Now a student of A Course in Miracles

"Like vanishing dew,
a passing apparition
or the sudden flash
of lightning -- already gone --
thus should one regard one's self.”

― Ikkyu

It would be great to get rid of some of the pronouns of ACIM, referring to the He and Him and His and Father. Unfortunately we don't have a neutral pronoun in the English Language like they have in Arabic, and probably other languages, other than 'it' which is not suitable.

Nevertheless it would be good to become more sensitive to how defining our relationship to God in terms of gender will inevitably contaminate how we see God, and our relationship. We know that Jesus may have been a man while he had a physical form, 2000 years ago, but as spirit, there is no gender. So Son of God does not apply.

So far in his channelled works Jesus has given no indication of the need to make these adjustments. But there is a growing movement in our societies to claim the right to define our own gender without having it imposed on us according to our biology.

I would welcome hearing the view of others on this controversial topic.

Anna

Sacred Activists

Heart Sharing Circle "Sacred Activists" Hebden Bridge
NEW: re-start Thu 8 Nov. 2018, 10:30am - 12noon
(probably 2-weekly) morning sharing group 
especially for those of us who like to change the outer world
while trying to maintain inner peace
"Shared sorrow is half sorrow, shared joy is double Joy" (German saying)

- updated: 30 Oct. 2018 - 

Our sharing group "Sacred Activists" (or: "Awakening Consciousness") provides a space to share and listen to each other, bringing to the group whatever we feel is appropriate. 

Our sharing group 'Sacred Activists'

We usually begin standing in a circle in silence, creating a sacred space, connecting with each other. 

We light a candle. One after another we speak, ideally from our heart and being in the present moment.
We each finish by saying "Ho. I have spoken." - then the next person speaks, until each of us has spoken once. 

After this we open to a group sharing / discussion.
This sharing can be very powerful and inspiring.
Everything we hear and say stays confidential.

We probably will meet fourtnightly THURSday from 10:30 - 12 noon [to be discussed and confirmed at the 1st meeting]
Cost: donations are welcome.
You are welcome to come 10 minutes earlier for a tea or a wee. 

Our meeting venue:
Ralph's home, 15 Mason Street, Hebden Bridge, HX7 6AW
(3rd street left up Hangingroyd Road, opp. the Co-Op, one above Melbourne Street). Ignore any cars you might block and just drive in as far as possible (no parking charge) - web map with arrow on streetmap.co.uk

Please let Ralph know, if you intend to come: tel: 01422 647157 - mobile: 07909 488272

The Sacred Activists - a Hebden Bridge Sharing Group We start with silence for a few minutes, and light a candle. This is not formal meditation, but time to quiet down and be present. Sharing: We generally speak as concisely as we can about what we are feeling in the present moment. Whoever wants to share begins the round and we follow in a circle. Consideration is shown to the group by speaking in a way that enables everyone to have time to speak and be heard. What's the group for? People who attend do so for a variety of personal reasons: "I have experienced a deep connection to people in the group. For me, this has facilitated personal and spiritual growth, the group is full of grown ups, who can put there own agendas to one side to explore joint healing, sharing honestly from the heart is what I value about the group" "SA is for me a space where people can express something about the challenges of their personal journey, in an atmosphere of acceptance, without judgement or approval. Giving each a few minutes to be heard also requires that we listen to others with respect, even if we disagree with their viewpoint. Sometimes through this deep listening, we tune in to something universal, and our hearts feel nourished and refreshed." "I love the power of sharing from the heart and the intensity and surprises, what's coming up and out when we are not interrupted. Initially I wanted to share a feeling of desperately wanting to change the world. I wanted to ?nd out if other people shared this feeling and see how they managed this, what they were doing about it.... It's become a journey of understanding myself and feeling inspired by others. It's not formal therapy, but I feel healed by the journey and able to listen respectfully as well as be heard. I've learned that I need to be able to share from my heart, my truth, occasionally this resonates with others in the group and helps them. For me there's a special energy that's created by the process. It's as a result of the group dynamic, this for me is the blessing of the sacred activists."

