Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods.’ John 10: 31-34
So, Dec 21 2012 has come and gone and the world is still here, little changed.
No major global transformation, no fantastic global spiritual shift, no big alien landing, no Nesara, no utopia unfolding.In fact to the inquiring mind (and not the mind misled by spiritual fairy tales) it seems like exactly opposite. Greed, graft, and power politics still rule the day. Sex and violence dominates the media. Global war continues unabated. And there is more debt, more violence, and more mass murder then ever before. Even our children in their schools are no longer safe.
You know what, I love a good movie just as much as the next person. I love action films, I love dramas, I love romantic comedies, and I especially love kids flicks. And I know I’m not the only one. Billions of people around the world tune in to the output of Hollywood every month, whether it is at the box office, on the home DVD, in the “e-talk” shows, or whatever.
When I was a teenager, I was a head banger. I loved my long hair. I wore it as a badge of honor, and a symbol of my superiority. The short-hairs around me (mostly adults) where all hypocrites (true that), but I was different. I was free and powerful and open. It was a huge pile horseshit, of course, ’cause I was no better than anybody else around me in regards to awareness, awakening, and activation. We were all fucked up in one way or another, but the long hair, the “badge” gave me a reason to believe otherwise. It was an outwardly show of what consciously I knew I should inwardly be, but in reality wasn’t anywhere near. In the midst of my self delusion I would have never got my hair cut. It was a show, and that was all! It was a presentation to the world of how I wanted to think about myself and, more importantly, how I wanted others to see me.
What a farce that was.
Thankfully one day I woke up from that when I realized that what was outside wasn’t necessarily a reflection of what was inside. Ironically it was while listening to the song Signs [lyrics / youtube ] by the Five Man Electrical Band. The song was a bit an anthem when I was younger and the message was clear, don’t judge the long-hairs because they are human like everyone else. What I realized while listening to that song for the umpteenth time was that this sentiment, noble as it was, applied equally to the short-hairs. I mean if I, as a long-hair, could be cool, and hip, and with it, and jiggy with that, then why couldn’t a short-hair? I realized at that point that hair length didn’t matter because it was what was inside that counted. I learned then what my parents should have taught me as a child, appearances don’t count for shit.
And so there I was, liberated. Free of judgment I cut my hair and have been walking around, hiding amongst the short-hairs, ever since.
I learned my lesson well!
Appearances don’t matter because they don’t necessarily say anything about what’s going on inside and so, ever since then I’ve been blissfully and dutifully ignoring appearances. But then this morning while writing the penultimate chapter in my forthcoming Book of the Triumph of Spirit Master Key, I was thinking about how toxic and messed up this world is and how hard it is to achieve the Holy Grail of spiritual attainment (i.e. mind-awakening and bodily-empowerment) while swimming in the toxic, soupy sludge of this planet. As I thought, the image of a rich person’s mansion flashed into my mind and I knew with absolute certainty that the rich people were swimming in the toxic sludge just like the rest of us. The only difference, they had a lot of money and they could put on a good show. They could pay people to groom them, and clean up after them, and shine their cars, and cook for them, and cater for them and so they always looked wonderful and pretty and so together. When you looked at them you never stopped to think that maybe they were just as blindfolded, shut down, and fucked up as the rest of us. But of course, it could be true. Just like my long hair, it could be a show, a presentation to the world of a) how they want to think about themselves, and b) how they want us to see them. They want to believe that they are strong, capable, healthy, and successful and they want us to believe the same, and so they buy lots of shiny trinkets, and drive lots of expensive cars, to show the world just how together they are. But it is all part of the same substance-less show covering up the same toxic sludge.
And that’s when it hit me. Appearances do count, but not in the way I had thought. Appearances are not an accurate reflection of what’s inside, that’s true, but they are reflections of in at least two accurate ways. They are a reflection of how:
we want to see ourselves
we want others to see us
And that sort of presentation is fine, if you’re swimming in old energy toxicity, because that illusion will help you cope. But if your goal is awakening and empowerment then the presentation is a problem.
Why?
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Well I gotta say, I’m not surprised. James Arthur Ray, author of The Secret and pundit of the globally rebuked “law of attraction” might be going to jail (read news). Apparently Mr. Ray, after charging sixty-four wealthy people close to $9,000 a head (that’s a total of $576,000) for the privilege of sitting in the same room with him, took them all into a native sweat lodge where two people died!
Yup, it is true.
After promising that the retreat would “absolutely change your life” he took them into the lodge where the poor people stayed until emergency 911 calls had to be made. At the end of the “life changing experience,” twenty one people had received emergency treatment for burns, dehydration, and respiratory arrest. Two people simply dropped dead from the experience thereby ensuring that Ray’s promise to “absolutely change your life” was one-hundred percent fulfilled.
Change accomplished!
Now if you’ve been following my blog for any length of time you’ll know I’ve been a harsh critic of “the secret” and “the law of attraction” ever since the ‘propheteers’ started to shill it as authentic spiritual wisdom a few years ago (read archive), so this is pretty much me saying “I told you so” all along.
