siona shows her cards.

hi Siona,

I agree with much of what you are saying here and you paint a beautifully inclusive picture of your worldview.  There are only a couple of things which i would like to draw attention to if you will entertain me.
(disclaimer: i spent 2 years with Integral Institute and my perspective will be weighted accordingly)

“The thing is, those levels ought still be accessible. Just because someone is transrational doesn't mean they abandon the rational as 'wrong.' In the same way, just because someone is rational doesn't mean they should disparage myth or magic as 'wrong.' They're not. Again, mythic and magic phenomenon / experiences are LITERALLY real, albeit real within the frame of the mythic / magic worldviews.”

The Wilberists would say that this is true, but, this is only true because you are operating from and SD yellow(or higher;) meme values system.  You have developed the ability to take the perspectives of lower value systems.  This is quite an evolutionary feat.  You unfortunately could never expect the same from any of value systems on the SD map prior to yellow.  someone operating and fully centered at SD orange values would simply not be capable of honoring values outside the rational system. 
Thus the Pre-Trans fallacy would be that someone centered at rationality would identify with mythic values, but in a way that dissociates from their rational values rather than healthily including them. 
I think the call for movement up the spiral stems from the reasoning that, until yellow, the inclusiveness you speak of is just not possible.   Now this may or may not be true. 
Having recently left Integral Institute, I am noticing the Wilberist absolutism a bit more. It is a powerful theoretical set, but the world seems much more dynamic than the theories can yet account for.  Research is needed to validate much of the claims and work in translation to the practical has yet to be done.  Ken himself wouldn't argue this point.
In time, Integral Theories will likely be taken for granted as part of the understanding of the human condition, but until then, we ought not let it get in the way of earthbound emotional connections.

late to the party,
case

Thanks for putting this out there, Siona. I had wondered where you stood on Integral.
Your perspective doesn't look, from this perspective, like a break with Integral Theory. It looks like you're caling out those people who profess  a “2nd tier” consciousness, but only get it intellectually (this would include me). You seem to inhabit 2nd tier rather than just discussing it as a concept.

My view of integral has changed significantly over the last month. I'll post about it when/if it stabilzes in my mind.

Siona,

I really love your world view. It's something that I train and practice on a daily basis, which is to be open to “everything” that arises whether rational, transrational, magic, or mythic.
I also practice Tibetan Buddhism which has lots of magical qualities which are only practiced by very advanced students. The advanced students also study quite extensively on the nature of reality, lots of cognition going on along with meditation.

This doesn't necessarily mean like you've stated that you don't think some of the things in “The Secret” is bullshit.  I think for most part we can all agree that we can't just “magically” think of material gain and receive it from the universe.  I think New Age people are not that dumb anyways.  And we already pointed out the problems of “The Secret”.
What I find interesting is the phenomenon that makes it so popular and often it makes me sad that people have to “fantasize” in order to make their reality seem more tolerable. And to be honest, I know exactly what that is like and it's more painful. In the end, if it does benefit someone on some level then it's not apparently “all bad”, although eventually most of them would have to find themselves looking at their “stuff”. Eventually, not all fantasies of the material world comes true, unless you frame your mind so that you  believe that's how things turned out.  Let's face it we all have our ups and downs. Simple.

I would think that at some point we would be able to “embrace” all perspectives pre, rational, and trans. At the same time having enough compassion to wisely help those who may make mistakes in their understanding. Not that we all need to play Saints. Because I think that can be a strange pathology as well.

I also myself feel that some SD theorists holds some sort of judgement of pre and rational as “lower” and “less” intelligent. The thing is I believe you have to “embrace” pre and rational to get to trans. At least that's how I understand it.  Well, it's all theory anyways at this point unless I run into someone who says there's “post transrational”  and can read minds  and tell the future.


Ok, I have met people who apparently can read the future.
Not sure where on the Spiral they are located.

deepsurface:
I would love to know more about your view.

Looking for more discussion. I'll have to re read Wilber's stuff and I-I pods.

I know little about Intregal Theory, so I'm not entirely sure I understand what you're talking about.  Are you saying, in a nutshell, that rationality is simply one way of framing the world, and that it doesn't make other frames less valid?

oh Siona I feel for you in your struggle to articulate the “real within those levels” concept.  I get what you mean but the words aren't quite there, for me either.   i feel like there's some quote or some passage lurking somewhere that would make the paradox 'pop out' in magic-eye-poster style…

and maybe it helps to say that this perspective is different than mere relativism– which is a much more superficial gloss that i think confuses what level symmetries are operating on…

Hello Siona ~

Thanks for sharing some more of your conceptualizations of the world.
Always appreciated.