Deeper Darkness

 Thank you Matt for starting this website and giving us the chance to ponder these deeper realities.

Deeper Darkness seems to connect with a theme I have been persuing recently. It starts with a quote from Keats I read in the 1970s which I still remember because it so struck me at the time:

'I mean Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable  reaching after fact and reason.'

The possibility of resting in uncertainty seems to express what is needed to be open to this deeper reality.

This links with something from R.D. Laing:

  'The really decisive moments in psychotherapy, as every patient or therapist who has ever experienced them knows, are unpredictable, unique, unforgettable, always unrepeatable, and often indescribable.'

 I think these guys are pointing to the same thing you are alluding to, approached from another perspective. It seems to me that this perspective, or experience, exists in all aspects of life, if we are open to it. It is not necessarily a comfortable place to be. And because of that we tend to try to avoid it, and stay with what is familiar, and 'known'.

(I put 'known' in inverted commas because this is what has come to be called knowledge in our society, not an inner knowing, but what is socially accepted as true.)

You also link this to the dark night of the soul and I agree with you. Doubting socially acceptable truth can rock your whole world, crash your foundations, and threaten your security, both personally and socially.  Think how whistleblowers are seen as terrorists.

For Bion, a psychoanalyst I came across in the 70s negative capability is 'the ability to tolerate the pain and confusion of not knowing, rather than imposing ready-made or omnipotent certainties upon an ambiguous situation or emotional challenge.'  

These sorts of feelings usually generate embarrassment and shame if exposed socially. We try to keep them hidden. We don't expect our leaders or politicians to express themselves in this way. So we end up with a totally false idea of reality. It is essential for our sanity to allow these aspects of ourselves to be not just tolerated but welcomed.


 

Responding to a Complimant

As a child we need acknowledgement of our feelings and needs, and we welcome being seen and admired for who we are. Our aim is to please, to stimulate smiles of approval, even applause. When we make mistakes we are dismayed and can freeze or be paralysed with confusion. These sorts of connections with carers have been fundamental to infant survival in past eras, and are essential to developing empathy and connections with others.

All these emotions remain with us as adults, the child is still there hoping for recognition, looking for those who will agree. We carry our ideas like this baby self looking for approval. The demands of this baby self can be very loud and can often blot out our ability to listen to others with their different needs and opinions, different vulnerabilities. We have to learn we are just one of many, each needs a turn to be heard. When we receive praise we bask in the glory and allow ourselves the pleasure of having these infant needs met.

Not understanding these needs can be a source of conflict, focussed on in non violent communication. As an adult we can hold these childhood needs without them becoming overwhelming. Being in touch with these parts of ourselves can help us come into what Buddhists call 'right relationship', responding to the deeper aspect of being human, which includes care for each other and the planet. We are no longer reliant on instant gratification, but have a deeper concern for justice, autonomy, freedom. These ethical concerns arise once our childhood needs have received attention, and we can listen to others without the overwhelming demand to be heard.

As a woman I have learned to accept compliments with a demure 'thank you', even when I wanted to retort "piss off", for the way such compliments tucked me into a category over which I had no control. As an older woman such compliments come less frequently, but now it's for being wise. I guess most of us lap up compliments, but gradually my feeling told me I no longer felt nourished by this praise. It nourishes a younger part of me that needed it then, and the part of me which still craves attention and recognition. But when I can be centred in presence in the Now, it feels irrelevant, a seduction to return to an earlier way of boosting my morale. Is this a question of maturity, or just seeing through the sugary wrapping I fed myself with for so long?

The difference between conceptual reality and experience

What's lacking in our culture generally is allowing experience to be our teacher. Most of what happens in education or discussion is thinking in concepts, and not understanding the difference between the concept and the experience. Concepts are really useful in enabling us to think while the thing we are thinking about is absent. But for many there is a confusion or conflating of the concept with the 'reality' of something. Of course concepts are real too, as conceptual reality, but when we understand that experience only happens in the 'now', we establish a completely different experience with reality, an embodied experience. 

