Mind and Matter.

 

 Mind and Matter.

Growing up on a remote farm with nature, I developed an interest in the subject of mind and matter early in life. I had little religious instruction, so I developed my own. Being in Israel amongst all the ruins of religious buildings convinced me that there was something unseen that was more powerful than the physical world I was existing in. All the religions left a mark on my environment. All had their religious leaders dressed up to be distinguished from each other, and all explained that the others were wrong in how they worshipped God. There was one common denominator to them all. If we could go through the adoring crowds which always surround them, we discover they are nice people, regardless of their faith. They had one goal: to save souls by teaching them the right way to worship God. Their ways were not the same.

In the last century and going on till now, some serious schools took on studying the human brain. Neuroscience became a respectable field of study, employing the latest and most advanced tools. In the nineteen twenties, doctors were doing lobotomies and using electric shock therapy to alter human behavior, and now they use powerfully crafted mind medications to do the same. Scientific research reveals that we can change things in the human brain to obtain what we call the desired outcome. It is most noticeable when used in marketing, which is used to make profits and often to gain political power. For example, people can be addicted to some substances and controlled to some degree. Pay attention to the advertising of coffee or alcohol. Sugar and cocoa are other options.

The latest research reveals some truths that the ancients knew. We have two minds within us. One could be the mind of God. It counts our heartbeats, makes digestion work, grows and discards cells, causes reproduction, and a million other things we can’t do using our current knowledge. It has a mind greater than mine and doesn’t listen to me. The other mind deals with morality, love, making choices, and sadly jealousy, hate, greed, and amongst others, a need to investigate the universe, develop medicine, and unfortunately find ways to kill each other. The first, the sub-conscience, is out of our control and the second is operating according to our feelings. That one, which I call “my mind”, has the ability to create. It is in the image of God.

Don’t expect it to make you win the lottery or let you walk on water just because you want to. The world wouldn’t survive 24 hours if all people had that kind of power. Yet we learned that what we most think about is capable of materializing. The easiest to observe are things to do with a person’s health. Ample cases show that faith or belief influences physical health. So many of them that scientists working on the development of drugs always use control groups. If the control group is given what is not the new medicine and recovers at the same rate as those treated with the drug, we view it as a drug incapable of making a difference.

Also, a significant amount of research is invested in studying the “placebo effect.” We have indisputable evidence that people who believe that something will help them show a remarkable level of healing. Since we cannot repeat it at will, it doesn’t get the attention that it deserves. I visited a location where a significant amount of faith healing happened, yet they do not mention it in medical journals.  

We know feelings cause thoughts and thoughts have an influence over reality. How remains unanswered since there are so many variations. People can confidently say that it is the hand of God, but that hand works through changes in chemicals, the behavior of internal organs, and so on. If it didn’t, people would riot demanding miracles on request. The rich would want to buy miracles and drug companies would sue churches. It is a complicated world.

In the last quarter of the century, we expanded our knowledge into the quantum field, but a lot more can be done. People must slowly accept that there is a universal mind greater than our rudimentary knowledge of science even while we develop new knowledge. It is a combination of our material knowledge with spiritual discoveries that will be most effective. We need to trust science and God, whatever we think He is, at the same time. We need to accept that there is a lot more to the universe than what is visible. It’s a decision that each of us makes and all of us live and die by.

I believe in training ourselves to control and regulate our thoughts. We change thoughts thousands of times every minute we are alive. We can’t have any time, awake or sleeping, without thinking about something. However, a human can replace some thoughts with others and learn how to do so efficiently. The thoughts, at least to some degree, create reality, which brings about more thoughts. The whole craze about positive thinking was built on that idea but not investigated to its depths.

We can’t all live on a lonely farm without electronic screens and build a database of philosophical theories, but we can improve on what there is. There is no time like now.

Economy moving backward.

 

 Economy moving backward.

