Is simply 'not being the problem' enough?

[Ron Tocknell]

I have been thinking hard about what Tes and Carlo Ami has said and I cannot disagree. We must take a positive approach and focus on what we want rather than on  what we don't want. I don't know whether the Universe delivers what we focus on or not... I don't know whether we truly create our own reality or not... These are belief systems and this is something I prefer to avoid. However, as a painter, I don't approach a canvas because I hate to see it blank, I approach it because I have a vision of the image I want to put on it. We must, of course, approach any change with our focus on what we want to achieve, not what we want to get rid of.

But this does not mean that, by acknowledging that change is needed; by acknowledging that there are problems to address, we are somehow putting a hex on what we hope to achieve. The first stage of cleaning up a mess is to acknowledge that there is a mess to clean up. This isn't being negative but, yes, it is focusing on the problem. Having done that, however, the process of cleaning should be done by focusing on how we want it to look and not on how horrible it still looks because we haven't finished cleaning up yet.

OK. We acknowledge that war continues in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is why the Internet evolved and this is why communication is becoming more sophisticated and spreading globally; so that we can have access to information whether it's bad news or good news. There is war and this is a fact. As Tes pointed out, Mother Theresa said: "I am not against war, I am for peace".  Should we all be for peace but not against war?

Well, that's fine then, isn't it? There are parts of the earth that are enjoying peace, which we are for... and some parts are raging with war, which we are not against so nothing needs to be done. I know that this isn't what Mother Theresa meant. She was saying that she is not an adversary to anything... but it was her role in life not to be an adversary to anything. If it was everyone's role in life not to be an adversary to anything there would be no war.

But there is war.

Ghandi said: "Be the change you want to see in the world" but he didn't simply leave it at that. He saw that British Rule in India was exploitative, oppressive and just plain wrong. He resisted peacefully and honorably by simply not acknowledging laws that exploited and impoverished the people and, with the active support of the people, got these laws repealed. He ended the Salt Tax law which prohibited the age old practice of gathering salt from sea water in evaporation trays. Not by force but by simply ignoring the law and encouraging others to gather salt regardless. It meant prison and beatings for many, including Ghandi himself. His "Passive Resistance" movement was non-violent and certainly pacifist but it was anything but passive. It meant standing in defiance against those who ordered him to stand aside and accepting the consequences without fighting back. It meant actively defying unjust laws by doing what was prohibited and not doing what was demanded.

He didn't just endeavour to be the change. He worked actively to bring about change. Ghandi actively fought oppression, not by violence but by will. This one little man who walked with a stick and needed assistance to get up steps brought British Rule in India to an end.

Of course we all must try to be the change and there are many who feel that this should be enough. Unfortunately, it isn't. It is not enough to send out good vibrations.

To bring change about, we must focus on what we want this earth to be and what we want Humanity to be. But first we have to accept that change must be brought about and that it is not going to just happen. The Universe will bring about the changes we want but we must not overlook the fact that the Universe is not some remote benefactor but is something of which we are a part. If the Universe brings about change, we are the means by which it will do so. The Universe will not do it for us, it will do it with us... or not at all. The choice is ours.

To take up arms against those who oppress and exploit is not the action to take. But this does not mean that we should not take action. Be the change and defiantly disregard all that challenges that change. If you are subject to unjust laws, act in defiance. Actively break those laws and accept the consequences peacefully but resolutely.

To fight with force is to Be the problem. To fight with will is to be the change.

So yes. Let's focus on what we want our society to be. Let's focus on peace and harmony and let's remember that those who oppress and exploit are also your brothers and sisters. There are no enemies. But let's not sit passively and shut our eyes hoping that simply focusing on a positive future will bring it about. We do have to make a stand and we do have to accept the discomforts that this will entail. If we don't want fossil fuels harvested, stop using them. It's convenient to drive. It's convenient to shop with credit cards. It's very inconvenient to grow your own food (and, if the Bill S 510 gets through in the US, it will soon be illegal), it's very inconvenient to cook with wood fueled ovens or find other sources of energy, it's very inconvenient to be arrested for failing to abide by some statute that forces a compromise of your principles.

Well, maybe we should stop focusing on the inconvenience and focus on the change we want to bring about. Are we prepared to do that? Is the future important enough for us to endure the inconvenience and maybe even the legal consequences of defying unjust laws? Do we have the strength of will of that little man in India?

Or is closing our eyes and sending out good vibes as far as we are prepared to go?

Our future will either be built by us... or it will simply happen to us. I prefer the first option.

[Carlo Ami]

Well said, Ron. Was composing the rest of this before I saw your most recent one. I think it's all about more than just sending out "good vibes"---it is being the change one wants to see.

Earlier post copy by me transferred to this discussion:

I appreciate your contribution, Terry. And your posting points up something still quite lacking in the collective consciousness: If we focus on getting rid of something, rather than on what we intend to create, we set ourselves up on a tortuous treadmill.

Goenka quote from your article: “What prevents us from acting on this understanding is the stock of mental pollutants, such as ignorance, cruelty or greed. Removing such pollutants will promote peace among human beings, as well as a balanced, healthy relationship between human society and its natural environment...."

When we focus our attention and energy on what we want to “remove”, we create fear and anxiety in ourselves. Many have been conditioned to believe that we must fight violence with violence. As Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Collectively, we are still in the process of integrating this knowledge.

The fact is that we have all been conditioned to live and think in the ways that we do. Our financial/corporate institutions, governments, religions and mass media---along with family, friends and co-workers---have repeated certain behaviors with us over the years. The quality of our lives depends largely on how we have responded to their propaganda. So many have reacted with fear, anger, isolation, anxiety…

There are some who would suggest that it is time for us to rise up in collective anger and righteous indignation over the events of the Gulf of Mexico oil “spill” or the disclosures of the WikiLeaks documents. The media repeatedly has been telling us that there is “nothing new” in the WikiLeaks disclosures, that it is just “business as usual”.

Our mass media, largely controlled by our financial institutions/corporations-—-as is our government---is telling a lie here. And in doing so with frequency and repetition is attempting to condition us with false propaganda. Since when is it “nothing new” that a country we fund with billions of dollars is funding and supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan? Since when is it no big deal that our armed forces kill hundreds of innocent civilians so frequently? Are we so collectively dumbed down that these things should make no difference to us.

Yet if we respond with fear, anger, anxiety or denial, we sap our own strength. What we are being called to do is respond with loving compassion to all that is occurring in our world. This means also not focusing on what we want to get rid of, but what we intend to create.

Key to this is to trust ourselves enough to be willing to be honest about what is happening in our lives and to have the courage to respond with love. Sending loving compassion to the oil leakers, to the Taliban, to the WikiLeakers, and to all people---especially those experiencing pain or suffering---is what I believe we are all being called to do.

The agenda of the corrupt forces of the world is to promulgate fear. That is how they have stayed in control. These forces are very content having you focus on what you do not want because they know you are weakened by such focus.

It all boils down to this:
Let’s be real about what is in front of us.
Let’s focus on what we intend to create.
Let’s create a world of loving compassion.
Let’s make all this important.

[Ron Tocknell]

Thank you Carlo. I have to say that I agree in many ways with what most people are saying. Where communication seems to become unstuck is in identifying the difference between focusing on the problem and acknowledging that there is a problem. Also with Terry's response regarding "removing" such pollutants as ignorance, cruelty or greed: You were concerned with the focus on "removing". My issue is more with the fact that this is a simple statement that doesn't actually present any strategies. One could just as easily say that removing the oil from the Gulf will solve the pollution problem, which, of course, it would. However, this is not going to be achieved as easily as writing it.

Rising up in anger and righteous indignation, as you say, is not the answer. Rising up in resolution to take the right path and not submit to any attempt to intimidate us from our path is not the same as rising in anger.
We can treat those who attempt to intimidate us with compassion, love and respect... without submitting to intimidation. To say "ENOUGH!" is not focusing on the problem. It is drawing a line; a point from which we will state what needs to be done and, if necessary, pick up the tools and do it. If the consequence of that is to be arrested, fine. Accept that and, hopefully, as you are taken away, the person behind you picks up the tools and resumes the work and so on. This is what I mean by saying it is time to say "ENOUGH!".

I love my grandchildren and I love to play with them. But, at 62, I don't have the energy that they never seem to run out of. So, when the game involves taking it in turns to dive on my lap, I reach a point when I think it's time to say "Enough". I don't love them less because of this and I don't rise in anger against them. However, the rough play stops.

We are intimidated by our leaders. This is the fear base behind our inertia. We must be courageous enough to do what we know is right even if our leaders forbid it and refuse to do what we know is wrong even if our leaders demand it.... and accept the consequences without protest. We are still subject to the force of their powers and have to accept whatever consequence is imposed... but remain resolute and not intimidated.