It is that 'reality' which can reconnect us to ourselves, to each other, and to nature, in a much deeper way, and it is what is missing in our culture generally which is allowing us to march towards destruction of our species, and all other species.

Learning from experience is also linked to feelings. Since concepts are separated from experience, they don't have feelings attached. So we can think and talk dispassionately, which is highly regarded in intellectual circles. Feelings are generally seen to be a nuisance that get in the way of thinking objectively. Ideas are seen as existing separately from people. That is what makes them 'true'. 

The separation of ideas from people or feelings was what science was about, but that has all been thrown up in the air by quantum physics. So we are in the transition of allowing feelings to be listened to as valuable messages. What I have called the validity of subjective experience.

Belonging and Self abandonment

Sometimes we see through the persona we use to hide our real self, and understand that the need to hide comes from childhood traumas of the fear of not belonging. 

As I see it the fear of rejection, of not belonging, arises when we have already abandoned ourselves. That happens very early on, when we don't feel welcomed into the world, when that delight which is there for every parent with the gift of a newborn, is not fully received. Very simply we come with a 'yes', and are met with a 'no'. We have no resources at that time to deal with that rejection, so we take it as legitimate. There must be something wrong with us. And we have to hide it. We abandon ourselves shamelessly in order to receive the affection we crave, and we continue to do so well in to adulthood. 

How to find ourselves again? If we are lucky we discover that we were never lost, that we were there all the time. That realisation comes in as many ways as there are people, when we realise we did it to ourselves, in response to circumstances which were not of our making. Taking responsibility for that puts it firmly back in our court, we are no longer victims but actors. 

Whether we are truly seen by others, or whether we can truly see others, is another way of putting the process which puts the emphasis on external relationships, rather than what goes on inside us. Both are important, but I see being whole in myself has to come first.

Anna

Walk like a Man

"Walk like a Man

This morning, walking to the gym, my left arthritic hip was feeling sore, I was limping along, and trying to balance out my walking. I had seen these two men pass me by, and one in particular was taking up a lot of room in his walking. I began to imitate his walking throwing my shoulders around, using my whole body as we are taught in Feldenkrais, letting all your body respond to your movement as it did when you were a baby. It felt very freeing, and strangely my hip was less sore. 

This ties in with my feeling recently that those qualities which we think of as masculine or feminine come more from our culture and tradition, and are not determined by our biology. Using my whole body I became aware how I usually try to take up as little space as possible. I was taking big strides and flailing my arms. It felt almost aggressive. As a woman when we sit, it's not usually with our legs apart like a man, it's usually with legs crossed, contracting the space we use. I don't think that was ever taught, but it was implied. Of course I am from an older generation. It is changing somewhat, we had no choice in tight skirts and high heels, but kids now can choose big boots and jeans.

All this is also connected I feel with the fact that it is my left hip which is stiff and painful, the left side being more traditionally associated with the feminine, creative, vulnerable, emotional side. I was brought up in that tradition and only recently in the last 5 years -and I'm almost 80 - have I begun to question it. My right hip is fine. The constrictions of growing up as a female in the 40s and 50s have left their mark and I have to think myself into walking like a man in order to throw off those inhibitions. 

Of course I am making the same assumptions as I criticised above, in thinking there is a man's way of walking and a woman's way of walking. There is no such clear distinction. We are in transition from these binary divisions, and something is transitioning inside me too, allowing me to become aware of the ways that thinking of myself as female has constricted me, and encouraging me to claim the space that I imagine men taking. These categories are not so easily discarded. 

So if you see me charging down Main St in Hebden Bridge, taking great strides and flailing my arms, you'll know I'm just discovering me!"

The validity of subjective experience

What we are seeing currently is a challenge to conventional gender divisions, based on claims to the 'validity of subjective experience'. LGBTQ plus non binary offer a whole range of alternatives to those who feel constricted by conventional gender assignments. This choice is being given to children as young as 10 years old within the UK education system, and the UK Labour Party has recently agreed to accept applicants for women's positions from those who 'self-identify as women'.

