Sunday, December 21, 2008

The Spiritual Warrior

“Oh that God had given me [cunning], to meet such cruel dastards according to their villainy! The power to lie, and the love of it; the stealth to spy, and the glory in it; above all –– the quiet relish for blood, and joy in the death of an enemy –– these are what any man must have, to contend with the Doone’s upon even terms. And yet, I thank God I have not any of these.”

So spoken by John Ridd, the leading character in R.D. Blackamoor’s classic romance , Lorna Doone.
This is the definition of a true Spiritual Warrior, that although we see those who seem to revel in injustice, domination, cruelty, and rapacious greed, we hold true to our souls–– the knowledge of ourselves as divine spiritual beings, and the knowledge that those who appear to be our enemies are divine as well.

These words, expressed by the good and simple yeoman John Ridd, concerning the Doone’s –– a race of mighty warriors, thieves and murderers who live in an impregnable fortress and who hold sway over all the country round, are an expression of power, and of the Light.

For it is always openness, honesty, and integrity that breeds strength, and resonates to the true power of Spirit, which is who we are.

How did the human race get into the current mess we are in?

We got there by playing the game of tit–for–tat, and follow–the–leader. Every time we strike out in hatred, we create a sort of “engram” –– an encapsulated vibration of the lower order –– within the species consciousness. These lower vibrations build up and become dominant. Is it any wonder that Jesus the Christ said ‘turn the other cheek?’ It is understandable why Eastern thought tells us to practice non–resistance. There is a world of wisdom, and personal power in these concepts, for in order to transcend the darkness we must not link to it in our thoughts and emotions.

The old memes of conflict, domination, greed and war have well– established roots within the lower vibrations, which has been the common denominator of resonance within the species consciousness of mankind for millennia. This occurred not because these vibrations are superior, but merely because of force of habit.

We forgive our enemies because it is better for US as a race, for every time we sink into hatred, we contribute to the vibration of the old paradigm.

As a spiritual warrior, we are here to create the new paradigm of cooperation, abundance for all, and mutual respect and harmony. That can only be done by following the simple but profound example expressed by yeoman John Ridd.

Spiritual warriors have the most enlightened and toughest job here on planet earth: to remain in joy and love, despite all reasons not to. And as we all know, there are plenty of reasons to do so! But these exist only because we have created them, and have been –– until now –– too lazy or perceived ourselves as too weak in our thinking and in our intent to do anything about them.

Here are more words from R. D. Blackamore, speaking through yeoman John Ridd, regarding his refusal to participate in the murder of the murderers, the Doones:
“I will not strike a blow, nor give any counsel, neither guard any prisoners.”

“Not strike a blow,” cried Jeremy a King’s man, and charged with destroying the Doones and enlisting all able–bodied men in the campaign of destruction), “against thy father’s murderers?”

“Not a single blow, Jeremy;” replies John Ridd, “unless I know the man who did it, and he gloried in his sin. It was a foul and dastard deed, yet not done in cold blood; neither in cold blood will I take God’s task of avenging it.”

Our good yeoman would strike down the murderer of his father in a fair fight, agreed to by both parties, but never will he spy, or cheat, or do anything to violate his integrity. And thus does a person remain whole and true to his (or her) character. This is the essence of a spiritual warrior. We do not fight those apparently arrayed against us on their terms, but create our own lives in our higher truth. And thus do we dissolve the engrams within the species consciousness, like the sun that shines upon the thick fog, permitting our awareness to gradually rise away from the old memes.

This is our work. It is very rewarding work, for we can feel the result of it in our own bosom, and we see how others react to our uncovered Light.

Like John Ridd, if we come face to face with evil, we do not back down, yet continue to shine our light. We do not roll over in the face of the darkness, for that is to hide our spiritual brilliance. We also know that our experience on earth is but a fleeting and temporary one, and that all of the actors in this play are immortal spiritual beings.
All spiritual warriors have no fear of death, for death is an illusion, based upon the flawed concept of the biological origin of consciousness.

When we travel the road of the spiritual warrior, we notice those around us responding to us in a positive way. And thus do we avoid the darkness, and transcend it with the light of our love and our spiritual wisdom, which is our strength.

Kenneth James Michael MacLean
http://www.kjmaclean.com
http://www.thevibrationaluniverse.com
http://www.marketingwithspirit.com

Thursday, December 11, 2008

(this article is a result of my study of fractals and their relationship to science and spirituality)

Buckminster Fuller and Benoit Mandelbrot (among others) show us that the world is connected fractally, over scales, meaning that when we look into something that appears smooth on the surface, we actually discover entire worlds within. These worlds often contain repeating, self–similar patterns. The universe itself seems to be arranged on a scale from smallest to largest (the quantum scale all the way up to the scale of galactic superclusters) but how far down does it go, and how far up? Are these micro and macro scales separated at the top and the bottom –– do they continue on to infinity –– or are they somehow connected?

How we answer these questions will formulate our worldview. For at least the past century, mankind has considered himself largely separate from the world around him, and these ideas have been reflected in the way we organize our societies and how we act toward each other.

Fractals and Paradoxes

The fractal geometry of nature requires that physical effects occur over scales, but these scaling effects are completely invisible to the human senses, or even to instrumentation.
Fractal explorations:

Mandelbrot’s analysis of the coastline of Britain, for example, shows that it’s traditionally measured perimeter (using a measure ε, which gets smaller and smaller as we examine the coastline more carefully) is essentially infinite in length, unless we measure it fractally.







When one looks at the coastline, of course, one identifies more and more rocks, shallows and indentations the further one magnifies the area, increasing the size of the perimeter. However, when we talk about the coast of Britain in normal conversation, we are only talking about that which is visible to our perception. The complexity of the underlying scale of magnification is hidden from us.

The fractal nature of reality resolves apparent anomalies like the Paradox of Zeno, or Olbers Paradox.

The Paradox of Zeno says that it is really impossible to travel from point A to point B, because one must first traverse half that distance, then half of that distance, then half of that distance, and so on forever, so that one can never reach point B. What Zeno is describing is the fractal nature of reality, in which self-similar patterns reproduce themselves over micro- scales.[1] Of course, we simply walk the distance between A and B, never thinking about the underlying fractal / scalar reality.

Olbers Paradox says that since the stars are distributed approximately evenly throughout the sky as visible from earth, as we look deeper into space we should see a greater and greater volume of stars, so that the night sky should be brilliantly lit. We know that the distribution of stars is not uniform, however, and so a line of sight into the celestial sphere will encounter many more barren areas of space than of stars. But we are not aware of this, because the galaxies are distributed fractally, which is not apparent to our sense of sight.[2]

When one examines nature, one discovers more and more irregularity and broken-ness. The coastline of Britain looks smooth from a satellite photograph, but appears more and more fragmented, the closer we zoom in on it. One discovers shoals, and small bays, islands and rocks, all of which look more and more irregular and fragmented. When one looks deeply into something, as in the fractal demonstration above (see link) brokenness is evident everywhere: upon magnification, even a smooth curve is irregular. In other words, the apparent continuity of a surface disappears as we magnify into it (Buckminster Fuller claimed that a sphere was a series of finely broken lines from the construction of a polyhedron). And if we examine the surface of the earth, which looks so smooth from outer space, we see the broken-ness of mountains, seas, forests, and the irregular contours of ground. Look out the window and see if you can find a curve in nature. If you can, examine it more closely to find the irregularities.

These phenomena have lead mankind to conclude that nature herself is broken and fragmented, and that we are separate and individuated from nature. But this separation is an apparency.

Beauty and Continuity

What is beauty?

It is generally acknowledged that beauty comes from symmetry. And symmetry is regularity. Studies show that a face that is considered beautiful has symmetry and regularity: eyes evenly spaced, nose and lips set in the middle of the face; in general, features that are regularly spaced and balanced. In general, human beings find curves more appealing than angles. A beautifully curved automobile is much more attractive and stylish than a square, boxy one. A building with appropriate curves is more aesthetically appealing than utilitarian designs. One need only visit Moscow and examine Soviet architecture, then travel to St. Petersberg and examine the glorious buildings there.
Why is the Pieta so admired? Because of it’s lovely curves!

Why is nature broken, yet our concept of beauty revolves around curved, continuous surfaces? Is nature messed up, or are we?

The problem arises simply because it is impossible to physically construct a perfect curve. A curve is an ideal, never to be actually attained, and so it appeals to us aesthetically.



The chair I am sitting in, for example, is composed almost exclusively of smooth, curved surfaces, but a close examination shows tiny “rough spots.” No matter how finely you construct a curve, it requires a change of direction at every single point. It is at that point of change that broken-ness occurs.



