Sat, 20 Apr 2024 09:30:45 -0700WeeblySat, 20 Apr 2024 15:33:59 GMThttp://orbofbeing.com/blog/april-20-a-parable 
          We had no idea what was to come. It started with a casual browse of the U Tube channel, where we happened to notice something about a place in the Cantabrian Mts. of northern Spain called Garabandal. I had briefly heard of it before, where 4 female children in this tiny village of shepherds supposedly had visions of the Virgin from 1961 to 1965. For reasons unknown to me, I had dismissed it a while ago because the name carried the slight odor of fraud. Just for kicks, though, we decided to click on the video and were surprised by the facts. Indeed there had been fraud on the part of the spokes-girl of the 4, Conchita, but it was understandable in context. The visions and spiritual ecstasies filmed and documented were absolutely genuine, however, and – shockingly to me – the messages were almost exactly what the 6 visionary children in Medjugorje would recount nearly 20 years later in the early 1980’s. We were both intrigued.
 
            Shortly after, our church held the annual retreat where I have become the default guitar player. During certain periods we have an “intermission” with others running the retreat, and it was there where one of them mentioned how she would like to return to Medjugorje. I replied, “I would too, but I would like that trip to include a visit to Garabandal.” A day later, my wife and I got an email from a pilgrimage organizer stating that she had put together a trip to both Garabandal and Medjugorje. A day after that, she said that we would have to act fast, as there were only three positions left. As anyone of faith knows, we took this to be a sign (yes, it is how we think) and ‘signed’ up, money and time be – er – darned. A few weeks later, we were on our way.
 
            There is too much to tell in one or even three essays about those two weeks, but I can summarize the primary interest of most of us there: that, according to the visionaries of both places, a big-time change is supposed to occur within the lifetimes of at least one of them from each place. This change will include a time of saving grace in which we will all see ourselves as God sees us (in Garabandal, they called this an “illumination of conscience”), followed by a punishment of sorts if a great number of us choose to ignore the warning. Conchita from Garabandal is currently 75. The time just might be close.
 
            Most of us know that something strange is afoot in our world today and that we are heading for very different times. These will, unfortunately, not include flying cars, but they will involve AI and the possibility of a world-wide security state. These different times might be very bad indeed. For us pilgrims, we look to the shocking refutation of traditional morals – as in childhood gender transitioning and gay pride months and drag queen dancers in the libraries and open-ended abortions, etc. – and we believe that something on the order of Sodom and Gonorrhea will soon play out; that is, that because of increasing moral evil, some sort of purification must take place. Afterwards, we believe that we can then look forward to a “permanent sign from God” that the visionaries from both places predicted. What that sign will be only the visionaries know, but it supposedly will be indestructible and unquestionably the direct work of the Holy. It will harken a new and better era.
 
            With that much information back- loaded, I now will bring us forward to Medjugorje, to which we flew after a week in Garabandal. In all three of my visits there, we have stayed at the hotel – a supremely modest hotel – of one of the 6 visionaries, Mirjana. There, she helps serve food and interacts with everyone as freely as any other person. At present, she is experiencing severe back pain, and so often has a tired look on her face, but still she is the model of pleasantness and even joy. For most pilgrimage groups, she holds a Q&A on certain mornings, something that she has done so often that her interpreter tells us now that there is no question that she has not heard. For our Q&A, that did not bother me. If she had already heard the two questions that I had ready for her this time, all the better – she would be prepared with a suitable answer.
 
            The first of the two had been mentioned earlier to me by another person in the group who, for some reason, refused or forgot to ask it of her when the time came. Even though a little voice told me to forget about it, I had to ask it myself, and did. The reception was chilly.
 
            “The visionaries of Garabandal said that they would have a permanent sign from God after an illumination of conscience. Will it be the same as the one we are supposed to get here?”         
 
            Her answer, with a stern face: “Yes, we are supposed to get a permanent sign from God here.” Period. It was only later that I learned that she NEVER answers questions about other vision sites.
 
            The next question I asked had arisen from earlier that morning. I had gotten up before everyone else and had gone downstairs to the entrance and anteroom. Alone, I looked around and found a Bible in English on a small table. On a whim, I did as Evangelicals often do: flipped the Bible open to a place chosen by chance, which I presumed to be the domain of our Lord. There, I came upon the story of Ahab and Jezebel and their fight with the anointed prophet, Elijah. This had been a time in the history of Israel when the leadership had fallen into idolatry. As usual in these times in the Old Testament, a prophet (Elijah) was sent to warn the leadership that a continuation of such would end the protection of the Lord and bring horrible consequences.
 
            So, taking that as my cue, I brought up the belief that I think we all had, framed now in the context of Jezebel and Elijah: that an enlightenment that served as a warning would come to us from God, which would be followed by a horrible punishment if we did not heed the warning. As I had embedded this question in the Bible, I felt that she could not refuse to answer. As it turned out, she did and she didn’t.
 
            With a deep breath that was almost a sigh, she said (I paraphrase) into her microphone: “I cannot think in terms of punishment with the visits from Our Lady, but only love. She comes with such overwhelming love and tenderness for us, for each and every one of us, as the perfect mother for us all. She only wants us to know this so that we will act from this deep and perfect love. She knows that it is the lack of love in this world that causes the bad, and she wants us to embrace this love and do only the good. With this we will create the world that we are intended to have.  So think only of this, not of punishment. Think only of this and you will know the beauty of God and live in the love that He has for all of us.”
 
            She said several other things of the same nature, and then with a sad but caring look finished with something like, “That it what I have known from Our Lady. It is the most important thing that we can know.”
 
            While her answer does seem evasive – a possible punishment had been foretold by her, after all – it really does get to the heart of the matter. In this context, the story of Elijah and Jezebel may be seen as it truly is - an inspired parable. From it we learn that when a society forsakes the moral basis from which it once prospered, it becomes weak. When a nation becomes weak, it becomes prey for a greater power, and eventually loses the greatness it once had, or even its existence. There does not have to be direct divine intervention for this to happen. Rather, this sequence is as natural for human societies as it is for sheep that become prey by straying from the fold.
 
            And so what held us together as pilgrims – the sense that a great change is coming due to our society’s rejection of traditional values – had been proven to us in the best possible way. For we were told that neither God nor Mary wish us any ill will, nor are they the sources of any future misery. Rather, we are, or could be. The Warning – an illumination of conscience that shows our true moral state – would be a love offering from God. Because we also have the gift of free will, the rest would be and is up to us. Either we turn to embrace the divinely given immortal truths or we face the negative consequences. While miracles are welcome, and indeed seem necessary right now, we should already know what to do without the need for a jolt from the supernatural. Humankind has long been shown the results of societal actions through the writings of Moses, the teachings of Jesus, and the oft-told story of Rome’s decline and fall. If we only realize that we are simply – no more and no less - a part of history, we will understand that safety lies behind the shield of our immutable and inspired values. As long as we remain there, we will not be in need of the phenomena of visions. Rather, such happy events would appear to us only out of a loving desire to chat.   
   

]]>Sun, 31 Mar 2024 15:40:03 GMThttp://orbofbeing.com/blog/march-31-nightime-in-day-day-in-night​ 
            Hanging near our dining room table is a reproduction of the image of the Virgen of Guadalupe that was placed on the tilma of the Aztec Juan Diego in 1531 Mexico. I look at it every day as a reminder that this world is surrounded by miracles. These miracles themselves are reminders that the world we live in is not the only world that there is. They remind us that not only is there another world, but that this other world has more power and is thus more real than the one we live in. I, for one, need this reminder, not only every day, but nearly every minute. This world has such a blinding effect, and such a binding effect that it is only through sheer will and the existence of miracles that I can keep my head above its shallow waters: shallow waters, but deep enough to drown in.
 