Questioning gender divisions also challenges our whole notion of what we think of as 'masculine' and 'feminine' qualities.  

There is beginning to be a recognition of the validity of a subjective experience, which is not tied to social norms. This freedom allows us to see that though there may be distinct biological differences, (and even these vary much more than is generally supposed) between masculine and feminine, this does not define qualitative differences between genders. Women are free to be as 'masculine' as they want and vice versa. This is acknowledged within enlightenment philosophies, by proposing that everybody has both masculine and feminine qualities within them, 'the yin yang paradigm'. Although this makes a nonsense of the distinction between masculine and feminine qualities, yet it seems difficult for people to abandon that mindset.

Response to a young person overwhelmed.

Thanks for writing Laura. I wonder what are the delusions that would disappear when we are enlightened? Is it this paradox of everything being perfect as it is, and yet us feeling constantly dissatisfied with the way it is? I don't think that is going to change. We get a moment of delight when we see a possibility and then drop back into the gloom again.

There is a process going on that we cannot see. We have to learn to trust it. Every little thing is given to us for our benefit, to bring us to some greater realisation. It doesn't make any sense at the time, and it is never easy, even if it looks that way on the outside.

We have to get into the habit of appreciating what we have, the little moments, a breath, walking out after the rain. The issues we face are so big and out of control, as you say, when we begin to appreciate what we have, (rather than constantly hankering after what we don't have, which is the mindset engendered by a capitalist society) we will be able to think creatively about them, rather than be overwhelmed by them. So begin with the little things, the beauty of a flower, the sound of a bird. Find time to look at the sky or the stars. Come back to yourself during the day and breathe. Even if it's only when you are sitting on the toilet!  Lots of love Anna xx

Kindness and Activism

https://www.opednews.com/populum/pagem.php?f=Kindness-and-Activism-by-David-Weiner-Activism_Activism-Anti-War_Alienation_Belief-170903-784.html


I found this article, 'Kindness and Activism', inspiring. I posted a comment, see below:


A lot of sense in this article, especially spelling out what it means to have a genuinely inclusive movement, that replaces antagonism with compassion, while maintaining the right to feel anger.

However, there are too many 'musts'. These processes cannot be predefined. I'm not sure what history can teach us since this is a totally new situation. And talking about holding political candidates to account sounds too much like tinkering with the same old system.

What binds us is kindness. Other than that we cannot know what we will need. I am in UK. Of course this needs to be international, so can't be based on a political party. What practical steps can we take to start this movement?

It is time for all the many organisations, communities, and individuals that are seeing the necessity for a change in ourselves and in the way we live, to link up together under one banner. Not to minimise the differences in approach and in details needed in different regions, and by different cultures. But by emphasising the common factors, to build a mass movement which can put pressure where it counts.

I am already making a list of organisations and individuals to approach, while admitting I am way out of my depth. But we have to start somewhere. I would like to take from your article all that will apply internationally, leaving out the specifics to do with the US. Are you in?

Healthy Birth, Healthy Earth

Healthy Birth, Healthy Earth!1

New research from Neurobiologist Darcia Narvaez - Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality2 - reveals that birthing and infant rearing practices which we regard as normal may be a root cause of mental health illness in later life, contributing to reactions of destructive violence and aggression. The emphasis on competition in our culture contrasts with the cooperation which infuses and predominates in the natural world, and with 99.9% of human social history. In leaving that collaboration behind, we may have also left behind child rearing practices which maintained healthy humans who respected each other and the planet.

The institution of the nuclear family or monogamy is comparatively recent. For most of human existence, people lived in small groups of hunter-gatherers (SBHG) with very different culture and values. Studies of contemporary SBHG's, quoted in the book, show generosity, sharing, egalitarianism, living cooperatively and strikingly little aggression. Sharing child care means that babies are in constant contact with carers, their needs met almost instantaneously. Not that we need to turn the clock back and live as small band hunter gatherers, but perhaps we can learn from them.

