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The first time I read about this concept, it resonated deeply within my soul. But I must admit, I was a bit fearful that it would not be easy to apply on an everyday basis.
Sure, in my years as a patient, and then as a therapist, I had learned the value of truth and did my best to honor it both in my professional and personal life…most of the time.
So what was still keeping me from being truthful in certain situations?
Well, I told myself it was in order not to hurt others – to protect them, you might say. But in reality, as it is for most of us, I was paralyzed by the thought that if I tell my truth, I may lose the interest, love, and appreciation of others. I was the one scared of being hurt.
Of course, Life, benevolent and loving as it is, heard my interrogation and was already working at creating the perfect circumstances for me to experience the power of truth-telling.
It started with a conference call with Neale Donald Walsch (being a spiritual helper on WECCE, I am so very fortunate to participate in those).
On that particular call, a helper asked Neale – given his extensive life experience and wisdom – what piece of advice he would give to a young person starting in life. Neale did not have to think over it twice.
“To tell the truth all the time” was his first and foremost answer. He went on to add that even though it wasn’t easy, it was one of the soul’s highest goals, and that truth should be told in a peaceful, respectful way.
So there it was again, taunting me to look at myself squarely and stop hiding behind false pretense.
I went back to the 5 Levels of Truth and started applying them to the situations in my life where I felt difficulty or conflicts. Sure enough, I was not being totally transparent in those exchanges.
It all starts with:
Telling the Truth to Yourself About Yourself
This one may sound like a no-brainer, but it’s really not. Often we tell ourselves what we tell others: nice little fibs. We are afraid of the truth itself. We imagine awful consequences to our revelations and use them as pretexts to stay in an uncomfortable “comfort zone.”
Still, I felt pretty sure I knew my truth. In my present situation, it had to do with a very close friend who was making jokes and comments which conflicted with my values.
So I moved on to the second level of truth-telling:
Tell the Truth to Yourself About Another
This one had me pondering. I mean, obviously we have a hard time staying neutral about others, but shouldn’t this be a goal?
I was forgetting an essential truth: Seeing is not judging. Judging is forming an opinion based not on our feelings but on our thoughts; whereas seeing is simply observing from the soul’s point of view. This was pretty subtle, but I could see where this was taking me.
It was taking me beyond my pride and prejudices. Suddenly I could see what was at stake – namely, not my opinions on defensive humor and criticism, but the reality behind it: my friend’s psychological and spiritual well-being.
The next level was:
Tell the Truth About Yourself to Others
I thought I could do that and started having conversations with him around this subject. Yes, around…not totally addressing it. Once again, this is something we all do at one point or another (especially if you’re a woman and have been taught you should not hurt/make waves/contradict others for the last 2,000 years).
A bit taken aback by the lack of result my endeavors were having, I moved on to the fourth level of truth-telling:
Tell Your Truth About Another to the Other
This left me feeling sad and at loss, because I tried and tried and tried again, but he would not take my advice on consulting a therapist, nor reading books that might provide with some guidance. In fact, this only served to separate us more. I thought our friendship was just coming to an end and I had to accept it.
Still, I moved on to the last level of truth-telling:
Tell Your Truth to Everyone About Everything
That sounded impossible and yet it jerked me awake. I realized that I had been so entrenched in my own little drama (the fear of losing my friend, the fear I wasn’t providing efficient help) that I still had not told my initial truth.
Not telling this very same truth had separated us a first time many years ago. It was now poisoning the relationship, like every secret, every lie always does.
So I decided to follow Neale’s advice to a “T.” I worked on ways to convey my truth in a peaceful, non-judging way, and then asked to see him.
Neale had been right, it wasn’t easy. It took some courage, some guts even. And then all hell broke loose, the relationship ended…and not nicely.
Still, I felt liberated. I knew I had demonstrated to myself and to my friend respect by putting words on my feelings. Whatever pain or sadness I encountered in the following months over this ending, there wasn’t a trace of regret in me about telling my truth.
In fact, this prompted me to honor my truth more and more, in every aspect of my life, making my relationships happier and easier. Now, I won’t lie to you, sometimes I lose sight of my truth, I feel uncomfortable about something and it takes me some time to identify what it is and then some more to convey it in a proper way.
But you know what? The Soul leaves no stone unturned. Lies and half-truths will come back to haunt you until you set the truth free. And once you do, not only does this works, it ripples…
A month ago, my friend came back. He had started seeing a therapist and was starting to feel much better. One of the things that had strongly prompted this change was our conversation and the ensuing break-up.
Tell your truth and expect miracles…both inside and around you.
(Sophie Lise Fargue is a therapist working with energy, animating workshops and giving seminars on Personal Development in Paris, France. She also volunteers as a Spiritual Helper at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support. You may connect with her at www.revenirasoi.com or slfargue@gmail.com.)
