Wouldn’t it be lovely if, in 2021, we installed a president (and legislators as well) who had intelligence, compassion, honesty, integrity, humility, dignity, maturity, unshakable ethics; an individual who had an interest in the welfare of every citizen; who valued truth and made every decision based on reality and on the impact of those decisions on coming generations; who is more substance than façade; whose first allegiance is to people and the health of the land on which we depend; someone beyond the need to lie in order to gain counterfeit status; someone genuinely motivated to protect the vulnerable; who knows the value of relationships, of diversity, and of the land that we hold in common; someone inclined toward self-reflection and who accepts responsibility for the fruits of her or his actions; an individual who inspires our own compassion, generosity, nobility, and the courage to tackle our personal and collective challenges in constructive ways; someone we could respect, and hold up as a role model for our children; who counted wealth as the ability to give away rather than to hoard, as well as the success of ordinary people; someone equally comfortable and welcome in any religious building, as well as in a forest.

(Imagine a rating scale that evaluated each candidate on these attributes.)

One can certainly also anticipate the various interests and factions that would be threatened by such a person, and the smear campaign that would arise – but that would tell us something about them as well.

I suspect such people are out there and, perhaps, some of our current candidates might have this potential – or, at least, some of it. In the end, I wonder how we might need to change in order to call forth such a person.

Things happen in life that give one a different sense of identity and of reality. There may be social reasons we keep such things to ourselves like a fear of rejection, change in self-image; or simply an introverted temperament. (Introverts feel the need to internally process experience before involving others.) I’ve had such an experience and my first impulse was to quietly withdraw from my community activities and avoid announcing something that would create unnecessary attention. Of course, my family knew but, for the first week or so, I kept it even from my local spiritual community where I’ve been involved for nearly 30 years.

Even though this spiritual community is founded on healing and prayer, along with meditation and spiritual exploration, my first inclination was to not bother anyone about it. The few that knew respected my wish for privacy, but the distance I saw that this secrecy put between us soon felt as wrong as if I’d kept it from my family. My spiritual community is a larger family and I am a part of theirs. So I decided to come out of this particular closet that would have become evident anyway. After all, the people who care would welcome being on this journey with me. So, today, the minister of the spiritual center is attending on her well-deserved day off to make the announcement and lead the community in prayers for my support and healing for this life-changing event.

So, today, it becomes public: 12 days ago I had a stroke. The medical people say it was “mild”, but it hasn’t felt mild, having no perspective beyond my own. I must be careful walking so my leg doesn’t drag, and use of my left hand is greatly diminished, so to dress, eat or open a jar are challenges and take longer than I’m used to. I’ve always been self-sufficient, helping others where I can, serving my communities. In addition to just being introverted, I think some of my hesitance is that I wouldn’t be able to adequately respond to the attention that could come my way.

I’ve had to rely on my wife more than ever. My daughters and son have been digging up information for me and looking at medical reports. On the one hand (so to speak), trying to do familiar things has made me even more aware of my level of disability. On the other hand (actually, the same hand), I’ve seen some surprising improvement over the last week or so. On Wednesday and yesterday, I was able to fire up the snowblower and clear out the driveway. It may sound impressive but the snowblower is essentially a motorized walker and, when my leg dragged, there was just snow and ice underfoot, so it went along smoothly – but I was absolutely exhausted by the task.

Spoiler alert: political comments coming. I’ve spent a lot of time resting, and I’ve had time to think about a lot of things: the state of our world, the irresponsibly-ignored climate crisis, my mortality, the apparent randomness of “acts of God,” fate, individuality, and innumerable political issues. I wonder what people do when they don’t have health insurance for a three-day hospital stay and all the tests I had, medication changes, and the OT and PT that begin tomorrow; and don’t have caring and functional families or communities to support them. The national healthcare controversy has become very personal. And I’m very aware that I am lucky to have been blessed (read “privileged”) by generations of courageous people who fought for workers’ rights and benefits. It’s not a theoretical or partisan struggle: these things affect people’s lives.

I’ve also thought of my gender and religious nonconforming friends and family, which is why I used the provocative title “Coming Out.” The parallels in my situation are so minuscule compared to someone who has been given an identity by their society, based on externals. After all, internal truths are so often a threat to established ideologies and institutions that are, themselves, broken and dishonest. I’ve heard their struggles imposed by dysfunctional families, hostile social organizations, and hypocritical and dis-compassionate religious institutions. My “difference” is now excused from conformity and is much more likely to be met with compassion, support and sympathy than those who are judged and then are abused, blamed or exiled from their families. More than ever, my sympathy is with the rejected, the different and the vulnerable.

I’ve had benefit of prayers and good wishes from many quarters for which I am endlessly grateful: family, Prayer Chaplains, friends; from Christians, Druids, Shamans and other circles that will not be named; along with acupuncture and Rosicrucian healing techniques. I don’t think the Good God cares one iota about their religious persuasion but about what is found in their hearts.

I’m happy to hear from people but have limited energy for consistent responding.

Oh, and happy birthday to Edgar Alan Poe today.

