Welcome to The Mystical Underground

Years ago, we interviewed a man  in an office with all the walls painted black. He had a great stereo system and was playing a Peter Gabriel tune when we arrived. It seemed that while in his darkened den the outside world simply vanished. His name was Michael Mann and he was producer of Miami Vice, a TV show that ironically was known for it bright pastel colors. His Mann-cave provided him a place to escape all the hoopla and buzz about his popular show.

Now there’s another Michael Mann who says many of us are living in caves like his namesake, avoiding the reality of what is happening to the climate.  This Michael Mann, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, recently told The Guardian  of London that low-lying island nations could see disastrous consequences of climate change far sooner than expected.

“The models have typically predicted that will not happen for decades but the measurements that are coming in tell us it is already happening so once again we are decades ahead of schedule,” Mann said, who is the director of Pennsylvania State University’s Earth System Science Center.

Meanwhile, more than a third of the people in the U.S. and Great Britain deny that there is any climate change going on, and that figure, ironically, has been rising along with the waters from the melting ice on the polar ice caps. “There’s a huge gap between what is understood by the scientific community and what is known by the public,” according to NASA scientist James Hansen.

Whether you think climate change is a normal pattern of nature or is being hurried along by 7 billion people and their carbon prints is irrelevant to the fact that the climate is rapidly changing.

It’s time for the deniers to abandon their caves and take a look at the science, which says the rise in average global temps, has been largely attributed to the burning of fossil fuels and the resultant increase in greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. That’s the overwhelming conclusion of scientists, even if politicians and their corporate allies are doing their best to tell us it ain’t so.

Even if all the scientists are wrong, the bottom line is that disastrous consequences are coming our way. As the Greenland and the west Antarctic ice sheets disappear,”we [will] really start to see sea level rises accelerate,” Mann says. Unlike with the melting of sea ice, these ice sheets would introduce vast quantities of water into the world’s oceans, and could cause the evacuation of some islands.

“Island nations that have considered the possibility of evacuation at some point, like Tuvalu, may have to be contending those sort of decisions within a matter of a decade or so.”

For vulnerable island nations, like the Maldives, Kiribati, the Torres Strait Islands and many others, rising seas will bring significant coastal erosion and saltwater contamination of limited freshwater supplies. Environmental group Oceana recently noted that nations dependent upon the sea will face food security threats as greater temperatures and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide increase ocean acidity and put marine life at risk.

Yet, the disbelief that it is happening is widespread. So maybe one day we will step out of our Mann-caves and discover that we’re on an island and water is rising.

This year’s record melting, which occurred under more “normal” conditions than the previous record set in 2007, left Arctic sea ice at a minimum “nearly 50 percent lower than the average … for the years 1979-2000,” according to Climate Central.

Despite the increasingly clear picture painted by scientific observations and climate modeling, “There’s a huge gap between what is understood by the scientific community and what is known by the public,” according to NASA scientist James Hansen. Recent polling suggests that as much as 35 percent of the U.S. population and 37 percent of the British public remain unconvinced of the scientific reality of climate change.

After watching this flash mob dancing, I wish I worked for Twitter!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YLnrH6E9lxs

That was the theme of a meditation class I taught recently and it was accompanied by synchronicity before class even began. I arrived about 15 minutes early to open the yoga studio and found one of my students sitting by the door. She said she was glad I arrived early because she had a question. She seemed anxious and said she was worried about going too deep into meditation.

I asked why. It seemed an odd question for a beginning meditation class, since most of the students were having a difficult time quieting their minds and getting into a meditative state. She spoke rapidly in a quiet, accented voice and told me that when she was 16 she was put into a deep trance by a man who did something to her. She didn’t say what, but said that maybe she would tell me later. I think she was waiting for me to ask, but I didn’t. She repeatedly said that she was worried about going too deep because she might re-live the experience. I thought that was what she was already doing.

I told her that the class was going to focus on overcoming worries and anxieties and it should help her overcome her fears. A couple of minutes later, another student arrived and the first thing she said was that she was worried about something. I can’t recall what it was – something about her teenage son -because I was too amazed that people were not only bringing their worries to class, but were talking about them. I hadn’t begun the class or told them that we would focus on dealing with worries and anxiety.