As someone who has been on a spiritual path, I see a great need in this world for the process of awakening to be recognized. Humanity will not be mature until we not only cease legal discrimination and protect ecosystems; but also until we recognize each person’s birthright to live his/her life to the absolute fullest, to be true to his/her path to maturity however conventional or unconventional it seems, to have an unmediated relationship with God, and to express his/her timeless inner wisdom whenever it comes through. Each of us belongs here. Each of us is here not because society or anyone approves of who we are or how we live, but because Spirit wants to experience this lifetime. Each of us, whether aware of it or not, is contributing to life becoming fully conscious of itself through the play of manifestation. Each of us has a role that no one else can take on in this great play of life.
In this article, I focus specifically on the situations of those of us who have had experiences of awakening, or glimpses of the depths of reality. These can come not only through prayer, formal meditation, or situations involving death and dying, but in virtually any circumstance. When we awaken, we experience ourselves as the timeless One Life or Spirit. Our reference point of “I” shifts from being an little individual temporary person to being God expressing Godself through a form, though we might have completely different ways of communicating this or have no clue how to talk about it. We come to know our nature as vast, whole, peaceful, wise, intelligent, open-hearted, unconditionally loving, eternal, infinite, pure, formless, spacious, fully alive, completely present, and/or one and the same as the Source and destiny of everything that ever was and ever will be. We see that life is truly beyond anything that even the most brilliant and most creative language or manifestation can capture.
This shift does not care who we are or where we come from as people. It can happen whether we are young or old; cool or uncool; rich or poor; liberal or conservative; indigenous, traditional, or modern; urban or rural; male or female or gender-non-conforming; straight or gay; monogamous or not; sexually active or not; religious or atheist; saints or sinners; or highly regarded or infamous. It does not regard successes or failures. It does not regard race, current values and beliefs, past personal history, cultural background, geographical location, language, roles, personality, relationships, physical appearance, health, stability of livelihood, abilities and talents, educational attainment, level of familiarity with spiritual materials, or the presence or absence of a spiritual teacher in human form. Indeed, awakening can be said to be the most democratic of all things in the universe.
In my case, I as a person am a 23-year-old woman from Indiana who dropped out of college after a major awakening at age 20, during my third year as a biology student. The event that triggered it was the death of a friend; at her funeral, I experienced a total acceptance of the temporary nature of all manifested forms and bodies. I was at peace with my own mortality and knew that life is meant to be lived to the absolute fullest. It is not meant to be taken for granted. After two days of experiencing this deep peace, I returned to school and felt as if I had been dropped there from another world. Nothing felt rigid or absolute anymore. Over the next two months, I experienced acute sensitivity to the energies of spaces and people and much disorientation. There was a period of intense self-examination during which I pulled apart every thought, perception, action, and reaction I could and saw it for what it was and where it came from.
What followed was a profound conscious glimpse of the Source that made it even clearer that there is no “I” apart from life and that life is everything and everyone. Indeed, life is literally infinite. In this hole created in the realm of time and experience, I saw that all possibilities and everything we commonly perceive as separate are One. I knew that life (God) creates the realm of differentiation, time, and experience in order to know and express itself through it. I knew that every struggle, tragedy, mistake, and shortcoming without exception is destined to be transformed into a greater strength as life evolves through form. We humans are a species through which life can fully come to know and see itself. What I have just described is absolutely beyond words.
After this, I entered a long period of adjustment. I left school. I traveled and explored many forms of spirituality and other resources. The disorientation and sensitivity continued and frequently prevented me from functioning. I often felt like I became everyone and everything I encountered and lost myself in a pattern that wanted to identify with and grasp something—anything—lest it be annihilated. There have been many hardships and challenges as well as insights that deepened the initial realizations.
We are living in a time when more and more of us are having spiritual awakenings. There is a greater need than ever for widespread awareness of this phenomenon and the adjustment process that usually follows. It is easy for these to be misunderstood and for the experiencers to be subject to much unneeded struggle, rejection, mistreatment, and pain. The following points highlight some common changes experienced in daily life and areas where mindfulness is especially needed:
The experiencer becomes less preoccupied with past and future and lives for the present moment. External circumstances become preferences, not absolute needs.
The ego of the experiencer dissolves as it is seen to be based in falsehood, sometimes not without major struggles for its survival or control in the process. Understanding naturally replaces fear in all areas where fear exists.
Nothing internal or external is seen as a problem to be feared, despised, and fought. Rather, everything is as it is and has its nature. Nothing manifest is absolute. Effects arise out of causes, and all identifications, thoughts, emotions, and experiences have a fleeting nature.
Identification with the body also diminishes, and the body comes to be seen as a vehicle instead of a self. Fear of death is lost as death is seen for what it is.
Many mistakes are made. The experience of awakening and adjustment process are often not immediately understood for what they are. Old patterns can disguise themselves in new forms.
Experiencers often become highly sensitive to energies and dynamics. Positive energy is felt as alive and nourishing, while negative energy is felt as toxic and degrading. The “how” of things becomes more important than the “what.” The thinking mind ceases to dominate, and the heart opens.
