A Blog is a lot like talking to one's self. You think out loud and type your thoughts into the web with the faint hope that someone out there will see them and perhaps see something of value in them.
When I started this one I had been active on several web sites and had been a part of several conversations that seemed to stir my mind to look inward. Then as world events moved onward my mind wandered and other things came to mind. I posted on terror in my last two posts and those were almost a year apart as I waited to look at what was happening around me.
I feel there is something very wrong going on today. Here in the US we see clearly for the first time that our election process is a farce, and that a small group of party elites have been running the show and they work in cahoots with each other.
Hillary has been promised, the slot as the first woman president and the powers that rule her party will stop at nothing to achieve that goal even if it means destroying the country as it exists under the constitution to do it.
On the other side of the isle the republican party elites have long used the presidential candidate position to reward old party loyals for their service even if they have no chance of success.
Both parties assume that the voters are loyal to their party and will vote the party line no matter who they send out front.
There seems to be the very real possibility that the US as we know it, and have known it, is about to self destruct. A civil war looms on the horizon no matter who may win in November and neither party seems to give a damn.
Perhaps its just old age and my natural paranoia at play here. But there are things happening that seem very wrong.
The Republicans seem happy to cede control to the Democrats and them selves to second place. They also seem to have absolutely nothing for which they will stand and fight. There is no issue or position that they will not compromise on or back away from. And there are the news stories of the Secret Service pressuring elected officials with blackmail over past indiscretions.
The Democrats have finally dropped all pretense of not being socialists/communists and it seems to have little effect on their base as generation after generation of college educated young people seem to embrace the idea. However these same young people are having a devil of a time living in the real world. Just a week ago a college campus went mad and students were scared almost to death when someone wrote the word TRUMP in chalk on a few walls. Not death threats or racial slurs just the word TRUMP.
With the growth of immigrant enclaves forming in many states, and the recent tendency of these groups to form neighborhoods that retain their own languages and standards and to avoid integration and assimilation it is only a matter of time before traveling to another state is like traveling to another country. Complete with very different languages and laws.
That so many of these immigrants are here with no permission seem to make no difference. That we have no jobs for them seems to make no difference. And that without workers paying taxes the government has no money to support them is just more of the same.
I am afraid that Hillary may be more than the first woman president of the US, she may be the last president of the US. Because it won't be long before it all falls apart.
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Thursday, March 24, 2016
The PLO, PLA, SLA, Hagannah, Viet Minh, Muslim
Brotherhood, NLF Red Army Faction, FALN, Fatah, PMOI, Shining Path, ISIS, ISIL,
Al-Quaeda, and the list goes on and on and on.
Group after group, place after place, year
after year the beat and the death just keeps on going on.
The Viet
Mihn were called bandits and warlords at first, then they became the Viet Cong
and the People’s Liberation Front, and suddenly they were “Freedom Fighters” in
the eyes of many. The PLO highjacked airliners full of people and shot and
killed many. They demanded ransom, and often blew the planes up when the TV
cameras went dark. Today they are the “Leaders of Palestine”.
In the
American media the old saying holds true that “the enemy of my enemy is my
friend.” As long as the Democrats held the White House the money flowed to
Vietnam to fight the war started under Kennedy, and when Nixon took office it
suddenly became “Nixon’s War” and congress and the media turned against it.
We condemn
the actions of the IS groups but we ignore groups just as bad elsewhere. Just
where and why do we draw these lines?
And let’s
just for once be honest here, and I’m not talking to people on the ground in
areas occupied or under attack by these groups, except for those do any of
these groups REALLY scare you? Do you
really live in fear of ISIL?
The attacks
on 9/11 killed thousands. It was a day very much like December 7th
of 1941 in that regard in that it made Americans mad as Hell, but did it really
scare YOU?
When that
bomb exploded in Oklahoma City what did you think? No vast conspiracy, no
network of terrorists, just a couple of guys and a little bit of military
training. Did that image of a lone nut case scare you?
Want to
know the easy way to overthrow a government?
You don’t
spend millions and kill all your own people in symbolic attacks on buildings
that mean nothing to the average person. You do it from within with small
attacks that are set to attract attention and at places where the average
citizen might go on a regular basis.
You strike
and wait for the people to demand the government do something. Then you strike
again somewhere far away from the first attack.
The
Government will do what they always do. Make some symbolic gesture and pass a
few laws to restrict the daily life of the average person.
Then you
repeat the first step to show that what they did hasn’t stopped you. This will make
the government look bad and the people will demand more action. Which will
result in even more laws and even less freedom for many.
The cycle
repeats over and over with each step causing the government to become more and
more restrictive and the people less and less free. And each strike will only
serve to show that they have failed to stop you. And even better, at some point
others will become so disgusted with the government restrictions that they will
join your efforts.
As your
numbers grow the government will start to use military to look for you and the
sight of soldiers on the streets will scare the people more than any of your
attacks. Soldiers are not police and they are not trained to use stun guns and
chase people on foot. People will die by military actions which will drive even
more to your side.
The country
will explode from the inside as the people will rise up to get rid of what they now see as an oppressive government.
