Posts Tagged ‘coronavirus pandemic’
Death? Afterlife? Rebirth?
~ Easter Reflections on Resurrections
~ Ron’s Memoirs
At my death do not lament our separation …
as the sun and moon but seem to set,
in reality this is a rebirth.
~ Rumi
“I tell you the truth,
no one can see the kingdom of God
unless he is born again.”
~ John – 3:3
“The soul is eternal, all-pervading, unmodifiable, immovable and primordial.”
“The soul never takes birth and never dies at any time,
nor does it come into being again when the body is created.
The soul is birthless, eternal, imperishable and timeless,
and is never destroyed when the body is destroyed.
Just as a man giving up old worn out garments accepts other new apparel, in the same way the embodied soul giving up old and worn out bodies verily accepts new bodies.”
~ Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Krishna to Arjuna
“I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as a plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was man.
Why should I fear?
When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as man,
To soar with angels blest;
But even from angelhood I must pass on …”
~ Rumi
death, as men call him, ends what they call men
–but beauty is more now than dying’s when…
~ e. e. cummings
“The dewdrop belongs to the sea.
Separated, it is vulnerable to the sun and wind and other elements of nature;
but when the droplet returns to its source, it becomes magnified in oneness with the sea.
So it is with your life. United to God you become immortal.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
Eternal Life is gained by utter abandonment of one’s own life.
When God appears to His ardent lover the lover is absorbed in Him,
and not so much as a hair of the lover remains.
True lovers are as shadows, and when the sun shines in glory
the shadows vanish away.
He is a true lover to God to whom God says,
“I am thine, and thou art mine! ”
~ Rumi
Tree of Life
The Last Supper
Ron’s Introduction to Death? Afterlife? Rebirth? ~ Easter Reflections on Resurrections
Dear Friends,
At age ninety one, I have long reflected upon crucially important perennial questions concerning life, death, afterlife, and rebirth. And thereby I’ve been blessed to realize that consciousness as Divine LOVE continues eternally after inevitable physical death.
Background
My background in this precious human lifetime is summarized in my most recent memoirs postings as follows:
Until my mid-life spiritual awakening, I self-identified only as my mortal physical body, its thoughts and its story, and believed that inevitable death of the body ended life. I had no opinion, knowledge or belief concerning reincarnation or afterlife in ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’, or of an immortal “soul”.
Then in my early forties, I had irreversibly transformative experiences of spiritual self-identity and afterlife: I began to realize that I was not merely my mortal body, its thoughts and story, but eternal and universal awareness. And I started seeing visions of apparent past lives, and inner and outer appearances of deceased people, including my maternal grandfather and Mahatma Gandhi, who I now regard as my first perceived inner guide.
Then, after meeting my beloved Guruji, Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas, I developed a deep curiosity and philosophical interest in the spiritual significance of death and dying, reincarnation and karma, and I began accepting Eastern ideas of reincarnation and transmigration of an eternal soul, while gradually losing fear of inevitable physical death.
[ I’ve shared many experiences, essays, quotes and poems on these subjects. See e.g., https://sillysutras.com/category/afterlife/ ;https://sillysutras.com/category/life-and-death/; https://sillysutras.com/category/reincarnation/ ]
Ultimately I concluded that cosmically there is no death; that “birth and death are virtual, while Life is perpetual” and that “as we lose our fear of leaving life, we gain the art of living life.” (See e.g. https://sillysutras.com/know-death-to-know-life-know-death-to-know-that-there-is-no-death/ )
Consequently, I’ve become ever less fearful about my own inevitable and perhaps imminent bodily death, and often witness Earth-life like an illusionary play or movie, rather than Reality – which I now consider to be Divine LOVE as Infinite Potentiality beyond comprehension, imagination or description.
Moreover, I’ve become persuaded that since everything is timeless energy (E=mc2) all our supposedly separate lifetimes, incarnations, emanations or appearances can be intuited timelessly and concurrently, as akashic records.
However (except for rare Avatars or Buddhas) I’ve realized that we are karmically challenged to live each supposedly separate space/time lifetime as lovingly and empathetically as possible, while remembering that we are not separate mortal entities but indivisible and Eternal Divine LOVE
Current Conditions.
We are now experiencing an unprecedented era of post-pandemic social, psychological, political, and economic turbulence, violence, and polarity, with seemingly imminent nuclear war or other human caused catastrophe threatening to end earth-life as we’ve known it.
More people than ever before are suffering fears of death, illness, impoverishment, or imminent calamity, and are unable to live normally. They feel deprived of God-given human rights and necessities, and are prevented from engaging in customary economic and social activities. Some are homeless or ‘sheltering’ unable to reverently commemorate the equinox holidays with others.
From my perspective they are experiencing obscenely insane transnational governmental and institutional exploitation and hypocrisy, rather than purported democracy. And thus our species is still insanely plundering, polluting and pillaging our planet’s limited resources, and unsustainably destroying it’s precious ecosystem and climate.
But, paradoxically, this is also a time of epochal opportunity, not just a time of apparently imminent catastrophe insanely caused or condoned by our species.
Thus, this is an especially appropriate time for us to deeply reflect upon our fundamental life purposes, priorities and responsibilities as sentient Earth beings.
Because ignorance of humanity’s immortal Self-Identity causes continual fearful sufferings which impede evolution and progress, it is crucial that we transcend current fears. So the foregoing writings are offered to help us overcome those fears, and thereby enter an unprecedented new era of peace and prosperity on earth.
My Optimistic Perspectives.
With unequivocal Faith in God I am optimistically convinced that these turbulent times are inspiring and awakening a pivotal “critical mass” turning point in human history, when much of humankind will energetically awaken to loving levels of consciousness and spiritual freedom.
Two thousand years ago Jesus Christ’s life and teachings demonstrated that we are not separated but exist as One Eternal LOVE; that when we love each other we love our Eternal SELF – our Divine Creator and Sole Source. Those ultimate teachings remain true in current times.
Therefore we are immensely blessed with the rare opportunity to participate in thus raising humanity’s collective consciousness, as we gratefully awaken from inside out as ONE INFINITELY POTENTIAL Divine LOVE
So to ever inspire and encourage our deepest spiritual insights I continue to post my ever evolving optimistic perspectives about perennial questions concerning life, death, afterlife, and rebirth.
May Easter and every day help us attain destined inner fulfillment and happiness during our ephemeral lifetimes on precious planet Earth.
And so may it be!
The biblical story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection raises crucial perennial issues about life and death – about afterlife and rebirth – and about our true identity and reality.
As countless millions traditionally commemorate the rebirth and resurrection of Jesus Christ following his physical death by crucifixion, let us contemplate the deep significance of that story.
Whether we regard it as historic or metaphoric, the story raises crucial issues about life and death – about afterlife and rebirth – and about our true identity and reality.
Physical death is inevitable, but Life is perpetual.
Death of the physical body is inevitable and unavoidable. After birth, “no matter how we strive, no body leaves alive.” Uncertainty exists only about time of death, and about whether there is conscious life after physical death.
For millennia seers, saints, philosophers and mystics have considered perennial questions of life after physical death, and of our true identity and reality. Since the beginning of the 20th century when Albert Einstein revolutionized Western science with his theories of special and general relativity, quantum physicists and other non-materialistic scientists have begun confirming ancient mystical insights.
