Those Truth Vibrations are getting stronger folks…

There seem to be several interesting developments happening at the same time these days.

First off, Anti-Bilderberg 2013 was a runaway success. I’ve watched the footage and YouTube videos very closely, read the news reports and you can’t help but feel that something extremely encouraging has taken place. The Hertfordshire police thought no more than 300 people would show up. Instead thousands did. 2000 more had to be turned away at the gate.

The crowd waiting to get into the Bilderberg site.

Politicians took to the mike along with guerrilla journalists and speakers and researchers. People from across the UK and overseas showed up. Protesters were hugging cops and the cops hugged them right back (it helps that English cops don’t carry guns). In fact the protesters were so polite and peaceful, it’s easy to see why many of the cops there seemed to be having a good time and listened earnestly to the protesters. Some even walked away convinced that maybe these loony conspiracy theorists are actually on to something.

Note to all activists, protesters and concerned citizens: THIS is the way it’s done. The old saying is true: You’ll attract more bees with honey than with vinegar.

I hope all subsequent anti-Bilderberg meetings from now on become like this. It’s finally on the mainstream media’s radar screen and it looks like it’s going to stay there. The Fringe Festival is a brilliant idea. If it continues, this thing is going to snowball, I’m sure of it. The only thing I wished I saw was some yoga practitioners showing up in solidarity like they have in Taksim Square in Istanbul.

Would’ve been cool to see a bit of this at Bilderberg

Another thing, the gathering missed the ritual and ceremonial aspect completely. I would have done earth-based ceremony around the site days or weeks in advance and then during the days of the meeting, had the First Nations drummers out in full force, at the 4 cardinal directions around the hotel. These things send out vibes/thoughts/frequencies and would go a long way to influence the Bilderbergers, in a good way, from a distance.

Second: Is anyone really surprised by this National Security Agency (NSA) scandal in the US?
Ever since 9-11 and ever since the chimp-lookalike Bush’s administration with Homeland Security becoming even more draconian against Muslims, suspected terrorists, Occupy activists, in fact ANY kind of activist or anyone that questions governments, banksters or corporations. Of course it was just a question of time before they started listening in on phone calls, reading private emails and embroiling Google, FaceBook and MSN in their complicity. Julian Assange warned as much ages ago. Assange is also praising Snowden as a hero and is urging him to seek asylum in either Russia or South America. I don’t always agree with Glen Greenwald but this was truly a spectacular piece of reportage and investigative journalism. Kudos to him. The jury is still out on whistleblower Edward Snowden and from what I understand, he’s hiding out in Hong Kong so he can escape Private Bradley Manning‘s fate.

Some Icelandic politicians, in their truly unique tradition, are looking to offer political asylum to Snowden. There are calls for impeachment against Obama. The entire country is literally going apeshit over this.
My advice: Don’t use Google, use Startpage. Unlike Google, they don’t record IP addresses and it’s the one search page many software developers and hackers use. From what I heard, they will shortly be launching an email service as well.

Screw Google, go here instead.

Third: I can’t speak for everyone but at least in my corner of the world, many politicians are being outed big time for kickbacks, drug usage and plain old corruption.

Canada’s dictator, Step-Hen Harper has no warm, human blood in him. Instead, ice-cold liquid mercury runs in his veins.

Step-Hen Harper is embroiled in a scandal where his chief of staff paid off a conservative Senator Mike Duffy for $90 000 for “living expenses”.

Rolly-polly bigoted Toronto mayor Rob Ford may have some phone camera video of him smoking crack cocaine floating out there somewhere. The video has not surfaced but half his staff quit anyway and his credibility is in tatters. Maybe he can go on a fishing trip with his buddy Step-Hen and commiserate on their bad fortune together?

Local Montreal shyster Dr. Arthur Porter, who was the head of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), is fighting an extradition order to Canada where he faces serious corruption charges. Porter, a doctor from Senegal, somehow through Step-Hen Harper, was elected the the Queen’s Privy Council of Canada and was made a board member of CSIS, the Canadian Intelligence agency.

Old pals, Step-Hen and Arthur Porter

Porter seriously screwed up the MUHC and their plans to build a super-hospital. He awarded contracts to his cronies and because of the cronyism and corruption, the entire university has been crippled. They are cutting back on essential staff and services, fees are being raised while these assholes walk away with golden parachutes. Anyway Porter has been found guilty of corruption and the Quebec government want him back for questioning. What does he do? He now claims he has Stage IV cancer and “cannot travel” from his location in the Bahamas. Funny enough, he seemed well enough to travel to Panama where he and his wife were caught last week. Porter has said that if he goes down, he’s going to name names, including politicians, businessmen, socialites and typical movers and shakers. To say that Quebec is a corrupt place is the understatement of the century. My guess is that there’s a sweetheart deal in the works behind the scenes. He’ll probably name some names, but not the most important ones and he’ll get a penalty or next-to-nothing jail time.

Keep your nose clean, always pack an extra pair of underwear and sit back, relax and watch this comedy show. At this rate, who knows what will happen next given the climate these days….

Bilderberg 101

For those of you who are out of the conspiracy/Truther movement loop, the hyper-secretive Bilderberg group are meeting this weekend at the Grove Hotel in Watford, England. This group essentially consists of the wealthiest, most powerful and influential businessmen, politicians, presidents-in-waiting, royalty, policy makers, philanthropists and industrialists and all of it is done in secret. It’s not like Davos, Switzerland where they show up publicly and members of the public can join in the conversation. Bilderberg, like Bohemian Grove is strictly off-limits to the public. This is where these globalist assholes decide the agenda for basically the entire world.

