cognitive dissonance

Being that its September eleventh I thought I would use this opportunity to write about one of the most important psychological processes inside the human psyche; cognitive dissonance. This is a natural process that is there for your benefit in an evolutionary way, but rarely produces any benefit in todays modern world. Because it is outdated and primal to the point of stupor, I feel its truly one processes that anyone can evolve out of with some effort.

People sometimes ask me about spiritual teachers and which ones are good and which are bad and how to tell the difference between the two. While there are definitely signs and symptoms of a diseased teacher and teaching, there is one simple thing people can do to keep themselves mentally clear and therefore safe from predatory teachers. I mention this in relation to September eleventh because it is the same thing people can do to begin to think clearly about the world elite and surely to think clearly about the magnitude of what this date represents for us as a culture.

That one thing to DO is to never EVER make excuses for someone else's behavior, furthermore, to never talk yourself out of what you see right in front of you. Never rationalize, spiritualize, minimize any behavior no matter how much “story” so-called spiritual teachers spin to you and their congregations. And no matter what the running narrative is that has come from those in so-called positions of authority/power in society. Both have gone to great lengths to spin their web of deceit into the narrative of the body politic. Its amazing how similar false power functions whether that is on a large or small scale. The tactics are stunningly similar.

Plain and simple you never make excuses for other people. Whether that is in their actions, subtle behaviors, or in their incongruent words. Period. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it? But its amazing how few people actually do this. Truth is there is only half accountability that we can place on people for this sort of “making sense out of nonsense” that humans do....because the processes that is responsible for this is done on a subconscious level and in order to fully free yourself of it, it takes one being ruthlessly committed to rooting out the matrix of it inside the psyche. And cognitive dissonance does leave an energetic matrix behind itself in its path! depending on the level of mind control that someone is under there can be years upon years of belief systems and thinking pathways that are literally held together by cognitive dissonance. It acts as a sort of super glue in the psyche when one is living in a culture or a small inculcated family or group that continuously does not have consistency within their doctrine, actions, and belief systems. When one is in an environment that literally doesn't-make-sense the mind actually has a mechanism that makes that sense for YOU.

There are reasons for this classically when reviewing cognitive dissonance. The man who first discovered this inside the mind is Leon Festinger. His understanding was pretty basic and essentially states “inconsistency among beliefs and behaviors will cause uncomfortable psychological tension”. Rather then being in that state of tension cognitive dissonance comes into place and smoothes out the incongruence's inside the psyche. Its basically a psychological explanation of the cliché that The Truth Hurts. People who expounded Leons work added that there had to be an incentive that allowed this processes to be activated. They argue that self motive (self benefit) is the drive that allows it to manifest. While I can see the obvious truth to self motive it gets quite a bit more explosive then that. It goes into the core of a human being far more then “self interest” when identity and identification itself is on the line. I would say that the motive for cognitive dissonance to be activated in the psyche is pure self-identity with a group or system that one has been raised in. If your identity is wrapped up in being an American, a Christian, Advaita Vedantist, so on and so forth....you are going to be grappling with cognitive dissonance when those identities are compromised at any level. The motive for activation is identity itself. That is where I hope the psychological community can start to take this conversation in understanding the power of this natural mechanism in the mind.

When you are faced with such huge divides of perspectives, you either allow this act to happen inside your mind or you fully dissent and rebel against your own identifications, AND the herd, to think for yourself. You have to actually stop cognitive dissonance while in process and reroot your thinking , with the force of your consciousness, back to clear sovereign thinking. You have to do this over and over again until you are free of it. It takes a passionate lover of truth to do this.

Let me explain this process in a different way. I tried to find information online earlier today to share with people but this perspective just wasn't there. So let me offer this new perspective. When you get cut physically, lets say on your arm or leg.....your body has a natural self healing mechanism that kicks into place. Even if you do not clean out the wound of any dirt, bacteria, germs that may of entered upon being cut it will still begin the healing process within a few minutes of the wounding. This is the law of self healing that permeates every aspect of the universe. It will self heal regardless of the puss filled infection brewing just underneath the surface. Similar to that when your psyche is cut by someone else's actions or words ( and naturally with trauma, abuse, or lies) when it is cut by someone ( or even a conceptual idea you are holding inside your identity AS self) when this outside force is held in the light of an authority inside your mind the same self healing process kicks into place within a few minutes. Cognitive dissonance goes into effect when you can not simultaneously uphold the authority figure's story AND the conflictive information available at the same time. So instead of the very painful process of ceasing identification with this outside force, people believe what they are told and embrace the running narrative of the authority figure. Its done subconsciously and its natural, unfortunately.

This is why people can see the buildings coming down in a controlled demolition style and NOT SEE IT right before their eyes! This is why people forget there was even a third building involved! This is why people rallied behind the authority figure and believed the running narrative put out through the news! This is why people continue to follow malignant cult leaders who talk in circles and use "spiritual" donations to live a rock star lifestyle of shooting hgh into their veins, plastic surgery, and ten-thousand- dollar flights to "get to work"! This is why people stay in horrific relationships. This is why people can not leave a religion. This is why people stay asleep! well, its not the only reason, but you get the point. It's very important.

So the next time you feel the impulse to bash people for being ignorant or call them sheeples, lemmings, or some other derogatory name please remember people are awake to the level that they can be without deeper understandings. Of course they DO have free will to self reflect and dissent just like you and I do. I understand the impatience and the anger, even. The impatience and anger is actually a textbook stage of exiting cultic groups. I.E. you've woken up and there is a lot of anger at other people who don’t bloody get it! Why can't people just use the brains given to them and THINK this stuff through! I get it. This impulse has the backdrop of understanding.... that if we can do it, anyone can do it. It also shows a good nature in the desire for people to be living a truly sovereign, free-life, outside of false power structures. But remember that “awakening” is an ongoing process and each of us are integrating understanding to the best of our ability. If we can help the masses of people to break free of cognitive dissonance the job is nearly done, in and of itself. We are truly living in the age of awakening. Get informed, dissent (internally and externally) , rise-up, and speak out!

energy healing

a few people have asked me to say a little more about energy healing and what I do so I will write a quick blog describing what it is and how it works, hopefully I can keep this short and to-the-point tonight. please,  feel free to contact me with additional questions or feedback. 

What is Energy Healing?
Everything is energy. We live in a vibratory world full of energy. All of our senses, thoughts, feelings, as well as, the entire physical world are different expressions of energetic vibrations.

 In today’s modern life the fact that we live in a vibratory world has been scientifically proven many times over.  All over the earth, through out time and in every culture, energy healing is work that is done on the subtle levels of the body. 

It is a part of the ancient sciences that indigenous peoples have developed and cultivated for thousands of years. While each culture may have different techniques in engaging and working with this force field they are strikingly similar within the understanding of the subtle body and the mechanics of how it functions.

 This invisible life force or bio-energy keeps the body alive and maintains a state of good health. Every culture speaks of this energy in their own way. In acupuncture it’s called Chi and the most well known energy healing in the west is called Reiki Healing, which is a relatively new healing modality from Japan.  Prana is a Sanskrit word from India that means life force.

Pranic Healing as a trademarked name is even more recent then Reiki Healing however largely draws on the thousands of years old Vedic understanding of the subtle body.

No matter what style of healing someone is doing…. energy healing is working with this subtle energy to create a shift (or change) in a person’s consciousness.  It is simply changing vibrational patterns by working with the energy of a person.

Energy Healing is the combination of the cognitive understanding, physical release, and emotions that often result from shifting someone’s energy. The shift and the human response to that change is the healing that people experience. The two together are energy healing.

I know this is a very technical description of energy healing but just in case you wanted to know…that IS exactly what it is.

How does it work and what are the benefits? 

It is entirely done without any physical touching because it is working with your energy body, which informs your other bodies.  What is often called our “spirit” is not actually “inside” the skin of your body; it surrounds and interpenetrates your physical body.  This bioplasmic body absorbs life force and distributes it to the organs and glands through your chakras, which also interpenetrate your body.  Diseases first appear as energetic disruptions in the energy field before manifesting as ailments in the physical body. The physical realm is the least subtle of all realms and is the last place any energy manifests.

I work on this subtle level; cleaning and clearing out toxic energy, cutting inappropriate and unauthorized cords off your chakras, and extracting old energy patterns out of your system. It is primarily sweeping out stagnant energy, when done; all of our bodies (physical, mental, emotional, astral, and subtle) naturally realign themselves with the fresh vibrant energy put in.

By cleaning out your bio-electromagnetic field you are removing stressed and diseased energy that is no longer useful to you and in fact causes a tremendous amount of ailments that vibrationally manifest as physical, psychological, and emotional disruptions in your life.

Depending on the skill of the energy healer and the awareness of the recipient the benefits vary greatly. Miraculous shifts in energy are a co-creation between the healer and the recipient. Energy healing has the power and ability to heal all sorts of issues on multidimensional levels.  No matter what kind of energy healing you are receiving, at the very least, energy healing should always restore you to a renewed level of energetic health. There is no mistaking energy healing. It is not as if you will “not know” if something is happening.  If you are with an authentic healer you will know immediately when they begin to work on you. After a session people often feel energized and refreshed much like one feels after a shower or peaceful, connected, and centered like one feels after a meditation. Similar to meditation the benefits are accumulative and each healing is integrated into oneself therefore lasting change occurs. Our bodies, much like the earths body, has a way of self correcting and healing itself once the offensive energy is extinguished.  

