Community Standards To Come  

You make a cell phone call and midway through the call an automated female voice pleasantly announces that the last sentence you said was not transmitted. It violated community standards or it's been fact-checked as false. You then get reconnected to your call and the person on the other end of the line didn't hear your last sentence. Instead, that person heard an automated female voice pleasantly announce that the call will resume after deletion of violating content. How would you feel if cell phone service providers like T-Mobile or ATT interjected themselves into calls this way? 

If this seems preposterous to you, it shouldn't. After all, cell phone providers are private corporations and it's perfectly fine for such sovereign persons (yes, corporations are legally persons) to have community standards which they enforce. If Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and Instagram, also private companies, can fact-check or sensor your content, then it's only a matter of time until we are told that this is the right thing to do by cell phone providers -- for "justice", for "truth", for your own "safety" and the "safety of others."

We are entering a time when all content needs to be governed by standards - corporate standards. This policing of thought will be allowed for one simple reason - because the Constitution of the United States will be deemed a violation of community standards. In fact, this has already happened. 

Of course, if you are a small business owner, like a restaurant owner, this doesn't apply to you. You too are a private business and you too may feel you have community standards. But don't try to go over to two of your patrons and tell them they have to leave because what they are discussing together over their dinner has been fact-checked by your fact-checkers or because you have deemed it a conspiracy theory. The right to do this is allowed only for some, because in the New Normal of The Great Reset, there are different sets of rights and responsibilities for different groups of people. And only one group of elites get to decide who's in which group. Remember, there are only groups. No individuals, and so no individual rights.

 

GLOBAL KOINOPHOBIA 

Koinophobia is the fear of living an ordinary life. The dopamine hit from media's fear-based excitement may have addicted populations to "The New Normal" which isn't normal at all. And no one should try to re-establish the ordinary life we once had. The dopamine addicts will fight you for their latest jolt of fear-climax despite any and all signs possible to the contrary. Case in point - case fatality rates and official response.

Dr. Fauci in the New England Journal of Medicine itemized various disease Case Fatality Rates (CFR):
Severe Seasonal Influenza / 0.1% CFR 
Pandemic Influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968) / 9% CFR
SARS / 10% CFR
MERS / 36% CFR

And the Center for Disease Control listed Covid-19's Case Fatality Rates as follows:
Age 0-19 / 0.00003% CFR
Age 20-49 / 0.0002% CFR
Age 50-69 / 0.005% CFR
Age 70+ / 0.054% CFR

The World Health Organization's Situation Report says 80% of Covid-19 cases are asymptomatic and other studies have confirmed this, such as the cruise liner study.

So we have a disease that 80% of the time when you get it you don't know that you have it, and if you get it, say at age 45, you have a 2 ten-thousandths of one percent chance of dying. Even if you are age 69, you still have only 5 thousandths of one percent chance of dying. 

Even if we look at Dr. Fauci's least deadly disease by comparison, Severe Seasonal Influenza can happen any year, any season, and he admits it has a CFR of 1-tenth of 1 percent, which is orders of magnitude higher than Covid-19's CFR. Either official response to past viral events has been shockingly negligent or the current response is over the top. This disparity begs two questions - What reason could there be for Covid-19 response being so out of balance with past official behavior in the light of established CFR's? And how did the world ever survive past seasonal and deadly viral events without massive lockdowns, business closures, social distancing, and mask mandates? Yes, Covid-19 is a disease. Yes, people die from it just as millions of people die early each year from preventable conditions that no one is locking us down over or mandating the fixes for. The question is - has koinophobia replaced common sense?

 "One thing I've learned this year is that about 50% of the population LIKES living in fear. They actually enjoy it. If you tell them anything that may question their fear bubble, provide hope, or reduce panic, they get angry at you. It's mad weird." -- Zuby

 A STRONG REMINDER  

A variety of Covid vaccines from competing corporations with immunity from liability are all becoming available and many people are anxious for their lives unless they receive a dose as soon as possible. I hope these anxious people, so distracted by Covid, also remember to receive before the year ends the full recommended schedule of vaccines for all adults. Each year to stay safe and healthy every adult is supposed to receive the following list of vaccine doses. Knowing how staunchly the pro-vaccine public believes in the efficacy of these products, it is unconscionable to think that any such adult would consider the Covid vaccine so necessary and not think the same of these:

1 dose - Influenza inactivated (IIV) or Influenza recombinant (RIV)

1 dose - Influenza live attenuated (LAIV)

1 or 2 doses - Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR)

2 doses - Varicella

2 doses - Zoster recombinant (RZV) over age 50

1 dose - Zoster live (ZVL) over age 50

2 or 3 doses - Human Papillomavirus (HPV)

1 dose - Pneumococcal Conjugate (PCV13)

1 or 2 doses - Pneumococal Polysaccharide (PPSV23)

2 or 3 doses - Hepatitis A (HepA)

2 or 3 doses - Hepatitis B (HepB)

1 or 2 doses - Meningococcal A, C, W, Y (MenACWY)

2 or 3 doses - Meningococcal B (MenB)

1 or 3 doses - Haemophilus Influenzae Type B (Hib)

1 dose - Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis (Tdap) then booster in 10 years

Total possible doses per year - 30 doses

I sincerely hope that the pro-vaccine public, those people with the popular common sense to listen to the wisdom of world health tzar Bill Gates to the exclusion of all other opinions, I fervently hope that these people help ensure everyone's health and safety by dutifully heeding the call to receive the full complement of recommended doses. I honestly want these people to get everything they ask for. As they say, to do anything less would put all of us in danger. If you still haven't received the complete annual schedule this late in the year, I can't imagine how you face your day with the burden of fear and guilt for being so negligent and irresponsible. Remarkably, I also can't imagine how you've managed to stay safe and healthy this far without receiving these vital substances. Never mind that. Do the right thing - now, before it's too late. And in the lexicon of the pharmaceutical industry, may you have mild reactogenicity and low SAE's.