Protest magnifies resentment and stirs negative emotions. Defiance and resolution allows us to remain in our own integrity and, if enough of us take that stance, in time, it will get results. Just as something as soft and as gentle as a trickle of water can wear away rock simply through its unrelenting persistence.

Yes we have to make changes within. Do you think that no one is making changes within? Do you think that the groups on AOAND are the only people who are putting their own house in order and acting with integrity and love and compassion? Yet war and oppression and pollution continues. We have to actively make changes without as well. Not by rising in anger, not by protest but by firmly saying "Enough!" and by not recognising the authority of anyone who would detract us from the path that we must now take.

There are over six billion people on this planet and all but a few want to live in peace and harmony. Yet only about 10% of us live our lives free from poverty, oppression, pestilence, persecution or war.

We have to be very clear about where we are drawing the line. It is here.

I's not without thought that I called the group TIME TO SAY "ENOUGH!".

[Carlo Ami]

Am replying here to Ron Alexander's message to the "Enough" group list.

To suggest that Obama has any real control of how our government runs is to live with blinders on. He is a puppet for the banking/corporate interests. No real power except as a figurehead. In many respects, he is out-Bushing George 2. He gets away with continuing to take away our freedoms because so many still see him as a liberal Democrat. He is not.
People will run much further to avoid pain than they will to get pleasure, so the impulse to avoid or deny is now still strong collectively.
"Enough" is still about avoidance. It still gets the mind/brain in a mode of trying to or wanting to get rid of something. This is an ineffective mindset. Creates anxiety, polaraization, division, powerlessness.
We are being challenged to see what is in front of us and to respond lovingly with courage, trust and calm. "Enough" may be a shade better than "guess I am just stuck with this, can't do anything about it". But the real power collectively will manifest when we send loving energy to the earth and all its people and creatures, not indulging in the ego game of waiting to be saved, sending politicians letters, resignation to the ongoing and purposeful bankrupting of the middle class or walking around with protest signs. One of the most powerful things we can do is to send loving energy to those who are in pain, those who are the corrupt forces that crave maintenance and expansion of control, and all those who are run by fear.
The revolution that we are in the middle of is one of consciousness, and for many the important first step is honesty about what is in front of us. Power then grows as we choose to respond to what is in front of us with love, trust, courage and calm.

[Ron Tocknell]

I agree about not focusing on the problem but it must be acknowledged. I think there is a danger of 'the problem' becoming taboo; that which must not be uttered. If you drop a jar of mayonnaise and it smashes, it has to be cleaned up. We could try not focusing on the smashed jar and just focus on making the kitchen a nicer environment if we like. But I think this would just be playing some superstitious 'head game' with ourselves. The reality is that there is a smashed jar and mayonnaise all over the floor and it has to be cleaned up. We know this and nothing is to be achieved by telling ourselves that we are not cleaning up a mess. We are improving the kitchen.

If the kids are running riot in the living room and we have guests coming in ten minutes, the kids have got to take their play outside. We can approach this by suggesting an alternative and infinitely more fun game outside so we can positively enhance the feng shui of the living room but, if the kids don't go for that, we're going to have to point out that we have guests arriving in ten minutes and the kids have got to get the hell out of the living room because we've got to clean it up and we've already wasted ten minutes cleaning up mayonnaise off the kitchen floor.

Off-shore oil rigs are an environmental disaster waiting to happen and the BP rig just ran out of patience. If it takes a crisis to wake people up to the fact that we must now take a hand to change the direction of civilisation to one of creativity, fulfillment and respect for the earth and its inhabitants, then the disaster ceases to be a disaster immediately. It becomes the first step to a New Beginning. But hoping that those who hold power will willingly abandon their greed and fall in line is unrealistic in the extreme.

They have to be told that this is as far as it goes. We have all experienced a situation in which we have had to say "ENOUGH!" in one way or another if only to the kids when the play gets too rough. Did the Universe decide to send us more kids to make more mess or did the kids stop and take their play outside? Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, we have a problem that needs to be addressed. Try telling however many million people are at risk in the Gulf that they should try not to focus on the problem.

The first stage in addressing a problem is acknowledging that there is a problem. If we don't, it doesn't get addressed. This isn't fear based. It's responsibility based. The next stage is deciding how we are going to address it, Again, this isn't fear based but responsibility based. Then we put our plans into action and, from that moment, there is no problem because the incident is the motivating factor that is moving us forward. It becomes a blessing. We are not getting 'rid' of the problem but responding to an event that has set us upon the right path. But it begins with drawing a line and saying "ENOUGH!"

[Carlo Ami]

Ron T, I agree that it is important to recognize the problems. And, yes, to feel empowered enought to say "enough". Beyond that, focussing on the problem rather than the solution is a weak response. In sharing that there is a problem, once there is an acknowledgement from the other person, then you can talk about what you want to create...and focus attention on that solution. Continual focussing on the problem serves nobody. Once the problem is acknowledged, focussing on it rather than the solution is wasteful and destructive.

"Enough" is often about anger, righteousness, indignation, revenge....

We are being challenged to experience those moments as brief and to move on in loving power.

And Ron A (responded somewhere else on this site or the original list), I love you and appreciate your passion and your action in driving a green vehicle. I do what I can to minimize my carbon footprint, too. What I stated about Obama was not intended to be "vicious" or "hateful". I love and send healing energy to him every day. I wrote what I have observed from how he and our government are "working". I wrote based upon comparing his campaign promises to what he has delivered. I wrote based upon his continuance and strenghtening of Bush's policies and orders having to do with clamping down on our freedoms. I never said that he was taking my power; you misquote me. Maybe a better way for me to have expressed it was that we have allowed him to cut our constitutional freedoms by our lack of attention, our sleep.
And what am I going to "do" about the problems, you ask? Call it simplistic or insufficient, if you want, but I am going to be the best I can be, respond to life as often as I can with love, and be of service to whomever I can. Solutions come in alliances with like minds. We can dither away our time harshly labeling others or we can find a way to unite and love each other. Over time, we will collectively unfold our individual and communal love. Thinking that we have to get angry, fight fire with fire, engage in violent revolution, or repeatedly get harsh with our congressional representatives just makes the problems worse. The revolution is one of consciousness. No bombs needed. No fighting in the streets. Loving everybody, having compassion for everybody, intending to be of service to the world, it's people, it's creatures.

Collectively, we are still buying the mass media's half-truths and falsehoods about what is going on in our world, in our governments and in most of our religions. Most people still would rather not know the truth, as the truth for those who are not secure in themselves promotes fear, anxiety, powerlessness and anger. It is so much easier to ignore the truth, to pretend what is so clearly visible does not exist. For those with the courage to face the truth, an excellent source of information is found at http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/ It's free to subscribe to their newsletter, which is usually sent daily.

What am I going to "do"? My best to be loving with myself and my world as consistently as possible.

Ron Tocknell said:

I agree about not focusing on the problem but it must be acknowledged. I think there is a danger of 'the problem' becoming taboo; that which must not be uttered. If you drop a jar of mayonnaise and it smashes, it has to be cleaned up. We could try not focusing on the smashed jar and just focus on making the kitchen a nicer environment if we like. But I think this would just be playing some superstitious 'head game' with ourselves. The reality is that there is a smashed jar and mayonnaise all over the floor and it has to be cleaned up. We know this and nothing is to be achieved by telling ourselves that we are not cleaning up a mess. We are improving the kitchen.

If the kids are running riot in the living room and we have guests coming in ten minutes, the kids have got to take their play outside. We can approach this by suggesting an alternative and infinitely more fun game outside so we can positively enhance the feng shui of the living room but, if the kids don't go for that, we're going to have to point out that we have guests arriving in ten minutes and the kids have got to get the hell out of the living room because we've got to clean it up and we've already wasted ten minutes cleaning up mayonnaise off the kitchen floor.

Off-shore oil rigs are an environmental disaster waiting to happen and the BP rig just ran out of patience. If it takes a crisis to wake people up to the fact that we must now take a hand to change the direction of civilisation to one of creativity, fulfillment and respect for the earth and its inhabitants, then the disaster ceases to be a disaster immediately. It becomes the first step to a New Beginning. But hoping that those who hold power will willingly abandon their greed and fall in line is unrealistic in the extreme.

They have to be told that this is as far as it goes. We have all experienced a situation in which we have had to say "ENOUGH!" in one way or another if only to the kids when the play gets too rough. Did the Universe decide to send us more kids to make more mess or did the kids stop and take their play outside? Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, we have a problem that needs to be addressed. Try telling however many million people are at risk in the Gulf that they should try not to focus on the problem.

