Many Worldviews

This essay is focusing upon the current-day U.S. economy, the loss of good-paying jobs here, the continuing erosion of the U.S. middle class, and the forthcoming U.S. midterm elections.

In early October 2008, Jim and I drove to mid Pennsylvania to visit my daughter, Kim, and her partner, Bob. During our trip we saw mile after mile of the decaying U.S. industrial infrastructure, a system Jim had been part of during its vibrant years in the 1950s and 1960s. When he graduated from Michigan State University in 1956 with a degree in industrial engineering, his first job was with a Michigan company that designed and built conveyor systems. From there, in the later 1950s he had been a plant engineer in Pennsylvania, and then in the 1960s a sales engineer and sales manager with a large automotive parts manufacturer and supplier in Michigan. The big three U.S. automobile companies—Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler—had been some of his customers. He also had many customers in other states.

During our fall 2008 trip Jim and I had ongoing conversations, where he described his experiences amidst America‘s industrial and manufacturing heyday when we were an industrialized nation that hadn‘t been directly involved in the destructions of World War II that other industrialized nations had experienced. Adding to Jim‘s industrial engineering education and 1950s-1960s experiences, there were also the individual and combined studies we did when we lived in the Sierra mountain foothills from 1975 to early 1986. And then when we cashed out our northern California lives and came to Michigan, Jim directly updated himself and me, from when he left the state in 1970 to join with me in southern California. Over the years, in our own ways, he and I have continued to build upon our past experiences, studies, and Understandings—so the picture he has today is one he has given a lot of considered thought to.

Currently Jim sees energies in motion by many spirit-being humans here in the U.S., who together share worldviews wherein they believe that if the American free enterprise system is unshackled, removing government restrictions and financial burdens upon personal creativity and ingenuity, our American culture will be able to ascend to its former glory. As Jim and I both see our economic situation currently in the U.S., that‘s a simplistic picture that won‘t work in today‘s world. But nevertheless Jim thinks the people who share that worldview need to play their scenarios out in the real world, and experience its impracticality and unrealistic assumptions.

Why do he and I both think the implementation of a restructured American free enterprise worldview is impractical, unrealistic, and won‘t work today? Because it‘s based upon an erroneous picture to start with of the Earth system itself and who/what we are as human Beings, including our human place within that system.

One of the differences between Jim and my perspectives has been and is that I do not believe these energies that are in motion for a revamped American free enterprise system need to be played out in the present or future. I think there are enough U.S. citizens who also passionately care about our country, who are not into extreme and simplistic positions, and who are truly Understanding that neither one of our two major political parties and their worldviews are currently able to set forth an economic plan and implement it effectively, that will work in today‘s world. (So of course many Americans are currently feeling a lot of anxiety.)

I hear a generalized anger and frustration across our land, that is not just limited to Tea Party people. And I think what one woman expressed at a town hall meeting recently was well-stated: She had thought Obama had some secret, that he was going to wave a magic wand and it would all be better. In other words, for many of us our hopes were high when Obama was elected—I had hoped the country would become less confrontational and less partisan, where there would be a bipartisan unity of purpose. What has really happened is that currently we are fast approaching midterm elections, where there has been more money spent than ever before in attempts to defeat the opposition, sometimes in increasingly vicious ways.

Throughout my Life, as an encultured spirit-being with a female body organism, I felt varying degrees of impotence. So by no longer using any of my personally constructed previous limitations, and with Jim‘s most recent encouragement, I'm stating as clearly as I can my perspective about the United States of America today. In my opinion, trying to bring back what we as a culture were able to experience in one period of time, in one specific national/global context, is impossible in today‘s world … and is a waste of our current-day national time, attention, and other valuable resources.

Thus far I haven‘t heard anyone with enough cultural stature clearly state: The days of U.S. economic superiority and supremacy, of being Number One, have already been experienced … IT‘S OVER … and now we‘re all amidst a new era. Many of the good-paying industrial jobs with benefits that built much of the American middle class and our Life styles after World War II are gone now, and they won‘t be recovered in terms of the numbers of people and pay scales of earlier years.