The experiencers come to value honesty, ethics, humility, gratitude, openness, awareness, responsibility, diversity, equality, harmony, health, balance, cooperation, compassion, unconditional love, wisdom, genuineness, integrity, joy, peace, creativity, and respect for all life.
Experiencers frequently manifest much more curiosity, creativity, and/or divergent, non-linear thinking than before. The nature of art, poetry, music, and scripture is understood. The nature of true intelligence is seen and valued. Profound creative insights and other forms of ingenuity can come in.
Experiencers commonly express heightened intuition and/or various abilities we tend to call psychic. Synchronistic coincidences become common, and intentions and wishes are made manifest more quickly. If fully seen for what they are, these are regarded as completely natural to life and not personal.
Those who have had awakenings often need to release energy, experience phases of disorientation or lowered ability to function, spend long periods of time alone doing “nothing”, meditate and read a lot, communicate from their place of perception, and/or not focus much on those things regarded as important in a “normal” human life.
While it is essential for experiencers to learn to recognize all dysfunction so that they cease to identify with it altogether and are not affected by it, there are some phases in which they can be very vulnerable to becoming overwhelmed by others’ projected negativity. It is not always easy for the experiencers to remove themselves from negative people and spaces.
Many people are so completely identified with their conditioning and sense of self that they miss the light wherever it appears. They are skeptical of the possibility living in peace, seeing human nature as pure and free, or seeing all problems as temporary by their very nature. They scoff and project negativity at anything they do not feel they understand with their minds, and they regard anything they fear as if it should not exist. If anything is Satan, it is this—a limited and temporary form pretending to be God, everything, absolute, or at the very least superior. It is unconscious, present to some degree in almost all of us, and not who anyone really is.
It is easy, in some stages, for those who have had spiritual awakenings to think other people are more aware than they actually are. People are sometimes trusted when they cannot be.
Relationships with partners, family, friends, roommates, classmates, coworkers, supervisors, and others in everyday life can be challenging. Those based on personal neediness and dysfunctional patterns can fall apart quickly if mutual honesty, respect, and genuineness are not brought in.
Experiencers tend to become more and more oriented toward unconditional love. This love is not personal; it transcends the personal and is far stronger and deeper than anything personal. It is the love of God.
In a society that emphasizes material success, values competition, judges people, neglects and stigmatizes the vulnerable, fears that which it does not understand, and is not very open to examining itself, it is not difficult to imagine the struggles faced by people who have had spiritual awakenings. There is still much that needs to be addressed before we truly express justice. It is still very easy for those who experience loss or change (as well as others who do not identify with common ways of thinking or conform to a status quo) to fall into poverty, debt, discrimination, victimization, illness, alienation, and rejection from opportunities to make a living. Humanity will not be mature until the least of us, the most extreme outsiders, and the most alienated are respected as full human beings with equal dignity to those who have the highest status. Justice, freedom, peace, and democracy will not come into this world until all embrace mindfulness and take responsibility for what they create and project. It serves animals to be controlled by self-centered survival instincts, but it does not serve humans.
All of us, regardless of who or where we are, have the right to face our own challenges, know for ourselves how life works, mature on the human level, and grow spiritually however we feel genuinely moved to do these. Making mistakes and facing appropriate consequences for our actions must not be stigmatized if our lives are to be lived to their fullest potential. We must embrace struggle and at the same time stop creating needless hardship and suffering. Evolution accelerates greatly when it is conscious.
We will be truly wise when we do not regard any individual, collective, or other form as infallible or absolute, and when we are able to approach everyone from Adolf Hitler to Jesus Christ with understanding, empathy, honesty, and compassion. Everyone and everything—no exception—is us, including and especially God. Both hatred and blind following are aspects of unconsciousness. They divide us internally and externally and prevent us from living our lives to the fullest. They are not of love, but of the ego. It is a sign of dysfunction when openness, unconditional love, and transcendence are not allowed. When these are present, the infinite unconditional love of Christ, God, and Buddha is brought out much more fully.
Although awakening is not personal, each individual experiences it in a unique way. There is no right or wrong way to awaken or right or wrong experiences to have after awakening. Not everyone is ready to awaken in this lifetime. No experience is superior or inferior to its alternatives—each of us is given exactly what we need in our situation. No emerging pattern or experience after awakening, however unconscious or sinful, negates what has been seen or changes the fact that the God/life/Spirit is everyone and everything, contains everyone and everything, and is the Source and destiny of everyone and everything.
(Phoebe Lackawanna is a gifted artist whose work is divinely inspired. Her art gallery can be viewed at Phoebe’s Art Gallery. Phoebe currently resides in Indianapolis, Indiana. To contact her, please e-mail Peaceloveandart89@gmail.com.)
The numbers below reveal the deadening effects of inequality in the United States, and confirm that tax avoidance, rather than a lack of middle-class initiative, is the cause.