I have a new rule in CyberSpace:

If Siona Rants, I Read.

Now this may sound odd, but I was struck by how aligned your worldviews are with Wilber.

Siona:

“My personal interest, and my only real personal interest, is encouraging other people to be more fully themselves, to more deeply connect to who they are, and to be who they are in this present moment, at whatever “stage” they're at, as they stand in relation to both themselves and the world at large right now.”

KW:

“The overall health of the spiral is our prime concern.”

“The simplest way to define health at any stage is that the 4 quadrants are balanced at that specific level. Our aim is to facilitate the balance of I, We, and It at any given level. Good therapy is taking people where you find them and helping them achieve health at whatever center of gravity they are at.”

From an Integral Psycholtherapy seminar that was posted on Integral Naked last week.
 

To imply, as you do, that Wilber's model in any way condones that ”earlier stages can be somehow annihilated or rejected or cut-off” is just plain wacky. That is NOT what Wilber's integral model puts forth at all.

KW (on Psychology)

“Any truly integral psychology will “transcend and include” all of the important truths of each level. Nothing is lost, all is retained; even dinosaurs live on in today's birds. The test of any integral psychology is to what degree it can accept and coherently integrate the valid research and data from the various schools of psychology–not just the four major forces, but developmental psychology, evolutionary psychology, cognitive sciences, phenomenological/hermeneutic approaches, and so on. Of course this is a daunting challenge, perhaps forever unreachable; but as of today we know too much to ever settle for less.”

Siona:

“Myth and magic ARE real, in the same way that rationality is real, and doesn't get abandoned once you reach the transrational stage. It's just that mythology and magic are merely REAL WITHIN THOSE LEVELS.”

YES!   That's one of the MAJOR premisies of Spiral Dynamics Integral, and Integral Psychology - the overall health of the spiral.

KW:

“The heuristic principle suggests that all paradigms, like all moments, are in themselves true and adequate; but some paradigms can be more encompassing, more inclusive, more holistic than others. This does not render the other paradigms wrong, inaccurate, stupid, illusory, or anything of the sort–they are all true but partial.”

Sonia:

“I think Wilber would call me a retro-Romantic. I'd say he was leaving out the and.”

Again, I gotta disagree big time.

First, Wilber is one of least likely people on the planet to leave out the AND.

And nobody - least of all Ken Wilber, is going to call you a retro-Romantic!  Gimme a freakin' break.

“We must forgive each other our arising, for our existence always torments others. The golden rule in the midst of this mutual misery has always been, not to do no harm, but as little as possible; and not to love one another, but as much as you can. Therefore, let a calculus of torment as well as one of compassion guide the maps with which we navigate samsara.”

“In the end, yes, that which is samsara is not other than nirvana, and that which is nirvana is not other than samsara: the world of finite, manifest, temporal things crashing into each other, torturing each other, loving each other for a moment or two, every now and then, turns out to be the domain of the very and only Divine, with each and every thing, just as it is, a shimmering gesture, a luminous glance, a sparkling jewel, spontaneously arising in the sea of the Great Perfection, the entire show nothing but the radiant smile of your own Original Face.”

“But in the meantime, there is this manifest mess. As long as the world is arising around you, then this is samsara, and therefore calculate your actions on the least harm and the most care. When the very same world is arising within you, then this is nirvana, and all your actions will take care of themselves, while the calculus of pain and compassion will unfold of its own accord, treating every sentient being with the utmost concern, vowing to liberate each and every one of them, knowing full well that in reality there are no others to liberate–because in the entire Kosmos there are no others at all, no inside and no outside anywhere, but merely and only This. Greet the day within you as the unfolding of your kin, watch the sun arise without opening your eyes, feel the distant galaxies rising and falling with each and every heartbeat of the only heart there is–you can feel it beating right now–and bless the entire universe arising within by consenting to feel it again, now and now and now.”

~Ken Wilber

You, Sonia, are an absolutely exquisite embodiment of paradoxes like I've never seen.  That's why I love your writing so much.

