V I C f lh H Q U O f t i1 try Stefan J Malerek A Mew H istorical Perspective When nomadic w arr iors began migr at mg aero» the stepped of Southern Asia toward wha, is now moder n (My Europe between five and eight thousand years ago - - in the wake of the retreating glaciers of the last Ice Age - - they b ro u /it w ith them their cruel and vicious male gods who demarxted utter obedience to their authority - - w ith to rtu re and (teeth being the punishment for defying them They treated others - - fr lend and foe •• an th e ir grate tre a te d them They brought about the fa ll of the Mmoan C ivilization, the last to embrace the concept of the bountiful, egaiitar lan □rxktess. Gaia, providing completely for the needs of all of humanity without discrim ination We on Planet Earth hove been locked into this same operative par adigm - - baaed on the isolation of the individual, h o stility and compel it ion toward other isolated md separate individuals, and dominance over Natur e - - demanding, in the words of Sir Francis Bacon, that we ‘ torture rc r u n til jhg reveals hgr secrets' in order to get whet we want from life and the world These kinds of attitudes and misunderstandings hove led us to the brink of planetary ecocide, liv in g on a plw w , awash w ith racism and sexism and plagued by a global economic system that thrive s on war and power - broker mg among the industrialized nations What we have lost in this frenzy of production and consumption is the connection w ith our own bodies - and se nsitivity to the needs of others and the planet These attitudes have been fostered and encour ged by moder n industrial societies as being good for business because the needs and concerns of the individual are supreme • - and the false notion that r® who dies w ith the most toys wins" The roots of this thinking lie deeply bur led in the mind bod/ s p lit - fir s t promulgated in the philosophies of Plato, Pythagoras and Par amenities - - mar king the beQirmirgof an era when knowledge *8S no longer divine and revoelod from inner source, but was something which could tie quantified and 'objectified - - a n d thus obtained from external sources This effectively gave recognition to the sp lit between the "male" intellect and the equally intelligent "female" body, givinq precedence to the former Rene Descartes gave this disjunction a scientific formalism during the Enlightenment Project of the Seventeenth Century and bequeethed to us a continuous process of object it icat ion which has enabled the human race to reach new heights of scientific knowledge and technological advancement But we have cr eated, and increasingly re ly upon, deified experts upon whom we hove been led to believe that we must be re lia n t for all the m yriad kinds of knowledge and needs of our increasingly complex lives Power and Social Conditioning Since societies exist before we do, there is always a p re -e xistin g social stru cture of some sort into which we are born, one w ith its own set of rules and regulations, visions and p rio ritie s , gmls and agendas A ll of the people in that society, including ones parents, are invested in the operative bluepr ,nt of the particular society for survival and the furtherance of their own individual goals We are disempowered from the moment of b irth , our ostensible caregivers - - and the whole of society through them - - being given an oppor tunity to have th e ir own deepest power and dependency needs met through the medium of the newborn child, for whose destiny they have already made plans, consciously or otherwise We directly absorb these ear best examples of power and intimacy from the role model ingot our most intim ate and immediate caregivers acting and reacting in certain ways to the needs and demands of the larger society because neoteny - - the plasticized brain learning of infancy and early childhood - - allows us to adapt to anything without discrim ination Because we are totally open and vulnerable, we are im printed with the emotional tone of these lessons like black ink on the white paper of our conxiousness We have, without any conscious thought on our parts, been mtrockjced to expectations - - certain ways ot acting, thinking, being Because we are cognitively immature, we are engraved emotionally, absorbing these im prints in the neural networks of the brain U ntil examined they have a life long effect on the determination of one 5 belief system - - basically an acquired taste" for certain prefer ences and kinds of knowledge, based on those of our caregivers and their role modelling Our intellectual predilections ere often an extension or rationalization of these early emotional choices or conditioning For example, one must only look at how frequently the bulk of