Understanding What A Resistance Movement Is

Buddhist Monk in protest of assaults and
killings of other Monks sets himself on fire
and sits silently in meditation until dead.

   A lot of times, when speaking with people on an individual basis, this is the most common misconception they will have.  Most likely, when someone thinks of a Resistance Movement, they envision a large group of militants with assault rifles, masks, and a bad attitude. While this may be the case in some conditions - such as a last resort scenario - it's not the most common way that most groups choose to go about their Resistance Movement(s).

PHASE 1 - PASSIVE AGGRESSION

   The most basic Resistance Movement is as simple as a peaceful protest on the lawn of a notable facility, where individuals come together to get a point across. They either are against an up-coming parliament vote outcome, or are showing general civil unrest to their parliament leaders. A clear message can be sent in this fashion that the people they represent are not satisfied with their decisions as of late, or want a specific decision to take place. Protest signs, megaphones, picnic environments are keystone elements of a peaceful protest.

PHASE 2 - VOCAL DISSIDENCE

   When that fails, the next step is typically for the group to take a step further, and become more vocal in their demonstrations. They will sometimes make it clear that they no longer support those in parliament, and will demand a change in leadership. Sometimes they will passively support alternative leadership instead of the status quo, and attempt to passively vote in new leadership when the terms are up for re-election. Other times, they will show the telltale signs of a group who is completely sick of their treatment by parliament leaders, and become belligerent to the point of Law Enforcement being called to try and regain control of the masses.

PHASE 3 - AGGRESSIVE RESISTANCE

   The next step is typically the point where the group(s) have tried every peaceful means possible, and have been ignored or have failed to make an impact themselves from outside the establishment. This is when you will start to see large groups begin to show up outside parliament buildings, and when the Law Enforcement Officers are on scene, the protest will turn aggressive if pushed back on. This can result in immediate force being applied by Law Enforcement to attempt to regain control over the situation and disperse the protesters. At this point, one of two things may happen; the Protesters will back down, and disperse for fear of arrest or physical harm, or the dissidents will shove back so hard that the Law Enforcement Officers must retreat, and the protest continues to escalate.

PHASE 4 - MILITARY INTERVENTION

   At this point in the game, Militant action can be expected to soon come to the protests if something isn't done by parliament officials to offer appeasement. In every case, the Military is called in to take charge of the situation when protesters begin to arm themselves and take a solid stance against the Law Enforcement Officers. The main issue that the protesters will run into in this situation is the fear of death that some will inevitably have within their ranks, and not wish to press the Military directly, and dispersion occurs more often than  not.

FINAL PHASE - ALL OUT RESISTANCE CONFLICT

   Unfortunately, sometimes those in charge of government simply don't listen, and think that they can retain their power by use of force through military intervention and intimidation. This has never worked in human history and has, in every case, escalated the resistance members of the public into an all-out conflict with those in authority. Sometimes the resistance wins out, sometimes not, but it undeniably sends a clear message that the people are to the point where they refuse to put up with any more madness from their elected officials, and will do everything necessary to remove them from office.

   Hopefully this information can allow you to decide if your Human Rights and Freedoms are worth going to the end of the protest possibilities or not. Personally, I am willing to lay down my life for the future of my child, your children, and our children's children who we are borrowing this world from today. They are the future, and if their future doesn't exist, nothing that happens right now matters anyway.

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."
Ronald Reagan

Do You Know What's Safe To Eat In The Wild? If Not, You Should!

Introduction

It may come to pass, in a very expedient fashion, that we will run into a situation where civilization is reduced to the infancy of mankind once again - a post-apocalyptic future, after the USA invades either Syria or Iran or both in the near future, where Russia and China launch themselves at The United States in an attempt to quell our government's lust for oil at the expense of human life beginning World War III, may come to pass rather quickly. In this scenario that isn't all that far-fetched at all, sadly, the survivors of the ensuing disaster will be forced to revert to a Hunter-Gatherer lifestyle.

Long before agriculture was invented by modern Humans, foraging and gathering plants, roots, insects of all kinds, and various wild-growing vegetables and fruits helped sustain our ancestors. Roaming, nomadic hunter-gatherers knew everything there was to know, by trial and error, about the natural food in their environment. How did they learn all this? They would try different things they would find in the bush, and remember the effects. This would result in deaths by poisonous agents, and the unlucky Human to have tried it would allow the others to know what to avoid in the future. After they learned what was good to eat and what would kill a person, or make them sick, the elders of settlements/villages/tribes would pass this information down verbally to the new generations so they didn't suffer from complete ignorance of the land.

So how can we, so far removed from the old ways of Human existence, ever hope to survive in the wild if a worst case scenario happens, and we're forced to forage once again? We can take advantage of the knowledge of many survivalists around the world who know, from being taught by those who hold the sacred old traditions dear, what's good and what's bad for us. Here are a few things to keep in mind when the time comes where we may have to survive on the land once more.

Edible Plants and Mushrooms

WildCrafting.net list of edible Plants/Mushrooms with Photos

Recipes for foraged ingredients

Baked Dandelion

Baked Plantain

Burdock Brown Rice and Mushrooms

Burdock Root Soup

Cattail Rice

Cattail Soup

Chicken Weed Wrap

Dandelion Fritters

Lambs Quarters Soup

Leek and Nettle Soup

Roasted Lambs Quarters

Stinging Nettle Soup

Stuffed Milkweed Pods

Wild Pizza

Wood Sorrel and Onion Tart

Yarrow Omelette

Source: http://www.ediblewildfood.com/

Keep in mind as well, that in a survival situation, the ability to actually make dishes such as these may not be possible. You will most likely not have an easy time coming across certain ingredients, but with a small herb garden, one might be able to self-sustain and eat very well, also. Keep in mind that everything you buy in the grocery store produce section can be grown by you in your own garden. All you need are seeds, and knowledge on how to care for each type of plant!

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER

Do not eat anything which you cannot identify or are unsure about! There are many many plants, fruits, berries, and roots that are very similar to one another in appearance, and to an untrained eye, it is easy to make a catastrophic mistake and harm yourself immensely. Don't risk your life or health on a 50/50 chance you're right. Always be 100% certain, or don't even touch it! In a survival situation, the SLIGHTEST illness can turn deadly almost immediately. Even a small infection that would normally be nothing more than an inconvenience can turn devastatingly deadly, or debilitating. Be sure, be safe, and survive.

Are We Living A Dream Or Is Our Dream The Reality?

