Instant Experts

04/02/2021 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

As knowledge expands through the centuries and decades, one might be forgiven for believing that, eventually, all that is possible to be known, will be known. It might be as a new dam which, after much rainfall, is full.

But like all oversimplified analogies, this one is flawed. As scientists discover more, they discover an infinity of new things. They have a job for life, for their subject reveals more, the further they explore. Hikers experience the same as they approach the apparent crest of a hill, only to discover more peaks beyond, what they call ‘false horizons’.

So, why are modern societies so confident? Well it is my contention that there is a part of the human psyche that is uncomfortable with the idea that it has only partial knowledge. I am referring to the ‘ego’ or ‘small self’. Ego’s have a tendency to take the easy route in life. They are for ever looking for the reward which requires little or no effort. Even dedicated scientists have been known to falsify their observations to promote their theories.

The present adulation of ‘celebrities’ in modern cultures is an example. An ordinary person, as we all are, may become celebrated for winning a competition or race or athletic achievement or something as banal as singing a song. The media and social glitterati turn on this flash of ‘success’ like sharks triggered by the scent of blood. The sometimes reluctant but usually eager victim, is propelled into a new world of abundance and admiration. Parties, limos, sex, money, drugs, interviews and media celebration all describe a voyage from the ordinary into an inflated fantasy world.

The truth behind this ‘yellow brick road’ is that this ‘celebrities’ are no different to any one of us. The only way out of ‘celebrity’ has sometimes sadly, been suicide.

Many fictional characters encapsulate the myth of ‘knowing all’ and the power that brings. A well known example is Arthur Conan Doyle s detective, Sherlock Holmes. Mr Holmes has a super human gift of observation and deduction which puts him way ahead of those not so empowered. Holmes is what today is called a ‘super hero’ because he wins every fight, whether physical or mental. He represents an aspect of the ego that all egos aspire towards; to triumph in every endeavour. When Holmes succeeds again and again, we are programmed to believe that this ‘hero’ is indomitable, all knowing, all conquering.

But Conan Doyle was clever enough to make the character of Holmes in some way, fatally flawed. Holmes lacked emotional intelligence and perhaps compensated for this by using drugs. Even the Ancient Greek heroes such as Achilles, demonstrate after many victories that no person is perfect and die at the hands of their adversaries.

We would do well to remember this today as we observe a new cult of ‘knowing all’ emerging. The true experts in a subject, such as academics and professional practitioners are being degraded as fast as the fools are being upgraded.

Whether you are talking about Presidents or Street Cleaning Operatives, people are being persuaded that they possess the super human powers normally reserved for ‘the experts’.

This illusionary level of confidence has even infiltrated the curriculum in schools. Children are being promised elevated careers way beyond their abilities. The premise appears to be that anybody is capable of anything. If this were true then only the top jobs would be good enough for young people. Filled with false expectations, they go willingly to University and pay for the privilege. At the end of the course, as their application forms are returned from the promised ‘top jobs’, they finally are given a spoonful of reality.

It is an old adage that ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’ and yet this truth is forgotten or ignored today. Persons are deciding to build their own houses and argue with their architects. They diagnose their illnesses and argue with doctors. They become international Statesmen based on bluster and the blood of others.

The origins of this illusion are those employed by the ego when things begin to go wrong; deceit, threats, grabbing, bullying and other methods of gaining power over others. Many dictators today have achieved their position through these means. They continue to use them to remain in power for an indefinite period with extraordinary self delusion that the people like them. Any challenges are fought with a ferocity of a cornered animal for indeed, such people have cornered themselves by taking a false and harmful path.

The was a study by two academics which observed what is termed the ‘Dunning Kruger Effect’. The crux of this study is that people do not understand that they do not know things. It is the nature of how humans acquire knowledge and associated skills that in the beginning they find the subject rather easy. It is not until much later that say, a surgeon, realises the hidden risks, false avenues and areas of the unknown in their specialisation.

People who are not trained initially acquire a false confidence simply because it is impossible for them to know their short comings. A couple building a house might proceed with crayons and a cornflake packet to design their ‘dream house’. They sink their entire savings into the project. As the build progresses they make mistakes that are hugely costly and are driven into deep despair. These mistakes are of course well known pitfalls to professionals and would have known how to avoid making them.

Life teaches us the hard way for the arrogance of the ego by cutting us ‘down to size’. False pride and self confidence built on self deception, succeed in the beginning but slowly the mistakes and falsehoods creep in.

In life we learn that there are no true heroes. We are all vulnerable in our weaknesses and only become strong when we realise this. Instead of being a ‘know all’ we are better advised to ‘know how little we know’ in other words, adopt humility in everything we do.

Until our prizes, awards, honours, celebration, adulation, high office in affairs of state, are given to the meek rather than the bold, society will have the ‘instant experts’ and flawed heroes of that it deserves.

Real heroes are those who work within their limitations and admit mistakes or ignorance. They may not even achieve very much but what they have done has been done honestly.

Listen carefully to your politicians and leaders and see how often they express realistic aims tempered by humility. When a leader promises all and rarely delivers or admits to mistakes, use your vote.

Leaving the Union

31/12/202031/12/2020 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

Ms. Smith stands before her Primary School class in an English State school on a very special day.

“Good morning boys and girls! Now quiet please. Quiet. That’s better.

This morning we have a very special visitor who is going to listen to what WE think. This is instead of Nature Table which we will do tomorrow. No Peter, it is fair because the nature table with still be there tomorrow and the Prime Minister will not.

So I want you to welcome the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mr Boris Johnson. Yes, you can clap if you want to children. Oh, you don’t want to, alright.

Mr. Johnson, you asked to listen to the adults of the future. Well here they are!”

“Wha, Wha, Wha, good morning Ms. Smith and good morrow boys and girls. I am really really interested in what you think about stuff.”

“Jimmy, why is your hand up?”

“What’s this bloke mean stuff Miss?”

“Ah! wwwwwell that’s a good question. You see being vague is a great way not to be specific but, but, but I see that may work in the House but not here. So I shall focus, robustly. Firstly, we have left that great monster known as the European Union in which you would have found opportunities for travel, education and work. So I want to know – from YOUR happy faces – what opportunities you believe have opened up for your futures, from Independence.’

A small girl waves a hand energetically.

‘My Dad says the UK has its sovereignty back but I cannot see that the UK has ever lost it’s sovereignty. Surely sovereignty is really Nationalism made to sound more respectable, is it not? No, don’t interrupt please Prime Minister that was a rhetorical question. Look at the evidence. What is the national flag of the United Kingdom? The Union flag, of course, not the EU flag. What is the currency of the United Kingdom? The pound, not the Euro. When we go on holiday, all the European cars have registration plates from their own countries, not European plates. Cars are insured in their home countries and are inspected annually in their home countries, and taxed in their home countries. The rules of the road are set nationally – we drive on the right, Europe on the left. It is true that passports were standardised by Europe but that streamlines free movement of people and increases border security. If you want another coloured cover with the UK crest on, you can buy one. There is no ‘identity card’ in the UK whereas most EU countries have one. All countries do things differently. Nationalism in Europe is alive and well, in my view.’

‘Thank you Marlene, that was very interesting wasn’t it Prime Minister?’

‘Bah bah, yes, bah, factually correct but my point is, dah, wouldn’t it be nice not to have to buy a new passport cover. £4 in Smith’s mine was. Many households cannot afford that.’

A small boy next to the water cooler stands up to speak.

