September, 2013
Many of you are aware of the amazing health and wellness benefits of acupuncture. I have a close friend who is a master acupuncturist and she has traveled all over the world to master her craft. She has treated me for various things over the years, and I am a big fan. Auriculotherapy is similar to acupuncture, but is only treated on the surface of the ear and there are no needles used in this type of treatment. Much like acupuncture, there are only a couple of contraindications. For safety reasons, auriculotherapy should not be performed on those who are pregnant or anyone who has a pacemaker. Auriculotherapy is completely safe on all others.
I am bringing you this article today because not very many people have heard about auriculotherapy. One of the most beneficial aspects of the treatment is the sedation effect. When we become stressed with our day to day living, our mind tends to go into what is called fight-or-flight syndrome. The symptoms of fight-or-flight syndrome are shallow breathing, increased heart rate, and our awareness is heightened. Our adrenal glands go into high gear and adrenalin is pumped into the blood stream to prepare us for battle. During this state of heightened awareness, we live our lives through the lens of fear. We are constantly on the defensive and looking for our enemies. Our ability to be creative is diminished, and rational, cognitive thinking is impaired.
After long periods of fight-or-flight syndrome, our body begins to break down. The negative thinking becomes firmly entrenched behavior, creating a vicious circle of stress-inducing thought. Chronic illness such as irritable bowel syndrome, indigestion, high blood pressure, chronic fatigue, and addiction are common companions of fight or flight. Many seek treatment for the visible symptoms and are then prescribed drugs that simply mask the body’s attempts to show us there is something that needs our attention. By treating the apparent symptoms and not addressing the chronic state of being we have developed, the other symptoms begin to get worse. This is the never-ending cycle that so many people are now caught up in. We have become a society that has medicine cabinets full of drugs to “fix” things that can be easily corrected with a lifestyle change.
Many people fear that reducing their stress means less productivity. Our culture has us believing that our health and well-being is secondary to our financial security. Yet with the rising cost of health care, soon, if not already, it will be far more costly to neglect our health than continue a lifestyle that requires us to overwork and overproduce. Having a healthy stress management ritual helps us to be more productive in our work, emotionally available for our friends and family, and open to hearing our higher self and the soft hints of our intuitive nature.
Holistic wellness methods such as acupuncture, auriculotherapy, chiropractic, naturopathy, yoga, and meditation, to name just a few, are surefire ways to stop the fight-or-flight syndrome in its tracks. Stress can never be eliminated; in fact, we need stress in our lives to provide a contextual field and propel us to our natural state, which is self-improvement. Our society has all but given up on the natural path to wellness in favor of the quick fix in the forms of pills and surgeries. While I do understand that there are situations that call for the medical community to step in and help, I am of the belief that if we practice healthier, holistic lifestyles, the need for traditional medicine would be minimal. Stopping chronic illness starts at arresting our fight-or-flight response and finding a state of relaxation.
The first point treated in auriculotherapy is called the Shen Men. The Chinese have had awareness of this point for over 5,000 years. When the Shen Men is stimulated using the micro-current tool used in auriculotherapy, the mind becomes sedated, allowing for a greater connection to our soul voice. When the mind is “out of the way,” the body’s ability to heal is unlimited. Furthermore, the panic mode brought on by our fight-or-flight mechanism is virtually eliminated, easing us into a normalized state of being. Sometimes simply being reminded of what it feels like to not be worried or anxious is all it takes for a person to understand just how stressed out they really are.
There are over 350 reflex points in the ear referring to every system, organ, and limb of the body. The procedure is quick and painless, although some would describe it as mildly uncomfortable. The results are immediate and undeniable. For a quick and relatively painless session, relaxation is induced and fight or flight is arrested for the time being. If the person receiving treatment has any mild aches or pains, the therapist can locate and stimulate corresponding points and ease the discomfort.
