confused, restless, pessimistic

They claim that the 'crisis' is over, the economy is growing, consumption is increasing, and let's rejoice. But what is growth? What does it do? What does it mean? When we consume more, why are we told we should be happy? Why don't they ask whether what we consume is necessary for us? Whether it's useful? Nobody seems interested in WHAT is produced or what we buy - firearms, plastic toys, junk food, alcohol, carcinogenic toiletries, cheap furniture made from tropical wood, functionally oversized cell phones, ... . The superfluous abounds, while basic needs (good local food, clean water, safe energy, healthy communication, spiritual education, prophylactic health care) are neglected. It probably sounds a bit trite, but i think it's important to repeat it: infinite growth in a finite environment is eventually a killer. The term "sustainable growth" is a contradiction in itself. Only a cyclical process of wasteless construction-consumption/deconstruction is sustainable. Only Mother Nature knows how to do it. And only a fool would go on 'growing' into his grave like mankind still largely does at this point! 

picture: The Sure near Arsdorf, Luxembourg

Homo insciens has a morbid tendency to increase their dependence on technology. Every new invention that replaces or supports one of their body functions is greeted and adopted with uncritical delight. Slowly but surely people lose their body's wonderful natural ability to protect itself, to move about, to perceive its environment, even to reflect and imagine and create.
Just a few examples: automobiles, sunglasses, skin milks, lifts, remote controls, calculators, books made into films.
How tragic that many people's leg muscles become atrophied and their bellies fat because they drive everywhere in their car and think it's primitive to walk or bike - and then they use expensive gym centres (another technological crutch) to 'get into shape'!
How sad that we often destroy our skin's natural defence against light and microorganisms by wearing sunglasses and using aggressive skin lotions and shower gels much too often!
How stupid that so many intelligent men and women resort to an electronic calculator for even the simplest operation, lulling their brain into increasing laziness and making themselves dependent on a primitive machine!  
How tragic that most kids have stopped reading the ingenious Harry Potter books since these stories have appeared on screen where every detail is imagined for them, where every opportunity to let one's own mind re-create Mrs Rowling's loving, exciting, and detailed descriptions is lost!
I'm not against the fruits of technology per se, but we should stay alert and avoid becoming enslaved by our own helpers. Use them if you must - avoid them if you can!

picture: degenerated humans aboard the spaceship "Axiom" (from Pixar's "WALL·E")

As far as i understand it, Claire Graves' (et al) theory on Spiral Dynamics surmises that different portions of humankind have different value systems, that they are at different stages of consciousness which act as filters for their interpretation of reality, and that humans are able, when forced by life conditions, to adapt to their environment by constructing new, more complex, conceptual models of the world that allow them to handle the new problems (wikipedia). This means you can only act upon what you perceive, and you can only perceive that which the quality of your awareness allows - the Estonian biologist and pioneering ecologist Jakob Johann von Uexküll (+ 1944) explored this topic in his fascinating book 'Streifzüge durch die Umwelten von Tieren und Menschen' ('Explorations of animal and human environments').

As opposed to widespread belief, it seems that a specific level of consciousness cannot be altered or intensified by another, more encompassing level of consciousness; in other words, one person's perception of reality cannot directly be changed through the influence of another person. You can force someone to do or say certain things under your control, but you cannot force them to think or perceive differently. Value systems change only through (often violent) clashes of the individual's interpretation of life with reality. In this sense, all education is self-education.

What is problematic about this is the fact that apparently, the majority of the world's population currently functions at a level of consciousness which creates unsustainable living on a global scale, and that waiting for the catalysing experiences which alone (?) could alter that consciousness may well prove to be fatal for all mankind!

Is there no other way? 

picture: 'Greed' by Brittany Jackson

I realize now that the term ‘homo insciens’ (‘unaware man’) applies to everybody, regardless of what quality of consciousness they have attained. After all even the most spiritual human being is aware of reality (or awake) to a certain degree only. The same is true for the more common designation ‘homo sapiens’ (‘knowing man’, which probably should read ‘self-aware man’).

What is more important, though, are the implications of the simultaneous existence of groups of people with a more or less encompassing awareness (or a more or less differentiated perception and interpretation of reality) in human society, as postulated by the theory of Spiral Dynamics (see picture for an overview). This situation should not, of course, lead to a qualitative hierarchisation, i.e. the definition of levels of development categorizing human beings. However, it may help to explain a disturbing and disillusioning fact: namely, that individuals with different qualities of awareness cannot understand one another, like radioes receiving and emitting at different frequencies. They use the same words or symbols, but not the same meanings. They are incapable of ‘getting across’ to each other any ‘message’ relating to values; instead, they prefer to confirm and strengthen their outlook on reality by communicating only with members of their own group. In fact, individuals sharing the same or a similar awareness tend to stay among themselves even physically. ‘Birds of a feather flock together.’

