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 18 Jan 2006 @ 20:25
Ariel Sharon: a political assessment
Part one
By Jean Shaoul
18 January 2006
This is the first of a two-part article.
No matter how Ariel Sharon responds to medical treatment in the coming days, his political life ended on January 4 when he suffered a massive stroke. It is therefore appropriate to make a political assessment of his career.
This is all the more important in light of the whitewashing of Sharon’s brutal life work and the nauseating tributes to the “peacemaker” from imperialist politicians, the liberal as well as the conservative media, and figures across the political spectrum in Israel, including his opponents.
Ariel Sharon will, despite such false accolades, be remembered by millions throughout the world for his anti-Palestinian policy of murder and ethnic cleansing. He is a war criminal whose life has been marked by a series of atrocities perpetrated against the Palestinian people and Israel’s Arab neighbours. He escaped prosecution for war crimes committed in Lebanon in 1982 only because the United Nation’s International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled three years ago that past and present government leaders cannot be tried for war crimes by a foreign state because of their diplomatic immunity, and can be held to account only in their own country.
Sharon represents more than the criminality of a single man. He rose to become prime minister because his entire military and political career was devoted to pursuing the Zionist aim of a Greater Israel at the expense of the indigenous Palestinian population, of the Israeli working class, who have borne the costs, and the genuine interests of Jewish working people the world over. He could achieve his aims only by violent, military means.
Sharon’s political evolution from a Labour Zionist to the foremost representative of the tendency that goes back to the arch-chauvinist Vladimir Jabotinsky expresses the dead-end of the Zionist project and, ultimately, the inability of all nationalist movements, be they Jewish, Palestinian or Arab, to end imperialist domination in the Middle East.
Early life and military career
Sharon came from a family of ardent Jewish nationalists. His grandfather’s closest friend in his home town of Brest Litovsk in Belarus, then part of Czarist Russia, was the father of Menachem Begin, the future Zionist terrorist, founder of the Likud Party and Israeli prime minister. With the onset of World War One, the family moved to Tblisi in Georgia to escape the fighting.
Sharon claimed in his autobiography Warrior that his father, Samuil Sharon, was, like his father before, him a “Jewish nationalist, pure and simple,” with “no political allegiances whatsoever, not to socialism or communism or anything else.” Samuil Sharon had always intended to emigrate to Palestine.
In 1921, Samuil, having completed his agricultural studies at the university, fled Tblisi with his young wife for Palestine. They made their home in an agricultural settlement surrounded by hostile Arab farmers, not far from Tel Aviv, where Ariel Sharon was born in 1928.
Sharon likes to recall that when he was 13 his father gave him a dagger to protect his family. Sharon said, “The knife was symbolic, to protect ourselves from our enemies. It was a lesson I have never forgotten.”
As a young man he joined the Jewish Settlement Police prior to joining the Haganah, the underground Jewish Defence Force and forerunner of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), fighting in the 1948-49 war against Israel’s Arab neighbours. It was here that he gained experience in combat against the Palestinians and developed his policy of pre-emptive action, summed up in the mottos “strike first and hardest” and “always escalate.”
The Palestinians, for their part, looked to the various bourgeois Arab states to support them. But these regimes were hopelessly divided and too busy looking after their own interests to prevail against the superior forces and training of the Israelis. The Arab nationalist governments that were to come to power in the 1950s under the banner of Pan-Arabism were no more capable of overcoming their differences and their underlying subservience to imperialism—and no more able to defend the Palestinians—than their predecessors.
After the 1948-49 war, Sharon remained a soldier, progressing slowly up the ranks to become a general. He never became chief of staff due to his arrogance, insubordination and a recklessness that did not endear him to his political and military superiors. In 1955 he even faced trial for conduct unbecoming an officer.
Sharon lied and disobeyed orders whenever it suited his purposes. During the invasion of Suez in 1956, he led his paratroopers into an ambush by disregarding orders. In the 1973 war, he led the Israeli forces that eventually crossed the Suez Canal and defeated the Egyptian army in a campaign that won him as many enemies as friends because he disobeyed orders and cease-fire agreements.
Nevertheless, Sharon’s actions and methods were to influence Israel’s attitude towards the Palestinians, its defence policy, and its relations with its neighbours. In 1953, Sharon became commander of Unit 101, which specialised in behind-the-lines raids that forced Palestinians to flee their homes. He thereby marked out the strategic route that was to lead to the 1956 Sinai campaign.
As Sharon explained in his autobiography, he came to view the objective as being not simply retaliation or even deterrence in the usual sense. He wrote: “It was to create in the Arabs a psychology of defeat, to beat them every time and to beat them so decisively that they would develop the conviction that they could never win. This was another reason I objected to the idea of extremely limited surgical strikes. Not only were such operations technically unrealistic, but I came to believe that whenever we were forced to strike, we should do so with the aim of inflicting heavy losses on the enemy troops.”
He first achieved notoriety when in 1953 he invaded Jordan and blew up at least 45 homes in the West Bank village of Qibya, then under Jordanian rule. Unit 101 killed 69 people, half of them women and children. The attack was ostensibly in retaliation for the brutal killing of a woman and two children in central Israel, but Qibya had no connection with the killing.
The same year, Sharon’s unit attacked and killed 50 refugees in the El-Bureig refugee camp south of Gaza, then under Egyptian rule.
