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Archive for the ‘Inner exploration’ Category

Life After Death Project… a Film By Paul Davids

Posted in About Mark Macy, After we die, what then?, Heaven and Earth, Inner exploration, ITC, Other-worldly matters, Spiritual realms, tagged , , , , , on 2013 May 25 | 16 Comments »

Good afterlife documentaries are rare here in the States. When two are released in the same year, that’s big news!

This could be the year.

A couple of weeks ago I shared a rough cut of Dan Drasin’s landmark film, Calling Earth, which examines technical spirit communication with a focused, analytical eye… and which is close to completion.

Another film is scheduled for release soon… The Life After Death Project, by Paul Davids… and a short introductory trailer was posted this week.

I’ll include below some links to the two films and their producers, and to the new trailer. But first, let’s talk about this latest film by Paul Davids.

First I should warn you that the biggest surprise you’re likely to see in Paul’s trailer is the segment with me in it, which gets a little spooky… and I’ll explain in a moment what I think is happening with the gas-like emissions, shape-shifting and other distortions. Meanwhile….

Paul’s film seems to be geared (moreso than Dan’s film) to the general public and mainstream market, for various reasons:

  • It revolves loosely around a central plot, which is the life and possible afterlife activities of one Forrest J Ackerman, an avid writer, editor, agent, and researcher of sci-fi literature and monster movies. Ackerman was an atheist during lifetime, but apparently changed his tune in the afterlife. Paul Davids presents evidence that Ackerman has been busy since his death in 2008, creating strange anomalies in our world. Many of the interviews in the film are used to support that idea, while lending some insight in the nature of the spirit worlds and how they interplay with our world. (The weird goings-on during my interview might be a case in point.)
  • The film is drawn more toward spooky anomalies (troubled spirits, bumps in the night….) than to serious spiritual influences on our world (inspiration, meaningful communications, loving transworld connections, our ancient spiritual heritage and paradise destiny….), and this bias toward the dark side is typical of mainstream films. It stirs hormones and attracts an audience.
  • The film includes a wide spectrum of interviewees—nurses, doctors, filmmakers, scientists, afterlife researchers, psychic mediums, NDE survivors, and others with strange stories to share.
  • A token skeptic is included in the film in the name of “fair and balanced reporting,” a principle that originated in early journalism to promote objective reporting… but has evolved into something of a festering tumor in the body of modern journalism. The traditional mainstream media today (CBS, NBC, ABC, daily newspapers…)  often insist on dissenting views in the reports they publish. A recent example of how objective journalism has evolved into a media sickness is global warming. Though it is accepted as reality by more than 90 percent of climate scientists, mainstream reports about global warming usually give equal voice to a few loud, vocal detractors, who are often funded by energy companies and far-right political groups that choose to be in denial of the historic dangers posed by global warming, usually for financial, religious, and political purposes. In the case of afterlife reporting, decades of serious research can be undermined, negated and neutralized in a few seconds of film footage by the shallow comments of one or two skeptics.

All that said, Paul Davids’s film is inventive, fascinating, and enjoyable, and I think it’s something the public could enjoy… and learn from.

So… here’s the 8-minute trailer to Paul’s film:

And here’s what might be happening during my segment, which begins about 6 minutes into the trailer. First, there’s an emanation of spiritual substance (ectoplasm) from my hands. Then, the spirit group present at the event tries hard to open the veil between our world and theirs in a way that will manifest on digital recording media… not an easy feat! The result is a melting-away of physical structure, especially my body. The strangest part is the last few frames, in which my face morphs into something kind of freaky… which (yeah, I suppose it’s possible) the spirit team could indeed have planned in honor of Mr Ackerman. Why me? If the above scenario is correct, then maybe the spirit group involved that day figures that I understand the spirit worlds (and the playful nature of some of our spirit friends) well enough to see the humor in this kind of thing without being ‘spooked.’   :-)

This, of course, is speculation that makes sense to me based on 20+ years of afterlife research, especially ITC.

Other people will certainly have other speculations about those anomalies (most notably, pixel distortion due to flawed recording media)… but I’d be leery of any views that are expressed with “certainty”… as certainty in cases like this often reflect an overcompensation for insecurity.

More about Paul Davids…       and his film….

A Huffington Post article about Paul’s film…

More about Dan Drasin…      and his film….

An FMBR event featuring Dan Drasin next month…

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Another Great Movie: Chico Xavier

Posted in After we die, what then?, Heaven and Earth, Inner exploration, Other-worldly matters, Spiritual realms, tagged , , on 2013 April 20 | 3 Comments »

Here’s another wonderful afterlife movie from Brazil, currently viewable on youtube, with English subtitles:  the life of the Portuguese medium Chico Xavier.

View the subtitled Chico Xavier movie here…

Or watch below (click the [  ]  symbol at bottom right to view fullscreen)….

 

 

Like the other Spiritist movie I explored recently, Nosso Lar (The Astral City), the Xavier film can be seen freely at the moment… perhaps with a small window of opportunity. (It was just posted in the past few days, and it may or may not be removed soon from this link by the rights-holders.)

If removed from the free youtube site, the movie can be streamed from various other websites, for example…

(here…  here…  here…  and here…)

Not available on DVD

Be careful buying a DVD. Make sure it’s engineered for Region 1. The only DVDs of the Chico Xavier movie that I could find for sale online are in a format unsuitable for North America. (see international DVD format details)

In any case, if you haven’t seen the two-hour movie yet, you’re missing out on a moving, insightful experience!

About the movie

The film is an intimate portrait of the famous medium Chico Xavier, from his difficult childhood to his “disembodiment” at age 92… who wrote (through automatic writing) more than 400 books… all proceeds going to charitable causes.

Despite being taunted as a child as possessed, crazy, and a liar… being physically abused by his stepmother… and being assailed as a young man by a skeptical media and self-righteous Catholic priesthood, Chico Xavier led a life of love and enlightenment. His countless channeled messages from departed loved ones and healings of people suffering physically, emotionally, and spiritually were performed freely.

This all comes to light in the moving film, a poignant drama suffused with spiritual insights that Chico received through an intimate rapport with his spirit guide, Emmanuel.

Unlike the movie Nosso Lar, Chico Xavier has few special effects, other than a glimpse of ethereal impressions spinning in his head. It’s a down-to-earth film with an other-worldly backdrop.

 

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More Epicycles: Science and the Near-Death Experience

Posted in After we die, what then?, Heaven and Earth, Inner exploration, Other-worldly matters, Science and Technology, Spiritual realms, tagged , , on 2013 April 7 | Leave a Comment »

Scientists are still dancing around the afterlife… trying to make sense of it in Newtonian terms.

Yet another study of near-death experiences (NDEs)—based on interviews with people who’ve died briefly and recovered—explores neurochemical explanations for the tunnels, doorways, glowing light, departed loved ones, and other lucid experiences… and notes that the crystalline afterlife memories are often much more profound and transformative than our normal, day-to-day memories.

Read that Plos One report….