We humans have five senses (over 4000 years ago, Ancient Egyptians wrote claiming to experience 365 different senses, ironically the same amount of days in our modern calendar year!) which we utilize to experience the world around us. This is an undisputed scientific and biological fact which cannot be argued against; however, I don't intend to argue against that statement. We indeed DO experience the world, or universe if you will, around us using the five basic senses we're accustomed to using. 

We have eyes with which to see, ears with which to hear, a nose with which to smell, a tongue with which to taste, and skin with which to touch. Another undeniable, scientific fact. What isn't undeniable are the definitions of the terms used: "Seeing", "Hearing", "Smelling", "Tasting", "Touching". Those terms have a few meanings, but only one is commonly understood and accepted; I think it's high time that the accepted definition of these words be changed dramatically, so here we go - down the rabbit hole possibly to it's lower levels!

SIGHT

THE TRADITIONAL UNDERSTANDING

Commonly, we understand that the act of "seeing" any "thing" is experienced when light travels into our pupils, is flip-flopped, the rods and cones of the retina start gathering black/white/color imagery and then convert that information into electronic neuro-pulse waves, sent to our brain which then processes the offered information and we then "see" the "thing(s)" that is around us.

In a nutshell, if all that madness flew right over your noggin, the objects outside our body are reflecting light waves (cool nugget: the color of an object is dependent on what light waves it reflects, not absorbs!) which our eyes then pick up on and transfer to our brain which shows us what we're looking at. Typically, the question of "What is sight?" ends there most of the time, and it very much shouldn't.

THE CORRECT UNDERSTANDING

Uncommonly, someone gets the wild idea to keep that question/answer thing about sight rolling, as I have recently, and starts to explore the more remote and profound concepts of what sight truly is. Concentrating on some particular idea for a length of time is equivalent, in philosophical terms, to meditation; that's just what I've been doing on the idea of senses as of late, and what I found my conclusion on sight was this:

Viewing the outside world is exactly the same as viewing one's dream world.

There are a few reasons why I come to this conclusion, and I will endeavor to list them all without forgetting any of them here.

1. The imagery that is collected by the eyes in one's waking, conscious life and sent to the brain for translation is the same imagery used in one's dreaming life - regardless of the fact that the imagery used in the dreaming life means completely different things than in the "real" world.
2. The images of "things" that we "see" in the universe around us only exist in our minds, individually. There is a certain level of common understanding that a tree appears in this way, a cat appears in this way, etc. but this must be learned. A newborn baby cannot distinguish a tree from a cat or a cat from a 747 jetliner - it has no concept of those "things" and even though sees them, cannot comprehend those objects, therefore they might as well not exist at that point. Whether dreaming or awake, the only place that anything is truly "seen" is within our own mind.
3. Every atom (Which is the building block of everything!) is 99.999% empty space with unlimited stores of energy contained within. If I turn the transparency setting of my Photoshop project layer to just 10% I can begin to view the layers behind it as it just begins to become transparent. If I were to crank that transparency setting to 99.999% the layer I was editing would literally disappear from view. I wouldn't be able to see it anymore. For all intents and purposes, it would be invisible, and not exist to me.
4. If we were to view, or "see" objects as they truly were, they would appear to be invisible and not even exist to us. (See 3.)

SOUND

THE TRADITIONAL UNDERSTANDING

The traditional way we understand hearing various sounds around us is that sound waves created from an outside source travel at a fixed rate of speed outward and if our ears are close enough to pick up the wave frequency, and if that frequency is within our discernible area, we 'hear' it. The sound is then sent via our inner ear, the eardrum, transformed into electronic pulses, and then into our brain where it is translated into an understandable thing which we can recognize as a sound - whether that sound be common or uncommon, or simply unknown.

THE CORRECT UNDERSTANDING

Uncommonly, the concept of sound is observed in a different way, which I have been fortunate enough to have a mind that's keen on viewing things in different ways in order to break them down and dissect them anew. I don't say that in a way to mean I'm somehow better than anyone else - I'm certainly not; I say that with the knowledge that any human being has the capability of doing the same as I do, but most simply are too distracted by other things to do it. I will attempt to explain why I view sound in a different way than the traditional.

1. Understanding that our human capability to receive and process sound waves is extremely limited to a small fraction of the entire spectrum of the sound waves that can possibly exist, it is clear that we only perceive an extremely limited amount of what's going on around us. This is shown clearly by the 'dog whistle' device.
2. The un-heard sound waves which are bombarding our bodies but cannot be 'heard' by our brains still have an effect on us both mentally and physically. They still exist, therefore they still much have an effect of some kind.
3. Understanding that our brain processes and completely ignores certain audible sound waves upon receiving them from the ear shows that we aren't even 'hearing' everything that can be heard in our very limited capacity anyway. Only a fraction of the fraction that we possibly can hear is recognized and not filtered out as 'background noise'.
4. If we were capable of recognizing every 'audible' sound wave that is processed by our brains, it would assuredly result in our ability to focus being completely destroyed by an overflow of audio stimulus. It is therefore understood that the human brain is simply not capable of functioning without the ability to filter out certain sounds entirely.
5. Certain sound wave frequencies can literally alter a person's mood, outlook, and attitude; sometimes on a person by person level according to certain past experiences (a person hears a familiar sound that reminds them of a positive childhood experience and their mood becomes more positive, while everyone else hears the same sound but is unaffected), or a generalized, all-encompassing level (your neighborhood grocery store plays a certain playlist of music to relax your mind in order to loosen your purse as you shop).

Sound waves are very special, because it is my concerted belief that everything around us, including ourselves, are nothing but wave frequency - audible wave frequencies are simply a certain type that we are programmed to be able to 'hear' and process as what we call sound.

SMELL & TASTE

These two senses I'm not going to bother covering, just because the traditional way of understanding them is the same way that I understand them to be - with a few minor adjustments. The adjustments are basically the addition of the ideas that everything is mostly empty space, so our minds are actually fabricating imagery for us to experience - smells and tastes are simply creations of our mind on an individual basis (some people dislike the taste of onions while others love tasting onions), or again a collective basis (everyone knows what sweet is, sour is, and bland is).

TOUCH

THE TRADITIONAL UNDERSTANDING

The usual way in which we humans understand touching things is that we come into contact with an object of some kind, and our skin's nerves and sensors transfer that information in electromagnetic pulse form to our brains where it is then translated into something which we can recognize and learn about. The sensation of burning when a child first puts his hand over a lit candle sends a clear signal to the brain that it needs to send a message to the body to withdraw immediately, and offer the sensation of pain so that the child learns not to repeat that mistake a second time.