Every night
the media report every shooting as if it were a massacre of biblical proportions.
And every citizen thinks that his values and freedoms are being taken from him.
The major political parties have joined in by making it look like the primaries
are a sham and that a select few have already decided who will be elected.
What I have
described is the Spiral of Oppression. A know tactic of subverting and
overthrowing a government. The screw is turning and is being turned by the
government, helped by the media, and loudly supported by groups funded by billionaires
who stand to clean up after the fall. How far can they screw down the lid
before it blows?
This last
should scare you more than any group listed at the top of the page.
How much
more before the society ruptures from the turning of the screw?
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Terrorism
“Know your enemy”.
Why terrorism isn’t working the way people thought it would.
The quote at the top of this page is one of the most quoted sayings about conflict in the known universe.
Those three words speak volumes about how conflicts are won and lost. You absolutely must know your enemy and that means everything that can be known about them. You must know how they think, their values, their government, their culture, and their religions. Every one of these things can affect how they will react to your efforts to defeat them.
The London Blitz of WW2 did not break the will of the British; it gave them a rallying point. Why? Their capitol was laid waste, thousands died, historical buildings were destroyed, yet the people actually gained in resolve.
The fire-bombing of German and Japanese cities killed hundreds of thousands but the nations fought on. Even increasing weapon production and their commitment to win. Why?
In Afghanistan and Vietnam however, small groups using terror tactics undermined and weakened the resolve of much larger countries and drove them from their soil. Why?
Terror as a weapon only works if the target feels the fear. The target must be made to fear even common everyday activities and locations. They must be made to feel helpless to protect themselves. In Vietnam travel was disrupted by planting mines and destroying bridges. Schools and police stations were targeted and their employees were shot. These actions made the people believe that the government was powerless to stop the Viet Cong. In village after village the ties to the government were cut and the people left feeling helpless.
In Afghanistan the same tactics were used against the Russians and the US. The land mine, the IED, and the ambush directed against government representatives and random people took away any sense of security or safety.
Supporting the government in these cases only made you a target and the government could not protect you.
So why isn’t the US afraid of the radical Islamist?
We are not afraid because we refuse to paint them as an enemy, and they haven’t attacked the common people yet.
And the people may not be the actual target. Terrorism can be a subtle weapon.
Think about that. Did 9/11 make you afraid or mad? The Boston Bombing of a week ago?
What happened is we got mad. Mad that we were attacked, and later mad that we were inconvenienced by the government actions that followed.
Around the world terrorists target the common people. In Vietnam, Israel, Afghanistan, and so on the bombs were in the markets, on the buses, and in the shops. Targets were the small towns and villages not major cities.
Striking a major city is symbolic but not very scary to Joe Six-Pack in the country.
While these attacks may not scare many they can be a part of something they used to teach in the military back in the day.
Insurgency or “How to Overthrow a Government from Within”. High profile attacks can start a spiral of oppression where-in a government can be induced to oppress their own people to the point where these once happy people now see their own government as the enemy and will actively work to overthrow it.
With each attack the people scream for protection from the bad guys. To limit the bad guy’s actions and to try to force them out into the open the government puts new laws in place and limits the freedoms of the people. With each following attack the people scream louder and the government does what governments do. They pass laws and limit freedoms.
With each cycle those people most affected by the new laws become more and more distrustful of the government, while those who need to feel protected see no real change in their safety and scream still louder.
Sooner or later a tipping point is reached where those who see the government as oppressive start to take direct action against the government and its representatives. The government, happy to finally have a target, will respond with force and then take action to pass even more laws and limit even more freedoms. Thus, driving more and more people into the ranks of the insurrection.
The downward spiral will continue until civil war is clearly taking over.
The key to stopping the spiral is for the government to speak openly to the people and take a stand on the side of freedom. They have to make the argument that risks come with freedom and that the people must stand together and not give up freedom in search of safety.
That was the message of the bombed cities of WW2. That was the message from the Blitz. That freedom sometimes demands the lives of the civilian as well as the soldier.
Freedom is never free.
Why terrorism isn’t working the way people thought it would.
The quote at the top of this page is one of the most quoted sayings about conflict in the known universe.
Those three words speak volumes about how conflicts are won and lost. You absolutely must know your enemy and that means everything that can be known about them. You must know how they think, their values, their government, their culture, and their religions. Every one of these things can affect how they will react to your efforts to defeat them.
The London Blitz of WW2 did not break the will of the British; it gave them a rallying point. Why? Their capitol was laid waste, thousands died, historical buildings were destroyed, yet the people actually gained in resolve.
The fire-bombing of German and Japanese cities killed hundreds of thousands but the nations fought on. Even increasing weapon production and their commitment to win. Why?
In Afghanistan and Vietnam however, small groups using terror tactics undermined and weakened the resolve of much larger countries and drove them from their soil. Why?
Terror as a weapon only works if the target feels the fear. The target must be made to fear even common everyday activities and locations. They must be made to feel helpless to protect themselves. In Vietnam travel was disrupted by planting mines and destroying bridges. Schools and police stations were targeted and their employees were shot. These actions made the people believe that the government was powerless to stop the Viet Cong. In village after village the ties to the government were cut and the people left feeling helpless.