What about American workers being competitive with the rest of the world‘s workers? In the first place, look at many other countries‘ pay scales, contrasted with what it takes to monthly pay for our middle class American living standards. This contrast isn‘t just in manufacturing, but includes white-collar jobs, which via the Internet, can be filled by competent workers in other countries at far less costs. What about our advanced U.S. innovative abilities? Other countries have been training their own skilled innovators, scientists, and engineers. And even more significantly, in my opinion other countries are also basing their economic growth and development, their hopes and dreams, upon erroneous and unsustainable assumptions, such as the U.S. has done. I think the global competition race is over because it depends upon the continued exploitation and destruction of this current-day Earth, the Life-support system for all species, including humans.

And what about the influence money is having here on elections? I think the U.S. Supreme Court‘s 5-4 decision in the Citizens United case this past January was a temporary cultural game-changer when it said corporations had the same free-speech rights as ordinary citizens, allowing unlimited campaign spending by corporations and unions. As an aftermath of the ruling, additional organizations have sprung up along with updated past ones, to collect and funnel money from wealthy individuals and businesses who want to control the 2010 election results in state and national races. Well, from my point of view this too is all part of spirit-being people using their personal creativity and power from within the belief-construction matrixes they are amidst. And even though we here in the U.S. are experiencing a barrage of TV ads and postal mailings, I think the current use of huge sums of money will ultimately not work either, because it too is not grounded in the basic reality of this Earth system.

To my way of thinking, even though the past is over it can be used in the present for Understandings of why what has happened has happened. So that‘s mainly the reason I‘m doing the blog postings I‘m doing lately, to add my voice to those of others who are also emphasizing certain versions of common sense and sanity for the present and future.

Postscript. Because Jim and I are senior citizens, we have already voted by absentee ballot. As previously stated, neither one of us think either the Democrats or Republicans have a plan that is realistic for today‘s world; but with the alternatives we had, we both voted a straight Democratic ticket. I voted that way because I think the Democrats will more than likely do less harm than the Republicans would do with their agendas. Jim voted as he did because he doesn‘t feel personally good about supporting the Republican agenda, even though he thinks it may have to be implemented in some ways to show it won‘t work either, opening the door to other ideas and ways of Being. Also, we both voted no to all local mileages, that is to not expand the existing reality and put a stop to the expansion of the existing system, with the exception of voting yes on one fee for recycling. We concluded this was the best we each could do as deeply caring U.S. citizens at this moment in our country‘s ongoing story.

With More Love, J.

What Is Normal?

As Jim heard my increasing passion and concerns about what was happening here in the U.S. culture, the land of my and his births, he began to encourage me to remove any limitations I had been using, letting my wholistic creativity flow even more fully and freely … and he has also removed his own limitations regarding what I might bring into his Life. Therefore, the previous blog posting appeared earlier than I had originally intended, and now there is this one.

In the present and future Jim is choosing to play a part with me where he listens to what I have “produced” when it‘s already completed as a probable blog posting, where he then can make comments. (So far, his responses have been very affirming.) Therefore, he has become co-responsible in terms of setting the contents of these postings forth to the-world-at-large.

All of this has been a recent culminating result of he and I finally being able to co-craft a way of Being together, which we think can work well for both of us at this time in our Lives. As I noted in the chapter “Expanding and Expansions,” from my manuscript Within the River of Love, Translations and Applications, in the past Jim and I had ongoing conflicts centered around his concerns about what might happen with his peaceful Life if I published my manuscript … And his concerns about what my actions might bring into my and his Lives had continued, which I had chosen to do the best I could with, while at the same time honoring what I felt I needed to do to play the part I thought I could and should be playing. Also, he has had many personal interests, without much additional time, which he too felt he needed to pursue, to honor his Life.