Will Fear Stop The Vaccine?  What To Do?

From every direction we hear the cry - we all need a vaccine as soon as possible. The world won't be safe until billions of doses of vaccine are available. Life cannot be allowed to return to any figment of normalcy until the vaccine is made ready. But Covid fearporn is everywhere. The world locks down more each day. An incessant drumbeat of 24/7 news predicts a calamitous winter of dead bodies stacking high outside overrun ICU's. The end is nigh and to utter anything but agreement with this assessment warrants being censored, attacked, and ostracized. People go ballistic and scream at anyone who dares move a muscle without wearing a mask. Life as we know is cancelled until further notice due to the extreme threat from Covid. People have nothing left to do other than cower in their homes in their hazmat suits, six feet from family members, and watch in terror as dire developments unfold on TV. 

And yet all of this fearporn raises a significant problem. Don't suggest there are any other problems with fearporn. There's only one problem and that is -- people are now too afraid to leave their houses to go get the Covid vaccine. What a dilemma. The situation is so bleak and everyone is so terribly afraid, that now ironically when the Covid vaccines are finally becoming available, the terrified populace is too catatonic with fear to go get the jab. Going outside is just too unsafe. And now with the second and third wave of Covid about to hit us, it's only getting more unsafe! We've been told this for months now. So what to do? How can we solve this horrific situation for indeed, as we are told, we all need the vaccine as soon as possible. In fact, we need several doses of it over the next year at least. In fact, Covid-19 is predicted to return every year from now on and so repeated, frequent booster jabs of vaccine will be necessary for the rest of our lives - at least. But how can we get this vital fix to the people? How can we keep them on a schedule of repeated doses over time into the unsafe years ahead?

If we combine science with lessons from the recent election in the United States, we find there is a way. Science has developed microneedle patches that are easily applied to the skin and can release vaccines safely and without need for complicated medical procedures. What we need to do is mail doses of Covid vaccine in microneedles to everyone in the country. They receive the dose at home via the U.S. Mail and then they apply the microneedle patch to their own arm. Afterward, they mail back an affidavit that acknowledges they have given themselves the vaccine. When the government receives these mail-in affidavits, the government sends back an official Covid Pass Card. The newly vaccinated person will need to show their Covid Pass Card to travel, attend events, and enter establishments of business. Only people who possess the Covid Pass Card will be allowed to travel, attend events, and enter businesses. And there should be no problem trusting the vaccine mail-in affidavits. After all, mail-in ballots worked just fine for electing a President, just ask Google, or Facebook, or Twitter, or any of the mainstream news outlets. Obviously, the same system can work for the Covid Pass Card. Anyone who questions the validity of the Covid Pass Card mail-in affidavits should immediately be fact-checked and referred to coverage of the 2020 election.

"Should I supersize a lecture with those fries?"

You go to a music concert and the singer lectures you on politics in between songs. You watch movie award ceremonies and the actors lecture you on politics while accepting their award. You go on YouTube or Instagram or Twitter and celebs real and self-imagined are lecturing their followers on politics. 

Is this a good thing or not? Are these people qualified to be political pundits? Is that the time and place for these lectures? Do you care about their opinions? Then again, why shouldn't they use their platforms to give their opinions, after all it's their right. Many come to the defense of celebs acting this way. So what if Kim Kardashian or Taylor Swift or Robert De Niro add an impassioned lecture in the middle of their performance? Isn't it a good thing to see they care and are so involved?

To answer that question, perhaps envisioning a world where this principle was consistently applied is in order:

• You board a 10-hour flight and the airline captain uses their platform to lecture politics to the passengers during the flight. 
• You are getting a root canal and the dentist uses that platform to lecture you on politics while you sit in the chair. 
• You sit down at the nice restaurant and the waitress uses her platform to lecture you on politics while also telling you the specials of the day. 
• You welcome a plumber into your house to fix a toilet and while he works he uses his platform to lecture you on politics. 
• You are stopped for a traffic infraction and the police officer uses the vehicle stop as a platform to lecture you on politics while writing out your ticket. 
• You drive-thru for fast food and the voice through the speaker uses the platform to lecture you on politics while taking your order. 

How would you react to these situations? Would you rush to defend their right to give their impassioned speech? They have an opinion too. They have a platform. And they certainly are equally qualified as some rich actor who gets paid to read lines someone else wrote for them. 

It would be nice to see consistency. If celebs are allowed to lecture us, then everyone should also exercise their right to use their platforms in the same way. Let's see how that works out.

I'm Gonna Make You An Offer You Can't Refuse

"I'm the mastermind behind 

Windows 95, Bing, Windows Phone, 

Clippy Paperclip, Windows Bob, 

and The Blue Screen of Death. 

