Solstice energy update - part 1

We can see this lack of substantial psychological awareness in many New Age writers and lecturers.

"James Hillman, whose works delve deeply in Jungian archetypes, sees most New Age therapeutic methods as failing to deal with the true complexities of the soul. We can see this lack of substantial psychological awareness in many New Age writers and lecturers. Though such spokespeople may specialize in Hindu and Buddhist terminology relating to the levels of consciousness, few speak with any background knowledge of Western art, literature, poetry, science, philosophy, and how these have contributed to highlighting the further heights and depths of the human situation today.

Many become popular because they speak and write with a reductionist style that brings the complex and disturbing down into canned formulas of what spiritual growth is supposedly all about. Dozens of such New Age authors could bring their works together into one large volume entitled, “How To Become Aware of the Depths of Your Being Without Disturbing the Routine of Your Comfortable Lifestyle.“”

~ Lew Paz

@timeoftransition

Beyond the Brain: Graham Hancock and Rupert Sheldrake explore the mystery of consciousness

Forbidden Kingdoms of Inner Earth

According to certain Buddhist and Hindu traditions, secret tunnels connect Tibet with a subterranean paradise, and they call this legendary underworld Agartha or Shambhala. Mythologies throughout the world, from South America to the Arctic, describe numerous entrances to these fabled inner kingdoms. Many occult organizations, esoteric authors, and secret societies concur with these myths and legends of subterranean inhabitants, who are the remnants of antediluvian civilizations, which dwell in massive hollow caverns inside the earth.

On the psychology of the conspiracy denier

Tim Foyle
Reporting For Beauty
Sat, 06 Mar 2021 08:17 UTC

Why is it that otherwise perfectly intelligent, thoughtful and rationally minded people baulk at the suggestion that sociopaths are conspiring to manipulate and deceive them? And why will they defend this ill-founded position with such vehemence?

History catalogues the machinations of liars, thieves, bullies and narcissists and their devastating effects. In modern times too, evidence of corruption and extraordinary deceptions abound.

We know, without question, that politicians lie and hide their connections and that corporations routinely display utter contempt for moral norms - that corruption surrounds us.

We know that revolving doors between the corporate and political spheres, the lobbying system, corrupt regulators, the media and judiciary mean that wrongdoing is practically never brought to any semblance of genuine justice.

We know that the press makes noise about these matters occasionally but never pursues them with true vigour.

We know that in the intelligence services and law enforcement wrongdoing on a breathtaking scale is commonplace and that, again, justice is never forthcoming.

We know that governments repeatedly ignore or trample on the rights of the people, and actively abuse and mistreat the people. None of this is controversial.

So exactly what is it that conspiracy deniers refuse to acknowledge with such fervour, righteousness and condescension? Why, against all the evidence, do they sneeringly and contemptuously defend the crumbling illusion that 'the great and good' are up there somewhere, have everything in hand, have only our best interests at heart, and are scrupulous, wise and sincere? That the press serves the people and truth rather than the crooks? That injustice after injustice result from mistakes and oversights, and never from that dread word: conspiracy?

What reasonable person would continue to inhabit such a fantasy world?

The point of disagreement here is only on the matter of scale. Someone who is genuinely curious about the plans of powerful sociopaths won't limit the scope of their curiosity to, for example, one corporation, or one nation. Why would they? Such a person assumes that the same patterns on display locally are likely to be found all the way up the power food chain. But the conspiracy denier insists this is preposterous.

Why?

It is painfully obvious that the pyramidical societal and legal structures that humanity has allowed to develop are exactly the kind of dominance hierarchies that undoubtedly favour the sociopath. A humane being operating with a normal and healthy cooperative mindset has little inclination to take part in the combat necessary to climb a corporate or political ladder.

So what do conspiracy deniers imagine the 70 million or more sociopaths in the world do all day, born into a 'game', in which all the wealth and power are at the top of the pyramid, while the most effective attributes for 'winning' are ruthlessness and amorality? Have they never played Monopoly?

Sociopaths do not choose their worldview consciously, and are simply unable to comprehend why normal people would put themselves at such an incredible disadvantage by limiting themselves with conscientiousness and empathy, which are as beyond the understanding of the sociopath as a world without them are to the humane being.