In Afghanistan the same tactics were used against the Russians and the US. The land mine, the IED, and the ambush directed against government representatives and random people took away any sense of security or safety.
Supporting the government in these cases only made you a target and the government could not protect you.
So why isn’t the US afraid of the radical Islamist?
We are not afraid because we refuse to paint them as an enemy, and they haven’t attacked the common people yet.
And the people may not be the actual target. Terrorism can be a subtle weapon.
Think about that. Did 9/11 make you afraid or mad? The Boston Bombing of a week ago?
What happened is we got mad. Mad that we were attacked, and later mad that we were inconvenienced by the government actions that followed.
Around the world terrorists target the common people. In Vietnam, Israel, Afghanistan, and so on the bombs were in the markets, on the buses, and in the shops. Targets were the small towns and villages not major cities.
Striking a major city is symbolic but not very scary to Joe Six-Pack in the country.
While these attacks may not scare many they can be a part of something they used to teach in the military back in the day.
Insurgency or “How to Overthrow a Government from Within”. High profile attacks can start a spiral of oppression where-in a government can be induced to oppress their own people to the point where these once happy people now see their own government as the enemy and will actively work to overthrow it.
With each attack the people scream for protection from the bad guys. To limit the bad guy’s actions and to try to force them out into the open the government puts new laws in place and limits the freedoms of the people. With each following attack the people scream louder and the government does what governments do. They pass laws and limit freedoms.
With each cycle those people most affected by the new laws become more and more distrustful of the government, while those who need to feel protected see no real change in their safety and scream still louder.
Sooner or later a tipping point is reached where those who see the government as oppressive start to take direct action against the government and its representatives. The government, happy to finally have a target, will respond with force and then take action to pass even more laws and limit even more freedoms. Thus, driving more and more people into the ranks of the insurrection.
The downward spiral will continue until civil war is clearly taking over.
The key to stopping the spiral is for the government to speak openly to the people and take a stand on the side of freedom. They have to make the argument that risks come with freedom and that the people must stand together and not give up freedom in search of safety.
That was the message of the bombed cities of WW2. That was the message from the Blitz. That freedom sometimes demands the lives of the civilian as well as the soldier.
Freedom is never free.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Long ago and far away
Once upon a time I was a member of two elite military units. I served in Vietnam with the 101st. Airborne Division as a member of an Air Cavalry unit, Troop A , Second Squadron (Airmobile), 17th Cavalry. I also later served in Vietnam with the 196th Light Infantry Brigade as a member of the Fire Distribution Center of the Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 82nd Field Artillery, attached to Company B 3rd Battalion 21st Infantry Brigade.
The Cav consider themselves to be the elite of the elite, and the men of A Troop were no exception. They were an aggressive group of warriors that went out every day seeking to find and engage the enemy. And they were very successful at that.
The 101st was responsible for the area called I Corp along the border with North Vietnam, from the DMZ south to the Hia Vong pass just south of PhuBia and from the South China Sea to the Laotian border. Located at the Quang Tri Combat Base near Dong Ha we were within 11 miles of North Vietnam.
I was very proud to serve with the 101st. But they were so screwed up when it came to how their own people were treated that we often called them the “100 and Worst.” Within a week of my arrival they lost my records.
As I understand the chain of events, as I was processing in another soldier with a name very much like mine was processing out. The clerk who had handled his paperwork saw my packet on the stack on the processing desk and thought that it had not been given to him for transport. It was common back then for a soldier to hand carry his paperwork as he traveled. The clerk then placed my records in an envelope and mailed them to the other man’s next assignment.
It would be two long years before those records caught up with me again.
While I was in the 101st, and the 196th, I was carried as a casual assigned soldier. I had valid orders assigning me to the units but no military history of my prior service. That meant I could not receive any positive actions. My platoon sergeant twice told me I was recommended for promotion, but when the recommendations got to Division all they had was that blank file with my name on it. It was announced in morning formation that I was among those recommended for the Bronze Star for an action, but again I had no records.
When the 101st received orders to stand down and return to Fort Campbell everyone in the unit with at least 6 months service was to return with them. But as a casual I wasn’t included, I was released to a replacement company in Danang as part of the 196th.
With the 196th I was first assigned to a Military Police Company as a mechanic. But within a couple months I was transferred to the Artillery, partly because I was still a casual and partly because the 196th had been alerted that they were extending their area of operations to cover the gap left with the withdrawal of the 101st. . This expansion of area meant the combat arms of the brigade would be stretched thin and every extra man was needed. So I became an artilleryman. With no records to work from as to my training I was assigned to the Fire Distribution Center of the Battalion S2 Section. As a mechanic at first, because that was my assignment at the MPs.
A few weeks later a man was needed to deliver and set up a generator set for a fire base in the north. The generator they had had been hit by enemy fire and they needed someone to setup the replacement. I took the job because I liked to fly and knew about generators.
