CULTURAL ENGINEERING ????

CULTURAL ENGINEERING ????

"Our culture's response to most of it's problems is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." M. Bear

Welcome to my ranting and raving section. This is where I let myself go and those who read on do so at their own risk. As of December, 2006 I will start dating my entries so if you revisit the site you can have some idea of what is new and old material.

Thanks for your interest in what is probably the most under rated and most essential process that mankind is presently engaged in.

It is literally impossible to say in words how important it is that we revisit the foundation stones of our culture and rearrange them. We are so deeply engaged in this cultural process that we can not even find these foundation stones. There are so many imbalances in our culture and we have so much fear about changing anything that we are being eaten alive by the system and our inaction.

When I grew up in the 50's and early 60's if you talked with people about how messed up thing are and how out of balance evey thing is you would not get much agreement. But today if you have that conversation with almost anyone you talk to they will agree with you. It is common knowledge that we are fouling the nest that we live in.

We know that we are screwing up but we just keep peddaling along in our little squirrel cages pretending that it is all OK.

Yes dear reader you are probably sitting there reading this and nodding your head in agreement.

But Bwana, I recycle my Coke bottles. Sure thing cowboy, a little bit of recycling is supposed to cover all your sins for the massive waste and distruction of this society.

If you really want to make a difference with your life all you have to do is adopt Peace Principle number three.

This is explained in the Sage Valley section and the deeded covenants section.

The two most important books for any cultural engineer these days are "Ishmael" and "Beyond Civilization" by Daniel Quinn. These two books are smallish, easy to read and will seriously alter your perception of our 'Mother Culture'. One of the reasons for the existence of Sage Valley is to create an "Ishmael Community".

As noted in the Sage Valley Deed Covenants I feel that the most important foundation stones for any culture are the Peace Principles as taught to the Native Americans by the Great Peacemaker.

1) Always Work for Peace

2) Always Work for Unity

3) Always Carry a Good Message

When these principles were brought to the people there was no such thing as land ownership. Over a period of time these principles were integrated into their culture and then handed down to the future generations. The principles were the backbone of their wheel of life which included their sacred connection with the earth.

In our culture we are totally disassociated from the earth. We have this idea that we can own a piece of this planet but this ownership process does not in any way facillitate a deep connection with our Earth Mother. It fosters the idea that we are superior to the Earth and can manipulate Her skin to satisfy any of our desires. She is here to support us but not the insane demands of our "civilization".

One of the jobs of a contemporary cultural engineer is to reestablish the bond between the people, these principles and the earth. As our culture has invented the idea of land ownership, putting the Peace Principles in the deeds to the land is one way to restart this ancient process of connection to the earth and positive connection to the people around us.

The Sage Valley Deed Covenants are the best example that I can articulate at this time as to how to jump start a viable culture from the chaos that surrounds us. I have been seriously pondering our cultural process since recieving a major 'culture shock' on my return from Africa in 1978. I have gathered a pile of information and I would be happy to share this information with interested parties.

There have been thousands of working cultures on this earth that are all being overrun by the western world. We have some serious work to do in order to create sustainable long term cultures on earth. Whatever these cultures look like may be completely different than any previous cultures. So lets get creative and start thinking outside of the box.

I would be more than happy to answer any questions or offer any assistance to anyone who is contemplating alternative cultural models. My email is bwanabill4@earthlink.net

and my cell phone is 775-374-1389.

I am presently reading the book "Falling Out of Grace"

by Sobonfu E. Some.

A few quotes from this book:

"A supportive community is as fundamental to the well-being of our spirit as a healthy mind or body. Our community is the place that welcomes and embraces us in the world. It demands of us care and commitment, and in exchange for this we receive a group of people who are there to praise us when we do well and help us when we falter. It is the space where we are validated, where we are seen and respected as who we are, instead of being admired or rejected according to the standards of a world of strangers. When we fall out of grace, the community makes our failure bearable.

Again and again we fall from grace, and then we heal with the support of those around us. As we live our lives, this is what creates and defines our community."

_________________

"There's a difference between being in a position of power and being in a position of responsibility. Elders in traditional communities do not take power; they take responsibility and empower others. This is one thing that helps maintain the grace of the community. When you go to a village you won't know who is an elder and who isn't, because people treat one another as equals. That is the basic ground rule."