You can do a healing on absolutely anything whether that is psychological, emotional, physical, or situational.  It helps you understand yourself internally as things are brought to the surface there tends to be some self-reflection, sometimes images, or emotions that are linked to the energy being removed. Some people talk, verbally processing this experience as it happens; other people remain quiet while in session other then breathing changes. It is peaceful and restorative…leaving people feeling lighter and happier. This natural process often increases awareness and connection with your own spiritual energy. The healing speaks for itself and is a product of many different forces of energy coming together.  

There are such simple easy things that can be done energetically; that when left undone cause people to profoundly suffer needlessly. People often rationalize or spiritualize their suffering but truth is that 99 percent of it is actually undue suffering caused by misunderstanding yourself or the world around you. Cutting old energetic cords binding you, repairing chakra damage, removing trauma, stress energy, and doing healthy shielding can be life changing and these are just the basics of energetic health.

Most people would consider it a huge problem if they went without physical cleanliness for even one day yet the energetic body goes without attention in most people! Its to no ones fault of their own if they were taught (programmed) to be outwardly focused…people simply forget themselves on these more subtler levels. Take this same programming down a generational line a few hundred years and you have a culture that is far removed from knowing themselves and their power.  As a result a lot of these esoteric energy practice have been lost over time. Good news is that people are waking up all over the planet and are beginning to quickly remember themselves and what matters most in life. We are meant to know ourselves and tend to the internal world as well as material life. Psychic sovereignty and energetic cleanliness is not a luxury it’s our birthright as a human being.  People just need to remember how to do that for themselves so that natural wisdom, understanding, and health can shine forth throughout ones life.

Healthy individuals get energy healing as well because they understand it helps them manage the daily stresses of life. It helps with removing basic stress energies that can accumulate just living in the high-pressure production-based culture that we do.  Because we are not taught energetic health within this culture people often have no way of knowing how to care for themselves on this level. Energy health is left to those who have a natural propensity to it or to those living outside the narrative of cultural norms.

Here are a few examples of how energy manifests:

Energetic cording naturally happens between people due to physical contact. It is a natural healthy process that happens between human beings by the mere fact of being alive.  There is natural energetic cording between spouses, sexual lovers, within close friendships, between parents and children etc and it is a residue of close intimate connections. It doesn’t have to be there but is perfectly natural if it is. For the most part it isn’t malicious its just the way energy works however if it is unconscious in some circumstances connections can leave you drained and perpetually feeling depleted. Have you ever come across someone and by the time you physically left his or her presence you are mysteriously feeling tired and drained of all your energy? This is a physical result of inappropriate and unauthorized cording. Nevermind the issue of intentional conscious psychic attack that is very real and good news also very rare. Its rare because it takes someone with personal power to actually wield such an attack with their thoughts. Lots of people like to think they are that powerful but relative to how many people there are on the planet very few actually are. I've come across it and have dealt with it successfully. There are lots of easy skills you can learn to send toxic energy back to its source without doing unwanted and unneeded additional harm to yourself or the other. It is far more common to have unconscious psychic attack occur and this style happens all the time but people don't mean to do it..ie its not intentional and it wouldn't happen in fact without the participation of the "recipient" being involved in the energy pattern. There are just so many distinctions within energy and how it works that I think I am digressing a little bit here....

In another example of how energy can be misunderstood…..is when you are feeling perfectly happy but when you get around a certain person you’ve noticed that they bring out the worst in you or make you feel angry or feel misunderstood, sad, confused, or insecure. You can suddenly break out into a sweat, get nauseous, or get a headache…. This can be a physical result of inappropriate downloading someone else’s energy field and it will stop if you have healthy shielding in place. The most common sign-and-symptom of the lack of healthy shields is when people notice that they are “too sensitive” to other people and “too empathic to what other people are feeling”. This is not empathy at all actually it’s a sign you need to strengthen your energy field, learn to cleanse and shield yourself properly.

 These examples are of times when there are no logical reasons for you to be feeling the emotions or having thoughts that are foreign to you or it just doesn’t feel good to the level of being out of place and it seems to come “out of the blue”.  Of course all these things can happen due to authentic issues you have inside yourself that are unresolved and it can be a part of the projection/mirroring dynamic that people often do with each other. However, having the discernment to know what is you and what it not you is the skill set of energy work that is ever deepening as we grow in our understanding of ourselves.

A little about me:
I have spent most of my life experimenting with spirituality.  As a small child most of my time was spent investigating my own consciousness that by my early teen years I left home for good in my quest for enlightenment. I practiced meditation and yoga to an excess and sought out many different traditions that I studied with. I played with diet, breath, and being immersed in nature for extended periods of time. Needless to say I have had a lot of different experiences that have fulfilled my quest and developed me as a human being. I now help people navigate their own spiritual path by listening and giving feedback from my life experiences.

I dove into energy healing in 2006. Even though I had been a practitioner of the tantric yogic arts since I was a youth…this was a whole new level of training for me in energy. My understanding of energy went into the direction of learning the craft of being a skilled energy practitioner. I learned through direct experience the benefits of cultivating this craft as well as taking all the traditional levels of pranic healing that are offered. There are many different kinds of prana. There is prana that comes from the earth, air, water, and so forth. There is also prana that comes from spiritual energy or source energy.  I specialize in utilizing spiritual energy and primarily use this potent energy in my sessions.

I also developed a skill set of techniques and practices in 2006 that are profoundly successful in assisting in liberating oneself as a sovereign individual.  Over many years of doing energy healings (and a lifetime of experimenting with energy) I have discovered a tremendous amount about the subtle body, its function, and how healing occurs.  My own skill set that I use is one that incorporates the basics of energy healing while using techniques I developed to root out programs and dis-ease on a multitude of levels.

The subtle body is the force field that includes all aspects of who we are and is the ground where the many distinctions of yourself merge and interrelate.  When addressing issues on the subtle level there is a larger capacity for understanding as the wholeness of being a human being is taken into consideration. There is also a lot of information and activity on the subtle level that is not known to more superficial levels of oneself. This fact can be both consciously and unconsciously done by the subtle body depending on ones evolution and interrelated agreements. The practical application of the cognitive techniques can be taught and practiced by anyone wanting a more authentic experience of ones reality of life. I have found that this understanding taken into consideration with energy work to be the quickest path to healing.

Understanding our own energy field gives us the discernment to clean and shield ourselves so that we can be a truly sovereign individual who is in touch with our power as a human being.  This is essential in today’s modern world where we are under constant assault from the barrage of toxicity coming from the extremely uncivilized violent society built on domination, abuse, exploitation and control of others for a few peoples own undue enrichment and benefit. Rooting out the tendrils of this culture of exploitation and all of its replications of itself in the psyche is the foundation of my work as an energy healer. Sessions can be done in person or at a distance.  

the pauweur of power

Tribal Voice JT

END:CIV* Tre Arrow* holy!holy!holy!*

all at Hipbone Studios 1847 East Burnside Portland, Oregon
Tuesday February 8th at 7:30pm

I have been producing an event that is happening this Tuesday February 8th at the Hipbone Studios here in Portland. It is a film screening for Franklin Lopez’s new film END:CIV. Franklin is the host of “its the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine” an extremely subversive news show online. For those who aren’t familiar with this show or The Simulator I will put links below to his sites as well as links to the rest of the artists /activists who are involved in Tuesday’s event.

Franklin has been making films for many years. One of my favorites is a film short he directed and produced called “Join The Resistance: Fall In Love” which can be found online. At some locations online the title is switched to “join the revolution fall in love”...but it is indeed the same film short. In fact here is a link http://www.spike.com/video/join-resistance-fall/2657422
if that posting of the film-short gives you trouble for any reason you can easily find it on YouTube.

In 2005, Franklin’s post-Katrina video remix “George Bush Don’t Like Black People” reached a million people and got a nod from the New York Times and the Washington Post. Wired Magazine listed subMedia.TV in its top ten online video sites in 2006, the same year López was hired to produce Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now!

Franklins latest film venture END:CIV illustrates the brutality of a civilization addicted to systematic violence and environmental destruction and the heroism of those who confront it head-on. END:CIV is deeply inspired by and is based in part on the best selling book Endgame by Derrick Jensen.

Derrick is a prolific writer, poet, activist, philosopher, public speaker and needless to say an inspiration to many. His work is deeply insightful and enriches the lives of everyone it touches. END:CIV is based on Endgame Volume One and Two, in particular , which confronts the reality of mother earths desecration and destruction. It invites the reader to think deeply about the nature of the violence and authoritarian domination that is destroying our shared home. It points the reader in the direction of the many different aspects of resistance against the empire. It begs the reader to take immediate action both internally and externally to resist and dissent against the culture of death.

In Franklins film END:CIV in addition to interviews with Derrick Jensen...Lopez interviews Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Society and writers James Howard Kunstler (Clusterfuck Nation), Gord Hill (500 Years of Indigenous Resistance), Waziyatawin (For Indigenous Eyes Only), Lierre Keith (The Vegetarian Myth), and Stephanie McMillan (Minimum Security). López interviews indigenous activists Qwatsinas (Nuxalk Nation) and Rod Coronado (Pascua Yaqui); environmentalists Steven Best, Zoe Blunt, Dru Oja Jay, Macdonald Stainsby, and many more.

