Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The Media, and Karma

It couldn't have happened to a nicer fellow

I've been writing this for more than a year now, but in the way of things, I got distracted :) because the story wasn't complete. It started with the revelations of criminality at the world's largest media corporation, News Corp, and the disgrace of its chairman, Rupert Murdoch. Now, with the fall of Murdoch and another right wing media magnate, Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, this seemed even more timely.

If you had told people a year ago that the most powerful man in mainstream media (MSM) would be called upon to resign in disgrace from News Corp, the $40 billion media conglomerate, they would have laughed.

Keith Rupert Murdoch's influence was so great that he and his media companies literally helped move the electorate to a more right wing point of view. All 173 of his newspapers supported George Bush's invasion of Iraq, which led to over a million deaths, and immeasurable costs to the world economy.

He could and did help elect right wing governments all around the world. He was also a blind supporter of Israel's foreign and domestic policies. And his media outlets were at the forefront of calling for even more war around the globe.

Yet it is in Murdoch's ill fated attempt to purchase shares in BSkyB, the British Satellite TV company that would have made him even more rich and powerful, that we see the hubris and self destruction that is evident in all his ilk, and the promise of what is yet to come.

In the end it was a grassroots campaign of hundreds of thousands of angry British people that delayed the sale of the BSkyB shares. Then news came of his cosy relationship with the new government, sleazy tactics in wiretapping the phones of murder victims families, the arrest of close associates who worked in British PM David Cameron's circle, and the mysterious deaths of the whistle blowers who'd revealed the wiretapping, and that led to his downfall. That he is now considered to be a liar as well, for his testimony before the British Parliament, is just icing on the cake.

This is why I love the British people. Britain is my second home, having lived there since almost after I'd been born. I've written about my extensive visits and spiritual work there, and for the fact that two million marched against the war in London, 2003, that it is a headquarters of the non-GMO and anti-war movement; yes I love them very much. I wrote about how my 2007 trip there would presage the huge shifts taking place now.

But, the revolution that toppled Murdoch didn't just happen there, it has happened world wide. The revolution in Egypt that I wrote about, the spiritual changes I promised would happen, are all harbingers of the change we are right in the middle of. Right wing governments all over the world are under threat, the Japanese PM had to resign for his handling of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and in Canada, we have a real left wing alternative as the official opposition.

People see quite clearly now, that corruption lies at the heart of the political process, but also, the handmaidens in the media that facilitated that.

And one last word about our Rupert. After WWII the victorious allies hanged Julius Streicher, the Nazi publisher who demonized Jews. Murdoch, on the other hand, whose Fox News and acolytes have been demonizing Muslims, gets to retire and enjoy his $7 billion (est) net worth, and that's how it is.

But it isn't he that merits any attention at all. It is the media, and its role in subverting democracy, that needs to be examined, and, changed.

The 19th and 20th centuries was the era of trade, communications, and rational thinking. New theories of Psychology were used by the media. It is in the ideas of psychologist Edward Bernays that we see so clearly how this was achieved.

From Wikipedia: "Edward Louis Bernays (1891 – 1995) is considered one of the fathers of the field of public relations along with Ivy Lee. Combining the ideas of Gustave Le Bon and Wilfred Trotter on crowd psychology with the psychoanalytical ideas of his uncle, Sigmund Freud, Bernays was one of the first to attempt to manipulate public opinion using the psychology of the subconscious.

He felt this manipulation was necessary in society, which he regarded as irrational and dangerous as a result of the 'herd instinct' that Trotter had described. Adam Curtis's award-winning 2002 documentary for the BBC, The Century of the Self, pinpoints Bernays as the originator of modern public relations.

Bernays's public relations efforts helped popularize Freud's theories in the United States. Bernays also pioneered the PR industry's use of psychology and other social sciences to design its public persuasion campaigns. "If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it? The recent practice of propaganda has proved that it is possible, at least up to a certain point and within certain limits." (Propaganda, 2005 ed., p. 71.) He called this scientific technique of opinion-molding the "engineering of consent"

In 1913, Bernays started his career as Press Agent, counseling to theaters, concerts and the ballet. In 1914, (former) American President Theodore Roosevelt engaged George Creel and realizing one of his ideas, founded the "Committee on Public Information." Bernays, Carl Byoir and John Price Jones worked together to influence public opinion towards supporting American participation in World War I"

Apologies for the long transcript, but it is Bernays own words that best describes the relation between the media and power, be it communist, fascist or oligarchic.

