The Idiot Opposite Me

Marcus T Anthony's new web site and blog can be found at www.mind-futures.com.

The human mind tends to work in binaries: good/bad, this/that, me/her, us/them, is/is not, and so on. Bart Kosko wrote a book quite some time ago called Fuzzy Logic, where he pointed out that this black and white thinking of the human mind creates distortions in the way we perceive the world. Being aware of the same problem, lateral thinking guru Edward de Bono invented a new word, “po”, to help move us beyond ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

The older we get, the more we tend to label the world and life’s experiences according to  pre-assigned rigid categories. The world then loses its novelty, and we also forgo the opportunity to see things anew, or from the perspective of another. I developed a process called Harmonic Circles to assist people in moving beyond these kinds of binaries.

However, today, I am going to provide you with a piece of wisdom that a spiritual teacher of mine, whom I refer to as Jessica, once told me. She said that when she sat in a circle or group of people, she always took careful note of the person sitting opposite her, because that person represented a polarity that she needed to acknowledge. Ironically, the very first time I ever met Jessica, she was sitting directly opposite me in a large circle of people (and, no, she didn’t mention this idea at that time, but much later). I mentioned the amazing synchronicity that occurred as a result of that meeting in a previous post. As soon as Jessica saw me, she related precisely the same image that I’d had in a dream just a few hours before, where I’d seen my hands covered in blood. That synchronicity helped me to come to terms with an issue I had, related to sexuality.

It is often the people that we push away at a personal or intellectual level that have the most to teach us. The simple process of allowing yourself to look at the person opposite you, and ask, “What is it about this person that I need to acknowledge?”, can produce a great deal of insight. You can also take this in a metaphorical sense and ask the same question about a person whom you see as an intellectual or spiritual rival. Many people who read this blog have a spiritual perspective. “We” (if I may allow myself to place us in a group) often feel threat and hostility from sceptics and those critical of spiritual discourses and mystical experience. You can probably think of one such person or group right now. Is there something that you can learn from them? Is it possible for you to receive them without emotional judgment?

Note here the distinction between ‘judgment’ and discernment’. Judgment is laden with emotionality, while discernment is a nonattached perspective. You can still discern a perceived error in another’s thinking without taking it personally, or needing to change or destroy it. Judgment typically contains an element of destruction – there is an often unconscious desire to annihilate the object of judgment.

I would like now to recount a significant event in my life which helped me to understand this issue at a deeper level. It occurred in 2005, when I attended a Futures Studies conference at Tamkang University in Taiwan. I wrote about this in an essay for The Journal of Futures Studies the following year. Here’s a part of what I wrote there. It involves an somewhat uncomfortable encounter with Michio Kaku, the well-known physicist and author of Visions.

The Law of Attraction (2)

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Marcus T Anthony's new web site and blog can be found at www.mind-futures.com.
 
BTW, I wrote my most recent take on the law of attraction in an ebook called "A More Attractive Law of Attraction", which covers some of the ideas written here, but in much more detail. Marcus


What do I really know about the law of attraction? The answer is not as much as I would like, to tell you the truth. Many of the apparently metaphysical things I write about on 22c+ are written with good authority, and with little self doubt. For example, all the stuff about energy projection, telepathic perception, sensing the future, spiritual guidance and even life after death, are written from repeated first hand experience. They are everyday occurrences for me, and I have no problem writing about them; no more than I’d have an issue discussing, say, how to write a resume (which I’ve done many times). The only issue for you, then, as the blog reader, is to sense whether I am communicating valuable information, or whether I am mistaken, deluded, or maybe even insane. I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

The law of attraction is a different matter, as it is an abstract concept, and understanding if -or how - it works is difficult. I want to make clear that my comments about the law of attraction are thus conditional. My understanding may change in the future. The insights that you see here on this page emerge from my direct experience (successes and failures), and also from reading my energy of the degree of truth of any given statement. I read the energy by getting an intuitive feeling for the truth of a statement, and also by double checking its voracity using the Quick Check, which I outlined in Sage of Synchronicity. Clearly, once we get into discussions about consciousness and manifestation, we cannot rely on science, as to my knowledge there have been no scientific experiments to test the law of attraction (there is, however controversial indirect evidence, such as tests for telekinesis, or mind over matter).

Given these considerations, here are a few more distinctions about the law of attraction which I think are crucial, but which I didn’t cover yesterday.

We Attract Not What We Want, But Who We Are

 Marcus T Anthony's new web site and blog can be found at www.mind-futures.com.

BTW, I wrote my most recent take on the law of attraction in an ebook called "A More Attractive Law of Attraction", which covers some of the ideas written here, but in much more detail. Marcus


The idea of the law of attraction is as popular today as ever. The most recent successful version is found in the phenomenally successful The Secret video and books. To generalize, it is assumed that the law of attraction permits one to ‘manifest’ in one’s life what one desires, through focused concentration, or simply believing it enough. Although the mechanism is never clearly explained, the idea is that “God” or “the universe” will give you whatever you want, as long as you get your shit together. I call this the naïve law of attraction, because quite simply, it is delusional.

