Secrecy Is The Original Sin

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Secrecy is the Original Sin. The fig leaf in the Garden of Eden. The basic crime against love. The purpose of life is to receive, synthesize and transmit energy. Communication fusion is the goal of life. Any star can tell you that. Communication is love. Secrecy, withholding the signal, hoarding, covering up the light is motivated by shame and fear.”
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I encountered the above quote from Timothy Leary through an article in Reality Sandwich entitled A Supraterranean Manifesto.  Supraterranean is an on-line magazine where people can freely publish any type of creative work without having to go through the usual editorial process.  In the manifesto the magazine's creator, Nick Meador, chronicles his own amazing journey. 

Perhaps it hit me when Time Magazine named their 2006 Person of the Year - YOU. It was so simple, so obvious. The decision must have been based largely on the runaway success of YouTube. By that time, many considered a night of watching "viral videos" and bootleg concert footage to be more rewarding than flipping channels on TV. Much else was changing about the ways we communicate and spend our free time and energy. But even that simple switch from passive to active media consumption was one that, I felt sure, would forever transform our society.

Through this manifesto Meador addresses much of the current cynicism about the influence of the World Wide Web on our personal, cultural and global evolution and allows the possibility of a radical new order emerging through that portal.  He talks about how his generation, disillusioned by the "reality" that was being presented to them through mainstream media - institutions, marketers, advertisers and editors - found the communication and connection they were craving on the Web.  Moved by this personal revelation, he began looking more deeply into traditional journalism and publishing practices and did not like what he found.

For too long the creative instinct has been bottled up to make human beings into consumer robots. I see now that I wanted to break the mold, while helping existing robots (myself included) regain the optimal path.

This guy has certainly done his homework.  Drawing from such visionary minds as Freud, Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson, Henry Miller, Neitzsche, Robert Anton Wilson, Carl Jung and others, he developed a personal and professional philosophy which eventually found expression through Supraterranean.  It's a fascinating and compelling story and I cannot possibly do it justice by summarizing - you can read the full manifesto HERE.
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The Web allows people to project their mind in endless directions, at an unprecedented speed and distance. It’s a collective out-of-body experience that lets us share in each other’s daydreams – a new map of time-space to help to navigate the inner and outer cosmos.  On Supraterranean, we are all connected by the creations that people share with the community.
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“Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.”
– Doc Brown, Back to the Future
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A Simple Question

from Andrew Cohen, near the end of a talk entitled "The Miraculous Impulse to Evolve":

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Isn't the transformation of the world we are living in entirely and totally dependent on the changing of the individual at the level of consciousness - to move from self-obsession or extreme narcissism to care for the whole process itself at the deepest level?

Isn't our collective future in the end entirely dependent upon that?
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To hear the entire talk (in three parts) follow these links:
Part 1 - A Universe Without God
Part 2 - Enlightenment for the 21st Century
Part 3 - Partners in Creation

Rescue Yourself

Why you need to abandon your rescue fantasy

Dave Navarro has hit the nail on the head again.  Rescue fantasies are so subtle and insidious we seldom realize that we are buying into them, let alone being aware enough to look further and discover how we use them to shield ourselves from the brilliance of our own unlimited potential.

When we catch ourselves repeatedly using phrases like "if only..." or "someday..." or "when things are different...", those are cues that we are stuck in a rescue fantasy or wishful thinking.  We are convincing ourselves that there is something outside ourselves - something we think we don't have - that will make us happy.

When we cling to our rescue fantasy, we make life more difficult.

This excellent post by Dave links us to a blog post from Mahala Mazerov entitled Suffering by Desire, which starts:

At the most basic level, the definition of suffering is wanting things to be different than the way they are.

Abandoning the fantasy of some conditional future happiness connects us with the present moment, which already contains everything we need.  And this discovery brings a wonderful feeling of freedom and possibility as we realize that our happiness is in our own hands, that we can cultivate the practice of gratitude for everything we have right now.

