Being One

[Ron Tocknell]

I have been wrestling with a problem with myself and it’s very much to do with this herd identity. This is very damaging as it creates a superficial ‘self’ to buffer against the trials of reality without denting the inner and often hidden True Self.

I remember in the 60s when the Hippy Movement first emerged. At the time, I was an art student. That meant that not only did I study art, but I also wore the clothes that art students of the time wore, listened to Art Student music, held Art Student views and so on. There were frequent clashes between ‘Mods’ and ‘Rockers’ (if you’re unfamiliar with these tribal groups, Google them as there isn’t the space here to explain). As an Art Student, I felt rather individual because I identified with neither faction. Of course, I hadn’t taken on board that the term Art Student didn’t just indicate what I studied but defined a specific group ideology to which I conformed to the letter.

With the rise of the Hippies, there seemed to be a general trend among art students to embrace this new culture. This I did recognise as ‘herd identity’ and decided that I did not want to conform to an idiosyncratic ideology… so I became a beatnik to show how individual I was. Such is the logic of a young man who wants to be ‘different’ but doesn’t want to be alone.

Until very recently (since joining AOAND, in fact), I regarded myself as an atheist on the strength of the fact that I do not believe in the traditional theological view of God. I’ve described much of this in a discussion on here about atheism. In that discussion, I relate the fact that I kept receiving unsolicited emails from what was described as a “growing atheist community”.

Now, this is interesting. It’s an ideology that has a number of followers yet the only thing that bonds them is not what they believe but what they do not believe. I realised that, by identifying myself as an atheist, I was setting myself in opposition to anyone who feels differently.

Somewhere within all these superficial ‘club’ identities lies the person that I am. I make no claim of having stripped away all the posturing and pretenses to reveal my True Self and I can’t honestly be sure that I ever will. One thing is for sure, however, I won’t find it among “like-minded” people. I might find the “like” but the “minded” remains elusive as ever.

So why am I writing on AOAND? Good question. I’m glad I asked myself that.

I am a rather opinionated person (perhaps I’m part of a growing Opinionist Community) and relish every opportunity to publish my views on any site that accommodates user input.

Why? Another good question (I’m so glad I’m playing such an active part in this). Because I want feedback. Opposing views can often help me look at things from another viewpoint. I might not agree, in which case, it doesn’t matter because this is not about who is right or who is wrong. But I also crave approval. I want someone to say “Yeah! Right on!”

What would that matter? If someone agrees with me, it doesn’t confirm that I am right. It simply confirms that I am not alone. It comes back to that old security of the herd again. The more people who share my views, the less I stand out and the greater the chance that I won’t get eaten.

I’ve read quite a number of discussions on AOAND. There are some I agree with, some have been enlightening, some I’m not sure about and some I take issue with.

Some, however, I feel simply seem to use the language of the New Age without saying anything that drifts beyond the boundaries of what has become (whether you like it or not) the New Age Ideology.

I feel there is a common purpose here but I also feel that it is being diluted into the herd identity. There is a tendency to be mysterious and liberally use terms that are not clear in meaning. When I read about ego, it is invariably from someone who has transcended ego. I want to read about someone who’s still struggling with it because that, I can relate to.

If we are going to be facing some huge, significant change that is going to affect our perception of reality, are we really ready for that? When we say we are one, what precisely do we mean? More to the point, do we really mean that? Being as one must surely be more than a chant of the New Age Movement. If it is to have any substance to it then surely that glittering prize of the Universal Singularity cannot be found by simply joining together. That’s just coagulation, isn’t it?

Being One with All must surely be something we can only arrive at alone because it isn’t something we attain but something we truly realise. We can’t become One with All. We can only discover that we are and always have been. Being One with All begins with being One.

[Jeanne]

Rawk on, Ron! I'm thinking that this thoughtful blog insures that you will not be eaten today.

