Don't Think of an Elephant

Hasn't this year gone quickly? Is it my imagination or is time really speeding up? Whichever it is, 2008 is upon us already, and millions of us will reflect and steadfastly make high-flying new year resolutions which will mostly be shot down by the artillery of procrastination.

Never do today...

I know all about procrastination. I have turned it into an art form. I'm not sure but it could be the philosophy of someone who believes he is going to live well into three figures and has all the time in the world - my excuse and I'm sticking to it. However, statistics don't support this belief. They would proudly cling to the well-worn theory that in terms of longevity, children generally follow their parents. My father died at 70, which statistically gives me 7 years of life. But thanks to visionaries like Louise Hay, it is possible for me to buck the system, and it's all down to positive thinking, positive vocabulary, and how I react to situations.

The elephant and the 'F' word

Be honest, when you read the title did you automatically think of an elephant? I did when I first heard the spoken command. Most of us will do the same because the brain needs to go into immediate action to search the archives for an image of an elephant. The word "Don't" hasn't a prayer because it is essentially an invasion of our personal freedom of thought. and therefore we dismiss it. It's the same with the 'F' word. I'm referring to the word 'fear' of course, and the bible is full of examples ( 117 altogether ) where we are told not to fear. If we are told "Don't be afraid" the word we latch on to is 'afraid' because the brain gets the message that there is something to be afraid about. Then worry sets in and we no longer feel safe.

Self-preservation

Imagine you are climbing a rock face with a friend who is more experienced in mountaineering. Halfway up your friend shouts down to you "Don't look down!" The compulsion to look down would be overwhelming, even though you have been told many times that it is psychologically unsafe to do so. If, on the other hand, your friend had said "Keep looking up!", you would have followed that order without the fear element because the word 'up' is the dominant one. I reckon there's enough adrenalin in rock climbing without adding to it. This is all about using positive commands instead of negative ones.

I am reminded of an old song which I believe was written by Willie Nelson:

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
And don't mess with Mr Inbetween

Shame about the last line but the general idea is good.

Happy positive thinking.

Sun God or the Son of God?

So you think Jesus Christ was born on 25th December?

Most experts conclude that Jesus Christ was not born in December at all but rather September. They say shepherds would not be tending their sheep on a cold winter's night. So why have we adopted December 25th as Christmas ( Christ Mass ) day?

Pagan Tradition and the Christian Takeover

When we look into man's pagan history it's not difficult to see why December was chosen. It is, after all, the month of the winter solstice, a day of great importance in pagan times. The 'sol' part means sun, and sun worship was the high point of man's existence. In addition, all the paraphernalia surrounding this worship, the Yule logs, the holly and ivy, the mistletoe and not forgetting the tree, are all pagan fertility symbols still in use today.

When in Rome

Around 350 AD the Romans were still chiefly pagan and Pope Julius 1 probably got orders from the top to increase subscription and rope in more converts to the faith. Then he had a brainwave. He didn't want to tell the people they could no longer worship their sun god. They would probably have rioted. So he simply superimposed new feast days on top of the existing ones. It worked! Everyone continued with their merrymaking whilst the Pope happily told them they were now honouring Jesus Christ. Perfect!

And now, when you go into a church and see the lighted candles, what you are really doing is paying homage to Mithras the sun god.

What do you make of Christmas?

Christmas seems to have many faces. One face is the face of great joy and happiness, and family get-togethers. Another face represents heartache and sorrow, the nadir in emotional turbulence. Yet another face is the face of enterprise and commerce with its miasma of sales, bargains, gadgets and gifts. Whole industries have mushroomed around it. The lights have their purpose too. They chase away the winter blues, thereby replacing the sun's weak winter light.

Christmas can be a roller coaster ride for families and individuals alike. According to the Samaritans, there is a greater potential for suicide at Christmas than at any other time of year. Why? Have we been indoctrinated so well by rose-tinted tradition, with fairy tale images of joy and happiness and the sound of Bing Crosby singing 'White Christmas'?