Propaganda
by Edward Bernays
Ig publishing, 2005, paper
(originally published in 1928)

p37: The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.

We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.

Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet.

They govern us by their qualities of natural leadership, their ability to supply needed ideas and by their key position in the social structure. Whatever attitude one chooses toward this condition, it remains a fact that in almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons-a trifling fraction of our hundred and twenty million-who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses.

It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.

It is not usually realized how necessary these invisible governors are to the orderly functioning of our group life. In theory, every citizen may vote for whom he pleases. Our Constitution does not envisage political parties as part of the mechanism of government, and its framers seem not to have pictured to themselves the existence in our national politics of anything like the modern political machine.

But the American voters soon found that without organization and direction their individual votes, cast, perhaps, for dozens of hundreds of candidates, would produce nothing but confusion. Invisible government, in the shape of rudimentary political parties, arose almost overnight. Ever since then we have agreed, for the sake of simplicity and practicality, that party machines should narrow down the field of choice to two candidates, or at most three or four.

In theory, every citizen makes up his mind on public questions and matters of private conduct. In practice, if all men had to study for themselves the abstruse economic, political, and ethical data involved in every question, they would find it impossible to come to a conclusion without anything.

We have voluntarily agreed to let an invisible government sift the data and high-spot the outstanding issue so that our field of choice shall be narrowed to practical proportions. From our leaders and the media they use to reach the public, we accept the evidence and the demarcation of issues bearing upon public question; from some ethical teacher, be it a minister, a favorite essayist, or merely prevailing opinion, we accept a standardized code of social conduct to which we conform most of the time"

And if this invisible government should militate against our best interests, who then will report on that?

The media and their paid psychologists can be counted on to call such speculation "conspiracy theory", of course, with lots of theories about why people believe this. There even is a book called The Influencing Machine by NPR media columnist Brooke Gladstone http://www.amazon.com/Influencing-Machine-Brooke-Gladstone-Media/dp/0393077799 which acknowledges "the manipulations of contemporary journalism" but denies the power it has to influence our psychology.

By using as its title a 1919 paper on Schizophrenia, where sufferers believe that external forces work to shape our perceptions, it, funnily enough, denies what Edward Bernays himself wrote in his 1928 paper "Propaganda". Keep in mind that Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels acknowledged he learned his techniques from Bernays "American" techniques and you get where I am coming from.

The media operates through the energy of the throat chakra, the mind. I sometimes think it exists only to distract us so that instead of working for real change we focus on visual distractions and mindless entertainment. But, that's ok. The power of the media to shape us is now coming to an end, as we look at forming smaller, more coherent societies and groupings.

This is how I started the article. But now, as I look at the bloated evil being whose actions led to the murder and suffering of so many millions of people, then I know what I really want to say to all the people like him.

No matter how rich you are, or how powerful, or, how long you got away with it. Sooner or later, your karma will catch up with you.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Remembrance of Things Past


Those were the perfect years

I really have no patience with utopians. They may look to some perfect place down the future. Me, I only think of the work required to get anywhere.

But, if there ever was a perfect time, and place, it surely was the first seven years of my life, that I spent in Pakistan, India, England and Japan, which I've already written about.

Perhaps, as we get older, we all tend to look at the past with nostalgia. Speaking only for myself, I know that my childhood was magical.

I know, every day, just how much suffering there is in the world. But what I try to also do is take people to the magical place every child knows. There was a time when you knew how to do magic. There was a time when you simply knew you were loved. Maybe it was a parent, friend, teacher, grandparent, or simply, God, but, at some point in your life, you were loved.

There was a time when you were scared of nothing, and full of confidence.

Everything tasted wonderful, the colors were vibrant, and the world was a beautiful place to explore. You were never again as alive as at that one moment in time, and then you forgot.

Children, and animals, know how to disappear. They disappear from right under their mothers noses, dogs shift, as I wrote, through locked doors, cats, cross back from death, and that is why I keep using them as examples, of the spiritual dimensions they, and we, can all access.

Because it's not we also do not have those abilities, but, that we've forgotten how to use them.

Yes, there was a time when we learned fear, and anger, and hatred, and that the world was no longer a safe place. There was a time when we grew up.

