Tag Archives: common sense

We’re Never Alone 

In the prescient, 2014 Rethinking Survival, this final section follows Alien Invaders, We’re in a Terrible Mess, Fresh Start, and Einstein’s New Way of Thinking.  

Again, it’s written in the free-association style of who I was at the time. I’m so different now, there’s no point in trying to rework it. I’m letting it stand, for the value it has to offer. 

In the book, all the quotes are footnoted with careful precision. I’ve decided against cluttering this space with scholarly paraphernalia. Most of the references are easily searchable online. If there’s a problem, I’ll gladly supply supporting materials. 

We’re Never Alone: Gladwell’s Giants and Misfits in Perspective 

When Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath came out recently, I had to read it. The subject promised to be a perfect fit with the vision of Rethinking. After all, King David is my ideal: musician, psalmist, warrior and king in one. 

It turns out this book is a perfect example of how sorely the Quantum Paradigm is needed. “We need a better guide for facing giants,” Gladwell wrote.  

I agree.  

Here it is. 

As far as it goes, the book is a good read. What’s lacking is the Quantum Life Wheel to put David and Goliath in context. From this perspective, Goliath was stuck on the surface. Despite his physical size, he was ultimately powerless.  

David, on the other hand, was connected to Center. That gave him the advantage. 

Using this model, we can place the source of David’s strength as well as his strategies and his deadly slingshot.  

Resting in the innermost hub of the wheel was the source of little David’s confidence — the timeless God of Israel.  

His strategies, however, belonged to the dynamic, energy level.  

His prowess as a straightshooter depended on physical strength, visual acuity and years of experience. Those have their place on the material surface.  

In other words, the levels of David’s life were coordinated. They were in synch. Unified. 

If David had drawn a blank on any one of the three levels, he wouldn’t have succeeded then. Nor can anyone succeed today.  

Vision that’s not backed by good plan and technical competence is incomplete. Cunning strategies lacking equal competence to execute them are lop-sided. Without a direct connection with the creative center, all the physical resources in the world aren’t enough. 

There are several reasons, however, why the story of David and Goliath isn’t the best model for coping with adversity today. 

For one, we’re at a very different point in history. We’re at end stage. Civilization was relatively young back then. Different times call for different responses. 

Further, confronting a single foe face-to-face was one matter. The tangled mess of corporate-faced, alien-driven evil which little guys are up against now is a much different threat. Different dangers call for different protections. 

Another point: Gladwell’s subtitle refers to underdogs and misfits. It’s not a good idea to romanticize misfits. Timothy McVey and Charles Manson were misfits. They didn’t fit in with mainstream society, but with good cause. 

It’s the telescoping mistake. Extremes on both sides of the bell-shaped median are lumped together and written off as “deviant.” But spiritual geniuses and murderous psychopaths don’t belong in the same category. 

Further, not all giants are enemies of the people. There are corporate CEOs who treat their workers decently and genuinely serve the public. When I searched my memory banks for a good example, I thought back to Glenn Beck’s billionaire philanthropist friend.  

What was his name?! It took me a couple days to find it. 

Strangely, he doesn’t get much media attention. (Why not is an interesting question!) 

But Jon Huntsman, Sr. is living proof. A corporate giant can be as much a part of the solution as the underdogs. Sometimes even more. 

A web search comes up with several sides to his story. He gained his wealth by climbing the corporate ladder of success. In 1974, Huntsman Container Corporation created the “clamshell” container for the McDonald’s Big Mac. It developed other popular products, including the first plastic plates and bowls. This led to the 1994 founding of the multi-billion-dollar Huntsman Corporation. He continues to expand into new business ventures. 

As a philanthropist, Huntsman has given away more than $1.2 billion to both domestic and international charities. His humanitarian aid includes help to the homeless, ill and underprivileged. 

He holds that the very rich should give not half, as Gates and Buffet say, but a full 80 percent of their wealth to worthy causes. It should be through voluntary choice, however. Not taxation.  

In this, he agrees with Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. His goal is to give away everything before he dies. But this isn’t an easy task. He keeps on making too much money. 

On the personal side, Huntsman not only lost parents to cancer, but is himself a four-time cancer survivor. His response has been to turn adversity into opposite and equal good. The Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City accelerates the work of curing cancer through human genetics. It also focuses on providing humane care to cancer patients. 

Huntsman has been married to his wife Karen for over fifty years. He’s the father of nine children. The eldest son, Jon Jr. is a public servant. He was the governor of Utah, and later an ambassador to China. (Small world.) The second son is a corporate executive who carries on his father’s business. 

Come to find out, Jon Huntsman. Sr. is also an author. One of his books is Winners Never Cheat – Even in Difficult Times. Amazon’s editorial review calls him “one of the finest human beings, industrial leaders and philanthropists on the planet.” His book drills down on “ten timeless, universal values” for business and life. The review concludes that Huntsman’s work edifies, inspires and motivates all of us to model his common sense lessons. 

Timeless? Universal? Common sense? I like it!  

Winners Play By the Rules is another of his titles. This book tells “how to keep your moral compass pointed toward true North — even when those around you are compromising their ethics.”  

True North? Compasses? WOW. There is a positive paradigm shift going on. I am not alone in this. 

Redefining Power 

Gladwell says little guys need to redefine power. That’s what I’ve done in Part Two. True power comes from within. Goliath, who drew strength primarily from the physical plane, was puny compared to the force behind David’s sling. 

Gladwell notes that a single smooth stone to center of Goliath’s head probably destroyed the pituitary gland. He quotes researchers who theorize that the giant had a glandular disorder which explains his huge size. This same pituitary disease would have caused eye problems. That’s probably why a slave had to lead him into battle. Presumably his vision was failing. 

But from a holistic perspective, the same story has a deeper meaning. David’s single shot went straight to the third eye, the ajna center located in the center of the forehead. It correlates with the pineal gland, a close neighbor of the pituitary. In yoga anatomy, this center is associated with spiritual vision. 

David’s projectile put out the giant’s lights. It was poetic justice for an enemy who was closed to inner truth. That was the giant’s weakness. It remains the weakness of bad guys today as well. A single shot is all it takes, when you know where to aim. 

It reminds me of the plumber with a golden hammer. The story is told about a home owner with a flooded basement who makes an emergency call. The plumber comes. Climbs a ladder. Reaches up to the leaking pipe. Takes out a golden hammer and taps. Once. Tink.  

Problem solved. 

Then he gives the owner his bill. That will be $350.  

What? Why? That took less than five minutes!  

The plumber’s answer: “The charge is for knowing where to tap.” 

Bad guys have blind spots. That’s their weakness and the good guy’s advantage. If they’ve cut themselves off from the center, no matter how rich and powerful in the world, or how charismatic at the middle level of energy dynamics, in the long run they’re the losers. 

The middle layer of the Positive Paradigm shows us what’s missing from Gladwell’s book. Applying David’s story to today’s dilemmas falls short without the complete picture. David’s God broadcasts from the center of the wheel.  

Today, noisy competitors are broadcasting from the middle, astral plane. In effect, they jam the air waves, making it hard to hear the still small voice of conscience. 

When religionists comfort us that we’re not alone, they’re telling us a half truth. Christ is broadcasting from the center (even when we can’t hear or won’t do). But there are lots of competing distractions. Some voices mimic good angels, but aren’t.  

My description in Part Two bears repeating here: 

. . . spirits, ghosts, leprechauns, angels and demons or jinn acknowledged by various mystic traditions also reside at the middle level. From here, unseen hands from the “dark side of the force” reach out to derange the minds of power-hungry rulers and undermine political affairs. So long as their invisible influence remains unaccounted for, the failings and depravities of human governments remain mystifying. 

St. Paul described it in his letter to the Ephesians: 

6:12. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 

This is why the David paradigm can’t be taken at face value. David told Goliath, “God is with me.” But since then, the same claim has been made by numerous demon-driven leaders. Combatants on both sides of every battle want their followers to believe that God is on their side. 

What makes sense in Quantum Paradigm context is that David was with God. He was listening. He “knew” what he had to say and do. And he did it. 

Here’s a time-tested way to know who is who. Ask who’s calling. If it’s Christ broadcasting from the center, or a true disciple, LISTEN. If it’s a voice from the astral plane that won’t acknowledge Christ, then DON’T. Tell it to scram.  

Remember the words of the marvelous cartoonist James Thurber. He drew a panther lounging in a telephone booth with the receiver in its paw. The caption reads: “If it’s a panther, don’t anther.” 

Here’s another way the David and Goliath book breaks down. Gladwell wants to identify ways for little guys to battle big guys. First, not all little guys are good guys. Nor do little guys have to come up with strategies now as if inventing the wheel from scratch. They’ve been codified in cultures saturated in I Ching philosophy for thousands of years. 

