I hear your concern for our world continuing down the same path as we pat ourselves on the head for being more "mindful." I think part of this "losing ground as we gain consciousness" has to do with language taking on mindful overtones that have lost connection to the spiritual ground from which they sprang. When I think of "mindfulness" I think of Tich Nat Hanh and my first introduction to compassion. There is a presence in our world that would like to use "mindfulness" but will be sure to divorce it from any divine connection Tich Nat Hanh made before introducing its AI-formulated cousin. when you speak of our societal culture as being a reflection of the way we see our world and choose to design our social infrastructures--I agree that culture is driven by the stories we believe about who we are. For me, the three plus COVID years were such an important period of standing my belief system on its head and demanding that I "Look again" and then "Look again." It was both very disturbing and uncomfortable and very freeing at the same time. On my spiritual path--and probably many others--we call this phenomena "being in the wilderness." You have stepped off the pavement and are now in that place of "unknowing" and only Knowledge--that deeper Intelligence of the Mind of God within us--can lead us through this uncharted territory. It is an exciting and scary place to be. It is what the trapeze artist feels when they have let go of the first trapeze and are turning to catch the next. They have faith it will be there but they do not "know" until their hands connect with certainty. I can only say that I am grateful for having the rug pulled out from under me and having my world view totally shaken. There is a deeper Intelligence that will help us navigate this very strange new world and we really are all ONE with this Intelligence. It is who we truly are--but can we let go of the thought that we are our minds and the ideas and beliefs--borrowed from our parents, our religious leaders, our educators, our govt--that we have used to make up our identity? I think the COVID years were critical to me in pushing me beyond my ideas and beliefs. I hate to think that this is what was required for me to see a different REALITY than the one I was living. But I am grateful to have been shaken and challenged and I hope to be much more awake and aware and discerning as I move further into this new world. When our closely held ideas and beliefs are holding a world paradigm in place that is very likely to mean our extinction or enslavement to other races whose agenda it is to take over our little blue green world--are those stakes high enough to cause us to turn and "Look again and again" until we can see beyond to the larger reality that is staring us in the face?
With regards to Google, YouTube, and Facebook suddenly stopping censorship, spying on users, and data extraction, i think is an impossibility. All of these icons of the on-line world were independent start-ups at the very beginning, that were identified as being viable mediums for just that -- censorship, surveillance and data extraction, and they were then taken over for just this purpose and given a massive boost financially and influence-wise, to become the leaders they are now. They are also operated by AI which only mimics human intelligence but really has no use for mindfulness and the programming it has with regards to societal change, is to make all of us all into obedient, self-less components of the technocratic state. The fact that it seems impossible to make a viable business in shifting society towards compassion and wellness, w/o utilizing these giants shows what it is that we're up against.
Also the on-line medium lacks some essential qualities for human interaction like being able to feel the emotions of the people we are interacting with, which makes it easy for it to be hijacked by ulterior agendas w/o being aware of it happening.
In regards to making it in the business world, it is really having Personal Power that matters. The Kabbalists know this. It seems to me that money was, in a way, created to obscure Personal Power by tying our life force to money rather than to Personal Power, so that when we lose money we feel a drain on our life force and can often fall into depression. If we can keep the making money at arms length and focus on building our Personal Power instead, 'success' takes on a different character. Of course we don't need to focus on money or 'wealth' at all and simply manifest what we need, but 'what we really need' will most effectively be determined by our soul's purpose in life, not by current societal norms. It would be ideal to have society oriented to fulfilling everyone's soul's purpose, but the idea of "soul" is exactly what the transhumanists want eradicated from our conceptual vocabulary, since they can't achieve merging us with AI if we are still connected to our soul.
i studied psychology at uni in the 70s when the driving force behind personal change and societal evolution was the concept of 'human potential' -- that just in being human we inherently have a deep wellspring of untapped, and even yet unnamed, potential, to be and do much more than previous societal norms have had us believe we are able to. Also there was the understanding that using holistic psychotherapies, some of which were developed at the time, we can clear our blocks and barriers to actualizing this hidden 'human potential' each of us has. This also gave the name to approaches in line with this understanding, as -- humanistic psychotherapy. The idea of 'mindfulness', of bringing awareness to bear on what is going on behind the scenes of our individual personality structure, is also in line with this greater understanding of 'human potential'.