            It has not always been so. In reading Guadalupe and the Flower World Prophecy (by Joseph Julian Gonzalez and Monique Gonzalez), I am brought back to the reason I decided to study anthropology. It is in the accounts of primitive, ancient, and archaic societies that we find again and again that the primary concern for many of these societies was (and still is for some) encountering God or the gods, both to appease them for favors, and to find a way to join them in eternity. From the aforementioned book Guadalupe, for instance, we have this poem from the pre-Columbian collection of Aztec poems, “Cantares Mexicanos:” ‘It is not true/it is not true/that we came to live here. We came only to sleep, only to dream.’ Clearly, the poet understands that this world is only an illusion in comparison to what else supersedes this world. And clearly, there is a longing in this to find that other world. This is exemplified in another poem from the “Cantares:” ‘Will you scatter your unworthy servants? I am leaving you, my God. I am leaving you my God, giver of life. Where is he, the God, the giver of life? Where do you live?’  
 
            We have in Guadalupe an explanation of how the Aztecs and the Mesoamerican world in general were positioned by God – that is, prefigured – to hear the word of Christ through Mary when the miracle of the tilma was given to them. Through this image, they saw ample representations of their heaven, the ‘Flower World’ that they had long imagined. More importantly, they also saw something that they also longed for but did not know: how to get into heaven. For these people to understand, a cuatrerfoil, or four-petal-led flower, was positioned on the pregnant belly of the image of the Virgen Mary. This flower had long been understood by Mesoamericans to represent the portal to heaven. To them, it then became obvious: the Christ to be born from the Virgen was destined to open this portal.
 
            Within a few years, nearly the whole of the 9 million natives still alive in the area of current-day Mexico City converted of their free will to Christianity.
 
            There are so many miraculous things about the image on the tilma that it would and has filled books. There are so many more miracles in this world, of bleeding statues and hosts and spinning suns and impossible cures as well, all presented to us so that we might believe, just as the Aztecs and their neighbors did 500 years ago. But times are different. Whereas before, everyone took the powers of God or of the gods for granted – how else could we exist? – the modern globalist – including most of us - now takes this life, our here and now, for granted as the center of existence. Where, we ask, is the proof of this alternative reality? If I jump off a bridge here, I will splatter on the rocks below. But what effects does the power of Heaven have on me now? Or on the future or past or ever? Where, we ask skeptically, are the blood and guts of this so-called invisible power?
 
            Unlike the Aztecs who pined for the gateway to God, we generally dismiss any signs that it might even exist. If a woman, let’s just say, goes to the grotto of Lourdes and is cured of an incurable cancer – and this has happened dozens of times in recent years alone – we generally deny the miracle. Instead, we call this “psychosomatic healing,” as if labelling something with a Greek word settles the issue. It does not. It merely takes the issue out of the spiritual realm and puts it into the psychological where it sits, just as puzzling to us as before, if not more so. If, for instance, the power of our minds can heal us of great illness, why don’t we use it all the time? And – the elephant in the room – how does it do it? Bueller?  Anyone?    
 
            The central problem with the above example is that we, as rational globalists, happily and naturally trade a mystical but salient reason for such a cure – that it is done by the maker of Heaven and Earth – for something about which we know nothing. It is not, then, that we are looking for an explanation in this case, but rather are looking for an explanation that will not involve the supernatural. For the average guy, this is not done simply because this is a field of inquiry beyond science. That is acceptable. Rather, it is done to dismiss the possibility of the very existence of the supernatural, no matter what.
 
            This is the sign of our times. It is, as Christ once put it, the Sign of Jonah.
 
            Jonah had to suffer three days in the belly of a fish before he would submit to God’s will. He had been ordered to go to the massive, pagan and enemy city of Nineveh to preach redemption from an impending catastrophe. He would not, and so embarked on a ship going elsewhere. When the ship was caught in a storm and was about to sink, Jonah admitted that the storm was his fault for having disobeyed God – whereby the crew threw him in the ocean. It was there that he was swallowed by a fish (or whale), and where he survived by the will of God for three days. Finally, a chastened Jonah was spit out onto the shores of Nineveh, where he finally did just as he was told. Shockingly, the city repented and was saved.
 
            The Sign of Jonah was a prefiguration of Christ, who spent three days in Hell – in the cave of death – before he rose again to offer redemption to a fallen world. Such was the purpose of the image of the Virgen of Guadalupe, which also, incredibly, was hugely successful.
 
            However: would Jonah or the Virgen be successful now? Of the later, the image still exists, and it truly is filled with miracles, down to its very existence on an otherwise fragile cape of cactus fibers. But who is seeing and believing? Are most of us even capable of believing? Or has our preoccupation with the material world through our successes with science formed an impenetrable block against the reality of the spiritual world?
 
            The Sign of Jonah in essence conveys the need for tremendous suffering to break through the wall that encloses all humanity. This may take the suffering of an individual ‘hero’ or of all of us. This wall once was made of pagan gods, who at least were thought to exist in the spiritual. Now, it is made of an even harder wall built from a complete absorption in the material world.
 
            Miracles are still there to save us from the purgation of suffering. On April 8th, for instance, the central US will have a total eclipse of the sun. It will pass through ALL 7 towns in the US that are named Nineveh, as well as through the one and only Nineveh in Canada. It will first pass through the town of Jonah in Texas. It will allow us to see the allignment of the two brightest “stars” in the sky, Venus and Jupiter as they sit beside the moon, as well as a huge comet that will be at its nearest to the sun and visible in the darkness of the eclipse, a comet that passes by only once every 71 years.
 
            Maybe this is not a miracle warning. There is no voice so far imparting messages to innocents. It certainly isn’t as noteworthy as a cancer cure or the spinning of the sun, either, but it does seem to me that it is in line with other unusual events. The Virgen of Guadalupe was backed by the sun, supported on the moon, and cloaked by the stars. Celestial events are often harbingers of God, such as the Star of Bethlehem. So many other warnings have happened recently or are happening right now, such as those in Fatima and Garabandal and Akita and Rwanda and Venezuela and Bosnia-Herzegovina. I could go on. For those that leave a message, they all speak of one thing: the Sign of Jonah, a warning of impending (and necessary) suffering if we do not open our eyes and our hearts to the greater world. Because we are more blinded than ever, this suffering might well be greater than that which once threatened Nineveh.
 
            The Aztecs saw the tilma and believed. Perhaps nothing will make us see en masse except a long confinement in a cave, in a whale, or in a bunker in Idaho. It certainly is getting harder and harder to see anything beyond our earthly concerns, even when we are allowed by an eclipse to peak into the heavens in daytime. It is necessary that we try. Truth, eternity, beauty, the Totality, whatever we wish to call it, is always worth the effort in a world such as ours where beautiful flowers always wilt and die.    
              
 
           
 
           

]]>Fri, 15 Mar 2024 16:02:47 GMThttp://orbofbeing.com/blog/march-15-perspective​ 
          It had to happen someday. A certain relative of mine is decidedly on the left side of politics, extreme in my view, and has been very vocal about it since Obama’s first term. I had learned long ago that any argument with him would be futile; it would not be about good policy or bad, but rather about winning. Since I did not have the desire to argue without end, the argument could only be ended by admitting defeat. Because of this, I have learned to let him rant and pound the table until he is so exhausted that we can move on to something else.
 
            A few weeks ago, however, I had simply had it. Another relative, “Relative B”, has not been as quiet as I, and after expressing an opinion, he was labeled an idiot and bad person for his more conservative views. I was mentioned in passing as well, which did not help my disposition.
 
