Awakening my Authentic Voice (...Again!)

I'm going to take the symbolic opportunity of Easter to resurrect my voice in this blog. For too long, I have viewed writing here as a far more involved exercise than it needs to be, surprising since in the past I have been known to write pages and pages and pages (and even more pages) per week on the Oprah discussion forum.

I think much of the blockage has had nothing to do with this blog at all, as even on the Oprah forum I have grown silent.

It has to do with finding a way to express my authentic thoughts with honesty, yet in a way that I feel helps foster peace, not division.

Ultimately I realize that it has much to do with my intent. It is my intent to be an individual contributing in my own way to peaceful co-existence on the planet. Yet if I avoid honestly expressing my genuine thoughts, even openly exposing wounds I seek to heal, there is not much point in expressing myself at all.

We will not discover peace through suppression of authenticity. We will discover peace through seeking to understand authenticity, even when we don't completely agree.

So I'm awakening this blog and my spontaneous voice once again. I hope to visit here often in the days and weeks to come, free from excessive editing, just authentically me. I'll even include authentic unpolished pictures from my genuine Oregon garden.

I will keep this entry short (in itself a novel approach for this blog! :-), but I invite you to visit a radio program I created earlier today ~ a quiet, contemplative time in which I expressed my hopes in finding common ground as we explore powerful Easter messages, transcending the often contentious particulars of specific beliefs ~ Easter Reflections on Love and Transformation.

The End of Doublethink

I recently felt compelled to reread George Orwell's powerful novel 1984. Though it was a rather dark exercise, I was amazed at just how prophetic many parts of this 1949 novel have proven profoundly to be, particularly for the Old Earth, that fear-based, power-hungry world which is no longer sustainable.

Of course, Orwell didn't envision a happy ending, and I had forgotten the novel's raw brutality, not the sort of reading material I typically choose these days. I may speak of other themes in future blog entries, but what I want to focus most upon today is the concept of doublethink, described by Orwell as:

"The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them"

Doublethink is not at all new, but it is alive and well in our modern world. And today I find myself reflecting upon the concept as I ponder the impact and "spin" of the growing nuclear emergency in Japan.

In so many parts of the world, people have been quelled into believing that nuclear power is somehow "safe", yet I believe we can assuredly say that never has this actually been the case. The problem with nuclear power, as is being so vividly demonstrated in Japan, is that it may appear to work well when it's working, but when it spectacularly fails, the effects are so very catastrophic that it becomes abundantly clear why playing with fire is precisely that: playing with fire ~ even when the fire is contained 99% of the time.

"Safe" and nuclear power as we know it are ultimately mutually exclusive terms, and we can only begin to speculate regarding what the effects of this emergency will be. The pundits on TV have many different tales to tell, from alarmist to obediently dismissive.

Corporate beneficiaries apparently fear what a setback this will be for the entire industry, particularly in the skittish U.S. (and rightfully so, many of us more and more strongly believe). So-called "cleaner" forms of energy aren't so clean if their failure carries catastrophic contamination.

I well recall multiple nuclear facilities I observed during my time in the Midwest, and one wonders if they could withstand an F5 tornado, every bit as possible in some parts of the country as a tsunami or earthquake in others.

Clever spin control is unconvincing if you do your homework. As I heard on one network earlier today, telling us that a CT scan contains more radiation than what has been released so far isn't exactly comforting if you have followed the latest news regarding CT scans, a procedure used much too frequently, putting people (and especially children) far more at risk than they realize. Indeed as a recent MSNBC story described, "getting two or three CT scans of the abdomen expose you to the same amount of radiation as people who lived near the atomic blast that ravaged Hiroshima in 1945 but survived".

Even in this very moment as I speak, CNN in the background is reporting a blast and "white smoke rising" from yet another reactor in Japan.

So how are we to respond? Is fear the answer? Or is it a catalyst?

Many of us in the spiritual community have known for quite some time that to awaken, one must often be jarred from sleep. We have experienced this intensely on a personal level. And perhaps now it's finally time for the worldwide slumber to dramatically come to a global end.