To go from B to A in a perfect curve seems trivial. However, every point along the curve requires a change of direction, which generates an irregularity.
The perfect circle actually looks like this:



Every point along a circle, no matter how finely you look, has an “edge.”
As Fuller and Mandelbrot point out, the examination of anything in nature leads to the discovery of discontinuities.

Connected–ness and Singularities

All physically constructed forms have an error tolerance built-in, for that is the nature of physicality. There are always trade-offs, due to the complications of scale. When you machine a part for a device, that part has to comply with specifications, which means that it has to be manufactured to a certain level of detail and quality. Beyond that, no one cares, because the errors are not visible.[3]

However, all physical systems are affected by forces and fields, down to the micro- and upward to the macro- levels. When one heats a contained gas, for example, that heat becomes distributed throughout the entire system, even though it is impossible to describe how this occurs on all scale levels within the container. For example, scientists who attempt to describe fluid dynamics mathematically often have a very difficult time, because it is simply impossible to track the movement of individual molecules, even though it is obvious that the fluid as a whole is responding in a certain way to forces placed upon it.

All scale levels in the universe are connected. For every action, there is a reaction at all scale levels, even if those reactions are not visible at the scale level of perception.
Science has determined, for example, that the quantum level is the lowest scale that we need consider. This level is so tiny, approximately 1.6 x10 ^-33 meter, and it is called the Planck length. Everything in nature, it is supposed, is composed of quantities no smaller than this quanta. By comparison, the nucleus of an atom is approximately 10^-14 meter. So the atomic nucleus is more than a million trillion trillion times bigger than the Planck length! But of course, the assumption of the Planck length is arbitrary. There is no reason not to suppose that something smaller - a smaller scale - exists.

If we continue further and further down the scale, zooming in as it were, we theoretically reach infinitely small fractal levels. Which is to say, perfect continuity. At an infinitely small scale, broken-ness disappears, because the particles get infinitely small and are packed so tightly that the distance between them approaches zero. The denser an object is, the more mass per unit volume, because more and more “stuff” gets packed into it. This tells us that a perfect, continuous surface or volume would have infinite density. Perfect density could only occur at an infinitely small granularity. Therefore, perfect continuity and density describes a singularity.

Broken-ness disappears, then, when there are no individuated particles to cause separation.

However, a material with infinitely small particles means that the radius of those particles is zero, which is the same as saying that there are no particles! Again, we have a singularity, but there is nothing discrete. And if the radius of particles in this continuous surface or volume is zero, the mass of each particle is also zero.[4] Which means that this continuous entity is not infinitely dense, but is actually perfectly etheric, without substance. That is to say, it is non-physical. A singularity is itself an impossibility, so it must also be non–physical, or “virtual,” a product of our creative imagination. In Eastern philosophy, the universe emerges from something creative and latent, and is sometimes described as the dream of Brahma, the creative principle.

A singularity is actually a gigantic contradiction: something that is both infinitely dense, and massless; combining an infinitely great quantity and an infinitely small quantity. A singularity is the connection between the bottom (subatomic) and the top (macrocosmic) of the scale! In other words, physicality does not progress from small to large with small at the bottom separated from large at the top: the two ends of the spectrum are connected. Any physical process affects the whole, from the smallest scale to the largest, because of this invisible connection, even though it is only possible to observe the effect at the scale of observation.

The Shape of Space

To better understand this connection, consider the surface of a sphere.



If you start in Ann Arbor Michigan and walk in a straight line, theoretically you will wind up right back in Ann Arbor at the end of your walk (well, OK, you would have to have a boat, but you get the idea).

That’s because the surface of a sphere has no boundaries.

Now consider what topologists call a three–torus.



A three–torus is like a room that has the walls, ceiling and floor glued together –– not physically glued, but in the sense that if you walked through the left wall you’d find yourself emerging from the right wall. If you walked through the front wall you’d be at the back wall, and the same for the floor and ceiling.

This occurs because a three–torus has no edges or boundaries, just as the surface of a sphere has no boundaries. As soon as you reach one wall, you come through on the other side. If the universe itself has the properties of a three–torus, then it is connected in precisely this way, and all physical phenomena, from lowest to highest scale, are contained within it.

Here is what the Geometry Center says about this: “What seems to be a star in a distant galaxy could be our own sun. The light we receive from it could be light which left the sun billions of years ago, travelled around the universe, and is just now completing its trip. If we can someday find a pattern in the arrangement of the galaxies, then we will know the true shape of space.” This would be possible in a universe that was connected, and had no boundaries.

The point is that a boundary–less universe does NOT have to be infinite, if it has the properties of a three–torus. In other words, the universe could appear to be infinite, but actually be smaller than we think! We tend to think of the cosmos as so vast that it just spreads out forever; leading to a sense of separateness, and a view that we are mere specks in a rambling, limitless infinity. But if all scale levels are connected, as in the singularity, then we are actually living in a finite, holistic, and interconnected universe that is intimately responsive to us at all levels.

Oneness and Scale

The singularity is the perfect unity of polarity into Oneness. The infinitely large in perfect coexistence with the infinitely small! Such a thing is physically impossible, just as perfect continuity is physically impossible; so it cannot exist.

Oneness is physically impossible! You need at least two particles for a universe; for between two particles is a potential; a space where energy can flow, and thus duality, or polarity, is born. Oneness is outside of space and time. It describes something non-physical, or virtual.

A perfect curve (like a circle or a sphere) would contain no broken-ness at any scale. It would be perfectly smooth. So it too cannot physically exist, except in our minds. It is “virtual.”

Beauty is also an idealized perfection of form. Curves appeal to us, I think, because a curve reminds us that, from a spiritual perspective, we are inherently perfect ourselves. And that we are also, like the curve, non-physical.

Cognitive scientists cannot agree on definitions for consciousness, or the mind, or where these qualities or attributes might exist physically. It is really an impossible task, because a quality is virtual. In observing Jill play the piano, for example, we might say that she exhibits the qualities of joy and liveliness. But to physically describe these characteristics rigorously is impossible. We might say, “Jill is joyful because she appears to enjoy what she is doing, and is very animated,” but this is simply a trivial restatement of “Jill is joyful and lively.” Defining qualities rigorously is impossible, for they are non-physical characteristics, and language deals with the physical.

Qualities, like something perfectly continuous, exist at the virtual or non-physical level, combining the duality into Oneness. Qualities are a characteristic of consciousness itself.
Interestingly, to describe precisely how Jill plays the piano (which is what science is all about) is also unattainable, for a completely accurate analysis must encompass Jill’s every movement. This requires us to understand and describe how her hands move across the keyboard, how each finger touches the keys, how muscles and tendons work to generate movement, how the atoms within each tendon and bone come together to form the finger, how the subatomic particles come together to form the atom… a comprehensive physical analysis requires us to encompass all scales, which is physically impossible.

Haramein, Rauscher, and Hyson describe the underlying unity of matter and energy under all scales in a fascinating paper called, “A Scale Unification -- A Universal Scaling Law for Organized Matter,“ which details a fundamental relationship between the radius of anything––including the cell––and its rate of vibration. This shows us another glimpse into the underlying unity of everything in the universe.[5]

We’ve examined scales at the micro level, but what happens when we go the other way?

Let’s take our analysis up to the infinitely large. We have the planet earth rotating about its axis, the solar system, and the Milky Way galaxy. Our galaxy is part of a local group of galaxies, which in turn belongs to a supercluster, which in turn belongs to a larger group. In order to visualize these aggregations, however, we have moved our window of perception “out” farther and farther. In effect, we have minimized the prior physical structures and “rescaled” them. At the universal level, the planet earth is at approximately the scale that the Planck distance is for us at the human level.[6] As we go further “out,” we require that our previous window of perception be forced further into smaller scales. Zooming in forces everything above the target point up the scale of perception, and zooming out forces everything below the target point down the scale of perception. If you think of the movie, “Powers of Ten,” you will understand what I’m talking about. (If you haven’t seen it, look it up on You Tube). In other words, the existence of anything is independent of how large or small it is, but rather on our ability to access that scale level.

The two ends of the scale spectrum – micro and macro - meet at the singularity. That singularity is non-physical; it is the source of the physical, and the physics, that surround it. It is the source of quality, and beauty.

Oneness is impossible for a physical universe, for the universe contains, practically, an infinity of particles. But what if the universe itself mirrors the properties of a singularity? What if the universe is a singularity? Remember that at different scale levels, things shrink or expand. That which appears to be infinitely small at one scale level, may be infinitely large at another! This tells us that a physical universe may simply be an extension of Oneness.

The hidden dimensions in string theory, for example, must exist at these tiny, hidden scale levels.