One of the most successful law of attraction teachers is Dr Wayne Dyer. I read Dyer’s You’ll See It When You Believe It nearly two decades ago. Dyer may well be the most successful New Age writer/philosopher in history. Certainly he is right up there with Deepak Chopra, Louise Hay and a few others. For years Dyer has been teaching that one can manifest one 's intention.

However in recent years Wayne Dyer has suffered several rather large ego falls.

The Subway as the Path to Enlightenment

There are a lot of people in the world who are interested in spiritual development. We sense that there may be a better way to ‘operate’ the mind than going about allowing the world to constantly distract us. Yet many of us are very busy, and may not have the time to devote to a specific spiritual practice (I won’t go into the obvious point about making spiritual practice a priority...).

It may be true that it requires complete dedication to experience ‘enlightenment’ as experienced by some advanced spiritual teachers. Yet there are more simple, mundane, yet nonetheless uplifting and even transformational processes that we can incorporate into our everyday lives, which help elevate consciousness.

Here’s one that you can use today. I call it “The Field”. Don’t be fooled by the fact that it is both simple and easy. It can take as little as three minutes.

The Field helps shift you from ego to Spirit, from the little self to the higher Self. It does this by bringing into awareness the countless value judgments that you make, and then allowing you to relax into presence.

Synchronicity: A Mystery

Here's a fascinating synchronicity told by Bono of U2, about an incident with Roy Orbision and how the song "She's a Mystery to Me" came to be written and recorded. The universe is not only stranger than we think, but stranger than we can think. I love this one because it suggests the unconscious but nonetheless intentional coming together of minds in an entangled universe. I've also included the song. Enjoy!

Biophobia: Be Very Afraid!

Marcus T Anthony's new web site and blog can be found at www.mind-futures.com.

Simon Buckland on his blogoflove, recently wrote about the revitalising capacity of beautiful parks, and in particular the charming the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, in Paris, where he lives. Deep connectivity, including an intimate connection with nature – green time – simply has to be a priority for policy makers in any city or country in the world. A future without this precious connection with the environment is quite a simply a future not worth living.

Can we see into the future?

When I tell people that I am a futurist, the first question people typically ask is, “What is going to happen in the future?” In fact, predication is not really a key element of Futures Studies, and most futurists stick to the position that the future is ultimately unknowable. Instead, most futurists like to engage in scenario work, where they attempt to contend with the issues and problems related to several possible paths which may unfold. Another process is horizon scanning, where futurists gather together as much data as they can about a particular issue, and then extrapolate the possible and probable futures which appear to be emerging. All this involves standard logical and rational ways of knowing, and the processes are conducted in normal states of consciousness. To do otherwise would invite the possibilities of ridicule and the questioning of professional credibility. Such is the nature of dominant culture in science and the professional/corporate world.

I am thus a little unusual for a futurist, in that I am also a mystic. Besides writing and researching, and gaining the preferred academic qualifications (a doctorate), I also spent many years working on the intuitive and emotional dimensions of mind. It’s not so easy to develop both the intellect and the psyche, as the cognitive skills required are completely different. Most academics have little or no understanding of the deeper mind, except at an intellectual level. This makes my attempts at communicating insights gleaned at a first-personal experiential level quite difficult. Many in mainstream culture are quite hostile to the attempt. My perception is that this largely stems not only from the challenge to their worldview, but also from the fear of the vulnerability required to move beyond the intellectual mind, and to explore the deeper emotional and psychic realms.

Which brings me to the question, “Can we see the future?” To answer this I am not going to refer to philosophical arguments or empirical evidence, but to personal insight.

The Long Journey into Now

I'm running a bit short of time today, so here's an entry from my web site, mindfutures.com. It contains a common message found in many of my posts, but provides a very simple process to help relieve a large degree of human suffering...

It was 1993, and I was wondering along the “main” street of Byron Bay, in northern New South Wales, Australia. Byron Bay is a beautiful little coastal town in one of the most scenic parts of Australia. It is well known as a center of alternative culture, and the streets were (and still are) lined with veggie restaurants, Thai dye shops, and alternative folks offering all kinds of new age therapies.

On that sunny winter’s day, I spotted a little book shop, and wandered in. There, amidst the plentiful supply of spiritual literature, I spotted a little tome called Words from Silence, by Leonard Jacobson. Something about the book grabbed me, so I picked it up and began to flick through the pages.

Mechanical Mind, Mechanical Eye

Marcus T Anthony's new web site and blog can be found at www.mind-futures.com.

We are within a decade or so of building the first electronic brain, exhorts writer Drew Turney in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald. (A brain, but not as we know it ) Yet how much fact, and how much speculation, assumption or pure mythology lie behind the claim? Apologies in advance, but I'm going to get a little philosophical and intellectual.

Love is Blindness

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 Marcus T Anthony's new web site and blog can be found at www.mind-futures.com.

A few days ago I awoke during the early morning hearing a particular song in my head. As I’ve mentioned before, this is one of the most common means by which I am given spiritual guidance, so I always listen carefully for the message. Here is the song that I heard: U2s Love is Blindness. If you heard this song as a message from Spirit, what would you make if it? Watch the video before you read any further: