A Moment of Silence

"Silence, healing" ~ Heraclitus

Yesterday was an unexpected moment of silence - and unplanned - as I had aimed to blog daily all year.

Even so, perhaps one was needed on a day like yesterday.  I will honor the moment.

 

 

Water photo by Susan Larison Danz. 

Expanding Our Horizons

 "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.

A Higher Focus

 "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Although I truly consider myself some kind of an eclectic expression of a neo-luddite, and oddly, that has in a way always been true, I have spent a lot of my life working with technology.  

Arthur C. Clarke's famous quote does not exactly apply to what it is I am about to say and have pondered many times and discussed on radio.  I believe technology, for those civilizations which venture that way, is likely a very brief step.  Most technologically oriented societies probably destroy themselves.  Perhaps some survive, but there simply is absolutely no comparison to essentially developing "Magic".  How we evaluate "advanced" is skewed towards materialistic thinking.  What is actually Advanced is altogether different.  In reflecting upon the vastness of the Multiverse, there are likely many civilizations that are "Advanced" which either never developed technology at all or discarded it rapidly along the way. 

This may sound like wishful thinking, to those who haven't witnessed the potentials, but for those who are on a Spiritual path, it is indisputable that Spirituality is real - and has real-world implications.  Societies like ours where materialists are dominant face significant challenges.  If we could develop our spiritual gifts, we could essentially do anything (in a different way) than any "sufficiently advanced technology".  Healing, telepathy and telekinesis are just a few practical examples - and that's just the "practical".  The possibilities are truthfully unfathomable and wonderful.  Arthur C. Clarke wrote about this as well.  I have never personally witnessed telekinesis, but I have definitely witnessed and experienced healing and telepathy.  When we notice, these things happen more than we realize.  Imagine the potentials - and ignore those who mock.  They are wandering lost in the lowlands, essentially - while some of us are already venturing to Higher ground.

We need to set our sights Higher.  And persist.

 

 

Sunbreak over LAX photo by Susan Larison Danz.
 

Beauty

"The fruition of beauty is no chance of hit or miss - it is inevitable as life - it is exact and plumb as gravitation." ~ Walt Whitman

As I walked, there it was, Beauty emerging where it is not supposed to be.  Where would it be if not for the brokenness?  And would we even notice its unlikely vitality if not for the jagged edges?

The Frontier Beyond Fear: Freedom from Chronic Pain with Dr. David Hanscom

Monday's live broadcast of The Frontier Beyond Fear on Blog Talk Radio at 12 PM Pacific / 3 PM Eastern will feature Dr. David Hanscom, an inspiring, brilliant orthopedic spine surgeon in Seattle with an innovative, enlightened approach to freeing patients from chronic pain.  Recently featured on the Dr. Oz program and the author of the new book Back in Control: A Spine Surgeon's Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain, it is a true delight and an honor to talk with Dr. Hanscom on The Frontier Beyond Fear.  The broadcast will be available as a podcast at the same link where you can listen live.

The medical world often overlooks the powerful mind-body influence of our thoughts on the functioning of our nervous system. Through many wonderful success stories, Dr. Hanscom has demonstrated that pain can be mastered through greater mastery of our minds, awakening and recharging our lives in a world filled with hope. By clearing our minds of anxiety, dealing with anger, moving out of reactive mode, exploring our creative potential and taking back our lives, pain can become a distant memory.

David Hanscom, M.D., is a board certified orthopedic surgeon in Seattle specializing in complex spine problems. He is the creator of the DOCC project ("Defined, Organized, Comprehensive, Care"), a structured rehabilitation protocol for chronic pain. He also founded the Puget Sound Spine Interest non-profit and co-founded the "Awake at the Wound" process, which brings athletic performance principles into the operating room.

I know I will bring some of my own experience into the discussion, and I'm sure many of us can recall times when we encountered situations with pain enduring far too long.  I know many of the listeners are in pain right now, and it is my every hope this broadcast will help a great many people find an empowered way out of what so often can be one of the most challenging situations in life.

In my own case, I was in a serious automobile accident in my 20's.  A truck in which I was a passenger was completely totalled when an elderly couple turned in front of us deep in the Colorado mountains.  In the 80's, there were no cell phones, so we had to wait for help.  But it was quite amazing how other drivers and passengers who quickly came along immediately took control of the situation, bringing quite a bit of amazing experience to the scene while someone went to get help.  Though thankfully I did not experience any sort of life threatening injury at the scene, I ended up with a more subtle kind of injury to the nerves under the seatbelt, as well as severe whiplash.

