it’s not essential that the ego-mind grasp everything. The soul’s agenda generally involves learning lessons, experiencing certain situations, and clearing karmic imbalances. These things can usually be accomplished regardless of a person’s belief system. You can remain blissfully unaware that the principal players in your life drama were probably present in many previous lives without affecting the outcome. Personally, I’m curious to know these things, but it’s not essential.

I am writing this because the time has arrived for increased spiritual awareness. A tremendous shift has begun on this planet, and many can sense this and are curious to know more. Many of the curious are deeply involved with Christianity, as I once was. It is for those that I write this, so they can see that abandoning their dogma does not mean abandoning their sacred communion with God.

In the emerging age to come, those who complete the ascension process will find themselves living with one foot in the physical dimension and one foot "In Atlantis". This is something worth seeking.

Coming: Reasons to Disbelieve