Suppressing Transformation

In the western world -- or at least here in the US -- we seem to have developed an insatiable appetite for pseudo-stability. Perhaps this is a knee-jerk response to an intuitive comprehension of the fact that we are indeed living in a very UN-stable environment. Information is increasing exponentially, technologies are developing at an asburd rate, the rich are getting richer, wars are being waged, and mental illness is on the rise. Nevous breakdowns abound, and understandably so -- it's hard to act normal when the world is crumbling, but we're living in a system within which asking questions is perceived as a threat. Many people with intuitive potential are finding that they've nowhere to turn and no framework within which to examine their mysterious and often severe bouts of depression and anxiety. Not only are we lacking a sturdy internal (emotional, psychological, spiritual) framework, but our worldview is so distorted that we are unable to make contextual sense of the pervasive chaos and misery that surrounds us. In the absence of other workable solutions, the bewildered soul seeks only to quiet the defeaning roar, by any means necessary. I believe that many have preemptively -- even pre-consciously -- concluded that real understanding is not a real option. Is it fear or laziness? I'm not sure, probably both. Millions of people have resorted to self-medication -- we now have the option of simply turning down the volume on our souls, rather than having to hear and feel our own constant weeping, rather than having to grapple with tantalizing glimmers of potential happiness. I believe that the same inability to cope that has driven to many to chemical dependency is also partially responsible for the widespread blind and rabid adherence to dualistic, oversimplified, over-zealous belief-systems, especially in the realms of politics and religion. It seems that people are seeking to either turn off their emotions, or to funnel them -- constantly, violently -- into a single idea, perhaps as a means of expelling the uncomfortable excess which is an underestandable by-product of a life lived within the confines of a hypocritical society.

This brings me back to shamanic tradition, which places tremendous emphasis on the function of fear and the importance of "permitting it to pass over and through us." I have begun to see our collective illness as analagous to the initiatory illness of the would-be shaman. Those of us who are facing our fear, engaging the black demons which are now visited upon our species, are the element of the psyche which is willing to answer the call. The soul of humankind is fragmented, however, and many shrink away from the shadow, dissociating, unwilling to know that in order to emerge from this tangled and treacherous wood we must first pass fully through the darkness -- that is, we must cast the light of comprehension upon the blackest parts of the human soul, owning all of it. Without gnosis, without knowing all parts of our collective self, healing cannot take place. The ego of humankind is fighting tooth and nail for survival. The insanity of those who would call themselves sane is evidence of this. We, the questioners and the seers, must now journey willingly into the dark subconscious of our species, seeking the source of the illness. While we are underground we must take care not to lose ourselves within a labyrinth of symptoms.

A microcosm -- in natural medicine it is believed that one should not take fever reducers when one is ill. This is because the fever is an important part of immune function. The body heats up, creating an environment that is less hospitable to foreign invaders. Germs die, healing takes place. When we allow ourselves to be drugged we are denying our ability to heal.

It is said that the shamanic sickness will persist until the initiate accepts the call. We are in the midst of a healing crisis. I believe that the prolonged fever of humankind is a precursor to profound health.

Comments

[iggir]

"permitting it to pass over and through us."

interesting, in Zen Buddhism, the practice of sitting and observing strong emotions like fear seems similar - observing without attachment.

of course, in Buddhism, we're all confused (ie, "insane") and it's only through the practice of non-attachment that we can become enlightened. this could translate to not being attached to negative emotions like fear which, when focused on, only serve as to confuse us further.

i dig you Gnostics who are all about enlightenment - in whatever form ;)

[zacharius]

I think you're entirely on the money with that.

My own feeling about the current crisis of mankind is that it is indeed a healing sickness of grand proportions. It's one way of making sense of the traditional perception of the cyclical cosmos, always sickening, declining and then reborn at a higher level.

I like your site design by the way. I need your aesthetic sense...

[laura jane]

the zen buddhism stuff works pretty well for me, except that i crave a little more "mythology" .. i like the language of crazy archetypal characters.. heroes and saints and angels and demons and etc.

zac, yep, exactly.. it's part of the big, weird spiral.

i'm glad you like my site design!! i enjoyed designing it. i mostly tried to just make it visually simple/easy to read, and not use any annoying colors.

[P-Tar]

The appetite of the Western World for pseudo-stability is directly tied to its percieved state at the top of the pecking order. Nervousness about other "Young Tigers" in the world, same deal.

The exponential increase of information isn't the problem itself, but it makes everyone aware of the problem. Many contradictions in the chaos; people don't think they have anywhere to turn, because of the First Tier Spiral Food Fight.

Insanity has gone up precisely because the companies that sell drugs to deal with sanity are co-opting the psychiatrists to diagnose more and more people as insane. Note that most disorders are compulsions, anxieties (especially SOCIAL anxieties), hyperactivity and ADD... which is linked to the pervasive 30-second advertising and six-minute programming segments of TV, and the structure of the bell system in public schools.

More money to the drug companies means more people taking their drugs. More people messed up on Xanax or what have you means less people with minds that can think effectively and clearly in a crisis situation, meaning more control for the people already controlling it. This is a manufactured crisis.

Nothing mysterious about being anxious or depressed when you realize that A) they really ARE out to get you; and B) there's nobody out there to protect you but you, and maybe your friends and family, who probably aren't experts and are just as unsure as you are. Hell is the condition of having no alternatives. You want some peace of mind? Take a page from the Boy Scouts and Be Prepared.

Those who invest or "funnel" themselves entirely into a meme have no alternatives... but they do have a purpose. It may burn them up, but for now it's keeping them warm. Sacrifice to the meme's greater good is something humanity has been doing for thousands of years. That doesn't mean that it's OK, just that it's nothing new, business as usual.

We have been manufactured to feed a conquering meme. Our current national crisis was created to test our memes against the memes of others, to bring all under a single system, once and for all. The thinking minds in the mass to be expelled as ammunition in this great conflict aren't too happy about this. There is so much frustrated potential bound up in the minds of the Prisoners of Black Iron... Hopefully, we can get our higher, non-dualistic memes to ignite these minds, to get the human ammo to explode in the barrels of these weaponized superorganisms so we can actually have a chance at a meaningful peace, instead of one that's just meant to maintain a status quo.

The ego isn't the only thing that's fighting tooth and nail. The pneuma is, too. We got to fight to free as many minds as possible before the "trigger" gets pulled... and hopefully install a "safety" to keep us from self-destructing afterwards. Better to light a candle than curse the darkness, right? Take care of yourselves, all.

[laura jane]

great thoughts, p-tar! we're on the same page -- i agree 100% about pharmies and the manufacture/orchestration of mental "illness." actually i was just thinking of putting together a list of health/well-being links for people.. there are some great online resources pertaining to this stuff.

the exponential increase of information is granting us a great opportunity, i think -- it's enabling us to better perceive/discern the dynamic interaction of all these forces/memes around and inside of us.

in my opinion, a "peace" that simply maintains the status quo is not peace at all -- it's stasis. peace is flux, harmony, movement.

it's like in yoga, in tadasna "mountain pose" -- from an external perspective, it APPEARS that a person in tadasana is standing still. in actually, the muscles of the body are engaged, constantly shifting, tensing, relaxing, compensating, in order to enable balance.. in this way mountain pose is both stillness and motion simultaneously -- it is impossible to maintain balance when there is stasis, rigidity in the body.. real strength is flexibility, the ability to ADAPT.