When Michael Jackson died, what died with him was redemption. Any chance of him being publicly redeemed was gone with him. And even if by some miracle he would be magically redeemed from the dark projections of the world, he would not be here to see it. His passing left a lot of questions. What the heck happened? How could Michael Jackson die? Michael Jackson! This larger than life figure who had been here forever and whose music we grew up on couldn’t die! No!
The shock threw many into nostalgia, some into remorse, the world into disbelief. But those who knew Jackson, really knew him, found themselves staggering, navigating waves of weeping uncontrollably alternated with waves of malignant anger. How dare they? And oh yes, they dared. For weeks they dared. All the putrid media propaganda was dragged out into the open… yet again. So acquaintances, friends, family and fans not only had to deal with the overwhelming grief, but the media spectacle and myth that took years to build and drill into the collective psyche. All the old same old, same old came back to haunt an already untenable circumstance.
And as the initial tears dried, instead of process and solace, those loyal to Jackson found themselves examining feelings they didn’t know they had in magnitudes never before encountered. Never before this painful. Not even for friends who passed. Or even family. What was this? Whatever it was, it was unprecedented and well… weird.
It was then that I began to get letters. I had written a couple of pieces about Jackson and people resonated. They said I had put their feelings into words– words they couldn’t find themselves. And they wanted more. They needed a touch-point. The needed to understand their grief. They needed to know that the transition they were attempting to process had all the hallmarks of a spiritual emergency. Now, I’d seen spiritual emergencies before and I was trained as a minister in how to counsel those in the throes of a dark night of the soul and a spiritual emergency. But never had I seen it on this level and with this many people. Something was very wrong here. And it was also very right. And it can continue to be right. At the end of this article I will ask you to help make it right-er.
Only a special person and special circumstances could trigger this kind of widespread spiritual emergency. I decided to look into it and bring to it my knowledge and background as a healer– in the many incarnations that has manifested in my life.
This was grief upon grief. And spiritual questing on top of that. People asked and I responded. My own minister and spiritual director said it was a calling. My shaman said the same thing. What I realized was that fans needed something to honor a man who had influenced their lives and for some– saved theirs. For them, it was hard to imagine a world without Michael in it. And those sensitive to energies felt the vacuum of a world without him. And they didn’t understand the grit of their own grief.
A spiritual emergency occurs to those who are ready to transition to a different kind of existence. A dark night of the soul carves deeply and the pain feels as if it will leap out of the chest and leave a gaping hole. It crushes the heart because a new heart has to be born. What a magnificent gift Jackson had given the world! A spiritual gift. So there was nothing to do but look into it because it is so rare and because that kind of gift defines an entirely different kind of person than the media had presented. It didn’t add up. Metaphysically it didn’t match.
What the admirers, loyalists, friends and fans needed was to go to work. The first step was a collective soul retrieval for Michael because everybody, it seemed, took a piece of him. The soul healing was imperative. And he was the most bullied human being in the world. And the most undeserving of it, it turns out. So, the admirers and fans needed do honor him and themselves with something spiritual having a ubiquitous impact on behalf of Jackson. Something in memory of him was in order. So I sent out an invitation. They came. The fans who wanted to be a part of building something wonderful from something ugly and sad came and we went to work beginning with case studies. It took 9 months to put together all the case studies and to gather the materials, write, edit, invite writers and biographers, and solicit permissions and to make films for the program.
That program is “Words and Violence” which addresses bullying in all its incarnations and features a great deal of information about Michael, about tabloid journalism and all the way in which bullying harms while featuring to it can be healed. The program is in its 4th edition and is released every year on the anniversary of Michael’s birth.
Last year we featured the arts as healer, particularly the performing arts. This year we look at the ways in which we bully the planet:
This is the fourth year that Voices has compiled a new edition of Words and Violence
There is something yo
u casually do every week and more often, that graphically demonstrates bullying to your children– from the time they are toddlers until they become adults. You personally escort them through a gauntlet of bullying that illustrates, in living color, precisely how to brutally bully someone, humiliate them, dehumanize them, and sometimes even dismember them publicly– for sport and entertainment. This demonstrates to your children how to take this bullying public by publishing it to a wide audience. And you do this a minimum of 500 times before they graduate from school. Your silence gives them permission. You may then wonder, “where do these kids get these ideas?” And when the principal calls to tell you that your child has been involved in an incident of bullying– and not as the victim– you may be shocked and asking yourself how in the world your child learned to be so mean. How? You taught them how and your silence was permission. You exposed your child freely and willingly to this toxic environment and you never once complained. Did you Teach Your Children Well ?
We then discover HIStory’s mystery person: Someone Who Was Singing Earth’s Song Long Before It Was Fashionable To Become Her Voice.
…….
I am convinced the antidote to bullying and the way to ensure that what happened to Michael never happens to another human being– is compassion. And specifically to introduce compassion in a big way to mass consciousness: compassion for self, for others and for the planet. “Words and Violence” at Voices Compassion Education, sister project to the Charter for Compassion is a movement toward creating a more humane narrative on the planet and a more compassionate world.
The Charter for Compassion has invited me to the Compassion Week Conference in San Francisco next month. I have written a book of what is included in the Words and Violence Project. I would like to get some copies published to take with me to San Francisco to spread the word about a program dedicated to Michael and Lady Diana– the two more prolific humanitarians this world has ever seen– both of whom were bullied on a global scaled. And it could be argued– bullied to death.
WILL YOU PLEASE HELP ME PUBLISH SOME COPIES OF “WORDS AND VIOLENCE” SO THAT I CAN DISTRIBUTE THEM AT THE CONFERENCE?
I promise I will update you from the conference about the interest in this program.
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Thank you for your help publishing “Words and Violence” for schools and civic leaders!