[AkashicWreckage]

Ron said: "Some, however, I feel simply seem to use the language of the New Age without saying anything that drifts beyond the boundaries of what has become (whether you like it or not) the New Age Ideology."

I've said it similarly---I truly believe there really is no New Age Ideology, but some haven't maybe figured that out yet. It's all very vague and probably deliberately so.

You also said: "If we are going to be facing some huge, significant change that is going to affect our perception of reality, are we really ready for that? When we say we are one, what precisely do we mean? More to the point, do we really mean that? Being as one must surely be more than a chant of the New Age Movement. If it is to have any substance to it then surely that glittering prize of the Universal Singularity cannot be found by simply joining together. That’s just coagulation, isn’t it?"

I doubt we're ready, but whatever it is, it will meet us where we are. How can it not? Unless it's only going to impact those who are one, and then, some will have to be left out.
I rarely think, or say, that we are one---my belief is that there won't be room for everyone in one---and also there are some I really would prefer not to be one with.

I think it is a very solitary path, not to say we don't travel it with companions here and there. I like how you closed this: Being One with All, begins with One!

Interesting topic, thanks for starting it!
Blessings,
AW

[Ron Tocknell]

“I've said it similarly---I truly believe there really is no New Age Ideology, but some haven't maybe figured that out yet”

I think I would say that there is a New Age Ideology. The fact that it has a name confines it to the boundaries of an ideology. One can describe something as “all very New Age” and immediately an image springs to mind. It’s this image that its followers conform to.

People say that they are “sending out light” to someone or even everyone. Does anyone actually receive anything that is akin to light? If someone sends me light, I know about it because they usually tell me. I don’t suddenly perceive everything is greater clarity and think “Oh my Goodness! What’s going on here? Someone must be sending me light!”

So what do me mean? What are we saying? Is this just a way of asserting that the light-sender is one of the gang? Is it simply a New Age chant?

Even if we “go deep into ourselves” (and I wonder how many of us actually know how to do that) and focus on sending light; even if we go through what we believe to be the mental and emotional process of sending someone light, aren’t we really just confirming our own image of ourselves as someone with the power to actually send out light? What do we want this light to achieve?

I read posts that are ‘channeled’ from some other entity and I’m afraid I am very skeptical about this. These ‘channeled’ messages are invariably passed on from some greater, wiser entity to spread the Truth; to show the way… yet the actual content of these channeled messages invariably convey nothing more than a series of New Age chants of sending light into the world and Love is the Truth and so on. If I am to believe that these are truly channeled from beyond the physical world, I can only be left with the conclusion that Metatron wants to join the New Age Movement and is talking the talk to show his credentials.

I think we are playing games. If our reality is truly shifting to a New Paradigm, then surely that is taking place beyond the confines of our playground and maybe it’s time we stopped playing metaphysical hop-scotch and faced it in earnest.

This is what I mean by the New Age Ideology. Some of us on AOAND are seeking answers, some are seeking disciples and many just want to belong to a community of “like-minded” people. We are all vulnerable and I feel we are caught in the slipstream of the whole.

Why I feel this is dangerous is because I genuinely feel that we are up against a very powerful force that seeks to manipulate the mindset of the masses. This is nothing new. It’s the same force that has been manipulating us all along using the leverage of a fear of God (it is significant that so many traditional Christians of the world’s Bible-Belt refer to themselves as ‘God Fearing’) through the theological establishments, fear of terrorism, fear of poverty, the lure of acquisition and wealth and so on.

I see changes happening in the way we are governed and controlled. I see the stripping away of individual liberties and the gradual formation of an aggressive and intrusive State Control. This is the “Jackboot” described by Orwell and I feel it’s rising to “stamp on the face of Humanity”. Are we sending out light to blind ourselves to this? Are we chanting “Love” to drown the sound of impending annihilation of the spirit? Are we herding together for protection?

I am reminded of buffalo herded together by predatory hunters and stampeded toward the edge of a ravine. Perhaps it’s time to stop chanting and start thinking.

