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Monday, June 19, 2006

This Stinkin' Earth

From as early as I can recall, I have always had a love for the Earth. The trees and animals, and nature in general, have often brought me great joy and comfort. Possibly the first and foremost of causes in my life has been the environment. My family was recycling back in the 60's; my mother also used biodegradable laundry products "way back then." I was raised to believe this type of responsibility was normal and common. I was shocked, therefore, to discover that the largest city in the world, New York, where I lived for three years in my young adulthood, had no organized recycling programs and that very few people other than dumpster-divers looking for bottles and cans recycled anything at all.

One of the pivotal moments in my environmental "career" came when I was working in a law firm in the early 1990's. While in the copy room in this office, I got involved in a fracas with a large and aggressive male who had overheard me making comments about the lack of recycling of the tons of paper being tossed out in such firms. When he heard my comment about "Mother Earth," he flew into a rage, declaring himself a Christian and saying, "I'm not born of this stinkin' Earth." Needless to say, I was taken aback, but this moment seared itself in my memory, and I began to closely analyze the connection between the degradation of the planet and fanatic religious belief.

It became clear to me that any ideology which teaches that it is proper and righteous to spit on one's own home is false, erroneous, mean, rotten and dangerous. And, believe me, at that point in history such an attrocious attitude defined religion and, in the U.S., Christianity in particular. In the past few years a relative handful of conscientious people who label themselves Christian has arisen to express concern about the planet we all live on, but many still remain in the "Rapture" frame of mind that not only cares not a fig for the earth but that actually practices studied contempt for our world.

Let me provide yet another example that many of you may have also experienced. A friend has written a message entitled "Global Warming & the Bible," in which he relates the following experience:
About a half dozen family members met yesterday for 'fathers day' dinner. I asked my uncle (a great sportsman & country singer) about the recent Al Gore movie "An Inconvenient Truth" & asked him if he noticed anything different about the environment that he fishes & hunts in on this topic. None of us have seen to movie yet because it isn't playing near us.

Anyway my uncle has never researched this topic & is trying to tell me this is all a fraud. My uncle said last night that a vulcano pumps out more CO2 than all of our vehicles put together. "So what's the problem?" he says. He claims, "there's nothing we can do about it & anything we do try to do won't make the slightest difference.
Vehicles are not the cause of it". He continues, "the end is in the bible anyway, it's time for the lord to come & you better be ready. Are you ready" he says to me.

"READY?" I replied, "Oh yeah, I'm ready & wish he'd get some fire under his feet & hurry up" (probably not even realizing that I am now an ATHEIST!!!)

My uncle recently recovered from cancer just 2-3 months ago. Obviously, it was a miracle & Jesus did it. He knows this, so it is a fact. Well, anyway it sounds like he's getting his [environmental] information from church, doesn't it? He has become a bible thumper for sure.

I am uncomfortable taking issue with my uncle under his recent circumstances & the fact that we've lost about half a dozen family members in the last 2 years including my own father, with a few more probably not far off now.
I too have encountered this destructive and self-serving attitude in "elders" who, facing their own impending death, evidently find comfort in the impending destruction of all life as we know it as well. In most cases, it is likely not very useful for those of us concerned to create discord within our families by openly challenging or contradicting such an attitude. We may "go along to get along," and such polite behavior may set an example.

Nevertheless, it may also be helpful to voice gently but firmly one's own opinion of self- and earth-preservation, based on common decency if nothing else, as the younger generation undoubtedly would appreciate it. In my own experience, while the older generation in general has gotten its feathers ruffled by my opinions, the younger people have thanked me in private and years later for stating my case. I strongly believe that the young ones are vastly relieved to hear a difference of opinion as to whether or not the earth is expendable in "God's eyes" or in our own. After all, these youngters will be living here when their self-defeating elders are long gone, and they are also doubtlessly looking forward to families of their own who will likewise appreciate any and all efforts at preserving and improving life on Earth. When one of my cousins, for example, became an adult, he thanked me for including him as an 11-year-old in my "adult" conversations. Moreover, some of the older people may also be relieved by your gently-but-firmly voiced opinions as to responsible care of the planet. As an aside but an example of how it is wise to give the benefit of doubt to older people, one of my most cherished memories is from an elderly couple who, after reading my book The Christ Conspiracy, thanked me profusely for helping them from themselves from the shame and guilt associated with religious beliefs, such that they could now die in peace.

Think about it. This planet is not "this stinkin' Earth." It's our beloved one and only home. And, despite fervent and sincere hopes that we may be able one day to inhabit other planets, "one day" remains very far off, and this hope does not in any event justify the wanton and uncaring destruction of our beautiful home. We must, therefore, find a way not only to "get along" but also to thrive and prosper. Our children depend on it.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

My local radical bookstore said that the Christ Conspiracy was one of their best-selling books, if not their best. 50 copies were sold. But the distributor -- the Book Tree in California -- went under so they are wondering what some other distributors are for your new book.