1. Only THREE PERCENT of the very rich are entrepreneurs.
According to both Marketwatch and economist Edward Wolff, over 90 percent of the assets owned by millionaires are held in a combination of low-risk investments (bonds and cash), personal business accounts, the stock market, and real estate. Only 3.6 percent of taxpayers in the top .1% were classified as entrepreneurs based on 2004 tax returns. A 2009 Kauffman Foundation study found that the great majority of entrepreneurs come from middle-class backgrounds, with less than 1 percent of all entrepreneurs coming from very rich or very poor backgrounds.
2. Only FOUR OUT OF 150 countries have more wealth inequality than us.
In a world listing compiled by a reputable research team (which nevertheless prompted double-checking), the U.S. has greater wealth inequality than every measured country in the world except for Namibia, Zimbabwe, Denmark, and Switzerland.
3. An amount equal to ONE-HALF the GDP is held untaxed overseas by rich Americans.
The Tax Justice Network estimated that between $21 and $32 trillion is hidden offshore, untaxed. With Americans making up 40% of the world’s Ultra High Net Worth Individuals, that’s $8 to $12 trillion in U.S. money stashed in far-off hiding places.
Based on a historical stock market return of 6%, up to $750 billion of income is lost to the U.S. every year, resulting in a tax loss of about $260 billion.
4. Corporations stopped paying HALF OF THEIR TAXES after the recession.
After paying an average of 22.5% from 1987 to 2008, corporations have paid an annual rate of 10% since. This represents a sudden $250 billion annual loss in taxes.
U.S. corporations have shown a pattern of tax reluctance for more than 50 years, despite building their businesses with American research and infrastructure. They’ve passed the responsibility on to their workers. For every dollar of workers’ payroll tax paid in the
1950s, corporations paid three dollars. Now it’s 22 cents.
5. Just TEN Americans made a total of FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS in one year.
That’s enough to pay the salaries of over a million nurses or teachers or emergency responders.
That’s enough, according to 2008 estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN’s World Food Program, to feed the 870 million people in the world who are lacking sufficient food.
For the free-market advocates who say “they’ve earned it”: Point #1 above makes it clear how the wealthy make their money.
6. Tax deductions for the rich could pay off 100 PERCENT of the deficit.
Another stat that required a double-check. Based on research by the Tax Policy Center, tax deferrals and deductions and other forms of tax expenditures (tax subsidies from special deductions, exemptions, exclusions, credits, capital gains, and loopholes), which largely benefit the rich, are worth about 7.4% of the GDP, or about $1.1 trillion.
Other sources have estimated that about two-thirds of the annual $850 billion in tax expenditures goes to the top quintile of taxpayers.
7. The average single black or Hispanic woman has about $100 IN NET WORTH.
The Insight Center for Community Economic Development reported that median wealth for black and Hispanic women is a little over $100. That’s much less than one percent of the median wealth for single white women ($41,500).
Other studies confirm the racially-charged economic inequality in our country. For every dollar of NON-HOME wealth owned by white families, people of color have only one cent.
8. Elderly and disabled food stamp recipients get $4.30 A DAY FOR FOOD.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) has dropped significantly over the past 15 years, serving only about a quarter of the families in poverty, and paying less than $400 per month for a family of three for housing and other necessities. Ninety percent of the available benefits go to the elderly, the disabled, or working households.
Food stamp recipients get $4.30 a day.
9. Young adults have lost TWO-THIRDS OF THEIR NET WORTH since 1984.
21- to 35-year-olds: Your median net worth has dropped 68% since 1984. It’s now less than $4,000.
That $4,000 has to pay for student loans that average $27,200. Or, if you’re still in school, for $12,700 in credit card debt.
With an unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds of almost 50%, two out of every five recent college graduates are living with their parents. But your favorite company may be hiring. Apple, which makes a profit of $420,000 per employee, can pay you about $12 per hour.
10. The American public paid about FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS to bail out the banks.
That’s about the same amount of money made by America’s richest 10% in one year. But we all paid for the bailout. And because of it, we lost the opportunity for jobs, mortgage relief, and educational funding.
Bonus for the super-rich: A QUADRILLION DOLLARS in securities trading nets ZERO sales tax revenue for the U.S.
The world derivatives market is estimated to be worth over a quadrillion dollars (a thousand trillion). At least $200 trillion of that is in the United States. In 2011 the Chicago Mercantile Exchange reported a trading volume of over $1 quadrillion on 3.4 billion annual contracts.
A quadrillion dollars. A sales tax of ONE-TENTH OF A PENNY on a quadrillion dollars could pay off the deficit. But the total sales tax was ZERO.
It’s not surprising that the very rich would like to fudge the numbers, as they have the nation.
(Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, an active member of US Uncut Chicago, founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org), and the editor and main author of “American Wars: Illusions and Realities” (Clarity Press). He can be reached at paul@UsAgainstGreed.org.)