Building on that resume, I've been 

working on something new for you. 

Only this time, I'm going to have  

government mandate it or else."

P.S. -- This is also the self-appointed visionary who, 

while in charge of a major Information Technology company,

 once said, "640,000 bytes of memory ought to be enough for anybody."

Liar Liar Pants on Fire (and you don’t wait a few more years to start putting it out)

The Duke of Sussex, with wife Meghan Markle in tow, says climate change “is a race against time which we are losing.” 

After flying to Botswana to plant a tree in September 2019, he described planet Earth as being in a “state of emergency” 

and encouraged people to join the fight. “We are losing the race against climate change. Everyone knows it. 

There’s no excuse for not knowing that!"

Stirring words. Greta and her woke army would be proud. 

And yet it's puzzling when we hear nothing from Greta's swarmtroopers 

when high-profile examples of the rich and hypocritical take the stage.

The following three examples are typical but darling, don't you know, there are oodles more!

GOOGLE IT!

What's the best way to fight climate change?  What else -- throw a party!

Sicily July 30th 2019

"The $20 million climate change party: How Camp Google racked up an 800-tonne carbon footprint flying hypocritical celebrities 

  to environmental talking shop on 114 private jets to watch Coldplay and hang out on mega-yachts

Some 114 planes were set to land in Palermo for the elite gathering which has faced claims of hypocrisy"

  (no mention of "offsets" being made for any of these flights)

"Guests including Katy Perry and Bradley Cooper stayed at a luxury resort where rooms cost almost $2,000 

Prince Harry is understood to have given a passionate, barefoot speech at the secretive Sicily climate event

The Verdura Resort, where the event took place, is bigger than Monaco and houses a 203-room five-star hotel, three golf courses, 

six tennis courts, a football pitch, four swimming pools and a water sports club. For the entertainment, Google rented out the impressive 

Valley of the Temples ruins in nearby Agrigento where guests enjoy top cuisine and the performance of Coldplay's Chris Martin"

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7311015/Google-splashes-20million-Italian-climate-change-party.html

BIRTHDAY BASH!

The Google party was such a blast, let's follow it up with a jet-setting bash!

Ibiza August 6th 2019

"The couple flew to Ibiza to celebrate Meghan's 38th birthday in style with a six-day trip in the billionaire's playground.

The Ibiza holiday came a week after Harry attended a super secret Google Camp event 

Duke and Duchess, who had been enjoying a summer holiday at Sir Elton John's palatial £15 million pad"

Four private jets in 11 days / London to Ibiza, then back to London

then London to Nice, then back to London for 3508 miles traveled"

https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/9751518/meghan-markle-archie-harrison-private-jet-elton-john-france-prince-harry/

When some cheeky eyebrows raised over the carbon footprint of these jaunts, Sir Elton John came to the rescue by showing how responsible everyone was and how compassionate was he being for the exhausted couple - "After a hectic year continuing their hard work and dedication to charity, David and I wanted the young family to have a private holiday inside the safety and tranquility of our home. To maintain a high level of much-needed protection, we provided them with a private jet flight. To support Prince Harry’s commitment to the environment, we ensured their flight was carbon neutral, by making the appropriate contribution to Carbon Footprint."  Well, I guess that's OK then, after all there was an "offset" because fighting climate change is all about being "neutral" in your footprint.

"A Carbon offset is a way to compensate for your emissions by funding an equivalent carbon dioxide saving elsewhere. Our everyday actions, at home and at work, consume energy and produce carbon emissions, such as driving, flying and heating buildings. Carbon offsetting is used to balance out these emissions by helping to pay for emission savings in other parts of the world."

 - carbonfootprint.com

That's odd. The rich excuse their extravagances by claiming they've done the right thing by arranging an "offset." The dictionary defines offset as -- "a consideration or amount that diminishes or balances the effect of a contrary one." If one was in an elementary math class, an example of this type of offset might be explained like this -- Johnny gives you a dollar bill and you give Johnny back four quarters. You have "offset" his dollar with quarters and so you're even. But wait, I thought the world was reaching a tipping point of extinction in 12 years! What bloody good is OFFSETTING carbon emissions when all the crazed apocalyptic rhetoric says the only solution is to REDUCE! REDUCE! REDUCE! How in the dying world are we to expect rich offsets to be helping anything at all?

"According to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), we are less than 12 years away from not being able to undo our mistakes. In that time, unprecedented changes in all aspects of society need to have taken place, including a reduction of our CO2 emissions by at least 50%...You say nothing in life is black or white. But that is a lie. A very dangerous lie. Either we prevent 1.5C of warming or we don’t. Either we avoid setting off that irreversible chain reaction beyond human control or we don’t...Either we choose to go on as a civilisation or we don’t. That is as black or white as it gets. There are no grey areas when it comes to survival."

 -- Greta in The Guardian 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/25/our-house-is-on-fire-greta-thunberg16-urges-leaders-to-act-on-climate

LET'S MOVE TO OUR NEW PLACE!

(but customs is a bore so find a way to skip that!)

May 2020

"Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who regularly issue dire climate warnings and lecture the world about reducing carbon emissions, have been caught using a “massive $150 million private jet”

Prince Harry, who last year claimed to be so overwhelmed with anxiety about “climate change” that he sometimes finds it “hard to get out of bed in the mornings”, accepted a lift on the enormous private jet in a top secret, early morning enterprise, according to British reports. The secretive flight allowed the retired royals to leave their temporary home on Canada’s Vancouver Island and to avoid any wait at customs once they arrived in Los Angeles, California. 