Generally not much attention has been paid to the experience for the baby at or immediately after birth. As a rule we have little access to memories of our birth or infancy till we reach the age of about 2. Our early personal experience is lost in the mists of time. But intuitive attempts by psychoanalysts to connect with those early experiences are now supported by evidence from neurobiology.  Those first minutes, hours or weeks of life are crucial in determining our later capacity to cope with loss or trauma. If we are not given the care we need, it can affect our neurobiological development, particularly the vagus nerve, which is central to proper functioning. Darcia Narvaez cites seven conditions for a satisfactory birth and infancy, which if fostered in our own culture could increase mental health and decrease aggressive tendencies and polarity thinking stemming from lack of connection to self, other, and nature.

a) soothing perinatal experiences; b) responsiveness to the needs of the infant and prevention of distress; c) extensive touch and physical presence; d) extensive infant initiated breastfeeding; e) a community of warm, responsive caregivers; f) a positive climate and social support; and g) creative free play with companions of multiple ages.

How many of us received the loving warmth with skin contact that could help us feel safe in those first few hours? Quite probably many of us were left as babies to cry ourselves to sleep, and consequently we may tend to discount the screams of young babies as "exercising their lungs", to hide the discomfort it arouses. It is not hard to imagine what that must have felt like, the stress that it caused to both mother and baby.

In the clinical treatment of children and adults, psychoanalytic theory posits an early experience of 'falling apart', the 'nameless dread', terror of the unknown which occurs at a time when the helpless infant has little resources to cope with experiences of being left alone in a world that does not respond to its cries. These experiences may initially be suppressed using splitting as a way to hold on to the good, and separate out bad experiences as the infant tries to protect itself. This 'schizoid mechanism' is described in Melanie Klein's Envy and Gratitude3, as a necessary polarisation, helpful in maintaining good internal figures, until the infant is ready to see good and bad as co-existing in one relationship (the depressive position op cit.) Early trauma or stress can delay this natural urge towards integration of the whole, until later life, when these feelings may begin to break through into consciousness as anxiety or manic depressive episodes. At any rate, there comes a time later in life, when it seems we have to reintegrate these expelled parts of ourselves, reclaim lost pieces, welcoming back those characteristics we would rather see in other people than in ourselves. This seems also to be the nature of the maturational need of humanity at this time.

For me in my 50s after a relationship breakup, I became trapped in a deep dark hole with no way out, which lasted for about 6 months, before I was able to face the unwanted feelings and reclaim them as mine, becoming in the process a richer, more whole person. Fortunately my sister allowed me to sit in her garden while this process worked itself out. Not many have such support. The key to unlocking that causal chain, described by Alice Miller -The Truth Will Set You Free4- is to get in touch with those feelings which were stored in mind and body at the time when we had then no resources to deal with them.

The resistance to depressive feelings, aided by a whole range of pharmaceuticals recommended by the medical profession, can delay the recovery of early feelings of helpless terror and rage, which instead get played out towards the 'other', re-enacting the polarisation, previously useful, which now sees strangers as enemies with whom it is impossible to communicate, justifying the need for bigger and more powerful bombs to keep us safe.

In order to heal our world we need to heal our own infancy, and rediscover the connections to our most basic needs for comfort and security, organising our communities in ways that provide the support that mothers and families need, to relax and be with their young child during the time when foundations for adult life are being constructed in body and brain. Welcoming newborns into the world  requires a collaborative society, which shares childcare, and supports early experiences in a harmonious environment.