Most of what follows is the text of a talk I gave during Sunday services at Unity North Spiritual Center on November 3, 2019 – hence some references to Halloween. To meet time constraints, some of what is written here was deleted from the talk and some added during this revision. It is a much more personal presentation than I’m used to giving.

The title of my talk was “Labels and Liberation: a Search for Truth Behind the Veil.”

I speak of two veils here. One is the veil between this world and the spirit world and the other is the veil of words we use: the labels, judgments, and the meaning we ascribe to people, events and experiences.

Labels are important, of course. You know how many of our Unity songs are revised to better reflect what’s in our hearts and our beliefs. Labels also shape our perception. They can empower us toward liberation, or they can entrap us as prisoners of our own definition.

I’m going to describe how I came to some of these ideas through nine chapters of my life – along with a conclusion. You will probably hear things my family doesn’t know about yet.

Chapter I: The Eyes of a Child

When I was very young, I saw things that no one talked about, including spirits in my bedroom and in the woods. Since no one talked about such things, I didn’t mention them. I just hid under the covers. The words or labels that would have allowed me to speak of my experiences were not available. (Similarly, years later, my younger daughter listened to a discussion about the aura between a friend and me. When we told her what an aura was, her response was, “Oh, I thought that was my imagination.” She had been seeing auras but, because no one labeled the experience, she assumed it was imaginary.) I was raised Lutheran and Lutherans didn’t talk about spirits. Nevertheless, my first career choice was to become a parapsychologist, but I didn’t see a career path in the paranormal, so I turned to the next best thing: psychology.

Chapter II: College, Religion, Mysticism and the Esoteric

I went to college in Baltimore, taking every psychology course Johns Hopkins offered, along with classes in Egyptology, and one on magic, witchcraft and the occult. Throughout those years, I attended three different religious services in rotation through the month. One was the LiberalCatholic Church because I liked the ritual. It was the old-time eucharist and had meaning since forgotten by the mainstream church. But I also liked sitting in silence, so I went once a month to the “meetings” of the Religious Society of Friends – Quakers – and sat. And the third was just outside of Washington, D.C. and is called the “Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism.” This was an ecumenical church founded by a disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda. One of their ministers later established his own church in Baltimore called the “Divine Life Church of Absolute Oneness.” These two churches had a couple basic tenets that appealed to me: one is the principle of non-dualism – that the world is not really split into material and spirit worlds. The second was that we are essentially divine; and the third, from the Upanishads, was that “truth is one – we call it by various names.” There was intelligence there.

During that time, I also took initiation into the Rosicrucian Order, which is also known as the Ancient Mystical Order of the Rosy Cross, in which I was active for over 30 years, studying their writings in practical mysticism.

So, whenever I had to fill in a blank on a form labeled “Religion,” I was never sure what word to use, what would tell the truth. Was I Catholic, Quaker, Monist or Mystic? In reality, I was all four.

Chapter III: A Career of Professional Labels

Out of college and into my career of school psychology, my primary job was to apply labels to students based on psychoeducational assessments. Just by changing the label, from “problem-child” to a “student with identified needs,” my co-workers and I redefined that student’s educational trajectory and could thereby access needed services for the student.

A few years later, in my private practice, other therapists and insurance companies thought diagnoses were important – which they can be – but what I cared about most were the stories behind the veil of diagnoses. The stories had meaning that the diagnoses could not approach. I also found how frequently diagnoses could be misleading, but that’s another story.  

Chapter IV: Other Worlds, Other Lives

Around 1978, a friend took me to see a gifted psychic who told me about my life in uncanny detail – including those spirits I saw as a child. She predicted that I would have a private practice when I was 33 – an idea I dismissed as I had no intention of doing the work to get a psychology license in Maryland for private practice. She also reminded me of my long-time interest in hypnosis which, through a series of events, led to training in a de-hypnotic form of past-life therapy. A Los Angeles psychologist, Morris Netherton re-labeled what we would call symptoms as trance states and developed his therapeutic method around the idea that troublesome symptoms were the conscious tip of an unconscious trance, which opened a whole world of therapeutic application about which I wrote in three of my books. As the psychic predicted, I opened my office for past-life therapy in 1981 – at the age of 33.

A few years later, through a series of “coincidences” with bears, I slid into the world of shamanism. You can call those meaningful events “coincidences”, or you could label them a “shamanic calling.” Which word we use shapes how we see it.

So, now, instead of three religions, I had three professions: School Psychology, Past-Life Therapy, and Shamanism. I learned to bridge them with language – the veil of words. I learned to talk of shamanism and past-life therapy to child-custody attorneys and conventional therapists by using the language of guided imagery and psychoanalysis. By using labels of a language they understood, they could hear what I had to say.

Chapter V: Writing and the Paranormal

By the 1980s, my practice was in full swing. What I was seeing in my clients, in contrast to what I was reading about reincarnation, prompted me to write my first book, Living Your Past Lives, the first edition of which was published in 1987. So what now: I’m a writer? It may seem strange, but it took years for me to get used to accepting that label.