THE CORRECT UNDERSTANDING

While the traditional way of understanding 'touch' may be true in some aspects, the core of it is simply incorrect and needs a better explanation. A bit of research and knowledge of certain things is required for this understanding to take place, but as it is considered 'fringe' and 'theory' it isn't taken very seriously nor is it in the mainstream of science - but it very much should be.

1. Understanding that every molecule in every 'thing' is 99.999% empty space, and that we cannot walk through walls when we clearly should be able to, something else must be going on which explains why empty space pressing against empty space cannot pass through one another.
2. Reflecting on this for only a short time, any thinking person (I think) should be able to come to the following conclusion: there are forces within 'things' which repel one another, and in some cases do not (such as many liquids which can be mixed together and entirely intermingle to create a new liquid).
3. Taking into consideration that every 'thing' is emitting it's own wave frequency pattern, it must be concluded that certain objects, such as the human body and a wood structure, have such differing wave frequencies in their natures that they cannot intermingle at all, and repel one another completely.
4. Understanding that at the precise instant of impact, an insect being hit by a vehicle on the road exerts the exact same amount of force against the vehicle as the vehicle exerts on the insect, until the vehicle's sheer mass wins out and decimates the insect, it can be said the following:
5. When we 'touch' anything, such as a wall in our home, we aren't really touching it at all, we're simply being made aware of the force pressing back against us, and when the force from one object's wave frequency pattern is far greater than the opposing wave frequency pattern, it can 'break' the opposing pattern.

CONCLUSION

In closing, it must be understood that we never see, hear, smell, taste, or touch anything outside our 'body'. Anything that we experience through what we call our senses is entirely dependent on our mind creating imagery, or a symbol, to represent whatever it is we're experiencing around us in a way which can be rendered intelligible, understandable, and translatable into what our feeble brains can comprehend. You obviously aren't meant to take this as the absolute truth - I don't believe anything I come across without first researching it myself and coming to my own conclusions, and I would hope you don't blindly believe me without researching these things for yourself as well. As always, much love and keep learning...learn something new every day and keep your mind alive!

The Department of Homeland Security just purchased 1.4 Billion rounds while you're being disarmed.

The Department of Homeland Security has purchased 1.4 billion rounds of ammunition- that is not a typo -- during the last six months. This includes 450 million rounds of  .40 hollow point, 200 million rounds of .223 rifle ammunition, and 176,000 rounds of .308 168-grain hollow point boat tail (HPBT) that is used almost exclusively as ammo for sniper rifles. From beforeitsnews.com we read:

Why is everyone all up in arms about the recent purchase by Homeland security of 1.4 Billion rounds of ammunition? Our undeclared Foreign War in Iraq Consumes about 70,000,000 (70 Million) Rounds of Ammunition Each Year, which would take about 20 years to consume 1.4 billion rounds of ammunition ordered by the Department of Homeland Security alone, not including all the ammunition ordered by the weather service, Social Security, etc! 20 Years To Use All 1.4 Billion Rounds Of This Ammo? Is the Department of Homeland security to protect us from foreign terrorists, or to protect the central government from the American people?

Read the entire chilling article. Avoid any political discussions about Obama's infamous 2008 quote, lest your blood pressure dangerously rise.

We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

***UPDATE***2/22/13***FRIDAY***

H.R.748 113th Congress

This is just another piece of the never-ending puzzle

showing just how maniacal, tyrannical, and UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Barack Hussein Obama has become. If you weren't worried before, 

and you've got a family member male or female that's 18-25

you'd better start paying attention to what the hell is happening

in Washington D.C. - the corporation otherwise referred to as:

THE UNITED STATES.

Let's put these DHS numbers in perspective. An Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer displaces (weighs) 9,300 tons. 1.4 billion rounds weigh around 28,000 tons, three destroyers' worth, so to speak. It takes over 1,200 18-wheel trucks to move that much ammunition. That's the equivalent to a line of single trailer trucks, parked end to end, almost 14 miles long. There are 314 million Americans, men, women and children living in the United States this morning. This year alone, DHS has purchased four rounds for each and every American. We don't know how much more ammo the DHS may have accumulated during the preceding 36 months of the Obama Administration. This enormous DHS stockpile supplements the ammunition already held by the US Armed Forces, the National Guard, hundreds of local and state police departments, plus other Federal law enforcement agencies such as the ATF, Secret Service, FBI, TSA and the US Marshals Service. Why did DHS purchase 28,000 tons of ammunition?  Why did DHS purchase almost half a billion rounds of hollow point ammunition, banned by the Hague Convention of 1899 for use in international warfare, that is carefully designed to kill it intended targets? Americans have no good answers to these questions since the DHS is now refusing to respond to media inquires on the subject. Pull back the curtain of silence by asking your Congressmen and Senators these questions. These huge inventories are extremely troubling from the standpoint of a free society.  DHS and other Federal governmental agencies will be much less inclined to ever use this ammunition as long as Americans citizens stand firm in supporting our Second Amendment rights to bear arms. We must never forget that tyrants throughout modern history (Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin and Mao) always disarmed their opponents before rounding them up and sending them to the killing fields.


From guest blogger Lee DeCovnick who's original post can be found here.

The Most Curious Allegory of the Cave

The son of a wealthy and noble family, Plato (427-347 B.C.) was preparing for a career in politics when the trial and eventual execution of Socrates (399 B.C.) changed the course of his life. He abandoned his political career and turned to philosophy, opening a school on the outskirts of Athens dedicated to the Socratic search for wisdom. Plato's school, then known as the Academy, was the first university in western history and operated from 387 B.C. until A.D. 529, when it was closed by Justinian.

Unlike his mentor Socrates, Plato was both a writer and a teacher. His writings are in the form of dialogues, with Socrates as the principal speaker. In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato described symbolically the predicament in which mankind finds itself and proposes a way of salvation. The Allegory presents, in brief form, most of Plato's major philosophical assumptions: his belief that the world revealed by our senses is not the real world but only a poor copy of it, and that the real world can only be apprehended intellectually; his idea that knowledge cannot be transferred from teacher to student, but rather that education consists in directing student's minds toward what is real and important and allowing them to apprehend it for themselves; his faith that the universe ultimately is good; his conviction that enlightened individuals have an obligation to the rest of society, and that a good society must be one in which the truly wise (the Philosopher-King) are the rulers.

The Allegory of the Cave can be found in Book VII of Plato's best-known work, The Republic, a lengthy dialogue on the nature of justice. Often regarded as a utopian blueprint, The Republic is dedicated toward a discussion of the education required of a Philosopher-King.