In the beginning of this event production for Franklin I reached out to Tre Arrow as I felt he would be the perfect host for this type of event. I would be too busy behind the scenes to hold that role and I heard he had been recently released from prison and living back in portland. Being from Portland myself and a longtime forest activist in my own right I had known of Tre’s work for quite some time. He has been in inspiration to many activists before and now after his incarceration. Tre was a bit hard to track down at first as he is rarely ever engaging and relating with technology. After many phone calls around the community and several hand written letters my efforts finally reached him and Tre graciously agreed to be the master of ceremonies for the night. It has been a pure pleasure working with him and his family during this production. Tre has the floor in the beginning of the event to speak about his work and life. (Both of which are extremely intriguing topics.) Tre has been a warrior for mother earth his entire life. Tre’s resilience in the face of his personal struggle as well as the struggle for our ancient forests is truly remarkable. I am not sure I have met someone who embodies the word Resilient quite as well as Tre Arrow. He is a very unique individual and I encourage everyone to come early to not miss his talk and introduction.

Last but not least....is an amazing group of people who play in a band called holy!holy!holy! that will be performing after the film screening and discussion. Michael Franklin is the leader of this band and a sort of papa of the large extended family that is the band holy!holy!holy! Michael is a dedicated husband, father of two brilliant children, a radical anarchist and revolutionary, a radio show host, the bands leader/director/promoter, and simply the best chef on the entire planet. Michael IS (and I mean this literally) THE best kept secret in the Foodie-world and if you are lucky enough to have this man cook for you...well then you have been deeply blessed. Eating his mans food is an experience that is simply not forgotten. Thank-you to Michael, his beautiful wife Angela, and the entire holy!holy!holy! clan for embracing me with revolutionary kindness and for feeding me physically and spiritually. Cheers to the Dark Mother!



Logistics and *interwebnets* linkage....

Screening of Franklin Lopez’s film END:CIV
Tuesday, February 8 · 7:30pm – til it ends...........
At Hipbone Studio’s 1847 East Burnside #104 Portland, OR
Tre Arrow opens at 7:30/ Film 8pm / Q+A with director after screening with holy!holy!holy! closing the evening.....


Directions to Hipbone Studio’s
http://hipbonestudio.com/


Who is Franklin Lopez
ENDCIV: http://endciv.com/
subMediaTV: http://submedia.tv/


Who is Tre Arrow
www.trearrow.org

past: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB0qvdd9YJA
present: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4N4kqaUbHo

Who is holy!holy!holy!
http://www.myspace.com/holyholyholysound
http://upthefight.blogspot.com/
Music Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-CRjjj0USE



For videos of derrick jensen come check out the playlist on the tubes: http://www.youtube.com/user/pauweur



"Franklin López is a fantastically talented filmmaker who has created a powerful and important film about the most important topic ever: how to stop this culture from killing the planet." – Derrick Jensen

Arme Des Enfants: Sibbhult, Sweden / Pacific Northwest

*About *My participation *Email Campaign / Sweden ( emails needed NOW through November 29th, 2010)

*About
Arme Des Enfants is a social-art-project started by my dear friend of nineteen years, Jonathan Haner. He and his partner Teresa Holmberg have been living and operating Arme Des Enfants out of Sibbhult, Sweden for the past five years. The social-art-project ( or art installation) involves a doll, a camera, and you.

Its artistic intention is to expose the elephant-in-the-room so to speak. The doll is a metaphor. Its expresses this fact quite eloquently in the starkness of its white featureless body. It holds zero distinctions anywhere, neither in face, hands, or feet. This doll does not bounce with delight or trickery ....it slumps with pain and begs to be seen, heard, and subsequently freed of its condition.

The dolls are affectionately called Bebe’s. They represent all the places of emotional and psychological trauma that are very much alive within humanity but are perpetually unseen (often intentionally) by those orbiting them. The art installation brings into light the frozen states of isolation, whether personal or social, which are produced through the silencing or ignoring of trauma. This project seeks to dissent against this phenomena in the human condition that desires to mask over what is vulnerable , wounded, and scarred...within the human being and within humanity at large.

It begs everyone who views it to stop make-believing everything is okay...whether that is in your own deep subconscious experience or in the societal mind around you. Through the simple act of exposing what is invisible, naming what is unnamed , and sharing it with others creates an opportunity not only for brilliant art to emerge but for a deeper integrated understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

“the bebe represents an alter-personality born via emotional trauma. The dolls silent, expressionless presence becomes a way to make visible those things which we can't see in ourselves or others, yet still affects how we act or react in different situations” ~Jonathan

Jonathan started this art project as one gigantic doll that was used for several of his installations in Europe. The gigantic metaphor of a doll was even used in civil disobedience demonstrations to expose the elephant-in-the-room around the need for affordable housing for all human beings. The installation quickly developed into a shared social-art-experiment, by first producing a few smaller bebes for his friends who wanted to participate with their own photographs and exposures. Over time this manifested into much larger social art installation about humanity, trauma, exposure, healing, and psychology which is the Arme Des Enfants in operation today. The bebes are all over the world. People borrow a bebe, make their statements through photographs, which are then installed in a gallery online. Naturally, you are free to organize art installations displaying your work in connection to Arme Des Enfants in local galleries in your area. There are posters and downloads available should you choose to do live-installs.

*my participation

I am currently finalizing my installation and it will be in the gallery online shortly. I had an incredible time with the photo shoots and all the people I worked with. I wanted to expose the horror of a Disposable Society and everything that mindset manifests around itself. Disposable Trash (bebe visits the landfill) Disposable People ( bebe visits the homeless in the streets) Disposable Minds ( bebe visits and is mind controlled/subjugated via: television sets, alters of organized religion, and many other seedy and unsavory places)

For me , art is one of the highest expressions of humanity and therefore of spirituality, itself. These two realities of humanity and spirituality can not be separated without deep fragmentation. I find art to be one of the most direct vehicles for individual change, social evolution, and spiritual enlightenment. Second only to meditation in the personal realm and second only to dissent in the social realm. Ironically Art involves both these two elements of meditation and radical dissent which creates a synergistic energy of making each one more powerful then if standing alone. Plain and simple...Art is magic, it becomes more then the sum of all of it parts. Not only is the expression a release for the artist and something that simply has to be expressed in order to embody full sanity. I find it goes even deeper for me into the very fabric of what it is to be a human being who is in connection to everything alive. Art is spirituality that humbly walks its talk. It is what it is, its doesn’t pretend, and its heart is always on display. Art is the very embodiment of empathic connection. It is the sage. The saint. The redeemer. The true guru. The heart. The full human being.

In addition to participating as an artist, I was so impressed with the project first hand....this autumn I agreed to hold the space here in the northwest as the regional coordinator of a satellite extension of Arme Des Enfants that is based in Sweden. Which basically means I making the bebes available to anyone in the Northwest who would like to participate. Whether you are in Portland, Seattle, Spokane, or even further south in Crescent City/ Humboldt County/Northern California area, please feel free to contact me about participating. I will ship out any available bebe’s I have.

There are bebes spread out all over the country and in the EU. If there isn’t one in your area Jonathan can ship one to you from Sweden. There are no rules and it is anarchistic by nature. You self direct all content from conception to production. Re: timelines and shipment you simply treat others the way you would like to be treated. Not keeping the bebe too long or allowing them to collect dust...sending it back to its mothership or passing it along to the next artist when you’re done. The program functions with basic anarchistic common sense. Mysteriously everything in life works out perfectly when people behave that way! Such a simple understanding about life yet the world is full of war, suffering and strife. Go figure. Grab a Bebe and get out there and Name It!

For additional information on this project....
Here is a link to the website: http://www.armedesenfants.com/
Here is a link to the facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/ArmeDesEnfants



*Campaign

I am posting a blog about this Art Project NOW as Jonathan and Teresa need our help re: Sweden Mothership

The property in which they have been operating out of is under very real threat of being sold despite Jonathan and Teresa’s offer to buy the property they have been renting for five solid years. They have offered to match and even exceed the offers of the other parties involved. This is a state owned property and is not a private party sell. There is no logical reason Jonathan and Teresa should NOT have the opportunity to buy their home which they have been renting from the state. Due to the obvious injustice the media has been watching this situation and they are getting great press.

However, they are in a battle these next few weeks to persuade the state to accept their offers. The Legal system is a bit different in Sweden then it is here in the United States so this is not something that can be swiftly handled through court orders and lawyers. They are asking folks to please contact the city council of their district in Sweden via email in support of them and the bebes of Arme Des Enfants.

I understand the text below is very faint and subtle. The links above will take you to text that is very bold, about this situation, if it is too subtle for you to read.

HERES WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP: The Email Campaign is Ongoing until November 29th, 2010



Letter from JH and TH,

Hello again, bebe enthusiasts

Most of you probably aren't aware that we've been struggling to keep our studio where I sew together the bebes (among other things). We've been in the same space for more than five years now and have customized it according to our needs. The local government, whom we've been renting from, now wants to sell the house. We matched the highest bid, yet they still want to sell it to some other guy. There has been an overwhelming amount of local support from people who like what we've contributed to the county in terms of art, media attention and tourism, but it just doesn't seem to be getting through to the politicians who will ultimately make the decision on the 29th of November, 2010.