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Seek not happiness too greedily, and be not fearful of happiness.
- Lao-tzu (604-531 BC)
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Rethinking the Human Narrative

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A video by Jeremy Rifkin
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Rifkin believes that humans are "soft-wired" not for aggression, violence, self-interest or utilitarianism but for such qualities as sociability, attachment, affection and companionship - and that the "first drive" is an empathic one - the drive to belong.

This really is an amazing video and a beautiful message.
 


Is it possible we could actually extend our empathy to the entire human race as an extended family and to our fellow creatures as part of our evolutionary family and to the biosphere as our common community?

What do you think?
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Boomeritis: A Postmodern Disease

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Boomeritis is a fascinating topic, particularly for those of us who experienced first-hand "the revolutionary fire of the sixties", but it has a dark side in terms of the evolution of human consciousness both individually and collectively.  This video goes to the heart of the complex and insidious relationship between consciousness and culture.  I found the comments by Cynthia, a retreat participant, particularly poignant...
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Here's how Tom Huston describes the phenomenon in Boomeritis: A Postmodern Disease:

Coined by philosopher Ken Wilber to describe a curious condition afflicting the baby boom generation, boomeritis means “high cognitive pluralism mixed with high emotional narcissism.” In other words: a smart, progressive person with a big ego.

Further on he adds: If there’s no higher authority than the postmodern self, then who is to say what is right or wrong, true or false, higher or lower? The truth is, with no ultimate authority and no hierarchy of values, there isn’t much left that can prevent the incessant battle cry of the human ego - “Nobody tells me what to do!"  - from having its way with all of postmodern life.

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Ken Wilber's novel Boomeritis is at once a hilarious adventure and a clear and accessible overview of the key concepts that form the foundation of his evolutionary teachings as well as those of Andrew Cohen and others.  I highly recommend it as a "primer" for a more in-depth exploration of the evolution of consciousness as presented by these amazing visionaries.  And (uncharacteristic of most of Wilber's writing) it's a naughty, delicious, laugh-out-loud romp that's delightfully easy to read and incredibly hard to put down.
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Here are some links:
Boomeritis: A Novel That Will Set You Free, by Ken Wilber    
Boomeritis & Me: Not Just a Book Review, by Elizabeth Debold   
Boomeritis: A Postmodern Disease, by Tom Huston    

RoadKill posts:
The Second Face of God - Part 2  
The Second Face of God - Part 3 
The Second Face of God - Part 4   
What Ever Happened to Truth?      
Spirit is Higher

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What would you do if you realized it was all up to you? What would you do if suddenly you realized that the entire evolution of the whole human race rested on your shoulders alone? What would you do? - Andrew Cohen
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Face Everything, Avoid Nothing

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from 11 Days at the Edge: one man's spiritual journey
into evolutionary enlightenment - by Michael Wombacher
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11 Days at the Edge is the author's amazing account of his experience during an 11-day retreat with Andrew Cohen in Montserrat, Spain.

Here is an excerpt from Day 8: Face Everything and Avoid Nothing.  Andrew Cohen is speaking:

“What does it really mean to face everything and avoid nothing? It means we have to ceaselessly inquire into the true nature of what it is that is motivating us to make the choices that we make. Do we have the humility to face into the aggressive and frighteningly selfish nature of many of our own actions? Do we have that kind of courage? Because if we refuse to face the darkest parts of ourselves, we will never be able to transcend them. Only if we truly want to be free more than anything else will we fnd the integrity of interest that will enable us to face everything and avoid nothing, no matter how diffcult or challenging it may be.

“But facing everything means facing everything, not only our darkest impulses. Facing everything means daring to face wholeheartedly into the infnite depth of our own Self, a depth that reveals a mystery so awe-inspiring that it simply cannot be imagined. But more often than not, we’re unwilling to face the profoundly liberating implications of our own potential because we’re simply not prepared to accept that which our mind cannot comprehend. Always living in denial of our darkness and ever fearful of the overwhelming brightness of our own unexplored heights, the inevitable result can only be mediocrity.”

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you know who I am,
you've stared at the sun,
well I am the one who loves
changing from nothing to one.
- Leonard Cohen
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