The middle level is the realm of the Natural Law encoded in the Book of Change. Energy dynamics are impartial. They work regardless of the user’s motives. For every David who uses strategies to defeat a wicked enemy, there are countless Alinsky clones. 

They’ll use every underhanded strategy in the book to undermine anyone who gets in the way of what they want. Sometimes the motive is sheer greed. They fabricate excuses for confiscating other people’s wealth. 

For every sage like Lao Tze who honored the Tao and wrote the classic Tao Te Ching, there many others also immersed in spinoffs of I Ching savvy whose connection to the Center of the Life Wheel is uncertain.  

Sun Tzu, for example, applied the principles of natural law to describe The Art of War.

Later offshoots include versions like the 36 Stratagems. One has the suggestive title Lure the Tiger Out of the Mountains. This book pairs anecdotes from Chinese history with stories about current corporate practices. It shows how IBM, Apple, Microsoft, and other business giants overcame early odds to beat out the competition. They used the same yin-yang strategies which the advisors to Chinese emperors recommended in the past. 

A more chilling version is Hide a Dagger Behind a Smile: Use the 36 Ancient Chinese Strategies to Seize the Competitive Edge. 

Musashi’s Book of Five Rings is a Japanese approach to strategy. 

In fact, Saul Alinsky comes straight out of this tradition. He could well have taken his ideas from the Asian history books.  

Remember him? He’s the one who dedicated Rules for Radicals to “those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be.” 

Change strategies are variations on the theme: “Extreme yin changes to extreme yang. Extreme yang changes to extreme yin.” 

In others words, giants and underdogs trade places. In this scheme of things, the apparently powerless, like little David, have always had options for turning the tables in their favor. 

Natural law also reminds us of the yin-yang paradox. “Whatever has a front has a back. The larger the front, the larger the back.” As described from personal experience, those who project the most holy image predictably have the most corrupt underbelly.  

Extreme size like Goliath’s is unbalanced. It changes into a liability. One’s greatest strength can be flipped to become one’s greatest weakness. (The same goes for governments, too.) 

So, the David and Goliath story is a useful example that can be applied to current events. On the surface, it may not seem unique. Corporate executives who accept the Japanese maxim “Business is War” practice taking advantage of yin-yang principles to maximize profits and power. 

But here’s the important riddle to solve. What’s the difference between Saul Alinsky and David? What separates Alinsky-clones from Positive Action advocates? 

The answer: Alinsky and his clones are functional atheists. 

Like Goliath, they’ve cut themselves off from the center of the Positive Paradigm Wheel. They may be intimidating or charismatic, but they’re not enlightened. Far from it. 

David, in contrast, linked the levels. He was in harmony with Source. He spoke for it and acted from it. Positive Action advocates aspire to follow David’s example. 

Perhaps it’s time for the good (not necessarily little) guys to take the hint. Mastery of Natural Law can be a good thing. As I’ve labored to demonstrate, in Quantum Paradigm context, it’s not opposed to Divine Law. 

There’s no either/or choice. Nature is integral to the whole. 

Stratagems aren’t good or bad in themselves. There are white magicians and black magicians. Both are adept at manipulating the elements of nature. It all depends on who’s doing what and why. 

Bottom line: it’s a matter of survival to be savvy in dynamics at the middle level of the paradigm. A step in this direction is already being taken. Books coming onto the market now advocate using Alinsky’s tactics to protect and restore what alien infiltrators of both church and state are actively destroying. 

Conversion 

The real beauty of the Quantum Paradigm model is this. It serves as proof that it’s never too late to change. Given the right circumstances, even the most obstinate resistance to the calling of conscience melts away. 

Einstein’s formula of energy conversion applies to changes of faith in both directions. Believers fall away from their faith. The faithless return to the fold. The prodigal son completes the hero’s journey. After trials and travails, much to his father’s joy, he returns home, forgiven and welcomed. 

Here’s a current example of conversion in both directions. 

Matt Morris, known as a Micky Mouse Club member and later as a writer, has captured public attention. He was raised as an Episcopalian. In 2009, reacting against his church experience, he left Christianity. He turned instead to Druidry. a form of nature worship. In 2013, he was actually on the cover of Witches and Pagans Magazine.  

Shortly afterwards, Morris made a sudden about face. It was as if he’d become aware of Christ broadcasting from the center. He wrote in a blog post: 

I’m overwhelmed with thoughts of Jesus. Jesus and God and Christianity and the Lord’s Prayer and compassion and forgiveness and hope and judgment and freedom from judgment and all of the things which made (and make) me feel connected to the Sacred. 

He denied that he’d returned to institutionalized religion. It seems his experience was qualitatively different. He’d made a direct link with the eternal center. 

The biography of C.S. Lewis is another example of conversion. He’s best known as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, a thinly disguised parable of the Christ story.  

Earlier, however, during WWI, horrors witnessed on the battlefield turned him to atheism. Then, eventually, he changed his views. He used reason to reconnect with faith. The world’s beauty persuaded him of the undeniable existence of “Intelligent Design.” 

Nelson Mandela’s story is the most famous example of two-way conversion. Frustrated by lack of results from protesting peacefully against state-sanctioned apartheid, he became a card-carrying Marxist Communist. He turned away from the path of peace to violence. 

When he was arrested as the leader of a terrorist organization in South Africa, Mandela admitted to his crimes. But instead of receiving the death penalty, he was sentenced to life in prison. 

Twenty-seven years in jail became a blessing in disguise. They gave him the gift of quiet time, which he turned into the opportunity to rethink his past. 

Had Mandala chosen to pursue the path of vengeance when he was released from prison, a bloodbath would have followed. 

However, he had changed. He chose the path of love and forgiveness. He became a unifier, leading blacks and whites together to overcome unjust separation of the races. By the time of his death in early December of 2013, Nelson Mandala the peaceful protester and then hunted criminal had become a revered national leader. People worldwide had come to regard him as a saint. 

But always remember: the opposite side of the coin is equally possible. Even those who’ve had a glimpse of the eternal cannot take enlightenment for granted. Many pitfalls and unforeseen dangers lurk along the paradigm’s two-way street. God is constant. Humans are not.  

The night of Christ’s arrest, Peter denied him three times before the morning came, much to his great sorrow.  

Continuous vigilance is a must. 

You Never Know 

In Part One, I described my experience with neatsies — miracles. With the supreme confidence of youth, I traveled safely alone through Europe. There was little planning and less money. But a lot of “luck.” Looking back now, it only seemed that I was alone. Of course, I never was. 

The same hidden hand that guided and protected me throughout has brought me to this point. Just as I wrote The Common Sense Book of Change as an act of faith in 1975, I’m doing the same with Rethinking Survival now, more than thirty years later. The twists and turns on my road — the numerous kaleidescope reversals — were integral to the process. 

Even in this, I am not alone. I was amazed when I recently happened upon the story of another life traveler. He used exactly the same words I have to sum up his experience: “Your never know.” 

In a seminar recorded on video, Master Chungliang Al Huang tells how one thing led to another through a lifetime of unforeseen changes. As a child, he was given a traditional education in all things Chinese. He studied the philosophy of Confucius. He practiced Tai Chi. He mastered the art of calligraphy using an artist’s brush. 

He then came to the United States and became thoroughly American. He studied architecture and worked as a architect. Then one thing led to another. 

A step at a time, he reverted back to the roots of his Chinese origins. He became a dancer; he performed with the Martha Graham troupe. In the 1960s, when Americans were hungry for Tai Chi, he was invited to become an instructor at the Esalen Institute in California. 

He’s become a boundary-spanner, working to link Western and Asian cultures. Just as I fantasized about the possibility of seducing the Chinese into remembering their neglected I Ching roots, he’s working to rescue his native land from the heartless, atheistic influence of current rulers. He literally says,” There’s a paradigm shift going on in China now.” 

Actually, sir, it’s going on worldwide. Everyone everywhere is being called to remember the heart of the perennial philosophy which they share in common. In fact, there’s a Quantum Paradigm shift going on. 

So I must make this small caution. The highest compliment Chungliang Al Huang gives Caucasian members of his audience is, “You have a Chinese heart.” I would answer, “No. I have a universal heart. And so do you. So did Einstein.” 

The same hidden hand that has opened doors of opportunity and taken him on a marvelous journey of change has guided me all my days as well. No country, culture or class has a monopoly on miracles or inner truth. 

David told Goliath, “God is with me.” But it’s more correct to phrase it the other way around. We need to be with God. For with God, all things are possible.  

As long as people everywhere, in every circumstance, continue to focus on the center, there’s hope of human survival. Whatever threatens to block access to the Center must not be allowed to interfere. “Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments.” 

This is why it’s imperative to root out the assumptions based on dysfunctional paradigms that tie us in knots. They tear us apart. They drive us crazy. They push us to murder and even suicide.  

