Good morning to you…
I just ran into Genevieve on the street, when I went out to feed the parking meter. She used to be one of the contributors to this page — she’s now a case worker for an organization called Family of Woodstock, a social services provider.
We chatted a little and then she said, “I’m really upset that the World Health Organization has raised the level of alert to Five,” on a scale of six. “Six is supposed to be the collapse of the infrastructure. It’s a world pandemic where there aren’t even police because they’re either sick or home taking care of someone who is. And here we are at a Five and everything is perfectly normal.”
It did seem to be fine, the Sun was shining and I had every expectation that within a few minutes I would have had a ticket.
This is kind of what I’ve been getting at.
Looking at this situation from what might be called a spiritual perspective, that is to say, some way other than the ordinary worldly Tamiflu perspective, informed by something other than fear, we face a potentially useful question.
Those who have done A Course in Miracles undoubtedly remember the exercise toward the beginning of the workbook where you run through this litany of disasters and in the interest of training yourself to see the deeper reality beyond them, say things to yourself like:
God did not create that airplane crash, therefore it’s not real.
God did not create that car accident, therefore it is not real.
God did not create that influenza virus, therefore it’s not real.
It occurred to me this morning waking up that this is basically what I’m doing when I either suggest that this flu pandemic is a gross exaggeration, make fun of it or in some way question the veracity of what we are being told. I’m not doing it as a ‘spiritual’ exercise but there is undoubtedly something metaphysical about a certain kind of joking around. It is a form of denial. One of the central teachings of A Course in Miracles is determining what is real and what is not, and denying what is not real, in favor of leaving space and creating energy for what is real. What is real is the healing and correction that can come if we leave space for it; and it is more difficult if we get caught up in the ‘reality’ of the problem.
On that basis, it’s truly encouraging to see so many people looking at this problem and saying gee, this is really stupid. This cannot be what we’re being told it is. Something is a little off here; this cannot be real.
I am not saying that these affirmations make something real or not real. From the standpoint of The Course (now referred to in shorthand by some as A Course, which I just cannot say without feeling awkward), either something is or isn’t real, and therefore needs to be treated as such. A toy gun is a good example. If someone is pointing something at you that’s a toy gun versus a real gun, that makes a big difference; and once you would determine that it’s a toy gun you would handle yourself totally differently than if it were a real one.
I mentioned that I spent the day at O’Hare Monday and I met this guy who is one of the principals of a company that sells DNA testing equipment. Of course I asked him what he thought of this pig flu thing and he said, “It’s the way the world is going.” Now of course he is invested in the whole process — his company is part of the med/sci community. To him it’s real, but I understood that he was saying something else: we could be seeing a lot more of this kind of thing.
We could see a lot of weirdness on the way to this thing we’re calling 2012 for short. And in order to get by, in order to function, in order to stay sane and keep our lives in order and reasonably pleasant and to help hold the world together, we need to be able to deny what is not real. Part of this is going to be coming to the potentially difficult realization that what is real for some people is not real for others; what may be real to that person over there may not be real to you or me, and what is mediating this realness is specifically belief.
And this, so far as I can see, is one of the crucial ways that what we choose to believe or not believe is one of the determining factors of our existence, and of our ability to function in a helping or healing capaicity and feel strong and whole doing so.
Kingston, NY
For some reason, I had read this post from 2009 as a current blog post when I woke up this morning after some research I did last week! So it is of course out of sync..
However, although no Swine Flu pandemic is in view, it is probably appropriate to think about what agendas will appear in line with such fightbacks by ‘The System’.
Keep watching..
I think it important to avoid the generic level of processing this and consider specifics.
Starting with an analysis of:
We chatted a little and then she said, “I’m really upset that the World Health Organization has raised the level of alert to Five,” on a scale of six. “Six is supposed to be the collapse of the infrastructure. It’s a world pandemic where there aren’t even police because they’re either sick or home taking care of someone who is. And here we are at a Five and everything is perfectly normal.”