While the Jordanian operation provoked an international outcry, within Israel it made Sharon a hero and the work of his Unit 101 was expanded. He led other vicious attacks in Jordan, Gaza and Syria. In the early 1970s, as head of the army’s southern command, he was responsible for the brutal crackdown on Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip.
The 1967 war was actively encouraged by Sharon. It enabled Israel to put into action long-standing plans for expanding its borders and seizing vast swathes of land from its Arab neighbours. Sharon played a key role in this expansion as divisional commander in Sinai.
The 1967 war
The Six Day War was to prove a watershed for Israel and the Middle East. Though Israel had been founded on the basis of the forcible expulsion of the Palestinians, it was lent a certain moral legitimacy by the annihilation of 6 million European Jews in the Nazi holocaust. The 1967 war brought to the fore the essence of the Israeli state as an expansionist entity intent on transforming the Palestinians into permanent refugees.
Within weeks of the war, the Labour-led national unity government established settlements in its newly conquered territories in defiance of international law—an event that was to shape the political, ideological and social physiognomy of Israel for decades to come. A new wave of immigrants from the West, particularly from the US, came and settled in the Occupied Territories. The settlements became a pole of attraction for religious right-wing fundamentalists who founded the settler movement and espoused vigilante tactics to intimidate the Palestinians and drive them off their land. The extension of the Jewish enclaves created a social layer that had a direct vested interest in an expansionary policy.
While their forces were small, from the very first the settlers and ultra-religious groups played an important role in shifting Israeli politics to the right and providing a political base not only for the struggle against the Palestinians, but also against liberal-minded secular Jews. In part, at least, this was because they found a key ally: General Ariel Sharon.
For Sharon, himself a secular Jew and military man, the expansion of the Zionist state and the building of settlements were bound up with security and what he deemed “defensible borders.” But he formed an alliance with the religious movement to pursue these aims, reasoning that the religious fanatics would provide the necessary forces for new Jewish settlements.
The Arab defeat in 1967 led to the growth of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, which adopted the guerrilla tactics espoused by the Algerians and Vietnamese and called for the struggle against Israel to be carried out under the banner of Palestinian nationalism, rather than as part of the failed Nasserite Pan-Arab movement that had betrayed and abandoned his people.
The war had convinced Washington that Israel, as the dominant military power in the region, was the indispensable vehicle through which the US could best advance its interests in the Middle East, including the suppression of radical political movements. In the succeeding years, each and every military victory against Israel’s Arab neighbours, and every major campaign against the Palestinians, however much criticized in public by Washington, was followed by increased US aid.
Sharon enters politics
The relationship between the top military brass and the ruling Labour Party was a close one. On becoming a colonel, officers were expected to join the Labour Party, and Sharon joined in 1958. On leaving the army, most of Israel’s generals went into politics. Sharon was no exception, but he was the first to split from Labour.
Sharon was aligned with Labour’s more right-wing nationalist wing led by David Ben Gurion and Moshe Dayan, a relationship that often protected him from criticism during his military career. His reprisal raids were supported by the hawks within Labour, who became increasingly dominant within the party after 1955.
In 1969, some months before the general election, Sharon became incensed on discovering that his army contract would not be renewed, as he had fallen out with Chief of Staff Chaim Bar Lev over the defence of Sinai. With no other attractive career opportunity, Sharon looked for a political opening. Finding himself at odds with the ruling Labour Party over a political solution to the Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza, he made contact with Menachem Begin’s Herut Party.
Herut was the political descendant of Jabotinsky’s Revisionist movement, whose approach to the Palestinians was spelt out in a 1923 article entitled “The Iron Wall.” The article stated: “Zionist colonisation must be either terminated or carried out against the wishes of the native population. This colonisation can, therefore, be continued and make progress only under the protection of a power independent of the native population—an iron wall, which will be in a position to resist the pressure to the native population. This in toto is our policy towards the Arabs... A voluntary reconciliation with the Arabs is out of the question either now or in the near future.”
After resigning from the army in 1973, Sharon was elected to parliament under the banner of the Liberal Party, one of the forerunners of Likud. But within a year he resigned his seat and defected to Labour in order to secure his reservist military command. He served Labour Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as special security advisor for six months before establishing his own party and then dissolving it into Likud in 1977.
By 1977, the Labour Party had lost its political raison d’etre. The social forces set in motion by the 1967 war combined to bring down the Labour Zionists in the general election of 1977, ending the monopoly of power they had enjoyed for decades and paving the way for Israel’s rightward political trajectory and increasing instability. The expansion of Israel’s rule via military conquest required a different type of government.
In addition to Sharon, two other former generals, Moshe Dayan and Ezer Weizman, became the first leading military figures to desert Labour and its coalition partners for the Revisionist camp. Dayan and Weizman joined Likud and became, respectively, foreign secretary and minister of defence in 1977. Other prominent military figures were soon to follow.
Sharon asked for and obtained the agriculture portfolio in Begin’s Likud government. In that post he championed the settlers’ cause and encouraged the seizure of Arab lands. “Grab more hills,” he insisted. “Whatever is seized will be ours. Whatever isn’t seized will end up in their hands.” His goal of “creating facts on the ground” was aimed at making it impossible to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians.
He was one of three ministers who were key to getting the cabinet to agree to an unprovoked attack on Iraq, in the bombing of its Osirek nuclear plant, in June 1981.
Although he had joined Likud, Sharon saw Israel as being in a perpetual state of crisis that required national unity governments, with himself in a leading role. On several occasions he sought to bring Labour into the government. From 1984 to 1992, there were national unity governments with rotating premierships for Likud and Labour.
