Daily Insight: The Split in the Modern Mind

There is a brilliance, a light, that shines within each of us. I call it Integrated Intelligence. But you cannot activate it through calculation, dissection, analysis, classification or even through abstract thinking. These things, when not balanced with mindful presence, take you further away from it, and further dim your light. And as I see it, this is the great lesson which our current age must learn. We must learn to be still, to let go, to surrender to an intelligence much greater than any of us as individuals can possibly muster. Even the most brilliant of us cannot match the brilliance of the light. And what about you? Does your light shine in this world, or is it buried beneath piles of data and years of restless thought and distracted activity?

But here’s the catch. To allow the light to shine we have to allow ourselves to be vulnerable; to surrender the illusion of control and power over life itself. A teacher once told me that vulnerability was the key to divinity. 

At the end of his life Darwin lamented that despite all his brilliance, and even despite his elevation to the highest status in science, his own light was greatly dimmed. In his own words, he had become a classification machine. Darwin’s story is the story of modernity. Let us not continue to make this mistake for a second longer. Let’s allow our brilliance to light all our futures.

Marcus

Re-mapping the Cosmos

 The universe is bigger than we can think. This galaxy and its 100 billion stars is, in turn, just one of a humdred billion galaxies in the cosmos

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few”, said Buddhist scholar Shunryu Suzuki. Perhaps this explains why in the year 1900 Lord Kelvin stated that:

 "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement."

In just a few years physics was upturned by relativity theory, then completely reframed by quantum physics. And now we know that visible matter is but five per cent of the cosmos, with dark matter (25%) and dark energy (70%) making up the rest. And let's not even mention m-theory and the idea of multiple universes.

The limits of our vision are not the limits of the cosmos. The limits of our cognitive science are not the limits of our minds.

We might chuckle at Lord Kelvin’s short-sightedness now, barely a century since he spoke these words, but we should recall that he was one of the brightest men of his day. How long will it be before others are chuckling at the way we see the universe today? Again, history reveals that it will not be very long. Science – or at least the culture of science – is conservative. Yet futurists like me are not quite so restricted. It’s our job to critique, predict and speculate. We are expected to take risks. And that is exactly what I enjoy doing in my writing and talks! 

There is a tendency for experts and layfolk from every era to believe that history is a linear journey from superstitious past to the inevitable triumph of present wisdom; and that what we now understand as truth is the way it will always be. Each age deludes itself that it has reached the pinnacle of knowledge and that all that remains is to add the finishing touches. And each age gets it hopelessly wrong. Certain futurists like to talk about how the future will bring us flying cars and virtual reality interfaces in every room and how cool that will be. But I predict that the future will not be a mere rehashing of the current consumer age.

I like to challenge people to contemplate the changes that are taking place in science, and especially the sciences of consciousness and cosmology, and how absolutely important they are for all our futures. It is with these understandings that I predict vastly different futures than many techno-futurists. Futures which focus upon "money and machines" are what Sohail Inayatullah calls "used futures". I think we can do better than that.

For for me it is not so important to be proven correct by the passing of time, but to challenge the habits of thought that tend to make us believe that our outmoded maps of reality are actually the territory.

Marcus

An Important Clarification

Just to clarify...

Daily Insight: The Importance of Forgiveness

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

Forgive your brother seventy times seven, Jesus said. But forgiveness, at its deepest level, is more than just an intellectual decision. This is because the deepest levels of blame and hatred are founded in personal trauma and the fear that surrounds it. To take an extreme example, a rape victim would most likely find it quite difficult to truly forgive the man who raped her.

I believe that there can be no genuine forgiveness before healing occurs.

One thing I realised when I learned how to read and feel consciousness projections (the energy of people’s thoughts), was that I had not forgiven certain people who had hurt me in my past. I knew this because I was still projecting anger at them, and they were ‘responding’ by continuing to project destructive energy at me. In other words, I was repeating the same drama over and over again at a psychic level. This happens to all of us until we ‘get’ the lesson, and we experience healing.

To some extent healing is out of our control. To twist a common saying, you can lead the wounded child to Lourdes, but you can’t make him jump in the water! Healing is in part an act of Grace, and I have been conscious that at times in my life I have received healing energy from spiritual sources.

Which gets me to the daily insight. This last week I have been experiencing a lot of destructive energy interactions with some male relatives. In particular, I was having problems with an older man, who I shall call Shane. To put it as simply as I can, I was being badly psychically attacked by these males, and it was greatly affecting my level of well-being. Psychic attacks have a strong effect on people’s energy fields – headaches, drowsiness, nightmares, a sense of dislocation or disembodiment are typical symptoms. What I do when I find myself in such exchanges - as I have pointed out in my book Discover Your Soul Template - is connect with my inner child, and allow that part of myself to express how it feels. Usually find that it is experiencing a combination of anger, blame, shame, sadness and fear.