I feel that art & culture play important roles in all of our lives. Art is my business - but it is also my passion. The Armé Des Enfants project is something I do for free because I find it interesting and I love the work.

The battle to keep our studio has become a local media spectacle and it feels like we're on the brink of losing. Either way, we'll be alright and set up shop somewhere else but I don't think we're being treated fairly - and I refuse to admit defeat until the very end. Local politician, Patric Åberg, recently made a statement to the local press saying that the house had already been sold. This statement is false. The City Council will decide on this matter...not Patric Åberg.


HERE IS WHAT I'M ASKING OF YOU: Let's see if this social networking stuff is all it's cracked up to be. Help us inundate the City Council here in Broby,

Sweden with a flood of emails from around the world. Even if this effort does not save the studio, it sure would be funny to bury them in email :). If you

want to play along, please send an email to the address below. If you can't think of anything original to say, copy and paste the text below and send it to:

kommun@ostragoinge.se > "To City Council-kommunfullmaktige". Don't forget to tell them where you're from and don't be shy to share this with friends.

Thanks in advance, Jonathan Haner & Teresa Holmberg

kommun@ostragoinge.se > "To City Council-kommunfullmaktige"

Dear County of Ostra Goinge,
I am a fan of the social-art-experiment 'Arme Des Enfants' which is produced and shipped from 'Ateljé Slottet' in Sibbhult. It has come to my attention that the artists who work there may be evicted despite having matched the competing bid to purchase the house. This seems illogical. It is my sincere hope that you, the City Council of Östra Göinge, understand the value of culture before deciding the sale of 'Slottet' on the 29th of November, 2010.

sincerely,
x

discernement of predatory energy

Humans are supposed to be open to influence. They are supposed to take in information from their surrounding environment and make changes with that new information. The psychology of influence is the way the human brain is wired. ~Taking in new information and having the ability to understand it, digest it fully, learn from it, and make appropriate adjustments is a pillar of mental health. This is how relationships are forged due to empathic connections with one another. This is how social systems; families, tribes, societies learn to evolve and work with each other. This is how intellectual learning happens; by studying knowledge and changing ones reality due to the influence of the subject matter. Being open to influence and persuasion is part of what makes us healthy functioning adults.

In the realm of psychology it is the psychopath alone who cannot be influenced by his surroundings. The psychopath sees everyone and everything as a means to meet his own agenda. You can not reason with a psychopath. You can not persuade them to see a different point of view. You can not engage in dialogue to show how their behavior is harming others. You can not enlighten them. You can not change their mind. They are Unreachable. I am continuously amazed in the activist community how many people do not understand this. We are dealing with psychopathic energy on this planet and it is devouring Her alive. Its not a metaphor when we are using this word. We are dead serious. People need to understand how serious this condition is. It is important we educate ourselves about everything that is involved with psychopathology and the energy in which it operates from.

Since psychopaths feed on everything around them....the first thing that must be done is rooting out the tendrils of this energy in ones own psyche. How useful can an activist be if there are still tendrils of identification with the beast in which we are fighting “outside”.....inside oneself? This makes the task of resistance and dissent terribly difficult. As, Derrick Jensen so eloquently said this scenario leaves oneself in a place of “fighting us and them at the same time”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSa9tyuIdkI

In truth, when we have successfully internalized any outside force of oppression and identified with it as oneself, we are still fighting them. Its just that now we are fighting them internally and externally. Derrick is pointing to the fact that it is actually only them. The "us" is simply the internalization and misidentification with the predatory energy that is exploiting all aspects of mother earth, including the psyche. The toxicity that is programmed in by this culture was never "us" in reality. It was simply a case of mistaken identity that came from being born into a system that conditions us from cradle to grave to be subservient to the power elite. Finding and rooting out the thought patterns of this domination is imperative not only for our own restoration and healing but so that we can be highly effective agents of dismantling the system of power around us. It is so much easier to be effective if we are truly sovereign.

I find Michael Tsarions description of this phenomena to be an extremely accurate description of what we are dealing with. He points to the fact internalized tyranny is often times one of the worst aspects of tyranny. He describes how this tyranny often manifests in ones life and is accepted as self. It is so important for each person to name it for themselves and disconnect from it as "oneself". The subtle trance induction of linguistics is one of the most powerful psychological tools that we can understand. Each word is a subtle trance induction (by its very nature) that can either enslave or free our thinking.

http://www.youtube.com/user/UnslavedFilms#p/c/34F28886B073DA41/4/Rf7bYGNszOc


When you are committed to being free and have found identification with this predator inside you...you are in fact, rooting out something you no longer are diluted about as your “identity” as self. It is not you. You have to reject it as being something that is NOT yourself in its entirety. You follow the thread of identification back to its root in the psyche and sever it there. You stay vigilant and guard the gate of sovereign self with fierceness. Rejecting even the scent of them coming once again. Once you pick back up energy in any way ( through old thinking, old emotions, subtleties in the body) you are reidentifying with the source of that energy which you just declared was not you. You have to not touch it! Do not follow the thoughts/emotions/sensations or engage the energy when it returns. Stare it directly in its face and with all your pauweur declare yourself Sovereign. You can not simultaneously declare yourself Free while picking up the old energetic patterns. You have to mean it! This is not a game. Your life and the planet depends on it!

As time passes, fighting power with pauweur is easy. That understanding only comes with hindsight. The more you do it the less you need to use each time. This is what we mean... when we say to starve them of our energy. It is a full internal cleanse and an external starvation of their energy source. With effort and skills this process quickens and builds on itself with natural momentum. It is a lot of work at first; it may seem difficult. It may take a tremendous amount of your attention. But, once mastered, it becomes quite effortless. When this process is complete ( which is different for each person) it rarely ever needs to be done again, unless under psychic attack which is rare. You remain in your pauweur. Free. Awake. Individuated yet connected with all of life. You are whole.

To better illustrate what I mean when I speak about these tendrils of energetic connection...the next video below is of John Trudell describing the process of toxic waste inside oneself left behind from the mining process. Just as the predatory energy consumes everything living on the "outside"...this same energy has been mining, drilling, chopping, blasting all of the Alive inside humanity. John often suggests that the fears, doubts, insecurities is not natural to us. It is what the psychopathic energy (that is destroying our planet) has programmed into you, as an attempt to destroy you from the inside-out. I hope all these videos help to say the same thing in a different way.

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

The process of brainwashing is when our natural healthy mechanism of being open to influence and persuasion is used in a controlled environment against us. Often, there are very small windows of time that can brainwash someone...a weekend retreat, a weeklong event....in which outside checks and balances of doctrine is cut off from the participant . In that controlled environment coupled with the psychology of open-influence human beings are very easily reprogrammed. For better or worse!

It is obvious that there is a global quickening of people who are waking up to the fact we are living in a psychopathic cult of capitalism. What does every single cult do? Suppress information and dissent. Why? because the truth of the information and dissent breaks the spell of the cult. In the Information Age this antidote is widely available to those who are inclined to seek out the truth. For the first time in history information is unchained from all former boundaries. Information circulates free and wide.... across oceans within a matter of seconds. In addition, the accessibility to countering points of view is enormous in the information age! Therefore pumping new life into our critical thinking skills that have been shut down by thousands of years of internal and external violence, rape, and exploitation. There is an obvious connection with the quickening of information and the quickening of people waking up from the cult. Unfortunately simply having the information is not all that is needed. Each person has to do their internal work of freeing themselves evermore. The internal dissent is critical. (the deprogramming and cleansing of oneself I spoke of earlier)

In the realm of restoration and healing:
I feel what we are indeed dealing with is a term we use in the exit-cult community called a Born and Raised (BNR) Cult Survivor. I will write an entire post about what this is exactly at a later date. It is vitally important to understand all the implications of it. Just like it sounds BNR cult survivors were born into a cult that their parents were members of. They were raised, cultured, and educated within that cultic system. It is hard for them to even imagine a life outside the cultic system they were born into. Unlike other cult survivors, they have no sense of separate “self” prior to involvement with the cult. Their acculturation is total. The only sense of identity ever nurtured in them was the cult identity.

What we are dealing with in this present moment is the fact that we are all born and raised cult survivors of this psychopathic energy. Every thing that applies to the healing, restoration, reclaiming of sovereignty for these people I worked with in the BNR subgroup.... applies to us! Those of us living under the oppression and totalitarian control that is so obviously destroying our planet. Like the BNR group people born into capitalism are cut off from reality. They are programmed since birth to be what the cult wants them to be. In the eyes of the cult leaders they were born to serve the cult. This phenomena of being born-and-raised is why people find it so hard to conceive of living life without all the machinations of big brother. For many folks living under this tyranny it is often beyond people’s imagination to be simply be who they are! The reality of who they are, what they are, and why they are....is hidden everdeeper in their subconscious. They have been so disconnected from their authentic self...that to be truly free and sovereign is an entire perception of reality that utterly unknown. It is still THERE inside them ....but was never nurtured. The psychology of Nurture vs Nature is so important to understand, and is an entirely different post. If what is natural to someone is never nurtured it will simply never manifest. To help BNR cult victims reclaim the natural inborn sense of self that was so violently raped from them requires a very unique approach. This multi leveled approach to healing is highly needed as therapeutic intervention re: all modern day peoples wanting to be free of the cult we walk amongst.

