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I grew up knowing HC Andersen’s fairy tales by heart, thanks to a beautifully illustrated volume of his fairy tales. Over the past two years, I have become aware of the growing “polarization” in our nation that has reached the point of tearing our world apart—as predicted in the Hopi prophecy of a “Purification” that I blogged about last year. This awareness has led me to see The Emperor’s New Clothes… shedding light on our terrible polarization.

Polarization is the word for the terrible behavior of two (or more) differing “camps” of people who have been misled to turn their differing views into war. The raging shown on different TV channels shows me what polarization can do, as it has always done, destroyed whole civilizations. Our current inventories of weapons of mass destruction show me that we could be looking at the collapse of civilization never before possible… and hideously unique.

I asked myself “How is this possible?” John Rensenbrink, editor of Green Horizon Magazine, in the Winter/Spring 2018 edition, makes the point that “polarization describes much of what passes for politics nowadays…. ”But,” he goes on to say, “there is something even worse going on of which polarization is a dominant symptom. It’s oligarchy.”

Yes, all human attempts to civilize look wonderful at their beginning, but the power of their creative geniuses becomes an ego-seduction. A belief in something often called “Divine destiny” takes over the egos of those whose success reflects their role in that destiny. They measure that success by the symbols of material wealth they acquired. And, sooner or later, that world collapses and a “dark age” descends on us, as has been going on for millennia, in both East and West.

Here are the Emperor’s new clothes. They are an illusion based on fear and its stepchildren, anger and rage. The oligarchy… masters of control for their own selfish ends… casts an invisible spell on the populace, causing it to become violent in championing our views. We see this today in all of those “–isms” that show up on and in the media. They presage a self-induced violent “purification” that I have found in several Native prophecies. They don’t have to destroy… rather they can create a “Unification” that also shows up in the same Native prophecies.

An old friend, Dan T, has told me about a book by a Swedish physician, Hans Rosling, that addresses the change we need to make to usher in the new civilization. Its lengthy title, Factfullness, Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better than You Think (Flatiron, New York, 2018) that lists ten false impressions of how we tend to see the world… and it takes them apart. He created a rich website that you might like visiting: Rosling web site He is a good example of the lights that make up the constellation of the new civilization.

There is another way than fear, a projection to a time that does not exist, and another way than anger/rage, a projection into another place or being, a “there” that becomes the “other” where you can do what you want out of your fear of her/him. Reality says these are impossible illusions, for there is but ONE field of finite matter and infinite, eternal consciousness… EVERYTHING… where there are no illusions and where none can ever enter.

Our egos project into time and space that do not exist, always believing that they are protecting us from death. As Sogyal Rinpoche says in his 1992 Harper-Collins book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, take the projection out of fear and become aware; take the projection out of anger and become present. As a remarkable example, a dear friend of mine who is of Ojibwe origins and Midewiwin healing traditions made a deep cut in a finger while slicing carrots in the presence of a very angry partner. She pinched it shut, and, counter to the instructions from the other to take it to the hospital, she said “Be quiet; I have work to do.” When the other had complied, she focused on her Ojibwe healing/training, and, fifteen minutes later, she knew that the work was done. She took the pressure off, and saw that it was done… there was no sign that it had ever been cut! I asked her, “How, Meg?” She said, “I was present to it and let go of all fear.” (The full story is in an earlier blog called The Healing Power of Presence.)

Can we heal ourselves collectively by letting go of our fear and anger? Of course we can… from unemployed laborer to mega-mansion owner, we can create a civilization of beauty, wonder, compassion, kindness, and freedom. Join me in this wonder. Let us begin by deeply listening to the words of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “We are not human beings in search of a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Let us read Peter Kingsley’s wonderful 2003 book, Reality, in which he makes the case for our immortality. Now, if you will, give yourself permission to know that it is our Soul which comes to have a human experience, and that goes on when that physical body has run its course to enter another being to have its experience of life.

Yes, we are, indeed, immortal. And it may just be that this is the time to know it… AND TO LIVE IT

H.O.P.E. Groups: Centers of Creativity

As John Chaffee, PhD, author of The Thinker’s Way, tells us, “Creativity is not an add-on, something extra that you have to find time for in your busy life. Instead, creativity is a better, richer, more productive approach to doing what you are already doing. It’s braided seamlessly into your life, not a bow that’s added on for decoration.” I would add that our creativity got us to where we are today in our human evolution, and H.O.P.E. Groups are Centers of Creativity.

Creativity works equally well for both good and evil purposes, and it is clear that the “good” exceeds the “evil”. As I look at my country — United States of America — it becomes clear that we are in a destructive phase of our evolution marked by a dumbing down of our creative nature. Just look at all of the promotions for distractions, and what appears to be a ravenous hunger for these same distractions.

Consider that this is not an accident. Rather, it is a product of the imagination of a cabal of humans who live in fear — their own — that they project onto all of humankind. The question is: how far down do we have to go before the destructive trend ends?

I invite all of you who read this post to look into how you have been led to separate yourself from your fellow human beings. We have long lived with the experience that two heads are better than one, but we are forgetting that synergy — bringing minds together — always produces superior results to keeping those minds separate. We can return to that wisdom way… we have done so quite a few times in the past.

If you, like me, see that we are getting into trouble, I suggest that you come together with others of a similar concern to share your creative thoughts with each other, knowing that nurturing each other restores our creativity. There is a body of human experience that tells me — and I share this with you for this benefit — the solutions to our problems lie in coming together in “small groups”.