The energy was so bad this past week that I was doing two sessions a day on it, one before and one after work. But the energy just didn’t shift. Yet two days ago I tried a new process which had immediate impact. After channeling my own anger and blame, I felt my own consciousness field and saw right away that the dark energy was still the same. I’d been working tirelessly on the issue for a week, and I knew that I had to stop struggling. So I prayed to God and made a confession that I did not understand what was happening, and that I needed help. But I did not demand help. I simply surrendered to God’s will, and let go. As always happens, I immediately relaxed, and felt a sense of gratitude and love.

I then energetically connected with the two male energies (they are brothers - Shane is still living, the other passed on), by bringing them into my mind’s eye. I was having trouble feeling any sense of compassion for them, and part of this was that I was actually scared of them. When we are scared of others, we naturally turn ourselves away from them energetically. In fact when there is great fear, we turn and run! (When this happens, you might find yourself having nightmares of running away from a threatening person or monster).

Somehow the idea came to me to connect with Shane’s inner child, and straight away I found myself looking at him as a child. I found myself gazing at a little freckle-faced boy, and I saw his own father standing behind him. There was a strong sense of how he had been bullied by the father (The bullied had become the bully). As I looked at that child I immediately relaxed further, and was able to connect with him. I felt genuine compassion, and words spontaneously came from within me, “I love you, I forgive you.” There was no need to force them, as the feelings were genuine. I put my hand out in front of me and channeled healing energy towards him. Whenever I opened my eyes I could see blue light around my hands. I prayed for Shane to find healing, asking God for help. I stayed in that energy for five minutes or so. It was very peaceful, and the connection was strong.

When we are scared of psychic bullies, and we turn and run away, it grants them power over us. It is only when we can turn and face them energetically that we can really stand in our power. By connecting with Shane’s inner child I was able to distil my own fear, and face him. After the session, the energy (the drama) had dissipated, and it has not returned.

So there is my little insight for the day. If you are having trouble forgiving someone, try seeing their inner child, and even praying for them. In this way you may find it easier to forgive them, and healing will naturally follow.

Marcus

Daily Insight: Whitney's Fall

 Whitney before

 This is the first of short daily insights I will post on 22c+. These will mostly cover news events, and ongoing issues related to the development of our species and the world.

What happened to Whitney Houston? Blessed with a model's good looks, a soaring, angelic voice and spectacular international success, she didn't "almost have it all" - she had it all! Well, at least in terms of the measuring stick of the human ego.

So what happened?

As regular readers of this blog and my books will know, I am an intuitive. I read consciousness fields. When I look at Whitney Houston's psyche there are some obvious "messages" coming through. The following is the essence of what her spirit is saying. I use the present tense because this is the energy as it exists now.

I am so tired. I just want to go home (to Heaven). I can't take this any more. Please, just let me go. I'm sorry (esp. to mother). I wasn't good enough. I couldn't do it right. I can't go on. There's no point living anymore. Everything is empty, tired, pointless. I give up. I want to escape. I feel so ashamed of myself. I'm a bad person. I'm just too tired.

Whitney after

So Whitney Houston gave up on life, and on herself. 

Her drug habit had a lot to do with her downfall, as has been widely reported. There are a lot of people in alternative and New Age circles who believe that certain drugs are harmless or even beneficial. I am not one of them. While the occasional use of certain drugs may give insight, any habitual use is harmful to the psyche and to your consciousness field. Apparently Whitney did crack like there was no tomorrow (and now there is no tomorrow for her, at least not round these parts). And despite popular mythology that it is a 'light' drug, marijuana is one drug I would stay well away from. Its effect on the energy field and brain makes chronic users susceptible to depression, and a magnet for dark energy. Apparently marjijuana was one of the drugs Whitney abused.

Overall the biggest problem with drugs is that they can kill the zest for life by creating dissociation from the body, and from the present moment. And as I have said many times, presence is the key to spiritual fulfilment, not psychic, psychadelic and visionary trips.

Does this mean that Whitney killed herself deliberately? Not necessarily. When we give up on ourselves and our lives, the spirit will often find a way to check out. Whitney wanted to escape. But there is no escape, not even in death. Consciousness - and shame - follows you wherever you go. The demons pursue you until you have the courage to turn and face them.