Our slumber is coming to an end when we realize unethical, profit-focused corporate interests (not to be confused with the growing contingent of enlightened business leaders) have been taking the utmost advantage of doublethink to introduce any number of wonderful "advances", while paternalistically downplaying the health effects on the general populace or the Earth.

Indeed this includes the medical community's cavalier use of CT scans, repeated mammograms and extraneous expensive tests and surgeries, designer pharmaceuticals with risks far exceeding benefits, and countless products and food items with risks we would blissfully prefer not to know.

Doublethink kept almost everyone asleep as those consumed with greed in our financial sector robbed us blind, even now strategizing loopholes and finding other ways to keep the profits rolling in at the expense of consumers.

And the very term "jobless recovery" is the epitome of doublethink in two words combined, but we would prefer not to know the implications of worldwide economic woes, rising food and fuel prices and growing income disparities in the U.S., beginning to resemble more of a third world Banana Republic than the Land of the American Dream. We would rather not hear that our infrastructure is crumbling and our educational system failing.

Doublethink leads us to ignore the countless deaths due to lack of health coverage and the countless deaths due to over-aggressive, greedy or negligent treatment, quite a contradictory quandary we would prefer not to ponder at all.

We drink doublethink when we daily ingest polluted drinking water, whether from the tap or the bottle, and blithely ingest chemical-laden and addictive food in contaminated containers.

Doublethink has diverted our attention from the lingering contamination and illness in the Gulf (reminding us that other forms of energy production have their perils too).

We have been trained every bit as effectively as H.G. Wells' blissfully ignorant Eloi, dutifully serving our masters every day, not even aware of the slaughter among us, with stunningly increasing cancer rates, not to mention other diseases, telling the tale.

Doublethink has been used by many religions for centuries, somehow making the concept of a loving, yet unspeakably violent God palatable to those who can't see through the contradiction. And the most horrifying type of doublethink was no doubt in play when witches were burned, slaves were kept or ethnic cleansing was speciously justified so many times in the darker parts of our history.

Doublethink keeps us inevitably at war, just like in 1984, mistakenly thinking the often vengeful killing of others will lead to safety and security, with huge corporate war machines financed by doublethink itself, bleeding the very foundations of society into utter oblivion.

Doublethink helps us justify the ever more intrusive security procedures claiming to preserve the very way of life they inevitably destroy.

Doublethink keeps the people disempowered, when in fact the power of the individual is grand beyond measure.

Doublethink is comfortable in a highly contradictory way, indeed invoking doublethink itself to justify the conveniences of our modern world, with selective amnesia whenever it suits us or our overseers. Is doublethink really worth the price?

The darkness of doublethink is coming to an end. That's what happens when the world is jolted awake from its slumber.

There are those who will say that I am engaging in doublethink when I say I happen to have faith that a New Earth is dawning, when I happen to see the signs all around us that the old familiar world is passing away, signs foretold time and time again and becoming more obvious by the day. Faith is another form of doublethink altogether.

There is only one course for us now. A Quantum Leap in Evolution. As the symbolism and eerie reality of 2012 draw ever closer, this is about to become abundantly clear on the planet. Our only path is an expansion in Consciousness so profound that we transcend the old, broken ways forever.

Call this yet another form of doublethink if you like, but more and more of us are in the process of making it happen, no more doublethink than Dawn contradicts the darkness of the night.

The Fall of the A-Write-ocracy?

This morning I relished with somewhat devilish delight a provocative opinion piece appearing in today's Huffington Post entitled New Rules for Writers: Ignore Publicity, Shun Crowds, Refuse Recognition and More.

Though some have speculated that this article may actually be satirical, it echoes many of the sentiments genuinely expressed by writers consciously choosing to bypass the disempowering aspects of those in the traditional writing establishment who are not enlightened or progressive enough to empower authors. I happen to know because I'm one such writer.

The push and pull of differing opinions on this topic come up regularly on weekly #writechat discussions on Twitter, with today no exception. In fact, last week, the topic was so very raw, afterwards I may have been the first to coin the new term "a-WRITE-ocracy" to describe the elitist attitudes that are unfortunately so commonplace in the established writing world, with the many writers in waiting circulating around its ivory palaces.