It is easy to parse this sequence and penetrate the deeper motivations. So…
1) We chatted a little and then she said, “I’m really upset that the World Health Organization has raised the level of alert to Five,” on a scale of six. [FEAR of THREAT]
2) “Six is supposed to be the collapse of the infrastructure.” [REALITY ENGINEERING]
3) “It’s a world pandemic where there aren’t even police because they’re either sick or home taking care of someone who is.” [FEAR of CONSEQUENCE]
Of course, you can choose to look at matters simply on the basis of individual psychology and possibly mass hysteria and conclude simply that this is about selling drugs (Fear-Capitalism) or, moving toward social control agendas, road testing the conformity-indicators (malleability) of the masses.
But there will be guess work in there. What is conspicuous is the hinted at collapse of the infrastructure. Here there is both a primeval fear, which we should pay attention to, and a concrete logistical problem.
It would appear that the Uranus-Pluto square is gathering unction toward revolution with respect to the central infrastructure controllers on the planet, via the early evidences of rebellion. (Folks, the occupation is just that, Rebellion).
At the rebel phase the brokers of control attempt to put down the rebellion directly first of all and then attempt to check out the scope to recruit rebels through ideological and practical means – to convert them back into conformity.
If a revolution becomes full blown then consider it, from the point of view of the ruling caste, to have become a WAR. In war, the parties will often resort to whatever tactics secure victory.
For me, this Swine Flu development is menacing – it seems to suggest that elites are saying “We hold your world together” and “we may choose to collapse it” and “back off”. It just isn’t possible to ignore the connection between the protests, the health alert and the infrastructure of Western civilisation.
Before we relegate Swine flu to the realms of Sci-fi we should remember that Hollywood is the real embodiment of Neptune; where, mediated through a definite celluloid world, what is real is what is manufactured.. and not simply in our minds..
When you enter into a battle, never forget that it can become a long and bloody war.. or else you just entered denial.
oh oh I have a dead horse story. It comes via a sister.
This here place I live is part of an 80 acre farm where my grammy and mom lived. They usta use horses to plow the fields you know. Seems like little glory was watching uncle gordy make the rounds with the horse and plow. And that horse dropped dead. Uncle gordy kicked the horse and said you coulda at least finished this round. Now who says we haven’t evolved.
Oh, Victoria! You restore my faith in the good work here. But as I “say” that I realize everyone’s off to the next blog/story du jour and most likely not reading this. But whomsoever is out there, please know that I, little i, am touched.
That’s the trouble with the bloggers — they get one thing and then they tend to beat a dead horse. Sorry, horrible metaphor. There is a reality here with this issue and I’m trying to stay local here, neighbor to neighbor, and that’s my way of refusing to be manipulated by the fear-mongerers. It was something that Eckhart Tolle said about the futility of vanquishing something that you put all your energy into. Sorry, I should be able to quote him on this as it was so awesome but the upshot is that if you protest war you will encourage more war. Be pro-peace and then you’re getting somewhere.
mm.
ps, my cat has the sniffles, but she’s outside dreaming about how her old carcass can score one of those big fat robins. Good luck, old lady.
marymack, they are out there. The word on the street today was that on Monday an elementary child was sent to the doctor to be tested for “the flu.”
I called the school nurse, ins are good sometimes, and she said oh. She was at the supply store looking for something for checking ears. (can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear: tell that to the pharmaceuticalia) I said, well? She said not true. But that a child was sent to be tested “today”. He has all the symptoms. As she listed them, I said it sounds like the flu. She said yes, it is a case of common flu symptoms. But as a health care worker, she does the drill, and instructs the parent (also ill) to take the child up the health care chain.
She is well into her sixties, and I think she has seen this all before.