In February 1987 I created the first small group in my surgical practice for five of my patients who had cancer. They chose to call themselves a H.O.P.E. Group with the letters standing for “Healing of Persons Exceptional”. Briefly, “Healing” means becoming whole; “Persons” includes all of us; and “Exceptional” acknowledges the fact that no two of us are the same. Our focus was, and still is, a process of choosing where we would like to go with our lives, and the attitudes that make that movement possible.

You, too, can focus on that which gives your life meaning, and the associated attitudes that make this possible. You can convene a H.O.P.E. Group yourself, without having to be trained as a counselor or facilitator. Simply visit hopehealing.org/resources, click on the little “Pop-out” symbol in the upper right corner, and there you have it… the .pdf file called “The H.O.P.E. Goldbook”. Reading this at the beginning of every small group meeting gives you and your small group the means to keep the group focused on what it would like to have happen… the group runs itself.

If you wish to be in touch with me, the Founder of H.O.P.E, send an email to hopeheals@hopehealing.org. I’d love to hear from you.

The Power is Within (+ how to tap into it)

This post is by Sarah Rose, a close acquaintance and colleague who writes about her struggle to find the power is within and how to tap into it. She asked me to post it here, and I am pleased to comply…


Introducing Sarah

Sarah lives in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia. She is a social worker in the school system and found H.O.P.E. and Ken Hamilton through a web search for hope. The two opened a regular dialogue across the world through the medium of Skype. There, she expressed an interest in becoming a H.O.P.E. Guide, and, as of today, she is well on her way to adding that certified skill to her rich helping experience. I publish her post at her request, and invite you to visit her website http://innerbeam.me

The Power is Within (+ how to tap into it)

(Written by Sarah Rose on June 10, 2018)


I used to feel confused, often.

I used to feel unwell, often.

I have spent a huge amount of time feeling lost, without a sense of purpose.

I have spent so many hours, countless hours, reading books and seeing practitioners of all kinds to try and understand whatever it was that I felt I just didn’t understand, to find answers to the apparently complicated situation I was experiencing.

Feelings of stress, fatigue, pain- and a general sense of things just feeling ‘off’ would drive me to continue to search for answers to make sense of and cure the unpleasantness.

Over and over my thoughts repeated themselves ‘’what is wrong with me?’ And ‘who can I find to fix it?’. These questions became the centre point of what happened in my life for years.

I now know that life responds to us in ways which support whichever questions we ask of it.

So, in response to ‘what is wrong with me and who can fix it?’ life responded. I found several answers to ‘what’s wrong with me?’ and each time someone provided a diagnosis I would become hopeful that they could ‘fix it’.

None of them fixed it, not one single one, urghhhh, so disappointing, every-single-time.

The back pain was never resolved in the long term by the chiropractor, physio, shaman, kinesiologist or massage therapist (they were all shorter term fixes).

The existential angst of ‘what the hell am I doing on this planet…and if I am meant to be living my ‘life path’ then what is it- no one ‘fixed it’. The shaman, the psychic, the astrologer, the numerologist (I’m a life path 11), the tarot reader, the counsellor, the psychologist- none of them fixed it.

The anxiety, it was only ever relieved in the short term, again- no one fixed it, despite me being a diligent and conscientious patient.

The fatigue, oh the unbearable and ever so persistent fatigue. I’ve seen naturopaths, kinesiologists, had chakra balances, visited various GPs and paid big dollars for tests, supplements and made some dietary changes. This stuff helped, of course it did, but it didn’t ‘fix what is wrong with me’.

You see, I’d asked impossibly tricky questions of life: ‘what is wrong with me and who can I find to fix it?’. Life dutifully responded to those questions, I showed incredible determination to find answers also.

From the space of believing someone would fix it, I visited many (mostly) wonderful, kind, supportive and well educated folk hoping they’d fix it. I put my faith in them and put very little of it inside of me.

Throughout the years I have met some amazing practitioners and they’ve helped me immensely through tough times. I imagine that some of them quite likely tried to point me back towards myself and my own power. I couldn’t quite hear them or understand what they were saying, because of the questions I was seeking to have answered. A sense of ‘there’s something wrong with me and there’s someone who can fix it’ underpinned all of my efforts & perfectly aligned with my belief system (and that of our medical system).

Our culture teaches us that the answers to our well-being are outside of us, and illness is healed by professionals, who know best. I swallowed this pill early on in life, and when it came time for me to find answers to my own symptoms, I followed the path dutifully to find the right person to help me.

It’s not that healing isn’t helped or co-created with people in the healing professsion, it often is.

What I really want to highlight is this: my experiences were decided by the 2 questions I was asking of life.

Those questions were a source of frustration and hopelessness for me- and they coloured all of my experiences. They reinforced that the power of healing was in someone else’s hands and the big one- that there was something wrong with me.

Yes, I had symptoms, many of them, I had many many people who would agree that there was ‘something wrong’, but the damage was done when ‘there’s something wrong with me’ became a part of my identity. ‘Something’s wrong with me & needs to be fixed’ seeped into every area of my life and eroded my sense of what was possible, diminishing my sense of hope.

I now understand why ‘no one and no thing ever fixed me’ – because there is no possible cure for someone who believes there is something wrong with them and that someone else needs to fix it. The only thing that will create change is when we decide to be that someone for ourselves and ask a question which better serves us, which demonstrates our love and acceptance of ourselves and recognises how powerful we truly are.

