Mutiny of the Soul
Depression, anxiety, and fatigue are an essential part of a process of metamorphosis that is unfolding on the planet today, and highly significant for the light they shed on the transition from an old world to a new.
When a growing fatigue or depression becomes serious, and we get a diagnosis of Epstein-Barr or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or hypothyroid or low serotonin, we typically feel relief and alarm. Alarm: something is wrong with me. Relief: at least I know I'm not imagining things; now that I have a diagnosis, I can be cured, and life can go back to normal. But of course, a cure for these conditions is elusive.
The notion of a cure starts with the question, "What has gone wrong?" But there is another, radically different way of seeing fatigue and depression that starts by asking, "What is the body, in its perfect wisdom, responding to?" When would it be the wisest choice for someone to be unable to summon the energy to fully participate in life?
The answer is staring us in the face. When our soul-body is saying No to life, through fatigue or depression, the first thing to ask is, "Is life as I am living it the right life for me right now?" When the soul-body is saying No to participation in the world, the first thing to ask is, "Does the world as it is presented me merit my full participation?"
What if there is something so fundamentally wrong with the world, the lives, and the way of being offered us, that withdrawal is the only sane response? Withdrawal, followed by a reentry into a world, a life, and a way of being wholly different from the one left behind?
The unspoken goal of modern life seems to be to live as long and as comfortably as possible, to minimize risk and to maximize security. We see this priority in the educational system, which tries to train us to be "competitive" so that we can "make a living". We see it in the medical system, where the goal of prolonging life trumps any consideration of whether, sometimes, the time has come to die. We see it in our economic system, which assumes that all people are motivated by "rational self-interest", defined in terms of money, associated with security and survival. (And have you ever thought about the phrase "the cost of living"?) We are supposed to be practical, not idealistic; we are supposed to put work before play. Ask someone why she stays in a job she hates, and as often as not the answer is, "For the health insurance." In other words, we stay in jobs that leave us feeling dead in order to gain the assurance of staying alive. When we choose health insurance over passion, we are choosing survival over life.
On a deep level, which I call the soul level, we want none of that. We recognize that we are here on earth to enact a sacred purpose, and that most of the jobs on offer are beneath our dignity as human beings. But we might be too afraid to leave our jobs, our planned-out lives, our health insurance, or whatever other security and comfort we have received in exchange for our divine gifts. Deep down, we recognize this security and comfort as slaves' wages, and we yearn to be free.
So, the soul rebels. Afraid to make the conscious choice to step away from a slave's life, we make the choice unconsciously instead. We can no longer muster the energy to go through the motions. We enact this withdrawal from life through a variety of means. We might summon the Epstein-Barr virus into our bodies, or mononucleosis, or some other vector of chronic fatigue. We might shut down our thyroid or adrenal glands. We might shut down our production of serotonin in the brain. Other people take a different route, incinerating the excess life energy in the fires of addiction. Either way, we are in some way refusing to participate. We are shying away from ignoble complicity in a world gone wrong. We are refusing to contribute our divine gifts to the aggrandizement of that world.
That is why the conventional approach of fixing the problem so that we can return to normal life will not work. It might work temporarily, but the body will find other ways to resist. Raise serotonin levels with SSRIs, and the brain will prune some receptor sites, thinking in its wisdom, "Hey, I'm not supposed to feel good about the life I am living right now." In the end, there is always suicide, a common endpoint of the pharmaceutical regimes that seek to make us happy with something inimical to our very purpose and being. You can only force yourself to abide in wrongness so long. When the soul's rebellion is suppressed too long, it can explode outward in bloody revolution. Significantly, all of the school shootings in the last decade have involved people on anti-depression medication. All of them! For a jaw-dropping glimpse of the results of the pharmaceutical regime of control, scroll down this compilation of suicide/homicide cases involving SSRIs. I am not using "jaw-dropping" as a figure of speech. My jaw literally dropped open.
Back in the 1970s, dissidents in the Soviet Union were often hospitalized in mental institutions and given drugs similar to the ones used to treat depression today. The reasoning was that you had to be insane to be unhappy in the Socialist Workers' Utopia. When the people treating depression receive status and prestige from the very system that their patients are unhappy with, they are unlikely to affirm the basic validity of the patient's withdrawal from life. "The system has to be sound -- after all, it validates my professional status -- therefore the problem must be with you."
Unfortunately, "holistic" approaches are no different, as long as they deny the wisdom of the body's rebellion. When they do seem to work, usually that is because they coincide with some other shift. When someone goes out and gets help, or makes a radical switch of modalities, it works as a ritual communication to the unconscious mind of a genuine life change. Rituals have the power to make conscious decisions real to the unconscious. They can be part of taking back one's power.
I have met countless people of great compassion and sensitivity, people who would describe themselves as "conscious" or "spiritual", who have battled with CFS, depression, thyroid deficiency, and so on. These are people who have come to a transition point in their lives where they become physically incapable of living the old life in the old world. That is because, in fact, the world presented to us as normal and acceptable is anything but. It is a monstrosity. Ours is a planet in pain. If you need me to convince you of that, if you are unaware of the destruction of forests, oceans, wetlands, cultures, soil, health, beauty, dignity, and spirit that underlies the System we live in, then I have nothing to say to you. I only am speaking to you if you do believe that there is something deeply wrong with the way we are living on this planet.