All the sociopath need do to win in the game is lie publicly whilst conspiring privately. What could be simpler? In 2021, to continue to imagine that the world we inhabit is not largely driven by this dynamic amounts to reckless naiveté bordering on insanity. Where does such an inadvertently destructive impulse originate?

The infant child places an innate trust in those it finds itself with - a trust which is, for the most part, essentially justified. The infant could not survive otherwise.

In a sane and healthy society, this deep instinct would evolve as the psyche developed. As self-awareness, the cognitive and reasoning abilities and scepticism evolved in the individual, this innate trust impulse would continue to be understood as a central need of the psyche. Shared belief systems would exist to consciously evolve and develop this childish impulse in order to place this faith somewhere consciously - in values and beliefs of lasting meaning and worth to the society, the individual, or, ideally, both.

Reverence and respect for tradition, natural forces, ancestors, for reason, truth, beauty, liberty, the innate value of life, or the initiating spirit of all things, might all be considered valid resting places in which to consciously place our trust and faith - as well as those derived from more formalised belief systems.

Regardless of the path taken to evolve and develop a personal faith, it is the bringing of one's own consciousness and cognition to this innate impulse that is relevant here. I believe this is a profound responsibility - to develop and cultivate a mature faith - which many are, understandably, unaware of.

What occurs when there is a childish need within us which has never evolved beyond its original survival function of trusting those in our environment who are, simply, the most powerful; the most present and active? When we have never truly explored our own psyches, and deeply interrogated what we truly believe and why? When our motivation for trusting anything or anyone goes unchallenged? When philosophy is left to the philosophers?

I suggest the answer is simple, and that the evidence of this phenomenon and the havoc it is wreaking is all around us: the innate impulse to trust the mother never evolves, never encounters and engages with its counterbalance of reason (or mature faith), and remains forever on its 'default' infant setting.

While the immature psyche no longer depends on parents for its well-being, the powerful and motivating core tenet I have described remains intact: unchallenged, unconsidered and undeveloped. And, in a world in which stability and security are distant memories, these survival instincts, rather than being well-honed, considered, relevant, discerning and up to date, remain, quite literally, those of a baby. Trust is placed in the biggest, loudest, most present and undeniable force around, because instinct decrees that survival depends on it.

And, in this great 'world nursery', the most omnipresent force is the network of institutions which consistently project an unearned image of power, calm, expertise, concern and stability.

In my view, this is how conspiracy deniers are able to cling to and aggressively defend the utterly illogical fantasy that somehow - above a certain undefined level of the societal hierarchy - corruption, deceit, malevolence and narcissism mysteriously evaporate. That, contrary to the maxim, the more power a person has, the more integrity they will inevitably exhibit. These poor deluded souls essentially believe that where personal experience and prior knowledge cannot fill in the gaps in their worldview - in short, where there is a barred door - mummy and daddy are behind it, working out how best to ensure that their little precious will be comfortable, happy and safe forever.

This is the core, comforting illusion at the root of the conspiracy denier's mindset, the decrepit foundation upon which they build a towering castle of justification from which to pompously jeer at and mock those who see otherwise.

This explains why it is that the conspiracy denier will attack any suggestion that the caregiving archetype is no longer present - that sociopaths are behind the barred door, who hold us all in utter contempt or disregard us completely. The conspiracy denier will attack any such suggestion as viciously as if their survival depended on it - which, in a way, within the makeup of their unconscious and precarious psyche, it does.

Their sense of well-being, of security, of comfort, even of a future at all, is completely (and completely unconsciously) invested in this fantasy. The infant has never matured, and, because they are not conscious of this, other than as a deep attachment to their personal security, they will fiercely attack any threat to this unconscious and central aspect of their worldview.

The tediously common refrain from the conspiracy denier is, 'there couldn't be a conspiracy that big'.

The simple retort to such a self-professed expert on conspiracies is obvious: how big?

The biggest 'medical' corporations in the world can go for decades treating the settling of court cases as mere business expenses, for crimes ranging from the suppressing of adverse test events to multiple murders resulting from undeclared testing to colossal environmental crimes.