We urgently need to recognize and root out false paradigms. To survive intact, we must cleave to the essence of the perennial philosophy.  

The quantum Life Wheel is a snapshot of the essential truth which the world’s great religions share in common. It offers us a way out of global madness. It gives us a means for restoring sanity to our world outlook. 

David and Goliath has one take on the giants of the world. But there’s also another way to think about giants. The reverse, shadow side. The opposite side of the coin.  

Inspired by Awaken the Giant Within, I founded the +A Positive Action Press in response to Tony Robbins’ book. From a Quantum Paradigm perspective, his words take on new meaning: 

If we want to discover the unlimited possibilities within us, we must find a goal big enough and grand enough to challenge us to push beyond our limits and discover our true potential. . . The answer to our current energy challenges will lie in the imagination and resourcefulness of today’s physicists and engineers. And the resolution to our social crises, like the alarming spread of racial hate groups, homelessness, and hunger, can only be addressed with the inventiveness and compassion of dedicated individuals like you and me. 

The threat of evil giants in the world serves to awaken the true giant that resides deep within each of us. That’s the blessing hidden in adversity. It’s the opportunity latent in Titanic Times. 

The Greek Titans, the giants sired by Kronos, survived his murderous envy and returned to claim their heritage. Similarly, there are giants are among us now. It’s time for them to WAKE UP! 

In the face of Titanic dangers bearing down from all directions, remember the stork and cobra cartoon. The snake is winding up the bird’s long, skinny leg, wrapping around its neck in a choke hold. The caption reads: “Never, ever give up.”  

To this, I would add more — essentially other ways of saying the same thing. First, to the snake: “It’s never to late to change.” Second, to the bird: “Never, ever forget.”  

Never forget that, no matter how dark and dangerous life becomes on the surface, God the Creator — the Tao, the Source of all life — broadcasts love, wisdom and hope eternal from the center of the quantum Life Wheel.  

We’re not alone. We never have been. We never will be. 

 

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 current working The Phoenix Response: Dying To Be Reborn – in the Same Lifetime. 

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To Think Like a Genius, Link the Levels – IC – 111920

Q. Why the interest in genius at this time of chaos and confusion?

A. America’s divisive state is testimony to the crying need for creative problem-solvers.

We need to educate ourselves and then bring up a next generation able to SEE what’s gone so terribly wrong, and what to do about it.

So what is genius? Is creative brilliance a rare gift granted only to a special few?

Or is genius, as I believe, an inborn, God-given potential equally available to everyone. Every-one, that is, willing to do the work and make the sacrifices needed to fulfill their innate potentials.

Q. Okay. If I’m a potential genius, how do I get from here to there?

A. Yogis have long known the way. Breathing is the simple answer.

Breath is the vehicle of the soul, the psyche. It animates us at birth. It’s the single constant always with us right up to our last minute on earth. We can breathe unconsciously. Automatically. Or we can do it consciously, and in the process link the levels of the Life Wheel — mind, body and spirit. Breath unifies the quantum field.

Yoga in a nutshell.

Einstein’s New Way of Thinking explains:

The secret to thinking like a genius has been known for thousands of years. Yogis call it Raja Yoga . . .

Modern medical researchers correlate ancient teachings with brain science. Breath control balances, harmonizes and stimulates both hemispheres of the brain. It unites artistic with mathematical abilities.

Now Einstein was a “natural.”

On rare occasions, it’s possible to get the same results naturally, without needing to understand the dynamics that explain genius. Both sides of Einstein’s brain . . worked together.

He was an accomplished violinist and philosopher as well as a physicist. Pipe smoking probably gave him some of the benefits of deep breathing, though to the best of our knowledge (at least in this lifetime), he never took yoga classes.

Two recent books explain yoga’s magic in the familiar language of science. One is Patrick McKeown’s The Oxygen Advantage: Simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Techniques. Even better is James Nestor’s 2020 bestseller, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art.

Thinking like a genius, “journalist James Nestor traveled the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.” He says:

There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences.

Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head.

Disturbed breathing and the image of a fragmented Life Wheel go hand-in-glove. Cognitive dissonance, the narcissist’s signature, is the frequent mark of public figures. Their words and actions don’t match. Not even close.

Here’s a basic test of whom to trust. Who is consistent, word and deed? Who is not? I’ll have more to say about this in future posts. Look for Half-Brained Is Half-Assed.

We’re not trained to look to the Book of Change for answers to our deepest questions. That’s why I’ve chosen to bring the book to you. Through the end of 2020, bi-weekly blogs are intended to serve as an introduction, to make what was once unfamiliar now familiar.

INSPIRATION is the initial answer to today’s question, “What should we be aware of now?” The Common Sense Book of Change version reads:

When minds are moved by INSPIRATION, nothing is impossible. Misunderstandings can be cleared up, problems solved and hardships overcome. Inspired speakers can move others to acts of heroism by well-chosen words. Reminding people of their common goals and deepest desires gives them the courage to continue. Avoid unkindness.

In-spire means to breathe in. When we’re tense and hold the breath, we cut ourselves off from Source. Relaxing and taking a deep breath reconnects us with the Force.

Inspiration is the signature of genius – the crying need — the critically missing piece — in today’s public arena. All sides seem stimulated by conflict. “Game on!”

While engaging in battle for a just cause is vitally important, in equal measure — to keep ourselves and the Union together – we also need to honor the opposite of side of the coin. Take time to pause, reflect and be grateful for the blessings we too often take for granted, which everyone on all sides are risk at risk of losing forever.

***

Constitutional Law Professor Jack Balkin’s version of the I Ching calls Hexagram 58 Joy. These are its key attributes: Giving and receiving / Communication / Integrity/ Inner stability / Inner Peace.

He comments:

When people take joy in each other’s company, they are willing to make sacrifices for each other. Difficulties seem to melt away. Troubles seem smaller and less threatening. When people feel supported and encouraged, they are willing to take on even the most difficult tasks. Thus, joy has enormous power. It brings people together, moves them to do great things and bestows success on their efforts.

***

In the CSBOC, advice of the bottom line reads: “Maintain an attitude of joyful self-confidence. This will attract success.” When the advice is heeded, the line changes to Depression:

At times when it seems as if one’s resources are exhausted, care must be taken to soften the harmful effects of DEPRESSION. Whether the cause of depression is mental, emotional or economic, do not despair. The time will pass. Use hardship to develop inner strength and calm. Avoid negative thoughts.

Stress, fear, and anger disrupt natural breathing, making us sick. And basic breathing practices — in-spiration — are known to heal (drug free) countless diseases, including depression. This relief alone makes economic hardships more tolerable and creative solutions easier to find.

***

Balkin’s version calls Hexagram 47 Oppression. Its key attributes include: Exhaustion / Being restricted / Hardship / Adversity / Inner affliction / Dried up / Impasse.

He comments:

Kun is indeed a difficult hexagram, but the law of change is always in operation. Periods of oppression and exhaustion contain the seeds of regeneration and renewal. At the very darkest moment the light is almost ready to shine again. Even so, it is not easy for people who are in the midst of oppression to understand and believe in this enduring truth. Dealing with oppression is a great test of a person’s character.

It’s almost as if presumptive leaders assume us deplorable Hobbits exist to be oppressed and drained, are so stupid that we’re fooled by the lies they spin, and so weak that we’ll cave under intimidation. But we’re neither stupid nor weak. And by Natural Law, they’ll inevitably reap the ugly consequences of their presumptions.

In sum, at end-stage 2020, those who would survive looming oppression must draw upon the inner resources of latent genius. By intentionally linking the levels of the Life Wheel, we’ll prevail by restoring the common sense which is everyone’s birthright.

Collected posts will be published as The Lessons of 2020: Using the Wisdom of CHANGE to Build a Better Future. Look for it on amazon in January of 2021.

If you’d like a copy of the Common Sense Book of Change, or extras to give others, click here.

To order Two Sides of a Coin: Lao Tze’s Common Sense Way of Change, click here.

Okay, then. That’s all for now. Talk with you again soon. Take care, all.

Unity & Inspiration

The answer to my morning query (Tuesday, March 31, 2020) was so sweet – and so timely for all of us during this “interesting” time of challenge and hidden opportunities – that I decided to share it.

I asked, “What should we be aware of now?”

The first outcome was Number 8, UNITY. Three changing lines resulted in an outcome of Number 58, INSPIRATION. Both resonate with same theme: focus on the goals and deepest desires we share in common. This gives us the courage to continue.

I’ll give the entire readings from the Common Sense Book of Change. This way, we can each take from them what we personally need to remember right now.

Unity

Recognizing within current challenges the time for unified action has the potential to flow into the following outcome:

Inspiration

I hope you resonate with them as do I. If so, please like and share to magnify its ripple effect.