Also in the 1980s, I was enlisted to investigate a family haunted by numerous paranormal events and help them write their story. (Carol helped me with this investigation in Pennsylvania.) This family viewed the wide variety of paranormal events as one thing: the work of Satan. Things moved, lights went off and on, writing appeared on their walls, and they had moved many times to try to get away from their haunting. What they saw as the attacks of Satan, I saw as an unrecognized shamanic calling – something to be celebrated and learned from rather than feared. Their label created their experience.

Despite our differing viewpoints, we established a mutually respectful relationship and collaborated on writing their book called Lion of Satan, Lion of God. The name of the book comes from two different experiences of a tape recording made while my co-author was dictating her story. On playback, there was a few minutes of her voice, a pause, and several minutes of a growling sound. Since the Bible refers to Satan coming like a roaring lion, that’s how she viewed this phenomenon. One evening, however, I took a copy of her tape and sped it up until it was eight times its normal speed. At this increased speed, the roaring of the lion became her voice as she dictated part of her story. Incidentally, they lived then in a place called Lake Ariel – Ariel meaning “Lion of God.” I may have taken Satan out of the tape but had no explanation for the fact that something caused the tape, while recording, to run eight times its normal speed, which resulted in the “growling” on normal playback.

Chapter VI: Celts and Druids

In the 1990s, after three trips to Ireland, I began to explore my Irish ancestry and Druidism, and was initiated into the Henge of Keltria, which was a modern initiatory Druid order. I received a Druid name, was later ordained as a Druid Priest, and eventually served several years as ArchDruid. I was still a member of this congregation as well.

In that mostly pagan world, I found a frequent distrust between Christians and Pagans, but I had trouble seeing such sharp distinctions. In 2010, I wrote an article for the Druid’s newsletter called “The Pagan Jesus” in which I traced a number of what we think of as Christian traditions back to their pagan origins in Egypt and other cultures – traditions such as the virgin birth, the ever-virgin mother of god, baptism, miracles, the son of god on earth, sacrifice of the first born, the scapegoat that relieves the people of their sins, and resurrection.

In addition to my Druid name, I was also eventually given a name by a Mandan Turtle Priest. So, now I had three names and, from a native pipe carrier, a prayer pipe.

So, am I a Christian or Pagan? Maybe both; maybe neither. Who can say for sure and what does it matter?

Chapter VII: New Age Labels and Old-Time Religion

With the rise of New Thought and New Age teachings, I heard of this insidious thing that trips us up, interferes with our intentions, separates us from God, makes us fear death or loss of control; and they labeled it “ego.” The ego in the world of psychology is a valuable instrument of our consciousness. It’s the center of our conscious awareness and carries valuable functions such as information processing, containment of experience, looking toward the future, awareness of our boundaries, discernment of what is serving us and what is not, the ability to apply things that we learn in one situation to other situations. And they wanted to get rid of it.

Clearly my label of “ego” had a different meaning from that of these writers. In New Age lingo, however, it seems that “ego” has become a catch-all term for states of anxiety, irrational thoughts, false beliefs, unrealistic hopes, loss of control and unresolved wounds. I would rather call them what they are because accurate labels take us closer to the heart of the issue than the vague term “ego.”

This would not much matter but for the fact that, in thinking we must resist our ego, we are fighting a non-existent enemy while the real problem sits right next to us or within us.

Then, I wondered, how did this happen? What prompted people to pick up this belief about the enemy within called “ego”? What is this need to blame an imaginary enemy for our troubles? I concluded that blaming the ego is a substitute for the Satan of old-time religion. We are too “enlightened” to believe in that Satan, aren’t we? So, we cast the blame on the ego. Now it’s the ego out to get us. We have given a new name to an adversary from other times.

Ego is a Latin word that means “I am.” It is a statement of being, moreover, of consciousness of being. It has a job to do and is an ally of the soul unless, of course, we decide to make it The Enemy Within to replace the Satan we lost in our enlightenment.

The world of our emotions is another function often beat up by New Age judgments, but that can be a topic for another day. Suffice it to say that, despite judgmental labels put on them, each genuine emotion has its purpose but can be twisted by the labels we use.

Chapter VIII: Jung and Integration

Here in Minnesota I began studying Carl Jung in earnest – the one major psychologist who included the entire range of human experience in his theories, from soul to neurosis to psychosis to physical matter. He made the term “synchronicity” famous.

Jung had a series of visionary experiences in 1913-1914 that shaped much of his subsequent thought. The account of his visionary experiences, written in German calligraphy and accompanied by his paintings and interpretations, was locked in a vault until it was finally published in 2009. In those visions, he had conversations with all kinds of beings. He called it a “confrontation with the unconscious.” Some called it a brush with psychosis. A Jungian analyst told me she wished it was never published. Some claimed he was trying to establish a religion. All these labels were put on this man’s experience. Each label, I believe, reflects more about the observer than about Jung’s experience. In an article I wrote last year for the Society for Shamanic Practice, I called his experiences a classic shamanic calling. “They” took him into the other world; they talked with him; educated him; built relationships with him; and he brought it all back to his people for their healing and enlightenment.

Again, the labels we put on things and people reflect more of who we are than the thing itself.