Governments perform the vilest and most unthinkable 'experiments' (crimes) on their own people without consequence.

Politicians habitually lie to our faces, without consequence.

And on and on. At what point, exactly, does a conspiracy become so big that 'they' just couldn't get away with it, and why? I suggest it's at the point where the cognitive ability of the conspiracy denier falters, and their unconscious survival instinct kicks in. The point at which the intellect becomes overwhelmed with the scope of events and the instinct is to settle back into the familiar comforting faith known and cultivated since the first moment one's lips found the nipple. The faith that someone else is dealing with it - that where the world becomes unknown to us, a powerful and benevolent human authority exists in which we have only to place our faith unconditionally in order to guarantee eternal emotional security.

This dangerous delusion may be the central factor placing humanity's physical security and future in the hands of sociopaths.

To anyone in the habit of dismissing people who are questioning, investigative and sceptical as tin foil hat wearing, paranoid, science-denying Trump supporters, the question is: what do you believe in? Where have you placed your faith and why? How is it that while no one trusts governments, you appear to trust nascent global governance organisations without question? How is this rational?

If you are placing faith in such organisations, consider that in the modern global age, these organisations, as extraordinarily well presented as they are, are simply grander manifestations of the local versions we know we can't trust. They are not our parents and demonstrate no loyalty to humane values. There is no reason to place any faith whatsoever in any of them.

If you haven't consciously developed a faith or questioned why you believe as you do to some depth, such a position might seem misanthropic, but in truth, it is the opposite. These organisations have not earned your trust with anything other than PR money and glossy lies. True power remains, as ever, with the people.

There is a reason why Buddhists strongly advise the placing of one's faith in the Dharma, or the natural law of life, rather than in persons, and that similar refrains are common in other belief systems.

Power corrupts. And, in the world today, misplaced and unfounded trust could well be one of the greatest sources of power there is.

Massive criminal conspiracies exist. The evidence is overwhelming. The scope of those currently underway is unknown, but there is no reason to imagine, in the new global age, that the sociopathic quest for power or the possession of the resources required to move towards it is diminishing. Certainly not while dissent is mocked and censored into silence by gatekeepers, 'useful idiots', and conspiracy deniers, who are, in fact, directly colluding with the sociopathic agenda through their unrelenting attack on those who would shine a light on wrongdoing.

It is every humane being's urgent responsibility to expose sociopathic agendas wherever they exist - never to attack those who seek to do so.

Now, more than ever, it is time to put away childish things, and childish impulses, and to stand up as adults to protect the future of the actual children who have no choice but to trust us with their lives.

This essay has focussed on what I consider to be the deepest psychological driver of conspiracy denial.

There are certainly others, such as the desire to be accepted; the avoidance of knowledge of, and engagement with, the internal and external shadow; the preservation of a positive and righteous self-image: a generalised version of the 'flying monkey' phenomenon, in which a self-interested and vicious class protect themselves by coalescing around the bully; the subtle unconscious adoption of the sociopathic worldview (e.g. 'humanity is the virus'); outrage addiction/superiority complex/status games; a stunted or unambitious intellect that finds validation through maintaining the status quo; the dissociative protective mechanism of imagining that crimes and horrors committed repeatedly within our lifetime are somehow not happening now, not 'here'; and plain old fashioned laziness and cowardice.

My suggestion is that, to some degree, all of these build on the foundation of the primary cause I've outlined here.

On-the-psychology-of-the-conspiracy-denier

Lion's Mane mushroom: Unparalleled benefits for your brain and nervous system

Lion's Mane mushroom: Unparalleled benefits for your brain:

Lion's Mane is nature's gift to your nervous system! It's the only mushroom possessing not one but TWO potent nerve growth factors, showing potential benefits for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, multiple sclerosis, leg cramps, anxiety and more.

What if there were one natural treatment that could restore brain function, regrow damaged nerves and reverse the progression of multiple sclerosis? There may be! Lion's mane mushroom has been used medicinally in Asia for centuries, but for some reason it's one of the best-kept secrets in the West.

