Can’t remember where I copied this from.
Encouragement for today
For those of you who have access to Netflix, i recommend “Mission: Joy. Finding Happiness in Troubled Times,” a documentary of about 80 minutes featuring the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
i paused it at about the one-hour mark, to put up this notice, when the Dalai Lama said, in effect, goodness is basic human nature, but people read newspapers and believe what they read, then feel more hopelessness and then feel that humanity is bad.
That’s very true. I, who was once a news junkie, turned my back on it long ago, starting with any medium depending on commercials, and moving farther and farther away from the mainstream. I somewhat regret losing track of things, sometimes quite acutely, but I see no alternative, at least for me. Other people’s paths differ, of course. But the Dalai Lama’s point remains: You get a distorted view of the world, of each other, when you rely too heavily upon the news as reported.
This isn’t the essence of the program. The essence is living in joy, and there can be no greater affirmation than to watch the joyful interaction between this man who has lived most of his life in exile, and this man who grew up in poverty and had to engage in a lifelong fight against racism and oppression.
It is the truth that Viktor Frankl learned in a concentration camp, and it is no less true today.
Some statements of truth
I will do for Matthias Desmet’s book The Psychology of Totalitarianism what I am always wishing someone would do for my books, particularly The Cosmic Internet. A few quotations from a little book I read in two days with that sense of delighted recognition one gets so few times in a long lifetime of reading.
& & &
“Truth-telling is a way of speaking that breaks through an established, if implicit, social consensus. Whoever speaks the truth breaks open the solidified story in which the group seeks refuge, ease, and security. This makes speaking the truth a dangerous endeavor. It strikes fear in the group, and results in anger and aggression.” (p. 13)
& & &
“That’s how most people eventually become certain. Very certain. Yet of the most opposing things. Some people were convinced that we were dealing with a killer virus, others that it was nothing more than the seasonal flu, and still others believed that the virus did not even exist and that we were dealing with a worldwide conspiracy. And there were also a few who continued to tolerate uncertainty and kept asking themselves: How can we adequately understand what is going on in our society?” (p. 6)
& & &
“The ultimate achievement of science is that it finally surrenders, that it comes to the realization that it cannot be the guiding principle for man. It is not human reason that is at the heart of matter, but man as an individual who makes ethical and moral choices, man in relation to fellow man, man in relation to the unnamable, which, at the heart of things, speaks to him.” (p. 16)
& & &
“Mechanistic ideology always lives on credit! In the future, once perfect knowledge has been achieved and perfect technology has been mastered, it will translocate the man-machine into paradise. Yet for now, it mainly makes people sick and depressed.” (p. 46)
& & &
“With respect to the leaders, mass-formation gives rise to two opposing attitudes: Either one trusts the leaders blindly (and disappears into the mass), or one completely distrusts them and sees them as people who knowingly carry out an evil plan (i.e. conspirators). In a certain sense, both extreme perspectives are based on a similar misunderstanding: They fallaciously endow the leaders with a virtually absolute knowledge (and power); the first group does so in a positive sense, the second group in a negative sense.” (p. 105)
& & &
“The Enlightenment man, too, was brought up in a myth, a story that tells something about his origin, that makes him take a certain perspective on life and links his negative and positive emotions and affects to specific situations.” (p. 172)
& & &
“The end point of science is not reached with a perfectly rational understanding and control of reality; instead, it lies in the final acceptance that there are limits to human rationality, that knowledge does not belong to man, but has to be situated in the wider system of which man forms a part.” (pp. 177-8)
& & &
“The ultimate knowledge lies outside of man. It vibrates in all things. And man is able to receive it, by tuning his vibrations, like a string, to the frequency of things. And the more man is able to set aside prejudices and beliefs, the more purely he will vibrate with the things around him and receive new knowledge.” (p. 184)
& & &
“Literally: To the degree that we can connect with what is outside ourselves, we are able to transcend our own boundaries and our own world of experience gets expanded to an existence that extends endlessly in time and space. Through resonance with the greater plan, we participate in the timelessness of the universe, like a reed rustling in the eternal air of life.” (p. 186)
& & &
And finally, this, which is the first time I have ever been moved to quote form an “Acknowledgements” page:
“We cannot describe in words where words come from. But we do know where words go – they are always on their way to Another. Man is a narrow passage through which words pass on their journey from source to Other.” (p. 189)
& & &
It was a great refreshment, reading this book. I doubt that Matthias Desmet makes a practice of talking to his guys upstairs (at least, if he does, I doubt he does so knowingly). He has a scientifically trained mind, which I do not have. Yet his life has brought him to conclusions quite compatible with what the guys have been telling us for more than 20 years..
I can think of no experience more delightful and encouraging than to read an honest man’s careful and skillful attempt to lay out the plain truth, as best he can, knowing that truth may be offered freely, but can by transmitted only to those able to receive it.
Measuring the human energy field
This email, from a friend who wishes to remain anonymous, speaks for itself and should interest at least some.