Just like Glinda told Dorothy, at the end of her journey trying to get home along the Yellow Brick Road, that she had the power to get home all along. Dorothy didn’t know that. She needed to experience what she did along the Yellow Brick Road, face the challenges she did and confront the fears that she did, in order to gain that belief that she’d had the power all along.

I invite you to consider what questions you’re asking of life right now, perhaps they could be tweaked?

If you’re curious about exploring things from a fresh point of view and finding a new way of meeting your own challenges you might just love a Soul Call Card reading.

If you’re interested in reading more about the concepts/ideas I’ve shared I highly recommend visiting Amy at amyoscar.com & Dr Ken Hamilton at hopehealing.org

Amy & Ken have both been incredible sources of support for me, I’ve learned a lot through spending time with them and consider them both to be great teachers and guides. They’ve taught me so much about the power of the questions we ask & the power that resides within. They’ve shown me that my inner guide will lovingly steer me towards knowing my wholeness, I need only learn how to listen to and honour her.

I’ve also done this amazing training called ‘The Lightning Process’ which empowered me to heal & understand the power I have to influence my own physiology in a practical, enjoyable & evidence based way. Thousands of people have used this training to heal chronic health issues. https://lightningprocess.co.uk/

I recently posted a blog about a favorite subject of mine: metamorphosis. This most recent post is a direct copy from the text of the 2012 H.O.P.E. Manual: the section labeled “the caterpillar – butterfly metamorphosis.” In it I describe the wonder of how a single-celled egg can become a multicellular caterpillar that literally entombs itself in the chrysalis where it can safely dissolve every caterpillar cell and let specialize clusters of cells called “imaginal disks” open up and create a butterfly out of the molecular stew that was once the caterpillar. Now I want you to explore Our Ego – Soul Metamorphosis: from secular self to Spiritual Self.

In the case of the Monarch butterfly the adult takes off from the place where it was born, to fly a nonstop journey straight to a specialized section of forest in Mexico where the trees will keep the butterflies warm overnight until the next spring! Wonder of wonders, when the time is right, the Monarchs will take off headed straight back to where they came from: be it Washington State or Washington DC; Portland, Washington or Portland, Maine; and any place in between! Furthermore, they will stop once or twice on the way to their summer home, mate each time, deposit an egg, and die. For me, that whole journey is a “remembering”. It has to be a function of consciousness, but where does that consciousness reside? I’ll let you decide. Read on….

I am so fascinated with this because I see a great and powerful shape-changing process taking place in the human race: one that originated I don’t know when but I do know that Père Teilhard de Chardin knew this. He gave it to Jean Houston not too long before he passed… “We are not human beings in search of a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

My studies of the last 30 years have helped me to see that that part of me which is in search of a spiritual experience is my ego, and that part of me that came here to have a human experience is my soul. The human metamorphosis is, to me, what comes of understanding that what is commonly known as the “low self” is the ego and the “high self” is the soul… and the two are to work together!

I also see my ego as a specialist in knowing that my DNA comprises what I choose to call my “ship of life”. My ego is its navigator on the “ocean of life” without knowing why it is here, where it came from, or where it is going. My soul, on the other hand, is the captain of that ship and it came on board sometime before I was physically born with the ship’s manifest under its arm. It knows its cargo, its final destination, and all ports of call in between.

When the ship ties up at that final destination, I, the captain, get off the ship – with gratitude to the navigator – carrying the ship’s log… a legendary experience in the Universal Library along with all other human soul stories. It comprises a gift to Source in gratitude for the life it was given in human form. Of course, it helps Source with Its evolution.

Parker J. Palmer, the Quaker writer, teacher, and activist with whom I had the pleasure to meet and study with a couple of decades back, shared with me in our early days together the following: “Is the life I am living the same as the life that wants to live in me? Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you.” Parker has written several fine books about his life work, and the one that speaks to me most loudly at present is Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 2000). I have learned to listen to that voice in me and others and comment on what I am hearing, both to myself and to others.

I am indebted to a dear friend, now gone, Margot Fanger, M.A., who taught me how to “reframe” the thoughts and words of self and others… as in hearing the other give answer to the intentional question, “What would you like to have happen?” Should the given answer be, “I’d like to be cured of my cancer,” I have learned to suggest that the focus here is cancer and we need to find another focus; so I would ask, “What would you be doing if you were cured of your cancer?”

My response to this one: “What’s wrong with me?” would be to ask, “What would be right with you?” You see, I was taught years ago that what we focus on expands, and the healing work is to find out what comprises a beneficial focus in self or other.

Parenthetically, a H.O.P.E. supportive group is not a “cancer support group” because that makes cancer the thing on which we’re focused. Rather, the actual focus is on hope, the attitude of meaning, and it may well then be a “H.O.P.E. Group for people with cancer.”

Apply this to humanity, and what kind of a metamorphosis do we find? Is it not to be found in the attitudes and actions we’d like to see in the whole world? I suggest that you make a list of those attitudes and actions and share them with four, five or six other human beings who have their own lists… a H.O.P.E. Group (H.O.P.E’s web site). Watch out, you might come to like and love your Self… and others!

Blessing thoughts abide.

The caterpillar – butterfly metamorphosis:

I invite you to join me in exploring a phenomenon of nature that will challenge your imagination… the caterpillar – butterfly metamorphosis. Five years ago I presented this subject in two blogs, the subject of which was “Recovering Our Soul.” This time, I have copied the text of a section in the core text we use in training people how to create and guide H.O.P.E. Groups, The H.O.P.E. Manual that I published in 2012. Life has nurtured in me a deep respect for the human soul and its ability to come into human form on Mother Earth for a specific divine assignment. It asks us to perform a life-changing process of growth and development that I find parallels the incredible phenomenon that turns a simple egg into a worm that then develops into that beautiful winged creature known as the butterfly.

