I was listening to a short U-tube talk by Vandana Shiva, a brilliant philosopher from India. She really put things into simple perspective. It got me to thinking again how we transform the world to one we want to see – I’ve talked about this several times in this blog already, but it seems I need to keep plugging away at what we must do to achieve this transformation. We have got to stop buying, and buying into, the hyper-consumer worldview. It is NOT who we are. It doesn’t describe us, and most of us do not like or want it. This is a worldview of dominance foisted upon us by the hierarchy.
The system will collapse, if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notions of inevitability. Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing. Arundhati Roy
If you think you own your own beliefs, think again. In the U.S. alone there are about 7000 Public Relations companies whose job it is to manipulate our perceptions and desires – think advertising on steroids. In essence we are a set of collective beliefs that maintain a consensus reality programmed by the hierarchy. To break out of the consensus reality requires recognizing how all this materialism is controlling every thought that becomes every emotion that creates every belief you have. Most of our beliefs come from past experiences and programming that then act as filters with all information to create our reality. Since we readily share a consensus reality with nearly everyone in our lives, our beliefs are reinforced by everyone around us. Previously (See prior post – TRANSFORMATION NOT REFORMATION – Reclaiming our Power is a Spiritual Transformation NOT a Mental One) I talked about how our mind has 5 different brain wave patterns. Most of our waking hours we have been programmed to stay in the Beta state that is the state of alertness and fear. It is also the state where our needs, wants, desires, and lack are found. Advertising drives brain wave activity at the Beta frequency. It is in this frequency range that we analyze everything from the subconscious ego and make snap decisions. When you are in fear, hate, anxiety, frustration, depression, etc… (all the negative emotional states) you ae acting through Beta Wave programming. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when Beta wave states are necessary for immediate survival when you are really under some threat, or even when in serious competition, but it should not be all day, every day. Those times when you feel inner peace and joy are when you are in the Theta state brain wave. If we can reprogram ourselves to be more in Theta than Beta, then we reprogram our whole lives for something different that what we currently have. We can start buying into a way of thinking that comes from Love, Care, and Compassion. It is in this state that we can also be less competitive and more collaborative. Increased sharing happens when we do not have fears based on lack, scarcity, deficiency or negative want. A negative want is one where you feel you are missing something so profoundly that you develop extreme anxiety. Do you really have to ‘fit in’ and have approval to find satisfaction in your life?
I titled this post ‘Choosing Wisely’ because only when we recognize what is happening, and then recognize that our mindful daily choices are key in transformation, can we consciously let it happen. Many will think this is fuzzy stuff, but the constant voice in your mind telling you how powerless you feel and that endless self-criticism that causes judgment of everything is part of the programming you accept with really thinking. Only when you mindfully begin to look at your beliefs and analyze them do you come to see that they are not your own. At some point in your upbringing you were given these beliefs, often by well-meaning parents, teachers, religious ministers, and adults all around you. And why? Because they had bought into them before you from similar unquestioned sources. A belief is merely a thought that you hold to be absolute. Experience has shown you that it is seems better than some other alternate beliefs. Most are so attached to their beliefs that they will defend them rigorously, sometimes to the death.
Think about it for a moment. If you have a firm belief in something and someone contradicts it then your ego (which loves beliefs) wants you to get angry and belligerent in defending it. You establish firm judgments on which beliefs are ‘right’ and which beliefs are ‘wrong.’ If you love drinking green tea and someone says they only like black tea, and another says they do not like tea at all, do you begin a fight? All likes and dislikes are really thought forms – preferences. Can you imagine hating someone so much because they prefer coffee to tea that you would readily hurt them without a second thought? Or if someone prefers an apple instead of a peach? When you talk about low level preferences like food we tend to be more open to alternate options. Bring it to a political or religious belief and we all go off the rails and start to contemplate the worst alternatives to judge and punish people who think very differently from us. All of this negative thinking comes from Beta brain wave thinking – the survival mode. Preferring a peach over an apple is not much of reason to start a war, but apparently preferring one person’s way of doing something over another – as in politics and religion – apparently is many times. And where does that conviction of right-wrong, good-bad, proper-improper, and a whole multitude of dichotomous absolutes come from? – your beliefs. Rather than ponder something mindfully that contradicts a belief, we are programmed to react mindlessly. When we are mindful of our beliefs and how we react (usually negatively based on past experiences), then we can begin to reprogram ourselves. We can learn that the past is gone and stewing on past experiences hurts only ourselves. It causes a cascade of negative chemicals to flood your body, literally causing you biochemical harm that eventually leads to bodily illness and disease. Forgiving someone doesn’t mean that you will become friends, it just means that you make the choice to move forward with your life and accept what happened as a lesson in what not to do. And that’s all the past is – a lesson gained, however painfully, in which to learn something valuable. When you forgive them (and yourself for letting them hurt you) and learn to live at peace with yourself, then personal transformation occurs, and then you influence others to transform as well.
I have said many times in the blog, getting to a sustainable world is much more than just green behaviors. It is a whole world-changing worldview where peace, love, compassion, and collaboration become the norms instead of hate and war. To bring up John Lennon’s Imagine lyrics again. That’s hat we aspire to regardless of what the controllers would have you believe:
Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try. No hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too. Imagine all the people living life in peace. You, you may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will be as one. Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man [sic]. Imagine all the people sharing all the world. You, you may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope some day you’ll join us, and the world will live as one. Imagine lyrics by John Lennon.
TBC…..
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