"My God, it's full of stars!" ~ 2001, A Space Odyssey
Today, on The Frontier Beyond Fear broadcast, I reflected upon our mystical relationship with the stars and with Nature, exploring what it truly means to "advance" as a civilization.
Listen to the podcast here: Seeing the Stars
Photo Credit: NASA
"'It's not possible!' 'No, it's necessary.'" ~ Interstellar movie
I watched the movie Interstellar again, finishing it tonight. It is a rather stark movie at times, and I had DVR'd it quite some time ago. I was finally inclined to watch it.
One impression I had, unrelated to the movie, had to do with the fact I DVR'd it in Fall 2019, long before the current era we are experiencing, in the multiple intense ways it has arrived. This was especially evident in the commercials I was skipping over.
But with that aside, even if it approaches interdimensionality in a way that is far too "materialistic" for my tastes, it at least approaches interdimensionality.
Humanity needs to take its game Higher. It may appear to be impossible. But, yes, it's necessary.
Photo Credit: NASA
"Fair Quiet, have I found thee here,
And Innocence, thy sister dear?"
~ Andrew Marvell, The Garden
It seems the older I get, the more I return to appreciating how a child sees the world. I've written before about this notion of being "childlike" (versus "childish").
We can wander through the world in a state of natural wonder. We can combine this with maturity by being consciously Still.
Tonight, I "randomly" turned to the poem The Garden by Andrew Marvell, in a very sizeable book. It was exactly that.
Beauty awaits us.
Early Spring Wildflower by Susan Larison Danz.
"Fear is the mind-killer . . ." ~ Frank Herbert, Dune
It might be even more appropriately said that "Fear is the Heart killer." - but yes, it can certainly extinguish our minds as well. That's why it is so very important to be in a conscious relationship with our fears. A long time ago, I created an online radio program about moving beyond fear, The Frontier Beyond Fear. And yet, we are human. It's a process.
What I can say is that it absolutely is possible to over time, make significant progress in calming your fears. I know this because I have lived it. Calming does not imply "completely".
When fear dominates our lives, we can neither think nor feel clearly. There is a further quote from Dune, which was a favorite of my teens, worth reflecting on:
"Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration."
Why?
Because when we allow it to dominate us, we are diminished piece by piece, and eventually our freely expressed authenticity, which is a fundamental spiritual concept, is crushed. We lose sight of ourselves and our choices. When our choices are gone, we are too.
Winter Tree photo by Susan Larison Danz.
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." ~ Carl Sagan
I watched the Mars landing today on NASA TV. It is in our human nature to yearn to explore and expand. I heard one of the project leaders (or someone associated with the mission, not sure of the role) talk about how this venture is asking some of our more important questions, like how did we originate and are there signs of life beyond the Earth.
I've worked in the sciences, and I know people still working in that domain, and no doubt this is all very exciting. One one level, yes. This is how we feel led to expand our horizons under the auspices of the materialistic world view.
But there is another way, a way that is no less intriguing, and ultimately no less based in truth. This is my second night on a similar theme, but it's an important one.
While we are so busily exploring in the space of physicality, in the material space, we have neglected another way.
That way is Consciousness, the expansion of Consciousness.
You see, I have a theory as to why the areas of space we can look at are not teeming with technologically generated signals. Must I repeat myself? Yes, I will. We are losing sight of something that is very important. For whatever reasons, we have diminished it, but we have done so to our detriment.
I do not believe most technological civilizations survive, not if that's their only way of "advancing".
No, I don't. And it's even logical.
If a civilization is not developing their connection to Consciousness in parallel with other types of material advancements, they may not make it. And other civilizations may focus solely on Spirituality - they would have a better chance (and a much more satisfying way of being).
Why?