Thanks for the latest blog entry.

Acharya S said...

Hey, that's superly cool! Thanks for letting me know. The Book Tree went under?! Paul Tice's company? Surely not - that would be very upsetting. Perhaps he just stopped being a distributor, which I didn't even know he was? My main distributor is Southern California Books. I'm sure they'd be thrilled to add another store to their list. Be sure to have your "local radical bookstore" ask for a few copies of Suns of God as well!

Anonymous said...

Yeah the Book Tree website is still functioning. Maybe my bookstore just lost contact. It's May Day books in Minneapolis (they have a new website found via google). I emailed their website manager but he's a busy new teacher. I'll pass along the info for your new distributor (quite a network of radical publishers they promote. I like autonomedia as well as Adventures Unlimited. David Hatcher Childress responded to an essay I sent him back in 1996 with a postcard stating it was "fascinating." The new version of that essay is my online masters thesis googled as "epicenters of justice." (subtitled radical ecology and sound-current nondualism so definitely pertinent to this blog entry).

Also autonomedia's Hakim Bey (aka Peter Lamborn Wilson) wrote me a nice promo for that earlier essay.

I supposed I should compile my research of the last five years (one book a day) into a book. (John Michell told me he also enjoyed my writing). I was thinking I'd submit it to Galde Press for co-op publishing since finding a publisher is such a pain. A physicist offered to publish my work -- charles madden -- but he wanted to revise the whole thing and it would have been too bogged down.

I like the free-wheeling absurdist style a la the novel "The Third Policeman" by Flann O'Brien.

Anonymous said...

Professor George Lakoff discusses the conservative vs. liberal way of thinking about the environment in his book "Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think", chapter 12 (pg. 210-221). The book is excellent at clarifying what these two completely different ways of thinking are. Not just what they think but how they think. One way you'll completely identify with, and the other way will be quite foreign and scarry. (Hence I continue to recommend the book, even though I understand you have no time to read it. Best wishes!)

Dr. W. Sumner Davis said...

If we but stop and look at the change from the Greek natural logic based ideology and the Romano-Christian, it is easy to see how the hatred of all things natural developed. What is sad, truly sad, is that this outmoded thinking is so attractive to those either too stupid or lazy to accept that the natural world is THE world. Regardless of how much we may wish to believe in a personal savior, it is simply illogical. "Better the truth than our fondest delussions", as Carl used to say.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this it makes a great point.

It is so deeply disturbing how so many religious folks are willing to toss the only planet that we have available to live on in the trash. The lastest surveys say around 86% of the planet are religious. I am now an atheist & recovering xian after being xian for around 20 years. I can think of no greater disrespect towards any god than to destroy her creations. I find it odd that it tends to be the freethinkers that seem more interested in saving our only planet.

Sam Harris says we need to put the 'sting' back into death & challenge martyrdom thinking. I agree.

'Don't bite the hand that feeds you', we should always take good care of our environment. We should work *WITH* nature, not have the 'nature should work with us' mentality.

The Earth Pledge: "I pledge allegiance to the Earth and all the life it supports. One Planet, in our care, irreplaceable, with sustenance and respect for all. May the forest be with you."

Enjoy this quiz & discover your own ecological footprint - http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp

"An Inconvenient Truth" - http://www.climatecrisis.net/

;

Anonymous said...

Ah yes but the word "goat" comes from the word for tragedy! The Sahara used to be a fertile, green wetland area and ecologists have determined that goat forgaging was the major cause for creating today's Sahara desert around 3,500 BCE.

Ancient Egypt originated much farther south and there used to be a large Lake Chad that connected West Africa with Egypt. Many West African cultures consider themselves descendents of the Egyptians!

Then the Bantu picked up the "rectilinear" symbolic revolution which occurred in the Levant around 10,000 BCE (according to "Origins of Agriculture and the Birth of the Gods," Cambridge U Press, 2000)

The Bantu then dominated the Koi-San once iron-based plow farming was spread through Africa even though matrifocal hoe-based horticulture is still common throughout Africa.

Despite the fact that the whole continent is decimated by war, genocide and ecological collapse.

Anonymous said...

This starts out a bit raunchy but I think gets to what I call "the rotten root" behind the ecological crisis:

OK the secret of the "kiss of the yogini" is that the clitoris is to be sucked until it's hard and sex fluids flow freely which the man drinks (to restore his ejaculation).

Also "reverse breathing" is essential to tantra. Diaphragm breathing is what enabled mammals to survive in a low-oxygen environment (after Earth catastrophes).