Ring of steel going up around the hotel, to keep the riff-raff public out (photo from infowars.com)

A complete list of those expected to attend this weekend can be found here, but I what I found curious was that there is an unusually high number of Turkish attendees this year and given the happenings in Turkey these days, I doubt that is a coincidence. These things never are.

Also of note, take a very close look at that list. No one from Russia, China, Latin America, Arab countries, Africa or India. Not only is this very Euro-centric and Anglo-Saxon-based, to anyone with a few sparks in their head, the exclusion of certain countries and parts of the world should tell you something right away.

This year, things are a little different though. While in years past, the annual Bilderberg meeting was usually gate crashed by a handful of activists, this year, there will be a full on Bilderberg Fringe Festival (which I’m hoping will also become an annual event) taking place concurrently for the whole weekend. Luke Rudowski of “We Are Change” is there. David Icke and Alex Jones will be speaking and the hilarious Artist Taxi Driver has shown up as well. Now the mainstream media, after NEVER having reported this meeting and cooperating in the media black-out around Bilderberg, have finally thrown their hat in and this includes the grand ole’ BBC.

EU members of parliament and UK politicians have also started to question the secrecy of these meetings and I’m hoping like hell that thousands descend on Watford. Political analyst James Corbett of the Corbett Report recently did a vlog posting on Bilderberg and what he says, I think is spot on, that Bilderberg is just the literal tip of the iceberg. These people makes backroom deals all the time and they don’t need to be in each other’s physical presence to do it. That to just concentrate on this one meeting is a mistake, you need to keep your eye on the ball at all times. It’s not just Bilderberg or Bohemian Grove or Davos or G8 meetings or the Council on Foreign Relations or the Trilateral Commission or the Club of Rome or Freemasons or Opus Dei. It’s all of this and more. You need to be able to see the bigger picture and try to understand that these participants are basically foot soldiers for a bigger plan.

While Bilderberg is the working meeting for these dark suits, the Formula 1 races is where they party and let loose. While Bilderberg is happening in England, Montreal will be hosting the F1 (which means I disappear for a few days). It’s a festival for vulgarians, where the world’s jet set come to town to party really hard. People like Bernie Ecclestone, Flavio Briatore, Richard Branson, celebrities like the cast of X-men (which is filming in Montreal as we speak), lesser royals like Peter Phillips (who picked up his wife Autumn Kelly here a few years ago where she worked as a hostess), Arab sheikhs, very high end prostitutes and escorts will be filling the restaurants, hotels and streets of Montreal. Restaurants won’t let anyone in unless they reserve a table at $15000/table in advance. The streets become pedestrianized and open terraces are created. Clubs are lined up with girls trying to find an elderly sugar daddy and guys go check out the cars with the hostesses in micro-mini skirts or skimpy bikinis throwing beer everywhere.

The city is awash with scenes like this all weekend long…

…or this. F1 dwarf-boss Bernie Ecclestone and his statuesque, much younger (now ex-)wife

VIP parties, private parties at Cirque du Soleil billionaire founder Guy Laliberté‘s private compound in nearby St.Bruno take over the city. I know a girl who did modelling for a while who got invited to Laliberté’s party and basically the compound is locked down completely after midnight until dawn, no one can leave and she has seen full-on orgies take place there with many, many celebrities in attendance. Like something right out of Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut”. You can understand why I never stick around with that kind of psychic energy polluting the city.

My own personal feeling is that these elitist types are shitting bricks these days. Too many people have woken up to them and the weight of public consciousness has shifted the scales. The genie is out of the lamp and it ain’t going back in. These sorts of gatherings have their days numbered. Just watch.

The Extinction of the Unique

An army of demonstrators facing off riot police in Istanbul.

I’ve been steadily watching the ongoing riots and demonstration happening in Turkey the last week, it hits a bit close to home since I spent several years living and working there and consider it in some ways my second home. The names of the squares, the neighborhoods the news reports mention are all dearly familiar to me.

Kizilay, the center of Ankara.

I left Turkey in 2002, just before Ergodan got in. In fact I actually had a run-in with him while he was on his election campaign. It was in the ancient city of Amasya. Me and a group of friends were there spending the weekend and staying at one of the old Ottoman houses which have since been converted into boutique pensions and hotels.

Amasya, sits along the banks of the river-valley of the Yeşilırmak River. Full of old, preserved Ottoman homes and tombs of ancient kings carved into the mountainside, it’s a wonderful place to spend time. The region is also famous for it’s apples.

We were there to do some serious hiking and investigate the ruins and tombs of Pontic kings which have essentially been carved into the mountainside. We saw Erdogan give a speech in the town center and an American in my group yelled out “Hey Eddy” while frantically waving. Erdogan waved back but then when he realized we were a bunch of foreigners, looked confused and then stopped waving.

The Migros mall in Ankara.

Anyway, I’ve returned to Turkey several times since then and the country becomes more unrecognizable each time I go. It saddens me immensely that the small things which made Turkey unique, like the Pasaji malls, the small old-fashioned cinemas and neighborhood weekly food bazaars (farmer’s markets) are disappearing quickly.

Weekly neighborhood farmer’s markets or “pazaars” usually rotate around the city so everyone has a chance to buy from local farmers.

Historical places which were off-the-beaten path like Olympos have been overtaken by mass-tourism, losing it’s charm and soul along the way. American-style subdivisions have swallowed up Ankara. You can easily mistake some of them for a suburb in New Jersey or California now. Mega-malls and multiplex cinemas are everywhere, and foreign franchises like Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, The Body Shop sit at every new corner.

Karum, is a super-posh mall at the base of the Sheraton hotel in Ankara.

I have many friends there who are involved in leftist politics and the litany of complaints just goes on and on. Turkey is awash with NATO money, condos, malls, resorts are going up everywhere. It’s the usual arguments for globalization, the classes and sectors most closely entrenched with the bureaucracy and with technocrats, profit the most while everyone else seems to experience nothing but diminishing returns. There are now restrictions to access to things like abortions, birth control, the Morning After pill and alcoholic beverages. There are even some shades of lipstick which are now deemed “inappropriate”!