A related syndrome comprises various "attention deficit" and anxiety "disorders" (forgive me, I cannot write down these words without the ironic quotation marks) which reflect an unconscious knowledge that something is wrong around here. Anxiety, like all emotions, has a proper function. Suppose you left a pot on the stove and you know you forgot something, you just can't remember what. You cannot rest at ease. Something is bothering you, something is wrong. Subliminally you smell smoke. You obsess: did I leave the water running? Did I forget to pay the mortgage? The anxiety keeps you awake and alert; it doesn't let you rest; it keeps your mind churning, worrying. This is good. This is what saves your life. Eventually you realize -- the house is on fire! -- and anxiety turns into panic, and action.
So if you suffer from anxiety, maybe you don't have a "disorder" at all -- maybe the house is on fire. Anxiety is simply the emotion corresponding to "Something is dangerously wrong and I don't know what it is." That is only a disorder if there is in fact nothing dangerously wrong. "Nothing is wrong, just you" is the message that any therapy gives when it tries to fix you. I disagree with that message. The problem is not with you. You have very good reason to be anxious. Anxiety keeps part of your attention away from your tasks of polishing the silverware as the house burns down, of playing the violin as the Titanic sinks. Unfortunately, the wrongness you are tapping into might be beyond the cognizance of the psychiatrists who treat you, who then conclude that the problem must be your brain.
Similarly, Attention Deficit Disorder, ADHD, and my favorite, Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) are only disorders if we believe that the things presented for our attention are worth paying attention to. We cannot admit, without calling into question the whole edifice of our school system, that it may be completely healthy for a ten-year-old boy to not sit still for six hours in a classroom learning about long division and Vasco de Gama. Perhaps the current generation of children, that some call the Indigos, simply have a lower tolerance for school's agenda of conformity, obedience, external motivation, right-and-wrong answers, the quantification of performance, rules and bells, report cards and grades and your permanent record. So we try to enforce their attention with stimulants, and subdue their heroic intuitive rebellion against the spirit-wrecking machine.
As I write about the "wrongness" against which we all rebel, I can hear some readers asking, "What about the metaphysical principle that it's 'all good'?" Just relax, I am told, nothing is wrong, all is part of the divine plan. You only perceive it as wrong because of your limited human perspective. All of this is only here for our own development. War: it gives people wonderful opportunities to make heroic choices and burn off bad karma. Life is wonderful, Charles, why do you have to make it wrong?
I am sorry, but usually such reasoning is just a sop to the conscience. If it is all good, then that is only because we perceive and experience it as terribly wrong. The perception of iniquity moves us to right it.
Nonetheless, it would be ignorant and fruitless to pass judgment upon those who do not see anything wrong, who, oblivious to the facts of destruction, think everything is basically fine. There is a natural awakening process, in which first we proceed full speed ahead participating in the world, believing in it, seeking to contribute to the Ascent of Humanity. Eventually, we encounter something that is undeniably wrong, perhaps a flagrant injustice or a serious health problem or a tragedy near at hand. Our first response is to think this is an isolated problem, remediable with some effort, within a system that is basically sound. But when we try to fix it, we discover deeper and deeper levels of wrongness. The rot spreads; we see that no injustice, no horror can stand in isolation. We see that the disappeared dissidents in South America, the child laborers in Pakistan, the clearcut forests of the Amazon, are all intimately linked together in a grotesque tapestry that includes every aspect of modern life. We realize that the problems are too big to fix. We are called to live in an entirely different way, starting with our most fundamental values and priorities.
All of us go through this process, repeatedly, in various realms of our lives; all parts of the process are right and necessary. The phase of full participation is a growth phase in which we develop gifts that will be applied very differently later. The phase of trying to fix, to endure, to soldier on with a life that isn't working is a maturation phase that develops qualities of patience and determination and strength. The phase of discovering the all-encompassing nature of the problem is usually a phase of despair, but it need not be. Properly, it is a phase of rest, of stillness, of withdrawal, of preparation for a push. The push is a birth-push. Crises in our lives converge and propel us into a new life, a new being that we hardly imagine could exist, except that we'd heard rumors of it, echoes, and maybe even caught a glimpse of it here and there, been granted through grace a brief preview.
If you are in the midst of this process, you need not suffer if you cooperate with it. I can offer you two things. First is self-trust. Trust your own urge to withdraw even when a million messages are telling you, "The world is fine, what's wrong with you? Get with the program." Trust your innate belief that you are here on earth for something magnificent, even when a thousand disappointments have told you you are ordinary. Trust your idealism, buried in your eternal child's heart, that says that a far more beautiful world than this is possible. Trust your impatience that says "good enough" is not good enough. Do not label your noble refusal to participate as laziness and do not medicalize it as an illness. Your heroic body has merely made a few sacrifices to serve your growth.
The second thing I can offer you is a map. The journey I have described is not always linear, and you may find yourself from time to time revisiting earlier territory. When you find the right life, when you find the right expression of your gifts, you will receive an unmistakable signal. You will feel excited and alive. Many people have preceded you on this journey, and many more will follow in times to come. Because the old world is falling apart, and the crises that initiate the journey are converging upon us. Soon many people will follow the paths we have pioneered. Each journey is unique, but all share the same basic dynamics I have described. When you have passed through it, and understood the necessity and rightness of each of its phases, you will be prepared to midwife others through it as well. Your condition, all the years of it, has prepared you for this. It has prepared you to ease the passage of those who will follow. Everything you have gone through, every bit of the despair, has been necessary to forge you into a healer and a guide. The need is great. The time is coming soon.