Normally people breathe with the emphasize on the lungs but the diaphragm should be used as a pivot point with the muscles below the diaphragm drawing the sex energy up the back.

This is also called "the upward draw" or "reverse breathing."

Gay sex for men is the highest secret of western magic in O.T.O. because there is a secret gland at the base of the sacrum which is activated through anal pentration and this fires up the kundalini.

I'm not in O.T.O. but the "g-spot" orgasm is based on the same secret for females which is why "size matters" is the secret motto of second wave feminism.

The "small universe" or "microcosmic orbit" can be practiced by anyone. It just entails sitting straight in a chair and resonating the secret 12 points along the outside of the body:

1) womb-belly 2) reproductive organs 3) base of torso 4) base of sacrum 5) base of spine (small of back) 6) kidneys 7) top of back (center of shoulders) 8) base of skull 9) top of skull 10) middle of forehead 11) throat 12) Heart-mind

Just keep cycling the energy around those points, slowly focusing on each center, starting with one, and moving your mind around each point.

It's good to resonate "Om" on the first point and then "Mua" (backwards om) on the second point and then back to "Om"

Also you should sit on the edge of the chair so that there's acupressure on the base of the torso to activate that secret gland that is at the base of the sacrum.

Finally as you keep practicing the other glands get really hot. You feel the kidneys get really hot and then the thyroid gets really hot and eventually you feel the pituitary gland get really hot.

In the end you can "flex you cerebral cortex" so that you feel magnetic bliss in the pineal gland and the whole body will be suffuse with electromagnetic fields and totally limber like a baby.

In fact the top of the head will become soft (just like a baby) so that the spirit easily leaves the skull and you will not be hungry nor thirsty. This is called "ba gua" state in Taoist yoga.

The same "small universe" practice is secret to India as detailed in Mircea Eliade's book on yoga.

You will be able to "breathe" through the palms of the hands and the center points on the base of the feet -- there will be electromagnetic resonance through those points. This is called whole-body breathing.

So once the 12 points around the outside of the body are open (based on the 12 points of the chromatic music scale) then the 7 to 9 points in the center of the body open up (again the 7 to 9 notes of the diatonic music scale).

Then you can sit in full-lotus pyramid power based on the Tetrad as 1:2:3:4 (a pyramid equilateral triangle which as eternal growth the number 9 -- or 2:3:4 as Aum-Amen-Om -- this is why the capstone of the pyramid on the dollar bill is not down on the pyramid). The tetrad is based on the 1-4-5 music intervals found in all human cultures.

Nine is the sacred number of eternal growth in China.

So the 1:2:3:4 then turns into 4:5 as 5:4 -- the cube root of two -- creating a three dimensional pyramid power vortex.

The empty awareness is the space between our I-thoughts.

Logically all our thoughts are based on the I-thought -- no belief is necessary.

From where does the I-thought arise? Just repeat I-I-I-I over again, not as a mantra, but as a logical experiment in philosophy.

By seeking the source of the I-thought an asymmetrical resonance of the Golden Ratio (one as a continuous fraction for the slowest converging nonlinear fractal) is created (which governs black holes and all growth of Nature).

The golden ratio was the key to the Gothic Freemason cathedrals of Europe.

The I-thought is attracted through suction back into the center of the brain so that finally the cerebellum is activated as the foundation for all thought in the brain (so the pineal gland resonates with the moon-sun-earth vortex).

Suction is just pressure which is quantum chaos sound (phonons). Pressure as quantum chaos sound drives the evolution of galaxies and quasars and supernovas. Pressure as quantum chaos sound IS anti-gravity.

The space between the I-thoughts is the empty-awareness beyond spacetime.

This I-thought (mind yoga) increases the frequency but the small universe increases the amplitude so that alchemical transformation occurs through the asymmetrical sine-wave.

When language was closed off into left-brain axioms based on "I Am" (1:2:3:4 to square the circle) then left-brain asymmetry was created that went against the Harmony arising from the empty-awareness.

Right-brain resonance connects the Tree of Knowledge (the mind) with the Tree of Life (the womb-belly) through the Serpent (the kundalini) and God is the Heart-Mind as the foundation for each life.

God (through the patriarchal priest-hood) separated the tree of life from the tree of knowledge so that humans would be unaware of the secret power of sex.

The priest-hood by focusing on the source of the I-thought eventually resonate their consciousness all the way back to it's source in the Heart-Mind and the heart literally stops for over 15 minutes.

This is called "cutting the knot" for "eternal liberation" detailed in the book "Talks with Ramana Maharshi" -- a teacher of the ancient Brahmin priest-hood.

In Egypt the promoter of monotheism -- Ankenhaton and his queen Nerfititi -- the king stated outright (in a recent academic book it's documented):

"I have never known my non-existence."