Raymond A. Moody, Jr., PhD, MD coined the term ‘Near Death Experience’ [NDE] in his 1975 best-selling book “Life After Life”. Since then NDE’s have become widely considered, especially by millions who claim to have experienced them. And some leading-edge non-materialist scientists have cited testimonies about NDE’s and other extraordinary mystical experiences as evidence that consciousness survives physical death.
For example, Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, world renowned scientist, teacher, author and pioneering authority on death and dying, believed in survival of spirit after physical death, and used butterflies as symbols of the death process.
Soon after World War II, she visited the children’s barracks at the Maidanek concentration camp in Poland. There, amazingly, she observed hundreds of butterfly images drawn by the inmate children on the walls, even with pebbles and fingernails. Spellbound by the sight of butterflies drawn on the walls, she wondered why they were there and what they meant.
Twenty-five years later, after listening to hundreds of terminally ill patients, she finally realized that the imprisoned children must have known that they were going to die, and intuitively were using butterflies as images of the physical death process. Dr. Kubler-Ross thus explained in The Wheel of Life, A Memoir of Living and Dying:
“They knew that soon they would become butterflies. Once dead, they would be out of that hellish place. Not tortured anymore. Not separated from their families. Not sent to gas chambers. None of this gruesome life mattered anymore. Soon they would leave their bodies the way a butterfly leaves its cocoon. And I realized that was the message they wanted to leave for future generations. . . .It also provided the imagery that I would use for the rest of my career to explain the process of death and dying.”
Dr. Kubler-Ross’s writings have inspired many other non-materialist scientists, authors, and teachers who have followed her lead. Also, of great importance in helping us understand whether spirit survives physical death were the ground-breaking scientific studies by Dr. Ian Stevenson, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, who for forty years studied children world-wide who spontaneously remembered past lives. Dr. Stevenson objectively validated and documented about twelve hundred such cases.
Thanks to the ‘leading edge’ work of Dr. Kubler-Ross and Dr. Stevenson, and of distinguished non-material scientists inspired by them, there now exists overwhelming scientific evidence that consciousness and mind are independent of physical bodies; that our physical bodies and brains are not originators of consciousness and mind, but their receptors, tuners and transducers. And that until we evolve beyond space/time duality reality, apparent reincarnation or rebirth may happen after death of the brain and physical body.
What survives physical death?
If – like snowflakes – each of us manifests as an absolutely unique physical form, what is it about us that can survive death of that unique form, and be “born and reborn”?
“Reincarnation” is often understood to be the transmigration of a “soul” – viz. apparently uniquely circumscribed spirit – to another body after physical death.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Hinduism’s most cited ancient scripture, Divine Avatar Krishna instructs Prince Arjuna that:
“The soul is eternal, all-pervading, unmodifiable, immovable and primordial.”; “The soul never takes birth and never dies” but “when the body is destroyed” or when “giving up old and worn out bodies . . [it] accepts new bodies.”
~ Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2
Though in Buddhism there is no concept of separate soul or individual self that survives death, Buddhists believe in rebirth. Like most mystics, Buddhists say that in addition to our physical body, we are enveloped by subtle astral and mental bodies, which survive death of the physical body and become consciously associated with successive physical bodies.
Thus the Dalai Lama says that:
“We are born and reborn countless number of times, and it is possible that each being has been our parent at one time or another. Therefore, it is likely that all beings in this universe have familial connections.”
A detailed and compelling description of afterlife can be found in “Autobiography of a Yogi”, by Paramahansa Yogananda, Chapter 43 – The Resurrection of Sri Yukteswar . There Yogananda credibly recounts a long discussion with his physically deceased Guru, Sri Yukteswar, who – like Jesus – resurrected to explain to his disciple Yogananda many details of afterlife. [You can read that extraordinarily fascinating story at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Autobiography_of_a_Yogi/Chapter_43
Many psychics say that on physical death “we” survive and enter different realms. eg. http://www.victorzammit.com/Whenwedie/whatdoeshappen.htm
But ancient Vedic and Buddhist non-dualism philosophies (“Advaita”;”Advaya”) have for millennia taught that this impermanent and ever changing world is an unreal illusion called maya or samsara; and, that “all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream”… .
“The world, indeed, is like a dream
and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage!”
~ Buddha
“A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion,
does not act as if it is real,
so he escapes the suffering.”
~ Buddha
Notwithstanding the Buddha’s non-dualist teachings, the Dalai Lama says he practices death and rebirth eight times daily. And, as Tibetan Bodhisattva of Compassion, he intends to return until all sentient beings are liberated from suffering.
If you had the option of a one-way exit pass to ‘heaven’, would you volunteer as a Bodhisattva to come back to this crazy world?
Vivekananda and Einstein.
The ancient Eastern non-dualism teachings were first brought to large Western audiences by Swami Vivekananda, principal disciple of nineteenth century Indian Holy Man Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, at and after the 1893 Parliament of World Religions in Chicago.
In an eloquent New York City lecture called “The Real and the Apparent Man”, Vivekananda equated maya or samsara with “time, space, and causation” and presciently predicted scientific confirmation of the ancient Vedic non-dual philosophy of One Infinite Existence. He said:
“According to the Advaita philosophy, ..this Maya or ignorance–or name and form, or, as it has been called in Europe, time, space, and causality–is out of this one Infinite Existence showing us the manifoldness of the universe; in substance, this universe is one. So long as any one thinks that there are two ultimate realities, he is mistaken. When he has come to know that there is but one, he is right. This is what is being proved to us every day, on the physical plane, on the mental plane, and also on the spiritual plane.”
“What then becomes of all this threefold eschatology of the dualist, that when a man dies he goes to heaven, or goes to this or that sphere, and that the wicked persons become ghosts, and become animals, and so forth? None comes and none goes, says the non-dualist. How can you come and go? You are infinite; where is the place for you to go? “So it is with regard to the soul; the very question of birth and death in regard to it is utter nonsense. Who goes and who comes? Where are you not? Where is the heaven that you are not in already? Omnipresent is the Self of man. Where is it to go? Where is it not to go? It is everywhere. So all this childish dream and puerile illusion of birth and death, of heavens and higher heavens and lower worlds, all vanish immediately for the perfect. For the nearly perfect it vanishes after showing them the several scenes up to Brahmaloka. It continues for the ignorant.”
“Your own will is all that answers prayer, only it appears under the guise of different religious conceptions to each mind. We may call it Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, but it is only the Self, the ‘I’.”
~ Swami Vivekananda – Jnana Yoga
Revered 20th century Indian sage, Sri Ramana Maharshi – who was a renowned exponent of non-dualism – taught that for self-realized beings there is no reincarnation, but that reincarnation exists until self-realization – that self-realization reveals this entire world of space/time/duality as illusionary maya or samsara. Thus, responding to the question: “Is reincarnation true?”, he said:
“Reincarnation exists only so long as there is ignorance. There is really no reincarnation at all, either now or before. Nor will there be any hereafter. This is the truth.”
Einstein’s revolutionary non-mechanistic science and unconventional religious ideas were consistent with highest non-dualistic Eastern religious teachings, because they questioned the substantiality of matter, the ultimate reality of space, time and causality, and reincarnation. Like Vivekananda, Einstein said:
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
“Space and time are not conditions in which we live, they are modes in which we think”
“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter.”
“There is no place in this new kind of physics for the field and matter, for the field is the only reality.”
“That which is impenetrable to us really exists. Behind the secrets of nature remains something subtle, intangible, and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion.”
“I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, …Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism.”