RainbowTunnel

This is one one many pictures you can see by googling “rainbow tunnel,” suggesting that many artists are inspired by an afterlife knowledge deep within. This photo was taken by TravelPod member misocutlet of Kuwana, Japan.
More here:
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/nabana-no-sato-tunnel-japan

In a nutshell, the study published in Plos One concludes that about 5 percent of the general population and 10 percent of heart-attack victims report near-death experiences, yet no one really knows what they are… other than “flashbulb memories of really perceived hallucinations.”  Adding complications to the study is the fact that healthy people sometimes have similar experiences during meditation and when taking certain serotonin-mimicking hallucinogenic drugs.

Read a short history of hallucinogens….

Well, you and I know what NDEs really are. If you follow this blog you know that afterlife and the finer realms of spirit are the greater reality, while life on Earth is maya… illusion. That’s why, when our earthly blinders come down momentarily during an NDE or meditation, our glimpse of the other side is so lucid, so profound, and so life-changing.

Once we experience the greater afterlife reality and process it through our physical senses, our noble motivations take the steering wheel, guided by the finer spirit within, while our savage inclinations—fueled by hormones, ego, and our carnal composition—move to the back seat.

Read more about the spiritual basis of our afterlife glimpses….

Other articles about science and the human spirit:

The material mind skews logic to explain consciousness  —  More modern-day epicycles  —  Foreign-accent syndrome  —  Measuring maya  —  Asteroids pummeled Earth for 2 billion years  —  Exoplanets and the prospect we’re not alone!  —  Mysteries of Eden  —  Combat killing and the human spirit  —  Noxious capitalism and the human spirit  —  Aurora theater tragedy  —  News in perspective  —  Pfrankenstein’s monster: big pharma  —  Preventing that pesky apocalyse  —  A life and afterlife debate  —  Updating the Therapists’ DSM Bible

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ITC Gem 39: The Inside Story of the Afterlife

Posted in After we die, what then?, Heaven and Earth, Inner exploration, ITC, ITC Gems, Other-worldly matters, Science and Technology, Spiritual realms on 2013 March 30 | 3 Comments »

Editor’s note: In the landmark book Breakthroughs in Technical Spirit Communication, co-author Maggy Harsch-Fishbach of Luxembourg recalls in detail her miraculous rapport with spirit group Timestream… especially the spirit of late scientist Swejen Salter and ethereal being Technician. Maggy’s frank and inspiring recollections give some of the greatest understanding available in today’s world about the nature of the afterlife and the qualities necessary to foster a sustainable connection between this world and that… as indicated by this adaptation of Part 2 of her book about ITC (instrumental transcommunication), the use to technology to get in touch with the other side.

Read Part 2 of Maggy’s book in its entirety

Background. Swejen Salter was a scientist on planet Varid, one of Earth’s parallel physical worlds… each of which follow similar evolutionary paths with some variations. Societies on Varid, for example, evolved in a Dickensian way in which children were nurtured in large institutions by professional caregivers rather than in families… so that the noble-savage inconsistencies among parents didn’t pose the widespread problems that they do on Earth… where “sins of the father” are passed on from generation to generation to generation….

Read more about parallel worlds

Science on Varid was deeply involved in multidimensional research, especially ITC, unlike Newtonian science on modern Earth, which has blindfolded itself from the vast spiritual worlds that flourish with life all around us. Terrestrial science today is immersed completely in the illusory material world, whereas Varidian science was more integrated with spiritual reality.

This sci-fi-like scenario of many parallel worlds evolving separately like cages of lab animals under controlled conditions is just one of many mind-boggling insights into reality gleaned by Maggy Harsch-Fischbach through her other-worldly communications using ITC systems… and it provides the basis for her historic research.

Dr Swejen Salter died in an explosion on Varid in 1987 and was recruited in the afterlife to help Earth advance its multidimensional understanding. In Luxembourg at the same time, schoolteacher Maggy Harsch-Fischbach was attracted to ITC research while watching the TV show Unbelievable Stories being broadcast by RTL (Radio-Television Luxembourg).

A group of ethereal beings calling themselves “The Seven” were closely observing all of these scenarios. Like superhuman lab scientists, they were controlling some of the conditions in this multidimensional experiment involving many parallel physical worlds and their corresponding spiritual worlds. They put Swejen Salter in charge of Timestream spirit group, and they selected Maggy harsch-Fischbach as the first full-fledged ITC researcher on Earth, for whom a communication bridge would be opened, sustained, and protected by the ethereals.

The job of Swejen Salter at Timestream sending station would be to share information with Maggy Harsch-Fischbach in Luxembourg through the high-tech communication bridge being monitored and facilitated by The Seven,  especially the one calling himself “Technician.”

Maggy and Swejen often chatted on the phone like girlfriends, as Swejen coordinated the work of hundreds of people-in-spirit who all shared the desire to foster a connection with their loved ones back home on Planet Earth. Swejen and her spirit colleagues also talked through Maggy’s radio sounds, sent video images from the afterlife through her TV set, and planted files on her computer containing long messages and bit-mapped images. They even sent Maggy some FAXes!

In short, the doors were open wide, thanks largely to Technician, who described his assigned role as gatekeeper between heaven and earth.

Friendly, Insightful Dialogs

In one of her early computer messages to Maggy in the late 1980s, Swejen wrote:

I died at the age of 38 as the result of an accident. Death came suddenly and unexpectedly. I was totally unprepared and cannot remember my passing over. I awoke on a recliner in a cheerfully decorated room that I had never seen before. Before I could have a closer look around, a tall, imposing man entered the room and identified himself as Richard Francis Burton. He welcomed me and started showing me the world in which he had lived since the year 1890 of your Earth time. I felt happy and safe here. Everybody was friendly and helpful. Still, the change was difficult. It is not easy to adapt to a new life when one is torn away from a daily routine.

On one occasion, Swejen told Maggy:

Unfortunately I cannot and may not answer all your questions. Do not forget that I have to get permission for some of this information from higher beings.

On another occasion, Technician added:

Swejen Salter is being granted much freedom of information!

As Swejen got acclimated to her new afterlife surroundings, she reported to Maggy:

If you harbor bad intentions and thoughts you will not be here very long.

She explained that people who carry with them to the afterlife a lot of emotional baggage (earthly resentments, suspicions, fears, cravings…), and are unable to detach from the troubled thinking, might suddenly find themselves in darker, more confused surroundings for awhile, or reincarnate to Earth to try to work out the problems in another lifetime.

Spirit communication pioneer Konstantin Raudive, a Latvian psychologist, died in 1974 and also joined Timestream spirit group. In July 1986 he told Maggy:

On the third level of consciousness each of us individually will find ourself closer to our own true self. While on Earth I tried to be something other than my true self. Most people try to paint a picture of themselves other than what they really are. Today, on this world, I acknowledge my own true self more.

Swejen reported to Maggy that various deceased scientists were being drawn to ITC projects, including psychologist Karl Jung, Nikola Tesla, Guglielmo Marconi, Marie Curie and Albert Einstein.