Thanks again for this.

Surges of Love,
Cori

I wanted to thank you for sharing your perspective and world view. I agree with you on many of your salient points regarding integral theory. The intellectualization and organization into concepts and constructs are an interesting and fascinating “Way” of trying to express universal truths. My concern is for those who are on the outside looking in at AQL embracing IT as the all inclusive integral bromide that will end their spiritual journey. The Rosetta Stone of Wilbureze that must be processed and integrated to the push memeplex past the pre-trans fallacy of mythic or magic, redefining the meaning and value of a post metaphysical spirituality based on the pluralism of the green-meme approach to the mystery of the divine.  

It’s the idea that categorizing and placing in neat little boxes and quadratic divisions will somehow ‘measure’ the sum total of all of what the boxes contain. It can come across as a rather outside in approach to describe an inside out reality. Albeit, a damn good one if that’s the road you care to travel. I think many will see it as a steep climb and get lost in the map and forget to look out IT Windows and see the territory for what it really is. For those intrepid enough to voyage into the domain of an all inclusive spiral, the quest remains the same, to embrace and encourage others to experience the eternal joy of here and now revealed by their relationship to space and time.

These are weighty matters no doubt, and it stands to reason that we should consider the words of the man himself as expressed in his foreword to Frank Vissers biography :

“An integral approach is merely an attempt to categorize, in conceptual terms, some of this glory as it manifests itself. But it is no more than that. Every one of my books has at least one sentence, usually buried, that says the following (this is the version found in The Atman Project): “There follows, then, the story of the Atman project. It is a sharing of what I have seen; it is a small offering of what I have remembered; it is also the Zen dust you should shake from your sandals; and it is finally a lie in the face of that Mystery which only alone is.”

In other words, all of my books are lies. They are simply maps of a territory, shadows of a reality, gray symbols dragging their bellies across the dead page, suffocated signs full of muffled sound and faded glory, signifying absolutely nothing. And it is the nothing, the Mystery, the Emptiness alone that needs to be realized: not known but felt, not thought but breathed, not an object but an atmosphere, not a lesson but a life. ” 

The framework and constructs are mere signposts and guides that point to the glory of the unmanifested and sublime truth that the answer to everything is no-thing. The universal truth that Right Now in the eternal moment contains the key to unlock the Mystery of The Divine. The universal (1) + (-1) = 0

Men have been trying to express these truths for centuries whether through metaphor or conceptual frameworks. Look at the famous Harvard Logician and mathematician Charles S. Peirce who spent his life trying to deny that there is a law of three which he called the Law of Firstness, Secondness and Thirdness.

“Peirce's writings are pervaded by triadic divisions, which, given that he felt himself to be at heart a mathematician, he expressed most basically in numerical form as Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness. While still in his twenties Peirce first began to formulate these divisions using personal pronouns: I (Firstness), IT (Secondness), and THOU (Thirdness). In Peirce's evolutionary cosmology, Thirdness, or triadic relation, or semeiosis, is considered to be a fact of the universe and not simply limited to the human mind.

Sounds familiar right? Just add a Tetrad alla Pythagorean style and throw in some Gean Gebser on The Ever-Present Origin to add depth, structure and stages. Sprinkle in some Gilligan for moral development and wind it up with a colorful Beck spiral and you have yourself a really cool THING.

‘It is one thing (some would say the only thing) to apprehend that clear focus inside our own field of subjectivity that enables us to aim our lives with greater precision and another thing to begin building a different construction of reality based on the modular building blocks provided by our society. But that construction - ultimately defining a very different universe - will still be animated by our intentionality. The ghost in the machine will still be a ghost.’

Darren

Siona, as I am dealing with Kens work in progress now for 27 years and SD for 7 years I agree fully with what you said about truth of earlier worldviews. No trouble with AQAL at this point. AQAL is an psychoactive map It fires up what is not in actualization. And Kens work -up to this point in the historic timeline - was and is utterly necessary as groundbreaking project to bring the minimum of real revolutionary paradigm of spirituality , science, arts and rationality in all forms with the unfolding worlds of pre and trans.

Mainstream Science still is practicing and subscribing to quadrant absolutism. As I  studied medicine over 25 years ago and wanted to into brain rearch with fresh perspectives and innovative thinking I felt and suffered heavily from the brutal monoculture of limited empiric analytic research.