Chapter IX: A New Label for a New Life

I retired from school psychology and retired my psychology license last Halloween (which seemed somehow appropriate). I’m still the same person with the interests I’ve always had, and still exploring what’s behind the veil of words and the veil between the worlds. But when tax time comes around in a few months, I will have to decide what to put in the blank that asks for occupation. What would be most true: writer, teacher, clergy – maybe something else?

The Persian poet Rumi also seems to have struggled with the issue of labels. He put it this way:

What is to be done, Oh, Moslems? For I do not recognize myself.
I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Moslem.
I am not of the East, nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea . . .

I came to a different resolution and render it this way:

What is to be done, dear friends, when I do not recognize myself?
I am Christian, Pagan, Jew and Moslem.
I am of the East, of the West, of the land, of the sea;
I am of earth, of water, of air, and fire;
I am all these things, and no one of them.

Chapter X: Conclusions, Meanings and Becoming

So, where does all this leave us? We find that labels can be a bridge or a barrier, an invitation or a veil. If I put a label on you, I begin to relate to you through that label. It becomes a filter through which I see all that you do. Of course, labels can help us understand things and sort out our various encounters with life and people, but we don’t want them to rule us. They are tools, and you can’t use the same tool for every job. Liberation can occur when we acknowledge whatever the label means, and then set it aside to engage directly with the other human beings before us, beings with their own story, triumphs and failures, and a light they have brought to this world – no matter how clouded that light may now be.

The same is true for us: how often do we make judgments about what we believe we can and cannot do, what we deserve or what we believe it takes to get what we want? Consider some of the labels you’ve given yourself in the way of religion, status, experience or skills. Halloween is a good time to see if some of those labels – like masks –  might be embraced, burned, or transformed.

In closing, let me ask that we all be mindful of the labels we use, the meaning we give to our experience, and what we attribute to other people’s actions and intentions. No matter how accurate our judgment may be, it can only ever be part of the picture.

And let’s give the ego a break. It’s not some enemy within, but an ally that helps us navigate between the demands of our outer world and the revelations of our inner world. It is the threshold where we live in consciousness.

Imagine what kind of life we might live if we embraced all that we are – and named ourselves “Magic.”

It seems a funny thing to me, this phrase “Happy Memorial Day.” I mean, when people say it, they seem to mean it as a blessing or somehow wishing us well by it. But I have trouble with the phrase: I don’t see it as a happy thing to remember casualties of war. I feel sadness first. They certainly deserve remembrance, honor and respect. What troubles me is the word “happy.” What is happy about the war dead? What is happy about war? What is happy about government officials, safe in their offices, sending young women and men to protect the interests of multinational corporations, half-hearted service to other countries, or to save face in the name of national security? My main point here is not to try to discern justified from unjustifiable military action, but to question the notion that there’s anything “happy” about it – except maybe those who profit in some way from them. But there’s nothing “happy” about that either.

And then to make it a marketing tool as well: to “celebrate” Memorial Day as if we would want more of them, and at a reduced price. Not that I don’t take advantage of sales at any of our national retail holidays, but it still feels crass, like their sacrifices are being debased to a sales gimmick.

If we really want to honor those who served and those who died in that service, I would think we would do everything possible to establish the peace that we claim wars are to ensure, and to make those ideals of “liberty and justice for all” more than a cliché.

So, perhaps it could be a happy thing if the ends we thought were being served by their service came to fruition. In any case, I honor their embodiment of not only an ideal, but also the day-to-day, front-line presence to which they gave their lives. May you have a Memorial Day of deep reflection and honest gratitude.

In the late 60s I attended the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Psychology was my area of study, but I was interested in all things of the mind during this time of ferment with conflicts over racism, war, the draft, weapons of mass destruction, and riots. Among the turmoil, there was a thriving community exploring new and old approaches to spirituality through bodywork, yoga, meditation, ancient wisdom, astrology, the paranormal and entheogens. There were Rosicrucian, Liberal Catholic and Theosophical activities and a commune in a beautiful old mansion (that later included complimentary healthcare offices where I shared an office with another practitioner). The Aquarian Age Bookstore on Charles Street offered a wide spectrum of books and items spanning ancient wisdom to the New Age. The AUM Esoteric Studies Center offered various kinds of classes, including studies in symbology presented by notable artist Bob Hieronimus.

Bob painted symbol-rich murals on walls (like in the Johns Hopkins Levering Hall that was restored a couple of years ago (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=46&v=MLkjzg3Q6PA). His murals were also found on the outside of buildings, giving a striking ancient presence to old Baltimore. And then there was the VW beetle and a VW bus – the Light Bus, named for a rock band called “Light.” (The bus was in front of the stage at Woodstock in 1969.) Bob’s work was sometimes incorrectly seen as psychedelic, but had a depth reflected in its expressions of archetypal motifs. It had meaning and, for some of us, it was part of a prophetic thread that ran from the depths of time through our then-current social struggles and into our hopes for a better future.

Over the following decades of my life, some of that youthful hope and enthusiasm for what might be possible in an enlightened society faded under family responsibilities and development of a career. And it has been discouraging to see so many of the same issues still unresolved 50 years later – progress, yes, resolution, no.