I’d brought a book along called, Matrix Meditations, and had marked a couple of passages in a chapter called Worry – Uncertainty and Anxiety. What I’d noticed about both the worries presented to me before class was that they probably weren’t worth worrying about. Certainly, the first woman had experienced something traumatic 25 or 30 years earlier, but if was so worried about reliving it, why had she signed up for the class?

The very first lines of what I read to the group actually reflected my thoughts. “Worry and anxiety sometimes reflect inner conflicts that need resolution, but many times they have little basis, and can waste a great deal of time and energy. Mark Twain remarked, “I’ve seen many troubles in my time, only half of which ever came true.” Worrying can be purposeful, but often it is not. Psychologist Fritz Perls called anxiety “the gap between the now and the later.”

I like that line. “The gap between the now and the latter.”

I had decided to make use of whatever the students were worrying about by turning it into a visualization for something better, what Maxwell Maltz, author of Psycho-Cybernetics, called constructive worry. Maltz recommends that you imagine the possibility of a positive event that you would like to see happen “so clearly that it becomes real to your brain and nervous system.”

So I told the class to create an intention – something that they wanted to see happen that would overcome any  worry or anxiety. (Worry is a mental process while anxiety is a whole body process. When you’re anxious, you muscles tighten, your breathing changes, a furrow forms on your brow.) The second step is to give it attention. Not the worry, but the positive resolution. Create the details of what you want to see. Then, no tension – release it, let it go.

So the mantra for that particular meditation was intention – attention – no tension. Over and over.

Hopefully, the meditations helped. But I had feeling that I was going to hear more about the woman’s trance  experience before the course was over. That last part – release it, let it go – can be the most challenging aspect of overcoming a negative experience.

After class, she approached and I was hoping that she would say something about how the exercise relieved her worry. Instead, she said something odd. “I’ve been in your house.”

Huh?

“Did you write a book about the Bermuda Triangle?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s what I thought. I remember my client talking to you about it. That was years ago. I’m a realtor and he was interested in your house.” Apparently, he was more interested in the Bermuda Triangle, because we’re still living here.

We were treated this evening to a 90-minute debate in the dog park called American presidential politics. We had Republican candidate Mitt Romney, a Rotweiller, and we had President Barack Obama, a Greyhound.

Rotweiller came lumbering into the park, a large, slobbering dog that glanced eagerly around because, finally, he was in a debate with the sitting president, a Greyhound, one of the fastest dogs in the world. But before Rotweiller got to the stage, he rolled over a couple of times for a tummy scratch, looking for supporters, friends, licking any dog around him that was open to being licked. Play with  me, play with me, Rotweiller’s body language said.

Greyhound, however, strolled into the park with a quiet confidence, muscles rippling, prepared. And Greyhound was smiling. Greyhound didn’t slobber, didn’t pause for distractions – tummy scratches, licks, none of that. Greyhound strolled to the center of the park where the podiums were. And he looked across the park to his wife, another sleek and gorgeous Greyhound, and wished her happy anniversary.

Greyhound ran circles around Rotweiller from the moment the bell rang. Greyhound looked presidential, spoke like the king of the dog park,  spoke like a dog who understands what his accomplishments are and how they are radically different from Rotweiller’s.  In fact, Rotweiller flipped on everything he has proposed for the last 15 months.

So let’s get specific, something Rotweiller is incapable of doing. On health care:

Romney, gritting his sharp, pretty white teeth, said that individuals who are 54 years of age and older, won’t have any changes in their Medicare coverage. But hey, those of you under that age? Get ready for a voucher system.

The government will send you a voucher for several thousand bucks and, with that, you will go shopping for health care on the private market. But hey, guess what? If you have preexisting conditions, you can be denied under the Romney plan. You will pay a much higher premium, particularly if you’re a dog whose has been torn apart several times by a pitt bull.

Rotweiller lacks specifics about everything. He can’t articulate where the jobs he promises will come from, says he will repeal Obamacare, but can’t define how his program will be different, other than extolling the virtues of the “private market.” Yeah, you know, that private market that has worked so great in the past

Let me tell you about the private market. When our daughter was born 23 years ago, we had health insurance – and discovered that it didn’t cover maternity care. Megan cost us more than $8,000 just to be born.  There were no complications in the delivery, I spent just one night in the hospital. Two days after I was released, we cancelled our health insurance and spent the next 23 years without insurance. As self-employed individuals, health insurance would have cost us somewhere around $12,000  a year for each of us  by the time we reached out mid-50s.