Participants in a 1988 H.O.P.E. Group meeting in Portland, Maine, told me that the work was spiritual work… “shamanic soul work”… as found in Michael Harner, PhD’s book, The Way of the Shaman. I found the work intriguing, and participated in a training workshop given by Harner that year, at which I found I had a natural ability to “journey” for people looking for answers to questions… and finding the answers they said they were looking for! Harner introduced me to his student, Sandra Ingerman, who, in turn, taught me how to perform the healing practice of shamanic soul retrieval in 1996. It is a gentle, caring service that I have provided for over 20 years for people who have a subjective sense that they are not quite complete, especially for people with what is known as PTSD. (If you want to know more about this, I recommend that you read the book by Ed Tick, PhD, War and the Soul, and visit his web site: Ed Tick)

The text from The H.O.P.E. Manual continues…
________________________________________

This miraculous process stuns the imagination with its intricate weave of complex processes, and yet it has a striking resemblance to human psychospiritual metamorphosis. The H.O.P.E. process, be it in a H.O.P.E. Group or a SoulCircling workshop, metaphorically contains all of the elements of this transformation. Let us then examine the process for the butterfly: specifically, the Monarch butterfly.

The egg of all species of butterflies contains DNA with two sets of cellular instructions: one set develops the larva – the caterpillar – and the second set creates the imago – the adult butterfly. The larva has but one purpose: to eat twenty–four hours a day and acquire all of the necessary elements for the formation of the butterfly. Its eyes and antenna–like feelers are specialized for the detection of the right kind of food. Its mouth is specialized for reducing its food to a size manageable by its digestive tract. Its gastrointestinal tract is specialized for the digestion of that food. Its respiratory and circulatory systems are specialized to support these functions.

And in its body lie inert collections of cells that contain the instructions to become the adult butterfly. Science has named these collections “imaginal disks” – words rich in their implication of the presence of an image that will fully express itself in the emergence of the butterfly, the scientific name for which is imago!

The caterpillar will molt once or twice as it grows, and when it reaches a critical size, it will hook its end into a plug of its silk, molt once more, and become immobile, hardening its skin. Its digestive system will break down, sending digestive enzymes throughout its body. All cell walls will dissolve (with the exception of the cells in the imaginal disks!). All intracellular structures will become formless, reduced to their molecular components. The imaginal disks and the central nervous system remain unaffected by these powerful digestive forces.

When the destruction ends, the imaginal disks will begin to draw material out of this primordial stew and replicate themselves with a new set of instructions – butterfly–making instructions – and a new cellular form develops that was always implied in the DNA instruction of the imaginal disks – the butterfly – that builds itself around the only thing left from the caterpillar, its central nervous system.

When this process is complete, no similarity to the larva remains. This new form has true antennae to sense the pheromones coming from a mate that could be up to three miles away. In the case of the Monarch, it has wings that make it possible for the creature to cover as many as three thousand miles to its winter home in Mexico. It has no chewing mouthparts but a long tongue for reaching into a blossom for nectar and water. It has six long legs to carry it gently over the flower. It has eyes capable of recognizing the color spectrum of the flowers that nourish it, and that it, in turn, fertilizes. It has a memory of the future, for it knows the way to its winter home in Mexico, even though it has never been there before!

Moreover, when it swelled and burst the skin of the pupa, now chrysalis, its wings were little fat nubbins completely incapable of flight. It had to struggle to get itself out of the rigid, protective confines of the chrysalis. In struggling, it built up its flight muscles. It drained the blood out of the wings, allowing them to expand to their full span. It had to endure this struggle… any attempt to help it would result in its death.

Now consider this: the adult Monarch knows the way to its winter home in Mexico where there is a particular tree that stays warm overnight, serving as a roost for the butterflies! Consider this, too: the adult butterflies know when the time has come to begin their journey… they all leave together! And this: take a group of butterflies born in Ohio, whose journey would be essentially southbound, and take them to the Atlantic coast. There they will begin to fly south over the ocean… and within 24 hours they will have changed course to go directly to their home in Mexico! Consider this, last of all: one generation of Monarchs makes the journey to Mexico where it over-winters, mates in the spring, lays its eggs, and dies. The resulting caterpillars go through the same metamorphosis as they did in Maine, but going north they take three complete generations of Monarchs to get to their summer home in Maine! Where is the knowledge that makes this incredible journey and return possible? What are the implications for our understanding of evolution?

The ancient Greeks knew something special about this metamorphosis… they gave the butterfly the name of their goddess of the soul – Psyche! Might it just be that as the caterpillar became a butterfly through physical metamorphosis, the human becomes a spiritual being – a soul – through its mental metamorphosis? Might that metamorphosis simply be a shift from guilt/fear/anger to love/compassion/forgiveness? Simple? Yes. Easy? No.

An important question before us… do the helping professions help a human being with a serious illness or mental crisis know that they are in a spiritual process of deep personal transformation? Is it possible to be present to the situation in such a way that the individual in metamorphosis becomes aware that the process is not just a pathological “dis–ease” but a natural consequence of suffering… growth and development? Is it possible to be present to suffering in a beneficial way without trying to stop it – rather to nurture the phenomenon? H.O.P.E’s traditions and practices focus on that possibility.