Oh, lord. Just got off the phone with my pal from Jersey. Her kid is showing all the symptons of a cold and she’s freaking out. I’m playing it down, not wanting to fan the flames, but my heart goes out to this single mom who’s stressed about her job prospects.
I’m sorry if my posts seem overly … sober. I’ve talked up planet waves for so long, highlighting the very enlighted tone and brilliant writing, the posts maybe tend to be more for inside jokes. I guess.
m.
moonrose, thanks for your research, I did not know the moon flower was pollinated by moths.
time to dust off that new digital camera I landed and figure out how the dern thang werks. Photography is another thing I left behind.
Thank you, Victoria! I had no idea there was a moon flower… it’s very pretty… or that there were flowers pollinated by moths! I bet the moon flower glows in the dark in the moon’s light?
I’d love to see a picture of one of your blooming moon flowers, if you’re inclined to take one. : ) Your ecosystem is in good hands, I bet.
Oh, yes, it sounded like a lot of work – I could read that in what you did say and also in what you didn’t – that’s what makes it so beautiful.
I’m happy to see you look up and out for a minute, as I think we all tend to operate in a bubble if left to our own ways. There is a TON going on in the world and I love that planet waves gives us something a tad different or helpful or spiritual.
m.
Eric,
Yes – excellent; well said. We are getting our bearings. Or piggings as the case may be.
marymack, While I don’t really think exo or planetary energies get pissed off (I do), I did so like the Ceres pig correlation. Is the pig the victim or the rescuer?
It’s my survivor guilt talking. How could I be given such a great gift in her death? It’s a time warp.
What can I say I use what I am given, or not.
well put eric, I will be quoting you.
Mary, the immediate issue is a thing that’s being overblown but how we handle ourselves in an environment where this is happening is a core issue of both surviving and thriving right now. The way of the world is to brush it off and walk on. I sense a different agenda here, which is understanding the inner working of how we experience, perceive, create and uncreate a global problem with individual implications.
There sure is a lot of focus here on an issue that we all agree is being over-blown. Maybe it’s the pig thing.
m.
moonrose, that was the summary, it was hard work. I think it has to do with my soul’s journey or something. Definitely not for everyone. It’s why I never suggest my practices. I can tell it and if you get something from it, that’s great.
I am moving to native plants in my yard to suppport the ecosystem, but am hanging onto a few cultivars. When the moon flower blooms I shall think of you.
Last night’s NBC news spelled it out perfectly. Interview with people on the street, ‘well it seems like a lot of fear-mongering to me. well, maybe I should believe them, ’cause we don’t really know, but gee, it really feels like a lot of fear-mongering.’
Then, the interview with the suit sitting next to the phone at the flu-crisis center (where ver the hell that is) — ‘well, yes, I KNOW that there is flu every year and that people die from the flu every year and this particular flu (season) so far isn’t any different than any other, BUT HEY – that’s the point, isn’t is? PEOPLE DON’T KNOW JUST HOW DANGEROUS THIS ALL IS, AND DAMN IT, WE NEED TO MAKE SURE THEY REALIZE JUST HOW HORRIBLE AND LIFE-THREATENING THE FLU IS, since the public just hasn’t figured it out yet….we need to make sure we get the message through to them – and make them PANIC ’cause if they don’t, well, then I can’t get brownie points for doing my Crisis Center job and all.’
Yep. It’s all there in the mainstream news if we want to see and hear the message.
If you haven’t read BLINK by Malcolm Gladwell, I highly recommend it. The power of suggestion is strong. Our subconscious is extrodinary.
That’s why I like Obama’s “Yes We Can” so much — but by the same token, the word CAN is essentially a Blank Space.
What IS IT that we CAN?
What CAN we believe? What CAN we do?
We CAN see the world around us with Clarity.
One can Hope. And now, would someone Please Pass-on the Pigs?
Victoria – that’s beautiful.