I am not an expert of psychopaths; but I have had the opportunity of studying and working with one intimately for several years. It is from this direct experience that I report. For the psychopath people are not seen to be human beings who have an equal value to himself, as he alone matters. This is different then the grandiosity of the narcissist. The psychopath is unable to empathetically connect with anything that is alive. While the malignant narcissist is quite able to connect empathically, he just doesn't care to!

People often focus on the fact that the psychopath can not connect empathically with other human beings, but the energetic is far more reaching then that. The lack of empathic connection extends to everything in his environment. Literally... to everything Alive. He feels rules and boundaries simply do not apply to him. Furthermore, that anything that those realities protect are for the weak. He feels he is above all law. (human or universal) He has a contempt for humanity that is beyond any rationalization or justification. He is unable to feel remorse, guilt or shame for his actions but can very easily produce a display of these emotions if it serves him to reach another desired goal. The tears and drama are entirely empty of anything authentic or real. These displays of false emotions are a performance for the psychopath.

Regular Cognitive Therapy is extremely dangerous for the psychopath to engage in. Not because the therapy reaches him and he has the ability to self reflect and make appropriate adjustments. NO. It is because therapy is a place where psychopaths can sharpen their teeth. It is widely know in the therapeutic community that therapeutic sessions give them a place to try out different methods of manipulation and distortions. A place to practice what works psychologically and what doesn’t. In short, traditional therapy makes them worse. The mind sciences are fuel for psychopathic energy. They thrive on it, study it, and apply it throughout their lives.

Psychopaths have an amazing ability to have a thousand different faces. To shape shift so to speak as needed in order to extract what he wants of people. He can with such incredible conviction look someone in the face and say exactly what they want to hear. Many people can pull that off.... as this culture we live in encourages this behavior. The cult we walk amongst encourages this sort of fragmentation as a means to achieve “success”! But what is interesting for the psychopath is that in less then a second he can say the exact opposite thing to the next person. Like snapping ones finger he can shift his internal reality to match and extract what is needed out of the next person. He can reproduce this phenomena of the mastery of manipulation as many times as he feels necessary. The psychopath is not even slightly taxed energetically by the deceptions. Where as a healthy human being, naturally, finds distress in deceptions of this level.

This level of fragmentation (for the sole purpose of divide and conquer ) is there because there is nothing real tethering him to an authentic root of himself. As with every true predator this internal drive that allows this splitting could be described as a consumption machine. A ruthless bloodthirsty impulse to consume everything in its path. All natural human drives are transmuted to be in service to his death mission. Every emotion is only a means to an end. Every thought is a distorted manipulation in order to impose his version of reality into those around him.

This is what we are taking about when we say we are dealing with psychopathic energy! They do not mess around. They truly live within a death drive beyond what most of us are capable of even imaging.

intimacy of knowledge

The funny thing about true knowledge is that the more one knows..... the more they understand how much they do not know. What one does-not-know becomes the glaring light of the obvious. And for the lover of knowledge, where one directs ones attention. It is only permutations of wisdom, not wisdom itself, that can claim importance. Or even claim illumination.

True wisdom is the source of the endless path of deeper understandings that continues to evolve and maturate on the individualistic level. The offshoots of it, no matter how brilliant, can never hit its core. Wisdom is quiet, personal, and reflective by its nature. I suppose it is the esoteric hermit in me that has refused to just admit there is something that needs to be said what-so-ever. What is the impulse to share knowledge with humanity, anyway? ~rather then staying steadfast to the root desire for everdeeper enlightenment. Why do it? In the depths of understanding..... who cares?! Why would anyone say anything?

Intertwined with this, there is also just humility. There is simply so much to know...when is the right time to say one knows something? 10 years, 20years, 50 years? The truly enlightened individuals on this planet would never ever feel the impulse to share socially. They just wouldn't have the impulse. The nature of understanding deepens so swiftly. At what point do you stop and stand to speak of what has been revealed. For the lover of wisdom the waves of knowledge are felt at ever subtler depths.
at five thousand feet down in the ocean it is said to be utterly silent and pitch black. but by whose authority? there are still currents felt, still distinctions that can be made....

There are certain lines that are crossed spiritually where social sharing is a completely mute issue. The enlightened forces of the planetary body are in caves, metaphorically speaking. This level of wisdom will never ever reach the masses. You either cross the line or you don’t. Once crossed, all duality and distinction evaporates and all that remains in pure pauweur. From that place not a word is uttered. And any single word is seen immediately as pure nonsense. Its a place of intoxicating bliss. A place of profound oceans of knowledge. A place resonating so thoroughly as the purity of wisdom itself. A purity of purities.

To even attempt to speak of This....floods one with a rapture of interconnected reality that makes it hard to hold onto even one thought. The oceanic body of reality that is infused throughout all of the Alive and radiating from the Alive in all directions is beyond words. It is beyond concepts, beyond time, beyond all form yet by its nature permeating everything with itself. ~With itself, ~through itself, ~of itself, ~for Oneself. The reality of consciousness flows itself through the fibers of the trees, through plants, animals, all waters, soils, breezes, is the source of all flame, is every action, thought, emotion, subtle energy..... all flows from and through the Alive.

Once this is seen and individuated consciousness spends time with Reality the bliss, caring, kindness, longing, and happiness begins to ebb and flow as poetry in the veins of ones life. These are all secondary side effects of direct contact. As is courage to speak truth to power, integrity, passion, vigor, strength, and personal truth and clarity.

The pauweur most often described as Love proves to be the force that beats the heart as the heart, itself. It is often said that God is Love. This is only true if we are settling for cheap knock-offs. In Reality.....There is no God, and Love is a word that is so terribly riddled with permutations of death that we should all seriously each dig a private grave for this idea and grow the fuck up...and quickly. It has been sucked of all vitality....and we need to each mourn whatever loss there is regarding this word....toss it back into the Mother...pour some wine from our wine glass over the grave and begin to get real with ourselves and the planet. This does not mean that the reality of what we have called love is not real. IT IS VERY REAL. God and Love are both Reality itself. But, it is the direct energy that was once alive in these words that the words tried to connect us with. In linguistics it is what the words point us to that is the goal. That is the challenge for communicators. These words don’t seem to be serving humanity any longer...so...perhaps we should no longer use the words!

There is always a point when medicine becomes poison...that point is when something is overused. Words can, like anything, become toxic. And like anything loved...we have to have the compassion to know when to put a bullet through its head when something suffers too much. Haven’t these two words suffered enough abuse? Lets all pull the trigger and move along.

So..in the face of the reality of me “beginning to open my mouth” in a bigger way....
I need to just address a very personal energy, publically. Which is the purpose of this blog post.

From this point forward I am going to try my best to talk about very simple distinctions about life, the individual mind, social psychology, and humanity as these distinctions seem to need to be addressed. I am going to try my best to use language that is fresh..that is original and that is unique to my own tongue. I favor the path that shows us that we can be rooted in ourselves while describing the branches, leaves, sap, knots, pitch, rings, and variations of oneself. I don't particularly believe in the idea that we have to ‘wall off’ parts of ourselves in order to move through life. I do not believe this creates “safety” that the action of walling off parts of ourselves usually seeks. There is no problem with that reality. But I don't see doing That is more necessary then Not Doing That. In the end it is about preference and about stages of enlightenment. All are personal and should stay that way. But it is good to call a spade a spade, isn't it?

In closing....
to the inspirational force of my entire life thus far....
I raise my glass...my body...my mind...to you. All saints, sages, and vessels of wisdom. To you who choose to remain nameless and faceless by not leaving your caves. To you who embodied thousands of years prior. To you whom are still embodied. To you whom dropped the body within my lifetime. I feel you, profoundly, as I have every single day since my birth.

The Vedic scholars almost pinned you down didn't they....the Zen and Sufi poets, the lovers in the street, the seekers of hidden knowledge, they all yearn for you the same. But, everyone gets lost in the drunkenness of your beauty. And then there is the obvious nonsense of using even one word at an attempt to try to describe you. The dance of good and evil...the dance of light and dark...the dance of all opposites...veils you....but you are there residing unveiled as neither. You are indeed reflected everywhere, but you are in fact a distinct separate force. I understand I am your body, but this longing to look into your face remains.

I suppose it could be said that anyone who truly values wisdom, truth, and reality would simply keep their mouth shut and fall ever deeper into you. But, I am going to assume there is more to know and perhaps there is a misunderstanding remaining in me of all the ways in which to kiss you. I am embodying fully to play the distinction game that is human life. To open my mouth and share these crumbs that seem so insignificant in the face of what rests as potentiality itself. Somehow you Will It. For me, the first thing to say is that it is... bittersweet. I have only dragged my feet, kicking and screaming, out of the passion to see you everclearer. To be in the quiet with you, to steep myself in all that IS. Can anyone be blamed? That understanding brings nothing but thunderous laughter to me at this point in my life.

Thank-you. Thank-you. Thank-you. So Be It.

Mr. Lyons has finally been exposed!

just as I was up late last night writing long winded pages about why "victims of abuse do not come forward"...
this comes in the mail this morning....
makes my heart sing!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1297818/Rapist-guru-Michael-Lyons-cast-spell-hundreds-terrified-young-women.html

received this today from Joe Kelly of ICSA:



He was convicted of raping a receptionist and aspiring actress in her 30s in June 2002, after a work colleague praised him as 'a spiritual, maybe psychic person'.