            “That’s it!” said I, and I let him have it, telling him that I thought his views were not only appalling, but were at core diabolically influenced. This took him by surprise, briefly deflating his confidence. As this made me feel like the aggressor, I modified my stance with a clarification: we both thought each other’s politics were appalling. Regardless, I added, we should never let this lead to the break-up of the family. This was exactly what the political parties wanted. Why couldn’t we agree to disagree, then, and refrain from political rhetoric and personal insults in the future?
 
            It didn’t work. My compromise was seen as weakness, which again made me the loser.
Same old, same old.
 
            Meanwhile: during the same time as these correspondences, the commotion of our church’s annual retreat was in full bloom. This event was (and always is) a grueling 4 day exercise in devotion, testimony, indoctrination and, yes, inspirational music. The latter is where I come in, having the dubious distinction of being slightly more polished at playing guitar than your average three or four chord pop strummer. This, however, is what gains me entrance to the Inner Committee, where we meet together as a team during certain breaks to discuss religious and spiritual issues. Here, we tell stories of experiences, of failures and enlightenment, and of other important incidences from our or our acquaintances’ lives. It was during this time that I came to share one of my own:
 
            Years ago, my octogenarian father had become blind due to a growing cancer in his sinuses, and this, along with other illnesses, caused him to be delivered to a nursing home. Living 1100 miles apart from him and the rest of my family, I saw him no more than twice a year, so that any visit from me was a novelty. Yet on my last visit before his death, he seemed to have anticipated me.  
 
            Usually I would stop to see my siblings first, as I would be staying with one of them, and then I would pay a visit to my mother in her little granny house. My Dad would be the last on the list, in part because it was more practical, and in part because it was the most unpleasant. Most of us can understand why: the smells of urine, the blank stares of the demented, and the pathetic bodily decay in nearly all the inmates makes a Home one spooky place. This is where we will all end someday, too, and we know it.
 
            Then there was Dad himself. As with most of the old and dying, he was not anything like the man he had once been, both physically and mentally. It was and is a tough thing to witness.
 
            Gathering my courage and a sunny disposition, I finally made my way to the Home’s check-in desk, then wandered the halls until I found the right room. I knocked tentatively, and when there was no answer, I walked in cautiously to find my dad in bed. The TV was turned on to some ridiculous show, and he seemed asleep to the world, as he now almost always was. After wondering whether I should disturb him or not, I took a deep breath and threw my words to the air. “Hello Dad,” I said. “It’s me, Fred.”
 
            I did not expect any response, but was surprised by his loud and cheery voice: “Hello, Fred! So good to see you!”
 
            That was so unexpected that I immediately filled with hope. Heck, he’s back to his old self, despite the infirmities! So I began to talk of things we used to talk about. The first thing mentioned was the drive out with its difficulties and novelties, but there was no response. Then I talked about the family, but still there was no response. Feeling at a loss and even a bit panicked, I went back to one of his old interests, current events and politics. I started to yammer on about the stuff that had the world in its never-ending state of excitement, all while embellishing it with my own cynical opinions. There were the coming elections, the Middle East, China and Russia, taxes, the latest scandals and so on. Still, nothing made Dad come back to life. He remained in deep sleep as if his earlier greeting had been a mere reflexive action that had no thought or meaning behind it.
 
            Then something very odd happened.
 
            I suddenly became aware of a deep, silent and all-encompassing presence. It included all things and all time. It was definitely alive, but as I tried to grasp what it was, I realized that it could only be understood in silence. No words could ever suffice. It was both alarming and wonderfully soothing, both scary and calming. It was everything at once, and from it came a great, inarguable revelation: that all the things of Man’s preoccupations in this world were like straw.
 
            Such it was exactly what Thomas Aquinas, the genius theologian of the Mediaeval Age, said on his death bed. All letters, all thoughts, all cares of the human drama were little more than a drop in the ocean, an ocean we shared with the Infinite. We rarely knew of its presence in quotidian life, but it was always there, waiting for us with boundless patience. I felt at once like a great fool – knew that I was a great fool – and blessed to be given this experience. Dad was going home, and at that moment he was bringing our true home right back to this “Home” of decay and death. There was nothing left to experience but awe.
 
            When I told this story to the group, I had to stop for several seconds to hold back tears. I had not thought of the incident for a while, and had forgotten how impactful it had been. A bit later, I went outside for a walk and suddenly recalled the argument with Relative A. It became obvious that this memory of my dad had come back to me with a purpose. It was to show that, compared to the Infinite, all the other stuff that fills our lives is a distraction. Yes, we need food and shelter and healthcare at times; and yes, people die, sometimes from war and sometimes from acts of individual evil. In this imperfect world, we cannot shake off the harsher realities of a life that is bound by death and the actions of us imperfect souls.
 
            But we should not be held captive by any of these realities. There is something grander there that displaces them all, like a healthy birth that displaces the pain of labor. It waits patiently for us to fulfill our time, our lives, our preoccupations, before it presents itself to us. “Are you ready now?” it asks, and you know you are when it calls because it is the Being that fulfills all desires; it is the Being that brings us to the place where all doubts leave, and where nothing has to be forgiven because, by comparison, everything else is so incredibly small. Instead, we learn that we are all relatives under one roof, and all our fretting and fighting are only distractions from our true place.
 
            All this coming to me through a man who was being found even as he was being lost; all this granted to us in the unspeakable wisdom of silence.  
 
           
 
              
 
           

]]>Fri, 01 Mar 2024 16:25:34 GMThttp://orbofbeing.com/blog/march-1-calling-our-bluff​ 
          It was at the beginning of Lent when I had my Jesus moment.
 
            For those who don’t know, Lent is a six week period, with a little give and take, that amounts to the classic 40 days (a holy number used many times in the Bible) before Easter Sunday. We sacrifice things either by giving out or giving up for that time in an effort to deny the flesh or the ego and become more perfect for salvation, offered ultimately by the death and resurrection of Christ. It is, in my view, a time more holy than Christmas. That is a cheerful time and for good reason, but the ultimate reason for that season is the crucifixion and the resurrection. Lent is the acknowledgment of that, and a time to willingly participate in the sacrifice. 
 
            So there we sat in church, ashes placed on the forehead to remind us of our inescapable bodily death, left to contemplate our struggle for salvation from the grave, given to us only through Christ. It was in this interior darkness that I said, yes, I am yours, Jesus, do with me what you will. At almost 70 years of age, what have I got to lose?, but I did not say that. Instead I laid it all out even knowing what that might cost. Everyone but one of the 12 apostles, for instance, died or was martyred for his belief. Only John died a natural death, and that was only because God had, for some reason, saved him with a miracle that preserved his life as he sat bound in boiling oil (or was it fire?). The odds nowadays are against such tortures, but we could be given a hideous form of cancer or MS or lose everything and be forced to live in the streets as a pathway to holiness. It’s a pretty big commitment, then, and you don’t back out from a commitment to God. But I made the commitment anyway, and it almost felt good.
 
            Good enough, in fact, that after Mass I sought to sit quietly in the pews meditating while the crowd jostled out in its typical cloud of babble. But serenity was not to be granted that day. No. Instead, a couple came over with grave looks and said, “Monsignor (a slightly higher-ranked priest) would like to talk to us in a few minutes in the greeting space.”
 
            “Oh no” I said.
           
            “You know what this is about?”
 
            “Yes. Serving as sacristan. I thought that had gone away. I don’t have the time.”
 
            My anger was probably noticeable as I felt a wave of blood rush to my head. Being sacristan meant setting up the altar space, and then disassembling it later, including the bowls for the communion wafers, the pitcher for the wine, the Bible for the readings, and so on. It was a commitment that had to be learned, and once learned, had to be done. Most could not take your place. In other words, once you were scheduled to be the sacristan for a certain time, you had to be there. No excuses about going to the cabin or to a state park, or because you wanted a lazy day off. No, you were hooked.
 