The Allegory is so masterfully weaved together, it is clear that Socrates himself is akin to the mind of what I refer to as the Dream Master, the master craftsman of the mind's eye who weaves together the wonderfully vivid, meaningful, intelligible and beautiful dreams we all have every night. Try to follow Glaucon along as he's given possibly the most important information of any human's life to date by a wise man who claimed that the only thing he knows is that he knows nothing.

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[Socrates] And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: --Behold! human beings living in a underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.
[Glaucon] I see.
[Socrates] And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.
[Glaucon] You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.
[Socrates] Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?
[Glaucon] True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?
[Socrates] And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?
[Glaucon] Yes, he said.
[Socrates] And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?
[Glaucon] Very true.
[Socrates] And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?
[Glaucon] No question, he replied.
[Socrates] To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.
[Glaucon] That is certain.
[Socrates] And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, -what will be his reply? And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, -will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him?
[Glaucon] Far truer.
[Socrates] And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him?
[Glaucon] True, he now.
[Socrates] And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he 's forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities.
[Glaucon] Not all in a moment, he said.
[Socrates] He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day?
[Glaucon] Certainly.
[Socrates] Last of he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is.
[Glaucon] Certainly.
[Socrates] He will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season and the years, and is the guardian of all that is in the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things which he and his fellows have been accustomed to behold?
[Glaucon] Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him.
[Socrates] And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the cave and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?
[Glaucon] Certainly, he would.
[Socrates] And if they were in the habit of conferring honors among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such honors and glories, or envy the possessors of them? Would he not say with Homer,

Better to be the poor servant of a poor master,
and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner?

[Glaucon] Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner.
[Socrates] Imagine once more, I said, such an one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness?
[Glaucon] To be sure, he said.
[Socrates] And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the cave, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable) would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.
[Glaucon] No question, he said.
[Socrates] This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed.
[Glaucon] I agree, he said, as far as I am able to understand you.
[Socrates] Moreover, I said, you must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell; which desire of theirs is very natural, if our allegory may be trusted.
[Glaucon] Yes, very natural.
[Socrates] And is there anything surprising in one who passes from divine contemplations to the evil state of man, misbehaving himself in a ridiculous manner; if, while his eyes are blinking and before he has become accustomed to the surrounding darkness, he is compelled to fight in courts of law, or in other places, about the images or the shadows of images of justice, and is endeavoring to meet the conceptions of those who have never yet seen absolute justice?
[Glaucon] Anything but surprising, he replied.
[Socrates] Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the cave.
[Glaucon] That, he said, is a very just distinction.
[Socrates] But then, if I am right, certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put a knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes.
[Glaucon] They undoubtedly say this, he replied.
[Socrates] Whereas, our argument shows that the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good.
[Glaucon] Very true.
[Socrates] And must there not be some art which will effect conversion in the easiest and quickest manner; not implanting the faculty of sight, for that exists already, but has been turned in the wrong direction, and is looking away from the truth?
[Glaucon] Yes, he said, such an art may be presumed.
[Socrates] And whereas the other so-called virtues of the soul seem to be akin to bodily qualities, for even when they are not originally innate they can be implanted later by habit and exercise, the of wisdom more than anything else contains a divine element which always remains, and by this conversion is rendered useful and profitable; or, on the other hand, hurtful and useless. Did you never observe the narrow intelligence flashing from the keen eye of a clever rogue --how eager he is, how clearly his paltry soul sees the way to his end; he is the reverse of blind, but his keen eyesight is forced into the service of evil, and he is mischievous in proportion to his cleverness.
[Glaucon] Very true, he said.
[Socrates] But what if there had been a circumcision of such natures in the days of their youth; and they had been severed from those sensual pleasures, such as eating and drinking, which, like leaden weights, were attached to them at their birth, and which drag them down and turn the vision of their souls upon the things that are below --if, I say, they had been released from these impediments and turned in the opposite direction, the very same faculty in them would have seen the truth as keenly as they see what their eyes are turned to now.
[Glaucon] Very likely.
[Socrates] Yes, I said; and there is another thing which is likely. or rather a necessary inference from what has preceded, that neither the uneducated and uninformed of the truth, nor yet those who never make an end of their education, will be able ministers of State; not the former, because they have no single aim of duty which is the rule of all their actions, private as well as public; nor the latter, because they will not act at all except upon compulsion, fancying that they are already dwelling apart in the islands of the blest.
[Glaucon] Very true, he replied.
[Socrates] Then, I said, the business of us who are the founders of the State will be to compel the best minds to attain that knowledge which we have already shown to be the greatest of all-they must continue to ascend until they arrive at the good; but when they have ascended and seen enough we must not allow them to do as they do now.
[Glaucon] What do you mean?
[Socrates] I mean that they remain in the upper world: but this must not be allowed; they must be made to descend again among the prisoners in the cave, and partake of their labors and honors, whether they are worth having or not.
[Glaucon] But is not this unjust? he said; ought we to give them a worse life, when they might have a better?
[Socrates] You have again forgotten, my friend, I said, the intention of the legislator, who did not aim at making any one class in the State happy above the rest; the happiness was to be in the whole State, and he held the citizens together by persuasion and necessity, making them benefactors of the State, and therefore benefactors of one another; to this end he created them, not to please themselves, but to be his instruments in binding up the State.
[Glaucon] True, he said, I had forgotten.
[Socrates] Observe, Glaucon, that there will be no injustice in compelling our philosophers to have a care and providence of others; we shall explain to them that in other States, men of their class are not obliged to share in the toils of politics: and this is reasonable, for they grow up at their own sweet will, and the government would rather not have them. Being self-taught, they cannot be expected to show any gratitude for a culture which they have never received. But we have brought you into the world to be rulers of the hive, kings of yourselves and of the other citizens, and have educated you far better and more perfectly than they have been educated, and you are better able to share in the double duty. Wherefore each of you, when his turn comes, must go down to the general underground abode, and get the habit of seeing in the dark. When you have acquired the habit, you will see ten thousand times better than the inhabitants of the cave, and you will know what the several images are, and what they represent, because you have seen the beautiful and just and good in their truth. And thus our State which is also yours will be a reality, and not a dream only, and will be administered in a spirit unlike that of other States, in which men fight with one another about shadows only and are distracted in the struggle for power, which in their eyes is a great good. Whereas the truth is that the State in which the rulers are most reluctant to govern is always the best and most quietly governed, and the State in which they are most eager, the worst.
[Glaucon] Quite true, he replied.
[Socrates] And will our pupils, when they hear this, refuse to take their turn at the toils of State, when they are allowed to spend the greater part of their time with one another in the heavenly light?
[Glaucon] Impossible, he answered; for they are just men, and the commands which we impose upon them are just; there can be no doubt that every one of them will take office as a stern necessity, and not after the fashion of our present rulers of State.
[Socrates] Yes, my friend, I said; and there lies the point. You must contrive for your future rulers another and a better life than that of a ruler, and then you may have a well-ordered State; for only in the State which offers this, will they rule who are truly rich, not in silver and gold, but in virtue and wisdom, which are the true blessings of life. Whereas if they go to the administration of public affairs, poor and hungering after the' own private advantage, thinking that hence they are to snatch the chief good, order there can never be; for they will be fighting about office, and the civil and domestic broils which thus arise will be the ruin of the rulers themselves and of the whole State.
[Glaucon] Most true, he replied.
[Socrates] And the only life which looks down upon the life of political ambition is that of true philosophy. Do you know of any other?
[Glaucon] Indeed, I do not, he said.
[Socrates] And those who govern ought not to be lovers of the task? For, if they are, there will be rival lovers, and they will fight.
[Glaucon] No question.
[Socrates] Who then are those whom we shall compel to be guardians? Surely they will be the men who are wisest about affairs of State, and by whom the State is best administered, and who at the same time have other honors and another and a better life than that of politics?
[Glaucon] They are the men, and I will choose them, he replied.
[Socrates] And now shall we consider in what way such guardians will be produced, and how they are to be brought from darkness to light, -- as some are said to have ascended from the world below to the gods?
[Glaucon] By all means, he replied.
[Socrates] The process, I said, is not the turning over of an oyster-shell, but the turning round of a soul passing from a day which is little better than night to the true day of being, that is, the ascent from below, which we affirm to be true philosophy?
[Glaucon] Quite so.