___________________

"Still, no matter where we are from, the memory is built into each of us that there is a state of grace that can only happen in community with others."

___________________

"When a leader is on the path, she will carry with her all her pluses and minuses. In fact, part of the power she carries is in embracing all the places she has failed, all the mistakes she has made. From these mistakes she cooks healing and wisdom, and then she has something to offer her followers."

________________

"There is true spirituality in every religious tradition. They all boil down to the same essence. It is the clothes we dress them in that make them appear to be different.

Spirituality is the path of wisdom within every religion and way of life that leads a person to growth and enlightenment. It looks beyond the physical and material into the soul without judgement. Spirituality is the foundation of our search for meaning, our way of connecting in a sacred manner to everything."

I just watched the dvd movie "The End of Suburbia". It was another wake up call. Yes dear reader we are going to run out of gasoline, heating oil and natural gas. For the few people who want to get their heads out of the sand and take a real look at what is happening read on.

Otherwise don't waste your time.

I was left with a few what if's after the movie. What if every home in America was 1/2 the size with twice the insulation. What if there were NO passenger cars on the roads in America with engines over 1200cc or 1000cc? What if the earth was flat? We couldn't import all the junk from China cause the boats would fall into space trying to get around the corner from the bottom side to the top side,

So anyone who wants to have the least bit of comfort and security in the coming years should think about self sufficiency VERY SERIOUSLY. This means having a garden instead of a grassy lawn, a greenhouse, heirloom seeds, and the skills to use these things. You want to start putting insulating shutters in all of your windows and make every possible insulating improvement on the heat sink that you are living in. You will want to think about heating just one room in the coming years during the winter. How will you shut down the rest of your house to do this?

How can you use the year round 54 degree temperature of the earth to make your home more energy efficient?

One sign that people are starting to get the message will be when there are piles of abandoned TV sets waiting for the refuse trucks. You should get rid of them while the refuse trucks are still running. You really don't think it will come to this do you.

5 gallons of gas and a small tractor or tiller and you can eat like a king. How many gallons of gas do you presently use to get a burger of meat imported from Argentina? A few chickens, ducks, rabbits, pigs, goats. Yep that is the suburbia of the future. Get a wood stove so you can burn the pieces of the abandoned mini mansions in your cul de sack. Get your lawn plowed up and your chicken tractor running.

(neat things, do some research).

P.S. your brain is still telling you that something like this will never happen in your lifetime.

You can rant and rave all you want,

there just ain't enough oil to keep the great American wet dream alive.

It seems that I remember a line from a Dylan song:

"What ya goin to do when your armies out of gas?"

There are a multitude of positive things that individuals and groups of people can do to prepare for this rude awakening. Stocking guns and ammunition will not help at all.

I am not going to do all your thinking for you. Besides there are thousands of solutions and some of you will have bright ideas that are way beyond the scope of my three brain cells. Get your self in gear, open your eyes to reality and start to take steps towards self sufficiency for yourself and anyone who will listen to you.

Base whatever you do on the

Peace Principles

IT IS THE ONLY THING THAT WILL WORK!!!

I was asked to respond to some questions for an article on a web based information site. Here is the text of the questions and my response.

Bill,

Here is the introduction to the article I'm writing for solarpower.org.

Please correct me on any facts if needed.

-------

Bill Record is the founder and steward of a community in Nevada that plans

to be one of the first true, intentional, off-the-grid solar power

communities. The community is called the Sage Valley Community, and

currently includes 14 - 40 acre lots. There are adjacent lots that can be

included in the future, for a possible community of 50 or more homes.

Central to the community is the covenants, conditions, and restrictions

(CCR's). The CCR's cover more than the typical limitations of what kind

of roofing material you can put on your house. Bill Record has included a

philosophy for a relation to the earth and other people in the CCR's. The

Peace Principles from Traditional Societies are the foundation of the community:

1) Always Work for Peace.

2) Always Work for Unity.

3) Always Carry a Good Message.