The first stage in addressing a problem is acknowledging that there is a problem. If we don't, it doesn't get addressed. This isn't fear based. It's responsibility based. The next stage is deciding how we are going to address it, Again, this isn't fear based but responsibility based. Then we put our plans into action and, from that moment, there is no problem because the incident is the motivating factor that is moving us forward. It becomes a blessing. We are not getting 'rid' of the problem but responding to an event that has set us upon the right path. But it begins with drawing a line and saying "ENOUGH!"

[Ron Tocknell]

Maybe I'm missing something here but, from what I can gather, the CIA have exercised an enormous power over other countries in the service of American interests (by that, of course, I don't mean in the interests of the American people but the US administration). They are able to infiltrate every organisation that may have some effect on the politics of the US. The same could be said about MI5 and probably every other intelligence agency on the globe. The drinking water throughout the Western world is contaminated with fluoride, which, contrary to claims, has no effect on dental health whatsoever. Actually, why would our governments be so concerned with dental health that they actually 'medicate' the water while other more serious conditions are largely ignored? Fluoride may not have any scientifically proven effect on teeth but it certainly has other scientifically proven effects on the human body... or, to be more precise, the brain. Fluoride toxicity reduces IQ, impairs memory and inhibits learning abilities.

Fluoride is just one of the many toxins being imposed on the masses against their will and even, unless you actually research the names of the mysterious ingredients added to our foods, without their knowledge.

Why?

Could it possibly be that a dumbed down, passive and compliant population is easier to control?

This is nothing new and there is ample information published on the Internet to indicate the level at which the people are being poisoned by those who are in control.

Another thing that isn't new and liberally documented on the web is 2012. This is such a significant date that all of the scholars of the 60s & 70s who had taken such a keen interest in all things esoteric........... said absolutely nothing about it at the time. Now it's everywhere. Everyone is preparing for the 'Ascension'. This requires 'looking inwardly' and focusing on love and the Spirit Light and so on. I do sincerely apologise if I come over as cynical and skeptical. However, this is because I am. My reasons will be explained shortly so please bear with me and suspend any objections for a moment.

Another current obsession is The Secret and the Law Of Attraction. The rule for success in getting anything you want is to focus on 'having' rather than 'wanting'. 'Do not focus on the problem. Focus on the desired outcome' we are told and this certainly seems to make sense.

But wait a minute... somewhere within this mass of New Age Philosophy must be the 'Red Herrings' inserted by the intelligence agencies. Every other movement has been infiltrated, why not this?

In an attempt to gather together ideas for addressing the dangerous level of power that a small minority of 'movers & Shakers' wield over six billion people, I am getting the following responses:

To stand in defiance of the illusory powers that can only be imposed on us with our consent, I am told, is confrontational and is focusing on the problem. The way forward is to look inward and focus on one's own state of balance and integrity. But, above all: DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM.

In response to the BP oil leak, I am told that to make a stand and confront governments with the damage they are wreaking and to withdraw our consent for them to handle the situation is focusing on the problem. It's almost as if a subliminal tannoy is continually relaying: DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM! DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM! IT IS ALL AN ILLUSION. DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM! YOU CAN HAVE EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER WANTED BY JUST LOOKING INWARDLY. DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM. WE SHALL ALL ASCEND IN 2012. DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM!

I'm afraid that this, to me sounds like the Wizard of Oz telling Dorothy to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. I think we're being played.

If intelligence agencies were to infiltrate the whole of the New Age Movement and push forward a few more compliant philosophies, they would have the means at their disposal to ensure a viral take up of these ideas.

So, while our governments send our sons, daughters, husbands and wives to fight corporate wars on behalf of the petrochemical industries, it would certainly be in their interests that the 'intelligentcia' were not focusing on the problem. Suddenly the LoA has sprung from nowhere... allegedly a 'secret' that has been withheld from us until now... the path to untold riches. All we have to do is not focus on the problem.

Somewhere within current and popular philosophies are the 'red herrings' and this is something of which we must be wary. Yes, we must affect inward changes... but we must also affect outward changes and these are not simply going to occur by default as a result of our inner changes unless the inner changes lead to action. We are on our knees. We have to get up off our knees and stop submitting to the will of those who regard us as nothing more than a commodity.

If we think that the main philosophies of the kind of groups that, in the 60s & 70s, would have been out in the streets protesting has been somehow overlooked by government security agencies, we are kidding ourselves Big Time!

There is no need to protest in the streets. That method is ineffectual anyway. There is no need to rise up in conflict as that would only result in tighter security controls. We need simply to stop believing the illusion that a handful of megalomanic control freaks actually have the power to treat the planet and its inhabitants as a personal larder. But we need to stand firm and withdraw our consent to their authority en mass. Peaceful, civil defiance. What Ghandi referred to as 'Passive Resistance'.

The Mexican Gulf oil leak is the worst environmental disaster in history. Our governments are sending soldiers to fight wars that serve only to enrich the giant multinational corporations and, in doing so, are illegally invading countries and oppressing the populations. Our governments are stoking the fires of resentment and ensuring that terrorism is a real enough threat to justify ever more stringent security controls. We are being mass medicated to dull any inclination to stand up and defy our governments. We are simply a commodity and nothing more. We are expendable and exploitable.

TRUST ME... THERE IS A PROBLEM. FOCUS ON IT.

Only we can stop what is happening to us, to our children, our grandchildren and Humanity as a whole.

[Carlo Ami]

Thanks for your real and interesting posting.

Seems to me that we have all conditioned that we must focus on the problem if we are to solve it.

Saying “enough”---recognizing the problems---is a great first step beyond hopelessness/powerlessness. It is important. Optimally, it will be quite brief. Once you recognize the problem, focusing on it is counter-productive. The brain doesn’t get the negative of “I don’t want” but rather sees the envisioned problem and either perpetuates it or creates anxiety because of the mixed message.

You write: “Yes, we must affect inward changes... but we must also affect outward changes and these are not simply going to occur by default as a result of our inner changes unless the inner changes lead to action. We are on our knees. We have to get up off our knees and stop submitting to the will of those who regard us as nothing more than a commodity.”

When we tell ourselves we “must” do something, we are generally setting ourselves up for disappointment. “Must” sets up an “accomplish or else” vision with generally severe consequences if we do not manifest the change. It is low power.

What we are being collectively called to do is to recognize our power to choose a loving response to EVERYTHING that we experience. As we grow that power, we create alliances: the more that are in agreement with your vision for what is wanted or envisioned, the more powerful is the vision.

Further responding to your posting excerpt above: When we feel compelled to “do something” in response to our governments and religions’ corrupt behavior, the “doing” is fruitless if we are not coming from a place of trust and loving power.
There are all kinds of well-intentioned folks that will incite anger by screaming into megaphones or telling us that we must righteously stand up in anger to the abuses of our institutions. Again, it may be a step beyond being asleep or in avoidance/powerlessness, but alone these things cannot propel us communally to any significant result. As long as fear, anger, despair, violence, indignance and such are a significant part of one’s basic mindset, one is weak.

And weak is how the money barons want us. That’s why we have poisons like aspartame and monosodium glutamate in our processed foods and why we have fluoride—a common ingredient in rat poison---in our water supplies in most cities in the U.S. It is why the media finds it so easy to create confusion and discord. It is why most of our religions feature a wrathful god that will damn us to eternal torture if we do not walk their line. It is why our government always seems to be fighting with itself and other countries. Their agenda is our confusion, division and powerlessness.

How many of us who have at least a general picture of what is going on with our governments, religion and media are willing to send loving energy to the ignorant corrupt elite? How many fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico who have had their livelihoods damaged by the oil spill are willing to send loving energy to the big wigs at BP? How many parents who have lost a military son in Iraq is willing to send love to those who killed him?


Doing comes out of being. Right now, how many people do you think there are in this country who would be willing and able to call the President and congressional representatives and calmly, lovingly, firmly tell them what is important for them to do if they want to get reelected? How many would be able to include in that call a short list: the abolishment of the Fed (a private bank that basically controls our money supply and bleeds us), the ending of the wars, and the removal of toxic poisons from our foods, higher tax rates for the rich along with the abolishment of many of the loopholes that allow so many of the money elite to pay no taxes at all? Could you make such a call without upset or attachment? If you can one such call means almost nothing. What if 100,000 such calls were placed every day? We’d be heard.


As long as one is in fear and powerlessness, such a call cannot be made. So it starts with the inside job of building your own power, then creating alliances to build communal power.

This exchange has inspired me to create a simple script for people to use if they are willing to make the kind of political representative call envisioned above. Will put it on my blog by the end of the week.

Thanks for the inspiration.


