We’re Not Living in Ordinary Times

What do we do when the old ways don't seem to make sense?

Aside from the felt sense (tactile gut feeling) that something is very different about what’s happening in our world, every day I see more and more examples of it.

More and more riots and protests are occurring in developed countries where people are fed up with the state of their lives or the actions of governments.

The existing political power in the US is trying to jail one of its opponents for similar level things virtually any high level politician can be punished for. One doesn’t have to be for or against any party to ask: isn’t this the type of thing Western countries call out developing countries for doing?

On mainstream radio channels, I consistently hear of the mass loss of trust in governing institutions and how it is reaching “dangerous” levels.

People appear to literally be losing their minds trying to make sense of what’s happening, the speed at which it’s occurring and what we can possibly do about it.

I can understand why some turn it all off and don’t pay attention, it can be overwhelming. Perhaps for a short period it’s helpful to do that. But if we did that consistently are we not just avoiding something we can play a part in resolving? In our own lives, if we avoid and ice out a problem from our consciousness for too long, what happens? Chaos, destruction, and illness.

I believe we have to look. We have to face what is happening and become curious about its cause. With that, I believe there are healthier ways to stay in touch with the state of our world than simply scrolling through social media or listening to every video that shows up in our feeds.

I laid out thoughts on this healthier approach here, and I believe we have reasonable proof that this healthier approach works as seen here after over a decade's worth of practice. But for now I want to keep going.

Using Double Standards To Avoid Being Uncomfortable

There are many things we’re told by mainstream sources of information, including government, that are false and misleading. But I could say the same about antithesis voices as well.

What I’ve noticed is that on most things that truly matter, there is actually a lot of overlap when it comes to the facts, but it’s hard to find synthesis because it can be uncomfortable having to address the rigidity of our beliefs and ideas.

We begin to use double standards to avoid the recognition of complexity and seeing overlap.

For example, collectively, we don’t apply the same scrutiny to mainstream media as we do alternative, or vice versa. The same can be said for politicians from differing political parties; on one side there are criminals, and the other are heroes. An honest look tells a very different story.

The same can be said for other beliefs we hold. Hat tip to my friend Madhava for helping to point out some of the following examples.

Can we honestly say the mainstream is applying the same rigor to prove vaccines have worked in developed countries to eradicate disease as they do in debunking those asking to test the safety of vaccines?

Imagine, someone dies of COVID, an unreliable test proves the virus was the cause and that is laid out for the entire world to hear. Yet if someone dies after a COVID vaccine it can only be linked if we do an extensive autopsy to prove if it was causal, and almost no one will hear of this story. Double standards indeed.

But the same is said in reverse by some. The COVID vaccine is the cause of any untimely death these days, without further investigation. Yet those people want a huge amount of rigor to prove COVID caused the death of someone who died while testing positive.

The point here isn’t to prove one or the other, but to illustrate where our double standards are and how quickly we will turn to them to prove our point while ignoring the rest of the story. These double standards are birthed from a desire to fight the opposing side.

Can we truly be OK with the explanation that this human behaviour is normal? That we are somehow JUST animals and that is why we always forgo logic to fight the other side? or have we come to accept something as normal that really is only the side effect of something deeper?

Sensing That Something Is Off

In our modern world, it feels that our collective curiosity and good-faith exploration of events is gone. With that, our deeper sense of connection to ourselves and one another is becoming even fainter than it already was. We’re disembodied.

Keeping in mind that disembodiment is the reality that we have become disconnected from our body, losing some awareness of our body’s sensations, intelligence, and ways of knowing, and instead being almost entirely trapped in our minds and thoughts.

Out of this disembodied state comes the natural behavior to apply double standards and be unfair. To be fair, these have been the ways of our culture and consciousness for a very long time, but it feels more unpalatable and uncomfortable to accept this as normal.