‘It was a well-planned operation that appears to have worked perfectly,‘ one insider said.

As revealed on Thursday, Harry and Meghan are now living in Hollywood tycoon Tyler Perry’s $18 million mansion in ultra-tony Beverly Ridge Estates just outside Beverly Hills.

The details of the flight are hidden on the website OpenSky which gives all times in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) which is four hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time and seven hours ahead of Pacific Daylight Time. The OpenSky page details the route taken by Tyler Perry’s jet on March 14 (pictured). However there is an error that says it landed at tiny Duncan Airport in Canada when really it only passed over it. The Embraer-E190, a ‘stretch’ version of a plane mainly flown by JetBlue Airlines in the United States.

The plane, with a top speed of 541 mph, is large enough to carry up to 124 people in coach class."

     (no mention of "offsets" for any of these flights)

https://newspunch.com/climate-change-activists-prince-harry-meghan-markle-caught-using-private-jet-move-house/

Somehow, impassioned speeches about a looming global extinction event only 12 years away from its tipping point do not apply to these people. Makes one wonder -- is the climate movement somehow bogus and these rich people know it as judged by their actions or are they simply sociopaths and psychopaths and shouldn't be listened to either way? So when you hear your 24/7 news program repeatedly play the following words, remember dear, it's only meant for the commoners. 

"We must change almost everything in our current societies. 

  The bigger your carbon footprint, the bigger your moral duty. 

  The bigger your platform, the bigger your responsibility."  - Greta

”When your house is on fire, you don’t wait a few more years to start putting it out.” – Greta 

The Collective Narrative

"The collective narrative. 

It's not so important what the facts are 

but who owns the narrative...and you see it very clearly today. 

It is not so much what is factually happening, 

it’s who owns the narrative. 

And we have to be very, very careful 

and watchful about looking at the media. 

What are the media doing? 

Is there some sort of almost collective brainwashing going on or not? 

That's where we kick in, where we have to be alarmed and quite vigilant. 

And we should think on our own."

 -- Werner Herzog

BigMedia=Lies

Want an example of how big media lies? 

Only problem is, a relative of the woman who died 

saw this news item and responded -

This media report wasn't an accident

so we must ask - what's the agenda behind the lie? 

And how many more lies are out there?

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, 

   people will eventually come to believe it."

      - Joseph Goebbels

Surf's Up for Climate Change

Where does Bill Gates work on his soon-to-be-published climate change disaster book?

From his new beach-front house in Del Mar, California of course.

Perhaps he's vaccinated the beach against rising sea levels so we shouldn't worry.

I hope he's also vaccinated the beach in Montecito, California

where Al and Tipper, of Inconvenient Truth fame,

bought their $8.8 million dollar seaside estate -

If there's any vaccine left (and you know there always is) Bill better head over to

Blackadore Caye in Belize west of Ambergris Caye in the Caribbean Sea. 

This island was bought by Leonardo DiCaprio for his new eco resort business.

Maybe he intends it as a scuba destination after sea levels rise?

i know you don't care about this. that's ok. 

and when it eventually happens to you, 

no one will care about that.

and that's ok too.

“The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness 

and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better.”

- MCMLXXXIV

Ideas have a problem. 
They are never complete, certain, inviolate. 
Emotions have a problem. 
They're never logical, predictable, explainable. 
Rationality doesn't scale in the presence of emotion. 
Emotion doesn't sum up in the presence of rationality. 
We reject religion dogmatically. 
We accept superstitions and ideologies religiously. 
We act unconsciously 
out of the who we think we are but really don't know. 
We react with conscious agendas 
out of the what we think we desire. 
But where do our desires come from? 
Like our thoughts, are we certain they're even ours? 
Counterintuitively, 
we think we desire 
and we feel we know. 

"Our minds have been manipulated to give power to illusions."  

- Vandana Shiva

If an expert comes on TV 
be sure to listen to them.

Don't question what they say 
with any of your conspiracy theories.

Experts in media have been
helping us all for generations.

If an expert comes on TV
be sure to listen to them.
Don't question what they say
with any of your conspiracy theories.
Experts in media have been
helping us all for generations.

sorry, i didn't get your message. 

someone decided your thoughts are unacceptable 

and questioning their guidelines is also unacceptable. 

i suggest you change your thoughts 

if you ever want to communicate again.

have a good day.

shadow banning is now part of twitter's 

official terms of service

1/14/2020 WHO

CAN YOU MANAGE / DO YOU UNDERSTAND

watch for the signs

don't think your life.

move it with your spirits.

before enlightenment...

...after enlightenment

what's the difference?

(you have to be enlightened to tell)

“It’s easier to fool someone than to convince someone that they are being fooled.”

—Mark Twain.

Clockwork Sheep Are Eyes Wide Shut

With so much media available, today's populace should be the best informed citizenry ever. The technology definitely exists to achieve this and yet audience laziness and consolidated agenda-based reporting have produced just the opposite result. Reporters have a parti pris and audiences have short attention spans. Reporters have editorial marching orders and audiences only have the research acumen to read headlines, catch a glimpse of an online post, or hear approved pundit talking points repeated endlessly through a 24/7 news cycle. Both reporters and their audiences lean heavily into their confirmation biases and the first informs the latter. 