Used in many treatment facilities, auriculotherapy has shown remarkable results in patient retention. On average, patients attending 28-day treatment facilities typically only stay around 10 days. Studies show that facilities who offer advanced relaxation therapies like yoga and auriculotherapy have almost 100 percent retention.
For those wishing to quit smoking, auriculotherapy offers an easy way out. The hardest part of quitting smoking is the discomfort of withdrawal. By stimulating the correct points we can trick the brain into releasing endorphins, the exact same feeling we get when we are smoking, without the nicotine to produce it. After just a few treatments, the body normalizes its production of endorphins and the withdrawal stage has passed.
If you are looking for a stress management protocol, try looking into auriculotherapy and see for yourself. Typically, you will find this treatment being offered in chiropractic offices and holistic wellness centers. The average treatment takes about 20 minutes to ½ hour.
I am bringing you this article today for two reasons: The first is as an informational piece. I feel this is a valuable tool to have in your holistic health toolbox. The second reason is to tell you that at our Path to Peace recovery retreats, we offer this service for no additional charge daily. For someone wishing to quit smoking, who plans on attending the retreat, this could be a great way to kick it off.
Our next P2P retreat is coming up quickly. This one will be held in San Jose, California, from September 19 – 22nd. After that, we will be taking to the east coast in Orlando, Florida, from October 24 – 27th. Click here for more information and registration for these retreats.
(Kevin McCormack, C.A.d ,is a certified addictions professional. He is a recovering addict with 26 years of sobriety. Kevin is a practicing auriculotherapist, life coach, and interventionist specializing in individual and family recovery and also co-facilitates spiritual recovery retreats for the CWG foundation with JR Westen. You can visit his website here for more information. To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@TheGlobalConversation.com)
I am a recovering self-helpie. I read thousands of books trying to be better and become more enlightened. It was full-time work to become a “guru” and I took it seriously. Feeling broken led me to always find God. And in a way, wanting to become better and get fixed was a tradition I was taught in church at a very early age. It’s totally cool to want to be a better human being, to grow and evolve and learn from “mistakes” or experiences to change. But it felt heavy. I wanted some sort of a reward. A gold star for all the work I was putting in in becoming “spiritual,” yet no star seemed to be occurring. The more I tried to be helped, the more I felt like I was in need of being fixed. Round and round I went on my own little ferris wheel. Then something happened. The ferris wheel stopped and I landed on rock bottom hard.
I hated God. I hated that I wasn’t getting any rewards for bettering myself. I spent so many hours reading all the books to become a “better me.” And for what? More misery? Screw this! What am I doing all this work for? (As I placed my hand on my forehead in dramatic fashion)
The bottom was hard, but also oddly freeing. I didn’t have to be happy, or get better, it already sucked. When I would usually hear the normal question “How are you?” I would just snuff it off, or try and find a spiritual way of saying “I’m at rock bottom.” But now, on rock bottom, I would simply say “I am not that great.”
Life became easier. There was nothing to attain except getting out of bed and being honest, and it seemed to feel better. Day by day, I found that there was nothing to become. I didn’t have to be better, I just had to show up to the play called life. Is it this simple? God became funny. God became my playmate. I didn’t need to do anything to get a reward. It’s just a fun game that I get to play and view any which way I choose.
Life is hard. Life is easy. Life is what it is. Play anyway. Doing things to be better and get rewards is not fun. It feels hard. It feels like I was never going anywhere, and always playing hide and seek with my own darn self. Life is messy. I mess up. I fall down. The world doesn’t end, and laughter is always free. I had my laughter at rock bottom. I had the ability to find the humor even when life truly sucked. Then I saw….
God only wants us to play for the purest reason. Because it feels good. We don’t have to be the best sharer in the sandbox or build the best sandcastle. We simply just need to show up and be ourselves. We are the gold stars.
Play on, my friends. Be the gold star you are so desperately trying to “get”- I triple dog dare you.