i know that times change, and maybe i'm holding on to the past, but the popular therapeutic approaches i see today seem like 'hacking' to me, and even the concept of 'hacks' to get the effect you want without all the messing around, seems like a strived for ideal today. But under the concept of human potential, how would one know beforehand the result they wanted to achieve from doing a practice or using a psychotherapeutic approach ? Generally in going through a deep psychotherapeutic process, one's personality dynamics change significantly to where they become oriented to new experiences life offers, rather than those that were driven by their unresolved and unconscious complexes.
The concept of 'human potential' does seem to be hijackable however, as can be seen in Yuval Noah Harari's book, Homo Deus -- which is approached from what amazing effects on our world are potentially possible for us to create, rather than from what is the inherent potential that is already part of each of us, that will lead to a new and more fulfilling engagement with the world. The concept of 'soul' is inherent to our makeup, however, and can't easily be hijacked. Tanis Helliwell's book, Take Your Soul To Work: Transform Your Life And Work, is a good example of learning to orient our life around our soul's input. But this way of effecting change, is definitely not to be taken as a hack.
In my younger years as a business consultant I used to assess clients by what I called a connection test. How connected are they to their heart and soul is basically what I was trying to undestand. It changed the way my consultations would land and gave me more understanding of what their specific goals might be. It seemed that the more connected people were to themselves, the chances were greater that they valued more than just the bottom line. As awareness of conscious capitalism grew it became more common that people considered more than the bottom line.
I think you are onto something here. People do need the conversations and framing to act on what may be in their heart, or to let new ideas come from something other than the past. Thanks for your thoughtful piece.
Thanks for sharing your story Patricia. I sorta laugh at it now, but years ago when I was running CE everyone and anyone wanted to meet with me and contact me about projects because CE was the biggest alt media platform.. (it's funny how censorship suddenly made it so no one is interested any longer).. in a lot of those meetings and collabs two things were always enjoyable to play with. 1. Chatting with people about what really mattered to them 2. Bringing up technologies, ideas, framings, solutions they didn't know about and seeing how their mind would begin working differently.
It made me realize just how important awareness of other possibilities truly is :)
I appreciate your deep thoughts on this, it's a way of looking at all of this I've never considered before. Thanks for opening my awareness to this framing. Never fails! :)
I wish that were true. I'm inclined to agree with Jesus though, only a few enter through the narrow gate, it is very difficult. The forces of unconsciousness are incredibly powerful, and it takes so much effort and desire to want to turn around and swim upstream. I don't think enough will do the incredibly difficult work to create the shift you are talking about.
I feel you Margaret, it does feel like an uphill climb at times. For me I find that I can't ignore the fact that more and more people are choosing to swim upstream though. I've made a point in recent years to seek out more people, communities and ideas that are emerging who are swimming upstream. It was more than I thought. I've decided that in 2024 I'm going to be making an effort to share more of those stories here on The Pulse as we used to on CE years ago. That way people can sense more easily how much the momentum is building. That said, I do still agree that it's a small piece of our population still.
I am one of the masses that turned around, from being steeped in unconscious decision making, to being more mindful and caring. I made plenty of money in direct sales for many years. I made fun of the customers and basically had little to no empathy/love in my heart and had much training on how to manipulate folks into 'buying'. I won awards. I was 'a closer'.
I paid a pretty high price, as I see it now upon looking back. It hurt me to hurt others and to live in a culture that rewarded me because I could put a wall around my true self. That is clear to me.
I completely agree that we are transitioning to caring, people centered, conscious living. It is happening and so are the conversations. I have so much respect for the folks who are healing their hearts and becoming activated.
I do see the corporate, etc., culture using meditation and mindfulness in creative ways to further the monetary bottom line. I also see that once an individual is started on the path of mindfulness and self observation... the whole dollar bottom line way of operating begins to get more and more dissatisfying. It is my belief that mindfulness can benefit that numeric bottom line initially and that it destroys it over time... a person who gets to a certain level within themselves observationally will transform their own perspective about what a bottom line could be and how wonderfully satisfying it is when there is harmony, goodwill, and feeling good about how our work and efforts affect those around us.
