The Year in Words

The Year in Words

The Year in Words

“Recollection is the pathway to revelation.”

Foreword

I had the idea to revisit the articles I published in 2023.  Perhaps for the purpose of completing on the year of compositional expression.  As I was putting this together, I observed unique and noteworthy progressions and trends of illumination. I highlighted excerpts I felt were most expressive of this extraordinary new era.

To all who made the time to read the articles over the course of this last year, thank you!

I appreciate and am grateful for the comments, dialogue and insights!

All the best for the coming year!        -Iam      

The Experiential Awareness of Being (Published: 2/10/2023)

“We are as conscious as we are present.”

We instinctually and intellectually adopt and enact perceptual filters to insulate our solitary lifestyles.  Our desire to be right supersedes our need to express our truth.  Through our exposure and interaction with social reality, we eventually devolve into a vortex of egotism.  All who succumb to the selfishness of their desire are the vacuum of a black hole.  Social reality constantly distorts our focus of awareness from establishing an equilibrium between our instincts, thoughts and feelings.

Our bodies and minds are cluttered with artificial sensation and thought, enslaving us with virtual reactivity to social reality’s engineered exploitation.  The contemporary standard of living is to be born, deceived, enslaved, manipulated, programmed and inevitably die.  No matter how we may elect to perceive these human conditions, they are the result of the social reality we cling to for credence, meaning, reference and relevance.

Experiencing relativity in our environment and society begins with understanding ourselves.  Self-awareness is transcending our environment, transforming our relations and empowering our being with our intuition and soul.  Once we establish and sustain our awareness of self, we can apply and express consciousness in our social engagement.  The most important practice in all our relations is to listen.  The greatest gift we can give to another is the experience of being heard; appreciated, recognized and validated.

Shifting our paradigm of perception from surviving to thriving may be the best way to embody existentialism.  Our intuition conveys our soul’s empowerment through our heart center, into our mind, body and environment.  Living life in the simulation of social reality may seem like a gratifying encounter for some.  Experiencing being in the eternity of universality creates awareness for all.

“Being present in the present is experiential awareness.”

A History of Mystery Continued…. (Published: 2/23/2023)

“The darkness empowers our light.”

I found myself in a vast domain, standing before a massive wall of energy resembling the illumination and movement of fire.  In my understanding, when we cross this threshold, everything we encounter of this world remains in a vortex of what we perceive as “reality.”  I found myself in a domain of utter darkness.  I was in a deep pit, and I sensed the disturbing presence of entities all around me.  I pulled myself out of this wicked realm, gasping with terror, as the residual dark energy surged through my body.

A dark spirit held me down on the ground and proceeded to lash me with its fists.  Three entities circled me (the same ones from the pit).  I found my willpower, and for the first time, released a powerful, vocal roar, stunning the entities into fear and annihilating them for good.  What I experience is frightening to my core.  The duality of social reality programs us to believe in the black and white of dark and light.  Yet, there is so much more…

I looked up to see the dark spirit that had been attacking me in my previous encounter, standing over my bed with a wicked grin of malicious intent.  I could feel its darkness pulsing through my being, viciously and violently seizing my energy.  My personal experiences with consciousness have been extraordinary, insightful and powerful, as well as arduous, horrific and perilous.  There is a darkness we all must face, our own.  It is the cost of our consciousness.  I feel to the roots of my soul we all have these experiences.

“When we release the illusion of reality, we experience the truth of being.”

Ghosting the Soul: The Virtuality of Life (Published 3/17/2023)

“Many of us know how we exist, few of us understand who we are.”

We assume the role of a qualified, respectable and responsible member of society.  All the while, our soul, intuition and heart were dissected, oppressed and abandoned, sacrificed for namesake, status and wealth.  Our arrogance and ignorance defensively flex in a feigned attempt to appease our pursuits for an artificial sense of security.  With all social reality’s narratives, manipulation, prejudice, propaganda and rhetoric, it is nearly impossible to distinguish one’s unique, personal truth from society’s chaotic symphony of lunacy.

Whether or not we choose to observe that entities, governments and organizations impose a virtual matrix to enslave humanity is irrelevant.  If we do not see it now, then we simply are not paying attention.  The exploitation of amusement, education, media, politics and religion corners us into delusion, diversion, indifference and uncertainty, as we spiral out of consciousness into the vortex of existence.  Social programming desensitizes us to the influence and impacts of our oblivious proliferation of greed.

We are an idiom of reactivity, yielding our power to everyone and everything, beneath the veiled, social threat of being held accountable, authentic and benevolent.  It does not matter how educated we are, our ideology, politics, religion or status.  We cannot transcend our enslavement without being free from the simulation.  Every moment is an opportunity to transform our being. Choosing to shift our experience is the key to our freedom.