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Comments
word!
Mutiny..
Lonely Searches
I agree whole-heartedly with your viewpoint that the mentioned diagnoses are wrong, and thank you for instilling some hope where there was only a fleeting amount. It sometimes seems that no one understands why some people just don't want to fit in or are different; those people who preach about being a good Christain but fail to follow the basic precept of 'love all regardless'.
It's especially frustrating to look for help from your peers and find no one, maybe one person, who actually understands you.
The hippies had it right, I was just a few decades too late.
Thank You!
Charles, thank you so much for putting these thoughts so eloquently into language... So much of this has seemed so innate to me for so long, and, aside from the times when I read an essay such as this, it's hard to not feel just a little bit insane. "Grow up!" or "What planet are you on?" or the ultimate in frustration: "YOU need to open your eyes! And stop being Chicken Little!" ... I've heard these phrases spoken to me so many times... In my heart I've always known "It CAN'T be me...." but so often, being bombarded day in and day out with the drudgery of participation, sometimes it's hard to remember what the heart is saying....
Nonetheless, it would be ignorant and fruitless to pass judgment upon those who do not see anything wrong, who, oblivious to the facts of destruction, think everything is basically fine.
While I understand wholeheartedly that this is indeed true, I think this may be my greatest hurdle. So often I visualize myself reaching into people's heads, gripping their brain, shaking furiously and shouting "WAKE UP!!!!" I know how self-defeating this is. I know I'm taking their inability to see, or their willful ignorance personally. Essays like this serve as a gentle kick-to-the-head, grounding me, reminding me. So once again.... thank you!
Absolutely true!
I hear you, Charles, and it's my own voice as well.
www.farrfeed.com
Changing Patterns
Over the past several years I've continued to watch enlightened individuals coming together in small communities under the umbrella of music and arts festivals, pagan gatherings, trance parties, burns and other counter-culture events. It feels more and more everyday like these gatherings have a deeply woven, timeless design.
I look around at the people I spend my life with now, and the traditions and values we work to engender in our community as a whole, and I am quick to realize that my social patterns are changing quickly and that communities are building themselves in harmony with our steadily dissolving infrastructures.
Jane Addams as 19th Century "Indigo"-style Systems Breaker
Hey, Charles-
As a long-time sufferer of Fibromyalgia and CFS working through my symptoms as I make sea changes in my life, I related a lot to this post. An interesting historical note- numerous "Indigo"-style systems-breakers of previous generations also suffered from fatigue symptoms before finding their paths as "lightworkers". A wonderful example is Nobel Peace Prize winner and grandmother of the field of social work, Jane Addams. Growing up in the mid to late 19th century, she suffered from Neuresthenia (a previous name for CFS-style symptoms of fatigue, depression, and anxiety) as she struggled to fit into a culture in which there was no place for her as an educated, single woman. These symptoms controlled her life until she founded Hull House in Chicago in the 1890s and embarked upon a career of profound activism and social change. Her writing clearly addressed her views that educated women hungered for a wider variety of roles outside of the domestic sphere to which they had largely been limited until that point in this culture and then was instrumental in forging new lifestyles (social settlement houses) and new careers (social work, public health, urban planning, sociology) for women and men that emphasized many of the themes Indigos still work for today. These include social justice, environmental issues, equal access to health care and promoting wellness. Additionally, Jane Addams and many of her women activist colleagues of that era were partnered with other women, as well documented by Lesbian historian, Lillian Faderman.
Just thought you might enjoy this little historical illustration of your topic.
Again, many thanks for your post!
Blessings,
Carrie Lanza, MSW
Rites of Passage
I wonder what new birth will look like once a clearer world is born? I think it sucks eggs that we have to go through these painful passages in order to become midwife-healers. I'm suffering from depression, addictions, boring work, overweight . . . by the time I get through all this I should be a birther extraordinaire, not merely an unmedicated, au natural polar bear.
I like the essay, Charles. I'm just grumpy right now.
Dax the Dragon, I've thought the same thing about shaking people awake! But I wondered why "God" didn't take hold of people and wake them up. I suppose if it's all birthing going on, new ideas coming into being, it would be wrong to tell zygotes and fetuses to head on down the birth canal before they were fully formed for world wear. I like the birth metaphor, which isn't entirely metaphorical. The medicalization and high-tech applications to life certainly stand out in hospitalized ob/gyn "deliveries" versus midwife-assisted births.
Nice visiting here for the first time.
I hear you, Ursus. Sometimes
I hear you, Ursus. Sometimes I wonder why it's necessary for most days to feel like I'm moving through molasses. I mean... I already know things are wrong. I'm not the one who needs reminding of this. (Maybe, though, from time to time, a little reminder that underneath it all, the World really can be a beautiful place.... which does happen now and again :) ). The birth-analogy makes a lot of sense in that the birthing process needs to be handled gently and with tenderness and love. Midwifery does seem to make much more sense than the mechanized process of hospitalized births. Not sure if you've come across it yet, but this article really brought that into my consciousness... which made the birth-analogy seem much more clear to me.