We arrived as the base was under enemy fire from artillery located to the west in the highlands. The pilot asked if I still wanted to land and I said yes. We touched down and were met by three men of the Fire Control Team to help carry the generator. After we wrestled the unit off the helicopter, along with a few other supplies, the bird lifted off as more shells fell on the hill. WE carried the generator to a bunker that had been rebuilt after a shell got the last unit and started to hook it up.
Once I had it hooked up and running we made ready to return to better cover ourselves. Between shells we ran to cover and I went to the command bunker to make sure they had power.
The next day I was lifted out, and from then on I was a runner for the S2 Section flying from base to base delivering supplies and equipment and bringing back Intelligence reports and mail.
In time the 196th received orders to stand down and a single company of the 3rd of the 21st was to stay behind and defend Danang until the Americans all left.
I was among those chosen. I do not know why but I was told that I was one of the most experienced soldiers they had and as a casual I had no clear orders to leave.
I spent the last several weeks of my time in-country on Hill 55 south of Danang directing artillery fire on enemy troop movements. Every other soldier on that hill was on TDY assignment from Fort Huachuca.
When we at last were ordered off that hill and back to base the base was a ghost town. Everyone had left but us and some Airforce at the air base.
We quickly packed what we had left and had a quick formation where awards were given and orders passed out for new assignments. My orders were to an air defense missile site in Florida.
As we signed out of the company we passed through a building where we picked up our records. Each of us was given a certificate for having been part of the last Army ground combat unit in Vietnam, and each of us then stood before the company commander to receive our medals and ribbons.
I stepped up and saluted, and gave the standard greeting of “reporting as ordered”. The captain shook my hand and we waited as the executive officer looked through a box of papers. After a minute the captain asked what was wrong and was told that my name wasn’t there. The captain then turned to me and asked how long I had been in-country and I answered two years. He asked how long I had been in the 196th and I said about a year and had been in the rear guard since it was formed. After a few seconds he stood at attention and I did the same. He shook my hand and said he would see what was wrong and have my papers forwarded to me. I thanked him saluted and left.
I arrived in Vietnam a SP/4 with a National Defense Ribbon on my uniform, and I left the same way. In Oakland, California I was challenged by an MP for wearing a combat patch on my uniform with no ribbons to support it. It was easier to remove the patch than explain why there were no ribbons.
At my next assignment my new commander wondered why I had not been promoted while overseas. Perhaps I had had some problems?
Almost a year later as I was getting close to leaving active duty I was sent before a promotion board and turned down because I was too close to leaving active duty and could not re-enlist without my official records.
A few months later the clerk called me in to review my records. The originals had finally been found and he wanted to make sure they were correct.
From the time I joined the 101st until those last few months I was a casual soldier and could not be paid like others.
All together I served 22 years active and reserve. But that one clerk in the “100 and worst” badly damaged and all but ended my career.
Back at home an envelope arrived with a paper saying I had been given the Army Commendation Medal for service in Vietnam. It was signed by my last company commander. I never did get the medal.
I do not regret a single day of my service, but I did learn a valuable lesson that I taught to every soldier I met over my career. Keep a couple copies of every paper the military gives you. You may need them someday.
The Cav consider themselves to be the elite of the elite, and the men of A Troop were no exception. They were an aggressive group of warriors that went out every day seeking to find and engage the enemy. And they were very successful at that.
The 101st was responsible for the area called I Corp along the border with North Vietnam, from the DMZ south to the Hia Vong pass just south of PhuBia and from the South China Sea to the Laotian border. Located at the Quang Tri Combat Base near Dong Ha we were within 11 miles of North Vietnam.
I was very proud to serve with the 101st. But they were so screwed up when it came to how their own people were treated that we often called them the “100 and Worst.” Within a week of my arrival they lost my records.
As I understand the chain of events, as I was processing in another soldier with a name very much like mine was processing out. The clerk who had handled his paperwork saw my packet on the stack on the processing desk and thought that it had not been given to him for transport. It was common back then for a soldier to hand carry his paperwork as he traveled. The clerk then placed my records in an envelope and mailed them to the other man’s next assignment.
It would be two long years before those records caught up with me again.
While I was in the 101st, and the 196th, I was carried as a casual assigned soldier. I had valid orders assigning me to the units but no military history of my prior service. That meant I could not receive any positive actions. My platoon sergeant twice told me I was recommended for promotion, but when the recommendations got to Division all they had was that blank file with my name on it. It was announced in morning formation that I was among those recommended for the Bronze Star for an action, but again I had no records.
When the 101st received orders to stand down and return to Fort Campbell everyone in the unit with at least 6 months service was to return with them. But as a casual I wasn’t included, I was released to a replacement company in Danang as part of the 196th.
With the 196th I was first assigned to a Military Police Company as a mechanic. But within a couple months I was transferred to the Artillery, partly because I was still a casual and partly because the 196th had been alerted that they were extending their area of operations to cover the gap left with the withdrawal of the 101st. . This expansion of area meant the combat arms of the brigade would be stretched thin and every extra man was needed. So I became an artilleryman. With no records to work from as to my training I was assigned to the Fire Distribution Center of the Battalion S2 Section. As a mechanic at first, because that was my assignment at the MPs.
