UPDATE: Rob and I and Connie Cannon were interviewed on Whitley Strieber’s Dreamland about the unusual sighting her son had. The link to listen to it is here.
From The New Yorker
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Recently, someone asked me why I don’t go to church. It was something of a synchro for me since I had been thinking about how when I was really young, church was not only mandatory but included a catechism class taught by Catholic nuns.
In one of these catechism classes (I think I was 12) the nun was talking about heaven and death. “When you die,” she said, “you go to one of four places: heaven, purgatory, hell, or limbo. The last was the place you went if you hadn’t been baptized to clear your soul of original sin – you know, Adam’s fooling around with Eve in the garden and grabbing that apple off the tree.
I remember thinking, Huh? That’s wrong. What happens is what we believe happens. This is all a lie. After that realization, I found a reason to be sick or extremely fatigued on Sundays, and my younger sister bore the brunt of church and catechism. I still had to attend occasionally, but by the time I was 16 I mustered the courage to tell my dad that I just couldn’t do church anymore, that I didn’t believe a word of it.
I thought he was going to be angry, but instead he started laughing. “Fantastic. Now I don’t have to go to church anymore.”
Now, many decades later, I see organized religion as a real detriment to our evolution as spiritual and creative beings.
In Texas.
Other states have initiated the same types of restrictions on women’s health. Why? What is it about women’s health that drives these aging white men nuts? Well, just a simple fact: these women can conceive, give birth, have children – their children –and oh my god, your child’s life begins at conception. But never mind that once this revered child is born, it’s on its own. The Repubs don’t want to care for this child, have public education for this child, or even acknowledge this child if he or she isn’t white. In fact, they hope to restrict women’s access to birth control.
If, in today’s Republican party, you are not white and male, then, oh sorry, you don’t count. Never mind that most of American voters are female. Never mind that Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority in this country. The Repubs are playing to some extreme, shrinking base and if they continue on this path, they won’t qualify as a national party.
But their base is powerful. I saw it today when I went to my usual beauty salon and overheard the woman who colors and cuts my hair talking about the George Zimmerman trial.
If Treyvon Martin had been white, you can bet we wouldn’t be having this trial or discussion,” she said.
I wanted to call her on it, wanted desperately to say, Hey, hon, guess what? Racism is alive and well in South Florida, and you are its face, its reality, its heart. But I didn’t. I wasn’t up to it. But you know what? I think it’s time for me to find a new hair stylist, like a gay guy who gets it. Or a gay woman who is raising kids with her partner. Or even a straight man or woman who understands that we, as a human collective, are at a cross road, and that what worked for us as a people and as a country in earlier decades is no longer relevant.
If we look at these events as dreams, as our blogging friend Adelita Chirino does, what’s the message? Are we entering the realm of Margaret Atwood’s visonary novel The Handmaid’s Tale? Or are these events necessary steps toward some greater and more humane paradigm? Right now, in the thick of it, the answer isn’t clear.
In Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, Nobel laureate Kerry Mullis writes movingly of how he received a letter in the mail that would determine his future. If memory serves, I believe it concerned whether or not he’d been admitted to the college/graduate school of his choice. He stood there, the letter in his hand, and realized that until he opened it, until he actually read it, the content was like Schrodinger’s cat, the classic quantum physics thought experiment. The cat is trapped in the box. Is it alive or dead? You don’t know until you open the box.
Until you open the box – or the letter – there is only a wave of probability. But once you open whatever it is, that wave crashes into physical reality as a particle, as the reality. I feel like that’s where we are now as a human collective: we’re Kerry Mullis, holding that letter in our hands. We’re Erwin Schrodinger, contemplating the box that holds the trapped cat. What’s it going to be? Business as usual? A new paradigm? Or something altogether new and different?
I’ve been catching up on your blog after over a week of laying low with bronchitis, so I missed this and other wonderful posts. As you point out, looking at events as if they are a waking dream is something I find empowering. It’s not the message in the events that I’m looking for, though; it’s the possibilities I may be overlooking in terms of any action I may be able to take. When a tiger in a dream is chasing me, if I know I’m dreaming, I can take some unusual steps to face this challenging tiger and make it an ally or make it go away. I can fly; I can call in a herd of elephants, etc. Seeing things in dream perspective encourages me to look for unlikely alternatives, resources or recourse to my dilemma. The racism in America dramatized in the Trayvon Martin case represents a cultural nightmare. It’s a consensus reality created over hundreds of years that we’re being challenged to transform. In dreams, we have the power to create our reality. In waking life, we can be focused on altering the consensus reality by visioning and materializing a new consensus. I would never challenge my hairdresser while she is in mid-cut, but I might later let her know why I’ve fired her. At any rate, many voices are being raised in protest over the ridiculous verdict. And more and more, people are challenging the existing consensus. Spirituality is a birthright and we don’t need religions to “insure” our odds on life after death; there are myriad natural wonders many times more powerful than any cathedral. Women were once revered for their power to create life (Erich Neumann’s “The Great Mother” or Merlin Stone’s “When God Was a Woman”.), but with the rise of patriarchal cultures, women’s powers were rigidly controlled and degraded. I hope we’re seeing the last throes of the oppressive patriarchal consensus that has fueled sexism, as well as, racism for so long. In my conscious dream, a motley band of “outliers” will usher in the emerging transformation of consciousness that recognizes our eternal spirit and creates a new consensus reality resonant of this profound truth. There’s nothing pointless or fruitless about this effort, as when we shuffle off this mortal coil, we can continue our efforts on other outlier friendly dimensions, and eventually, the change we dream for this physical dimension will happen. Your blog and your books are a powerful force for nurturing this new emerging consciousness, of that, I’m very sure. It’s not the way things are, it’s the way we want them to be, that matters most. That’s the power of waking dreams.