Midwifery is Messy
Many years ago, I was working in an assembly-line factory setting... boring and monotonous to the max. The person whose "station" was next to mine was this kinda rednecky guy... somewhat simple, hadn't really ever been exposed to any alternative type ideas, but a really kind person nonetheless. We were chatting one day, and it came up that he had a bit of a problem with homosexuality. Instead of getting reactionary and angry, I asked him why. He responded with: "Well, the thought of another guy checking me out makes me really uncomfortable." I then said: "Think about it this way. Do you check out every single woman that you see?" He said "well, no" and I said "Then chances are, it's the same for people who are gay." He thought about that for a minute, then said: "You know, I never really thought about it that way. Thanks!" I'm not sure how this ultimately affected his worldview, maybe it didn't at all. But still, a seed was planted in his mind without someone yelling at him and being confrontational. That was a pretty cool feeling for me. It seemed so small... one person out of... how many people do we meet over the years? Whenever I find myself falling into anger and darkness, I try to think about that moment.
I guess then the next hurdle is not to end up giving way to the anger when even that approach doesn't work.
Thank you, Dragon
That's a wonderful anecdote about your co-worker. I'll remember that! It's brilliant, really, that approach versus giving a lecture on tolerance, say. I'll also read the article you linked.
I like what Charles said in his essay, too . . . that is, if people think all is well with SOP, "I have nothing to say to you." Saves one the frustration and inevitable anger of failed crusades and thinking good might be realized through engaging in them. I also thought about what he said in Comments about opinions as vapor in the head. Well, not being the change.
Appreciate your insights.
Great article!
Terence McKenna said once
Terence McKenna said once something along the lines of the biggest problem with any subculture is keeping the people for whom everything is about fashion away from it. I wasn't around in the 60's, but I can imagine that this is one thing that happened with the hippies. I can especially see that when I look at the people who claimed to be hippies... maybe even had gone to Woodstock... but seem to have turned a complete 180 on it. (Yes, I know one or two....) You know, the ex-hippie who now drives a Lexus, has a perfect suburban home and is married to a lawyer or some other "square" type, and laughs off all of the ideas we bring up to them as "Oh, we tried all that already."
It seems to me that whatever was driving the original hippies didn't start, nor did it stop with them.
Ideas have to evolve, some that don't work need to be tossed aside, re-evaluated, re-booted.
After all.... here we are, right?
Can I just ad
Some responses
Thank you all for your encouraging comments. Just a few additional thoughts...
To Dax, re furiously shouting: Yeah, it can be tempting. But we just have to trust that people are going through a necessary and perfect process for themselves. We cannot rush it, but sometimes we are called into their process to deliver a message at a key moment. "Say, could you open that window a crack?" At times when I have suffered in darkness, shut up in a dark little hut, if someone had smashed down the walls to let the sunlight flood in, I would have cowered in a corner and turned away from it. What I needed was for someone to open a little chink, so that I could see a glint of light hinting at a larger world outside.
To Carrie: thanks for this history!
About the Hippies: I think they got it right too! Or at least they glimpsed something real. My next RS essay will go more thoroughly into the psychodynamics of this, but basically the hippies offered the collective version of "The Glimpse" stage of the seven-stage process I'll describe. Hmm, maybe I'd better add this in. But as for "dropping out", I don't think Leary really meant to drop out of participation in the world, I think he meant just the world of lies, the false world that obscures the true. The Matrix. As Morpheus said, "It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes that blinds you to the truth... that you are a slave." Read Ken Jordan's interview with Abbie Hoffman (www.realitysandwich.com/i_know_we_won_abbie_speaks) to see how dropping out gives us to change the world.
Charles Eisenstein
www.ascentofhumanity.com
Yippie!
Not just a manipulator
I think what made him powerful, and able to manipulate the media, was that he had no fear, and didn't abide by rules defining what is possible that other people saw as absolute but that he understood as just a matter of perception. Everything he did arose from courage and a shift of perception, that is all.
Charles Eisenstein
www.ascentofhumanity.com
Keep Writing!
CFS
Another way to understand CFS is that it is a sign that you are fighting yourself.
Charles
Err
The big question
This all rings very true but leaves me with one big question: what next?
Focusing on the problem keeps the solution from becoming visible. What can possibly work and what can an individual do to put what works into practice? I mean specifically. I'm all for "the right expression of your gifts", receiving "an unmistakable signal", feeling "excited and alive." But what specific concrete, pragmatic or mental actions will lead to this state?
I guess this is a dumb question because of course every individual has to find their own answers. Nevertheless,without a more specific focus on the solution, the states of depression, anxiety, and fatigue can dangerously be self perpetuating and self fulfilling.
So, what next?
Yes
I agree with you, Charles: our bodies are trying to tell us something. Sometimes it's easier to listen than other times. Sometimes you have to be ready to change before you can afford to listen.
I was, and still am, a hippie. In the late 60's and early 70's, I jumped off the conveyor belt, and have been hiding out in the middle class ever since. But, not having kids, I didn't ever worry about having to be a "grown-up".
Then we had kids. That's when it became very confusing for me. I spent a lot of time thinking that my inability to fit in had just been immaturity, and now that I was a "grown-up", the System would make sense to me. But it didn't. And my forays into the public school system were nothing short of disastrous.
