Category Archives: common sense

We’re In a Terrible Mess 

This excerpt from Rethinking Survival follows the section on “Alien Invaders.” It’s written in the voice of who I was in 2014, which now feels like a lifetime ago. But the substance is just as relevant to now as it was then. 

We’re In a Terrible Mess 

During high school years, I shared a few lines written for Miss Elson’s English class with my brother, David. Marginally impressed, he predicted that I’d end up like the closet poet Emily Dickinson: 

Somewhere, / Somehow, / Something / Is terribly wrong. 

Where to look? / What to fight? 

In Glenn Beck’s Common Sense, he details the mess the United States is in: 

America has been slowly pulled off the course charted for us in Philadelphia more than two centuries ago. Through legitimate “emergencies” involving war, terror, and economic crises, politicians on both sides have gathered illegitimate new powers — playing on our fears and desire for security and economic stability — at the expense of our freedoms . . . 

Making the same point I made much earlier, Beck holds: 

I humbly suggest that our government is once again out of step with the Laws of Nature. The government by, of, and for the people has been turned on its head. It is now a government by the government, of the government, and for the government, the people be damned.  

Beck gets the basic law karma: Actions have consequences. 

However he lacks an in-depth understanding of the dynamic laws of nature. And he needs a functional paradigm to put us (not just the U.S.) right-side up again. He challenges Americans to stretch outside their comfort level. But this requires expanding the array of tools in our repair kit for achieving positive ends. 

Correctly, Beck recommends that we “declare the causes that unite us.” But while I look to the Quantum Paradigm for that foundation, he outlines Nine Principles which only add to the mess. His openly emotional biases are a disservice to his undeniably good intentions. 

It’s important to clarify the points of agreement and difference here. I’ve used the Common Sense concept in my own work for more than thirty years. Especially because he’s become a spokesman for America’s ideals and best hopes, it’s important that I clarify my position. 

We do have universal causes that unite us, but not the ones Beck lists. I’ve limited myself here to answering the first five of his Nine Principles: 

1. “America is good.” This generalization is full of assumptions. It’s too simplistic to be useful. America is not a static or uniform entity. The nation has evolved over time. Its components are mixed. We can love our homeland without having illusions about its unqualified “goodness.” Beck’s tacit premise, that he can single out one (superior) country to the exclusion of others alienates other nations. He’s slicing the pie the wrong way. Everyone everywhere is sometimes and in some ways “good,” in others not.  

In addition, time doesn’t go backwards. Beck’s sentimental attachment to America’s past is unwise. It’s a disservice to the immediate cause of human survival. 

2. “I believe in God and He is the Center of my life.” Sincere truth seekers everywhere hold a variety of beliefs. Not all assign either a name or gender to the Creator. Further, the nucleus of our lives remains the same, whether we acknowledge it or not. Agnostics who say they have no experience upon which to base religious beliefs can still be truth seekers. They’re often decent human beings doing their best as they understand it.  

Though they see things differently, atheists also thirst after truth and have been known to return full circle. 

3. “I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.” 

Fine. But using what methods? The Quantum Paradigm MPI approach, “Be aware of what you are doing and why,” is an excellent start. 

4. “The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.” This is a mish-mash of culturally-conditioned assumptions. First and foremost, individual conscience that depends on the Universal Center is sacred — not family.  

An either-or choice between biological family and governments — as if either were “the ultimate authority” — is unacceptable. Otherwise, where do those raised as orphans or whose experiences of family were damaging and degrading look for authority? What about celibate adults or those who choose not to marry? Or people who abide by communities of choice – their soul families. Do they matter in Beck’s worldview?  

In practice, his grounds for common cause are painfully exclusionary.  

Further, families change over time (as those who’ve been widowed or married more than once are keenly aware).  

It’s the silent source which remains is constant. 

5. “If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.”  This feels good, but it’s way too general. What law — the laws of man, of Nature or Nature’s God?  

This seems to refer to human law. But considering how laws are made today and by whom, that’s dicey. Consider the evolving, punitive tax code, for example. What about the fact that laws are so numerous that you can’t do anything without violating one law or another? And what about our elective, highly politicized [and oft times blatantly corrupt] justice system? 

Principle Five is wishful thinking. It doesn’t match actual experience. Perhaps if Beck thought in terms of the three-tiered wheel, this would be better phrased. Certainly God’s justice is impartial and karmic consequences return to everyone across the board. But that’s a different subject. 