Sharon, the war criminal
It was in his role as minister of defence in the 1981 Likud government that Sharon became internationally recognised as a war criminal, albeit unindicted, for his role in the 1982 massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in Beirut.
Using the opportunity created by the 1978 peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, the most important Arab country, Sharon set about creating a new order in the Middle East by invading Lebanon. His aim was the destruction of the Palestinian leadership, the PLO, which, having been driven out of Jordan with the help of Israel in 1970, was then based in Lebanon. Sharon calculated that he could prevent a political settlement with the PLO and secure the permanent economic integration of the Occupied Territories into Israel.
He also sought to destroy Syria’s power in the region and establish a right-wing Christian government in Lebanon that would be friendly towards Israel.
Using the pretext of an assassination attempt on Israel’s ambassador to Britain by a Palestinian terrorist group hostile to Arafat and the PLO, Sharon threw the full might of Israel’s armed forces against Lebanon in June 1982. After Israel knocked out more than 60 of Syria’s aircraft in Lebanon in one day, Syria took no further part in the defence of Lebanon against Israel, leaving the PLO isolated.
The Israeli military machine devastated southern Lebanon and bombed Beirut unmercifully for the next two months in order to force the Lebanese government to expel Arafat and the PLO. Sharon seized control of the capital city of another country, broke every rule in the war crimes book, and held half the people of Beirut (those in West Beirut) hostage. He targeted not only the PLO and its military installations, but also its social base and welfare network: its health and educational services, political and social organisations and, above all, the shantytowns inhabited by the Palestinian refugees.
The scale of the carnage and suffering was enormous. The UN estimated that 13,500 homes were severely damaged in West Beirut alone and many thousands more elsewhere, excluding the Palestinian camps. Electricity and water supplies were continually interrupted and food and medicines cut off. International relief agencies were denied access. The Lebanese police estimated that more than 19,000 people were killed and 30,000 wounded between the beginning of June and the end of December.
Not a single one of the Arab nationalist regimes lifted a finger to defend the Lebanese and Palestinian people.
The US special envoy in Beirut pressed the Lebanese government to put pressure on Arafat to agree to Sharon’s terms. Knowing that Sharon would not accept promises, he got Arafat to provide a signed guarantee that he would leave with all his fighters. The US guaranteed the protection of the Palestinian civilians left behind in Beirut and secured a promise from Israel not to re-enter Beirut.
But within days Sharon reneged on his promise. He ordered the Israeli army back into West Beirut on September 15, ostensibly to maintain order and stability after the assassination of Lebanon’s president-elect, an Israeli stooge. A few days later, he told the Israeli parliament: “Our entry into West Beirut was in order to make war against the infrastructure left by the terrorists,” meaning the Palestinian civilians and their Muslim allies.
Once Israeli armed forces had gained control of the city and sealed off the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla in West Beirut, after attacking other smaller camps, Sharon, under a long-standing plan, ordered Israel’s chief of staff to let Lebanon’s fascistic forces, the Phalangists, into Sabra and Shatilla. Sharon’s calculation was that the Phalangists, with old scores to settle and detailed information on the Palestinian fighters, would be more ruthless than the Israelis and probably more effective.
This was a murderous and unprovoked attack against an unarmed civilian population. While the exact number of those killed and injured is not known, the Palestinian Red Crescent put the number at over 2,000. At least a quarter of these were Lebanese Shiite Muslims. There were numerous reports that hundreds of men were rounded up during and after the massacre and taken to Israeli detention camps in southern Lebanon. Many of them were never seen again.
The atrocities were carried out in full view of Israeli troops who were manning observation posts overlooking the camps. As minister of defence of the occupying power, which under international law was in charge of the overall safety of the population, Sharon bore responsibility for the massacre. Israel was, moreover, party to the US-brokered agreement to protect the Palestinians.
Sharon was responsible for authorising the Phalange to enter the camps, while Israeli troops watched, and carry out the initial massacre. He then allowed the subsequent internment, torture and murder of inhabitants of the camps to occur.
The massacre provoked worldwide outrage and within Israel itself 400,000 people, one in ten of the population, took to the streets of Tel Aviv to oppose the Begin government and demand an inquiry. The government-appointed Kahan Commission, established to deflate public anger, was limited in scope and essentially a whitewash. But it could not avoid assigning limited “indirect responsibility” for the massacre to Israel.
The commission condemned Begin, Sharon and the generals with varying degrees of harshness, and concluded that Sharon bore “personal responsibility” for what happened in the camps. It recommended Sharon’s removal, saying he was “unfit to hold public office.”
Having been found to be personally responsible for enabling the massacre, Sharon became something of a pariah internationally, unwelcome in the US and Europe.
Within Israel, however, he remained a key political player. He became an icon for the right wing. Removed from his post as defence minister, he retained his seat in the cabinet and continued to hold ministerial posts in every subsequent Likud-led government, with responsibility for trade and industry (1984-1989), construction and housing (1990-1992) and national infrastructure (1996-1998).
Throughout this period, Sharon worked to expand the settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and divert resources to them. The State Comptroller’s report in 1992 spoke of mismanagement, suspected illegalities and overspending. Sharon himself bought an apartment in the Old City of Jerusalem, in the midst of 20,000 Arabs and just 40 Jews.
