CHAPTER   1

FACING  OUR  REALITY

Lets face it, the pace and direction of worldly changes have run far ahead of the current human capacity to change with them.  Modern society has become a force with its own momentum; a great machine of mass production and misconception which even now is barely under our control.  We’re overwhelmed with inputs from all directions, and overloaded by so many tasks and considerations that nervous disorders are considered common place.  After century upon century of indulging in bad habits, we are addicted to a cycle of destruction and consumption, (of each other and the Earth) that only compounds the problems of the past rather than improving them.  It has become the unspoken consensus that time is fast running out for civilization as we know it.  We’ve all felt the warning tremors running through nature and international relations alike. They are telling us we’re on the brink of self-destruction, yet we go on pretending with a casual attitude that everything is under control.  It is not.  The condition of our bodies and minds proves otherwise.  The state of the family, community and international relations also proves otherwise.

The aftermath of the social quake we are about to experience, will topple everything we take for granted about modern living.  It will shake the foundations of our livelihood and our concepts of what is truly appropriate human activity, until everything that has been built upon flimsy lies falls into pathetic ruin.  Economics has become a study in the levels of public faith in advertising, more than the quality and stability of marketable commodities.  The stock market has become a confidence game, built upon computer generated numbers rather than the inventories of warehouses.  The plastic cards upon which our lives have been built, are fast becoming far less valuable than a handful of seeds for the garden and clean drinking water.  Consumerism is a game which has almost run its course.  It started small as a mindless little religious scheme, and will likewise end small when the public finally gets fed up with its pretenses.  But the end to consumerism and materialism is not likely to be a quiet passing.  It is likely to fall with a series of noisy crashes as world resources are depleted and life becomes unbearable.  Many will feel a shock akin to betrayal, as though something has been stripped away that is theirs by inheritance. Already the masses are feeling cheated because the satisfaction that supposedly comes from society’s idea of “success”, just doesn’t satisfy after all.  Most of the faces of our retired elderly are not glowing with the satisfaction of a life well lived, but rather, the bitterness typical of having been thoroughly betrayed.  So called “success” which they devoted their entire adult lives to, never did give them any real satisfaction, and now that fact is secretly embarrassing.  It’s embarrassing because after decades of dedication to what turns out to be a false ideal, it becomes obvious how easily we’ve been duped.  Our society is a failure, and this fact is a demonstration of the reality that natural laws cannot be forever ignored.  Mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology are sciences which apply to the human species, to the same extent as they apply to all other creatures and natural phenomena.  This is true regardless of the cultivated niceties and naïve suppositions of domesticated Homo Sapiens.

As a culture it is we who have betrayed our own livelihood, by seeking to serve only the purposes of greed and artificiality.  When the accumulation of money and property is considered a game of egotistical one-upmanship, it becomes the practice of mutual destruction. There will be no hiding place from the cold reality we have created, no sanctuary behind fancy cars, impressive clothes and titles, expensive homes or any other so-called “luxury accommodations” built by private empires of money.  Inspiring speeches delivered to elite patrons over $1000-a-plate dinners, will not stave off the coming tide of change.  A string of letters after one’s name does not prevent cancer or mental illness, nor will it rescue the honored recipient of book learning from the harsh future to come.  Material greed is devouring itself, leaving nothing for our children’s welfare except an inheritance of grief.  No longer will our focus be whom to impress or what social ladder to climb.  Our concerns will by necessity, be focused upon the practicalities of day to day survival in a world gone completely mad.

There is a belief peculiar to the history of Western civilization,  that is reflected in the modern attitude.  It is believed that we are always more “civilized” than ever before.  It is believed that “progress” continues on as it always has, and that this very day and moment in fact, represents the pinnacle of human achievement.  At the same time it is popular to assume that the modern state of affairs will forever remain equal to, or greater than, the present day.  Yet, change is the only thing we can expect to be constant, and it does not take a genius to realize this is so.  Our survival as a culture is most certainly doomed to failure, and whether or not we survive as a species will be a matter of how many of us wake up to take sane action.  For the great mass of humanity who is unwilling to change, (in all apparent likelihood) the chances for survival are indeed extremely slim. The new millennium is a transition phase from the old world notion of human superiority over nature and natural law, to the realization that we must serve the purposes of nature or die. We have indeed “progressed” in terms of technological advancement, but we have by no means advanced the human condition. Our knowledge has become vast, yet we have not cultivated the wisdom to use it in life-affirmative ways.  For this reason civilization is not civil or progressive at all, it is an abysmal failure.  We have failed our children and we have failed the purposes of life.