Today I See that an energetic logjam has been broken between Jim and I, where each of us has needed to become and Be who/what we each are currently, in order to participate in these recent conversations. I think that with the patterns we each were using, there had been an individual process both of us needed to move within—where finally we are now able to proceed, individually and together. (I also think there were other viable choices each of us could have energized along the way.)

More background for the contents of this essay around Normalcy. One Saturday when I looked ahead at some of the forthcoming scheduled events on television, I saw that Oprah Winfrey had a program the next Wednesday about “Are You Normal?”—where Phil McGraw, Ph.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D. would be weighing in with their perspectives. Both McGraw and Oz are people I have a lot of respect for, having watched each of them many times on television, along with reading some of their books. Within the context of our current-day culture, I think they both have been and are trying to help people live saner and healthier lives. I was easily Seeing this focus on Normal could be a logical follow-up to my blog posting about Personal Power and its use in various contexts and matrixes.

Because the Oprah program was being broadcast on my birth day when I wouldn‘t be home, I video taped it, which would also give me an opportunity to pause the tape, studying its contents more closely if I wanted to do so when I did see it. And by having many days of lead time before watching it, there would undoubtedly be a number of inner connections made about cultural normalcy, from which valuable perspectives would be arising to my conscious awareness. In fact, the first one that came forth almost immediately was clear and simple: What is normal in a culture is determined by the consensus within it. If I-as-a-spirit-being-human had been born into a culture where other patterns were used for what is normal, then those would be the contextual norms and evaluators I and others would be using.

When I did watch the Oprah tape, the above perspective about cultural norms and what is normal for specific cultures was a great overall way to think. The subtext of the program was—“is what one does in private normal?” While seeing the video tape, I think “I” was simultaneously and to various degrees in inner “homes” I talked about in my previous blog posting: an Experiencer position, a Witness/Observer position, an Evaluator position, and a Selection/Energization position.

For me as an Experiencer, the program was both interesting and entertaining. In the Witness position, I watched it unfold without adding in any of my own thoughts, ideas, or emotions. My takeaway Evaluation and conclusion is that it was a picture of how many people in the United States are using current-day consensus evaluators with which to live their Lives … while at the same time, I am also aware of how many Americans there have been and are, who are using their creative abilities and personal power to find out how far they can push the envelopes of today‘s U.S. cultural norms, assumptions, and agreements. Then as a Selector/Energizer, I had originally decided the day and time to see it. So the whole feedback loop had been in play.

And now as a Selector/Energizer, Much Love and Best Wishes to All, J.

Personal Power Amidst Overall Divinity

Last week—the day I was aligning with a new moon month, crafting a short ceremony by energizing specific personal significances, and six days before my 78th birth day celebration—via land-mail I received a Quality Paperback Book Club catalogue. In it, there were two books of interest to me—one of which was The Power by Rhonda Byrne. (It is a follow-up to her book and DVD, The Secret, I mentioned in my manuscript Within, the chapter titled “Which Brain, Which Mind?”.) Then out of that recent attraction, including ordering the book, an essay for another blog posting has emerged, this time about my experiences and perspectives around personal power amidst a context of overall divinity.

This current essay is following previous blog postings earlier in 2010, one of which described taking a creative leap into a completely different reality. Then after deciding to leap, the first thing I did as a wholistic and composite multidimensional Being was to construct the framework and core patterns for this Completely Different Reality to leap into. My overall composite self currently includes me as an Essential I/spirit-being and body organism with its dimensionality—from which “we” can also thread out our various parts. This new framework was like being in a new country … and of course I could still speak the language and understand the customs of the current-day cultural reality. Other earlier 2010 blog postings included perspectives about unconditional compassion, and liberation.