Pope Benedict XVI Resigns

I've recently learned through the wonderful world of trickling information through the internet that the Patriarch of Catholicism has decided to step down from his most holiest of posts, designated to him by his god directly, and resigned his seat.

This is a very curious turn of events, so let's see if we can't try and understand what's happening here, and what this means for the Catholic Church and it's future, shall we? We shall! Below, you can read as I have his written statement which is addressed to, I assume, the Cardinals of Rome.

Dear Brothers,

I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.

For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.

BENEDICTUS PP XVI

With this being read, what can be gleaned from the statement itself in it's most basic form?

1. Pope Benedict XVI has examined his conscience before his god.
2. Pope Benedict XVI describes the nature of his post - words, deeds, prayer, suffering.
3. Pope Benedict XVI is in poor health - poor enough to force him to consider resigning his post.
4. Pope Benedict XVI understands that the act of resigning from his post is a serious act.
5. Pope Benedict XVI declares that with full freedom he renounces the ministry of Bishop of Rome.
6. Pope Benedict XVI states the exact date and time of his resignation: 2/28/2013 20:00 hrs
7. Pope Benedict XVI states that he entrusts the Church to their supreme Pastor, Jesus Christ.

Well, those are some very curious things, indeed. Let's look at them for a moment and try to understand what's being said. Firstly, a very strange comment - at least to me, it may be understood as normal to a Catholic - stating that he's examined his conscience before his god. Let's use Socratic Philosophy to try and figure this madness out, shall we? What can be said about the words "examined" and "conscience"? To examine is to view closely, to judge for defect. If you examine something, you're carefully looking it over and noting details about it. One's conscience is understood to be that little voice inside one's mind that helps with ethical decisions. If your conscience is clear, you're at peace with yourself because you have no regrets, would you not agree? If your conscience bothers you often, you clearly have something in your past that you certainly don't want hitting the front page of the newspaper. I would say that the larger question is: What was the result of his conscience examination? I would imagine it was not clear, as shuttling pedophiles around to different churches after they diddle little kids repeatedly would weigh on one's conscience, wouldn't you?

Then he offers a list of the duties of his post - not only in word and deed, but in prayer and suffering. This is also very curious, because if a portion of his post is suffering, for one thing, living in a mansion being waited on hand and foot every day of your life seems a bit less like suffering and more like monarchy. However, if he truly wishes to suffer for his post, I would imagine suffering through failing health due to aging would be a very welcomed struggle to one in his most pious position. It doesn't appear that he wishes to fulfill his duty of suffering , and is instead simply walking away from it; he takes the easy road and has chosen instead NOT to suffer, and simply walks away from his duties and post.

He then states that it is understood to him that in resigning from his post as High Bishop of the Catholic Church, he is doing something "serious". Obviously it's a serious action, but just HOW serious is this resignation that he's doing? Let's look at a bit of Catholic history, and try to find an answer.

• Marcellinus: This early church pope abdicated or was deposed in 304 after complying with the Roman emperor's order to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. Apparently, this Pope resigned because he was forced into doing something against his religious beliefs and was shamed.
• Benedict IX: Sold the papacy to his godfather Gregory VI and resigned in 1045. The current, soon to be former, Pope's namesake, apparently desired money above all else, selling the big seat to someone else and resigning.
• Celestine V: Overwhelmed by the demands of the office, this hermetic pontiff stepped down after five months as pope in 1294. Pope Benedict XVI prayed at his tomb in the central Italian city of L'Aquila in 2009. Apparently this Pope didn't like the limelight, and resigned his post in order to be more secluded. Hey, thanks god for the vote of confidence, now piss off!
• Gregory XII: The last pope to resign, Gregory XII stepped down in 1415 to help end a church schism. Basically, upon a small bit of quick research, this Pope and another had claim to the big seat, and he made a mistake by sending a proxy to a meeting in his stead, who agreed, while speaking on Gregory's behalf, that Gregory would step down. Screwed over because he didn't want to go to a meeting, good job.

So what does this mean? Only 4 Popes in the Catholic Church's history have ever resigned by some means or another, and they were all under very strange circumstances - all except this one. Is Benedict XVI feeling guilt finally about all the pedophilia that's gone on under his reign that he's done absolutely nothing with but cover it up? Is he finally coming to terms with the insanity of claiming condoms are immoral and banned by the Church in Africa, making 100% certain that the widespread overpopulation and spread of the AIDS virus goes unchecked by any means? Has he actually understood that his religion is nothing more than a ponzy scheme, custom built to gather large amounts of donations (offerings) from the poor, meek, and mild only to live in the lap of luxury - in a palace worth millions? Who knows, but I for one am glad he's going bye bye. Maybe the next Pope can use wisdom, intelligence, and common sense to dictate to the ignorant masses what to think, do, feel, and believe.