In June, I became eligible for Medicare, the program that Romney/Rotweiller  would turn into a voucher system. I pay $299 for three months of care. My entry into Medicare was effortless, the system is efficient, I have zero complaints. The program works.

Trickle down economics, which Naomi Klein addresses brilliantly in The Shock Doctrine, is what we had under eight years of Bush and we all know where that ended – 2008, a financial meltdown for the U.S and the rest of the world. It’s the same plan under Romney Rotweiller, even though he refuses to admit it, refuses to address specifics. And he refuses to address specifics because he knows that if does, he will lose.

Earlier today, I had my own dog park drama. It’s called a hair salon. The woman who cuts and colors my hair, Lynn, is the sister of the woman who retired after cutting my hair for 20 years. She said something about how confused everyone is about who to vote for.

“I’m not confused,” I say. “I’m voting for Obama. You vote for Romney/Ryan, and women’s rights will revert to the dark ages.”

“Oh, Trish,” she says with a small laugh. “That’ll never happen.”

When I was younger, I used to let remarks like this pass. I don’t do that anymore. “Lynn, Romney/Ryan don’t give a shit about you and me, okay? They DO NOT CARE.  You’re looking at abortions with hangars in back alleys. You’re looking at a country where there’s no middle class, where it’s rich , poor, and indentured servitude.”

She doesn’t say anything for a few minutes. Then: “Did you see Obama 2016, Trish?”

She’s referring to the anti-Obama film that is being touted as the right wing equivalent to Michael Moore’s Farenheit 9-11.

“No,” I reply. “I didn’t see it.”

“Well, we’re going to have an Islamic state by 2016.”

Oh, okay. I get it now. This is about the fact that Obama is black and she is not. This is about narrative, about the story, about perjury. So  I turn the story around for her. “Lynn, are we a country, a people,  who ignore the sick, the poor, the elderly, the vulnerable? We call ourselves a Christian nation, and if that’s true, how can we not take care of the most vulnerable in our society?”

Silence. Then: “Well, yeah, I see what you mean.”

Do you? Really?

“Lynn, have you read Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaids Tale?”

“No.”

“Well, you should read it before the election. Because that’s what you’re ultimately looking at under Romney/Ryan.”

I have a nephew who despises Obama. He thinks Obamacare will put him out of business because he works in the health industry, But actually, Obamacare will probably increase his business – and therefore his profit- because health insurance by 2014 will be mandatory.

Okay, so back to the dog park. The Rotweiller is trotting out of the park, confident that he has won. En route, he flops to the ground several times, slobbering and submissive to the larger dogs. They sniff, he licks and whimpers and begs to be their friends.

The Greyhound races past all of them, already priming himself for the next debate, the next race, the next round of drama that is American politics. And he’s moving faster that every other dog in the park. Ask any dog owner. What dog can outrun a Greyhound?

illustration from center for touch drawing

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This synchro comes from a long-time friend who asked that we not use her real name. It’s one of those stories that illustrates the law of attraction – focused concentration – and  how synchronicity plays out in our lives, often in unexpected ways.

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A few months ago we were looking online for something and came across a particular production company based in NYC, so we started reading the website.  I can’t remember if we were trying to find someone on Facebook to see a picture and it led us to the website or if we were looking for something else and just came across it.  Anyway, on the biography page, there was a very familiar name – to me.

This guy was someone I went to college with and wasn’t quite involved with but there definitely a connection. He moved away (had a sick mother and also went to join his brother in making a film) and I continued with my life.  We just fell out of touch, mostly because both of us were nervously shy around each other in a weird way.  Never left my mind, really.  This was a person I have pages and pages about in my journals. Husband even teases me about it sometimes.

Once I learned he was in the same city, I couldn’t stop thinking about it for a little while, so I looked at the website again and then found some pictures of the production.  Pretty sure it was him.  That was months ago.  Then last week, my husband and I were in a restaurant for our anniversary (the day after) and who walks in?  That person. I was so shocked I told husband we had to just get going to the theater to make the show and left.

This guy and I did see each other. I am pretty sure he knew exactly who I was.

