Recoverer:

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I agree with this statement.   Probabilities are played out in the dream state, thats to say they are experienced in another level of reality, and the ones which best suite your present beliefs are manifested in physical reality. These experiences are sometimes remembered as dreams. Most people do not realize the significant interconnection between the dream state and waking consciousness.  When this is realized, syncronicities begin to occur at an increasing rate between your dreaming reality and your waking reality.

Reading this whole thread, it's clear we do have a group consciousness acting, where one person fills out the thought of the other. I commend Alan for even posting such a vision/dream as it was a waker-upper.

Vajra, yesterday while considering Alan's vision, the phrase passed through my mind Fighting fire with fire. now I see you have said that also. I know fireman do it this way, and with varying success rate, but it depends on which way the wind is blowing and can't often predict wind currents. so I didn't put the thought out. just was surprised we are all on the same level of thought.

I like your well thought post too Ian, what I had said about starting a war to end a war, was the same thoughts, but you took them and ran off with it and explained it so it just became more clear to me, and with the clarity, I feel not so alone in doing my small part step by step, whatever that turns out to be.

I do not grasp politics well, and all the senseless violence in the world, and the way the media will always try to sell sensationalism which might have very little facts to that..but Ian has an understanding of politics. I just saw you as the great leavening spirit, encased in a body, doing your bit.

each of us do our part, in whatever way is shown. each little bit helps..thats why I mentioned, if you don't know what to do, and feel so small, 10 minutes a day, just to ask, is a start.
Last night spirit sent me to a dying man. He is dying all alone. I took some of his pain home with me to transmute and said what comforting words I was led to. This is what we each can do..reach out to one person at a time, then if everybody gets the idea they would be reaching out to a single person as well, then we can be braver if we're together on what kind of world we could create if we knew it was that easy.

Excuse me if this is too long, or again if it's somehow 'political'.    Thanks for the opportunity to suggest the basis for an alternative positive vision though!!

I guess Alan that as we all know violence escalates.  When the exchanges get going they are generally only ended by total defeat/victory or perhaps by stalemate.

The only way it normally can happen without the parties fighting themselves to a standstill (whether at individual, societal or national levels) is when one is brave enough, insightful enough and skillful enough to risk foregoing returning a blow to extend the hand of peace.

But this almost never happens. It requires a titanic act of foresight and will given that our entire culture and our lifelong conditioning legitimises violence, and is structured around rule of the fittest and winner takes all. Germany for example fought to almost total destruction in WW2, and still the leadership remained in power. The conditioning was so strong that people obeyed orders right to the end.

We don't normally train children in a right view, and to have the courage to set out to live it, we instead train them in conformity, and in the dog eat dog view. To as a result be fearful enough to need to dominate and outfight the other guy, but able to rationalise this as being not just OK  but actually  praiseworthy.

The popular culture (films, computer games, books, sports, myths) rams home the glamourisation of violence and winning (the zero sum game - getting ahead at the other guy's cost) to kids from almost before they can walk.

Business functions by rule of the fittest.

The law is trial by verbal combat between opposing sides in front of judges, the winner again takes all.

The caring professions often work on the basis of knowing better than the patient or family what's best  for them, and will force 'treatment' if needed.

The police 'keep the peace' using force. (????)

We have military 'peacekeepers'.

The religious sing 'onward christian soldiers', and continue to ask God to 'bless our just war'.

Society is conditioned to accord respect and status to military service.

The military itself in training seeks to break down by aggressive means normal human empathy in recruits and to replace it with a brainwashed readiness to kill.

The state/nation is permitted to use the most extreme forms of compulsion and violence in order to collect taxes, force compliance and maintain its rule.

Those teaching an alternative view risk being seen as a threat to society.

Our politicians in the selfish pursuit of power almost never give leadership through adoption of a higher view - they inevitably pander to the big vested interests (military/industrial and related) that put them in power, and to the lowest common denominator in society. They've even invented a whole language to slip war past those of us with scruples, and collaborate with the media to get a platform - talking of defence, pre-emptive defensive attack (???) and relentlessly hyping fear.

Pandering to the lowest common denominator inevitably means responding to or manipulating the fears of the many still stuck in or at least not wholly released from a selfish dog eat dog view of life, and their demands that they be 'defended' or their interests looked after no matter how unrealistic their fears or at what the cost to others.