A few weeks later a man was needed to deliver and set up a generator set for a fire base in the north. The generator they had had been hit by enemy fire and they needed someone to setup the replacement. I took the job because I liked to fly and knew about generators.
We arrived as the base was under enemy fire from artillery located to the west in the highlands. The pilot asked if I still wanted to land and I said yes. We touched down and were met by three men of the Fire Control Team to help carry the generator. After we wrestled the unit off the helicopter, along with a few other supplies, the bird lifted off as more shells fell on the hill. WE carried the generator to a bunker that had been rebuilt after a shell got the last unit and started to hook it up.
Once I had it hooked up and running we made ready to return to better cover ourselves. Between shells we ran to cover and I went to the command bunker to make sure they had power.
The next day I was lifted out, and from then on I was a runner for the S2 Section flying from base to base delivering supplies and equipment and bringing back Intelligence reports and mail.
In time the 196th received orders to stand down and a single company of the 3rd of the 21st was to stay behind and defend Danang until the Americans all left.
I was among those chosen. I do not know why but I was told that I was one of the most experienced soldiers they had and as a casual I had no clear orders to leave.
I spent the last several weeks of my time in-country on Hill 55 south of Danang directing artillery fire on enemy troop movements. Every other soldier on that hill was on TDY assignment from Fort Huachuca.
When we at last were ordered off that hill and back to base the base was a ghost town. Everyone had left but us and some Airforce at the air base.
We quickly packed what we had left and had a quick formation where awards were given and orders passed out for new assignments. My orders were to an air defense missile site in Florida.
As we signed out of the company we passed through a building where we picked up our records. Each of us was given a certificate for having been part of the last Army ground combat unit in Vietnam, and each of us then stood before the company commander to receive our medals and ribbons.
I stepped up and saluted, and gave the standard greeting of “reporting as ordered”. The captain shook my hand and we waited as the executive officer looked through a box of papers. After a minute the captain asked what was wrong and was told that my name wasn’t there. The captain then turned to me and asked how long I had been in-country and I answered two years. He asked how long I had been in the 196th and I said about a year and had been in the rear guard since it was formed. After a few seconds he stood at attention and I did the same. He shook my hand and said he would see what was wrong and have my papers forwarded to me. I thanked him saluted and left.
I arrived in Vietnam a SP/4 with a National Defense Ribbon on my uniform, and I left the same way. In Oakland, California I was challenged by an MP for wearing a combat patch on my uniform with no ribbons to support it. It was easier to remove the patch than explain why there were no ribbons.
At my next assignment my new commander wondered why I had not been promoted while overseas. Perhaps I had had some problems?
Almost a year later as I was getting close to leaving active duty I was sent before a promotion board and turned down because I was too close to leaving active duty and could not re-enlist without my official records.
A few months later the clerk called me in to review my records. The originals had finally been found and he wanted to make sure they were correct.
From the time I joined the 101st until those last few months I was a casual soldier and could not be paid like others.
All together I served 22 years active and reserve. But that one clerk in the “100 and worst” badly damaged and all but ended my career.
Back at home an envelope arrived with a paper saying I had been given the Army Commendation Medal for service in Vietnam. It was signed by my last company commander. I never did get the medal.
I do not regret a single day of my service, but I did learn a valuable lesson that I taught to every soldier I met over my career. Keep a couple copies of every paper the military gives you. You may need them someday.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
A Creation Story
In the beginning all was dark and a void of infinite darkness existed. The dark, empty void of the sleeping, unconscious, mind that we have all known at one time or another.
Then something stirred and the mind became aware and as it became conscious the first words were formed, “Who am I?” As more awareness slowly developed a major step took place when it realized that “I exist. I am.” Slowly as self awareness formed a more clear picture the mind looked outward at the darkness and wondered what was there and in that instant it became light but there was nothing but light to see.
The mind then reduced the light to a faint glow of many smaller lights scattered as far as he could see. In the mind the being began to take shape and as it saw its self standing on something the force of gravity was created and the concept of solid matter took root. Wanting to see where it stood the being brought one speck of light closer to illuminate the surface , and the world was created as a surface stretching off in all directions as far as the mind could see. And the mind began to move across the surface to see what was there.
In its self image it walked and breathed and felt the warmth of the light in the sky and thus these senses and sensations were created. Like a person at a computer creating a simulated city or world, the mind was by, the simple act of doing, creating the world in which it moved. And as it walked it created it all.
It thought of what would become mountains and seas, rivers and deserts, jungles and vast plains of grasses. And it pictured animals of every description from the weird to the most plain, and beings much like its self. As it walked and looked about it was always under the light of the Sun and thus the world moved under its feet and in time it saw it was back where it started. And thus the world was made round and turned in the light of the Sun. That walk created the world and everything in it.
As the mind thought more about its world it added more details. Because of the power of thought it could move anywhere at a whim and none of the rules applied to it. It could introduce a new animal or take a species away at a thought. It could create or destroy anything at a thought, and in time it was aware of that power.