How the CSBOC Came To Be

For those who wondered, I’ve already answered eight of your most often asked questions, including“What makes the Book of Change so unique and important? Why is it especially relevant worldwide?”

wondering face

Here, I’m answering another question: “Why is this particular version, the Common Sense Book of Change (CSBOC), an excellent choice for me to work with right now?”

As strange as it appears at first glance, there are actually several good reasons. So let me tell you more.

Discourse sized

First, I should let you know that today, publishing is a just hobby for me. The world will go its own way. I no longer think can any book change the world.

But it certainly changed me. It’s no exaggeration to say the I Ching saved my life. More than once.

So, for me, if the Common Sense Book of Change helps even one of you, that is enough. I would be satisfied. As it has been written, “To save one life is to save the world entire.”

I also recognized that the I Ching is not the only book with life-saving potential. The most powerful is the Bible. In my case, however, early in life, poor examples confused and repelled me. I do believe that in their infinite mercy, good angels guide and protect truth seekers through any medium available. Angels are not limited by the restrictions of human religion. : )

So long before I was ready for the New Testament, the I Ching was there to get me through some rough transitions.

Angel Calling

Now, then. How did I come to create this little book? I am American, not Chinese. Nor am I a scholar with advanced degrees in Chinese language and literature. I’ve described my personal journey in several places. For example, in The I Ching & Me, I wrote:

For me, the Book of Change is a gateway to magic. On this side, it has been a close companion, good friend and advisor through the years. On the far side, perhaps remembered from lifetimes past, it speaks to me from a place beyond time and space.

With it, I was never alone, even and especially when I was loneliest in crowded rooms. When the world impelled suicide, it brought me back to a deeper, all-pervasive love of life.

So I will share a few sections from Rethinking Survival about how I met the book, and how it has grown on me.

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I wrote about the origins of CSBOC in Rethinking Survival:

. . . I’d had a hunch about [the I Ching] for a very long time. Ellsworth Carlson, who lived in Shansi, China during WWII, was a classmate of my parents at Oberlin College. When I was nursery school age, he bounced me on his knees at Harvard.

As Freshman student, I took Dr. Carlson’s course in Asian History at Oberlin. What stuck with me how vast an influence the I Ching had on China for 8,000 years and counting.

So, when I left the U.S., all I took with me was my violin and one small suitcase. Of that, half contained clothes. The other half held sheet music and one small book: the Legge translation of the I Ching.

It made no sense to me. I could barely get through a page or two before giving up. But I kept coming back to it. It led to something important I had to know more about.

When I happened upon the Wilhelm/Baynes edition in Düsseldorf’s International Bookshop on Konigs Allee — Finally! — I had a version I could relate to. It literally became my teacher. It gave me a whole new concept of how the world really works.

Not just this family or that institution or the other county. Not arbitrary and capricious, fluctuating fashions, but the constant anchor over time.

From it, I could deduce the fundamental energy dynamics of action and reaction which drive behavior, internally at a psychological level, and externally in relationships and day-to-day events.

It was an extension of the logic my English teacher Miss Elson impressed on my high school brain. But more. It gave me a map of logical consequences, as inevitable as computer language. “If this, then that.”

For example, If you kick people, they kick back (if they can) or otherwise resist. If you are kind, you inspire love and trust in others. If you violate natural law, nature bites back — your mental health suffers; relationships deteriorate; your behavior becomes erratic and social/physical survival is imperiled.

Asian cultures call this “the law of karma.” Its operation is also described in biblical terms: “As ye reap, so shall ye sow,” and “to everything there is a season.”

In sum, its 64 permutations map a progression of repetitive, cyclical change.

Tai Chi Tu

I’ve also explained why I felt compelled to write a simpler, accessible version, free of unnecessary jargon, sexism and cultural baggage:

There was, as in all things, a downside to the Wilhelm/Baynes version. It was unnecessarily difficult, sexist and elitist. A confusing overlay of cultural baggage obscured its meaning. After working for ten years with every version I could find, I wrote an easy-to-use version called The Common Sense Book of Change, intending to make this treasure available to anyone with an open heart and basic reading skills.

I fantasized on the possibility of teasing the Chinese people into reclaiming their heritage, self-publishing it as small yellow book (the traditional Chinese color of wisdom) in a pocket-sized form to replace Mao’s little blood-red book. No matter how many new versions have come out since then, it still works for me.

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Here is the story of how the CSBOC came to be:

More “neatsies” surround my small version of the I Ching, the Chinese Book of Change. I wrote it in 1975 during the window of time after I moved back from Spring Green to Madison, but before I had a job. As a leap of faith, I concentrated on the writing, putting off a job search until the book was done. This was a bit scary. Money was going to run out very soon.

I sat cross-legged on the bare wood floor of a living room furnished with cardboard boxes. I spread every version I owned in a half-circle around me. They included the Wilhelm/Baynes translation brought back from Germany, of course. There was a battered second-hand paperback by Joseph Murphy, a research fellow in Andrha, India, as I recall, who quoted the Old Testament in the judgments. Others included the spiral-bound Workbook by R. L. Wing, a hardbound version which presented the I Ching as a form of astrology and a hippie-like paperback.

I trusted that the Platonic-like ideas of the I Ching are timeless, the common heritage of all humanity. They’re not the exclusive property of a particular culture or class. Each of these authors was drawing on the same source for inspiration, expressing universal experience from different viewpoints. So I opened my mind, asking for the deeper meaning these versions shared in common.

I was certain that the most powerful ideas are the most simple. They deserve to be expressed in the clearest language with fewest words possible, free of flowery poetry, scholarly hocus pocus, sexist assumptions (the so-called “superior man”) or other distortions. I intended to make my version easy to read – accessible to anyone with basic reading skills and an open heart.

The format just “came” to me. It worked fine. Fifty words, no more or less, for each hexagram. Ten words, no more, no less for each changing line. The images came easily. I worked systematically from start to finish, no looking back. With the exception of “Sacrifice,” which I revisited fifteen years later, I’ve made no revisions.

Eventually, I called this version The Common Sense Book of Change. I like the word “common.” To me, it doesn’t signify “ordinary” or even “vulgar,” as some use the term, but rather “universal.” “Common” is the root of both “communication” and “community.” And the allusion to Tom Paine’s Common Sense isn’t accidental.

But there’s more to this story:

Upon its completion, the kaleidoscope turned instantly.

Results of the civil service test for Typist III positions came in the mail, along with a list of job openings.

My first interview was at the UW-Madison Department of French and Italian. The Chairman not only gave me the job on the spot. He decided from my resume that I had administrative potential and made me an offer. The Department’s Administrative Secretary III had given notice. She was moving out of town soon. There was no replacement. If I was willing to do her job for Typist III pay, and if I took the pending Ad Sec civil service exam, and if I got one of the five highest scores to qualify for an interview, I could have the job. . . .

I agreed, did administrative work for typist pay, took the exam, qualified for an interview, and within a few months took a leap up the career ladder that secretaries usually took years to accomplish. I was suddenly earning more than ever before. . .

I concluded:

The reward for this leap of faith was immediate. I took it as confirmation from the powers that be that I’d made the right choice to put the book first.

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Clarion Call

 

The day after America’s momentous national election, as I watched replay video of Donald J. Trump’s acceptance speech, for the first time in months I felt a genuine hope for human survival. It may not be exactly the hope of which he speaks, or what others expect, be their motives for better or worse. But here, I’ll tell you what triggered this surge of hope in me.

I’ll also tell you why today, after eight months without posting a single blog, I feel a sense of urgency to spell out the opportunities and shadow dangers that move me to write again as predictable media backlash sets in.

My conclusion: Listen up America! Pay attention, people of the world! Regardless of what noisy, dark distractions his enemies throw at us, we dare not forfeit the reprieve we’ve been mercifully granted by failing to fully recognize, respect and hold fast to his message as a last hope for human survival.

For starters, I am focusing today on the message of the President-Elect’s victory speech, transcribed word for word. They are words of power because deeper than shallow politician-speech, they were spoken with utmost sincerity from the heart.

Surely he isn’t familiar with the Life Wheel and Einstein’s Unified Theory I’ve described over the past three years. Nor, for him, is it necessary. However, for the rest of us, this work might make a huge difference, perhaps even tipping the scales of history in favor of human survival. It shows exactly the ways in which he surpasses usual politicians, and what people worldwide have at stake in DJT’s success.

The Life Wheel validates Donald J. Trump as an authentic leader who lives true to his inner North Star. Though others may mouth similar words, rare indeed are those with the genuine inward authority to speak them. (Can you imagine expressions of LOVE for the American people coming credibly from the mouths of the politicians who opposed him?)

What I heard that day was a voice that speaks true to the basics of the humanity’s enduring wisdom traditions. Granted, he is a highly intelligent leader who deliberately surrounds himself with the best talent he can find. But significantly, he is also a “natural” – one who radiates the vitality and confidence to live true to himself, one who trusts his natural gut instincts.