Ron Tocknell said:

Maybe I'm missing something here but, from what I can gather, the CIA have exercised an enormous power over other countries in the service of American interests (by that, of course, I don't mean in the interests of the American people but the US administration). They are able to infiltrate every organisation that may have some effect on the politics of the US. The same could be said about MI5 and probably every other intelligence agency on the globe. The drinking water throughout the Western world is contaminated with fluoride, which, contrary to claims, has no effect on dental health whatsoever. Actually, why would our governments be so concerned with dental health that they actually 'medicate' the water while other more serious conditions are largely ignored? Fluoride may not have any scientifically proven effect on teeth but it certainly has other scientifically proven effects on the human body... or, to be more precise, the brain. Fluoride toxicity reduces IQ, impairs memory and inhibits learning abilities.

Fluoride is just one of the many toxins being imposed on the masses against their will and even, unless you actually research the names of the mysterious ingredients added to our foods, without their knowledge.

Why?

Could it possibly be that a dumbed down, passive and compliant population is easier to control?

This is nothing new and there is ample information published on the Internet to indicate the level at which the people are being poisoned by those who are in control.

Another thing that isn't new and liberally documented on the web is 2012. This is such a significant date that all of the scholars of the 60s & 70s who had taken such a keen interest in all things esoteric........... said absolutely nothing about it at the time. Now it's everywhere. Everyone is preparing for the 'Ascension'. This requires 'looking inwardly' and focusing on love and the Spirit Light and so on. I do sincerely apologise if I come over as cynical and skeptical. However, this is because I am. My reasons will be explained shortly so please bear with me and suspend any objections for a moment.

Another current obsession is The Secret and the Law Of Attraction. The rule for success in getting anything you want is to focus on 'having' rather than 'wanting'. 'Do not focus on the problem. Focus on the desired outcome' we are told and this certainly seems to make sense.

But wait a minute... somewhere within this mass of New Age Philosophy must be the 'Red Herrings' inserted by the intelligence agencies. Every other movement has been infiltrated, why not this?

In an attempt to gather together ideas for addressing the dangerous level of power that a small minority of 'movers & Shakers' wield over six billion people, I am getting the following responses:

To stand in defiance of the illusory powers that can only be imposed on us with our consent, I am told, is confrontational and is focusing on the problem. The way forward is to look inward and focus on one's own state of balance and integrity. But, above all: DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM.

In response to the BP oil leak, I am told that to make a stand and confront governments with the damage they are wreaking and to withdraw our consent for them to handle the situation is focusing on the problem. It's almost as if a subliminal tannoy is continually relaying: DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM! DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM! IT IS ALL AN ILLUSION. DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM! YOU CAN HAVE EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER WANTED BY JUST LOOKING INWARDLY. DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM. WE SHALL ALL ASCEND IN 2012. DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM!

I'm afraid that this, to me sounds like the Wizard of Oz telling Dorothy to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. I think we're being played.

If intelligence agencies were to infiltrate the whole of the New Age Movement and push forward a few more compliant philosophies, they would have the means at their disposal to ensure a viral take up of these ideas.

So, while our governments send our sons, daughters, husbands and wives to fight corporate wars on behalf of the petrochemical industries, it would certainly be in their interests that the 'intelligentcia' were not focusing on the problem. Suddenly the LoA has sprung from nowhere... allegedly a 'secret' that has been withheld from us until now... the path to untold riches. All we have to do is not focus on the problem.

Somewhere within current and popular philosophies are the 'red herrings' and this is something of which we must be wary. Yes, we must affect inward changes... but we must also affect outward changes and these are not simply going to occur by default as a result of our inner changes unless the inner changes lead to action. We are on our knees. We have to get up off our knees and stop submitting to the will of those who regard us as nothing more than a commodity.

If we think that the main philosophies of the kind of groups that, in the 60s & 70s, would have been out in the streets protesting has been somehow overlooked by government security agencies, we are kidding ourselves Big Time!

There is no need to protest in the streets. That method is ineffectual anyway. There is no need to rise up in conflict as that would only result in tighter security controls. We need simply to stop believing the illusion that a handful of megalomanic control freaks actually have the power to treat the planet and its inhabitants as a personal larder. But we need to stand firm and withdraw our consent to their authority en mass. Peaceful, civil defiance. What Ghandi referred to as 'Passive Resistance'.

The Mexican Gulf oil leak is the worst environmental disaster in history. Our governments are sending soldiers to fight wars that serve only to enrich the giant multinational corporations and, in doing so, are illegally invading countries and oppressing the populations. Our governments are stoking the fires of resentment and ensuring that terrorism is a real enough threat to justify ever more stringent security controls. We are being mass medicated to dull any inclination to stand up and defy our governments. We are simply a commodity and nothing more. We are expendable and exploitable.

TRUST ME... THERE IS A PROBLEM. FOCUS ON IT.

Only we can stop what is happening to us, to our children, our grandchildren and Humanity as a whole.

[Ron Tocknell]

Thank you Carlo. I'll look forward to the blog. Message me when it's done.

Many of your concerns are with the language used ("must" "enough!" etc.). Whilst I agree that language is very powerful and should be used with care, I think it is very important to question the validity of statements that discourage actual action. There are many... and they seem to be saying the same thing: that confrontation is always negative, that the only action we should take is to look within, that there is a shift in consciousness and that, come 2012, those who have prepared themselves will 'ascend' into the 'New Paradigm'.

When one reads the same thing being said repetitively, one could be forgiven for wondering if these are truly the thoughts of the writer. I am reminded of the phrase from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World: "62400 repetitions make one truth". I am reading comments that are almost becoming slogans and this troubles me.

We must be wary of the ideas we absorb as opposed to those that occur to us from observation. Question everything... even if it seems true. I've read numerous posts on AOAND and, while many are refreshingly original and thought-provoking, so many others are just repetitions of ideas I have read elsewhere. I feel almost as if somebody else were writing the rules of how we should think and, when that occurs, even if I see some truth and value in them, I feel it's important to question them.

"When we tell ourselves we “must” do something, we are generally setting ourselves up for disappointment. “Must” sets up an “accomplish or else” vision with generally severe consequences if we do not manifest the change. It is low power"

I have also read this with the same reasons given. However, I use the term "must" to stress imperative. There are things I can do and things I may do but this implies that there is no harm done if they are not done. However, we must feed our children. This is not an option but an obligation. I do understand what the original psychologist who initially came to this conclusion was getting at and I agree that we often use "must" unnecessarily (I must get a new iPhone). But I take care to use discretion. I don't see the requirement to affect inward changes and also outward changes as optional lifestyle choices. I see them as imperatives. The consequences of not doing so are no more acceptable than the consequences of not feeding our children. I'm sure that, when this point was first made, it was not intended to suggest that the word "must" should be obliterated from our vocabulary, but simply that it should be used mindfully and with consideration. In this instance, I think the consequences of not affecting outward change as well as inward change are indeed severe. I don't see how that makes it "low power". I think imperative actions have considerable power.

If we too readily take up the ideas of others without thoroughly thinking them through, we are in danger of being 'spoon-fed' ideas.



Carlo Ami said:

Thanks for your real and interesting posting.

Seems to me that we have all conditioned that we must focus on the problem if we are to solve it.

Saying “enough”---recognizing the problems---is a great first step beyond hopelessness/powerlessness. It is important. Optimally, it will be quite brief. Once you recognize the problem, focusing on it is counter-productive. The brain doesn’t get the negative of “I don’t want” but rather sees the envisioned problem and either perpetuates it or creates anxiety because of the mixed message.

You write: “Yes, we must affect inward changes... but we must also affect outward changes and these are not simply going to occur by default as a result of our inner changes unless the inner changes lead to action. We are on our knees. We have to get up off our knees and stop submitting to the will of those who regard us as nothing more than a commodity.”

When we tell ourselves we “must” do something, we are generally setting ourselves up for disappointment. “Must” sets up an “accomplish or else” vision with generally severe consequences if we do not manifest the change. It is low power.

What we are being collectively called to do is to recognize our power to choose a loving response to EVERYTHING that we experience. As we grow that power, we create alliances: the more that are in agreement with your vision for what is wanted or envisioned, the more powerful is the vision.

Further responding to your posting excerpt above: When we feel compelled to “do something” in response to our governments and religions’ corrupt behavior, the “doing” is fruitless if we are not coming from a place of trust and loving power.
There are all kinds of well-intentioned folks that will incite anger by screaming into megaphones or telling us that we must righteously stand up in anger to the abuses of our institutions. Again, it may be a step beyond being asleep or in avoidance/powerlessness, but alone these things cannot propel us communally to any significant result. As long as fear, anger, despair, violence, indignance and such are a significant part of one’s basic mindset, one is weak.