Even a healthy Earth can support only a limited number of people.  Yet we no longer live on a healthy Earth, and this fact is primarily the work of our own hands. The great empires of the ancient world, the Greeks, Romans, Sumerians, Egyptians, Mayans, the Celts and a host of others we shall never have real knowledge of, have passed away like smoke in the wind.  Even the mightiest of nations have toppled into the dust, though at the time it no doubt seemed to those peoples that their way of life, their civilization, might last forever.  Modern society cannot afford to make the same mistake.  Clearly we must not assume that our lives will be the same even one year from now, let alone ten or one hundred.  But unlike past millennia, our lack of foresight at this particular moment in history will inevitably cause far greater destruction for the world and its peoples than in times past.  A lack of clarity into the laws of nature, into our true purpose as spiritual beings which we seem bent on collectively ignoring, will have results that are not only inconvenient but quite deadly.  How else can the realist conclude, other than to say that the Final Days are upon us?  The bitter fruit of past millennia, planted by the misdeeds of many generations is ours to harvest.  The world forests have been cut down, the seas depleted and made toxic, and the land filled with radioactivity and industrial wastes.  World conditions imply that we can no longer ignore our own mistakes, although the media would like us to think otherwise.  Supposedly the public must not be put into too much of a panic or else chaos would reign.  Actually chaos is already reigning, but under another name…politics.  And as realists know, the word “politics” has become just another word for expediently made profit at the cost of lives.

Like a criminal who is finally caught in the act, this culture must “atone for its sins” so to speak, for having broken every natural law.  Human kind is a repeat offender.  What is it that we have done so wrong you may ask?  The only difficulty in answering that question is where to stop.  Lets start with global deforestation, the systematic consumption and waste of natural resources to the point of exhaustion, and the over-pollution of the environment to a degree that is ridiculous.  The air is becoming unbreatheable, the water undrinkable and the Earth so toxic and stripped of its natural state that all it can do is erode away.  Whole regions of the world are drifting away by means of stream and river, leaving deep gullies and deserts where there was once rain forest.  We have brought about the extinction of plants and animals by the tens of thousands of species.  We bear witness to the mass extermination of one ethnic group by another, and perpetual battles fought over territory and “holy lands” as a matter of habit.  Why are they a matter of habit?  Because they’ve been going on for so many decades that the fighting is hardly considered newsworthy. Our governments fight wars so frequently and for purposes so predictably insane, that the public has become insensitive to the bombing of persons it shall never actually see face to face.  Never mind the fact that a huge portion of our tax dollars are devoted to a bloated military and the self guiding missiles they employ, “to protect national interests”, (“national interests” almost always means exploitable reserves of oil, food, labor, importable goods, or an exportable market).  News of the bombing or economic strangling of foreign countries is taken as part of the normal routine, and considered barely worth mentioning in daily conversation. The public seems completely disinterested in even questioning foreign or domestic policy.  We leave all that to the politicians, and our evaluation of politicians and their behavior we leave to the corporate-owned media.  Our policies and economics have plunged nations into states of mass starvation, or converted their “workforce” into little more than “wage slaves”, who assemble luxury goods for us at the cost of their own economies.  Our economic philosophy is one of bullying the competition, regardless of the social consequences.  When at last we have nearly total control of a region or country, we “create jobs” for the native population, (sweat shops) paying them a tenth as much as our own legal minimum wage, while forcing 12+ hour days upon the workers who are often under-age.  We force other nations to be dependent upon our “good will”, (loans) and products, (brand name exports) rather than encouraging self sufficiency, after bribing local governments for the “right” to do so.  In all of these cases the actual benefit to the native population is given only the consideration on paper that it needs, so that the idea can be sold to puppet dictators who are also on the national payroll, one way or another.  These world-wide projects are an example of your tax dollars hard at work!