A long time ago, in a faraway land, I was a child living on a farm. No electricity, telephone, or a vehicle that could travel the highway. We had some neighbors off and on. Going to the doctor in the next village required either going on the bus that came twice a day or taking the horse and buggy. No fire department or police, but we had a school where you would come into the classrooms directly from the outdoors.

We had a fire when the dog knocked over a burner. The neighbors came over and helped. Older people lived with their families until they died, and we restricted no one to the level of education they could afford. All they needed were the marks.

Life has changed now. I watch news from the US and see that most bankruptcies are related to health. Many people end up having to sell all they have and accumulate debt to stay alive. Graduated students who are badly needed are working to pay student debts and young people flock into the army for lack of jobs. They talk about national prosperity, but many farms across the border from here look terrible. Seniors are warehoused two to a room and people all over are using food stamps. I ask myself, where is the prosperity that shows on fancy graphs?  

When my parents were young, feudalism was still partially used in Europe. Rich noble families owned all the land, and the peasants worked it to produce a humble living. My Dad was from a peasant family and my mom was from a noble family. When the Russian armies took over, the nobles or “educated” class were the first to be killed. Feudalism eventually gave way to a social democratic system that still exists today. The people themselves challenged this. Remember the biblical story about the Jew’s exodus from Egypt?

Moses took the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and gave them a law, religion, and freedom. They could have just gone to the promised land and enjoyed life. That didn’t happen. People want a master. We will pay for someone to be our idol, even if it is only the golden calf promoted by bearers of fake news. God opened the ground and let it swallow them and the rest had to all die in the desert and never get to the promised land. Their offsprings fought to get a place on earth, but they didn’t learn. There was a period of relative peace as we had after two great wars, and all returned to chaos.

The period after the second world war, although marked by a cold war, was perhaps the best in recent history. Europe came out of complete destruction with flying colors with the help of America. When people help each other, both those who help and those receiving help do well. In America, the middle class grew and workers gained many rights and had a decent living. Millions received education and the medical professions increased their knowledge many times over. We eliminated major killing diseases. Hunger around the world diminished and other bad things improved. There were resources applied to improve the lives of all humans.

As it stands, humans are wasting more effort on improving military might than on what will help our species survive and thrive. It is as if we are unable to talk and negotiate. All options are open, they say. We compete to get or stay rich, to have power over each other, keep the poor impoverished and are ready to do so by force. All sides believe they are doing so in self-defense.

The years have gone by and instead of improving on what we had; we took more from the masses and gave it to the affluent we adore. Imagining how it could be if we were rich became more important than having comfortable, safe, simple lives. Each election we vote to reduce public services, pay teachers, doctors, police, and all the rest less, and they in turn spend less on buying our products and services. Let the market dictate, we say, but the market is designed to exclude not include more people. Step by step we are wrecking what previous generations have built. We wait for disasters before investing in preventing them and pay a high price to deal with the problems. A good example is earthquakes in Turkey. They had regulations to build proper buildings but didn’t invest in enforcing them. Now, with the buildings collapsed and so many casualties, they are begging for help from those who had the political “guts” and don’t get destroyed by foreseeable disasters. Canada got rid of research on vaccines and we were short when it was most needed. Our attempts to maximize EMS resulted in people dying at home waiting for an ambulance. Where did the money saved on those measures end up? Not to help those of us in the most desperate situations.

Our problem is that instead of building up on the idea that we are God’s children, in His image, we chose to believe that we are advanced apes and act like such. The big monkey steals from the little monkey and beats him up.

I was on an isolated farm with no help, and we built systems to have help. Now we are throwing it away and soon may be in the same predicament, while someone will pocket our money out of our reach.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Virtual flight.

 

Virtual flight.