The six of cups of the tarot deck shows children playing in a new setting. I teach you how to go to that new place, how to play, and, how to be a child again.

Friday, March 09, 2012

Recap 2011

What a year that wasWhat a year that was

We have just had a very rare weather occurrence (for winter) 42 tornadoes hit the mid-west U.S. last week. 39 people are dead, and I see, once again, how little people understand how that is a reflection of the imbalance within themselves and the world. Yet just a few weeks ago, some skeptic made fun of my beliefs and asked me if I really felt that I controlled the weather? My answer was no, I don't.You do.

Looking back at the year 2011 I am struck by how tumultuous it was, both in our personal lives and the world around us. Last year was a number 9 cycle for me, with a letting go of old patterns and preparing for a number 1 cycle this year, new beginnings.

I look back often, reflecting on the things I have done and the choices I have made. Whatever I learn, I share with you. I am a teacher, but I am also a friend.

I wrote 41 articles for this blog last year. Sometimes I write about current events, yet I find on reflection that they are reflections of things I have written about earlier, the warnings for the future, the things I felt important to write about. They are visions.

So in this blog, I will be referring not to the content of the articles, but, why I wrote them, and the things that became clear, later. For only by looking at the past can we know, and understand, our future.

This is how my year began:

January 2011:

In Prejudice? Not: I wrote of a time when I didn't know about prejudice, yet came to learn, sadly, how it was all around us. It also was a reminder to be aware of the things that bound us, and not, what divided us.

Mother Mary Comes To Me: was where I located the tomb of Mary, Jesus's mother in Pakistan and visited it during my last trip there. But it really was about how this year I had a vision of major changes in the Catholic Church and the direction it would take in the next year. Now, as scandal once again engulfs the Vatican, that vision is coming true.

St. Francis's Prayer: "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace".

The Water Of Life: I wrote about our relationship with water, and its healing power. I had seen floods like the Asian tsunami years before it happened, observed the floods in England in 2007. That they were attempts of the earth to cleanse itself. Humanity was insane to poison the water it depended on for survival. Then shortly after that, the Fukushima earthquake, and widespread pollution of the Pacific Ocean. There is a river that flows across the Universe. When it hits this planet it will sweep us all away. Don't fight it, just ride it like a surfer riding a wave.

The Cat Came Back: A cat that died, then came back.

My Life As A Spy: My college professor who used to work for the CIA. My friend at military college who went on to become the head of ISI, the most effective (some say infamous) spy agency in the world. Who knows, given my inclination in that respect, I might not have ended up there too? My research. The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence by Victor Marchetti and John Marks. Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds: "it becomes very complex, where you have money laundering activities, drug related activities, and terrorist support activities converging at certain points and becoming one". What 'democracy'? What 'freedoms'? And it is so funny when they spend so much time spying on us, that some of us, spy back :)

The Dog, Shifted: Into another dimension, that is. Literally. And children do that, but later forget how. So I teach them how not to forget. And our faithful friend, the dog? They teach us too. In the time to come, we will all need faithful friends.

The People Are Revolting: It all began with a small act. A fruit seller in Tunisia set himself on fire and killed himself to protest injustice. That spread across the world and even reached 'the most apathetic people on this planet', Americans. Yes, some seek to co opt it for themselves, but what began then cannot be stopped. As I said then: "The next place where people will rise will be Europe, and then America". This is the message: "Change. We will not be governed by you".

February 2011:

Karma happens: We were supposed to get the storm of the century in Canada but somehow that passed us by. Sometimes Fate and Destiny converge, and Karma is created. Yes, we might have a fixed fate and destiny, but we also have the means to overcome them. We have free choice, but that choice is limited by the karma we have created. Yet we can also create new choices, based on following our dharma, our path. And I wrote this, a year ago: There is this storm that covers all our lives, and one even greater to come. A pity that many I reached out didn't hear me clearly. All you have to do, is ask.

The Purpose of Astrology: Astrology is a key to human understanding, and an adjunct to psychology. It also is a mandala, that when we meditate upon it, gives us insights into our future and opens up spiritual possibilities. We are more than the sum of our planets, and the possibilities are endless..

March 2011:

To a Friend As He Prepares To Make His Last Journey: I lost a dear friend last year. As he prepared to make his final journey, his friends around the world gathered to honor him and remember his very special qualities. And it inspired me to write, once again, about the journey into the other realms, how we go into that white light and are embraced by that universal peace.