How have we gotten into such a deep mess, so far away from common sense?  

In large part, it’s due to the intentional strategy of polarization. The diversionary tactic of bad-faith bad guys is to confuse people with an overwhelming number of phony half-truths. We’re forced to choose between false, equally unacceptable either-or options.  

The noisy, superficial clash between apparent opposites bombards our senses through the daily news: Republicans versus Democrats. Conservative libertarians versus liberal progressives. Christians versus Jews versus Muslims. Atheists versus theists. Optimists versus pessimists. 

Then there’s the straw dragon strategy. Virulent atheism is a product. It’s accomplished by setting up an illusory bogeyman in order to shoot it down. This is the inherent danger of claiming “divine right” for kings, emperors or tzars. 

Associating kings (or communist leaders, for that matter) with omniscience leads to an opposite and equal mistake. Disillusionment with individual rulers is mistakenly transferred onto authority in general, whether organized religions or governments. Bouncing off of one problem, we’re pushed in the opposite direction into even worse ones. 

To repeat, this misses the point. In Quantum Paradigm context, what authorities do or don’t do is irrelevant to the Creator’s existence. Human misbehavior has no direct bearing on timeless truth. 

Dispensing with an entire belief system indiscriminately — emotionally, bitterly — is like shooting oneself in foot to get rid of a blister. We’re rarely taught the skills to discriminate between distortions — abusive misrepresentations — and enduring, substantive value. The extreme position of “all or nothing” is dramatic but self-defeating. 

Another invader strategy is to blame human suffering on God. In the face of tragedy, people are tricked into believing that God has abandoned them entirely. Numerous popular songs plead with the Creator: “Can you hear me?” To ask is to admit we’ve forgotten about God.  

Of course the Creator is intimately aware of all creation. Better questions would be, “Are we quiet enough to hear? Are we really listening?” 

A great deal of the mess comes from the lack of a complete and accurate paradigm. There are different levels of knowing. It’s essential to prioritize them. Con-fusing sub-rational with super-rational ways of knowing is a major mistake. It’s an alien sleight-of-hand to lump these extremes together and write them off them as “irrational.” 

More of the mess is due to failing to adhere to a common center which serves as the fulcrum between see-sawing extremes. Here the law, “The larger the front, the larger the back,” comes into play. 

For example, extreme rationality generates opposite and equally irrational results. Barring sub- and super-rational alike, atheists who claim to hold the rational high ground can be extraordinary irrational. They come across as angry, rude, intolerant and demeaning. 

Peter Hitchens, for example, describes ironic inconsistencies in the wake of the Russian revolution. As a journalist, he observed that what claimed to be an egalitarian society was in practice highly stratified and unequal. Extreme corruption enriched a handful of vastly wealthy elites at the expense of the masses who lived in miserable poverty. 

Peter’s brother, atheism apologist Christopher Hitchens, who claimed that religion spoils everything, called for a “new” enlightenment. This is nonsense. Light was, is, and always will be light. Reason is necessary, but not in itself sufficient. It’s not all there is. It occupies a middle ground, serving to link the material plane with the center. 

Reason is not qualified to enter into super-rational realms. It cannot be appropriately used to critique what’s beyond it. But it can play an important part. At its best, used with Sherlock-like skill, it’s indispensable for detecting and foiling the schemes of alien enemies. 

Once reason clarifies how we’ve gotten into such a mess — exposing the hostile aliens’ rules and methods — it’s important to move on to the next question. What are we going to do about it? 

How can using the Quantum Paradigm of Change be applied to protect us from evil aliens and lead to positive solutions? 

Patricia West is author of The Common Sense Book of Change and Two Sides of a Coin: Lao Tze’s Common Sense Way of Change. She’s currently working on The Phoenix Response: Dying To Be Reborn – in the Same Lifetime. 

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Rethinking Elephants

I’m partial to elephants.

It started with Dr. Seuss. Remember Horton Hatches the Egg?

Here’s the repetitive line I identified with, the one that stayed with me:

There are many kinds of elephants, don’t you know. There are loyal elephants, like Horton, who commit to major challenges and follow through, proving themselves faithful no matter what. (A handful of patriots come to mind. I’m sure you know who I mean.)

There are boundary-spanner elephants who link the levels of experience, horizontally and vertically.