The Oslo Accords
Likud rule came to an end in 1992—and with it, Sharon’s seat in government—as the result of a number of factors. The turn of the Soviet Union to capitalist restoration and its reintegration into world imperialism signalled the end of Moscow’s support for Arab nationalism. The spontaneous uprising of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza in December 1987 convinced the Palestinian, Israeli and Arab elites, as well as US imperialism, that some sort of Palestinian state was the only way of stopping the uprising from radicalising the entire region.
Yasser Arafat and the PLO found themselves completely isolated following their support for Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War in 1991.
For the Israeli bourgeoisie, peace with Israel’s Arab neighbours promised more new markets than Israel’s garrison state could ever deliver. The price of a wider regional settlement and access to markets that would make Israel a regional economic power was some kind of arrangement with the Palestinians, if not a full withdrawal from the Occupied Territories and Jerusalem as demanded by international conventions and UN resolutions.
This recognition paved the way for the return of a Labour government under Yitzhak Rabin, pledged to a deal with the Palestinians. The result was the ill-fated Oslo Accords, famously signed on the lawn of the White House in 1993.
Israel was able to secure an agreement with the PLO about a future state of Palestine whose borders would be based, not on a return to Israel’s 1967 borders as international law and UN resolutions demanded, but on negotiations between Israel and the PLO. The accords envisioned a Palestinian state on less than 22 percent of the land of Mandate or pre-1948 Palestine.
Under the agreement, a PLO-led interim Palestinian Authority would take charge of security in the Occupied Territories, freeing Israel from the burden of military occupation while the Zionist regime was left in control of borders, foreign policy and the protection of existing Jewish settlements—illegal under international law—in the West Bank and Gaza. The West Bank was divided into non-contiguous areas and militarised Israeli-controlled roads connected heavily fortified Jewish settlements.
In effect, Israel put Arafat in charge of policing the popular opposition of the Palestinians to Israel’s occupation and repression. Rabin and Arafat agreed to resolve issues such as the status of Jerusalem and the refugees’ right of return, and to establish a Palestinian state within five years. The PLO’s support for such a truncated state left a political vacuum that was filled by the political Islamists, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. However, their opposition to Oslo was not based on any viable perspective for defending the rights of the Palestinian masses and uniting the working people of the Middle East, Jewish as well as Arab, against Zionism and imperialism. It was based upon a nationalist and fundamentally reactionary, communalist perspective.
To be continued
See Also:
Israeli media rallies behind Sharon’s Kadima party
[10 January 2006]
Sharon’s stroke plunges Israel into political turmoil
[6 January 2006]
From: Copyright 1998-2005
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved More >
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13 Nov 2005 @ 20:40
I found this on The World Mind Society website a while ago and think it is so beautiful and wow, wouldn't it be wonderful to do something like this here. We could designate a time and meet in a chat room. Yeah, this is happening, Manifest love as a group.
I know Rishi is a member here and I hope it's ok to put one of his articles on my log. The link is: [link] (I hope I wrote it right)
This is really something to think about. It is what a group can do as one.
Namaste'
Lisa
Let US Manifest Together…
In the air there seemed to stir, a rare wind of other-worldly fragrance. It was a sweet essence, like orchid blossoms on a summer day, yet felt all over the body as a flowing current, not as a thing smelled by the nose. To the uninitiated, the mind said, “I’ve never felt anything like this before” but even so, there was a presence in the back of the mind saying at the same time, “At last I feel this again”. Since she and I were not uninitiated, we looked at each other with a knowing glance, and just then caught the eyes of the couple sitting next to us. As a felt thing, when we looked at them and they gazed at us, there was an immediate, mutual knowingness that ALL of us were experiencing something extraordinary, yet familiar. It was as though Knowledge of some deeper kind than that which is had in the “ordinary world” were traveling unseen streams winding their way from eye to eye. She and I both knew at the same time, that they too, were both amazed, yet Knowing.
In the distance, the 40 or so people that were now meditating together in this remote forest meadow, had suddenly become even more silent than before. In fact, no one spoke or made any sound at all, not even the various children near the thick bushes at the feet of tall Douglas Firs. Birds seemed to sing with an added joy during such moments as the hour-long meditation progressed. To those practiced in inner awareness, it was clear that the “atmosphere” of our group was not just a shared intimacy between human beings, but ALL the beings of the forest clearing. Even the plants glowed with an unusual vitality, and children’s faces looked somehow far more ancient and reposed than their scant years would normally reveal.
Looking out over the clearing of grass and people with an unfocused gaze, it was possible to notice something else extraordinary. It was not difficult to see how the small motions of bodies being adjusted in the heat of the day on soft grass was oddly uniform, as if all of us were to some variable degree part of the larger BODY of US, rather than as a mere collection of separate individuals. In fact, each and every time there swept among us these ecstatic feelings of HIGH and WELL BEING like some current of electricity as yet to be named by Western science, such uniformity of small motions in the group were made far more obvious. Clearly there were during certain moments, a connectivity of nervous systems being set up…a “synergy” or “group mind” of feeling-based unity, that was the common experience of absolutely everyone there. For this many children to be absolutely silent and focused for so long was a minor miracle in itself. But perhaps even more extraordinary, I mused to myself, is that adults in this modern world do not take every opportunity they can to frequently immerse themselves in what could accurately be called, “the excellence of progressive, group intention” especially while in meditative states of consciousness.