Similarly, over the decades, the bus was lost. Now, half a century later, however, came the call to resurrect it. A search for the original bus was not successful, but a suitable substitute was found and has been repainted like the original. (You can find pictures on Facebook at “Woodstock Bus.”) I found out about the renewal project through a Kickstarter drive to which I contributed with great excitement. It sparked something long dormant inside of me. But why did I care about an old painted bus?

I realized that something in me had been lost over those years since the 1960s: hope, optimism, connection to the wisdom that transcended transient cultures, along with expectations of a better world beyond war and governmental corruption. Yes, the 60s was a time of unrest with war, confrontation, racism, assassinations, hippies, revolution in cultural mores, but the future still looked promising. We had hopes that things could be better, would be better.

Fifty years have gone by now and I may have a more nuanced view of light and dark, but something very ancient remains alive in many of us and the Light Bus has become a worthy expression of it. At this stage of my life, I find the archetypal struggle between light and darkness to be about revelation and evolution, rather than revolutionary conquest.

The Second Coming of the Light Bus has been just in time for me. Something lost in me has been restored by its re-appearance. Many thanks to Bob and company.

Sometimes it feels like I grew up and began my career in the schools in a golden age of education. That was in 1973. Our foremost concern was how to educate children of all abilities and to help them prepare for the world. Attention was turning to students with special needs. New programs were being developed. Laws and regulations were put in place to attempt to assure an appropriate education for all students. Schools were continuing to be integrated. There was respect for and an understanding of science and its methods.

It was far from perfect, of course. Then (as now) those in positions of power were not always competent or qualified to manage better-educated staff. Ways could be found to work around regulations for expedience. Much was yet to be discovered about autism and other neurobiological differences. The county in which I worked in Maryland had two parent organizations that were against having counselors in the schools, afraid they would undermine the family. But education was still our primary concern. (Perhaps I was more naïve then, too.)

We did not have to worry so much about security, the proliferation of weapons of death, adverse impacts of social media, the politicization of education to promote archaic ideologies, the machinations of wealthy special interests trying to create hordes of ignorant citizens through pseudo-science and denying the realities of genuine science. Now, however, nothing seems too extreme in attempts by special interests to undo expectations of equality, realities of science, and needs for emotional intelligence. We see outright schemes for privatization and for-profit institutions. The unthinkable and unreasonable have been put into platforms of major political parties where everything is to be made a tool of the moneyed class and 18^th century ideologies.

I’m glad to not be returning to the new environment of education, but I have the utmost respect and admiration for the educators who now wrestle with larger and more socially-complex issues than I had to face in those earlier years.

To the teachers and support staff, I salute you. Never forget the spark that made you want to make a positive difference in the lives of children. Your work is important.

On Sunday, August 12, I delivered the following talk during services at Unity North Spiritual Center. Like one of my previous posts, it deals with not becoming like that which troubles us.

The Times in Which We Live

It’ll be no surprise if I say we live in strange and stressful times with fractious politics, unsolved societal problems and hostile tribalism. Still, most of us have most of what we need, and we have much for which we are grateful. And we have each other. But still, we are faced with the unpleasantness that comes to us in the news, in social media and sometimes in the complaining rants of some of our family and friends. It reminds me of part of a poem that goes this way:

 

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

 

It sounds like today, but this was written nearly a hundred years ago by William Butler Yeats – and we seem to have survived what was going on then.

These stresses have become almost a way of life for us, as well as tools for political manipulation, and manufactured outrage to stir up fear and anger against some real or imagined threat. It’s easy to be distracted, angry, upset, disillusioned, confused, defeated, helpless – so easy, at least for me, to sometimes become absorbed into that which I find objectionable. It absorbs my attention and takes over what’s in my head.

Most of us have some way to get out of such states, whether that is meditation, prayer, HeartMath, entertainment, physical activities, engaging in something we love, going into the woods, coming here for inspiration – and it usually works, for a while.

We try to hold to our beliefs to help keep us on track, yet there’s always the seduction into unpleasantness – and we want to fight.

I often want to withdraw and find a retreat on a mountain, to get away from it all. Of course, we don’t have mountains here in Minnesota like those where I used to live in Maryland. I went there so often, my children called it “Daddy’s Mountain.”

As tempting as it is to stay out of such struggles, we cannot escape the consequences of them for they affect how we live, what is in our consciousness, what our children inherit, what populations get made into second-class citizens, and which vulnerable citizens we are willing to sacrifice for some ideology.

In that attempt to escape, what is it that we really want? Well, I want to re-attune to the depth of the spirit in me, indulge in the brightness of the teachings of our great thinkers, and to immerse myself in nature’s embrace.

But I’m left with the question: what is the impact on us to have to even struggle with such things – and by such things I mean the troubles of the world, as well as our own reactions and consciousness?

The Impact of Stress

I’ve spoken in seminars and written elsewhere about the physiological and cognitive effects of stress. (As the bumper sticker says, “Fearful People Do Stupid Things” because it disrupts our thinking process.) We can be momentarily absorbed by that which we find objectionable and want to resist – but then we lose touch with our own deep values. The greater danger that I see is that, in the discord and attention-grabbing news items, we forget who we are. We forget we have our own connection to the divine. We forget who we are as a community, and as a nation.