Now I have teenagers, and guess what? They're jumping off the conveyor belt too. But at least we're all happily on the same page now.
Philip, you ask: what next? Every day is a new adventure.
Charles, thank you for writing these wonderful articles.
marie
http://www.tomargames.com
Adventure
Sure every day is an adventure all right, the simple pleasures, and challenges, of the present are manifold and splendorous. I live in Brooklyn. Today, for instance, a rose breasted grosbeak was perched in the tree in front of my window.
There is the pesky problem of this thing called the human condition which involves needing to drink potable water, eat a relatively balanced diet, and have adequate shelter. There are nearly seven billion of us alive right now. How can we possibly take care of all our basic needs and allow for the psychic necessities of discovery and amusement without destroying the ecosystem?
Thanks
Broken World, Broken People
Charles wrote: "That is because, in fact, the world presented to us as normal and acceptable is anything but. It is a monstrosity. Ours is a planet in pain. If you need me to convince you of that, if you are unaware of the destruction of forests, oceans, wetlands, cultures, soil, health, beauty, dignity, and spirit that underlies the System we live in, then I have nothing to say to you. I only am speaking to you if you do believe that there is something deeply wrong with the way we are living on this planet."
It's hard to find right livelihood in the midst of this. If I could do that, thereby being, as least in part, the change in the world I'd like to see, I think the other problems of depression, addiction and overweight would fall away. Instead, my liveable habitat is melting, processed away as the interstitial spaces between corporations get smaller and smaller. I think our SOULS are malnourished!
Philip, I agree with you. BTW, I visited your site. Beautiful photographs.
I have so many words to say
Wow.
This article was exactly what I was looking for. Exactly what I needed. All I have to say is THANK YOU, and I will be sharing it with as many people as possible.
Be the change you want to see.
Hope
Enlightenment through pain and suffering
Its the suffering and not understanding it that makes these sometimes psychosomatic illness unbearable..Until we realise that we are actually empathising with the planet and people around us only then can we heal ourselves and then heal others...Thanx for the reminder charles and thanx cj for the connection of the pastoral in all of this...the simple act of sowing a seed on the new moon with great intention can have a powerful yield on both mind and body...feel the pain,act in rhythm with the earth and know why its all neccessary...its all part of the way Solas agus Gra
the deep problem of what can we do?
" Submitted by Philip on Wed, 05/21/2008 - 19:03. This all rings very true but leaves me with one big question: what next? Focusing on the problem keeps the solution from becoming visible. What can possibly work and what can an individual do to put what works into practice? I mean specifically. I'm all for "the right expression of your gifts", receiving "an unmistakable signal", feeling "excited and alive." But what specific concrete, pragmatic or mental actions will lead to this state? I guess this is a dumb question because of course every individual has to find their own answers. Nevertheless,without a more specific focus on the solution, the states of depression, anxiety, and fatigue can dangerously be self perpetuating and self fulfilling. "
I think the question you ask is of necessity the beginnings of healing. Because I think dis-ease is when your caught in the myriads of contradiction and denial about the terrible state of things. So to have the intent to ask 'OK, I see. There is a problem. What can I do?' is vital.
All I can do is approach your question by reflecting how I explore this question. I realize the shit we are in is really complex, obviously.
Now, I took part in the Indigenous drumming for Planet Earth a while ago, after hearing about it online. Native Americans:
"
PALENQUE, Mexico - Indians from Mexico, the United States and Canada gathered before dawn Monday to light incense, pray and sing in the shadow of ancient Mayan pyramids, asking the contaminated earth for forgiveness.
More than 200 leaders from 71 American Indian nations were joining in this jungle town to offer indigenous wisdom about ways to save the polluted planet.
"Our Mother Earth is being polluted at an alarming rate, and our elders say that she is dying," said Raymond Sensmeier, a Tlingit leader from Yakutat, Alaska. "The way the weather is around the world ... a cleansing is needed."
The pre-dawn ceremony that launched the conference included fire, copal incense, chants in Lacandon Maya and blasts from a conch shell to the four cardinal points.
Mexico's environment secretary, Juan Elvira Quesada, said the gathering is meant "to present the teachings of the original peoples of North America."
"In this way, the indigenous communities can become the natural guides to restoring balance and harmony in the world," he said.
The lessons they have to teach are simple — based on reviving Indian notions about ownership, use, compensation and respect.
"I sometimes talk to scientists," said Sensmeier, "and they compartmentalize things, put things in boxes and disconnect them, and doing so promotes disharmony and imbalance."
Kuetlachtli Texotik, a Nahuatl healer from Mexico whose name means "Blue Wolf," agreed.
"Our grandfathers taught us to have an integrated vision," he said. "The important thing is to look for balance. We should take care of what does not belong to us, for the future, because it is only ours temporarily."
Indian cultures also have concrete examples to share.
Kayum Garcia's Lacandon people plant small, dense, rotating fields of jungle-friendly crops in southern Mexico and avoid pasture-hungry cattle, helping preserve the jungle without cutting it down."
Where I emphasize is important for me. Hit me like a
bolt what was said, because although I had that insight, to hear it said in this context really brought it deep to me. To have integrated vision.
Other expressions relating to this are 'connecting the dots', 'seeing the spaces inbetween'. I see this skill as vital beyond words.
