It is literally true that you cannot be aware of something that is out of the range of your beliefs. For example, I have an older friend who has pancreatic cancer. I offered to treat her with my Rife machine. Royal Raymond Rife was a brilliant American scientist who, in the 1930’s, invented a device that cured cancer in medically documented tests. This machine is being used by my own doctor (who shall remain nameless) to actually cure people of cancer. However, my friend believes in allopathic medicine, and might not even consider alternative treatments. That’s what happens when your beliefs restrict your thinking.

Would using my Rife machine (treatment is completely painless and uses the principle of vibrational resonance) cure her cancer? Who knows? One thing is certain though: if my friend tries the treatment but does not believe it will work, it won’t!

How can you tell when your beliefs (or someone else’s) are a mismatch to something? Well, in the case of my friend, does she show up for a treatment? If you show up (even if you SAY you are convinced it is useless) then there must be some belief that the treatment will work! Her physical presence indicates that there is a vibrational foot in the door, so to speak.

Awareness of anything is dependent upon vibrational resonance to it. Vibrational resonance also leads to physical proximity. If you don’t like baseball, for example, you will never go to a baseball stadium, even if you live across the street from one. If you don’t believe in peace, you will never sit down to negotiate. If you don’t believe that men and women can get along without fighting, then you will experience a lot of turbulence in your relationships. Your state of being regarding anything determines the parameters of your experience. This is just a consequence of the Law of Vibration.

That reminds me of the time I was searching for a lost TV remote. I describe this incident in my book, “The Vibrational Universe.” The remote was sitting on my desk, literally 2 feet in front of my face. I looked directly at it several times, but I did not see it. After looking for almost half an hour in all of the rooms of my house, including a couple of trips back to my office, I finally noticed the thing.

Now, if consciousness / awareness is merely the firing of neurons, then I should have discovered the remote when the photons that bounced off the object reached my eyes, and were translated electro–chemically to my brain. But I didn’t! The thought uppermost in my head was “I can’t find my remote.” And so I couldn’t find it, even though my eyes were staring right at it!

The Law of Vibration and the Law of Attraction tell us that it is not possible to get rid of anything you don’t like, because when you pay attention to something, you feed energy to it, and you make it bigger. Those of us who have heard Esther Hicks speak about this understand it very well conceptually. But it is another matter entirely to actually apply universal principles in daily life! That’s because you can’t be aware of something you aren’t aware of.

So how do you improve? How does my friend who has cancer find an effective treatment that will not cost her $300,000, her hair, and months of pain?

First there must be a desire to improve, or get well, or have a better relationship, or have peace.
Amazing as it sounds, just having a desire is the first and most important step in the manifestation process! Without a desire, the universe, through the Law of Vibration and the Law of Attraction, has nothing to respond to. If you want to get a job, you have to fill out an application. A desire is your application to the universe.

Actually, I know my friend with cancer has a desire for alternative treatment because I wrote my email to her without feeling squeamish. Have you ever had an idea about helping another, but felt such a strong negative reaction that you didn’t bother? Well, part of that is obviously coming from within yourself, but a part of it is also coming from the other person! Yes, my friends, we are all connected. The statement above isn’t some airy–fairy new–age bullshit. We ARE all connected, through the medium of thought. Thought travels instantaneously within a universal sea of consciousness. Every human being (even skeptics and other dead–heads) is an immortal spirit temporarily associated with a physical body. And so our thoughts, intentions and desires, once launched into the ethers, travel round and are picked up by others who are vibrationally attuned to them.

Can I prove this? Nope! It’s something you either understand, or don’t. It’s something you experiment with in life, and that requires living mindfully. It’s something you either have experienced, or haven’t. And of course, if you believe that you are a piece of meat, you will always have experiences that directly match your vibrational resonance. And that vibrational resonance is determined by what you believe. Life is a self–fulfilling prophecy.

So what’s the point?

The point is, if you want a better world and a better personal life, you have to ignore what you don’t like!

This is the single most difficult thing to do in life, have you noticed? When Esther Hicks says it in a lecture, you say, “Of course! Easy!” But how the hell do you apply this principle practically in life?
It seems to be instinctive in the human psyche to want to rail and fight and talk about the stuff that doesn’t make any sense. Why this is, is easy to understand. We talk about stuff we don’t like precisely BECAUSE it doesn’t make any sense! Because it is the opposite of who we are.

