Independence Day Transformation

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My Independence Day weekend has been one of reflection and easy socializing. On the reflective side, a colleague and friend, Christian de la Huerta, shared last week about his first ten years of life living in Cuba under an oppressive regime. People went to sleep every night fearing a knock on the door. Nobody felt safe. For him, coming to this county was a miraculous lifting of his and his family’s daily terrors. I’m refracting this with the media version of “Patriotism” that is banging us on the head in such complex ways. For me, it’s not a “my country, right or wrong,” yet I feel blessed to live with the personal freedom that allows me to explore and share my discoveries and live as full and rich a life as possible. This was a gift from the toil of our founding fathers; and a part of a very mysterious process of human evolution. America is still a bold experiment on the world stage.

Some feel that this bold experiment has seen its best days and, with global shifts expanding daily and poor and uninformed choices made by our leaders, we will never be what we once thought we were. That would be impossible. Yet, we can be something even better, as a measure of my independence; I can receive a magazine like Ode - a print and online publication about positive news, about the people and ideas that are changing our world for the better. As a member of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (who recently published the book Living Deeply that utilizes ten years of scientific research to demonstrate the global consciousness of the moment and its preparedness to positively shift from the individual out), this freedom to explore human consciousness is a treasure I cherish beyond words.

The media gives us content that they have access to or are fed and fits with the mainstream. What we don’t get is news of the gigantic force (organizations, groups, individuals) that challenge themselves daily to find and live in the constructive energy of making a better world. IONS, mentioned above, was founded more than thirty-five years ago by Edgar Mitchell, one of the early astronauts who walked on the moon. On the return flight he saw the earth as a living, throbbing blue orb in the galaxy that made him feel part of a living home base and the universe it resides in. His attempts to better understand this experience in consciousness led to the founding of IONS.

I believe that this country still has the ingredients to become a respected leader on the world discovery stage at even greater levels than before. If you want to share (or argue) with my quietly held belief, I ask you to start with two simple steps (1) Join IONS & their Shift-in-Action program and read their 2008 Shift-in-Action Progress Report. It is astonishing! (2) Join (virtually or otherwise) the efforts of many who for the past approximately eight years have been lobbying the U.S. Congress to establish a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence. Originally proposed in the nineteen thirties to offset our expenses with war, it is now gaining momentum. We sorely need an infrastructure for bringing together our leaders who can help us create peace and healing. The “technology” already exists. Let us be the ones to gather this wisdom and make it accessible globally. This would give us back the vigor and respect that make the distinction “independence” cogent and timely. We need the grounding of an authorized and fully appropriated federal agency that could help focalize the restoration of the planet, make better lives us and for our kids, and make us feel good that we are part of the solution, not passively allowing obvious problems to escalate.

These recommendations are but the tip of the iceberg as what is presently available and known, and what actions are already taking place. Start with these two and others will present themselves. Do so and I promise that next year there will be a new uplifting experience to your Independence Day!

As a practitioner of the healing arts, I know the value of coming out of our conditioned personal world and cultures and experiencing a felt awareness of enlarged realities that sometimes help us find our place in it all. From my everyday bits and pieces, I’m thrilled that the Focalizing.com web site sent out its first newsletter; download it here. Personally, I’m both proud and humbled by the articles in it. Sign up to receive your own future copies of future issues here.

One last thing, in my media encounters over the year’s one public radio interviewer named Nicholas Cimorelli really impressed me with his breath of knowledge, wisdom and warmth. Recently, Nicholas interviewed me again and the dynamic discussion is now an audio pod cast (and discussion segments) and can be heard at our web site any time. There is also a transcript to download for those who prefer reading: The interview was titled Focalizing: An Energy Psychology for the 21st Century (click title for podcast).

Wishing you a great summer!