References:

1- Healthy Birth, Healthy Earth - title taken from a 2016 Findhorn Conference, https://hbhe.co/presenters/  Videos available - https://wholebeingfilms.com/product/healthy-birth-healthy-earth-stream/

2- Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality, evolution, culture, and wisdom. Darcia Narvaez 2014

3- Envy and Gratitude. Melanie Klein. 1957 https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Klein_Envy_and_Gratitude.pdf

4- The Truth Will Set You Free. Alice Miller 2001 https://www.alice-miller.com/en/the-truth-will-set-you-free/

http://www.birthintobeing.com Elena Tonetti  http://youtu.be/sfC4d9fooiM

Talk with Dalai Lama about Reinventing Organisations

http://www.enliveningedge.org/media/power-care-organizations/

Iceland crowd-sourced a new constitution

In 2012, by a 2/3ds vote, the Icelandic people told its parliament to enact a constitution "based on" a constitution a citizen council had drafted. Four years later, they have done nothing. Help us show the politicians who they work for.

Iceland crowd sources a new constitution

'Constitutionalising does not stop after a certain point, but ought to continue as a fundamental part of social and political activity.'

https://theconversation.com/icelands-crowd-sourced-constitution-hope-for-disillusioned-voters-everywhere-67803

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38187599

https://canyouhearus.is

Profound wisdom concerning the grief journey we all must take to reach our essential joy.

http://www.futureprimitive.org/2016/12/dance-grief-joy/

In this week’s episode, Carolyn Baker speaks with Joanna about: understanding the context of the latest American election; Standing Rock, example of sacred activism; inner and outer activism; the safe circle; the five gates of grief; return to radical joy; the shadow magnet of our time; reconnection is a two-way street; we must resist the possibility of a 21st century fascism; the way of developing resilience

Alice Miller and Darcia Narvaez

I would like to recommend the books of Alice Miller, a German psychotherapist, which opened my eyes to a deeper level of understanding than I had received in training as a child psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic, London. By opening up to her childhood feelings, Alice was able to identify 'the true origin of the vein of ferocity which runs through human relationships everywhere'. The methods recommended by paediatricians to impose obedience and firm discipline on young babies up until recently, are revealed as cruel and damaging to helpless infants. Darcia Narvaez, in her book, Neurobiology and the development of Morality, has shown in detail how the true needs of the child, when not met by parents or carers, eg when a baby is left to cry themselves to sleep, a very common practice, can damage the development of the child and produce anxiety and depression later in life.

Healthy Birth, Healthy Earth, Findhorn Conference 3-9 Sept 2016

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An International Conference, Findhorn, Scotland, Sept 3 – 9

Join the Inquiry!

PUBLISHED ON April 23, 2016

This conference is an inquiry into the transformation of human consciousness through re-visioning how we birth and care for our children.

Our earliest experiences as infants set the tone for how we later respond to the world around us. Our capacity to love ourselves, others and the Earth is either enabled or suppressed as we come into being. We are all born and have a story to tell.

Facing the challenges of climate change, can we think in life-affirming ways about this critical period of human bonding? From conception through to early childhood, a consciously supported beginning to life is crucial to the future of civilisation and the Earth.

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https://hbhe.co/presenters/

Inventing the Future Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams

This book offers the framework of building a campaign strategy around the demand for full automation and a basic income for all. This is not a short term demand but a vision of what can be achieved if labour groups come together with academics and supporters to design the future. 

Personally I believe they have drawn the supporting network too narrowly. But that only makes the case for this campaign even more strongly. I wrote some time ago:

BIG (basic income guaranteed) may be revolutionary, but it does not need the economic system to change drastically in order to be introduced. In that sense it is reformist, although the effects are revolutionary.
The big advantages are that
1. it can be introduced without massive changes to the economic system.
2. It is a very simple idea which can be appreciated by people without much knowledge of the economy.
3. It has been tried in pilot experiments, and found to be successful in stimulating economic activity. (Brazil)
4. Many economists agree (James Robertson, Jeremy Rifkin, Edward Snowden, Richard Swift) that with technology replacing many jobs that previously required human labour, BIG of some sort is necessary.
5. Naomi Klein highlights it in her latest book This Changes Everything, as one of the game changing battles that 'don't merely aim to change laws, but changes patterns of thought.'(p 641)

The authors are coming to Leeds for an open discussion on Saturday Nov 14th, organised by PlanC.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1624336424483090/

I believe that this campaign could appeal widely across all political spectrums. Hope to see you there.