Republicans represent themselves as elephants. Few, however, act faithful to our Constitution — with notable exceptions, of course, including our rightful President.

Lastly there are dark elephants, the ones that hide in plain sight . . . the existence of which mainstream operatives desperately deny. Election fraud, for example, comes to mind, along with deep state, media, and big tech collusion.

At today’s crossroads, the extent to which we succeed in exposing these guys for what they are will determine what future direction our nation takes.

* * *

This post started as my response to an email from Patrick Byrne’s web community. I had to unsubscribe. (My credit card is maxed). But someone of good will reached out.

Hey there @PatWest, Looks like you are packing up to leave Patrick Byrne on Locals and I hate to see you go. Here’s a promo code for you to stick around a bit longer. Please come back and take part in the community by writing a post or comment.

So, per invite, the Horton in me decided to hatch a post. Since the level of ideas is where I am able to contribute, this is my thanks for reaching out.

* * *

Among elephant jokes, this is my favorite riddle:

Q: How does an elephant play bridge?

A: By placing two feet on one side of the river, and two feet on the other.

In Rethinking Survival, I addressed the important function of boundary spanners.

Much can be said about the consequences of failing to honor the boundary-spanner function. Systems tend to filter out the elephants who actively qualify themselves to span both sides of the river, the better to create the harmony and balance of equitable solutions.

Where’s the method in this madness? Who stands to benefit? Who stands to lose?

* * *

Then there’s the famous elephant parable. It’s described in “Atheism Answered,” a chapter out of Rethinking Survival.

The Ant and the Elephant

An ancient parable from India captures the dilemma of human inadequacy in the search for Truth. Blind men were introduced to a gigantic elephant. After coming in touch with a single part, each reported his experience.

The one who embraced a leg said elephants are round and rough, like the trunk of a tree. The next, who felt a tusk, said elephants are hard and sharp, like a sword. The one who felt an ear described elephants as thin, flat and flexible. The last, who grabbed hold of the tail, was certain elephants are like ropes, perhaps even whips.

These next riddles capture the irony of human gropings.

Q: What’s the height of ambition?

A: An ant climbing up an elephant’s leg with sex on its mind.

Q: What’s the height of fulfillment?

A: The ant climbing down the elephant’s leg with a smile on its face.

Just so, like blind beggars, we fumble to understand universal Truth. We’re like ants who aspire beyond our limits, sometimes fortunate enough to enjoy a taste of satisfaction.

In Quantum Paradigm context, arguments between religionists and atheists are noisy and futile. Atheists who deny the existence of God might as well argue that atoms have no nucleus, or that the solar system has no sun. It’s like ants presuming to deny the existence of elephants.

Their arguments have no affect whatsoever on the eternal Center which was, IS, and always will be.

Have authority-cloaked religionists, for thousands of years, abused the name of God to excuse abuse of power, claiming divine rights for human rulers — be it European kings, Chinese emperors, Russian tzars, Arabian caliphs . . . whomever? Certainly.

Have their enemies repeatedly wrested temporal power away from its holders, only to abuse it in even worse ways themselves? Definitely.

Have humans suffered unspeakable cruelties and injustices at the hands of fellow humans from time immemorial? Sadly so. Continuous upheavals on the material surface of the Life Wheel are part of life on planet Earth.

But the existence of the unchanging silent Center continues into infinity, regardless of what’s happening on the surface. Whether you assign a particular name or honor it with awe in simple silence, it remains the same.

If you’re totally disillusioned by bad luck or by the particular version of religion enforced by your elders, your quarrel is with the ways of the world and its human institutions. Your misfortunes don’t reflect on the Creator’s existence. That’s a different subject.

God the Creator continues to broadcast from the Eternal Center. Whether you listen remains your choice, the exercise of God-given Free Will.

* * *

Here’s a fun visual version of the Quantum Overview:

* * *

This was a roundabout way to arrive at my two basic points. The first is to repeat my concern that restoring free/fair/transparent elections is necessary, but not sufficient. More fundamentally, we have to identify/correct the fracture in the way we’ve been taught to think. It’s responsible for the atheistic/Marxist mess into which the world’s “well-educated” ruling class has devolved. We have to expose and eliminate that dangerous dark elephant from the room.

Unless/until a positive paradigm shift restores awareness/experience of quantum wholeness to every facet of experience, blind men’s fractured versions of reality will continue to generate toxic results.