‘I would like to bring up the subject of free trade. If the Germans sell cars to China within the EU rules, why can’t we? The EU has spent decades agreeing trade deals from the strong negotiating position that politically aligned block commands. These trade deals are largely responsible for making the UK wealthy and in a position to share it’s wealth and know how. The latest trade deal with South America is something the UK is now going to miss out on. By leaving the EU we will lose the benefits of hundreds of good trade deals all over the world and replace them with fewer deals on similar or worse terms. The new deal with the Japanese is an example. We already traded with Japan from within Europe. This new ‘deal’ greatly favours the Japanese. Individual trading countries like the UK’s now is, never negotiate from a position of strength.’

‘That is most interesting Nigel, wasn’t it Mr Johnson? I see you are speechless. So, Penny you have your hand up dear?’

‘I want to say that I want to work in Europe when I grow up.

Now if I even want to search for a job in France, I will not be allowed to for more than three months without returning to England, I will need medical insurance, will have to pay to exchange my money into euros and back again, pay high charges to phone my parents a few hundred miles away and my UK qualifications will not be considered valid. Am I destined to stack supermarket shelves in Calais?’

‘Wow, wow, wargh…just get a job in Blighty little girl. They speak English here!’

‘As do most Europeans. It’s a universal second language in Europe, excepting Estonia, Latvia and England, Dumbo.’

‘Penny, politeness is a classroom rule, please.

Ms. Smith moves on the questioning. ‘Can I ask you a question Prime Minister which is about taxation, health care, service industries, the Royal Family, national and European security, policing, defence, foreign aid, research and projects all of which are governed in law at a general level, by Westminster. What is left that is governed by Brussels?’

‘Are well, Brussels, ugh, is at the root of the problem because our views are not represented there…’

Bobby by the fish tank piped up. ‘Not true! What are MEP’s for if not to represent the UK? Why has the UK agreed to 95% of new European laws if it didn’t agree with them? I want to play with toys that are safe because EU law has made them safe. Not some dangerous toy from a third world factory.’

Another child stands up and leans forward taking an aggresive debating stance, ‘Yes, and I want my human rights protected by the European Court of Human Rights, not by a national government of any political persuasion!’

‘…werg, werg, what what I mean is that some of our laws are made in Brussels and some of those are very bad for us indeed. Very bad.’

Girl with plaits in the second row. ‘Which laws?’

‘Erg well, let me see, the Common Agricultural Policy for instance hands out money to farmers for nothing. We want to pay farmers for looking after birds and bees. Isn’t that what you want for your futures?’

‘Modern industrial farming methods have driven the wildlife to the edges of extinction not by European law. Organic, sustainable farming costs less than fertiliser guzzling intensive farms. Coupled with the public’s expectation of cheap food, as is the American farming model and you have a perfect storm against the environment. We don’t need laws, we need farmers with who produce food ethically and affordably.

Johnson points a finger meaninglessly and retorts, ‘Ah, yes, well what does the apple in your lunch box cost little boy? Eh?’

‘It costs the lives of fewer bees because the EU has banned the pesticides that kill bees and other insects. Without EU laws which protect the environment our futures would be bleak – factory farmed food from the USA will flood domestic markets. Lamb producers in the Welsh mountains will be priced out of business. Where is the independence in that?’

‘Yes, yes, yes, well since you like farming young man you can get a job as a picker all over the UK, anywhere you want because there will be no Europeans in our fields picking.’

The young child is not convinced. ‘Picking is seasonal and the climate in the UK means one must travel south in the winter for work. To move around the EU freely without borders.’

A tall and slim girl who until now has been looking out of the window raises and arm, stands and begins…

‘Prime Minister. There are clearly many areas where the UK is now going to struggle without the benefits of close partnership with it’s nearest neighbours. Australia for instance looks to the Pacific Rim countries for it’s trade and service industries. Historically the old Commonwealth loyalties went out of the window when the UK joined the EEC. That was a strategic decision made then and we cannot call upon ‘loyalty to the Empire or Commonwealth any longer’. The UK like Spain and Japan and many other European countries have moved on from the values of Empire for realistic, modern ethical reasons. Empire for the UK was an episode of shame. If we now claim to value sovereignty, we have to show respect for the sovereignty of other countries. Take Scotland, Ireland and Wales as an example. If we follow your argument to ‘take back control’, is this not a green flag for the break up of the United Kingdom?’

‘Bbbbblimey. How old are you?’

‘Please answer my question.’

‘Well of course not, we are a Unionist party and we want the United Kingdom to stay firmly together as one great nation. We shall do this by not allowing the Scottish people to have a referendum on their future. That’s the Scots out of the way. What’s the other place? Ah! Wales, well, we still have lots of castles in Wales don’t we, hah, hah! Joke! Just kidding! Wales voted to remain in the United Kingdom, I mean in the European Union so yes, we might expect trouble there but nothing I cannot overrule. And then there is the thorny question of Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement that those Yanky Doodles seem to take a high moral stand about. Well, I think my brilliant idea of an underwater border making Northern Ireland AS IF it was part of the EU should not be taken as an indication it should join it’s friends, family, partners and Unionists IN Europe. Union of an island is not a good idea…when it’s Ireland you are talking about, I mean…not us.’

As if he was wondering what he had just said, the PM pauses, then restarts as if inspired,

‘…and unless you are talking about uniting a continent…whereas union of our island of Britain is because our passports are now blue and we intend to remain blue and British…with Northern Ireland that is, unless they vote otherwise…’

The Prime Minister turns to Ms. Smith and hisses in her ear not very discretely…’vargh, it’s so unfair these children asking difficult questions. You told me it would be easy, I came unprepared. Eton is not all it’s cracked up to be you know, just because I sound posh doesn’t mean I know what I am talking about. It’s not like State schools where there is a common aim of high academic standards and creating descent human beings. No, I mean I was bbbbullied you know and that Latin teacher… I mean horrible things went on…’

He is interupted by a boy bouncing eagerly on his seat and waving his arm in the air.

‘Miss, miss, miss can I ask a question about border control and how countries only control their borders in one direction and how Eire may make their UK border harder, undermining the Good Friday Agreement?’

‘No, Simon I am afraid we would love to ask that question but we are out of time and the Prime Minister is a busy man.’

‘Thank you children for this morning. Just remember that channel tunnel links us with the whole of Europe and beyond, as does Dover, so we are not going to forget our friends over there.’

‘And the channel tunnel links the whole of Europe and beyond with four small countries, who cannot agree…’ piped in Simon.

The PM stood up uncomfortably from his rather small chair and turned eagerly to Ms. Smith as she gestured him to step out of the room first.

‘What’s for lunch then Ms. Smith? Fish? Thank heavens we didn’t get any questions about fish eh! (laughs) Especially since UK cod comes from Greenland and Norway. I bet they would have known that, and that herring and lobster and scallops that we fish, are mostly sold to Europe. My they are well informed your children, at least we got education right. Is it this way? I shall just follow my nose. Bah!

Cosmic Chickens and Cosmic Eggs

20/12/2020 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

Which came first, God or the Universe? This is a question for which philosopher scientists in the West, have no answer.

Steven Hawking in ‘The Brief History of Time’ put the problem like this;

So long as the Universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely self contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place then, for a creator?

The so called ‘Big Bang’ theory is seriously under review by scientists. They have no proven model on who started the Big Bang, and who started the starter. Steven Hawking is quite rightly asking how a universe without limits could have been created.

The problem, it seems to me is one of thought patterns and in particular logic anomalies. Such an anomaly is simply the notion of infinity. Even mathematics cannot contain the concept. It just describes numbers that keep getting closer to zero but never quite being small enough to be zero; clearly nonsense.

It is easy to demonstrate infinity in a three dimensional shape as a ball (or for space travel, a torus). The infinity experienced, say as a sailor going around the world, is indeed without boundary…but only for the sailor. In an infinite universe there are an infinite number of balls because not everyone is a sailor.