And weak is how the money barons want us. That’s why we have poisons like aspartame and monosodium glutamate in our processed foods and why we have fluoride—a common ingredient in rat poison---in our water supplies in most cities in the U.S. It is why the media finds it so easy to create confusion and discord. It is why most of our religions feature a wrathful god that will damn us to eternal torture if we do not walk their line. It is why our government always seems to be fighting with itself and other countries. Their agenda is our confusion, division and powerlessness.

How many of us who have at least a general picture of what is going on with our governments, religion and media are willing to send loving energy to the ignorant corrupt elite? How many fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico who have had their livelihoods damaged by the oil spill are willing to send loving energy to the big wigs at BP? How many parents who have lost a military son in Iraq is willing to send love to those who killed him?


Doing comes out of being. Right now, how many people do you think there are in this country who would be willing and able to call the President and congressional representatives and calmly, lovingly, firmly tell them what is important for them to do if they want to get reelected? How many would be able to include in that call a short list: the abolishment of the Fed (a private bank that basically controls our money supply and bleeds us), the ending of the wars, and the removal of toxic poisons from our foods, higher tax rates for the rich along with the abolishment of many of the loopholes that allow so many of the money elite to pay no taxes at all? Could you make such a call without upset or attachment? If you can one such call means almost nothing. What if 100,000 such calls were placed every day? We’d be heard.


As long as one is in fear and powerlessness, such a call cannot be made. So it starts with the inside job of building your own power, then creating alliances to build communal power.

This exchange has inspired me to create a simple script for people to use if they are willing to make the kind of political representative call envisioned above. Will put it on my blog by the end of the week.

Thanks for the inspiration.


Ron Tocknell said:

Maybe I'm missing something here but, from what I can gather, the CIA have exercised an enormous power over other countries in the service of American interests (by that, of course, I don't mean in the interests of the American people but the US administration). They are able to infiltrate every organisation that may have some effect on the politics of the US. The same could be said about MI5 and probably every other intelligence agency on the globe. The drinking water throughout the Western world is contaminated with fluoride, which, contrary to claims, has no effect on dental health whatsoever. Actually, why would our governments be so concerned with dental health that they actually 'medicate' the water while other more serious conditions are largely ignored? Fluoride may not have any scientifically proven effect on teeth but it certainly has other scientifically proven effects on the human body... or, to be more precise, the brain. Fluoride toxicity reduces IQ, impairs memory and inhibits learning abilities.

Fluoride is just one of the many toxins being imposed on the masses against their will and even, unless you actually research the names of the mysterious ingredients added to our foods, without their knowledge.

Why?

Could it possibly be that a dumbed down, passive and compliant population is easier to control?

This is nothing new and there is ample information published on the Internet to indicate the level at which the people are being poisoned by those who are in control.

Another thing that isn't new and liberally documented on the web is 2012. This is such a significant date that all of the scholars of the 60s & 70s who had taken such a keen interest in all things esoteric........... said absolutely nothing about it at the time. Now it's everywhere. Everyone is preparing for the 'Ascension'. This requires 'looking inwardly' and focusing on love and the Spirit Light and so on. I do sincerely apologise if I come over as cynical and skeptical. However, this is because I am. My reasons will be explained shortly so please bear with me and suspend any objections for a moment.

Another current obsession is The Secret and the Law Of Attraction. The rule for success in getting anything you want is to focus on 'having' rather than 'wanting'. 'Do not focus on the problem. Focus on the desired outcome' we are told and this certainly seems to make sense.

But wait a minute... somewhere within this mass of New Age Philosophy must be the 'Red Herrings' inserted by the intelligence agencies. Every other movement has been infiltrated, why not this?

In an attempt to gather together ideas for addressing the dangerous level of power that a small minority of 'movers & Shakers' wield over six billion people, I am getting the following responses:

To stand in defiance of the illusory powers that can only be imposed on us with our consent, I am told, is confrontational and is focusing on the problem. The way forward is to look inward and focus on one's own state of balance and integrity. But, above all: DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM.

In response to the BP oil leak, I am told that to make a stand and confront governments with the damage they are wreaking and to withdraw our consent for them to handle the situation is focusing on the problem. It's almost as if a subliminal tannoy is continually relaying: DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM! DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM! IT IS ALL AN ILLUSION. DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM! YOU CAN HAVE EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER WANTED BY JUST LOOKING INWARDLY. DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM. WE SHALL ALL ASCEND IN 2012. DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM!

I'm afraid that this, to me sounds like the Wizard of Oz telling Dorothy to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. I think we're being played.

If intelligence agencies were to infiltrate the whole of the New Age Movement and push forward a few more compliant philosophies, they would have the means at their disposal to ensure a viral take up of these ideas.

So, while our governments send our sons, daughters, husbands and wives to fight corporate wars on behalf of the petrochemical industries, it would certainly be in their interests that the 'intelligentcia' were not focusing on the problem. Suddenly the LoA has sprung from nowhere... allegedly a 'secret' that has been withheld from us until now... the path to untold riches. All we have to do is not focus on the problem.

Somewhere within current and popular philosophies are the 'red herrings' and this is something of which we must be wary. Yes, we must affect inward changes... but we must also affect outward changes and these are not simply going to occur by default as a result of our inner changes unless the inner changes lead to action. We are on our knees. We have to get up off our knees and stop submitting to the will of those who regard us as nothing more than a commodity.

If we think that the main philosophies of the kind of groups that, in the 60s & 70s, would have been out in the streets protesting has been somehow overlooked by government security agencies, we are kidding ourselves Big Time!

There is no need to protest in the streets. That method is ineffectual anyway. There is no need to rise up in conflict as that would only result in tighter security controls. We need simply to stop believing the illusion that a handful of megalomanic control freaks actually have the power to treat the planet and its inhabitants as a personal larder. But we need to stand firm and withdraw our consent to their authority en mass. Peaceful, civil defiance. What Ghandi referred to as 'Passive Resistance'.

The Mexican Gulf oil leak is the worst environmental disaster in history. Our governments are sending soldiers to fight wars that serve only to enrich the giant multinational corporations and, in doing so, are illegally invading countries and oppressing the populations. Our governments are stoking the fires of resentment and ensuring that terrorism is a real enough threat to justify ever more stringent security controls. We are being mass medicated to dull any inclination to stand up and defy our governments. We are simply a commodity and nothing more. We are expendable and exploitable.

TRUST ME... THERE IS A PROBLEM. FOCUS ON IT.

Only we can stop what is happening to us, to our children, our grandchildren and Humanity as a whole.

[Carlo Ami]

Repetition is a mechanism of integration. It is easy for one to respond with, "You said that more than once already. Therefore I am not sure that I can trust you". Fact is, we tend not to "get" new ideas to replace the old ones until we hear the new one many times. The aspects of our conversation that I address are not new. I may come up with different ways of saying them, of making them inspirational, but I repeat them and play with them with the expressed purpose of reaching an audience that has been largely conditioned to either not hear them or not believe them.

My perception is that you are viewing the "enough" discussion with a scientific mind. The idea of "thinking through" something is important because you do not want to just blindly accept a new idea. If the thinking is done with the head, one stays on the old treadmill. The impulse or compulsion to act in opposition to some injustice may feel natural. Unless that impulse is born out of love rather than fear or alarm, then the resulting action lacks potency. Fear of being "spoon fed" some potentially weak or destructive "truth" can set one on an endless journey to find a scientific answer that simply does not exist. What this boils down to is learning to consult the wisdom of the heart and to trust that wisdom. As I ask the readers of my books to do, I would ask you to not readily take anything I write as truth until you filter it through the heart. For some, this is like asking them to eat their food through their nose. The heart can be very unexplored territory, leaving the it isolated and untapped.

The quest is to balance the rational with the heart-centered, and let the heart take tie-breakers.

Spiritually profitable action is born of heart-centered evolution. We often rather tend to want to dissect everything with the mind, which has proven to be a rather dubious ally. I do not "discourage actual action", but rather encourage the focus on building one's own vibration, trust, courage and presence to the extent that what was the perceived "must" action becomes a powerful choice rather than an imperative.

Do you think that Gandhi and his followers who brought us the idea of passive resistance were controlled more by fear than trust? Do you think that they were run by their anger or panic? Their passive resistance would have had little impact upon the British if they had been largely motivated by fear and doubt, figuring that their response would result in a collective fate no better than a Kamikaze pilot. They had love and trust on their side and they had the law of agreement on their side: a uniting of many consciously to achieve peace and freedom.

Relying on the mind exclusively to answer the questions meant for the heart to answer results in the kind of world in which we are disconnected, weak and confused. Individual actions born largely of fear, doubt, panic and confusion are generally impotent. Yes, it serves us to use the mind to get us through the traffic signal, to know that hunger signals a time to eat, and to understand how a kite works. And we are served to use the mind to find clarity about the facts of the matter as we are able.