Frank –
The scientific paper at this link has just been published. It concerns experiments that appear to measure the physical effects of a human energy field.
In the experiments described in this paper, I was the experimental subject. (Please keep my anonymity.) I meditated under the apparatus described, which very precisely records the movements of a pendulum arrangement.
The pendulum exhibits anomalous behavior when a human is under or near it. The effects, which can last for a considerable time after the subject has left the seat, do not appear to be from conventionally understood forces.
I thought you would find it interesting.
I greatly enjoy your TGU conversations which I get by E-mail.
…
I continue to try channeling, now in my sixth year of attempts. While I rarely receive anything more than one or two words, I did recently pick up an entire sentence:
“We will provide you with answers and explanations in due time.”
Thanks! Please hurry LOL!
I have found it very efficient to speak into an iPad or Mac instead of taking the time to write down or type my received information or thoughts.
Both of these devices now have outstanding speech-to-text built-in, which rapidly and reliably types into a file anything I say. And these no longer require connection to the Internet to recognize the speech and transcribe it into text, so there is no significant delay in use.
With best regards,
Paul Blakey: Another way to use I Ching
An old friend weighed in on another way to use the I Ching, and with his permission I reprint his email.
Hi Frank,
You caught my attention with your thoughts on the I Ching, which has been an ongoing study of mine for probably 50 years now. I started with the Wilhelm/Baynes version but over the years I have collected a number of different volumes. My favourite is “The Book of Changes and the Unchanging Truth” by Ni, Hua Ching.
The I Ching has deepened my qigong practice over the years and I used to have wonderful conversations about the book with my qigong teacher, Michael Tse.
One of the ways he used the book was to interpret the “gua” (situation) of the day, not by throwing coins or dividing yarrow stalks, but by observing the combination of any two of the eight trigrams (gua) in this manner:
Let’s say it is morning, you go outside and the sky is clear and the sun is shining. This is the first thing you notice, so this becomes the first gua (Heaven). You decide to sit on the deck and have your morning coffee but as soon as you sit down your neighbour fires up his lawn mower to cut the grass. This becomes the second gua (Thunder).
Now you have two trigrams, with Heaven below and Thunder on top, which makes hexagram 34, Great Strength. (You put the first trigram at the bottom, because it is the first thing you observe and it becomes the root of the hexagram).
The interpretation of hexagram 34 in Hua Ching’s book is summarized as “When great strength is correctly applied, it is a good thing.”
The general commentary is all about using force in a beneficial manner. In regard to the noise interrupting one’s coffee moment, you have several options. One is to stand up and yell at your neighbour, the other might be to retreat and go back inside, but the other is to use the moment to learn how to control and develop your internal energy.
“Non-action is the term generally used to interpret the Taoist principle of naturalness. However, non-action does not mean that one does nothing, rather that one does not scatter one’s energy. Allowing nature to take its course without interference is the real meaning of non-action.”
I have found over the years that this gives a real ‘felt-sense’ of the meaning of the various hexagrams. It combines natural feelings with daily events to give you a personalized connection to the — at times — rather abstract commentaries.
Hua Ching continues:
“Each line (starting from the bottom) guides us in the use of force. The first line represents energy that is gathered and cultivated. This accumulation can be used to observe and respond appropriately to the various situations that confront us. The second line recommends the use of self-restraint. In the third line, the choice is given between expressing virtue through non-action or ignorance through strenuous response. The fourth line indicates that this is the right time to apply strength. The fifth line represents a position of weakness and teaches how to deal with such situation. The top line advises using difficulty as a means of becoming strong.”
You can also use this method internally by observing the nature of the inner landscape. For example, in your conversation with the guys you mentioned that you were feeling a bit unfocused …
Feeling unfocused would be the effect of Wind (scatters and disperses), so this would be your foundational qua.
Then, with some help from your friends you settle into the conversation, which I would interpret as being the influence of Mountain (settles and centres).
Which gives you hexagram 18, Correcting the Corruption (Mountain over Wind).
“Work against corruption. This is a beneficial time to engage in an adventurous task. Prepare carefully in advance and make a thorough inspection afterwards.”
You seemed to end your writing with a slight feeling of frustration, as if you felt you were unable to reach the core of what was being transmitted …
[I wasn’t feeling frustrated, but perceptions differ.]
The commentary continues with this (which I think is entirely appropriate) …
“In this hexagram, Wind is below Mountain. However, the gentle wind cannot penetrate the dense air at its base.”
Have a look at your copy of the I Ching and see what you can glean from Hexagram 18, as it relates to your situation.
All the best,
Paul Blakey
Yeast
Yeast.
I have to laugh. This story is about yeast. This story is about remembering. And most of all this story is about knowing just how much more we are than we often imagine. And it is about how connecting with guidance can help you explore that, as well as to explore what you might do with these tools.
Bear with me a brief while to get there. I need to tell another brief story first for this to make sense.
I spent a large portion of my life in a battle against a rare form of arthritis. I had Reactive Arthritis, Ankylosing Spondylitis and a tongue twister – Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis. That last one goes by the moniker DISH. These are terrible and destructive diseases.