A Prayer For The People of Japan: I grew up and spent the first two and a half years of my life in London, England, and the next 5 years in Japan. I visited the U.K. ten more times since then, including an extended stay from 1975-1979 where I came to understand my past lives and purpose in life. But never, not once, did I ever return to Japan, even though that was truly a magical place of my childhood. I dearly would have loved to be there once again, but that never happened, alas. Then, on March 11, 2011, Japan was struck by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and following tsunami, tens of thousands of people died, and much of central Japan suffered from a nuclear disaster worse than the power of Chernobyl.

There was a time when I would do every thing in my power to help others, and, I did. But, the truth is, we now are in a stage when what must be, will be. Those who were not prepared to change will, by going through the fire, be forced to change. There is no distinction between good and bad people here, because it isn't about punishment. It is about the lack of understanding, and our disconnection from God, that is to blame. And even then, when we understand, we will have still have to go through this difficult time, and become stronger as a result.

America, the Spiritual: America is a spiritual nation, with all the responsibilities that entails. This article was all about the many times I had made extensive visits there to help people, eleven times in total and teaching thousands. This article is about the possibilities I saw for this great country, but one that will never be realized until it changes.

The number of coincidences all show me how I am so closely tied to the people of the United States. President Obama actually studied with a relative of mine and roomed beside him in Occidental College, California, and visited him in Pakistan, and I saw great possibilities, only that, which sadly did not happen, the obstacles to change from forces alien to the American Republic are too great.

But it was my prophecies that were even more astounding; how I saw 9/11, was present for the Los Angeles earthquake of 1994, and, driving through the Smoky Mountains of Appalachia, saw a white eagle by the side of the road, just before my son was born in New York. There also was the birth of a white buffalo during our time there, and it was this message from our native friends that told me this: It is time for a new American Spiritual Movement.

Psychism and The Occult Wars: Psychism is a gift connected with what I call the super-brain, the part of us that is beyond our logical mind and connects with other dimensions. It really is a pity that some so called 'rational thinkers' are so irrational they automatically discount anything that cannot be seen or measured. Well, they ought to suck it up and not ask for endless debate on what people believe in or not. I can er, 'debate' with the best of them, so far I haven't seen any :) What bothers me more is how they act as shills for the pharmaceutical industry. Many people I have treated for schizophrenia displayed the same emotional sensitivities I have seen in the truly psychic. This is a field of study that interests me, and the dialogue I prefer to have is with people who presently do not have closed minds.

April 2011:

Magick, and The Spiritual Alchemy of the Soul: And now, we come to a lesson in magick. It is the practical application of psychic powers to achieve change. That some use it in the black arts is sad, but that is the way it is. It is a choice they make. And, since magick is based on the energies of the soul, understanding it is the first requirement of healing. And then, only then, can we achieve the spiritual alchemy which is our birthright. Oh, and yes, with it one can indeed, control the weather. Whether one chooses to do so is another matter altogether :)

Happy Passover to Everyone: I wrote Battle For the Soul Of the Jewish People a very long time ago. And I still believe, that they, and Muslims, and Christians and Buddhists and Hindus and Shamanists all need to change. But why is this night different from all other nights? Because I chose this night to say that God has a covenant with all of his people.

Healer: I come not to heal your bodies, but, your souls. At this point America is being swept by super tornadoes, some a mile wide. Hundreds of people have died. And I said then, everything will get worse. I will continue to help, but as a healer I recognize when to let the earth, heal itself.

And sometimes, one must help speed up the process.

I come to bring balance to the Universe.

May 2011:

Reflections On the Nature of Evil: Was Osama Bin Laden evil, or was he drawn that way? Now that he's been reported killed in Northern Pakistan, this was a reflection on the nature of evil. Is it a force that takes over us, and causes us to do bad things, or is something inherent in us? Evil is our removal from God. And Satan, the rebellious angel, finds willing accomplices in that rebellion...

Heaven Lies At The Feet Of The Mother: This was an appreciation of my mother, and the mothers I have known. The body that nourishes us. This is about the earth that has lost the ability to nourish us, and the Feminine Energy that is so out of balance that all else is out of balance. And if you do not change, then only death and destruction await you.

The Politics of Corruption: 1. The corruption of the mind 2. The corruption of the soul.

