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I was watching the President’s speech tonight and the MSNBC pundits’ commentaries afterwards. Often during this whole Iraq debacle I’ve had the thought, Beam me up, Scottie. Let’s just go to another planet, why don’t we?
If you’re a Star Trek fan, you know immediately what "Beam me up, Scottie" refers to. We are both avid science fiction fans and have favorite shows on the SciFi Channel – Battlestar Gallactica, Stargate and Stargate Atlantis. We’ve seen every Star Trek movie and all the Star Trek TV shows, especially all the later ones, like Star Trek Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.
Even if you’re not a Star Trek fan, "Beam me up, Scottie" has become such a part of our American lexicon that you probably know what it means anyway – at least intuitively.
Then I remember that the only technology capable of "beaming" me into another reality is my own consciousness. And right now it’s not taking me to any other planets. This is it, for now.
I had been working professionally as a seminar leader and trainer in the self-improvement field for fourteen years when I enrolled in a rigorous two year business program. It was one of the most life changing, world-view-shifting experiences of my life. This program was modeled after the work of the former Chilean Finance Minister, philosopher and linguist, Dr. Fernando Flores.
One of the seminal texts of this program is a book entitled The Tree of Knowledge by Drs. Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, both neurobiologists concerned with, among other things, the nature of perception and how our nervous systems interact with the world around us, creating the world as we know it.
"Knowing how we know" is the subject of this book. Maturana and Varela present a new view of cognition that has important social and ethical implications, for, they assert, the only world we humans can have is the one we create together through the actions of our coexistence.
After decades of spiritual and metaphysical studies and deep, life changing transformational experiences, what I learned from this book and business program changed me forever. What I came to understand in a profound way is that our brain and nervous system receives raw vibrations of certain frequencies and translates them in such a way that what we see, hear, touch, smell, taste and interact with, and take for granted as an objective world "out there", is in fact being brought forth moment by moment by our individual and collective interactions with those frequencies — and with each other.
My lived experience that the world is "coming at me" is, in fact, an illusion. The world I experience with my senses is being continually "brought forth from within me", literally.
Now, I can get that spiritually and metaphysically and conceptually. But, getting it biologically was an epiphany for me – especially in a hard as rock business program!
And what it means, to me anyway, is that I am contributing to the world I see, including George W. Bush, the war in Iraq, the Madison Avenue marketing machine churning out ever new things to want, the natural world of the Sangre de Christo Mountains outside my office window, a multihued sunset, the pristine snow falling in our yard, my beloved Layne — all of it, every bit of it — and there is no escaping the effects of my interpretations.
I make up the meanings of the things I experience and I live with the consequences.
It’s easy to be thrown into a deep, dark pit of existential despair, thinking I cannot possibly make a difference, there’s nothing I can do anyway and just give up. Or, perhaps worse, I could become narcissistically self-involved in just getting whatever I can get while I’m here, ’cause this is all there is, Baby.
Another choice, and the one I endeavor to make, is to act as if the truth is true – that who I am makes a difference in the immediate world in which I find myself – and to make the most empowering interpretations I can imagine and take enlightened action where I can. Since I do not have the President’s ear, I will write to or call my Congressman and make my views known. I try to live lightly upon the earth. I endeavor to be kind to others. I look for ways to participate in such a way that the world I want to have manifest through me might actually come to pass.
In short, I spend time on my meditation cushion and I get up and participate in the world as I find it.
Scottie isn’t going to be beaming me up any time soon!
Paul
January 11th, 2007 at 6:52 am
Well said, Paul! We certainly all have a responsibility to act from our place of inner truth and to take responsibility in our world–not just complain about it! Thanks for this great reminder that we are and are always creators of our world. Love, Susie and Otto
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January 11th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Thank you for sharing Paul. I was just thinking about last night’s speech when I got your email. Many of us share a different perspective and focus from some of our leaders. What I want to spend some time doing ~ as we all can co-create this together ~ How would we like it to be? I would like to experience a couple or a team of conscious aware healthy compassionate beings who make decisions based on a love of themselves and others, recognizing we are all one ~ for the highest good of all members of this planet ~AND ~ BEAM ME UP SCOTTIE!