In addition to these principles, the CCR's include discussion of the

"Heart Connection" between members of the community, the earth, and

spirit. The general idea is that openness to the web of movement,

thoughts, and actions between the members of the community and their

relation to the earth is critical to a well functioning and beneficial

community. Bill Record is trying to redefine the way society thinks of

its relation to the earth, and Sage Valley Community is the result of his

experience and thought towards that goal. Central to this thought is

embodied in the writings of Daniel Quinn, Paul Shepard, Sobonfu Some, Martin Prechtel and others . We asked Bill Record some questions about Sage Valley, and have posted the questions and answers below. [Note that neither Agatha Codrust, nor SolarPower.org have any connection to Sage Valley. We do not endorse Sage Valley. Do your own

research and consult with a lawyer before giving anybody money, especially

if the exposure was via the Internet.]

---------

Here are the questions I have for you. Some of these are thorny issues

that have bothered me, personally, and I would like to see how you answer

them, and, by extension, I believe these are the questions that my readers

would be interested in.

--------

Agatha,

Thanks for the juicy questions. I should start with a bit of my background philosophy so readers will have a sense of where I am coming from.

What are the two biggest drugs in America? Electricity and gasoline. We are all totally addicted to these substances and we will sell the future of all the coming generation down the drain to maintain our fix. Our culture has evolved to a place where everyone in this country has a very comfortable lifestyle based on cheap petroleum. Due to the lack of maturity, from a lack of connection to the Life Force of the Earth in our youth, most adults have an adolescent or even pre adolescent mind set. These adults have slowly over the last 5,000 years formed cultures whose values are those of pre adolescents. Every successive wave of young brains is brought up in a system that is more disconnected from Reality. This trend is accelerating as urbanization grows.

I also just saw the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore. This is essential viewing for anyone interested in the slightest connection with what is happening on Earth.

1) If everybody lived as you feel is best for the world, would the advanced technology needed for living in a small community off the grid in central Nevada even exist?

There is no one way for everyone to live that is best for the world. The more diverse cultures and ways of living there are, the more complete the human experience is.

The advanced technology for living in a small community off the grid anywhere in America was in place and functioning quite well until the year 1492. The concept that electricity, gasoline and the technology of the last 100 years is necessary to live a happy fulfilled life is a total misconception that leads us to think that this technology will save us when it is clear that our addiction to this stuff is only getting us deeper into trouble.

I have no idea what mix of technology and earth based living would be the answer for humanity. A culture-technology that can live on Earth and have every stream drinkable, with healthy oceans might be viable. The impending disaster from Global Warming may be a blessing in disguise as the effects of genetic altering, continued overpopulation, unabated pollution, over fishing etc. may be even more disastrous to the Living Earth. Do you really think that the corporate world can control genetic engineering?

2) How crucial do you think the army and police are to securing the land, property, and personal safety for your community? Do you see this changing over time as Sage Valley has more and more invested in independent power, agriculture, and water systems?

This is a difficult question. At the present time, the army and police systems are giving a certain amount of safety and security to the country. I think there is a quote from Gandhi to the effect: “A society who would give up their freedom for security deserves neither”. When we entered this earth plane in physical bodies, God did not give us any kind of insurance policy. There are many kinds of risks inherent in the process of incarnating on Earth. Our culture is obsessed with the idea that we can have cradle to grave comfort and security. There is no real learning in this attitude. The Mayan People and others have a philosophy that we give back to the Spirits our Death as a Thanksgiving for the privilege of having the Sacred opportunity to live on Earth. So the whole concept of safety and security needs to be thought about and put in the proper perspective.

Having just seen “An Inconvenient Truth”; my basic belief that humanity is headed for an absolute catastrophe has been reinforced. If the entire country seriously evaluates its cultural needs and engages in real long term planning we can take care of the Global Warming Issue. Reference the book “Collapse” by J. Diamond. I don’t have a lot of faith in the pre adolescent mind set that is running in most people’s brains, including my own, so I don’t know if we can accomplish a major cultural shift without enormous amounts of pain.

If we don’t get this global warming thing under control, one of the results will be major desertification and the survivors will benefit from knowing how to live by the Peace Principles in a high desert environment without any technology at all. If there is a major cultural catastrophe in the future then all thoughts of the government providing safety and security will be out the window. They will be foraging for food with everyone else. It depends on how quickly the catastrophe unfolds and how it effects the food supply.

3) Let's say that there was an opportunity early in your career to work with a group of engineers that focused on creating alternatives to petroleum-based power generation that created low emissions and waste, like fusion reactors. If you could go back in time and choose, now, between being part of that group and the path that you took, would you make a different choice?