3. The corruption of the body. 4. The corruption of the planet. 5. The corruption of language.

6. The corruption of the overseeing class. 7. The corruption of the spirit. I hate them all. But we also have, within the smallest tiniest part of our being, a kernel of truth.

The End Of Days: Are we truly coming to the end times? Not really. It is a time of change, of plan and action and movement. It isn't the end, it is truly the beginning of something new.

June 2011:

For the Sheep, Fascism: Why does a 'spiritual' person like me write so often about politics, I am asked. Fascism is an overarching means of control by people who do not respect free will. WE have been moving towards a more openly fascistic society. Good, I say. Whatever it takes to make people wake up, and act.

Ergon, Thaumaturge: I've been posting on the internet as Ergon for many years now because I lost my password for Man From Atlan on Huffington Post. But Ergon, from the Gnostic, means the work, the ability to work miracles, the right eye of the soul. It connects me Hermes Trismegistus and Marcilius Ficinus and Giordano Bruno and Plato. And it is a planet in another dimension, where I came from.

Humanity, Devolving: We were meant to evolve, we did not. Physically, emotionally and spiritually, we are moving backwards. God help us all.

First Scientist, or Last Sorcerer?: Sir Isaac Newton and his studies in Alchemy, without which he never would have discovered the laws of gravitation or thermodynamics. A true renaissance man, who as Leon Battista Alberti said, would be "a man who could do all things as he willed".

What Might Have Been: I knew I would be using the Internet as a way of getting in touch with people, and for more than 10 years, I did. But eventually I got tired of going on about politics and social justice. People were powerless and didn't want to think about anything that required difficult solutions. I would focus on spiritual things only. Then, I came across the Meredith Kercher murder. There were many things in it, the power of coincidence, the psychology, the astrological component, but it was above all the underlying spirituality that drew me in.

Yes, four lives, wasted. Yes, the victim was forgotten even as the accused murderers, Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito, and Rudy Guede were convicted. Knox and Sollecito even attracted some sort of perverse publicity that made it about them.

As Marcus Aurelius once said, "justice is the basis of all things". Yes, that was important, but you see, it was a symbol. You know I claim to see things. I knew the future of Italy would be important. I knew the Vatican would be going through change, and as stories of papal assassination plots and corruption come out, sure. Yes, it would come down to a battle between two Italies, and that drew me in. Maybe it was also that unquiet spirit of Meredith Kercher that I could hear, calling for justice, and I knew that justice would be hard come by, in this case.

But, spirituality calls for balance. If we cannot fight to right a wrong to one person, then how can we right that which is out of balance on the planet? So, I devoted myself to the case.

July 2011:

A Defense of Homoeopathy: One of the biggest sources of corruption on this planet is the Medical-Chemical complex, and the false belief that only they have the solution to illness. I refute that, and my answer is here, in my defense of homoeopathy.

I used to suffer from asthma, homoeopathy cured me. I saw thousands of people helped in the homoeopathic hospital I worked in. During the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918-20 (caused by the mass vaccination of American soldiers sent to Europe) the hundreds of homoeopathic hospitals in the United States had a higher survival rate than the conventional medical ones. And once the Medical Monopoly gained power, of course they shut down the hospitals, and suppressed homoeopathy ever since.

I support homoeopathy because:

- We are seeing the failure of conventional medicine.

- Homoeopathy is a proven alternative.

- It is cheap and affordable for every one.

- We will have a great need for it one day.

Cranks, Inc: I try not to dislike people. I also have no problem calling out the truly nasty ones, one of whom is a professional skeptic called James Randi. First of all, this isn't personal. He is merely a representative of some truly insidious ways of thought. His tactics as a debunker are no worse than anything I've seen in various propaganda fronts. His moral center might best be described as 'the end justifies the means', and I can look on that and say, jeez, he's a stage magician who admits to using theater to bamboozle us.

But, since he chose to be the front man for various high profile attempts to discredit alternative medicine, psychism, and astrology, then I look at his tactics and behaviour, and see an angry man who recruits young, impressionable angry people and teaches them to spam the internet with their passive aggressive debating style. I've sparred with them tens of thousands of times on subjects like the vaccines and autism debate, homoeopathy, astrology, and the cultist set of beliefs I call 'scientism', which has nothing to do with Science, and every thing to do with preventing genuine honest research into anything alternative. He has no credibility ever since he finally outed himself by denying the global warming effect, and so the only extent of my feeling for him is that he corporatized 'Skepticism', hence my title, Cranks Inc.