Deeper than mere philosophy, DJT projects the presence of someone instinctively attuned to our common Source. His call for Unity in the spirit of humility and gratitude rings authentic and true to my ears.

His first words were inclusive.

It’s about US – OUR victory. Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division. To all Republicans and Democrats and Independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people. It’s time. I pledge to every citizen of this land that I will be president for all Americans. And this is so important to me.

He continued:

For those of you who have chosen not to support me in the past – of which there were a few people – I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great country.

He added:

As I’ve said from the beginning, ours was not a campaign but rather an incredible and great movement made up of millions of hard working men and women who love their country and want a better, brighter future for themselves and for their families. It’s a movement comprised of Americans from all races, backgrounds, religions and beliefs who want and expect our government to serve the people – and serve the people it will.

What I heard is the voice of a dedicated servant leader, in stark contrast to finger-pointing opponents who have boldly and corruptly violated the responsibilities of public office to enrich themselves and brainwash the public – notably gullible young people — with divisive political-speech.

He observed:

I’ve spent my entire life in business looking at the untapped potential in projects and in people all over the world. That is now what I want to do for our country. Tremendous potential.

Ah. Here is language that acknowledges the E = energy middle level of the Life Wheel, welcome to my ears. He is in touch where his opponents are not with inner levels of the Life Wheel. Energy potential, though invisible, is very real indeed. It is the generator of true wealth.

I’ve gotten to know our country so well. Tremendous potential. It’s going to be a beautiful thing. Every single American will have the opportunity to realize his or her fullest potential. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.

This is the view of a world citizen, a voice of good-will, universal respect and self-actualization. It is neither new agey nor hocus pocos to those who understand the heart of enduring wisdom traditions.

He promised:

We will embark upon a project of national growth and renewal. I will harness the creative talents of our people and we will call upon the best and brightest to leverage their tremendous talent for the benefit of all. It’s going to happen.

Significantly, he concluded:

I want to tell the world community that while we will always put America’s interests first, we will deal fairly with everyone. With everyone. All people and all other nations. We will seek common ground, not hostility. Partnership, not conflict.

This got my heart-felt YES! Here at last is a voice of the genuine Common Sense called for in my work.

It accords with the compassionate, common sense vision I sought to express in creating this composite image of Einstein’s compass superimposed on the concentric circles of the Life Wheel, quickening the globe of Planet Earth from within. My common sense survival meme, if you will, speaks to humanity’s common origin, universal values and shared interests.

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Perhaps deeper than the President-Elect consciously knows (or even needs to), his words ring true across the full continuum of the Life Wheel.

BUT: here is the danger whereof I spoke earlier. Many people, due to a host of unfortunate circumstances, live primarily on the shallow surface of the Life Wheel. They haven’t the depth to recognize or respect what,  for whatever reason, they’ve forgotten. Worse, some, unintentionally or otherwise, live at odds with inner truth. They will continue to spin, distort and attempt to delegitimize DJT’s victory for the people of the world. They will definitely stir up unnecessary conflict to destabilize the world, as if to prevent his best intentions from coming True.

Prior to the election, thanks to the persistence and personal sacrifices of Julian Assange, people worldwide were exposed to the depths of government corruption, including treasonous influence pedaling, satanic pedophilia and – Einstein’s worst nightmare – unconscionable provocation of nuclear war.

Thanks to valiant reporters operating outside the globalist corporate-dominated media, voters in this election were given the opportunity to see through the double-speak – recognizing the stark choice they were being offered, literally between good and evil.

For there is an archetypal, ancient war going on, not between nations, but far deeper, between those within every nation who affirm LIFE and those who destroy it.

Like every other value word in the English language, evil has been abused, confused, and ladened with nonsense spin. But the point I’m making here is based on science elsewhere explained at length.

For example, in How Bad People Become Leaders, I showed how the Life Wheel is fragmented into a functional picture of evil:

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As explained, in this picture of evil, the concentric levels representing body, energy/emotions, mind and spirit operate out of synch, each disassociated from the others. The smallest circle which represents Conscience floats outside, detached from daily experience.

In this context, Trump’s clarion call to restore Unity to the United States is given depth and urgency. Agents  of evil will predictably do their utmost to undermine all he seeks to accomplish. We must steadfastly refuse to be fooled or intimidated, choosing to stay the creative course of growth and renewal. The forces of destiny at work today are infinitely greater than any human individual. It is vitally important to see the results of the election from this larger perspective and to support America’s President Elect, mindful of all that is at stake.

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God speed you in your chosen role as a messenger of unity and hope, Donald J. Trump. May God and his good angels protect, guide and bless you in all things, always.

Rethinking COMMUNITY

For years now, the same familiar pattern repeats. Whenever I decide I’m finished with writing, something comes along to make me rethink my decision. Two such events triggered today’s post. One was a thought-provoking article, “Mindfulness, Behavior and Social Change” by Mark Leonard, Director/Mindfulness Trainer at the Oxford’s Mindfulness Exchange.

I responded with a question: I’ve often thought about the possibility of building intentional communities, despite the evidence that experiments in the past have not always worked out well. Any thoughts on the subject?

In fact, I had mentally sketched but not followed-through on an article about intentional communities based on my connection with Spring Green and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Fellowship. It was an example which, for many important reasons, I would not recommend following.

He replied: I suspect an intentional community needs a suite of conditions including contemporary analogs of functions which hold traditional societies together. I think that mindfulness meditation could play a part here.

The basic axioms listed in The Positive Paradigm Handbook are my recommended contribution to this cohesive foundation. They were fatally lacking in the Spring Green experiment.

Coincidently, these axioms were the reason for accepting an invitation from Swami Narasimhananda to submit an article to Prabuddha Bharata, a journal devoted to the social sciences and humanities started by Swami Vivekananda and in continuous publication since 1896.  [See When Conflict Escalates, What Can Be Done NOW? ]

Timing being everything, I had decided a few hours earlier to list them there in the context of rethinking leadership, family and community based on timeless wisdom traditions.

My interest is based on the observation made in The Age of Heretics (Charles Krone) that when chaos enveloped the civilized European world, monasteries appeared during the dark ages as islands of purposeful community — centers of learning, healing and hospitality. Similarly, monasteries of refuge from barbarism appeared in Asian lands during particularly harsh historical times.

This dynamic seems highly relevant today, for, as Mark Leonard details in his article, the world is surely sinking into another dark ages. Intentional communities may once again become the necessary counter-balance of positive change — the means for ensuring human survival, which, as Einstein warned us, can no longer be taken for granted.

So for starters, from Conscience: Your Ultimate Personal Survival Guide, here are my original thoughts on community. It forms a hopeful basis for rethinking intentional communities. Although my frame of reference for thinking about the dynamics of change is the Chinese Book of Change, resonance with the immediately popular mindfulness movement will be immediately apparent.

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Essay 14. COMMUNITY

“We can create communities and relationships that are based on love and intimacy rather than fear and hatred. We can learn from the suffering of others. Awareness is the first stage in healing. . . Likewise, we can create a new model of medicine as we move into the next century that is more competent and cost-effective as well as being more caring and compassionate.” — Dean Ornish, Love and Survival

“As we accept the smallness of the world, the density of the population, and the myriad influences on individuals and families, someday we may recognize the community and even the whole society as the patient. Imagine, then, what a “doctor of society” might do, what kinds of diseases he or she might treat!” — Patch Adams, Gesundheit!

“Each celestial body, in fact each and every atom, produces a particular sound on account of its movement, its rhythm or vibration. All these sounds and vibrations form a universal harmony in which each element, while having its own function and character, contributes to the whole.” – Pythagoras, quoted in The Healing Power of Sound 

THE FRONT

Community stems from a root word meaning fellowship. In English, the word refers to all the people living in a particular district or city. It can also mean a group of people living together as a smaller social unity within a larger one, and having interests or work in common, such as a college community.

Alternatively, it can refer to a group of nations loosely or closely associated because of common traditions or for political and economic advantage. It also covers similarity of tastes and preferences. The last definition Webster’s gives is the condition of living with others in friendly association and fellowship. The last definition has come full circle back to original meaning.

Communities are founded on a common cause. It can be as practical as survival or idealistic as freedom. Often, community cohesion is artificially stimulated by fear and hatred of a common enemy. Hitler inflamed passions against Jews and foreign bankers to mobilize his war-weary country into a second world war even more devastating than the first. Then Americans rallied behind the common goal of defeating enemies of democracy on two fronts, Asia and Europe.

In Common Sense, Thomas Paine wrote about the relationship of divine, natural and human law in a way that inspired readers at the time of the American Revolution to fight for freedom from tyranny. Winning that war did not, however, automatically secure freedom for all times. Democracy isn’t a static achievement that can be passed on unchanged from one generation to the next. It must renewed and earned again, one individual at a time, each generation at a time, continuously redefined in the context of immediate circumstances.