The entire human race was that group of engineers for the last 50,000 or so years. They developed a myriad of cultures that were closely connected with the Earth and gave the peoples of those times rich, meaningful and successful lives.

I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT THERE IS A TECHNOLOGICAL FIX TO OUR ADDICTIONS TO WESTERN LIFESTYLES. DOES ANYONE OUT THERE HEAR ME?? THERE IS NO MAGIC BULLET.

Everyone I talk to wants to put on enough solar panels to keep their present pretty and petty live styles afloat. NOBODY wants to think of ways to use less electricity.

Everyone thinks that “They” are going to solve global warming without us empowering them to do so at the expense of some of our core values.

Intelligent use of our resources and population control is more important than finding another source. Real conservation of energy would go a long way. We want endless free energy. With a group of pre adolescent voters and pre adolescent candidates in a pre adolescent culture the only result is a childish wasting of all of our toys expecting every day to be Christmas morning. This is not how the Universe operates and is not why the human experience was created on Earth.

If I could go back in time I would hang the first King and every one who tried to replace him until there was no desire for humans to align themselves in tyrannical pyramid power structures. I might also throw in the guy who invented the wheel and the one who thought up writing which has seriously depleted the ability of our minds to connect with Reality. I would also include the first conscious human who killed another conscious human. There are a few folks back there in time who seriously messed up the teachings Jesus and others like him. I think that around 400 AD the Christian Religion was brutalized by Rome, Rome was not saved by Christianity, i.e. Christianity became Roman, Rome did not become Christian. But of course the ‘kill them all’ mentality is part of the problem and the paradox, and is a pre adolescent thought pattern. And yes I have some pain and issues about the way the human experience has unfolded here on Earth.

4) What vision do you have for Sage Valley 100 years from now? How do you see Sage Valley interacting with other cities and communities? Do you see, for example, Sage Valley directly assisting sister communities in the same model? Do you expect to become more closely integrated with larger cities surrounding issues like sewage, water, law enforcement, and representation of the needs of small intentional communities?

In the first place if we don’t address global warming this question will probably be irrelevant. The potential chaos is too great to try to plan for the outcome. Can you believe that we are rebuilding New Orleans? There are going to be more hurricanes and they are going to be more violent and we are putting more people at risk so we can spend more money saving them? Pre adolescent thought patterns at work.

ALSO IN THE FIRST PLACE IS: If the ideals of the Sage Valley Community or similar ideals are not proposed and adopted by the culture at large then the mentality that leads to global warming will only continue. So I would like very much to integrate these ideals with any sized community that is interested. Sage Valley has an open door policy and is willing to share any and all of our physical, mental and spiritual ideas.

The whole idea of “Law Enforcement” would be irrelevant in a truly connected group of people. This was dealt with very differently in traditional cultures. We are committed to the process of healing and remedy as a community. In a functioning “Heart Centered” culture the shadow side of being human is processed totally differently than in Western Non Civilization.

I am coming from the belief that only a group of people committed to the Peace Principles can live successfully on earth. Many forms of culture can emerge with these three principles as the basis. They can be interwoven with many religious backgrounds but they are fundamental.

Hopefully 100 years from now the ideals of the Sage Valley Community will have reached out and been incorporated in many ways, in many communities and cultures. It is an organic process. If I have been able to produce something that speaks to people and works because it is an attempt at formulating Truth, then it will self replicate.

5) Do you think that as water becomes a more contentious issue, that there is a threat to a community that is as small as Sage Valley? The political clout of LA or Las Vegas, even, will most likely trump the political clout of 50 houses in central Nevada. If LA wants all of your water in the future, they just might get it, even if laws need to be rewritten.

As the population of the Earth becomes more urban, the city political power will grow. The resulting laws will be less connected with the Reality of living on and connected to Earth. Eventually it will all implode as you can only live outside of Reality for so long.

Man has been repeating this pattern ever since the early city states in the Middle East. Cities grew until they exceeded the carrying capacity of the land and then collapsed. Mankind living in pre adolescent thought patterns has continued this idiocy for the last 5,000 years. From the collapse of cities to the collapse of empires and now with global warming and the possible collapse of the “Global Economy” which could take us back into a planetary ice age or something similar.

We can restart the process of evolution from single celled organisms. Cool. It is a great journey. It would be neat if we could leave a couple of sign posts for the next humanoids a millions years from now ---- “Don’t Trust Technology”.