[AkashicWreckage]

"I think I would say that there is a New Age Ideology. The fact that it has a name confines it to the boundaries of an ideology. One can describe something as “all very New Age” and immediately an image springs to mind. It’s this image that its followers conform to."

New Age has been around for at least 4 decades (probably more), and there are so many ideologies within it--- that it's hard to limit its boundaries. IMO, it's a hodge podge of many ideologies that most likely many of those who are followers of some of the ideologies that may be confined within "New Age," may even take issue with their particular beliefs being absorbed by the New Age tag.

"People say that they are “sending out light” to someone or even everyone. Does anyone actually receive anything that is akin to light? If someone sends me light, I know about it because they usually tell me. I don’t suddenly perceive everything is greater clarity and think “Oh my Goodness! What’s going on here? Someone must be sending me light!”

So what do me mean? What are we saying? Is this just a way of asserting that the light-sender is one of the gang? Is it simply a New Age chant?"

Well, you're all over the place---from sending light to channelings to Metatron---
When whatever it is that is coming, be it a Paradigm Shift, a New Age, A Flipping of the Page of the Mayan Calendar, whatever----you actually summed it all up when you said,
"Being One with All must surely be something we can only arrive at alone because it isn’t something we attain but something we truly realise. We can’t become One with All. We can only discover that we are and always have been. Being One with All begins with being One. "

More...
AW

[AkashicWreckage]

"Why I feel this is dangerous is because I genuinely feel that we are up against a very powerful force that seeks to manipulate the mindset of the masses. This is nothing new. It’s the same force that has been manipulating us all along using the leverage of a fear of God (it is significant that so many traditional Christians of the world’s Bible-Belt refer to themselves as ‘God Fearing’) through the theological establishments, fear of terrorism, fear of poverty, the lure of acquisition and wealth and so on.

I see changes happening in the way we are governed and controlled. I see the stripping away of individual liberties and the gradual formation of an aggressive and intrusive State Control. This is the “Jackboot” described by Orwell and I feel it’s rising to “stamp on the face of Humanity”. Are we sending out light to blind ourselves to this? Are we chanting “Love” to drown the sound of impending annihilation of the spirit? Are we herding together for protection?

I am reminded of buffalo herded together by predatory hunters and stampeded toward the edge of a ravine. Perhaps it’s time to stop chanting and start thinking."

A huge part of me understands what you are saying, and I agree with you. We know that they are exerting their control, from the money supply, to the food supply, jobs, healthcare, security, and the list goes on and on.
And, fear is the method of delivery. Forced vaccines, forced compliance---what is the antidote? Look to THEM for protection? Or look to the Forces of Light for protection? Either way----the edge of the ravine is in sight.

In order for the plan(s) to work, people will have to die. In order for the plan(s) to work, minds will be controlled---every last aspect of freedom will have to be curtailed.

However---in order for truth to prevail (whatever that pure truth might be)---the world and governments are hopelessly corrupt-------destruction has to come in one form or another---the system, the governments, the control---or the people, the minds and the spirits...

The world as we know it, has to be destroyed. It has to be changed.

In one sense, it's a returning back to source.

Government is a fabrication of dependency, essentially.

Allow it to implode, which it is doing.

There's more, but I must ready myself for "work."
Again, thanks for bringing up this topic.
AW

[Jeanne]

An old injury incurred when I was 12 had become a continual, throbbing pain at 30. I'd been to allopaths, naturopaths and chiros... but the pain persisted. Then I heard of Ida Rolf. I went to the library and found and read every book by and about her... (pre and post Esalen) and decided to be Rolfed... to do the complete ten sessions. By the 5th session I have never experienced that pain again.