She went back to a flat in Belsize Park, north London, where Mohan wafted fumes from a burning frying pan around her and mumbled spiritual mantras before trying to massage her.

She said: 'He manoeuvred my neck and it was so violent I thought he had broken my neck. I was completely stunned.'

He ushered her into his bedroom and raped her despite her pleas for him to stop.

He also assaulted a 43-year old teacher from Sheffield in January 2005 during what she thought was a chiropractic treatment after her lodger, one of Mohan's followers, introduced her to him and she travelled down to London to meet him.

Lyons, dressed in crimson and yellow robes, carried out some neck pulls on her at a spa in west London before she went with him in a Bentley to a flat.

She was then beckoned into a bedroom where he joined her and began massaging her legs before asking her to take her trousers off and assaulting her.

She said: 'He did an incantation from the Sanskrit or it could have been mumbo-jumbo for all I know. I was bewildered and angry.'

A publication of a photograph of Lyons during the trial had triggered more women to come forward and make similar complaints, insiders said.

But a source said: 'This is just the tip of the iceberg. He has been doing this for years. More women have come forward since a photograph was published in the newspaper. That's why he tried to avoid having his photo taken during the trial.'

Lyons' cult was made up of him surrounded by brainwashed women who pandered to his every demand.

A source said: 'It doesn't have a name - it's just him and surrounded by a group of women.'

One victim told how they scurried to follow his orders when he 'clicked his fingers'. But the other women also took on a sinister role, recruiting new members and 'sucking them quickly into the cult atmosphere'.

Targets were quickly separated from 'friends, family and reality', falling for Lyons' charm and charisma amid the apparently comfortable atmosphere created by the group of 'respectable' women.

The women he targeted were articulate and well educated.

Despite appearing to support a simple, spiritual lifestyle, Lyons owned flats in London, Los Angeles and Miami, drove Bentleys and Jaguars.

He and his associates boasted that he treated celebrities while on one occasion a male follower crowed: 'We are very rich, we have lots of boats.'

DS Nick Giles said that Lyons has three main bases - in London, Manchester and Miami - but moves frequently between his followers' addresses.

DS Giles said: 'He doesn't have any address that you can pin him down to. We have liaised with the FBI and they are aware of all this.'

Lyons remains a mysterious figure to police and the Crown Prosecution Service with authorities unsure of exactly when and where he was born - even during the trial. He told his victims he had an Indian mother and was raised in an Ashram, where spiritualists live in peace and tranquility among nature.

Despite the allegations against him, Lyons' power over his disciples continued during the trial with several of his group turning up every day to support their leader.

He wore the same burgundy robes every day and sat calmly in the dock as his victims described their ordeals, while an attractive brunette thought to be a follower sat obediently in court taking a note of the proceedings.

Even though his traumatised victims were forced to relive their ordeals at his hands, Lyons declined to take the stand to give the jury the benefit of his account.

As well as persuading victims from all over the world to give evidence against Lyons, prosecutors called parents of women still apparently in the cult. A distraught British father told how his daughter was brainwashed during her gap year after travelling to India before she was due to begin a PhD.

The case was a retrial following a hung jury last year. This time the jury were out for nearly four weeks before returning their verdicts.


Don't lose hope! Victims of abuse do come forward and these spiritual vampires do , eventually, get exposed. The truth can only be suppressed for so long. Truth always comes out....its a matter of Time.

gentle strength

In cults everything is inside-out from the truth. Cults use a little bit of a truth to weave an even bigger web of deception around their congregation. Much like the media they use small facts of events to push the hidden agenda of the elite few who usually created the mess they are covering in their footage. Much like the media cults use knowledge about the human psyche to prey on human weakness to promise fulfillment on different levels. They use language and the power of linguistics to confuse, distort, and manipulate the human in order to extract the goods they want out of a person.

Brainwashing has an uncanny way of isolating you from the world even if the cult is an outer housed group. Many times cult members are physically isolated as well. Isolated in the way that they only relate to other cult members and everything in their lives revolves around the teacher or the teaching. This is indeed isolating even though the human appears to be “free” externally. The isolation is an internalized system of control. It is in your thinking. It is in your self view and world view that is installed by the doctrine. The cage that modern day cults put you in , is in the prison of your own perception of reality. You become caged by the doctrine and you view the world through their new lenses that is usually called by some beneficiate name. Cults call enslavement pretty words like; freedom. Their work in the world of darkness involves deceiving you, amongst many other things, and is reframed to be the work of light or illumination. The workings of a cult is to get people to pour their energy, time, money into the system created by the leaders they intern alone live off of. They are there to hijack your energy away from you in order to feed off of it. Its that simple. Cults are vampirism personified.

It is extremely difficult for people to break themselves free of psychological processes that are subconscious. Since cult leaders are masters of installing subconscious control and dominance within the submissive psyche of the students, people have to really want to be free of mind control in order to be successful. You have to actively fight it internally in order to become free.

When there is so much invested in a doctrine, group, family, community ....on the fundamental level of "who one is" (personal and spiritual) to cut oneself free means... loss. There is no way around it. It is a good loss, but it can be a huge upheaval none the less. It takes courage, resolve, and power to do it fully. To be free is to cut ties with everything the group installed in you. There are endless tools to help in this process...and would take an entire article to address those. Essentially you are rejecting all cult doctrine as it arises in the conscious mind and turning your attention on ones soul..and taking root there. Uprooting all the power you were giving over to the authority (that was successfully internalized) and putting that power back into yourself on every level . To be free of cultic thought you have to reconnect with the creative source of the universe that is unmitigated by any authority or prior concept of reality.

Its extremely empowering and spiritually strengthening to do this. It actually brings deeper enlightenment, which is sooo utterly ironic! Because the fear they install IS that the process of exiting a cult or religion will bring the exact opposite of this. The fear is that ....without the religion one is turning away from god. Often times this fear is completely unknown to the conscious mind but it is there waiting in the shadow of the subconscious. People who are in cults do not consciously know this is why they remain in the religions and spiritual teachings that they do. If still brainwashed, naturally, it is called by some devotional name. You do not need the spiritual authority the fraction that they need you. All exploitative culture is built on the backs of those underneath. It is built by those who are subservient to the powers in control.

Also good to note is that the thought of cutting oneself free of a group like this is frightening to many who are in them....not only because of the unknowns of everything that is not the doctrine...but also because the process of negating everything known can be very painful as one has to deal with loss on so many levels. In the spiritual arena the abuses and losses go deep into ones fundamental connection to oneself and to god.
The cult actually attempts to interchange your experience of god with their own version of reality. Cult abuse is like spiritual rape. When you identify yourself spiritually with something and that very thing is used to do heinous harm to you...that is spiritual rape. Anyone who has exited a cult feels this. It is deep harm even if the abuses are not externally severe.

Many gurus, spiritual teachers and people who put themselves in positions of spiritual authority enforce fear, control, guilt, shame, and blame very consciously into the minds of the congregation. It is very intentional and it is done in teaching styles. It is being done through their own dark unresolved shadow content of their soul....but it consciously gets displayed in their very conscious choice of words and actions. The leaders tone gets manifest in the group behavior of what is acceptable or not.

People do not want to rock the boat of belonging..... because human beings have a deep need to feel a part of a family or community especially if that family/community promotes a promise of a higher good to the world...that makes the allure and control of a cult very strong because now we have two vital human needs that cult exploits. 1. The need for connection and communion with family/community i.e. the need for belonging 2. The need to have a sense that one is contributing to society.

These are basic human needs of which human beings have many! But the cult exploits these needs as well as many many other basic needs......by offering to fulfill these needs in humans. Its an empty promise. It is empty because you do not have that “family” if you go against the doctrine or dissent against what the teacher is fundamentally saying. The leader is always right and you come back to the authority of the teacher/doctrine or you leave. And it is empty because cults give “value” if it pertains to something that directly promotes the workings of the cult or enriches the leaders lives. Therefore....reinforcing only the leader or teaching has value.

They reframe everything with soft language...as all control does. Using language as a mode of control and dominance is used widely in the world all around us. It is powerful, it works, and every cult does it. They also use this sense of belonging to create deeper divides in “us vs. them” mentality. They may do this subtly, and often times not-so-subtly, demonizing everyone who have left the group. Continuously reinforcing how “special” the new recruits are and how fallen the old ones are now that they are not in the group. And It is always to the flaw of the devotee....as everything is always the flaw of the devotee in groups like this. How ironic that “spiritual teachers” and gurus can be some of the most un evolved people on the planet. How ironic that people who profess to be doing the work of the light have a vast expanse of shadow they themselves are unwilling to take responsibility for.

They can control your mind therefore the actions of your body with sweet sugary language as do most new age groups or they can do this with violence in their voice as many established religious offshoots do. Either way it is violent! One has a socially acceptable mask and one is more direct style of control.

Because of all this and more....the loss, abuse, and injury reaches the most profound level in the psyche. Often times instead of leaving and dealing with the totality of loss....the people just stick with their investments of energy, time, money, community...(the list is endless of what people are required to give) and of course giving to the group is reframed as some sort of service to humanity at large. Instead of leaving and experiencing this level of loss people stay with their investment. We can see this is human relationships as well. The process in the human psyche is the same regardless if you are leaving a cult.