This year it is hard not to be dismayed at the murdering that goes on between Israel and Palestine, and the suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians. This Thanksgiving some of us commit ourselves to doing all we can to stop the conflict and to start the process of non-violent open-hearted reconciliation and peace.
We reject the advice of the “political realists” who tell us that this struggle will go on forever, at untold levels of human suffering. Instead, we’ve urged our own government to work with others to impose a cease-fire (which is now apparently holding), and then to convene an international conference of the most powerful and spiritually responsible countries that can act together to build the new consciousness our planet so badly needs.
Some of us. whether or not we believe in God or Goddess or Spirit, are Spiritual Progressives—that is, people who want the world to be reorganized in ways that promote love, kindness, generosity, ethical and ecological sensitivity, and awe, wonder and radical amazement at the grandeur and mystery of all that is.
We spiritual progressives believe that the real source of strength for any country or people will come from the degree to which its neighbors and the people of the world see that country as a source of generous love, social justice, peace, non-violence and generosity toward all and environmental sanity toward the earth.
So on this Thanksgiving we call upon the world to actively involve itself with bringing peace and prosperity to all places where violence and wars continue to be waged.
We call upon the advanced industrial countries to launch a domestic and global Marshall Plan by dedicating 1-2% of the GDP of the economically advanced industrial countries of the world, the G-20, to be used to eliminate poverty, homelessness, hunger, inadequate education, inadequate health care, and to repair the global environment—to be paid for by the trillions of dollars that will otherwise be spent on militarism and attempts to dominate and control the world.
We know that this approach will require major political changes, and that is why we support the Network of Spiritual Progressives’ “Money out of Politics” campaign that goes way beyond affirming that corporations are not people and money is not speech. The ESRA also bans all private and corporate monies from national and state elections (check it out at www.spiritualprogressiives.org).
And we affirm the Unity of All Being, the oneness of all with all, and the fundamental interdependence of us who are celebrating Thanksgiving with all other people on the planet, and we commit ourselves to save this planet from environmental destruction.
And in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we affirm our dedication to being unrealistic for peace, social justice, environmental sanity, and a world based on love, caring, kindness and generosity. In so doing, we will make realistic what at first seemed to be unrealistic. And so it is. Amen.
(Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of the Jewish and interfaith quarterly Tikkun magazine [in print by subscription and on line at www.tikkun.org], chair of the interfaith [and atheist-welcoming] Network of Spiritual Progressives www.spiritualprogressives.org, and rabbi of Beyt Tikkun synagogue in Berkeley and San Francisco California www.beyttikkun.org.
He is the author of 11 books, including The Politics of Meaning, Spirit Matters, Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin (with Cornel West), The Left Hand of God: Takiing Back our Country from the Religious Right, Jewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation, and most recently, Embracing Israel/Palestine (North Atlantic Books, 2012). RabbiLerner welcomes your feedback at RabbiLerner.tikkun@gmail.com.)
Men have been gathering in small groups for support and wisdom since the dawn of civilization. From the seasoned elders to the fired-up young warriors, circles of men have convened for millennia to express and explore, concerns and ideas which rejuvenate and replenish wholeness to themselves and the world.
I have been honored and privileged to be a part of a men’s group for the last two decades. The idea is to meet on a regular basis to tap into the collective gifts of the group–usually eight men at most. Individuals’ issues come and go as regularly and predictably as the relationship between the Moon, the Earth and her sacred tides. When the room is attuned, when all are present, the singular clarity that any one man’s issue is the issue of every man becomes crystal clear. Marriage, family, career, health, creativity, loss, success, wonderings, longings; it’s all there waiting for the wake-up call. As the issues are triaged by the elders and the bantering quells, the listening begins, the judging stops, and men are heard and seen and held in the highest regard.
The container for what goes on in the group grows and becomes increasingly larger as trust is assured in this place where the agreement is to practice presence, compassion, and empathy for one another. The agreement is to foster the observer in each of us, to become better men.
In my tenure as a men’s group member, I have watched, participated and learned about life’s issues from the frank fear of living to the shadow of prejudice — whether it be racial, sexual or spiritual — to the underlying truth that we all care deeply about our lives, each other, and the world. We all come with a coat of armor and a story with a central grievance that is gently prodded, taken off, and put aside ever-so-slowly as safety and respect are established.
The presumed secrets of each man come tumbling out as the collective nod of, “Oh, we already knew that about you” never ceases to surprise and delight us all.
When men meet and sit in a group together on a regular basis, the truth emerges. Men will not, cannot lie to each other for long–we won’t stand for it. When men can stay for this awful, ecstatic truth about their lives to become finally and unavoidably explicit to themselves and the world, something fantastic happens. What happens is that living in a contracted and compromised way is no longer an option. What happens is when a man gets his life and transcends, lets go of, a story that may no longer be working or healthy, he goes out and gets his life with dignity, authenticity, passion and support.