One day, after leaving the Rolfer's office in downtown Denver, I stopped into a natural foods/New Age bookstore. While perusing the magazines, I saw a mag called New Age. I scanned its contents... and was elated. Here was a mag filled with many subjects that interested me, but were considered questionable by most folks I knew. I had cohorts... someone, somewhere... others like me were also reviving and honoring old ways... acupuncture, herbalism, energy work and spiritual, not religious philosophies. Even my Native ancestral traditions found a place of honor on those pages.

You could say I jumped on the New Age band wagon that day. I came to realize that the majority of others in the NA movement were also of the hippie generation... some were sturdy folk from the older generation and later, the children of hippies and alternative folk jumped on that wagon too.

So, yes... you could say the NA movement is a hodgepodge of ideas and philosophies... and it might be better termed an Old Age movement for its revival of ancient knowledge and methods... and its impetus seems to originate as a reaction to an overly clinical, centralized, power structure with foreboding tones of global uniformity.

Given the choice between hodge podge, hippie, punk, straight-edge, tree hugging, eco-warrior, crystal gazing, light bearers and uniform automatons... I'll take the former.

That said... "Being One with All begins with being One", says it all... so please ignore everything I just said.

[Ron Tocknell]

"Given the choice between hodge podge, hippie, punk, straight-edge, tree hugging, eco-warrior, crystal gazing, light bearers and uniform automatons... I'll take the former."

Well, I guess that given the choice between digging ditches for a living or exterminating babies, I'd go for the ditch digging. But it doesn't mean that ditch-digging is the answer. Fortunately, I never was presented with those two choices. There's a world of choices between one and t'other.

I am not denouncing everything within the scope of NA thinking as false or worthless any more than I would denounce religious teachings as false or worthless. There's a lot of wisdom in both.

However, just as the wisdom in religion becomes lost in zeal and dogma, the same is true for any other ideology. It becomes an identity. That's where it becomes dangerous. When we find ourselves endeavouring to adopt the New Age Identity and repeating statements without thinking about what they mean, we are on a slippery slope to a uniform automaton in a different package.

There is comfort in finding "like-minded" fellows but there is danger too. We take on the identity of the herd and lose our individual identity (or, more often, we abandon the identity of one herd to take on the identity of another). How long before the ad men catch on? How long before the media start to pamper to our interests? It's starting already. Food companies have realised that they have to label food as "organic" or "free range" to appeal to those with an ecological conscience. "free range" can legally mean that an overcrowded shed full of chickens has one small opening to a patch of concrete outside. Most can't get to it and those that can have little incentive to do so. So they're battery chickens that can legally be called "free range" because they have "access" to the outside. "Organic" can mean that organic fertilizers were used... along with all the chemical pesticides.

But the stuff gets bought and the consumers feel that they are doing their bit without looking too closely at whether or not they are being fed lies. AkashicWreckage speaks of the "Forces of Light". Well, what are these Forces of Light? What exactly does that mean?

Jeanne, you said you were in the army. So was I in the early 70s. I remember well how easily one falls into the language without thinking about what we're talking about. In the British army, there was a phrase: "Idle On Parade". Well, the word "Idle" in any other dictionary means inactive or possibly lazy. In the British army, it means "wrong". If you're a millimeter out of line, you're "idle"; if your boots aren't shiny enough, your boots are "idle". It very quickly becomes part of the institutionalised language. I'm sure the same is true in the US army (say 'Ron! Yes Ron!')

As soon as we fall into this trap of talking the talk and looking the look and even thinking the thoughts that serve only to identify with our chosen herd, we become the unthinking automatons we so despise.

As much as we take comfort from like-minded fellows, we have to break away from them and find the Self. Each of us has to stop the prescribed 'angels & light' chatter and find out who we actually are.

