Inner Michael

Michael Jackson was a Pantheist. Theology is the study of religion or broadly defined is a “discourse about God” commonly taught in a divinity school or seminary. It derives from the Greek theologia which is theo (God) and logia (logos, word or oral history and tradition.) Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle thought of theology as discourse of all things god, and the metaphysical nature of the divine.

I’m thinking that most Michael Jackson people are Pantheists at heart. If you’ve read “Dancing the Dream” and resonate with Michael’s reverence and passion for nature, animals, the landscape, the planet and the planet’s people—in other words all sentient life—you are a Pantheist.

“Earth Song” is a Pantheist anthem. Michael’s soaring vocals are inspirational and establish an expansive “vibe” that encompasses nature, the planet and all sentient beings. And it asks ‘What about us?’ in the spirit of the interconnectedness of all life—what Chief Seattle and people like John Muir and Aldo Leopold call “the web.”

Chief Seattle said: “what we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” He spoke of the land, the buffalo, the taking of only what you need and giving gratitude in reverence to the resources of nature.

Michael said the same things in “Earth Song.” He knew that when we destroy the web, we destroy ourselves. When we kill the rainforest which are considered the lungs of the planet, we kill ourselves. In order to have life, there must be breath. Michael revered nature, beauty and all life.

He identified with a single dolphin which had died caught in a net and could feel the presence of a dolphin in the sea. His Pantheism is in his poetry and in his lyrics. He loved all people of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds and even went so far as to identify with simple living and poverty by arranging to visit and sleep on the ground in a hut in order to experience it.

In “This Is It” he spoke about the breathtaking beauty of the planet and inspired the cast of the show by asking them to help “put back some magic into the world” and to speak about the window of opportunity and the time period available to us to save the planet from irreversible harm or the critical mass where the destructiveness of man and rape of the planet becomes not just possible but destined. He encouraged stewardship by saying “it’s up to us or it will never be done.” It’s the same thing the Hopi Elders have been saying all along about the prophesy for humankind on this planet in the philosophy of: “we are the ones we have been waiting for.”

How do you know if you are a Pantheist?

When you look at the night sky or at the images of the Hubble Space Telescope, are you filled with feelings of awe and wonder at the overwhelming beauty and power of the universe?

When you are in the midst of nature, in a forest, by the sea, on a mountain peak – do you ever feel a sense of the sacred, like the feeling of being in a vast cathedral?

Do you believe that humans should be a part of Nature, rather than set above it?

Do you love animals and believe they have rights? Do you accept that you are responsible for your pets, for all animals, for how land is used, food is grown and are you a vegetarian or concerned with ethical eating?

Are you skeptical about a male deity or god who sits on a throne in a vague place called heaven and who pushes buttons and pulls levers to control things on earth? And when a human messes up, he’s a vengeful and punishing figure?

Do you view the world and life as vibrant, alive and luminous?

Do you rather believe that “God” is a Presence that is sweeping in nature and extends far beyond a location or definition and encompasses Nature and the wider Universe?

Yet do you feel an emotional need for a recognition of something beyond the human entity and ego and is greater than your own self or than the human race?

If you can answer yes to most of these questions, then Pantheism is likely your natural religious home or is at least part of how you define your spiritual philosophy or beliefs.

At the heart of pantheism is reverence of the universe as the ultimate focus of reverence, and for the natural earth as sacred. Scientific Pantheism (Carl Sagan) or Natural Pantheism (Rachael Carson) has a naturalistic approach which simply accepts and reveres the universe and nature just as they are, and promotes an ethic of respect for human and animal rights and for sustainability of lifestyles that cultivate, nurture and protect rather than destroy the environment.

When scientific pantheists say WE REVERE THE UNIVERSE we are not talking about a supernatural and polarized or singular being, we are saying we practice awe and experience the sacredness of all that is.

We respect and embrace with our senses and emotions, the force of an overwhelming mystery and power that surrounds us.

We are part of the universe. Our earth was created from the universe and will one day be reabsorbed into the universe. We are made of the same matter and energy as the universe. We are not in exile here: we are at home. Paradise is not just out there somewhere out of reach but can be created and experienced here and now. If we believe our real home is not here but in a reality that lies beyond death, or if we believe that the numinous is found only in old books, or old buildings, or inside our head, or outside this reality, we are mistaken or in the midst of a grand illusion.

The universe creates us, preserves us, destroys us. It is deep and old beyond our ability to reach with our senses. It is beautiful beyond our ability to describe in words. It is complex beyond our ability to fully grasp in science. We must relate to the universe with humility, awe, reverence, celebration and the search for deeper understanding. It doesn’t fear the mystery; it embraces it.

 

The World Pantheist Movement Statement of Principles

1. We revere and celebrate the Universe as the totality of being, past, present and future. It is self-organizing, ever-evolving and inexhaustibly diverse. Its overwhelming power, beauty and fundamental mystery compel the deepest human reverence and wonder.

2. All matter, energy, and life are an interconnected unity of which we are an inseparable part. We rejoice in our existence and seek to participate ever more deeply in this unity through knowledge, celebration, meditation, empathy, love, ethical action and art.

3. We are an integral part of Nature, which we should cherish, revere and preserve in all its magnificent beauty and diversity. We should strive to live in harmony with Nature locally and globally. We acknowledge the inherent value of all life, human and non-human, and strive to treat all living beings with compassion and respect.

4. All humans are equal centers of awareness of the Universe and nature, and all deserve a life of equal dignity and mutual respect. To this end we support and work towards freedom, democracy, justice, and non-discrimination, and a world community based on peace, sustainable ways of life, full respect for human rights and an end to poverty.

5. There is a single kind of substance, energy/matter, which is vibrant and infinitely creative in all its forms. Body and mind are indivisibly united.