            My wife, however, was fine with the idea, and after she talked with someone else about another project – goodbye contemplation – we headed out to the meeting. The Monsignor, however, was not there, as he had just gotten a call that his brother was about to die in the local hospital. So we were left to confer with the couple who had first talked to us along with a few others. After some chatter, I went off to the side and found a chair to steam in. Once I had cooled down a bit, I came back to stand slightly apart from the group as they discussed schedules. Repositioning my stance, I became aware that I was dangerously close to a display of the tools of torture used against Christ on the last day, with a wreath of vicious-looking thorns within inches of my hand. Bumping up against it would have been very, very painful.
 
            I squirmed away from them as my wife said to me, “You can go. We’ve made the schedule without you. You don’t have to do a thing.” The hypocrisy of my vow earlier then struck me like a mocking laugh. Here I was standing beside the tortures of Christ, which I had just accepted to suffer if necessary, while I was pouting about doing a minor chore to help out in Mass. All that I would have to “suffer” was the loss of free time for that day.
 
            Of course I had to tell my wife that I would help. She said, oh no you won’t. I said oh yes I will and you can’t stop me. She shrugged. I was in.
 
            I am supposed to finish the story by saying how much I have gained from my new chores. That’s not going to happen. It is a pain in the ass, as are most of the things I do for the church. I know that as long as one says “yes” in a voluntary organization, the more one will be used. On the other hand, I still must acknowledge that it is not that much of a pain in the ass. It is, really, an incredibly small price to pay for the ultimate sacrifice. It is also a smaller price to pay than many others who work hard and dangerous jobs to support their families, or who live in discomfort and poverty so that they might help the desperate and the destitute.
 
            Ultimately, in being asked to give, we are being forced to consider who it is we wish to become. When we look at ourselves from beyond our self-protected cocoon of comfort, we know that the people we admire most have answered the call to become heroes or saints. We watch TV movies and shows of people of great valor because we want to identify with them. In spite of this, however, we generally stay in our cocoons. Why would we get out of bed, so to speak, when the mattress is so soft and the floor tiles are so cold? 
 
            Simply put, we all must get out of bed sooner or later. If we don’t answer that call, that is all we’ll do. We will be dismissed by everyone else, including ourselves, and we will reach no mountain top with glorious views. All we will see are the walls of our room for as long as we live primarily for the purpose of remaining comfortable.
 
            So yes, Lent is a pain in the ass, but if we do not put in the self-denial, we will never attain anything of great worth. No pain, no gain, as the athletes say, and this is just as true with the spiritual. If we remain safe and comfortable within our religion, it is a sign that something is wrong. Jesus himself said that he has “come to light a fire on the earth” even if it pits brother against brother and father against son. “Do you think I have come to establish peace on this earth? I assure you, the contrary is true…From now on, a household of five will be divided three against two…father will be split against son and son against father…” (Luke, 12:49-53)This was said not because he wanted families to break up, but because he wanted us to get out of our ruts, to get out of our comfort zones so that we could grow. With his help, this is essential if we are to reach eternal enlightenment. As every TV hero knows, you don’t get top box office by playing it safe. Or staying in bed.
 
            So I move by baby steps. I can’t say I’m proud of myself, but at least I’ve made a start towards taking off the covers.  
 
           
 
           
 
 
 
 
             ]]>Fri, 16 Feb 2024 16:47:48 GMThttp://orbofbeing.com/blog/feb-16-true-propaganda 
          You could not miss the ads in this part of the state: the Shen Yun Performance Arts dancers were coming to Madison, and they would be a marvel to see. I thought nothing of it until our son announced that he thought it would be a good idea to go. He has had unusual suggestions in the past that have worked out better than we could have imagined, and so we ponied up the pretty large price of admission (I think our seats went for $125.00 each) and waited for the special night where we would be inconvenienced by a trip to the Big City.
 
            To be sure, we had read the review of this group on Wikipedia beforehand and it was not only not good but nearly dismissive. The company and the dancers, it had told us, were nothing but right-wing extremists who spread propaganda against the CCP. They were controlled by a freaky religious cult, Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa), which despised the communist regime. For Jeff, that was one of the biggest reasons to go: if an apologist for the CCP disliked this group, it had to have some merit. This is not to mention the great costumes the dancers had in the ads, and the promise of a display of traditional Chinese beliefs that had guided the people for  millennia before the imposition of the glorious People’s Republic of China. It could not be all bad, we thought, and besides, it was February. Cow tipping would have been just as welcome, if done in a nice, heated arena.
 
            We got there in plenty of time, and parking, believe it or not, was convenient both in finding a space and in its proximity to the Arts Center. Once within this massive structure, we found artwork that was modern, yes, but not freaky modern, such that it was accessible to even country bumpkins such as ourselves. And although we did not partake, there were also 5 wine and beer bars on the first floor alone, although with city prices. The vapors of alcohol drifted throughout the building as we walked the spotless marbled floors and stairways to our theater. The seats were tight yet comfortable, the view of the stage and orchestra unobstructed. All in all, it seemed that heaven was with us that night, at least so far.
 
            Heaven did not disappoint. The costumes were indeed glorious, the dancers flew through the air, the stories they told were interesting, and the movie-style panorama background was ingeniously employed. The stories and choreography may not have been the most sophisticated, but they captivated this rube. Surprisingly, they captivated the sophisticated audience of this Wiscon-sin city as well. For the most part, we gave it two thumbs up. The Wikipedia review, we decided, was arched towards the politically correct, and maybe in line with some Tik-Tok CCP algorithm.
 
            With, I must add, some notable exceptions: in some skits, the dance troupe was overly enthusiastic with their religious and political messages. These made it quite clear that Falun Gong was a serious spiritual movement intent on evangelization. These also made it clear that the organization despised not only the New China, but also the world-wide secular movement in general. Their primary foes, expressed several times by screen signs on three of their modern-life segments (the others were of traditional tales from the distant past) were atheism and evolution.
 
            I almost gasped when I saw this motto the first time. How would progressive Madison react? Much worse, how would people who are otherwise in league with the spiritual, react to this rejection of evolution, which most hold to be largely true? Why, I thought, did they have to be so blunt with their message, and why would they include evolution as a primary evil, a concept that West has been spoon-fed since the 1920’s Scopes monkey trial?
 
            Considering the first, atheism, the crowd in Madison was nonetheless overjoyed with the performance. Perhaps they were the ones who disagreed with the great majority in this progressive city. On the second, evolution, they apparently did not care. Personally, I did not either, but not because I disregard evolution. Rather, the evil in evolution to me is captured in Darwinism, whereby selection of traits for evolution is done randomly by nature alone. Forget that nature and its laws are made by God; in Darwinism, we are expected to believe that there is no plan in the interplay of living nature. This eliminates the hand of God. But in planned evolution, or Intelligent Design, God works through nature to fulfill His intentions. This could mean that the physical form and animal traits of humans might have been derived from a common ancestor to the apes through natural selection (again, created by God), while the development of their spiritual selves might still have been divinely ordered since time immemorial.
 
            While it might be that the philosophy of Falun Gong disagrees with me here, it shouldn’t matter in the larger sense. Much of the “propaganda” in the modern skits was based on the very real persecution and murder of those who practice Falun Gong in the CCP. Falun Gong is not a religion of the martial arts, as were the Boxers in China in the 19th century. Rather, their beliefs are based on the traditional Chinese version of Buddhism, with – or so it seems to me – a good dollop of Christian humanism thrown in. Since this is the case, why would Communist China persecute them? As we see through the traditional dance performances, spirituality brings beauty and hope to people, regardless of the fantasies they may conjure. There are angels and dragon beings and shining celestial cities and, in the end, the triumph of the good. Why would any government try to stop that, especially with such brutish force?
 