I was in physical therapy for a year after this incident and along the way learned the pitfalls of pain medications and muscle relaxants, especially if you rely on them to get to sleep at night.  There was a point when I wondered if I would ever feel the same again.  Thankfully I did heal, but it took a very long time, and no doubt the kind of enlightened wisdom Dr. Hanscom has to offer would have been of great value at the time. 

The Mirror of Intolerance, The Mirror of Understanding

Although the focus on Chick-Fil-A appears to be waning somewhat today, it is not so much this particular controversy that is significant, but what it has to say about not only a significant rift in our society, but a rift within our hearts.

Whether we characterize what surrounds the Chick-Fil-A controvery as a freedom to speak, freedom to act and/or freedom to marry issue, we can choose to view it as an opportunity for battle or as an opportunity for understanding.

I grew up and spent parts of my adulthood immersed in the evangelical mindset, though my anguished doubts prevented that mindset from fully taking hold, even as a child (I believe many people have such doubts, yet are afraid to express them). 

To better understand why so many people refuse to tolerate that which they have been emphatically told is forbidden, one must look within their hearts.  Are the majority of these people truly hateful?  No, I would say they are not.  But they are indeed fearful, fearful most of all not of what resides in the hearts and inclinations of strangers, but what resides within their own hearts and those of their loved ones.

And it is through this secret that the true key to healing can be found.  Healing society begins with healing a single heart, one person at a time.  And as Consciousness expands, many hearts miraculously will be healed, not through confrontation, but through Transformation.

I could choose to focus on why Fundamentalists feel they must follow the rules in the ways they have been told they must be followed, based on many years of my own experience and reflections on such things.  The rules they choose to emphasize shift with the times, the teacher and often selective amnesia unfortunately, as there are countless rules to choose from in the Book they have literally elevated so high that this Book has been thrust above even their Creator.  And though they feel they are saved from the rules by Grace, that doesn't mean they can elude them, as their lives must reflect the rules, lest they appear they were never saved at all.

It is a subtle irony that the rule against idolatry is the very rule being broken to deify the Book - idolatry elevates an object over the direct Guidance of God, the direct Guidance to be found in every heart, the very hearts they are told not to trust, instead placing blind trust in a Book (because the Book tells them so), with penalties for getting it wrong severe beyond imagining.  I say this not to judge, but because I love them enough to speak.

And that's when compassion and understanding must come into play, as we disarm our inclinations to fight and discover a way to understand, a way to truly heal that which ails so many in our society, their denial, doubts and hidden anguish masked from view.

The real reason many cannot tolerate that which is seemingly different from themselves is that it's actually not all that different after all, the secrets hidden in their hearts rebelling not against God, but against a Book, not against what is unnatural, but against what is natural, including just about ALL forms of sexuality.  It is a rebellion against their very selves, which they are told are evil to the core, when in truth at the core is God omnipresent.

And next, all they must do is look to a loved one - a child, a sister, a brother, a dear friend, a neighbor breaking "the rules", yet exhibiting selflessness, compassion and love for their fellow mankind - and the agonizing discrepancies they perceive are almost more than they can bear, because Love is in their hearts resisting fear, resisting judgment, resisting words on a page that do not resonate.

So when they can't resolve this inner conflict within, they externalize it to "the other", to that stranger they are told to disavow, even when it's really none of their business what vows or choices others choose to make.  When they infringe upon the choices of others in a free society, the choices others make regarding their own lives, their own marriages, their own bodies, they enslave society itself to their hidden anguish and dysfunction.

If we address and heal the rifts within each heart, it is then that we will truly heal the rifts in society.  The real battle is within, yet as Consciousness expands, victory is within our grasp, for ALL of us, triggered by the omnipresent Love of God within.

This Tuesday I will be talking to inspiring author Mark David Gerson on my radio program The Frontier Beyond Fear.  Mark David writes poignantly about his own coming out as a gay man in his newly released memoir Acts of Surrender.  Mark David has also written from the heart in his blog regarding what he sees in the Chick-Fil-A controversy.  I know it is going to be quite a conversation.

[Note: Waffle Fries and Holding Hands photos originated from Wikipedia Commons and are used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.]