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14 Mar 2004 @ 16:00, by craiglang. Diary
According to traditional Christian teachings, the season of Lent is one of preparation and austerity. It is a time when the faithful prepare for the tragedy of the Cross, and the promise of the Resurrection. I thought about this in a slightly different way this morning, as I looked out the window at a gray March sky.
The first word that entered my mind, to describe the morning, was that very term, "austere". It was a bleak, blustery sky, with a cold wind out of the north. There were a few flakes of snow floating in the air. The brief flicker of spring warmth seemed to have been snuffed out by the chill resurgence of winter, a reminder that winter was not finished yet.
I have never considered myself a traditional follower of any religion, even though I was raised a Lutheran. But I was taught all the traditional teachings - including those about Lent. And somehow this day seemed to perfectly echo the traditional lenten theme - a time of sparseness and of preparation for the challenge and the hope that lies ahead.
I had been sick for most of Friday and Saturday, with a roaring sinus infection. It had forced me to miss a day of work at a time when our project is at it's busiest. It had also forced me to miss the monthly Minnisota MUFON UFO investigators meeting. And thus, I was not be able to give the talk I had put together (those who know me, will know that thngs have to be pretty extreme for me to miss a MUFON meeting... :-) ... ). All in all, it was a less than pleasant turn of events from what had eariler promised to be a fun and interesting weekend.
The day on Saturday was instead spent mostly asleep. When awake, it was occupied with sipping echinachea tea and trying not to feel too disappointed at the turn of events. It was a time of trying to stay focused in the present moment - and I realized that perhaps, this was the lesson that the Universe was trying to teach me on this day.
Maybe the point of the day was the necessity of avoiding attachment to outcomes. Maybe the lesson was once again, that of mindfulness. It was one of those lessons that each of us can espouse so easily, especially after reading books such as Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now". Yet when the chips are down, it can be so hard to actually put this wisdom into practice. Perhaps, I decided, the Universe felt that once again, I needed yet another lesson in how to be Mindful - and so this one came in the form of a sinus infection and a missed UFO investigators' meeting.
The next day, Sunday, I felt alot better - still a bit cruddy, but at least passably human. I managed to drain my sinuses by means of a hot shower (a small portable Roto-Rooter would have been nice), to eat breakfast and to get ready for Church. The sky was gray and depressing outside, and closely matched my mood. A very gray cloud hung over this human as he got dressed and ready.
A short time later, having eaten breakfast, Gwyn and I were off to church - with me looking forward to my usual nap during the sermon :-). But today, I was captured by the message in an entirely different way. The sermon was on Lent - a very brief(!) talk by the minister on the emptiness that seems to come in preparation for the Christian holy days. I smiled as the gears started turning in my mind (and as this article began to take shape).
One key point was that the time of preparation, then of pain, ends up as a time of resurrection and of hope. The master theme of the story is just this - that what, at one moment, may seem to be the most hopeless, can actually turn out to be our greatest joy. And this was the message that got my attention. And as the service ended, and a brief social hour began, my spirits felt trememdously uplifted by this thought.
As we stepped out of church and headed off to our next destination, a nearby lunch counter for after-church coffee and conversation, I noticed that the clouds had begun to part. The sun shone through the breaking cloud deck. Blue sky was starting to replace the gray of the morning. To me, it was as if somehow God was accenting the message I had just heard, that after darkness and gray comes hope and light.
I looked up at the sunburst and smiled as we got into the car. Life in the present moment can truly be sunny and beautiful. Read More
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10 Mar 2004 @ 21:56, by craiglang. Experiences
This evening, Gwyn and I attended a choir concert put on by the Jamestown College choir. This was a program of mideival through 19th century Russian-German religious music, presented at our church in Minneapolis. This choir has got to be one of the best I've heard in a long time. The music, sung both in German and in English, triggered the imagination and gave me somewhat of a feel of being a 19th century Russo-German.
The Russian-Germans were a protestant group of economic and religious refugee/settlers from Germany, who set up a series of religious settlements in Russia in the 19th century. They developed a very fertile musical heritage that carries through to this day. It was carried to the USA in the late 19th and early 20th century, and is prominent in the Dakotas and the Canadian plains provinces. Alas, the group that remained in Russia apparently ended up coming to grief during the Stalin era, when many of them perished. To read the blerb about their history in the program, and then listen to the music the choir sang, gave me an eerie, often sad sense of history.