We have been indoctrinated in compartmentalized thinking, and of therefore not caring about what is happening in the bigger picture, and is definately going to happen for the future generations, including other species.
So, we suddenly wake up to this. Still with the oppressive behemoth all around with its walls closing in and in and in. Hearing about how its authorities are stockpiling 'non lethal weapons' to deal with 'crowd control'--implying they are waiting for people to get really hip to what has been, and IS going on, and are ready for the protests.
In this scenario what are we to do? We already know that we need to nurture integrated vision, but we also know that Indigenous peoples had that insight and yet were invaded and oppressed by the very system we are waking up to. The one many of us believed was the 'free world'. But all along it has been the cruelest of cons.
How do we deal with this?
Knocking down walls
Integrated thinking -- actively fighting the "compartmentalized" thinking we've been taught is the proper way.
That's it! Knocking down the walls of the compartments in your mind. You just have to keep that thought in the back of your mind, and it happens for you. And as it happens for you, it starts to happen for those around you too, because the removal of you as a force for compartmentalization in their lives frees some of their energy for their own journeys. In this way, we all help each other.
In this way, by being the change we want to see, we help each other and it grows exponentially outward. It's happening already: look at how many of us are here talking about it. It's a cause for celebration.
The more we celebrate together, the more we will have to celebrate!
marie
http://www.tomargames.com
Survival of the soul.......
new age bridie
I'm just returning from extended Bealtaine festivities and although its the time of growth its always a time for reflection and review of how we came here and where we are going...so Zezt all i can say to your question of how to deal with all of this is hope...sounds a bit lame but accepting that things have a life cycle and everythings transcient helps us see things clearly..joining the dots,making the connection...knowing that acknowledging the seven directions,using the elements,lighting a flame,harnessing all the tools that are there for us is the way to help the self evolve...the cynicism surrounding the reality of the destruction of mother earth must be replaced by individual hope...the healing of self can ripple out and extend....we're not alone here...i only know how i deal with myself,we can't tell others what to do...thats entering the police state...theres enough of that already.....Drumming is always good,awakening the sleeper in our souls...and connecting our hearts on an evolving plane..... It brings everything to the surface and i think thats why shamanic psychotherapy,Bear medicine,sweat lodges are very successful in treating most illnesses discussed in this article...
Solas
more responses
The hippies: it wasn't that the world of Peace and Love was unworkable, it is that we were not ready for it, because we had yet to explore the farthest reaches of Separation. Nonetheless, the pure vision of a more beautiful world that the Hippies had is part of our collective awakening to it. Individually too, we catch a glimpse of a new possibility, but it takes time for that glimpse to transform the rest of life. BTW I do think most people are happier growing at least a little bit of their own food.
Philip, "what concrete, pragmatic actions will lead to this state?" (finding gift): Obviously there is no generic prescription, but for most people it involves a letting go, usually a painful one. It HAS to, because so much of what we hold on to is directed at security. That is what our culture teaches. Financial security, safety, etc. These doctrines are anti-life though, because they deny that there is something that we are living FOR that is more important than life itself. Purpose vs. survival. Unfortunately, I cannot prescribe that you "let go" as a way to find your gift, because the effort to let go is usually a kind of holding on. (For example, some people have to let go of "letting go".) What we really need to let go of is invisible. Usually what happens is we unconsciously create a situation where we have no choice but to let go.
Right livelihood, the ecosystem: First off, earth can support 7 billion people quite easily if we live according to different priorities. 90% of our economic production and consumption does little to further human happiness. Also, the population is going to decline, probably sooner than people think. As for the "pesky problem" of making a living, you just come to a point where you put that second, not first, and accept it as a byproduct of living your gift, and accept that you might die, too. But this leap of courage isn't as forbidding as I make it sound -- usually we are presented with something just at the edge of our courage.
Indigenous people, connecting the dots: Agreed, but I am just remembering how for a long time I walked around thinking that because I had these understandings (ie. the correct opinions) that meant I was doing something about it, and exculpated from the crimes against earth. But opinions are just vapors in the head. When I realized that, I stopped feeling so superior!
And thank you everyone for all the other comments, I really appreciate the encouragement.
Charles Eisenstein
www.ascentofhumanity.com
Yes!
As for the "pesky problem" of making a living, you just come to a point where you put that second, not first, and accept it as a byproduct of living your gift, and accept that you might die, too. But this leap of courage isn't as forbidding as I make it sound -- usually we are presented with something just at the edge of our courage.
Yes! That makes so much sense. It's why, when asked by someone I meet "What do you do?" I have been trying to respond with something OTHER than my "job," even though I know that's the answer they are looking for. It's a really good exercise in self-awareness!
nirvana
I love that song. It brought me back in time to whenI first heard Nirvana, when I was living in Taiwan and completely removed from American culture. I happened to be in a room where MTV was playing though, and I heard this band, a moment I will never forget. It spoke deeply to me and planted a seed, a seed of refusal and metamorphosis.
Charles Eisenstein
www.ascentofhumanity.com
1000 percent in agreement...
This is a great post--I felt the tone matched the seriousness of the subject matter. I agree that many current en vogue illnesses are just that--en vogue--and that the real issue is that we who live in the United States have no safety net and in most cases, no savings by which to get off the jobby job track.