These moments of mutual bliss came and went like the waves of a tide. Every five to ten minutes there would come another wave of very high feeling, especially a felt love in the heart and to a lesser extent, the entire body as well, one that could only be described as “spiritual”. It was during such moments that it was not hard for anyone to clearly see that WE ARE “spirits” in bodies, and that whatever we do in this world, (or others) is therefore a matter of spiritual concern. Such felt and mutual love is far too sweet and of much greater depth than to be classified with mere “sentimentality” or “affection” as might be seen in the everyday world. Upon feeling it there’s an unmistakable quality of transcendent beauty which at once puts the concerns of our modern world into the category of “petty” and “basically irrelevant”. We sit upon the shores of this ocean of energy, whose waves register upon our inner being as crescendos of feeling, and yet it is common-place to deny there is such a thing as an “ocean”, or that people really DO affect one another deeply at ALL TIMES, even during casual meetings on the street.
Toward the end of our meditation, there arose a moment where our high, mutually felt states of consciousness reached a peak. A kind of “threshold” passed over the group, or perhaps it would be better to say that it passed between us and through us, once again as if we were but one body that had absolutely no divisions. Nor were any divisions desired in any way. This threshold or doorway to something even higher than what we’d been experiencing, was about to reveal itself. Very clear to practiced meditators was the unmistakable fact that a new level of group consciousness was about to manifest in that clearing. This felt something like a combination of ones’ ears popping when gaining altitude driving up a mountain, with the sense that a type of “spiritual rapture” was taking hold of profound meaning. It was as if the birth of a Christ or a Buddha were at hand, and WE were the new sentience about to be born. A “bubble” of feeling, for lack of a better word, suddenly appeared around us. It felt somehow like a greater air pressure, especially around the head, but in the heart too as a depth of loving feeling. Our group mind was “raising” or by other words, “mutually ascending”. The thought that came to mind, and which came to every other mind there in the forest clearing at the same time was; “If only we could cross this threshold, we would find ourselves on the other side of great Knowingness and High together”.
The spiritual tension of the moment continued to build, but then from outside our rough circle of meditators came a cold feeling on the wind, a “psychic chill” or fear that was pushing upon our sphere of HIGH, and threatened to bring it down. My counterpart and I took some measures psychically to protect the group from this influence. We held it off for a few minutes, but it was clear that this felt distraction had been enough to derail the groups’ focus upon getting ever higher together. We had taught them about the use of intention in the raising of one’s personal state of consciousness, and also, how intent can be projected to others to help them raise their state of consciousness. But as for such widespread effects of fear as this, we had not spoken at length. This FEAR from the outside was from the world of human beings at large. It was from that global group mind we call “The World Mind”, and it swept over our clearing with such force that our meditation was basically ended.
Afterwards, we talked about our experiences during this hour, and many spoke of the sheer amazement they had for the spiritual power of group focus. I explained that such power, when wielded through the right intention, could indeed transform not only each other but the entire world as well. “Just as we ‘raised’ our state of consciousness here today for ourselves and each other”, I said, “so too can the much larger body of humanity be raised. If knowledge of the science of consciousness such as we have been speaking of, were to be widely applied to the groups, communities and nations of this world, the evolutionary course of humanity would once again be set upon its’ intended track of real progress and mutual enlightenment.”
Someone asked, “How do we maintain these high feelings together for longer periods of time?” I replied that, “This is solely a matter of intention, combined with the ‘prevailing psychic conditions’ that occur at any given moment, much like changing weather conditions. We can do the most about our own intention. It is intent and intent alone which determines our state of consciousness at any given moment, even if the intent of others does influence us from a distance. We can’t help but affect each other all the time…it is the nature of the consciousness that we are. In recognizing this then, we should take every opportunity to meditate together, and raise up our consciousness in our own lives through various other means as well…through entheogens, spiritually-focused sex, play, intonation, music, dance, uplifting movies and theater, the reading of spiritually powerful writings and many other avenues. We can maintain high feelings together, both in meditation and as a new, daily norm, by persevering with equally high intentions in each moment that passes, no matter what the current physical activity. This is a cultivated ability, refined through practice and patience. For this to be made possible, we must first within our individual selves, dedicate our lives to a spiritual focus, as a foremost priority in life. We must ourselves be HIGH in order to convey the HIGH to others.”
We spoke then of the threshold that the group almost crossed that day. Many acknowledged it as a feeling of “something imminent” as though we might have really accomplished something significant on the level of energetic existence. “There is indeed something that we and others can do that is most significant” I explained, “that even groups of two can achieve together. This thing might by one name be called, ‘mutual ascension’ or by another, ‘the group-mind expansion of consciousness’, or ‘the fundamental science of all worlds’ or perhaps, ‘the raising of states together through progressive intent”. By whatever name we call this, it represents a knowledge and practice that is known on every intelligent world in the universe. It is the Knowledge of knowledge, this ‘science of consciousness’, and the real test of our further evolution as a species, will be whether or not we can come to terms with this knowledge on a serious and practical basis, in our everyday lives. The question as to whether or not humanity will do this will either make or break the entire 3 billion year course of life on this planet, that lead to human beings. We really have no choice in the matter…we MUST employ this knowledge of intention and the expansion of consciousness to raise our own states, and those of the world at large. We MUST re-direct the current trends of world mind fear and pain, into progressively higher feelings and states of being. Even the current tragedy of world events can be clearly understood in terms of this world pain and fear that now sweeps the Earth. If we can change this trend of feeling and intention, first in ourselves, then as groups around the world, so too will we change the very motives for war, racial hatred, social fear and collective decay of all kinds. The modern crisis is NOT social or political in nature. What we witness today is a spiritual crisis, pure and simple, and the science of spiritual right-action is this very knowledge of intention and consciousness we’ve been discussing…”
These and other meetings of spiritually focused people, can be held for the high benefit of all involved. Such meditations can and do have impact on global consciousness, especially if those involved have such intention as that of a “spiritual Master”. Let us ALL embody such intention….