It was very intersting to attend this concert, in the context of having attended the SF/Fantasy convention a few days before. In both, I got a sense of being in another place and time. It was a similar sense, even though the places and times were very much different. And yet, as I mentioned in the previous article, on the MarsCon SF Convo, at times there was a rennaisance fair flavor to some of it. So in that sense, the feeling was familiar, although nowhere near identical.
What this concert did show to me once again, was the hauntingly beautiful power that music can have to transport us to another place and time - be it past, present or future. Read More
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9 Mar 2004 @ 21:02, by craiglang. Diary
Each year, I attend one or more SF conventions, partly as a way to meet experiencers, partly as a way to drum up a little business - and yes, partly as a time to let the hair down and party a little bit. This year was no exception.
There were some unique elements to this year, however. As always, this was a weekend of creativity at its finest. yet it seemed to me that, even more so than in years past, there was a sense of free-association in the air. It was a sense similar to what I have noted at the Rennaisance festival, and other creative fairs. And it's power was an overwhelming joy to behold.
What I noticed was the variety of themes, all of which combined into a synergy of time-periods, and all rolled into one SF/Fantasty universe. Klingons, Babylon 5 characters, Knights and Fair Maidens, and many others from many assorted SF/Fantasty metaphors, all combined to make up a multiverse of creativity.
There was also a spiritual/emotional undertone to it, and this was what seemed to be the most impacting. There were several things at the convo - the music, drama, etc., that tugged at the heartstrings. And at the end of the last day I left with the feeling that one has when seeing an emotional drama of the heart.
The other thing that occurred, especially on the last day was a powerful emphasis on fostering further creativity. Several authors and publishers were there, giving workshops on writing characters, getting published, and other aspects of creating SF and fantasty as well as non-fiction. Many of us felt the stirrings of new (or perhaps previously-dormant) SF story-lines rattling around in our brains.
It was an encouraging time, and a refreshingly creative change of pace. For anyone who wants a pleasant escape from the workaday grind, and a neat creative outlet, I highly recommend a sci-fi con. They are a fun little piece of the universe beamed down to Earth.
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9 Mar 2004 @ 11:51, by craiglang. Articles
In the process of writing my article: "the Indigo Hypothesis" for the February MUFON Journal, I reread material from several researchers who have examined what it might be like to live in a psychic society. The pictures portrayed of life in such a society range from very postive, to very much less-so.
The darkest of these is probably from the author of the book "The Threat". In a number of remarks, both within the book, and in presentations at the international MUFON Symposium, etc., Dr. David Jacobs quotes descriptions by abductees, of what it seems to be like to be in the domain of the UFO/Close-Encounter phenomenon, and what it is like to be in frequent/continual psychic contact with the phenomenon. Dr. Jacobs draws some warnings about what it would be like to be in a psychic society, based upon what he has learned from the description of the phenomenal realm by many UFO abductees.
In verbal remarks at a past MUFON conference, more than one author portrayed a picture of a possible psychic society that was largely non-positive - principally because there would be no escape from it. To at least one author, the biggest downside of a psychic society would a large number of psychic voices - all audible to the mind, and of psychic ears that could hear your very thoughts. Like the Borg of Star Trek fame, or PSI-corps of the Babylon 5 world, we would be in some way collectivized or regimented. In short, unless one were somehow able to firewall off their own private thoughts and to partition public and private portions of one's mind, there would be little personal privacy.
Other authors are considerably more positive about the future of our mental/spiritual/psychic evolution. Authors such as Barbara Marx Hubbard in "Conscious Evolution", and Barbara Harris Whitfield in "Spiritual Awakening" present a much brighter picture of spiritual and psychic awakening. But in reading both of their books, I did not note them addressing this mental privacy issue which Dr. Jacobs and others have raised.
In a number of private conversations, people have suggested to me that the internet might be a prototype of the coming emergence of field consciousness. Could the internet be a model for a psychic society? What would the ramifications of this be?
I can think of upsides to this, but I can also think of some significant issues. On the positive side, it would allow perception of the human world around us much more clearly. A "broadband" view of human consciousness might (if used for benevolent purposes) be a very positive thing. In general, it is usually better to know more, rather than to know less.
The downside of the "internet" model however, is something that has been very prominent in recent times. The rapid ability to communicate with others allows us to send our thoughts all over the world on a moments notice. This can be positive, but it can also be quite negative.