~ Albert Einstein
Dedication
These writings are deeply dedicated to encouraging reflection about our Eternal Self-identity as timeless Divine LOVE.
May they help us experience ever expanding fulfillment and inner happiness during our ephemeral lifetimes on precious planet Earth, whatever we believe about death, afterlife or rebirth.
Invocation
May we – in this ephemeral human lifetime
on our precious planet Earth –
realize our common dream for a new reality,
where everyone everywhere is happy.
May Everyone Everywhere Be Happy!
“Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu!”
“Infuse Us, Enthuse Us, and Use Us,
To BE and Bless All Life as LOVE”
And so shall it be!!
Ron Rattner
Honoring God’s “Holy Fools”
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.”
~ 1 Corinthians 3:19
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
~ Deuteronomy 6:4-5
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loves is born of God, and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
~ 1 John 4:7-8
“Full of love for all things in the world;
practicing virtue in order to benefit others,
this man alone is happy.”
~ Buddha
“Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself
that you have built against it.”
~ Rumi
“Love is the highest, the grandest, the most inspiring,
the most sublime principle in creation.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
“Love Is The Law Of Life:
All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction.
Love is therefore the only law of life.
He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying.
Therefore, love for love’s sake,
because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live.”
~ Swami Vivekananda
“Only if one knows the truth of Love,
which is the real nature of Self,
will the strong entangled [ego] knot of life be untied.
Only if one attains the height of Love will liberation be attained.
Such is the heart of all religions.
The experience of Self is only Love,
which is seeing only Love, hearing only Love, feeling only Love,
tasting only Love and smelling only Love, which is bliss.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
Honoring God’s “Holy Fools” ~ Ron’s Memoirs
Introduction
Dear Friends,
Prior memoirs have recounted my midlife transformation from “Secular Hebrew” social justice litigation lawyer to “Born-again Hindu” devotional-emotional lover of God, and then to “Uncertain Undo” seeking ‘relief from belief’, because ‘on the path of Undo, we’ll never be through, ’til we’re and undone ONE!’.
[See e.g. Crying For God and other ‘Kundalini Kriyas’]
This memoirs chapter tells how, as a newly awakened ‘lover of God’ (Bhakta), I’ve discovered and honored “Holy Fools” – rare ascetic and eccentric lovers of God, who don’t live in ordinary worldly ways.
I’ve learned that throughout human history there have been very famous “Holy Fools”. Only after first ‘discovering’ such famous “Holy Fools”, did I later learn that in all human societies there are countless more unknown God intoxicated “Holy Fools”; and that they timelessly bless this world as LOVE.
In some Eastern societies they are called “masts”, a word which originates from the Sufi term mast-Allah, meaning “intoxicated with God”.
In Hindu societies they are called Avadhutas, who are overwhelmed with inner love for God. For millennia India has honored Avadhutas, as self-realized bhakti mystics living beyond worldly ego-mind consciousness and concerns, and without adhering to accepted social standards. (See e.g. Advadhuta Gita)
To help you understand why I have honored spiritual “heretics” and “holy fools” as lovers of God, here is a summary of my devotional history:
Ron’s Devotional history
Until my profound midlife spiritual awakening, I hadn’t shed tears as an adult. But then I cried for twenty four hours. Thereafter, I began wondering why I was crying so much. But soon I realized with amazement that I was crying with intense longing for God. (See Beholding The Eternal Light Of Consciousness.) And I became and remained an extremely devotional, and frequent crier for God – often ecstatically longing and calling for the Divine.
After meeting my beloved Guruji, Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas, and receiving his shaktipat initiation into the path of kundalini yoga as “Rasik: one engrossed in devotion”, I gradually learned that my continual longing and profuse crying for God was an immense transformative blessing – recognized not only in the bhakti Hindu devotional tradition, but also in:
1) Sufism epitomized by enlightened Muslim mystical poets Rumi and Hafiz who realized that all appearances in our seemingly complex earthly “reality” are manifestations of ONE eternal LOVE; and
2) in the Orthodox/Catholic “gift of tears” tradition of St. Isaac of Ninevah, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis of Assisi, and St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina.
Thus, when not crying I often had what I called ‘alternative LSD experiences’ of spontaneous (and sometimes ecstatic) Laughing, Singing, and Dancing. And even as an octogenarian “Uncertain Undo” I still often privately experience spontaneous outbursts of laughing, crying, and calling to God.
Guruji’s explanation was that:
“There are two kinds of kriyas, one is for purification and the other for the manifestation of joy. ..
Whenever one experiences great joy or bliss, this also manifests physically as crying or laughing.”
~ Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas
Learning about devotional spirituality
Not until my 1976 spiritual awakening, did I begin learning about spirituality.
On moving from Chicago to San Francisco in 1960, I was ignorant about spiritual subjects, or religions other than Judaism.
I knew nothing about Christian saints, or core Christian teachings. I didn’t even realize that my new “San Francisco” home city was named for history’s most popular Christian saint. Moreover, apart from Christianity, I was ignorant of Eastern spiritual and religious teachings.
Growing up in Chicago, I had become familiar with Judaism’s core teachings:
“ Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is One”; and
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
~ Deuteronomy 6:4-5
However, I had no idea of their supremely profound sacred significance.
But my midlife spiritual awakening experiences triggered an unprecedented interest in spiritual subjects. Initially – sparked by inner experiences and amazing synchronicities – I experienced great curiosity about Saint Francis of Assisi, and about Christian teachings which inspired him.
Later I began reading hagiographic stories about other Eastern and Western saints and sages. Gradually, I learned that – apart from Jesus and a few other world-famous paragons of Divine LOVE – the Divine devotional path has been followed by countless unknowns, especially in certain societies which for centuries have honored and emphasized devotional Love.
And gradually I became inspired by genuine “lovers of God” as exemplars of an important spiritual tradition, with which I had instinctively joined.
Lovers of God as “Heretics”
On discovering Rumi’s poetry, I learned that Muslim culture has long encompassed all aspects of love, culminating with Sufism’s mystical Self-realization as Divine LOVE as life’s ultimate goal. And, similarly, that Sufi philosophy has so honored eccentric lovers of God that it has specifically identified many of them as “masts” – persons so overwhelmed with love for God, that they appear externally disoriented.
Also, during my 1982 pilgrimage to India I learned that for millennia India has honored avadhutas, self-realized bhakti mystics living beyond usual egoic consciousness and worldly concerns, without adhering to accepted social standards. (See e.g. Advadhuta Gita, and Avadhuta – Wikipedia)
I indelibly remember seeing a peacefully smiling elderly man sitting stark naked on a rock in freezing temperatures midst ice and snow near the Himalayan headwaters of the holy Ganges river.
Like Sufi “masts” and Indian avadhutas, worldwide there have been countless unknowns societally honored as God intoxicated ‘holy fools’ with extraordinarily unconventional behaviors inconsistent with social norms.
Famous “Heretic” Prophets
Supremely eminent Greek philosopher Socrates, who taught the Delphic oracle’s fundamental transformative spiritual maxim “Know Thyself”, was considered an heretic and was sentenced to death after being unjustly tried and convicted for allegedly corrupting the youth of Athens. He was an archetypal wise ‘fool’ whose distinctive teaching method consisted in exposing foolishness of the world. For example, just before Socrates died of a coerced suicide, by drinking hemlock, he declared that fear of death was fear of the unknown.
In Western Christianity Paul the Apostle proclaimed that
“The wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.”