Yoga practitioners are staying put in Gezi Park - from yogadork.com

Most of the Turks I know are very progressive politically and can’t stand what their governments are doing in their name. They don’t like the fact that Erdogan has gotten involved in the mess in Syria. They don’t like the fact that Turkey has such cozy military arrangements with the US and Israel. They don’t like the fact that journalists and activists who call for social reform and more freedom of the press are regularly jailed and imprisoned.

Anyone who reads my blog regularly knows how much of a leftist, anarchist anti-globalization sympathizer I am. I hate the way the world is becoming more generic everywhere with each passing day. The blandness, the uniformity and in the name of “progress”. In that regard, I can understand why someone would become a Luddite. If I go to Japan, I don’t want to get off the plane to see another GAP, identical to the one at home. I want to see all the unique things, the foods, the buildings, the temples, the plants, animals, the geography, the farmer’s markets, the legendary fish markets which make Japan unique in the first place.

This could be, literally anywhere.

It’s not just countries transforming themselves to all look a certain way. I see it in the way people dress too. Everyone pretty much wears the same uniforms now. T-shirt, jeans, sandals/sneakers whether it’s Montreal or Mozambique. Everyone is eating the same food, burgers, sushi, soda pop. Everyone reads the same books, the same best-sellers whether it’s Dan Brown or Stephen King. People are even starting to think the same way and I’m noticing that it’s starting to take even greater reserves of psychic energy to maintain your uniqueness, to stay different and to stay outside the box.

Talk to any scientist with even half a functioning brain and they will be the first ones to tell you that diversity, heterogeneity is a good thing. That having genetic diversity gives organisms genetic strength. That being in a state of homogeneity is dangerous for extended periods of time and leaves the species vulnerable.

This kind of homogeneity is not a good thing.

That if you were to wipe out all varieties of say, rice, but just keep one or two strains for mass agriculture and plant all the fields with these two strains. In case a parasite or fungus is introduced and wipes out these two strains or rice, because you didn’t keep the other varieties which might have been immune to the fungus, you’ve now lost all your rice. That example can easily be extrapolated to humans, our minds, our opinions, our way of life.

Stay unique Folks, these are very homogeneous times.

Why Fighting Fire with Fire will never work (but tea and sympathy might)

A few days ago I was listening to “Day 6″ with Brent Bambury on CBC Radio. Brent always had, and still has, a knack for picking up unusual stories or mainstream media stories but from an unusual angle. This past weekend, he highlighted a news item which has not been picked up by the mainstream media (surprise, surprise) in light of the Woolwich incident. In case you have not heard, Britain has been rocked by anti-Muslim sentiment because of this incident where a machete-yielding hack beheaded an off-duty British soldier in the streets of London. Ultra-right wing groups like the English Defense League (EDL) have come out swinging against Islam and Muslims in general. Hate crimes against Muslims have skyrocketed in recent days across Britain.

There have also been unrelated attacks against nine mosques, including a fire-bombing in Grimsby

The EDL planned mass rallies were around Britain to add fuel to the fire. To the credit of Britons, hardly anyone showed up. In fact former Queen guitarist, now environmentalist, Brian May was leading a protest the same day against the badger cull in the UK and more people showed up for that than the anti-Muslim ones. To my mind, this signals a change of priorities, even if it is a small one.

Queen guitarist/astrophysicist/university chancellor/environmental activist and one of the coolest guys in the world, Brian May led a protest of thousands.

The news item in question which I think deserves more coverage and discussion, involves a tiny dilapidated mosque in York.

The York mosque

The Yorkshire EDL Scarborough Division posted a message on its Facebook page calling for supporters to gather outside the York mosque.

So what did the mosque do?
They invited the protesters to come in for tea and biscuits, which was then followed by a football/soccer match. (You can listen to whole, charming interview here.)

You cannot get more English than tea and biscuits.

Professor Mohammed El-Gomati, a senior member of that mosque, while discussing the impending demonstrations, recalled a quote from the great Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, “That if the Prophet Mohammed were presented with all the problems of the world, he would have solved them over a cup of tea.” Taking that as his cue, the mosque’s congregation decided to face the EDL protesters with the tea, biscuits and an impromptu game of football.

Local politicians and members of clergy from other religions have hailed the gesture unanimously.
Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu said the mosque’s response was “fantastic”. He said: “Tea, biscuits, and football are a great and typically Yorkshire combination when it comes to disarming hostile and extremist views.”
Father Tim Jones, who went to the Bull Lane mosque, which is situated in his parish, said: “I’ve always known they were intelligent and compassionate people and I think this has demonstrated the extent to which they are people of courage – certainly physical courage and also a high degree of moral courage. I think the world can learn from what happened outside that ramshackle little mosque on Sunday.” Hull Road ward councillor Neil Barnes said it had been a “proud moment for York”.
He said: “I don’t think I’ll ever forget the day that the York Mosque tackled anger and hatred with peace and warmth – and I won’t forget the sight of a Muslim offering a protester tea and biscuits with absolute sincerity.”

The York mosque and congregation on tea and biscuit day.

David Icke, during his Wembley presentation last October said that violent protests usually don’t work and I agree. While I think showing up to demonstrate support for a particular stance whether it is against the Iraq war, or even last weekend’s March Against Monsanto to let politicians and policy-makers know when something isn’t cool, politicians and industrialists will unfortunately keep furthering their own interests. It not only takes an active citizenry but also a sympathetic police force and military/security apparatus to switch sides to carry out real change.