I like what you say about anxiety--made me think of this golden oldie with lyrics about paranoia: (turn it up and enjoy!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUPz3YWXIbI
peace,
jp
The Spirit isn't Taught, but Caught
Philip's question, "What to do?":
I have lived by the phrase, "The spirit isn't taught, but caught." The human spirit won't be pinned. Asking, inviting presence, though, has been known to work.
Disconnecting from the system materially (food, electricity,) is one thing, but more than that -- living in our world is like living in a spell. Even growing our own food, if we still think the thoughts and words of the spell, we are still in the spell. It's hard to break free from the spell, because we are constantly faced with reindoctrination, through daily living and personal connections.
My strategy is to disengage, close my eyes, with others, and put actions to different dreams and research paths.
My model is the Federation of Damanhur. Please let me know if you've seen something even better.
Raw individualism is "easier," (less complicated,) but if the spiritual doesn't manifest in our group interactions with other groups, then our spirit has not manifested in reality -- which is to say, it's a dead spirituality. See chapter "Politics as Spirituality," in Chapter 5, page 221, of Beyond You & Me.
If anyone lives in the Seattle area, I'd love to talk or meet; 206.427.2545.
Awesome Lion
Lion,
I have a very similar line of thought in my comment below and I read the federation of Damanhur stuff, That's almost exactly where I see things going, however in america there needs to be a little better road map for those that don't know their way as well. I know that I am meant to start a communal corporation and build blueprints for other groups(companies) to possibly follow to succeed with thier own unions. I think that I really need to learn more within the federation of Damanhur.
--Bryan Colligan
The Book to Read
If you're intending to visit Damanhur, & if you can make it mid-August, you can meet myself and two friends! {;)}=
As for Damanhur, the School of Meditation can be participated in from the outside.
The book "Damanhur: The Story of the Extraordinary Italian Artistic And Spiritual Community" is absolutely invaluable; It goes into depth on their social theory, how they work, how they grew, and so on.
I'd like to invite you to conversation, my phone number is 206.427.2545; Call any time, any time zone. I'll send you an off-list email, as well.
Depression, opening others, stability, linear thinking, The Zone
Chuck, Great article once again… Some of your solutions are out of reach, for people making baby steps towards their own progression, enlightenment and suffering.
I do have a suggestion to bring people more towards awareness and I will use phillip’s questions to lay out an answer, because he has asked some key questions that need to be answered in a linear fashion. Thanks again chuck please continue.
To phillip,
If you would like a simple answer there are two main questions What do I do tomorrow and a couple weeks from now and where do I go in the future?
The following are suggestions: Tomorrow have the courage to bring these questions and conversation up to three different people in your life, see what they think and if it’s too real then maybe they are not ready, but continue to try to bring others into your awareness and understand where they are at within their journey 7-14 Days Volunteer two-eight hours to a community cause, not just anything random but something your good at or like to do. This will make you realize there still is community out there in need of many talents.
The next Step is where not many options are available yet but will be in the future. Make your source of income within an Ethical, Green, or Progressive Company. i.e. If you believe that McDonalds is not ethical, you will not be truly happy working for them. The hard part of the above comment is finding these places.
There is a system on the horizon that will be able to aliven wage earning. In the next ten years smaller unions of workers will be more effective then giant anonymous corporations, Pay in these unions will increase and people will begin to drop the linear thinking of corporate hierarchies for communal corporations. Within communal Corporations much like the hippie communes of the sixties people will be able to ethically, effectively and in unison with other individuals that have like minded goals and awareness. The main difference is that instead of hiding in communes off the grid, Communal Corporations will be able to change the system from the inside out. For example today’s fortune 500 all have in one way shape or form lobbied for their own agendas passing political bills in their favor for the almighty dollar for a linear hierarchy. Within a Communal Corporations decisions would not be behind closed doors with agendas but clear, open and ethical while maintaining profits for all employees.
This is a key turning point in the minds of people and social thinking. Many people are used to linear thinking and this is continued by direct leadership systems like the military and other capitalistic paternal organizations. Linear thinking comes from certain directives that have driven many lives in a path of least resistance. I believe this is connected some way to what Chuck talks about with illusions of security, educational priority over experiences, and to quote “The unspoken goal of modern life seems to be to live as long and as comfortably as possible, to minimize risk and to maximize security.” This I believe is maybe not as unspoken as they may seem. Some common mantras stay in school, family first and “We are supposed to be practical, not idealistic” is another perfect example. These rules are linear commands for linear minds that do not fully fulfill what we are as human beings. To rehash an earlier comment, I believe this is where horizon expansion occurs. The “hippies” wanted others to feel, know and learn how to be connected into the primal spirit that is within us all and step away from greed driven systems of control.
To connect to that primal spirit You can achieve it in dance, laughing, chanting, drum circles and as weird as it sounds computer coding, even Michael Jordon knew of it, he called it the Zone. In the movie a Peaceful Warrior it is said with “There are no ordinary moments.” And “Throw out everything that is keeping you from this moment.” And Countless other examples are known.
To finish this comment on some sort of point.
Why I am such a proponent for an Economic solution to problems as depression and anxiety is that they are linked. Underlying what disconnects us from what we are and can be, is our indentured servitude to fossil fuels, to corporate jobs and even Expectations from people within our lives.
A Lakota Tale...
This was the old man's reply...