I try to live in the moment whenever I can. I don’t know the future and I hope it will be alright. Can I make things happen better than they will on their own? I wish I knew. Looking back, I also see a blank mystery. Stories appeared only a few thousand years ago when people learned to write on stones or clay tablets. There is a lot more that we are slowly discovering, which is difficult to interpret. It looks as if there were civilizations who could do what we yet can’t, and disappeared, leaving very little evidence of their existence in the dust of time. They were all over the world. Some ancient writing mentions them, but that is all. We find pyramids, underground cities, and large human settlements covered by the oceans. We know that not all our ancestors were primitive cave dwellers. Many advanced civilizations were destroyed and restarted to become our present civilization. There is some level of spirituality in most, if not all, humans. It is not material, but it exists. There is more to the world than what the eye can see.

In the old days, traveling was very hard, dangerous, and expensive. Caravans traveled on foot with burden animals and small armies for protection. Very few people knew exactly where they were going and fewer yet knew the way. A trip could last years and not everyone who went came back alive. However, it was the only way to learn about the world. Time went by and traveling on water gained popularity. The wind was discovered to be a source of energy to propel humans, cargo, and the heavy wooden ships that carried it all. Again, safety was an issue and weapons and marines were necessary. Large nations built navies and trained people to use them. Over thousands of years, technology improved, and those who were ahead built great wealth. It was the age of discovery. Maps were produced and methods to navigate improved. Some people even dreamed about traveling by air. This idea had to wait until we had engines to power flight. We had pictographs of aliens flying and the idea of God’s angles having wings wasn’t new.

In the second half of the twentieth century, I flew a jet to Canada. In the next fifty years, flying over our world became commonplace and people in the developed world took advantage and learned to fly for leisure. Computers were improved and a new option was born. We can stay at home and see what is happening anywhere in the world. I do it all the time now, seeing through the lenses of modern cameras what is happening. Today the news is humming about a foreign object shot down over the Yukon and the Prime Minister is basking in glory over authorizing the action. I am wondering if he considered the possibility that it may have been an alien craft seeking help in our world. The PM likes to be in the headlines while a sensible Alberta country girl is running the country successfully, not demanding attention.

I don’t enjoy waiting in airports, sleeping in hotels, traveling in taxis, and the rest of what people consider a novelty in traveling. I would get no pleasure from being in a tiny cabin on a cruise ship, even if they invited me to dine at the captain’s table or lounge by a pool in a floating hotel. I don’t relish gambling in famous casinos or seeing busy dusty spots where long-ago history was made. A dirty path to a historic building for me is just that. A dirty trail traveled to see a building that I don’t care about. I grew up in such places. I hope that those who travel enjoy it for all its worth. I am interested in the news and the people who have fewer choices in life just trying to stay alive. I go on my computer to Ukraine. A beautiful country with great hard-working people. Their place on earth is being destroyed by a tyrant who wishes to rule them against their will. On the computer, I follow the people of Turkey and Syria demolished by earthquakes and war at the same time. From there, I follow people in Pakistan abused by their own government and lost all they had in floods. It brings me to people in California who lost all they had to fires and floods, much the same as our brothers and sisters in British Columbia. I visit First Nations in other parts of Canada whose stories I don’t need to tell but are obvious to anyone who looks. South America has millions of folks under governments installed by powerful nations who use their suffering to make money and the same in Africa. The far east doesn’t escape my computer gaze. Conditions in the Philippines are far from great and in India, a billion and a half people try to make a living. A fraction of the population is well off and the rest….

My traveling over the world takes hours and all I see are the highlights. Personal little tragedies are not visible to the cameras feeding computer travel but exist. A far north settlement in Canada doesn’t look much different from its equal in Russia. The world of humans provides great wealth for a few and a struggle for the many to stay alive. There is a feeling of unfairness and a looming danger of another civilization ending.

I fly over to a place I know well. The Crowsnest Pass in Alberta. A quiet mountain community where no one is rich but all live well. The weather is mostly nice and people are honest and kind and I thank the Lord. It’s possible.

Never had freedom.

 

Never had freedom.