Shedding The Ego Like So Much Refuse

Leaving My Ego at the Door of Heaven 
I came out alone on my way to tryst. 
But who is this me in the dark? 
I move aside to avoid his presence but I escape him not. 
He makes the dust rise from the earth with his swagger; 
He adds his loud voice to every word I utter. 
He is my own little self, my lord, he knows no shame; 
But I am ashamed to come to thy door in his company. 
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) 

The Mystery of Consciousness by Searle, John R. [Paperback] (Google Affiliate Ad)

 There is no enlightenment while the ego still exists. The two masters which the bible tells us to choose between are the masters of the Divine, i.e., Infinite Love, and the master of Ego. We cannot serve them both, it is true. The yogic sage Babji told us that doing compassionate things can help to reduce the ego, but until we really truly realize that all of our thoughts are a prayer – a complicit whispering to God, or the Ego – choose your master – then we will continue to feel afraid and guilty, sad, and lost, all the trappings of a soul who has chosen the wrong master.

When we realize that with every thought we are choosing light or darkness, only then have we overcome the illusions which the ego would have us believe in forever. The love we do not get is the love we do not give. The hurt or betrayal we feel was done to us by someone else, is really the betrayed soul within us – given to the evil workings of shadow – or if you prefer not to ascribe the ego such power – the dualistic side of heaven. We dwell in our self created hell when we shun heaven. We may not know that we are doing this, but we do it with every tightening of the natural response to love, with every withholding of praise, with every smile we don’t give another person on the planet.

We have been deluded for far too long, believing that we can atone for our ‘sins’ by continuing the very thoughts which created the idea of sin to begin with. Persons like Yogiji Maharaj, Jesus, Buddha, Rumi, Krishna, etc. were just realized souls who had given up the thoughts of ego. The thoughts of ego, for we are all creators of vast skill. We are truly God-like in our ability to form reality, and this is the pain of letting go of our ‘small’ selves that Tagore is ashamed to bring before God. We are not small, though the ego wants us to believe this is so. As long as we believe we cannot affect change by changing our thinking, then we have lost the game set before us by the ego to keep us linked up and shored to its/his power. We support the illusion instead of realizing we created the play.

Every fragmented part of our illusion will be brought before us to look at and see for what it really is. All pains which we believe we have dealt with and incorporated will be brought to the surface to ask us one last time, “which master do you choose?” Have we lost our ability to keep our hearts, minds and thoughts on the Divine, or have we become so entangled in our fractal, segmented, cracked mirrors that we can no longer see our own perfection?

Milarepa, the great Tibetan yogic sage said, “When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick: every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. Instead, be like a lion, who, rather than chasing the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once.” When we look at our ‘reality’ – the world out there, with its trials, its tribulations, its annoyances, its pains, we see the thoughts we have already put into the mill to be used for grist which turns into reality, and then we chase after the reality created by those thoughts as if that will change what we experience, but the lion knows it is the thrower of the stick – the maker of the thoughts – that creates reality. The ego will have us see things in reverse, upside down, in every way but RIGHT.

The innate purity of the mind does not require you to manifest anything, only to realize its true nature. From this place, only pure thought can arise, which means only TRUE reality, not the FALSE, egoic version has any opportunity to manifest – to arise into your awareness. When we sit in silence, we honor the mind in its true state. We shed all the egoic trappings of blame and hurt, pain and wanting. Shedding the last illusions of the ego is like taking inventory, but not being swayed by the copious closets of costumes and magic hats, colored lights and boxes to be sawed in half. The illusion lays before you with no color, no light, and all you are drawn to is the ever-present purity of an untainted mind, trained on God.

About the Author
Christina Sarich is a musician, yogi, humanitarian and freelance writer who channels many hours of studying Lao Tzu, Paramahansa Yogananda, Rob Brezny, Miles Davis, and Tom Robbins;into interesting tidbits to help you Wake up Your Sleepy Little Head, and See the Big Picture. Her blog is Yoga for the New World This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.

Consciousness in Motion

The image to the right is of an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh receiving the Ankh, or symbol of life, from the gods

Prologue / Declaration of Amazement

I'm always shocked, and instilled with vigor, when I glance at how many other human beings seem to give a damn about what I'm blathering about on Twitter - over 1800 people now. I honestly still remember signing up for the first time wondering how in the world I would ever reach anyone if I needed followers to share what I was talking about with a whopping 0 followers, or if I even should be bothered with in the first place. I intended to simply try to speak the truth, speak my mind, and see what would happen. Oh how times have changed - I've since gotten hold of Tweet Deck (which is a Chrome browser add-on or whatever they're called) and become sortof a 'pro' twitter-er person. At any rate, I find that the most attention stems not from when I'm spamming my Podcast episodes, but when I'm spewing out some malarky about Consciousness; my handle is Conscious Awareness on there, afterall.

With that being said, I think I'll take a bit of time and further explain what I mean when I talk about shedding the EGO, losing one's MATERIALISM, and taking the next step up the Consciousness ladder. First, though, it's prudent that I begin at the beginning, and assume that you, the reader, are as ignorant as I am myself, and just keep it as simple as possible for the time being. Rest assured, this will curve upwards faster than an 18 year old Prom Queen's bust in relative short time...

What Is Consciousness?

Consciousness is still not defined officially by mainstream researchers, scientists, and spiritual gurus, but one thing's certain: it's excessively important to the advancement of human life as we know it. We literally are at a standstill in terms of evolution because of a few different reasons.

• We have no natural predators other than our own kind; we do not require physical evolution.
• We have no natural rivals intellectually; we do not require mental evolution.
• We are caught in a never-ending string of distractions; mainstream media, politics, entertainment, electronics - the list goes on and on.

A few ancient philosophers even claimed openly that human beings had not only stopped evolving, but were in a process of DEvolution; in their eyes the majority of people were actually reverting back into a state of an animalistic mindset! Were they so full of themselves that they looked down on everyone else so, or were they absolute geniuses who nailed it right on the head?

I can't possibly make such a brazen claim as to be able to define what exactly consciousness is, but I can, however, claim to understand the various stages of it, and how to at least get the biggest leap done and over with, from spiritual adolescence into spiritual adulthood. Yes, I just said spiritual instead of consciousness - to me, they're very similar if not one and the same.

The Five Stages of Consciousness

1. The Infant / Toddler

This, as you might imagine without me even saying anything about it, is the lowest form of consciousness known to mankind. Most children - and even some adults! -  are stuck in this level, for obvious reasons. Just in case they're not as obvious to you as they are to me, though, I'll do my best to explain.