Where I take issue is not with him, but the social engineering and other 'foundations' that support him. They take every thing that is hopeful and beautiful and reduce it to doubt and support for the status quo. I don't, and am not dependent on being a lobbyist for other interests to end up being unable to speak this truth to power.

The world has changed, and you have become obsolete. People now thirst for answers.

August 2011:

London is Burning: I loathe violence. Yet I understand when people who are powerless resort to it. I tell people that when I have a meditation, things happen. My meditation was on August 6, and in it, my daughter, who's a healer in her own right, touched a person's arm, and the next day, a suspected skin cancer fell right off. And, riots broke out all over the UK.

Yes, violence is morally wrong and soul deadening. But in a world where we bomb Libya and kill almost two million Iraqis just to get at their oil, my moral outrage is directed .. elsewhere.

The Horoscope of the United States of America: My first love was an American, (her name was Margaret :) and my first love was the idea of America. But then I read American history, and understood its dark past.

To understand a person, you need to read their horoscope (sorry :) To understand a country, you need to read its horoscope too. And I've done horoscopes for Israel, and Iran, and other countries, and seen how they would change, and I did the horoscope for the United States of America.

Someone asked me a question about a person born under the sign of Cancer, and I said, some Cancers were going through a rough time. And the U.S. is a country born under Cancer, on July 04. The day after I wrote that, the eastern seaboard was hit by a rare earthquake, and the Washington monument cracked.

I wrote about the ideals that formed the nation, and the corruption of those ideals. I said there would be a culmination of a cycle, and a time of renewal. I said it was important for to be in the United States and Europe. That didn't happen. Yes, the Occupy Wall Street movement was a brief, honest and very bright moment, but that didn't go anywhere. Yes, there are riots in Europe. But, if there is to be change, it must be spiritual change, and it must start in the U.S.

So far, that has not happened.

September 2011:

The Criminal Mind: This is the second of the Meredith Kercher murder series.

When I was a student in Pakistan I came across a book on Criminal Psychology which intrigued me. The possibility of brain damage, that many criminals had been psychologically warped by earlier experiences, informed my thinking. What brought all this to the fore was my own, subsequent research into rising levels of psychopathic behaviour not just in 'criminals' but across the board, in young people, the media, and political and business leaders.

So, I had to ask myself if the murder trial was something more, a reflection of the breakdown of society and that increased criminality was a sign of increasing mental illness?

So I asked two basic questions:

Is there such a thing as a criminal mind?

How can that be ascertained?

We know that the prisons are filled with clinically disabled people. Yet it seems we still are so stuck in our religious past it is easier to label them as 'evil', than 'sick'. Note that I do not excuse their crimes. Society must indeed be protected from them, not for the sake of punishment but to preserve society but also, protect all of us. But I also wanted to go beyond the debate of free will vs biological or social determinism (we commit crimes because we are poor or psychologically damaged)

Are there genetic, neurological, behavioral, or even, physiognomic markers? Apparently, yes, and I went on at length about them, with ideas about root causes. I quoted educators, psychiatrists, psychologists, and even, judges.

Read this book: Exploring the Criminal Mind subtitled Advances of Brainscience and Mental Procedures of the Criminal Personality: A Unified Brain-Mind Theory. The author and publisher, Jens-Jacob Sander, is a judge in the Norwegian Courts of Justice and an excellent read.

But my question still is to see what we can do to examine the issue of criminality in society, and see if we can come up with solutions.

Who Is This Man?: Way before I gained some small measure of notoriety arguing with people on social justice websites, I used to have a website of my own, not just a blog. After going to the south of England in 1999 I came back and set up my website http://www.manfromatlan.com

It was a spiritual website, it challenged people, and I did a lot of writing for it. It was up for six years, from 1999-2005, and was even, for a brief period of time, within search engine Alexa's top 250,000 ranking. Even I was surprised with that.

I made a spiritual statement: this was who I was, and whether people believed or not, I would help all those who asked, and, I would put up all my words on the net, and teach for free.

Then my webmaster disappeared after a messy divorce and the web hosting company went out of business, and I found myself unable to reinstate the site. By then, my work had expanded so much with students and followers I never was able to reinstate it. Well, first as this blog, from 2007 on and then last year I had the website up again.. A DIY project, without all the bells of my previous site, and I still haven't done everything up the way I'd like, but, it's there, and a new generation of people are able to read, and like or dislike it.