And though much happened in the last 2 decades to bring together broad science and spirituality the real postmodern revolution isnt seen right now.

Fully agree with Ken in his statements of “Integral Spirituality”. Fully agree also with his criticism of current status of “Integral Medicine”. Remember an email Ken sent me years ago when he saif even his foreword of “Consciousness and Healing” is only a support to bring Integral medicine on the way! He is and was fully aware that most contributions of the book are basically about complementary and alternative medicine.

Does AQAL Integral Theory privilege reason and the “transrational”?

No, I do not think though many Wilbersts embody a certain cognitive gesture. All it needs is discriminative intelligence in dealing with category errors. Kens work in his cycle V is a postmetaphysical approach to hold all truths in a certain frame in progress and -yes” -I see him clearly as “Einstein of Consciouisness”.

To bring the integral fire and vertical transformation to life and shape and change and initiate a real vertical transformation with strong horizontal complexity and making a dent into the flatland will certainly take 10 -30 years. And this work will certainly be pioneered by many forms of collective intelligence.

Passion, emotion, feeling, intuition and even “unreasonable” impulses are part of the AQAL-in-action. Though not seen and expressed often by “Wilberists”. When re-reading the Guru-Pandit dialogues of Ken and andrew I see clearly that Ken knows about the messy and wild and powerful struggles on the way. And the terrible burden to communicate the truth.

What I strongly criticize is any cult like form of followership. For me its not about leading Ken like a cult figure any form of movement but about MANY forms of integral leadership. And even not integrally labeled ones. Like f.e. Otto Scharmers U Process. Or George Por with his work in progress about Evolutionary Nexus and Evolutionary Leadership Action Network. (ELAN). ETC.

So your own work is decisive. The dent in the universe requires thousands, tens of thousands and more.And any approach to accelerate, magnify and catalyze, ignite and facilitate, leverage ALL triggers and impulses, already emerging momentum and in ALL cultures of the world is at the edge.

Here in Europe we see that in a specific way. I am open for eveything. And especially for the processes in politcs and business.

Best,

Albert

Thanks for what your wrote Siona …. What ever happened with just Be-ing? Why does the human mind continually need to rationalize and categorize all of our experiences? What is it with people so caught up within the program that they merrily perpetuate this notion of capitalizing on everything and anything.
I know I know there is free will, and all who have this undying need to categorize all even their divine selves, will. And those of us who live amongst the pixies and dragons will forever be ” classed”  as dreamers who have lost the plot. But have we?
A world of followers leaves little space for change. Maybe its time we all realised how alike we are and start to live and feel without needing to label and categorise our experience under perpetual guises. We are all unique and divine, and all exsist in the realm of possibility.
And who are you to judge? And who am I to judge?
Lets just Be.

 Wow. What a fun bunch you all are at the siona blog fan club. Kathy and I both like to have fun, which usually means in a social setting. I have always liked maps from geo to AQAL to spiral etc. What these blogs and comments brought to mind to me though is a story I heard Don Miguel Ruiz tell.
  He talked about his cosmology beliefs. This was after saying how he saw our agreements and beliefs as bricks in a wall we build to keep us from directly experiencing. The morter that holds our wall together is our faith,in our beliefs or agreements, about our universe being right. Of course we are right, we know it to be true. So anyway Miguel talks about how he views the world as this beautiful goddess and he is wed to her, he is absolutly completely in love with her and her beauty. It is such a wonderful tale and as he tells it you can feel his passion and love, it is so beautiful it brings tears to my eyes.
  He finishes his story by saying ” But that is just my story, and you have yours as well ”
Be here Now  Love and light  Kevin

Siona,

right you are in giving the caveat for institutionalizing of evolution. However crytallizing, building prototypes, creating institutes, learning orgs and communites requires certain components of this process.

Examples are already there:

Zaadz,
Integral Institute
Center for Human Emrgence
EnlgithenNext,
WIE
Presencing Institute
European Integral Academy( in statu nascendi)

As Don, Helen and others spoke about in a conference call last September during first ever European ADi Confab finding functions, following the flow and shaping the motherboards of the different codes and sensing the emrging dances of the memes,..ALL of this should precede structures and forms.