When scientist Konrad Lorenz died in 1989, Swejen Salter reported his arrival at Timestream:

He (Lorenz) was transported to us in a magnificent ship surrounded by people. Imagine a Viking ship in which his (astral) body was brought to his destination. He is still in a state of sleep. But it can already be observed that his features and his body are changing and becoming more youthful. Lorenz will probably remain in this regenerative sleep for only a short time. The sleep duration varies from one individual to another. It is generally about six weeks of earth time. Some people need considerably less.

Maggy was told that she and Swejen Salter shared a certain spiritual resonance, and so did Konrad Lorenz, which enabled him also to communicate without too much trouble through Maggy’s ITC bridge.

Maggy recalled her contact with Konrad Lorenz, “Compared to others, who could no longer express themselves in their lifetime speech pattern, Lorenz seemed to have no problems putting his thoughts through a spirit apparatus and forming them into human language. As he spoke to me, his voice gradually lost the monotony of synthetic speech. Dialog became possible and I forgot that I was speaking to a “dead” one. I noticed that Lorenz rolled his “r” and spoke with an Austrian accent. He was very friendly, advised me to take notes, and spoke slowly and distinctly. He thanked me for the nice report I had written about him.”

Maggy was told on various occasions, by Swejen, Technician, and others, that the laws and principles in the spirit world were quite different from Earth, and information sent to our world had to be translated or polished into a context that could be understood by us terrestrial humans. If the information were delivered straight to our world in unfiltered form, it would seem bizarre and incomprehensible. Pictures from the astral worlds, for example, could be sent to us only if the images were earth-like enough for us to recognize.

That seems to be one of the main obstacles facing modern ITC research: the very limited understanding of us on Earth. Our multidimensional insensitivity filters out much of the information that could come into our world from beyond.

Another obstacle is our tendency to fall into negative thinking. A protected ITC bridge to finer realms can remain open only as long as there is a harmony of good feelings on both sides. Fears and animosities harbored by earth experimenters can attract troubled spirits into the situation. This is a problem our spirit friends have to contend with. Swejen Salter told Maggy in 1989:

Recently I have been very busy trying to avert negative influences. I am therefore avoiding contacts at present which could contribute to interference.

Successful ITC rests on the harmonic cooperation of the people involved. That harmony sets up a “contact field” of life energy conducive to close interaction by a spirit group. Then, when the factors of good will come together, miracles can unfold.

Around the year 1990, two annual conferences were to be held—a small ITC conference in Bad Muenstereifel, Germany, and a much larger PSI Days conference in Basel, Switzerland. Swejen Salter said the conditions (group harmony) at the smaller conference would be much more conducive for a live ITC contact. Swejen:

I do not know yet if a contact attempt is possible in Basel. It is too early to tell. At present the timelines are not favorable…. Conditions are especially good for a contact in Bad Muenstereifel. At the moment they are better than for Basel. Many good and serious researchers will be going to Bad Muenstereifel. The participants are able to build a favorable contact field with which we can work. There is a general feeling of responsibility.

I shall try to adjust through you to the light bridge. Ask your co-workers for video pictures of the equipment! I shall attempt to enjoin the participants positively in their thoughts. At the time of contact seven higher beings will be present in the hall. One of them is in contact with the medium Mr Zoennchen. Another being is guiding the contacts of the Group Homes/Malkhoff in Rivenich… The Technician is one of the seven entities. They are depending on the harmonic cooperation of all humans. Their main technical sources of help will be the Light.

While you make the introduction I shall try to orient to you by your voice. During the experiment all doors should remain closed. Ask the audience not to use any photo flashes. There is a danger that the energy field may collapse. Regular picture taking or audio and video recording are allowed.

After a successful spirit contact at the Bad Muenstereifel conference, Swejen reported to Maggy by phone:

We made the same efforts that you made in your cooperation…. The harmony was great and contributed very much to accomplishing the contact. There was joy and satisfaction but also confusion. There was tension and stress while operating the equipment. A total of 57 transmission attempts through space and time were made! Only two arrived, one of them distorted, the other one was clearer. We do not know the exact outcome and hope at least a few sentences could be understood.

Heli Schaefer on our side tried to harmonize the spirit groups involved. We had a few complaints about some technical steps on your side which proved more of a handicap than a help. Do not forget the people here have only one advantage that you don’t have: They have crossed the threshold of eternity, while otherwise they are still very much like they were on earth. Some of them feel too much is expected of them during this period of bridge-building. Of course we do not suffer from exhaustion as you do, but we know the feeling of not getting any rest because so much remains to be done. 

Other ITC Gems:

1 How we affect the spirit worlds       2 Reliable look in-beyond      3 Phone chat with an invisible friend      4 Murdered child is found and healed      5 How thoughts create reality      6 Strangeness of material reality      7 More about Planet Varid      8 Reincarnation from ethereal eyes      9 Convincing a skeptical public      10 How some people reincarnate      11 The end of reincarnation      12 Friedrich Juergenson makes contact      13 How the Luxembourg miracle began      14 How humans,  spirits,  and angels see God      15 The nature of spirit      16 Life on the other side      17 Avoiding dark forces in spirit work     18 How angel pictures are delivered to Earth      19 More afterlife descriptions      20 Timestream and othe spirit groups      21 Time and space in the astral realm      22 How things work in ITC      23 Power of thought      24 Reliable facts about the afterlife      25 Ethereal beings 1      26 Ethereal beings 2      27 Technical  ITC      28 Transimages      29 More transimages      30 Technical ITC: Transvideo   31 Technical ITC conclusions      32 The second epoch      33 Parallel worlds and shadow worlds      34 Medicine and the human spirit       35 Atlantis (Science may be closing in)      36 Humans came from Eden      37 Secrets of life and afterlife      38 Perspective from Beyond    39 The inside story of the afterlife

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More Modern-Day Epicycles

Posted in After we die, what then?, Heaven and Earth, Inner exploration, Other-worldly matters, Science and Technology, Spiritual realms, tagged , on 2013 March 17 | 2 Comments »

Interesting article in the NY Times this past week… about science, zombies, and consciousness, written by a  philosophy professor at Notre Dame university.

It’s more a philosophical essay than a scientific analysis, but it explains the dilemma involved in trying to fit mind and spirit into the modern scientific model.

Read here “Mary and the Zombies: Can Science Explain Consciousness?”

The essay, like science, looks at consciousness from the eyes of an objective outside observer… which could present an obstacle to understanding the mind.

I think we can get a much clearer understanding of consciousness through more subjective, more personal experiences such as meditation.

The more we learn through inner exploration, the more we move toward the Eastern  philosophy (and I’m talking way east of Notre Dame) that what really exists within consciousness (what people like me call “spirit” or “soul”) is the true reality… and that the material reality that we experience through the five physical senses here on Earth is the illusion, the “maya.”

Modern science, then, becomes little more than a concerted effort to measure maya… and to spin modern-day epicycles while trying to fit the grander picture of consciousness (spirit) into the constrained Newtonian model.

Hope that make sense!