            This is a question that has been asked and answered again and again about Marxist regimes. After the immediate rulers, the first thing that Marxists attack is the religious structure, even if, as are the Falun Gong, they have few resources and no desire for physical power. Why? The social science answer is that a ruling power often perceives that it cannot remain in power while competing with another. Thus it was, for instance, that the Spanish Inquisition crushed Protestant rebellion within its borders after the Reformation. In this, however, we can see from what was happening in Europe at the time that the Reformation was a true threat to its power. This is simply not true of the Falun Gong religion in China today.
 
            What is more likely is that the Chinese leadership does not want to legitimate a return to the beliefs of Old China. But in this we have to ask again: why? How could a Buddhist spiritual perspective harm the state control of property and the redistribution of wealth, those things that are most touted by a Marxist regime?
 
            It is clear from this animosity to religion that financial control and redistribution are not the real goals of Marxism. Rather, the one primary goal is to change one’s entire perspective on reality by eliminating the spiritual element from social discourse. This has nothing to do with fairness or equity. Rather, it is a counter-punch to Christ’s admonition that a house divided cannot stand. For Marxists, spirituality is a threat to the elevation of the state, and thus Man, to the level of God (or the gods, or the supreme spiritual realm). This is in line with the primary plan, to put it bluntly, of Satan. From the very beginning, the greatest temptation to Man brought by Satan was the promise to make Man into God. We find this in the story of original sin played out in the Garden of Eden, where humans were tempted by the knowledge of good and evil, so that they could become “like God.” Whereas this was Satan’s first work, Marxism is meant to be his last work. He (or it or whatever form evil takes) knows that if humans rule without spiritual guidance, they will be lost to the whims and depravity of whoever happens to be in power. This will lead to an emptiness of soul and loss of purpose, followed quickly by collapse and ruin.
 
            So, yes, do continue Falun Gong; all power to you in your work against the destruction of what is most beautiful in people’s minds and hearts. Continue to show us in your dances the marvelous and the colorful and the fanciful and, most importantly, the workings of the spiritual in our lives. The Marxist counter to this is grayness, flatness, loss of self, loss of artistic vision, and eventually, loss of hope. May Heaven be with you in your struggle for selfless, heavenly glory.    
 
             
 
             

]]>Thu, 01 Feb 2024 16:15:25 GMThttp://orbofbeing.com/blog/feb-1-the-illumination 
          Way back in the time machine, I wrote a paper about millennial movements. ‘Millennium’ comes from the Latin word for 1,000, and somehow – maybe it is just natural for us – it has become a magic number. The Third Reich would rule for a thousand years, the New Kingdom on earth before the Final Judgment will last a thousand years, and so on. This was taken to heart by the people in medieval Europe as the first Millennium approached. Thousands marched in cities flagellating themselves to atone for sins, while other areas were taken over and turned into communes – until the kings brought in their armies. Just 24 years ago, we experienced millennial fever, although with less dramatic actions taken. So in tune with our era, we were told that computers would crash and the complex interconnected world of today would temporarily halt. We were told to stock drinking water and some non-perishable food items, and many of us did. It passed, but shortly afterwards we had notices of the end of the Mayan calendar, when the old world order would collapse and the new come into being. We found that this did not happen, at least not immediately.  Some think that perhaps it is happening right now in a more subtle fashion.
 
            We can argue that one, but there is something occurring now that is very much like a millennial movement that does not adhere to the magic of numbers. It is called the Illumination of Conscience, and it is every bit as life-changing and apocalyptic as any millennial movement. Further, I do believe it to be true.
 
            This is not from wishful thinking. This event will be traumatic, to say the least, and I have no assurance that I or any of my family will be of the elect who survive, at least spiritually. I DO want a great change in the world, but it is not from a naïve desire to live in a utopian paradise. With what is happening now in the moral, social, and technological realms of humanity, I believe drastic change is necessary for our survival, change that must happen NOW, as in the next few years. It is here where environmentalists, sociologists, and the die-hard religious meet, however different are their motives.
 
            My perspective includes all three. We do know that the family is breaking apart and crime and mental illnesses are increasing at an alarming rate; we also know that the natural environment is under an unsustainable threat; and most of those in religious and spiritual circles are alarmed at the fraying of traditional morality. While government is involved in attempting to solve the former two, so apparently is God involved in the latter. Thanks to persistent and consistent Marian apparitions, undeniable miracles, and a slew of minor prophets claiming with astonishing proof that they are being used by holy figures to speak to us, we have been brought to understand that spiritual forces are at work to improve us. This includes not only morality but everything before we bring it all down by our own blind ignorance and selfishness. These religious voices tell us that this will culminate in what has come to be called the Illumination of Conscience.
 
            What is this Illumination of Conscience? Note that the focus is not on “conscious” as in a New Age elevation of perception, but rather on conscience, the moral aspect of our being. However, with the elevation of conscience will come a profound elevation of consciousness. For a better understanding of what this means, I will begin by using a quote from The Warning: Testimonies and Prophecies of the Illumination of Conscience, by Christine Watkins (2020):
 
            “…we will all have an experience during which we will be shown the truth of our lives from A to Z without the possibility of self - justification – a game at which, if we are honest about it, we are all specialists… Our conscience will have been “illuminated” to see these strategies as the moral smokescreen that they are.” (pg 15)
 
            That is not all; beforehand, the earth will descend in the darkness. This will soon be followed by an appearance of two celestial objects that will streak through the darkness towards each other and collide, causing a light twice as bright as the sun in the day, and as bright as day at night. A cross with the risen (glorified) Jesus will then appear in the brightened sky for about one week during which we see will the truth about ourselves in every detail, as mentioned above. We will see every time during our lives when we have hurt another, and feel exactly as that person felt; and we will recall every unkind thought we have ever had and shown how that negatively impacted the world. We will be left to judge ourselves, and in most cases (this is my guess) we will call ourselves unworthy of eternal perfection. Then we will be offered a deal: we can either repent and be saved, or rebel and condemn ourselves to hell. It must be noted that this is not the End Times as some have come to understand, but a reprieve, a halt to our slide into ignorance and world-wide destruction. After this event, the world will continue, except at a more blessed and peaceful pace.
 
            Some of this is very unpleasant stuff, yes, and also very explicitly old-timey Christian, and as such might be taken with a grain of salt, if not a bucket-load. The only problem with this dismissal is that there have been, and continue to be, dozens, if not hundreds, of accounts by people throughout the world who are saying the same thing. Many of these people are semi-literate who have little knowledge of the outside world and even less of what is currently being written. The book cited above quotes many of these people, often noting that many of their visions were and are accompanied by miracles.
 
            I have been to Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina where miracles, such as healings, have occurred by the thousands. I have also read and personally heard from the visionaries there (all of whom were children when the visions and messages of the Holy Virgin began) that they have been told much the same thing about the coming event. Further, they also tell us that we must pray and attempt to perfect ourselves, for the shock of this event on the ignorant and the unwilling may be so great as to kill them by the millions. Although we will all have an illumination of conscience when we die – it has been called the “life review” for at least two hundred years – this will be far more terrifying in the flesh. More so, these and other visionaries tell us that there is very little time left to prepare.
 