Here are a few quotes from Paul Shepard’s book ‘Nature and Madness’.

"I shall .......... suggest that the only society more frightful than one run by children, as in Golding's "Lord of the Flies", might be one run by childish adults."

"Culture, in racing ahead of our biological evolution, does not replace it but is injured by its own folly".

"I felt that I had glimpsed a central figure of consciousness, whose expressions in intelligence and speech appeared to be bound in each individual human emergence, as well as in that of the whole species, to plants and animals."

"Child-rearing practices are not just one item in a list of cultural traits. They are the very condition for the transmission and development of all other cultural elements, and place definite limits on what can be achieved in all other spheres of history."

Maybe our 5,000 year detour into the abyss of pyramidal political models and uncontrolled technology and consumerism are a part of the lesson humanity has to learn about the Realties of Living in a dualistic physical world. We are on the edge of an unprecedented environmental event to the planet, caused by human folly, and our response will determine the course of history for thousands of years. Advanced technologies can only be handled by cultures with advanced thinking, real Truth and the ability to live in a Moral Balance with Nature. Our culture is nowhere near this place and we are going to get the resulting lessons.

6) The primary audience for Sage Valley, according to your website is retired people. Are you worried about hospital and medical access for your community members?

I’ll have to massage the website a bit. I am attracting a broad spectrum of people. It is not only for the older generation. Being 1.5 hours from a hospital and modern medical attention is a miracle. Being in a healing supportive community is even more of a miracle.

7) What advice do you have for others that might want to create communities like Sage Valley? What problems have you run into with regulations and paperwork? Would you do things differently now?

Absolutely base your community on the Peace Principles. Be creative and open and get in touch with the Earth wherever you are located.

Regulations are a part of this culture at this time and we have to work within the system to get anywhere. Part of the challenge is to integrate passive solar principles with the building codes. It takes some time but we have to demonstrate the viability of passive solar techniques. As these ideas take root the codes will change if necessary.

The average American home is nothing but a massive heat sink. Burn a gallon of fuel for heat and within 12 hours it is gone forever and we have more CO2 in the atmosphere and the need for another gallon of fuel. Almost every home makes you a slave to the oil industry and the political process of protecting and extracting oil reserves from all over the world for our use. The house I am designing for myself at Sage Valley will not have any heating except from the sun and no air conditioning.

Did you know that the Chinese have two major oil fields that are going to be the last oil on earth?? Those guys know how to reason and they have the political clout to not let a bunch of consumers get to those oil fields. I think there is a line in a Dillon Song “What ya going to do when your army is out of gas?”

We need to have thermal R-20 shutters on every window in America. Close them at night in the winter. This will save amazing amounts of oil. Have you ever seriously thought about those huge glass covered sky scrappers??? (Don’t hurt yourself).

I may sound anti tech and I am guilty of over indulgence in the experience of living in a metals based society. We are trying to get happiness and fulfillment from consumerism and television. These are false Gods. The human experience is one of connecting with and learning from the Mysteries of Earth. Without having a cultural context to lead us into this Mystery, via Rites of Passage or similar Ceremony in our late teens, we spend the rest of our lives like ships without a rudder. We get blown around by the experiences of life but don’t have a way to control the direction our DNA is programmed to search. That direction is a True Unification with the Divine Aspects of Nature that surround us.

There has to be a balance between technology and nature. We must have the moral fiber to manage technology intelligently. The entire corporate structure is immoral. Things have evolved so it is almost impossible to live outside the “Global Economy”. People in Asia are basically slaves, keeping our unbalanced live style afloat, same as ancient Rome.

Civilizations must be able to control their population without waiting for catastrophes to intervene. Comfortable lifestyles for limited numbers of people (1 billion total world population?) can be achieved and maintained. This requires different core cultural values than the ones we now have worldwide.

Have you heard of the monkey traps where bait is placed in a jar with a small opening? The monkey reaches in and grabs the bait. Because of greed and an inability to undo certain fixed brain patterns; he will not let go of the bait and can not get his hand out of the jar. The next step is a dead monkey. That is exactly where we are at. If we don’t let go of some of our core cultural and mental concepts we will be just like the dead monkey.

Do we have the emotional, mental and political will to start asking more questions and digging for the real answers??