Instead, people allow the subconscious mechanism of cognitive dissonance to do its thing. Cognitive dissonances one and only job is of making everything make sense in your mind in a way that does not conflict with our prior constructs of who the leader is or what the doctrine professes to be. All this is done by subconscious cognitive dissonance regardless of the truth in the situation. In order to get at the truth you have to stop this process happening in the psyche and demand you see into the truth. All former christians who have a problem with the stories in the bible that make zero sense have had to grapple with cognitive dissonance in order to break free of their religion. They had to get very friendly with the word NO and stop their minds of the habitual making sense out of nonsense.... and call a spade a spade.

If you want to be free you have to make a vow to yourself to know yourself fully. Deprogramming tends to go quickly if you respect yourself enough to now allow doctrine to be infested in your mind any longer.

You can not view the world through the lence of the programming while simultaneously trying to become free. You have to notice how you are being controlled through programming and stop giving it your energy. Reject the dogmas and root yourself back to YOU. Loving yourself is not allowing things to run in your mind unchecked. Doing this gently is a process of being vigilant while honoring your losses, reminding yourself how courageous you are to even do this, and using your discernment in separating what is true for you about spirituality and what is an implant that is toxic. There might very well be positive aspects to your old religion...but if you do not bother to look at the bad the good can never be reclaimed as the totality of the doctrine will be interwoven in fabric of the subconscious mind....and falsely identified with..... as you.

For those who choose to not do the real work of shadow (subconscious) integration and purification it is truly a missed opportunity because in every wounding, every horror, every pain we go through....it has as much LIGHT to offer us as there is pain. if we stay close to ourselves.... close to our spirit, while deconstructing the cultic thought in the mind, people will be successful and free of it. The power was always in your own spirit. It was simply given over to the imposed authority.

The real work of someone who wants to know themselves fully is to take a deep look into ones shadow content and see how you were abused and exploited. What was there in the psyche that allowed these abuses to continue therefore reinforcing original root of the trauma. You can not blame yourself or guilt yourself along this process as it feeds into the negative energy of brainwashing itself.

You have to be gentle and loving with yourself in this process.

Place the guilt and shame back to were it came from: your abuser. And move forward with cleaning house. Remember: the thing that drags out receiving clarity is guilt. People who leave cults notoriously blame themselves for the abuse. This goes into the psychology of abusive relationships in the psyche were the victim feels responsible for being hit in the face. The “don't make me hit you” mentality gets internalized and the victim thinks if they did this different or that different the abuser wouldn't of done what they did. Its not your fault. There are reasons that made you susceptible to participating in a sadomasochistic relationship that far too often is the guru/devotee relationship. For now....clean house. True healing on that level begins when your free of the doctrine.

Godspeed all strength, love and courage to you in this process.

I began writing this article to share what is happening in the teenage brain and how we can support our teens as they develop themselves through this quickening of radical brain growth. however, deeper truths about awakening came out....as well as research on buddhist monks, the role meditation and art plays in the mind, and how to have discernment within the eastern subculture. (who would of guessed!)...so instead of editing it to be one way or the other.... I am posting it as it came out. I hope it is informative and enjoyable.

The Teenage Brain;

The frontal cortex goes through a huge wave of growth just before and during puberty. There are two primary waves of growth that happen in brain development. One is in the womb through 18 months of life. The other is during puberty through a young adult. There is an over production of cells during both these times. The second wave of over production right before and during puberty happens in particular in the frontal cortex part of the brain.

The second wave of over production manifests as a thickening of grey matter in the front parts of the brain. The “experts” used to say that the largest brain growth (therefore most of the changes) happened within the first 3 years of life. We now know through science that this is not true and there is a second wave. At age 6 the brain is 95 percent of its adult size. We know that the human brain has a window during these first years of enormous capacity of learning. However, the grey matter , or thinking part of the brain, continues to thicken through out adolescent life. Brain cells continue to grow and make extra connections.

The neuro-pathways in the brain during the teen years are doing two things. Some pathways are actually getting strengthen and others , that are not used , are getting shut down entirely. It’s a “use it or loose it” time in brain development. There is a growth and a pruning happening at the same time. Whatever pathways/connections are stimulated and developed during this time will be hard wired into the brain. Whatever is practiced and nurtured at this time will consolidate the wiring in certain parts of the brain and whatever is not nurtured the pathways/connections actually wither and die. This is natural. This is human brain development. There are techniques that can create new pathways in adults. Practices that actually flood the frontal cortex with energy. But the organic time of this second wave of brain growth happens in our teens. It could be said that this is a refinement process of the human ego. That the totality of experience within the first 11-12 years begins a major overhaul and transformation on the onset of the teens years. Refining itself, strengthening itself, pruning itself, exploring itself and developing itself with enormous vigor. The human brain is getting upgrades.

The pre frontal cortex is used in decision making, planning behavior, use of strategy, cognitive flexibility, organizing, understanding of consequences, as well as many other mental processes. This part of the brain is also responsible for emotional equanimity. Profound experiences of contentment and unity. A massive amount of energy is rushed to this area of the brain in order to fully develop into an adult. The over production (over actively) of this part of the brain in teens is an activation of the frontal cortex that is not yet consistent which explains a lot about teen behavior. This explains mixed emotions, mood swings, unclear decisions, the inability to foresee consequence of behavior, and the general awkwardness of teenagers all together.

we all know teens are learning and growing. We can visually see the metamorphosis they are undergoing. They are beginning to understand themselves on deeper levels. They are starting to dramatically individuate at human beings. They are learning about social dynamics and dealing with their bodies giving them hot and cold signals, so to speak. Everything is firing on-and-off on many levels, internally. The subjective experience of this is complex and difficult to navigate, naturally. Teens desperately need an increased about of nurturing and understanding during this time to match the level of change that is occurring within them.

Unfortunately human beings rarely get parented in a truly healthy way that encourages healthy ego development as well as expanding brain function during this vulnerable time. Teens are growing at such an accelerated rate, internally....naturally their behavior is not always going to be smooth and agreeable externally all of the time! They are going through a torrent of brain growth. Many parents deal with this in a purely narcissistic way, which is unfortunate. There is a tendency to butt heads with their teens ....taking a “me vs. you” approach.....rather then having empathy and compassion about the complexity of what the subjective experience IS of their teen. Education, as usual, is a huge key to healthy understanding.

This phenomena of the expression of teen life is not only in our current teens of today ....but it can be seen in the history of teen behavior through out time. Each generation has a funny expression in the world due to this brain activity. Look at the teens of the 1960’s, 1950’s, the 40’s and so on. Each generation has always had some unique offering (or perspective) that is given to the world as a result of this phenomena that happens in brain development. It is the essence of teen rebellion. It seeks to expand and offer new perspectives. It is healthy, natural, trustworthy, and brilliant in its own right. It is not that teenagers simply “won’t comply” with the social norm...or follow rigid rules without questioning them...or that they refuse to understand real consequence.....it is not that they “won’t”.....they actually can’t. The brain is still being developed and is shooting signals on-and-off that make the teen feel, behave, and speak in many conflicting ways. It also gives the teen mind an increased activity that can be harnessed and expressed as exquisite art, unique philosophy, dramatic artistry , enhanced writing, musical genius, dance and all true expressions of individuations in the world. It is precious time....our children’s teen years. There is a lot to give and receive.

This natural phenomena that is happening in the teen brain is also why it is vitally important that we honor them while simultaneously protecting them. They have so much to offer the world through this time in their life. They are also extremely vulnerable to being injured, damaged emotionally, or even exploited...because they physically don't have all the brain that they will one day have. They are literally growing it! Growing the part of the brain that is responsible for good decision making and equanimity at the same time.

Our challenge as parents of the teen is to give them the healthy boundaries and limits that protect them, while allowing them the freedom to explore themselves and the world around them. If we as parents rise to the occasion we will be able to see into the sprit of the child, to be able to see their brilliance emerging, and be able to nurture and reflect that brilliance back to them. We will help them nurture their natural skills, abilities, interests, and gifts....therefore addressing the development of the neuro pathways that are being hardwired during this time. That’s our job.

While that is happening we also have the extraordinary task of being something very firm that they can push against to test their healthy boundaries. We must help them learn deeper about responsibility. About looking into the future. About decision making. About discernment. and about discovering and uncovering their natural place in the world.

Parenting at this stage of child development is about helping teens grow into a well-rounded-human-being who understands that; in order to have Freedom we must be Responsible. We can teach our teenagers that freedom and responsibility actually go hand-in-hand and you truly can not have one without the other. This is essentially what we are doing as parents at this stage. We are supporting and breathing life into both aspects of this understanding of the human reality. As we look around this planet we can see that most grown adults know every little about this truth. Most grown adults have been acculturated in our society to un-link these two things. Our modern culture has un-linked freedom and responsibility in the human psyche. To un-link freedom as something that is separate and stands on its own is completely irresponsible as a culture....because, in truth, we can not separate these two realities. They are one. Responsibility is the other side of the coin of freedom. They can not be separated. It would take an entire article to discuss the many reasons why. There are real reasons why this happened in this culture and they are important to look at and correct if we are to continue life on earth. We are out of balance and the planet is dying because of this imbalance. There is something that happens in this sacred change from a teen into an adult that has been missed in our modern culture. It is truly a natural rite-of-passage as a human being and it is worthy to view the teen years this way. To honor the teen years this way, as well as , dealing with the mundane reality of life can be expressed and manifested in so many ways.....