Suggested further reading on this subject can be had in the World Mind Society Library at [link]
See the article series, “Group Mind” (GM, 12 parts)
“Of Master and Disciple” (5 parts)
“The Perpetual Raising” (5 Parts)
“Manifesting World Enlightenment” (5 Parts)
Love and Clarity to you in your efforts,
Matthew Webb visionquest@eoni.com More >
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4 Oct 2003 @ 13:12
Hi Everyone,
I have been visiting gere on and off for a few months now, and have heard only good things about NCN. So here I am again hoping to get your feedback on something I found on the internet. Sorry to have been away so long.
So anyways, the content of this material seemed to really strike a chord. What do you think of this?
Gaia
Author’s Note
All references made in the first person(s) herein, are grammatical conveniences created for the sake of the reader. Such words as "I", "OUR", and "I/WE" are therefore not meant to be taken as literal personifications, as they have been received from the Earthmind in another form. During meditation, most of these messages arrived in my consciousness as complete packets of information, through pictures and collections of symbols, and always without any "personal" content such as one would usually receive from a given entity. The channeling of the Earthmind is a matter of linking with a source of natural wisdom, one that is devoid of any real subjectivity. Symbol and meaning appear in the mind’s eye singularly, or one after another in succession, coupled with intuitive knowledge. This is direct knowledge whose signature is rendered lightning-swift in the receiving mind. With it comes complete certainty as to its accuracy and profound scope.
Depending on the meditator's state of consciousness, Earthmind information will often be gained in extremely compressed packets, as intuitive flashes. These can contain enough information in a 60 second period of contact to comprise an entire book, so long as one has the ability to unravel them completely. The difficulty in effectively receiving information of this kind, is in its subsequent translation into words and practical action. Fortunately the same information may be accessed repeatedly, and in the slow process of many years and many Earthmind contacts, I eventually decoded fundamental portions of its content. It is made evident through these excursions into the Planetary Mind, that information thus given is by no means random. It is purposeful and directed Intentionally for specific reasons. Those specific reasons are based upon one primary motive, which in one phrase defines the very purpose for the existence of humanity. The evolution of consciousness is that universal purpose. We as conscious beings, must embrace this Cosmic Intention, or else find destruction through our own misguided works.
Our true purpose is revealed to be same one prevalent in all the galaxy. In all places and times, universal transformation of form, (evolution) is carried out via the expansion of consciousness. Our kind is uniquely poised at this moment in human history, to act successfully on that true purpose of life. The following material is Intended to facilitate exactly that...
The heat of this Earth fever you provoke, which brings closer your own self destruction year after year, can be cooled. The body of the planetary collective may once again be brought to balance. This may be done by viewing Nature as a guide and teacher for right living. There are those few among you who remain teachers and spiritual adherents, as well as those native peoples who still live close to the Earth in natural ways, who are capable of leading the way back to an embrace of Nature as ally. These few have not forgotten the importance of natural laws. It is they who remember the sacredness of the Earth, and are capable of revealing the right paths of living. Learn from them, and take up their example of right living in your own lives. Do not destroy or hinder those who follow the natural ways, nor the sacred regions they seek to protect. These are as Holy as any of the greatest Temples and Churches in sincere dedication to the worship of God. Destroy them, and you destroy a great many of the remaining guardians of spiritual progress for your species. Return to those natural areas of the Earth to remember the many profound principles they have to teach. Within their custody you will re-experience the purpose of life and your own soul, as well as the means by which humanity may be rescued from its own self induced peril. Learn natural ways and adopt the simplicity of progressive living. In so doing you will be returned to the garden of bliss that is your heritage. By looking to the Temple of Nature as your place of worship, you will therein know God to be as accessible as the purity of youth in play.
For the future of your race, there exists three basic possibilities or courses that can now be taken. All of them involve a complete change of human societies. The first of these possibilities encompasses your demise as a species. The second involves your eventual, though hard-won success as an evolving race. The third is that of a complete and rapid transformation into what is in truth a new species, or super-humanity. The first course which is based on fear, will be had if you do not significantly alter your current direction of action as a collective. This path is one of complete destruction through and because of, the fear brought about by unnatural Intentions. It will lead you into accelerated chaos, forcing a collective entropy and decay of human civilization, to the point of extinction or near extinction. The destructiveness you continue to sow, if it continues on the present course of materialism, will like an unchecked fire eventually burn itself out by consuming everything available. The contaminants of a lifestyle out of balance, scientific manipulations without wisdom, and the holding of material ends as a first priority over spiritual ones, shall be the dissolution of the human potential in thousands of years, that took hundreds of millions to generate.