Other articles about science and the human spirit:

The material mind skews logic to explain consciousness  —  Science and NDEs  —  More modern-day epicycles  —  Foreign-accent syndrome  —  Measuring maya  —  Asteroids pummeled Earth for 2 billion years  —  Exoplanets and the prospect we’re not alone!  —  Mysteries of Eden  —  Combat killing and the human spirit  —  Noxious capitalism and the human spirit  —  Aurora theater tragedy  —  News in perspective  —  Pfrankenstein’s monster: big pharma  —  Preventing that pesky apocalyse  —  A life and afterlife debate  —  Updating the Therapists’ DSM Bible

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Reflections on “Nosso Lar”… 1) the Dichotomy

Posted in After we die, what then?, Heaven and Earth, Inner exploration, ITC, Other-worldly matters, Our ancient heritage, Our paradise destiny, Spiritual realms, tagged , on 2013 February 8 | 5 Comments »

I’m going to write a series of articles about the movie Nosso Lar that was subject of my last article. I’d like to explore in more detail some of the movie’s many vital truths, and a few items that may need some clarification, starting with the overall structure of the spirit worlds as depicted in the movie.

(I still plan to write a closing article for the politics series, but this one seems a bit more important, and maybe more urgent.)

The stark dichotomy portrayed in the movie—the dark, hellish place and the light paradise place—shows just a glimpse of a tiny portion of the spirit worlds that involve humanity… and it could be troubling and frightening to many people who view the movie… that when they die they’ll end up either in paradise or sludgeland. Doesn’t leave many options.

In reality it’s a lot more complicated than that. I know from my research and personal experiences (especially my many memorable, often strange dreams) that between the dark, hellish worlds and the bright and beautiful paradise worlds there are many worlds in shades of gray and subdued colors… worlds or communities much like the Earth communities where people’s emotional imbalances are rampant but fairly harmless. Most people in these mid-level astral worlds live in homes with joys and sorrows… clarity and confusion similar to what we have here on Earth. They haven’t found the inner peace and bliss of “Nosso Lar,” nor are they trapped in misery. I’ve visited many such communities in my dreams.

Spirit bodies are free of injury and disease, just as they are in paradise… although they can become a little decrepit looking from the confusion, anxieties, and fears of the people inhabiting those grayish realms. People in those grayish realms just don’t look as happy and at peace as they do in the paradise worlds. Nor are they as tortured and lost as they are in those dark, dismal places depicted in the Nosso Lar movie.

Sometimes I feel welcome during my visits to those mid-level regions, and sometimes people are a little wary of my presence, aware than I’m just passing through from an Earth-dream… and therefore liable to be a little unpredictable in my thoughts and actions.

I’ve visited those realms often in my dreams… suggesting to me that my service work once I cross over may have something to do with helping out in those places. That’s certainly not the afterlife I’d choose for myself—I’d much rather move far away from the troubles of Earth into brilliant realms of light—but I doubt if I’ll be so lucky. I think those brilliant afterlife getaways are earmarked for the gentle souls whose lifetimes have spread a lot of love and gratitude and generosity around society without causing very many problems by harboring fears and animosities and jealousies and lusts toward other people.

Looking over my lifetime, I’ve been a decent guy as a rule, but I’ve also harbored unsettling emotions toward various types of people who annoy me or frighten me or arouse me sexually or, most of all, outrage me. It’s those emotions that’ll probably keep me caught up in the cycle of earthly living for awhile.

I will probably … hopefully… settle into a paradise setting after I die, but I’ll have to do some kind of service work to help compensate for the troubles I inadvertently stirred up on Earth during this lifetime. I may have to reincarnate again to see if I can live a cleaner, gentler life next go-around. I definitely don’t want to go through any more lifetimes on Earth… not consciously… but maybe at some spiritual level I’ll see the need after I’ve gotten settled in on the other side.

Anyway, this is all speculation, and, as our spirit friends at Timestream told us on various occasions in various ways, any expectations we have about our own personal afterlife destiny are bound to fall far short of reality.

So I’ll take this opportunity to explain, according to what I’ve learned from my research, how the two Nosso Lar realms probably fit into the bigger picture of spiritual reality.

This is what I know to be true, based on ITC messages from The Seven ethereals: There was once a physical world Marduk (Eden) that was destroyed long, long ago by super technologies of its superhuman inhabitants. We on Earth are descended from those superhumans. Hence the ancient religious stories that we came from Eden. There is also a spirit-world Marduk (Eden) where many people on Earth awaken after they die. Hence the religious afterlife stories about heaven and hell and purgatory.

I also know from my research that many material things have spiritual templates, and those templates exist in spiritual realms that are templates of the material realm we live in. Our physical bodies have spirit-body templates that flourish in spiritual realms. Rocks, trees, and buildings in this earthly realm also have spiritual templates that exist in spirit realms. Entire planets have spiritual templates… which is why the spirit world Marduk (Eden) continues to exist since the destruction of the physical planet.

Our material planet Earth also has spiritual templates that exist in spirit realms, superimposed over the physical world… and those, I believe, are what the Nosso Lar movie is trying to depict. I’m sure there are dark, sludgy places among the earth templates that are similar to the one shown in the movie. But there also a lot of the earth-like spirit communities I described above… grayish with subdued colors… not real heavenly and not real hellish… and these mid-level communities were not shown in the movie.

Most intriguing to me is the idea of paradise outposts scattered here and there around the Earth, in subtle realms superimposed over our physical realm… like the actual Nosso Lar  community which was the subject of the movie.

It makes sense to me that such paradise outposts would be maintained and protected by ethereal beings who are involved in a project to help lift humanity out of its darkness. It makes sense that many people arrive in those outposts after they die, and they find it their calling to do mission work into the darkest places to help “redeem” those lost souls who are ready to find the light… all of which is portrayed beautifully in the movie

I’m just saying… Nosso Lar is a wonderful, beautiful movie… but it just shows a small part of the bigger picture… and it’s that bigger picture that I hope to start piecing together with this new series of articles based on the movie.

Stay tuned….

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Great Movie!

Posted in After we die, what then?, Heaven and Earth, Inner exploration, Our paradise destiny, Society and ethics, Spiritual realms, tagged on 2013 February 1 | 16 Comments »

I’ve been fretting for two weeks over the next installment, which was to explore what activities are best regulated at what levels of society… personal, family, community, province, nation… and I’ve suddenly figured out why it’s been such a struggle.  It’s…

Bo – - – - – ring.

Not only is it boring, but it’s inconsequential in the bigger picture of things.

How did I reach that epiphany?

Well, I just finished watching what I’m comfortable in saying is the best movie ever made (imho), and it’s put things into perspective for me. It’s moved my focus away from politics for a moment, and back to the things that really matter.

The film is compelling… moving… deep… it portrays life and death more accurately than any other film I’ve ever seen… it left me inspired and charged to face life on Earth from the most rewarding, most gratifying, and most pleasurable attitude possible… and it’s a movie that few people (outside of Brazil) have ever heard about.

It’s called “Nosso Lar.”

Years ago I read a book by the same name: Nosso Lar… which is Portuguese for “Our Home.” The movie is adapted from the book.

I’ve spent the past twenty years researching the afterlife with a discerning eye, that book was one of the best things I encountered, and now this movie takes the magic of the book and gives it drama, heart, and soul… not to mention breathtaking special effects!