No matter how shrill the denials or condescending comments, there is no escaping the fact that a genuine writer's rebellion has been underway for so long, it is essentially a fait d'accompli.

The rebellion is actually not quite as revolutionary as we may think. Although not as accessible in the days of old, its seeds were already present in everything from cheap broadside ballads, chapbooks, almanacs and alternative news sources to the unconventional approaches of the talented 19th century Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Self-publishing is the writer's entrepreneurship, not all that different from the choice to seek freedom as an independent business owner instead of a paid employee. Self-publishing need not only describe the publishing of a book. It can also encompass many forms of online writing, from blogs to discussion forums to entire web sites.

Traditional publishing may carry its rewards, but so does freedom. As with progressive employers, the most progressive publishers will survive and thrive, but only those that emphasize the empowerment of a true co-creative partnership, only those that recognize that writers really do have legitimate choices these days.

In truth, nothing can silence the voice of a writer, whether assessed by some as "talented" or not. Free, unhindered expression is writing in its purest form. And no matter how forcefully some attempt to bar the gates from the threat of the "writing rabble", the true gatekeepers are now the readers, not the publishers.

Does "Darth Vader" Qualify for the Shift?

A long, long time ago in my youth far away, I spent many a day reflecting on the first "Star Wars" trilogy, a young person (and admitted "Star Wars" geek) already on a spiritual path much clearer to me now than it was then.

And what perhaps reached me most as the first (and best) trilogy drew to a close was the story of Darth Vader, a villain ultimately not vanquished by vengeance, but redeemed by Love, in the end shown healed and restored, shining in radiant angelic brilliance, in harmony with his fellow Jedi Masters.

What is so very remarkable if you ponder this outcome is how the need for retribution was not a factor in the least, nor was the demand for "just" punishment of his crimes. In the story, Darth Vader was responsible for the brutal, callous deaths of many. Yet in the end, there is only Transformation, a transformation so very profound and powerful, a redemption so instantaneous, that all we can do is cheer.

The story of "Darth Vader" holds a very special lesson, one that only enhances the underlying "Star Wars" theme of finding the hero within.

Ultimately it is the story of Transformation, the story of the Shift.

In the end, it was the enduring, unconditional Love of a son that was the catalyst of Transformation for the "evil" father, who turned out not to be quite so "evil" after all.

And this is what I believe the Shift awaiting Humanity is actually all about. There are those who claim that the Shift will only be available to those who qualify, those who hold enough Love in their hearts at a particular point in time. Even though I have dear friends and mentors who insistently assert this is the case, the concept has never resonated with me, not for a moment.

Something that bothers me about the partial shift theory is the fear it ignites in some of its followers, not to mention the almost irresistible sense of vindication so familiar in our fear-based world. There are those who attempt to justify the theory in love-based ways, but to me, it's just another version of "Left Behind", a tale I know well from the teachings of my youth.

When the Shift truly takes hold, I believe there will be no need to convince the Darth Vaders of the world why Transformation is the One and Only Way. They will know already. They will simply know. And as another line in "Star Wars" conveys, they will realize that somehow they have always known.

For there is no path so dark that it cannot be instantly illuminated by the Light. Many tears of Joy will be shed on that day, a day so very revolutionary that even forgiveness itself will be transcended.

One of the most difficult questions we face in the world is why "evil" occurs and how to deal with it. If you choose to empower "evil" like the Dark Side of the Force, then what follows is Fear. And if you choose to live in a world of punishment and retribution, the fear-inspired vengeance goes on and on and on in seemingly endless cycles of pain. The same is true of "justice" based in punishment instead of rehabilitation.

But if you choose to empower and embrace Love instead, if you choose to accept that nothing is more powerful than Love, if you choose to understand that unconditional Love is the ONLY foundation that matters, it is then, only then, that you understand why "evil" is no more than an illusory nightmare of Fear.

Like Luke "Skywalker", I choose to walk a path above the fray. I choose to walk above vengeance and fear. Even forgiveness is eventually superseded on this path because I know some day, there will no longer be anything left to forgive. There will only be the Peace and Joy of the current moment.

