A DOSE OF REALITY heralds AN ALTERNATIVE CURRENCY

The truth about the nature of reality is up for grabs.  What we believe is real is what's real to us.  So if we don't much care for the nature of our reality it only makes sense to question what we believe, and consider there might be some form of external stimulus at work intent on influencing our systems of belief.  After all, knowing this, anyone interested in global power would take advantage of such a potential as soon as they realized they could.  

In the world we inhabit today, one of the most influenced and most influential 'realities' we believe in is the necessity and power of money.  But what is money really?  What exactly does it represent?  And what does that mean to us?  And, if it's not used with integrity, does it really matter?

 
So I was listening to a radio show called Dose of Reality for the first time in a while last night.  I hadn't had the opportunity for a variety of reasons, which is a shame. 

AN EXERCISE IN REALIZING ONENESS

It's not easy to understand what we mean when we say, "All is One."  If we look around us it just doesn't make any sense.  

Intellectually of course, we get that when we group everything together it automatically becomes one: one group with a lot of different things in it.  That's clear enough.  But open your eyes, look around and try to see it.  Everything looks separate.  It's a conundrum.

OK, so let's give something a go and see if it can help us understand how this works.  We'll employ a little mental exercise using an analogy to try and get a better idea of why our world appears to be made up of different things and parts, but is really all one behind the illusion.

BEING CONSCIOUS: Part 4 — The Flower Show

[5 of 5—to begin click here:  BEING CONSCIOUS: A Brief Introduction]

So we're all talking together now—that's part of being a whir-king and it's a good start.

When we talk we start someplace and we build upon it.  This creates a conversation.  To have the simplest conversation we need two points of view—providing two voices and two sets of ears.  In this case one speaks and the other responds.  It's an interactive process whereby as one of us talks the other listens; then we switch.

To do this of course we need to share our language and build upon what's said using a common understanding of what we mean.  So talking is a form of parlay.  And parlaying is important if you want to play.

We don't play a game by stopping it every moment and starting again.  We begin the process and go with the flow, always building on what already is.  So flow is parlay too.  And parlay is a way of increasing flow. 

BEING CONSCIOUS: Part 3 — He's A Ray

[4 of 5—to begin click here:  BEING CONSCIOUS: A Brief Introduction]

With her revelation about No-thing being Sum-Thing else drifting in and out of her mind, somewhere along the way the whisper of a wild thought pops up, but No-Thing can’t get a fix on it.  You might say she feels it—and then it’s gone.

It’s a fleeting whisper of a thought of an idea about Sum-Thing being something else altogether, but it's elusive and No-Thing can’t quite put her finger on it, so to speak.

Here’s No-Thing playing around with all she feels she is and all she thinks she can be, which is Sum-Thing for sure: but really, No-Thing feels like she's just playing with herself!  Weee!  And how much fun is that really?

Sure, we’ve probably all experienced it at one time or another, but after a while it does tend to get a tad boring.  It’s always more fun having someone else to play with, isn't it?  So perhaps we can understand that after No-Thing’s figured out all she is and thinks she can be, eventually she’s gonna just sort of lay herself back out again, a bit whiny maybe, with an attitude, and go all, ‘What now? I’m bored!’

So No-Thing lies around and lies around, and lies around, and gets... Sum-Thing, but nothing more.  She can be anything remember, but right now she can’t feel being anything else.  Then maybe No-Thing thinks to herself, just to make sure she hasn’t missed anything:

“I Am?”

And she runs through what she knows again. 

BEING CONSCIOUS: Part 2 — I'm A Lie

[3 of 5—to begin click here:  BEING CONSCIOUS: A Brief Introduction]

Now No-Thing's in and on and any and all the rest, and intrigued to say the least, but No-Thing wants to know more.  The story's only just begun after all.  Every ending is a new beginning.  And... 

BEING CONSCIOUS: Part 1 — Ah, It's Nothing

[2 of 5—to begin click here:  BEING CONSCIOUS: A Brief Introduction]

How on Earth can we think about consciousness?

How do we know what we know?

Where does awareness come from anyway?

And who decides what’s real?

Such questions have been asked since time immemorial and all we’ve really got to show for it is a bunch of stories about singularities and big bangs, and then more stories about God or the Gods, some rather impenetrable religious ideas we can’t throw a stick at, a few strange psychological ideas, and a great deal of argument about its physicality.  In the end we’re stuck with pretty much a big fat nothing.  So what’s up with that?

