SCIENCE

It is overcast and cool [55F]. The little chickens sure don't mind it. They came roaring out of their coop this Morning. They greet the day with great excitement. They are six weeks old now and on the threshhold of being real chickens.

This may be a short blog. We are going to St. Cloud today. We are going to the Chinese grocery store to buy some jasmine rice. It comes in, I think, 40 pound bags. It is a nice addition to our larder. We will go out and eat and poke around a little.

Since I commented on religion, I thought I should comment on one of the other institutions of society. This one is supposed to protect us from irrational beliefs; Science.

Science, in many ways, has become a religion. It is imbued with beliefs that are merely supported by the herd mentality, status, power and money.

I acknowledge that pure science exist in universities and labs all over the Earth; however, the science that shapes government policy, and the thinking of the people, is often corrupted by money, status and power. It is used to manipulate and exploit the people.

One can see the herd mentality, power, status and money operating in every field. In fields close to my experience, psychology, sociology, and psychotherapy, I have read studies that came to conclusions based on inadequate, sample selection, and sizes and worse, seemed to be designed to reinforce what the researchers already believed. In whatever, the popular wave of the moment, there would be a plethora of studies coming out that supported the current belief. Five years later, there may be a whole new batch of studies, supporting a new belief that contradicts the earlier one.

This same thing happens in medicine, nutrition and other aspects of health management. Billions of dollars have been made, based on the faulty research, of cholesterol and its role in cardio-vascular disease. This same faulty research profoundly affected diets. Remember when we weren't suppose to eat butter or eggs? I never fell for that one. I am not claiming perfection. I know I have my blind spots and I am not immune to manipulation.

Anthropology and archeology should be immune, right? Wrong. I minored in anthropology and almost had enough credits for a major. I loved it, but even then, it was obvious that many lines of questioning were stymied by status. Belief and the herd mentality are very powerful conditions. It is difficult for a young researcher to go against his/her mentor and more difficult, to get published, in the journals that make a difference. Some beliefs, are so set in stone, that the observer does not recognize the shallowness of their support.

Okay, how about the hard sciences; physics, chemistry, mathematics etc.? Wherever, there is money to be made, there is the chance of corruption. Have you watched the evening news? Have you noticed the drug ads? Is this chemistry? Is this healing or exploitation?

Science is not immune from money, power and ego.

I intend this to be an introduction for further discussion. I would welcome comments and would be happy to reply. It will be hard to give up our favorite beliefs; but we can.

I am off to St Cloud. Have a great day!

Love and Peace, Gregg

SEEKING

 

The Sun greeted us this Morning! It seems like the first time in a few days. I don't keep track very well, but it seems like it has been rainy for a week. The Sun is now playing peekaboo with clouds, that are scuttling across the sky. All and all, a beautiful Morning.

My little chicks are getting over whatever ailed them. I think they are all, going to be all right. I didn't notice any droopiness this Morning. I think the problem may have occurred when I switched from medicated chick starter to non-medicated. I would never use medicated feed with chickens I have hatched myself and I have had 100% survival rate, at times. When I buy them from a commercial hatchery, I generally feed them medicated feed for the first couple weeks. I do this because, those chickens, are raised in such a sterile environment, I conclude, they may need something to help them until their immune systems develop. However, the lady at my favorite feed store, states that it is not necessary, she says, “Don't give them medicine unless they are sick.” I am depositionally inclined to agree with that.

Referring to my discussion on finding an appropriate word for 'all-that-is' or God, I guess I generally have used Source. I would be pleased to use God, if it wasn't so loaded.

Of course, the problem is not a word. The problem is that the word has been used to manipulate, kill, torture, indoctrinate, etc. It may be, that more people have been killed in the name of somebody's god than for any other reason.

But we know there is a positive side. People getting together in community, love, and thankfulness, once a week or so, is great. Could be very healing.

What if people got together, not because, they thought they knew the truth, but to seek the truth? What if religion became an instrument for seeking truth? What if we could all agree, that we don't know the truth?

I know that some of you think you know the truth, at least a truth that works for you. Don't lock yourself in stone. I think we are about to discover, that most of what we thought we knew, about religion, was bunk. Religion has been used to manipulate and control; it has kept us in a mindset that denies any real freedom.

Instead of getting together, and repeating what we think we know, we can get together to seek knowledge. What are we doing here in these silly bodies anyway? Another person might think, hey these bodies aren't silly, they are a marvel, look at the, engineering; all those systems humming along creating a whole that is simply grand. Isn't Nature marvelous!? Isn't Nature a miracle!?