(Renowned speaker and author Jenny Ward has been seen across the country bringing play, work/life balance and parent workshops to Visa, You Tube, Merrill Lynch, Girl Scouts, YMCA, Stanford and numerous other corporations and non profits. Her individual clients have enjoyed working with Jenny on single parenting, play, stress eradication and play based parenting for over 8 years. Jenny’s work can be seen on DOVE, San Francisco Times, Today’s MAMA, Nick for Kids, and numerous other publications.)
(If you would like to contribute an article you have authored to the Guest Column, please submit it to our Managing Editor, Lisa McCormack, for possible publication in this space. Not all submissions can be published, due to the number of submissions and sometimes because of other content considerations, but all are encouraged. Send submissions to Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com. Please label the topic: “Guest Column.)
Teenagers, blessings and congratulations for making your voice heard. By commenting and submitting your messages to me, we are another step closer to Oneness and Beingness. So to bring forward that light into our world, here is our first teenage conversation, lovingly thought out and created:
From iamlife iam~
I have a subject I would love to hear your thoughts about. Do you perceive the dark images in the video gaming industry, the movie industry, actually, in much of the imaging of the whole entertainment industry as somehow impactful on culture? Some argue that these dark images do not impact youth, the perceiver, in any way, while others say they must. What are your thoughts?
Dear iamllife iam,
In culture, many things are perceived as light, dark, good, bad, right, and wrong. What one person can describe to be a wonderful contribution to society another can disclaim as a major setback to the entirety of the human race. So just to note, dark, bad, and wrong are HIGHLY suggestive terms that are solely determined by individual values and beliefs. Though it may seem as though these are collective labels, they are still determined on an individual basis. And through the choice of free will, YOU get to make that decision.
So to go right along with that….
These images – and the impact that they have on us – are determined by us alone. Society is full of artists (those who create and spread ideas and consciousness), and their messages they send to the world. In such a matter, we are all artists, trying to express ourselves on the largest canvas available. What images we send out into the world may not even be understood by us – but it’s something that needed an outlook, that needed to be shared. Basically, it’s an energy pattern that needed to be resonated.
So, sometimes, when we encounter images (sometimes even created by ourselves) that we don’t initially like or understand, we at least can know that those images are someone’s way to express themselves in their highest understanding possible. It may seem dark, and it may seem dreary, but it is still an expression that can be related to. As a part of our human condition seems to be the need to share our stories and our experiences, sharing these images and messages only seems to be a natural extension of who we are.
So the next time you see something in film, in video games, in the entertainment industry, know that it’s all art. And just like art, we chose how much it moves us or inspires us. So if something in the entertainment industry does resonate with you, let yourself explore that impact and understand why you have that impact. Perhaps your own journey, unbeknownst to your mind, is actually resonating in the same energy, and is able to make that larger connection of understanding. Your understanding is your choice, but you must be open to that understanding, regardless of whatever lightness or darkness you have heard about the subject before.
So in a nutshell…
There are many people out in the world with many ideas and visions to express. Though we may not fully understand all of them and initially perceive them as bad, dark, or evil, we must consciously understand that it is still someone’s highest understanding of themselves. How much we let this impact us is left up to us to decide. It can change your world, but only if you chose it to resonate ever so deeply within you.
Thank you, iamlife iam. If this message makes conscious sense at all, I would love to hear your response. If this message still doesn’t make any sense at all, I would love to continue this conversation next week to clarify anything that needs further explanation.
So, teenagers of the world, let’s continue our discussions next week. Leave a comment, send an email, or just put that energy of conversation out into the universe to be received. I can’t wait to get your messages!
(Lauren is a Feature Editor of The Global Conversation. She lives in Wood Dale, IL, and can be reached at Lauren@TheGlobalConversation.com)
Respected sir/madam,
I have been in a very happy relationship for two years now, and both of us are very serious. We are sure that we want to spend the rest of our lives with each other. My boyfriend loves me very very much, but recently, I hurt him so deeply that he’s lost his trust in me.