(1 Corinthians 3:19)
So, Christianity has at times rejected as foolishness “the wisdom of this world”. And it has endorsed the ‘Imitation of Jesus Christ’ – who preached “Love your neighbors” and even “your enemies”. And ‘heretically’ repudiated socially condoned hypocrisy, brutality, greed, and selfish desire for worldly power and gains; forgivingly endured crucifixion, mockery and humiliation from ignorant crowds; and even audaciously proclaimed the ultimately ‘forbidden mystical Truth’ – that “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).
In learning about Jesus’ “heretic” teachings – especially his Sermon on the Mount – I instinctively recognized him as an outspoken social justice reformer, and Truth telling political and religious nonconformist. And I intuitively honored him as a paragon of virtue, like prophets of other great religions, but not as God’s “only Son”.
I always conceived of “God” as ONE universally immanent nameless, formless, nonjudgmental Supreme Power. So I rejected any idea of a personal or judgmental God, and considered the Bible a collection of metaphoric legends – not as ‘the word of God’ who spoke only through special messengers.
And just as I always rejected Torah teachings about Jews as “chosen people”, I could never accept Christian dogma that Jesus was God’s “only Son” because he declared “I and the Father are one”.
Nor – like Gandhi – could I morally accept non-egalitarian Hindu scriptures justifying socially stratified caste systems, with some people deemed “untouchables”.
But I accepted that especially in historically dark and threatening eras of rampant world materialism, decadence, and violence, there have often appeared renowned sages or incarnate avatars to prophetically guide Humankind to societal and spiritual renaissance. And as religious nonconformists and social dissidents these famous reformers – like Jesus and Socrates – often were considered as “heretics”, and severely punished by contemporary worldly authorities.
‘Discovering’ Saint Francis of Assisi and Sri Ramakrishna as heretic “holy fools”.
Most famous Christian emulator of Jesus was Saint Francis of Assisi who in midlife – as an unconventional apostle of Love – renounced and relinquished all his worldly possessions and privileges as son of a wealthy merchant, to live reclusively in the Umbrian countryside; and later to establish an exemplary order of Franciscan Friars who gave away all possessions and survived only on alms while preaching in the streets to common people. Francis so completely identified with Jesus that, near the end of his earthly life, he became the first saint in history to miraculously receive crucifixion stigmata.
St. Francis of Assisi
Perhaps the best known Indian saint of the nineteenth century was Indian Holy Man Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa – an extraordinarily charismatic and eccentric ascetic, sometimes compared to St. Francis of Assisi.
(See Sri Ramakrishna and St. Francis of Assisi, by Sister Devamata, 1935)
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa
February 18, 1836 – August 16, 1886
After my midlife spiritual awakening, I felt increasing egalitarian affinity and harmony with people living unconventionally ‘from inside out’, rather than with outer-directed worldly and conventional people.
And in learning about many famous saints and mystics, I felt most affinity with Saint Francis of Assisi and Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa.
Both of them were extraordinarily charismatic ascetics, having relinquished and renounced all worldly pleasures and privileges, to live in utter simplicity. Both were remarkably unconventional and seemingly “God intoxicated” exemplars of Divine Love and devotional faith – blessed with the ‘gift of tears’ and of spontaneously praying, singing, conversing and calling to the Divine, which as egalitarians they beheld everywhere and in every being. Both saints eschewed punditry and were simple, unschooled and unscholarly, yet with vast innate wisdom imparted conversationally and recorded by others.
Both historically helped to reform world religions by charismatically living their teachings. And both were so eccentrically unconventional that they were even considered insane by some worldly people, including a few friends and relatives.
Perhaps I found exceptional rapport with both St. Francis and Ramakrishna because my own private devotional tendencies and unconventional behaviors seemed similar to theirs, and especially because of inner and synchronistic experiences, including amazing and unforgettable déjà vu of their still palpable divine energies (shakti) during pilgrimages to India and Assisi.
Later, I learned that that renowned mystical poet-masters Hafiz and Rumi, were Supreme exemplars of the Sufi-Persian path of love. But that even in their societies which honored Love, they were considered by Moslem authorities to be “heretics” or “holy fools” because – like Jesus – they realized and truthfully proclaimed their mystical self-identity as Divine LOVE – a fundamentally forbidden heresy to ruling mullahs. Thus, though Hafiz was not executed, his remains could not be entombed in a Moslem cemetery in his beloved birthplace and cultured home city, Shiraz, Iran.
LOVE as the unseen Source of the worlds we see
Following the midlife spiritual rebirth and awakening, I’ve gradually discovered that LOVE is all that is, was, or will be; that LOVE is our true SELF-identity, and the unseen timeless Source of all worlds we see.
So I’ve realized that all God’s “holy fools” bless this world as living LOVE. And that their eccentricities and ‘heresies’ can help reveal that societal sanity requires radical reform of orthodox worldly rules and beliefs.
Dedication and Invocation – Love for all, Hatred for none!
This memoirs chapter is deeply dedicated to inspiring a critical mass of humanity increasingly to honor each other and all life as ONE LOVE – beyond the endless ego-mind illusion of a space/time duality universe
And let us ever remember that we are the unseen Source of all worlds we see!
So let us love GOD with all our heart and soul and with all our might.
And with firm faith, may our guiding motto ever be
‘Love for all, Hatred for none!’
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
John Lennon at 80: One Man Against the Deep State ‘Monster’ ~ By John W. Whitehead
“You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one”
~ John Lennon, “Imagine”
“A man of humble origin, [John Lennon] brought light and hope to the whole world with his words and music. He tried to be a good power for the world, and he was. He gave encouragement, inspiration and dreams to people regardless of their race, creed and gender.”
~ Yoko Ono
Ron Rattner’s Introduction to “John Lennon at 80”.
My last SillySutras posting honored departed hero John Lennon on his October 9, 2020, eightieth birthday anniversary. It featured a poetic essay and two embedded live video performances of Lennon singing “Imagine”, shortly before he died at age forty.
The posting’s introduction stated that John Lennon artistically bequeathed to us music and songs that continue to inspire countless people worldwide, like his legendary “Imagine”. (See Envisioning a Better World ~ With Imagination and Faith)
It also mentioned, but didn’t explain, that – like Dr. King and Malcolm X – Lennon was martyred at age forty at the pinnacle of his powers.
Today’s posting helps explain why John Lennon was murdered but is still remembered and honored as a politically influential peace advocate. It is especially shared for those who are inspired by Lennon’s music, but who haven’t yet learned or don’t remember that he was murdered as a nonviolent crusader for peace and social justice, and for relentlessly opposing US empire foreign policies – such as the notoriously immoral false-flag war in Viet Nam.
Like Mahatma Gandhi, Lennon’s life (as well as his music) was his message. Especially in these extraordinarily turbulent times, when millions of people (and other lifeforms) are being killed, harmed or threatened by unconscionably immoral acts of violence, it seems crucial that humankind at long last learn from departed heroes like Jesus, Gandhi, Dr. King and John Lennon to live inner-directed loving lives dedicated to revealing spiritual truth as well as to pursuing political and social justice.
So I’m hereafter sharing with you an excellent article by skilled and erudite Constitutional Law attorney and author John W. Whitehead explaining why Lennon’s life remains legendary long since he was murdered after becoming “enemy number one — of the U.S. government”.
In concluding his article, Whitehead observes that:
“For those of us who joined with John Lennon to imagine a world of peace,
it’s getting harder to reconcile that dream with the reality of the American police state.”