Our existence on this planet is incredibly, amazing! We don't need preconceived ideas to interpret it. We can see with the fresh eyes of a newborn. No matter how we define ourselves, our beliefs lock us in to untruth, they keep us stuck; they keep us from learning more.

In my search for truth, the only thing, I think, I know, is that Love works. Seeing everything as Love makes life pleasant. It makes life enriching. It suggest Oneness. I don't think Love limits. It is my starting point; in the a search for truth, the search for being, the search for meaning, the search for the best way to live on planet Earth and honor ourselves, Nature and planet Earth.

I have to wash dishes and go to the feed store. Have a great day!

Love and Peace, Gregg

DO WE NEED A NAME FOR GOD

It is close to mid-day and it is only 56F. There is a brisk breeze from the West. I can feel Autumn taking hold and the anticipation of Winter. {I shouldn't think like that} The first hard frost isn't far off; perhaps this week.

Is there another word for, all-that-is, besides God. I hesitate to use the word God because it may make my agnostic and atheist friends cringe. So many people in our society, have been crippled, or at least wounded, by religion.

I was one of them. I was raised Catholic, attended a Catholic grade school and suffered the usual torture. I gave up religion by the time I was fourteen. I joke that I had to choose between God and masturbation. It wasn't completely a joke. It was not intellectually or morally tenable, that a person, would suffer damnation for being human.

I was always a searcher. I read volumes of philosophy, read the bible through, twice. I read the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita and anything else about theology, or an explanation of 'being', I got my hands on. It didn't shake me from my agnosticism. It did tell me a great deal how man struggled to explain his being.

It wasn't until I was over forty that I begin to let in information that would support something labeled "God".  It began with my interest in spirituality. I read all the Edgar Cayce material, the Carlos Castaneda books, Alan Watts and much more. When I explored reincarnation, using hypnotism, and researched near death experiences, I knew there was more to reality than I could intellectualize. I had an experience once that indicated, "There are things so unknowable, there are no questions leading to them." I knew I couldn't embrace everything with my intellect.

I thought of myself as an atheist, at one point; but, if an atheist is a person that believes there is no God, I was probably an agnostic. If one says, they see no evidence that there is a God, that is one thing, if one says I believe there is no God, that is another. A belief, is a belief, it limits learning. It creates a demarcation; an intellectual line in the sand.

I am getting off track. I wanted to explore if there was another word I could use for God, that would not cause cringing, among those who are religious adverse.

On my search I think I have discovered that, all is energy. I think this energy has a source or at least a perpetual existence, perceiving this energy as love makes life pleasant. It appears to me that the human organism, arranges energy with its senses, and perceives according to that arrangement.

It only makes sense, if one wants to be happy, to perceive all as love. It appears that we can 'see' the energy any way we are determined to do it. If we perceive love and oneness we will 'see' [create] in one direction. If we see fear and separation we 'see' something else.

In my personal journey, I see myself as energy that is temporarily split from the whole. I think that, it is perceptual, and nothing can really be split form the whole. That is what 'Oneness' is.

Substituting Oneness for God might work. Any ideas? Maybe an answer will come to me.

I will continue this discussion another time. I have dirty dishes awaiting me and I need to have brunch.

Love and Peace,  Gregg

REACTIONS

It is overcast, but the Sun is trying to break out. That is how I am sometimes, but not today. I am feeling pretty Sunny; although I just read some things on the internet that could be depressing. I am confident that the outcome will be okay. More than okay, great. How can we watch the drama, on the world stage, without reacting?

I have decided I have to begin with myself. When I can overlook, taking offense in my daily life, perhaps I will be able to rise above conflict at both levels. It is amazing how many times I will react defensively, when there is no need. Is there ever a need? Why would one be defensive? What are we defending; our opinion of ourselves or the opinion of the other? If we loved ourselves, would we need to defend ourselves?

Ego is an interesting thing. Its involvement in defending ourselves, from another's opinion, is a misuse. The ego was developed to protect our fragile bodies, when we first experimented, with life on this planet. It was necessary to alert us, when we were being stalked, as prey. The ego was later used to manipulate and control us by those who sought power; but that is a different and long story; we discussed it before and probably will again.

The ego has no place in our relations with each other. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. We need not defend ourselves from others' opinions. Most of us say we want to be peaceful. Can we do that and be outraged? Can we do that with red hot reactions? Can we do that and be defensive? Can we do that and take offense?

I don't want to be crazy anymore. I know I can be peaceful, all the time. I know at my core I am love and I know I am surrounded by a loving universe. Neither I or the Universe needs defending.

How can we heal our relationships if we are always reacting? Hey, sometimes people are having a bad day or they didn't sleep well. Maybe they throw a barb or criticism our way; it doesn't help to throw gasoline on the fire, does it?