The corporations of the world are engaged in the production of unnatural and unnecessary products.  These items have no genuine bearing upon the quality of life, and serve only to soothe the boredom of indulgent citizens, in the fine tradition of Roman extremism.  Creating them strips whole regions of the Earth in order to provide plastic, chrome-plated trinkets to a numbed public, in the name of fashion and social notoriety.  The people buy not so much through need but because something is new. Why do we buy what is new?  So that we can show off our little prize, be it anything from a sports car, diamond necklace, wrist watch, monographed leather briefcase, to a plastic rendition of the latest Disney super-hero.  We buy because we are told by the television that everyone “wants one” and it is considered a patriotic, (idiotic) duty to obey our electronic masters.  It doesn’t seem to matter to the average person that our lives are spent in debt in order to buy things we don’t actually need.  It doesn’t matter that a week from now the new toy, dress, game, automatic vegetable slicer or computer chip-controlled electric toothbrush has already become a bore.  The point is to make the neighbors think we are affluent and “upwardly mobile”.  Tomorrow it will be some other new product or service, which may or may not ease the pain and boredom of a shallow mindset. “Cost is really no object”, or so the reasoning goes, “because we deserve it, (or them)” after “working so hard”.  Do we really deserve to contribute to world destruction just for the sake of idle amusement?  Must we really “work so hard” our entire adult lives just so that we can buy what is new, but which will never truly satisfy?

We bear daily witness to blatant corruption within government, and this is known as “business as usual”. The media plays mind games with the public, pretending that the latest sex scandal or money laundering scheme by the president or senate leader is considered a public outrage.  But these scandals are so common-place and the rhetoric surrounding them so predictable that no one really cares any more.  Innumerable talk shows, and commentaries about commentaries regarding who said what to whom, serve only to amuse a public who wants to emotionally feed off of a real-life soap opera, rather than finding a genuine solution to government problems.  History is repeated as public speakers and leaders claim to be shocked by the behavior of their political contenders, as does the average citizen when publicly asked, as though they are above such behavior.  But how can anyone be above such behavior if their highest priority in life is greed, to make money and “get ahead”?  The enormous, unbridgeable gulf between public speech-making and the private reality, is the perfect definition of hypocrisy. The public doesn’t want to be bothered by high level corruption, so long as lip service is given and token reprimands are issued.  The befuddled “consumer” can only hope to cope with their own private soap opera, whose script is underwritten by materialism and a certain politically correct lack of imagination.

As for the modern religious organization, the sex scandals, stories about the embezzling of funds, tax evasion, multimillion dollar churches which continually beg for donations when their bank accounts are already filled with seven or eight digit sums, come as no real surprise to a jaded following. Well known banks, government agencies, supposedly not-for-profit foundations and other so-called “keepers of the public trust”, involve themselves in another crime against the public on a weekly basis.  The IRS can’t keep its books properly.  The Bureau of land management has stolen more land from Native Americans.  The local hospital is overcharging its clientele by 1000%, while at the same time misprescribing medications and surgical procedures, and providing substandard care.  There’s not enough money for schools and libraries, but there is always enough money to keep 50+ naval vessels afloat every second of every day.  The local police force is being charged again for unlawful entry and the use of excessive force.  The “war on drugs” rages on with seizures of personal property and prison sentences that exceed those of murderers, while the public swims in a sea of prescription “medications”. Could it be that we have degenerated so far that right living seems like a romantic fairy tale? All of this is viewed not only as common place, but as an unavoidable aspect of life as we know it.  In all sectors of society we see greed, perversion and desperation, insanity and ill health, in reflection of a serious decay of life affirmative values.  The one common denominator unifying all of these symptoms of collective disease, is the worship of the dollar as Divine.  Collective insanity is the price we must pay for what is called “fashion” and “progress.”  But in “progress” we do not see the real improvement of the human condition.  Modern life is not for the majority of Homo Sapiens what it is said to be.

Somewhere along the line, the cult of materialism has blindfolded the public lucidity, demonstrating that the advertising claims of; “bigger, shinier and newer equals a better life” is an absurd lie that is wearing very thin. The “progress” of higher technology and modern governmental policy has not improved life as we, the common people, experience it.  The glamour of commercial and fashion magazines represent a hysterical fantasy, serving only corporate profit margins.  The reality we witness is a progressive loss of personal freedoms in legal double-talk, the crumbling of civil and constitutional rights, increased war among nations and neighbors, with death, disease and fundamental dissatisfaction as the common-place norms of daily living.  To be realistic, it would be far easier to review what humanity has done right, simply because this would involve a comparatively brief list.