Industrialization, in as many as it enhances life, it has another effect. It eliminates our basic skills in survival because we become dependent on a more intricate way of life. This then puts us in peril, particularly if we depend upon electricity. And yes, there are situations going on right now in the U.S. that demonstrate just how vulnerable we can be when we don't have electricity. All it would take is one Carrington event (search for that if you don't know what I'm talking about - a very large solar flare that is inevitable) and all of our modern conveniences vanish. Not only that, electronic records would be wiped out as well. We aren't thinking very mindfully about this. But that's our tendency.
The planets of industrial/technological societies are incredibly vulnerable. The people become like infants, helpless without the "tools" they require. We become dependent on elaborate mechanisms, and when such things disappear, we are lost.
Plenty of people have talked about how a technological society might destroy itself, especially after developing nuclear capabilities. Yes, that also is a scenario that no doubt has occurred on technological planets. It could also occur here.
But the problem with not developing our Spiritual Skills is they are the quickest route to shielding the planet. Or dealing with mundane aspects of human life. Or getting along with one another. If you are skilled in healing, and many of us have indeed witnessed or experienced essentially "impossible" healing in the spiritual domain, physically, you have no need of "physical tools" if you develop such skills to a sufficient level. Or at a simpler level, if you haven't become so dependent on a materialistic medical infrastructure, perhaps you haven't forgotten what our ancestors knew about various herbs and other simpler techniques. One of these, though it didn't go that far back, actually came up during Covid, how to help someone breathe, how to position a person, if a ventilator is not available - we don't remember these things because we assume there will be a hospital with whatever we might need, or at least some semblance of a chance of receiving reasonable care, the best that might be offered in such materialistic settings. Non-materialistic techniques for healing the psyche are already vastly superior to the alternatives in many cases - and certainly would be for all if properly developed.
And it's not only that. Spirituality is the Gateway to Exploration, in ways that are far more dramatic than any physical mechanism could provide. There is no separation across space, or across time. I've heard it said that if "someone" was "out there", they would have no way of knowing we are here. Well, even in a physical way, we now realize they probably would, as we are already developing skills to analyze what may be habitable planets - keeping in mind that what might be habitable for life as we know it may be very different for life as we do not know it. But beyond that, in a Spiritual way, an Aware species could easily find us, and no distance could hinder that, and not even time. We are fully capable of looking through the eyes of another. What an astonishing thing that is to ponder...and so it is, I'm pondering it again. Because it's important.
Moon photo by Susan Larison Danz.
"Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another..." ~ Alfred Adler
Imagine what it would be like if you could truly see through the eyes of another? What would we notice? What would we feel? Our Consciousness is truthfully inseparable. There are no boundaries, of space or of time. A truly evolved species would be able to connect to anyone, really. This is Omnipresence.
"We have cut the whales off from themselves. Creatures that communicated for tens of millions of years have now effectively been silenced." ~ Carl Sagan
Some years effectively clamor into our awareness. 2020 was a year like that. It was not a quiet year.
When a year like 2020 comes our way, some of us go inwards. If we choose to continue to nurture our awareness, our voices may appear as if they have silenced themselves. And perhaps they have. But not in every way.
I made a conscious decision to be here tonight, even as my dinner is in the oven. I made a conscious decision to turn off the television that was on while I was cooking. I turned on Classical Music, instead. I just missed The Blue Danube, it seems, though they played a more modern rendition afterwards.
I was reminded even before I turned the radio on that I have often enjoyed the New Year's concert from Vienna. It is shared live, and so if it was on, it was on in the morning. I forgot about it completely. Now it's night. And yet I wondered. Was it live this year? Was it presented at all during the age of Covid? Would I have wanted to hear it, diminished? Did they play another year perhaps? Did they perform it on Zoom? (I seriously doubt it.) I could look it up, I suppose. I don't really need to.
And so it goes with 2020.
And now it's 2021.
The last time I wrote here, I wrote a rather poignant story. It was an important story, actually, one that is about trade-offs. As the year progressed, it became less accepted to talk about such things. And our awareness of them became more nuanced. There will be Catch 22's, so-to-speak, that will be examined for years, I sense, if we get that far.