The other, is love, at the core, too. They are just not feeling it at the moment. Our silence can be healing. Silence is good. In silence; love can peek out. Most reactions, especially defensiveness, keeps love out.

We, humans, need to give ourselves a lot of latitude. We can have a firm intent, not to react defensively, and then we find ourselves doing it. We need to forgive ourselves and avoid discouragement. It is a journey. But we will make it. We can use whatever personal beliefs we have, whether we label it God, Our Higher Selves, Our Guides, Our Guardian Angels,The Great Spirit, Allah; it doesn't matter, what we call 'the help' it is there. The Universe is Love and help is available.

Whenever we experience our ego taking control, ask for help. When we get used to expecting, the energy of love around us to be embracing, always; we will find ourselves, not reacting to any perceived negativity. We can be above it. We don't feel love and compassion, for those who could use it, when we are reacting to them.

Some of us have been reacting defensively for a long time. It has become a habit. It is a habit we can overcome. The reward of calm and peacefulness is great. It is very reinforcing.

We are great reservoirs of Love and Peace. Let us not clog up the conduits by our silliness. We need no defense.

Happy Friday! Celebrate!

Love and Peace, Gregg

MORE ON FREEDOM

I have been concerned about my five week old chicks. They look droopy. Similar to how they look if their too cold, but not as fluffed up; more saggy. I don't know when it started, I hope it is not related to the expensive organic feed I bought. The timing seems to fit; but that is hard to believe. I am still using a heat lamp, although it is raised very high. I don't think their either too cold or hot. I had Jamie come out and look at them with me. She concurred with me that perhaps we should let them free range. They have eliminated all the greenery they had in their little pen. I was planning on keeping them penned up until they were six weeks old.

They immediately perked up on being let out of the pen. They have a whole world of grass, weeds and bugs to feed on; hopefully, they will find what they need, to stay perked up. I feel better about it after seeing how they responded to being free.

Usually, that last sentence would give me a segue into a discussion about freedom. I am not sure I am qualified to have the discussion. On one hand, I can't think of any thing I would be doing, if I knew, I could do anything I want. I don't want to do anything I am not doing. Well........................ it is hard to say; in any case freedom of the body is not my biggest concern.

Freedom of the mind. Now that is a horse of a different color. I want freedom of the mind. I want to be free of fear. I want to be free of anxiety. I don't want any darkness in my mind. I don't want to be angry, ever. I never want to feel depressed. I don't want to worry!

I know how to have that freedom. I have it when I feel loved. I have it when I feel loving. Why can't that be constant? It could be, if we could rid ourselves, of all the old programming, that alludes to our worthiness. I am getting better and better; but why does it have to be gradual? Why can't I realize I am a loving being, once and for all? I do catch myself when I am feeling miserable about something, and I can bring myself out of it, by reminding myself, that I am a loving member of a loving universe. I know one of these days I will realize, “Hey! I am happy and I can't remember being unhappy.”

When I am free in my mind, I can ask myself if I am free in my body [behavior], I think I am.

I have to keep an eye on those chicks, on their first day of freedom.

Love and Peace, Gregg

NATURE

The Seasons are changing. The Sun is trying to emerge; but, it has been cool, 50s F and raining. I had to wear my poncho doing the chores this Morning. It supposed to get into the 70s today, perhaps.

Nobody, I know, is talking about the election. I won't bring it up. I try not to pay attention to it. It is hard to ignore. There is something disgusting and degrading about it. Neither party talks about any real issues. As a life long liberal, I understand the polarization and the seduction of siding with one side over the other; but is this the best we could do? Perhaps it is fitting, that as the world, as we know it, crumbles, we have a bizarre play caricaturing the worst of humanity. We will have to watch how this play turns out. I don't think the Republican candidate really wants to be president. I think he just ran for a lark, and now he just wonders, how far he can push the ridiculousness.

It is a good lesson in how we are smothered and captivated by our belief systems. Each candidate tries to appeal to what they think are the peoples prejudices. Both Democrats and Republicans have their knee jerk reactions; they are unreasoned ideas that stem from belief systems, they may not even be aware of. {And it is okay to end a sentence with a preposition- so there}

I am not any better, I, too, have to give up old belief systems, that generate thoughts, that directly [or indirectly] affect perception.

As a people, we need to get out of our heads and get our feet in the soil of this beloved Earth. We need to re-acquaint ourselves with Nature. We need to begin anew from the bottom up. Just like each individual needs to, unlearn all the negativity they absorbed about themselves, in order to be truly loving and free, peoples as a whole, need to find their roots, and give up their craziness.