At one time, in ages past, we wrote letters long-hand, sealed them with wax, and then posted them to our distant correspondants. Communication (especially written) was a relatively long, involved process, and allowed lots of time to think about what you had written, before sealing and sending it - in short, lots of time to count to 10. Now, as communications have tightened, this count-to-10 time has decreased more and more, until there is barely time to count at all... :-) Thus, as I have seen the growth of the internet over my adult lifetime, I have observed many positive and non-positive thoughts (as well as advertizements for penny stocks and anatomical enhancements, etc.) travelling the e-bandwidth at nearly the speed of light.
So, by extension, What would it be like if we were each connected to eachother: mind-to-mind. If someone didn't like you, for whatever reason, would you be continually exposed to their non-positive vibes? If you got into a disagreement - perhaps one that got out of hand - how would you manage that? How would you resolve issues? How could you ever escape people trying to sell something to you? What would psychic spam be like?
We can perhaps imagine living a psychic society as if we were - all six billion of us - enclosed together for a long time in a small room, maybe wintering-over at the South Pole. In such a case, the importance of interpersonal behavior skills is paramount. The balance between ego, honesty and empathy becomes critically important. A balance must be struck between the lower-chakra human needs and higher-level spirituality. How do we gracefully disagree with eachother, express emotion, etc., without causing painful disruption to the rest of humanity? How do we all live in the room, and yet all have our own rooms to live in? In short, how do we all get along huddled together on this tiny spaceship we call Earth?
My sense is that before we are truly ready for a global conscious awakening, these questions need to be addressed. I am very sure that there are ways to do this, and humanity [including this writer] needs to learn them better. And as we learn these key facets of enlightenment, we will be travelling yet another giant step down the road to the universal awakening that I believe is the human destiny. Read More
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2 Mar 2004 @ 20:36, by craiglang. Thoughts
A fascinating evening at the Minnesota Democratic caucuses. Several things things truly impressed and amazed me.
1) The number of people who turned out to the caucuses. There were about twice as many people present as I normally see at a precinct caucus.
2) The intensity of the feeling in everyone present.
There was a powerful feeling of coherence there - a single focus, returning control of the country to the people. I found that consensus was formed very quickly on resolutions, although there was discussion on nearly every point. It appeared that everyone was focused on an objective, rather than on political division, or making smaller individual points. There was the sense that there is too much at stake.
It is the same wherever I look. The deep-seated political division in the USA is so thick, it feels like you could cut it with a knife. This political season is going to be deep and emotions are going to run hot and heavy. Read More
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19 Feb 2004 @ 11:18, by craiglang. Reports
My wife and I attend the Star/Tribune Womens' Lecture series, a series of talks on contemporary affairs by extraordinary women (and in this case, couple). Last night's talk was by Mary Matilin and James Carville, the political odd couple who provide so much color to the US political landscape. Mary Matilin is a wheel in the conservative political scene, while her hubby, James Carville, is a powerful activist in the progressive world. Both had some very interesting - and I thought very insightful views. Regardless of your views, they each had some very deep truths for everyone.
Mary Matilin had the podium first. She had the predictable praise for Bush [which required me to hold my political nose at a few points...], but also she had some interesting points for progressives. One was that prior to our intervention in Afghanistan, there were tremendous human rights problems there. Anyone who happenned to be female was forbidden to attend school or participate in civic affairs - or to do much of anything outside of the home. Since the US intervention, at least that has improved.
She cited this as an example of how the US is a force for freedom in the world. She presented the viewpoint that I hear from so many conservatives - that it is the duty and role of the USA to export democracy [CL Note: along with conservative Christianity and Coca Cola] to the world.
She also had some interesting things to say about the upcoming election. She predicted that Bush would win [surprise, surprise]. But she also indicated that the election might be Kerry's [whom she presumed woudl be the Dem nominee] to win or lose. She said that what Kerry needs - as does the progressive movement in general [CL Note: progressive is my word, not her's] - is a clear, coherent vision. It is not sufficient to simply oppose Bush. What is needed is a clear, well-defined, coherent agenda - a progressive view of where the USA should be headed, as well as why and how.
And in this, I think she is probably correct. Among progressives, there is alot of unity in opposition to Bush, but there is also alot of division. A coherent, well-defined vision is needed, or Bush will be president with four more years of reactionary US behavior in the world.