Thanks for doing your work, dear Joe! Thank you for allowing your own activation.
Thanks for sharing your experience Sandra. This part: " I also see that once an individual is started on the path of mindfulness and self observation... the whole dollar bottom line way of operating begins to get more and more dissatisfying."
I tend to agree that the door begins to open more for people through wellness. They sort of enter into that meaning crisis a bit, and then it's up to them to choose to move through that door or stick back and get pulled into the old world again. My hope is that by creating more models out there and having new conversations, we can have many beacons out there for people to find a pathway as the meaning crisis becomes apparent to them.
"culture" and "the existing system" are entirely the constructs of social engineering and have been since before all of us were born. It is astounding just how much of the worldview of the world at large has been installed in our minds and beliefs
Indeed. well said. And this is why it seems so pertinent to be open to exploring why we know what we know and think what we think. I have always found there is much freedom in this providing we steward the changing and breakdown of worldview meaningfully and without total rabbit hole blackingpilling. I say this as I've watched the idea of "getting rid of everything I know" we sold as a sexy down the rabbit whole red pilling effect that actually leaves many people depressed, anxious, angry and unwell. I think there are much more effective ways to slowly shift our perspective with capacity and resilience.
The depth of your ideas really makes me think. I love this!! It gives me more context around what it means to allow a new level of consciousness to unfold within me.. and how deep I can change the way I see my/our world. On another note.. I see a lot of spiritual materialism out there too. As if the goal of spirituality now is to make a lot of money and have things.. I'm not sure how I feel about this but to your point it seems like the old story is taking over there...
Thanks Anthony! I also appreciate you sharing how the piece gives more context to a different way of living within the world... perhaps it's changing the conversation.. I hope! ;)
I hear your concern for our world continuing down the same path as we pat ourselves on the head for being more "mindful." I think part of this "losing ground as we gain consciousness" has to do with language taking on mindful overtones that have lost connection to the spiritual ground from which they sprang. When I think of "mindfulness" I think of Tich Nat Hanh and my first introduction to compassion. There is a presence in our world that would like to use "mindfulness" but will be sure to divorce it from any divine connection Tich Nat Hanh made before introducing its AI-formulated cousin. when you speak of our societal culture as being a reflection of the way we see our world and choose to design our social infrastructures--I agree that culture is driven by the stories we believe about who we are. For me, the three plus COVID years were such an important period of standing my belief system on its head and demanding that I "Look again" and then "Look again." It was both very disturbing and uncomfortable and very freeing at the same time. On my spiritual path--and probably many others--we call this phenomena "being in the wilderness." You have stepped off the pavement and are now in that place of "unknowing" and only Knowledge--that deeper Intelligence of the Mind of God within us--can lead us through this uncharted territory. It is an exciting and scary place to be. It is what the trapeze artist feels when they have let go of the first trapeze and are turning to catch the next. They have faith it will be there but they do not "know" until their hands connect with certainty. I can only say that I am grateful for having the rug pulled out from under me and having my world view totally shaken. There is a deeper Intelligence that will help us navigate this very strange new world and we really are all ONE with this Intelligence. It is who we truly are--but can we let go of the thought that we are our minds and the ideas and beliefs--borrowed from our parents, our religious leaders, our educators, our govt--that we have used to make up our identity? I think the COVID years were critical to me in pushing me beyond my ideas and beliefs. I hate to think that this is what was required for me to see a different REALITY than the one I was living. But I am grateful to have been shaken and challenged and I hope to be much more awake and aware and discerning as I move further into this new world. When our closely held ideas and beliefs are holding a world paradigm in place that is very likely to mean our extinction or enslavement to other races whose agenda it is to take over our little blue green world--are those stakes high enough to cause us to turn and "Look again and again" until we can see beyond to the larger reality that is staring us in the face?