Fear, war, hatred, poverty, illness, etc. are aberrations. They are unusual in that they don’t resonate to who we really are. Like a poison pill that must be spit out, we focus our attention on those things we don’t want. The amazing thing is that if you never admitted the possibility of illness in your life, you’d never swallow anything harmful. Of course, we don’t believe this because we believe that you have to take the bad with the good. We believe that conflict is inevitable. We believe in all sorts of things that, of course, eventually manifest precisely because we believe them. Then we look at them and say, “Did you see that? Isn’t that ridiculous (or horrible, or evil, etc.)” which then turns them into 800 pound gorillas. Then it’s pretty difficult NOT to notice them. Then we say, “it is what it is and there’s nothing we can do about it.” Humanity has built itself a prison of thought and belief and, like the dog with an invisible fence, refuses to go outside the box.

If you want your life to change, you have to work with your beliefs and your desires. It isn’t possible to have a desire unless you actually believe in it, did you know that? That’s why desires are so important! A true desire will light you up, make you feel great. That happens because your thoughts are aligned with it, or, at least, there are no counter–thoughts of resistance. Resistance to anything not only focuses your attention on the unwanted thing, but also blocks the flow of life force energy and brings you down the emotional / vibrational scale.

Without desires, you are dead.

With desires, you feel animated and passionate.

And do you know what? A true desire is always positive! That is because our essential nature is divine. To connect with that divinity, all you have to do is find a desire and begin to focus on it. You’ll discover that all of those negative emotions you had, that you thought were so important, will vanish instantly.
It is literally true that you create your own reality.

What kind of reality will you make for yourself today?

Exercise: 1) Before you go to bed tonight, find something, anything, no matter how trivial that you would like to be, do, or have. This must be something that really makes you feel good. For example, you could say “I want lots of money,” but if you don’t feel really bright and animated, that’s no good. (Rule: if something makes you feel good it is not trivial! It is a precious jewel).

2) When you get out of bed tomorrow morning, decide what kind of day you would like to have.
You don’t have to spend a lot of time at this.

Every night before you go to bed, think of something that makes you feel good. And in the morning when you get out of bed, decide how you want to feel during the day. Try this simple exercise every day for a couple of weeks and see how much better you feel.

Headlines

CNN Headline: Officials: 22,000-acre fire was set
"…The arsonist's motive was a mystery to Concepcion (Orange County Fire Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion).

"That's the part that I really can't figure out, to tell you the truth," he told CNN. "That individual knew on Sunday when this fire started that we had, really, the perfect storm, if you will. We had the heavy Santa Ana winds, we had the low relative humidities, we had the high temperatures.

"And then for someone to even think about doing something as reprehensible as starting a fire where they knew the fire would grow as rapidly as it would -- traveling about three, 3 ½ miles in about an hour -- is just really absolutely unconscionable," he said.

Is something like this unexplainable or incomprehensible?

Of course not!

If you take a peek within the species consciousness of mankind, what do you find? Hatred, competition, conflict, war, and a "you'd better toe the line" mentality. Of course there are lots of wonderful things in the species consciousness as well: beauty, compassion, selflessness, and love. But what do we see and hear on the news? What do people mostly talk about? A cursory glance at the headlines shows that the negative is overwhelmingly emphasized, and the positive hardly mentioned.
"Well of course," you say, "news media types are just interested in the negative, so that skews the emphasis." Well sure, but this stuff wouldn't sell unless there was wide interest for it! "Bad news sells, good news doesn't" is the common mantra.

The "media" (a common scapegoat) reflects the species consciousness, not the other way around.
The tomato grows in soil appropriate for it. And so does hatred and other negative emotions. Each one of us is responsible for the present vibrational environment! Every time we think about something negative, we contribute energy to that stream of thought. And the same goes for every time we think loving thoughts.

Is it surprising, then, then someone would start a fire, knowing that billions of dollars of damage would result, and loss of life?
Is it so surprising that four people were shot at a middle school football game in Saginaw, Michigan?

The United States has been at war almost continuously, somewhere in the world, since World War Two. In Iraq we have killed over 100,000 persons, including tens of thousands of civilians. We have destroyed that country.

The national consciousness that allows this to happen is perfectly congruent with shootings and arson, and a lot more besides.