These are and were caused both by a genetic susceptibility – an antigen called HLA-B27 and an infection. Scientists love to name things with terrible names. This antigen is one of the “friend and foe” antigens. These antigens are the ones you hear about in medical dramas and at doctors office when they talk about doing a tissue match for organ transplants. These antigens are like flags that cover the surface of cells telling our immune systems – “hey, I am one of us, please don’t kill me”.
My disease is/was an autoimmune disease. It is/was caused by bacteria pretending to be “me” / “us”. The bacteria has a part that looks very much like HLA-B27. When I was infected with one of these as a kid, my body recognized the invader and fought in. But the tricky bugger pretended to be “me” / “us”. And my immune system stopped fighting. This continued as an on again off again war for decades.
The battleground was my body. And the battlefield damage from that war was my spine, my neck, my pelvis, my eyes and more.
In 1997 I cured my arthritis. Doctors say that is impossible. I did it anyway. That story is a long story in its own right, fraught with difficulties, pains and perils. But that is for another time. The story today is about yeast.
A week or two ago I was lamenting to Frank that I was unable to grow yeast in my house. I have tried on and off for the last decade to bake bread, brew beer, make ginger bear, ferment grapes into wine, make yogurt and more. Ever single time that ended with me throwing it all out.
I purchased yeasts of a dozen types tailored to each purpose. I treated them gently. I abused them. I nurtured them. I ignored them. I tried everything I could think of. Yet, not once could I get yeast to grow.
I worried that the water was bad. Perhaps chlorine residual, or something else was killing them. Maybe I even had a bacteriophage (a virus that infects and kills bacteria) that targeted yeast. I tried several types of spring water, distilled water, and others. Nothing. Yeast would not grow.
I borrowed starter from friends. It died. It didn’t seem to matter what I did. The yeast always died.
With the virus and being stuck in the house, I thought again about trying to make bread myself. But my attempts at creating sourdough starter were going no where.
As I talked with Frank about that, he stopped me and asked as he always does – “What do the guys have to say?”
I have been doing my own version of communing with guidance since I was a child. For most of my life I set that aside as I did professional work. In that work, proper “scientists” would reject anything I had to say if they ever thought for an instance that I believed in such ‘nonsense’. My “credibility” would be toast. And so I set it aside for a good long while.
In the past two decades going to the Monroe Institute and getting to know Frank, I have let my hair down again, and returned to my roots. I learned Franks Intuitive Linked Communication version of how to connect.
And so, I asked “the guys” – “What is going on?” “Why is the yeast dying?”
The answer they replied with was immediate and blew me away. They pointed out that I had learned to do esoteric energy work and that I had gotten quite good with it. I knew all of that of course. It is part of my day to day “normal” that most people think is “impossible”.
They went on to say that in using those techniques that I had suppressed the growth of the bacteria that caused my arthritis as a part of the larger battle against it. I knew that played a part of the larger story of how I cured the arthritis.
They said that what I failed to realize is just how powerfully I had invoked that. They said that the reason the yeast wouldn’t grow anywhere around me was because “I wouldn’t let it. I was suppressing it.”
Well, duh! So, right then and there, I changed my energetic pattern so that I would continue to protect my body from a resumption of the arthritis, and at the same time to allow and support the yeast and other beneficial organisms that I grow.
Well that was fascinating. Frank and I continued our discussions and wrapped for the night.
Meanwhile, back in my dining room, I had been trying for a week to get sourdough starter to start with no success. Nothing was growing at all. Before I went to bed I checked on it one last time. It tasted liked flour and water. Nothing. hmmm… Perhaps I can start tomorrow.
Not long after I went to bed. And I thought of a plan for the next day.
I awoke in the middle to the night, as I often do. That too is another long and fascinating story for another time.
I got up and went to the kitchen for a glass of water. Along the way I stopped and checked my proofer where the sourdough starter was sitting nice and warm and had been for over a week. And what do you know, the thing was boiling over.
I opened it and smelled – yeasty!! I tasted it. It was doughy, sour and wonderful. It was only four hours or so since Frank and I chatted and since I changed my energy pattern.
In the week that followed, I have started several different sourdough starters. All of them have worked. I also found a very old, undoubtedly dead package of Red fast rising yeast hinting in my cupboard.
I threw that in a jar with some water and flour. Shazam, it went bonkers. And the next day I made bread for the first time in decades.
The tools we have available to us in connecting with guidance are immensely powerful and varied.
My journey, with the arthritis, with the yeast, and with so many other things has been a journey beyond doubt. It is a journey of remembering.
Yours can be as well.
Dirk
Speaking of “we’re all one thing”…
This information isn’t totally new, but think of the implications for human society! Like trees in a forest we appear to be separate, even independent. In truth, though, we are closer to being all one thing than we are to being a bunch of unconnected “rugged individualists.”
What are the implications for our society, if our economic and political theories are based on an entirely erroneous set of assumptions about who and what we are?