One thing was missing. After a while the mind wanted a being in this world that was aware of the mind. It could become visible and could interact with the creatures it had created but not on the level it wanted. So it thought to create a being that looked the way the mind thought of its self looking. A kind of living replica that the mind could follow and observe, and it made that replica aware of its self, and more importantly, aware of the fact that it had been created by the mind. This first self aware and thinking creature became man when the creator thought of the name.
In time as the story goes, man became lonely for another mind that was also aware. For all the creatures in the world, even those that looked human, were little more than animals going about their lives with no thoughts beyond the needs of the day. So he pleaded with the mind for company, and the mind knowing how he felt gave him a companion.
The mind was happy. He could walk about his world and watch the creatures on it. He could make changes and manipulated them and their lives with a thought. And now he could talk with others that had their own thoughts rather than echoing his own.
But he had created a problem within the world. It was his awareness that created the world and this power was now shared with other less mature beings. Once aware of the conscious mind that created them, men began to imagine that others may be like it. Man was in awe of the power to create life and to destroy worlds and while they worshiped their creator they were jealous as well. At first man only demanded the obedience of his children and family to copy the way he treated his creator. He wanted the worship and respect that he gave his creator to be shown to him for his “creation” of the family.
And the mind of man began to change the world in which he lived. Man taught his children to see the world as he saw it and he began to replace the original creator with explanations that made man the more important. In the collective minds of man a whole new history was created. The collective power of the many now rivaled the single mind of the creator and the mind of man created the evidence he would need to support his beliefs. As he looked to the skies with more and more powerful equipment he expected to see wondrous things and he found them. He looked into the earth expecting to find proof that the world was older than he had thought and he found it. And he even looked into himself and found strange and intricate systems that explained how he worked and why.
Now, as man finds his world spinning out of control, and growing more perplexing day by day, the collective minds are looking for help. They wish for the days when they could call on a single mind, a single being that could rewrite the world and make the evil and trouble go away. But they no longer really believe in the mind’s existence, or in its power. They begin to hope instead for some other race of living creatures that will have the power, and desire, to save them. They have already begun to create signs of their presence in the skies and in their own minds.
The power to create, destroy, or protect was given to man long ago.
But he doesn’t realize his, or its, full potential yet.
He doesn’t yet understand that he has created the world, the very universe, in which he lives. That what his mind can conceive it can achieve. That when he looks for miracles he will see them, and that when he looks for disasters and dangers he will find them as well.
All of his own creation.
Then something stirred and the mind became aware and as it became conscious the first words were formed, “Who am I?” As more awareness slowly developed a major step took place when it realized that “I exist. I am.” Slowly as self awareness formed a more clear picture the mind looked outward at the darkness and wondered what was there and in that instant it became light but there was nothing but light to see.
The mind then reduced the light to a faint glow of many smaller lights scattered as far as he could see. In the mind the being began to take shape and as it saw its self standing on something the force of gravity was created and the concept of solid matter took root. Wanting to see where it stood the being brought one speck of light closer to illuminate the surface , and the world was created as a surface stretching off in all directions as far as the mind could see. And the mind began to move across the surface to see what was there.
In its self image it walked and breathed and felt the warmth of the light in the sky and thus these senses and sensations were created. Like a person at a computer creating a simulated city or world, the mind was by, the simple act of doing, creating the world in which it moved. And as it walked it created it all.
It thought of what would become mountains and seas, rivers and deserts, jungles and vast plains of grasses. And it pictured animals of every description from the weird to the most plain, and beings much like its self. As it walked and looked about it was always under the light of the Sun and thus the world moved under its feet and in time it saw it was back where it started. And thus the world was made round and turned in the light of the Sun. That walk created the world and everything in it.
As the mind thought more about its world it added more details. Because of the power of thought it could move anywhere at a whim and none of the rules applied to it. It could introduce a new animal or take a species away at a thought. It could create or destroy anything at a thought, and in time it was aware of that power.
One thing was missing. After a while the mind wanted a being in this world that was aware of the mind. It could become visible and could interact with the creatures it had created but not on the level it wanted. So it thought to create a being that looked the way the mind thought of its self looking. A kind of living replica that the mind could follow and observe, and it made that replica aware of its self, and more importantly, aware of the fact that it had been created by the mind. This first self aware and thinking creature became man when the creator thought of the name.
In time as the story goes, man became lonely for another mind that was also aware. For all the creatures in the world, even those that looked human, were little more than animals going about their lives with no thoughts beyond the needs of the day. So he pleaded with the mind for company, and the mind knowing how he felt gave him a companion.
The mind was happy. He could walk about his world and watch the creatures on it. He could make changes and manipulated them and their lives with a thought. And now he could talk with others that had their own thoughts rather than echoing his own.
But he had created a problem within the world. It was his awareness that created the world and this power was now shared with other less mature beings. Once aware of the conscious mind that created them, men began to imagine that others may be like it. Man was in awe of the power to create life and to destroy worlds and while they worshiped their creator they were jealous as well. At first man only demanded the obedience of his children and family to copy the way he treated his creator. He wanted the worship and respect that he gave his creator to be shown to him for his “creation” of the family.