The book costs at the moment £9.09 for hard copy with e-book thrown in for good measure (30% off)

Anna

BBC drama Dr Foster

Dr Foster drama on BBC tv a brilliant portrayal of the modern dilemma facing women. Gemma stands for the best in women who actually have the wisdom and the courage to save life, save humanity from the devastation being wreaked upon it by the generations of men, blinded by greed and without the courage to face the truth about themselves, who are selling out and bankrupting our human species and the future generations. The pain caused to her by having to face the truth about this man, her husband, who did not understand what he was doing to destroy the beauty they had created together. She alone stood against the conventions of not upsetting people at a dinner table, in heart stopping audacity, in order to bring home the truth of what was happening. Her medical assistant pleaded she just didn't want to hurt anybody. But Gemma was a wolf, ferocious in her defence of the next generation, determined in her maternal role, while totally supporting her family herself, to the point of alienating her son, who just wanted a mother like other boys have. As women activists maybe we can't fulfill that picture book sort of mothering at this time when the world is burning, our priority as Gemma's, is truth and justgice.

It's interesting that one of the most frequent criticisms has been that Gemma wasn't "likeable". And that she was irrational! That's why people didn't like her, cos she didn't play by the rules. She was unpredictable. She didn't even obey the law! To obey something above the law, like truth or  life, is really challenging. And I guess it usually only happens in a crisis. Are we in a crisis??

Jeremy Rifkin The Third Industrial Revolution

What can we do to support this work? I am in UK and as yet we do not have a Third Industrial Revolution (TIR) project running. Italy has Rome and France has Nord-Pas-de-Calais.

TIR has the possibility to unite many sections of the population. The Trade Union Climate Change Group has put out a publication calling for a million climate jobs   https://www.climate-change-jobs.org which has a very similar plan to TIR. Those who protest at the increasing inequality between rich and poor generally see big business as antagonistic to their demands. Environmentalists blame polluting corporations for having profit as their priority. How can we help these groups to see that TIR is expressing their interests?

As Rifkin points out in his latest book there is no guarantee that the international community will wake up before Climate Change kicks in to an irreversible feedback loop. It is urgent that we do our part to bring these ideas to all sections. If you have suggestions or would like to take part in an active way please contact me at anna@shsh.co.uk

Response to Deeper Darkness http://deeperdarkness.net

 Thank you Matt for starting this website and giving us the chance to ponder these deeper realities.

Deeper Darkness seems to connect with a theme I have been pursuing recently. It starts with a quote from Keats I read in the 1970s which I still remember because it so struck me at the time:

'I mean Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable  reaching after fact and reason.'

The possibility of resting in uncertainty seems to express what is needed to be open to this deeper reality.

This links with something from R.D. Laing:

  'The really decisive moments in psychotherapy, as every patient or therapist who has ever experienced them knows, are unpredictable, unique, unforgettable, always unrepeatable, and often indescribable.'

 I think these guys are pointing to the same thing you are alluding to, approached from another perspective. It seems to me that this perspective, or experience, exists in all aspects of life, if we are open to it. It is not necessarily a comfortable place to be. And because of that we tend to try to avoid it, and stay with what is familiar, and 'known'.

(I put 'known' in inverted commas because this is what has come to be called knowledge in our society, not an inner knowing, but what is socially accepted as true.)

You also link this to the dark night of the soul and I agree with you. Doubting socially acceptable truth can rock your whole world, crash your foundations, and threaten your security, both personally and socially.  Think how whistleblowers are seen as terrorists.

For Bion, a psychoanalyst I came across in the 70s negative capability is 'the ability to tolerate the pain and confusion of not knowing, rather than imposing ready-made or omnipotent certainties upon an ambiguous situation or emotional challenge.'  

These sorts of feelings usually generate embarrassment and shame if exposed socially. We try to keep them hidden. We don't expect our leaders or politicians to express themselves in this way. So we end up with a totally false idea of reality. It is essential for our sanity to allow these aspects of ourselves to be not just tolerated but welcomed.