Well, what if consciousness comes from nothing—and nothing decides?  How’s that for a strange idea?

NOTHING?

Yep, that certainly is a strange idea.  How can awareness possibly come from nothing?  That’s just plain nuts.  Well now, maybe it is—and maybe it isn’t.  Something from nothing, eh?

Perhaps we should begin with another story. 

BEING CONSCIOUS: A Brief Introduction

In this series we'll examine the nature of consciousness informally by telling a story of its emergence.  We'll look at how it might have manifested through sound to transform into the language we use today and what that could mean for us now.

To do this we'll introduce an unorthodox way to look at the meanings of words we use—words we often take for granted.  The idea is to peek behind the veil to see if we can find some form of order or obscured meaning in the sounds we use to speak about ourselves and our world.  Think of it as a game. 

BEHOLD THE GLOBAL ROUNDUP

We've come a long way from the hunter-gatherers we used to be—at least that's what we're told. 

We've formed ourselves into groups, and groups of groups, so we live in a complex society now.  We've achieved a sometimes inspiring level of culture in the arts, uncovered some intriguing technologies through science, and are in the process of initiating a spiritual synthesis that may hold great promise, depending on how we handle it. 

That's the good news.

INFOMANIA

We've also collected a mass of externalized information and experience (for what it's worth empirically) particularly over the last century or so and most notably in the past few years.  But with this veritable Everest of data now online and at our fingertips we should pause for a moment to think about what we're going to do with it.  There are repercussions to blindly assimilating raw data. 

COMPLACENCY BREEDS DISASTER LIKE DUNG BREEDS FLIES

What’s the big deal about complacency?

What's all the fuss about?

Why even bother with it?

Those are good questions, thank you for asking.  Oh you didn't?  Well, that's not surprising really.  Neither has anybody else—much.  But we should be.

BOTHER

Complacency is an important concept that's easily overlooked.  It comes in the guise of mundane self-satisfaction that quite ironically ignores the practicalities of the mundane world, and this lack of awareness means potential problems are missed. It's a form of intellectual laziness really—an attitude that says, “I can’t be bothered”—and it leads to disaster.

Isn’t that a bit strong?  No, it's not.  It’s how we got into this world mess in the first place.  That makes it dangerous.

Complacency encourages the formation of an alter ego called 'little me.'  Little me doesn't feel connected to the outside world so it doesn't care.  But then because it doesn't connect it can't feel supported either.  Little me sees itself as vulnerable.  Little me feels all alone.

When we don’t consider the ramifications of little-me thinking, we automatically isolate and limit ourselves.  And that's a grave danger too because we can’t exist in isolation.  A jaded history trades this tale.  It serves those who feel the need to tell others what to do to pass this lore; so we think we can't do without their protection.  But this has never been true except inasmuch as we believed them.

Slowly, slowly, we’re beginning to wake up to the greater truth of a different song.  Some are marching to the beat of a different drummer beginning to see how we're all part of a greater dream, the great whole, the infinite One—and we have been all along.

Just as soon as we realize this fully, first individually and finally altogether, well, then we dance. 

HOW TO INVENT OUR OWN WORLD ORDER

Hey, what's really going on?  Who knows.

The system's broke—we know that much—but what can we do about it?  Let's check the general state of things to get a clue or two. 

Aren't you sick of being clueless?

OUR BIG FAT WORLD MESS

Every day more and more ideas, conjecture and downright fantasies about our big fat mess circulate the globe.  We find a plethora of lies, disinformation, misinformation, some few truths great and small, an army of agents at work around the traps—and who knows whose 'side' they're on?—and somewhere in the muddle is a greater truth we can scarcely wrap our heads around.

As soon as we think we've got things worked out something new pops up to change it all again.  And don't you just hate it when that happens?

Because of its sheer magnitude we won't repeat a maudlin list of woes here—let's simply agree we have a mammoth problem.  No, no, not some sort of revived Ice-Age-DNA inundation—at least not that I know of yet—I'm talking about a lot of very dirty laundry on the save-our-sorry-selves list.

In any case, wherever it all came from, whatever form it might take, whatever goals may be mooted, however dastardly or benevolent any individual or group intention appears to be or whoever the key players ultimately are, one thing we can say for sure is, "We have issues."  Control issues—and lots of 'em.