Many who consider themselves to be progressives want change - oftentimes, any change will do. She stated that one reason Bush won was that his campaign offered change. Bush offers [or at least his handlers do] a very coherent, well defined vision. It is a coherent, fundamental shift in the policy of the USA. And thus, to many who would have otherwise voted democrat, this is attractive. In order to beat Bush in 11/04, it will be necessary to offer a better defined, more coherent vision - to clearly define the path which progressives want the USA to travel.
James Carville then took the podium and had some more very interesting things to say, both to progressives and conservatives alike. His biggest comment was that perhaps more than any time previously in our history, the US populace is deeply divided. There is a very deep, fundamental split in the political landscape between conservative and progressive views. And in this election, some very fundamental questions will be on the table - questions about the very future of the USA.
He dramatized this by asking for a show of hands in the audience - who here was undecided about how they would vote in Novenber. In the hall full of several thousand people, essentially no one raised their hand. Carville pointed out that this was apparently the case nationwide. There appear to be very few undecided voters, and the population is very evenly devided - nearly 50/50. So it comes down to a few percent of the voters, in a few key states, who will end up deciding the future of the USA for a long time to come.
He predicted that this election would be a truly pivotal one in US history, and that all eyes of the world would be upon us. The voter turnout will be heavy - and at present, he felt that the election could go either way.
Neither said anything about the allegations of electoral hijinx, or other possible scandals that are now surfacing. But I thought that the "eyes of the world" comment was an excellent, though veiled, allusion in that direction. Both speakers pretty much kept away from specific issues, stressing more the fundamental philosophies and the importance of the questions being asked, rather than stressing their opposing answers.
So in the end, I think the core message from both was that the USA is deeply divided. There are two deeply-ingrained and diametrically opposed world-views entrenched in the American political landscape. One view is that it is the right and duty of the USA to export freedom, democracy, free enterprise, and other aspects of "our way of life" to the world [CL Note: even if at the point of a gun]. The other view is that the USA has the right and duty to be a good citizen of the world - to seek world peace and to work WITH the world to help address the problems that give rise to war, poverty, environmental degradation, etc.
Not since the sixties has the US public been so divided on the core issues - and it appears that the polarity is only deepening. This election will indeed be interesting. Read More
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 13 Feb 2004 @ 12:44, by craiglang. News
An interesting piece showed up on Unknowncountry.com: "Spontaneous Fires Break Out in Italy"
Based upon story in "The Guardian" and "The Scottsman"
Update on Unknown country:
Spontaneous Italian Fires Supernatural?
It will be interesting to see what develops on this. Read More
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 13 Feb 2004 @ 11:16, by craiglang. Experiences
I posted this in the PSI room, but after thinking about it overnight, I thought that it might be interesting for general consumption.
The last week or so has been very interesting from the point of view of (unintended) mind-machine interactions. I have had a couple of instances where the computer locked up when I started using it (Yes, I know - it's Microsoft...). Both of these times were when I felt quite stressed and in a hurry. Read More
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30 Jan 2004 @ 00:26, by craiglang. Diary
It's been one of those days. The type of day when clients no-show, people everywhere seem to be crabby, and bad news arrives. In this case, the news was that I didn't get selected as a speaker for an upcoming conference. I had looked forward to being a presenter there, on what seemed to be some pretty interesting new topics (at least I thought so...). So the news was pretty disappointing.
What's important about this is not the news itself, but the timing. It comes at a time when I have been doing alot of study of mindfulness and nonattachment. So to me, this comes as the first big test. How non-attached to outcomes does this student and seeker remain as he digs out from the rubble and shakes the dust off his sandals? ... :-)
To keep it all in perspective, it is certainly not the end of the world, just a bit of a bummer. Yet I believe that God gives us what we need, when we need it - though almost never in the way that we might anticipate. All in all, this was a small to moderate pot-hole in the road of life, and a lesson at what is probably an important and teachable moment.
Still, can't one just read a good book on the subject?... :-) Read More
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28 Jan 2004 @ 21:31, by craiglang. Articles
The new Whitley's Journal has a pretty spooky discussion of the breakup of the Gulf stream. The sense from reading it is that the change has begun. The snowball is rolling down the hill... Read More
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Exploring the emerging consciousness, the Universal Mind and the coming changes - as well as other general stuff... |
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I had been looking for some time for an on-line forum and collaboration site, and I think that at last I have found it. My hats off to the innovators, creators and maintainers of this site. This e-place is wonderful. |
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