This is the same as the "all seeing eye" of the UnDead Brahmin teaches.

So after the heart-mind was transcended to create the UnDead Priesthood there was a reversal of the Harmony of Heaven and Earth and left-brain logic separated the Tree of Knowledge from the Tree of Life using right-hand iron-based technology.

Eve -- instead of being the secret source of eternal sex power became Eve (as the corner of a square) to be controlled for materialistic power. Once the UnDead Awareness is achieved by "cutting the knot" then the priest is beyond all good and evil.

In Africa this became the Freemasonic BLACKSMITH caste which can shapeshift into crocodiles (Set -- the "evil" god of Egypt) which became the "power Set Axiom" (the official name for the square root of two, the first math equation to square the circle used to find the center of the chariot wheels).

The book "Iron, Gender and Power" is a recent academic text on Africa also see "In the Eyes of the Night: Witchcraft among the senegalese" -- another academic ivy-league anthropologist documenting shape-shifting reptilian blacksmiths as the most important magic.

The iron-based technology of patriarchal pastoralism and iron-based rectilinear plowing is the most ancient form of oppression -- when the Bantu-Koi cultures then took over the Mbuti-Baka-!Kung-San cultures of matrifocal hunter-gatherers.

In Sumeria the original Garden of Eden myth has the Snake as goodness with Eve in charge.

The letter "A" is actually the upside bulls-head from Sumerian ideograms with Omega as also a bulls-head. The bull being used for the first rectilinear iron-plow farming. See the recent academic book "Women of the Hoe" for documentation of the ancient matrifocal horticulture (without the rectilinear iron-based plowing).

God comes from the Indo-European word "Gott" meaning Bull for farming fertility rites of the ancient Solar Dynasty kings. Even scholar Karen Armstrong's book "The History of God" does not give the etymology of the word -- that's how brainwashed everyone is!!

Those kings, as detailed in professor David Gordon White's new sacred sex book "Kiss of the Yogini" ruled Western Asia through

tantric sex with a shamanic goddess (using the techniques I detailed above).

Have a nice day people.

drew hempel, M.A.

Todd the Toad said...

Oh no, not the volcano speech again. Gosh knows I've gotten that one. As one Christian environmentalist (who has written a book on the topic) once told me, "It's in the heritage." Anyway, it is a breath of fresh air to see your wonderful blog back. What a scare!

Anonymous said...

Solar Flares & more -

http://www.spaceweather.com/

QUAKE ACTIVITY -

Earthquake watch around the World - http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php

Latest Earthquakes in the World - Past 7 days -
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/

-----------------------

VOLCANO ACTIVITY

http://www.sveurop.org/gb/news/news.htm

------------------------

CNN: June 22, 2006
SCIENCE & SPACE: Study: Earth 'likely' hottest in 2,000 years

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It has been 2,000 years and possibly much longer since Earth has run such a fever.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/06/22/global.warming.ap/index.html

New York Times: June 23, 2006
"WASHINGTON, June 22 — An influential and controversial paper asserting that recent warming in the Northern Hemisphere was probably unrivaled for 1,000 years was endorsed Thursday, with a few reservations, by a panel convened by the nation's pre-eminent scientific body."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/washington/23climate.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Anonymous said...

Hey Acharya S.! I haven't noticed you reference this obscure but amazing book I came across:

Professor Harvey Minkwitz’ amazing expose “Mystery of the Dead Sea Scrolls” (1996?ish)—a little academic text little read nor acknowledged.

He talks about the difference between Joshua Ben Sidra -- which was a belief in no spiritual afterlife yet the reality of nondual consciousness

versus a Jesus teaching that promoted an eternal afterlife of light in heaven (kinda like how the Matrix movie chickens out about the real meaning of Buddhism)

Anonymous said...

Professor Minkoff -- here it is:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006R06Z6/qid=1151359724/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/102-4081113-1180906?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

This is the best book on the Dead Sea Scrolls controversy that I've come across and it's dainty to boot!

Anonymous said...

Hey there's a new interview on gnosticism and the Nazis at http://pidradio.com/?p=268 with peter levenda's http://sinisterforces.info

I suggested the radio hosts need to read your website.

Anonymous said...

i wonder if you can comment on "The Holy cross and the mushroom' written by John Artega. I read some part of it in the sixties before a friend who could not wait, borrowed and lost it. Explaining religion as a filologist and having been on the team that unearthed the dead sea scrolls, at that time made some sense to me.
thanks, amanitamuskaria

Acharya S said...

That would be John Allegro, whose work I utilized a bit in The Christ Conspiracy.

There certainly is some merit to the notion that various religious or spiritual ideas have been discerned by individuals who had consumed entheogens. (See also the work of Terence McKenna.)