I think, as we go into 2012, it is sorely needed, even though much of my important writing is now here. Wait till I'm able to finish it up, it'll be something :)

October 2011:

The Rape of Europa: This was an appreciation of the gifts of Western Civilization to the world. The East has its own, equally important, contribution, and I look at my children, half-European, half-Eastern, and think it wonderful to see that in them. But i went with them on an extended tour of Europe in 1996 and saw, the growth of the European union, but also, the need for spiritual balance there. And now, there is a fight for Europe's future, and no, that doesn't have to do with the flood of economic refugees the ultra-nationalists are portraying it to be, but, the bankers yoke that is causing people to riot all over Europe. That I write so often about that continent is because of the importance it must play in the future, but, unless it changes, that importance will fade away, and there will be chaos, as the Vandals once again, take over Rome. It will take a spiritual alchemy to restore that.

Buried Treasure: How I found Phillipine dictator Marcos's billions, and was asked to help some one recover that, and also, an Iranian's billion from some European banks, yet I was talking about spiritual treasure, and they, were only interested in the material.

A Psycho-Astrological Perspective on the Relationship of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito: Why do we meet certain people? What are the karmic connections to people, places, and events that draw us together? What possible outcome can we foresee from such a congruence of events?

This was the third article of my Meredith Kercher series. I saw from the respective horoscopes that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito would likely be released. Many were too emotionally invested to even consider that possibility, even though I tried to warn them. But, after the verdict, I was more interested in the many spiritual messages I was getting, and astrology was simply, just another tool for understanding.

And here, I saw not only the relationship between the two accused, but also between the accused Amanda Knox and Meredith Kercher, the victim. I already had formed my own opinion as to guilt based on the evidence, but, the horoscopes gave such an extra dimension to their relationship I was shocked, and also, how new information kept coming up. Just the other day I realized that both Knox and Kercher were born on the full moon, and that Knox and Sollecito, met on the full moon. To me, that confirms the validity of astrology as a field of study.

The Road, Less Travelled: This is about the road we must travel. It is about a journey we must all make in order to discover the purpose of our lives. And there may be an easy road, or a more difficult one only you might understand why you took it. All I say is look at your belief systems and reactions, and then, take the road less travelled.

November 2011:

The Joy of Writing: There has been much love in my life, and I have had great happiness and sadness. But I am writing here about my love of books, and telling a story, and, the joy of writing.

So I was the editor of my school paper, known as the boy with his nose always in a book, and it was such a natural progression for me to become a writer.

If I had the chance to go to New York and be published, I would go instead to London and become a healer, and while there, write another book The Way of Atlan.

My advice to writers: if you think you're a writer, then, you are. Learn to appreciate 'criticism'. Writing is a gift we share with others. Let the words come to you, and may you, always know the joy of writing.

The Mothers of the Plaza De Mayo: I have not yet written about Africa or South America or the plight of the native peoples of America, all causes equally important to my heart, all stories waiting to be written. But I was moved by the story of how the Nobel Committee, always ready to ignore the genuinely deserving for the Peace Prize (I was involved in the campaign to nominate Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu and he was nominated 21 times) once again ignored the Argentinean group the Grandmothers of the Plaza De Mayo, who'd been nominated for two years running.

The Argentinean 'dirty war' of the 70's was on the part of South American military dictatorships and the U.S. collaborating to kill 'communists'. They killed over 50,000 student leaders, professors, and trade unionists, often dumping their bodies at sea. Then they took away their children, and forcibly adopted them to 'respectable' military families.

In 1977 the Mothers of the Plaza De Mayo began to gather in quiet protest, asking for knowledge of the whereabouts of their children. The parallel group the Grandmothers continued their vigil, and eventually, the Argentinean government fell. "What we have done we did over time with perseverance, creativity, persistence, stubbornness, and the great love we have for the two generations that we are looking for. And we didn't realize we could grow in such a way."

Quo Vadis?: I thought I'd never known any Italian people until I came to Canada, then realized, omigod, the MV Asia! It was the Italian liner we came on when we returned from Japan to Pakistan, and it was, fast, and it was, lovely.