Marcus

Rediscovering the Spirit of Education

Long ago I came to the conclusion that the world was flat. Not the real world of course, but the world that we are taught about in our schools and in the mass media. I intuitively knew that something was missing, and that was the spiritual elements of life and learning. At our deepest level we are not machines, but spiritual beings. 

With this in mind I wrote an article for the Journal of Futures Studies, called “Crisis, Deep Meaning and the Opportunity for Change.” In the article I look at why education has become so despiritualised, and how educators can begin to honour the human spirit in their classes and lectures. I then link this into the current world economic crisis, and argue that the crisis is a great opportunity for us to begin to shift education for the better. Below, I have included the conclusion of that paper. I think you will find it easy to read, as I always try to write in accessible style, even in academic journals. If you want to read the whole paper, including the references, just click here. 

Here's the article extract. I hope you find it deeply meaningful!

Marcus

P.S. This current volume of the Journal of Futures Studies features a symposium on responses to the global economic crisis. For some reason my version of Firefox doesn't open it, so you might have to use Explorer to get to the right page.

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Practically speaking

I am not advocating bringing a personal agenda for inculcating a particular religious or philosophical perspective through the classroom door. The process needs to be more considered, more subtle and more respectful than that.

The key is bringing in inner worlds and other ways of knowing into curriculum, and into the classroom. Introducing other ways of knowing into the classroom requires no religious or spiritual jargon. Nor does it necessarily require that students share everything that they experience while exploring the intuitive or being reflective. 

I use visualisation and quiet time for my students. Journal writing can also be a great way to get students to honour the intuitive, without necessarily having the need to bear their soul with the class. Using journals immediately after quiet time is a great way to develop the link between the left and right brains, the conscious and subconscious minds. 

Sharing meaningful anecdotes from personal life is another way of touching a more profound psycho-spiritual level within the students. Ideally, the themes should be something related to the kinds of profound philosophical and spiritual issues I have mentioned in this paper. Whenever the teacher touches upon the profound or something that connects us with the greater thread of human history, life itself or our dreams and aspirations, opportunities to be meaningful open up. Such themes can include the environment, nature, justice, space exploration, the death penalty, free-market economics, personal success, failure, suicide, illness, triumph, defeat, disability, serious challenges, personal danger and so on.

There are other ways to introduce spiritual concepts and experiences into classrooms without getting caught in the crossfire of religious and spiritually-specific terminology. Recent studies into the practice of mindfulness have shown promising results (Reid, 2011; Sawyer 2009). Further, introducing the spiritually playful concept of synchronicity may also be an opening to a general spiritual awareness (Cho, Miller, Hrastar, Sutton & Younes, 2009).

The world is not likely to be transformed into the serenity of a giant Buddhist monastery anytime too soon, and neither is the average teacher’s classroom. I am suggesting small, balanced introductions to inner worlds. This can even be done with senior students. I recently asked a new Form 7 class (18-19 year olds) in Hong Kong if they had ever tried visualisation before. None of them had. Not ever in some 13 years of education! But I didn’t let that stop me! We did a visualisation on something deeply meaningful to Hong Kong students – the public exam!

Finally, educators can’t fake wisdom or deep understanding of life. They have to discern amongst concepts they feel they have mastery or understanding of, and those they do not. Intuition must be employed in the classroom - to know what, when and how “deep” to teach. And that is something subtle. It is a different way of knowing how to teach.

The shifting sands of the twenty-first century

The shape of the world is shifting. The dominance of Anglo/white culture is over. The global economic crisis is not merely about greed or poorly regulated banking systems. It is a crisis of meaning. What does it mean be human in the modern age? 

Contemplation and meaning cannot simply be afterthoughts in the curriculum. They are an essential part of life. Schooling is meant to equip us to live life in a way that is meaningful. We must bring time into the classroom to reflect upon what it is all about. This entails a degree of vulnerability on behalf of the teacher. Is the teacher to admit her own fears and weaknesses, or her pain at loss and suffering? Is she to confess to the things in this world that she does not understand? Her limitations? And what of those profound life experiences which have granted her wisdom and understanding? Is she to remain silent regarding this? Talking about such things requires courage. This is a state of emotional vulnerability which can only be negotiated by an individual with a high degree of psychological and spiritual maturity. In short, wisdom. And wisdom emerges from a deep introspection upon life experience. It emerges from inner worlds. We need to start planning for futures with depth.

Carl Jung died in 1958, lamenting his failure to help people see that the human race has a spiritual essence, and that “religion and philosophy” had become impoverished. More than fifty years later, are we any closer to uncovering that “buried treasure” in the field? If not, how can our societies and education systems be part of the discovery process, rather than part of the perpetuation of the problem?