Nor can the structures of American-style democracy be imposed by force, whole, from the outside, on peoples whose beliefs are shaped by vastly different cultural influences. It is the common respect of life and liberty, not external forms, which is universally translatable. The music of life that moves every organization, smallest to largest, is the basis of harmonious fellowship. Approaching natural law and social organizations from the deeper understanding of the ancients could inspire a new, more humane and effective approach to international relations now, one based timeless values which the human community shares in common.

Sages say that freedom from tyranny begins with dispelling ignorance and overcoming negative emotions. True freedom and stable communities begin with the self-awareness and self-mastery which can be gained by diligent use of wisdom tools like the I Ching. First remembering the core of compassion and caring within, we can then extend and expand this good-will into healing society as well.

Put another way, it’s useless to fight for a democratic world before one cleans out the inner swamp of negative emotions. Since inner life projects into external experience, fighting tyranny in the turmoil of anger and hatred reaps results in kind. Therefore, working to establish positive community relationships before attitudes of good-will and willing self-discipline are established is a futile exercise. As Covey reminds us, first things must come first.

Conversely, the more individuals free themselves from personal problems, the more they become open to the calling to community and able to play their part in the harmony of the natural whole.

THE BACK

Street gangs, terrorist groups, religious cults and secret societies are subgroups within the larger community. To the extent that their goals oppose and even endanger the community at large, these organizations are antithetical to the general good.

Pariahs, nomads and outcasts [heretics!] are individuals excluded from society, either voluntarily or by edict. Whether justified or not, their attitudes and behavior are out of harmony with accepted norms. If enough of them find common cause to band together, they form alternative groups which become the foundation of new communities.

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Put the Common Core Back in Common Core

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“Restore the Common Core” is packed with implications for education and, ultimately, human survival.

For those who haven’t been following articles posted on rethinkingsurvival.com over the past year, here’s a brief summary of the concepts embedded in the Life Wheel.

arrow bulletThe Positive Paradigm of Change is a model equally compatible with the perennial philosophy embodied in the world’s enduring wisdom traditions and with modern science. It serves to bridge the gap between religion and science.

arrow bulletThe Life Wheel with its concentric circles and central, unifying hub pictures the multi-level structure of creation. This form is repeats throughout nature, from smallest to largest. It pictures the organization of snowflakes, each unique in form but identical in basic structure. It pictures the rings which orbit the nucleus of each atom as well as the planets which circle our sun.

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These circles correspond with the three variables of Einstein’s formula, e = mc2. Ironically he had the Unified Theory, but for lack of yoga background, didn’t know it. Briefly, the levels include the material outermost level of observable, measurable, tangible objects, then a middle level associated with energy (chi, prana) and emotions. Still deeper resides a level associated with light. It correlates with the experience of intuition or guidance. All three depend on the Source of Light – the unchanging silent Eternal, beyond duality and therefore beyond words.

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These levels are not actually separate. They function as an interrelated and interdependent whole, linked in an infinite, two-directional in- and out-breathing loop. Those who experience this whole succeed in integrating the levels of daily life with conscience. Those who separate the levels, who ignore some at the expense of others, prioritize levels incorrectly, or place them in conflict, will eventually find themselves in deep trouble.

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This universal concept can be pointed like a laser beam in any direction to illumine the field. For example, the three levels of the Life Wheel correspond with three levels of law: human, natural and divine. This relationship is acknowledged in the Declaration of Independence, which refers to the laws of Man, Nature and Nature’s God.

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A second example explains differing types of intelligence. On the surface, intelligence which divides and argues (using and/or abusing the tools of reason and logic) is measured by the standard of IQ. More recently, it has become fashionable to speak of EQ, or emotional intelligence associated with the middle, energy level. Deeper still is the intelligence described as intuition or inspiration. All these center around a common core which can be called “Conscience.”

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A third example is the use of the Wheel as a linguistic tool. Most words shift meanings depending the level of experience they describe. In the example shown here, the popular concept “Common Sense” shifts meanings with each level of the Wheel. When the levels are linked and experienced as a continuum, Common Sense partakes equally of intuition, gut feeling and sound reasoning.

Now, how is it that this Unified and potentially Unifying Theory gains so little public traction? It begs the question to simply say that many people, for a multitude of reasons, are too highly invested in the status quo. Given the life threatening circumstances that confront us, why is there still such powerful resistance to a return to what the wisest among us have consistently taught from the beginnings of time? Where is the method to the madness?

In partial answer, I offer excerpts from earlier works. The first spells out just how important paradigms are. They make the difference between success and failure, ultimately between survival and extinction. The second excerpt suggests there are deeper dimensions at play. After these two excerpts, I’ll apply all of the above to the restoring the true, eternal Common Core to the progressive/Marxist political/educational curriculum inappropriately called Common Core.

globe bullet sizeWHY PARADIGMS MATTER

Ideas drive results. People’s beliefs color their feelings, triggering basic emotions which in turn drive their actions.

Actions that stem from a simple, complete and accurate paradigm result in personal fulfillment, harmonious relationships, and economic prosperity.

Actions based on false, incomplete and inaccurate paradigms, however well intended or passionately defended, are the cause of widespread misery, suffering and deprivation.

A fatal information deficit explains the worldwide leadership deficit and related budget deficits.

In a dangerous world where psychological and economic warfare compete with religious extremism and terrorism to undo thousands of years of incremental human progress, a healing balance is urgently needed.

Restoring a simple, complete and accurate paradigm of leadership and relationships now could make the difference between human survival on the one hand, and the extinction of the human race (or the end of civilization as we know it), on the other.

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ALIEN INVADERS

Alien invaders infiltrating Planet Earth, weakening humans to eventually take over and enslave them, is a familiar theme in science fiction. For example, in his various incarnations, Dr. Who — television’s time traveler — continuously detects nefarious alien plots and rescues heedless humans from annihilation.

Current events indicate there’s considerable truth cloaked in that science “fiction.” Starting with the premise that hidden alien enemies are covertly scheming to undermine humanity, ask, “How would they set about to destroy us?” Logically, they’d create chaos, setting everyone at each others’ throats. They’d trick humans into mutual self-destruction by stirring up dissension and fragmenting their governments.

It’s an absolute priority for evil aliens to attack the mind. Their agents will do whatever it takes to pollute your mind. They confuse it with false paradigms. They clutter and distract it with the ongoing media circus. Every doubt planted in your mind, causing you to forget who you are, to disbelieve in your ultimate origins and creative potentials, is a victory for the dark side.

To totally undermine humanity, atheism is a must. The unifying beliefs which hold families and nations together and fortify them in times of adversity must be destroyed at all costs. Again, how would this be accomplished?

For one thing, language which makes communication and community-building possible would have to be polluted beyond repair. In the English language, for example, every value word has devolved to mean both one thing and its opposite. So people often talk at cross purposes, unaware that they’re missing each other coming and going.

Divide and conquer. Pit each group against the others. It matters not to them which side wins. Let Sharia law advocates, members of Putin’s Eurasian Union and American exceptionalists squander their precious resources duking it out. If they destroy each other and no one’s left, so much the better.

Alien invaders delight in cheating. They stack the deck, gumming up the works with lies and disinformation driven by dysfunctional paradigms.

If you accept the game and its rules as alien agents define them and proceed to rebel against uncivil authorities, mindlessly hating and resisting, YOU LOSE. (Alien invaders win.)

If you give all your attention to what other guys are doing wrong, playing the role of contrarian, YOU LOSE. (Alien invaders win.)

If you quit on humanity and live only for yourself, leading a life of self-centered indulgence, YOU LOSE. (Alien invaders win.)

If you persist in thinking narrowly in terms of political interests and institutions, not human survival, YOU LOSE. (Alien invaders win big time.)

The only chance of winning — ultimately, surviving — is to demand a new, clean, unmarked deck, one with all the cards. In other words, make a fresh start based on an accurate, complete Positive Paradigm.

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My younger brother once riddled me, “How many legs does a donkey have if you call it’s tail a leg?”

His solution: “Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.”

Even so, tacking the label “Common Core” on a curriculum doesn’t guarantee that the substance includes the basics on any level of the Life Wheel. Logic and reasoning skills are deficient; emotional intelligence is insulted, not enhanced; the existence of divine law is excluded, if not ridiculed, as an option.

It’s a matter of human survival to take back the language. Then restore accepted access to the true, eternal Common Core as part of a genuine, complete and accurate education in the true meaning of the word – “leading from darkness to light.”

Conform: Exposing The Truth About Common Core And Public Education by Glenn Beck & team places the political/educational monstrosity called Common Core directly in the camp of the evil aliens described above. They start with the premise, “Information is power. Those without it have nothing. Those with it will always have CONTROL.” They state:

The dumbing-down of America is good for one group and one group only: those who currently have all the power and control. By maintaining a failing system they are forcing a collapse that will have only one “savior”: the federal government. And that’s exactly how they want it.