Voices matter. Some of us went inwards. It doesn't mean we were "depressed", though some might have felt that way. We just needed to speak for a time with ourselves, and perhaps with the future. We didn't necessarily stop writing. And through that quiet expression of awareness (what some might call "journaling"), we discerned in the moment and found solace. Even when it felt like we didn't, we did.
That's what 2020 was like for me, after April.
I look at just about every description on my "profiles", the ones I have consciously chosen to share. In almost every case, I have put "writer" first. I did not stop being a writer in 2020. Far from it, actually.
But now it's 2021, and I am here.
A piece I do not recognize is playing on Classical radio. It has aspects of discordance. But still, it carries melody. My dinner is almost ready. It took a while to cook. I will either be back to continue, or I will finish here for now . . .
(I wonder, before I go to check on it, how many others went inwards last year? And what will the future reveal their voices to say? Dinner time.)
About 40 minutes later.....Also Sprach Zarahustra (I was thinking Thus, but I looked up the exact title) was playing as I wiped down the kitchen counters. I thought to myself "That's rather perfect." It is still playing now. I need to listen to more Classical music and less "news". (There isn't really much "news" anymore - it's essentially opinion.) I wasn't listening to "news" earlier. A movie was somewhat randomly on (the beginning of The Devil Wore Prada - it's a rather light and interesting movie, in its way, but I turned it off, knowing it).
Were they truthfully Catch-22's, or trade-offs? I thought about that at dinner, thinking I was "softening" the idea. I sense that History will consider them trade-offs, which is what I would have said in April.
(And in case you are wondering, the previous post I am referring to is this one: Every Day.)
That was written on April 7 - the last time I wrote here in 2020. A lot has surely happened in 2020 after that! And yet plenty of what I wrote about there happened as well. Some day, we will have the courage to examine all of this more closely, perhaps some of us even today (The music comes to a dramatic crescendo, and then it descends.)
2020 was a year when Spirituality has been vital for many of us, and I hope to speak a lot more about this in 2021. It is also the year when Spirituality was far too often dismissed. Perhaps I will write again tomorrow. Perhaps I will finally read Thus Spoke Zarathrustra on my Kindle one day soon - it's been there for quite a while, unread.
What people seem to think is dead is very much alive - and needs to be.
Spirituality is vitally important.
(And now the piece has finished, in precisely perfect timing. "A chance to shine", the commentator says - I didn't quite catch who was shining, how or when, as I was only partially listening. Yes, I'd love to believe that is indeed true. And true of 2021.)
Winter photo by Susan Larison Danz.
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Despite my advanced degree in Computer Science (and former life as a computer scientist), I am and always have been a very special kind of technophobe. That's precisely why I at least tried to do my share of work in "human factors" (the art of making people far less technophobic) because quite honestly most software is not designed with actual human beings in mind. Thus technophobes are made, not born, and it's not their fault at all.
Yet another time, while heading to a big radio station downtown, not once, but on two different occasions spaced enough apart I forgot all about the first time, my silly Garmin told me to turn on the worst possible road of all, the "transit mall corridor" (in fact, this has happened yet another time outside the convention center). When you don't know where your going, rarely drive downtown and nobody is front of you, nothing is more scary than a transit mall corridor (except maybe one of the bridges) because at first you have no idea whether 1) you are actually supposed to be on that road at all (in some cities, you aren't), 2) which direction the traffic is heading (it always looks one-way the wrong way for some reason), 3) where the heck you are supposed to drive (when frazzled, it's surprising how confusing that can be, as there can be a bus lane next to a light rail lane) 4) did I just go through one of those awful downtown red light cameras or stop too far over the line? (I know of red light cameras in the suburbs that will penalize you for turning right on red without stopping completely behind the line before you turn, but the problem with those is you can't inch up to see if anyone is actually coming, so I usually decide not to turn at those intersections at all - except by accident downtown when a Garmin tells me to turn.) and 5) please tell me the light rail, trolley, bus, both or all are not coming before I get a chance to get my wits about me and find the proper lane (or get off the road altogether if there is no proper lane).