This I see as a form of soul loss. I believe we lose our identity (and our happiness) when our values, our beliefs and our actions are not in alignment. I’m postulating here three facets of human-beingness: values that come from our hearts; beliefs (that are really just thoughts to which we are attached); and our actions.

Put another way, when our mind, heart and muscles are not working together for the realization of the soul on earth, we experience soul loss.

In the stress of these times, we know what we are against, but can forget what we fight for.

Re-Membering

So, one way to get through such times and restore our identity, I suggest, is to look to our deep values – what is underneath all those thoughts and beliefs and rules and commandments to do certain things.

We must also remember that it is not just the other person who is the source of our outrage. Something in us has been offended, violated, or threatened. Something in us is having a response. To not lose our identity in response to that offending thing or person, we must re-establish what we are for, and this should be determined by our values – both group values and individual values. In this self-reflection, we don’t need to withdraw from the world, but we can bring to the world what we value.

Let’s look at some historical values, values that went beyond simplistic obedience to authority or following external rules. Again, you often must look beneath the words.

Biblical

In the Old Testament, we find the story of Lot and his wife who, having fed two strangers, discovered they were angels. Again and again, the old testament admonishes us to take care of the travelers and exiles. And we find in the book of Hebrews (13:2) “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” This has been a common cultural value in the Middle East and elsewhere.

We find an interesting parallel in a Greek story.

Greek

Philemon and Baucus were an old couple in Phrygia. Two strangers dressed as peasants had been going through the town asking for a place to sleep but they found no kindness there until they came to the home of Philemon and Baucus. They were welcomed by the old couple, and served food and wine. The strangers eventually revealed themselves to be Zeus and Hermes (so even the gods seek hospitality). They then destroyed the town for its unkindness but made the cottage of Philemon and Baucus into a Temple in which they lived as guardians until they died together.

Gospels

When we consider what the actions and teachings of Jesus reveal about his values, we find the heart of them to be love and forgiveness. We see in the parable of the Good Samaritan how his values violated cultural standards of his culture’s social divisions and, instead, taught that all are our neighbors and deserve love.

Clearly he taught a different set of values than what was held by the society at large, and these values became a threat to the religious and political establishment of his time. It seems that advocating care for the poor and the sick, and calling leaders to task regarding the inequities of their society was as radical in those days as it appears to be today.

Celtic

When Rhonda asked me if I would do this talk, I happened to be reading about old Celtic society and their values of education (where the educated elite were held in high regard because they were the healers, scientists, priests and poets). They also placed a high value on hospitality. They had a high regard for truth and the keeping of one’s word; and the expectation that their leaders should be without blemish for, if they were defective, the land would not prosper.

In one of the old stories, a Faerie King looked favorably on an Irish King and gave him a Cup of Truth. This Cup of Truth had a quality that if three lies were said near it, it would shatter. And if three truths were said, it would come back together, restored. Imagine if we had that today.

Of course, the early Irish were humans like us and had many faults by our modern standards, but we can see some of what they valued – and what we have yet to achieve.

America

Our own country has an expressed a set of values defined by constitutional agreement – things like justice and equality (at least for white males until the 14^th amendment, not to mention women getting the vote only a hundred years ago) We’ve come a long way, perhaps, but we are still struggling to fully realize these values for everyone.

My point here is not to get lost in history but to remind us all seek out our deeper values – those that are of the depths, those that our teachers remind us are so important. These are the values that can hold us together – as individuals and as a people – in the face of whatever chaos we encounter.

To do that, we need to put more attention onto what we stand for, than what we stand against. What we stand against can shape us, but what we stand for defines who we are. Over and again throughout history, I hear the values of Hospitality, Truth, Kindness, Courage, Love, Justice, Compassion, and Learning, to name a few. These are important values and transcend momentary laws and expedient traditions.

From the Heart

Let’s bring this home and do an experiment many of us have done before.

Forget for the moment what I’ve said. Focus your attention on your heart; imagine your breath entering and leaving your heart as you breathe deeply and slowly; call to mind some beautiful place or something for which you are grateful and hold that feeling for a moment in your heart as you continue to breathe there. . . . Ask your heart the answers to these questions:

What is it that means the most to you?

What is it that gives life meaning for you?

What makes life worthwhile?

If you had to choose, what do you value above all else?

When do you feel most whole?

And how do you feel right now as you contemplate these things?

I’ve done this many times with diverse groups of people. It’s amazing to me still the similar values that come to the surface, the things important to all of us. We share much more than we are divided. These are the values that have the power to restore identity, courage and peace.

Perhaps this is what the prophet Jeremiah meant when he said:

The days are coming,
when I will make a new covenant. . .
I will put my law/teaching in their minds
and write it on their hearts.

Let’s recognize that we will often fall short of this ideal of an alignment among our values, beliefs and action, but that’s OK. We are human and we, at times, misperceive, misjudge, make mistakes, lose touch with the heart, forget who we are but, even in those errors, if we pay attention, we may discover something of value.

In summary:

It’s natural to be upset by troubling things. It shows we are alive and conscious, but we don’t have to stay there.