You see folks, we don 't live in a vacuum. In fact, human society and the planet herself are cocooned within a set of universal laws. One of these laws is the Law of Attraction, which says, "like attract like." Clearly, it is not possible to focus on hatred and war and not experience more of it ourselves.
So what can you do to lead a happy and prosperous life within all of the insanity?
My first suggestion is to abandon the idea of "fighting" whatever it is you disagree with. This sentiment is common in the United States. We "fight" cancer, and homelessness, and poverty, and discrimination, and Lord knows what else. Of course, fighting something just places your attention on it, and makes it bigger.

My second suggestion is to avoid "increasing awareness" of that which you dislike. Increasing awareness of breast cancer, for example, gets people thinking more and more about breast cancer. If you are one of those meatheads who doesn't think that thoughts affect your health, then you probably think the earth is flat. Stress causes worry, anxiety, and illness.
What do you think stress is?

It's thinking about, paying attention to, stuff you don't like!

So increasing awareness of breast cancer is likely to increase the incidence of breast cancer. One thing is certain: it will surely increase the flow of money to those who work in the breast cancer industry. Is that a cynical attitude? I choose not to think so! It's an attitude based on an understanding of the five fundamental universal principles. When you understand something, you feel a sense of empowerment. And your anger vanishes. It's amazing! In the presence of understanding, compassion and love grows, and hostility dies. That is why I have written so many articles, books, and movies. That's why I have decided to blog.

The reason for this is simple: understanding is a high vibration. Hatred is a low vibration. Higher vibrations sublimate lower ones. Those who say that hatred is stronger than love are deluded. Hatred is a lower harmonic of love, depends for its very existence on love.
Love is who you are!

Hatred is a turning away from your quintessential nature.

Hatred dominates simply because it is emphasized, not because it is more powerful. If you make the decision to take a hammer and beat on your fingers, you will feel pain. Pain is pretty powerful stuff, as we all know, but love is much more powerful. A feeling of love creates a feeling of unity with all life everywhere, with the entire universe! What is the pitiful emotion of hatred in comparison to that?
The Law of Free Will allows us to create our lives in any way we wish. You can focus on the negative, or the positive. Really folks, it aint hard. What will you focus on today? The bad stuff, or the good stuff? Do you believe it's delusional to think about good things when there is so much horrible stuff out there?

If so, you will continue to experience negatively. And you become part of the problem, not part of the solution. The laws of the universe guarantee that as you begin to think more positively, you will begin to feel better.

It's your choice.

You create the predominant vibration that directs your personal life, and together, we create the predominant vibration that creates our national consciousness.

Copyright © 2007 Kenneth James Michael MacLean
The Big Picture
The Vibrational Universe

Motivation vs Inspiration

“My doctor says I need to lose some weight.”
“My boss says I need to get more motivated at work.”
“I know I should clean out the garage, but I don’t feel like it.”

Sound familiar?

If only we could motivate ourselves to do the things we need to do! Then life would be a lot easier, wouldn’t it? An entire industry exists around the subject of motivation. The problem is that there are so many books, seminars and videos out there! How do you know which one is best for you? Well, if there was one technique or formula that really worked, we wouldn’t need all that stuff! There must be something fundamentally flawed with existing motivational procedures.

Governments, religions, and ‘authority figures’ use fear to motivate. That works for a while, because when people get scared, their biological “fight or flight’ mechanism kicks in and there is a rush of adrenaline. The threat of physical punishment often works temporarily to keep people on the straight and narrow. But like an energy drink filled with sugar and caffeine, that high always wears off. People eventually come to understand that toeing the line is less important than maintaining personal integrity and dignity.

Personal resolutions for change that come from somebody else’s idea of what is right or good –– like losing weight (doctor), or doing better at work (boss) or cleaning the garage (the wife has been nagging you about it) also fail.
But what would happen if you were inspired to do these things?

Maybe you’d like to lose weight because you’ve got a closet full of beautiful clothes that you can’t wear anymore. The thought of seeing yourself in the mirror with your new figure makes you feel great.

Maybe you want to do better at work because you want to remodel that kitchen, and you are going to need an extra $30,000 this year. The thought of your new kitchen gets you fired up to improve your performance and get noticed for the new administrative position that is opening up.
And for something more mundane like a clean garage, well, every time you want to cut the grass you have to unpile the junk from on top of the lawnmower. And really, it’s getting pretty hard to find your toolbox too. Wouldn’t it be great to have a clean space where it’s easy to get the stuff you need?