            This is not mere speculation, as thousands have already experienced this illumination. I can personally account myself as one of them on a greatly reduced scale. What has stood out for me  during this experience were not so much the sins, which were still excruciating to recall and relive, but rather the beauty that lies within each other living being. The pain of sin, I was meant to understand, is that we have sullied that beauty. I was also shown that many of us live in a personal bubble where most actions are directed towards protecting and advancing the self. Here, many sociologists and psychologists and socio-biologists would agree. This is Darwinism on a personal scale. Such selfishness is built into our DNA and our socialization process (recall the peer pressure and ridicule of our youth). While this might seem indelible, it can be taken from us through grace, encouraged by prayer and faith. Such is this Warning on a grand scale.
 
            Exactly when this will take place is, as always with the ways of God, impossible to pinpoint, but there are more and more indications that it will happen very soon. In Medjugorje, the visionaries were told that it would happen within their lifetimes. As the eldest are nearing 60, we should then expect this to occur within the next 20 or so years. What’s more, many others experiencing locutions and visions from Jesus, angels, and/or the saints have asked about the timing of this event. Most were just told “soon,” but one recently got something a bit more explicit:
 
            “On July 15, 2019, for the first time, Luz de Maria [a noted receiver of messages] was given that answer. Saint Michael the Archangel declared, “This is the generation that will experience the great act of Divine Mercy: THE WARNING…” (from The Warning, pg. 46)
 
            Which generation, we might ask? It is imprecise, yes, but still the event is coming soon, almost certainly within the next 80 years. We are forced to think then: are we prepared? For most, of course not, but perhaps we should get used to the possibility of this event, as crazy as it sounds to the modern techno mind. If we wish, we can tell ourselves that these many warnings on The Illumination are not from God, but from the shared human herd-mind telling us that we must simply change our selfish ways before we perish. Regardless, to achieve a true conversion, we must first become aware of how truly atrocious we are to each other, and of how truly selfish we are in the world at large. And we must do this soon.
 
            What we are dealing with now is more than the threat of war or hydrogen bombs; rather, we are dealing with a threat to the nature of humanity itself. This essential nature could possibly be (nearly) extinguished by the oppressive power of emerging technologies even if we survive in body. I for one do believe that the cause of The Great Illumination is supernatural and I do believe it is coming soon. Even if I am wrong about the supernatural element our need to go within and see ourselves as we truly are is essential if we are to correct our glaring, and now suicidal, behaviors. Whether we can do it without supernatural assistance is doubtful, but even so, we must try. Something greater than our small selves is warning us to listen, learn, and act soon.   
 
             
 
 
 
 

]]>Tue, 16 Jan 2024 17:24:31 GMThttp://orbofbeing.com/blog/jan-16-the-miracle-of-disbelief​ 
          Every day I see promises of great things in science, from breakthroughs in efficient hydrogen fuel to fusion reactors to proofs of particle entanglement to witness of faster-than-light travel. As far as I know, none of these experiments has led to great practical use, while some – entanglement and greater-than-light travel, have yet to really be understood. Still, I stand in amazement and awe – what brainiacs we have among us! What possibilities await! Through such things it is confirmed that our understanding of the universe is on the brink of expanding to incredible heights, with the possibility of bringing to us unknown wonder and glory.
 
            We could react otherwise; we could simply say, ‘well, these things are the exceptions to the rule and have nothing to do with our lived reality and never will. They are only products of expensive research being done by eggheads who have managed to curry some government funding at our expense. Sure, we got atomic bombs and reactors out of such research, but that was different. This stuff is too weird and is a waste of time.’ To be truthful, we don’t really understand these things, but rather accept them through a belief in our scientists.  We could easily throw that trust to the wind and say, “I haven’t seen this or understood this, so I don’t believe it.”
 
            Most of us do not react to new possibilities in science thusly. We have been trained, and properly so, to understand that we do not know everything and that the exception to the rule is often the toenail to the body of an expanded understanding of the universe. That is very wise of us. Our scientists are checked by other scientists as well in this endeavor. Would the whole lot of them lie?
 
            Trouble is, we do not always follow the same logic with knowledge gleaned from outside the laboratory. In fact, if exciting new realities are offered to us, even in real time with real, solid material, we often slough them off. Worse, we are often encouraged to do so.
 
            An example of the latter came to us through a three-part documentary on Netflix about reputed miracles within the Catholic sphere of belief.  One case revolved around a mediaeval painting very inexpertly done of Christ that purportedly brought healing. Another circled around a disagreement in Spain as to which monastery had the true Holy Grail, the cup from which Jesus drank on the Last Supper. Another concerned the sociological work that was being done by a priest in Brazil that was helping millions of poor in his city. None of these examples gave any convincing signs of miracles. Instead, we were led to believe that reports of miracles were nothing but fables created to give the poor and ignorant the heart to continue with their insignificant lives. In the entire three hours of presentation, only one true miracle, the Shroud of Turin, was mentioned, and that was quickly blown away. The shroud itself is, by tradition, the cloth in which the corpse of Jesus was wrapped after death, meaning that it had to come from the 1st century. On this we were openly told to disbelieve. To paraphrase the narrator, ‘A carbon 14 test was done on a piece of the fabric in 1987 which, unfortunately, proved that the shroud was a 14th century fake.’ As far as the series was concerned, this was an indisputable fact of hard science supported by the producers of an expensive documentary.
 
            In truth, the fabric tested from the shroud was found to be a patch put in place after this portion of it had been burned in the 14th century. Other tests have revealed its probable provenance from an area in the Mideast somewhere around the 1st century. This has been general knowledge for more than 20 years. Why would the documentary lie?
 
            We have looked into the miracle of the shroud in these essays before, so I will not go into detail showing exactly WHY the shroud is considered a miracle. I must briefly mention, however, that the image on the cloth was made much more explicit by a photographic negative of it made in the 19th century, something inexplicable to this day. Additionally, science has concluded at this point that the image was not made by paint but by an explosion of radiation that put the image on the cloth, much like the silhouettes of victims of Hiroshima cast on walls behind them at the instant that they were incinerated. There is so much more. Whether the image is of Jesus or not, the shroud represents a reality that our science cannot understand.
 
            The same can be said for the image of the Virgen of Guadalupe, spoken of in these essays only a few short weeks ago. Unlike the Shroud of Turin, there are no arguments about the date and location of when and where the image of Mary was made: it is a full-color picture present to this day on the cactus-fiber cape (tilma) of Juan Diego from 1531 Mexico. Since the earlier writing, I have learned something else about this miracle, which I will present to the reader in abbreviated form:
 
            In 1996, Ron Tesoriero filmed an interview with Dr. Jorge Escalante, “an ophthalmologist and surgeon who had practiced as a specialist for 42 years.” In the interview the doctor stated, “The eyes [of the image of the Virgen on the cape] have all the characteristics of the human eye…Around the pupil are contraction furrows which operate to contract the pupil in front of light. These furrows were only detected by ophthalmologic science in the twentieth century. You can see the vascular supply in the upper eyelid of the right eye…It is a snapshot of an eye, alive, with all its interior parts, like another human person. We are dealing with a human eye. It is not a painting. It is impossible to have been created by man artificially.” (from Reason to Believe by Ron Tesoriero, pg. 165) But it is artificial, an image on a rough and creased cape of cactus fiber now nearly 500 years old. With the above discovery, along with many others, there can be no doubts about the images supernatural origin. Why, then, was it not mentioned in the documentary? Why, then, do so few people outside of Mexico not know of the miraculous nature of the image on the cape?
 
            Let us go back to the discoveries of science. We do not discard anomalies in the material world that have been proven to exist, such as the wave/particle dilemma. We talk with excitement about faster than light travel, or maybe even about the possibility of time travel through black holes. But we already have indisputable supernatural phenomena in our midst, and it barely brings a yawn. The miracle of the Virgen, for instance, should change the skeptic’s whole perspective on the reality of the supernatural and of religious claims. But it doesn’t. What’s up?
 