We were in different cities when we fell in love.Let us say that I was in C and he was in G. Recently, I had a chance to visit G but unfortunately, he was visiting my town then. My chances of meeting him were anyway slim and I had a mental misconception that if I went to G, I’d feel much closer to him. We hadn’t been able to talk to each other to our heart’s contents for a while and we were feeling a little empty. We needed to feel closer to each other.
He didn’t tell me he wanted to take me there first (this was my first visit) but he made up a number of other reasons for me to not go. I justified all of them and in the end, he reluctantly agreed. He was angry with me but I wanted to go very very much so I thought that when all the bad things that he was afraid would happen wouldn’t happen he would forget about everything and everything would go back to being normal.
When I finally reached G, I realized that I had made the worst mistake of my life. I had heard so much about the place from him that when I so much as read the name of a road, I missed my boyfriend and cried and cried. I was travelling by bus and I called my boyfriend and cried to him and he was kind and sweet to me but he was hurting and missing me too.
I stayed in G for three days and missed him every second of that I was there. The only way I could distract myself was by talking to a group of boys who were really funny and warm. I generally don’t interact with boys much unless it is for work and he does the same with girls. We prefer it that way and we feel safe and comfortable in our routine. I knew he wouldn’t like my doing it, but I justified it because I didn’t have any proper girl friends with me and well….truthfully, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.
I’ve never lied to him before this and I hate myself for doing it now. I took a picture with a boy and I am grinning widely in it. I swear up and down right now that I wasn’t happy there. Sure I danced a little and smiled a little but I kept wishing that I was there with him not with a group of people I didn’t even like all that much.
Anyway, now this picture? I fabricated the truth a little and told him that other people took it by crook and I hadn’t actually posed for it. Yes, I lied to him. But I swear I never have before this.
The next day, I played in the water on the beach and went out at night and he’d told me not to because in that part of the country, they were both very unsafe and stupid things to do. But I completely forgot his strict instructions and did both of those things. I am an idiot.
When I came back home to C, I sent him a copy of that picture and came clean. In my favour, I’d like to say that I was the only one with a copy of that picture and I still sent it to him because I couldn’t stand to lie to him.
He saw it and was very very very hurt. He said he couldn’t trust me anymore because even though he’d asked me not to, I went into the water and went out at night and that if something had happened to me, he’d have lost me forever. He was also very hurt that I took a picture I anyway shouldn’t have but the fact that it was in G, where he and I were supposed to go alone for the first time, made it much much worse.
I was so guilty that to prove to him that I love him very very much I cut myself for the first time in my life. I agree it was the stupidest thing I could have ever done, but…..oh, well. What’s done is done. He got mad about that too. Said I needed a psychiatrist.
He’s ready to give me another chance but he is hurt. And he says mean things when he is hurt and they hurt me and there is simply a whole lot of hurt going around. What do I do? Please help me? I want to make things okay again. He says he I hurt him so much that he is numb and that he is beginning to lose faith in love and that he has no interest in going to G with me or otherwise again because the place is ruined for him. What do I do? That was our honeymoon spot 🙁
Yours sincerely,
Susan
Dear Susan,
Wow!, I’m practically out of breath reading this…I can only imagine how draining it is to you actually living it.
Susan, the only betrayal in this whole long story is to yourself. It is said that betrayal of oneself, in order to not betray another, is still betrayal. In fact, it is the greatest betrayal of all.
Susan, what does love mean to you? If you yearn for another, and cannot live a day without that other without crying, does that mean you love that other? I don’t believe that to be true. To me, it means that you have handed your happiness to another, believing that happiness is something that is given to you by another. Susan, dearest Susan, we create our own happiness, and misery, given our thought about a thing.
It feels to me as though you are allowing your boyfriend to control your life. A truly loving partner would have informed you of the dangers in city G, and upon finding out what you did, merely expressed relief that you hadn’t been harmed. The dumping of guilt upon you is control, not love. (Well, it IS love, in the strictest sense, since all negative emotion is distorted love, but I hope you understand what I am saying in this context.)