I dedicate this blog post to the three who came together with me in the first “Quartet”: Elaine M, Berry M, and Jacob W, whose idea it was to think of the value of meetings in fours – a “Quartet”. We had come together to share our spiritual outlook(s) on life. We agreed that Quartets are loving, nurturing, kind, and creative… They are Balanced, Spontaneous Small H.O.P.E. Groups.
Those of you who know me and the way I have experienced life… not as something that I went out and looked for, but something that came with assignments for me. This simple principle is common to spiritual practices. My life has been a directed life since as far back as I can remember. Twice within the last few months I was one of four people to come together to explore our creative nature rich in these values: loving kindness, care, compassion, creativity, meaning, value, and purpose. These two occasions had no one in common except me.
The first meeting came about as two old friends – women I have known for years – and I started to talk about coming together for a noon meal in their city, Portland. As this dialogue began, I received a call from an old friend – a man I had not seen for a couple of years – asking me if we could get together for a noon meal at a good family restaurant about halfway between the two cities where we live. I mentioned the meeting I was going to have with these two women, and he wondered if it would be possible for him to join us. I told him I would ask my friends if he would be welcome. They were pleased to have him join us… they had their own experience of him and his ministerial career.
We had a richly creative and comfortable lunch together in Portland. At the end of our meal together he commented on the fact that we were a “Quartet”, the dynamic of which he considered to be balanced and pleasantly creative. We committed to having another such time together in the future… no specific day set.
Shortly after that fine meeting, three people appeared in my life, none of whom knew me or each other. They were called together by the organization I started in my surgical practice in 1987, H.O.P.E, through the website, hopehealing.org . They announced their presence and their curiosity all within a few days of each other. What we had in common, moreover, was a powerful interest in helping human beings develop beyond our old limited and selfishly egocentric thinking. After experiencing a series of dialogues between us as individuals we decided to come together in a longer dialogue comprising all four of us using the communication vehicle, ZOOM, which made it possible for the four of us to meet: a creative businessman from New Jersey, an “evolved” businessman from Montréal, and a social worker in the school system of a suburb of Melbourne, Australia! We were curious about how it was that we all came together within a period of less than one week without any prior introductions. It became clear that through our differences we were to work with each other to improve the quality of our individual callings.
As we were planning this meeting, I was reminded of the Quartet that had met for lunch in Portland, and, to me, this was another “Quartet”. Both of these Quartets had concerns for humanity, and I could see how the concept of “Quartet” could spread… and extremely rapidly! We talked about this rapid spread would happen if the four members of one Quartet each called together another Quartet to explore our human potential, thus bringing twelve new people into working together as Quartets. Each one of those could convene Quartets to explore a major shift in consciousness, becoming geometrically expanding to create a new civilization… one based on benefit – compassion, creativity, kindness, service, peace, love, etc.
Consider that the civilization that began with the Renaissance and reached its peak with the Industrial Revolution is now dying… as all civilizations die. Consider that the forces which created the past civilizations were ones that focused on ego–driven survival. Consider that what I am talking about is a natural component of evolution: spirit–driven thriving. Consider that the Mother Earth on which we live, and from which we derived our physical bodies is not an accident, but the product of a field of consciousness that comprises and involves the entire universe… just as the field of matter comprises and involves the entire universe….
Consider that the power figures of the old civilization are highly creative human beings who thrive on control by creating fear, shame, blame, and guilt throughout humanity. Consider that their leaders live in secret… a cabal who have profited greatly from war and consumption of natural resources. Consider the effect of an expanding field of consciousness comprised of countless millions of Quartets and the consciousness that convened them. Considered that this phenomenon has, like all other natural phenomena, a tipping point. Consider that the work of the Quartets is not any form of warfare and consumption… the creativity of the cabal would then be welcome in the creation of a completely new civilization.
Consider your potential to contribute to the new civilization… convene a Quartet.

Attitude… a chosen state of mind

An attitude is a chosen state of mind or a feeling.

  • It is one’s usual mood or temperament.
  • We all have attitudes all of the time, and one of them predominates, creating the temperament.
  • A positive attitude is a desirable attitude, and there is a lot to be said for having positive attitudes.
  • A negative attitude is an undesirable attitude, and we need to recognize what we consider undesirable.
  • All attitudes have much to do with our health; some good and some bad. Fortunately for all of us, there is a lot we can do about the attitudes we choose to carry.

I learned about attitudes and health from the businessman, Earl Nightingale, whom I met first in 1975 and studied his work almost daily for the next 12 years when life led me to three great physician–teachers who guided me into the formulation of a sound healing psychology that has distinct beneficial applications in and for health care. These fine medical professionals: Barry Wood MD, psychiatrist; Bernie Siegel MD, cancer surgeon; and Gerry Jampolsky MD, child psychiatrist, helped me add great depth to the physician’s promise I was taught in the beginning of my second year in the McGill University Faculty of Medicine: “Promise your patients that you will do everything in your power to help them get on with their lives.” This fine trio of physicians introduced me to the supportive functions of small groups that focus on serving that promise, which led to the first H.O.P.E. Group meeting on February 12, 1987. That work called me to sheath my surgeon’s scalpel in 1988.