For those whose emotions are not so robust, these images can be a dangerous foray into fantasy. Like Cinderella, the clock must strike twelve at some point and then comes the reality shock. For some people it's too much.

I have another face for Christmas. It is the face of each individual looking in the mirror and saying to their reflection "I love you", and saying it with confidence and joy. It is the face of you and me loving ourselves for who we are regardless of where we come from or the colour of our skin. By doing this on a regular basis we are laying the foundations for loving other people. For we cannot love others until we have first learned to love ourselves. This has the potential to change the world. All we need is the will to do it.

A merry Christmas to my readers ( all three of you ) and a prosperous new year.

God:The Real Time Lord?

"...one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." (2 Peter 3:8 )

Time: Reality or Construct?

Does time exist in reality, or like the internet, is it a construct? Could it simply be an invention of man's imagination adopted for the procurement of power and stability?

The earth and moon have provided man with natural periods from their rotational cycles and he has successfully subdivided these ephemeral giants into pocket-sized chunks of time. Greenwich Mean Time was set up as absolute time to ensure that trains always ran on time. I have bad news for them. They failed!

A wealth of expressions has grown up around time. We talk about killing time, wasting time, that time and tide wait for no man. This suggests time is marching on inexorably and therefore we can't afford to relax for one moment. This means no time for meditation or reflection. No time for nature and the inner peace we so desperately need. The clock has become our god - our master rather than our servant.

Is time necessary?

The above scripture is curious. It appears to be as irrelevant as it is enigmatic. To say that a day is as a thousand years seems to imply that time is non-existent. Perhaps God is really saying "Hey! I don't need time. I'm timeless. I was here before the beginning of time and I shall still be here after the end of it."

Yet other scriptures are so time-oriented. One in particular has been popularised through song:

"To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven." (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

This is popular because it doesn't challenge anyone's comfort zone. It is a metaphor for the zeitgeist principle, the rise and fall of fashion, the vogue of human existence and the changing nature of life on earth. But we are told that God does not change.

Does this mean we have taken on board time as a false god? Have we drifted so far from the original blueprint, the God-given prototype of how we should live our lives? Or is God the real time lord, who can travel through a thousand years in one day?

It's your call!

Jonah and the Gourd

"Then said the Lord, 'Doest thou well to be angry?' (Jonah 4:4)

Anger and Judgement

The story goes that God told Jonah to preach to the people of Nineveh because of their 'wickedness'. But Jonah had other ideas and ran away to sea. The ship was struck by a great tempest and when it was discovered it was Jonah's doing, they threw him overboard. Jonah got swallowed by a whale where he had to stay for three days and nights. This 'punishment' for disobedience resulted in Jonah going to Nineveh after all.

God gave the people of Nineveh 40 days in which to change their ways. And they did, but Jonah was surely convinced that they were about to get their come-uppance. He went out of the city, built himself a booth and sat in it, like a ringside seat, waiting for the show to begin. When it became obvious it wasn't going to happen, Jonah became very angry. After all he had gone through, he was not going to be denied the satisfaction of witnessing the destruction of this great city.

The Need for Mercy

God needed to show Jonah what mercy was all about and prepared a gourd and "...made it come over Jonah that it might be a shadow over his head" (Jonah 4:6). Jonah was very glad of the gourd but God destroyed it with a worm in the night and its protection was gone.

The upshot of this was that Jonah felt sorry for the gourd but still angry about the fate of Nineveh. God used the gourd to teach Jonah that the destruction of Nineveh was not carved in stone and that mercy could replace judgement - that change could take place. "Thou hast had pity on the gourd for which thou hast not laboured, neither made it grow; which came up in a night and perished in a night." (Jonah 4:10) The parallel here is that God took pity on the city of Nineveh. How much greater were they than the lowly gourd?