With regards to Google, YouTube, and Facebook suddenly stopping censorship, spying on users, and data extraction, i think is an impossibility. All of these icons of the on-line world were independent start-ups at the very beginning, that were identified as being viable mediums for just that -- censorship, surveillance and data extraction, and they were then taken over for just this purpose and given a massive boost financially and influence-wise, to become the leaders they are now. They are also operated by AI which only mimics human intelligence but really has no use for mindfulness and the programming it has with regards to societal change, is to make all of us all into obedient, self-less components of the technocratic state. The fact that it seems impossible to make a viable business in shifting society towards compassion and wellness, w/o utilizing these giants shows what it is that we're up against.
Also the on-line medium lacks some essential qualities for human interaction like being able to feel the emotions of the people we are interacting with, which makes it easy for it to be hijacked by ulterior agendas w/o being aware of it happening.
In regards to making it in the business world, it is really having Personal Power that matters. The Kabbalists know this. It seems to me that money was, in a way, created to obscure Personal Power by tying our life force to money rather than to Personal Power, so that when we lose money we feel a drain on our life force and can often fall into depression. If we can keep the making money at arms length and focus on building our Personal Power instead, 'success' takes on a different character. Of course we don't need to focus on money or 'wealth' at all and simply manifest what we need, but 'what we really need' will most effectively be determined by our soul's purpose in life, not by current societal norms. It would be ideal to have society oriented to fulfilling everyone's soul's purpose, but the idea of "soul" is exactly what the transhumanists want eradicated from our conceptual vocabulary, since they can't achieve merging us with AI if we are still connected to our soul.
i studied psychology at uni in the 70s when the driving force behind personal change and societal evolution was the concept of 'human potential' -- that just in being human we inherently have a deep wellspring of untapped, and even yet unnamed, potential, to be and do much more than previous societal norms have had us believe we are able to. Also there was the understanding that using holistic psychotherapies, some of which were developed at the time, we can clear our blocks and barriers to actualizing this hidden 'human potential' each of us has. This also gave the name to approaches in line with this understanding, as -- humanistic psychotherapy. The idea of 'mindfulness', of bringing awareness to bear on what is going on behind the scenes of our individual personality structure, is also in line with this greater understanding of 'human potential'.
i know that times change, and maybe i'm holding on to the past, but the popular therapeutic approaches i see today seem like 'hacking' to me, and even the concept of 'hacks' to get the effect you want without all the messing around, seems like a strived for ideal today. But under the concept of human potential, how would one know beforehand the result they wanted to achieve from doing a practice or using a psychotherapeutic approach ? Generally in going through a deep psychotherapeutic process, one's personality dynamics change significantly to where they become oriented to new experiences life offers, rather than those that were driven by their unresolved and unconscious complexes.
The concept of 'human potential' does seem to be hijackable however, as can be seen in Yuval Noah Harari's book, Homo Deus -- which is approached from what amazing effects on our world are potentially possible for us to create, rather than from what is the inherent potential that is already part of each of us, that will lead to a new and more fulfilling engagement with the world. The concept of 'soul' is inherent to our makeup, however, and can't easily be hijacked. Tanis Helliwell's book, Take Your Soul To Work: Transform Your Life And Work, is a good example of learning to orient our life around our soul's input. But this way of effecting change, is definitely not to be taken as a hack.
In my younger years as a business consultant I used to assess clients by what I called a connection test. How connected are they to their heart and soul is basically what I was trying to undestand. It changed the way my consultations would land and gave me more understanding of what their specific goals might be. It seemed that the more connected people were to themselves, the chances were greater that they valued more than just the bottom line. As awareness of conscious capitalism grew it became more common that people considered more than the bottom line.
I think you are onto something here. People do need the conversations and framing to act on what may be in their heart, or to let new ideas come from something other than the past. Thanks for your thoughtful piece.
Thanks for sharing your story Patricia. I sorta laugh at it now, but years ago when I was running CE everyone and anyone wanted to meet with me and contact me about projects because CE was the biggest alt media platform.. (it's funny how censorship suddenly made it so no one is interested any longer).. in a lot of those meetings and collabs two things were always enjoyable to play with. 1. Chatting with people about what really mattered to them 2. Bringing up technologies, ideas, framings, solutions they didn't know about and seeing how their mind would begin working differently.