I share with you now the work of three humans who have helped me in this work:
Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), the Austrian psychologist who survived three years in a series of Hitler’s worst death camps says: “The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances; to choose one’s way. It is this spiritual freedom that cannot be taken away that makes life meaningful and purposeful.” His choice of attitude made his survival possible where only one out of 28 survived those three years. One of his preferences was hope. He kept it in the face of the hopelessness that surrounded him. The other was love.

The philosopher-psychologist, William James (1842-1910) said, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives. It is too bad that more people will not accept this tremendous discovery and begin living it.”

My teacher, Earl Nightingale (1921-1989), was fond of saying, “I may not be able to change my mind, but I can change my attitude; just give me about five minutes.” To Earl, Attitude is the key to the gold mine of the Mind, which contains, in turn, the Formula for the creation of our lives; “We become what we think about.” Lest you consider that to be a “New Age” idea, Earl traced it back to a Sanskrit writing about 3,500 years old.

There is one especially funny thing about attitudes… we choose them; all of them. Oh yes, I’ve heard, “S–he made me do it!” a thousand times, and the reality of the compulsion is that there was always at least one other choice. Ego is an important choice-maker, and it always chooses what it thinks best. It then turns it all around and says it could not help the choice. Sometimes its protestations are quite comical.

Negative attitudes: fear and anger…
Anger, the killer with a two–edged sword, is the handmaiden of fear. It only comes from fear, and it is used to cover fear. “The best defense is a good offense;” remember? We need to make choices that steer us out of the traps of anger and fear. It helps greatly to realize that the dangerous aspects of anger and fear lie in their projection. Fear lives in the future, no matter how short the interval. Most anyone who has had a life–threatening experience knows that the mind focuses clearly on the present instant only… there is no time–projection; only awareness. Anger tries to live in somebody else’s space: spatial–projection. When anger does not project, it transforms into presence… assertiveness, the ability to stand one’s ground.

Positive attitudes: sorrow, happiness, hope, joy, love…
Attitudes are essential to our health… the full range of them. Sorrow or grief is a powerful emotion when we can separate it from the attachments of fear. It is the heartfelt emotion of compassion. Anger naturally evolves into it when we stop projecting. Look for the sorrow without pity the next time you feel anger toward something or someone. Happiness: John Stuart Mill maintained that happiness was an eternally elusive goal, but a natural state that could only be experienced while the individual was in the service of a worthwhile cause. The happiness neurotransmitter is beta–endorphin, which is 50 times more potent than heroin. Remarkably, pressure on the face at the points where the smile muscles attach changes blood flow patterns in the brain and causes a marked increase in b-endorphin levels. Let a smile be your umbrella on a rainy, rainy day!

One of the most powerful positive attitudes is hope. It has the power to reach into the future and take control away from fear. It frames our images of our lives. Hope is all about possibility. Expectations adulterate it. It comes from the awareness that things can make sense regardless of how they work out. It empowers all of the attitudinal shifts we seek for ourselves and others. Hope was the one thing that made a difference in the lives of Viktor Frankl and his fellow prisoners. Hope made the loneliness of Capt. Gerald (Jerry) Coffee’s “Hanoi Hilton” prison cell bearable. He lived in it for over seven years with only rats and lizards for company. He kept from going crazy, or dying, by exercising and meditating; going inside to find himself… the one who came here to spend over seven years in durance vile. When he found himself, he found he was not alone!

Joy is the emotion of love. In states of joyfulness we have identified three powerful substances that directly affect the immune system by turning on the myriad of cells that function as part of the immune system. Candace Pert has demonstrated that the cells of the immune system that are infected with the HIV can be protected from getting HIV–infected by the presence of one of these joy substances she calls Vaso-active Intestinal Peptide… V.I.P., for short!

No matter how lonely our environment may seem, whenever we go to find our true selves (as did Gerry Coffee), we find we are not alone, and the full range of a life rich in healthy attitudes becomes a reality. The reality of such a life is a thing of beauty that can be shared wherever we go. It is a quality that is always present, no matter how much our fears and anger may hide it.
Finding that life is a matter of choice. The road is difficult, but the rewards are great. Every journey, no matter how long, begins with but a single step. The strength to take that step is contained in the attitude of possibility that comes from believing in oneself and one’s purpose in being here. There is nothing wasted or imperfect in this wondrous universe. To think so is only a matter of attitude; so, it can be changed… the choice is up to each one of us.

Easter Sunday, April 1, 2018

Today, Easter Sunday, April 1, 2018, I open today’s thought forms with the simple aphorism: “There is no such thing as a co-incidence… It’s only God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

This day God put together in a mysterious manner, and all I had to do was to pay attention to what was coming up now. Of prime importance is the appreciation that there is only one Source of everything, and we have an infinitude of names for that Source. My choice of names for that Source, based on my upbringing and traditions, is “God”. I add that in knowing that there is but one Source, that Source cannot be judgmental, hateful, fearful, shameful, or guilt–full or it would have argued itself out of existence before it became anything at all. We know today that the beginnings of everything in our Universe date back nearly 14 billion years and that point of light was not only physical energy, but a conscious, spiritual energy.

I have long known to pay attention to Life as it comes along and meets me minute by minute and do exactly what It asks of me. Today, Life asks me to tell you about the life–changing gifts of the day: the ironic nature of the day itself; the discovery of the effects of blast injuries on the human cerebral cortex; an orchestral performance that flew in the face of intolerance; and the evening performance of Jesus Christ, Superstar.