A short time ago there was a big sign on a fence near my home saying “Freedom”. I liked the sign and can’t figure out why the owner took it down. That is one-word people are willing to fight for. Presently there are people all around our world who are fighting to the death for freedom. The most publicized is the war in Ukraine. A powerful country is trying to take freedom away from a smaller country and thousands are dying every day. Billions of dollars are spent on both sides to keep the war going. They took some of that money from my pension, which is just enough to keep me alive. The tax collectors consider the needs of governments, not the ability of citizens to pay. My freedom doesn’t matter.

I noticed that Canada Post came up with a new postage stamp portraying a picture of a young woman who was taken from Canada and sold in the US because she was black. Chloe Cooly never saw freedom, but thanks to her gallant fight, Canada changed its laws and became a refuge for runaway slaves.

I can’t remember ever having freedom. I arrived on the planet over seventy years ago and immediately lost my freedom. People twenty times my size tied me up with blankets so I couldn’t move and went on restricting my movements even when I learned how to walk. They had me in a cage called a crib. I rocked on my knees, banged my head against the bars, and cried. At the age of one, the adults did surgery on my body, for my health, but I didn’t know that. Mom left me in the hospital with strangers. I knew that.

After years on the farm, they took me to school. Here the teacher trained me and the other six years olds to sit where I was told, walk in line, talk if they gave permission, and do things I didn’t care to do. Every year that passed, society was congratulating me as more freedom was taken away. Later, I discovered teachers couldn’t teach kids what they knew best, but what the governments through committees and departments dictated. The freedom that we all talk about is an illusion, but we can’t get anywhere if we don’t work together.  

Each year, I looked at the kids in the next grade with envy. They were bigger, knew more things, and let me know I was only a little kid who wasn’t as good as them. They didn’t even want others to see them talking to me. Sometimes they told me to do things I didn’t enjoy doing, and I obliged, just to be in their company for a moment. All I could think about was to pass to the next grade and be like them, but I had to wait my turn. The ultimate goal was to be a grown-up, an adult, but I had to climb all the stairs to get there and most of the time I had to wait for nature to make me bigger. It never occurred to me I was wasting a precious limited lifetime wanting to get to the destination and ignoring the road to it. Be eighteen, be twenty-one, getting a degree, and winning a promotion, all left me empty, always wanting the next level.

In school, one way of jumping a few steps was by being a rebel and being punished. Of course, the price was steep. Later we had army training and disobeying could be deadly. At that point, my parents took me away and moved to Canada, the land of freedom. I had less freedom than ever being the emigrant who spoke no English and had no education, connections, or money. The banner of freedom in Lady Liberty’s hands under the Marble arch in Paris during the revolution didn’t include my kind.

I worked and studied hard trying to be equal to the rest and observed. Freedom fighters always were portrayed as rebels and terrorists by the establishment. Not a good image for me. I was on the side of Law and Order. This lasted until the world changed around the year 2020 and the biggest pandemic that my generation ever experienced happened.

I was sitting in the mall parking lot in Pincher Creek, watching an empty highway and a long train huffing toward the mountains. A few cautious people wearing masks hurried to the Co-op and back to their cars. The fear of death stopped schools, businesses, traffic, and all familiar activities. On the truck’s radio, the announcer said that we found a vaccine that could stop the disease, but Canada was no longer manufacturing vaccines and we couldn’t get our pre-ordered lifesaving medications for a while. The country went berserk with complaints about our government. All they could do was give money for people to stay alive until something changed. They did and rumors had it that large businesses were profiting from our pain.

While very few people used our legally granted freedoms to prosper, the rest wanted the freedom to receive whatever would keep them alive. Some wanted to get rid of the elected government and lead the country themselves.

I knew that I never had real freedom and never will, so I chose to be happy, anyway. I want democracy and to improve it. Others wanted revolution, but most of us don’t trust them. Even if they managed to lead without being elected, most Canadians know we did not choose them according to our laws. Their cries for “freedom” mean the rest will have less of it. They posted their signs quickly and took them down just as fast.

My choice is to have the freedom to work hard and be happy if I can be equal to others who do so. Some are happy with less than others and they should have their choice. Some make a minimum effort and need help, while others are happy only when they help. That is freedom.