Ikea. Great concept, but in the pursuit of the almighty buck, they have landed in the kind of climate that invites massive boycotts. Their recent expansion into a potentially lucrative market – Saudi Arabia – has resulted in a catalogue where women are airbrushed away. away, as in the above photo. Presto, change, ladies, you no longer exist!

We received two references to this travesty today, the start of a cluster synchro. One came from a woman in Malibu, California, who has bought a lot of Ikea merchandise, and the other email came from a man in Australia who worked for them for 24 years and was recently “rendered redundant” – fired.

The story:

A local version of Ikea’s yearly catalogue, published on its Saudi website, shows images that are identical to those in other editions save for one detail: the women are gone. “We are looking into the issue and holding a dialogue with our Saudi franchise holder,” said Ulrika Englesson Sandman, a spokeswoman for Inter IKEA Systems, which owns the Ikea trademark and concept.

When entering a new market the company always takes into account the ability to balance local culture and legislation with its own values, she added.

The removal of women from the pages of the Saudi edition, including a young girl who was pictured studying at her desk, has prompted a strong response from Swedes, who pride themselves on egalitarian policies and a narrow gender gap.

“You can’t remove or airbrush women out of reality. If Saudi Arabia does not allow women to be seen or heard, or to work, they are letting half their intellectual capital go to waste,” Trade Minister Ewa Bjoerling said in a statement. Her sentiment was echoed by Swedish European Union Minister Birgitta Ohlsson, who branded the incident “medieval” on social networking site Twitter.

Saudi Arabia applies strict rules of gender segregation, banning women from driving and requiring them to have permission from a male guardian before travelling or receiving medical care. Ikea’s Saudi franchise partner currently operates three stores in the country, where it has seen ‘double digit’ yearly growth over the past five years, according to its webs.

Our Aussie friend was going to do a post about this,  but he figured that since he had an axe to grind, it might not mean much. But the bottom line is how can a country like Sweden do business with a country like Saudi Arabia, where women are rendered completely irrelevant? Saudi women can’t even leave their homes without the permission and accompaniment of a male relative. They must cover themselves completely. Why? Is the female body oh so tempting to Saudi men that it might incite unprecedented lust?  Might it lead to the collapse of marriages?

I’ve never understood Saudi Arabia, never understood their attitude toward women, have never understood why these women don’t rise up in some huge rebellion and take this ridiculous monarchy down. But I do know one thing: I will never buy anything made by IKEA, just as I will never step foot inside a Walmart.

These companies are soulless scourges, after profit at any price, sacrificing the very individuals who do the shopping. I mean, seriously? You airbrush women out of the catalogue and really think they are going to buy your products? How about keeping them in your  catalogue? Maybe it would help to change hearts and minds, IKEA. Maybe you could sweep into this market as agents of CHANGE rather than business as usual.

You think this guy would save your life?

The headline on the article sent to me by Jim Banholzer read: Shark Rescues Man Adrift in Pacific Ocean.  That I’ve got to read, I thought. Of all the large creatures on the planet, it seems that sharks along with alligators are the least likely to be performing any humanitarian deeds.

So here’s what happened to Toakai Teitoi of Kiribati, a Micronesian island nation 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii. He took a two-hour boat ride with his brother-in-law from the capital of Tarawa, where Teitoi had flown to be sworn in as a policeman, to his home in Maiana. But it didn’t work out that way. He and Ielu Falaile stopped to fish en route, and lost track of time. They ran out of gas, and were set adrift on the 15-foot boat with very little water.

They were apparently able to catch fish, but suffered from severe dehydration and Ielu died after a few weeks. Toakai was finally saved after 105 days. He was laying in the boat with his head covered to protect him from the sun when a six-foot shark bumped against the boat, circled it, and swam away. Toakai sat up and saw a ship coming his way with crew members peering at him through binoculars. If he hadn’t sat up, the crew might’ve thought it was an abandoned boat and ship might’ve continued on.

Did the shark intentionally save Toakai? If it were a dolphin, I might say yes. But a shark? I would say it’s more likely a life-saving synchronicity. The shark probably was interested in eating Toakai, not rescuing him. But its actions inadvertently saved his life. Then again, maybe there was an invisible force involved, a non-physical entity who came to the man’s rescue by nudging the shark into action.