Grandfather says this, "In life there is, sadness as well as joy, losing as well as winning, falling as well as standing, hunger as well as plenty, bad as well as good. I do not say this to make you despair, but to teach you reality. To teach you that life is a journey, sometimes walked in light, sometimes in shadow."
Grandfather says this, "You did not ask to be born, but you are here. You have weakness as well as strengths. You have both, because in life there is two of everything. Within you is the will to win, as well as the willingness to lose. The heart to feel compassion, as well as the smallness to be arrogant. Within you is the way to face life, as well as the fear to turn away from it.
Life can give you strength. It can come from facing the storms of life, from knowing loss, feeling sadness and heart ache, from falling into the depths of grief.
You must stand up in the storm. You must face the wind, the cold, and the darkness. When the storm blows hard, you must stand firmly. For it is not trying to knock you down, it is really trying to teach you how to be strong. Being strong means taking one more step toward the top of the hill, no matter how weary you may be. It means letting the tears flow through grief. It means to keep looking for the answer, while the darkness of despair is all around you. It means to cling to hope, for one more heart beat, for one more sunrise.
Each step no matter how difficult, is one more step closer, to the top of the hill. To keep hope alive one more heart beat at a time leads to the light of the next sunrise and the promise of a new day.
The weakest step, towards the top of the hill towards the sunrise, towards hope, is stronger than the fiercest storm.
Grandfather says this,
"Keep going."
Today is part of forever.
I hear you!
I think much of the original
Craazyman, I am intrigued
Craazyman, I am intrigued by your analysis, perspective and articulaton of same. I couldn't agree more. I am a newbie to this place and hope to read more of your thoughts.
Regarding somatic manifestation of intrapsychic dynamics--the body as metaphor, enacting what cannot be felt-- and how best to approach and facilitate growth/healing, this is too big a subject for lil ole me right now but I highly recommend Elio Frattaroli, M.D.'s, "Healing the Soul in the Age of the Brain: why medication isn't enough". Great wisdom, superb depth.
I'll need to add "The Ascent of Humanity" to the neverending "Must Read" list.
Namaste.
Wendolina Jolie
Great Reference!
Here's the books website.
There's also a chapter online.
craazyman
craazyman!
Howdy. I agree with you but I think bkind is right also. Haven't read "Ascent" yet myself (but I plan to) but from what I've read so far of Charles' stuff it looks like he has been trying to address your points as concretely and as directly as anyone I've come across so far.
PS: hey look, craazy, they let you put goofy pictures with your user name over here!
The Century of the Self
I have to admit to skipping some of the comments at the moment, there are a lot! all interesting i'm sure, so i'll read them at some point.
To Charles: you may have seen this or be familiar with its subject matter anyway, but I wanted to recommend a documentary made by british filmaker adam curtis called The Century of the Self. It charts the rise of corporate america through the father of PR michael bernays and how he used Freud's theories of the unconsious to manipulate the public mind. Parallel of course is the rise of the cult of the shrink in america throughout the century. Its in four parts, but its all fascinating. Some great archive footage in there of old commercials, interviews with the likes of herbert marcuse footage of Freud at his house in england with Anna and so on.
Here's Another Story
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Today at the laundry, I had just removed some fire turnout gear to throw in the dryer. A firefighter that is also on limited duty was sitting on a chair talking to the supervisor. He was sitting by the computer in which a web site was posted on it that had some information on cancer.
Every day this man hobbles in. Rumors are flying on what is wrong with him but I never ask. It’s his own business and I just let him be. I knew him from when I was on the one of the fire companies a few years back. One of the nicest men you could meet.
The supervisor was asking him what he was going to do since his time on limited duty was running short. It’s been awhile since this guy has been on limited duty -- It’s going on two years. He just looked over at me and said, “Damn, I wish I was Pete.”
It stopped me in my tracks. “What?” I asked.
“You and your heart thing, you could leave on disability anytime and still get your pension. And look at you and your pony tail. My hair is all gone.” He laughed then said, “What a life. I get nothing and Peter Deane gets it all. Man, I wish I were you.”
Laughing, I said back, “I never heard that before,” as I placed the gear in the dryer. “Thanks. But remember you have a woman that loves you, I don’t.”
“For whatever that’s worth,” he said with a smile then turned back to the computer and placed his head on his hand. “Yeah, I wish I were Peter Deane.”
I just looked at him and thought about what he just said and thought about my life. The way I get the blues from the lonliness I feel at times. I then pressed the button for med-high on the dryer and it starting going around. I then looked back over at him and said, “Well, I wish I were you.”
“No you don’t,” he answered. “You don’t want to be me.”
I went back to working and readjusted my rubber band on my two inch pony tail knowing he was right. I still have time, I thought, for whatever it’s worth, I still have time.
Today is part of forever.
sadness
Thank you for this, Pete, a beautiful little story. Not all sadness comes from the dynamic I have described, from wrongness. In fact, sadness and depression are two very different things. As your story illustrates, to be sad is to b full. Full of life. The sanskrit root of "sad" is "sat", which is also the root of "satisfy" and it means full.
Charles
www.ascentofhumanity.com
Thanks Charles... For
Thanks Charles...
The Island... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD4eS2Xb6LsFor you
"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
John Donne
And for everyone else here at R.S.
Today is part of forever.