“We need what I call the Non-Comply Dance…where people dance to a different drum, dance to a different beat,…No no more do we comply out of fear of not complying with these dark suits and people, we stop complying but we stop complying with a smile on our face and a heart that’s open, not in anger, not in bitterness, but in steely “We are not having it”. So we hold our vibration and don’t get pulled into their’s …We can go on protests and hurl abuse and stuff like that through our anger, understandably so…but what does it do? What does it achieve? It just feeds the dragon, feeds the demon…so why don’t we think of another way?”

 

Good news for Everyone – June 2013 Astrological Outlook

Start lining up your ducks, wish on shooting stars, make a habit of buying a weekly lottery ticket while also reaching for that dream job you’ve always wanted  because according to Carl, you just might get it. It looks like June 2013 is going to signal a period of upswing for just about everyone and I mean everyone.

Enjoy!

The poet, the visionary and the conspiracy theorist

The Sleeping Giant, Thunder Bay, Ontario

This is such awesome news that it’s yet another small but definitive sign that the sleeping giant is starting to wake up…

Alice Walker

Pulitzer-Prize winning author, poet and activist Alice Walker has come out in support of the works of David Icke.

It happened while she was on the air on BBC radio where she was asked which book she would take with her if stranded on an island. She cited Icke’s “Human Race, Get Off your Knees” …and of course the mainstream media have started going apeshit over this. Big surprise. You can listen to the interview here, she mentions Icke at 42:40

Ickey – One of the few real badasses in the world who truly doesn’t give a flying fuck about what anyone thinks of him.

This is a bit of a big deal and let me explain why.

Walker’s book “The Color Purple” which was directed by no less than the king of Hollywood, Steven Spielberg and won Whoopi Goldberg an Oscar, put Walker on the mainstream radar screen. However, for decades prior to the film and book, Walker had been (and continues to be) a vocal civil rights activist.

One of her professors back at Spellman College, was anarchist historian Howard Zinn and it was precisely because of Zinn’s advice Walker returned to the South to become more involved in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. She met Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. She met Malcolm X (in fact in a post on her website she compared Icke to Malcolm X and mused what a fascinating meeting it would be if the two had ever met. That would have been indeed awesome.)

For someone *that* prominent and with that kind of a public profile to come out in support of a researcher who is as maligned and marginalised as Icke, is indeed noteworthy and a sign of the changing times. I mean let’s face it, David has turned out to be correct on the whole English-establishment paedophile scandal which he had been talking about for over 20 years and now because of the Jimmy Savile situation, has rocked the British Establishment to its core and continues to do so. He was dismissed a loon but the whole Savile-gate thing has forced people to examine his work with  a new perspective.

Jimmy Savile = Freakin’ pervert extraordinaire

 People love to diss Icke all the time. They jump on him about “that reptilian thing” or the fact that they think he’s anti-semitic, without ever taking the time out to either read his books of watch his videos in full.

The “anti-Semitism” is actually about a very particular group of Zionists, which Icke calls the Rothschilds Zionists and has nothing to do with normal Jews at all. In fact, Icke posits that most Jews are getting shafted as well by these power-hungry ruthless types. “That reptilian thing” pre-dates Icke by thousands of years, he’s just the first one to bring it into mainstream attention. I’ve posted that the essence of demons in Christian cosmology is indeed reptilian but now I’ve discovered another interesting tidbit.

In the case of an asshole like Dick Cheney, I can believe it…

The mystical English poet and engraver William Blake was an influential visionary. Considered one of the best poets in the English language (a 2002 BBC poll placed him at number 38 for the Top 100 Britons of All Time), Blake was an early champion of feminism (being friends with the likes of Mary Wollstonecraft) an anti-monarchist (he fully supported the French and American revolutions), to just call Blake a poet does no justice to the body of his work. He had inspired generations after him  including the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison.

William Blake

What caught my attention was the fact that he had the “second sight” and saw the unseen from a very early age.

From Wikipedia:

From a young age, William Blake claimed to have seen visions. The first may have occurred as early as the age of four when, according to one anecdote, the young artist “saw God” when God “put his head to the window”, causing Blake to break into screaming. At the age of eight or ten in Peckham Rye, London, Blake claimed to have seen “a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars.” According to Blake’s Victorian biographer Gilchrist, he returned home and reported the vision and only escaped being thrashed by his father for telling a lie through the intervention of his mother. Though all evidence suggests that his parents were largely supportive, his mother seems to have been especially so, and several of Blake’s early drawings and poems decorated the walls of her chamber. On another occasion, Blake watched haymakers at work, and thought he saw angelic figures walking among them.

Blake claimed to experience visions throughout his life. They were often associated with beautiful religious themes and imagery, and may have inspired him further with spiritual works and pursuits. Certainly, religious concepts and imagery figure centrally in Blake’s works. God and Christianity constituted the intellectual centre of his writings, from which he drew inspiration. Blake believed he was personally instructed and encouraged by Archangels to create his artistic works, which he claimed were actively read and enjoyed by the same Archangels

Anyone with even a basic understanding of symbolism can take one look at his work and see that Blake was, in all likelihood, inspired from something beyond this earth…

“The Ancient of Days”

“The Whirlwind of Lovers”

Illustration to Dante’s Divine Comedy

“Sata Amor Adao Eva”

This is the painting which, I think, gives Icke’s ideas some further credence…

Does THIS look like a ghost to you????

It’s Blake’s “Ghost of a Flea”.