Besides being called "lion's mane," Hericium erinaceus, is known by several other names including bearded tooth mushroom, bearded hedgehog, bearded tooth fungus and others. In Japan, it's known as yamabushitake, which means "mountain priest mushroom." It has a variety of other names, depending on the country.

In Asia, it is said that lion's mane gives you "nerves of steel and the memory of a lion," and from what science is revealing, that's apt prose. Thus far, evidence exists that lion's mane mushroom confers the following health benefits:
Improved cognitive function
Nerve regeneration, remyelination, and increased Nerve Growth Factor (NGF)
Improved digestive function and relief from gastritis
Immunosupportive, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant
Anticoagulant; mild ACE inhibitor; improved lipid profile

The science about lion's mane is in its infancy, but evidence already points to unparalleled therapeutic benefits for numerous diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system, summarized in the table below, and the list seems to be growing by the day.

Conditions That May Benefit from Lion's Mane Mushroom
Dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI)
Parkinson's disease
Peripheral neuropathy
Muscle cramps and spasms
Multiple sclerosis (MS)
Stroke recovery
Seizures and seizure-like post-stroke episodes
Anxiety and Depression
Mother Nature's First "Smart Mushroom"

According to world renown fungi expert Paul Stamets, lion's mane may be the first "smart mushroom," providing support specifically for cognitive function, including memory, attention and creativity. It is reported that Buddhist monks have consumed Lion's mane tea for centuries before meditation in order to enhance their powers of concentration.

Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.

The truth is not arbitrary or a matter of opinion, but can be investigated, and those who earnestly search for the truth will find It. The truth is hidden to the blind, but he who has the mental eye sees the Truth.
- Buddha - The Three Personalities of Buddha, XCVIII

Egyptian Blue Lotus

Lotus Soma-theories | Secret Drugs of Buddhism

Named in imitation of Wasson’s SOMA: Divine Mushroom of Immortality, David L. Spess’s SOMA the Divine Hallucinogen offers the hypothesis that soma was a species of lotus. Or, rather, that it may have been any of a number of lotus or water-lily species of the Nympaea and Nelumbo genera. Spess bases his reasoning on the Ṛig Veda and on Vedic mythology, supplemented with appeals to European and oriental alchemy. Yet despite the intricacy of his arguments, Spess does not tell us what, if any, psychoactive substances are to be found in lotuses. Richard Rudgley does, though. In an account of Meso-American drug traditions, he mentions the presence of apomorphine-like compounds in the Egyptian blue lotus (Nymphaea caerulens) and noted that it is used in North Africa as “an effective substitute for opium”. (Could this be the source of Homer’s North African lotophagoi?) Jonathan Ott, however, dismisses all claims to psychoactivity in lotuses and water-lilies as unfounded and pharmacologically unsound.

Secret Drugs of Buddhism pdf

You will need to be a lover of truth, over a lover of personal comfort to persevere on the path

Virtue is persecuted more by the wicked than it is loved by the good.  ~Buddha

shift in global culture and consciousness

by Daniel Pinchbeck

My view is that “2012” is useful as a meme if it helps us to catalyze a shift in global culture and consciousness. Rather than fretting about what may or may not happen on that date, we should concentrate on the work that needs to be done now, on an inner as well as outer level. My recent focus has been the outer level, studying social theory and political philosophy. If we were to have an opportunity to transform society, what could that transformation look like in a practical sense? How could it be carried out? I have been reviewing the ideas of thinkers like Macchiavelli, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Jefferson, Karl Marx and Hannah Arendt, seeking insight into the nature of politics and power.

How do we bring awareness gained through shamanic practice or yogic discipline back into the gritty realities of political struggle and the fight against global inequity of wealth and resources? It seems there is still a lot of denial among Western mystics and “New Agers,” as well as elitism and spiritual materialism. Whether someone does a flawless series of asanas, drinks ayahuasca with 20 different shamans or visits hidden monasteries in Bhutan has no value as a sign of spiritual attainment. How they live day by day, what they do with the psychic energy and time available to them and how their work helps to liberate others is what matters.