What is the singularity, ultimately? It is something physically impossible, yet it combines all aspects of materiality. The singularity is the creation point, the source point, from which all materiality arises and evolves. Quintessentially, it is the creative principle, the animating principle, chi, prana, Ka, life force, consciousness, whatever you’d like to call it. The source of beauty, of physicality itself, resides in something that itself cannot be quantified, yet is the origin point of all things. That source is joy, love, well-being, and the powerful energy of creation itself.

It is the Still Point, from which thought and creation, emanates.
It is YOU!
_________________________________________
[1]Fractals do not have to be self-similar, but many of them are.

[2]Francesco Sylos Labini of the Enrico Fermi Centre in Rome and Luciano Pietronero of the University of Rome argue that the data from the latest Sloan Digital Sky Survey shows that the universe looks fractal as far out as our telescopes can see. According to their latest paper, which has been submitted to Nature Physics, Sylos Labini and Pietronero, along with physicists Nikolay Vasilyev and Yurij Baryshev of St Petersburg State University in Russia, argue that the new data shows that the galaxies exhibit an explicitly fractal pattern up to a scale of about 100 million light years. And they say if the universe does become homogeneous at some point, it has to be on a scale larger than 300 million light years across. There are opposite points of view, of course, but the fractal nature of scales below our level of perception suggests (to me, at least) that the same pattern continues at macroscopic scale levels.
–––Amanda Gefter, ”Galaxy Map Hints at Fractal Universe,” New Scientist, 25 June 2008, http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14200

[3]Heisenberg called this tradeoff the Uncertainty Principle, after it became obvious that physicists could not accurately determine both the momentum and location of an electron at the atomic scale level. Tradeoffs are an inherent property of the duality of a physical universe.

[4]It seems absurd to refer to anything with zero radius, but a singularity is defined as something with infinite density and zero volume.

[5]Preprint: N. Haramein, M. Hyson, E. A. Rauscher, Proceedings of The Unified Theories Conference (2008), Budapest, Hungary, “Scale Unification: A Universal Scaling Law for Organized Matter”, in Cs Varga, I. Dienes & R.L. Amoroso (eds.). Paper available at Haramein's website, http://www.theresonanceproject.org/research.html.

[6]Assuming a universe 13.5 billion light years in diameter, this comes out to approximately 1.5 x 10^26 meters. The human body is approximately 2 meters in length.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Persistence

When people hear the word “persistence,” they often think of the long, hard road toward manifestation. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” “Nothing ever comes easy in this world. You have to work for it.” “Put your nose to the grindstone.” These are some of the phrases I heard when I was growing up. For me, the word persistence had a ring of hopelessness, as if it were something that only a very few could ever achieve, and only by struggle, sweat, and effort.

I have learned that persistence is important in manifestation, but it has very little to do with time.

Why don’t your thoughts instantly materialize? One of the reasons is that they are simply not powerful enough. A vague idea or a fuzzy plan is not going to get executed because the templates of thought that created it are not sophisticated enough, just as a child’s drawing of a house cannot be built in the physical universe (well, it could be built, but it would be a mess!).

All physical objects have an associated thought template. The physical representation of this template is in the form of a schematic, a drawing, or an action plan, but the origin of the template is in thought. The function of the schematic is simply to help you remember the thought template! A skilled technician, artist, or planner, if he or she works with the thing long enough, can eventually manifest that template without aid of the schematic. When you lose that template of thought, even if you have the schematic, you lose the knowledge that enabled you to build it. A blueprint for a house, for example, is incomprehensible to someone who does not know how to read blueprints! That’s because the thought template that created the blueprint is absent.

Because the thought template is invisible, it is often overlooked. Thought evolves: you don’t get a great idea for a new business, for example, or a new product, fully formed and fleshed out, instantaneously ––unless you are already very, very experienced in that field. Like the guys who founded Dreamworks, the movie production studio. In that case, you have already evolved your thought to a sophisticated level. Your “book of thought templates” is very sophisticated indeed! On the other hand, there is NO TIME LIMIT on how quickly you can evolve your thought. That is entirely up to you! That is why persistence has little to do with time: it only has to do with your own vision, your own intelligence, and the strength of your intention. When your vision becomes sophisticated enough, you will spring into action and the thing will begin to manifest almost of it’s own accord.

When the builders arrive at the home site, there is nothing but an empty lot. However, in the minds of the construction crew, the house is already built; for within their minds and hearts, the house already has physical existence, and their thought has evolved sufficiently to create it. If you have ever been in the presence of someone with knowledge and skill, you understand immediately that for them, “time” has little meaning in the sense of what they have decided to create. The building of the house, for example, is almost an afterthought to the construction crew, for their creative template is so real that the physical construction of the house is a foregone conclusion. That is what happens when thought has evolved in sophistication: manifestation is inevitable.

“Oh, that is bunk,” you say. “Dreamworks was made possible because those guys were all multi–millionaires.”

Wrong!

Geffen, Katzenberg and Spielberg were multimillionaires because their thought had already evolved enough to create manifestations. Money is like the oil that makes the engine work. If you’ve ever looked at an internal combustion automobile engine, it is a pretty complex operation. It’s not going to work without a little oil, obviously, but the oil is almost an afterthought compared to the complexity and sophistication of the engine itself.

If you are worried about money, then your idea is still too fuzzy. A completed thought template –– about anything –– breeds self confidence, and will attract others of like mind to it, like a magnet. The money will follow.

Persistence, then, just refers to the evolution of your thought. And that is something that is entirely under your control! If you can throw out your worries about time as a barrier, and concentrate instead on creating and fleshing out your vision of what is wanted, the road to manifestation will go a lot smoother. The word persistence will take on an entirely new meaning; a much more benign one, and one that is closer to the truth of the creative process, and the manifestation of your dreams.

Kenneth James Michael MacLean
http://www.kjmaclean.com
http://www.thevibrationaluniverse.com
http://www.marketingwithspirit.com

Monday, October 27, 2008

Through the Looking Glass

In the famous story by Lewis Carroll, Alice goes through the looking glass and finds a strange world where things are distorted from reality.
An image in a mirror is flipped 180 degrees, so although you get a pretty good idea of what you look like, you don’t see yourself precisely as others see you. In fact, many people will tell you that you cannot know yourself as well as an objective observer, for you do not know how your actions affect others. It makes a sort of sense at first glance, for if action is based on thought, your actions are an accurate reflection of who you are.

However, only you can know your intentions and motivations; only you can know your thoughts. There is no one who knows yourself better than you!

“Yes, but you can fool yourself; you can hide your true intent even from yourself,” it is said. “And when that happens, others knows you better than you can ever know yourself.” Sad but true.

When you are not honest and open with yourself, you are like the looking glass: you reflect yourself to others, and to yourself, in a skewed fashion. That which is truly YOU becomes hidden behind a self-created façade. It is no longer exposed to the light, and so it cannot be seen. You become lost to yourself, and you deprive the world of your unique creative viewpoint.

You begin to value privacy more than openness and self-honesty, for a lie, an untruth, even a prevarication, requires secrecy. Thus do you shield yourself from your own light. When you go down this road, others do begin to know you better than you know yourself. This is a position in which you have given up your power to others. It is the state that the general run of mankind has been in for several millennia. It is how so many fall for the absurdities of religious and political dogma, which stifles free will and conscious decision making. It is why mankind has been so childishly easy to manipulate throughout the centuries, and why our species has never matured.

Openness, honesty and transparency are vital in the relationship you have with yourself. Every time you lie to yourself, you encapsulate a part of your life force: there is now a hidden part of you that you have to keep secret. The road to loss of self ALWAYS begins with something trivial.

Let’s say you are on a flex schedule at work, but the rule is that you must put in eight hours every day. You come in at different times each morning, so nobody notices that you are leaving an hour early every day. One day your boss asks you why you are leaving at 4, and you say that you came in at 8 and didn’t take a lunch. Both of these are lies. After that, when people ask you about your schedule, you become “sensitive” on this topic, people can push your buttons. You now have an “issue.” Everyone reading this knows how it goes.

The reason not to lie isn’t because of some moral code, or because the Bible tells you not to, or because some authority figure said so. It’s because operating this way in life simply turns you into a robot. Better to lie, and do it consciously, then to suppress your free will and conscious decision making by mindlessly following rules laid down by somebody else! If you lie consciously, you will be aware of the consequences, and you might even learn something, if you have any intelligence.

Dogma is dangerous because it suppresses the cognitive function.
Dogma says, “Don’t look at this maxim and compare it to your experiences in life; just accept it. People wiser than you know all about this. If you don’t, you will suffer dire consequences.”