There are millions of ways to get inspired, all of them probably different for each person. Motivational techniques, however, are a kind of sales job, where the sales pitch comes from somebody else. Sometimes you can convince yourself to go along for a while, but eventually you just tell the salesman to shutup and go away!

There is a subtle but significant difference between motivation and inspiration. You need to get motivated to do something you feel you should do. Usually these are tasks dictated from outside yourself.
Inspiration, however, is an entirely different animal. Inspiration comes wholly from within, and is something that connects you with the creative energy of the universe, and your Higher Self.

Motivation is the source of countless New Years resolutions (and those at other times of the year) that never are seen to fruition.
Inspiration is the source of passion and success.

Inspired people change the world. Motivated people work really hard and eventually fail.
Sometimes motivation can turn into inspiration! This happens when you find a reason to get personally fired up about what you are doing. And when that happens, you soar.

What’s the solution? Don’t motivate yourself! Throw away those motivational speeches and books. If your life isn’t going the way you’d like, sit down and ask yourself what you really want. Ask yourself why you are doing the things you’re doing.

When you do this consciously, you will discover a lot of crummy reasons for doing the things you don’t like, and a lot of good reasons for doing the things you do like.
The next step is to do more of the things you like, and less of the things you don’t like!
Or find better reasons for doing the things you have to do (like work).

I can tell you from personal experience that if you just find a couple of minutes each day to do something you love, your life will change. You will soon discover that those few minutes are the most powerful and enjoyable of your day. And remarkably, you will have more time in your day to do them, without losing time or getting stressed out on your other obligations.
Try it and see!

Copyright © 2007 Kenneth James Michael MacLean
The Big Picture

Motivation

How do you get yourself motivated to do the things you should do?

How do you motivate yourself to do the things you want to do?

Motivation is one of the most popular areas in the self–improvement field.
Inspirational speakers are celebrated for their ability to make you feel wonderful. But if you are like me, that high wears off after a while. Then what do you do?

Many of the motivational programs are “ten step formulas” or other recipe–like structures that make success sound simple and easy.

The problem is that they are based on what worked for somebody else, but they don’t work for you! Otherwise, why are you reading this article? If motivational formulas were effective, there wouldn’t be so many books, seminars, and articles written about the subject.

Motivational programs are effective only when they align you with an inner desire that is aligned to what you want. The problem is, there is no formula for that!

Take Biff Bifferson, for example. Biff made several million dollars in his widget marketing business. He has written down every step he took, right down to the last detail. He's really excited to teach you how to do it too, so he creates a seminar and explains everything you need to do to duplicate his success. But Biff is genuinely puzzled when only a few can do it, while the rest fail.

Biff thinks that there is some magic in his action steps, not understanding that only when your personal creative process is aligned to those actions can you succeed.

Biff doesn't understand that he can't teach you the personal alignment of thought and intent that lead to his success. He can only teach you the actions he took based on that personal alignment.

This is the reason you have not yet had success.

There are probably a few in the audience at Biff's marketing seminar who think just like Biff; for them, his program will be easy because they are already aligned to it. But what about the others? They will fail, it's as simple as that.

It's just common sense! No matter how good the program, if what you are trying to do doesn't feel right to you, then you won't do it. Either that, or you will attempt to bull your way through and try to force it. But that's like trying to put a square peg in a round hole.

I'm talking from experience. I used to think I was just stupid: why can't I get the results these other guys get? Until I realized that I was approaching the problem backwards.

The same applies to self-improvement books and seminars. Eckhart Tolle found enlightenment, but how many people who have read his book have done so? How many who have read "Think and Grow Rich" have gotten rich? I've never read that book myself, but I know some mighty poor people who have.
Like me, you have probably already tried many self-improvement or success programs, but they haven't worked as well as you thought.

They haven't worked because there is a crucial element missing from all of them.

That missing element is your personal alignment to it. And no one can teach you that! However, you can learn to teach yourself! That’s the exciting news.
The fact is that no one can know what is going on in your head except you. Nobody knows your likes and dislikes better than you. So the solution is to yourself establish the state of being necessary for your personal success. Guess what? That’s what all personal coaches, mentors, motivational programs and inspirations speakers are doing! That’s the BIG SECRET to success!

What good does it do to study Biff's successful formula (or anyone else's) if you are not aligned to it? The answer is, it doesn't do you any good at all.
That's why people spend tons of money and time looking for that special program, book, or seminar that will connect with them.

Here are the keys to success:
Key #1: Find a desire that lights you up.
Key #2: Align your thoughts and actions toward that desire.