And the mind of man began to change the world in which he lived. Man taught his children to see the world as he saw it and he began to replace the original creator with explanations that made man the more important. In the collective minds of man a whole new history was created. The collective power of the many now rivaled the single mind of the creator and the mind of man created the evidence he would need to support his beliefs. As he looked to the skies with more and more powerful equipment he expected to see wondrous things and he found them. He looked into the earth expecting to find proof that the world was older than he had thought and he found it. And he even looked into himself and found strange and intricate systems that explained how he worked and why.
Now, as man finds his world spinning out of control, and growing more perplexing day by day, the collective minds are looking for help. They wish for the days when they could call on a single mind, a single being that could rewrite the world and make the evil and trouble go away. But they no longer really believe in the mind’s existence, or in its power. They begin to hope instead for some other race of living creatures that will have the power, and desire, to save them. They have already begun to create signs of their presence in the skies and in their own minds.
The power to create, destroy, or protect was given to man long ago.
But he doesn’t realize his, or its, full potential yet.
He doesn’t yet understand that he has created the world, the very universe, in which he lives. That what his mind can conceive it can achieve. That when he looks for miracles he will see them, and that when he looks for disasters and dangers he will find them as well.
All of his own creation.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
String Theory
The Universe(s)
Picture this. You are floating in space, a white featureless expanse that stretches as far as the eye can see in all directions but one.
In the direct you see a wall that also seems to stretch to infinity.
As you approach the wall it looks like a giant honey comb filled with identical openings. You now notice that scattered all around you other beings are adrift and that all of you are moving toward the wall. Seemingly at random you seem to approach an opening and are drawn into it. With a snap you are stunned and lose references and memories begin to fade. In time you again become slowly aware of yourself and you are a child again and growing up. And you decide to set up.
What happens next is unnoticed by you. Over the course of your life this event will happen over and over and almost always it will go unnoticed. Only if viewed from the outside can the changes to your life be seen for what they truly are. For the choices you make do much more than change the present they move you across the dimensions, across the different parallel universes in which we live.
That wall I described is the entry into existence. When your awareness entered the wall you were entering life as a human being. Within a few years the memories of the past, un-stimulated by interaction with the life you led, will fade from consciousness and be replaced by the memories and experiences of this new life. First your parents will train you to ignore those things of the unseen world that children can see and feel. Then they, and society, will train you to accept the limits of the world based on what man has been able to explore and define. You will live most of your life with your senses turned off to much of what exists around you.
Even more surprising, after you reach the point of self awareness you will begin to travel across the very boundaries of reality.
Remember those openings in the wall? Each one is a different reality, a different parallel universe unto its self yet identical to the one you know in most ways. Like a giant bundle of tubes they are the parallel “strings” of your reality. Those beings you saw were all versions of you, all identical in their minds and all about to be born, all entering life in a different universe at slightly different times. But not entering every universe.
The universe hinges on our decisions, and the decisions of our parents can make the difference as to whether we are even born or not, so in those universes where the right series of decisions were not made we are not born. There, we do not exist.
While every one of our bodies exists at the same time we are only aware of one at a time. And we can move into and out of these lives at will. Say that today at breakfast you had oatmeal or eggs as the choices for breakfast. When you chose you become aware of a life where that decision was made that way. You then live in that reality until your next choice arrives, such as coffee or tea, when you shift again. Your conscious mind shifting to experience the life that follows after each choice. You actually jump from where you were to the opening, or “string”, and the life where that choice takes you. Because you, your parents, and so on, are the products of an endless series of decisions that lead to your existence, within each “string” the world is almost identical. Some small differences may be present but only ones that would never have had an impact on your existence. De ja vu is when an event happens slightly out of synch in the realities you visit and your mind notices it.
In those cases where a profound difference takes place the consciousness is cut off from that reality, it loses its “synch” and can no longer make the jump. In a world where your father died in an accident, while you father in another “string” does not for example. The minds must have almost identical memories and paths to remain in synch.
Slowly as time goes by the number of “strings” we have access to dwindle down to just a few. Fewer and fewer of “us” will have made the same choices and remain in synch until just one remains. When that last version of ourselves dies all the minds and memories of all of us return to the vast expanse we came from and are re-joined.
And there in that vast space we will make another choice, to approach the wall again or not.
Picture this. You are floating in space, a white featureless expanse that stretches as far as the eye can see in all directions but one.
In the direct you see a wall that also seems to stretch to infinity.
As you approach the wall it looks like a giant honey comb filled with identical openings. You now notice that scattered all around you other beings are adrift and that all of you are moving toward the wall. Seemingly at random you seem to approach an opening and are drawn into it. With a snap you are stunned and lose references and memories begin to fade. In time you again become slowly aware of yourself and you are a child again and growing up. And you decide to set up.
What happens next is unnoticed by you. Over the course of your life this event will happen over and over and almost always it will go unnoticed. Only if viewed from the outside can the changes to your life be seen for what they truly are. For the choices you make do much more than change the present they move you across the dimensions, across the different parallel universes in which we live.