From this defective melange comes popular world views, cultural movements, and a constrictive box of individual myopia that's absolutely certain beyond any need for critical thinking. Why dig deeper when so many headlines say the same thing? Never mind if the varied entities behind those headlines are owned by the same one source. Why look for nuanced gray areas when the attractive newscaster acts so sincere as they interview the beyond doubt expert? Never mind if other experts with differing points of view are never interviewed and appeal to authority alone is a logical fallacy, even more so when that authority is carefully screened to match agendas. Why risk social media ostracization by asking unpopular questions when one can binge-watch Games of Thrones again and let the experts hash it out? Never mind if experts are knighted by the approval of the Self-Appointed Correct and those deemed not correct are not allowed a voice. 

Instead of reasoned debate, honest investigative reporting, and a populous with a curiosity and skepticism that drives deeper into all that can be known, what evolves instead is a self-reinforcing alliance of laziness and agendas reducing the world's technical capabilities to know into a pathological somnolence netting dreamlike states of imagined but certain-for-all-time reality. The hypnotic effect of this over time can drive lazy masses into sleepwalking in directions with socially engineered results. It is no conspiracy theory to suggest that people try to influence other people, otherwise the big business of public relations, political action committees, and advertising are conspiracy theories. If laziness reduces the voice of the people to the bleating of identical sheep and media agendas continue to strive to pull the wool over the flock's eyes, then one can say the clockwork sheep are truly eyes wide shut.

some progressive thinkers say covid-19 is Nature's revenge 
for people mistreating the environment.

this is puzzling
for this statement attributes independent intent 
and a personification of consciousness to Nature.
this is bizarre coming from the same group who believe
in darwin, not in god
in natural selection, not in creative design
in evolution, not in conscious purpose
in inanimate matter, not in eternal souls
in the scientific method, not in mysticism or spirit
in a big bang from nowhere for no reason going nowhere.

all of a sudden covid-19 
has converted scientific materialists
into neo-pagan zealots.
are they waking up or de-evolving?
mysticism says they are waking up.
scientific materialism says they are de-evolving.

fb not relevant

n95 mask in china

jung said "beware of wisdom 
you did not earn."

anyone who has spent a night 
in a strong ayahuasca
or psilocybin 
or mescaline zone
has definitely earned 
whatever comes from it

the diehard nihilist 

who asserts there is no meaning 

or worth in life 

will passionately express 

their belief 

by listening to their favorite 

nihilist music group 

and the nihilist finds 

this music meaningful. 

The rainbow at the end of the tunnel.

"Let's suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream you wanted to dream. And you would naturally, as you began on this adventure of dreams, you would fulfill all of your wishes. You would have every kind of pleasure. And after several nights you would say, well, that was pretty great - but now, let's have a surprise. Let's have a dream that isn't under control - where something's going to happen to me that I don't know what it's going to be. Then you would get more and more adventurous and you would make further and further-out gambles as to what you would dream. And finally, you would dream where you are now."

 - Alan Watts

A TROUBLED YOUNG MAN

I know a troubled young man. He's a good guy but circumstances beyond his control have not been kind to him. He witnessed his parents being murdered during a home invasion attack and the trauma of that has remained with him. Left an orphan, he grew up with a family that didn't care about him. They never sought out professional help for the bitterness and resentment he held inside over the fact the man who murdered his parents was never caught, never got justice. There was plenty of circumstantial evidence pointing to the culprit, but not enough to affect any action by the authorities.

And so, over time, this young man's bitterness festered and became anger. Left to dwell on it as years passed, he determined to act in revenge. He would find the murderer and kill him. The young man reasoned that evil people like him didn't deserve to be in the world and killing him would be a heroic service to others, most certainly preventing other such crimes and the follow-on heartache they cause, exactly as what he had suffered. The young man shared his plan with two of his friends. And now they had a decision to make. He wanted them to help him find the murderer but they knew that wasn't the kind of help he needed.

They convinced him to speak with someone they knew, a counselor, who saw clearly the self-destructive path he was on. The counselor explained to him how he was being tortured by past events he couldn't change. Far from going deeper into them, he needed to heal from it and let it go. Of course he had suffered a trauma and his feelings were valid but the way he harbored them over the years, the way he let them amplify and take hold of his emotions and reason was pathological. If he acted out on his negative obsession driven by post-traumatic stress, if he drove forward into his revenge plan, far from being the hero confronting the malevolence in the world, he would only find the rest of his life and his peace of mind destroyed.

The counselor's prescription was studied but textbook. He needed to find forgiveness in his heart in a way he could move past the hurt and recapture his life going forward productively. All of his bitterness and resentment, hatred and a desire for revenge would not bring back his parents. Out of despair, he would only pull his life apart and even the revenge, if successful, would give him no rest. Afterwards he would find the act hollow for his parents would still be dead and once again he would confront a deepening despair in not being able to change the past. The only healthy way forward was to validate his feelings but proceed with forgiveness and a maturity in knowing that some things once done cannot be changed. Forgive, heal, and let go of the past. That was the only way to secure a positive promise for his future.

It took many sessions but in time the young man came around. There were many tears, much shouting at times, but he slowly learned to integrate the shadow emotions that had gripped him for so long. He surrendered to a healing, giving into what the counselor suggested, thereby finding a way forward without the hurt that had controlled his life.