Forgiveness is all about the past. True transformation reveals itself in the moment. It does not account for wrongs yesterday or long ago. Unconditional Love doesn't work that way. Unconditional Love first forgives, then miraculously heals, making the events of the past immaterial to the present.

When we celebrate Darth Vader's ultimate rise to the Light, the past is gone. All that exists at the end is the radiant Now. When you can consider every "Darth Vader" who has ever walked this Earth miraculously transformed and restored, it is then that I believe you will truly understand what the Shift is all about.

In peace,
Susan Larison Danz

Note: For more on this topic, listen to today's "The Frontier Beyond Fear" Blog Talk Radio broadcast Shifting Darth Vader.


Darth Vader Footsteps photo released under a Creative Commons 2.0 license from Wikimedia Commons. "Star Wars" quotes from "Star Wars Episode VI - Return of the Jedi" (1983).

The Phantom Price of Authenticity

There can be a very real, tangible price for choosing to be authentic. But what often goes unexplored is the phantom price, the price we pay when we let our perceived opinions of others limit the person we allow ourselves to be. The phantom price exists only in our minds. Yet its impact can be very real indeed.

The past two months have been my busiest and boldest yet since choosing to act upon my own authenticity. Besides speaking at three conferences in October, I also started my new Blog Talk Radio show "The Frontier Beyond Fear".

It is indeed the radio show that has brought me face to face with my own lingering phantoms related to authenticity. The pilot episodes were unflinching and straight from the heart and conscience, basically an experiment in thinking out loud live on the air, all while becoming adept at various logistical details.

In retrospect, the monologues that resulted may have the appearance of being somewhat narcissistic, but I realized that the only way to get the hang of talking live online is to do just that - talk live online.

Even so, I do look forward to interviewing a wide range of guests in the shows to come, in an open and honest format exemplified by the most recent show A Discussion with Su Elliott, organizer of Portland Christians with Questions. Su's group in Portland, Oregon unabashedly takes on questions conservative Christians are often afraid to ask in church, questions such as whether they truly do believe in the inerrancy of the Bible. I know from experience that such doubts can cause intense silent anguish, and Su has created a safe setting where they can be explored, free from judgment.

The recent election pushed me very hard to stand in my own authenticity with regards to openly stating how I feel about the Tea Party movement's dangerous dance with theocracy. For a movement which claims to be all about individual freedom, it is highly ironic that these freedoms only go so far when you closely examine some of its most passionate agendas, constrained within very particular dictates of conservative theology.

Or could it be that a significant portion of the movement isn't exactly about freedom after all? This is what it means when people say they want to re-establish what they think has always been a theocracy - a "Christian nation". What many in the Tea Party have apparently failed to see is that freedom of religion in this country has produced precisely that: freedom of religion - indeed a wide diversity of religious and spiritual faiths, including a wide diversity of opinion on what personal liberty actually does convey. Assuming just one particular faith should be paramount in determining restrictions related to the choices of women or the marriages recognized by the state, for example, while still claiming to be all about individual liberty, is a highly inconsistent message.

Then to top it off, I have started reading a book called "Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement" by Kathryn Joyce. I am only a little way through the book, and I already find it to be addressing the rawest of topics of the utmost importance, topics also related to my own authenticity in choosing to speak, topics that too often people are afraid to talk about at all.

In the most extreme of cases presented in just the very early pages of Kathryn Joyce's book, we are told of women and young girls essentially taught to be slaves, being told that they must "die to themselves" and serve the men in their homes, calling their fathers and eventually their husbands "Lord".

Freedom of religion is paramount in this country, but is the freedom to completely brainwash and enslave someone from birth included? It's a very challenging question. People are afraid to even talk about such things. It's much easier to talk about abuses happening in other parts of the world, instead of looking at what is occurring right before our eyes.

So-called "complementariasm" and other kinder, gentler versions of justifying the diminishment of women using the Bible will never get a free pass from me again, at least when it comes to the expression to my own opinions on the matter. At its best, it is feeding an outdated, disempowering form of indoctrination to young girls (and boys). These views are not just isolated to a particular group either, not if they have an agenda to pass legislation regarding the rights and choices of women.