Today is the first of April. It is “April Fools’ Day”! It is also Easter Sunday in memory of the resurrection of the Nazarene, Joshua. So maybe I ought to be standing away from the circumstances of the day and looking at it all with a somewhat jaundiced eye. I accept that challenge. The trial of the Nazarene was a rigged trial against him because the holy men of his tribe were threatened by him and they cooked up the charge of blasphemy and sentenced him to death by crucifixion… a bitter “April fool,” if ever.

I did some important work with a close friend about healing the hypocritical metamorphosis in which we find ourselves today. We are both of a mind that our transformation has the potential for great beauty, closing our conversation in time for me to watch today’s episode of 60 Minutes. It began with an interview of an American soldier terribly wounded in one of our senseless wars in the near East. After many corrective surgeries to restore some appearance of normalcy to the right side of his face and head, he devoted himself to helping other wounded veterans free themselves of PTSD. About a year ago he started showing signs of psychosis. They became so severe and untreatable that he committed suicide. A postmortem examination led the pathologist to look at his brain to see if there was any evidence of blast injury there… there was, and very extensive blast injury throughout the whole brain, unlike the patterns of injury that occur from repeated contact. That whole segment of 60 Minutes focused on this complication of blast injuries because they had never been looked for before. They are a product of today’s high explosive warfare. We have created a whole new class of war wounds that leads me out of my own grief for the losses of war to heighten my passion for seeing an end to war.

The second half of today’s 60 Minutes program was a presentation of the work of Daniel Barenboim, a Jewish man born with a gift for playing magnificent classic piano and conducting magnificent orchestras, the latest of which comprised both Jews and Palestinians in their home countries. Here is one human being who is doing wonderful work in overcoming the racist prejudice that exists on both sides of the barrier in Palestine. I applaud his work and the work of the young people in that orchestra. I am a resident of Maine living 10 miles from the Seeds of Peace camp where high school students from both Israel and Palestine have come together every summer, starting in 1993, nurturing each other peacefully.

Then, to close out a wonderful day in which I was given the opportunity to explore our illnesses of racism, on the one hand, and the dreadful tolls of war on the other, I was called to be witness to our potential for healing through this evening’s NBC performance of Jesus Christ Superstar!

I delight in experiencing the way that God has set up such complex co–incidences that make it very difficult for her/him to remain anonymous much longer. I encourage you to investigate your own life – experience(s) for similar patterns. My sense is that you’ll find them. Know that you are blessed.

War Is a Racket: Thoughts of a Retired Marine General

“War Is a Racket” is the title of a 1935 book written by a retired Major General in the US Marine Corps, Smedley Butler (1881 – 1940) when he was a Brigadier General. War was not a theory to Butler, but a reality in which he participated that earned him not one but two Congressional Metals of Honor! He came to see that he was a “racketeer” in what is probably the most profitable racket of all times – the mongering of war. It has long been clear to me that that racket is a highly profitable industry that costs unbelievable numbers of lives and unbelievable quantities of resources. The racket has gone on long enough and has gotten so sophisticated in its consumption of resources of the two that both of them must end if we humans are to survive as a species on Mother Earth.

I write this on the day of every “March for Our Lives” taking place in our country today that fundamentally bring peace into our lives… peace that puts an end to murderous violence of all kinds, including war. Those “marches” have been prompted by the incredible rate of mass homicide of children, all of which are the product of an equally incredible belief in violence as a natural and uncontrollable force in the human condition. Violence is our dark side, and we are not confronting it… yet.

I share with you what I have been able to do about this tragedy from my seat here in my studio. I learned to shoot a rifle at a bull’s-eye when I was about 10 years old, and I got great delight in being able to put a bullet through the middle of the bull’s-eye, shot after shot. I started with a .22 caliber rifle, and when I was in college I bought a .30 caliber hunting rifle. I learned how to reload the cartridges for that rifle, which was a precision skill to match the precision skill of putting holes in the center of a paper bull’s-eye. I even learned to cast lead alloy into the bullets that made those holes.

When I was in college, I joined the National Rifle Association, which was a sporting Association then, and into the 1970s when I started my practice in Norway, Maine. I then used that skill to kill one deer that I gave to another hunter who needed the meat, and never used it to kill again. I became a Life Member of the NRA back then. The NRA has since lost sight of its original sporting purpose and has a pathological fascination with the promotion of weapons of war. In 2015, I put a black “X” on my membership card and send it into the NRA with a letter resigning my life membership.

Though I do not walk well, I talk in full support of all of those who “March for Our Lives”. I am doing everything I can to say “No” to all forms of our addictions: fear, rage, shame, guilt, and violence. I say, “Yes” to all forms of compassion, kindness, creativity, and peace that heal those addictions.

“The Great Secret” Reveals Itself in Our Longing

It is my sense of it all that we are moving into a space of solving what Peter Kingsley calls The Great Secret… “Source” isn’t where we think It is – out there. It is in here – within you, me, everything – and continuously revealing Itself to us… not so much through our rational, logical minds as through our senses and our intuition… our longing. Kingsley tells me that the ancient Greek prophets, Parmenides and Empedocles, were given the key to the Secret 2500 years ago. It was more than the later, Socratic, Greeks, could grasp… they’ve misled us into believing that we can know Source through rational and logical thought. The “Secret” is neither rational nor logical: it is a “Mystery” found only by going within to the depths of our sensing/feeling and intuition. So, maybe, just maybe, those feelings you may feel – fear, anger, shame, blame, and guilt – for instance – are invitations to go to those depths and find that you are not alone, as the man in the first story discovered in his Hanoi Hilton imprisonment. You are never alone in your deep longing and when you own that, the door to the Mystery opens.