We don't have to give up technology to return to the Earth. We have bodies that need protection from the elements. We need to be warm in the Winter and not overcome by heat in the Summer. What kind of technology aids us and what separates us from each other, the Earth and the Cosmos?

I don't know at what point, in the evolution of our civilization, we decided Nature was the enemy. Was it gradual? Was it sudden? Christianity, very early on, began to wean people, from beliefs, the church thought of as pagan; they wanted the peoples full allegiance. We, all know, that this thinking resulted in folks being burned as witches because they looked to Nature for healing.

We are not fully aware of how much harm this separation from Nature has caused. Because we can manipulate Nature; should we? If we were close to Nature we would see the answer. Learning that we could split an atom, doesn't mean it is a wise thing to do. Discovering we can kill plants with herbicides doesn't mean it is wise. Certainly altering the genetic structure of plants and animals, without fully understanding the consequences, doesn't seem wise.

We won't have the wisdom to live on this Earth, in peace and abundance, until we give up our defiance of Nature. We need to discover Nature as the loving entity she is. We need to understand everything is life. The Earth is a living being, in the same way our bodies are; we [or many of us] think of ourselves as spirits or souls living in a physical body. We can think of the Earth as the body of Gaia. We need to respect the Body Earth the way we should respect our own bodies.

This concept is not anti technology. Technology can help us live on the Earth in a respectful manner. Learning to use the energy that exist all around us, so called free energy, to provide our current electrical needs would free our planet from much destruction and pollution and would free us to create and be of better service to each other.

These are some of my thoughts for this Monday. It all boils down to being kind and loving to each other and our Mother Earth.

Love and Peace, Gregg

WHAT'S HAPPENING?

I went out about 8:30AM to let our 4 ½ week old chicks out. I hardly got back in the house when it started raining. It gave me pause. I know they have good instincts and will run in their house rather than get wet; but still the concerned husbandman..........thinks... it started raining very hard and I didn't want to get wet myself checking on them. A similar thing happened yesterday and I put on my poncho and went out to check on them, they were all snuggled, warm and dry in their coop.

About and hour later, the rain abated for a few minutes, so I went out and let out the big chickens. I have been sitting here, at the computer, reading stuff and wondering what I am going to write about; I looked down at the floor and noticed two big chunks of dark material that must have come off my shoes. Then I peeked under my desk and spied another group of smaller pieces. Of course, I had to smell it, no odor, it was just wedges of earth. That's good. But, how come, I forgot to scrape my feet?

Even a perfect day can have a bumpy start. It seems like a perfect day. I am happy.

We attended a meeting of some concerned citizens; a group involved with the environment. The agenda was preparedness, in case of an emergency. There was no stated type of emergency and the presentation was made attempting to avoid fear. It was a good meeting. We talked about how we could prepare for, a period of time, when stores may be closed or not assessable. We discussed focusing on foods we actually use. Storage, canning, freezing etc. How do we re-shuffle to keep things fresh? What do we do with, the food in the freezer, if the power goes out? We certainly didn't exhaust the subject and there were as many questions as answers; but it was a good start.

Have you noticed, there is more and more discussions of this nature? Is it just me, do other people feel that something is about to happen? Something big. Earth changes? Monetary collapse? I look to see how other folks are feeling. I don't trust my own feelings. I have been expecting something for forty plus years. I was watching a re-run of Barney Miller, a couple evenings ago, the intellectual detective [Dietrich] was spouting off on the economy. He was making a prediction about the eminent collapse of the dollar on the world stage. He was describing a situation, precisely as it is described by several internet seers now. That program must have been 30+ year ago. The show aired from 1975 to 1982. So this uncertainty has been going on for a long time.

Is the world crazier now than it was forty years ago? It seems so. I think we have reached a point where the average person feels, it cannot continue, as it is.

Also, folks are waking up in droves. We no longer are willing to follow leaders who support the present world order, or what they call the, New World Order. Democracy does not exist. Leaders support the Corporatacracy or Kelptocracy or they don't. I know many of these leaders are blind, to who, their masters really are. We do not wish to be manipulated, by people, who are in love with money and power. We have had enough. All that they do is create fear and divisiveness so they can control. Folks are realizing, that without their negative influence, we can realize our 'oneness' with everyone on the planet. We are here to serve each other and love and appreciate each other. We are tired of the craziness. We are hoping for anything that will jar the grip of the dark ones and put an end to their nuttiness.

In the meantime, we can refuse to give them power, by refusing to be afraid, and focusing on the positive features of our lives. We can create paradise in our hearts and extend it to the person next to us. Forgiveness and thankfulness are cleansing agents; they will help us 'see'.

It is Friday! Perfect for celebration! It is time for singing and dancing.

Love and Peace, Gregg