And to this day, as a result, Lord Voldemort lives.

The Goddess and Cerastes

After the affair, the goddess was conflicted

with mixed feelings about her past lover, Cerastes.

She sought out Chista, the goddess of wisdom and knowledge, 

the one who leads mortals to the right way.

"What do you wish to know, my child?" asked Chista.

The Goddess gushed, "Was I truly loved or was I only his conquest?"

Chista looked surprised, "You don't know?"

"No!" exclaimed the Goddess. "I remember both good times and bad times."

Chista nodded her understanding, "Yes and one cannot know another's heart for sure."

"But I must know!" the Goddess cried out. "Was there love or was I only his conquest?"

"Oh my dear, you can answer that for yourself," Chista started.

"How?!"

"Simple. A conquest has three stages. Before, during, and after."

The Goddess was impatient with Chista's silence, "So, what about these stages?"

Chista offered a compassionate smile, "Think about your memories, the good times and the bad times. 

If it was a conquest, the good times were before and during - not after."

"But they were good times!"

"Yes, without which there could not have been a conquest."

"Then what's the difference with love?"

Chista emphasized the point, "If it was love, your good memories would include after in equal proportion."

The Goddess sighed and shook her head, "That's confusing. Of course there are no good memories after it's over and he's gone."

Chista explained, "The 'after' I speak of is after the conquest, not after it's over."

"But there were also good times after I gave in to him."

"Yes, it can be like that," agreed Chista. "But that's not after the conquest. That is still during."

"I don't understand!" sighed the Goddess.

Chista paused and let her silence create an expectancy in the Goddess. 

Finally, Chista added, "During includes the time during which he enjoys his conquest. As long as that lasts."

Once again, the Goddess shook her head in confusion, "But no one would stay if there wasn't enjoyment."

Chista nodded, "And yet, in a conquest, his ongoing enjoyment of having you can't compare to that one moment of maximum enjoyment when he finally wins what is so intensely desired. And along with the enjoyment of having there are often other reasons for staying. He may stay to be tended to and waited on and cared for by you but the memories you have of this will not be so good, they'll be different - because after the conquest, he is different. Having had the maximum enjoyment of the conquest, and with the continuation of having you assured, he relaxes from pretense, becoming more his true self, which is not as deferential and loving to you as before. After a conquest, increasingly you do not recognize the person he becomes as he reverts to what he always was but couldn't show you if he wanted to achieve his goal. Bad memories begin with this disparity."

The Goddess held her breath, "And love - from now on, how will I recognize it?"

Chista locked gazes with the Goddess, "We need to be love's conquest, not each other's conquest. When we're the conquest of love, both lovers are the same with each other - before, during, and after being overwhelmed by love's conquest."
"But I cannot know if this is true at the beginning with someone!"
Once again, Chista nodded, "And that's why all who manage to be conquered by love - are also wounded along the way to it."

WISEACREAGE


There is no shortage of wisdom in the world. Clever quotes and aphorisms are everywhere to be found. Sage advice is only a social network visit away
and gurus, teachers, counselors and life coaches abound.

Never before in human history has so much insight and understanding, so many life-changing methods and seminars and prescriptions for action, been so readily available and promulgated by so many. Never before have so many been so sure of the truth and the proper way to it.

Awash in all this insight and shrewd discernment, one might think human society has finally arrived at some long-sought pinnacle, some lofty state of soundness, foresight, and moral acuity that generations past only yearned for but never achieved.

But that inference would not be wise.
Apparently, wisdom does not change us,
will not save us, and does not effectively sink in
no matter how much we're awash in it.

So what does sink in?
To say would just be offering more wisdom.

the never mind

never mind the truth processed by the eye
  and all the beauty washing out to sea
my falling stars are nothing like a sigh
  as much as who we were would like it to be

your ocean never really meets the sky
  and what we offer is neither you, neither me
never mind the hope of lives we knew
  we simply know a truth that cannot be

who floats away and who remains
  in particle days in a time of waves?
answers struggle against their chains
  and we, we love
    like a child who misbehaves

want to change?

pass through these four gates -

unconscious incompetence

conscious incompetence

conscious competence

unconscious competence

on either end of change, we're unconscious

only during change are we conscious

consciousness is the act of changing

j u r i s p r u d e n c e

i don't know if it's right, but it's true
i don't know if it's true, but it's verifiable
i don't know if it's verifiable, but it's correct
i don't know if it's correct, but it's certain
i don't know if it's certain, but it's definite
i don't know if it's definite, but it's implied
i don't know if it's implied, but it's self-evident
i don't know if it's self-evident, but it goes without saying
i don't know if it goes without saying, but it's accepted as such
i don't know if it's accepted as such, but it's circumstantial
i don't know if it's circumstantial, but it warrants review
i don't know if it warrants review, but it bears testimony to the facts
i don't know if it bears testimony to the facts, but it can be concluded
i don't know if it can be concluded, but it's worth noting
i don't know if it's worth noting, but it's enough in lieu of opposition

Ego Death Oxymoron

what if
the idea of a separate ego
blocking progress to enlightenment
is an illusion

there may or may not be an ego
but if there is
it's not separate and cannot die
and yet no one can be told this is so
when everyone is thoroughly indoctrinated
to believe the separate ego is real

to think this separate ego can be overcome
by a decision centered in the ego
(for where else does the decision come from?)
is evidence enough that enlightenment
for the separate ego believers
recedes from their grasp
with each ego attempt
to encounter and kill off
their ego

Sometimes we don't want to heal
because the pain is the last link
to what we've lost.