In this level, it's all about numero uno - me, me, me, me, me...now, now, now, now, now! Nothing else matters but instant self-gratification. Nothing. The personal bubble of reality is so small that it encompasses only the self and the immediate surroundings - one who finds themselves stuck in this hell on earth existence literally cannot see past their own nose. Obviously, as I stated just a few words back, this state of reality is normally reserved for children only, and that's what it's intended for. The natural, and expected, progression is that as we age physically we are also aging mentally, consciously, becoming ever more aware of the world we live in and how it works. Unfortunately, some adolescent humans, and even in rare occasions some fully-grown adults are still stuck here for one reason or another.

Here, the ego dominates entirely. Emotional knee-jerk reactions are overpowering and cannot be ignored and subsequently acted upon. Complete and total irrationality and a lack of the ability to form coherent intelligent thought defines this level of being. Again, nothing else matters but the self, and the gratification of self. If it isn't pleasurable, one here wants nothing to do with it. Material possessions are top priority, and other human beings are simply that - other human beings. They mean nothing to one stuck here, aside from some form of entertainment from time to time to achieve more instant self-gratification. Here are a small number of examples of types of people stuck here:

• The teenager who thinks they'll literally perish if they don't get the new whatever they saw on TV.
• A few ancient Roman rulers such as Nero, Caligula.
• Any child under the age of 5.
• Any person who seems to emotionally overreact to almost anything trivial.

2. The Adolescent

You may be picking up a pattern already about how these stages will play out - they're much like the bodily aging of we humans. The problem is that as we grow physically into adulthood, our minds simply don't come with us anymore like they used to thousands of years ago.

Quite simply put, this stage of consciousness is where most adults (and by most I mean there are only a handful of humans in ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY who've gotten past this stage!) dwell for the entirety of their physically adult lives. This was only supposed to be a short stop-off on our intellectual journey of conscious awareness as humans as we pass into physical AND mental adulthood. Unfortunately, society as it is in this day and age makes it almost impossible to transition from here into the third stage.

In this level of being, a person is more rational, more able to form coherent intelligent thought, but is still mostly dominated by egoism, materialism, and emotional knee-jerk reaction based thinking and doing. Here resides 99.999...% of humanity. Here I reside, as well, I'm reluctant to admit, but admit it I must, and admit it I shall. I may have a foot in the door to the next level of consciousness, but so long as any part of me still resides here, all of my being resides here. I am going to spend most of this post in explaining this section and how I believe we can move from here into the next stage; also how this seems to be the most difficult stage to exit upward from, and from there things seems to just flow like a river.

What's Holding You, Me, and Everyone Else Here?

For starters, our ego - again - holds us here. If you've noticed that the ego seems to be the recipient of a lot of my angst, you'd be correct. If one doesn't hold their ego to the ground, that's exactly what one's ego does to one's self; holds you to the ground, not letting you ascend upwards. We learn from a very young age that material possessions are top priority: getting a job and buying 'things' is what every adult around us is focused on more than anything else, and we humans are cursed with the mammalian trait of learning by example. The ego, wanting to "keep up with the Joneses" so to speak brings us straight into materialism and puts a value on every 'thing' around us. We're bombarded with advertisements on TV - which literally every household has now - telling us how happy and fulfilled we'll be if we just go to the store and buy some 'thing' that we don't really NEED, but we now suddenly WANT.

Which brings me to the next major issue with this level of consciousness. Need vs want - do you know the difference? I'm certain your answer just now was yes, as would most say. First, what I want you to do within the next few days, when you can get time away from the materialism-induced rat race of this world, is to make a list of the top 20 'things' (include people there, too; the mere fact that other people can be included in that statement is part of the problem!) that are important to you. Next, halve it - break that list down to 10 things. Again, halve it - now have only 5 things that are most important to you. Then make it 3, then 2, and then force yourself to decide between the last two and narrow the list to the truly most important thing in your entire life here on this planet. Now you know what you merely WANTed but thought you absolutely NEEDed previously, and can start to focus in on those two or three top things in your world.

Another bigtime issue we have in this world, in trying to exit upwards into the next state of consciousness, is simple - very cleverly studied and designed - distractions. I'm typing on one of them right now: my laptop connected to the internet. Our distraction box, otherwise known as the television, is possibly the biggest proponent that keeps us stuck down here in dumbass-ville. Make no mistake, millions are spent per year by major marketing firms to understand (through surveys) how the consumer's mind works and then transition that into (through advertisements) specially designed processes by which to literally brainwash the average human being into thinking they NEED something that they only, in reality, WANT. If you don't think this is the case, just look at how ecstatic everyone in every commercial ever is, and then think about what you see when you go to the store - nothing but blank, thoughtless consumers who don't smile, don't make eye contact, and don't strike up a conversation even though they're passing by probably 50-100 other human beings during that one trip to the store.

Sports, the mainstream media, politics, commercials, even peer pressure are all key elements in this admixture of insanity we call reality. Our personal bubble is now larger, yes, but only as large as the TV tells us it should be. Want to hear about how many Americans died overseas today? You'd have a better chance of winning the lottery with your first ticket ever purchased than hearing about that on the news. Want to know the details about the new gun control executive orders President Obama just signed? Turn on the news and you won't get details, you'll get "expert analysis" from people you've never heard of, nor who show any credentials of their expertise.

How Can We Get Up And Out?

I think the most ironic of things is the fact that I fully understand from observation how to move on to the next level of consciousness, to get "up and out" of the state of being I'm currently in, and yet I still don't do it. Even more ironic is that I'm now going to endeavor to explain to you how to do it, as well.

Unfortunately, this is the most difficult - if not outright impossible while being trapped in the society that we live in today - thing to do. The first step is very clear to me, and that is to gain full control over your own emotions and emotional states. This can be achieved by simply turning your head into something more than a hat rack, and turning that brain thing to the "ON" setting, and not allowing it to turn off again. I affectionately call this the process of reaching up and ripping the blinders off your face, because quite literally in this state of being we're simply focused on what's right in front of our faces, unable to see anything to either side and put the puzzle pieces together. I've been accused of not having any emotions at times, because of the simple fact that I don't react in ways people expect; if they're telling me about the big sporting event that's got nearly everyone cranked up to the ceiling over, I simply shrug and ask them why I should care about something like that. When given bad news, usually my comment is, "Oh well..." and I move on and don't seem to worry about it at all. While this is true outwardly, there are emotional responses firing off just like anyone else has, but instead of a knee-jerk response, my mind takes the information, processes it all instantly, and then determines that (most of the time) it's irrelevant and isn't worth bothering with.