Stretching imagination and breathing and feeling into the infinite..welcoming the paradoxes, mystery,the enigma and even dark frightening sides, perceiving the layers of reality as psycho-physical plastique too, which means to not hammer it out with left brains alone..etc. etc. YOU yourself embody already this flow of fresh expressions without fixed reference points…..

Thanks for crystallizing this vast open space of uncertainty in THIS way!

Albert

Let everyman and woman polish his or her own way. To shed the dross that blinds the “I” and look into the light that reveals all things as no-thing in the timeless presence and awareness that

                                                                              NOW
                                                                         is the only
                                                                             Space
                                                                        you will ever
                                                                                Be.

 To accept that fact that you can never really have any -thing, because no-thing is real.

To break the egg and push back from the illusion that imprisons us. To wrestle with the chains that bind us to these shadows cast upon a wall. A wall to be torn down brick by brick as the voice of wisdom calls you from the other side, telling us to lose our conceptions and ideas behind, and experience life as it is, on its terms,

                                                                           Right Here

                                                                           Right  Now.

                                                 There to leave the cave and walk into the
                                                                 'Ever Present Origin'
                                                                      of creation itself.

                                                               Merrily, Merrily Merrily….

                                                                 life is but a Dream……
                                                                                        
                                                                                  :-)

                                                                              Darren

Ok, 
            Albert, that's twice NOW.

The Synchronicity is getting kinda cool… love it.!

Peace,
Darren

Wow and thanks; first to Siona for sharing her truths and then all others for following suit.  I'm expanded and very grateful.

I just need to make a comment here so I'll be able to stay updated on this conversation! Ditto everything HeyOK said….;-)

I think Photizo:Darren pointed out something really wonderful and that is to not get so caught up in a framework or a map. There are many others to explore.
Although Integral is a really good map, exploration of other thinkers shouldn't be “x”ed out.
I really enjoyed everyone's comments and makes my heart flutter.

{{hugs}} … love this post, love the conversation that has transpired here in the comments too… I can learn so much from this kind of empowering conversation… thanks for being such a powerful catalyst!

loves you!

I've enjoyed everyone's participation here so much!

Siona:

But I have no interest in “the health of the spiral”! None! What does that even mean?!? “The spiral” is a theoretical construct. To me, “the health of the spiral” makes about as much sense as saying “the health of Kohlberg's stages.” Anyway, I've never seen a spiral. ;)

I appreciate that you are not big on objective meaning and theoretical contructs. And I relate.  Really I do.
At the same time, I definately see the value of objective meaning and theoretical contructs and can appreciate how they can be used to improve subjective experience.
No, they can't replace or usurp subjective experience, but I cannot see the value of dismissing them. 
I've never seen “Kierkegaardian dread” either - but understanding it in theory helps me translate my experience of it.

Klare:

Although Integral is a really good map, exploration of other thinkers shouldn't be “x”ed out.

An Integral map would'nt  x out anything. 
That's one of the major tennants of Integral theory.  Include Everything! Everybody's right.

Every theory - including Integral, (and reductionism, and deconstruction and nihilism! ;D) is true but partial.

Big Love,
Cori

Thank you, thank you for all your current writing. It deeply resonates. I guess the silliest belief system and the hardest to see through (and I'm very familiar with Wilber and SD and had an essay published on the use of Spiral Dynamics applied to empathy in business - it's No Boundary that was far and away Wilber's greatest contribution)…

oh, so, the belief system that dissolved for me was believing there was any Other out there needing 'my' help to get Them to “move up the spiral.”

as long as I put energy into fixing so-called other people and/or converting them over to 'my' side, the collective belief in separateness holds strong, a very persistent illusion indeed held together cohesively by the power of belief

the minute one yields this belief innately one realizes there is no spiral, no evolution, no levels to attain, no-thing

and Everything

and, paradoxically it is deep acceptance and complete resistance to everyone just as they are that moves Us to see our Self in Other, and in that mirror, they may (may, it has no agenda, there is not a coercion) choose to remember their Self too

the following is not meant to be dogma, it means absolutely nothing as a concept or theory or mantra or affirmation, but it is my non-belief:

“You are the ultimate source, and everything is perfect unity and everything out there is actually you, equally.  So inherent in this revelation of unity is the realization that there is no such thing as an “other.” There is no one else because it is ultimately one's own self…  You don't need a teacher to explain the implications of there being no other – you need to do that for yourself.” - Adyashanti,  from Emptiness Dancing

namaste, e

I received my “batched” email of “comments on blogs that I've commented on” and the following random quote was included at the bottom of the message:

“Never Forget!- The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.”
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche”

Seemed really resonant with this blog so I just had to come over here and submit it… ;-) N.