The second basic potential of the human experiment, consists of duel outcomes coexisting side by side. This course is duel in the sense that there will be a significant rift in the Worldmind, wherefrom two very distinct groups will emerge, (and are emerging). Each of these will hold very different Intentions and views of existence. One group, the probable majority, will cling to the current status quo with increasing desperation and fear. They will attempt to maintain their militarized, fear-based, physical security-oriented materialism, even as the means for it is rapidly dwindling away. They will do this regardless of the fact that such a lifestyle is destroying them, and the world at large. This group will choose death, individually and en-masse, rather than relinquish the old ways of centuries past and the imagined social status it grants. The other group, a probable minority among your kind but never the less of a significant number, will increasingly appear from the ranks of the old-world order with a fresh vision of life. In this way there will spontaneously arise, (as well as through organized means) those with new, yet ancient knowledge and abilities. Certain individuals will act as the revolutionaries of consciousness. This world group will progressively recognize the deeper values and qualities of life itself, as well as the true identity of humanity as conscious souls. They will increasingly crave and align with natural ways, finding this to be a very real source for spiritual regeneration. In so doing many will gain what will be regarded as certain mental and spiritual powers, including expanded perceptions, enhanced intelligence and wisdom. These important qualities will enable them to guide the new progressive trend of humanity into an enlightened age. The new era will be marked by a knowing of God in Nature, and a respect for right living as governed by spiritual, scientific and natural principles. All of these areas will be viewed as one in the same study. Thus science, based on nature and Natural Law will be more fully understood through the wise focus of consciousness. Science will be the means to the spiritual for many, having been motivated by the Cosmic impulse to evolve. Spirituality will be more fully understood and embodied through scientific areas of understanding. It will find progressive manifestation through the catalyst of scientific tools and concepts.
In the basic splintering of the Worldmind, ideological divisions between old-world ways and those of progressive consciousness will manifest themselves. The trends of each faction will find their expression in many new organizations and world events. A sharp increase in the efforts of control oriented institutions to subdue public freedoms, will be countered by an equally fervent, and organized effort toward an enlightened citizenry. There will be much suffering for the majority of humanity, especially for a short period in the near future, as it is with any birth of a new way. Many of those whose Intent is destructive and unnatural will simply die, as their own self imposed imbalances will disable them to withstand the great changes to come. Old diseases, as well as many yet to be understood or even named, will take many. The intentional self destructiveness that is a symptom of collective chaos and dissatisfaction in the modern Worldmind, will be rampant. During this time the progressive splinter of humanity will find ways of living which maintain inner strength. This group will wait for the time when their voice and way of living may be more clearly heard. Many will band together especially in natural areas forming communities of like mind, with some of these existing successfully even in large cities, (as some do now). Spiritual practices of all kinds for the improvement of the body, mind and spirit will flourish among them. The widespread use of herbs, natural foods, and alternative technologies will also sustain those who are progressive and natural. They will have the support of Earth consciousness in general. A Worldmind rift will represent a purification of global Intent, much like the distillation of a boiled substance renders the desired, refined liquid from the original raw material. This is a natural and inevitable process, which has occurred in similar ways at various times in the natural history of this planet. Mistakes made in the evolutionary ascent must be corrected, just as faulty DNA is adjusted to maintain life. This is as it should be, though it is not the most progressive outcome possible.
The third and most progressive possibility for your kind is that of a total shift in Worldmind consciousness. Such a shift would mean the primary fulfillment of purpose for humanity's very existence. This will come as a phenomena of consciousness that is rarely attained easily by a planet, or any other life supporting body. It has however been achieved by some in this galaxy, as well as others. Consciousness, in this highly significant phenomena of natural law, reaches a planetary threshold whereby the constituent minds of a world collectively and simultaneously shift. It is a process that resembles the flash point of fire suddenly crossed. This flash point is usually catalyzed by one or more among an intelligent race, typically at various points around a planet, whose personal consciousness reaches a stage when it suddenly radiates a powerful and progressive mindstate(s) of a very high vibration. Such a state of being is the result of dedicated Spiritual Intent, an alignment with the Will of God/Nature, and the subsequent manifestation of High Intent into the environment for the benefit of all. The spiritual spark thus created by advanced souls, ignites the realization of a great many more, elevating their consciousness resonantly.
Evolutionary emanations travel outward from the spiritually adept, like the waves caused when stones are thrown into a pond. To make such an event more probable, there must exist those in the Worldmind who have attained a certain minimum threshold of self realization themselves. This will allow them to be sufficiently receptive to the emanations of the consciousness-pioneering few. Because of their receptivity, (and also because of the very compelling nature of the high vibration/Intent sent forth) the people first affected will then embody this Intent themselves. [This process is nearly identical to the Master/disciple relationship such as that found in the case of Christ and Buddha.] They will feel compelled to spontaneously enter states of love and realization, though many may not realize why this is so. This will amplify and expand the original impulse sent by the few who Understand. Larger and larger portions of the population will resonate with, and radiate high vibrations and Intent, (love and spiritual motivation). The flash point phenomena will continue to expand over the entire population of the world in ever widening circles of influence. In a very short time, the Worldmind will be transformed and elevated in its level of consciousness, after a certain critical mass or percentage of the population is converted to high(er) states/Intents. The raising of world consciousness may therefore be catalyzed by a certain few, who already understand the principles which can accomplish such an act.
A shift in the planetary mind of this type will be strongly felt by every living being. It will similarly render effects upon all planetary matter and Energy in the form of emanated waves of effect. A flash point phenomena such as this will also result in off-world effects, extending outward into space like a radiating light. The Earth would become a literal spiritual source, a psychic sun of high vibration and Intent shining brightly on subtle realms. This would be a primary culmination of Earth consciousness in self realization, which is the ultimate aim of all group minds in the universe.