It also shows that something of our values has been violated; but that awareness of violation can motivate us to deepen our consciousness and then to advocate for what we hold dear, so that our actions and beliefs can be aligned with the truth in our hearts. That, I believe, is what will save us.

Introduction

“Are not both major political parties corrupt?” is an important question. The easy answers are 1) they are both corrupt, or 2) one is worse than the other. It’s not that simple, I’m afraid. There are layers to this issue and, I believe, a new destructive element that’s emerged.

Part of this question’s significance was shown in the 2016 election where many people judged both parties to be corrupt and either did not vote or impotently put their vote toward third-party candidates who could not win, thus assuring that voters for one of the two “corrupt” parties would decide our next president and other officials. Some of the claims of corruption were, of course, based on propaganda machines rather than evidence and fed by manufactured outrage. Let’s look at some of the layers of nuance beginning with the insidious corruption of the population at large.

Generally-Shared Corruption

First, regardless of all the other influences on government, the fact that we live in a democratic republic means that the entire population of this country shares in the responsibility of whatever our government does to the degree we do not effectively act to oppose it.

We have also allowed ourselves to become numb to morally outrageous actions not only in our national history, but by being distracted by a relentless barrage of reprehensible behaviors that have to some degree normalized the unacceptable, and bought into the authoritarian tactic of accepting abusive, immoral, unethical and illegal behavior in the name of “national security.”

We all also bear responsibility in benefiting from a system that has relied first on slavery and then on a race-based economic system that is a new form of slavery fed by a discriminatory, class- and race-based justice system.

The press (speaking generally) has its share of responsibility as well but, again, it’s important to discern outlets that are purposely misleading and lying to their readers from those who are succumbing to the distracting antics of the president’s shell game, leaving us in the dark about what’s happening legislatively in the Republican-controlled house and senate.

So, we must first recognize the people empowering the parties – and that includes us.

Shared Corruption of Parties – a faulty system going to the highest bidder

First, let’s recognize that wherever public or private power exists, we are likely to find some degree of corruption. Fallible human beings will use that power to advance their own status, personal agenda or colleagues – or to simply hold on to that power. From this standpoint, indeed, both parties can be judged corrupt – as can some of the third-party leaders as well.

We can then question the degree to which that use of power is in service to the common good or to special interests (thus, disenfranchising the rest of the citizenry). This is where the parties begin to show differences, especially in such issues as civil rights, separation of church and state, funding of education, recognition of scientific realities, censorship of press and government science employees, protection of the environment as a public resource, prevention of toxic pollution, protection of vulnerable populations, voter facilitation, marriage equality, wealth inequality, and which segments of the population tax policies favor. Even a cursory consideration of these issues shows a striking difference, suggesting that one party tends to serve a wider and more inclusive slice of the population than the other.

There was probably a time when a rough equivalence of corruption could be claimed for both parties, but that time has long-since passed. We saw evidence of that coming up the 2016 election. To claim equivalence at this point seems rather naïve: the usual parameters of corruption with shame as a response to its discovery have given way to boasting about violating women, morals, contracts, previous promises and criminal behavior. Until now, neither party has threatened the structure and viability of the government and our society of free, equal and educated citizens.

Differences in Values and Constituencies

Of course, the parties have differing values and orientation. The Republican party has been more regimented, authoritarian, centralized and cultish, with a more unified message carefully crafted toward emotional triggers and the mobilization of anger and fear which they then direct disingenuously toward their enemies. Their propaganda machine has created an alternative false reality that serves their needs, regardless of the deleterious outcomes on people and the environment. Democrats have been more amorphous, diverse and inclusive with the result of a blunting of clarity and focus. They may have lost ground in trying to have too-large an umbrella and thereby lost the heart of progressive, humanistic ideals – and a willingness to let things slide and avoid overt social struggle.

The Democratic party has been complacent and passive in the face of militant extremist factions of the radical right. It has also prejudged candidates, deciding who might be most likely to win, rather than represent Democratic ideals. It has failed the propaganda war, neglecting to educate the electorate on the issues – how social security is funded and works, what immigrants pay into vs. what they receive from the economy, the value of separation of church and state and various constitutional assertions, and the costs of a society with second-class populations, for example.

In terms of constituencies, the Republican Party has come to represent a faction of the population for whom information is irrelevant to their cult-like devotion to a strong, authoritarian leader. On the other hand, it appears at times that Democratic “human rights” principles have been more strategic than genuine.

It’s tempting, and falsely comforting, to think that it’s just the man at the top who is out of the pale, but the Republican establishment is fully supportive of this malignant narcissist because he serves other purposes for them.

Corruption and Deconstruction of the Government Itself

Having looked at equivalent and general corruption of power, some of the differences of values of the two parties, and whom each party tends to serve, I’d like to address the emergence of a new element to which citizens and system do not yet know how to respond – a betrayal of rule of law, citizens’ rights and adherence to reality and truth.