That wall I described is the entry into existence. When your awareness entered the wall you were entering life as a human being. Within a few years the memories of the past, un-stimulated by interaction with the life you led, will fade from consciousness and be replaced by the memories and experiences of this new life. First your parents will train you to ignore those things of the unseen world that children can see and feel. Then they, and society, will train you to accept the limits of the world based on what man has been able to explore and define. You will live most of your life with your senses turned off to much of what exists around you.
Even more surprising, after you reach the point of self awareness you will begin to travel across the very boundaries of reality.
Remember those openings in the wall? Each one is a different reality, a different parallel universe unto its self yet identical to the one you know in most ways. Like a giant bundle of tubes they are the parallel “strings” of your reality. Those beings you saw were all versions of you, all identical in their minds and all about to be born, all entering life in a different universe at slightly different times. But not entering every universe.
The universe hinges on our decisions, and the decisions of our parents can make the difference as to whether we are even born or not, so in those universes where the right series of decisions were not made we are not born. There, we do not exist.
While every one of our bodies exists at the same time we are only aware of one at a time. And we can move into and out of these lives at will. Say that today at breakfast you had oatmeal or eggs as the choices for breakfast. When you chose you become aware of a life where that decision was made that way. You then live in that reality until your next choice arrives, such as coffee or tea, when you shift again. Your conscious mind shifting to experience the life that follows after each choice. You actually jump from where you were to the opening, or “string”, and the life where that choice takes you. Because you, your parents, and so on, are the products of an endless series of decisions that lead to your existence, within each “string” the world is almost identical. Some small differences may be present but only ones that would never have had an impact on your existence. De ja vu is when an event happens slightly out of synch in the realities you visit and your mind notices it.
In those cases where a profound difference takes place the consciousness is cut off from that reality, it loses its “synch” and can no longer make the jump. In a world where your father died in an accident, while you father in another “string” does not for example. The minds must have almost identical memories and paths to remain in synch.
Slowly as time goes by the number of “strings” we have access to dwindle down to just a few. Fewer and fewer of “us” will have made the same choices and remain in synch until just one remains. When that last version of ourselves dies all the minds and memories of all of us return to the vast expanse we came from and are re-joined.
And there in that vast space we will make another choice, to approach the wall again or not.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Stranger in a strange land
A Lesson Learned
Over the last few months I have been fairly active on a few UFO websites, and I have learned a lot.
When I started I was a solid believer in UFOs existence, after all almost everyone has seen something in the sky they couldn’t identify and that is a UFO until you find out more. I had seen a few things myself that I know weren’t swamp gas.
But when I ventured to join a UFO forum and tried to talk with the True Believers out there I was surprised. Not at the depth of knowledge but at the depth of ignorance out there.
NO ONE, it seemed had read anything older than this year’s writings on the subject. NO ONE seemed to understand that computers are a recent invention and that Photoshop wasn’t around in the 1940s. And EVERYONE seemed to accept anything and everything as gospel with no attempt to question the evidence.
I was soundly chastised for questioning a contactee’s story. How could I be so cruel as to think someone would make up such a story! It appears that even those who claim the experience is glorious still have deep emotional trauma from the experience and to doubt their story is like calling the Holocaust a lie.
I was asked many times why I was on a UFO site if I doubted some of the theories put forward, and just why I didn’t BELIEVE any of the conspiracy theories that were the heart and soul of UFOlogy.
In a short time I was labeled a skeptic to be looked at with either pity or hatred.
I am now more convinced than ever before that the reason no REAL scientist will come anywhere near Ufology is the company they will be expected to keep. Even the old established UFO investigation groups are now under attack because they won’t come out in support of the many conspiracy theories, and claims that are out there.
Ufology has, it seems, joined Scientology as a new age religion. And the Gods help the non-believer caught in their midsts.
Over the last few months I have been fairly active on a few UFO websites, and I have learned a lot.
When I started I was a solid believer in UFOs existence, after all almost everyone has seen something in the sky they couldn’t identify and that is a UFO until you find out more. I had seen a few things myself that I know weren’t swamp gas.
But when I ventured to join a UFO forum and tried to talk with the True Believers out there I was surprised. Not at the depth of knowledge but at the depth of ignorance out there.
NO ONE, it seemed had read anything older than this year’s writings on the subject. NO ONE seemed to understand that computers are a recent invention and that Photoshop wasn’t around in the 1940s. And EVERYONE seemed to accept anything and everything as gospel with no attempt to question the evidence.
I was soundly chastised for questioning a contactee’s story. How could I be so cruel as to think someone would make up such a story! It appears that even those who claim the experience is glorious still have deep emotional trauma from the experience and to doubt their story is like calling the Holocaust a lie.
I was asked many times why I was on a UFO site if I doubted some of the theories put forward, and just why I didn’t BELIEVE any of the conspiracy theories that were the heart and soul of UFOlogy.
In a short time I was labeled a skeptic to be looked at with either pity or hatred.
I am now more convinced than ever before that the reason no REAL scientist will come anywhere near Ufology is the company they will be expected to keep. Even the old established UFO investigation groups are now under attack because they won’t come out in support of the many conspiracy theories, and claims that are out there.
Ufology has, it seems, joined Scientology as a new age religion. And the Gods help the non-believer caught in their midsts.
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