Serious?
What is the motivation for charging nine grand to sixty-one people for a one room sweat-lodge experience anyway???
But you know what, that’s not the worst of it. If you ask me, there is a deeper pathology here that goes way beyond any misguided, misinformed, and clumsy attempts to awaken and empower and that pathology is desperation!
The truth is,
people are desperate for something moreauthentic, so desperate in fact that they will literally lay their lives on the line just for the promise of something more.
I mean really. Why else do you think sixty plus people shelled out close to ten grand a pop for the promise of change?
Why else would they sit for two hours, ignoring all the signs of distress in their own body, and the bodies of those around them?
Why else would they wait till two people were dying before they exited the tent and called an emergency?
Well, if you want my .02 cents, it is because they are desperate. These people want so badly to have an authentic spiritual experience that they put their personal safety and economic sense aside and sat suffering in a slow -roasting cooker, hoping they would have a “shift“, long past the point where it was safe for them to do so. There was a shift, of course, but not like they wanted. Their body temperature shifted, their fluid levels declined, and a couple of them died, but I’m pretty sure these aren’t the “shifts” they were after.
It is nothing to laugh at, that’s for sure.
In a world spiraling into political and materialistic chaos, with skyrocketing rates of depression, neurosis, obesity, and obsession, all they want is a little piece of something more–and they are willing to sacrifice everything to get it. And that’s sad in more ways than one. It is sad because some people see nothing wrong with turning the deep spiritual desperation of the people of this planet into a private fortune, and it is sad because the people themselves, lost in a sea of desperation and confusion, cannot find their way onto an authentic spiritual path no matter whose pearly white smile they get attached to, or how fast they put the money out.
If only they could believe in themselves, they could save themselves a lot of time, money, frustration, and desolation.
But oh well, what can you do? I can sit here and wag my finger all I want, hoping that the world will wake up, even saying it directly to your face like this…
WAKE UP…
…but if this debacle with “the secret” is any indication people are going to continue to desperately follow false prophets, and die unnecessarily, before they even begin to think that there’s something wrong in LA-LA -land. And I’ll tell you right now, and despite what the prophets of doom will tell you, it is not necessary, it is not inevitable, and it is certainly undesirable. Nobody, and when I say nobody I mean nobody, deserves to be turned into a pot-roast just because they want to find something more. So if you want my advice, stop following false prophets and start asking the hard questions. Demand more from your spiritual teachers than pearly whites, overcrowded sweat lodges, and over-charged (and ineffective) promises.
I am Michael Sharp,
Welcome Home!
Notes for LP Subscribers
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Literally hours after allegations of their nefarious journalist behavior reached the collective consciousness of this planet, the ship went down.
And it happened fast.
And it was dramatic.
And it was fantastic.
And nobody saw it coming.
And the ship went down.
And it didn’t matter that it was an established institution.
And it didn’t matter that it was old money.
The ship went down.
And those of standing on the new ship can (and should) be quite grateful for this, especially since the only thing that was lost in the sinking was the jobs of those who worked there. That’s sad for those who lost their jobs, but that’s doesn’t need to be a big deal. In the new energies and on the new ship, jobs will no longer be about the profit of the few. In the new energies jobs will be about the good of all and and they will pay well, and be easily available.
So despite the adjustment period that may occur, those of you standing in the new energies should rejoice and proclaim and dance in the streets!
The old ship has gone down and that’s a good thing.
Those of you standing in the old energies, be warned.
This is not the first, and it won’t be the last.
Other old energy institutions will follow and there will nothing you can do to stop it.
Of course, we are still early in the process so it will as yet remain slow and sporadic, here and there, bit by bit. But as we all continue with The Great Invocation, and as we all learn to generate the new energies (and yes, despite what the faux gurus will say, and as I teach in The Book of Life: Ascension and the Divine World Order, it is us who generate the energy), change will accelerate.
Water will lap over the ship’s rails and the sinking will accelerate and honestly, this may be the only warning you get. So take it to heart and take an honest look around. Is the ship you are on in danger of sinking?
Then get ready and get off.
New energy transformation of this world will accelerate and old energy institutions and ways of doing things are going to start sinking like the useless, heavy, rocks that they are. Slowly at first, but faster and faster, and with less and less warning. So, if you don’t want to get caught going down with the ship, then take my advice and have a good hard look at where you’re standing.
Fair notice.
Fair warning.
It doesn’t matter whether you are the pope of the Catholic church or the lord high Oprah herself.
Ok, ok. I have to ask. Does anybody see the irony? Just a couple years ago a few very witty people made enough money to buy themselves a California mansion or two by revealing (cue Hollywood fanfare and reverberating voice) The Secret of the Universe. The LAW of Attraction. Were you a part of that? Did you sign up? Did you view the DVD? Did you buy the book? Did you do your vision board? Did you set your intent?
Did you forget about all bad things in the world?
Did you say your prayers?
Uh huh. Ok. So… Um. Well… Uh…
How about that global economic crises huh in 2009 huh?