Again from Wikipedia:

in 1790, “Blake, for the only time in his life, saw a ghost… Standing one evening at his garden-door in Lambeth, and chancing to look up, he saw a horrible grim figure, ‘scaly, speckled, very awful,’ stalking downstairs towards him. More frightened than ever before or after, he took to his heels, and ran out of the house.”…Blake often said that he was joined by invisible sitters as he drew them, including, he claimed, a number of angels, Voltaire, Moses and the Flea, who told him that “fleas were inhabited by the souls of such men as were by nature blood thirsty to excess.”…Fleas are often associated with uncleanliness and degradation; in this work, the artist sought to magnify a flea into “a monstrous creature whose bloodthirsty instinct was imprinted on every detail of its appearance, with ‘burning eyes which long for moisture’, and a ‘face worthy of a murderer’.”…The muscular and nude Flea is depicted using its jutting tongue to gorge on a bowl of blood. Part human, part vampire and part reptile, the beast strides from right to left between heavy and richly patterned curtains. In his left hand he holds an acorn and in his right a thorn, both items drawn from the tradition of fairy iconography.His massive neck is similar to that of a bull, and holds a disproportionately small head, .marked by glaring eyes and open jaws, and a venomous slithering tongue

I’ll leave it to you guys to do the math…

Spiritual trendiness

Joseph Campbell

“When you find an author who really grabs you, read everything he has done. Don’t say, ‘Oh, I want to know what So-and-so did’ — and don’t bother at all with the best-seller list. Just read what this one author has to give you. And then you can go read what he had read. And the world opens up in a way that is consistent with a certain point of view. But when you go from one author to another, you may be able to tell us the date when each wrote such and such a poem — but he hasn’t said anything to you.”
- Joseph Campbell

Shrine of Rumi, Konya, Turkey. The turquoise-tiled minaret shows where Rumi is buried.

Rumi’s grave (May eternal peace be upon him)

I remember while in Turkey, taking a long weekend off of work to journey to Konya to watch the Whirling Dervishes, the mystical Islamic Sufi order established by Jalaluddin Rumi (or Mevlana as he is known by in Turkey), dance the Sema dance and to visit Rumi’s grave. I’m sure you’ve seen in either in ads or commercials or documentaries.

To outsiders who don’t know any better, it just looks like a group of men in long flowing white skirts and jackets, wearing fez hats, twirling around in circles. The Sema, in fact has a deeper symbolism. The circles they dance in represents the Circle of Life. Birth, death and rebirth. Fall, winter, spring and summer. The blood in our bodies being pumped out by the heart to only return back to the heart. The examples are infinite. It induces a trance-like state for the dancer which is supposed to help them meet with That, like ayahuasca might for some or peyote for others.

Mevlana was actually born in present-day Afghanistan, wrote all his poetry in the Persian language and is buried in present-day Turkey.

Back them, Rumi was not the spiritual superstar that New Agers and certain yoga instructors these days love to quote. In fact even 10 years ago, I’m sure if you even mentioned Rumi to those who were knee-deep in Deepak Chopra-speak or Wayne Dyer-speak, they wouldn’t even know who or what you were talking about. It’s interesting to watch because since the Rumi train seems to be slowing down now, I’ve noticed that the Deepak/Dyer crowd have now jumped on another mystical Islamic, Persian poet, namely Hafiz. (I’m betting after they get sick of or run out of the Persian poets, they’ll return to the Russians like Alexander Blok, and Pushkin and then heaven forbid, the old Europeans mystics like William Blake, W.B Yeats, Goethe, Meister Eckhart and Emanuel Swedenborg. It’s always about finding a “new” bottle for old wine.)

When western yoga instructors “discover” Emanuel Swedenborg, will that lead to a revival of interest in Christian mysticism? Your guess is as good as mine…

Truth be told, I find the sudden interest in Islamic mysticism by some Westerners and bubble-headed yoga instructors who are normally Conservative, Republican, right-wing and very anti-Arab or anti-Muslim, strange to put it mildly. True, the poetry of Rumi and Hafiz have inspired wonderment across centuries. If you have even the smallest spiritual inclination in you, you can’t help but be touched by their words. But before Rumi, it was the Khalil Gibran train. Before Gibran, it was Marianne Williamson and Neale Donald Walsch. It’s this constant hopping around because it’s a trend, without any real study or serious reflection on the works of these past masters and then passing it off as “This makes me look serious” which I take issue with.

if you want to be trendy with what you wear and what you eat, fine. But don’t expect anyone to take you seriously if you do it with your spirituality.

And this brings me back to Campbell’s quote above. I have to agree with Campbell 150% on this one. It is best to find someone whose words ring so deeply and so true for you that you will need to read up on all their works to process and internalize their ideas and sentiments properly. That’s when you start to “get” them properly. One spiritual master whose words have consistently resonated deeply with me, as I have posted many times here is Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov.

It was Neem Karoli Baba who gave him the name “Omraam” and it was Nityananda who explained that Aivanhov was an incarnation of Vedic sage from the Solar Age and in fact had come back to bring back the Solar teachings. Apparently he also met the legendary Babaji in the Himalayas as well but he refused to talk about it.

Like all seekers at the beginning of their road, I did my fair share of hopping as well. Not because a certain writer was the flavour of the month but because I was searching. I read George Gurdjieff, Rudolph Steiner, tried Jiddu Krishnamurti and Theosophy in earnest but none of it seemed to “stick” for lack of a better word. But with Aivanhov, it was like remembering a deeply treasured memory which had been forgotten and a flood of light breaking through a door. I’ve been reading Aivanhov since at least 1996 and have never looked back.
In fact here’s a photo of my Aivanhov bookshelf;

Like I posted recently, these days it’s also Alan Watts which is speaking to me (thank God for YouTube!). While I don’t see myself going to Japan to study Zen in all seriousness with a proper Zen master ( and I’m not even sure if the monasteries there even accept women!), Watts, like Aivanhov, was/is able to synthesize the Perennial teachings along with recent scientific findings and present it with their own flair and in such a way the modern reader/listener can connect instantly.