It is the subconscious yet widespread fear, that there is something terribly wrong with the way we are living, (apart from the extremely obvious that is).  The strong suspicion exists in the public mind, that humanity has failed in the tasks of life and right living set before it, and this suspicion is well deserved.  In essence we have neglected our spiritual purpose and our higher mental potentials, for the sake of indulgence in material possessions and rampant egotism.  Is it any wonder we have less than 10% of our minds left to use? How then can we realistically expect anything else but disaster to befall a short-sighted humanity gone astray?  This path of destruction has been of our own choosing, and brought about by our own institutions.  If we will not or cannot finally correct these errors, then we can in the end at least be honest and acknowledge them.  As old-world ways inevitably self-destruct, the task set before its survivors, (if any) will be to build a new and better world.  Those who acknowledge the Great Fall before it comes, and who have the flexibility to change their ways for the better, will be in a far better position to live beyond the crisis of the new millennium.  It is they who must bear the torchlight of new hope and a new life, having learned the lessons that the majority have refused to learn.  For the masses who arrogantly dismiss the coming Fall there will be no redemption, and their end will not be a pleasant sight to say the very least.  

Although it may not be within the power of the individual to save the world from its own self-destructiveness, it is never the less possible to change personal values. By banding together with others who do the same, a new era may be brought about which has learned from the mistakes of past indulgence.  Offered herein is a practical philosophy and course of action to begin this process. The practical and spiritual suggestions contained in this book are a means by which we may abandon the sinking ship of society, to head for more stable ground.  Through it you will find ways and means to actually improve health and sanity, and to survive the world changes to come with a minimum of stress.

In facing the modern reality, the average person may well resign themselves to hopelessness.  “Things aren’t going to change” they say, “so what is the use in fighting the system?”  First of all, when we as individuals realize what is coming, what is in store for a corrupt society, we must also realize that real change is not necessarily about “fighting the system.”  That is not to say there is no legitimate place for revolution, for the people to actively or even aggressively regain their own capacity for self government that is free of tyranny.  But in times past the act of revolution was not what it would be today.  Today we find that the balance of power is controlled by a very few,  weighted heavily in their favor by the support of vast world resources, the mass hypnosis of the public and high technology.  Because of these factors outright revolution or, “fighting the system” is simply an impractical line of action.  It would require too much energy, and cost too many lives or freedoms to be employed successfully, in all but the rarest of cases.  A more practical line of action is found by simply living naturally and intelligently as individuals, who through a love of truth and freedom, band together with others who are willing to do the same.  We must recreate the conditions of right living ourselves, without waiting for some outside agency or person to do that for us.  By dedicating ourselves to what is eternal and free of cost, rather than to paychecks and the contents of shopping malls, a new humanity will rise from the ashes of centuries past.

Change in the new millennium is not about simply having hope for the future.  Hope depends upon luck or the intercession of some unknown force, that we can only imagine but never really expect.  We must not only hope for change, we must guide it directly into existence, through a personal example of unwavering determination and clarity.  It is not the hope for better times which will bring them about, it is the clarity to see what is wrong in the present, to logically plan for what will be right in the future and to make those plans a daily reality.  It is not the knowledge of truth alone that will make us successful, but the determination to implement it in the present day.  Only through such means will we build a new world, while not forgetting the errors made by these primitive times.

The machine of modern consumerism, with all its devices of mass slaughter/production, its cancerous by-products and unnatural notions, must find its own demise.  At this moment it is doing exactly that.  The second fall of Rome is realizing its own undoing.  To directly oppose it now through political, social or legal means, would result only in being trampled underfoot by the death throws of a mad beast.  The collective agonies and dissatisfaction that this Beast represents is an explosive force, which the wary will stay well clear of.  It is better instead to live ones own life in a good clean manner, while waiting for “the system” to finally overthrow itself.  In the mean time we must continue to ask the right questions, be accepting of the logical answers and encourage others to do the same.  