Number One is the most important key. Folks, if you don’t have that desire, that passion, forget it! You won’t be motivated enough to create something that people will want! Or have the interest to see your project through to completion with the drive, eagerness and energy it takes to launch it out into the world.

The key to success in anything is doing it with passion and joy, for these emotions link you at the most fundamental level with every being on earth. Passion, joy, excitement and well being are who you are!

When you are excited about your project, others will be as well. It doesn’t matter what you are doing. It’s infectious, in a good way.

I remember seeing a jazz and blues concert in 1972. An old guy with a croaking voice and an out of tune guitar came on the stage and began to sing. This guy sounded terrible at first –– he missed every note, didn’t play well, and his voice trembled. But the crowd of several thousand almost immediately shut up and began to listen.
Know why?
Because that cat put his heart and soul into that performance. And why was he able to do that? Because he had connected with his passion and brought it out for everyone to see.
And it was awesome!
You could have heard a pin drop during the 5 minutes the old guy was up on stage. That’s what passion and desire will do for you. It’s why successful people always say, “I love what I do!”

Summary:
Key #1: Find a desire within you that lights you up.
Key #2: Align your thoughts and actions toward that desire.
That’s it.

Too simple for you?
Do you need it more complicated than that?
If you do, your road to success will be a longer and bumpier one.
The first ingredient is the key. You have to find that desire within you that lights you up.

Not someone else’s desire.

If you look at successful people, even those like Mother Theresa who have dedicated their lives to others, you will find that their motivation comes from within. Even the most selfless person helps others because it feels good inside.

This isn’t selfishness; quite the contrary. All motivation comes from uncovering the desire that unlocks, for you, the creative energy of the universe. This is the energy that keeps the earth in orbit and the sun shining. It is the most powerful stuff in the universe. And it is who you are!
All successful people have found that inner desire and have aligned their thoughts and actions toward it.

That’s your job. Your job is to perform these two simple steps. There isn’t any formula or recipe that can tell you how to do it. Bit now you at least have a plan. Now, when you talk to your mentor, you can direct him or her to lead you in the right direction. Now, when you read those self–help books or take those seminars, you’ll know where you are going.

Copyright ©2007 by Kenneth James Michael MacLean
The Big Picture

Politics: Bread and Circuses

There’s an old saying: “If you want to know what’s really going on, follow the money trail.”
If you do not understand money, banking and finance, you cannot really understand politics. For the motivation of politics and politicians is ultimately the accumulation of money and resources. Money and resources = power.

Many people object to this statement. One of my clients said, “I grew up in the 60’s during the civil rights movement. That was a purely political and altruistic agenda that had nothing to do with money.”
In the 1960’s however, the United States was unquestionably the world’s greatest economic power. Our currency was strong. When you are abundant and strong, you feel magnanimous. In 2007, our economy is weak, our debt is high and our currency is declining. The current corrupt and mean–spirited political environment is a reflection of our country’s declining economic status.

The OMB predicts that by the year 2012, the national debt of the United States will be 11.466 trillion dollars. This figure does NOT account for unfunded liabilities like Social Security.
The total amount of dollar denominated debt (including unregistered derivatives securities) worldwide has been estimated at 1.2 quadrillion dollars. That’s right folks. 1.2 quadrillion. The dollar has been hyper–inflated on a planetary scale.

How has this happened? To understand that, you have to understand how money is created and manipulated. A great place to start is to read this book.

The money we use is monetized debt. It has no value whatsoever. Today, money is not backed by anything tangible, other than the “full faith and credit of the United States.” What does that mean? It means the future work, sweat and productivity of the American people. It is a startling fact that if all dollar denominated loans and debts were paid off, all of our money would disappear. Therefore, even if Congress wanted to pay off the national debt, it could not do so without destroying the economy!

Look at the top of any bill of any denomination, and you will find “Federal Reserve Note.” Do you know what a note is? It is a promise to pay, a certificate of debt. The money we use are just fancy IOU’s. Unfortunately, the Fed, in cooperation with Congress, has played fast and loose with our currency. When you discover how money is created, you will understand the truth of this statement: “Money DOES grow on trees.” Those who control the creation of money control the economy, and to a certain extent, the lives of everyone in the nation. Economic cycles of boom and bust are not natural economic occurrences, but artificially created conditions due to the manipulation of the money supply.