            Let’s return to the silly documentary. Yes, it is not of great importance and probably has been barely watched, but it is indicative of something going on. In it, we were led to believe at the start that it was an objective look into miracles, but instead we were presented with an attempt to smother the supernatural in a cloak of secular humanism, having sympathy for miracles only because of the possible therapeutic benefits they might have for the great unwashed. Its hiding of the facts of the Shroud of Turin was unacceptable. Why would the makers do this? Why would a mainstream documentary purposefully mislead the public on the reality of the supernatural?
 
            We must also ask why the miracles of the Shroud and the tilma are not known by the greater bulk of world citizens, or at least by the greater bulk of those who study science and physics. Yes, there are no known mathematical formulae to determine or control the supernatural, but its existence is a fact that shines on all of our understandable physics. It is an indisputable part of our realty. Just as the physics of Newton had to be re-written to account for Einstein’s revelations, so, to, does the scientific community have to alter its perspectives on reality in the light of the miraculous. This may never lead to a usable formula (as the sorcerers of old believed themselves to have once had) but the truth of the existence of this dimension should always be in the back of the mind of the experimental researcher. Something else moves our universe. We are not, as the UFO enthusiasts put it, alone. Our world has another great force working on it that we should always consider when contemplating the bigger picture.
 
            While this inclusionary perspective might seem a pipe dream, it actually was the way science was approached until as recently as the 19th century. The greatest minds of the past were the philosophers and theologians, not the mathematics and physics geeks, for it was former who mapped the big picture. What has happened since then? Why has the miraculous element in our reality purposefully been denied? It is not as if, as some say, because it has no practical value in the laboratory. While this might be true for lower-level physics classes, this should not be the case for cutting-edge researchers. It seems clear, then, that the exclusion has been done on purpose, to blind our minds to the existence of the supernatural.
 
            Why this is so is of utmost importance. Why would we, as a culture, want to bury the supernatural? And what does that say about our current world history and our collective destiny in a world united as it never has been?
 
            I leave that question for another time. Right now, however, we are on the cusp of experiencing great changes and surprises. The change is accelerating. It is my hope that we accept the fullest truth that we can know so that the surprises come not from evil, but instead from the good.
 
           
 
 
 
 
             

]]>Tue, 02 Jan 2024 16:15:58 GMThttp://orbofbeing.com/blog/jan-2-new-world-order​       
          Recently I have taken the religious counsel to heart and begun praying for our country and the world. It is not a formal prayer, exact words changing with the day, and this morning I simply said, “I pray that you (God) will save the world.” I was not expecting a response – we are usually left to faith alone – but this time was surprised by a voice that was either from my unconscious or from the Beyond: “Save this world? Why would I save THIS world?” To make sure that I did not misinterpret those words, the specific understanding of that statement came to me immediately afterwards: “You do not want to save the version of the world you are currently subject to. Rather, you want to save humanity by praying for a different, better shared vision of your collective reality.” Yes, of course that is right. We need a different version of reality, and we need it ‘real quick.’ And so I pray.
 
            This brings to mind an eventful movie that recently aired on Netflix, “Leave the World Behind.” It quickly became the number one movie in 89 countries, and in the last few weeks was intensely reviewed by both the left and the right. That all seems to have passed now, as such things do nowadays, but it was an excellent look at the darker emotional side of our nation that I believe is lurking just below the surface: that is, that we fear that a great collapse is coming and coming soon. In the movie, race and gender issues were brought in, but they were not pivotal; rather, they only underscored the creeping fear that many of us probably have that the nation and the world cannot go on in its present form. We cannot help but think that the rejection of centuries and millennia of customs and norms, combined with startling advancements in AI and weapons and biological technology, are simply going to transform the entire globe into something monstrous that no one really wants, but that no one can stop.
 
            That latter bit is well-stated in the movie. One of the characters, an elegant and well-connected black man, speaks at one point to a somewhat smitten white married woman. He tells her he knows a very wealthy and powerful man of the Bill Gates variety who he often joked with about him being a member of the secret cartel that controls the world. His last meeting with him happened a few days before his talk with the white woman, just before the US infrastructure started falling apart. This elite man warned him with a very serious voice that he must do things to take care of himself and his family, IMMEDIATELY. He continued to say that no one man or group was in control of the world, but rather that great things happened in the world despite or apart from the influences of both man and mouse. The world, according to him, is out of our hands – and soon about to plunge into chaos whether we like it or not.
 
            The plot does belie this somewhat. There is a force in the movie that is shutting down the internet and causing chaos in the US that is coordinated by some specific country or consortium of countries. Part of that chaos is caused by disinformation specifically planned to divide our nation and cause ourselves to help destroy the country. In our reality outside the movie, disinformation is, in fact, being spread by many sources both domestic and foreign, and certain countries do have plans to further weaken and subvert our nation. Still, in the end no one is truly in charge. Although the movie with its entirely secular perspective (at one point, a prepper-type jerk waves a dismissive hand at prayer. That is the only illusion to faith or God in the movie) presses that point, I don’t believe the writers understood just how deeply true that is. It appears to me that they want to take the blame off of certain countries and influencers and put it on us, the people, making the movie itself a propaganda piece. However, if they believed in any of the great religions or in many of the small, they would understand that our own self-sovereignty is the biggest illusion of all. The world, from climate to politics to the stew of emotions boiling throughout the world, is far too complex for any of us to understand. And yet, it does have order. If pressed, even the writers of the movie would have to admit this. In fact, it is expressed in the very dialogue and plot.
 
            Yes, this truth is acknowledged through their own plot, for this great, spreading internalized fear is based on something primal, something beyond willful thought. It is as structured and puzzling as the directional capabilities of migrating birds and just as immutable. And it is telling us that, beyond any particular point or action or law, we are truly on the edge of some great cataclysm. Worse: it is telling us that, for the most part, we are powerless to stop it.
 
            But the movie is ignorant of the connection we all have to something that is the very cause of the herd mind. It is ‘God mind,’ or if you prefer, cosmic mind. Staying in context with the movie, we can say that this God mind has two major characteristics. The first is that it is embedded in each and every one of us. This is how we understand the “volkgeist” of our community, of our country, and of our species. God knows what’s really happening, and his essence is planted in us all. Just like the migrating animals, we are receiving a call that has not been made by one or even many of our own. And now it is speaking with the voice of doom.
 
            It can be changed, however, by the second aspect of ‘God mind.’ In this, God responds to our thoughts and our prayers or lack of them by ordering our history. There is a plan behind this ordering, and that is to bring humanity back into harmony with this cosmic mind. Thus, if we are going away en masse from God mind, certain things are brought to happen to stop us from this course. It could be the destruction of a certain country and its enslavement. So it is that we read in the Bible of the Babylonian captivity which was caused by the rejection of the Mosaic (Jewish law) faith.  After years or even centuries, such disasters are meant to steer influential populations back to God mind. However, if the warnings that God has planted within us cause us to steer back to faith or God mind through prayer (discourse with God), and if it causes us to attempt heartfelt rejection of egoistic impulses, then the upcoming catastrophe can be avoided. The future, then, is not immutable.  It can be changed by laying ourselves before the mercy of God.
 
            Such it is that the Bible tells us, and such it is that the Virgin of Medjugorje warns us today. “Pray” says the latter, and fast, and reject selfish impulses before it is too late, because otherwise destruction is just around the corner.
 