That is a rare talent and not one which New Age hucksters can ever master convincingly.

The Power of Touch and the Touch of Power

The recent news about hot yoga shyster Bikram Choudhury being accused of rape has been generating a lot of discussion online and off about the whole nature of power within the context of guru/student dynamics as well as male/female dynamics.

It got me thinking about the most primary of relationships which we all experience, that we have with the opposite sex (I don’t mean to exclude transgendered persons from this discussion, I’m just writing out of my own experience so apologies in advance if anyone may take offence). In my case, it’s not really about Dad, or brother or uncle or Grandpa. It’s mostly the kind when sexual dynamics and chemistry come into play.

George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones definitely had serious chemistry going on in “Intolerable Cruelty”

 I’m writing this from the perspective of a heterosexual female, so bear with me a second for anyone who does not belong to that same group. Call me sensitive but there is a major difference in the way a man touches you which, if you’re alert can tell you almost everything you need to know about him and what he wants out of you, what he really feels about you, what he really thinks about you. It’s hard to describe but a whole host of elements come into play when a man touches you, how quickly he tries to touch you and where, how much pressure he exerts when he does touch you, how lightly, how fervently, how calmly, how warmly, how suddenly, how hard or how soft. Maybe I’m some kind of freak but I’ve been able to read exactly what was going on just by the way a guy touched me. It doesn’t even have to be in a romantic context like in a kiss or embrace. It could be even in a handshake or the way he hands me half his sandwich.

Sometimes less is a lot more…

 I remember meeting with someone, we had not seen each other in a few years and we went out for dinner a few times to catch up, the chemistry was still there but long story short, it was an impossible situation. I remember saying goodbye to him and he suddenly grabbed my shoulder. It was too abrupt, too sudden and he was digging into my skin too hard. I did not detect any softness, any patience in that touch. I wiggled myself out of his grip but then I realized all too clearly that I was nothing but a diversion for him. I also picked up almost instantaneously that if we were to become lovers, he would be a very selfish one. That’s when I lost all interest and realized it was a dead-end. I have since heard that he has gotten married and he cheats on his wife regularly now. Not surprised.

I remember another time when someone else lightly kissed my forehead. In that second, I could have been knocked over by a feather. It wasn’t just chemistry but there was a gentle sincerity and respect there which in itself is insanely attractive. Things didn’t work out, we were and are too different and have different dreams but I have nothing but good things to say about him, he’s a really good guy and I’m sure he’ll make the right girl very, very happy one day.

Now in the context of yoga, some of the yoga asanas can be sexual.

You’re spread out wide open, legs open, legs in the air

You’re open.

Wide legged forward bend

You’re vulnerable.

Yoganidrasna pose

A good instructor’s touch is hardly felt, they’ll usually always ask for permission to adjust you properly, they respect your boundaries and in this case your boundaries involve your own body. A bad instructor will not respect your boundaries and in the case of the more lecherous instructors I’ve observed, will be all over girls while “adjusting”. All it takes is a few classes and you’ll pick up what’s going on if you’re alert.

Yoga instructor in film “Couple’s retreat” – a bad example of adjusting.

 Now, I don’t want to make the victims of shady gurus and shady yoga instructors out to be in the wrong, and say that they should have known better and walked away earlier and bypassed the abuse. That’s like saying that women who are victims of domestic violence should have known better before getting involved with such-and-such jerk. But the promises of romantic love and fulfillment can often be as alluring as the promises of spiritual gifts and abilities and in that respect, they may not be all that different from each other.

Some gurus promise initiation or revelations of spiritual secrets and abilities if “you just listen to everything I say and do as I say.” For someone who doesn’t know any better, the glamour of spiritual specialness or of attaining what Alan Watts called “psychic technologies” (i.e bilocation, telekinesis, Enlightenment, levitation, mind-reading etc.) is too irresistable an offer to pass up.

Real spiritual initiation usually involves handing down teachings after years of study or being a student. It should NOT make you feel uncomfortable, or cornered.

Likewise some potential romantic partners may allure you with dreams of butterflies in your stomach, a  few sessions of hot, sweaty, toe-curling sex, maybe even happily ever after just as long as you follow what I call “The Script”. The Script can change from year to year, maybe it might mean sex on the first date but no later than the third. It might mean observing the highly changeable rites of courtship and following the ground rules which society at large has decided on. It might mean following the advice as featured in this month’s issue of Cosmopolitan or Details magazine.

I hate this magazine.

Both prey on the fears and on what’s lacking in one’s life and that if this one thing is not lacking anymore, we will be happy. I personally think it’s even more basic than that, it’s really about Power. That by attaining these things, we become more powerful and in control and here I have to agree with Watts completely, that power in that sense is really not something you want, especially the kind of power which involves controlling other people. When we can control other people, we basically want them to be like wooden dolls in a scenario or dream of our choosing. What makes life interesting is that wildcard factor, when we let go of that control and let things happen as they may. When people talk back to us, when last-minute changes happen.

Being in power over ourselves is OK.

Being in power over others is not.

Oh, how the mighty fall…

No, Bikram, you’re NOT sexy.

Breaking news, but it looks like Bikram Choudhury, the founder and “creator” of the hot yoga craze has now been accused of rape from two different Jane Does. You can read all the ugly details over at YogaDork or at the source itself at Courthouse News Service. I warn you, it’s an uncomfortable read because if what is claimed is true, then it really shows up what a real misogynist Bikram really is.