6. We see death as the return to nature of our elements, and the end of our existence as individuals. The forms of “afterlife” available to humans are natural ones, in the natural world. Our actions, our ideas and memories of us live on, according to what we do in our lives. Our genes live on in our families, and our elements are endlessly recycled in nature.

7. We honor reality, and keep our minds open to the evidence of the senses and of science’s unending quest for deeper understanding. These are our best means of coming to know the Universe, and on them we base our aesthetic and religious feelings about reality.

8. Every individual has direct access through perception, emotion and meditation to ultimate reality, which is the Universe and Nature. There is no need for mediation by priests, gurus or revealed scriptures.

9. We uphold the separation of religion and state, and the universal human right of freedom of religion. We recognize the freedom of all pantheists to express and celebrate their beliefs, as individuals or in groups, in any non-harmful ritual, symbol or vocabulary that is meaningful to them.

The Earth and the Reason- for Earth Day 2009

From the air
she reminds me
of an old woman.
Wrinkled skin,
hills and valleys
scars and dimples–
a complexion
older than time.

Four billion!
Four billion years
she has been becoming.
Has she too, pondered
her reason for being?

The water ran right there.
Hills puckered here
with gathers over there,
a plateau ends here,
the river meanders–
features of character
on the face of forever
in the spiral of time.

They say time waits for no one.
Does the Earth wait?
Has she waited?
For what? Whom?
Has she consciousness.
a self? Or
an accident of cause
waiting for effect?

All these millennia–
silent.
Never knowing,
never ending,
never not becoming;
while I become,
then disappear.

Today she is familiar,
greets me,
telling stories,
speaks with my tongue.
I ask her to remember
because she will be–
long beyond me.

A loudspeaker voice says
“fasten your seatbelts;
we begin our descent.”
We do descend to Earth,
down to her skin,
down to become matter.
To matter?
To call her “home.”

The Captain says we are
“preparing to land.”
I know that once again
I too prepare to land
somewhere outside this perspective,
outside its intimacy.

A sigh escapes
from somwhere deep,
a tear appears,
but a faint voice whispers
“I will remember.
You are my reason
and now my voice
and effect.”

BK (c) 2009

One Man’s Teepee

A dying fire licks the dark,
makes shadow fingers
that caress the walls,
salute brother wind,
hail sister moon
and beckon his return.

She stirs in dreams,
becomes the deer,
running, running,
gives head to wind,
hooves to forest,
races the edge of dawn
toward home.

A filly now,
she whinnies softly,
dreams his neck,
nuzzles her head,
breathes tangles of hair
not braided this night
for battle.

And now the great cat
curls and stretches,
arches her back
on bearskin mounds,
her breast remembering
the cup his hand makes
even in sleep.

The eagle soars,
listens the distance,
spies horse and rider,
swoops down to wake
from Shaman’s dreams;
rekindles a fire
to warm his night.

Her fingers smile,
trace rounded belly
to recall his love,
grow his seed,
seal the future
for her people.

The owl knows,
and wolf remembers:
medicine and legends,
a strong, proud race
and how one man’s teepee
was a nation’s dream.

BK (c) 2006

In continuing our series on expansion, it is important to visit “perspective.” Where you are seeing from determines what you will see. Who you are being colors your experience of the world. We live in a world of paradox, as paradoxical beings. There is the micro view and the macro view. I interpret that as “as above, so below” because the more I look, the more I find echoes in existence. What happens in my life echoes where I am in my psyche. What I attract is a measurement of who I am being.

Life is reciprocal. What you put out is what you will get back. If you focus on the world of conflict and drama and give that your rapt attention, guess what will show up in your life? If you are prone to doom and gloom, your mind is constantly scanning the horizon to find the darkest representations of life– so the snapshots of your mind will reflect that affinity and you will be “awfulizing” your world. Nothing will meet your standards because everything is after all… awful.

The human ego likes to think of itself as important. When someone behaves as if “the world revolves around me” they have never grown up. That is how an infant views the world, as an egocentric being. If there is discomfort, the infant wails until his discomfort as assuaged and his needs are met.

The infant learns if I am hungry, someone feeds me. If I am tired, I sleep. If I want something, I must have it and I am given it. Infants and kitties and puppies are cute and being cute helps to get your needs met so adults often think that if they are ”cute” everybody will find them loveable and their needs will be met. And then there are those who demand that their needs be placed on everyone’s priority list. They have grown up tantrums or manipulate to get what they want. We all know these people who have an inflated sense of self. The manipulate for attention, have drama, and suck all the air from the room.

 Then there are those whose spirit is magnanimous. They embrace all people. They see the “bigger picture” and understand that they are insignificant in the grander scheme of things or they understand their place in the divine plan and humbly show up for their mission. They don’t speak the same language as the egocentric individual. They don’t live in the same world. The egocentric person tends to have a cynical or suspicious view of everything because that is how their mind works. They starkly contrast with the more generous and magnanimous individual and they don’t understand them or are threatened by them and can unconsciously resent and wish to destroy them. Their world is colored by human misery and failure and they act to distance themselves from their own reality by pointing the finger at others, by comparing and competing and by acting on their projection onto others with destructive impulses. They see the world as a dangerous place and therefore and thereby make it dangerous.

There are the innocents or open hearted individuals who live in awe of beauty and splendor. They are untainted by the misery or rise above it to incorporate the beauty of existence. They accord everyone equal validity and behave as if everything and everyone is valuable, even sacred. They measure everyone by their own standard of excellence as demonstrated by a reverence of nature and beauty and often find their expectations disappointed or their hopes dashed by the intrusion of the human ego or human nature that is imperfect and self serving. They are not self serving so they can’t understand or relate to that world view just as the self serving person cannot fathom magnanimity. They view the generous or magnanimous as necessarily conniving because they themselves are. They tend to think them naive, foolish, silly or freakish. Instead of seeing a naive offender by comparison to their own sensibilities, they see a deliberate offender. They judge harshly because they are harsh people.

 I have made the bold statement that “Michael Jackson fans ‘get it’” and by that I mean they are not blind or one dimensional in their interpretation of the man and his life. They see in Michael what is reflected in themselves. When this understanding occurs at a deep level, they see the genius in the complexity and the innocence in the behavior because it is echoed somewhere in self. That is not to say that they don’t violate their own standards or that they aren’t occasionally (or more) hypocritical or succumb to human temptation or behave in a way beneath themselves, but to say that they have the capacity to be magnanimous and in service to others and the world. They saw Michael for who he really was because it lives in themselves. They see his humanitarianism, his soulful nature and his acts of kindness because the capacity lives in them.

Those who are warmaking individuals appeal to the violent. Positions of power attract the corruptible. Hollywood is a magnet for the flamboyant. We go where we find opportunity and nourishment. What we find there depends on whether we live from… abundance or scarcity. From judgement or from tolerance. From love or from fear. In other words, from the ego or from the soul. How you are comes from answering the question: “who is in charge?”

 I believe wholly and emphatically in that capacity that I spoke of. That capacity can change the world– guaranteed. It I didn’t believe that I wouldn’t be here or be here still. In that spirit, I share with you…

I subscribe to and embrace the philosophies of many groups and organizations on the planet who are either humanitarian or cheerleaders for the planet and its inhabitants. My global concerns are refelected in the Institute of Noetic Science and The Union of Concerned Scientists. I tend to like global thinkers like Carl Sagan, Jean Houston, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Edgar Mitchell (and many astronauts,) Gregg Braden, Peter Russel, Brian Green, Brian Swimme, Michael and Rickie Beckwith, Andrew Harvey, the Dalai Lama and others who look through a lens that shows them the view from that place of expansion.

The other day on Frontline, UCS Nuclear Engineer Dave Lochbaum recalled that UCS co-founder Henry Kendall “used to say that you can’t have but one half of a boat sink,” that here on Earth, we are all in it together.

Carl Sagan did a presentation where he used this slide (right.) If you look halfway down the stripe on the far right, you will see a little speck of light. That is the view of earth from the perspective of the Universe. It was taken from Voyager 1 launched in 1990 as it turned from 4 billion miles away and took this photograph. The streaks are just reflected glare from sunlight in the lens.

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

– Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994 ( The earth photos are new satellite photos from NASA)

Michael Jackson held an expanded view of  the world, the Universe, life and music. You recognize it in him because the capacity lives in you.  Here are a couple more views from expansion– from different visionaries with different approaches saying the same thing as Michael was saying thirty years ago. Meet Gregg Braden and Michael Beckwith with Rickie Byars Beckwith and Faith from Agape.

_____________________________________________________

Addendum to Post:
The Compassion Project from Earth’s Avatar Compassion Team:

© Copyright 2005 Star’s Edge, Inc. Avatar®, ReSurfacing® and Star’s Edge International® are registered trademarks of Star’s Edge, Inc. All rights reserved

There is nothing so potent as an idea whose time has come. There is nothing so powerful as a technology (and perhaps meme) introduced into the world at precisely the time the world needs it. When people are spiritually thirsty, kindness offers them a quenching. When they are hungry, sustenance delivers them and beyond the crisis… it inspires.

In the interest of our continuing dialogue about “Expansion” and as a prelude to more conversation about it, I want to point out something you may not have thought about before. The world can change overnight. Human thinking and human direction can be shifted by a single event. And one person can change the world– or in one case in a story told here– can save it.

The world can change overnight.
That may sound like hyperbole, a huge tale, yarn or fish story, but it’s principally and absolutely true. Destructive trends can be changed; the collective mindset of humanity can be impacted; a danger can be haulted; humanity can turn on a dime; something can become obsolete or human consciousness can be impacted and awakened in an instant. The Hundredth Monkey can catch on; the tipping point can be reached; collective consciousness can reach critical mass; the game changer mental software is downloaded and suddenly… yes, it’s a new game. 

The day is coming when humanity says “I’m on it” and the world says “I got this.” 
“I’ll Be There.”
“Will You Be There?”

 Game changer moments:

• When the offshore drilling platform collapsed and oil spilled into the gulf; overnight the use of fossile fuels to power the future world became obsolete.
• When the tsunami hit Japan, overnight the safety and efficacy of using nuclear power as the best solution to fuel the world came into question
• One incident brought to a peak the growing and barely discernable disgust for tabloid journalism and its practice of phone hacking for headlines and profit. A public enemy was identified.
• One rogue cop (of many isolated but similar incidents) spraying pepper spray captured on camera embodied the abuse of power and authority.
• A space adventure gone awry captured the attention of the whole world as a nation scrambled to bring their astronauts home safely. The whole world held its collective breath during minutes of the communication blackout of re-entry into earth’s atmosphere; that same world let out that collective breath that erupted into a cheer as the Apollo capsule emerged into view.
• One man dragged from the cab of a truck and beaten galvanized a city into action despite its miguided methodology and intent.
• A single terrorist event encapsulated and demonstrated to the world the treacherous effects of religious intolerance.
• One young woman dying in the streets motivated an entire culture and region
• A chance location of a hurricane strike demonstrated to the world racism, classism white privilege and brotherhood all at the same time.
• A mining accident gained the attention of the whole world toward a group of men trapped beneath the earth.
• The chance happening of a natural disaster— an earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, volcano or accident, brings out extraordinary compassion in a race that appears mostly indifferent to the suffering of others of its species.
• A bullet to the head of a beloved congresswoman caused a whole nation to rethink political rhetoric and the violence in words and speech. Her struggle to recover and her courage brought a chamber of mature men and women normally staunch, mostly formal, and occasionally pompous– the American Congress– to tears.
• The death of a princess brought people weeping into the streets all over the world
• The death of a superstar found people both weeping and celebrating his life in the streets and almost crashed the Internet

Overnight!

The ego’s shadow and the consciousness that informs it can be flipped to bright shadow given the opportunity and the perfect moment. So, if you think one person isn’t powerful enough or one person can’t change the world, you are wrong. Some days it takes only one person to save it.

Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov: Not On My Watch
The Enemy Who Saved the World

(c) 2010 Reprinted from “Playback: Stories that should be told” at Voices Education Project
(Original story and photos:)  http://voiceseducation.org/content/stanislav-yevgrafovich-petrov-not-my-watch 
contributed by Barbara Kaufmann

The nightly mantra went something like this: “When they do come and I get vaporized, I hope I don’t feel it. If there is no hope and nothing left, then please God, take me and everyone else straight to Heaven.”

The end was only and always, one millisecond away. I was deathly afraid of Russians, the word “Communist” brought shivers while the image of St. Basil’s Cathedral resurrected terror from the heart and bile from the stomach. No one in my generation expected to live past thirty.

If by some miracle I were to live, I vowed: “when I am a grown up, I will do something” because none of the adults were doing anything, and I couldn’t understand how they could let this madness go on. They spoke of the only viable retaliatory military option: “mutually assured destruction.” MAD. Mad? Viable? Not until I was an adult myself and decades into the peace movement as an activist, and in the Sister Cities program with Russians, did I learn just how close we came to doomsday. And ironically, it would be a Russian who would save us.

Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov (Станислав Евграфович Петров) born 1939, and now a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the Soviet Air Defense Forces, on September 26, 1983, suspended the madness and saved the world from nuclear annihilation. Petrov was on watch stationed in the Serpukhov-15 secret location near Moscow within the early warning system bunker code-named Oko. The newly inaugurated system signaled the launch of a U.S. Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile which was used for one purpose only—to launch a first strike or immediate counterstrike in case of nuclear alert or launch from an enemy. The Soviet Molnyia, vast elliptical orbiting satellites, were supposed to decrease the likelihood of natural phenomena being mistaken for a launch. However during that midnight Autumn Equinox in 1983, the sun’s reflection on high altitude clouds against the darkness of space mimicked the launch of first one, then later several, U.S. missiles on a trajectory toward the Soviet Union.

It was a particularly volatile time because just three weeks before this incident, the Soviet Air Force had shot down Korean Air Flight 007 with 269 people on board including United States Congressman Larry McDonald and several other Americans. President Reagan had implemented Able Archer 83 Defense System which the Soviets interpreted as an American first strike nuclear plan and policy. Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov was utterly convinced that the American government was planning an all out first strike nuclear attack against the Soviet Union and in anticipation, had implemented a LAW- launch at warning order instead of the usual required confirmation of actual attack. The confirmation would mean that Petrov notify his superiors only after noting the actual radar presence of missiles on the horizon of Soviet Air Space. Waiting for the radar to confirm an actual launch would mean loss of strategic retaliation advantage since waiting for that close range confirmation would lose valuable time for an effective retaliatory launch. Confirmation had been scrapped for the launch at warning dictum.

The LAW in MAD or Launch on Warning in a Mutually Assured Destruction scenario was a dangerous doomsday moment in the world’s close encounter of the third kind—a near third world war. Petrov’s orders were to alert the chain of command to any launch warning. He delayed. His logical reasoning intervened when he considered that a first strike by the U.S. would likely mean the launch of hundreds of missiles simultaneously, not just the few seen on his screen. He speculated, accurately so, that there was a computer error. The MAD doomsday before his very eyes was a reflective illusion.

While the Soviet government assured the world later that one man could not have made a unilateral decision to launch an all-out nuclear war, the climate at that moment most likely would have meant a “go” launch by superiors in immediate retaliation to any reported launch alert. Tensions were measured high and distrust was astronomical in those hot days of the cold war. Hasty and uncalculated actions at that moment in history might have meant the end to life as we know it on this planet.

Accounts vary as to what happened to Petrov as a result of his actions. He was, of course, grilled hard and incessantly by his superiors in an interrogation rivaled only by the KGB, FBI or CIA. He was both praised for his actions and reprimanded for not entering the incident properly in the military diary. He was not rewarded. In fact, had he been publicly recognized and applauded, his superiors would be embarrassed and the scientists behind the program would have been humiliated. For his efforts, he was assigned to a less sensitive post. He took early retirement and suffered a “nervous breakdown.” Analysts speculate that in the hair trigger paranoid climate of that incident, had Petrov reported a missile launch up the chain of command, the superiors with only moments to make a decision would likely have decided to launch. Petrov’s hesitation may have stayed an execution— of all life.

Stanilav Petrov was invited to the United Nations in New York City in May of 2004 where the Association of World Citizens presented him with an award and a trophy for his heroic action or in this case, inaction. The same day the Russian Permanent Mission Federation to the United Nations issued a press release contending that a single individual would be incapable of starting or preventing a nuclear war because of the failsafe procedures within government military protocols. However, Petrov’s role was crucial in making any kind of decision while he says he was just “doing his job.” CBS’s Walter Cronkite conducted an interview with Lt. Colonel Petrov and a documentary has been made of the incident that has yet to be broadcast.

All those Cold War years, the frightening 007 movie From Russia with Love, the radioactive symbols, the constant nuclear drills in schools, the eerie and piercing air raid sirens, the underground bunkers and fallout shelters, and the terror that lived in the children of a whole generation—was because of the imminent threat of nuclear annihilation by the Russians. Yet when the definitive moment came, it was a Russian who said to the death of the world and life as we know it: “Not on my watch;” and became the Soviet enemy and man who saved the world.

———————————————–

It was Anthropologist Margaret Mead who said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”

If a few committed citizens can change the world, think what a few million Michael Jackson fans could do.

I do have some ideas and am working toward a launch. But I’d like to hear your ideas- in comments or to revb@innermichael.com

Arundati Roy said: “Not only is a new world possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

Today is that day. You have the breadth. Are you that breath?

Someone asked me what I thought about expansion in terms of current affairs, of Michael and in going forward. There is a change; I can feel it. The letters I am now getting from fans are much more thoughtful, thought provoking and serious. They are now exploring the spiritual value in their association, their awakened state and whatever their discovery via or with Michael Jackson.

Most are reports of personal growth or exploration as I have invited fans to stay in touch and update me about their progress. When I began Inner Michael, I was a touch point for fans, a confidante, a place to go for support and help and to ask questions. Lots of the questions had an undertone of fear, especially in the beginning. Many wondered what was happening to them. They were puzzled about their own feelings and were groping for understanding why they were so affected by Michael’s death.

I am still getting notes about how Michael Messages are helping. I suspended them after the chakra series and when I got busy but someday I hope to return to them or maybe even reincarnate them in another form.

I have mentioned before that this reaching out to me prompted a few visits to my own spiritual advisor—our associate pastor who identified this as a calling and asked if I would serve. How could I not show up, I asked her? I’ve been in that hurting place myself and my guts too have screamed “why, why, why?” when the world made no sense to me or something or someone I relied on was suddenly gone.

It’s the empty space that is so wrenching. It’s the senselessness of some deaths and the senselessness of human-inflicted tragedy. It’s the mental struggle to wrap your mind around something that is just, well… impossible. I recognized Michael’s death as a spiritual emergency for many, many people and I had just attended seminary for that training the summer before so I was in a unique position to guide people through their grief and to their own understanding.

Spiritual emergencies are nothing to sniff at or laugh at or dismiss as simple “fan idol worship” gone manic and out of control. Many people were in the midst of true spiritual emergency and that portends a shakeup of reality and major life changes. That kind of rattling invites the existential questions: who am I? Why am I here? What’s it all about? What is the meaning of life?

Why do humans have to suffer? Why does tragedy occur? Is there a God? It’s not an easy place to be yet there were some “journalists” or “talking heads” or “pseudo psychologists or arm chair analysts (and even real ones) who chalked it up to hysteria or irrational adolescent-type adoration. That is typical of ignorance—to eschew something you don’t fully know from thoughtful investigation or understand for lack of context. On top of a real crisis, fans were being marginalized or their real grief trivialized by their own culture. Their support system not only dissolved, but ridiculed them or dismissed them as mentally questionable and that grief seemed to be its own betrayal of Michael Jackson’s memory and legacy. The “crazy fans” meme was inadvertently perpetuated and that layered on even more grief.

It was the same kind re-victimization and layered on anguish that I’d often seen with pet owners who were admonished by well meaning friends to “just get over it” or “go get another cat” as if a new ball of fur could replace the old one who was a family member. Or the really troublesome comment many have heard: “good grief, it’s only a dog; get another one for goodness sake.” These are hurtful comments that serve to re-traumatize someone who is already bereft at their loss.

There was a fair amount of infighting among fans who initiated a kind of contest about who could cry over Michael the most or the longest which diminished and distracted from the real grief being felt. It was as if tears were trophies instead of a means to process a loss and invite healing. The healing became more and more difficult as pundits and critics and commentators ‘added insult to injury’ by dismissing Michael or worse, defaming further, his character.

Arguments erupted between “true fans” and “new fans” as if longevity was a measurement for loyalty or the magnitude of the grief. An important truth was overlooked that long term Jackson fans were hit hard by his loss because it was the last straw in a constant series of post event traumas. Long term fans had been through years of defamation and his death brought back not only all of that and the associated memories, but was a poignant reminder of their own helplessness to do anything to change it. They had endured years of this kind of assault on Michael and it was gut wrenching to them each time it happened and it had been going on for decades.

Michael’s loss also represented the end of an era, the loss of something beautiful and innocent, the loss of an opportunity to ever redeem him in the media, the loss of any opportunity for him to actually navigate a comeback and become beloved once again, the loss of any opportunity for vindication during his lifetime. For some, it was the closing chapter of their childhood and growing up years, the milestones marked by the Jackson Five or by Michael as a solo artist.

For some women it was the death of their first crush; for others it was the death of their hero. For many it was the death of the last man on earth who embodied hope now and hope for the future. For some it was the final blow in a world that had become all too cynical where Michael represented the antithesis of that. For long term fans it was the end to the attempt to make it like it once was, or better. Now there was no chance for that.

New fans wrote to ask why the death of this man whom they had never met had affected them so much; some hadn’t ever grieved so deeply for loved ones in the families so they wondered out loud how could a stranger mean so much? How could the death of someone they didn’t know personally and had never met be so hard to navigate, to grieve?

And the talking heads just kept droning on about how senseless and stupid it all was. Many resurrected the tabloid stories and legends that impacted so much of Michael’s life and diminished its, and his, value. They were blissfully unaware of how ignorant and incredibly insensitive they were because they didn’t understand the collective loss. So because they didn’t understand it, they did what human nature does when it doesn’t understand—they ridiculed. Themselves victims of the infected and sick media, they were disconnected from reality yet accused the fans of that very disconnection.  They thought themselves the “official voices” about all things Jackson not realizing that they were perpetuating a myth and a carefully, over time, deliberately constructed caricature that resulted in an incredibly inaccurate meme about a man and real human being. It was as if somehow his celebrity negated his humanity and he was once again, fair game. And it was the protracted “fair game” game itself that was the last unbearable straw for many of them.

Heaped on their grief was the planned Discovery Autopsy program, the ITV Kelvin MacKenzie sophomoric and mean spirited attack on Jackson and by proxy, his children who were claimed ‘better off without him.’ The glaring disconnect between a rampant and insidious epidemic of bullying in the culture and involving media, contemporarily affecting millions of children resulting in suicides, and the bullying of Michael Jackson already decades into it and continuing daily incredulously continued unabated. And the incidents of using Michael Jackson’s name to get attention, sell stories and make accusations indefensible because he was dead added to the deep anguish.

On top of that was the mystery of exactly how he died, the implications of addiction, the unsolved nature of his homicide, the at times flaunted freedom of his killer, and the constant accusations of “crazy” and “delusional” fans, and you have a recipe for taking the breath and the sanity of any reasonable person. Yet is it the general public and many members of the media who are delusional. They are the ones who never investigated, fact checked or looked into the veracity of the caricature or meme; they are the ones who perpetuated the hysterical myth. Yet they were calling the fans “hysterical” and “delusional.” And they are the same ones who see “darkness” as synonymous with “Michael Jackson.”

The irony was glaring and knee deep. It was all reminiscent of the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials or the later lynch mob mentality that killed real people based on a cultural infection and group think hysteria. It was the same kind of marginalization that infected Nazi Germany only the scale is different. But they were seemingly certain it didn’t rise to the level of destroying a race or the humanity of a culture and species, it was only smearing a pop star for sport and profit—something that Michael endured throughout his life. It’s the “only” part that is so very, very wrong and a way to make baseless excuses for bad behavior.

The parallels between Diana, Princess of Wales and Michael Jackson and even Dame Elizabeth Taylor were lost on a media and culture too busy bullying its celebrities and entertaining themselves with a voyeuristic and paternal snooping into private lives so popularized by Rupert Murdoch and the tabloid industry.

Even when Murdoch was taken to task by the British Parliament and Scotland Yard for phone hacking, there was no epiphany about how Murdochian media might have had something to do with Michael Jackson’s notoriety and reputation in his vilification and trial by media. Maybe even his death. There was a disconnect between understanding that the man had a sleep disorder likely induced by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that got progressively worse throughout his life. Nobody seemed to put it together that quite possibly the man couldn’t sleep because he was an innocent man relentlessly vilified and bullied by a hysterical press that behaved like aberrant cheerleaders leading the public in a cheer consisting of a frenzied deluge of projection. They, without realizing it, became tour guides to the practice of heaping humanity’s collective dark shadow onto a man objectified and made into its’ temporary target.

Once an enchanting little boy with the big voice, he went from beloved child star to the most hated and bullied man on earth. He was innocent and the court found him innocent because there was no case. Santa Barbara, an elitist, white and wealthy nearly oceanside town didn’t want a black in the neighborhood. Law enforcement drunk and corrupt with power targeted an innocent man just as they had many non-white and ethnic citizens who tried to settle and do business there. It’s an ugly truth that nobody wants to admit or look into.

And still today, fans deal with a faction of people who are called “haters.” Michael Jackson is a hated target for latent homosexuals who believed him gay and engage in hatefulness toward his fans to distract from their secret attraction and unconscious sexual agenda. They hurl hate speech and accusations about him toward fans. And he is still the target of haters who can’t bear to reveal their own ego’s shadow to themselves so they continue to project it—onto a dead man. Viewed from the outside, it’s pretty sick behavior and a form of sadistic bullying. Projection onto a live person is self treason and harmful enough, but projecting it onto a dead man is probably an working definition for the epitome of “insanity.”

The fans have been through a two year run up to a trial filled with breathless “breaking news” about their hero, with leaks and statements, with resurrected tabloid garbage and unanswered questions about death and who’s involved, about money and conspiracy theories, yet living with unanswered questions and perpetual injustice, the last installment of injustice causing his death.

Michael people are tired but that doesn’t mean they’re not resolute; that doesn’t mean they have lost their passion. The funeral is over. The run up is over. A long awaited trial is over. But the story is not over.

It’s the fans and Jackson admirers who are precisely those who are, because of their experience—strong in the way that Michael was strong—with a strength of character. They have been through the crucible and baptism by fire. They are among the few on this planet who are NOT deluded and not infected by the cultural meme. They know the media and the truth of the media. They are awake in ways that many are still asleep. They are among a minority on this planet who know how it could be, how it should be.  The fans know the seductive power of the dark side and how easily people are conscripted to evil by corruption involving money and power. They understand human weakness in the face of dangling the bait of money, power and the exclusivity of that 15 minutes of fame. They understand how values are corrupted by deliberate seduction with evil or malicious intent.

Michael people understand deeply the cynicism that accompanies “grownup” life. They know the heart of a child intimately and they grieve unconsciously or not for the loss of their own innocence, and collectively for humanity’s. They feel the world’s almost imperceptible turn toward increased indifference and cynicism. They feel an unrest and sense of obligation. They are tired and weary of the battle with an enemy so ephemeral and amorphous as to be practically invisible that is like shadow boxing with a ghost. Shadow is very much a part of their fight, of this fight. And so is a ghost. Not just the ghost of Michael and his legacy but of innocence and dignity lost in the stampede for commerce and feeding the machine, of childlike joy, freedom, creativity and magic… lost on a culture hungry for it and yet starving from their empty plate.

If the world ever desperately needed a Michael Jackson—it needs one now. It needs another one. But there will never be another. If the world ever needed its innocence and dignity and humanity back, it needs it now. Michael gave a whole generation, actually multiple generations—hope. He gave them Joy in his dance, hope in his lyrics, and magic in his work and his presence.

Michael is no longer here. But he has a stand in. An expansion is due and perhaps overdue, an expansion of “fan.” Let’s examine that next, shall we?

I got a little nostalgic writing this post. I remembered a year ago how I was in collaboration with a colleague writing a message to the world about dignity. Do you remember last New Year’s Eve? It brought the announcement that Discovery Channel was ceasing the abomination of airing a faux autopsy of a beloved figure. It still gives me shivers. A lot has happened since then; a lot has changed but I will forever remember the elation of that New Year’s Eve victory. You should remember it too, for it demonstrates the power you have as a collective body. That is not crazy. That’s amazing. It constitutes a standing invitation to do more service in the name of humanity. Stay tuned to that frequency on your reality dial.

And here we arrive together– about to embark on a journey through the year 2012. I hope you didn’t believe the movie by the same name or expect the world to end in an apocalypse. That’s not going to happen.

The 2012 legend began because of the Mayan Calendar and the Mayan Prophesy. The Hopi Indians also speak of the Blue Star Kachina which we now know is a galactic superwave. That refers to energy and energetic signatures or frequencies.

Energy cannot be created or destroyed and it underlies everything that exists. Everything is energy. Things that appear solid, like the table for example, are really filled with vast areas of space between the particles that make up the atom. The table is made of tiny particles that are constantly in motion– that’s energy. The atoms oscillate or vibrate at a specific frequency. The rate of oscillation creates a field and that field has a kind of “signature.”

Everything has a field and a signature. And those fields can be sensed by the perceptive human who is sensitive to energies. Those who receive the Michael newsletter have learned about fields and their signature characteristics. The feel of a field is perceptible. To use an extreme example– the inside of a cathedral has a different feel than the inside of a prison. One environment is uplifting and inspiring– a life affirming kind of “vibe” and the other is a death-imitating and draining environment filled with human misery.

To give other examples, battlefields or concentration camp landscapes have a human suffering vibe– a contracting kind of feel while the Grand Canyon, mountains and wide vistas have an expansive feeling of freedom and inspire awe. Some places make the spirit soar while other places inspire sadness and human misery.

Some things feed the soul; some deplete it. What is “soulful” is instinctively or intuitively known by the human field. If you have a choice between two things, choose the more soulful as it nourishes the spirit. And some things drain the spirit and I don’t have to tell you what they are. You already know.

Human evolution hasn’t stopped; we aren’t “done.” And it does not just apply to the biological landscape of the human being although it does involve the DNA. It applies to the mind and spirit of the human as well. It applies to human consciousness– both  individual and collective.

 Human evolution and particularly, the evolution of human consciousness has followed a trajectory and been subject to some “rules” of human development such as Maslow’s Hierarchy. Historically, the human was preoccupied with extending his survival and meeting basic needs. Modern society no longer has to worry about fear of survival (although individuals can go through periodic crises that throw them backward in Maslow’s hierarchical journey.) If you lose your job, for example, survival once again takes precedence over social needs. But the modern human worries more about making choices than about raw survival.

The 2012 mythology and prophesy and legend is about evolution of the human being– the evolution of consciousness. It connotes a leap in human consciousness– a shift toward community, an evolutionary step toward the spiritual growth of man. When enough people believe something, it becomes reality. Cultural law is nothing more than a collection of human minds all believing the same thing. There are a group of minds active on the planet that have been called “Cultural Creatives” and it’s likely that people here loosely fit into that spectrum.

Like attracts like. Water seeks its own level. Minds, for the most part, seek kindred spirits. We try to spend time with like-minded souls. When the focus is human misery, people congregate in areas and ways that reinforce the concept that misery is the predominant fate of humans. Misery absolutely does love company. Doom and gloom naturally attracts those people “attuned” to it. Likewise, the optimists tend to hang out together. The spiritually focused find ways to congregate. (I am not necessarily meaning “religious” when I refer to “spiritual” but rather an internal celebration of the human spirit– however that manifests for the individual.)

We spoke at Christmas about the “Christ within” and the transfiguration of Jesus, a man, into the Christ– god man. It is the god self come to rest in the human. A soul-infused personality is someone whose ego is transmuted into the soul in-in-residence god self. You have a god self already. Try asking it questions silently and wait for the feeling in your heart. You KNOW. So the Christed person is someone who has evolved to enlightenment while in a physical body and one example of that is Jesus Christ. He is an ascended being or “he who is risen” to the Christ within taking over the being– the highest incarnation of the human while in a physical manifestation. Ascension is an evolutionary leap that can occur while in a human body.  The world’s major religions all have this figure of the arisen one only the names are different.

In Christianity, the Cross is the symbol for this marriage. It is the verticle ascending gesture in conjunction with the  physical being- horizontal and horizonal. It is enlightenment realized or the holy spirit inhabiting the physical form. It is the place where man meets god and allows god to enter, becoming the god-man. It is the way home. It is the arrival there. It is where we are all going no matter our faith or particular brand of religion. It is “I in the Father and the Father in me.” Do you believe you are THAT in becoming? Because what you believe you are, you are in truth.

In order to gain the Christed self, you must lose your self. The identity and personality have to step aside and allow the soul or spirit in the driver’s seat. While much of this transformation takes place in spirit and in the realm of soul which is the unseen realms, the belief begins in the mind. The problem is that we either forget who we are (god inspired, god approved) or we deem ourselves unworthy. Matthew Fox speaks of “original blessing” instead of original sin. The “sin” is only the forgetting one’s home or origins. It’s not evil or booga booga- sin is an archery term meaning “off the mark.” It is the arrow straying from its destination or losing the homing device “ping.” It is only a forgetting. We are all headed for the same destination– back home. Only the arrival times differ; the destination is universal. Did you forget where you were going? This is the year to awaken, to remember.

There is a little booklet called “As a Man Thinketh” by James Allen, that explains the principle of: you are what you think. If you dwell on doom and gloom, guess what life will look like to you? And if you stay in the frequency and vibe of hope– guess what shows up in your life? Your mindset, and therefore your experience, reflects where you are “grounded.” I worry about those people who watch horror films, the detective/investigation/criminal intent shows on TV. What are they bathing their minds in daily? Those whose TV diet includes shows that celebrate the human spirit, that bring laughter and are lighthearted create a much different vibe and field. Is the glass half full or half empty? Is the world half full or half empty? Get it?

The “new millennium,” the 2012 thingy, is about the evolution of human consciousness to a higher place, a more spiritual mindset. It is a leap toward community and the understanding that we are one human family and we are the products of a divine tinker who’s been tinkering with human creations for millennia and is now building the new model– a much more likeable guy. And that new human will create a new human experience and a new world because of the journey of his consciousness.

The idea that we are all one was vividly introduced in 1972 during the Apollo 17 Mission. Do you recall when you first saw  NASA photograph # AS17-148-22726? That is the photograph of the Earth as seen from the window of  the Apollo 17 capsule. It is an image that instantly, as it was released, sent a message in visual form, about who and what we are. I saw it as the new twentieth century religious icon. The image said “we are one.” And the world has gone about the business of accumulating evidence of that truth. There is more evidence to support it than not support it. The response to Tsunamis and floods and tragedies proves that more than any of my words can.

There is more spirituality alive on this planet than ever before. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi brought Transcendental Meditation to the west, and nothing has been the same since. TM has influenced more than is realized. Alternative medicine, energy work, and spiritual questing is a direct descendant of the introduction to the west of the mind being “more than” and transcendental. The result of the growing conviction of alternate realities, of oneness and of the power of mind is illustrated in modern movies– Avatar comes to mind as the latest example.

When enough people believe something, a shift occurs and that something becomes part of the cultural meme. It’s the ”hundredth monkey” phenomenon. I won’t repeat the story here; you can google it. But it is the working out of the principle of a tipping point or when change is inevitable. It is the “critical mass” of the point of no return. Critical mass was first introduced as an idea with the invention of the atomic bomb. When the agitation of atoms reaches critical mass, an explosion is inevitable because the process is irreversible and takes on a momentum and life of its own.

The Mayan Prophesy and 2012 is not about Armageddon or apocalypse, it is about humanity reaching critical mass in a new reality. The invention of the computer and the resulting Internet (think Inter-net or the interdependent web of life) gives us the platform for critical mass. Prior to the computer age, there was no way to reach critical mass in human consciousness because there was no way to connect enough humans to reach a tipping point. With the Internet, and especially with social media, the potential now exists for critical mass or for the hundredth monkey time to arrive.

There is a revolution afoot. Its rumblings can be heard and felt all over this planet. The old ways aren’t working anymore. They are not life affirming and expansive, but are stagnant and constricting. People don’t want realities that denigrate the human spirit; they want realities that uplift and celebrate it. The movement in North Africa and the Mediterranean confirms that people are not willing to be dealt death affirming realities by leaders anymore; they are seeking life affirming realities based on democracy, equality and egalitarianism. The “Occupy” movement is a message that people are not happy with the old structures of hierarchical and top down dictatorship-like management. While a bit chaotic, it is a movement that reflects this dissatisfaction with the current reality that divides people and disenfranchises them instead of uniting them.

Make no mistake– this is about LOVE. Yes, love. Self love is the natural outgrowth of the recognition that one is a being inhabited by a spirit that is deserving of respect, legitimacy and dignity and that is self love. And that trend toward self love is something to celebrate not grumble about. The upsurge of generosity is celebratory too– when a natural disaster strikes, people all over the world respond and become mobilized within hours. This Christmas, a new tradition took hold: it found people going to their local store where they had placed things on layaway and finding their bill was all but paid off. Complete strangers were walking into big box stores and paying off strangers’ Christmas gift layaways. That, my friends, is a demonstration of hope in action.

Michael Jackson foresaw this and advocated for it and even knew himself to be part of it. His lyrics reflect this knowledge and encourage the tipping point where enough people believe that people, and especially children, are worth saving, worth loving and that generosity in service to humanity is a demonstration of self love which will save the world, for it is salvation returning. If you want to play with this knowledge and have a little fun with it, look for evidence of this shift toward love. Keep track of it. Collect it. Bless it. And smile a secret knowing smile for the company you have been keeping and the knowing that brought. Then, simply BE THE CHANGE.

There is more to this 2012 thing. So much more, but this is a beginning of the understanding that there is nothing to fear. There is everything to celebrate. It is also the understanding that growth is not without pain or anxiety for outcomes. The human ego is wounded and afraid so it will naturally resist and even fight this change as it will appear as an extinction to the ego. If we were able to feel the fear of the caterpillar spinning the cocoon that invites metamorphosis, we might be surprised at how intense it is. But the caterpillar doesn’t allow the fear to paralyze him. He spins anyway.

So I am not saying that 2012 will be a cakewalk. I am not saying it will be without fear or worry or puzzlement. But before you condemn something as bad, consider whether it is ultimately in service to the whole of humanity. The human species is waking up. The path of 2012 is one of ascension– ascending to one’s highest and brightest self and humanity’s outplaying of that same impulse in concert and community. The human DNA is changing. The light is dawning. The human is recognizing itself and its species as precious offspring of a creation with some kind of intelligence that loves. Not the kind of love that romance brings or the sappy kind of love that is drooling and dreamy. But the kind of love that is fierce. Fierce. A steadfast and fierce love that loves you more than you could love yourself but invites you to try– kicking and screaming or with a secret smile on your face.

So, will you stand in a vibe or frequency of fear? Or will you step into the cocoon for a wild ride in darkness from which you emerge in breathtaking beauty?

Happy New Year?