            In the movie there is only doom. There is no purely human force that can hold back the evil (of racism, sexism, greed, egotism) that will ruin us all, and believe me, every musical note and conversation in the movie is about or becomes about ruin. Here, the movie has it right. However, we do know that there is a way to avoid this seemingly inevitable tragedy: we must go beyond the material plans and conspiracies and plots into the spiritual, beyond even instinct and physical law; we must go within the self so that we may transcend the self and hear the prompting of God or cosmic mind. It is here where miracles lie. If you don’t believe that spiritual power exists, then we are indeed doomed, as the movie tells us. But they have it wrong. Keep the faith, for miracles do exist.
 
 
   
                    
 
              
 
 
 
         
 
           
 
 
 
 
                   
 
           
 
                                           
 
 
 
         
 
           

]]>Sat, 16 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMThttp://orbofbeing.com/blog/dec-16-essay-the-night-my-father-shot-santaIn the Essay section, the perrenial essay, "The Night My Father Shot Santa." Merry Christmas! FK]]>Fri, 01 Dec 2023 16:10:03 GMThttp://orbofbeing.com/blog/december-1-go-pac-go 
          Hold on a second while I take a pickle from the barrel and adjust my seat before the wood stove at this here local general store. Ok, there we go. Now where was I?
 
            Oh, yes, youth today. In this small town just a few miles from the family farm, I have seen the trends go from earrings on men, to purple Mohawks on both mem and women, to razors in lips and multiple face piercings to – wow – gauges that expand earlobes to 6 inch diameter’s, and of course tattoos, tattoos, tattoos, so many that the usually ugly little body prints have climbed up the age pyramid to include 70-year-old former gearheads and current grandpas and grammas. Worse by far has been the recent – in the past 6 years – and alarming spate of ‘non-sexuals,’ young people whose sex is impossible to tell due to dress, hormones, surgeries, or you-guess-what. This ain’t New York City, mind you, or even Peoria. This is nowhere-ville, a place of meat processing factories surrounded by the actual meat-on-hoof that is being processed, an area where the air is often ripe with the smell of manure and cow slurry, and where goin’ to meetin’ apparel consists of a football jacket and clean jeans.
 
            So what the hell is going on?
 
            Clearly, it is the end of civilization.
 
            It is not just the freak show that we are witnessing or participating in, but actual facts on the ground. Let me enumerate a few: 30% of 40-year-olds have never been married and 25% of high school students identify as LGBTQ etcetera, including 40% of the girls; participants in religion has dropped below 50%, and atheism has doubled to 18% since 1999 (both numbers are still way better than in Western Europe); less than 40% of students in high school are proficient in reading, suicide rates are up 40% in youth since 2020, and death rates from drugs, mostly fentanyl from Mexico, kills over 100,000 mostly young people a year. The birthrate is less than 1.7 children per female, far below replacement numbers, and millions of illegal aliens are being crammed into the country to make up for it, most without proper vetting and with no training in the rights and responsibilities of US citizens; however, given that the truth in news is impossible to determine, maybe that is a moot point. Oh, and the national debt has passed 33 trillion, with one seventh of the national budget going towards paying the interest alone on that debt, with both numbers expected to rise dramatically in only the next 6 years. 
 
            I know, it takes your breath away and I bet you can add to that, but I ain’t done talkin’ yet, so sit yourself back down again and have another pickle. This one’s on me.
 
            Ahem. HOWEVER:
 
            It just so happens that we got free tickets to see the Green Bay Packers in Lambeau Field less than two weeks ago, and the experience was exactly as I expected, and then some – that is, from the perspective of 20 years ago. That’s right. At the stadium and in the parking lots and in the streets and on the grassy lawns rented for parking and at the church parking lot, also rented for parking, and from the windows hung with Packers signs and logos, life seemed so NORMAL. No, it was not exactly the same as 20 years ago – there were the tatts and some of the ear candy, and there were more young women present, many of whom swore just like the guys, but even they were obviously women and virtually all were adorned with men who were obviously men. What the heck?, we have to ask ourselves. Were we in a time warp?
 
            No, but in a way, yes. Football tickets cost a lot, and most people have to drive to Green Bay to see the game (not so in big cities), and cars cost a lot too, so most of these people would have to have at least middling jobs. Added to that, the game was in Wisconsin, so most of the fans at the stadium would be considered by the census bureau to be “white,” making for greater cultural uniformity than we would expect on average in the current US of A. But even with that, the normalcy was shocking.
 
            ‘Normal’ in America means fun, good cheer, respect for others, orderliness (outside of pranks and goofiness) and those certain ways that Americans recognize other Americans. Everyone I talked to, and there were many, understood where I was coming from – from the jokes and wisecracks to the concerns over the quarterback’s recent sac, and so on. For instance, on the long walk back to our cars, we were herded in certain directions by the police, and the sound of “mooo” sprouted from among the crowd. We do not like to be herded, and we are not afraid to let it be known. But we sometimes allow it anyway when we know it is temporarily necessary for efficiency and order. There you have it: American.
 
            So America is not as messed up as many of us often think. There is joy and continuity and cohesion. However, the stats say that there are cracks in the dam that have become so wide and numerous that the whole dam seems about to break down. What gives?
 
            Sure, there are multiple causes, but here’s what I think is happening in a nutshell.
 
            Wait, wait, don’t leave just yet even if you know where I’m going with this. Have another pickle – and I think there’s a half-filled bottle of brandy over there behind the counter.
           
            Yes, and bring me a glass, too. Anyway, what I think is the taproot of our dysfunction is the secularization of society. Sure, it sounds grand and pompous and preachy, but think: what is the point of life without a bed-rock belief in a higher purpose that reaches beyond death? Without that, all our efforts amount to only sound and fury. What I think has happened is that a whole lot of people have been told to look at the secularized Western model for their personal meaning. When this proves to be insufficient, they find the societal fabric it has created to be despicable. The disappointment they endure is a grown-up version of finding out that one’s parents lied about Santa, and in their anger at the deceit they want to tear it all down. Since they are taught to not find something enduring within themselves, they want to tear down themselves as well. Since they also expect a mate to fill that hole, when those mates don’t deliver, they want to tear them down, too – or not have any to begin with. The same goes for government, and the same goes for many new and improved theologies. The world is so disappointing that they don’t want to bring children into it, and for some of the slightly more optimistic youth, children would simply get in the way of having fun.
 
            That last probably goes for many of the young in the crowd at the game, but we also saw babies there, and everyone seemed to love them. So yes, there still is something good going on in America, but the threats to that goodness are great and often overwhelming. We need God, but government will not and should not bring us back to God; that is up to us, and it is essential, not only for the soul and spirit, but for the common good. Everyone who has dodged feces in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco, or has heard of the thieves and thugs terrorizing people on Chicago’s Magic Mile knows that something has to change. It is as if we are hearing the prophecies of Jeremiah and Isaiah from the Old Testament warning us of the fall of our civilization. The Jews did not change and were destroyed by Assyria and Babylon. But maybe we still have time to change. Such a change would be difficult for all of us, I know. We must swim against the current, but such an effort couldn’t come at a better time of year.
 
            Hey, wait, where ya goin’ so soon? Don’t want another shot? I haven’t told you about my trip to the Holy Land, or about my latest colonoscopy either. Hey, I went out of my way to say that I’m not holier-than-thou towards the end, didn’t I? Gave us a chance at redemption before it’s too late and all, too, didn’t I?
 
            What’s that? You’re missing the game? Well, why didn’t you say so? Because you couldn’t get a word in edgewise?
 
            All right, I’ll give it a rest and go back to the flat screen where Americans really gather. But it’s true, yes, I think it’s true. We need a little Christmas, as the song says, to bring us a little magic, a lot of beauty and a lot of hope – all possible as long as we still have a flicker of light left within. And I think we still do. Go Pac go!
 
 
 
 

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