I respectfully concur with Whitehead’s characterization of “the American police state” based on his skilled legal perspectives, and I appreciate his historic analyses. However, I will conclude this posting with an optimistic spiritual perspective, which is harmonious with John Lennon’s imagination that with Truth and LOVE “the world will live as one”.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
John Lennon at 80: One Man Against the Deep State ‘Monster’
~ By John W. Whitehead
“You gotta remember, establishment, it’s just a name for evil.
The monster doesn’t care whether it kills all the students or whether there’s a revolution. It’s not thinking logically, it’s out of control.”
~ John Lennon (1969)
John Lennon, born 80 years ago on October 9, 1940, was a musical genius and pop cultural icon.
He was also a vocal peace protester and anti-war activist, and a high-profile example of the lengths to which the Deep State will go to persecute those who dare to challenge its authority.
Long before Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning were being castigated for blowing the whistle on the government’s war crimes and the National Security Agency’s abuse of its surveillance powers, it was Lennon who was being singled out for daring to speak truth to power about the government’s warmongering, his phone calls monitored and data files illegally collected on his activities and associations.
For a while, at least, Lennon became enemy number one in the eyes of the U.S. government.
Years after Lennon’s assassination it would be revealed that the FBI had collected 281 pages of files on him, including song lyrics. J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI at the time, directed the agency to spy on the musician. There were also various written orders calling on government agents to frame Lennon for a drug bust. “The FBI’s files on Lennon read like the writings of a paranoid goody-twoshoes”, observed reporter Jonathan Curiel.
As the New York Times notes, “Critics of today’s domestic surveillance object largely on privacy grounds. They have focused far less on how easily government surveillance can become an instrument for the people in power to try to hold on to power. ‘The U.S. vs.John Lennon’ … is the story not only of one man being harassed, but of a democracy being undermined.”
Indeed, all of the many complaints we have about government today—surveillance, militarism, corruption, harassment, SWAT team raids, political persecution, spying, over criminalization, etc.—were present in Lennon’s day and formed the basis of his call for social justice, peace and a populist revolution.
For all of these reasons, the U.S. government was obsessed with Lennon, who had learned early on that rock music could serve a political end by proclaiming a radical message. More importantly, Lennon saw that his music could mobilize the public and help to bring about change. Lennon believed in the power of the people. Unfortunately, as Lennon recognized: “The trouble with government as it is, is that it doesn’t represent the people. It controls them.”
However, as Martin Lewis writing for Time notes: “John Lennon was not God. But he earned the love and admiration of his generation by creating a huge body of work that inspired and led. The appreciation for him deepened because he then instinctively decided to use his celebrity as a bully pulpit for causes greater than his own enrichment or self-aggrandizement.”
For instance, in December 1971 at a concert in Ann Arbor, Mich., Lennon took to the stage and in his usual confrontational style belted out “John Sinclair,” a song he had written about a man sentenced to 10 years in prison for possessing two marijuana cigarettes. Within days of Lennon’s call for action, the Michigan Supreme Court ordered Sinclair released.
What Lennon did not know at the time was that government officials had been keeping strict tabs on the ex-Beatle they referred to as “Mr. Lennon.” Incredibly, FBI agents were in the audience at the Ann Arbor concert, “taking notes on everything from the attendance (15,000) to the artistic merits of his new song.”
The U.S. government, steeped in paranoia, was spying on Lennon.
By March 1971, when his “Power to the People” single was released, it was clear where Lennon stood. Having moved to New York City that same year, Lennon was ready to participate in political activism against the U. S. government, the “monster” that was financing the war in Vietnam.
The release of Lennon’s Sometime in New York City album, which contained a radical anti-government message in virtually every song and depicted President Richard Nixon and Chinese Chairman Mao Tse-tung dancing together nude on the cover, only fanned the flames of the conflict to come.
The official U.S. war against Lennon began in earnest in 1972 after rumors surfaced that Lennon planned to embark on a U.S. concert tour that would combine rock music with antiwar organizing and voter registration. Nixon, fearing Lennon’s influence on about 11 million new voters (1972 was the first year that 18-year-olds could vote), had the ex-Beatle served with deportation orders “in an effort to silence him as a voice of the peace movement.”
Then again, the FBI has had a long history of persecuting, prosecuting and generally harassing activists, politicians, and cultural figures. Most notably among the latter are such celebrated names as folk singer Pete Seeger, painter Pablo Picasso, comic actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin, comedian Lenny Bruce and poet Allen Ginsberg.
Among those most closely watched by the FBI was Martin Luther King Jr., a man labeled by the FBI as “the most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country.” With wiretaps and electronic bugs planted in his home and office, King was kept under constant surveillance by the FBI with the aim of “neutralizing” him. He even received letters written by FBI agents suggesting that he either commit suicide or the details of his private life would be revealed to the public. The FBI kept up its pursuit of King until he was felled by a hollow-point bullet to the head in 1968.
While Lennon was not —as far as we know— being blackmailed into suicide, he was the subject of a four-year campaign of surveillance and harassment by the U.S. government (spearheaded by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover), an attempt by President Richard Nixon to have him “neutralized” and deported. As Adam Cohen of the New York Times points out, “The F.B.I.’s surveillance of Lennon is a reminder of how easily domestic spying can become unmoored from any legitimate law enforcement purpose. What is more surprising, and ultimately more unsettling, is the degree to which the surveillance turns out to have been intertwined with electoral politics.”
As Lennon’s FBI file shows, memos and reports about the FBI’s surveillance of the anti-war activist had been flying back and forth between Hoover, the Nixon White House, various senators, the FBI and the U.S. Immigration Office.
Nixon’s pursuit of Lennon was relentless and in large part based on the misperception that Lennon and his comrades were planning to disrupt the 1972 Republican National Convention. The government’s paranoia, however, was misplaced.
Left-wing activists who were on government watch lists and who shared an interest in bringing down the Nixon Administration had been congregating at Lennon’s New York apartment. But when they revealed that they were planning to cause a riot, Lennon balked.
As he recounted in a 1980 interview, “We said, we ain’t buying this. We’re not going to draw children into a situation to create violence so you can overthrow what? And replace it with what? . . . It was all based on this illusion, that you can create violence and overthrow what is, and get communism or get some right-wing lunatic or a left-wing lunatic. They’re all lunatics.”
Despite the fact that Lennon was not part of the “lunatic” plot, the government persisted in its efforts to have him deported. Equally determined to resist, Lennon dug in and fought back. Every time he was ordered out of the country, his lawyers delayed the process by filing an appeal. Finally, in 1976, Lennon won the battle to stay in the country when he was granted a green card. As he said afterwards,
“I have a love for this country…. This is where the action is. I think we’ll just go home, open a tea bag, and look at each other.”
“I have a love for this country…. This is where the action is. I think we’ll just go home, open a tea bag, and look at each other.”
Lennon’s time of repose didn’t last long, however. By 1980, he had re-emerged with a new album and plans to become politically active again.
The old radical was back and ready to cause trouble. In his final interview on Dec. 8, 1980, Lennon mused, “The whole map’s changed and we’re going into an unknown future, but we’re still all here, and while there’s life there’s hope.”
The Deep State has a way of dealing with troublemakers, unfortunately. On Dec. 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman was waiting in the shadows when Lennon returned to his New York apartment building. As Lennon stepped outside the car to greet the fans congregating outside, Chapman, in an eerie echo of the FBI’s moniker for Lennon, called out, “Mr. Lennon!”