You see, Susan, Love wants for you what you want for you. If you feel you would enjoy having a wide variety of friends in your life, now, and even (especially?) after you should marry, then your partner should want that for you. His inability to trust you now is his problem, not yours, because it shows that he wants for you, what HE wants for you, and not necessarily what you want for you.
Just as an aside…I would, personally, question why my partner had so many reasons for me to NOT come and visit in the first place.
As to your cutting. Obviously you know that that behavior doesn’t really work for you. It is a symptom of something larger, to be sure. I would agree with your partner that professional help would be of benefit. I lean towards body-centered psychotherapy, but there are many good professionals.
Which leads me back to my earlier question: What does Love mean to you, Susan? Not, “what do I have to do to get someone to love me?” There is a very good little book, by Neale Donald Walsch, called “Neale Donald Walsch on Relationships” that I believe could be invaluable in helping you gain insight. It is a very short, easy read. I got my copy for just a little money at an on-line used book store.
Sweetie, guilt, stress, worry, anger, hurting yourself…these are all indicators that something is not working. I have told my daughters what I am going to tell you now…Love should bring Joy. Yes, it takes dedication, and effort, but it shouldn’t be a constant struggle, especially in the early stages. If it is a struggle from the beginning, consider that it might not be any better going forward. Consider choosing again…and again, and again until you find a relationship that doesn’t require you betraying yourself to have.
Therese
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
(If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com, where our team is waiting to hear from you.)
An additional resource: The CWG Helping Outreach offers spiritual assistance from a team of non-professional/volunteer Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less. Nothing on the CCN site should be construed or is intended to take the place of or be in any way similar to professional therapeutic or counseling services. The site functions with the gracious willing assistance of lay persons without credentials or experience in the helping professions. What these volunteers possess is an awareness of the theology of Conversations with God. It is from this context that they offer insight, suggestions, and spiritual support during moments of unbidden, unexpected, or unwelcome change on the journey of life.
The events taking place in our world right now are sobering. The people who have placed themselves in powerful decision-making positions in our world are faced with the imminent and arduous task of choosing what happens next for all of us. And, frankly, people are afraid. It seems as though every option available at this point carries with it a disproportionate level of negative fallout, the thought of which creates more fear and uncertainty and a growing sense of powerlessness for large segments of the earth’s population, even placing the most agreeable minds in direct opposition to one another as we search and clamor for the best possible solution for everyone.
I think that as we move through the days and weeks, and perhaps even months, ahead, it will be important for us all to pay attention to and tend to any overwhelming feelings of negativity and heightened levels of fear that we may find ourselves experiencing. Fear is an immobilizer. It halts our creativity and cripples our ability to see with perspective and to choose with clarity. So how do we maintain a steady, or even semi-steady, sense of clarity and perspective during these times of turmoil and uncertainty? How do we keep our heads above water and still remain active participants in what happens next?
For me, in my personal life, even during some of my darkest moments, life always finds a way to remind me in sometimes small but always extraordinary ways that goodness and light do still exist and can simultaneously reside with the heaviness and hopelessness…if I give myself permission to see it. Now, that is no simple task in moments which are enveloped with despair and fear, when it feels as though everything I believe to be true is demonstrating itself to be false, and when the kind of God I so desperately want to embrace is not showing up in my life in any appreciable way.
But while it is not a simple task, it is one that is always possible. And not only is it possible, it exists right in front of us, alongside the darkness, available for each and every one of us to see and to experience. Life speaks to us in ways we might not hear if we are not really listening.
For instance, we may want to notice Ehab Sadeek, an Egyptian Muslim who owns a bagel store in Winchester, Massachusetts, who says he will give 100 percent of his profits to the One Fund Boston, an organization established to raise money for victims of the Boston bombings, and will continue to do so until the last victim is out of the hospital, calling the marathon bombers “cowards who don’t represent my faith or religion.” ~ The Good News Network.