I'd focused so much on Italy for the past year that it seemed important to do the birth chart of Italy. The horoscope so clearly shows the 'two Italies' I had spoken of before. How one side was creative and open, the other closed and secretive. I saw that as a dividing line between the 'old and the new, the corrupt government, Mafia and Vatican in cahoots against the socialist, honest and indefatigably brave fighters for transparency and the end of corruption. It was the Italian secret service that produced the forged documents that led to the Iraq war and bombed a train station, it was the judiciary that tried so hard to bring justice for the memory of a murdered English girl. And I called for justice, and real spiritual change, or, things would get worse.

Postscript: The Italian liner Costa Concordia hit a reef and sank two months later. It was a tragedy, but, it also was a sign.

December 2011:

Satan-ism: An Italian court overturned the conviction of the prosecutor of the Knox/Sollecito murder trial, who had wrongly been accused of believing that a prominent series of sex crimes had been influenced by a satanic cult. Then another Italian court convicted some refugee smugglers of murder for throwing several of them into the sea in a voodoo ritual.

This brought about a riff on my part about whether satanism was part of a battle between the lords of light and darkness, or whether many secret societies were in fact fronts for more mundane power and wealth based efforts.

Certainly, there have been secret societies from Babylonian times. Certainly, the various defense agencies use cults as an experimental front for their mind control experiments. Certainly Jim Jones of the infamous Jamestown massacre was just such an agent. Certainly these satanic cults like Anton La Vey's and 'Colonel' Aquino also dabble in garden variety satanism, using sexual degradation, drugs, and the occasional blood sacrifice to convince the gullible of something.

In the early 70's I met and studied a group called the Process Church of the Last Judgement. It was they who went on to notoriety for having influenced the Son of Sam murderer David Berkowitz and the even more famous Charles Manson.

They believed in Jehovah, Satan, Lucifer and Jesus as archetypes. Me, I see them as aspects of the whole. I see them as also, energies. But what they said, still resonates. That humanity would not be able to rise above its conflicts. That the vast majority would still hold to their 'hollow materialistic dreams'.

So, is Satan real? Yes, if you accept it as part of your consciousness. As long as you accept that Satan, like God, resides within us. That you determine your fate, and not, an external force.

Beyond that, only God is real.

Zero is the Greatest Number: Some scientists found the hint of the presence of something and a breathless media said they'd discovered 'the God particle'. Hmphh.

The news is exciting, because it expands our knowledge of the Universe. It may help explain the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Though it does not explain the gravitational forces that hold together the Universe I think Einstein's General Theory of Relativity does a pretty good job of it, even it does not explain everything.

I was reading "Deciphering The Cosmic Number-The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung" by Arthur I. Miller. Pauli was a famous physicist who predicted the discovery of the neutrino and had a lasting impact on theoretical physics. Jung's psychoanalytical theory borrowed much from metaphysics and arrived at the concept of a universal consciousness, and, synchronicity.

That these two scientists were open to new interpretations of the supernatural and used alchemical symbology to describe nuclear forces intrigues me. But, there's a new dimension waiting to be discovered, as we create a new Theory of Everything, which binds together all the forces that create the Universe.

Pauli was the physicist who searched for the common root number of the Universe. He felt it was 137, being a fine constant in the structure of matter, but also, of kabbalistic significance. Another story: my family knew the late professor Abdus Salam, who won the Nobel prize for Physics for discovering the electro weak nuclear force, and should have got another, for saying that neutrinos have no mass.

This is where I believe the root number of the Universe is Zero. A theme in my meditations is that there is a nothingness, a void that is at the center of the Universe. And it is that nothingness which is God, and out of that void comes light, and the force of creation that holds the Universe together.

You can plot a line across curved time and space, say in four dimensions, and satisfy the requirements of Einstein's physics. I say, there are multiple parallel dimensions, all spinning at different speeds and slightly out of sync or off axis with each other, so time and space can be measured in may ways relative to each other. You can exist across time and space, as I say to my students, and perhaps physics and metaphysics can be reconciled, as Pauli and Jung hoped.

But, Time circles upon itself. And so God has always been, and always will be. And everything is a value, and a number, but it is zero that takes it to a higher level, 1 to 10 to 100 etc. So again, God comes from nothingness, yet always has been, and we require God to help us go to the next step in our evolutionary path.

Conclusion: It took me almost a whole month to write this. There just was too much happening and I was waiting on further events. I said, what a year that was. And, you haven't seen anything yet. But I also said: for some, a year of miracles.f