We now see a level and quality of corruption that are destructively corrosive, allowing foreign interference in our elections, hell-bent on destroying the alliances that have given us stability among nations and, instead, allying with and doing the bidding of brutal dictators, and implementing economic policies likely to destroy the social fabric of the county. We have a president and his party who are shamelessly violating standards of law and ethics for self-aggrandizement and wealth-building. Worse, they are relentlessly attempting to discredit the other branches of government whose responsibilities include serving as a check on executive power. They have also attempted to destroy the independent press, which is our only chance to know what is going on beyond the propaganda machines. Still worse, this president has appointed people into positions with the admitted intention that they destroy the effectiveness of those agencies for the benefit of a wealthy few.

It is also clear that the separation of powers – intended to keep corruption at a minimum – has been eroded under this regime with unfounded attacks on anyone who is critical of or in opposition to the regime’s corruption. Overt attempts are being made at disrupting investigations and discrediting the investigators, rather than letting them run their course, clearly suggesting there is something to be hidden.

As a result of all this, the current Republican Party has been judged by some to be a greater threat to American democracy than overt attacks from other countries, for the fruits of its actions are centralizing power in the executive branch, despoiling the environment, undercutting faith in our institutions and electional process, privatizing everything possible (reducing accountability to the public), protecting the aristocracy of the wealthy few – all on the backs of middle and poor America who are being distracted by the relentless lies and demands of a con man.

Thus, this level of corruption goes beyond the individuals in either party or the parties themselves; and is a bare-faced attempt at corrupting and deconstructing the constitutional government designed to prevent (or at least reduce) such things.

Summary

To summarize, while both can be said to be corrupt, only one has been willing to deconstruct the government, suppress voting, punish dissent, reduce accountability, redistribute wealth and power into the hands of an oligarchy, put us all at the mercy of climate change, and allow obvious foreign influence on US elections – in addition to threats to humanity itself by departures from the realities of science in favor of ideological fantasies.

Throughout this work, I’ve advocated that we operate from our core values and not add to the malignant stress waves, but I’m not suggesting, by any means, that we cannot avoid creating stresses when we advocate for our position: any action we take against the status quo will likely create a stress for those who want to keep things as they are. As we experience our empowerment, those who have been dependent on us and have benefited from our vulnerability, powerlessness and fear will experience their own waves of stress. In the larger picture, however, these will be the natural stresses of evolution, correction of injustice and awakening – rather than the mindless and habitual stresses of ignorance, helplessness and vulnerability.

After all, stress is inevitable in anyone’s life who is actively engaged in living, but how long we stay there and how we respond to it are up to us.

My cursory survey about the stresses created by the 2016 election (and their precursors) omitted a significant question. If the election of a man known to accost, bully, cheat and lie to others is so stressful, why aren’t his supporters similarly stressed? Certainly, many of them have been abused, too.

There are some well-known psychological dynamics that may have come into play here. One is that of “identification with the aggressor.” Some people, as a reaction to their helplessness in the face of aggression, make an identification with the aggressor as a way of handling their powerlessness. This allows them to deny their vulnerability, to feel powerful and to avoid needing to confront the abuser’s behavior.

Another mechanism is the fact that some people with anxiety (over encroaching minorities, their own lack of resources, economic instability or what have you) seek an authoritarian leader they hope will save them from their real or imagined peril.

It would also appear that some supporters are not much concerned with the content of the man’s character or the nature of his policies, but are caught in admiration of his attitude. An identification with his attitude promises a freedom from constraints of “polite” society (or should we say “politically correct” society?). This again refers to people who feel they have not had a voice, and here is a powerful man who can say the most ignorant, offensive, abusive, patently false things and still flaunt his power. So, it’s not just the content of the statements, but the fact that he will say them outright and get away with it – with tacit approval from most of his political party. He will not be cowed by social convention or pressure. The fact that some portion of the content parallels what they would like to say is enough to validate him as a representative of the attitude they want to show the world.

Constraints of polite society and the judgments that come to them for their violation is clearly distressing to them and, of course, adds to the general stress wave – including the backlash of judgments being made about them by most of society. These people have been (in their own eyes) outcasts, and he gives them voice.

“Conservatives” have embraced him because of his advocacy of unbridled individual freedom, free from responsibility for one’s fellow citizens, for the centrality of wealth in their value system, and for the love of unregulated corporate power. He appeals to their negative inclinations toward personal greed and neglect of social responsibilities. These “conservatives” have experienced considerable distress under the evolutionary pressures of universal healthcare, inclusion of other races, ethnicities and non-conforming sexuality. (It’s remarkable how they seem to desire powers for corporations where there is no accountability that they find abhorrent in government where there is.)

Traditional “family values” groups have easily set aside their social and moral standards because this man is doing what they would like to be able to do with impunity: judge, criticize, persecute and dominate – and he implies that he will support their attempts at domination in a theocracy.

These supporters may well be playing a part in the dynamics of the rest of us – as our own negative shadow, making them people the rest of society can look down on and not have to examine the ways in which they have, themselves, allowed the problems of our modern world to fester unresolved.

Regardless of whether we see these mechanism of rationalization and support as cynical manipulation, gullibility, insanity, stupidity or sincerely-held positions, they all reveal unresolved concerns about modern civil society and have created a festering pool of distress that has been neglected by those pleased or advantaged by “liberal” society.