It Is Sacred and do your dishes....It Is Sacred and speak your emotions...It Is Sacred and put your clothes away.

It is highly possible to parent in this way...I am doing it as are many many others! I feel honoring our teens in this way will raise a generation of leaders like we have not quite seen before on planet earth....at least in modern times. The teen years are the natural years to get this understanding about freedom and responsibility as the brain development is requiring it at this time. The frontal cortex is trying to understand this during the teen years and develop itself in a healthy way. It is natural brain development and maturation that will unfold if nurtured......But something obviously got lost along the way in our culture. What would our planet be like if each and every one of us received healthy nurturing, guidance and mentorship during these vulnerable teen years? What if this time was honored as a rite-of-passage? How might we be different? How might we relate in the world as adults?

In order to do this properly we must both; know who our children are at profound levels while foreseeing what challenges might arise in their unique path. This takes sacrifice on behalf of the parent. Too many to list! But essentially it is taking the time to Know our children's strengths and weaknesses. Knowing there the rubber hits the road for them personally in development in so many ways. We are there helping them navigate healthy choices and learn clear thinking because we are the ones with the adult mind! We must step back a little as parents and stand side by side with our teens rather then being out front as the trail blazer for them in the world. They learn through their mistakes , as we all do. As adults of teen children we need to have the wisdom to know when to let them learn through making a series of “mistakes” and know when to intervene.

As they individuate they need to be heard in new ways then before. They have a need for their value being reflected back and reinforced to them (as true and real) time and time again. Its different then when they were smaller. They need to have their unique input to be honored in a deeper more-active-way in the world. They need to be seen and they need to be heard in different ways then when they were younger. They need the reflection back to them that you indeed see them in all their brilliance! They need you to reflect back to them what-you-hear-them-saying and check in to see if you got it right. When this is done they feel heard.

When this is done the teen responds with renewed openness and they are open to the wisdom of the parent. When this is done the teen mind naturally understands they need to learn from you in profound ways as well as giving their voice to the world. It becomes more of a give and take in relationship then the prior parenting required from womb to 12 years old. Now...in the teen years an adjustment in parenting is required. It doesn’t have to be that big of a deal....its a simple one-step-back. A guiding of the child in a different and more intimate way , actually. Its the joy of seeing them flower as a human being in new ways. And a helping them balance themselves from 12 to 24 yrs old. This is the time they take huge internal heaps of individuation. This is simply the second wave of human brain growth.

It is quite delightful actually...even within the ups and downs of the teen life. It does not have to be horrible. If it is horrible..that is an inclination something is off balance and you need to adjust in some way. Give your teen more freedom or have more control over their processes. Make more sacrifices as a parent or enforce your own boundaries on what you will do and will not do for them. I have found that it is usually a combination of the two that is required. Truly we become the masters of balance as a parent of a teen!

Its a balancing and transmitting of freedom and responsibility. Sometimes as parents standing side by side we gently hold their hand in kind reassurance and other times what is required is a grasp that is so strong it grounds them, tethers them..... to themselves as a human beings. Steadying them...to help them think clearly and coherently. Allowing them and encouraging them to grow in their own unique way while protecting them from harm that has the potential to last the remainder of an entire lifetime.

In closing I think it is important to note that It is scientifically proven that meditation actually enhances the frontal cortex. Scientists have conducted tests on Buddhist monks who have a lifetime of experience meditating to see what is happening inside their brains during their meditation process. I have been researching the brain and meditation during what is called “enlightenment” in eastern culture. It is truly amazing what is happening in the brain. Without going into it much...essentially .....the frontal cortex is highly activated during meditation. Our attention (energy) is drawn way from other parts of brain and floods the frontal cortex. It is a flood that is.... steady, even, and a consistent energy there. This explains the experiences of unity, peace, and happiness in adults while meditating. This part of the brain is responsible for these feelings and experiences of unity and harmony within the human.

I find it interesting that both the teenage brain is trying to develop itself in the frontal cortex and that meditation actually shifts energy to this part of the brain in a steady and consistent way. The teen mind experiences .... stops and starts.... of energy in the frontal cortex. Much like a female body gets stops and starts of hormones in puberty. Estrogen and progesterone do not automatically start flowing in complete balance and harmony in the onset of puberty...it takes a little time for a rhythm and balance to be found in the female body. The teen mind receives energy in the frontal cortex like this that allows for the pathways to be strengthen and grown. In true awakening there is a steady force of energy lighting up that part of the brain....so to speak. So in metaphor it could be said that “awakening” is simply a balancing and maturation of the energy in the frontal cortex much like any natural energy process when it first starts. It could be said that truly becoming an adult carries within it the potential for the natural enlightenment process.

I think here is an obvious benefit to the teenage brain of the equanimity of meditation during this natural flood of growth. A benefit of quieting the active conscious mind to explore oneself at a deeper level that meditation provides. Teens are learning about who they are on multidimensional levels. Deeper connection to themselves....through paths of self discovery is beneficial this it the time they need it most. Meditation and the Traditional Arts gives them the internal resources ( self-soothing-coping skills )to drawn upon during this tumultuous time in development.

There is a transmission (of steady-balancing energy) that meditation provides the human being. It provides access to internal resources that are there inside each and every one us. Meditation reveals to us who we are. When we learn this we can draw upon this well of resource inside us as needed. Meditation gives us this steadying energy....as does all of the arts. Drawing, painting, writing, drama, dance, music, philosophy, and all sorts of balancing and enriching activities called the arts. I am not aware of scientific studies done on the human brain while doing artistic expression. I would imagine it might be similar. The profoundness in this research is the effect of calmed, focused, and quieted energy in the human mind that devoted long term practice provides. Or when the human body naturally has rushes of energy in the frontal cortex when it goes through this second wave of growth in the teens years.

however, I think teaching meditation in particular in schools is dangerous and should not be done whatsoever due to the many cultic groups who use the promise of teaching meditation to prey on new recruits. So , it should not be done. But parent who meditate and who have found meditation lineages that are healthy, real, and true might want to share this with their teen at this time to help with brain development. This research on quieted peaceful energy in the brain does point to the absolute vital part that the Arts play for our teenagers. We must fight to keep Art programs alive and well within high schools. We should be investing in The Arts so that all teens have access to art as a personal resource to moving through these developmental years. Teens need to learn from elders and mentors. It should be done in families and within the village that our communities provide.

Could it be that the human brain is actually trying to awaken itself completely during these teen years? That at the end of this second wave of growth in the frontal cortex there should be a consistent energy resonating from there? Could it be that the natural evolution of the human being is to enlighten itself as a natural part of becoming an adult? Could it be that awakening is so utterly simple as human evolution and somehow we lost our way in this understanding about life? This understanding about the interconnection of all living things? This understanding about our place in the world and universe? This understanding about our individuation where we experience our freedom in personal identity .....and how that ties into the responsibility we have to the greater whole of unity as a human race? I think there might be a connection there!

Only more research will answer these questions.....and of course continuing our meditation practice. There is no true spirituality without meditation. Meditation is embodying fully and connecting deeply to our mother earth. It is putting all of your attention into the interconnected body of being that we all share. For those drawn to eastern spirituality meditation has to be a central part of the lineage. If you have “spiritual teachers” who aren’t doing their work...you can bet your last dollar they are not fully awakened. There is no instant enlightenment...there is no super hero they are with the promise of one day you too become. There is no human being who is all-knowing. Enlightenment is more organic and connected to mother earth then that. Essentially “awakening” is literally more down-to-earth. Advaita Vedanta and all of its cultic offshoots are a seriously compromised path to awakening fully in western society. It is not helpful and is rarely practiced in its full integrity as it is in the East. True Vedanta includes serious attention to meditation practice. How ironic that when it came to the west, many baby-boomers turned it into a McEnlightenment fast food spirituality. “Hey, you don’t have to work at this...(responsibility) you can simply have instant Freedom.” Nope, sorry folks, it doesn't work like that. Nothing with any balance works like that. That is not in Mother Earth’s nature.

Enlightenment is the natural evolutionary process which we share with all living beings. It has a physical energy in the mind that can not be mimicked. Nondual understanding is a part of the process but it is not all-there-is in human awakening. It is not that simple. These kinds of reductions and over simplifications in eastern spirituality usually just shut the mind down and makes people dumb.

Your mind is actually your greatest ally in awakening. You don't want to dumb it down but rather awaken it. It is time we heal ourselves and do the work we are designed to do as human beings. Time we take our place in the ecosystem and return balance to ourselves and therefore the planet. A balance that is both honoring freedom in individuation and understanding our responsibility. Who we are within the interconnection of all of our relations. All of our relations must be included, our human family, our plant relations, our tree relatives, animals, oceans, air and sky, sun and moon. We are truly one. An interconnected, interdependent unified Being.....with an individuated responsibility as Human- Beings within that ecosystem.

In blessing for heath, wisdom and balance...cheers to the human brain!


Article written by Sarah Oliver copyright 2010.