Some choice quotes from the testimony:

Doe No. 2 claims the grueling schedule was designed to “break down her body, will and spirit,” and brainwash her with Choudhury’s “vision and teachings.” She describes Choudhury as a combustible tyrant who orders students during classes to remain mute, and treat him “with unquestioning obedience.”
“Students are also often required to attend evening lectures, where defendant Choudhury rants on subjects including his negative views on certain races; negative views on homosexuality; the moral lassitude of Americans; his guru; his views on sex, marriage, and relationships; and whatever else he should care to talk about,” the complaint states.
Some students are pushed so hard they faint, vomit, urinate on themselves, or suffer heat strokes and seizures, Doe says in the complaint.

It gets worse…a lot worse…

“Defendant Bikram Choudhury pulled her pants down and forced her onto the bed. Plaintiff Jane Doe No.2 could not stop crying and kept begging him over and over to stop. He forced his unprotected penis in her vagina. Within moments it was over. The only thing defendant Bikram Choudhury said was, ‘How many times did you come?’ Plaintiff Jane Doe No.2 was in pain, in shock and could not speak. Defendant Bikram Choudhury then ordered plaintiff to watch him until he fell asleep,” according to the complaint.
Doe adds: “The next day during lecture, defendant Bikram Choudhury made offensive sexual comments to the whole class. It was demoralizing and humiliating. He told the plaintiff and rest of the class that when he first moved to the U.S. women raped him all the time and taught him how to have sex. Defendant Bikram Choudhury said he would have sex marathons. Then he started talking about women’s bodies and how he liked ‘pussy’ without hair on it. Defendant Bikram Choudhury said, ‘I can’t stand fat unattractive women.’ As he spoke, his voice was becoming more and more intense and his language more vulgar.’”

I feel terrible for what those two women must have have gone through in order to summon up the courage to come forward and go ahead and make this public. Having worked with victims of violent crime as a former spiritual care-giver, this is something not to take lightly particularly from the victims’ point of view. Most cases of rape go unreported because the victims (usually women) are often terrified of reprisals or of having to face the perpetrator in court and relive the painful experience. This is often compounded by the fact that the police and the judicial system are often very clinical in their approach. They’re not exactly known for their warm, fuzzy feelings, caring and nurturing when people have gone through hell.

From Rainn.org

This culture of abuse between student and “guru” in the yoga world keeps happening over and over again. My own personal take is that a big part of the problem lies within the yoga community itself. If people just withheld their dollars, many of these outfits would go under overnight. I mean when YogaDork posted the news earlier today on their FaceBook page, some of the comments underneath included the likes of:

“Two sides to every story..”
“There are 3 sides to every story…yours, theirs, and the whole damn truth. Don’t judge.”
” It’s really too bad that people are willing to destroy the man before they know the whole picture. I say he’s innocent until proven guilty.”

And to that I say:

Don’t judge?
Especially when 2 different women and a third back in March have all come forward on Bikram’s sexual harassment/abuse?

Sarah Baughn accused Bikram of sexual assault this past March.

This is what drives me nuts about the yoga community at times, it would seem in the drive to be “spiritual” or “enlightened” some people’s brains have been reduced to mush since they live in fear or being labelled “judgemental” like that’s tantamount to being labelled a child abuser. The problem is due to this fear of being labelled judgemental, they often allow some of their own moral compasses to slide and not necessarily in the correct direction.

Take this comment for instance from the same aforementioned FaceBook thread:

“I don’t even care. I will continue to go to my Bikram studio and do the yoga that works for me and that has changed my entire life for the better. I don’t need to agree with the supposed “founder” to get the benefits from my yoga studio. I love my teachers and do not feel any of the corruption that I read about Bikram. I feel love, compassion, and true caring. Bikram is not the one who has changed my life…my studio and instructors are. I take solace in the fact that I don’t actually give any money to him but instead get paid to do laundry AND free yoga.” (it got 28″Likes”)

What this poster fails to see, no doubt, in her blind drive for “love, compassion and true caring” and “free yoga” is that she’s certainly not showing any love, compassion and true caring whatsoever to the victims here of what is essentially a criminal and violent act and instead by continuing to frequent Bikram studios, has sided with the guilty party and is helping to augment the name, the brand and the organization.

Bikram logo.

I understand that there is something called moral relativism. What may be right for one person can be completely wrong for someone else given the context, life circumstance etc. However, I do think at some point a line has to be drawn in the sand particularly when abuse and violence come into play. And rape is violence, no matter how you cut it.
That’s just, plain unacceptable.

A Real Spiritual Warrior has taken his fight to the next level

Stuart Wilde

Sept. 24 1946 ~ May 1, 2013

It is with deep, deep sadness that I just found out that spiritual teacher, writer, shaman and all around bon vivante Stuart Wilde has crossed over to continue his fight against the ghouls in the Aluna World as he called it.

I check his website everyday so I couldn’t understand why nothing had been updated since May 1st and its only after I checked out Zen Haven’s site that I found out that Stuie suffered a massive heart attack on May 1st during a scenic drive in his beloved Ireland and has left this side of the realm and has taken his fight against the Dark Side to the next level.

I’ve always heard that the good go first and this regretfully proves it. I know Stuart read my blog sometimes and I often got a lot of my ideas from reading his. His contribution, his words, his encouragement to those just starting on their spiritual journey were incalculable. I will miss him and his gentle humor greatly. I think he will be one of the fiercest warriors on the other side. If he can fight there, then we can all hold our end of the deal and fight here.

This complete repost from Lala Rukh on Zen Haven’s website says it all and expresses my sentiments exactly.

Below that, I have re-posted Augureye Express’s post

Godspeed Stuie!

——————————————————————————————

“If You Can’t Handle Your Own Death, This Life Will Torment You” (SW)

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Lala RukhAuthor: Lala Rukh

Two years ago with these words my life began and so did my love affair with Stuart Wilde. I’ve lived on the fringes as far as memory serves me, I travelled far and wide and often on a road less travelled, lived in different countries, fit in nowhere, stranger among my own family and friends, tormented by fear and alienation and emptiness.