We sense that something is off. I’m not just talking about the off-ness of corruption and the abuse of powerful interests, but that something is off with how we feel, act, relate, sense, and be in our world.

Like Morpheus says in The Matrix:

“What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.”

What if that feeling is not just about what is wrong with the world, but with the lens through which we see the world? What if there was a growing awareness, an awakening, that we are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the state of our minds, erratic emotions, and nervous systems?

As if we are becoming more awake to the part of ourselves that observes we are having an experience. It comes on and off like a flickering light, each time it lights up we feel an incongruency with how we are living.

The gap between what we sense is possible for ourselves and our world, and the way we are currently living becomes more obvious with the contrast.

We know and can sense that something more natural to us is possible, but we don’t see it in front of us. We see that our current world is one built out of a disembodied state, with little regard for helping humans thrive. It is creating exactly what it is designed to create. Illness. We sense that we are witnessing this illness that is our modern culture, and that we all play a role in it somehow.

Sure, it’s a start to say that corruption and the corporate capture of our governing systems are occurring and is an illness, but is that statement enough to truly address what is causing it?

Is it that the “people at the top are evil?” Or is there an entire collective consciousness supporting the way our world is today because we’ve been operating from a worldview built from disembodiment and separation?

Your answer to that question may depend on the lens through which you see the world as well. This lens is shaped by the state of your nervous system which is the electrical system connecting virtually every aspect of who you are and how you function in the world.

If we experience life purely as an individual mind, not connected to our spiritual nature through experience, it might be more inviting to say, “Yes, people are just evil at the top. Get rid of them and all will be great.”

But it seems to me at least that experiencing a felt knowing that we are a unified field of people connected to one another and our world in ways many of us never imagined causes us to look through a different lens.

The conclusions I’ve drawn from that vantage point are that what we believe about the nature of ourselves, each other, and what it means to be human has a big impact on our culture and thus the way we design our societal systems. Further, the state of our nervous system and level of embodiment can shape what we can even hold as possible.

Furthermore, when we can move out of faith and belief about something and into experience there is an internal knowing that now drives our consciousness and actions. We no longer look to a holy book to tell us what is, we can sense it within ourselves.

Responding To Non-Ordinary Times

Our times are non-ordinary because, from my lens, we are in a moment of upheaval caused by an awakening on many levels. An awakening to what we sense is possible, an awakening to our spiritual selves, and an awakening to the corrupt nature of our systems.

As I stated for many years, the awakening to the corrupt nature of our systems is often a precursor the spiritual evolution. Paradoxically, it also happens to be a reality many in spiritual circles avoid looking at.

But straight up, expanded awareness and consciousness causes evolution.

The question is, to respond to the nature of what’s unfolding around us, and to not create the same problems over again, is a new state of consciousness required? Are the old ways of battling each other and fighting with polarization really going to help?

It’s easy to say the elite cause polarization and division, but when we are unconscious of our actions, don’t we do the same to one another? Don’t we feed into this dynamic ourselves? Are we then not being responsible for the quality of our own consciousness and actions? Perhaps we’re back to a double standard?

This concept is asking whether the macrocosm is reflective of the microcosm.

Where can we come to agree about what is happening? What state of mind and being allows the possibility and willingness to come together and synthesize? What state of being keeps us fighting?

Evolution does not have to be so difficult. Life and nature have a deep intelligence within them. We are life and nature, even though we appear to have forgotten that.

But are we getting in the way of that natural intelligence because we’ve become so in our heads and mind that we’ve lost connection to other ways of knowing? Has our purely logical culture disconnected us from our nature?

After all, chronic stress has the physiological potential to do just that. Is our world not one of chronic stress?

Right now, we are collectively rigid, resistant, and in a space of fighting - all hallmark qualities of how chronic stress can shape our nervous system and thus behavior. But we are only under the control of this state when there is a lack of awareness of it.

With consciousness, we can shift back to our nature. This allows for acceptance, creativity, flexibility and thus a smoother evolution.