I remember the day I realized this fact. It was in 1991. The (first) Gulf War had just been declared. This, after months of build-up, which I felt in my body as tension, and realized, because I did feel it so strongly, and also felt an equally strong release (relief) as war was declared. This phenomenon — What? I was relieved? I AM glad we went to war? NO!!! — unnerved me. I wrote this essay in response.
Is the Lady A Tyger? On the Energetic Roots of the Phenomenon of War
These days, we have another manifestation of the energetic roots of war, a war between Trump and Trumpsters vs everyone else. Both of these camps feel strongly, so strongly their powerful feelings cloud reason. What is now termed the Trump Derangement Syndrome appears to seriously interfere with even the most sane attempts at returning to — or maybe, forging for the very first time in this fractious nation — a truly civil society.
When I point out the reactive emotionality of their own attitude to those on either side of this divide they usually snort dismissively. From my point of view, most people just don’t “get it.” And why don’t they get it? I’d say it’s because they are not rooted in an awareness of their own bodies, and so tend to be dictated to by the discomfort their bodies undergo when faced with a phenomenon (Trump) that continues to elude even their best guesses as to how this one 72-year old man seems to effortlessly and single-handedly provoke such a massive disruptive charge in the body politic.
Okay, now let’s get personal.
I don’t know if you have noticed, but I certainly have. Whenever I am lying in bed, about to drift off to sleep or waking up in the morning, if there is any disturbance in my bodily state (for me, liver problems, digestive issues), then my conscious, egocentric mind — immediately, without thought — leaps in with an idea to “account” for the discomfort, consider it the “cause” of the discomfort — and then, like magic, pretend to replace it! Ignoring the physical discomfort itself, ego mind (monkey mind) then runs wild with associated thoughts, and since it’s pain I am feeling in my body (without now, being conscious of it), the thoughts (constructed to mirror the bodily state) are themselves disturbing — “Oh no, what if? What can I do about it? What else will happen? Whose fault is it?” On and on, monkey mind runs rampant with desire and/or aversion, thus engendering a suffering as strong or stronger than the original physical discomfort!
And all this desire/aversion inner talk is fearful. That’s right. The emotion of fear rules, automatically, when, without awareness, I instantly substitute mental agitation for the original bodily discomfort. Fear of what will happen if. Or fear that what already happened will happen again, or worse. On and on.
So, that one primal, and exceedingly simple recognition, which arose during one ordinary afternoon when I was just standing there in my office in Jackson Wyoming during the Gulf War in 1991, of the choice, at every moment, between Love or Fear, felt like a revelation.
This revelation is related to another, and in fact, may be the same one: the dichotomy between abundance and scarcity. I posted on this recently:
The Scarcity Assumption
Today, I googled “love and fear,” looking for an article that talked about the chemistry of these two states of being. And found it. Well worth reading all the way through.
Entelechy Journal: LOVE AND FEAR
Remember, it’s a choice. Always. And sometimes we need to recognize how those who want to rule us, control us, create a centralized state where we are all cogs in a single vast machine, do so. And yes, it’s always through manipulation of our fears! When we are not afraid, we don’t succumb to the psy-ops, of which there are four main ones: 1. Divide and Rule, 2. Distraction, 3. False Flag, and 4. Action, Reaction, Solution.
Watch the first ten minutes of this Ole Dammegard video describing these four types of psychological operations (psy-ops) that have been used since time immemorial to corral people into doing their supposed overlords’ bidding. And remember, only if we are afraid, will we succumb to any of them. And sometimes that means coming back into our bodies (since yes, our minds do tend to run away with us), rooting ourselves there, inside our own skin, and noticing: am I fearful, or am I loving? Am I contracting, closing my heart down? Or am I expansive, open to the universe, heart full to bursting? It really is one or the other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk2gOOoOB88