If we follow Grave’s Spiral Dynamics qualification, it is highly probable that most members of the Gaia Community  partake of the green or yellow ^vMEME code (maybe a few have gone beyond to turquoise). People whose core intelligence follows a red, blue, or orange code will neither feel attracted to nor share Gaia’s values; they will not understand what it’s all about, because they literally live in different worlds and pursue other interests. Their consciousness cannot perceive and believe in causes such as unity in diversity or ecological empathy. And even though a human with a more encompassing quality of awareness (say, yellow) ought to have integrated and be able to actualize simpler worldviews such as orange, this is often not the case in real life, as former paradigms tend to be forgotten and ‘covered’ by new ones.

No wonder, then, that issues like human rights, climate change, or biodiversity are not true priorities on the international political agenda -- the majority of the world’s population simply does not perceive them as such.

It is to be foreseen, for instance, that despite major campaigning on behalf of NGOs, the climate talks in Copenhagen in December will fail, since the ‘realities of existence’ are not yet incongruent enough with most people’s ‘form of being’ to force the quality of their consciousness to change.

Another example is the situation in Afghanistan, where every effort to create a democratic state will be doomed to fail because people’s quality of awareness is not at the appropriate stage. As Don Beck explains: ‘"Democracy" … comes in many different variations, hues, and levels of complexity. Beware of imposing the form that fits a specific stage or zone on the Spiral onto other strata. This is an invitation to cultural disaster.’

picture and quote: http://www.integralworld.net/beck2.html

Today i heard that a 16-year-old friend of my stepson's was beaten up by three drunkards at a funfair in Luxembourg City. It's only the latest in a series of incidents involving alcohol, including fatal traffic accidents, domestic violence, street fights, and comatose teenagers. The putrid juices that make up alcoholic beverages wreak more and more havoc on society, destroying brain cells, freedom of choice, relationships, families, and many many lives, and i, as a staunch teetotaller, seriously wonder why politicians don't debate this urgent matter and act on it.

Of course i can guess why the issue is taboo: the majority of Luxembourgers, including politicians, teachers, and clergymen, are unable to socialize without drinking, and beer and wine are a huge business. I suspect that many of our representatives are themselves alcohol addicts. There seems to exist a long-standing silent consensus among those in power that the consumption of beer, wine, champagne, and schnapps is a cultural necessity whatever the costs. A tragic deadlock, and a threat for social progress and the prosperity of future generations.

On a global scale the situation is not much better; alcohol remains one of the deadliest enemies of our evolution as spiritual beings and stewards of planet Earth. No wonder that all religions (including Christianity before the Church corrupted Christ's teachings*) have banned its use except as medicine!

Prohibition didn't work in the 1920s in America, and it wouldn't work anywhere today. What is needed is a more meaningful, spiritual outlook on life, a more responsible and creative economy, and a more just distribution of resources. But when will humanity achieve this goal?

*cf. the Gospel of the Essenes, discovered by Edmond Szekely

picture: "Child's Prospect", collage by Daroy Lin

The following words attributed to Jesus Christ and found in the Essene Gospel of Peace are so powerful, moving, and topical that i wish they were heard every day in every home, every classroom, every place of worship, and at the beginning of every UN meeting ... .

"Your Mother is in you, and you in her. She bore you; she gives you life. It was she who gave to you your body, and to her shall you one day give it back again. Happy are you when you come to know her and her kingdom; if you receive your Mother’s angels and if you do her laws. I tell you truly, he who does these things shall never see disease. For the power of our Mother is above all.  And it destroys Satan and his kingdom, and has rule over all your bodies and all living things.

“The blood which runs in us is born of the blood of our Earthly Mother. Her blood falls from the clouds; leaps up from the womb of the earth; babbles in the brooks of the mountains; flows wide in the rivers of the plains; sleeps in the lakes; rages mightily in the tempestuous seas.

“The air which we breathe is born of the breath of our Earthly Mother. Her breath is azure in the heights of the heavens; soughs in the tops of the mountains; whispers in the leaves of the forest; billows over the cornfields; slumbers in the deep valleys; burns hot in the desert.

“The harness of our bones is born of the bones of our Earthly Mother, of the rocks and of the stones. They stand naked to the heavens on the tops of mountains; are as giants that lie sleeping on the sides of the mountains, as idols set in the desert, and are hidden in the deepness of the earth.