The movie lasts nearly two hours and is (actually, WAS) free on youtube.  (I learned from my friend John Day today [Feb13]  that it’s been removed from youtube. Apparently the film distributor wanted it removed.)

You can purchase the English (subtitled) version, which has been retitled…

Astral City

You can order it on Amazon.com…

You can view the trailer on youtube…

This is where the movie was showing freely on youtube for a short time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HioRp77YGuo

In any case, the movie inspired me to write a more suitable, more enjoyable article that will close out the “Politics and the Human Spirit” series… which I hope to finish up next week. The movie certainly sets the stage for the article I envision.

Thanks to my Aussie colleague Victor Zammit, who included the link in his much-read, much-appreciated Friday Afterlife Report this week.

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phs10: The Carnal Line Between Noble and Savage

Posted in About Mark Macy, After we die, what then?, Heaven and Earth, Inner exploration, ITC, Other-worldly matters, Our ancient heritage, Our paradise destiny, Politics and Economics, Society and ethics, Spiritual realms, tagged , , , , , , on 2013 January 5 | 5 Comments »

(Politics and the Human Spirit – Installment 10)

 

Maybe the best way to distinguish the “noble” from the “savage” in human nature and human affairs is to answer a simple question:

What drives the angels?

While angels, or ethereal beings, aren’t perfect in the “God” sense of the word… they’re much closer to perfection than we humans are… so close, in fact, that from our earthly point of view angels seem omnipresent and all-powerful. They seem to embody all of the nobility of God.

Our INIT group (1995-2000) learned quite a lot about ethereal beings, as information about the afterlife streamed into our computers, TVs, phones, and other research equipment from the finer realms of spirit. In some ITC contacts our spirit friends (departed humans at Timestream spirit group) told us about the ethereal beings who visited their world occasionally… coming through shimmering portals… glowing in rainbow colors. In other contacts the ethereals themselves communicated with us… sharing tremendous wisdom and depth.

This is one of The Seven ethereals working with our INIT group, as it presented itself on the TV of our Luxembourg member, Maggy Fischbach. A being much like that exists within each of us... is part of us... is superimposed over our physical body... remains invisible to our senses and sciences. Thoughts and impressions from that ethereal self, deep within, bubble up into our conscious mind. Ethereal impressions are the source of noble human behavior.

This is one of The Seven ethereals working with our INIT group, as it presented itself on the TV of our Luxembourg member, Maggy Fischbach. A being much like that exists within each of us… is part of us… is superimposed over our physical body… remains invisible to our senses and sciences. Thoughts and impressions from that ethereal self, deep within, bubble up into our conscious mind. Ethereal impressions are the source of noble human behavior.

Read more about our carnal and ethereal composition…

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If I can capture some of those ethereal qualities here, in this article, then I think we’ll have a fair idea of what purely noble human behavior would look like… and the challenges we would face trying to adopt it here on Earth.

Essentially we have a savage self that’s wrapped up in our carnal body and mind… and we have a noble self… an ethereal, “god-like” self, resting deep within us. The savage self lasts a lifetime; the noble self lasts forever.

The ethereal spirit within us is the source of noble human behavior… and if we can get a clear sense of what that is, then maybe we can use that knowledge to reshape our politics… as we reshape ourselves.

Our Ethereal (Noble) Qualities

Following are some of the finer qualities of ethereal beings, as gleaned from ITC messages in the 1990s. The italicized passages are the actual words of our spirit friends (in some cases translated from German). The other passages (underlined or bulleted) are my interpretations of the spirit messages.

1 – Love completely… but appropriately to your soul purpose.  The fullness of our unlimited love is open to any soul in a way that can best be accepted by that soul. (The Seven ethereals)

  • Learn your soul purpose, through meditation and inner reflection… (not an easy feat!… but a wondrous journey…) and love accordingly.

2 – Acknowledge others without judgment.  Children of Earth, people of Terra! Often, when we come to take you home at the end of your earthly lives, we notice that you are in great haste. Like someone who unexpectedly has guests coming, you dash to and fro and try to get some order in the chambers of your spirit and your heart. You quickly get things out of the way which you left lying around carelessly for a long time. You hide other things under the furniture and the carpet because you are ashamed that you neglected them. Dear people! We come only to greet you, not to judge you. The pupil is not being judged after an hour of testing, but only after his entire period of learning.  (The Seven ethereals)

  • Don’t be too hard on others… nor on yourself; we’re all doing the best we can.

3 – Strive for peace on Earth… but know the limitations of being carnal in a material world.  Meat-eating man really gets in his own way. Man cannot live in the natural environment without using force. It has become part of your world and you cannot ignore it. Even peace, as far as you have it, only exists to the extent that you limit force in solving your conflicts. The same is true of peace with nature and the animal life. (The Seven ethereals)

  • Our dreams of peace can go only so far on Earth.

4 – Envision and manifest unity.  We think that an emerging human vision should be the measure of things. We do not share the anxiety some of you have of a larger-scale cooperation which would be fostered by an ultimate umbrella organization. There certainly can be no argument about governing or serving this kind of cooperation. Circulating the idea (from us and from you) that it is presently “too early” to set up a stable field, can be the very obstacle that will prevent this field. Everybody is responsible for what he/she sows and reaps. These thoughts have been presented to you several times. Unfortunately they have not been understood by everyone here and on your side. I have already asked you once: What holds you back from setting up such an organization? To this date, we have not been given an instructive and informative answer. Let us say again that fear has always been a bad advocate. (The Seven ethereals, speaking of an umbrella ITC organization… but it could be broadened in reference to an authorized United Nations, an umbrella world government)

  • The “stable field” mentioned here consists of resonant thoughts and expectations of everyone involved in a project… and it shapes the living reality that bridges various realms. For a world government to receive direct help from ethereal realms (a very definite possibility!) a stable field will be necessary.

5 – Understand morality and live morally.  We, The Seven, have decided to help and support the way chosen by you in INIT. It is the way of morals, which means to understand, to acknowledge, to devise, and to act. (The Seven ethereals)

  • Understand the information received by the conscious mind from ethereal realms (including from the higher self), acknowledge it, adjust it to fit the world at this time, and act accordingly. Morality.

6 – Avoid fear and envy, which lead to darkness and destruction.  It is easy to forget that you are still on the physical side of the veil and have your daily battles with all the shortcomings of physical life. We notice how under the weight of a stone all kinds of repulsive worms and vermin accumulate. So it is under the weight of fear and envy that hate and thoughts of destruction come forth. Do not think that you only have to awaken what is humane and dignified in a person to make them walk the way of the light. (The Seven ethereals)

  • Live on Earth, as best we can, in the light of love, understanding, and acceptance.