Did you know that legal tender laws FORCE Americans to use Federal Reserve Notes? Look on the left hand side of the bill: “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private.” It is illegal in the United States to use gold or silver as money. If you refuse to accept Federal Reserve Notes in exchange for your valuable goods and services, you can be thrown in jail. The power of the State is used to enforce legal tender laws.

The debasing of our currency (and thus our economy) is the most important crisis facing our country, and the world, because the dollar is the linchpin of international finance. [1] The growth of the unregistered derivatives market has hyper–inflated the dollar to the point where the international financial and banking system is in turmoil. At the present moment, and behind the theater of politics, the world is confronted with an international banking and currency crisis which is being completely ignored by the mass media in the United States (so what else is new?)

Called “Wantagate” by those in the know, it is a story of fraudulent financial manipulation that involves the highest banking and political officials in the United States, and the world.

How can such a gigantic crisis go unreported?

Because the focus is on politics!

Pick up a copy of the New York Times, the Washington Post, or the L.A. Times. Listen to the news. Listen to NPR.
The news is, almost exclusively, political. What economic news is reported is mostly mundane stuff like the Dow Jones industrial average.

Politics and political intrigue obscures the fundamental economic and financial realities underlying the actions politicians take. In other words, the bread and circuses of politics takes your attention away from the money trail. Following the money trail will ALWAYS explain the actions of politicians.
For example, why did we go to war in Iraq?

The government says that we did it to establish democracy, or remove WMD’s, or destroy Al Queda, blah, blah, blah. Former secretary of State Jim Baker said facetiously that we invaded Iraq because of “oil, oil, oil.” Well that, at least, is partially true. According to Christopher Story, noted U.K. intelligence analyst, one of the fundamental reasons for invading Iraq was the takeover of the Rafidain Bank, Saddam Hussein’s private bank. The Rafidain Bank had trillions of dollars worth of assets and billions in gold bullion. That money properly belongs to the people of the United States via the U.S. Treasury, as the spoils of war. According to Story, Saddam’s money was stolen by criminal operatives within the U.S. intelligence community –– with full knowledge of officials at the highest levels of government, including the President, the Vice President, the Treasury secretary and the Homeland Insecurity chief –– and parked in offshore bank accounts. This money is “off the books,” because the people who stole it cannot identify source of funds. In any legitimate banking transaction, official codes are issued which identify the financial institutions on both ends of the transaction, and where the money came from. This is not possible with stolen money.

We are spending 10 billion dollars every day to fund the war in Iraq. The war has so far, as of this writing, cost almost 500 billion dollars and President Bush has just submitted a request to Congress for 200 billion more. Moreover, the war in Iraq is being privatized, which means that private contractors are making billions from this war. Meanwhile, our brave men and women in the military fight and die –– for what? [2]

Governments throughout history have printed money and debased the currency to fund their conflicts. When the currency becomes devalued, it loses its purchasing power, and prices rise. This is the genesis of inflation. Inflation is not rising prices, it is the debasing of the currency. The only legitimate way for governments to get money is through taxation. But politicians do not like to raise taxes because the voters will throw them out of office. However, the political scientists in Congress and the monetary scientists at the Fed have devised a brilliant scheme to spend more and more money and keep themselves in power: simply print and create more and more of it. The process by which this occurs is complex and obfuscated, but the bottom line is that the population is taxed by inflation when the money supply increases too rapidly. Each dollar buys less and less, you see. Inflation is a hidden tax –– a cowardly trick imposed by politicians (and bankers) who hide behind the power of the state to enforce legal tender laws. [3]

Moreover, when money is created from nothing, the size and power of government grows larger and larger, sapping the economy. Money that would have been used to start businesses and employ people is wasted by government cronyism. Regardless of who is in power –– capitalists, socialists, liberals, conservatives, Democrats or Republicans –– political parties always use the power of the state to enforce their decrees. Thus, government grows and the political structure of a nation becomes more and hierarchical, fertile soil for the growth of tyranny.

Political parties and groups exist first and foremost to advance an economic agenda. Study the bills Congress passes. Almost all of them have language benefiting special interests –– tax breaks, government contracts, etc. Political parties did not exist in 1789. Many of the founders of the United States were against the establishment of political parties. George Washington, in his farewell address in 1796, said,

"They [political parties] serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests."