As we grow in consciousness, we will find that our actions are more and more a natural and easy product of the will of the heart.

Isolated angst about what to do about our misguided government, religions and mass media can bear no real fruit for anyone. The general maxim as I understand it is to be the change I intend to see in the world. Working with the self---building love, trust and courage---is the foundation upon which the world will be reborn in love. Action without attention to the inner is like tilling the earth and expecting to produce a crop of something before the seeds have been planted.

Ron Tocknell said:

Thank you Carlo. I'll look forward to the blog. Message me when it's done.

Many of your concerns are with the language used ("must" "enough!" etc.). Whilst I agree that language is very powerful and should be used with care, I think it is very important to question the validity of statements that discourage actual action. There are many... and they seem to be saying the same thing: that confrontation is always negative, that the only action we should take is to look within, that there is a shift in consciousness and that, come 2012, those who have prepared themselves will 'ascend' into the 'New Paradigm'.

When one reads the same thing being said repetitively, one could be forgiven for wondering if these are truly the thoughts of the writer. I am reminded of the phrase from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World: "62400 repetitions make one truth". I am reading comments that are almost becoming slogans and this troubles me.

We must be wary of the ideas we absorb as opposed to those that occur to us from observation. Question everything... even if it seems true. I've read numerous posts on AOAND and, while many are refreshingly original and thought-provoking, so many others are just repetitions of ideas I have read elsewhere. I feel almost as if somebody else were writing the rules of how we should think and, when that occurs, even if I see some truth and value in them, I feel it's important to question them.

"When we tell ourselves we “must” do something, we are generally setting ourselves up for disappointment. “Must” sets up an “accomplish or else” vision with generally severe consequences if we do not manifest the change. It is low power"

I have also read this with the same reasons given. However, I use the term "must" to stress imperative. There are things I can do and things I may do but this implies that there is no harm done if they are not done. However, we must feed our children. This is not an option but an obligation. I do understand what the original psychologist who initially came to this conclusion was getting at and I agree that we often use "must" unnecessarily (I must get a new iPhone). But I take care to use discretion. I don't see the requirement to affect inward changes and also outward changes as optional lifestyle choices. I see them as imperatives. The consequences of not doing so are no more acceptable than the consequences of not feeding our children. I'm sure that, when this point was first made, it was not intended to suggest that the word "must" should be obliterated from our vocabulary, but simply that it should be used mindfully and with consideration. In this instance, I think the consequences of not affecting outward change as well as inward change are indeed severe. I don't see how that makes it "low power". I think imperative actions have considerable power.

If we too readily take up the ideas of others without thoroughly thinking them through, we are in danger of being 'spoon-fed' ideas.



Carlo Ami said:

Thanks for your real and interesting posting.

Seems to me that we have all conditioned that we must focus on the problem if we are to solve it.

Saying “enough”---recognizing the problems---is a great first step beyond hopelessness/powerlessness. It is important. Optimally, it will be quite brief. Once you recognize the problem, focusing on it is counter-productive. The brain doesn’t get the negative of “I don’t want” but rather sees the envisioned problem and either perpetuates it or creates anxiety because of the mixed message.

You write: “Yes, we must affect inward changes... but we must also affect outward changes and these are not simply going to occur by default as a result of our inner changes unless the inner changes lead to action. We are on our knees. We have to get up off our knees and stop submitting to the will of those who regard us as nothing more than a commodity.”

When we tell ourselves we “must” do something, we are generally setting ourselves up for disappointment. “Must” sets up an “accomplish or else” vision with generally severe consequences if we do not manifest the change. It is low power.

What we are being collectively called to do is to recognize our power to choose a loving response to EVERYTHING that we experience. As we grow that power, we create alliances: the more that are in agreement with your vision for what is wanted or envisioned, the more powerful is the vision.

Further responding to your posting excerpt above: When we feel compelled to “do something” in response to our governments and religions’ corrupt behavior, the “doing” is fruitless if we are not coming from a place of trust and loving power.
There are all kinds of well-intentioned folks that will incite anger by screaming into megaphones or telling us that we must righteously stand up in anger to the abuses of our institutions. Again, it may be a step beyond being asleep or in avoidance/powerlessness, but alone these things cannot propel us communally to any significant result. As long as fear, anger, despair, violence, indignance and such are a significant part of one’s basic mindset, one is weak.

And weak is how the money barons want us. That’s why we have poisons like aspartame and monosodium glutamate in our processed foods and why we have fluoride—a common ingredient in rat poison---in our water supplies in most cities in the U.S. It is why the media finds it so easy to create confusion and discord. It is why most of our religions feature a wrathful god that will damn us to eternal torture if we do not walk their line. It is why our government always seems to be fighting with itself and other countries. Their agenda is our confusion, division and powerlessness.

How many of us who have at least a general picture of what is going on with our governments, religion and media are willing to send loving energy to the ignorant corrupt elite? How many fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico who have had their livelihoods damaged by the oil spill are willing to send loving energy to the big wigs at BP? How many parents who have lost a military son in Iraq is willing to send love to those who killed him?


Doing comes out of being. Right now, how many people do you think there are in this country who would be willing and able to call the President and congressional representatives and calmly, lovingly, firmly tell them what is important for them to do if they want to get reelected? How many would be able to include in that call a short list: the abolishment of the Fed (a private bank that basically controls our money supply and bleeds us), the ending of the wars, and the removal of toxic poisons from our foods, higher tax rates for the rich along with the abolishment of many of the loopholes that allow so many of the money elite to pay no taxes at all? Could you make such a call without upset or attachment? If you can one such call means almost nothing. What if 100,000 such calls were placed every day? We’d be heard.


As long as one is in fear and powerlessness, such a call cannot be made. So it starts with the inside job of building your own power, then creating alliances to build communal power.

This exchange has inspired me to create a simple script for people to use if they are willing to make the kind of political representative call envisioned above. Will put it on my blog by the end of the week.

Thanks for the inspiration.


Ron Tocknell said:

Maybe I'm missing something here but, from what I can gather, the CIA have exercised an enormous power over other countries in the service of American interests (by that, of course, I don't mean in the interests of the American people but the US administration). They are able to infiltrate every organisation that may have some effect on the politics of the US. The same could be said about MI5 and probably every other intelligence agency on the globe. The drinking water throughout the Western world is contaminated with fluoride, which, contrary to claims, has no effect on dental health whatsoever. Actually, why would our governments be so concerned with dental health that they actually 'medicate' the water while other more serious conditions are largely ignored? Fluoride may not have any scientifically proven effect on teeth but it certainly has other scientifically proven effects on the human body... or, to be more precise, the brain. Fluoride toxicity reduces IQ, impairs memory and inhibits learning abilities.

Fluoride is just one of the many toxins being imposed on the masses against their will and even, unless you actually research the names of the mysterious ingredients added to our foods, without their knowledge.

Why?

Could it possibly be that a dumbed down, passive and compliant population is easier to control?

This is nothing new and there is ample information published on the Internet to indicate the level at which the people are being poisoned by those who are in control.

Another thing that isn't new and liberally documented on the web is 2012. This is such a significant date that all of the scholars of the 60s & 70s who had taken such a keen interest in all things esoteric........... said absolutely nothing about it at the time. Now it's everywhere. Everyone is preparing for the 'Ascension'. This requires 'looking inwardly' and focusing on love and the Spirit Light and so on. I do sincerely apologise if I come over as cynical and skeptical. However, this is because I am. My reasons will be explained shortly so please bear with me and suspend any objections for a moment.

Another current obsession is The Secret and the Law Of Attraction. The rule for success in getting anything you want is to focus on 'having' rather than 'wanting'. 'Do not focus on the problem. Focus on the desired outcome' we are told and this certainly seems to make sense.

But wait a minute... somewhere within this mass of New Age Philosophy must be the 'Red Herrings' inserted by the intelligence agencies. Every other movement has been infiltrated, why not this?

In an attempt to gather together ideas for addressing the dangerous level of power that a small minority of 'movers & Shakers' wield over six billion people, I am getting the following responses:

To stand in defiance of the illusory powers that can only be imposed on us with our consent, I am told, is confrontational and is focusing on the problem. The way forward is to look inward and focus on one's own state of balance and integrity. But, above all: DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM.

In response to the BP oil leak, I am told that to make a stand and confront governments with the damage they are wreaking and to withdraw our consent for them to handle the situation is focusing on the problem. It's almost as if a subliminal tannoy is continually relaying: DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM! DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM! IT IS ALL AN ILLUSION. DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM! YOU CAN HAVE EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER WANTED BY JUST LOOKING INWARDLY. DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM. WE SHALL ALL ASCEND IN 2012. DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM!