They continue:

We now stand at the precipice. On one side is the complete nationalization of education and complete loss of local and parental control. On the other side is a complete educational revolution – one that is rooted in individuality and that follows the principle of “maximum freedom, maximum responsibility.”

Sadly, 180 + pages of Conform are dedicated to argument and expose. Less than 30 pages are dedicated to solutions. And these, unfortunately, are limited exclusively to political measures. The most fundamental problem, the lack of a complete and accurate, unifying paradigm is neither acknowledged nor addressed. Deeper underlying origins of conflict as well as the source of genuinely positive solutions are overlooked.

Yet restoring the unifying basics of the perennial philosophy – the True COMMON CORE experienced as COMMON SENSE – an experience equally available to everyone, everywhere – is what might (just might) turn the tide of human history, tipping the balance in favor of human survival.

What Glenn Beck & company has exposed is a radically dangerous situation that calls for opposite and equally radical (truly radical) solutions.

Herein lies the opportunity hidden in dangerous times. In larger context, material resources aren’t that significant when compared with the intelligence, inner strength and inexhaustible vitality available to those whom circumstances oblige to return to the less tangible but very real levels of inner experience.

The disenfranchised (whose numbers increase exponentially with each passing day) experience the results of the prevailing materialistic, conflict-paradigm as catastrophic. They no longer have vested interests in the status quo to protect. They are the ones most likely to find the courage to move forward once again into the past, recovering the timeless treasures buried deep within the perennial philosophy of the world’s enduring wisdom traditions.

Now, as when Christ walked the Earth, the true fundamentalists and radicals (both words mean the same thing!) aren’t members of conflicting extremist groups who meddle with events on the material surface of life’s wheel. They are highly motivated individuals with the vision and determination to change themselves from the inside out. Their shining examples have a ripple effect, gaining momentum through time and space.

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* N.B. The current trend towards disempowerment of the masses is prelude to oppression and tyranny on an unprecedented scale. Co-opting education in the guise of Common Core, turning public school children into Nazi-cloned, obedient zombies, is one piece of a much larger puzzle. Attacks on Second Amendment rights is another. See: http://writerbeat.com/articles/4737-Should-civilians-be-allowed-quot-military-style-quot-guns-

Savvy Leaders Go with the Flow

We’ve all familiar with the phrase, “Go with the flow.” It’s another way of saying, “Timing is everything.” But how does it apply to the leader selection process? That’s the final, forth factor Mike Lehr of Omega Z Advisors invited me to comment on. Earlier, he wrote:

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When I look at events, I see four major forces: circumstances, flow, people and leader. From my perspective, you wrote about the last two. [See “Scientists and Sages Can Agree on This,” wp.me/p46Y5Z-8W and “How Bad People Become Leaders,” wp.me/p46Y5Z-9B.] I’m asking about the first two.

The third factor has already been covered in a responsive blog. [See “Do Circumstances Influence Leader Selection?” wp.me/p46Y5Z-be.] That leaves the fourth major force influencing leader selection – flow.

Though I often describe flow as timing, my view is more from the I Ching on this. So, my question to you is this: Would being at different points in the I Ching cycle produce different leaders?

To summarize, I often ask people this question: If everyone suddenly awoke not knowing who they were and not remembering how they came to be where they are (if we could reset life), would the same leaders arise that we have now?

In fact, the Book of Change was traditionally consulted as a method of telling time. According to Conscience: Your Ultimate Personal Survival Guide:

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. . . the I Ching works like a cosmic clock, telling us the time. In the Old Testament, King Solomon expressed the natural, rhythmic alternations of time in poetic form: “To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”

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The Book of Change puts its users in touch with these pulsating, alternating rhythms of life. It connects them with inner knowing – call it intuition or conscience – that anticipates approaching changes, the better to prepare for what is to come.

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The Common Sense Book of Change explains it this way:

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This text is called the Book of Change because its readings sum up the natural laws of change. They reflect stages through which daily events evolve in predictable cyclical patterns.

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These patterns can be drawn on any scale from smallest to largest. For example, they might express the seconds which add up to a minute, or the minutes which complete an hour on the face of the clock.

compass clock

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What most leaders fail to take into account, however, is that the different hands of this cosmic clock return to the twelve o’clock alpha-omega compass point of True North at different rates of speed. By analogy, successful leaders have an overview of the complex point in time where their organizations currently stand, as well as the ultimate direction in which they’re headed.

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Unfortunately, short-sighted leaders see only the second- or, at best, the minute-hand of the clock, mistakenly assuming they see the whole picture. They remain sadly unaware of the larger context, oblivious to the long-term hour.

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For example, the fast-moving second-hand of the cosmic clock may point due North towards the zenith point of twelve o’clock and the intermediate-speed minute-hand point to 12:15. All the while, unobserved, the slowest-moving hour-hand may point towards the nadir, due South at six o’clock.

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Short-sighted leaders miscalculate. Their timing is dangerously off. For example, when they act as if prosperity is never-ending (or else just around the corner) when in fact a depression of unprecedented proportions is looming ahead like an “unforeseen” iceberg, they’re unwittingly leading unprepared followers into a disaster of Titanic proportion.

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To continue with Plato’s earlier “leader as charioteer” image, successful executives must be capable of harnessing the opposite forces of expansion and contraction, the yin-yang pair of white and black horses. If these energies are not reined in and balanced, they can tear whole nations apart, steering them off-course into self-destruction, either consumed by the sun or else smashed to smithereens below. [See “Know When to Mistrust Inner Voices,” wp.me/p46Y5Z-aR.]

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Those versed in the dynamics of I Ching yin-yang opposites know that each extreme generates its polar opposite. For example, extreme inflation inevitably triggers an opposite and equal extreme of deflation. Extremes of extravagant waste on the part of a few predictably lead to wide-spread deprivation and misery for the many.

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But how do the basics of flow apply to leader selection today? As discussed earlier, it depends on who the selectors are. For example, in biblical times, when the Egyptian Pharaoh had disturbing warning dreams which he couldn’t fathom, he had the humility (prudence) to seek out those wiser in such matters. He took the advice of a cup-bearer, formerly a prisoner, whose release and good fortune was foretold by an unjustly incarcerated fellow prisoner named Joseph.

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Joseph not only recognized the meaning of the Pharaoh’s warning dreams, but proved to be a skillful administrator. During the sunny cyclical time of prosperity, he advised on how best to meet the approaching shadow cycle of downturn with its specter of drought, famine and starvation. Given the responsibility to oversee collection of grain during times of plenty, he steered his people towards survival. (Joseph was what in modern parlance is called a “prepper.”)

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Unfortunately, most leader selectors have less humility. When they have bad dreams, they’re less likely to seek out the modern day equivalent of a Joseph to reap the benefits of inner signals. [See “Therapists as Agents of Positive Change,” wp.me/p46Y5Z-bA.]

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Disregarding disturbing signals coming from every direction, they’re more likely to listen to feel-good gurus who get rich by telling them whatever they want to hear. “Everything will be okay. Be Happy. Don’t Worry.”

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Unfortunately, repeating positive mantras can’t alter the patterned flow of events. As irresponsible leaders across the globe continue to lead their followers into war, playing political chess from their plush, comfortable offices, eating, drinking and making merry at others’ expense, the Titanic ship of Planet Earth continues on its fateful collision course towards disaster.

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In fact, as Old Avatar warns, at this late date in the flow of time, we’re not only approaching a Near Extinction Level Crisis (NELC). We’re already in its midst. The extreme outcome will surpass even the dangers foreseen by Plato or dreamed of by Pharaoh — more along the lines of the four-horsed apocalypse of biblical prophecy.

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Today’s savvy and responsible leaders — those with the prudent humility of a Pharaoh to recognize that they aren’t equipped to analyze warnings and prepare to survive approaching dangers — would do well to seek out and select those wiser than themselves and heed their prepper advice. The survival of their beloved children and grandchildren (which, as Einstein warned us, can no longer be taken for granted) hangs in the balance.

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Mike asked, hypothetically, If we could reset the clock to the zero hour and make a clean start, would the same leaders emerge? The ones he’s hoping might arise are already there, allbeit waiting in the wings. I’ve been hinting as much in recent tweets. “The presence of true masters is only suspected. Lao Tze 17.”

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The introduction of Two Sides of a Coin: Lao Tze’s Common Sense Way of Change quotes Passage 18, which echoes the Bhagavad Gita’s premise that at the nadir of historical cycles, true leaders come forward for the instruction and deliverance of troubled truth seekers:

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When countries degenerate into strife, / anarchy sets in.

When danger peaks, however, / heroes emerge / and come forward.