At its worse, what appears to be the indoctrination and outright enslavement of some (if not all) Quiverfull young women, many never taught to know any better, may very well be a civil rights violation, indeed a human rights violation, and I really don't think that should be ignored, with hardly even a word of criticism. I sometimes think that many today are so very cautious and politically correct, they would have remained silent even in the midst of slavery in the South, so as not to offend or infringe upon the religious choices of the slave owners. Slavery back in those days was justified using the Bible too.

Considering all of this has led me to ponder some very challenging questions related to my own faith in the dawn of a New Age. I can only hope that as Consciousness expands, people will simply come to realize that the subjugation and diminishment of women is an ancient tradition that must come to an end. That's what an expanded Consciousness delivers after all. Enlightenment doesn't force its way on anyone. One day you simply wake up astonished that you ever could have believed anything less, and the old beliefs fade away.

I felt this way on the day I looked back in true horror on how I could ever have even entertained the notion of a fiery (or even non-fiery) hell. More and more people are awakening to the truly unconditional Love of our Creator, a Creator who values men, women and people of all cultures and religions equally, with no one sex or creed placed in absolute authority over anyone else, and that is where I place my faith.

But we must never allow ourselves in the midst of political correctness to suggest that what we all believe will not be shifted by the transformation of Consciousness taking place on this planet. I believe that a day will come when any belief based in fear or disempowerment simply will no longer make sense, not to anyone. Only the unconditional Love will remain. There will be no loss on that day, not even the need to persuade, only astonishment, acceptance and Joy. We will simply Know.

I have to say that I was encouraged by a Glenn Beck program I happened to catch one day where he talked about "I AM that I AM" as the name of God and then applied that to each and every one of us. Amazingly reminiscent of a standard "New Age exercise", Glenn proceeded to write the words "I AM" on his chalkboard, followed by a blank. Then he filled that blank with several positive affirmations, all affirming positive qualities of human individuals. It is this sort of thing that demonstrates how Consciousness is indeed expanding in the most subtle of ways.

But until that day when we are certain the quantum leap in Consciousness has taken full effect, the only way many of us can continue to share what we believe is by authentically expressing who we are and what we feel. The sharing of information is another way to gently shift Consciousness. The judgment of others who believe otherwise, whether phantom judgment or real, cannot deter us. For me, my own choice to be authentic is an expression of pure conscience and Love. Love is the most powerful force in the Universe, and when you choose to stand in the Empowerment of Love, you can never go astray.

Forgiving and Forgetting: What We Truly Need to Remember About September 11

Like most Americans on that dreadful day, I watched with horror on September 11, 2001 and felt the very foundations of my day-to-day reality rocked in the days, weeks, months, even years that followed.

I was quite a different person back then, a person who stressed about all the little things in life, not to mention the big things. And this was a VERY big thing to me at the time.

We were living in a semi-rural area of Kansas in those days, and fear was running rampant, with no way of knowing at the time what might happen next. I recall well in the days that followed the sound of fighter jets overhead, the only planes flying at all, no doubt heading to and from nearby bases. And I must have watched the twin towers fall almost 50 times, addicted news junkie I was at the time.

When the "shock and awe" of war quickly followed, it seemed unavoidable. Like other mostly patriotic Americans, one who had actually been persuaded into voting for George W. Bush not long before this happened, I accepted the inevitability of war, though I do recall feeling uneasy about it at the time. I can still remember the palpable fear and uncertainty of those days. I was so very paranoid I was almost afraid to open the mail in the Antrax scares that followed. Yes, I was a much different person back then, a person ruled by fear. But fear was the rule of the day. Fear, righteous anger and revenge.

And the fear did not really let up throughout the year that followed. It was during September 2002, when anniversary fervor was reaching a fever pitch, that I had to confront a personal crisis, a thankfully brief, yet intense health scare that ultimately resulted in my own spiritual awakening. No doubt the crisis was made even more intense by the year following September 11, but in a way I felt like the entire nation was facing what seemed like a continual prospect of cancer, not just me. We had all been given the bad news a year ago, changing us forever.

I find it interesting that only in this very moment did I ever make the connection between the fear surrounding my health scare and September 11. For it was this time in my life that indeed led to a very dramatic spiritual awakening about 8 months later, an awakening that finally freed my life and my writing voice.