Wow, this is powerfully stated, Adelita. Thanks for posting it. I think you’re right on about racism/cultural nightmare.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that “Right” always wins. According to statistics, there is an alrming number of innocent people who have been put to death in prisons for crimes they didn’t commit, their innocence having been proven too late by DNA and the REAL criminals found. Anywhere there are humans, there can be injustice, which is a tragedy, especially in this new verdict in the Zimmerman trial.
Our justice system seems to need some kind of massive overhaul and a major re-structuring, but I don’t see it happening soon. Meanwhile, innocent folks die and guilty folks go free. I suppose karma must be involved in these situations somewhere, but they are nonetheless disturbing. Once in a while I re-read the classic A TALE OF TWO CITIES, to remind myself that as a species we haven’t evolved as much as we believe we have, and that we need to strive for greater spiritual clarity.
Old Madame DeFarge still sits on her stool knitting and smiling as the guillotine blade falls and the heads roll. Shameful.
I cannot remember the quotation exactly but Ashleigh Brilliant had an interesting one. It went something like this – Organized Religiion – Different groups of people killing each other over whose imaginary friend is best.
That’s a good one!
“If Treyvon Martin had been white, you can bet we wouldn’t be having this trial or discussion,” she said.”
She’s half right, but not in the way she means. If he had been white he wouldn’t have gotten shot because Zimmerman wouldn’t have singled him out as “suspicious.” Things need to change but will they? Probably not.
I am so disappointed but sadly not surprised with the trial’s outcome.
Exactly.
brava, trish, brava!
Christianity is my language to express and understand all things spiritual. On the other hand: https://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Religion/bibleproblems.htm (TROUBLING QUOTES FROM THE BIBLE). It’s a really confusing situation when the reason for you to (be able to) believe in something beyond five senses is a specific religion and you disagree with the full package.
Thanks for the links, Aleksandar!
Jury verdict: Zimmerman not guilty.
Re:
” …like a gay guy who gets it.”
Ha,funny you should say that Trish,because I came here to give you a link to a friend’s site in England who runs a fantastic blog called ‘ Rune Soup’…and yes,he is gay,but who cares?
I was responding to your interview on Whitley Strieber’s Dreamland about death and aliens.Gordon just wrote about a talk in London he attended by an artist who claims to have a chip in his head and contact with aliens –
https://runesoup.com/2013/07/ambitious-metaphysics/
The artist is Paul Laffoley
(I’ve never heard of him,but I don’t read too much UFO stuff to be honest)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGMT1s62Y9c
But on Religion…not being a regular church goer myself…I think the spiritual side of the ritual can be very powerful for church goers and think it does more good than harm,as long as you can sort the s#!+ from the Shinola for yourself and not get caught up in the politics of the control structure of organized religion.
I myself am a member of the Liberal Catholic Church and while I haven’t been inside one of their churches for over 20 years,I enjoyed going and found their take on spiritually quite to my liking.
But family life and traveling distance
(and wanting to sleep in on Sundays.-) has kept me out of the loop.
I must confess (pun not intended,but I like it.-) to liking the the Roman Catholic ritual of communion,I just can’t stand the dogma of the political side of the Church.
But for those who enjoy attending Church,I can see why.
There can be a great peace to the soul sitting in a lovely Cathedral and going through the motions of ritual.
I saw a great interview with Tom Shadyac (who says he is a Christian) who’s work I love (I don’t consider myself a Christian,by the way)
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/director-tom-shadyac/?show=17691
Tom is doing wonderful work and is a great guy.
So,it’s like everything in life I guess,there is good and bad in everything,that’s why God,or whatever people want to call the Force (for Star Wars fans.-) ,gave us a brain- to think for ourselves and not be told what to think by someone who claims my God gave them that authority.-)
I liked the ritual, too, and have sat peacefully in cathedrals in South America. But catholic dogma turns me off and away, far away. Will check out your links, which are always interesting!
About hairdressers…..my hairdresser is a tall, statuesque, beautiful woman who is a trans-sexual. She was born a boy. There is absolutely NOTHING about Sarah that resembles maleness. She is a woman; age 50; went through all the many stages of surgeries, hormones, etc etc etc over a period of years. Her father was career military and did not accept her. Her mother, recently deceased, accepted and supported her completely. Sarah is beyond any shadow of a doubt the most loving, the most compassionate, the most understanding and accepting, the most NON-JUDGMENTAL human it has ever been my privilege to know. She doesn’t hold any racism or bias of any nature. Being in her presence always lifts my spirits because she is such a happy, delightful soul. Maybe it takes experiences such as Sarah had to endure before we become able to accept every individual without such divisiveness.
This is a great post, Trish. Very, very relevant. I’ve been following the Zimmerman trial closely and am waiting for the all-female jury’s verdict. There are five white women and one Hispanic woman on the jury. I watched the prosecution and the defense closing statements yesterday. It was eye-opening!
We’ll see how this trial shakes out!
Oh, hope I’m not in the category of those ‘aging white men’ you mention!
A heart felt post. I don’t know a lot about USA politics but generally many people don’t like change. I fear it sometimes takes a generation to die out before some things can fully come about. Attitudes can be so ingrained, almost from birth, and they take a lot to break down completely.
But right will win.
I meant aging white male politicians!