Since the Industrial Revolution and more recently the Technological Revolution, men have had scarce little of this kind of training or support. Many of our fathers and father’s fathers were physically and/or emotionally absent as a result. Men have been asked to go out into a world that is antithetical to a deep, intimate understanding of what it’s like to live in another man’s mind, body and spirit.
Is it any wonder we can continue waging the atrocity of war with rational lies while conducting business like Wall Street’s infamous Gordon Gekko? Is it any wonder why we have become a country of consumer addicts and substance – from food to pharmaceuticals – abusers? Is it any wonder we can continue to poison the Earth and environment and abuse our companion species and forms (like water and minerals) as if we had another planet to live on when we’ve destroyed our home? Good planets are hard to find.
Without a small group of men meeting in every neighborhood with the intention of diving deep down into the biology of beliefs of the individual and collective, with willingness and openness to evolve and grow, men become isolated and laminated with facade and lifelessness. Without committing to a regular discipline of dropping the pretense of unhealthy competitiveness and greed and exploring our one short life together with other men, we cannot possibly tap into and deconstruct the unconscious, implicit memory and patterns that haunt our families and drive so much of what has gone dysfunctional in the world. Without a passionate desire to lose the act of supposing to know what to do in a world of bad actors and outcomes, men cannot possibly become the best fathers, sons, husbands, partners, brothers, providers, protectors, and citizens they were born to be.
When men awaken to the responsibility of consistent participation in a masculine community, isolation fades and the benefits of gathering are progressively revealed as deep wounds and truths are made consciously available for practical application.
Men adore, respect, and seek to be in the company of women. But men are empowered, genuinely empowered, by other men.
When men can stay and share their lives, hopes, aspirations and dreams with other men, something fantastic happens, and something fantastic needs to happen to save the world.
(Dr. Herby Bell is the director and owner of Recovery Health Care in Redwood City, California, where men’s groups form and are held on a regular basis. For more information contact: 650-474-2121 or herbybell@me.com)
Something beautiful happened on November 6, 2012.
Quietly, calmly and resolutely, millions of Americans came together as one. We made a decision as a nation. Over all of the well-funded noise expressing fear and hate, that wanted more than anything to maintain a nation divided, we made a different choice.
This moment has not been lost on anyone. Everyone, no matter what side of the political spectrum, knows that what happened last week was profound. We can feel it in the air and in our bones. I have long believed that in American politics, it comes down to one simple question: Do you believe in ME or do you believe in US? On Tuesday, US won. We announced that we understand that we are all one.
We’ve been taught to believe in ME in so many ways. We love the notion of the rugged individualism handed down by the idealism of our forefathers. Individualism, in fact, is the concept that founded this nation. We are built on the idea that we should not be limited by birth, that we all have a right to participate in the decision-making process of our society. This was the great step that democracy made over feudalism.
But that’s only part of our story. Since our earliest days, we’ve also been a nation at war with itself. With every generation, there have been many of us who were disenfranchised through ideology, theology, intimidation, or force. For many of us, the experience of being pushed to the side has left us deeply wounded. I, for one, have had a hard time trusting a God that could let such things happen.
This year, the choice could not have been clearer. This election was a referendum on WHO WE ARE and WHO WE CHOOSE TO BE as a people. It was a perfect example of CWG’s most fundamental question: ‘Who do I choose to be in relation to this reality?’ Do we choose to express the idea that only some of us are worthy of heaven and a decent life on earth, as so many evangelists preach? Do we choose to let intimidation keep us from the polls and locked in a cycle of powerlessness? Or do we choose to live who we really are?
Do you believe in ME or do you believe in US?
We answered that question this past week by simply being who we really are. We showed up and stood in line quietly, patiently, resolutely. This was sacred ground we were walking. This was holy work we were up to and it is a conversation that has resounded around the globe:
“(We chose) to experience the grandest version of the greatest vision (we) ever had about who (we are).”
For those of us unafraid of unity and equality, this is our greatest joy.
(Kimberly J. Miller is a writer, musician, and student of spirituality who lives in Northern California. She is currently writing a book, Southern Odyssey, about her own search for soul as a woman of mixed heritage in America.)
I was 11 years old when I contracted HIV, I was diagnosed with AIDS at 16. The news was a relief, actually, after a couple of years of waiting around to find out and adjusting to adolescence while nursing bleeding ulcers, when my doctors had already known for a year and were just getting their legal ducks in a row before springing the big news. My high school years consisted of nasty infections, a nagging fear that my terrible, shameful secret would be revealed, and a drug regimen toxic enough to bring down an elephant, not to mention my own personal regimen of vodka, acid, and whatever else I could get my hands on to ease the monotony while I waited around to die.