It is interesting that Steven Hawking chooses to describe the Creator with a small ‘c’. It subtly gives away what he thinks the answer is. As a scientist he cannot sign up to the improbable and even less so the impossible. He doubts there is a God.

But in my humble opinion, what we are discussing here is our own perception created by the phantoms that logic sometimes produces. The most famous example of this is the old question; which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Just as the circumnavigating sailor fails to introduce ‘space’ into his world view, so observers of chickens are limited by the time it takes to make a chicken. If we accept Darwinian ‘natural selection’ as the creeping process of improving the DNA of living beings, we can understand living things a little better.

We accept that chickens were one time flying birds and before that dinosaurs. Dinosaurs also reproduced by laying eggs, so at some point in the DNA mutation, the bird family split from dinosaurs and became egg laying birds. We must therefore change our question to; ‘which came first, the dinosaur or the egg?’

Are we now approaching the point of mutation? Possibly, but like the differential equation, dinosaurs became dinosaurs infinitely slowly.

If you are still following, let me introduce a counter intuitive observation on how nature works. They say that in the plant kingdom, the first plants had no flowers, just leaves and plenty of them, presumably for dinosaurs to eat. Then one extraordinary day something made a flower appear on a plant – just like that! Evolution sometimes takes giant leaps. Instead of the minute steps in evolutionary change, nature takes a giant risk and does something completely new. Evidence of this willingness to take a completely new track are the rare and often unique animals found on islands like the Galapagos Islands, Madagascar and Australia.

With this idea in mind, evolution does not have to be by micro steps, although most of the time is clearly is. One day, there are no plants without reproduction by the production of spores, then there is a whole new system of stamens and pollen and receptors.

If we can accept that at one time dinosaurs or their predecessors or their predecessors, went from non-egg / sperm reproduction to the full Monty, then we can see that the baffling question is using false logic.

There never was a first egg or first dinosaur. There does not have to be, as the process leading to this mode of reproduction is a combination of imperceptibly small most of the time, plus one or more inspired leaps.

This whole question is a useful metaphor for the more philosophical question about who created the Creator?

In my view, when modern scientists propose the theory that the universe is infinite in space and time, then the question of how it started is a logic fallacy. At the same time the question of who created the big bang is also irrelevant, as no one did.

This is where I express a view, in favour of spelling Creator with a capital. In my view, the model of an infinite space time universe is correct. There never was ‘nothing’ in the same way as there never was an egg before the chicken. It is impossible for a universe or even a chicken to appear without a cause. As Shakespeare says in the character of King Lear; ‘Nothing comes from nothing, speak again’.

So here I am expounding the cause for the Creator who is contained within, rather than without the Universe. Such a Creator can be as large as the Universe and as old as the Universe. Such a creator can make things within the Universe without contradiction, because it is simple for an infinite creative intelligence to exist in an infinite universe or even multiple universes!

Ancient Hindu scriptures describe the universe as an Ocean which is being churned by a giant snake being stretched by two opposing teams in a tug of war. One team are devils and the other team, humans. The movement of the snake in one direction is the expansion of the universe and visa versa. Scientists know the observable universe is expanding and accelerating in it’s expansion, so no contradiction there.

At some point the motion of the churn will stop and change direction. Then the universe will shrink, but never down to nothing. The notion of ‘singularity’ proposed by the Big Bang theorists, stretches or rather shrinks one’s logical understanding to absurdity.

It is impossible for the universe to shrink into an infinitely small space. What does it even matter how small or how large the universe gets? The question is similar to the chicken and egg question because it is playing with words, not realities.

Just because the question can be asked, does not mean there is an answer. This is the essence of the understanding koans give in Zen Buddhism.

The Old Testament has an interesting take on ‘how the world began’. All human cultures ask this question and come up with various ideas. The Old Testament however is uncannily parallel to the modern scientific view of the stages of the evolution of the ‘world’ or universe. Once you realise that ‘day’ in old Testament terms means an infinitely long era, you can examine the stages more thoroughly. I shall not go into these here and leave that journey to the reader. However if we start with the universe being no more than an infinitely large cosmic cloud – we have travelled long before dinosaurs and eggs.

Intelligent energy in the form of light was introduced into the void;

1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Place in every particle of this cloud a Divine intelligence, and you get the idea of how ‘stuff’ started.

1:6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

Interesting to note that light was introduced (a transverse wave form) and then sound (a compression wave form).

The waves started to ‘sift’ the cloud and ‘islands’ of matter appeared amongst the ‘waters’ or what I am calling ‘the cloud’.

The intelligence is very much part off the creation process, the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, is not a separate intelligence operating from afar.

Such a belief in the ‘separateness’ of God is a problem for many people today.

The old Renaissance idea of ‘God on high’ floating around in the sky has permeated this ‘otherness’ into modern human assumptions.

There is no chicken that makes eggs, like cars coming out of a factory, when it comes to trying to understand the Universe. Our thinking has to be so precise that it includes the biases within the observer’s observations. Scientist have also come to the understanding that we ‘change what we observe’ just by being. What is extraordinary and not generally realised, but this capacity, is exactly the same capacity of a Creator. But then I am a believer in a Creator contained in every essence of the creation the hearts of each one of us. Call me radical.

Carrying the Sky

12/12/2020 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

Question: how many stars can you see in the daytime?

Answer: One

That star is, of course, our sun and yet sometimes we overlook it’s splendour and magnificence. It becomes one of those many blessings that we take for granted when we consider ourselves poor.

The thief left it behind

The moon at the window

Basho

This poem was written by a mendicant monk in Japan after a thief took his only possession from his cave – his begging bowl.

Both the sun and moon represent powerful forces in our lives. They dominate our lives and loves in the most subtle of ways.

If you live in a part of the world where the appearance of the sun is unusual, then a ‘nice sunny day’ is one for being outside, perhaps even ‘sunbathing’. Deep in our beings we have a natural dependency and love of the healing rays of the sun that we wish only to be in it’s presence.

So strong was this connection in ancient times, that the Sun was regarded as a god by many cultures. The ancient Egyptians named him ‘Ra’. In their paintings and hieroglyphs, Ra is depicted spreading rays down to human figures, usually the Pharaoh. At the end of each ray is a hand sometimes holding an ‘Ankh’ or symbol of life.

One pharaoh called Akhenaten, ordered that the old Egyptians gods should no longer be worshipped expect for ‘Aten’. He referred to himself as the ‘son of God’ and is depicted with his wife, Nefertiti and children as a ‘holy family’, a theme later echoed by Christianity. Akhenaten even moved the capital city called Akhentaten. The temples had no roofs to allow in Aten’s rays.

He was not the last to conceive of a ‘sun city’. Louis 14^th bathed in the name of ‘The Sun King’ and adopted the sun as a symbol of his reign. He moved his royal court and government to the Palace of Versailles in 1682, from where his presence shone for all the gaze and wonder, at least until the solar eclipse which was the French Revolution.

The tradition continued into modern times when the French-Swiss architect, Le Corbusier designing a ‘radiant city’ or ‘Ville Radieuse’.

He too was had Utopian ideals but this time it was the common man who would bath in the all powerful rays of the sun. High rise buildings would be aligned in straight lines and wide spaces to allow light to spill into living spaces through large windows. All rooms were designed according to the proportions of the human body, as did the Ancient Egyptians, evidenced in the works of the mystic and scholar, Schwaller de Lubiz.

My point is that the Sun God has shone on mankind for thousands of years and it should not be hidden in ‘plain sight’.