It is the mark of the intelligent person to never accept any statement, any apparently profound writing or persuasive speech without question.  They will first through logic, intuition and their own experience, validate that which is presented beyond a reasonable doubt.  Only when this process is completed will they accept a premise as fact.  This is exactly why the intelligent do not accept as fact, nor even take seriously, 99.99% of the nonsense uttered by today’s media and other sources of ill-repute. The sheer absurdity of modern advertising, political catch phrases and government jargon is enough to make even the unsuspecting, nauseous with disgust. The blatant insincerity of  the commercialized media can only remain an effective sales tool so long as we remain equally insincere.  Today’s commercials rant and rave like lunatics while begging for attention as a spoiled child does, saying the most ludicrous things about the most worthless of products. Advertisers apparently know no limit to the degree they will stoop in order to sell a product.  Everything from love, romance, sexual attraction, social embarrassment, slap-stick “comedy” to sheer, screaming force, is used to sell every plastic treasure, and “for a limited time only”.  It is only through the sheer repetition of the absurdities we hear, that the public accepts the ideas it is fed without serious question.  This they do just as any brainwashed member of a fanatical cult.  The cult of materialism is a fantastically crafted lie, founded upon the shallow imagery of social status and base desires.  Like any religious orthodoxy, consumerism is led by the high priests whom the public rarely sees, and whose holy vestments are those of suit and tie.  The banker, lawyer and business professional preach to the masses of their unworthiness, and to be worthy they say, would necessitate doing as they do.  Their doctrine is one of “get in line, follow the instructions you are given and never, ever ask questions”.

Consumerism demands the blind faith of its followers, even at the expense of their own welfare and the well being of their children’s children.  Its price is the destruction of health, sanity and good relations among people in the form of greed, anxiety and defensive paranoia.  Worst of all, the cost of such a belief system is the sacrifice of Truth itself upon the altar of egotism.  The following is a list of the basic tenets of materialism to which we are expected to adhere.  To question them is considered the act of the heretic, the insane fool and the undesirable pessimist, but of course this is exactly what the intelligent person must do.  We are expected to believe:

1. That good living is defined by the amount of money earned.
2. That the more expensive an object is, the more valuable it is assumed to be.
3. That the presentation of image is more important than reality.
4. That success in life is literally defined by money and social position.
5. That whatever the majority believes as true, defines the nature of Truth itself.
6. That government, religious institutions and others of “official expertise” know what is right for us, to a degree that is well beyond our own comprehension or experience.
7. That human kind is above nature and does not need to observe natural laws, but only the laws of its own making.  When an idea is made law then it is instantly justified.  When an idea is made illegal it is instantly disgraced.
8. That the items to be bought by money are more desirable than what we already possess or can cultivate in our own selves, even more so than spiritual growth, clarity, wisdom, good will, love, happiness or any other natural consideration.
9. That the public has a general lack of intelligence which makes it incapable of being self governing, which implies that it must be controlled and guided, by propaganda or force of arms if necessary.

The cult of materialism cannot function as the official state religion, without an unshakable public faith in the above premises.  The intelligent person, recognizing the absurdity of these ideas and those who peddle them, will spare no effort in breaking all ties with a society that cherishes the absurd as sacred.  This breaking of ties should not be referred to as “dropping out of society”; it should instead be known as “rising out of society.”  We cannot “drop out” of society, because it has already sunk so low that the only way out is up.  Freeing the mind and body from modern ideology is a process of emancipation from the ridiculous.  It is a release from self-destruction.  “Rising out” of society is not the irresponsible act of the rebellious fool; it is the courageous stand of the spiritual revolutionary.  Revolutionaries are so-called because it is they who have the wisdom to actually live according to an inspired vision, rather than the impaired vision of business as usual..  For those who love truth nothing can stand in the way of genuine personal progress.  It is our duty to ourselves and humanity to move toward sane living, and a rejection of the darkness of thing-fetishism.

It is rightly said that the search for Truth hinges upon the right questions asked, rather than the wrong answers found.  Society persists in asking the wrong questions, presumably because those who are publicly asking them are the ones who, because of greed, secretly want the status quo to remain unchanged.  Let us compare the questions we see asked by today’s society, with those asked by the natural and spiritual human being;