But when I look back on this specific time in my life, some thirty odd years later, I feel nothing but gratitude. I am healthy, stronger than I have ever been, in body, mind, and spirit. Facing the idea of death early on woke me up, showed me the necessity of being fully awake in every moment, to truly be thankful for every breath of life. I am wiser, and more acutely aware of the ugly vices of greed, exploitation and corruption that some in positions of power seem to be able to engage in while not losing even a single night of sleep. I have learned more than I ever wanted to know about human nature, as I hope to explain as I detail the bizarre events that fell into place and allowed for over 10,000 people to be murdered by pharmaceutical companies during the height of the AIDS epidemic.
I was born with hemophilia, a hereditary blood disorder that inhibits the blood’s ability to clot. The current treatment is a product made from thousands of donors which replaces the specific clotting factor that my blood is missing.
In the late 1970s through 1985, four pharmaceutical companies knowingly exposed 20,000 Americans with hemophilia to tainted blood clotting products, rather than warn, recall, or quarantine the clotting factor that they knew was contaminated. For at least fifteen years this darkest corner of the pharmaceutical-industrial-complex pumped a myriad of viruses into the veins of anyone who needed a blood transfusion while they amassed vast fortunes that would far outweigh the cost of future lawsuits.
The CDC began to warn the National Hemophilia Foundation, a highly trusted and, in fact, beloved advocacy group for hemophiliacs, of the risks from infected blood products in the early ’80s, but since it receives most of its money from drug companies, the NHF continued to recommend that hemophiliacs remain on the highly concentrated clotting factor regimens, even though much less risky options were available. My doctor, as well as most across the country, echoed their sentiments. Similar conflicts of interest seemed to apply, most of them were paid consultants for the drug industry at the time.
When the U.S. Government finally put a stop to these shenanigans, after years of screaming by the hemophilia community as well as the CDC, these companies shipped the contaminated product to China and various Latin American countries rather than throw billions in profit down the drain with a mass recall.
Drug companies have basically been allowed to regulate themselves in the United States, with a staggering amount of influence in the workings of government through the system of bribery known as lobbying and campaign contributions. The pharmaceutical industry is the thing that tells the 800-pound gorilla where to sleep.
In the late ‘90s the lawsuits finally came, no thanks to the NHF, but to the hard work and due diligence of the patients themselves, working with their attorneys, pouring over internal corporate memos until the whole truth had been pieced together. Most hemophiliacs had aged beyond the statute of limitations requirements for a direct lawsuit, so the whole ugly incident was resolved with a $640 million settlement paid by Bayer AG, Baxter Healthacre Corp., Armour Pharmaceutical, and Alpha Therapeutics Corp. This amounted to $100,000 per person and I was one of the lucky recipients of this fabulous cash prize. I had more money than I’d ever seen in my life and these revered and trusted companies, these “angels of mercy,” were required to admit no guilt or criminal wrongdoing whatsoever. Everyone was a winner.
Sure, most of my friends who had embarked with me on this grueling legal crusade were dead or dying, not to mention the wives and children they unknowingly infected, but surely we got something out of it. The blood supply is a little safer, although the CDC is warning of parvovirus and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease contamination, emerging pathogens, the scrappy up-and-comers to watch out for this season. An outbreak of fungal meningitis has been linked to steroid shots for back pain and has killed hundreds all over the country. Throughout every city and town, fretful Americans are standing in lines for flu shots containing God knows what because their doctors pressure them like a seasoned pusher, hoping for a sweet cash bonus for high patient compliance paid by the altruistic manufacturer of the drug.
Rather than view these few examples as gross negligence, ominous pandemics, or even sinister conspiracies, just try to see it from the drug company’s point of view, imagine the treatment opportunities! And we all know, in a culture of greed, exploitation and corruption, “treatment” is just another word for “profit.”
(Mike Gibson is an artist, musician and writer, whose work has appeared in a wide variety of print and online publications. He currently resides in Palm Springs, California.)
(If you have a Guest Column that you would like to submit, send it to Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com. Not all material submitted is accepted for publication, but we appreciate each submission.)
Humanity longs for peace; between people, communities and nations. Yet, there is an arena in dire need of healing that is rarely addressed. The workplace, where millions of people spend the majority of their waking hours, is comprised of a web of egos battling and competing for power and validation. Managers are disempowering employees, co-workers are hurting and sabotaging one another, and the environment is often fraught with blame, paranoia, rivalry, insecurity, gossip and greed. It is literally an emotional combat zone.
Fear of reprisal prevents people from addressing or even acknowledging the pain they are suffering. The atmosphere of reaction and counter-reaction feeds on itself and is difficult to see or escape when you are engaged in it. Even so, my audiences from a multitude of industries throughout the country say it is true; people are suffering.
Your job is not your identity
As a way to cope in the confusion and often cutthroat environment, we create roles we mistakenly believe will win respect and security. We unconsciously and sometimes very deliberately devise schemes to gain power, approval, and financial security—all entrenching us in the current culture of reaction and counter-reaction.