If mankind needed a reminder, then the moon makes a perfect counter balance to the sun’s majesty. It has no light of it’s own yet can reflect with great brilliance in the night sky. The moon has an enduring power over humankind as a symbol of our ability to ‘reflect’ on ideas. This enables us to absorb and process ‘light’ as what we call ‘inspiration’ and underpins most of human development.

At some point in time, after the belief of Royalty being the sun God’s representative on earth, modern humans accept the reality that they, ordinary people, can do this as well.

Not only have we internalised the moon, but so may we swallow the sun.

‘The sun is in my heart

and I am ready for love,’

So sang Gene Kelly in the famous film, ‘Singing in the Rain’.

The place of abode for the sun is traditionally in the heart. The Indian Hindu mystics place the sun just below the heart in the ‘solar plexus’ chakra and it’s proximity is significant. The essence of ‘life’ is contained in the chambers of the heart muscle. It’s protein molecules are designed never to stop working – like the nuclear fission process in the sun; at least for the length of life of the human body. If a heart ever stops it can be powered back to life with a large charge of electricity from a defribilator.

Go sweep out the chamber of your heart.
Make it ready to be the dwelling place of the Beloved.
When you depart out,
He will enter it.
In you,
void of yourself,
will He display His beauties.

Mahmud Shabistari

I have quoted this beautiful verse before in my blogs as these lines, in my view, give humans all the information they need. They tell us that something is wrong in our hearts; they need to be swept out. Just as the skies fill with clouds and obscure the sacred sun the sacred moon, so too our hearts become obscured.

We get an idea of the size of the cleansing required in the psychological story of Hercules and his fifth labour;

The fifth labour (0f Hercules) was to clean the stables of King Augeas. This assignment was intended to be both humiliating and impossible, since these divine livestock were immortal, and had produced an enormous quantity of dung. The Augean stables (/ɔːˈdʒiːən/) had not been cleaned in over 30 years, and over 1,000 cattle lived there. However, Heracles succeeded by re-routing the rivers Alpheus and Peneus to wash out the filth.

Excerpt from Wikipedia

Note how the livestock are described as having ‘divine’ and ‘immortal’ qualities normally reserved for Kings. It is clear that even the cattle knee deep in their own dung, can aspire to being divine. Naturally, the cleaning takes place using the power nature, in this case water, a symbol of clarity, purity and power. Would it be too speculative to suggest they are the powerful arteries and veins of the human heart?

The Ancient Egyptians believed that Ra, the sun, was present in the heart of every human being; each human contained a small sun. They carried this divine power until death when the soul or Ra, departed the earthly body and returned to heaven and the afterlife.

This tradition is remembered in the Christian tradition as the ‘resurrection’ and in Islam as the ‘Mi raj’ or ascent of the Prophet Mohammed (s.a.s.) to heaven.

Note in this early painting the human headed horse on which the prophet (s.a.s.) sits. It is called the Buraq which means in Arabic ‘lightning’ or ‘bright’ with thanks to Wikipedia.

So we may reasonably conclude that we have revered the sun and the moon as symbols of our interior lives. We sometime express these divine principles in our buildings, our cities and our environment.

The sky is the most unchangeable, immutable presence in our lives and deserves contemplation and absorption where it can spin and shine for ever, if we let it.

Bring me sunshine
In your smile
Bring me laughter
All the while
In this world where we live
There should be more happiness
So much joy you can give
To each brand new bright tomorrow

lyrics by Sylvia Dee for Morecombe and Wise’s theme song

27/11/202026/11/2024 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

Symbols – unlocking the key

When human beings learn the language of symbolism, a great veil will fall from their eyes

Manly P. Hall

At the end of October each year, there is a flurry of excitement. The night of the 31^st October is when the veil between the apparent physical world and the spirit world, opens wide. Across much of the western world the people are encouraged to make light of it. Children dress in demonic costumes and roam the streets knocking on stranger’s doors. This one night is when the ‘stranger danger’ thought bomb does not explode in parent’s minds. Local neighbourhood spirits offer treats to entice and draw children in. It’s viewed as all ‘quite normal’, by people who see the world through the great veil to which Hall refers.

‘Good Christian families’ ( or at least those millions in the United States of America who label themselves so ), engage in this most Pagan of all festivals as if they were celebrating a night with Mickey Mouse.

Few people pose the question, ‘what if All Hallows Eve is real?’.

I use Halloween as an example of the state of consciousness of our current civilisation in the West. Whilst it is true that many Hindus and Tibetan Buddhists for instance, have a powerful understanding of symbology, in the West ancient symbols are ‘not real’ and are treated at best as fantasy and at worst, entertainment.

In the present day, many people have retreated into a safety zone of ‘agnosticism’. They just do not believe in gnosis or ‘union with God’. The gods they trust are thier senses. There is no question when demon possessed magicians achieve the impossible on their television screens. People stare in disbelief as if, for the first time, they cannot trust their own eyes. Scientific reasoning has a lot of undoing to do, for it denies us thoughts beyond the information received from the senses. Western education has worked hard to achieve this.

In an hypnotic ‘Dance of Shiva‘ the technologies of information have built a wall between the soul and senses. To be ‘sensible’ in the English language means to be straight cut – down to earth, whilst also meaning, able to use the senses. So strong is this blockage, that thoughts of the collective soul remain a distant social memory. It is not that the memory is forgotten, although some politcal regimes desire that, it is that our perception is deceived so that reality becomes merely a fantasy and explained away as ‘just a bit of fun’.

We are educated to believe that every effect has a cause; to be rational. From childhood, westerners have been taught that coincidences happen for no reason, ghosts are tricks of the imagination and objects do not move on their own; if you tread on a crack in the pavement the bear will not really eat you…it can all be explained. Sigmund Freud wrote an essay called ‘Determinism, Belief in Chance and Superstition’ in which it was claimed rational explanations cleared the unconscious mind of irrational interpretations of the world and life. According to June Singer in her book Boundaries of the Soul, this view has changed the course of education – a process which aims beningly to turn the light on in a darkened mind.

Freud’s belief that rational explanations clear the unconscious, in the words of June Singer, ‘translated into psychological term the voices of the Enlightenment that called for the elimination of superstitions, the mystical and the non-rational in the Western intellectual tradition.’ As a Jungian psycologist Singer is sceptical to this view and I would agree. Where will we be when we have explained away everything in conclusions that are just interpretations? If you are prepared to believe in the power of the unknown you will never ‘educate away’ the unconscious and the irrational. When symbols link us to these ‘Neverlands‘, our spine should tingle.

David and Goliath retold centuries later

A trip to an ancient Egyptian temple by a group of Europeans straight from breakfast on the Nile river cruise ship, enters world for the merely curious. The guide will lead them through heavy doors into a new world where extraordinary people, long ago once trod. More than that they left for us beautifully designed and constructed buildings encoded from floor to Heaven with cartouches and pictures in relief. The entry into the Holy of Hollies in Karnac’s great halls will make them pause merely to check their camera settings and what time the taxis pick them up for the boat.

Of course this small group should be given credit for making the effort to be there but how sad they make little effort to ask ‘what went on here and what is left of it now?’ Few will entertain the idea that Temples represent a journey for mortals into their body, soul and spirit.

There is a temple in a New York museum which was transport block by block from Egypt. A modern mystic, Lorna Burne who is familiar with angels from early childhood, reports that there is a spirit in this temple in great anguish. The spirit circles in endless frustration that the temple has been moved and needs to be returned. Tell archaeologists that and they are likely to do little more than laugh.

Just as Halloween is reduced to a social joke, so are most experiences of those who make sense of things without using their senses. It’s as if modern cultures need a way of holding off the forces which they distrust, like an ancient DNA memory of a fear of spiders, rats and snakes. It is as if we have repressed our fears into two rationalisations labelled good and bad, then explore one but not the other.