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In this context, the more realistic question is, Would a better leader selection process produce better results? That’s the immediate challenge facing today’s leader selectors.

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As for how timing influences leader selection, Lao Tze gives this answer:

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78.

Nothing under heaven is as soft,

receptive or pliant as water;

but when amassed,

nothing withstands

its tidal wave impact.

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As water penetrates

and dissolves the hard,

erodes and absorbs the rigid,

those who yield and encompass their foes

prevail long after evil doers

have disappeared.

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Like water,

the sage takes the world’s suffering

to heart,

endures its hardships,

and responsive to the times,

becomes the catalyst

of collective action.

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So it is that the low and high trade places,

and the forceful lose their influence;

this is known by many,

but practiced by few.

The Only Way Out Is Through

The back cover of Conscience: Your Ultimate Personal Survival Guide sums it up:


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The Positive Paradigm Handbook — a practical, bare bones work book — offers the following, abbreviated description of the middle, energy level of the Positive Paradigm Wheel of Change. **

The dangers of this level cannot be underestimated. Understandably, without a reliable road map and a keen sense of purpose and commitment, the middle level seems frightfully laden with traps to ensnare the uninformed and reckless. Hence the Fateful Fear of Self-Awareness. (See wp.me/p46Y5Z-aK.)

However, its value cannot be underestimated either. Armed with the skills and insight to use the necessary powers associated with this level wisely, courageous pioneers of the inner worlds can achieve success in every area of their lives.

To avoid the dangers of getting stuck in the middle level, mired in the traps of delusions and negative emotions, it’s critically important to have an accurate and complete reality map. The purpose of pushing through this level is ultimately to reach the far side, the abode of intuition and light, the storehouse of infinite treasure. But, as told of The Chapel Perilous, “The Only Way Out Is Through.”

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e. Energy. Much ignorance, misinformation and confusion surrounds the energy level of the Positive Paradigm. The state of chaos into which the world has degenerated attests to this deficiency, as well as the urgent need to correct it. Only the basics are described here, suggestive of further exploration.

The middle level is the domain of natural law, whose dynamics are mapped in the Chinese I Ching, the Book of Change. This body of knowledge has evolved over eight thousand years as sages continue to observe the operations of energy and document the repetitive patterns of change.

Natural law maps the energetic underpinnings of the dynamic, physical world. It is experienced as the patterned recurring cycles of seasonal change, and is equally applicable to humans and their cyclical life changes: birth, growth, decay and death.

The middle layer is the realm of less tangible but still measurable states of energy, including electricity. More subtly, it is the chi, ki or prana described by Chinese, Japanese and Indian traditions as the life force which animates all living beings. In Greek and Christian contexts it correlates with the breath, the psyche.

These subtle energies influence internal psychological states and drive external human behavior, which in turn affects social relationships. Knowledge of these dynamics is essential to personal survival.

Effective leadership and the quality of life within organizations hinge on the quality of awareness brought to dynamics at this level. While some leaders understand the dynamics of change at a gut level as a matter of common sense, systematic logic and deliberate understanding would significantly improve the results of the decision-making process.

Those denied access to material and social resources are often forced inside. Of necessity, turning inward, they develop and depend for survival upon strengths drawn from the middle and center of the Wheel.

At times, material deprivation and hardships yield the opposite and equal blessings of in-sight and emotional fortitude. At other times, however, excessive investment at the middle level results in delusions, latent with the potential for erupting into violence.

In any case, making a virtue of necessity by rejecting the material world prevents completion of the pattern. It can’t correctly be equated with spirituality.

Cultures which enforce an exclusively materialistic worldview and deny the experience of everything not tangible and measurable place severe hardships on those whose inner lives are especially active. The Handbook gives ample opportunities to diagnose such imbalances, the better to remedy them.

Societies that deny their citizens practical outlets for articulating and harnessing inner energies creatively can literally drive people crazy, to suicide, or at best, underground. Many “sensitives” survive by channeling socially banned, unacceptable awareness and longing for self-fulfilling adventure into the arts: music and literature, including romance, murder mysteries and science fiction.

This is a great loss to society. The world would be far better off if high-energy, creative individuals were identified as potential leaders, trained and given employment options accordingly.

** Educators, therapists and theologians interested in detailed applications to their particular professions are referred to the more complete description provided in Rethinking Survival: Getting to the Positive Paradigm of Change.

Rethinking SCIENCE – Does yours explain all the facts?

 

PositiveParadigmWheel

21. SCIENCE

The achievement of decipherment . . . required painstaking analysis and sound judgment, but at the same time an element of genius, the ability to take a leap in the dark, but then to find firm ground on the other side. Few discoveries are made solely by the process of logical deduction. At some point the researcher is obliged to chance a guess, to venture an unlikely hypothesis; what matters is whether he can control the leap of imagination, and have the honesty to evaluate the results soberly. – John Chadwick, quoted in The Man Who Deciphered Linear B

 

Skinner argued for the intelligent and hopefully humane use of reinforcement theory to direct the course of the individual’s and the society’s development. . . freedom and choice are mere illusions. . . Rogers argued that freedom and choice were not illusory but real phenomena, and that a science that dehumanizes the individual and attempts to control human development paves the way for dictators and despots to move society inexorably toward a totalitarian, Orwellian future. — Kirschenbaum & Henderson, The Carl Rogers Reader

 

The genome alphabet does not tell you the full story. . . we are no way closer to understanding the real questions of life, which are, Do we have a soul? Where do we come from? What is insight? What is imagination? What is intention? What is intuition? What is inspiration? What is creativity? What is knowingness? What is understanding? What is free will? — Deepak Chopra, transcript, Larry King Live Interview

 

THE FRONT

The tacit implication of the first definition, with knowledge, suggests living what one knows, not mere theories or words. With knowledge suggests a full-spectrum continuum of awareness, not just rational thought that blocks off sub-rational experience and drowns out the super-rational music that sings from deep inside.

Unfortunately, the practice of inspired science, religions and philosophy inevitably degenerates over time, departing from the vision of original founders. Sadly, verbal codifications of partial knowledge used as guidelines for decision-making and behavior are poor substitutes for inner experience.

Truth seekers soon become aware that what un-in-formed authorities claim in the name of one system or another isn’t necessarily so.

Einstein’s famous e=mc2 formula is an accepted statement of the two-directional relationship of light, energy, and mass. It’s the physics equivalent of divine, natural and human law. This relationship, known and practiced by Taoist masters for thousands of years, is the logical foundation of an urgently needed comprehensive epistemology — meaning prevailing rules of the knowledge game that set limits on who may know what, and how.

In the comprehensive Positive Paradigm approach to science, the inner energy and light components of Einstein’s formula are approached without sentimentality, religious bias or superstition as simply The Way It IS. This worldview accepts the complete meaning of “science” as “with knowledge,” which includes not only the tangible, measurable objects of the material surface of life’s wheel, but the subtle energetic dynamics and causal origins of all the physical eyes see as well.

Ironically, tragic abuse of Einstein’s discovery may have been a necessary prelude to popular dissemination of holistic sciences. For those who must see something to believe it, an atomic bomb explosion is dramatic proof that releasing energies of a subtle sort can produce very tangible, powerful results.

The potentials for transformation embedded in medical DNA technologies and still deeper within the change sciences that are now being made public after being guarded for millennia as the secret treasures of esoteric inner temples will bring upliftment OR destruction depending on how responsibly and wisely they are used. Let the abuse of Einstein’s inspiration serve as warning.

Our challenge is to use the knowledge implicit in subtle sciences not for economic/political advantage or physical destruction, but for personal transformation that serves the common good, remembering that every leap of faith depends on deep honesty and common sense to ground the fruits of genius in the practical here and how. Science is a blessing when we live with knowledge, incorporating it as wisdom that enriches daily life. Abused as a means to conquer and control, it becomes a curse.

THE BACK

The complement of science is conscience. Empirical science depends on observation of tangible things and on rational thought. Conscience doesn’t. It’s instantaneous knowing, received in stillness. Direct connection with the higher mind/will implies profound responsibility to act as an instrument of greater purpose.

Prejudice and superstition are perversions of science. Rigid defense of rational “science” can take on the characteristics of irrational prejudice. When people’s minds are tainted by the whims of personal ambition, appetites and fears, subject to sensory stimulation without the mitigating influence of conscience, their words may sound logical, their acts appear rational. But they’re not.

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John Chadwick, quoted by Andrew Robinson in The Man Who Deciphered Linear G: the Story of Michael Ventris.. (Thames & Hudson: New York, 2002). p. 14.

The Carl Rogers Reader, ed Kirschenbaum & Henderson. (Houghton Mifflin: New York, 1989.) p. 261.

Depak Chopra, Larry King Live Interview, aired June 26, 2000. cnn.com/transcripts.

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