Lennon turned and was met with a barrage of gunfire as Chapman—dropping into a two-handed combat stance—emptied his .38-caliber pistol and pumped four hollow-point bullets into his back and left arm. Lennon stumbled, staggered forward and, with blood pouring from his mouth and chest, collapsed to the ground.
John Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. He had finally been “neutralized.”
Yet where those who neutralized the likes of John Lennon, Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy and others go wrong is in believing that you can murder a movement with a bullet and a madman.
Thankfully, Lennon’s legacy lives on in his words, his music and his efforts to speak truth to power. As Yoko Ono shared in a 2014 letter to the parole board tasked with determining whether Chapman should be released:
“A man of humble origin, [John Lennon] brought light and hope to the whole world with his words and music. He tried to be a good power for the world, and he was. He gave encouragement, inspiration and dreams to people regardless of their race, creed and gender.”
Sadly, not much has changed for the better in the world since Lennon walked among us.
Peace remains out of reach. Activism and whistle blowers continue to be prosecuted for challenging the government’s authority. Militarism is on the rise, with local police dressed like the military, all the while the governmental war machine continues to wreak havoc on innocent lives across the globe.
For those of us who joined with John Lennon to imagine a world of peace, it’s getting harder to reconcile that dream with the reality of
the American police state.
Meanwhile, as I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, those who dare to speak up are labeled dissidents, troublemakers, terrorists, lunatics, or mentally ill and tagged for surveillance, censorship, involuntary detention or, worse, even shot and killed in their own homes by militarized police.
As Lennon shared in a 1968 interview:
“I think all our society is run by insane people for insane objectives… I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal means. If anybody can put on paper what our government and the American government and the Russian… Chinese… what they are actually trying to do, and what they think they’re doing, I’d be very pleased to know what they think they’re doing. I think they’re all insane. But I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.”
So what’s the answer?
Lennon had a multitude of suggestions.
“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.”
“War is over if you want it.”
“Produce your own dream…. It’s quite possible to do anything, but not to put it on the leaders…. You have to do it yourself.
That’s what the great masters and mistresses have been saying ever since time began. They can point the way, leave signposts and little instructions in various books that are now called holy and worshiped for the cover of the book and not for what it says, but the instructions are all there for all to see, have always been and always will be. There’s nothing new under the sun. All the roads lead to Rome. And people cannot provide it for you. I can’t wake you up. You can wake you up. I can’t cure you. You can cure you.”
“Peace is not something you wish for; It’s something you make, something you do, something you are, And something you give away.”
“If you want peace, you won’t get it with violence.”
And my favorite advice of all:
“Say you want a revolution
We better get on right away
Well you get on your feet
And out on the street
Singing power to the people”
* Source:
This article was originally published by The Rutherford Institute. Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People! is available at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be contacted at [email protected].Copyright © John W. Whitehead, Global Research, 2020
Ron Rattner’s Concluding Comments about “John Lennon at 80”.
John Lennon was a charismatic and inspiring populist leader and peace advocate, who presciently envisioned a peaceful planet fulfilling our common needs and deepest desires for a radically new era when our “world will live as ONE.”
But since John Lennon’s death forty years ago, the Deep State satanic forces which he relentlessly opposed still persist. The world remains afflicted with insane and immoral wars, militarism, and violence. The US police state continues its unjust persecution of dissenting truth tellers, whistle blowers and peace proponents, while turning a blind eye to those responsible for dastardly crimes against humanity and Nature. Ubiquitous US economic inequality is more extreme than ever before, unjustly favoring the super-rich 1% at the expense of almost everyone else.
Thus, the US government has become an autocratic and exploitive “police state”, with much more hypocrisy than democracy, especially as its post–WWII imperial hegemony is being challenged (and imminently ended) by China and other non-allied competitive nations.
Thus author John W. Whitehead observes in his above article:
“Sadly, not much has changed for the better in the world since Lennon walked among us.” “For those of us who joined with John Lennon to imagine a world of peace, it’s getting harder to reconcile that dream with the reality of the American police state.”
Moreover Whitehead, who is a skilled and erudite constitutional law expert, has repeatedly an persuasively identified the US an authoritarian “police state” in his previously published articles and books.
For example Whitehead has metaphorically compared the Roman dominated land of Jesus’ birth with the present American nation as a “police state”, in Jesus Was Born in a Police State. And in The Slippery Slope to Despotism: Paved with Lockdowns, Raids and Forced Vaccinations he explains how the pretense of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic emergency has allowed the US and other governments to unconstitutionally and unlawfully oppress their constituents with “power grabs” possibly leading “to outright despotism”
As a still dedicated former social justice attorney, I concur with Mr. Whitehead’s description of the US government as an “American police state”.
However, as a spiritual author and philosopher, I respectfully wish offer this foreseeable alternative outcome of unjust worldwide coronavirus “emergency” edicts:
That, rather than leading us to global dystopian “despotism”, they will awaken humankind to awareness of our God-given powers and inherent rights, resulting in our nonviolently resisting and successfully overcoming psychopathic Deep State despotism, so that (at long last) “the world will live as one”.
In my view, we are inevitably destined to experience an urgently needed ‘tipping point’ in which a critical mass of awakened humanity will transcend parasitically divisive anger, anxiety, and fear to adamantly resist evil edicts with Truth and Love. Thereby we will begin to co-create a much more compassionate world, with bottom-up societies serving people and planet over profits, as envisioned by John Lennon.
This perspective is inspired by inner and outer experiences and observation, and by great social justice reformers like Lennon, and by Mahatma Gandhi who reminds us that:
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.
There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible,
but in the end they always fall—think of it. Always.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
Discovering and Escaping
an Illusory Matrix “Reality”
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“This world is wrought with naught but thought.
Mind is matrix; consciousness is context.”
“Everything we think, do or say changes this world in some way.”
“Love-thoughts bless the world, but fear-thoughts afflict it.”
~ Ron Rattner – Sutra Saysings
“Reality isn’t real.”
“Reality is a holographic theater of the mind.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.
There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible,
but in the end they always fall — think of it. Always.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
”This earth is nothing but movies to me. Just like the beam of a motion picture.
So is everything made of shadow and light. That’s what we are. Light and shadows of the Lord.
Nothing else than that. There’s one purpose. To get to the beam.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
Introduction
After my midlife spiritual awakening I gradually recognized that space/time “reality” is an ego-mind illusion; a thought-created dream-like mirage, from which we can awaken. But as an ardent social justice legal advocate I’ve always been concerned that our world is dominated by psychopathic “leaders” with immense financial, corporate and political power who without conscience or remorse promote their delusionally perceived selfish interests. [See Is the world being ruled and ruined by psychopaths? ]
So I’ve long wondered why the majority of humanity until now have followed and allowed insane and harmful orders and edicts by such “leaders’”. And why our world is thus steadily becoming more and more dystopian and Orwellian.
This memoirs essay-story tells how, only after confinement by recent worldwide Covid 19 lockdown edicts, I synchronistically discovered compelling evidence answering my questions: amazing evidence that our societies and “leaders” are probably afflicted and dominated by subhuman malignant energies or entities which parasitically polarize, divide and exploit humankind, by provoking anger, anxiety, and fear.