[Frazer]

Hi Ron, This subject has been with me for some time. Great to see someone else tangle with it. Your phrase captures an essence that leads the way for me, "Being One with All begins with Being One" (and can lead to Being All) My sense is that there are unknown paths to explore and master. I struggle with Being One at times; still learning to listen to my inner wisdom available in the Silence. I have a knowing however that the Gold is within the collective experience and it will become increasingly easier as the path is recognized and trod by ever more of us. (conscious entrainment?) The lessons are mainly in learning to herd cats! Man tends to look beyond himself for the easy fix and rest for the ego in complacency. This is a path toward separation from the Wisdom of each moment. Respect for All positions is the starting point while you and I and many more find points of agreement in increasing collective expression. Interesting how easy it seems to be for Ego to create doubt; separating me from my wisdom!

[AkashicWreckage]

"I am not denouncing everything within the scope of NA thinking as false or worthless any more than I would denounce religious teachings as false or worthless. There's a lot of wisdom in both.

However, just as the wisdom in religion becomes lost in zeal and dogma, the same is true for any other ideology. It becomes an identity. That's where it becomes dangerous. When we find ourselves endeavouring to adopt the New Age Identity and repeating statements without thinking about what they mean, we are on a slippery slope to a uniform automaton in a different package."

I think there is value in using discernment, when looking at anything that is spiritual---there is the risk that people are drawn into things, that are not what they seem to be.
I've argued this point endlessly, with those on what I see as a NA spirituality made easy, or path for the masses.
People are told---"Oh, we're not supposed to judge, that's of the ego---" And, we're left with many people who won't use their judgment! I used to draw back when I would hear that, and yet there was a part of me that said "the hell I won't judge or use discernment!"

Who was it that said "Seek the truth, doubt those who say they have found it?"

You raise valid points Ron.

"There is comfort in finding "like-minded" fellows but there is danger too. We take on the identity of the herd and lose our individual identity (or, more often, we abandon the identity of one herd to take on the identity of another). How long before the ad men catch on? How long before the media start to pamper to our interests? It's starting already."

Of course they've caught on---there IS big money in NA thought---the books, the CDs, the oracle cards, the groups, the classes---not to mention "attunements," and the list goes on. In times such as these that we are in, hard economic times for so many, people DO seek out enlightenment and run the risk of the "herd" mentality, which does not encourage questioning the so called "truth" that is being perpetuated.

"But the stuff gets bought and the consumers feel that they are doing their bit without looking too closely at whether or not they are being fed lies. AkashicWreckage speaks of the "Forces of Light". Well, what are these Forces of Light? What exactly does that mean?"

It means, actually, nothing. It was a play on words, sarcastic even, but not towards you or the thoughts and concerns that you have expressed.


AW

[Ron Tocknell]

That was Mark Twain. I believe he said "Respect those who seek the truth, be wary of those who claim to have found it"

I had a feeling that the "Forces of Light" remark might have been tongue-in-cheek.

Well, this post seems to have drawn a few like-minded people. I'm in a dilemma!

Should I declare that black is white, square is round, up is down and the giraffe is actually a kind of mouse? Or do I concede that like-minded individuals do not necessarily constitute a herd? :o)

I've been chasing my tail for so long now, I sometimes think that maybe my tail is chasing me.

[AkashicWreckage]

"Well, this post seems to have drawn a few like-minded people. I'm in a dilemma!

Should I declare that black is white, square is round, up is down and the giraffe is actually a kind of mouse? Or do I concede that like-minded individuals do not necessarily constitute a herd? :o)"

I think we should all veeeeerrrry quietly take out our "I Don't Want To Be Part of The Herd" Survival Kits and make sure we have everything that is necessary juuuuuuussssst in case this situation grows more relaxing.

If it does, I suggest that one of us---- first----channel some obscure angel or being.
Ron---My Guides are telling me that it's YOUR turn to channel us all a message from----

The Lighter Side
:-P
AW

[Ron Tocknell]

"Ron---My Guides are telling me that it's YOUR turn to channel us all a message from----"

OK. I've just channeled this message to Humanity from Ghandi. He says:

"Bugger off! I've done my bit! You sort it out... I'm dead!"

Oh well... it was worth a try.