It made me realize just how important awareness of other possibilities truly is :)
I appreciate your deep thoughts on this, it's a way of looking at all of this I've never considered before. Thanks for opening my awareness to this framing. Never fails! :)
Thanks as always brother!
I wish that were true. I'm inclined to agree with Jesus though, only a few enter through the narrow gate, it is very difficult. The forces of unconsciousness are incredibly powerful, and it takes so much effort and desire to want to turn around and swim upstream. I don't think enough will do the incredibly difficult work to create the shift you are talking about.
I feel you Margaret, it does feel like an uphill climb at times. For me I find that I can't ignore the fact that more and more people are choosing to swim upstream though. I've made a point in recent years to seek out more people, communities and ideas that are emerging who are swimming upstream. It was more than I thought. I've decided that in 2024 I'm going to be making an effort to share more of those stories here on The Pulse as we used to on CE years ago. That way people can sense more easily how much the momentum is building. That said, I do still agree that it's a small piece of our population still.
Those stories would be interesting to read for sure.
I am one of the masses that turned around, from being steeped in unconscious decision making, to being more mindful and caring. I made plenty of money in direct sales for many years. I made fun of the customers and basically had little to no empathy/love in my heart and had much training on how to manipulate folks into 'buying'. I won awards. I was 'a closer'.
I paid a pretty high price, as I see it now upon looking back. It hurt me to hurt others and to live in a culture that rewarded me because I could put a wall around my true self. That is clear to me.
I completely agree that we are transitioning to caring, people centered, conscious living. It is happening and so are the conversations. I have so much respect for the folks who are healing their hearts and becoming activated.
I do see the corporate, etc., culture using meditation and mindfulness in creative ways to further the monetary bottom line. I also see that once an individual is started on the path of mindfulness and self observation... the whole dollar bottom line way of operating begins to get more and more dissatisfying. It is my belief that mindfulness can benefit that numeric bottom line initially and that it destroys it over time... a person who gets to a certain level within themselves observationally will transform their own perspective about what a bottom line could be and how wonderfully satisfying it is when there is harmony, goodwill, and feeling good about how our work and efforts affect those around us.
Thanks for doing your work, dear Joe! Thank you for allowing your own activation.
Thanks for sharing your experience Sandra. This part: " I also see that once an individual is started on the path of mindfulness and self observation... the whole dollar bottom line way of operating begins to get more and more dissatisfying."
I tend to agree that the door begins to open more for people through wellness. They sort of enter into that meaning crisis a bit, and then it's up to them to choose to move through that door or stick back and get pulled into the old world again. My hope is that by creating more models out there and having new conversations, we can have many beacons out there for people to find a pathway as the meaning crisis becomes apparent to them.
"culture" and "the existing system" are entirely the constructs of social engineering and have been since before all of us were born. It is astounding just how much of the worldview of the world at large has been installed in our minds and beliefs
https://janwellmann.substack.com/p/minds-in-the-shadows-the-shaping
genuine mindful awareness that can see through this - as opposed to the skewed McMindfulness forwarded by corporate culture - is key
Indeed. well said. And this is why it seems so pertinent to be open to exploring why we know what we know and think what we think. I have always found there is much freedom in this providing we steward the changing and breakdown of worldview meaningfully and without total rabbit hole blackingpilling. I say this as I've watched the idea of "getting rid of everything I know" we sold as a sexy down the rabbit whole red pilling effect that actually leaves many people depressed, anxious, angry and unwell. I think there are much more effective ways to slowly shift our perspective with capacity and resilience.
Right - presenting revelations can easily become yet another divisive dichotomy!
"I think there are much more effective ways to slowly shift our perspective with capacity and resilience."
Yessir - keep it coming!
The depth of your ideas really makes me think. I love this!! It gives me more context around what it means to allow a new level of consciousness to unfold within me.. and how deep I can change the way I see my/our world. On another note.. I see a lot of spiritual materialism out there too. As if the goal of spirituality now is to make a lot of money and have things.. I'm not sure how I feel about this but to your point it seems like the old story is taking over there...
Keep up the insightful work!!
Thanks Anthony! I also appreciate you sharing how the piece gives more context to a different way of living within the world... perhaps it's changing the conversation.. I hope! ;)