When there's a winner there's always a loser. This is the zero sum game. Co-operation  in contrast makes possible outcomes where everybody does better.

This is unlikely to change while we wait for our leaders to act, and while we remain bound by the delusional belief system our cultures conditions most us into accepting. We're only ever going to see movement in the right direction when more and more people individually move beyond this conditioning to 'see' what's right, and become willing to in a practical way live out their convictions in normal life.

This is a change that's going to have to come from the bottom up, and will only be delivered when enough of us see past our conditioning to no longer be duped into the suspension of our own knowing.

This means our 'extending the hand of peace' as above, our taking the initiative in trying to live wisely through the alternative value system that is love.

None of this is original. Some spiritual teachers (people like Gjurdjieff and Richard Rose) have taught explicitly of the fact that spiritual development entails transcending these belief systems. It's implicit in the teaching of all the great traditions.

This in many ways is perhaps the fleshing out of some of what the hoped for step up in the consciousness of mankind might entail - a listing of some of the outmoded attitudes we might hope to leave behind.

It'd be so much more powerful Thomas if we could move it on to a set of positive developments to aim for all right, what we might replace it with.

I'm cautious about Utopian theories of how things should be given humanity's dodgy history in this regard. I wonder what the process is, if there's anything we can do other than be patient and try to stay on view and influence...

Hi Alan. I guess to be fair to Thomas the quote from ACIM to the effect that 'nothing unreal can hurt you' is a matter of perspective. From the absolute viewpoint (which i think is that of this quote) we're immortal and cannot be damaged by this sort of event.

On the other hand from the physical/relative viewpoint we very definitely can get hurt.

The point is that  as we've said the violence in the world flows from what is probably an over identification with the latter view (which basically holds that death is the end), and a failure to appreciate or to intuit the former. (which does not)

It's very hard to show compassion, or to put the fate of others ahead of your own if you're stuck in the  solely physical/individual view....

R said: Regarding the below, I don't believe that wisdom comes through making a bunch of afirmations. All we do, whether we realize it or not, is create a belief system when we repeat a bunch afirmations we found in a book. If we want to grow, we don't need to add, we need to let go. The more we do so the more we'll see that we can't dismiss our fellow human beings as a bunch of illusions.

Sure a day will come when each of us will move on to a higher realm. But until that day happens for all, we need to act as if suffering is real
_________


Affirmations alone will not do much for character building. ACIM does have a 365 day lesson plan on understanding where the thought is leading, in each day's affirmation.

It's hard work to understand each one. Mainly, after the year is up, and the text read, ACIM says to forget this book. go and live, and test out what you learned.

the problem is we get entrenched in our respective belief systems, until we display habitual behavior. in that case we can become predictable people. even down to predictions such as the possibilities that Alan's vision could be forming in the ozone...negative energies create that, of the combination of all the people. as we refuse to be open to other's perspectives, their education, their books, their culture, whatever it is, then this is negative energy versus positive, what is PUL, what is compassion, what is to be done, verus what is to be destroyed. it is not our job to tear down, which would be like war.

We shouldn't fall into reactionary modes of thinking, at least not here, where we are trying to build something positive, where all have a voice and that voice is respected, even if disagreed with.

Back to the benefit of affirmations, personally speaking, they would not be good all by themselves, but must be read with the text, which helps to explain what they are leading to...to help you realize what true forgiveness entails, which always leads to PUL. Forgiveness will clear out a mind of negative buildup, and allow a new day to form, where we can create the peace around us we probably all agree, that we want peace, not war.

It is clear that people must see before they believe. It is also true that folks must believe before they see. that is the usefulness of affirmations that they provide a doorway into meditation, where within mediation guidance is available to many great truths, which we already KNOW but have to remind ourselves by studying the truth.

Go and get an experience says ACIM, test it out.  Reveal love behind everything. Because Love is what you are. Beliefs are transitory things just as this world is transitory.

I am just passing through. So are you. In one day, we never know, we may not go online tomorrow, so treat each other better, and don't say cruel things, like "you're obviously not my friend"

Alan, that was mean. I would never think you would say that to Thomas. Put yourself in his shoes for just a second and you'll know what I mean.

Forgiveness is necessary so we can always make a forward movement, but together, how else can the human race evolve unless we are all together on the same page?

love to you all, you rascals