“The tenderness of our flesh is born of the flesh of our Earthly Mother; whose flesh waxes yellow and red in the fruits of the trees, and nurtures us in the furrows of the fields.

“Our bowels are born of the bowels of our Earthly Mother, and are hid from our eyes, like the invisible depths of the earth.

“The light of our eyes, the hearing of our ears, both are born of the colours and the sounds of our Earthly Mother; which enclose us about, as the waves of the sea a fish, as the eddying air a bird.

“I tell you in very truth, Man is the Son of the Earthly Mother, and from her did the Son of Man receive his whole body, even as the body of the newborn babe is born of the womb of his mother. I tell you truly, you are one with the Earthly Mother; she is in you, and you in her. Of her were you born, in her do you live, and to her shall you return again. Keep, therefore, her laws, for none can live long, neither be happy, but he who honours his Earthly Mother and does her laws. For your breath is her breath; your blood her blood; your bone her bone; your flesh her flesh; your bowels her bowels; your eyes and your ears are her eyes and her ears.

“I tell you truly, should you fail to keep but one only of all these laws, should you harm but one only of all your body’s members, you shall be utterly lost in your grievous sickness, and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. I tell you, unless you follow the laws of your Mother, you can in no wise escape death. And he who clings to the laws of his Mother, to him shall his Mother cling also. She shall heal all his plagues, and he shall never become sick.  She gives him long life, and protects him from all afflictions; from fire, from water, from the bite of venomous serpents. For your Mother bore you, keeps life within you. She has given you her body, and none but she heals you. Happy is he who loves his Mother and lies quietly in her bosom. For your Mother loves you, even when you turn away from her.  And how much more shall she love you, if you turn to her again? I tell you truly, very great is her love, greater than the greatest of mountains, deeper than the deepest seas.  And those who love their Mother, she never deserts them. As the hen protects her chickens, as the lioness her cubs, as the mother her newborn babe, so does the Earthly Mother protect the Son of Man from all danger and all evil.

“For I tell you truly, evils and dangers innumerable lie in wait for the Son of Men. Beelzebub, the prince of all devils, the source of every evil, lies in wait in the body of all the Sons of Men. He is death, the lord of every plague, and taking upon him a pleasing raiment, he tempts and entices the Sons of Men.  Riches does he promise, and power, and splendid palaces, and garments of gold and silver, and a multitude of servants, all these; he promises renown and glory, fornication, and lustfulness, gluttony and winebibbing, riotous living, and slothfulness and idle days. And he entices everyone by that to which their heart is most inclined. And in the day that the Sons of Men have already become the slaves of all these vanities and abominations, then in payment thereof he snatches from the Sons of Men all those things which the Earthly Mother gave them so abundantly. He takes from them their breath, their blood, their bone, their flesh, their bowels, their eyes and their ears. And the breath of the Son of Man becomes short and stifled, full of pain and evil-smelling, like the breath of unclean beasts. And his blood becomes thick and evil-smelling, like the water of the swamps; it clots and blackens, like the night of death. And his bone becomes hard and knotted; it melts away within and breaks asunder, as a stone falling down upon a rock. And his flesh waxes fat and watery; it rots and putrefies, with scabs and boils that are an abomination. And his bowels become full with abominable filthiness, with oozing streams of decay; and multitudes of abominable worms have their habitation there. And his eyes grow dim, till dark night enshrouds them, and his ears become stopped, like the silence of the grave. And last of all shall the erring Son of Man lose life. For he kept not the laws of his Mother, and added sin to sin. Therefore, are taken from him all the gifts of the Earthly Mother:  breath, blood, bone, flesh, bowels, eyes and ears, and after all else, life, with which the Earthly Mother crowned his body.

“But if the erring Son of Man be sorry for his sins and undo them, and return again to his Earthly Mother; and if he do his Earthly Mother’s laws and free himself from Satan’s clutches, resisting his temptations, then does the Earthly Mother receive again her erring Son with love and sends him her angels that they may serve him. I tell you truly, when the Son of Man resists the Satan that dwells in him and does not his will, in the same hour are found the Mother’s angels there, that they may serve him with all their power and free utterly the Son of Man from the power of  Satan.

“For no man can serve two masters. For either he serves Beelzebub and his devils or else he serves our Earthly Mother and her angels. Either he serves death or he serves life. I tell you truly, happy are those that do the laws of life and wander not upon the paths of death. For in them the forces of life wax strong and they escape the plagues of death.”

 

picture: "Together we are strong" by Diana Calvario