Religion is essentially dogma, the oldest established on the planet. Dogma is simply a limited collection of thoughts that is repeated over and over again. In a previous blog I’ve already quoted Goebbels, the Nazi Propaganda Minister, who said that he could convince anybody that a square was a circle simply by repetition. That’s what religion does, or any dogma: “obey the will of God (as interpreted by our religion) or go to hell.” “A Presidential candidate in the United States must stand for a strong military.” “We must help our fellow man, therefore, the government must bail out those who are holding mortgages they can’t afford.” “You have to love the members of your family.” I’m sure you can think of more, and better dogma’s.

What’s the point?

The point is, that it’s better to be conscious than unconscious, even if you are a liar. Even if you violate cherished and established modes of thought. A liar you can deal with! You can reason with a liar, but not a dogmatist. Theoretical physicist Lee Smolin, in his book “The Trouble With Physics,” details a conversation he had with a Christian fundamentalist about dinosaurs. The fundamentalist said that dino’s still exist because Rush Limbaugh said so on his program, or some such nonsense. Smolin blew holes in all of her arguments, but the fundamentalist would not change her opinion, and insisted that a brontosaurus could live in a cave. Such people are not conscious; and cannot learn from experience.

“The few, the proud, the Marines.” My brother-in-law is a combat trained Marine, and I have a lot of respect for that. But Marine commercials essentially show people being trained as robots; killing machines who follow orders from above. It takes all kinds to make a world, as my grandfather said, but self awareness and conscious living is the only way to ensure personal sovereignty. Sovereignty doesn’t come out of the barrel of a gun, or from orders on-high. Sovereignty is integrity. Integrity is wholeness. And wholeness is happiness. It all begins with mindful and conscious living.

Dogma coalesces and entrains thought around it; stifling creative expression and independent thinking. It is how mankind has been controlled for millennia. As times change, dogma becomes more and more outdated and inapplicable. Dogma becomes, essentially, lies, due to changing conditions. The difference between a liar and a dogmatist is that the liar lies consciously, whereas the dogmatist does it unconsciously. Propagandists combine conscious lying with dogma.

The truly great liars are propagandists. Propagandists are experts in persuasion and the molding of human opinions. “We must fight terrorism,” says former President Bush robotically. Congress robotically goes along and passes Patriot Acts, FISA, the Homegrown Terrorist Protection Act, and other traitorous pieces of legislation which destroy our basic freedoms. We know from this that both the President and the Congress are operating unconsciously. Our political institutions have lost their self-awareness, and the will to consciously perform their Constitutional duties. They have become dogmatic, and have lost their integrity. And we also know that the people of the United States, who have voted them into office, have also lost their sovereignty. Our nation is not under attack from terrorists, but from dogmatists. We are in a prison of our own making, which stems from our own unconsciousness.

Propagandists, dogmatists, religionists, politicians, and liars, however, are not dangerous at all. They can be defeated by conscious and mindful thinking. Ladies and gentlemen, there is no substitute for self-awareness. No “system” exists in which you can plug in your mind and put yourself on automatic pilot, while still maintaining your integrity.

It is time for individuals to inspect their belief systems and begin to throw away old patterns and habits of thought. This is what happens when you have a spiritual awakening: you release from old dogmas and see yourself, and the world, from a much broader perspective. The solution to the problems and difficulties of life is not the latest marketing breakthrough, secret code, or ten-step program, but the decision to live life consciously and mindfully. In this way you find your own center, express your own unique point of view, and discover the things that are truly worth learning. I can tell you from experience that it doesn’t get any better than that!

Kenneth James Michael MacLean

http://www.kjmaclean.com
http://www.thevibrationaluniverse.com
http://www.marketingwithspirit.com

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Winds of Change

It seems that the denouement humanity has been looking toward is not 2012, asteroids hitting the planet, or spiritual enlightenment, but much more mundane: a financial crisis that appears to be endangering the world’s currencies and economies. This economic phenomenon is, I believe, simply a reflection of a global spiritual awakening.

Vibrationally speaking, we have had a massive increase in population over the past 100 years: from 1 billion to over 6 billion. This has naturally led to a huge increase in the flow of subtle/thought energy within the species consciousness. All of us can feel it.

Those who turn away from themselves in fear have gone negative; those who have embraced the Light have experienced a spiritual “wake up call.” The condition of humanity is now a sort of “bipolar disorder,” brought about by the increased flow and psychic pressure of thought and consciousness. I look at the effect of consciousness upon the planet, and our individual psyches, like a weather pattern: when the winds of change increase, we all feel it.

What I have realized lately is that when one is centered, it is possible to weather the storm. I have talked about the Still Point in my newsletters: the eye of the hurricane. The Still Point is the discovery of the static nature and power of ones own consciousness.

Consciousness, or awareness, is non–physical: it has no moving parts. It is not “energy” as we understand it. Life is a Creative Principle, something all-powerful, capable of creating and perceiving what it has created, but which cannot ever be harmed by those creations. How can something that is not physical be harmed by something physical? It cannot! However, we are given the gift of vulnerability within our physical bodies: we feel pain, discomfort, and misery. We have created conditions of poverty, injustice and conflict so that we may experience these things, which are impossible to experience in Native State. That is the game we are playing.

The question is, how do we survive and prosper during this evolution of consciousness?

My answer is through the discovery of self.

I have made some important gains during the past week that I would like to share with you.

My life has been in a state of flux for the past 3 years. I have been recovering slowly from mercury poisoning, which has affected my health. I have also been writing, doing personal coaching and readings, and working my contracting business. These activities inspire me and fill me with love, because helping others is a great gift. It allows one to feel that inner connection to Spirit, or God, and this naturally makes you feel wonderful and expansive. Yet there has also been a tug in the opposite direction: I have felt the desire to investigate those forces in government, intelligence, and banking which appear to be bent on creating a sort of dark world dictatorship. I haven’t been able to resolve these two conflicting poles of my life until very recently. I am just like everyone else: I feel the polarity within the human consciousness.

However, I have discovered a couple of meditations that have really helped me out.

The first meditation is a very simple one: I imagine myself surrounded and penetrated by a golden–white light. For me, the color gold evokes a simultaneous feeling of love, power, and certainty that all is well. If you study color, you will discover that different colors evoke different emotions and feelings. This probably varies from person to person. As I have done this meditation, I found that at first, I felt the golden–white light around my body. As I began to do it more, I felt a glow coming from within my cellular structure. Then it began to expand outward from my body and I felt a feeling of expansiveness.

If the golden color does not do it for you, experiment with different colors. Change the field to red, blue, purple, or any other color. Vary the brightness. Eventually you will find a color that resonates with your soul, and it will feel really, really good!

My favorite time for this meditation is just after I wake up in the morning and before I get up. But I do it often during the day when I feel my thoughts turn negative. The feel of that golden–white glow within me and around me is now enough to “turn off” the negative vibration and restore a positive one. For example, I went for a walk this morning. As I turned the corner, I saw my neighbor had a “McCain– Pailin” sign up on his front lawn. I got upset because this guy is very intelligent, and I couldn’t believe he’d vote for the same people who brought us the destruction of Constitution and our economy. That was just my knee–jerk reaction, you see, because both parties are equally responsible for the mess we are in; but I was starting to get more and more angry anyway. So I just put that golden–white field around me and suddenly I felt a rush of positive emotion. I understood that it is perfectly all right for people to make choices that are different than mine! My problem, I realized, was not with my neighbor, but was about what was inside of me: my own personal prejudices coming to the forefront.

Not bad for a simple little meditation that took a few seconds!
Try it! Maybe gold isn’t the color for you. Experiment with other colors.
You will find that as you change the color of your light, you will feel different. I have noticed that my cats respond positively when I am doing this meditation. Apparently. they can pick up on the feeling of love, or perhaps they can feel the golden light as well. All I know is that this light is not like any other from the electromagnetic spectrum, it is incredibly soft and subtle, yet bright and joyful as well.

The second meditation is an earth meditation, and goes as follows:
Imagine you are walking in your favorite place. It could be a forest, or a mountain meadow, or along the beach. You see a tree up ahead, a very large tree with an opening in it. You enter the tree and are transported to the center of the earth, into a large cave with a stone floor. You notice a small stream with bright, golden–yellow water, and you walk up to it. This light is very bright but does not hurt your eyes. If you are wearing shoes and socks, take them off. You can’t wait to go in, for you can feel the beauty of this water. It is filled with the energy of the earth, a powerful, grounding energy that feels light, and you can just feel the well–being. You walk in and the golden–yellow light goes into your feet and up your legs. It feels absolutely delicious. Every cell in your body relaxes, and feels refreshed and revitalized. The energy slowly travels up to your first chakra and you see a beautiful red energy as that vortex is cleansed and revitalized, As the golden–yellow energy travels up through your abdomen, you see a beautiful orange in your second chakra. The energy travels up to your stomach and you see a brilliant yellow energy and you feel wonderful. The energy travels up your arms and to your heart, Around your heart you see and feel a, exquisite green, the most awesome green you can imagine, and you feel a warmth and love for yourself and for everyone and everything. The energy travels up to your throat and you see a beautiful sky blue color, and it seems as if all the positive things you have wanted to say but never did have been said, and all of the things you have said that you wished you hadn’t, have been transformed from something negative to something positive. As the energy enters your head, you see the most beautiful deep blue, and your inner sight opens to Spirit. As the energy exits the top of your head, you see a beautiful deep purple, and you see your 7th chakra open at the top of your head to let in the light and love of God.