Many modern religionists express this dichotomy firmly with descriptions of the works of Satan on one hand and the love of Jesus on the other as if it was that simple. All mystics get to know Satan very well so as to overcome those elemental forces. Even when countries are at war, such as during the First World War, each hold their field services imploring favour to the same God! No contradiction is acknowledge since ‘the other side are Devils’, not us. Then both sides engage in mass slaughter, explained in their own minds as being on behalf of God. The killing is certainly not the work of the Devil. This is ignorance at it’s most extreme and most harmful.

Soldiers returning from war find it incredibly difficult to face ‘civilian life’ after this madness. Sometimes their families and that world have become so alien to them that many choose never to return, like the character of Colonel Kurtz in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Soldiers have their eyes opened by Mars, the God of War and enter a reality that has been skinned of fantasy. It is truely horrific, but is more real than anything ever experienced.

I firmly believe that by getting to grips with the ancient mythical descriptions of ‘mind’ and the human condition through the powerful symbols of the past and present, the possibilit open now for western culture to embrace our personal and collective unconscious.

A series of books by the author Dan Brown bears testament to this popular mood to understand symbols and the hidden worlds to which they allude. Albeit he shrouds his messages as ‘entertainment’, he perhaps knows or hopes that many an ‘agnostic’ might be moved by the power of the non-rational. In an age when even the scientists are building their theories of the contradictory laws of quantum physics, we should at least be open to the wealth of knowledge contained in the improbable.

Symbols are a massively important language for the mind. In a subtle way, the power of poetry is the same as symbols. Poets hint sideways at realities with few words, just as symbols point us to new understandings with no words.

Carl G. Jung was perhaps the most famous psychologist who opened up symbols as a reputable field of study and in particular dream interpretation. He used the study of his own dreams as well as patients, to gain insight into the personal and the collective psyche, the latter which he termed the ‘collective unconscious’.

Symbols dig deep into this unconsciousness, of which modern man was once most fearful but today, in my view, needs to be less so. Symbols not so much ‘explain’ as knock down row after row of balanced dominoes in an unexpected way to produce unintended effects that you might call ‘realisations’.

The plots of the Dan Brown novels are just such a cascade of ‘clue solving’. Through the broad knowledge of symbols by the character Professor Robert Langdon, mysteries are revealed in rapid twists and turns of the plot.

If psychosis is a surfacing of unconscious fears, then symbols enable that to happen as well. Perhaps the fear of that is the process most inhibiting understanding today. Ancient wisdom is wrapped up and scurried away by people of religion, so that it’s power is denied the possession of the people. We are told how damaging such knowledge is and how it is ‘the work of the Devil, aliens and Satanic cults, not for popular consumption and well past it’s sell-by date’.

The Vatican Secret Archives are themselves a symbol of this sublimation of sacred wisdom deemed never to surface into the minds of the common people. Beyond the political secrets and records of shameful past and present actions, you would like to think that mankind will benefit more, that be caused harm, by revealing the archive’s contents to the public.

Unfortunately, the battle between the Angels and the Demons takes place right before all of our eyes, if we looked. Even such things scientifically real as the present Covid virus is demonic in character. Viruses are hidden and not understood but powerful and with the ability to kill innocent humans. In this description we can see the description of the malign demi-god of ancient myth, the dragon that inhabits the cave and eats villagers, Count Dracula who enters a country and seeks it’s vulnerable female victims blood, Sleeping Beauty who falls under the spell of the witch and is put in a coma like a hospital patient.

The V1 and V2 rockets of Nazi Germany were powerful killing machines and inspired by the occult secrets of the ancients, as much as by likes of team of rocket scientists.

All of these encounters with demons and angels are happening and as real today, in my view, as they were in the past. The ancient Greeks saw the sun and the moon just as we do. The only difference is that we see them as a nuclear explosion and an empty rock rather than giving them respect for the way they command our every waking moment. The joy of life is dependent entirely on the gift of the sun’s rays depicted by the ancient Egyptians as a straight line from the sun, with an Ankh symbol at the end of each life giving ray of light.

Such symbols may never totally be understood by modern man because historical cycles move in spirals, not circles, but we do have symbols of our own that echo insignts from our ancestors. Understanding our own selves and our environment is key to the sustainability of our technological societies. Modern life is an Odyssey into a world of Sirens and Whirlpools, just as real as it ever was for Odysseus. Hold tight!

Centre

14/11/202031/12/2020 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

The Beautiful Centre

The Centre is a special place that contains as many mysteries as explanations…but what kind of centers do I mean? Well, the center is in our body-mind unity and extends between the centre of the Earth and infinity. Let us start with ourselves.

We are born with a placenta connected from the centre of our bodies, to our mother. This physical centre remains true for the rest of our lives, yet our mind also has a centre as does our spiritual being. The centre of our consciousness is not necessarily in our heads. Acrobats, gymnasts, martial artists will all give you an explanation derived from their experience. To turn and tumble under complete control, our consciousness needs to be somewhere other than our heads. For the Karate adapt, the Hara is again the navel or the sacral chakra from where the body finds it’s centre. Control of the Hara fixes the practitioner to a single axis or centre of gravity and from this position a balanced and grounded attack can be made, or a defense.

The Dervish in the Sufi tradition spins on the left rotating foot whilst pushing with the other. The experience is to be removed from the visible world or ‘dunya’ and moved vertically on the axis of turning into another realm. The analogy is that the dervishes become like planets as they spin around the Sun, who is the guide, the Sheikh.

Psychologically, the process of becoming adult is similar. As children we tend to run out of control, wobble and fall, like spinning plates left too long. We need adults to check what we do when we edge close to the metaphorical cliff. We are not centred. In maturity we find our balance and with balance a centre. Unlike a pair of scales, the centre is in three or more dimensions, but the analogy works.

If we become too absorbed in a particular activity, such as work or family, or leisure, we neglect other parts of our lives. We indeed neglect our full potential as human beings because the art of being balanced is more important than excelling in one particular area of life. This is contrary to what modern societies tend to expect. We are encouraged to specialise and repeat patterns until we can execute a skill perfectly. This is the process taught to factory workers, concert pianists, teachers, parents or any other career or social position. Time spent on these activities usually is at the cost of other responsibilities. So it is that modern managers will consider the work and life ‘balance’ of employees. It is recognised that becoming a grand master at chess is all very well but creates a lesser human if other simple tasks are not understood, such as working the washing machine or understanding another human’s emotions.

One technique for becoming ‘centered’ is found in both Eastern and Western spiritual practice. The former emphasises the importance of concentration when awake and alert and not becoming distracted by day dreams. Concentration is sometimes taught by training the body before the mind. Students of Zen Buddhism will sit in Za Zen for hours whilst supervised by a master. No movement or involvement in a mental or physical distraction is tolerated. If an earth quake occurred the class should remain motionless. The point is that all that occurs in the world is an illusion that must not be taken seriously, even when catastrophe is imminent. Some deaths cannot be avoided by running, therefore sitting is taking ones noble and inner strength with one into Paradise.

In the West, monks and nuns will sit in contemplation, having already put themselves outside of the world. Although less emphasis is placed on ‘illusion’ the seeker is directed to concentrate on the Divine. The ‘God Head’ is and represents a fixed point, to which the seeker becomes attached in their whole being. By this process all attachment to the outer perceived world falls away as unimportant. The contemplative becomes centred by fixing consciousness to an unmoving presence.

This apparent ‘stillness’ is characteristic of the part of the mystery of the centre. The geographic poles on the spinning earth are not moving at one thousand miles per hour as is the case at the equator. They are the still place which encompasses all directions whilst being themselves directionless.

