The Emperor’s New Clothes… shedding light on our terrible polarization

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