Now you feel completely grounded and at peace with yourself, and connected to the Mother earth. You feel her power and delight with you, and you know you are a part of the beautiful tapestry of life, and indispensible to her, and to all humanity.

You walk away from the river feeling more refreshed than you have since childhood. You walk away from the river and see a big tree growing from the rock, just like the one on the surface. You step into that tree and are transported back to the surface. When you walk across the ground, you notice something peculiar and wonderful: there is now a brilliant, golden–yellow cord connecting you with the center of the earth. You know you can access this energy at any time.

I use this meditation a lot while I am walking. I visualize the yellow cord connecting me to the earth, and I can literally feel the grounding energy flowing through me. I also use it as an independent meditation.


http://www.kjmaclean.com
http://www.marketingwithspirit.com

Monday, September 29, 2008

The Bailout

"I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt."
-- Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826


As usual, the questions around the proposed $700 billion bailout of incompetent bankers is not whether the bailout should occur at all, but in what form. No one is asking the basic questions: why should we create $700 billion more money (debt) which will further fuel inflation, to bail out the private banks whose greed caused the problem in the first place? Even more basic, why should the U.S. government pay a private bank, the Federal Reserve, merely to print and create money?

The U.S. government is quite capable of doing that. The interest on the national debt this year (2008) is an astonishing $600 billion! That money goes directly to the private shareholders of the Fed, most of whom are foreigners. And what does the Fed do in return? Create more money, print more money, and keep track of the amount of money that has been created.

Here is a chart of the interest payments on the national debt from 1988:

Chart of interest on national debt
Source: National Debt & Interest Payments For Fiscal 2008
http://seekingalpha.com/article/59505-n ... iscal-2008

Add up the figures: since 2000, taxpayers have paid over$ 2.8 trillion dollars to the Fed, just in interest. Add the $600 billion for 2008 and you get $3.4 trillion dollars in interest payments. With $3.4 trillion we could have completely overhauled our decaying infrastructure, and paid off 1/3 of our 9 trillion national debt. The first solution to our fiscal and banking crisis is to abolish the Fed.

“We need the bailout to save banks from collapse,” is the argument. “Do you want to lose all your money? “ Well, here’s a suggestion: if we’re going to create $700 billion in new fiat money, why don’t we distribute that to the citizens instead of the banks? That’s $2,300 million for every man woman and child in America. This suggestion has been going around the internet the past couple of days, and on the surface it seems attractive, but it wouldn't do much to solve the problem.

Bailouts make no sense when the Federal government is spending 3.3 trillion every year. Every dollar that government spends is one less dollar in the hands of citizens, who will vote for the best products and services with their pocketbooks, and who will create new companies that employ people and pay them.

It is time to abolish the privately owned Federal Reserve bank and place the creation of money back in the hands of government, where it belongs. It is time for citizens to DEMAND that our government balance its budget, and spend LESS each year, not more. Unless we do this, the world will experience a hyperinflation followed by a depression. In a depression, the value of currency finds its true value relative to the production of goods and services. Government interferes with the people’s regulation of the economy. The Securities and Exchange Commission must be funded and staffed with competent people who will oversee the securities industry and punish those who violate securities regs. We must once more put up the wall between banks and the securities industry.

How did the Mortgage Crisis come About?

Banks traditionally lent money to people and added that loan to their portfolio. So they had every incentive to lend to people who could pay, because they serviced their own loans. If a borrower defaulted, the banks lost out. The so called “mortgage crisis” occurred when Congress, lobbied vigorously by banks, tore down the barrier between banking and securities.

What banks did was to package a bunch of loans together into investment vehicles, and sold those loans to third parties around the world. That’s what securitization is. Securitization is a structured finance process, which involves pooling and repackaging of cash-flow producing financial assets into securities that are then sold to investors. A security is simply a fungible, negotiable instrument representing financial value. A typical security is a stock (equity security) or a bond (debt security). A fungible asset is simply one that can be broken down into separate units and exchanged one for the other, like crude oil –– one barrel of oil is worth the same as another barrel of the same oil– or electricity –– 1 kilowatt hour of electricity is worth the same as another kilowatt hour of electricity, or a stock ––1 share of preferred stock in XYZ company can be exchanged for another. (see Wikipedia for some good definitions).

Now banks had no incentive to lend to those who could pay. Banks sent mortgage brokers all over the country, lending to every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a dollar in his pocket. “What do we care whether our loan portfolio is solid? We’re getting paid when we sell our mortgage portfolios to the investors.” Banks created “sub–prime” mortgages, which induced people to buy houses that they really couldn’t afford. That’s part of the reason that, as Mr. Bush put it, “Wall Street got drunk.”

I encourage everyone to go to cnn.com and read the bailout bill. It’s posted right on the website. Find out what the government and Congress are doing with your money! Every dollar that is spent in a bailout is one more dollar of debt that is added to the money supply, creating more inflation. Remember, hyperinflation leads to depression, as the economy adjusts and prices find their true balance.

If you do nothing else, educate yourself about money by seeing the excellent You Tube movie “Money as Debt.” Just type in “Money as Debt” into your favorite search engine. The movie is only 47 minutes long and is well worth your time.

We must stand up as citizens and make our government accountable. The first step in that process is self-education about money, banking and finance.

Kenneth James Michael MacLean
http://www.kjmaclean.com
http://www.thevibrationaluniverse.com
http://www.marketingwithspirit.com

Monday, September 15, 2008

Universal Principles, War, and Peace



From Ken’s book "The Vibrational Universe”:
"
People object to the concept of non-resistance, especially in a political context. There are some who think, for example, that the armed forces protect a country from attack and guarantee the freedom of all of its citizens, and that non-resistance is a cowardly attempt to duck the responsibilities of a good citizen.

But this is just another of those un-inspected 'truths' which are floating around in mass consciousness.

The armed forces exist to fight. They are an exact vibrational match to others who also wish to fight, and to those who are resisting fighting, war, and conflict. (The energy stream of resistance is building a wall, and the energy of the warrior is to knock down the wall.) This resistance to war can take many forms, but it always resides on the lower levels of the Emotional Scale (fear, anger, hatred, etc.).

Their little play is acted out upon whatever stage is chosen by them, and their actions only affect those who are resonating to the vibrations of conflict. And indeed, most of us in this society have been raised in an environment of war (cold or otherwise), and if we watch the news every night, it is very likely that almost all of us have activated somewhere within us, support for, or fear of, conflict. Those who resonate purely to the vibrations of peace, harmony and love will never find themselves involved in a war, unless it is their conscious choice to become so involved (like James Twyman, the peace guy). This is something most people find impossible to believe, but it is entirely consistent with universal law. Nevertheless, we say here with absolute certainty that the Law of Vibration and the Law of Attraction are inviolate and infallible and will always work in your favor if you focus positively. You cannot be a victim of conflict, if you do not resonate to conflict.

The armed forces protect no one, for it is impossible to protect anyone from anything, as we have already seen. If you are a warrior, then you love fighting and the military is a perfect career, for you then associate with other warriors and you can have a grand time. Blood and guts! But don't make the mistake of thinking you are protecting anyone else. Vibrationally speaking, as a warrior you add your individual contribution to the overall vibe of fighting and war. For a true warrior fighting is a release, but to the rest of us, war is a very imprisoning activity.

The idea that the armed forces protect the citizens of a nation from attack is, however, a great justification for their existence. You could not think of a better reason to promote military activities! It is actually a very clever way of psychologically training people to resonate to war and conflict.

If you have followed me so far, however, you understand that fighting those who wish to promote or fight wars is pointless. Vibrationally speaking, you engage the other on his own ground! You become that which you hate, and find yourself part of the problem instead of the solution. Eventually, you learn the hard way that attempting to change the activities of others places you squarely in opposition to the Law of Free Will. Actions stem from beliefs, and although you may physically conquer, it is impossible to ensure a change in thought. Objecting to unwanted things feeds energy to them. Thus, love is the only way to deal with hate.