I'm afraid that this, to me sounds like the Wizard of Oz telling Dorothy to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. I think we're being played.

If intelligence agencies were to infiltrate the whole of the New Age Movement and push forward a few more compliant philosophies, they would have the means at their disposal to ensure a viral take up of these ideas.

So, while our governments send our sons, daughters, husbands and wives to fight corporate wars on behalf of the petrochemical industries, it would certainly be in their interests that the 'intelligentcia' were not focusing on the problem. Suddenly the LoA has sprung from nowhere... allegedly a 'secret' that has been withheld from us until now... the path to untold riches. All we have to do is not focus on the problem.

Somewhere within current and popular philosophies are the 'red herrings' and this is something of which we must be wary. Yes, we must affect inward changes... but we must also affect outward changes and these are not simply going to occur by default as a result of our inner changes unless the inner changes lead to action. We are on our knees. We have to get up off our knees and stop submitting to the will of those who regard us as nothing more than a commodity.

If we think that the main philosophies of the kind of groups that, in the 60s & 70s, would have been out in the streets protesting has been somehow overlooked by government security agencies, we are kidding ourselves Big Time!

There is no need to protest in the streets. That method is ineffectual anyway. There is no need to rise up in conflict as that would only result in tighter security controls. We need simply to stop believing the illusion that a handful of megalomanic control freaks actually have the power to treat the planet and its inhabitants as a personal larder. But we need to stand firm and withdraw our consent to their authority en mass. Peaceful, civil defiance. What Ghandi referred to as 'Passive Resistance'.

The Mexican Gulf oil leak is the worst environmental disaster in history. Our governments are sending soldiers to fight wars that serve only to enrich the giant multinational corporations and, in doing so, are illegally invading countries and oppressing the populations. Our governments are stoking the fires of resentment and ensuring that terrorism is a real enough threat to justify ever more stringent security controls. We are being mass medicated to dull any inclination to stand up and defy our governments. We are simply a commodity and nothing more. We are expendable and exploitable.

TRUST ME... THERE IS A PROBLEM. FOCUS ON IT.

Only we can stop what is happening to us, to our children, our grandchildren and Humanity as a whole.

[Carlo Ami]

One last note: If the primary reason that a parent feeds their child is because its an imperative, what kind of parent does that make them? The loving parent feeds their child well because it is the natural and loving thing to do, not because some written law makes feeding an imperative. Likewise, we are learning as a society that actions born out of love feed the loving collective potentiality. If our primary motivation to do something is because we have to do it, then we tend to feel like victims or like we are not free. And if we fail to manifest the imperative, then we feel impotent. The actions born of love are the key to our unfolding.

Carlo Ami said:

Repetition is a mechanism of integration. It is easy for one to respond with, "You said that more than once already. Therefore I am not sure that I can trust you". Fact is, we tend not to "get" new ideas to replace the old ones until we hear the new one many times. The aspects of our conversation that I address are not new. I may come up with different ways of saying them, of making them inspirational, but I repeat them and play with them with the expressed purpose of reaching an audience that has been largely conditioned to either not hear them or not believe them.

My perception is that you are viewing the "enough" discussion with a scientific mind. The idea of "thinking through" something is important because you do not want to just blindly accept a new idea. If the thinking is done with the head, one stays on the old treadmill. The impulse or compulsion to act in opposition to some injustice may feel natural. Unless that impulse is born out of love rather than fear or alarm, then the resulting action lacks potency. Fear of being "spoon fed" some potentially weak or destructive "truth" can set one on an endless journey to find a scientific answer that simply does not exist. What this boils down to is learning to consult the wisdom of the heart and to trust that wisdom. As I ask the readers of my books to do, I would ask you to not readily take anything I write as truth until you filter it through the heart. For some, this is like asking them to eat their food through their nose. The heart can be very unexplored territory, leaving the it isolated and untapped.

The quest is to balance the rational with the heart-centered, and let the heart take tie-breakers.

Spiritually profitable action is born of heart-centered evolution. We often rather tend to want to dissect everything with the mind, which has proven to be a rather dubious ally. I do not "discourage actual action", but rather encourage the focus on building one's own vibration, trust, courage and presence to the extent that what was the perceived "must" action becomes a powerful choice rather than an imperative.

Do you think that Gandhi and his followers who brought us the idea of passive resistance were controlled more by fear than trust? Do you think that they were run by their anger or panic? Their passive resistance would have had little impact upon the British if they had been largely motivated by fear and doubt, figuring that their response would result in a collective fate no better than a Kamikaze pilot. They had love and trust on their side and they had the law of agreement on their side: a uniting of many consciously to achieve peace and freedom.

Relying on the mind exclusively to answer the questions meant for the heart to answer results in the kind of world in which we are disconnected, weak and confused. Individual actions born largely of fear, doubt, panic and confusion are generally impotent. Yes, it serves us to use the mind to get us through the traffic signal, to know that hunger signals a time to eat, and to understand how a kite works. And we are served to use the mind to find clarity about the facts of the matter as we are able.

As we grow in consciousness, we will find that our actions are more and more a natural and easy product of the will of the heart.

Isolated angst about what to do about our misguided government, religions and mass media can bear no real fruit for anyone. The general maxim as I understand it is to be the change I intend to see in the world. Working with the self---building love, trust and courage---is the foundation upon which the world will be reborn in love. Action without attention to the inner is like tilling the earth and expecting to produce a crop of something before the seeds have been planted.

Ron Tocknell said:

Thank you Carlo. I'll look forward to the blog. Message me when it's done.

Many of your concerns are with the language used ("must" "enough!" etc.). Whilst I agree that language is very powerful and should be used with care, I think it is very important to question the validity of statements that discourage actual action. There are many... and they seem to be saying the same thing: that confrontation is always negative, that the only action we should take is to look within, that there is a shift in consciousness and that, come 2012, those who have prepared themselves will 'ascend' into the 'New Paradigm'.

When one reads the same thing being said repetitively, one could be forgiven for wondering if these are truly the thoughts of the writer. I am reminded of the phrase from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World: "62400 repetitions make one truth". I am reading comments that are almost becoming slogans and this troubles me.

We must be wary of the ideas we absorb as opposed to those that occur to us from observation. Question everything... even if it seems true. I've read numerous posts on AOAND and, while many are refreshingly original and thought-provoking, so many others are just repetitions of ideas I have read elsewhere. I feel almost as if somebody else were writing the rules of how we should think and, when that occurs, even if I see some truth and value in them, I feel it's important to question them.

"When we tell ourselves we “must” do something, we are generally setting ourselves up for disappointment. “Must” sets up an “accomplish or else” vision with generally severe consequences if we do not manifest the change. It is low power"

I have also read this with the same reasons given. However, I use the term "must" to stress imperative. There are things I can do and things I may do but this implies that there is no harm done if they are not done. However, we must feed our children. This is not an option but an obligation. I do understand what the original psychologist who initially came to this conclusion was getting at and I agree that we often use "must" unnecessarily (I must get a new iPhone). But I take care to use discretion. I don't see the requirement to affect inward changes and also outward changes as optional lifestyle choices. I see them as imperatives. The consequences of not doing so are no more acceptable than the consequences of not feeding our children. I'm sure that, when this point was first made, it was not intended to suggest that the word "must" should be obliterated from our vocabulary, but simply that it should be used mindfully and with consideration. In this instance, I think the consequences of not affecting outward change as well as inward change are indeed severe. I don't see how that makes it "low power". I think imperative actions have considerable power.

If we too readily take up the ideas of others without thoroughly thinking them through, we are in danger of being 'spoon-fed' ideas.



Carlo Ami said:

Thanks for your real and interesting posting.

Seems to me that we have all conditioned that we must focus on the problem if we are to solve it.

Saying “enough”---recognizing the problems---is a great first step beyond hopelessness/powerlessness. It is important. Optimally, it will be quite brief. Once you recognize the problem, focusing on it is counter-productive. The brain doesn’t get the negative of “I don’t want” but rather sees the envisioned problem and either perpetuates it or creates anxiety because of the mixed message.

You write: “Yes, we must affect inward changes... but we must also affect outward changes and these are not simply going to occur by default as a result of our inner changes unless the inner changes lead to action. We are on our knees. We have to get up off our knees and stop submitting to the will of those who regard us as nothing more than a commodity.”

When we tell ourselves we “must” do something, we are generally setting ourselves up for disappointment. “Must” sets up an “accomplish or else” vision with generally severe consequences if we do not manifest the change. It is low power.

What we are being collectively called to do is to recognize our power to choose a loving response to EVERYTHING that we experience. As we grow that power, we create alliances: the more that are in agreement with your vision for what is wanted or envisioned, the more powerful is the vision.