7 – Stand against tyranny, protect the people.  Shall we leave doors open (to human corruption)… or shall we close them?… Our decision: Protect the citizens. (The Seven ethereals)

  • This is an excerpt of a message delivered, I believe, by The Seven ethereals during a rare, direct intervention into recent election fraud that would have turned a dark tide on Earth. ”Rare,” to say the least! I have not heard directly from The Seven since the breakup of our ITC group (INIT) around the year 2000… and I wondered (in my gloomier moments) if maybe they’d given up on ITC and maybe even on humanity. (If an international research panel of spiritually motivated men and women with the best of intentions couldn’t get along for more than four or five years, what chances were there for humanity?!) When I heard through the web that someone had stymied the latest efforts to steal yet another US election, I was captivated. I’d been watching the stealing of US elections since the year 2000, and there were moments when I myself had nearly lost all hope in humanity as I watched the devastating, shock-and-awe repercussions unleashed by the illegitimate Bush administration. When I finally tracked down the actual letter from “the protectors of democracy” who claimed responsibility for thwarting the latest effort at a stolen election, I got chills on my spine, the hair on the back of my neck bristled, and my jaw dropped. The depth, the wisdom, and the perfect metaphors in the letter were intimately characteristic of The Seven as I’d gotten to know them in the 1990s… and today, two months after the 2012 election fraud incident, I firmly believe it was The Seven who saved the day. It would take some mighty solid proof to convince me otherwise… to persuade me that someone on Earth had circumvented the fraud and composed the letter. I’d need the names of the “cyber sleuths,” their technical and literary background, the techniques they used, and so on. Until then, I’m comfortable “knowing” it was a job requiring herculean talents, and that The Seven stepped in to help humanity at a crucial moment in our history. (Read more about the election-fraud incident and see the complete letter…)

8 – Help those in need… with tact and discretion.  We accompany the lonely and grieving. We lie next to the sick and we ease the burden of the suffering. We love human beings, but people sometimes expect this love to give them something which we cannot give because you are unable or unprepared to receive it. We do understand your desperation and your skepticism, your doubt and your anger. We know you are only on a journey. Once you get back to us, you will feel like the child who sits smiling and secure on its mother’s lap. (The Seven ethereals)

  • Those in need don’t always know what they need. Those wishing to help don’t always know how to help. We can only do the best we can… learn from expert sources such as the 12-Step Program… and live with knowledge that a more tranquil and true reality awaits us once we leave Earth’s carnal illusions behind.

9 – Advise, don’t dictate.  We only give you advice. We would never command you or insist on a particular action. (The Seven ethereals)

  • Our savage side may need to be closely managed by ourselves and by society, but our noble side flourishes in freedom.

10 – Discern the information to bring into this world.  We seek council with the higher beings to determine the information to send to Earth. (Timestream spirit group)

  • As wide-ranging information streams into our conscious minds from diverse spiritual worlds, it’s up to us to determine what information is or is not suitable to act on… what information would help or hurt the world around us.

11 – Know the human purpose.  We whom you call Rainbow People have often given you the real purpose of ITC contacts: Mankind at the end time should be led back to the principle. Light and darkness shall unite and form a whole again. What people experience now is not the actual beginning of the apocalypse, but only the first symptoms of it. Before opposites can be united, the strength of unity among ITC people must increase and come from a pure heart. (The Seven ethereals)

  • Carnal life is a strange dichotomy of light and darkness. We’re noble creatures at our core with savage inclinations near the surface… and as the end approaches (not just our personal end-of-life but also the end of an epoch), it’s time to pull the loose ends together into the complete human package as we prepare for the next adventure.

12 – Know the human heritage.  In reality, the legends of the Fall of Man are based on a factual incident: the downfall of the civilization you often call Atlantis (also known by other names). This downfall was brought about by the descendants of the last inhabitants of Marduk (Eden) who became marooned on planet Terra. This downfall came through reliance and blind trust in a massive technology. (The Seven ethereals)

  • The Seven ethereals shared some world-changing information with our INIT group over the years… information pertaining to our ancient heritage.

13 – Be aware of many spiritual levels.  Some of us regard the Ethereals as great souls or creators. They live on our plane and yet are really not among us. They can ascend to higher planes and again “bend down” to our level. (Timestream spirit group)

  • For all of the many levels of spiritual existence there are corresponding spiritual levels within us. We are, after all, a microcosm of God’s totality. Through spiritual practice we can train the carnal self to be more receptive to our ethereal self.

14 – Sustain a rapport between the carnal and ethereal worlds.  This is the seventh time that we accompany and guide you on your progress toward a free, wealthy and sane future in which humanity would have stripped off the chains of intolerance and cruelty. A future in which it will be able to establish fruitful, endurable relationships with the Light, ethereal realms of existence. (The Seven ethereals)

  • As we develop our personal rapport with our ethereal self, humanity can also foster a rapport with the brilliant beings in ethereal realms. That could be done through ITC.

15 – Know God as the absolute reality.  Many Earth people mistakenly perceive God as a person or an individual entity. God is not a person but the highest principle of life, as well as the absolute reality. (The Seven ethereals)

  • To consider God a mere myth is the grandest, most perverse human illusion… one that is easy to fall into during a carnal lifetime.

16 – Tap into unlimited power, wisdom, and goodness.  The Ethereals’ power is almost unlimited and so is their wisdom and goodness. Their entire being is illuminated by understanding and forgiveness. It is impossible to describe the good feeling that overcomes the person who faces them and can speak to them… (Timestream spirit group)

  • The dazzling and delightful sensations can be almost overwhelming as we begin to build a bridge between our carnal and ethereal minds… for example through practiced heart meditations.

17 – Anticipate an afterlife adventure.  Every being is a unity of spirit and body that cannot be separated on earth or in spirit. The only difference is the fact that the physical body disintegrates and in its place comes the astral body. Our message is to tell you that your life goes on. Any speculations on how an individual will experience it are bound to be limited in validity. All your scientific, medical or biological speculations miss the mark of these realities. What serves as “real” to science is not close to reality in the broad picture. It is no more than a word in a book. 

(The Seven Ethereals Timestream Spirit Group: the spirit of Friedrich Juergenson)

  • Spiritual reality is too vast and diverse to be comprehended by the carnal mind… trapped as it is in an illusory, short-lived existence. So… be ready for the ultimate adventure that we call afterlife. Prepare for it with noble choices… savor the possibilities… but don’t get bogged down in detailed expectations.

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Someday humanity will probably abandon its old-fashioned, bipolar beliefs in good and evil, God and Satan, heaven and hell… and replace them with a more rational understanding of our noble-savage nature.

That understanding will help reshape politics and economics and all manner of human endeavor… and it will help prepare us for incomprehensible adventures that await us as human beings and as a human species.

It will involve a committed effort to embrace our noble heritage and to face the difficult task of coming to terms with our savage inclinations.

It will be a crucial time for humanity… like an alcoholic’s first month of sobriety….

And that time might be upon us.

If I’m right about #7 above…

… the writing is on the wall.

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(to be continued….)

Politics and the Human Spirit series:

1 Introduction  –   2 Privatization and the public good  –   3 Military  –   4 Information  –   5 Spirit of Society  –   6 Education  –   7 Regulation  –   8 Economics  –  9 Managing the world in the 21st Century  –  10 The carnal line between noble and savage  –  12 Who decides what?    –   13 Finally… good politics

Related articles:

Best and worst countries to be born  –   Election fraud 2012  –   Best and worst US presidents  –  Humor in politics  -  Human spirituality and politics  -  Biggest political news  -  End of the American dream  –  Blown to bits in the computer age  -  Standards, the key to peace  –   What Obama and Stalin really have in common   –  Bad counsel and a short leash   –   Capital punishment & the human spirit

Read Full Post »

phs9: Managing the World in the 21st Century

Posted in After we die, what then?, Inner exploration, Politics and Economics, Science and Technology, Society and ethics, Worldly matters, tagged , , , , , on 2012 December 27 | 11 Comments »


(Politics and the Human Spirit – Installment 9)

How best to manage the world?
That’s the big question.