THE GIFT OF LONGING
The Gift of Longing from Oneness of Life on Vimeo.

longing is the feminine mystical side of love
it draws you, guides you on intuitive paths
it opens to you, it's receptive, it's the empty cup
it presents more of a question than an answer
it seeks, it yearns rather than asserts
it's uncertain in an open space without boundaries
so much so that it frightens us as it draws us in
it frightens the mind --
allow the longing to unfold
and it leads to unknown places
the more we surrender to longing
the more unknown we will encounter
to live within this mystery is magnetic
but is often misunderstood as a lack, a fault,
or a need to find balance
but the longing of the heart is not a desire
to fill an empty space - rather, it is waiting,
and the wait is a gift that confers upon us enormous power,
a power to be open at our core
and let the magnetic pull draw us, guide us forward
for the longing leads us home
longing awakens us to our spiritual quest
and nourishes us on the path
but what it reflects in our hearts is that
we are the ones who are longed for
and there comes a pain with longing,
sometime called the "sweet pain of love"
and yet there's a quality in suffering
that helps us transform,
it's a quality we need
and it's important we allow for it
the pain we feel in longing is the pain of separation
this is one way longing guides us home
longing is not a deficit, it is a good sign
because it shows us the heart remembers,
the heart has a remembrance of true love,
longing is the call back to union
longing embodies the feminine qualities of
waiting, listening, receiving,
along with the dynamic and passionate longing
for what is waiting to be given
when we don't have answers and don't fill the space,
when we keep this space empty,
then something can pour in
this is not only about women, this is about the feminine
and the longing in women and men alike

Paraphrased summary from the event “Feminine Mysticism” in July 2012 with Angela Fischer.

“The mystery of the divine feminine speaks to us from within her creation. She is not a distant god in heaven, but a presence that is here with us, needing our response. She is the divine returning to claim her creation, the real wonder of what it means to be alive. We have forgotten her, just as we have forgotten so much of what is sacred, and yet she is always part of us. But now she needs to be known again, not just as a myth, as a spiritual image, but as something that belongs to the blood and the breath. She can awaken us to an expectancy in the air, to an ancient memory coming alive in a new way. She can help us to give birth to the divine that is within us, to the oneness that is all around us. She can help us to remember our real nature.”

—Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

THE VALLEY OF THE DRAGON - A Parable

You must cross the Valley of the Dragon.
This is the journey of your life, a passage you must take to be alive.
To prepare, you visit a local wizard who gives you a magic dragon-gun.
This gun is specially crafted to disappear the dragon with a single shot.
As you leave for the valley to begin your crossing the wizard warns
-- be aware, the gun works 99% of the time.

You leave the wizard horrified by the 1% vulnerability.
What if you face your dragon and the gun doesn't work?
You go to a much older and more powerful wizard,
You tell him you must cross the Valley of the Dragon
and you need something you can count on to make the dragon disappear.
This new wizard produces his version of the dragon-gun.
He assures you - this gun always works,
one shot and any-sized dragon will disappear.

Bolstered by your preparation but still anxious for the journey ahead,
once again you head out to begin your arduous crossing.
As you near the entrance to the Valley of the Dragon
a vagabond sitting under a tree notices you and calls out,
"I see you've got dragon-guns."
"Yes, the old wizard assures me this one always works."
"That's right," agrees the vagabond with a grin. "So you're good at fighting an invisible dragon?"
"Invisible?"
"Why yes, that thing disappears the dragon."
Shocked, you exclaim, "I thought it killed it!"
The vagabond laughs, "What do you think disappear means? Besides, don't you know, that hero myth about slaying the dragon is a fantasy. There's no such thing in the real valley of life."
"It can't be!  I have to cross the valley!"
"Of course, and there's only one way to handle a dragon," the vagabond asserts. "You can't kill your dragon. You can only tame him, integrate him."
Perplexed, you stand with dragon-guns hanging limply at your side, "How do I do that?"
The vagabond produces a tiny bottle made of darkened glass from his pocket, "I have a potion."
"You? You're not a wizard."
The vagabond's face shifts serious and dark, "And I don't have dragon-guns..."
You check your pockets, "I spent all my money on the dragon-guns."
"Oh, I don't want money - just your word that when you reach the other side of the valley, you'll tell everyone that my potion got you there."
"I can do that. How do I use the potion?"
The vagabond hands over the bottle. "Simple. When the dragon is about to consume you, drink all of this and you will consume the dragon. It will then be a part of you and can't chase you anymore."
"Part of me! But I don't want to be a dragon!"
The vagabond shakes his head, "How in the hell do you think little you can survive in the valley? You better have some dragon in you. Sooner or later, everyone has to if they want to get across. Become your dragon!"
"That can't be right!" you shout back at him. "We fight dragons, we don't become them!"
The vagabond shrugs, "Suit yourself." Then he hands the little bottle out for the taking. "Why don't you take this, anyway - just in case."
You start to walk off but hesitate. Taking it doesn't mean you have to use it. Besides, you might be able to barter it for something else along the way. You accept the little bottle and walk off without saying another word to the vagabond under the tree.