I see this tendency to ignore the social and political struggle in the works of wildly popular writers such as Eckhart Tolle, who has repackaged Vedanta for the masses. In Tolle’s recent book, A New Earth, he writes: “We are coming to the end not only of mythologies but also of ideologies and belief systems.” According to Tolle, the creation of the “new earth” needs no change in social practices as long as you make “the present moment… the focal point of your life.” Tolle exhorts his audience to “enjoy what you are doing already, instead of waiting for some change so that you can start enjoying what you do.” Whether you are an artist, teacher, Fox News executive or currency speculator doesn’t matter: “The new earth arises as more and more people discover that their main purpose in life is to bring the light of consciousness into this world and so use whatever they do as a vehicle for consciousness.” For Tolle, the effort to change our society’s inequitable and unsustainable practices has no particular value compared to the paradise of presence.

The popularity of this message is unsurprising. Some political thinkers argue that the adoption of Eastern thought in the West has given people a way to accept capitalism, and “Empire,” by finding detachment from it. For the critic Slavoj Zizek, Western Buddhism and Hinduism “enables you to fully participate in the frantic pace of the capitalist game, while sustaining the perception that you are not really in it, that you are well aware how worthless this spectacle really is — what really matters to you is the peace of the inner self to which you know you can always withdraw…” Zizek goes so far as to propose, “the onslaught of New Age ‘Asiatic’ thought… is establishing itself as the hegemonic ideology of global capitalism.”

The shift of “2012” could mean that Eastern mysticism, the earth-based shamanism of tribal people and the West’s pursuit of philosophical and scientific knowledge about the world come together to create a new form of consciousness. I suspect the West still has to realize its spiritual destiny — its dharma — in the transformation of matter and the creation of a truly equitable and sustainable world. As the design scientist Buckminster Fuller wrote, “No human chromosomes say make the world work for everybody — only mind can tell you that.” We may not need “ideology” any more, as Tolle says, but we still need good ideas about how we reinvent our society and its institutions to become ethically transparent and sustainable. Rather than escaping from society’s problems by embracing pure presence, we can use the awareness gained from spiritual practice to become more effective agents of social change.

Source: Common Ground

Atomic Moment

Buddha was searching for how to regain purity of consciousness, how to be free from the past, because unless you are free from the past you will remain in bondage, you will be a slave. The past is heavy on you and because of the past the present is never known. The past is known; the present is a very minute atomic moment. You go on missing it because of the past, and because of the past you go on projecting into the future. The past is projected into the future and both are false. The past is no more, the future is yet to be. Both are not, and that which is, is hidden between those two which are not.

Buddha was in search; he went from one teacher to another. He searched, and he went to many teachers, all of the known teachers. He consulted them, he allowed them to work upon him, he cooperated. He disciplined himself in many ways, but he was not fulfilled, and the difficulty was this: the teachers were interested in the future, in some liberated state somewhere beyond death, after the life is over. They were interested in some God, some Nirvana, some Moksha - some Liberated state - somewhere in the future, and Buddha was interested in the here and now, so there really was no meeting. He said to every teacher, "I am interested in the here and now." And they would say, "Apply 'this' method, do 'this', and if you do it rightly, someday i the future, in some future life, in some future state, you will attain."

Sooner or later he left every teacher, and then he tried by himself alone. What did he do? He did a very simple thing. Once you know it, it is very simple and obvious, but when you don't know it it is so arduous and so difficult, it seems impossible. He did only one thing: he remained with the present moment. He forgot his past and he forgot his future. He said, "I will be here and now. I will simply exist." If you can exist even for a single moment, you have known the taste - the taste of your pure consciousness. And once it is tasted you can never forget it. Then the taste, the flavor, remains with you, and that flavor becomes a transformation.