Back to my adventures through the years with Personal Power. In simplified terms, I agree with those who have said and say we create our lives, with every thought every minute of the day. And at the same time, what I now Understand is that so much of what an individual thinks, does, and experiences depends upon who/what she or he believes themselves to Be, what other beliefs they are primarily using, the matrixes they are within as experiencers, their jobs, family structures, and the other relationships they already have. For me, it‘s been a very long journey to blend all the pieces together as harmoniously as possible in my Life.

Now to square one. The worldview I am using today is one that has emerged from large-scale focuses on—What are the basics of our Earth system and the overall divinity we are amidst? … What are our human primal processes? … and getting as close as I can to how it all works. My starting point is that I Am. I am what? For me, in the beginning there is no “what,” it‘s simply, I Am. I have had experiences where I didn’t have a body or thoughts, where “I” was in a place of pure being, direct knowing, and Oneness, directly knowing myself as essence, which I later called the “Essential I.“ Furthermore, I believe each of us has a basic Being structure of a similar sort, and it is up to each individual to recognize and identify with it. That is, to literally choose to become a different person than the who/what we were culturally conditioned to Be.

How I Understand my process today is that as an EI (Essential I), I selected and energized choices, which began my participation within environments that included subtle forms, light, sound, and relationships, where I became a spirit-being with conscious awareness. Since I have almost exclusively confined my decades of explorations to this basic Earth system amidst overall divinity, what I now will describe is within that context and does not necessarily apply to other systems, where I believe there are different fundamental agreements than those that are basic to this system.

So the story that makes the most sense to me today is one where as an EI/spirit-being, I selected this Earth system out of a multitude of probabilities I could choose from, because of its experiential possibilities … and somehow there were agreements made between me and my parents within deeper dimensions of our Beings. I also think that my birth daughter Kim and I made preliminary agreements, as did Jim and I—all at these deeper dimensions of our selves. Moreover, how I think it all works basically is that even though agreements are made, there is always flexible free will by all the participants during their Life processes. That is, there are probabilities and possibilities, but nothing is fixed unless an individual energizes those patterns.

I still think the best way for me to think is that what has been taking place here on this version of our Earth system for thousands of years has been a collaborative spirit-being experiment, with the results recorded in what we call history and archeology—peace among people, commerce and trade, wars and killings, famine and abundant food, inventions, explorations, exploitations, conquerers and conquered, rich and poor … and relationships of various kinds with fellow Earth species, the Earth itself, and overall divinity.

I see the past as a rich mix of contrasts, as a large and moving tapestry—which brings me to the present. Yes, I continue to believe our current-day human cultures have been built upon an unsustainable environmental and economic foundation that is obviously playing out in our Life times to their logical and inevitable conclusions. And I also think none of us spirit-being humans with body organisms is stuck, like having to pay some ghastly price for our actions or non-actions.

The version of Me I usually energize today is a composite multidimentional Being, including an intelligent and empowered body organism. And I have well-established locales in my psychic structure: I now have inner “homes” I can move to in a Witness/Observer position, in a Selection/Energization position, and in an Evaluator position. “I” can Be in one of these inner locales, or even in all of them simultaneously—in addition to being an experiencer in a Physical Result position. This is what I call the basic feedback loop that is part of our original probable equipment we spirit-being humans with body organisms can use. So this is my version of how to fluidly and effectively use the feedback loop, where one can experientially Understand the results of his or her personal power energizations, with ongoing opportunities to redesign.

I am convinced there are other probable Earths, including a fully healthy one, that are part of our basic Earth system, which we humans can figure out how to consciously bring forth into manifestation—and that‘s a lot of my current-day explorations. Repeating what I wrote in the conclusion of my previous blog posting, I See a wholer, fuller freedom as Liberation from one‘s culturally conditioned mind. To achieve that Liberation, I think an individual needs to become aware of their operating patterns for Life, have a strong desire to change them, figure out how to be effective with their removal, and be skillful enough to construct entirely new ones that are not just retreads of one‘s own or other available cultural constructions. From my point of view, this is a formula for An Expanded Personal Power, which can be an interesting framework to use for playing with one‘s Life.