As with many personal awakenings, mine was the result of intense turmoil facing my own mortality, the turmoil of a person with no trusted spiritual anchor to rely upon, so great were my doubts about the evangelical beliefs instilled in childhood. I felt like I was standing at the very brink of hell. My confrontation with mortality was not just related to the state of my health, but the fear-based state of the entire nation.

In retrospect, I now realize the tremendous gifts fear gave to me. It was fear that led to my heartfelt prayer to the Creator of the Universe, tearfully begging to be shown "the way", whatever it might be.

And the way was indeed shown, though it took years for me to begin to understand, a journey of progressive understanding that continues on this September 11 too, nine years later.

The way had to do with unconditional Love. The way had to do with unconditional Forgiveness. The way had to do with lasting Peace.

I have not forgotten what happened on September 11, 2001. I have not forgotten on a personal, national or global level. I have not forgotten the many people who died that day. I have not forgotten the many people who died in the days and years that followed, on all sides of the resulting wars, including many innocent children and civilians, in addition to soldiers. But there is a difference between forgetting and letting go.

I am finally finding a way of letting go the fear of those days. And it's been quite some time since I have felt any need for vengeance. Instead I have discovered understanding. Instead I am really beginning to see what true faith, forgiveness and unconditional Love actually ask of all of us.

When you begin to look through eyes of understanding, you realize that the entire event on September 11 (even if you believe in alternative theories on the subject) resulted from centuries of fear and vengeance, something that drove a few misguided people to commit an act they felt was justified by their own convictions.

We can question those convictions of course, but can we even dare to try to understand what might have made them feel this way? Can we even dare to end the silence of tolerance (which need not be silent at all)? Just as we expect the tolerant in other countries to take the lead in educating those in their midst, can we dare to take on the responsibility of educating and enlightening those in our own country plagued by eerily similar fears?

Wars breed more wars. Any student of history can see that this is true. Fear breeds more fear. Vengeance breeds more vengeance. Blame breeds more blame. Anger breeds more anger. Death breeds more death. This is true on both sides of any conflict. And sometimes the cascading domino effects of war go on for centuries. This is what happens when we choose not to forget, when we choose not to let go, when we choose not to understand, when we choose not to forgive, when we choose not to Love.

We have a choice. We can indeed choose to Love. We can indeed choose to Trust. We can indeed choose to Understand. We can indeed choose to Forgive. We can indeed choose to place our Faith in the Love that binds us all together on this Earth.

That is where I place my Faith tonight. I have released the angst of September 11, and I no longer believe reacting in fear has anything to do with Faith or Love. I have not watched a single news report today. I honor those who died, just as I honor those who died on every horrendous day, days that continue in some parts of the world, impacting people of many nations, not just ours.

I'm going to dinner in a while. I choose to visit a small family-owned restaurant run by a Moslem married to a Christian (not sure if she converted, either way is fine with me). I happen to know that these people have personally felt an impact from the fear and unreasonable bias that still have a strangle-hold on some who claim to be all about forgiveness, but are actually more interested in judgment, vengeance and a a skewed nationalistic furor instead (something that has led to more wars and death than can be fathomed). I look forward to a nice meal of spicy lamb tajine, a favorite of mine.

I invite you all to dine with us at the table of Universal brotherhood, sisterhood and Unconditional Love.

Understanding breeds more Understanding. Tolerance breeds more Tolerance. Forgiveness breeds more Forgiveness. Love breeds more Love. Joy breeds more Joy. Peace breeds more Peace. Faith breeds more Faith.

I have unwaivering Faith that true Peace on Earth will soon be in our midst.

In peace,
Susan Larison Danz (aka BridgeBuilder)

A Sneak Preview of "The Frontier Beyond Fear"...

Nothing is more motivating as a writer than to see a beautiful preview of the book cover art created by talented artist Richard Crookes.

Have you visited the new frontier?

It is not a place.

It is a way of life.

One life, one moment at a time...

Join the new pioneers.

The Frontier Beyond Fear...a new book by inspirational writer Susan Larison Danz.

Coming soon...