people act contrary to their stated, conscious, intellectually formulated goals and ideals, chorainq instead unconscious, unexamined emotionally based ones Having internalized the essence of these ear best lessons without question, ( i e "Don, c ry ' Be a N an'“ ), having learned to squelch our own needs in favor of the prevailing attitudes of society embodied in our caretaker s - - we are bound to repent them in our own lives unless and u n til we consciously choose to examine them. deciding the ir "correctness" and appropriateness" in terms of our own lives in the present This in trojecling of parental mandates is that to which John Bradshaw was re fe rrin g when he said 8 UPPER L E T T t D & t M W ECH I W 3 "That of which we are unaware drives us Just as the individual contains and reflects society in embryo, so does society contain and reflect the collective vibrations ot all individuals Thus, even by default we live in exactly the wor Id we want; We ma, t r y to deny this, but it does not matter what good intentions we might lave - - collectively we ^jner ate what we call "re a lity " we are the co-creators of a ll we see W ith either conscious w ill and intention or uncxjnscious w ill by default, we manifest what we c a rry most deeply w ith in ourselves and create the wor Id If one can look without prejudice at this so called "external world" and its changes as m irro r images of our collective inner world, we may begin to reflect on bane changes, using them as guides to inner knowing and s p iritu a l progress The environment in which one lives - - which we almost universally perceive to be external to our individual selves - - is re a lly nothing more than a direct projection of our th o w /its, ideas and desires and well w ithin our a b ility to change The institutions that govern our lives in th is post - industrial world represent a system of social control w ith their hierarchical structure, system of rewards and punishment and male dominance They also represent a process of continually deepening conditioning in which we are encour agBd/coerced to give up our inner authority - to our parents and fa m ily, then to teachers and doctors and c le rg y , to the policeman, the fireman and hundreds of others in almost every asport of our daily bves We are ra re ly , if ever , encour aged to live our lives in tune w ith our own internal signals - - indeed we are often encouraged to ignore the body completely in favor of completing o th e r, "more im portant" mental tasks Driven by these internalized mandates, we often unthinkingly repeat the lifestyle choices and dictates of these ear best, most essential people in our bves I believe that the current state of the global environment - - economy, politics, religions and the biosphere - - reflects this lark of self examination on a massive scale Because we are encour aged to maintain a sense of self defined by the status quo society, because we have been conditioned to believe that this is who we really are. and, because we believe that our very w ell-being is m tr icafply linked to i t . we are afraid to change much as expulsion from the tr ibe was consider ed to be the most extreme punishment possible, tatamoun, to death, in ancient societies Choice. Intention and a New Attitude It is th is inner se e rch its e lf which holds the key to the "war on drugs", violence in the streets, the contmued (tegr a dat ion of our cities and way of life , the increasing sense of alienation from our jobs and relationships, the p ro liferatin g «Mictions and diseases that plague modern life and the planetary ecological c ris is It is only w hen each in d iv id u a l chaoses to take on the burdens and guesiions of th e ir own lives chooses to examine and define who he or she is in their own r it f it without reference to the needs and demands of society, takes the danger ous and potentially most heeling step possible and examines the internalized dictates and memories of their own life , that we, each of us, can became tru ly responsible ( develop the a b ility to respond) firs t of all for our own bves and decisions and ultim ately for those which affect the planet itself (acting in concert w ith other s who have trod this most d iffic u lt and fu lfillin g road) What is required is a new attitude - based on rigorous honesty and self-examination - - that posits that we. as planetary people, can change any situation, no matter how impossible it might seem. from losing weight to becoming protectors and stewards of the planet - - but which requires, firs t and foremost, that we ourselves change in such a w dafor tha l a i for a U n a but It u au alb ha nomoo duo ovantuaUy H o a o ia r cawa you raarh aga U m u » • ' aarluda ih a a t a i up la II2& .000 of