Love and Blessings, Julia King
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January 11th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Greetings Paul!
I have interpreted the e-mail announcement of your commentary as an answer to my desire for conversation regarding what Bush expressed as “The State of the Union”.
I think we can agree that “relationships” offer the best opportunities for personal growth! We may also agree that we probably care more for those relationships that we are invested in, emotionally and otherwise. And lastly that we have choice in making those investments. I have chosen not to buy into the idea that Bush is “my President”. I sincerely believe he is a (de facto) president of something known as the “United States” only. Now, what is the “United States”? This is a kind of question that a general consensus can say “everyone knows what the “United States” is that’s the Fifty States that make up the U.S. of A! Although I agree that’s the general consensus I have plenty of reason to personally believe otherwise. As far as I’m concerned the “United States” is in truth a corporation. Am I obligated to do business with this corporation? I don’t think so! Is there a law that requires me to do business with this entity? I don’t believe there is and if anyone thinks otherwise then please show me the law! Based on this, I believe you could understand how I never ever think of Bush or anyone else in that corporation as “my leader”. To be all the creator that I am, I choose to nourish my own leadership potential instead. I recognize I am on my unique path of Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness and that no man can lead me on my way! I believe the original vision of the Founding Fathers included Self-government and that the “federal government” was well defined to be limited and separate from the individual realms of Self-government. I have no business with Bush and the rest of that corporation and so why would I think or feel obligated to invest anything on my part into that entity? That is an entity that I think can be likened unto cancer. If you understand what cancer is you know that enjoying the very best nutrition is essential for the body to deal with cancer. I choose to nourish Self-government and find ways to extend that into my local community all of which is beyond the lawful jurisdiction of the so called “federal government” corporate entity. Nourishing Self and Community is where I am redirecting my former “patriotism”. I think of “my nation” in terms of people and “my people” is the community that I live in. My love and loyalty is to these people and I choose to trust that other “nations”, communities and people are capable to love their own in like manner.
I am very willing to have conversation with anyone interested in understanding another perspective on “The State of the Union” to which I have yet to directly address.
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January 12th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Beam Me Up!
It seems we can share spiritual principles and truths very well but when it comes down to political leadership the discussion becomes very personal and heated. Truly our own world is different from President Bush, that is, our day to day responsiblities are different. He has his own world of guiding the country according to his truth. But we all do live in a society that has chosen the will of the majority. Bush has an agenda, just as any other president, but he does not have “free reign”. The process has checks and balances involving several “bodies” of people who are different and think differently from George Bush. We all make decisions which we later regret. Does the Congress and House now regret our involvment? We are taught that our relationships reflect ourselves. Sometimes we get into a relationship which we later regret. But at the time it seemed right. When we look at our situation now in the middle east we must look and see, as a nation, what it is we are to learn. Divorcing ourselves from our leadership is just like saying, it’s my partners fault not mine, therefore I want nothing to do with you any more! I believe that just as we as a nation look at ourselves right now, the Moslem world too is painfully facing itself through this process. It too, just as Christianity has, must continue to choose to evolve or stay in the old energies. I believe there is a bigger picture than just one “nowhere man sitting in his nowhere land”.
With respect,
Stephen Hale
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January 12th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Subject: Re: Midnight at the Oasis . . . Photo of the Week Paul, I am convinced that "Shrub" (as my wife calls Bush), must have come from a parallel, but opposite universe, a concept that was used occasionally on "Deep Space Nine" and once on the "original Star Trek" series. I appreciate and concur with your choice of not fighting the world but rather using my energy to change it. Oh — I like your photos! It’s nice to find like-minded people online. Best wishes, Barry Naiditch
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