Further responding to your posting excerpt above: When we feel compelled to “do something” in response to our governments and religions’ corrupt behavior, the “doing” is fruitless if we are not coming from a place of trust and loving power.
There are all kinds of well-intentioned folks that will incite anger by screaming into megaphones or telling us that we must righteously stand up in anger to the abuses of our institutions. Again, it may be a step beyond being asleep or in avoidance/powerlessness, but alone these things cannot propel us communally to any significant result. As long as fear, anger, despair, violence, indignance and such are a significant part of one’s basic mindset, one is weak.

And weak is how the money barons want us. That’s why we have poisons like aspartame and monosodium glutamate in our processed foods and why we have fluoride—a common ingredient in rat poison---in our water supplies in most cities in the U.S. It is why the media finds it so easy to create confusion and discord. It is why most of our religions feature a wrathful god that will damn us to eternal torture if we do not walk their line. It is why our government always seems to be fighting with itself and other countries. Their agenda is our confusion, division and powerlessness.

How many of us who have at least a general picture of what is going on with our governments, religion and media are willing to send loving energy to the ignorant corrupt elite? How many fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico who have had their livelihoods damaged by the oil spill are willing to send loving energy to the big wigs at BP? How many parents who have lost a military son in Iraq is willing to send love to those who killed him?


Doing comes out of being. Right now, how many people do you think there are in this country who would be willing and able to call the President and congressional representatives and calmly, lovingly, firmly tell them what is important for them to do if they want to get reelected? How many would be able to include in that call a short list: the abolishment of the Fed (a private bank that basically controls our money supply and bleeds us), the ending of the wars, and the removal of toxic poisons from our foods, higher tax rates for the rich along with the abolishment of many of the loopholes that allow so many of the money elite to pay no taxes at all? Could you make such a call without upset or attachment? If you can one such call means almost nothing. What if 100,000 such calls were placed every day? We’d be heard.


As long as one is in fear and powerlessness, such a call cannot be made. So it starts with the inside job of building your own power, then creating alliances to build communal power.

This exchange has inspired me to create a simple script for people to use if they are willing to make the kind of political representative call envisioned above. Will put it on my blog by the end of the week.

Thanks for the inspiration.


Ron Tocknell said:

Maybe I'm missing something here but, from what I can gather, the CIA have exercised an enormous power over other countries in the service of American interests (by that, of course, I don't mean in the interests of the American people but the US administration). They are able to infiltrate every organisation that may have some effect on the politics of the US. The same could be said about MI5 and probably every other intelligence agency on the globe. The drinking water throughout the Western world is contaminated with fluoride, which, contrary to claims, has no effect on dental health whatsoever. Actually, why would our governments be so concerned with dental health that they actually 'medicate' the water while other more serious conditions are largely ignored? Fluoride may not have any scientifically proven effect on teeth but it certainly has other scientifically proven effects on the human body... or, to be more precise, the brain. Fluoride toxicity reduces IQ, impairs memory and inhibits learning abilities.

Fluoride is just one of the many toxins being imposed on the masses against their will and even, unless you actually research the names of the mysterious ingredients added to our foods, without their knowledge.

Why?

Could it possibly be that a dumbed down, passive and compliant population is easier to control?

This is nothing new and there is ample information published on the Internet to indicate the level at which the people are being poisoned by those who are in control.

Another thing that isn't new and liberally documented on the web is 2012. This is such a significant date that all of the scholars of the 60s & 70s who had taken such a keen interest in all things esoteric........... said absolutely nothing about it at the time. Now it's everywhere. Everyone is preparing for the 'Ascension'. This requires 'looking inwardly' and focusing on love and the Spirit Light and so on. I do sincerely apologise if I come over as cynical and skeptical. However, this is because I am. My reasons will be explained shortly so please bear with me and suspend any objections for a moment.

Another current obsession is The Secret and the Law Of Attraction. The rule for success in getting anything you want is to focus on 'having' rather than 'wanting'. 'Do not focus on the problem. Focus on the desired outcome' we are told and this certainly seems to make sense.

But wait a minute... somewhere within this mass of New Age Philosophy must be the 'Red Herrings' inserted by the intelligence agencies. Every other movement has been infiltrated, why not this?

In an attempt to gather together ideas for addressing the dangerous level of power that a small minority of 'movers & Shakers' wield over six billion people, I am getting the following responses:

To stand in defiance of the illusory powers that can only be imposed on us with our consent, I am told, is confrontational and is focusing on the problem. The way forward is to look inward and focus on one's own state of balance and integrity. But, above all: DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM.

In response to the BP oil leak, I am told that to make a stand and confront governments with the damage they are wreaking and to withdraw our consent for them to handle the situation is focusing on the problem. It's almost as if a subliminal tannoy is continually relaying: DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM! DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM! IT IS ALL AN ILLUSION. DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM! YOU CAN HAVE EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER WANTED BY JUST LOOKING INWARDLY. DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM. WE SHALL ALL ASCEND IN 2012. DO NOT FOCUS ON THE PROBLEM!

I'm afraid that this, to me sounds like the Wizard of Oz telling Dorothy to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. I think we're being played.

If intelligence agencies were to infiltrate the whole of the New Age Movement and push forward a few more compliant philosophies, they would have the means at their disposal to ensure a viral take up of these ideas.

So, while our governments send our sons, daughters, husbands and wives to fight corporate wars on behalf of the petrochemical industries, it would certainly be in their interests that the 'intelligentcia' were not focusing on the problem. Suddenly the LoA has sprung from nowhere... allegedly a 'secret' that has been withheld from us until now... the path to untold riches. All we have to do is not focus on the problem.

Somewhere within current and popular philosophies are the 'red herrings' and this is something of which we must be wary. Yes, we must affect inward changes... but we must also affect outward changes and these are not simply going to occur by default as a result of our inner changes unless the inner changes lead to action. We are on our knees. We have to get up off our knees and stop submitting to the will of those who regard us as nothing more than a commodity.

If we think that the main philosophies of the kind of groups that, in the 60s & 70s, would have been out in the streets protesting has been somehow overlooked by government security agencies, we are kidding ourselves Big Time!

There is no need to protest in the streets. That method is ineffectual anyway. There is no need to rise up in conflict as that would only result in tighter security controls. We need simply to stop believing the illusion that a handful of megalomanic control freaks actually have the power to treat the planet and its inhabitants as a personal larder. But we need to stand firm and withdraw our consent to their authority en mass. Peaceful, civil defiance. What Ghandi referred to as 'Passive Resistance'.

The Mexican Gulf oil leak is the worst environmental disaster in history. Our governments are sending soldiers to fight wars that serve only to enrich the giant multinational corporations and, in doing so, are illegally invading countries and oppressing the populations. Our governments are stoking the fires of resentment and ensuring that terrorism is a real enough threat to justify ever more stringent security controls. We are being mass medicated to dull any inclination to stand up and defy our governments. We are simply a commodity and nothing more. We are expendable and exploitable.

TRUST ME... THERE IS A PROBLEM. FOCUS ON IT.

Only we can stop what is happening to us, to our children, our grandchildren and Humanity as a whole.

[Ron Tocknell]

Of course. But you are bringing the necessity as the only reason for feeding a child into the argument, not I. The fact that we feed our children with love does not alter the fact that we must feed them.

This discussion is becoming a little pedantic even for me (and I can split a hair on gnat's ass) so I think I shall bow out at this point.

Carlo Ami said:

One last note: If the primary reason that a parent feeds their child is because its an imperative, what kind of parent does that make them? The loving parent feeds their child well because it is the natural and loving thing to do, not because some written law makes feeding an imperative. Likewise, we are learning as a society that actions born out of love feed the loving collective potentiality. If our primary motivation to do something is because we have to do it, then we tend to feel like victims or like we are not free. And if we fail to manifest the imperative, then we feel impotent. The actions born of love are the key to our unfolding.

[Carlo Ami]

I consider the motivation behind an action like feeding our children of high importance on a spiritual level. Bless you, Ron, let's consider the discussion closed.

Ron Tocknell said:

Of course. But you are bringing the necessity as the only reason for feeding a child into the argument, not I. The fact that we feed our children with love does not alter the fact that we must feed them.

This discussion is becoming a little pedantic even for me (and I can split a hair on gnat's ass) so I think I shall bow out at this point.

Carlo Ami said:

One last note: If the primary reason that a parent feeds their child is because its an imperative, what kind of parent does that make them? The loving parent feeds their child well because it is the natural and loving thing to do, not because some written law makes feeding an imperative. Likewise, we are learning as a society that actions born out of love feed the loving collective potentiality. If our primary motivation to do something is because we have to do it, then we tend to feel like victims or like we are not free. And if we fail to manifest the imperative, then we feel impotent. The actions born of love are the key to our unfolding.