Wow!! I was feeling a bit unwanted around the Zaadz land here I have been following the reaction to the Secret and not really getting what all the fuss is about-because I am sure I am more of a purple than a turquoise most days and I don't especially find KW to be the greatest teacher I've ever known… but this helps Siona-not sure why-in a rational or transrational way-but it helps… it sits well on my solar plexus… and for now that is enough…

Many thanks
Katrina

Siona - What a profoundly thoughtful and thought-inducing blog!  Very powerful.

I think the part that struck me the most was how holding so tightly to any one “system” actually limits our ability to touch all of who we are inside - right here, right now.  Believing any one system is the absolute tends to create the atmosphere of divisiveness, isolation and superiority.  Ironically, that's true even when the system is touting itself as being one of the most comprehensive available! 

Being open to the gifts of magic, rationality, trans-rationality and all the monikers for new belief/ways of being to come shows both an expansiveness and wisdom.  It truly is the gift of “Yes, And”.  My guess is that all of the beings who have reached enlightenment would agree.  But, hey, I'm just a girl typing on a computer - what do I know?  ;-)

Beautiful, dear Siona. I also love the energy of everyone here.

I want to requote this bit again…

But I have no interest in “the health of the spiral”! None! What does that even mean?!? “The spiral” is a theoretical construct. To me, “the health of the spiral” makes about as much sense as saying “the health of Kohlberg's stages.” Anyway, I've never seen a spiral. ;) What I have seen are people – living, breathing, human bodies, with emotions and thoughts and brilliant struggles. I care about the health of people. I care about the heath of these beings. And myself, too. :)

I loved it. Just loved it.

I was going to go off on a tangent about how perhaps this all ( the dialogue & the positions people have on the subject) has to do with feminine vs masculine approaches ( aka David Deida's work - not male vs female).

But then I came back here, to this being writing. Now.

I used to be a good map reader. A really good one.  I mean this in a literal sense and in terms of  maps like Integral Theory.  (I have a degree in Classical Greek  - and that's quite a map, let me tell you! )

About 12 years ago, probably due to a complex physical situation , my memory began to break down before I got to Wilber's maps.

Having a poor memory seems to have the effect of bringing me back to basics. To here. Now.

I can't remember what bloody tier I might be in any given moment - I keep forgetting what AQAL stands for - when I read about it I say “oh yes that's good!”, and then, moments later I am just here, and AQAL could be the name of my dog for all I know.

I love reading (most of) Wilber. What I love in particular is the poetry of his language. Something touches my heart (especially the beautifully chosen excerpts in “The Essential Ken Wilber” sent to me by zaadz !).  I've used some of his writing to inspire dialogue and blogs on the create your reality thing - but, in the end, I forget - not the feeling I had reading him,  but the maps, the theories, the specifics. It all seems like an awful lot of information, and I can't do that anymore - and I don't mean I wont do that, I mean I can't.

I'm sure someone could describe the above situation in AQAL/spiral dynamic terms, and while I read it I'd be delighted ( or not?). 

But in the end, all I have, and I do mean all I have - not you, or anyone else, is this present moment. For which there are no maps, in my experience.

as Darren wrote so beautifully,

                                                                               NOW
                                                                         is the only
                                                                             Space
                                                                        you will ever
                                                                                Be.

Sending love to all,

Sandra

Oh.. and I also wanted to post a link to Alan Kazlev's articles - a dear zaadzter friend and long time integral theorist and post integral theorist/practitioner..

In the following one,  A New Integral Paradigm in Theory and Practice he writes:

“I am now less inclined to take specific mental maps or descriptions of reality as accurate representations of that reality. Indeed I now see them as totally provisional and arbitrary, albeit still useful. So although I still enjoy creating such diagrams and worldviews, and present quite a few in the course of this essay, I take them much less seriously than I used to, and advise the reader to do the same. Ironically, by taking such representations less seriously, one can also explore and present them better.”