Peace and Blessings on your Journey,

Medicine Bear

(Bill Record)

www.earthloving.com

December 6th, 2006

revised December 13th, and again on Dec 24th, this is a difficult concept to write out.

Well for some unknown reason you haven't had enough yet so here is some more weirdness for your poor old brain patterns that you are so comfortable with.

Our bodies are something like 80% water. So we are just water ballons with attitudes. Just a big old container of water with a bunch of brain patterns that justify almost anything we want them to. Just enough energy, ego, intelligence and muscle to transform all these emotions and idiotic ideas into a disfunctional culture that is destroying the planet.

So here we go again:

GOD DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO MANIFEST LIFE IN A PHYSICAL UNIVERSE WITH FREE CHOICE.

BUT HE/SHE/IT KNOWS WHAT HE/SHE/IT IS DOING.

How does that statement sit with everything you have been brain washed with since birth?

Note that I am not denying the existence of GOD. I am just suggesting that He/She/It is not in control of every intimate detail of our lives. Our free choice is in control of that.

I am suggesting that we could easily seriously screw up life on earth and God would let that happen.

God is very interested in inhabiting the universe with intelligent life that has free choice as one of it's benchmarks. But God is smart enough to realize that beings with free choice will create both Heaven and Hell in their limited physical dimension. So God has sprinkled a bit of intelligent life with free choice in various parts of the universe. And God is sending along a few folks every once in awhile to tell us how to get it together: Christ, Buddha, The Great Peacemaker, etc.

We are the fingertips of God in this physical world. We are the combination of spirit and physical that can operate on both sides of the veil.

And God is giving us the greatest gift and the most power that she can by giving us free choice. In the mastery of free choice lies the secrets and power of Christ.

The 'Catch 22' is that we are brain patterened at a young age into a set of possibilites for living on earth that is very limited and is designed to serve a pyramid power structure. So we don't have the correct basis from which to establish our free choice. We have all these competing ideas as to the correct choices that are based on egoistic desires instead of a search for Truth.

Humans have the unfortunate trait that their version of reality is set in stone in their brains in their late teens and early 20's. Once established these brain patterns do not easily evolve into more aware brain patterns as our life experience unfolds. The people and processes that establish the cultural norms and lifetime goals in the minds of our youth rule the earth.

As far as I can determine the only process that produces vibrant, intelligent, aware, healthy human beings includes a right of passage in the late teens that brings that person face to face with Nature, God and Death. This is a difficult passage but necessary for the future of humanity. Nowhere in our culture do we really meet Nature, God and Death. We live in a world of illusions about these topics without any real life experience of them. Read "Nature and Madness" by Paul Shepard.

For the last 10,000 years we have sold our souls to the pyramid power structures of monarchies, religious organizations and now "democracies". In my way of thinking 51% majority is a recipe for disaster, not an intelligent way to rule people. Having 49% of the people unhappy is not a pleasant situation (look at Mexico and Lebanon today). In America there is enough natural abundance so the 49% are still living at an amazing level of comfort so we are insulated from the reality of 51% rules. Actually the folks who control the establishment of brain patterns in the youth are the ones who rule a culture.

We have chosen the holocaust, prison systems, wars, greed, over population, ethnic cleansing etc. God gave us free choice and we are making the wrong choices over and over again. God is constantly giving us help but we have FREE CHOICE and we are screwing up big time.

God is infinitely patient and if we toast the earth again and it takes another 100,000 years for the earth to recover and for humaniods to start over that will be fine with God. God wants us to get this thing together with our own free choice as that is the information God is looking for: beings with free choice that can use this power correctly. Time is not an issue with God. The time it takes us to get to this place and the processes we must go thru to get there are irrelevent to God. God is just patiently waiting for us to figure this thing out. God is continually supporting us and giving us clues to this mystery but we have to correctly manifest the answers in the physical world. That is our job.

God gave us enough energy in petroleum products for the entire world to live comfortably for hundreds of years. We are absoultely wasting this gift from Creation. (See below).

Anyhow back to the main theme of this discussion. If the global consciousness were to get to a place where physical beings could live in a physical dimension with free choice and not screw up, God would be overjoyed and he would use this planetary consciousness inhabit other parts of the universe.

Some of the above ideas grew in my brain from Ken Carey's book "The Third Millenium". This is an excellent book.

I realized that this topic is incomplete without a discussion of miracles.