gain an a boaaa aaia You moat b am « m a d and ltvad ■a tba houaa at laaat thraa o/ tba H m »-aan batora lha aa.a You m a) uaa tha alartum only anoa If a m a m a d m u pia aalla l l a i r h«ana and uaaa tba aarluamn naithar on» n n taka ad tar.iaga ot it again Kaap that in aund it you m il yuur boma barauaa at a m a m a g a or dim rm Chunaa tha right U n a to uaa thia big t a i break 2 Bodywork Body work ther apy allows one to get in better touch ( pun intended) w ith oneself Since pain is stored in the body, it too must be taught new and more functional ways of being - releasing the painful burdens of the past in favor of energy, joy and acstacy As Michael Rossman says in V ’/ r r m ZV t o o f the P o litic ’ living in touch w ith our v ita lity in reawakened bodies is integral to the pursut, of the revolution we (team is necessary E xerelse gener ates erxtor phins, the body s own anti-depressant It elevates the heart and metabolic rates and is a general toner for the entire body Ha,he Yoga techniques S tructural Intergration or any technique to which one feels drawn can be useful If one listens carefully, one's body w ill te ll one what it wants and needs 3 Qroup Work Developing a new fam ily of a ffilia tio n ( which can include members of one s biological fam ily of or igm) comes about from pursuing a rtiv itie s and interests that resonate for o n e -- and finding other s who have sim ilar interests, such as recycling, protection of the rainforests, gourmet vegetarian cooking or creating conscious communities As one recover s from one s own personal ravages, one w ill discover other s of like mind, w illin g to bravely experiment w ith a new v u ln e ra b ility now healed from the burdens of the past and tempered by discrim ination One s recovery can be erihanced tremendously in this way berause a social context is created and reinforced for a new way upon which one may comfortably and joyously enter Joining in group activities or meditation, one w ill find the exponential power of developing group consciousness wherein tr u ly , the sum is greeter than the parts 4 Meditation When one has become sufficiently clear emotionally and mentally, i, becomes a matter of steer ing the ship of self, as it were where one wants it to go This is done through intending wha, one w a n ts- - no, mere empty hoping, bu, a clar died intention to im p rin t the Univer sal Whole w ith one s needs and intentions This creates a powerful beacon of purpose which - - even if not fu lfille d precisely - - draws to one the highest good and cuts a path through the , oq to one s goals This w ill allow one to channel one's own previously misdirected energies ( outward) to be tur neo inward for self guidance - and to live in true fre e -w ill expression and becom e, in e ffe c t, one > own parents! Choosing conxiousiy to lim it the extent of the praettoe of exploitation in every area of one's life - - thereby mak ing oneself more recep, ive to the benevolent energies of The Whole - - allows one the opportunity to beome a livin g embodiment of change, garnering tru th and insight, learning and qf owing from everyone $ efforts - - such that one s every breath becomes a revolutionary ac, Once one becomes conscious of I f * nature of self-created re a lity , one can see the mechanism of creation itself and take responsibility for it - - creating anew the patterns of one's life , putt ing a conscious and aware ego into the dr iv e rs see, of the vehicle of conxiousness The p ossibility develops, then, of divinQ deeply, ever more deeply, into one s own Self in the silence of meditation - - and discover ing the real depths of both one s awn individuality and ones connectedness to others One must throw off the oppressive burden of victim ization to stand as champion to one s very own most precious self and say "I W ill Bf A VICTIM NO MORE’ " Bruce E. Nims, P.C. Ctrnfxed fubltc Accountant 32? 04*4 D 73» 0247 JIM WEATHERS C A R PE N T R Y 4 3 6 « 1885 U C IM S k O MOMOTD BMVUnrt) j THE .OCA V ic tim No M o re is an excerpt from " Q u a n tu m P s y c h o lo g y ” ( Ltncorelhnijthe Tyranm o t t t jv vttev L tfA by Stefan Malecek of Manzanita, a p riva te ly published book available a, Ramyduy Books in I illamook , The Crystal Cavern in Salem and from the author a, 3 6 8 - 7591 $ ' 5 postage paid If we have learned anything in the last quarter cen tu ry, it is that we cannot federalize v irtu e Oeorqe Bush, 1 9 9 1 Grant Writing Service J Big plans stalled by lack o f funds'’ Art you a progressive • organization, group or collective • political campaign • publication or individuai ProfessKXul consultine, research and wnting service can '..dp get you funded' Call PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT 238*4559 J