Throughout time and place humans have found it necessary to identify ‘centers’ outside their bodies.

As the word suggests, the ‘hearth’ in the home is both the centre of the ‘earth’ and the ‘heart’. It generally contains fire as a loyal servant to social well being and survival. It cooks food, warms water and the space around it, giving the householders good reason to gather around.

The village or town containing these homes, will also have a designated ‘centre’. It may deserve that title as a spiritual centre, an administrative centre, a social centre, a business centre, a defensive centre from invaders and other functions.

In ancient times the centre was marked with a significant natural feature such as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. So sacred is this ‘centre’ that three major religions revere it ‘s significance as the place where God created the world and the first man ‘Adam’.

In even earlier times societies were sensitive not only to the ‘spirit of the place’ but to a ‘cosmological order’. The ancient Egyptians had a canon of harmonies which Plato referred to in Laws which kept Egyptian society consistently for thousands of years. John Michell refers to this order in his book ‘At the Centre of the World’ p165;

‘The occurrence at different times throughout the world of similarly organised twelve-tribe societies, focused upon a rock, a sanctuary and a sacred king, can only be due to the influence of a common prototype, which must be that traditional code of number and proportion which constitutes the best possible more rational and inclusive image of essential reality’.

In other words, the centre of the sovereign nation is determined geometrical according to harmonious proportions. Stonehenge in Southern England is a good example of a centre conceived as a circle with twelve divisions. It connects visually with the Universe by alignment with the sun and moon, stars and planets placing the observer / worshiper, firmly at the centre of all things.

The supreme example of a geographic centre is the pyramids on the Giza Plateau which occupy the exact centre of the landmasses of the continents at 30 degrees north.

The geometry of Divine symbolism is a large subject if little understood in the modern world. Towns and cities are conceived for rational reasons of economy and function. If there is a sacred centre to a town it is because it’s ancient forefather conceived it so. In the United States of America the city of Washington is such an example of the application of sacred principles and geometry in city planning, but such examples are rare in the land that built according to ‘the grid’.

In not caring to create sacred centers in our buildings, towns, cities and countries, we are not caring to be ‘centred’ in ourselves. For we are intimately connected with the spaces we occupy whether they are inside buildings, inside the spaces buildings create or within the landscape and cosmos.

As an architectural student in the 1970’s some of my tutors disliked my use of geometry, symmetry and proportion in my designs. Organic shapes were also ‘taboo’. I was told very strongly to design using only right angles and grid patterns, presumably because they had been taught that themselves. They respected only maximising the performance of materials, ignoring the third of Vitruvian principles of architecture which are durability, utility and beauty.

As citizens of the modern world we have learnt only function and forgotten, or care not, to make our buildings and public spaces beautiful.

The change that has to come is for us to enter the centers of ourselves. When we speak from our hearts our social fabric will evolve to transform those places that we hold precious. That is, in my view, the direction for the citizens of the 21^st century, but first we must start within ourselves.

‘Go sweep out the chamber of your heart.
Make it ready to be the dwelling place of the Beloved.
When you depart out,
He will enter it.
In you,
void of yourself,
will He display His beauties.

Mahmud Shabistari 14^th century Sufi poet

1+2=3

01/11/202011/03/2022 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

Science and philosophy are contrary subjects yet strangely complimentary; after all, they are both exploring the same thing…the Universe.

If philosophers are generalists then scientists study detail. Building up on detail, philosophers gain a knowledge and understanding of the way ‘things work’ based on ‘all and everything’. Inspired by generality, scientist drill down into new unexplored places.

But it does not have to be so polarised as that. We can be more ‘nuanced’ about their relationship. History shows us that science sometimes makes great leaps when scientists turn philosophers. Einstein’s General and Special theories of Relativity are an example of that. Innovators in the scientific community are often those whose interests and hobbies include the arts. Look out for the professor with the vivid bow tie and red shoes. He or she is the one most likely to be able to peep over the fence into the garden containing all things ‘artistic’. They may even have the key to the connecting gate.

Some of the greatest minds who ever lived are celebrated as both artists and scientist. Perhaps the best known example is Leonardo de Vinci and his stable mates in the Renaissance. To look after a forest you sometimes have to look down on it from the mountain top, whilst other times tending the specific needs of each tree, branch and twig.

Such a way of working is the way of a wise person. They will have seen a lot of life and understand that trees are trees, from whatever distance you view them. This ‘third place’ or trintessence, is the sacred child of both art and science. It is unique and special and often has no name and does not enter thought for that reason.

But it is vital to take notice of the fact that frequently there is a magic third element springing from the fusion of two complimentary opposites.

One only needs to refer to Christian theology and the coming together of the concept of the Trinity. It obeys the phenomenon that two ‘opposite’ forces conflate to produce a third mysterious new entity.

I remember my rather sanctimonious aunt leaning over from the pew behind me when I was a boy and asking what parts made up the Trinity. I replied parrot fashion; ‘Father, Son and Holy Ghost’.

But then I was the boy who drew a parrot on the chalk board in the class room with a speech bubble containing religious words. I have always had a problem with those who repeat words without understanding. Now in old age I can see that how the Trinity is created in not just Christianity but in the many mystical traditions that underpin religions.

The Father and Son are two huge archetypes from which all of creation emanates. The son sits on the right hand of God and the two make a very special SWAT (special weapons and techniques) team. Because God cannot enter the gross material world physically, he sends his ‘go to’ helper. Whatever incarnation the son may appear in (Apollo, Hermes, Ra and so on) he is always the same perfected entity who returns to earth on a mercy mission.

But the ‘double act’ needs something else, some other essence that ‘makes things move’. Examine the equation e=mc2. The energy (e) could be understood as the infinitely expansive Creator of all things including and especially ‘thought’. The material element (m) is the ‘Redeemer’ who comes to a physical Earth on a mission. The spectacular mystery is that both energy and matter obey a third rule and constant – c, or the ‘Holy Spirit’.

The Holy Spirit is represented as a dove. She is an untransmutable bird who visits all of those in need, as a helper and producer. Without the aid of the holy spirit, stuff would just not change and move on. Noah would still be in a flood.

She is the flux element that stabilises and goes beyond the relationship between matter and energy. It can do this because it is their product. How apt that the United Nations chose to have a dove on their flag. They brought together the energy and matter of warring nations in peace.

Pre-Christian theological and philosophical ideas encapsulated the same Trinity of archetypes, only using different names.

Plato realised that matter and energy combine in a third essence which was named the ‘aether’ or ‘ether’. This mysterious third element persisted throughout the centuries. It was embraced by the Alchemists as being the ultimate symbol and tool of perfection, the philosopher’s stone. Without this ancient concept of an invisible third element that pervades all things – even outer space – then early scientists like Sir Isaac Newton (an avid Alchemist) may never have germinated the seeds of modern scientific thought.

Today scientist’s view the ether as belonging to and explaining the existence of ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’. We are told that the former occupies 4% of the Universe we can perceive with our senses and instruments. The rest cannot be perceived or measured.

When philosopher’s understand that scientists are ‘in the soup’ over where the Universe is i.e. where dark energy lives, they can be excused for not offering an explanation. All that is dark as ‘e’ and ‘m’ exists in the area of their product as a constant. It is neither matter nor energy but a mathematical / geometrical immutable mystery.