Here are five stories of people who found and followed their deep longing; and none of them were ever alone after the Mystery revealed itself to them. (These stories, except for mine, have all been published before with the author’s permission.)

  1. A Navy F4 Phantom pilot flying a combat mission early in the Vietnam conflict got shot down over Hanoi. His ejection–seat parachute saved his life, but he was captured and sentenced to isolation in the prison that came to be known as the “Hanoi Hilton”. His isolation was so extreme that he felt he would either go crazy or die. Facing those fears, he developed a determination to meditate deeply and regularly to “find myself” (as I later heard him say). When he finally found himself, he became aware that he “was not alone.” As I listened to his account, I got the sense that he became aware of the longing that we all have and have always had… to know that Mystery and live it because it has always been with us.
  2. Peter Kingsley, early in his college years, went to a bookstore looking for an interesting book to read. A book jumped off a shelf onto the floor at his feet, open; so, he picked it up and read that to which it had opened. It became a clear–cut instruction for him to study the works of the prophets, Empedocles and Parmenides. (If you should be curious, go visit http://peterkingsley.org . You will see where his longing has taken him.)
  3. I, Ken, your author, having grown up in a family of spiritual healers, allopathic healers and atheist social healers… am aware of my longing to help humans everywhere “get on with their lives”. (These quoted words were given to me in second – year medical school.) The longing has come to me several times in my life, weaving its way through a variety of situations. This time, I recalled it when I read the September 2006 Parabola essay, As Far as Longing Can Reach by Peter and Maria Kingsley. I had gone into a bookstore on a 23 December several years ago to buy a Christmas present paperback for my wife that she said she wanted for Christmas. The bookstore was crowded, and I did not know where to find the book; so, I started looking for a clerk. Due to the size of the crowd, progress was slow, and at one point, I found myself standing still next to a narrow display rack with shelves of paperbacks stretching from floor to ceiling. Suddenly, I saw a movement above me… a paperback jumping off the top shelf to land at my feet… the very book I was looking for!
  4. Meg C, a close friend and colleague of Ojibwe extraction, who had been trained in the Ojibwe Midewiwin healing traditions, found herself in a stressful situation while she was slicing carrots in preparation for a meal. Momentarily distracted, she sliced a finger to the bone. She put pressure on the cut, stopping the bleeding. Her partner suggested they go to the hospital and get it sewn up. She responded with, “Not now, I have work to do.” She became “Present and let go of all fear” for the next fifteen minutes, at which time, she knew that the work was “done”. She took the pressure off and saw that there was no sign that the finger had ever been cut! When she told me that story, she showed me the finger… there was no scar! With this, she knew she was being called to practice her native ways – her longing – and was able to successfully combine the practice and raising a family.
  5. Evy M, a graduate nurse in a teaching hospital, developed a symmetrical weakness of her arms that was an aggressive form of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). When the paralysis put her in a wheelchair with useless arms and legs, she saw herself in the mirror in her hospital room and said to her reflection, “God, Evy, how I hate you!” She had been deformed by polio in her youth, and always had a limp and could never find clothes that fit properly but had never acknowledged self – hatred. She swore then that she would not die hating herself, and, because “love” was the opposite of “hate,” she was determined to come to love herself before she died. It was a difficult and challenging process that involved looking at her naked body in a full-length mirror every day for one whole hour and extending love into it. It took several weeks. When it was nearly complete she stopped, wondering if coming to love herself was going require her to like the disease that was killing her. She persisted, and when the love was complete, she no longer identified herself with her disease! The disease progressed over the next week or so to the point where she had the strength to breathe for no more than ten minutes… she stayed in that state for 36 hours! Then, to her surprise, having accepted her death with grace, her strength began to return! It took two full years for the recovery to complete itself. She knew then that it was time to change her career and go into the one that she had always wanted – a Christian ministry. It was successful, and she went on to become the ordained Methodist minister of a parish in Newburgh, New York. She had found her longing and had followed it. She lived for many more years in good health. I have not heard from her since 2008. I heard from her old Parish that she had a health conditions that made her go to the Southwest. I have just now found her, living out there, alive and well.

I found the Kingsley’s’ Parabola essay yesterday and sensed it was what I’d been looking for as context for this blog. Am I surprised? I am delighted… it is my sense today that we are moving into a time of breaking open “The Great Secret”… Source has its own longing… to be intimately known by all sentient beings – including humans! It has imbued itself in you, in me… in everything. The “Secret” isn’t a secret… It is the great Mystery of The ONE!

I offer you these questions: Are not fear, depression, and anxiety all expressions of a deeper, oh-so-very human longing? Has that longing not been with us forever? Is it not to be found in the works of poets, artists, composers? Do we not flood ourselves with ever more distractions today, smiling whitely during an epidemic of violence in a myriad of ugliness that rises out of our own longings? Is this not what underlies addictions and suicide? Are we not like the solitary rat in a cage choosing cocaine-laden water over unmedicated water, who stops the cocaine choice within days after a second rat is put in the same cage with the same choice of waters? Are we not exploring what motivates the suffering of the world today and finding it to be a longing to be close to Source and Source’s own great longing to be known and loved by us, the product of Its divine imagination.

Finally, could it be that Source was at work with its own longing when it expressed itself through the remarkable (and improbable) life of Stephen Hawking? Could it be that Source was at work with Its own longing when It expressed Itself through the remarkable, one–of–a–kind life It gave you?