The right answer will be a lot different today than it was a thousand years ago… or even 50 years ago. It’s a different world, thanks to modern realities like burgeoning population (7 million mouths to feed), energy use (especially the exhausted supplies of fossil fuels), environmental breakdown (especially global warming), globalizing technologies (including the Internet and wireless phones), and malignant technologies (including designer drugs, harmful pharmaceuticals, nuclear, chemical, biological products and weapons).

Only one thing hasn’t changed much across the centuries… human nature. We’re still the same noble-savage creatures we were long, long ago. As I explained in the introduction to this series, our noble side operates on love, trust, and good will… but it’s constantly undermined by our savage side, which gives in to fear, suspicion, hunger, desire, and aggression.

Our noble side bubbles up from the finer spirit deep within us, while our savage side is stirred up by the hormones, egos, and carnal compositions that were hardwired into our physical bodies long ago.

Maybe the best way to answer the big question above, in a single article, is to take a snapshot of humanity, and then come up with a few basic guidelines for managing the world based on what we know today about ourselves, our societies, and our world.

Humanity spread across the world, seen as lights at night.

Humanity spread across the world, seen as lights at night.

And a view of the general geography and ecology of the planet.

And a view of the general geography and ecology of the planet.

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Planetary Snapshot

A “snapshot” of today’s world reveals a nested, overlapping structure of mankind.

Nested. Humanity is one big living system spread over the Earth… made up of human beings and human groups that are nested like boxes inside boxes inside boxes—individuals within families within communities, within states or provinces, within nations….

Overlapping. Human groups also cross-cut and overlap each other. Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and other mighty world religions have all spread around the world without geographic borders… so they overlap each other, and they crosscut many nations’ borders. Transnational businesses, industries, and nonprofit groups also overlap each other and crosscut national boundaries.

Embedded in ecosystems. At the same time, all of our human groups live within, around, and among the various planetary ecosystems—forests, oceans, mountain ranges, savannahs, river systems, deserts… and we tend to build our cities and congregate near the water.

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With that snapshot of humanity, we can start thinking about the behavior of people and groups… specifically how the activity is managed or regulated across the levels and borders of world society.

Planetary Management

As I mentioned in Part 7, good regulation generally starts with insightful decisions that are made at all levels, from personal choices to United Nations resolutions. I listed four basic guidelines for good regulation:

•    Every decision should be made at the lowest possible level, but high enough to take into the account the well-being of everyone affected by the decision.

•    Decision-making bodies should reflect the diversity of the people they represent.

•    In most groups, especially nations, there should be a balance between the rights of individuals to be free and the rights of groups to be stable… which suggests that for modern nations, social democracy is the optimum political system… as it is evolving in most European countries today.

•    For decisions with the best possible outcomes, the individuals involved in decision-making have honed their intuition over time through inner reflection or meditation, to be in touch with their finer spirit within.

I’d like to add several more guidelines to that list:

  • Efforts should be made at all levels to cultivate our noble side and to tame our savage side.
  • Every individual and every group should be free to make decisions… within the framework that’s been set up by higher levels.
  • A small world government, with a few basic responsibilities for keeping peace and safeguarding the planet, is overdue. The UN in its present incarnation isn’t suitable, but could be with a few changes.

These last three guidelines are the main focus below—1) nurturing humanity’s noble qualities and taming the savage, 2) aligning our self or our group to the standards and values of the larger group(s) to which we belong, and 3) empowering the United Nations with clear and undisputed authority on a few key issues of global peace, compatibility, and stability.

Cultivate the Noble, Tame the Savage

It’s normal for us humans to exert our noble and savage qualities intermittently… depending on the situation we’re in at the moment. We might be inspired by a drive through the countryside then suddenly stunned by a pothole or irritated by a thoughtless driver who cuts us off. We might enjoy decades of peace with a neighboring community, or an adjacent nation, then escalate a land-use dispute over a vast, beautiful, resource-rich forest that spans the borders. Should we exploit the resources or protect the beauty?

In the grand scheme of things, the noble qualities of humanity always win out because they are timeless. Love, trust and decency shine forever at the core of our being. As qualities of our innermost god-self, they live on, untarnished, perpetually, as the central part of us, throughout our lives and even long after the death of our physical body.

The savage qualities flare up frequently, and they are typically short-lived.

We need to rethink the age-old concept of two all-powerful, opposing forces: Good vs evil, God vs Satan, noble vs savage, light vs dark….

Only one force is all-powerful and omnipresent—the light… the good… the god-source at the center of our being… and at the center of all that is.

The physical realm lies far out in the fringes of multidimensional reality, where the light vibrations from the source are so dim and dense and slow that pockets of darkness and chaos form. It’s these dark, illusory little pockets, which exist only out here on the material frontiers, that we equate with evil and spiritual darkness.

Translating that reality to human lives, we could describe ourselves as forever-noble creatures with fleeting savage inclinations.

So… at the very heart of world management is the need for us humans to cultivate our noble core and to tame our savage tendencies in all human relationships at all levels… from friendships and marriages to multinational treaties and alliances.

At the personal level we can cultivate our noble side over time with practiced meditation, prayer and mind control… in which we clear the cluttered channels between our carnal mind and our higher self, or god center. Self-discipline also comes into play… getting into the habit of making rational decisions… noble choices.

At the group level we cultivate the noble side with household rules, social mores, business ethics, laws and law enforcement, and other tools of management.

The emphasis in the future needs to be 1) to draw a clear delineation between the noble and the savage in human affairs, 2) to cultivate the noble at all levels, and 3) to specify how best to tame the savage, again, at all levels.

Examples of noble motivations: Unconditional love, trust, good will, cooperation, empathy, protection, support, education, truth, sincerity, negotiation….

Examples of savage motivations: profit, competition, conquest, punishment, lying, cheating, deception, assault, murder, lust, indulging and exploiting human weaknesses for addictive substances….

Even our most basic biological behaviors are savage by nature—eating and excreting… mating and procreating… even breathing.

These are not qualities of our finer spiritual (noble) make-up; they are things we have to do to survive in a rugged carnal world. They’re savage needs.

So… the intent of world management is not to eliminate the savage side of mankind—which would destroy the noble-savage human being—but to tame and direct it.

(to be continued….)