Real-life Parallels

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt wronged by someone because of something they said or did? You felt bitter about it and secretly wished that poetic justice would take place to even things out. But instead, the other person prospered in some way. In reality this person was probably unaware of your feelings and would most likely have apologised later for the misdeed. If the two of you had got round the table and talked about it, the matter might have been resolved to everyone's satisfaction. Imagine the change that would take place in your mind, body and spirit following the resolution of such a situation. You can almost hear your Higher Self's sigh of relief during the eye-to-eye contact and the wave of serenity that has just replaced the tension of anger and judgement.

But this face-to-face scenario isn't always possible, like the driver who cuts you up forcing you to brake sharply. It's not easy to find mercy in your soul when this happens but by doing so you release yourself from the negative vibration which harms only you. It's worth the effort to practise this. After all, at some point, the other guy will repent. It may not be today or tomorrow or next year, but it will happen.

The Lot of Women: The Problem with Judgement

If you regard the scriptures objectively, and I hope you can, you will probably reach the point where you have to question certain things. You don't have to nail notices to church doors any more but it's still possible to cause a stir by asking questions which challenge fundamentally basic and accepted beliefs and dogmas. You may love or loathe the challenge but if you are looking in from without, you can make up your own mind without judgement, which is what this post is chiefly about.

My Revelation

This article assumes that you can adopt an open mind about God or whatever you feel represents God in the scheme of your belief. I found that the more I studied the scriptures, the more I was led to question the reasons why certain things happened, always with the understanding that I was looking at the situation with modern and educated eyes. I found myself looking at the "judgement" aspect of the bible and making the earth-shattering discovery that if there is a God at all, he would never ever judge anyone.

The Sodom and Gomorrah Story

I could choose any part of any of the books from the old and new testaments but I've found Genesis a rich tapestry from which arguments may be drawn. In particular, the story of Lot's wife has intrigued me as an example of how women have been devalued like coins of the realm. But before Lot's wife became the salt of the earth, there was the small matter of Lot's daughters.

Lot showed hospitality to two men (angels) at the gate but some men of Sodom came demanding to "know" the angels (meaning they wanted to have sex with them). Lot refused. So far, so good. But then amazingly he told the Sodomites that they could have his two daughters instead! "Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man..." (Gen 19:8 ) Excuse me! Stand up the modern father who would willingly sacrifice his virgin daughters to complete strangers for the sake of other complete strangers. Would the girls have had any say in the matter? I think not.

The Wife with No Name

The bible does not tell us the name of Lot's wife, which is interesting because names are of paramount importance. Names represent an identity. No name - no identity. Then Noname, as I shall call her, sealed her fate by looking back at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and you know the rest. The point is that she was judged. What was her crime? What kind of justice was that? Why should Noname die along with all the inhabitants of these towns? It's all down to this thing called judgement.

Judgement is Flawed

My research has led me to the conclusion that a nation or community can only evolve, spiritually or otherwise, if they treat their women-folk fairly and as equals. If you can think of such a nation or community, please let me know. I'd love to hear from you. It would be wrong to think that we, in the West, can pat ourselves on the back whilst looking eastward. That would amount to judgement.

God judged no one, least of all Noname. God didn't judge the people of Sodom and Gomorrah either. They judged themselves and found themselves guilty. In so doing they brought about their own destruction. It is possible that Noname felt guilty about what was happening and judged herself. Man is the only judge, and over the millennia he has turned it into an art form - but flawed. Flawed because judgement cannot be anything else. If we could only learn to love ourselves, and therefore others, we would not need to judge at all. And the world would be a happier place.

Crouching Scripture - Hidden Agenda

One of the all-time favourites from the bible has got to be the story of Noah and the ark.

You may remember the song about the animals going in two by two, so I won't repeat it here. But after the waters had subsided and things got back to normal, there was an incident which had far-reaching repercussions for one member of the family.