There may be many objections to this. "OK, what about WW II? If morons like you had their way, we'd be speaking German right now and living in a dictatorship." Well, resistance to Hitler (or fear, same thing) allowed him to grow in power. In Germany, much discontent and agitation existed from the grossly unfair terms imposed on that country (in the minds of many Germans) by the allies after WW I, and the hyperinflation of the Weimar government threatened to wipe out what was left of the middle classes.

Hitler grew powerful internationally because of an enormous amount of resistance. Hitler started out as a little punk that grew more influential, not because people ignored him, but because they did not ignore him. Historical evidence shows that some of Hitler's funding came from sources outside Germany.

Somebody who wants to fight needs another to push back. A vibration of conflict needs a matching vibration in order for it to take root. The martial art known as Aikido operates upon this principle, essentially refusing to resist the fighter and by using his own energy against him. Every time you resist something, you feed it power.

Many people think this is nutty. "If we didn't fight Hitler he would have walked all over us." People like to point out examples in history where peace-loving people were massacred by invading barbarians. The lesson, they claim, is that negative forces, if ignored, can overwhelm entire societies. But this is not how it works. We do not live in a universe where beings in it are powerless. There are no victims. The belief in negative forces is a massive distortion that mankind has placed into the species mass consciousness.

It sets up a self-fulfilling idiocy in which a powerful vibration is offered, and eventually matched.

It may seem nutty to say that if people outside Germany placed their attention on well-being instead of resisting Hitler, that he would not have attacked them. However, the universe responds to individuals, even though it seems that groups of people are randomly affected. The only way every one of a group of people could be affected by the same event is if all of them thought alike. Mankind as a species has a tendency to want to agree. This is a divine impulse born from inner knowledge of love and connection to all things, but it gets people into trouble when the agreement is on something uncomfortable! That is why mass media is so effective, for it gets people thinking and agreeing on the same thing. It allows those who control the media to inculcate ideas into the minds of people on a massive scale.

A truly loving person never encounters hatred. That is an inevitable conclusion from the vibrational universe concept. There are, however, unacceptable religious consequences (for some) that proceed directly from its acceptance, and which are beyond the scope of this book.

Group dynamics are always a function of individual dynamics. Every individual conscious being in this universe is guaranteed to have complete freedom of choice, and the universe is designed to always respond to those choices, no matter what others are doing. I don't care how many history books or political commentaries you have read. All individuals are guaranteed by the laws of the universe to be sovereign regarding their own experiences. If this seems hard to believe, I invite you to test it for yourself.

People don't believe in their own power because the history of planet earth for the past several thousand years seems to be one of inevitable disaster. The thought stream of conflict and war is very powerfully activated in the human mass consciousness. We are raised from birth immersed in the idea that in order to be secure, it is necessary to protect yourself from the bad guys. However, no one ever bothers to actually look at history. The history of this planet is mind-numbingly predictable: find something you don't like, try to get others to change their behavior to suit you, if they don't do what you say start a fight. Or, look at something you don't like, become afraid that it will come into your experience, and try to protect yourself from it. Those who want to fight and those who protect themselves are perfectly matched vibrationally. This nonsense has been going on for millennia, stupidly, over and over and over and over.

You cannot protect yourself from anything. The attempt to protect yourself from something unwanted draws it to you. It's a simple application of the Law of Vibration and the Law of Attraction.

When the battles are fought, a person with a vibration of peace will not be present. He or she will be at a dinner party, or somewhere out of harm's way. A person who is tuned to well-being has far greater probability of being somewhere that war is not, and well- being is. That is because the ratio of well-being to disaster is overwhelmingly in favor of well-being.

History texts and news media proclaim 'country A is at war' implying that every person in the country is affected by the war and supports it, and that war is present over every square mile. But of course that is not true. Go back to WWII and look at where battles were fought and bombs were dropped. Even during the height of the destruction of Germany, only a small area of the country was involved in conflict at any one time.

"Country A is at war" means that a relative handful of people in the government of country A have declared war on the government of country B. Now, goes the mantra from mass consciousness, it is the patriotic duty of every citizen to get behind their government and support the troops, thus entraining the vibration of the populace to war. An analysis of how this happens and how entire populations get involved is beyond the scope of this book, but it would make an interesting political study.

In the physical sciences, resonant entrainment of oscillating systems is a well-understood principle. If you hit a tuning fork which produces a frequency of 440 cycles per second (an A note) and put it in close proximity to another 440 Hz tuning fork, the second tuning fork will begin to 'sympathetically' oscillate, or resonate. The first tuning fork is said to have entrained the second. The physics of entrainment apply to biosystems as well, especially brain wave entrainment.

In other words, the idea of patriotism sets the citizenry up to resonate to the vibration of fighting and war. The more powerful vibration has a tendency to entrain individual ones. However, knowledge is a powerful thing. Once you step into your power you can't ever be fooled again. No one can BS you, propagandize you, trick or coerce you. You become immune to harm.

In this book, we have extended the meme concept mentioned in an earlier chapter and the entrainment concept above to consciousness itself, and have postulated a thought/vibrational interaction based upon the influence of a universal field of subtle energy. The validity of such an approach only becomes apparent when you begin to think and act from such an orientation. Then the value of it becomes obvious, for it places you always at cause-point in your life.

In our vibrational model of the universe, vibrational proximity is more important than nearness in time and space. In my rural neighborhood, there are a dozen houses close to mine, but there is little interaction. I have much more in common with some of my Internet friends who live hundreds of miles away. A salesman may approach you with a sales pitch, but he has no hope of success unless he is vibrationally aligned with you. In fact, vibrational incompatibility results in physical separation.

I remember, several years ago in my negative phase of life, I showed up at a group meditation for world harmony and peace. There were a dozen people present, and after a few of my cynical comments, some guy looked me in the eye said politely but firmly, "You don't seem to be catching the spirit of this. Perhaps you shouldn't participate." Everyone turned to me in silent agreement, and I felt like a puppy caught crapping on the carpet. I slunk out of there with my tail between my legs, embarrassed, my negative contributions powerfully rejected. Vibrationally, I was incompatible and could not comfortably occupy the same space.

It's not my purpose to bad-mouth the armed forces. As I said earlier, warrior types love to fight and the military is a perfect expression for their desire to mix it up. The rest of us just have to wise up and stop trying to 'fix' them. The [warriors] of the world are not going to go away, because their decisions are fully supported by universal law. There is nothing wrong with someone who disagrees with you, or acts differently than you. He or she is just different, and contributes their valuable note to the overall symphony of life.

"Yes, but the military kills innocent citizens and wreaks destruction," you say. It does. But I invite you to stop them! You will quickly find out what an impossible task it is, but you will probably learn a lot about the principles of the Universal Operating System in the process.
If you do not want war, then paradoxically you must allow all war. By that is meant, you must not resist or push against those who believe in war. If you do, then in your worry, fear, or anger, even if it is only for others, you will begin to resonate to the vibration of war and contribute to it. This is the impossible principle so many wise ones have tried to explain to the bulk of humanity for millennia. Stated more generally, non-resistance to the vibration of X is the only way to guarantee that you will never become involved with X.

The implications are enormous, for it means that you cannot prevent another from becoming involved in harmful activities! Each being is sovereign and has control over his or her vibrational platform of attraction.

What is the solution, then, for those who wish to prevent war? It is to focus exclusively on peace, to BE peace, as my friend Craig would say. To focus on peace and network with others who are also of like mind and begin to spread the vibrations of peace around the world. The more people who pick up on these vibrations, the less chance of war, for those who might be drawn into conflict, in their fear of it, will be placing their vibration in an attitude of peace instead.

The best way to influence others is by setting an example. Help, in the form of persuasion, coercion, reward and punishment, will eventually fail. By living your truth you become a beacon for all who observe you. You walk the walk, and not just talk the talk.

It is very easy to talk the talk. It is very understandable to want others to change their behavior, because if you don't like "A," it is obvious that if you can eliminate "A" from your environment, you can be happy. But going down that road is a long, hard trek, for you must constantly monitor your environment, vigilantly ensuring that those who disagree with you behave themselves. Unfortunately, you usually end up morphing more and more into what you dislike. As Walt Kelley, the late writer of the old "Pogo" comic strip once said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
"

The Harmony Project

Speaking of walking the walk, wouldn’t it be a great idea to spread positive vibes throughout the world? Well, I believe there is an easy way to do so. The Harmony Projectis based upon the concept of social networks, and the power of love and inspiration. Positive vibrations subsume lower ones. The Harmony Project outlines two simple but powerful activities that anyone can do in their own communities that will make positive change. You don’t need any training, or permission from anyone. It’s something you do quietly, at your own pace.

