Posted on 08/27/2002 9:39:12 PM PDT by Copernicus
Dedication On April 30, 1999, Hollis Littlecreek, my flute teacher, mentor and friend, passed from this world. Hollis, an Anishinabe Native American elder who freely shared his teachings, was an important catalyst at many points in my life. How appropriate that on the day Hollis left, I would apply for my Massachusetts Concealed Carry Weapons (CCW) permit. I could imagine him laughing to himself. For while his pipe, his flutes and his tools were never far away, neither was his gun -- and among those who visited with him, I was one of the most unlikely to get one.
Introduction As I watched the hysteria grow after the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, I realized that if I would ever want a gun, best to get it now, because it would only be more difficult later.
I was under no immediate personal threat. In fact, whether traveling in India or driving cab in New York, I've always felt safe and protected. My reasons were more pragmatic -- like buying a chainsaw now because you just learned you might not be able to buy one when you would need it.
I learned a lot buying a gun. I encountered Byzantine regulations and media programmed biases. I made surprising legal, factual and historical discoveries. I faced uncomfortable contradictions in my beliefs about personal power, sovereignty, and an individual's rights and responsibilities within the community. I also reexamined my beliefs and actions and my responsibilities to the world our children will inherit.
After encountering some pretty strong anti-gun feelings when talking with New Age acquaintances, I ran a survey to better understand New Age sentiments toward guns. This article developed from that survey and the research and numerous conversations that followed.
New Age Hypocrisy We say we create our own reality. We say we're responsible for our experience. We say we attract the events in our life. We say our beliefs affect our experience.
We also say that agents of the State should be more active in regulating the purchase and use of guns. (See survey.) This is the same State we don't trust to regulate Vitamin C. This is the same State that wages the drug war. This is the same State we don't want irradiating our food. But, we want this State to regulate guns. In fact, many of us even think it's a good idea that only agents of this State be allowed to have guns.
As Ann Coulter asks in a recent article in George Magazine, "Why is it that the same people who have the least confidence in the police and military are the most willing to allow only the police and military to have guns?"
I think most of us in the New Age community aren't intentionally hypocritical, we just suffer from what I call the Paint Chip Syndrome. The paint chip looks great in the hardware store, but when you actually paint your wall, you wonder what you were thinking.
In one room in our consciousness, we agree with the Catholic mystic, Pierre Tielhard de Chardin that we are co-creators in creation. And as we study the Course in Miracles we learn there is no "other" to blame for our sorrow. Meanwhile, in another room in our consciousness we see someone in such pain that we're moved to tears. No one should have to suffer that. Someone should do something. Someone or something is to blame. "There ought to be a law." We start a petition, pass a law, illegalize a thing.
As Jane Roberts' channeled entity, Seth, described, we carry contradictory beliefs. Each may appear logical within its own particular context, but when they're set side-by-side in the same room, the contradiction is obvious.
A good example of this disconnect is in the survey. Nearly one fourth (23%) of the New Age respondents each individually agreed or strongly agreed with both of the following statements:
"Gun control laws only affect law-abiding citizens -- criminals will still be able to obtain handguns illegally whenever they want." and
"If the laws on gun ownership were stricter than they are now, the overall number of violent crimes would be reduced."
How can we with one breath repeat Louise L. Hay's first affirmation in her book You Can Heal Your Life, "We are each 100% responsible for all of our experiences", and then with the next breath insist the State forbid a particular sharp object so our world will feel safer?
Affirmations not in alignment with our beliefs are impotent, no matter how emotionally soothing they feel at the time. Accepting and directing the power and creativity of our non-physical selves requires conscious, integrated and coherent focus.
(EXCERPT,Continued at link, long read)
Sure, but it's GREAT garbage to throw at some of the Howler Monkeys encountered online.
Personally, I eagerly await the Sequel:"The Tao of the X-Ring.
Best regards,
Maybe it isn't hypocritical, but it is stupid. Those of us who use our frontal lobes more than once a month also wonder what people like this are thinking.
Meanwhile, in another room in our consciousness we see someone in such pain that we're moved to tears. No one should have to suffer that. Someone should do something. Someone or something is to blame. "There ought to be a law." We start a petition, pass a law, illegalize a thing.
This is why the country is set up as a republic, NOT a democracy - precisely to avoid mob rule based on emotion. Any politician that makes policy based on the latest poll might as well not be there - let the pollsters govern. Further, such politicians a traitors to the idea of a republic and to this particular republic.
The breakthrough here is a new age type who actually uses the "thinking" word. For the first time,probably, in his life he isn't "feeling"
I think it is hysterical.
Best regards,
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