The Curse

"And Ham, the father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his father..." ( Genesis 9:22 KJ )

One day Noah got drunk (demon drink?) and lay down uncovered. Sooner or later one of his sons was bound to come in to Noah's tent (maybe to borrow some money - you know what kids are like) and it was Ham's bad luck to be the one. When Noah recovered from his bender he was full of rage. His anger with Ham knew no bounds and he cursed Ham to be a servant to all, forever.

As David Icke, in his magnificent book 'Children of the Matrix' put it, "What's the big deal?" This was no crime. Surely this event wasn't worth such a vitriolic attack on his own son. Sons have had less than this for smashing up their fathers' cars!

Bloodlines and Aliens

This event led me to do some research on bloodlines because clearly, Ham had seen something he wasn't supposed to. I discovered that Noah belonged to one of 13 specific bloodlines, hybrids from the time of the Anunnaki, who bred with the Cro-Magnon people of the earth.

"The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair..." ( Genesis 6:2 )

The sons of God were the hybrids who took the Cro-Magnon women as wives and this is where it all began. The bloodlines are still with us today but my point in mentioning them is that they have the reptilian element which was the signature of the Anunnaki who created the hybrids. I believe that Ham saw something "reptilian" in his father as he lay uncovered that fateful day. The following poem comes about as a result of my research so far.

Earth to Earth

You came to Earth
To plunder gold
The legacy you left
Grows old
And repressive

You engineered
Our D.N.A.
To suit your means
So that some day
You'll take by stealth

You own the banks
The stores, the schools
But do not think
Of us as fools
In ignorance

Remember too
That Earth is king
It waits for none
To do its thing
To be reborn

And when our home
Should be renewed
Both yours and ours
Will fight for food
And destiny

Jericho and the Power of the Mind

The Jericho Story

I reckon God had it easy in biblical times. Situations were either black or white. No grey areas. Only one race of people was "chosen" and God was on their side. Nowadays, when two nations go to war, they both claim God is on their side. This puts God in a serious dilemma since they can't both win. What a responsibility!

Most of us have been fed the sanitised version of Joshua and the battle of Jericho, and the rollicking song about the walls "tumbling down". It has been accepted as "business as usual" for the children of Israel, and no one bats an eye about the bloodshed and death that goes with such crusades. A bit like the Middle East today. No change there!

However, I'm not writing this post to moralize but to highlight the psychological aspect of Joshua's success in this campaign, and his hardly-mentioned defeat in the following one.


Mental Preparation

Have you ever witnessed or experienced firewalking or smashed a one inch thick piece of wood with your bare hand. Even comparatively "weak" members of the audience have achieved success here, but I guarantee that if they tried to repeat it at home they would fail. Why? Because the mental preparation would not be in place. At these events the audiences are hyped up to incredible levels. They shout and repeat words of encouragement to the one on the stage. What they are doing in fact is combining their energy and giving it to that special person, to whom victory is the only outcome. The military also use the same technique on their raw recruits. Without it, they would not be able to do the job.

So it was with Joshua and his men before they conquered Jericho. They were hyped up. Their mental preparation was perfect. They could not fail.

The Transgression

"But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing..." (Joshua 7:1 King James Version)

It so happened that Joshua's men tried to "take" the city of Ai. It was smaller than Jericho and wouldn't need the same task force or preparation. The result of this campaign was defeat. The men of Israel were chased back to their camp and Joshua "rent his clothes and fell to the earth upon his face..."

The reason given for the defeat was that someone had taken something he wasn't supposed to from Jericho - "the accursed thing", and was made to confess the crime. Have you noticed in politics, there's always a scapegoat when things go wrong.

I reckon this failure was nothing more than bad mental preparation. The battle hype wasn't there. The men of Israel were probably living on past glory, something we would call over-confidence, but with no substance to it. That was the transgression.

When they eventually got it right, they were victorious over the people of Ai. It's all to do with the power of the mind.

More bloodshed!

(Sigh)