Kenneth James Michael MacLean
http://www.kjmaclean.com
http://www.thevibrationaluniverse.com
http://www.marketingwithspirit.com

Monday, September 08, 2008

The Value of Discernment


"For those who stubbornly seek freedom around the world, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the totalitarian societies, much less so in the propaganda system to which we are subjected and in which all too often we serve as unwilling or unwitting instruments.”
–– Norm Chomsky, linguist and educator



Which side of the climate change crisis are you on? Do you believe in global warming, or the alternative, global cooling? There seems to be evidence on both sides.

Which side of the Democrat– Republican debate are you on? Do you believe in big government, or laissez–faire?

Hermann Goering, head of the Nazi Luftwaffe and Hitler’s designated successor, once said at the Nuremburg Trials

“Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”


As I remarked in my last blog post, “the materialist dialectic,” it is easy to get people excited and disturbed, merely by creating a problem and offering a solution that always keeps attention focused on the desired result. In the climate change crisis, it’s global warming vs. global cooling. In politics, it’s Democrat vs. Republican, or Left vs. Right, or War vs. Pacifism. Humanity has been taught to take sides. “Where do YOU stand?” is the question we are asked, and fence–sitting is not admired, for it smacks of indecision or even cowardice. Thus is nuanced thinking discouraged.

Taking sides polarizes opinions and hardens attitudes, creating conflict and separation between and within human populations.

Discernment, however, is the ability to recognize subtleties in thought and action. A discerning person is more aware, and more intelligent. For example, if you believe in Creationism, you are forced to accept the fact that dinosaurs are only a few thousand years old. In the Creation Museum in Kentucky, circa 2007, saddles were placed on the backs of dinosaur skeletons, showing that dino’s existed right alongside horses! Although this is an obvious example of the stupidity of polarized thinking, it is very easy to become entrapped in political or religious drama. You might be asked, for example, “Are you a Christian?” or, “Do you believe in God?” There are only two answers to that question, yes or no, placing you at one extreme or the other. But a brighter person might respond, “Why do you ask?” or “How do you define God?” These are questions that are difficult for those trapped within false dichotomy’s.

Either–Or thinking seems to excite the emotions as well. If you’ve ever gotten into a religious or political debate, you know what I’m talking about! Unfortunately, emotion usually obscures reason and inhibits tolerance of other points of view.

The arena of politics is especially susceptible to such polarized thinking. Politicians are required to tell us whether they are “soft on terrorism,” or “soft on crime,” and as citizens, national elections are always framed in these simplistic, lowest–common–denominator terms.

How do crises and polarized thinking become perpetuated? Through repetition.

It is accepted practice among propagandists (and marketers!) that a message will not get through unless it is repeated over and over. In fact, the dark actor Joseph Goebbels, Nazi minister of propaganda , once said

“[propaganda is] a carefully built up erection of statements, which whether true or false can be made to undermine quite rigidly held ideas and to construct new ones that will take their place. It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. What after all are a square and a circle? They are mere words and words can be moulded until they clothe ideas in disguise."


It is important to understand that you don’t have to take either–or positions on any issue. To those who are interested in manipulating opinion, it is irrelevant whether climate change, for example, means global cooling or global warming, for both sides serve the intended purpose, which is the crisis. (And the next crisis, and the next one, and the next one.) Once Communism collapsed, for example, terrorism became the next big global crisis. Once the Saddam Hussein straw–man was destroyed, the debate became the crisis between the Sunni and the Shiite in Iraq. The list of crises is practically endless!

How do you determine whether an issue is defined by a false dichotomy? Simply observe how the issue is framed. If you are told that disaster will result if you do not see an issue in the presented manner, or, you are encouraged to fight or resist something, then more than likely, someone has an agenda and is trying to convince you to follow it!

Rational and reasonable people welcome differing opinions, because well–intentioned people want to SOLVE the problem, not perpetuate it!
The materialist dialectic of created crises is just a way to confuse and obfuscate.

The proper way to handle a conflict of opposites is to practice discernment. A discerning person is difficult to indoctrinate; for he or she does not fall for the presented simplistic and polarizing dichotomy. He or she is capable of moving deeper into the question, and transcending the limiting and polarizing “conflict of opposites.”

A crisis can only exist when there are two opposing sides, continually clashing together. Nuanced thinking allows both “sides” to create new solutions that are at a higher vibration than the crisis, thus transcending the problem and dissolving it. Thus is propaganda defeated by mindful thinking and deliberate creation of your life.

Those who are spiritually aware have almost always transcended the simplistic and polarizing conflict of opposites. It is up to us to educate our brothers and sisters who are still immersed in the false dichotomy of crises and polarization.

So let’s get to work!

Kenneth James Michael MacLean
http://www.kjmaclean.com
http://www.thevibrationaluniverse.com
http://www.marketingwithspirit.com

Friday, September 05, 2008

The need for Protection

The need for protection attracts unwanted things. Protection is a concept rooted in fear-of-something, and it only serves to get you resonating along with the thing you are attempting to protect yourself from. It is unnecessary, and if carried far enough, self defeating.

Drug advertisers, politicians, and modern "intelligence" structures understand this perfectly, and use it to sell products, themselves, and tyrannical legislation. The process goes: create a problem (like prostate cancer or terrorism) and then offer a solution to the problem, beneficial to the creator: "One in three men will have prostate problems." "Pass the Homegrown Terrorist Protection Act so that we can be safe from terrorists."

"Protection from" is an impossibility, for it vibrationally focuses your attention on the unwanted thing and makes it bigger. That’s because the universe does not understand the word no. No is actually yes, and yes is yes, because the universe says, “no what?”and your vibration replies, “No prostate cancer.” “No terrorism.”This is the genius behind the materialist dialectic, which is used by those who have an agenda and want you to follow it!

The philosophy of dialectical materialism was developed by Karl Marx and Lenin, and emphasizes conflict. Marx and Lenin took the classic dialectic, expanded upon by Hegel, of thesis - antithesis - synthesis, and postulated a conflict of opposites. At the heart of Marxist dialectics is the idea of contradiction, with class struggle playing the central role in social and political life. Modern advertisers and political groups have adapted this materialist dialectic very effectively: first, one creates a "problem" (thesis), opposition to the problem (antithesis), and then one offers a "solution" (synthesis). Example: War (thesis), anti-war demonstration (antithesis), police raid (Solution). Cancer (thesis), fear-based advertisement (antithesis), drugs and surgery (Solution). You can probably list others. In materialist dialectics, the solutions always proceed from an artificially created clash of opposites. Because conflict is at the heart of the deluded philosophy of materialism (which is the tried and true modus operandi of modern governments, despite their claims to religious or idealistic motivation) tension and discord is the inevitable result. Even a cursory observation of our human societies confirms this.

Protection from (fill in the blank) is the vehicle of resistance. It gets you resonating to the unwanted thing.

As individuals, and as a society, we can avoid falling victim to this nonsense by simply focusing on the desired thing, and paying no attention whatsoever to the unwanted thing! Without tension and conflict, the oppositional philosophy of the materialist dialectic must fail, for it depends utterly upon resistance! When we do not resist, but create in a positive fashion, we automatically defeat those who thrive upon opposition and confrontation. Thus does Light penetrate the darkness and dissolve it.

Kenneth James Michael MacLean
http://www.kjmaclean.com
http://www.thevibrationaluniverse.com
http://www.marketingwithspirit.com

Monday, September 01, 2008

The False Dichotomy

A Presidential election is approaching in the United States. All across our country, ballots are being prepared. Even though third party candidates will appear for many political offices, the mainstream media will focus exclusively on the race between Democrats and Republicans.

When the votes are counted, the major networks will show red and blue maps, indicating which state voted Democrat and which Republican. Third party votes will never even be mentioned.

In the United States, and elsewhere, a false dichotomy is offered: Left vs. Right. On the left are "liberals" and on the right are "conservatives." The ultimate leftist government, it is said, is Communist, the ultimate right–wing government is fascist or Nazi.
This false dichotomy obscures the true political spectrum: tyranny vs. freedom.

Whether "leftist" or "rightist," tyrannical governments are collectivist, and aggrandize power to themselves. Benign governments are much more "hands off," and allow freedom of expression and religion. A collectivist government is hierarchical, with a small elite at the top.

People are sometimes fooled by nomenclature. The formal name for the "rightist" Nazi Party was the National Socialist German Workers Party. The formal name for Communist China is the "Peoples Democratic Republic of China." Never were two tyrannical, collectivist outfits more inaptly named.

When a government or a corporation becomes collectivist, it "collects" power unto itself. A cursory examination of Congressional legislation since 9 / 11 shows that the government of the United States is doing just that.