Farther down the road you come to a curving footbridge. To one side a grizzled man fiddles with a fishing line as he leans back on a boat. He notices you heading for the bridge and shouts out a warning, "I wouldn't cross that if I were you. It's not safe."
You come to a halt a step before the bridge, "What's wrong with it?"
"It's never been safe."
"Why would anyone build it that way?"
"I guess somebody doesn't want you to get to the other side."
"But the Valley of the Dragon is over there. I need to cross to start my journey."
"I'm a boatman. I can take you across."
"What's in it for you?"
The boatman swings a thumb at the river, "I'm lazy and I've got a net to pull up. Pull it up for me, I'll take you across."
You change direction, "It's a deal."
The boat is an old rowboat but it's watertight. Halfway across the river, the boatman points at a buoy cap, "There's the marker. Start pulling."
You pull the net up. It doesn't take long. Inside the webbing is a treasure trove of little devices and bottles. You complete the task but your interest is piqued, "What is all this stuff?"
The boatman stares, dismayed, "Hope and a prayer."
Shifting the haul with a foot, you spy familiar objects, "There's dragon-guns in here!"
The boatman nods, "Along with scorpion repellant, magic ropes for quicksand, tiger bombs, protection potions, snake glue, knives to cut strangling vines, so much more, you name it, you'll find it."
You stand, mouth agape, "I don't understand."
The boatman spits overboard, "That's a shame, 'cause you need to cross that valley."
You put 2+2 together, "There's more than a dragon in the valley!"
"Much more. And where did you get the idea there's only ONE dragon? You've got lots of dragons waiting for you. Along with other things."
The news is crushing. You sit down, shocked.
Fulfilling his end of the bargain, the boatman continues to cross the river. He looks back on you, "I get it. You were always told you had to go fight the dragon, be your own hero to make it across the valley. And believe me, that isn't wrong. It's just not the whole story. As they say, the Devil's in the details."
Like some amnesiac, you can't pull your eyes from the objects in the net. As you do, more naivete falls from your eyes, "You lied to me. There's nothing wrong with the bridge."
The boatman shrugs, "Either way you get across. But this way I get my net pulled up."
The confession was easy. You move on to more important matters, "Other people have come this way."
"Countless."
"If what you say is true, if there are many dangers in the valley, then why would so many throw all of this away? This was their protection!"
"Yes. Listen, I'll save you some time - if you collect all the things you need to protect yourself, you won't be able to carry it all. No way. Impossible. One by one they all realized this and let go - they let go of it all."
Your eyes widen, "But what happened to them?"
The boat slid ashore on the opposite bank and came to rest, "We're here. You're across, just like I promised."
"You didn't answer me. What happened to them?"
The boatman points towards a dark patch in the treeline, "The Valley of the Dragon path starts right over there."
You approach the boatman, "What happened to them?!"
First a hesitation, then an answer comes, "Just what you'd expect. Some gave up, didn't make the journey, never had a full life. Others stayed at the river, making a living off those who came to try the journey. And others tried and didn't make it."
You shoot a glance at that dark patch in the treeline, "Does anyone make it?"
"Some don't come back - but does that prove they made it? Don't know."
"But you must know - there must be a way to make a safe passage, to get across."
The boatman grins, "I don't KNOW anything. But I've heard things."
"Heard what?"
"There's a rumor there's one magic, it's always right and knows the safe way through. It's the only and best chance of getting across with any success."
"What is it? A magic wand?"
"No, it's nothing you have to carry. It's simply your intuition."
"Intuition? Ridiculous."
"Maybe. I thought so, but I've seen some people toss these objects over the side of the bridge then head out with only that magic."
"And they didn't come back?"
The boatman shakes his head.
"But that doesn't prove anything you said. No one knows why they didn't come back. They could have been eaten!"
"That's right, but I suspect from what I've seen that the rumor might have some truth about it. I've seen it work on my side of the river. It's some kind of magic that's always right and knows the way through."
"Sounds too magical."
The boatman laughs, "Says the man carrying a dragon-gun and dark-bottle potion."
"Sounds too simple."
"Is the truth complicated? Who knows?" The boatman turned back to his net. "You can have anything in that net to take with you, go ahead, take it, but you're not going to be able to carry it all. And even if you could, how do you know that covers all the dangers out there? There's no complete catalog of dangers, no way to know what you don't know. The only thing you can use against the things you don't know yet is the magic of intuition."
"I don't know..."
The boatman shifts, restless, "Suit yourself. You're on the other side. I need to get back. Make up your mind. Going forward or do you want me to take you back?"
You pause with your life on the line. You can't fathom the failure of going back but you can't abide the prospects ahead. In an act of sheer surrender and abandon you step out of the boat. "I'm going forward."
The boatman sports a face brightened by surprise, "What convinced you?"
You take a deep breath, "I guess - intuition."
Nodding, the boatman shoves off from shore, "Good luck."
You turn away and head towards the dark patch in the treeline.
From behind, the boatman calls out, "Hey! One thing I forgot to tell you..."
You stop and turn. Funneling his hands around his mouth, the boatman calls out from a distance, "It's about intuition. It's always right and it knows the way - but there's one catch."
You freeze in anticipation, "What is it?"
From a farther distance the boatman's voice bellows as it fades, "You won't always listen to it!"