An Elder once said: "Some people think the 'Age of Miracles' is over, BULLSHIT, the 'Age of Miracles' is just beginning."

What Christ demonstrated was not an isolated event in the course of human history. He just did an outstanding job and caught alot of press. Shaman, healers and holy people have been performing Miracles since time immortal. Each of us have these powers within us.

Another Elder said: "All you have to do is remove every element of doubt in your mind and Miracles will surround you."

Our culture is designed to fill us with doubt. The very nature of the rational process taught us is to doubt something until it is proven to be true by repeatable experiments. Individual Miracles are not repeatable as the very nature of the cosmos is change, every moment is new and unique. We have made alot of progress in the physical dimension with the various laws of science that we have come up with and are constantly in flux.

But this process of doubt has removed us from experiences in the non physical world. Physics and mysticism are slowly converging. Miracles by their nature do not conform to our understanding of the physical world. But they are real.

So lets connect free choice with Miracles. Let us choose Miracles as a normal part of our life's journey because they are already there. Read a book called the "Peace Pilgrim" if you want a better understanding of Miracles. That woman got to a place where what seemed like Miracles to us was standard operating proceedure with her.

Death. Death is such a natural part of the life cycle in a physical world that God doesn't even recongize it. We have this amazing life dance that is a dynamic growth process of birth and death. These attributes of our bodies living and dieing are just part of the sine wave of life and this death thing is just background noise in the big picture.

Our culture worships death and has made it something to fear. Get over it folks. Go for the ride. Embrace the whole process with your entire heart. Get excited about the transition when you take that last inbreath and outbreath.

That the possibilities that God has given us are so vast and God is so omnipresent that almost any intelligent, heart centered choice will lead us to God. If we consciously set our course towards God we will get there. In fact we will already be there by the very nature of that choice. Our lives are designed at their core to lead us to God, all we have to do is let go and stop struggling with our mental images and preconseptions of God. Get outside, connect with Nature and let the Presence of God into your Soul.

Quote from another Elder:

that is all there is."

What are the two biggest drugs in America?

Our society is totally addicted to these two substances and we will sell the future of humanity down the tubes to maintain our fix.

Think about the power in a gallon of gasoline. Take the average Honda that gets 30 mpg and try to picture yourself pushing that car for 30 miles. If you are in good shape and are on level ground you may be able to push it a mile per day.

So a single gallon of gasoline contains approximately the amount of energy that a fit, well fed human can do in a month.

If you can push a car for 2 miles per day then a gallon of gas has the amount of energy that a human can do in 15 days. Using this figure 25 gallons of gasoline will do the same amount of work in a year that a well fed, fit human can do. In other terms $75.00 of gasoline ($3.00 per gallon) will pay for the amount of work that a well fed, fit human can do in a year's time. If it takes $10.00 per day to feed a human that equals $3650.00 per year to keep a human fed so he can do the work of $75.00 of gasoline.

Another note is that if you can push a car 2 miles in a day, then 2 coffee cups of gasoline has the same amount of power that a human can generate by working at hard labor all day.

I don't know where to go with these numbers but it should be clear that a gallon of gasoline has a tremendous amount of energy stored in it. Sacred Energy from our brother the Sun that was not given to the human race to fight wars with or waste on silly ass trips to the mall.

A few gallons of gasoline is all it takes to rototill a garden that could feed a person for a year. Think about the amount of fuel that our society uses just to feed itself. Fresh vegetables transported all over the country.

The trucking industry is burning over a billion dollars worth of diesel fuel every day to bring plastic Chinese trash to our doorsteps so we can play a bit and then spend more fuel to take this shit to the landfill.

Our society is absolutely abusing the gift of gasoline that God has given us. We should be worshiping gallons of gasoline on the altars of our churches.

If each gallon of gasoline was held in a separate container in the trunk of your car and a plastic jug was ejected each time a gallon was used we would have a measure of the amount of fuel we are consuming. The average American suburb would be several feet deep in gallon jugs in a few days.

If you can start to picture this, you can start to understand how burning all this fuel from cars, trucks, airplanes etc. can difinitely effect the environment.

If you have never heard of 'Peak Oil' you should google that term and do some research.

Watch Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth"

One of these days the free oil era is going to come crashing down and we are going to have the same reaction that the average German had in 1946: "We didn't know there was a holocaust in progress."