Osho -The Book of the Secrets Part 3

Techniques to Witness the Flux-Like Film of Life

on the middle road

Sometimes the feeling of simply being alive is so overwhelming that even if I consciously drag all of my drama into the equation I still don’t feel better or worse because of it. That means that in that moment of physical and mental freedom I can think the thoughts but the attached feelings are absent, feelings of fear for example, or guilt, loneliness, distress, utter despair. It’s in these moments of power that I can even laugh at the drama-thoughts and even enjoy them. I can see them as being just as much part of this trip (life) as the peace and love I so desire. The realization of this balance, this dissolve of the wretched paradox duality I have found myself in so often this last year means that the struggles are all in the mind and can all be resolved. Now I know what Buddha means by the middle road, I can feel the neutral state of absolute clarity without pollution, I notice it emanating from my abdomen and resolving anything coming from my surroundings or from within that would otherwise disturb me. I am greatly strengthened by this subtle bliss coming and going like the waves of the ocean, coming and going from within, like it should.

Mysticism

Mysticism is the pursuit of achieving communion or identity with, or conscious awareness of, ultimate reality, the divine, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight; and the belief that such experience is an important source of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Traditions may include a belief in the literal existence of dimensional realities beyond empirical perception, or a belief that a true human perception of the world transcends logical reasoning or intellectual comprehension. A person delving in these areas may be called a Mystic.

In many cases, the purpose of mysticism and mystical disciplines such as meditation is to reach a state of return or re-integration to Godhead. A common theme in mysticism is that the mystic and all of reality are One. The purpose of mystical practices is to achieve that oneness in experience, to transcend limited identity and re-identify with the all that is. The state oneness has many names depending on the mystical system: The Kingdom of Heaven, the Birth of the Spirit, the Third Awakening, Illumination, Union (christianity), Irfan (Islam), Self-Realization, Reintegration, Nirvana (Buddhism), Samadhi (Hinduism), and Gnosis, to name a few. The term "mysticism" is often used to refer to beliefs which go beyond the purely exoteric practices of mainstream religions, while still being related to or based in a mainstream religious doctrine.

Source: Wikipedia

self-actualized Buddha

by Osho

A buddha is a self-actualized person: that is why we picture Buddha, Mahavir and others - that is why we have made sculptures, pictures, depictions of them - sitting on a fully blossomed lotus. That fully blossomed lotus is the peak of flowering inside. Inside they have flowered and have becomed fully blossomed. That inner flowering gives a radiance, a constant showering of bliss from them. All those who have come even within their shadows, all those who come near them, feel a silent milieu around them.

There is an interesting report about Mahavir. It is a myth, but myths are beautiful and they say much what cannot be said otherwise. It is reported that when Mahavir would move, all around him, in an area of about 24 miles, all flowers would bloom. Even if it was not the season for the flowers, they would bloom. This is simply a poetic expression, but even if one was not self-actualized, if one were to come into contact with Mahavir his flowering would become infectious, and one would feel an inner flowering in oneself also. Even if it were not the right season for a person, even if he was not ready, he would reflect. He would feel an echo within himself, and he would have a glimpse of what he could be.

Self-actualization is the basic need. And when I say "basic" I mean that if all your needs are fulfilled, all except self-realisation, self-actualization, you will feel unfulfilled. On the contrary, if self-actualization happens and nothing is fulfilled, still you will feel a deep, total fulfilment. That is why Buddha was a beggar, but yet an emperor.

Buddha came to Kashi when he became enlightened. The king of Kashi came to see him and he asked, "I do not see anything with you. You are just a beggar, but yet I feel myself a beggar in comparison to you. You do not have anything, but the way you walk, the way you look, the way you laugh, makes it seem as if the whole world is your kingdom - and you have nothing visible - nothing! So where is the secret of your power? You look like an emporor. Really, no emperor has ever looked like that - as if the whole world belongs to you. You are the king, but where is your power, the source?"

So Buddha said, "It is in me. My power, my source of power, whatsoever you feel around me, is really within me. I do not have anything except myself, but it is enough. I am fulfilled; now I do not desire anything. I have become desireless."

Fulfillment Through Becoming Centered

- The Book Of Secrets

Be aware

Truth is always here. It is already the case. It is not something to be achieved in the future. YOU are the truth just here and now. So it is not something to be created or something which is to be devised or something which is to be sought. The truth is in the present. Breathing is in the present. Mind is in the past or the future.

Buddha: "Be aware: when the breath is going in move with it, and when the breath is going out move with it. Do simply this: going in, going out, with the breath."