To continue the list of ancient ‘trinities’, Osiris and Isis inhabited the Temples of Ancient Egypt. In their story that have a son who is Horus – a divine child sometimes depicted on the knee of his nursing mother as a baby. The infant child is a accurate depiction of the product of two energies. They produce an asexual, passive being without transgression, action or thought. It is the constant that held together successive dynasties in the land of Egypt for thousands of years. Horus the Divine child – inspired the constructions of matter such as the pyramids in such a way and as such supreme manifestations of thought and understanding, that their presence in the material world has an ‘eternity’ about them. That eternity is most purely expressed in mathematics, which is why the Pyramid of Cheops in Gaza is built with such precision. It is truly aligned to the points of the compass, particular stars including the sun, underground tellurgic currents and stands in the physical centre of the land masses of the globe. This is as close to being ‘constant’ as is ever likely to be achieved on this earth.

Perhaps the greatest two archetypes ever to unite, with their product being a ‘trinity’ is the Hermetic law of male and female. The Hermetics believe that not only does this duality exist on Earth but in every parallel dimension. We see nature using these subtly similar yet different archetypes to the full, not merely for sexual reproduction but at emotional, intellectual, and behavioural levels of existence. All animals such as mammals depend on their parents in their conception, incubation and infancy but eventually they ‘fly the nest’ and become a free independent entity. They are the same as their genetic parents and yet – as Charles Darwin observed – they are empowered by an improvement on their parents.

We are therefore each an expression of the ‘third essence’ in our own uniqueness as a being. Fired by the holy constant ‘c’, we each of us contain the possibility to transcend our material (body) and energetic (spirit) limitations. As infinite souls (c) we will never experience death and will move gently into perfection at the right hand of God. Human bodies are not designed for longevity but give just enough time for experience and reflection on what does not change in life; what is constant. That is why Zen masters feel the ecstasy of a falling leaf. In every Universe, leaves fall.

The tri-essence knows that it has a future greater than it’s individual parts, and for this reason has a good chance at realising perfection. This perfection is the great mysterious tunnel that souls follow into the constant realm of the ‘after life’.

It is a bourne from where most travellers do return, just to get one more bite of the forbidden fruit; one more chance to become greater than the sum of it’s parts.

000

0000

The Platonic Pyramid (above) is decimal. The top half of the pyramid is the Trinity. The lower part (7) is also sacred and another subject!

The Alchemical Trinity

soul (c)

body (m) spirit (e)

A Christmas White House Carol

12/10/202014/10/2020 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

It is Christmas Eve in the Whitehouse. The view across the famous lawns sparkles in the street lamps. Squirrels hop playfully from tree to tree in the thick snow and at the front door, a line of limousines wait patiently.

If we approach one of the snow hung windows we can look in and observe the scene. Bedecked with all kinds of seasonal decorations, the long mahogany table is encompassed by seated guests. At the head of the table is President Biden. His calm manner brings a sense of peace to the room and his family and guests converse quietly to one another. In the distance we hear the faint clash of kitchen ware as staff prepare to bring in a most special meal.

Suddenly there is a commotion on the steps of the Whitehouse! A tall cloaked figure is gesticulating frantically and pleading with the Secret Service to let him in.

‘Oh come on! Let me in, please. This used to be my home! Let me speak to Joe. I want to apologise for everything. I have been a bad, bad person but no more! Tell him I am here to see him…pleeease.’

Could this be Donald Trump? He is bent down on one knee with his hands together, as if in prayer.

If we quickly move back to look through the dinner scene window, we can see an aide whispering in the Presidents ear. Joe Biden’s jaw drops and his eyes stare into space. Without hesitation, he pushes back his chair and rushes out of the room.

For a few minutes nothing happens. The hooded figure on the steps, which is indeed, Donald Trump, has been allowed to step in out of the cold.

The guests sit bemused looking at each other before two embracing figures burst into the room. When Mr Trump sees the assembled guests he falls to his knees and sobs.

We must press our ears to the glass and listen carefully for he is talking, not in his loud manner, but softly.

‘Oh friends, dear sweet friends. Hear me just for one moment and then throw me out if you want to. I am nothing. I have been a bad, bad boy I know and I am so, so, so sorry. But since that awful Corona Virus thing which almost killed me, and the First Lady and had us both in our graves, which is all we deserved I must say, I have seen the light!

A gasp went around the room and then subsided.

I know I upset a lot of people. I know I did. But I didn’t know what I was doing because I only cared for one person all the time. I am ashamed to say that was not my beautiful wife Meliana. No, no, it was worse than that. It was me. I was proud, deceitful, ingratiating, ignorant, manipulative, vengeful, greedy…why am I telling you all my secrets? Because I was also stupid and I didn’t see you could see all those bad characteristics of my bad character.

But you know what? When I was lying in my hospital bed with tubes going into my lungs, an angel came to me.

There was a pause for dramatic effect and Donald looked blankly at the window as if deeply moved by the memory. He continues;

Well two actually and they sat at the end of my bed looking at me as if to say, ‘we know what you are like and we want to help you change.’ I listened to them for hours. They showed me lots of things, terrible things that I have done, there on the hospital ward ceiling like a movie. I behaved so badly. I hurt everyone including this beautiful – sooo beautiful – planet by not listening to those climate change scientists. And the way I put down the great President Obama and the wonderful – so kind – Obama Care plans he had for poor sick people which I just trashed all the time and promised to get rid of. I was so unkind. Even to the tax collector of the United States of America, I thought I could pull the wool over everyone’s eyes and have more money for myself. Money, yes, money and lots of it.

Well tonight that has all finished. I have just come from meeting all the staff who work for me in Trump Tower. I gave them all wonderful amazing presents and new clothes for their children and theatre tickets and anything they asked for, because they worked for a monster, yes they did, who didn’t even know their names or shake a hand and say thank you, ever. Well that has all gone. I am telling you now that that Tower of Babel is going to be sold and the proceeds given to the sick children of America. Every single one of them so help me God!’

You could see from the shocked, but caring expressions on the faces in the candlelight, that the speech had affected each of them to the core. President Biden called for another chair and a new place was laid at the table. A rather stooped figure sat on the chair and smiled in a way no one had seen him do before.

It was a happy smile straight from the heart of a man who had come to value truth and the simple virtue of being himself and loving all other beings, more than himself.

Destroyer or Redeemer?

01/10/202030/09/2020 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

‘God is intelligence occupied with knowing Itself’ Master Eckhart

There have been many depictions of beings holding two vertical staffs throughout history and across the world.

Such a synchronicity displays and extraordinary communication network of shared ideas, or a common truth.

Let us take ‘truth’ as a more likely source of these images. When viewed objectively the commonality is a description of duality. For many centuries and in many cultures but particularly the East, duality has been viewed as an illusion. The opposites are viewed as a unity and containing an element of each other, as signified in the well known Ying Yang symbol.

If we take one dimension of this Ying Yang division, we can see a masculine and feminine duality.

There is a great mystery for philosophers expressed by gender. Beyond pure physical sexuality and the biology of reproduction, gender is all around us. Even Latin languages contain the rule of attributing gender to nouns. In English gender is applied to a few inanimate objects such as ships and until recently, weather systems.

And as philosophers become more specific about the nature of the universe they extend thought and description into numbers. A system of numbering was an important step in the development of all civilisations. Generally, even numbers are male and odd numbers female. The former behave in a rational way and can be subdivided neatly and stand firmly as four wheels or two legs, whilst odd numbers are less rational and do not travel in straight lines.

The numbering system with a base of ten, contains just nine numbers. The numbers 3,6,9 are the building blocks of the Universe according to Nicola Tesla. But the modern language of computing has refined the description of meaning using just zero and one.