Secondly, material attachments must be tossed aside. The "American dream" is literally a consciousness trap in this level - we all want that nice house we can be proud of, the good-paying career that gives us financial security, the beautiful spouse we can show off at company events and social gatherings, and all the trinkets and electronic gadgetry that shows that we've "made it". This MUST be cast aside if we are to ever reach a higher state of being.

Thirdly, we as humans must understand that racism, sexism, speciesism, and the like must all be completely forgotten in order to move forward as a unit. Individually, we can forget these things and move past them, but the glaring evidence of their existence pops up to remind us that as a whole, we humans haven't gone too far past the caves in all reality.

3. Adulthood / Maturity

There have only been a smattering of humans in all of our recorded history that one could possibly point to and say, "That's an ascended being." and not be joking. This level of consciousness is literally so difficult to achieve that even claimed gurus are not here yet entirely. As I said before, if even a small part of you is still attached to any sort of ego or material thing, you're still down there in either level 2 or 1. As much as you don't want to hear it and as much as I don't like admitting it, if ANY part of us is attached to those finite things that don't matter in the grand scheme of things, we're still stuck down there.

Only a very few names come to my mind right off the top of my head:

• Plato / Socrates
• Mahatma Gandhi
• Homer

That's pretty much all I can come up with without looking more individuals up - you get the point; they're very few and extremely far between. The hallmarks of someone who is experiencing this level of being include, but are not limited to:

1. Expressions of "This is me, and this is me enjoying myself" without a care in the world of who bears witness to them or their actions.
2. A child-like enthusiasm and wonder towards all things.
3. The supreme disregard of all material objects and things.
4. The ability to truly offer help to anyone who may need it without expecting a return. (This is next to impossible for most, including myself)
5. Not worrying in the slightest of what others may think of them - they are themselves in all places.

I sometimes refer to people as wearing "masks" in public; those individuals who are themselves at home, where they're surrounded by people they trust and care about - but when they set foot outside where the general mass of humanity can look upon them, they play the "keeping up appearances" routine, put their mask on, and are a completely different person. These people cannot possibly obtain this level of consciousness until they lose that trait altogether.

This is a sublime existence. Persons who are here seem to be able to travel freely in this physical, material world and just as easily pass into what's referred to as the Astral world. Out of body experiences during meditation are frequent, and sometimes the individual can even communicate their experiences in the other, more spiritual, realm to others upon returning to their physical state.

The ego does not exist here, it has been completely shed and tossed aside like so much refuse. Materialism doesn't even invade their thoughts. This is where one goes when one exits Plato's Cave and walks out into the upper world. I could never, even verbatim quoting the document, give justice to the story as written down by Plato himself, so read the story and understand for yourself how blatantly obvious the metaphor is, describing the transition from adolescent consciousness into this stage of adult consciousness or maturity of the mind.

4. Transcendent / Ascended

Clearly, I mentioned the above state of being as "ascended" for the 3rd level of consciousness, however, that's simply how the rest of us view someone who's traversed into that state - they're so foreign from what we generally call "normal" that they appear to be an ascended being, but in reality they're simply the example that all of we humans should be striving for in our adulthood.

If there are only a small handful of humans who've ever reached the previous state, I can say with certainty there would only be enough to count on one hand in this level of consciousness. Oddly enough, the first President of the United States and General of the Union Army, George Washington, is depicted inside the White House in an artists rendering as an ascended being. He is depicted as having ascended upon his physical death and moved upwards to dwell with the gods.

This isn't a bad example of what an ascended being would be doing, to be honest. In ancient Hellenic philosophy, the afterlife was a sort of previous life/lives judgement process by which the noblest, most just souls would literally skip the whole reincarnation process for a number of years (in the hundreds) and be invited to join the gods in their most highest of dwellings. The rest of the souls - the ones who hadn't gained understanding and this level of consciousness, this level of wisdom, in their previous earthly lives would have to restart the entire process again; they would, though, get to choose what life they would have, whether it be man or animal. The "best of the rest" would get first dibbs on the lives to choose from, giving them the best chance to make the best decision this time around and possibly achieve the ultimate goal and join the gods in their next time through. The rest would get the leftover lives, so to speak, and be stuck with what they got which means that if a man was particularly evil and nasty in his previous life, he'd be one of the last in line to pick from the next life choices, and be stuck with perhaps a life which was doomed to misery, ridicule, poverty, and the like.

I can only name one human being who I'm certain has ever achieved this state of consciousness in recorded history, and that would be a blind woman by the name of Mary Ann Schinfield. I'll give you a bit of an excerpt about her from another author:

"I'm in communication right now with someone who's aware of many levels at once. The scientists who are studying her are speechless; they cannot understand how she is doing what she's doing. She might be sitting in a room, yet she claims to be watching from outer space. NASA checked her out by asking her to "see" a specific satellite and give specific information that could only be known if someone was actually there. She gave them readings off their instruments, which I'm sure seemed impossible to the scientists. She said she was flying alongside the satellite and simply read them. Her name is Mary Ann Schinfield. She is legally blind, yet she can walk around a room and noone would know that she cannot see. 

"...she asked if I would like to see through her eyes. Of course I said yes. Within a few breaths, my field of vision opened up and I was looking at or through what looked like a huge television screen that FILLED MY FIELD OF VISION. What I saw was astounding. It seemed that I was moving very fast through space without a body. I could see the stars, and at that moment Mary Ann and I, seeing through her eyes, were moving alongside a string of comets. She was very close to one of them."

- Excerpt from "The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life" by Drunvalo

So you can see why I say this individual is a shocking example of what can be accomplished by the human mind. The most startling claim here is that the author described being in continual long-range telepathic communication with this woman; this very simply means that the author's mind was capable of the same things, but wasn't "unlocked" so to speak. I know next to nothing about this level of consciousness as I've experienced none of it, so I won't dilute myself by continuing.

5. The "Christ Consciousness"

I will say this, and only this, about the highest known level of consciousness to mankind - I know literally nothing about it, and seek answers DAILY to the question of, "What is this?" I suggest you do the same, my friends, and if you have any insights I very much would love for you to share them with me.

In closing, know that we can do this together - all we need is to mutually respect, love, and nurture one another to the point of absolute perfection in our imperfections - and the acceptance, without hesitation, of all of them. I don't know if you gleaned anything from this posting, but I think that I taught myself something during writing it, and hope that you at least enjoyed my staggering attempt at understanding things which I simply do not. Much love, and stay safe out there.

- CA

Inducing Consciousness: On the Way to Cognition by Davidson, Glen [Pap (Google Affiliate Ad)