I struggled, rebelled and was desperate to find meaning to all this, my own alienation and the cruelty in the world around me. I read the works of countless new age gurus, religions and was often disgusted by their spiritual elitism and night after night of praying to the ‘deaf gods’ I finally stumbled upon the teachings of Stuart Wilde.

Every day first thing in the morning as a humble disciple I was on stuartwilde.com; hungry for his wisdom, his teachings, his humor and his insights. Even if you are “thick as two planks”, his style of teaching will smack you in the head and make you realize that you possess far more power than you ever realized, the silent power.

“Happiness is relative. The further you get away from your relatives, the happier you are!”

He taught me observation is power and judgment is weakness. He taught me to laugh at myself and be proud of being dysfunctional and liberate from negative thoughts emotions and the daily grind. He taught me there’s light and dark in everyone and that free will is dangerous.

“Learn to trust feelings as they come from inner knowledge.” Finally I realized that even though I was born on the wrong planet, I was lucky to have found a true mentor and guide.

“Refuse to be scared in this life time”

His humor uplifted me on my darkest days.

“Imagine you’re on a plane that’s going to crash, What’s the worst thing that can happen? If you’re in economy, you’ll instantly be upgraded to first class, then you’ll die… Goood! Now you’re liberated”

I was especially touched by his genuine love for his readers, his free gifts to his faithful A-List members, like the St. John Worts seeds, prayer cards, horse stickers, prayers and recordings.

His untimely death has left a massive void, I regret that I never met  Mr Wilde or had the privilege to shake his hands and to tell him how much his teachings and writings saved and helped me. I’m comforted that he will always be around through his timeless teachings.

Rest in Peace Mr Wilde “Let me pray for your protection from afar”

Sincerely,

Lala Rukh
A Warrior and A Fringe Dweller

———————————————————————————————-

Stuart Wilde ~ A Warrior Crosses Over

Stuart Wilde

Sept. 24 1946 ~ May 1, 2013

Although we never met, your energy and spirit have been a constant part of my spiritual path for many years, and will continue to do so regardless of whatever realm you may reside in.  Back when I was struggling to understand my place in this world, your light showed me that it’s OK to be a fringe dweller; and that we don’t always get to know the answers we seek.

They say that when the student is ready the master will appear, and that is just how you came into my life with such observations as, “If you cannot say it in 25 words or less, it’s not the God Force.“  Although I gained great knowledge from the various books I encountered before yours, You were the first one to show me how to incorporate that wisdom in my everyday life…the way of the shaman.

Each time my spiritual progress brought me to unexplored territory; there you were showing me the lay of the land, and the way of things from that point on.  You were my trail blazer, my deep recon warrior scout.  Because you knew the way, having been there ahead of me; I knew I would be OK out there on the fringes, just so long as I could see and feel your light.

At one time I think I had the complete set of your little wisdom pocket books, Infinite Self, Silent Power, Miracles, and all the others: but they each traveled onward with other fringe dwellers seeking their way; it’s what I think you intended for them…not to be mute wisdom collecting dust up on some shelf.  You taught me that what other people think of me is none of my business, and that the universe doesn’t count how many times we fall down…only the times we rise up and have another go at it.  From you I learned my true power, and how to deal with psychic attacks from the dark brothers in dark robes.  Warrior, path finder, light house, teacher and healer; you journeyed around the wheel of life, always in service to others.

They say that nobody ever really dies so long as they live on in the memories of those they touched.  But you see Stu, I don’t consider you as having died, it’s too soon, the grief too much to bear at times, so I’m telling myself you just went on ahead to scout the undiscovered country for me, and I know that no matter how dark the coming days may be, your light will never fade from my heart, and never fail to guide me on my way home.

“Spirituality is the act of becoming more normal

and eventually disappearing completely.”

  ~Stuart Wilde~

Travel well my Brother, shine on….

“The light at the end of tunnel was just fine and dandy,

 it was the tunnel at the end of the light that bothered me.”

 ~Stuart Wilde~

“I traveled three million miles to sixty two countries, 
I found a sweetness there. 
I left before my luck changed.” 
~Stuart Wilde~

A song for Stuart

“The trick to money is having some. If you raise your energy people will be pulled to you, when they show up, bill ‘em.”
 ~Stuart Wilde~

Life on earth: “Lovely place, shame about the people!”
~Stuart Wilde~

“Nurturing a ‘nostalgia for eternity’ redeems your soul for it carries you silently towards the light even in the darkest times.”

~Stuart Wilde~

“Before I was born one of the Beings asked me how did I feel about coming back to the earth plane? I replied, 
“I didn’t mind as long as I had a womb with a view.”

              ~Stuart Wilde~

* * * * * * * * *

“I tried to tell people the truth about life, their shadow, dimensions, the ghouls and the inner worlds, it was a disaster, they got uptight and attacked me, so I got Khris Krepcik at thehoodedsage.com
to tell them instead. “Genius move Stuie.”

~Stuart Wilde~

~Some of Stuart’s Wisdom~

http://www.stuartwilde.com/2013/05/at-the-window-of-tomorrow/

http://www.stuartwilde.com/2013/04/what-if-peace-breaks-out/

http://www.stuartwilde.com/2013/04/armageddon-wars-in-the-inner-worlds/

http://www.stuartwilde.com/2013/04/how-the-matrix-is-dying/

http://zen-haven.com/the-two-evolutions/

http://www.stuartwilde.com/2012/10/protection-2/

http://www.stuartwilde.com/audio/meditation/avalon-protection-prayer/http://www.stuartwilde.com/2013/03/the-subhuman-evolutions/

http://www.stuartwilde.com/sw-products/warriors-prayer-card/http://zen-haven.com/how-does-it-all-end-sw/