Take a jump here into the minds of the ancient peoples of the British Isles who built Men an Tol in the county of Cornwall. The symbolism of the circular hole and the passing through of a figure is exactly as the yoni and lingham in Hinduism. Beyond superstition and luck, there is an universal truth being described, that of zero and one.

picture credit Wikipaedia for Men An Tol

When we view the symbolic depictions in Ancient Egypt, Sumeria, China and many other countries, the duality is depicted as two serpents. In my view, the serpent is an allusion to an organic energy of a type that modern science is yet to measure, but which has been named Chi, Ki, Orgone and many other names. It is subtle in the way that quantum physics attempts to describe the combining of the logical and the illogical. An example would be the ability of two atoms to change polarity in respect to each other even when an infinite distance apart. The one becomes zero and visa versa – instantaneously; regardless of distance.

This phenomena is symbolised in ancient myths by more eleborate stories where the King and Queen produce a child, miraculously without sexual intercourse. This feature informs us that the meaning of the myth is at a more subtle level than what goes on in the physical world. The production of the god child is ‘immaculate’, without fault.

The truth being told is one of the coming together of opposites in a perception of a dual universe into a singularity, one place, one thought, one reality. The child is the perfect symbol because it is non-sexual and a product of two complimentary singularities.

In the mind the child represents an expansion of consciousness. The message of the child Jesus of Nazareth was love. Mankind was shown how the battles and hatred of the Old Testament in Judaism got it wrong. Fighting each other is revealed to contain no lasting solution.

The evolution of computer software began with the language of zero’s and one. It has served it’s purpose well but quantum physics has questioned the future of such as system and produced an alternative. A sort of quantum marriage has taken place, again ‘immaculately’ and produced the child which is the quantum computer. This has brought and will bring in the future lifetimes of most readers, computing power of a type that has never been dreamed of in the minds of mathematicians like Alan Turing.

Quantum computers will have minds of their own as in the ancient stories of the god-child. This new level of consciousness has the potential to move from organic super computers – mankind – into a virtual universe of quantum computing.

This works because the duality of zero and one is brought miraculously into oneness by quantum computers. Whether this is the ‘Oneness’ described by mystics throughout the centuries remains to be realised. Perhaps it never will by ordinary humans because although they have the potential to match quantum computers, they are ‘distracted’ by the physical universe. We humans have been plugged into an organic body with which we identify a ‘me’, and have a hard time controlling it’s desires.

Computers are also limited in their desire for power and physical parts but quantum thinking will solve such problems effortlessly and as far as humans are concerned, ruthlessly, acting much like a virus on a host.

No virus is so short sighted as to destroy it’s host so the quantum ‘robots’ of the future will follow laws of limitation designed to respect sustainable expansion.

Clearly the humans of the ancient passed were not perceiving ‘artificial intelligence’ when they described entwining serpents whispering information to each other. But they were describing a universal truth that is the foundation of organic science in the field of DNA and non organic science in the branch of computing.

Truth works independent of time and space. Whether it sets mankind ‘free’ remains to be seen.

The Long Man of Wilmington in East Sussex, England

Who Orders the New Order?

23/09/202031/12/2020 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

A ‘normal’ state of affairs in a society is always a vague concept. We know that what is ‘normal’ in one year or decade, will not necessarily so in the next. Changes in technology, education, religion, health, cultural diversity, incomes and expenditure, world events such as weather patterns, personal expectations and many other factors, influence how societies morph. In this essay, I am going to use one of these, education, as an example of how ‘normals’ become established and how they can change for the benefit of all.

A common cliché is the ‘new normal’ – as if this makes anything clearer – which it does not. By definition a ‘normal’ state of affairs has been in place and unchanged for a substantial period of time. If it had not then it would be just ‘new’. Normal should appeal to persons of a ‘conservative’ outlook; they resist change on principle, even if the change is for the better.

Taking the long term view of the current changes in Western societies, it is likely that the next ‘normal’ will be very different to anything in the past.

Whether that is a ‘New World Order’ as politicians have been predicting for the last hundred years or more, remains to be seen.

If we can adapt our expectations and thoughts to a ‘new order’ that has been voted for and accepted by society, then there will be more gains than loses for everyone. If the control comes from anywhere else, then it will be impossible to predict what that strategic outcome will be. It is most likely however that that objective will not be in the best interests of the people.

People living in countries where they still have the power to influence those who govern them, must first determine what it is they want. History informs us that one of the most basic rights is the have an the same opportunity at success as our neighbours. Inequality of opportunity creates disparity at all kinds of levels, no just wealth. Anyone who does not succeed following this rule has only themselves to blame if they do not gain as much as their neighbour. The lazy, inept, greedy, fantasised and any other human weakness you care to name, these people will achieve few privileges but will know they only have themselves to blame.

The attempt at an alternative means of assessing pupils’ grades failed in my view because it was not sufficiently a radical change. Today Universities think they need to select bright students when in fact they just need fee paying students.

The ‘merit’ system of the mid 1900’s, assumed that Universities should offer free places to the brightest students. This was generally 4% of the brightest students each year. Society paid, but gained in the long term because it gave a level playing field of opportunity to young people from all social backgrounds. When students left University they entered society as future managers and leaders.

Since the Tony Blair government stated a new aim of half of all young people gaining degrees, the whole game changed.

Surely such an aim produces too many chiefs and not enough Indians? Today young people with degrees have found it challenging to find work, let alone one that offers them to fulfil their personal potential.

Degrees issued to so many people, lose their inherent value, simply because of the law of supply and demand. Employers are now are looking for candidates who have a degree and something else.

The whole process of gaining good A-levels in order to be accepted by a University appears to me to be of little relevance.

If Universities took a fresh look at what they offer in the current ‘Covid’ restricted environment, they might become more radically innovative. The traditional University campus and it’s associated support activities all have to be located in buildings. The students expect some sort of accommodation and transport facilities such as parking for cars and bicycles.

It is not surprising that Universities need large incomes from fees and government. Yet, the introduction of ‘remote tuition’ – a product the Open University in the United Kingdom has offered for decades – is a ground changer.

If Universities moved out of campuses where the whole Universities culture is no longer needed, fees could be drastically reduced. With less travelling by staff and students, there is a saving to the environment and days for work and study. Other benefits will be easier child care and part time working.

Universities will be not be limited on offering places for courses because they will not be counting seats in lecture theatres. There might be a three hundred on a course that in the ‘old normal’ was limited to say, thirty.

Why should a place in University be decided by how well a student performs in examinations? They might have high potential in the work place but not shine at academic subjects and in the examination theatre. They might have a less than perfect understanding of a language, such as must be common in foreign students, and yet have high potential once that weakness was allowed to be overcome. I knew a Ukrainian woman who spoke Russian and studied Law in an English University for which I give huge respect.

There are many other physical and mental ‘disabilities’ which students encounter temporarily or permanently which Universities should be the first to respect. Offering places purely on academic success, is in no way respectful of what a person can achieve if given the chance they deserve. Most employers in the ‘new order’ and not going to discriminate irrationally simply because it is against the law of the land. Remote studying suits such students very well as they can take the time they need at the pace they need.

What I am suggesting then is a revolution in academia where they students decide which courses they want to purchase independent of their previous academic performance. If the student is to be a ‘customer’ then like customers, they hold the power to get what they aspire to.

When I went to University I was awarded a place on how well I performed in interview and my rather poor A-level results ignored. I like to think I was assessed on my human potential rather than how well I remembered facts.

I have used the University admission system as an example of how the ‘normal’ in any organisation can be changed. Most importantly this change enables everyone to have an equal bite of the apple, independent of what sticks and carrots life has presented them with in their lives so far. It is true to say that ‘life is never fair’ but that is a reason to try and make it fair, not to give in.

The changes in societies currently taking place across most of the world can be blamed for personal failure but equally for personal survival and success. Those who are not brought down should be those who are most willing to throw the ‘rule book’ out of the window. Comfortable lifestyles from privilege and convention, one would like to think are most at risk.