"I of my own knowledge…"

I don’t know where this story came from originally. A friend sent it to some of his friends (including, I’m proud to say, me) with this comment:

“The story Pickle Jar is an old story that has been passed around the internet many times. If a story wore out from being passed around then this one would have worn out long ago. Good stories never wear out in their retelling. Instead, happily enough they expand, taking on a larger presence than the original author likely would have ever imagined. Nearly each time this comes into my mail box I pass it along to the few of you who it makes me think of.”

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Rita Queen Warren, Ph.D., scholar, academic, consciousness pioneer, initial director of Robert Monroe’s altered-state laboratory, wise old woman on the hill, would have been 90 years old today. Trust me, she’s glad she isn’t still here! She had no fear of moving over to the other side, and toward the end she had a sort of resigned impatience with the body and is limitations.

She and I used to raise a glass each January 30th, to toast Franklin Roosevelt, whose birthday she shared. So here’s a virtual toast, Miss Rita. “Thanks for all your help (not least, an ever-listening ear). Thanks for suggesting the sessions that eventually became The Sphere and the Hologram. And thanks, on behalf of so many friends scattered across the globe, for all that you were. Whatever you’re doing, may it be interesting and productive, and may you never lose that curiosity.”

Perhaps you haven’t heard of this new variant on Crop Circles. Here are the two latest examples (that I know of), from Holland. A friend and I had an argument about whether this is a legitimate phenomenon or a hoax. I came down on the side of legitimacy, as I can’t see how they can be hoaxes. This story addresses such questions, and includes many photos.

http://www.bltresearch.com/robbert/snow09.php

Perhaps it’s always this way. The players in 3D get tired, so the other side sends in new troops, full of intelligence, optimism and joy.

Happy New Year, friends.

Revolution? Well, why not? The end of the year is as good a time as any to turn around and around, looking at your life. Is your life going the way you want it to? Is it going toward something? Is it going away from something? Is it satisfying?

If your life is anything like mine, probably parts of your life are satisfying, parts not. New Year’s is a good time to consider: What things (specifically) are stopping me from having a more satisfying life?

If the answers seem to be external (need more money, need a better job, etc.) then I suggest you try again, looking a little deeper. What traits within you, what robots dictating your behavior, get in the way of your having the life you want? Suppose that nothing external in your life could possibly change for the better – how could you change yourself, your mind and spirit, to have a better life within those circumstances?

This is a good season for a little quiet time, preparing your mind and spirit so that you may enjoy a turn for the better, a New Year’s revolution.

Happy New Year, one and all.

In response to my post titled When Science and Religious Beliefs Conflict, my friend Jim Price proposed a way of reconciling opposites.

Fundamentalisms and alchemy

Jim Price

I feel I have something important to say about scientism. Of course, scientific authority needs to be questioned. Religious authority needs to be questioned. De-mythologize, label the imprints of the human condition, and then elevate the conversation.

I agree there is a thing we might label as scientism. There is bias in every human endeavor. But if it is really true that 40% of Americans believe that the earth is only 6,000 years old (and I find that hard to believe), then this nation is in a bit of trouble. An unsophisticated public is easily manipulated by various authorities. Blind faith leads to Fundamentalisms.

Fundamentalisms are probably the biggest problem in the world today, be they religious, scientific, left, right, or center. Pointing fingers may be traditional. But what is needed is some good old-fashioned alchemy. This science/religion split is another opportunity to distill from the tension of opposites.

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I don’t usually insert anything even vaguely political in this blog, though I have plenty of comments in my newsnet email list that I send around to long-suffering friends. But  President Obama’s speech to the Nobel Peace Prize committee transcends politics and statecraft, and makes points that too many people prefer to forget.

Peace, after all, is not merely the absence of war, and it doesn’t come about merely by people wishing for it. Peace is necessarily borne on the back of soldiers, for otherwise it would be at the mercy of the first person taking control of a country and insisting on it being either his (or her) way or else. One would think that Hitler and Stalin would have taught the world that lesson, or good old revered Comrade Chairman Mao, who taught that “power comes from the barrel of a gun.” But it’s hard for some people to give up their dreams of living in a perfect world among perfect people.

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This interesting article from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (found via one morning’s Schwartzreport) may be found at http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=275. (The original includes charts that I can’t figure out how to get into this post.)

It is interesting not least as an unconscious indicator of the bias known as scientism. The article says,

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When Paul Blakey posted a response to “So You Think Your Life Was Wasted (9)” I emailed him, “Would you care to say more, in the form of an entry I could post? Your previous one sparked quite some response.” Here is his response. 

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This thoughtful and relevant Whitehead column quotes John Lennon:  ”We’re not going to draw children into a situation to create violence so you can overthrow what? And replace it with what? It was all based on this illusion, that you can create violence and overthrow what is, and get communism or get some right-wing lunatic or a left-wing lunatic. They’re all lunatics.” 

To me, this shows the depth of John Lennon’s sophistication and the growth of his insight into the human condition. Violence so you can overthrow what, and replace it with what?

Today, as we all sense the on-coming massive changes, fear builds in those who cannot surf the change while living in faith. That fear leads them to listen more and more obsessively to their chosen savior, left or right. And just like clockwork, before they know it, they’re living in hatred, because they were operating out of fear, and therefore to that extent they’re acting like lunatics. Pray God that we remember not to become lunatics ourselves.

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