Politics and the Human Spirit series:

1 Introduction  –   2 Privatization and the public good  –   3 Military  –   4 Information  –   5 Spirit of Society  –   6 Education  –   7 Regulation  –   8 Economics  –  9 Managing the World in the 21st Century  –  10 The carnal line between noble and savage   –  11 Embrace the divine; it’s where we shine  –  12 Who decides what?    –   13 Finally… good politics

Related articles:

Best and worst countries to be born  –   Election fraud 2012  –   Best and worst US presidents  –  Humor in politics  -  Human spirituality and politics  -  Biggest political news  -  End of the American dream  –  Blown to bits in the computer age  -  Standards, the key to peace  –   What Obama and Stalin really have in common   –  Bad counsel and a short leash   –   Capital punishment & the human spirit

Read Full Post »

phs7: Regulation

Posted in Inner exploration, Our ancient heritage, Politics and Economics, Society and ethics, tagged , , , , on 2012 November 18 | 2 Comments »

(Politics and the Human Spirit – Installment 7)

Human society is a hodgepodge of energy and activity. Each one of us (and there are 7 billion of us alive today) thinks our own thoughts, speaks our own words, and does our own thing. Each of us belongs to groups (family, friendships, clubs, companies…), and every group does its own thing. Most groups belong to bigger groups (communities, associations, industries, nations…) and each of these big groups does its own thing.

Lots going on within and among societies all the time. Things would be total chaos were it not for regulation.

What’s Regulation?

There are probably as many ways to define regulation as there are names for it: management, leadership, administration, governance, ordinance, superintendance, guidance, direction….

If we tossed them all into a pot and boiled them down, we would probably wind up with two basic ingredients of sensible regulation — monitoring activities and making changes when necessary.

Monitoring doesn’t have to be a constant vigil.

  • We might monitor environmental degradation, weather patterns and the growth of civilization on the planet’s surface with an occasional series of photographs from satellites orbiting the earth.
  • Monitoring a child at play might require an occasional glance.
  • Monitoring employees in a company might involve an occasional progress report by employees on the status of their projects.

Making changes is easy, but making the appropriate changes at the appropriate time is harder:

  • When to restrain the rapid growth of societies and industries to protect the oceans, atmosphere and rain forests…
  • When to call an exploring child back within easy earshot…
  • When to interrupt an enthusiastic employee whose project is moving ahead quickly but is starting to veer off-course…

These are difficult situations to judge. Excessive restraint can stifle enthusiasm and innovation. Excessive liberties can lead to chaos and crisis.

Monitoring and Making Changes Through Insightful Decisions

Effective regulation involves intuition and foresight while deciding how closely to monitor activity, when to make changes, and what changes to make. The decisions involve parents in a household, teachers in the classroom, managers in a corporation, governments in our cities or nations, and members of the United Nations in a tense and troubled world.

Insight is the key to good decisions… and insight comes not from the brain and physical mind, but from the finer spirit within. It’s more an intuitive thing, not so much a rational thing.

Life on Earth is too complicated—people within families, within cities, within states or provinces, within nations… —to come up with a rigid set of rational rules or commandments that apply in all cases. Maybe the best we can do is to assess each particular situation and determine who is best suited to make decisions in that case… who has the most reliable foresight.

So here’s the big question: When it comes to making changes in the complex nested structure of society, who should decide what in any given situation?

And here are four ‘rules of thumb’ I’ve come up with after talking to various experts over the years:

(What experts? Well… these… and these… for example)

Regulation Guidelines

1. Every decision should be made at the lowest possible level, but high enough to take into account the needs and well-being of those affected by the decision.

Most decisions in human affairs, day in and day out, are made by individuals. That’s the way it’s always been, and that’s the way it probably will always be. But, as people start bumping into each other and stepping on each other’s toes (metaphorically speaking), larger regulatory groups have to be set up to help sustain peace and order. Parents make decisions for the family, city councils make decisions for the community, state and provincial governments make decisions at that level, national government makes decisions for countries, and the United Nations, ideally, would be empowered to make decisions for the planet.

2. Decision-making bodies should reflect the diversity of the people they represent.

A society of men and women shouldn’t be regulated by a group of men. A society of blacks, whites, and Orientals shouldn’t be regulated by a group of white people. A world government shouldn’t be run by a bunch of Nazis or Romans or Egyptians or Americans; it should consist of representatives of all nationalities, cultures, and religions. (Say, that sounds kind of like… what… the United Nations?)

3. Forge a balance between the right of individuals to be free and the right of nations to be stable.

Essentially this means finding a balance between freedom and equality… balancing human rights with equity and justice among all people.

Here’s how things have worked among some of the more influential players in world politics over the past century.

  • Autocratic socialists (communists) rate equality high, freedom low. Cuba, China, and the former Soviet Union are examples.
  • Democratic capitalists rate equality low, freedom high. The USA is an example.
  • Autocratic capitalists (fascists) rate freedom and equality both low. Recent examples (during World War II) include Germany under Hitler, Italy under Mussolini, and Japan under Hirohito.
  • Democratic socialists rate freedom and equality both high. Japan, Canada, and most European countries today are examples.

That practical model (by the late Canadian researcher Hanna Newcombe) suggests that the best-balanced governments are democratic-socialist in nature, such as those throughout most of modern Europe. Most problematic are the fascist governments, such as Japan, Italy, and Nazi Germany in the 1940s, when industry and government formed a tight alliance, forged a nationalistic agenda, and forced the people to align to it or to be ostracized.

Democratic socialism has its flaws, but it’s probably the best-suited government form for the foreseeable future.

4. Foster our intuition through spiritual practice, especially meditation.

This, arguably, should be high on the list of personal priorities for every human being alive, but in particular those who aspire to any sort of leadership or regulatory role in life. If you want to make good decisions, you’ll have to rely on the gift of intuition and foresight. Otherwise, everyone you represent will suffer to some degree.

Developing foresight starts with the realization that we’re brilliant, timeless spiritual beings enjoying a brief carnal roller-coaster ride here on Earth.

Having a good, rational mind isn’t good enough.

The “rational” human being is essentially a short-lived animal with a pretty good brain. But that animal also has hormones and an ego that force it to behave irrationally from time to time. It’s always a struggle for the rational mind.

The “intuitive” human being is the animal who has trained its brain and physical mind to connect to the finer, infinitely bright spiritual mind within. Meditation is the most effective way to forge and sustain that connection.

Once the connection is made, brilliant insights and transformational visions can stream into the carnal mind from finer realms.

-    Read more about meditation

This all traces back to what I call our “noble-savage” nature. Our noble qualities of love, trust, wisdom, and good will emerge from the finer spirit within us, while our savage emotions of fear, greed, and hatred spin out of the hormones and egos that were hard-wired into these carnal bodies long, long ago.

-    Read more about those ancient times

The more we meditate, the more of these noble qualities can stream into these savage carnal body-minds that form the rough outer core of our humanness. We can give these carnal bodies a golden aura through our spiritual practices.

And the golden glow can spill over into the political machinery we call government and society.

Without spiritual practice, we’re just a crowd of clever, moody animals waiting to react to whatever happens next in this brutal world in which life preys upon life to survive.

Politics and the Human Spirit series:

1 Introduction     2 Privatization and the public good     3 Military     4 Information     5 Spirit of Society     6 Education     7 Regulation    8 Economics    9 Managing the World in the 21st Century  –  10 The carnal line between noble and savage   –  11 Embrace the divine; it’s where we shine  –  12 Who decides what?    –   13 Finally… good politics

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