I am not big on quotes, but I do have one hanging in the form a magnet. Hard to hang a magnet on wood. It is from Gandhi: “be the change you wish to see in the world”.
For me it all goes back to this whole pw self movement. Throwing myself into a place of panic or discomfort, or insecuity, it doesn’t feel good. These are my feelings. And I work to take responsibility for these.
And the course of miracles copy I read had an opening quote: Nothing real can be feared and nothing unreal exists.
This is coming from someone who took responsibility for everything. And so searched and searched for corrective answers. My pain sensors are sharp. I was trained young to the sounds of a siblings voice screaming out in pain, like cancerous pain. I ran alot of miles to provide alot of stuff that I sensed or was told was paining the other. You know what, there was always more pain. I had to own that pain. And own the emotion I had around that pain. My healer taught me or I learned from my healer (disclaimer, this is mine, not yours: your choice) that all emotions come from thoughts. And when I released those thoughts, those emotions, there was something missing. And I heard the voice of kindness, like having all that pain and running to that pain was the kindness we are all suppposed to have. Guilt, I must be a cold person. That’s where the field work comes in, getting out the door and into the streets and giving the new a spin. And oh yeah, my suppport system is much more effective now. I make far better choices. And relationships got healthier, if the other could relate to my new. I just had bought the wrong program of what love is.
The interesting part, and I know this is probably elementary to professional practitioners, is that when I changed it appeared that the others in my life did to. I would say it is my imagination, but there is some concrete physical evidence, or maybe I just was not aware of it before. No matter, I like it. I see change and growth. Life.
That’s it, I’m not innoculating against anything. I’m giving life a shot.
What makes me uneasy is what happens when two belief systems collide, when those belief systems are completely opposed?
A possible and somewhat simple scenario might be, I believe the pig flu is no big deal, nothing to get my feathers ruffled over, and the woman next to me might be in a complete state of anxiety/panic, in disbelief that I could be so, perhaps, ignorant or nieve. Is it even possible to massage someone else out of a firmly held belief when the person clings to it for all that their worth?
I might call this person or behavior extreme. And that’s very difficult to change in another – the person has to ‘wake up’ on their own as it’s not really an extreme to that person while they’re caught up in it.
Me? I can see it from both sides, and so I can understand this behavior in a person and feel a sense of compassion for it.
But in the end, it’s me who will/can sit back and allow the other their viewpoint, but people holding firmly to an extreme tend to not return the favor, courtesy.
How can that be overcome? I doubt any of those types of folks are reading blogs like this one, yeah? They’re likely to be as cynical of viewpoints posted here as we probably are of viewpoints posted there.
To me, I feel like that’s the overwhelming underlying gap or mountain that stands in the way.
And especially when so many people do get their views from mainstream media that consistently exaggerates and amplifies molehills, and persistently reinforces someones tendency for anxiety/panic.
It’s difficult to hear the town crier.
Is there an answer? What can I do on an individual level besides consort with like-minded folks in places like here on this blog???
I sometimes feel very helpless – like I’m not really doing anything productive.
Does anyone else feel that way???
Yeshe – i like that. a great way of looking at it & i havent heard that perspective before in the way you describe. the last part i was just thinking about yesterday – that we must change the internal if we want the external changed. working inside -> out, rather than outside -> in.
Yes, our beliefs do create our reality. What I am gradually perceiving to be happening, and it may be part of what the 2012 thing is about, is that it seems that we are all in our own reality bubbles, defined and created by our respective belief systems. Each one of has created our own mini-universe, so that it becomes all of these parallel universes floating around and occasionally bumping into one another, and sometimes they are in resonance with each other, sometimes they are out of resonance with each other – “what is real for one person may not be real for another” . If we awaken, and realize the power of our Minds and beliefs, then we can consciously choose and co-create, with those in resonance, what is real for us. And when we consciously choose what we project outwards, those waves interact with the other parallel universes and affect them as well. If one wants to change the world, change your Mind!