Or perhaps we might want to take note that 673 of the brave men and women who are currently fighting California’s raging wildfires happen to be convicts participating in a voluntary program through California’s Conservation Camp initiative, a joint effort by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which allows inmates to take on the role of firefighters for $1 an hour. “They are in the thick of it,” Capt. Jorge Santana of the CDCR told NBC. “They work 24-hour shifts. They sleep in tents at base camp. They work side-by-side with other firefighters.” ~ Huffington Post Good News.
Then life also gave to us Malala Yousafzai, who, on her sixteenth birthday, nine months after being shot in the head in an assassination attempt by a Taliban gunman in northwest Pakistan, addressed the United Nations Youth Assembly in New York with a wish for universal equality, universal opportunity, and universal education. Once targeted for death because of her outspoken advocacy for her own education and those of other Pashtun girls, she now speaks on behalf of women and children everywhere. Her message is one of fearlessness and hopefulness. It is an inspiring call to justice. ~ The Daily Good.
How could we ever truly forget Antoinette Tuff, the bookkeeper in Atlanta, Georgia, who single-handedly prevented yet another mass school shooting by simply talking to the suicidal gunman with compassion and understanding?
And what about the man who stops to offer his jumper cables to the person with a dead car battery? Or the people in the vehicle in front of you at the drive-through who randomly and generously paid for your coffee or purchased your meal? What makes a person stop in traffic to carry a disoriented turtle gently to safety on the side of the road? Or the individual who just happens to come into your life at that perfectly timed moment and in that perfectly designed way?
Seemingly small examples? Yes, perhaps they are. But these are the moments that make up this thing called Life. These are the golden strands of opportunity and hope that weave the fabric of our experiences and remind us of who we are in relation to each other and why we are even here in the first place. We would be well-served to continue to contribute our energy into the bigger happenings in our world, yes, to consciously choose with our voices and with our votes and with our money. But we are equally well-served to incorporate and welcome the goodness of life into our experience, to strive for a sense of gratitude amidst the chaos and change, and to see the way God is moving through it all.
What would love do now?
(Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation. She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support. To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday, Sept. 1, that there now is no uncertainty whatsoever as to whether chemical weapons were used in the Aug. 21 massacre of nearly 1,500 people — including over 400 children — in Syria.
Mr. Kerry said that hair and blood samples from the victims of that attack, collected by first responders and provided to the United States, have tested positive for sarin, which, an NBC News report said, “is considered to be the most toxic and fast-acting chemical warfare agent.” Mr. Kerry revealed the results of those tests on the NBC program Meet the Press.
The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has steadfastly insisted that it was not responsible for the use of those weapons, claiming that opposition rebel forces, whom the government labels “terrorists,” launched the chemical attack in order to claim that the government did so, thus to rile international sentiment against the Assad regime.
Mr. Kerry on Friday, Aug. 30 said, however, that the U.S. believes with “high confidence” that the Assad government is responsible for the attack on its own people, based on a number of highly reliable intelligence sources, including intercepted communications between regime military commanders, satellite tracking of missiles launched from government-control areas to the site of the massacre, and other intel, which Mr. Kerry said could not be detailed publicly without jeopardizing sensitive sources.
The question before the world is: What should be the response of the international community if it is proven that the Assad regime did, in fact, gas its own people to quell the citizen rebellion that has plagued it for over two years?
As well: What should be the response of the international community if it is proven that the rebel forces perpetrated the attack in order to have something to pin on the government and give the U.S. and other Western powers a justification for launching attacks on Syrian government military assets, thus weakening the government’s ability to fend off the two-year-old rebellion?
Conversations with God said in Book One that if despots are allowed to continue in their despotism, what does that teach those despots? It also famously said:
“Sometimes man must go to war to make the grandest statement about who man truly is: he who abhors war. There are times when you may have to give up Who You Are in order to be Who You Are. There are Masters who have taught: you cannot have it all until you are willing to give it all up. Thus, in order to “have” yourself as a man of peace, you may have to give up the idea of yourself as a man who never goes to war. History has called upon men for such decisions.”