Second, I wholeheartedly commend Lt. General Michael Flynn’s quantum overview. He calls for awareness that today’s world is engaged in outright warfare operating on four distinct levels: physical, emotional, mental, and – all encompassing – spiritual. Wheels within Wheels.

On 12-12-20, he told a crowd gathered in Washington D.C.:

We will win the spiritual battle for the heart and soul of the nation. We are in a crucible moment. The Truth will prevail. We fight with faith and courage. We will knock down the Jericho walls of the deep state with light and truth. Truth will always triumph over lies.

Today, the world dearly needs an army of loyal, boundary-spanner leaders within every field of endeavor, operating from this quantum overview, restoring common sense, harmony and balance to our lives.

Let’s rock!

What Happened to Common Sense?

It wasn’t coincidence that led me to Common Sense as the right way to connect contemporary readers with the timeless wisdom of the Chinese I Ching and Tao Te Ching. I called easy-to-read, no-nonsense versions The Common Sense Book of Change and Two Sides of a Coin: Lao Tze’s Common Sense Way of Change.

I’m certain that in the cosmic scheme of things, it wasn’t coincidence that Tom Paine titled his plain spoken, carefully reasoned call to revolutionary action Common Sense.

So it’s also no coincidence that Rudy Giuliani — the New York mayor who helped heal the nation after 9/11’s assault — calls his website Common Sense.

Recent reviews of Paine’s influential book tells us exactly why:

In these troubling times, this important work reminds us just how unique the USA is, and what was at stake if freedom failed. We face the same type of enemies now, except they are within our own borders. A must read to understand our God given liberties and why they must be preserved.

Sadly, the same great land that gave us treasures of timeless wisdom is now enslaved by tyrants like those our Founders fought to get free of. Rudy is issuing the call of Common Sense to warn citizens that we’re again under attack.

Chinese overlords are systematically ensnaring the greedy, gullible elite with the intention of bringing the world under communist domination. Yet news of earthquake magnitude is being virtually ignored. The messenger is either discredited or silenced. The public is being kept in the dark by a media blackout.

There’s an important explanation for all this.

For that, I go back to another founding document which connects timeless wisdom with current events. The multi-level Life Wheel inherent in yogic teachings was structured into the United States from its beginning. The Declaration of Independence recognizes three levels of law: the laws of man, of nature and nature’s God.

In Rethinking Survival I pictured it this way:

This quantum paradigm includes all the levels combined in Common Sense. Street smarts are necessary, but not enough. Clear thinking and living true to conscience are equally essential to making good decisions.

In 2020, the world is reaping tragic consequences of being controlled by a brainwashed elite. They operate on a paradigm which rules inner levels of the Life Wheel out. That spells the death of common sense.

Generations educated into a paradigm which respects only the material, tangible and measurable have wreaked madness upon planet Earth. Highly educated, entrenched but out-of-touch intellectuals rule all facets of government, education and communications. That spells D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R.

Yeats wrote a poem quoted by Stephen King in his eerily prescient The Stand. In the novel, a suicidal general leaves this death note: “The center does not hold.” That’s the illusion leaders are left with when inner levels of Life Wheel are banned from conscious awareness. It looks like this:

This blog is written in response to a post on the Common Sense site. Mayor Rudy lays out the facts and evidence of inexcusable, probably treasonous crimes. He virtually seethes with moral indignation that the facts are being ignored — withheld from the public at a time when they could make all the difference in a critically important election.

Law enforcement at the highest levels, the press and social media are shielding hardened criminals, he says. Like the Communist Russia of old, they’ve put up an iron curtain to shield criminals from rightful consequences. By censoring truth, they’re flirting with the danger of another dark night, far worse than Stalin’s or Mao’s. It’s looming over the land of the free.

But a brainwashed, godless elite think its okay to play God with the planet’s future. Rudy’s detailed, carefully presented proofs simply don’t matter. They’re inconvenient. They don’t serve the leftist agenda. Common Sense isn’t in their vocabulary.

It remains up to those whose connection with gut feelings and conscience remains intact to tip the balance in favor of human survival.

Ominously, perhaps symbolically, there was an crack in the Liberty Bell which is part our heritage. It needs healing. Fatal fractures in false belief systems call for a revolutionary paradigm shift. As a matter of human survival, we must to restore Common Sense.

May the Force be with us.