A major flash point in consciousness would bring the dawn of a super-humanity, possessing various advanced powers of mind, soul and body to the point of multidimensional perception, super-physical strength and a greatly extended life span, if so desired. Telepathy would take the place of spoken language as the primary mode of communication, and not just in human relations, [also with the Earthmind, the Solarmind, other intelligent races, and with those in spirit realms, (souls not in physical incarnation)]. Many will achieve rapport with matter itself being able to manipulate it at will, especially when working in cooperation with others of like Intent. Disease would become essentially unknown, and most current material technologies rendered obsolete. New ways to employ consciousness individually and through Intentionally formed group minds, will enable physical, mental and spiritual feats which the current human mindset would regard as nothing short of miraculous. Today's miracles shall become tomorrow's routine. The very dullest in mind and body of the future age will overshadow the greatest geniuses and athletes ever known in human history.
The unlimited potentials of human consciousness may be witnessed, when the world collective is joined together in natural spirituality, as One Mind. In unity each member of the Worldmind may then draw strength from the enlightened whole. Unification of all component minds on the basis of the evolution of consciousness, is the primary Intent of God for all worlds.
As the flash point of consciousness approaches, (which may come in successive stages one after another, or as a single major leap) all bodies and minds will begin to experience unusual sensations. At first great positivity and unexplained joy, the unity of humankind in spontaneous goodwill and greater Energy, will be experienced. The very first to feel this will be those who already practice positivity and progressiveness on a spiritual basis. Feelings "in the air" will seem impossibly elevated, colors more vibrant, sounds more melodic, physical sensations more pleasurable, and thought processes much clearer. Spontaneous states of love will lead each individual to the undeniable perception of the universal brotherhood of man, as a moment to moment fact of existence. The artificial divisions of country, race, creed, affiliation and social status will erode and fade away almost instantly, being seen as irrelevant. Greater creativity and progressive self reliance will, even without being consciously summoned, arise to take the place of old ideas and institutions. These will fade away in the mindset that they were only encumbrances to the general good after all.
All of these qualities will begin to arise throughout society just prior to the Shift, (or Shifts) itself. Then suddenly there will manifest like a bolt of lightning in the darkness, a very intense change felt by all. This will represent a threshold of world consciousness suddenly crossed. Some will experience a buzzing of one or several tones of both low and high pitch, as well as a tingling throughout the body. Some will fall into a state resembling unconsciousness, others a very temporary dizzy faint, too overwhelmed with unusual inputs to coordinate the physical body effectively. Others will also see visions in regard to their purpose as incarnated souls, as well as spiritual revelations of all kinds. They will receive information regarding the Truth of existence, of God, of advanced sciences and other subjects of a profound nature. Vast numbers will share the same archetypal visions, and see them scrolling through the mind’s eye simultaneously, sharing feelings of absolute ecstasy and oneness with one another. Religions will be implicitly unified, with philosophical differences resolved in common universal focus. Formal religious ritual will become unimportant for the most part, since the face of God will everywhere be evident, and not need to be invoked. In a state of world consciousness such as this, the hearts and minds of each individual will dance upon the waves of joy that is an enlightened collective. Each will contribute telepathically their best attributes as the souls that they are, to the benefit of the Worldmind.
In this age of greater enlightenment, plants and animals will also be benefited. Plants will grow to enormous size, with incredible speed and abundant fruits. Animals will proliferate rapidly, with many individuals being of much greater size and strength than before. The presence of plants and animals beneficial to crops will increase greatly, as an aspect of Earthmind support for the new Way of humanity, whereas the reverse is currently true. Ecosystems will after a time balance themselves out, much as they were in human pre-history.
The planet-wide collectives of both the Earthmind and the Worldmind would in this way be unified. They would be as one functioning and self coordinated Being, possessing as a single collective a level of intelligence which far exceeds anything known in the current time. As a result of increased planetary intelligence, weather patterns will change in every region of the Earth, so as to accommodate the best possible conditions for life in each area. Planet-wide greening and reforestation will begin to take effect, as a result of much greater Earth Energy levels and vibration. This Energy, (which your ancestors knew well in such areas as Egypt, India, China, Japan, Mexico and Central America, Asia and South America) will redouble many times over. It will at that time be a simple act for any intelligent mind, to draw upon this Energy and wield it for various purposes that have far-reaching results, just as your ancestors did. World temperatures will stabilize, with extremes of seasons moderating, and what humanity now calls "natural disasters" will be very few in number. Enormous increases in the Energy and Awareness of the world will occur, because they will no longer be wasted on internal divisions of a petty nature. The world consciousness will instead be efficiently united within the joint purpose of mutual advantage, according to the principles of natural law.
Any of these three basic outcomes are available to the human future, depending on what actions it now takes, and in the next 100 years in particular. Total entropy, a Worldmind rift, or a flash point-like shift upwards in consciousness, are all possible outcomes for your kind at this critical turning point in human history. Of these three outcomes, the appearance of a Worldmind rift is the most likely by far, with both progressive and materialistic factions of humanity traveling their own separate courses. The next most likely outcome is total entropy for your kind, which will generate widespread death and destruction, with the Flashpoint phenomena being the least likely of the three. All of this depends primarily upon decisions reached, choices of priority and lifestyle made, and actions taken within the next century, and most especially within the next 20 years. Choices must be made with the conviction evidenced in day to day action. The more completely humanity realigns itself with natural ways, employing knowledge of the true self and of Natural Law, the easier will be the inevitable transition from the old world era, into one of self and global realization. More >
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