This leaves me, as a person who opposes any decision by U.S. President Barack Obama to employ U.S. missile power in targeted strikes against strategic military installations in Syria, in a challenging position. If there is proof beyond a shadow of a doubt that Syrian President Assad used that nerve gas on his own people, that would make him a despot of the first rank.
As President Obama himself has implied: What is a despot being taught if he is allowed to get away with despotism? And, likewise, if the Syrian rebels actually did use sarin on their own fellow citizens in order to “frame” Assad and his regime, what would it teach them if they were allowed to get away with it?
The spiritual response to these events would be to find a way to allow growth and remembering (or what some people would call “learning”) to occur. CWG says sometimes humans must go to war. But now, here is where I notice something very important in the CWG cosmology. The dialogue does not define exactly what it means to declare war. Ah, but my dictionary does. Under “war” it offers as one of its definitions: “a sustained effort to deal with or end a particular unpleasant or undesirable situation or condition”…as in: the authorities are waging war against all forms of smuggling.
Now this is something I can agree with. We must not let those who used chemical weapons in Syria think they can do so with impunity. There will be consequences to pay, and severe ones that will not be pleasant, or easily ignored. Yet those consequences do not have to involve lethal military weapons. They do not have to involve the killing of people.
It is as Einstein said. We cannot solve a problem at the same level and with the same energy that created the problem. We cannot end killing with killing, violence with violence, hatred with hatred. Yet neither can we look the other way as despots commit despotism.
If the Syrian government is proven to have used nerve gas on its own people (and much of the current evidence points that way), the world (and yes, that includes Russia and China) can and should turn that regime into a pariah government, supported by not even its present allies. Not in the U.N., not in the international trade markets, not in the court of global public opinion, not in any way whatsoever. All imports of every kind, by any nation, should cease. Blockades ensuring that edict should be enforced. All cooperation with the government should end. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would find out soon enough that he made not only a humanly horrific, but also a politically horrendous, error.
And if new evidence emerges that the rebels were, after all, responsible for the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack in an effort to frame the Assad regime, then any and all support from any and all quarters now flowing to the rebels must be immediately and forever ended.
Mr. Kerry said that the second scenario is completely fabricated by the Assad government and is impossible to believe, because of the high improbability that the rebel forces could get their hands on such weapons grade nerve gas, much less have the capability of delivering it from rockets tracked by satellites to be blasting off from government held territory at the moment of the attack.
The world’s job now must be to deliver all the evidence gathered so far to allow the international community to deal with this monstrosity with certainty and sureness, bringing the perpetrators to non-violent but effective reckoning. It is possible to do this. It is just as possible as launching missiles and killing more people.
As well, as spiritual beings, we have another option: Pray. Envision. Intend.
Call it by whatever word fits into your personal understanding, but use the power of Purposefully Focused Energy to generate an expanded contextual field around the experience that humanity is co-creating regarding Syria — a field that now includes the reality of peace and safety, harmony and cooperation, joy and celebration.
This can work. Yes, it can. Along with practical measures taken on the ground in Syria. Like the establishment of War Free Zones (as suggested by Michael in his Comments Entry below), protected on the ground and in the air by nonaligned U.N. peacekeepers. And the shipping in of extensive food and medical supplies and other necessities. And the use of the same enormous expenditures that it would take to launch missile strikes against that country, to offer aid in many forms (education, social services, etc.) to the rank-and-file citizens of that country, so that they could ultimately decide for themselves who they want to govern them, and by what national approach or mechanism.
Give the power back to the people to determine their country’s future. Remove it from the warring factions on both sides, and return it to the people. Freedom is the highest expression of spirituality, because it is a characteristic of Divinity.
Divinity has two essential qualities: Unconditional Love and Total Freedom. Bring that to Syria and watch the situation resolve itself without the use of a single killing weapon.