Yet it also tells how and why our coronavirus suffering can become a disguised blessing awakening Humanity to triumph democratically over the fearful illusion of unavoidable confinement in a totalitarian and ‘evil’ dystopian world. How we can soon nonviolently escape this mental-matrix confinement, when an awakened “tipping point” critical mass of concerned humans transcend parasitically divisive anger, anxiety, and fear to adamantly resist evil edicts with Truth and Love.
Our “Love-thoughts bless the world, but our fear-thoughts afflict it.”
Thus, President Franklin D Roosevelt presciently told deep truth upon proclaiming almost 88 years ago that:
“The only thing we have to fear is…fear itself —
nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror
which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
~ Franklin D Roosevelt, first Presidential inaugural address
So to join the critical mass of awakened humans which will inevitably end our descent into dystopia, please read and carefully consider the following essay/story.
Background summary
Following my midlife spiritual awakening, I radically revised concepts of self-identity and reality – from being a separate physical mortal, to universal eternal awareness emanating from infinite potentiality. So, for decades I’ve recognized that space/time “reality” isn’t really real, but a thought-created dream-like mirage or holographic/fractal theater of the ego-mind. These insights came mainly from inner experiences, synchronicities, and ancient Eastern teachings, rather than from contemporary media sources.
Upon reclusively living alone after my midlife awakening and traumatic 1977 divorce, I had no computer, no longer watched movies or TV dramas, and only read about spiritual subjects. So I never saw or read about science fiction films like “The Matrix”.
Thus, I didn’t suspect until watching the Matrix movie only a few years ago that metaphorically we’re probably living in a pre-programmed digital matrix. Since then my long-time concerns about psychopathic world “leaders” have synchronistically led to recent discovery that we suffer much earthly immorality and injustice because (as portrayed in the Matrix movie) our illusory mental-matrix is like a metaphoric mental prison, subliminally programmed by unseen parasitic astral energies or entities which dominate, control and feed upon humankind through such “leaders” and sub-human technocratic and psychopathic cultists.
But after I was recently locked down by irrationally harmful worldwide Covid 19 pandemic edicts, I synchronistically discovered numerous authorities supporting the existence of such sub-human astral entities or energies which cause collective subliminal psychoses and afflict many sociopathic, psychopathic and autocratic societal ‘leaders’, transhumanists, technocrats, and bureaucrats who are causing critical and catastrophic world problems.
I’ll hereafter detail reasons for the foregoing conclusions.
Questioning how and why sociopaths or psychopaths can dominate humanity
For many years I’ve felt deep concerns about how insane “leaders” lacking normal human conscience are causing immense worldwide problems and catastrophes. [See Is the world being ruled and ruined by psychopaths? ] Because of such longtime concerns I once wrote a personal letter to the Dalai Lama asking:
“How can concerned citizens become actively engaged in helping our global family transcend critical societal problems fomented by psychopathic leaders lacking normal capacity for compassion and loving-kindness?
His Holiness didn’t answer my letter. So, I assumed that he’d advocate active engagement with love and compassion to safeguard our global family. [See e.g. 2020 Earth Day Message: Compassionate People In An Orwellian World ]
But I’ve curiously continued seeking explanations for societal problems attributable to people in positions of authority who without conscience, empathy or remorse, promote their delusional perceived self interests, amorally and often criminally and violently. [See e.g. The Psychopath/ The Mask of Sanity and The Mask of Sanity by Hervey Cleckley]
And I’ve long wondered why the majority of humanity until now have followed and allowed insane and harmful orders and edicts by such “leaders’”. And why our world is thus steadily becoming more and more dystopian and Orwellian.
Are we living in an illusory computer-generated metaphoric matrix ‘reality’?
For decades I’ve been convinced by inner experience and Eastern wisdom, that our space/time “reality” is a dream-like ego-mind illusion. But only recently did I explore the idea that the Earth and the physical universe we live in might be part of a virtual computer simulation.
Only about four years ago I began exploring the idea that the Earth and the apparently physical universe we live in, might actually be part of a metaphoric computer simulation, even though I’d long been convinced by inner experience and Eastern wisdom, that our space/time “reality” is a dream-like ego-mind illusion.
After learning of billionaire engineer/entrepreneur Elon Musk’s publicly professed belief that the world we know is just a very sophisticated computer simulation, I began thoroughly investigating that idea, already widely known as The Simulation Hypothesis. (Because this non-materialistic theory parallels mystic ideas about our ever impermanent space/time ‘reality”, I’ve called it: “Samsara 3.0”.)
On researching, I soon learned that the theory our virtual “reality” is in fact like a computer-generated digital simulation, has been proposed in science fiction stories, TV and movies for over fifty years. And that many mainstream scientists have now begun seriously entertaining – with some accepting – that what we deem “reality” is in fact like a computer-generated digital simulation.
So, for the first time, I mindfully watched the 1999 science fiction film The Matrix, which depicts a world in which artificially intelligent non-human parasitic entities have enslaved humanity within a simulated reality set in the present world. Later, I learned about and viewed a similarly themed earlier film They Live (1988). Also I heard about and viewed an apt Star Trek video about confronting hostile Archon aliens, and The Truman Show (1999) about subliminal TV ‘reality’ programming.
After watching the films I began researching writings about the legendary mental parasites to which they allude. And synchronistically I found many surprisingly credible and consistent sources (some ancient) confirming supposed existence of such parasitic entities or energies, which prevent human freedom and evolution to spiritual realms. (For convenience I’ll refer to these mental parasites as “archons”, a term used in the Gnostic traditions.)
What are archons, and how do they endanger humankind?
My research has revealed that various enduring spiritual and shamanistic traditions (like Gnosticism, Native American and Hawaiian Kahuna) have traditionally recognized and rejected (as demonic) sub-human parasitic forces, energies or entities devoid of conscience, compassion and empathy.
These forces are attracted to greedy, deceptive, cruel or controlling people and societies already emitting low thought-forms, which they infect or “possess” as vulnerable victims. Whereupon the archons exacerbate and provoke anger, controversy, panic and fear to further polarize, divide and control their human prey.
After some individual and collective victims are possessed or infected, their conscience gradually ceases to function, their spiritual light and life force dims, and they become unknowing and subconscious instruments of demonic darkness.
How archons pre-plan what happens to humans in a metaphoric Matrix.
Only after the March 11, 2020 World Health Organization’s (WHO) irrational declaration of a purported coronavirus pandemic, which was soon followed by extraordinary and unnecessary edicts against normal human activities, and threats of compulsory vaccinations, did I begin to discover overwhelmingly credible evidence that this pandemic had long been preplanned by demonic dark forces. And that the pandemic is insidiously intended as the pretense for a world-changing “new 9/11” era of unprecedented evil domination and control of humanity. (See e,g. COVID-911: From Homeland Security to Biosecurity )
In carefully analyzing incontrovertible factual and circumstantial evidence it became obvious to me that people like billionaire technocrat and eugenicist Bill Gates, with no health or medical expertise, have long-intended to control and depopulate humanity by illegally, unjustifiably and forcibly vaccinating everyone everywhere against fraudulently alleged massive health dangers of Covid-19, with an unnecessary, unnatural and toxic pathogen unquestionably created by humans in bio-weapons laboratories. So I’ve irreversibly concluded, as an expert legal evidence analyst, that the purported WHO pandemic is an evil “plandemic” pretense to intimidate and subjugate humanity.