IT IS surely the interconnectedness of the power of the energies - that lie behind the syncronicity of NOW @zaadz - which constitutes our power of knowledge with humility - which IS LOVE

As though not enough people commented here… Can there be a “thank you” button instead? One that just, like, makes a smiley face pop up on your screen, Siona? Or maybe the button could make the words, “davie says thankie!” pop up in big jiggling jello-like tangerine letters. That would be nice. (giggle)

Anyway. Thanks again Siona, for removing any particular sense of aloneness I may have felt in my process of conception. The whole kaboodle. Meatballs n’ all.

Man, I can’t be serious for a whole paragraph without feeling pent-up inanity… do you ever sorta IMAGINE folks as meatballs? Like walking around with marinara sauce dripping offa them? That would make me HUN-gry…

Good Lord, this is going to say, like “a gazillion days later, martha rolled by and said…”  but still I do want to say that your paragraph about “I believe”… 

“I told him I believe, 100%, in every word of The Secret and in all the channeled entities of Abraham Hicks and I believe 100% in chakras and auras and lightworkers and I believe 100% in the New Age reality manifestation and in pagan faeries and in the millions of miniature gods that live between the minutes and the seconds of each day. I told him I believe 100% in the path of meditation and in Islamic martydom and in the Norse heroes that breathed icy figures into human beings, and I believe 100% that we can talk to animals and that Santa Claus is real and that the universe sends us messages, constantly. I told him I believe 100% in the virgin birth and Christ's resurrection and I believe 100% in the elaborate bloody Gods and Goddesses of the Romans and Greeks and I believe, as well, utterly and completely, in the scientific method and the dizzy play of logic and in quantum physics and chemistry and reason. I believe all this, literally,  … and I believe so much more.

I also believe, I wrote, that these are all, all just BELIEFS, and that they're all just bullshit, and that this whole crazy playful game is about remembering that. (But that ought go without saying. ;)” 

THAT set of words and thoughts is one of the Most Beautiful, exciting and inspiring paragraphs I've read in a long time.  Thank you for writing it!  It's the believing, the faith that gets us, as individuals and as a collectivity of Something More -Eternal-, through it all.  We live in a world of opposites, of paradox.  And that, as you observe, is its own truth that we celebrate by believing in something–greater than ourselves…

Ahh now I see why my comment was lost to the cyber cookie monster…  Siona was posting simultaneously as well…

It went something like:  Thank the Gods, Goddesses, Pixies, etc, etc that “a gazillion days later, martha rolled by and said…” because this was worth revisiting.

Blessings, David

Just read the whole thing from top to here, so I could second Sandra's nomination of this “thread” to Collective Wisdom: Hall of Fame for Zaadz Threads pod. I knew ahead of time I would love the blog+comments. I was wrong. I loooooovvvvveeeedddd it! I was fired, inspired, expanded, warmed, softened, and smil-ified by it!!!!

Everyone is invited to stop by the pod and third-fourth-fifth…… the nomination. And bring in other threads that are classic wisdom on classic issues many people deal with.

Blessings, OM Bastet

IT would appear, some gazillion more days later & out of defference to Brian and HIS BIG IDEA,  in the context of Eckhart's TIME IS NOW statement, that it would be appropriate to post HERE … THE ULTIMATE LIST of thoughts of the COLLECTIVE WISDOM of KNOWLEDGE.

Thought 1 …

IN order that the whole of mankind be given the opportunity to truly understand that …
” the first person singular present tense which is the LOVE that makes the world go round and leaves no-one whatever out - all travelling the way - and willing to communicate and collaborate with each-other - regardless of race, religion, politics or culture” … WE must ALL individually and collectively adopt THE 1st Person mindset, which is itself a superset of ALL the PERSPECTIVES of the multiverse of parallel universes, as well as the here and now, 4th dimension, 3rd Person perspective … and that a pre-condition of this mindset switch is fulfilled when one acknowledges the need to LET GOD BE GOD within one.

Equally rather than those, who subscribe to the pre-eminence of the first person singular present tense perspective, having to prove that objective reality does NOT exist … IT IS the role of those who believe that objective reality does exist, to prove it. As we know the closest they can come to this is reproducible phenomena and as such there can be no proof of objectivity as we humans are inherently subjective.

Thought 2 …

One of the many keys to understanding is the need to acknowledge the concept of -seeking less and less  - about more and more

NOT

Nice and timely recap Michael - revisited various links and again was inspired.
Blessings, David