We have become so connected to these artificial identities that we have forgotten who we really are. But we are not these identities—they are simply roles we play in the workplace and they belie our incredible authentic power. More than ever before, it is time to rebuild relationships in the workplace by honoring the spirit in ourselves and others that is residing beneath our self-created identities.
With the current ego-driven, top-down management in today’s workplace, millions of people in businesses of all sizes and various industries feel as though they are in prison with little freedom of self-expression. Fear of losing their jobs, especially in these economically challenging times, causes people to cling to their jobs for security in the very place that brings up all their insecurities. Though difficult to admit, most people are weary of the ongoing drama, wishing for a better environment but feeling stuck, with few options. But even if they leave one workplace “stage,” without an internal shift, they will find the same issues in the new workplace.
I would like to share a process that I believe will help each one of us find our own authentic power and inner peace, even in the workplace. As we awaken and remember who we are, we stop playing our roles in the workplace drama. As we, one by one wake up, we begin to unravel the web of interacting egos in the workplace. As we awaken, we simultaneously give others the opportunity to do the same.
Understanding the competitive work atmosphere
When working in a business that is fear-based and driven by internal competition, you may have become confused and overwhelmed by the relationship issues. The competitiveness prevents teamwork, cooperation, joy and satisfaction. Even those who seem to thrive on competition can become discouraged by the never-ending pressure and related rivalry. I believe it is absolutely imperative to understand the source of the conflict and stop the paralysis of fear so many are experiencing.
Conflict occurs as a result of disguised fear. When fear arises within, it is often denied and blocked. When it is blocked, it can harden within, much like frozen ice in a flowing river; preventing all the healthy, normal emotions from flowing through you. Fear becomes you. If allowed, it can overtake your perception of the workplace and the world. It can impact your family life; the very fabric of our human culture.
Rivalry in the workplace feeds on insecurity and is accelerated by the desire to be appreciated, combined with the fear of failure or humiliation. Attempts are made to expel the pain by blaming, attacking or gossip, which only leads to greater rivalry, competition and jealousy. Few people can withstand the discomfort and pain of being criticized, attacked and blamed by a boss or co-worker. The feeling is literally that of being stabbed and deeply wounded.
Blaming, attacking and holding a figurative “gun”’ at someone else gives the individuals doing it a false sense of superiority and/or safety. They do not feel the pain they cause in others when they are in the attack mode. But much like real wars between nations, the sense of triumph is short-lived because there is always another enemy. It is time to put down all our weapons—literally and figuratively.
Finding freedom and peace
This passage of time is about freedom and deliverance from the chains that have bound you. The only answer to unlocking these gridlocks is to finally stop and look within to find the source of the pain. But we resist looking within because we are afraid of opening up a dirty little secret—that we are not worthy. However, maintaining this belief and holding up this wall of protection takes a lot of energy and causes more pain. It is quite literally exhausting. The truth is that you are more powerful than any of your ego defense mechanisms. Self worth will never be found in perpetuating drama.
The remedy is to stop reacting, attacking, defending, blaming and fearing to look at your own wound. When you are feeling attacked or undermined, ask yourself the following questions:
- Who is the source of pain?
- Why do I allow the attack?
- Most of all, why do I believe them?
Realize the true source of fear by not running away, and instead, allowing it to arise so that it can be recognized and released. As you permit the pain to be felt, you will gradually recall and have memories in your psyche of other painful experiences. This is your opportunity to witness to yourself how you received and came to believe these ideas and descriptions of yourself and how these fears have become you! When you recognize the fear is inside you, you will be liberated. You will be free to respond from your authentic self without blame or defense.
Discovering your true self, your inner spiritual greatness, is difficult to do when you have incorrect beliefs about yourself. Clearing out the fictitious thoughts about yourself requires the willingness to face your pain and your greatest fear—that you are not worthy. Allow the pain that is hurting you now to be the door to your release. You do not have to keep replaying this scene of emotional suffering. The truth is that you are glorious beyond words–all these little beliefs are nothing but shadowy veils. These veils of protection keep us from being fully alive and joyous by filtering the light and shrouding us from seeing our true selves.
When we can replace fear with trust and compassion, there will be a shift in consciousness. People everywhere will be restored to their true identities, their inner spiritual greatness intended by the Creator. What a blessed day when we take off our ego-defined masks and see our brothers and sisters standing there, our beloved fellow souls, whom we had mistakenly identified as the enemy—both in the workplace and the world.
(Danna Beal, M.Ed., resides in Bellevue, Washington, and is an international speaker and author of “The Extraordinary Workplace: Replacing Fear with Trust and Compassion.” She has spoken to over 300 business groups and been on over 60 radio shows. She conducts workshops on Enlightened Leadership and Healing the Workplace Culture. She can be reached at www.dannabeal.com and https://www.facebook.com/Healingtheworkplaceculture. )
(If you have a Guest Column that you would like to submit, send it to Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com. Not all material submitted is accepted for publication, but we appreciate each submission.)