Moreover, massive evidence already suggests that the pre-planned Covid-19 vaccinations are an immoral subterfuge intended to modify humans’ genes and brains to transform them into robotic trans-human artificial intelligence (AI) cyborgs. Apart from so-called world vaccination and depopulation authority Bill Gates, other influential people like Elon Musk and Ray Kurzweil, a top Google executive, are openly advocating and investing in transhumanist technologies for merging humans with AI, to become ‘Humans 2.0’.
Rudolf Steiner’s predictions and warnings about “spirits of darkness”.
Apart from aforementioned compellingly probative evidence, I recently discovered the following amazingly prescient statements made over 100 years ago by Western sage Rudolf Steiner in public talks about “spirits of darkness”:
“I have told you that the spirits of darkness are going to inspire their human hosts, in whom they will be dwelling, to find a vaccine that will drive all inclination toward spirituality out of people’s souls when they are still very young, and this will happen in a roundabout way through the living body.”
“The spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found. The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present.”
“There are beings in the spiritual realms for whom anxiety and fear emanating from human beings offer welcome food. When humans have no anxiety and fear, then these creatures starve… If fear and anxiety radiates from people and they break out in panic, then these creatures find welcome nutrition and they become more and more powerful. These beings are hostile towards humanity.
C. G. Jung’s recognition of humanity’s ‘shadow side’ demons
Throughout much of Dr. Carl Gustav Jung’s distinguished 20th century career as an eminent and acclaimed psychotherapist he recognized and analyzed the unconscious shadow side of humanity. At various times Dr. Jung referred psychologically to the above-described demonic forces which have been known to humanity, individually and collectively, since antiquity.
Here are only a few of Dr. Jung’s apt quotes, made at different times:
“The psychic conditions which breed demons are as actively at work as ever. The demons have not really disappeared but have merely taken on another form: they have become unconscious psychic forces.”
“Possession, though old-fashioned, has by no means become obsolete; only the name has changed. Formerly they spoke of ‘evil spirits,’ now we call them ‘neurosis’ or ‘unconscious complexes.'”
“If, for a moment, we look at mankind as one individual, we see that it is like a man carried away by unconscious powers.”
“When a situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate.”
How humanity can escape our illusory psychic shackles
As suggested by Dr. Jung, humanity can escape dark side demonic afflictions, by consciously recognizing and resisting them.
In The Matrix film a skilled hacker named “Neo“, feels something is wrong with the world and is puzzled by repeated online encounters with the phrase “the Matrix”.
After voluntarily ingesting a revelatory “red pill” offered by wise man Morpheus, Neo awakens to discover that his entire world is an artificial universe created by computers which have imprisoned humans who believe it to be real; that, with countless other deluded souls, he’s existed like a ‘living-battery’ whose body has been energetically charging a computer simulation/dream in a digitally pre-programmed virtual or simulated world – the Matrix. He is thereby drawn into a rebellion against the parasitic captors, along with Morpheus and a few other righteous people who have been freed from the Matrix.
Although there is much truth in the “red pill” Matrix metaphor, our resistance to demonic forces does not require any violent rebellion by a few consciously aware and righteous people, led by a single saviour – the ONE. But it does require collective awareness of our psychologically subliminal and repressed shadow side afflictions by a critical mass “tipping point” of concerned humans.
Our immoral shadow side tendencies, or evil astral entities and energies, are parasitically nurtured and exist only through our negative thoughts and emotions. Hence, by elevating our vibratory fields with consciously compassionate and loving thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, we can transcend the demonic mental Matrix which can’t subsist without negative human energies to feed on.
But bringing the shadow side into consciousness is not as easy as simply ingesting a “red pill’. It will require a dedicated and arduous effort to discover and transcend long-repressed and subliminally inculcated false ideas about our “reality” and “self-identity”.
Since each person is unique there is no collective answer to how we can discover truth about our shadow side challenges. However if we decide to see and be the truth that sets us free, we definitely can succeed in elevating our energies so that they no longer sustain parasitic forces of darkness. No violent rebellion is required, only non-judgmental and nonviolent resistance to dark energies, with our light of inner awareness which illuminates current unconscious darkness.
And we don’t have to become “enlightened” Buddhas to succeed. We can soon escape these illusory psychic shackles, even while we’re still subject to space/time karmic causality. So we can collectively create a democratic and nonviolent “new reality” rather than permit an unprecedented evil era of demonic control over humankind.
By observing and elevating our negative emanations humans can evolve to co-create a compassionately just and benevolent new space/time “reality”
Cosmically our apparent space/time duality/reality is merely vibrating energy, emanating from humans, individually and collectively. And only at elevated heart levels of consciousness, beyond the fearful levels which originated them, can we solve our earthly problems..
As Albert Einstein ingeniously observed:
“What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter.”
“Space and time are not conditions in which we live, they are modes in which we think”
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
Thus, we Humans ‘create’ our illusory space/time polarity reality, and its fearful problems, with only our thoughts, behaviors and emotions.
Our fearful thoughts “create” a negative vibratory reality which nurtures parasitic archon forces that afflict us, while our loving thoughts bless us and create a positive vibratory reality which is inaccessible to such psychic vampires.
So by focusing upon and emanating positive energies we can be freed from demonic mental parasites. However, until we become collectively conscious of our subliminal negative thoughts and behaviors, we may be unable to end them.
The coronavirus emergency can be a disguised blessing, awakening Humanity to our deepest caring instincts.
Humanity is a “social species” which has survived and thrived mostly communally and interdependently. And the demonically pre-planned “new normal” coronavirus pandemic crisis of worldwide anxiety, fear and panic is a once-in-a-lifetime ‘fork-in—the-road’ opportunity for humankind to co-create a new and wonderful world of happiness, harmony and health for everyone everywhere, rather than degenerate into a locked-down dystopian/Orwellian “Big Brother” era of unprecedented human control and enslavement by a few psychopaths.
While prevented from pursuing normal activities, billions of people worldwide are observing and adamantly rejecting irrational and unwarranted edicts, fears and ‘lock-downs’, which cause enormous needless suffering. Thus we are remembering and realizing the crucial importance of compassionately caring for one-another. And we are recognizing and rejecting the utter insanity of a tiny few of our autocratic “leaders”, who until now have been allowed to thwart expression and satisfaction of humankind’s primordial need for happiness as Love.
Our unwavering determination to resist undemocratic domination, and to replace such “leaders”, with democratic societies serving people and planet over profits, has been recently reflected by spontaneous worldwide citizen protests of the undemocratic and fraudulent Covid-19 restrictions. Speaking to over a million citizen protestors in Berlin, Germany, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr eloquently articulated our collective resistance by declaring:
“We are not going to let you take our democracy away.
We are not going to let you take our health away.
We are not going to let you take our freedoms away.
We are not going to let you take our children away.”
~ Robert F. Kennedy, Jr – Berlin, 8/30/20
Thus, our coronavirus suffering is becoming a disguised blessing awakening Humanity to triumph democratically over the fearful illusion of an ‘evil’ totalitarian prison.
So awakened, and determined to evolve beyond immoral official fetters, may we nonviolently prevail with timeless Truth and Love.
Invocation
Awakened to our innate infinite powers of Truth and Love, may we be inspired by words of Mahatma Gandhi to remember that despite our lives’ inevitable ‘ups and downs’ our ultimate success is divinely destined. Gandhiji said:
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.
There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible,
but in the end they always fall — think of it. Always.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
So with supreme faith in our ultimate triumph as Truth and Love,
let us optimistically and unrelentingly resist
all evil autocracies and psychopathic hierarchies,
ever remembering that our destiny is Divinity.
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