The noted intelligence analyst Christopher Story, in one of his intelligence updates, points out the true state of affairs within the U.S and British governments:



Since the passage of the National Security Act in 1947 –– which legalized the commission of assassinations, torture, blackmail, and other crimes, under the blanket designation of "national security" –– and Operation Paperclip, which imported Nazi's into our intelligence community (see previous blog post), the cancer of criminality within our government has grown unchecked.

Congressional oversight of the huge intelligence establishment is a thing of the past. Actual expenditure for the intelligence community (a euphemism which satisfies what Lenin called the "useful idiots" of the mainstream press) is unknown and hidden within the budget. In a 1974 Supreme Court decision, a lawsuit brought by a Pennsylvania accountant, which demanded that all monies spent on the CIA be publically declared, as demanded by the Constitution, was defeated by a 4 – 3 vote. The deciding vote was provided by Chief Justice Warren Burger, whom Sandra Day O'Connor famously referred to as "the dummy."

Freedom is what freedom does, and vice–versa.

It is important to look beneath the rhetoric of politics, and become informed. Look not at the false dichotomy of Left and Right, Liberal and Conservative, but to the true choice of Tyranny and Freedom.

Judge all public officials by their actions, and measure them against the true standard of freedom. Freedom is Light, tyranny is darkness. Now, more than ever, Americans must become true Patriots and emulate the informed and intelligent thinking and actions of our forefathers.

Kenneth James Michael MacLean
http://www.kjmaclean.com
http://www.thevibrationaluniverse.com
http://www.marketingwithspirit.com
Practicing Love
From the "Interview With Spirit" show, http://www.interviewwithspirit.com

How can you love something or someone grotesque?

We said last week that love was the ability to unconditionally accept what someone is being and doing in the moment. We know that many people would argue against this. "Someone who is hurting another is not loveable," they will say.

But we assure you that if you COULD unconditionally love, you would never meet up with such a person. You would never see anything you considered cruel or horrible.

"Yes, of course, " you say. "If you had the ability to love unconditionally, you could observe the cruelest, most horrible things with perfect equanimity. But that ability cannot change the actions of others. You become just another apologist for the bad things of this world."

Well, of course, if you practiced your ability to love, and got to the point where you could observe anything with perfect love, even the most grotesque actions would have no ability to bring you down. But that is not what we are saying.

We are saying that if you practice love, you actually clear a vibrational space around you that invites love back in, and repels evil.
Remember, dear ones, that we live in a vibrational universe. The Law of Attraction is just a statement of fundamental vibrational interaction: "like attracts like."

When you yourself radiate love, you make it impossible for hatred to come near. You sublimate lower vibrations, and cause a tendency in others to 'look on the bright side.' Again, this is just a result of vibrational interaction. None of you live in a vacuum. You are all immersed in an ocean of vibration, composed of subtle life force energy. You have the ability to mold that energy in any way you wish, adding or subtracting to it. Every thing you think and say and do has an effect on everyone else, especially those in your immediate vicinity
.
If you visualize yourself as a Light source, you will understand what we mean. A Light source has it's greatest effect locally, and attenuates its strength with distance. However, you also experience locally. In other words, 90% of what happens in your life happens to you from the activities of others in your immediate vicinity. Of course, there is radio and television and the internet. But these things are brought into your space by your intent to interact with them.

In that sense, your reach into the world is as large as your conception of self. And love is the most expansive of vibrations! Love begets more love. Love causes others to forget their problems and difficulties, and connect with their true desires. Love beckons. Hatred repels. The lower emotions are entrained by higher ones.

On the surface, a hater will be repelled by a joyful, loving person. But that is only on the surface – only the artificially created mask of the dear one in hatred is repelled. But the fundamental kernel of that person is attracted as only one who is starved for nourishment is attracted. Yes, dear ones, we assure you that all those in negative emotion feel miserable. These dear ones feel trapped by the vibration they have created around themselves, which attracts more like unto it. So criminals and haters attract their like, yet at the same time, are repelled by them, for hatred repels, you see. And so it is never possible for them to establish a stable relationship. That is why you see criminal organizations and groups constantly fighting amongst each other. The universe destabilizes such, as a result of the operation of universal laws. And this should tell you that the universe is not negative, but positive; based on love and attraction, not hatred and repulsion.

Of course, repulsion is a natural attribute of the polarity of a physical universe, but the polarity that comes from hatred is in a continual state of flux and destabilization. So those of the Light have an overwhelming advantage, you see. Only when those of the Light turn away from love, and decide that hatred is more powerful, can hatred temporarily gain the upper hand.

Within a hater is a fundamental contradiction ––for within such a one is the inherent longing for love. These people are, therefore, being simultaneously pulled in opposite directions. Such an one has, within him or her, a great tear in their fabric, which can only be repaired by love. Here is the most important datum for living: ALL THINGS ARE COMPOSED OF LOVE, AND RESPOND TO LOVE!

How do you practice love?

By admiring things exactly for what they are. The easiest way to practice love is to take a walk outside and look at nature. Throw away your considerations of how things SHOULD be, and simply observe. Let your senses soak in your environment. Listen for the music of the birds, or the rustle of a lake, or a stream, or an ocean. Tune in to the basic goodness of your world, and begin to resonate to it.

When you go out amongst your fellow man, simply observe, and suspend judgment. Try to feel the joy in your world that we feel in every moment. You see, in every moment of NOW is a little packet of love and admiration. When you tune into this vibration –– which is the fundamental vibration of the universe (the OM) –– you feel and understand the magnificence of ALL things. You see behind the masks, the bluster, the pain, the cruelty and the judgment. You see, feel and understand that the universe is a truly magnificent creation, and is there for you to experience and enjoy.

Remember that if you approach someone with love and they reject you, that person is giving you a report about themselves. There is no need for you to turn away from love, or feel that there is something "wrong" with you. Perhaps you have disturbed a mask of theirs, or activated a self–limiting belief. When you truly feel love, there will be a part of that person who rejects you, a longing for the love you are projecting. Such a person will likely behave irrationally, and might even become confused. Those who fall out of love are often confused, dear ones! Be patient with them. Be understanding. But above all, continue to feel love, for that is your most powerful protection against the unwanted things of your world.

Love attracts more love, do not worry! Love can never attract hatred! If someone approaches you in hatred, and you are feeling love, be assured that the true self of that person is what is bringing them to you, and that only the mask is rejecting you. Those of you who do healing work understand this fundamentally: you always talk to the true being inside, not the mask.

And so, dear ones, no harm can come to you when you practice love. You can only spread the powerful vibrations of goodness throughout the world, and ensure that your own experiences become happier and happier ones.

Kenneth James Michael MacLean
http://www.kjmaclean.com
http://www.thevibrationaluniverse.com
http://www.marketingwithspirit.com
What is the role of affirmations in manifestation? Well, I went through an "affirmations" phase myself. I discovered that for me personally, repeating the words didn't do any good unless I actually believed them.

The idea behind affirmations is a good one I think, but for me it felt like after a while I was telling myself a lie. So I just gave up on the whole idea and began meditating instead.

I think that words aren't as important as your actual signal to the universe, and you can alter that signal without the words. I was thinking about the role of language at work today. We can use language to express one idea while really thinking another; in this sense, language is merely an adjunct and sometimes an actual impediment to true communication. We can then fool ourselves by thinking words in our head (or saying them) in a sort of hopeful attitude that somehow the words will change our fundamental vibration. I went through most of my life this way!

Another great way to change your fundamental attitudes (and thus your vibrational signal to the universe) is to make a Mind Movie or listen to audio tapes with affirmations on them. This way, you don't have to keep repeating affirmations all the time; you record exactly what you want to manifest, and then just play it back. The repetition helps to orient your thoughts and intentions toward what is wanted. I found that I had a habit of repeating my affirmations by rote, which did me no good at all, and these methods work much better for me.

Implicit in the idea of change, or manifestation, is the present reality from which we are launching our new desire. I have found that the lighter I can feel about what I want, the faster it comes.

I'm a firm believer in what Gregg Braden says, that getting the feeling of what you want to manifest is the most important part of the manifestation process.

I've found that if I can get that feeling without 'working on the manifestation', things go smoother. For me, that feeling of 'doing work on my creation' was coming from the consideration that it wasn't happening, so I had to push on it a little more. Which of course made it not happen even more.

So I guess I'd say that affirmations are great if they help you to actually alter your tone. And you can always tell what your tone is on the subject by consulting how you are feeling about it. Your feelings are the truest measure of your actual vibration on any subject.

Kenneth James Michael MacLean
http://www.kjmaclean.com
http://www.thevibrationaluniverse.com
http://www.marketingwithspirit.com