Although the motivation of the founders of the United States was rooted in the ideals of freedom, economic issues –– such as taxation –– played a very important role. Moreover, the creation of a central bank was one of the fundamental issues that divided the founders. Whether or not a political party begins it’s life with a set of high ideals, once it becomes established, it ‘s main motivation is to stay in power. Then it always becomes a vehicle to protect the vested interest.

So people, do not become distracted by the bread and circuses of political theater, for that is what politics is.
Look underneath the superficialities of the news and always ask yourself these questions:
1) Who stands to gain financially by a declared government policy?
2) Where is the money trail?
In this way you may uncover the true motivations behind the actions of the actors on our political stage. You can then begin to identify people who are open and honest, and vote for them. The crooks, of course, stand out like sore thumbs.
______________________________________
Footnotes and References:

[1] In an interview for the German magazine Stern, Allan Greenspan, former Fed chief, says that the Euro is rapidly replacing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Greenspan said that the dollar is still slightly ahead in its use as a reserve currency, but added that "it doesn't have all that much of an advantage" anymore. And why is that, do you think?

[2] According to the FRONTLINE documentary “Private Warriors,” private military contractors comprise the second largest "force" in Iraq. There are as many as 100,000 civilian contractors and approximately 20,000 private security forces currently in Iraq, and the number is growing.

[3] Here’s an historical example: The Continental Congress, beginning in 1775, simply printed money to fund the colonial rebellion. By 1779, the Continental, which was worth 1 dollar in gold in 1775, was trading for less than a penny. A loaf of bread cost $5,000! In a letter to Samuel Cooper in 1779, Benjamin Franklin wrote, “This Currency, as we manage it, is a wonderful machine. It performs its Office when we issue it, it pays and clothes Troops and provides Victuals and Ammunition, and when we are obliged to issue a Quantity excessive, it pays itself off by Depreciation.”

Copyright © 2007 Kenneth James Michael MacLean
The Big Picture

The Human Race

Look around at planet earth.

This is a beautiful planet of great diversity in ecosystems and species. Observe nature and you will see that things are well ordered. Logical, even! Planet earth works.

There is only one species out of millions that screws things up, and that is humanity.

I'm not going to enumerate the ways we mess up the planet because we're all aware of them.

However, I have found that the people I meet are, individually, wonderful. How is it that people are fairly sane on an individual basis but the species is nuts?

Well, Jung described a “collective unconscious” that contains psychological archetypes that influence human behavior. Most of the explanations for human insanity, individual or group–wise, also postulate a subconscious mind that influences conscious thinking and action.
But this explanation is also nutty!

Something subconscious is, by definition, so weak that it cannot even be recognized. Subconscious influences cannot exert enough power to affect conscious behavior, even though criminal lawyers use this nutty argument to excuse the heinous actions of their clients. It’s like saying a feather can move a 100 pound boulder. Sorry folks, upon rational examination, this explanation doesn’t hold water. Then why is this theory so wildly popular? Because people like to avoid responsibility, but mainly because of the most nutty idea of all: the “Man is Meat” theory of consciousness, which states that awareness exists inside the brain.

Francis Crick, co–discoverer of DNA, called this theory the “Amazing Hypothesis.” He named it such because, he said, it’s amazing anyone could believe it!

Folks, the only way to cause the human race, as a species, to move toward sanity is to get individuals to understand the simple idea that consciousness is not dependent on biology. A thorough understanding this simple fact would make it impossible to hold such goofy beliefs as we have enumerated above (and many more besides).

If you believe that a human being is an automaton, you can be manipulated and controlled. Belief in the biological basis for consciousness turns you into a robot. Frank Herbert, author of “Dune,” said, “If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual."
I couldn’t have said it any better.

The current policies of our government (US) are based on fear and intimidation.
The only way you can see yourself this way is to believe that you are powerless. And the “man is meat” theory of consciousness and its philosophical offshoots (materialism, behaviorism, etc) are designed to inculcate these beliefs.

Insanity = biological basis for consciousness. ‘When you die, you’re dead.’ Turns people into controllable robots.
Sanity = consciousness exists independently of physical bodies. Human beings are divine, immortal spirits having a temporary physical experience.

Folks, I don’t care if you read my books (http://www.kjmaclean.com), or someone else’s.

But for God’s sake, let’s educate our species to the obvious fact that they are not hunks of meat. Let’s raise consciousness to this simple but powerful truth, and watch as our societies gradually align themselves toward respect and love for life, compassion, and abundance.

Copyright © 2007 Kenneth James Michael MacLean
The Big Picture