“Virtuality is how we exist.  Universality is who we are.”

The Event Horizon (Published 4/29/2023)

“Our soul expresses the energetic flow of empowerment.”

Whether or not we are conscious in this exciting new era, we have crossed the threshold of a universal, energetic shift humanity has yet to experience.  Identifying as “woke” in relation to being “awakened” is the distinction between those armed with ego and all expressing their soul.  Social existence is the greatest distraction to human experience.  In society, we do not have genuine belonging, only superficial relativity.

Every organization in society is a cult, seizing our personal power, as they enslave us with social reality.  We are spectators of its virtuality and consumers of our own enslavement.  All who choose to pursue their destined path are labeled fanatics, ever confronted by the simulated orthodoxy of an engineered society.

The universe is an energetic field of infinite opportunity and possibility.  It is our soul’s relativity with our intuition and heart which empowers us to express it into our experience.  The energy of universality is a multidimensional force of being, consciousness, creativity, empowerment, expression, fulfillment, illumination, inspiration and transformation. Becoming one with and expressing the universe’s empowerment is our greatest opportunity for all lifetimes.  Flowing with the energetic shift is the event horizon of our universality.

“Discovery is releasing all we know to experience all we are.”

Streaming Universality (Published 5/20/2023)

“Being is streaming the universe.”

The universe is in a constant state of transformation.  Its energetic movements on our day of birth source the unique roots of our being.  Eventually, we yield our universality, initiating a schism

with our soul, while condemning ourselves to ordinary existence.  Maturity conditions us to devolve from creation to emulation, shifting our experience from awareness to obedience.  Within the toxicity of social reality, our bodies decay, our minds encode and our hearts contract, resulting in the distortion, decline and destruction of our intuition.

When we differentiate the external influences from our inner being, transforming our conditioning into consciousness is exponential.  Our choice is to either draw the instinctual gasp of oblivion, or the conscious breath of the universe.  Conscious breath empowers our energetic flow with universality.  Silence is the language of the universe.  Silence is a transcendental experience which empowers our relativity with our soul.

Our universality streams creation through our intuition, empowers our heart, enlightens our mind and inspires our body to express our unique vision. When we are aligned with universality to create our experience, the equilibrium of our being resonates with the energetic frequency of our soul.  This is our flow with the universe.  It is this omni-dimensional energy which empowers our flow and expression with the infinite stream of the universe.

“Our destiny in the New Era is being universality.”

Being in Flow (Published 8/26/2023)

“The only truth is the one we create.”

In March 2020, we were given a remarkable opportunity to shift the paradigm of human being, expression and existence.  A manmade virus infected us with widespread fear, driving us deeper into social and political anxiety, division, enslavement, judgement and isolation.  When the chaotic fervor of the pandemic settled, we regressed and acquiesced to the virtuality of social reality.  The webs of a new matrix were woven, enabling the dependency of its subscribers.  We wielded our fear and insecurity like a weapon against the opportunity of a lifetime.

We all convince ourselves we are kind, loving and peaceful, though our thoughts and actions often exhibit our personal malevolence.  We believe we are a part of community, yet how can we exist as such when we cannot even be with ourselves?  Our oblivion to the projection of our anxieties, fears, hatred, insecurities and judgement is what deceives us away from our soul and into the self-centric snare of our ego.  We are programmed to interpret it as an expression of intelligence.

Community is a gathering of people empowering and inspiring each other with support and sustenance.  The origin of authentic relatedness is our relativity with our soul.  Our universal being enlightens and enhances our earthly experience.  Transcending the neuroses of the mind and the habituation of the body empowers us to center our being into our heart and experience universality.  Our soul sources consciousness to express the flow of the universe.

“Empowering our truth is our soul’s expression.”

Under the Sun: Ceremonial Awareness (Published 9/12/2023)

“For some, it is a way to pray.  For others, it is a way to prey.”

Contemporary prayer has become something often motivated by our external wants rather than empowered by our internal needs.  When we are honest, our prayers are often self-centered.  We spend much of our lives constructing artificial securities, defense mechanisms, financial wealth, professional positions, selective realities and social vanities with little to no regard for those beyond our individual peripheral of existence.  We either intentionally or obliviously bring the vanity and violence of society into ceremony.

In many communities, there are some who observe others receiving admiration, distinction and leadership.  Their egos are attracted to this, which causes their exodus from prayer.   All who truly need to read these words will likely succumb to their cognitive dissonance, ego, pride and vanity.  They will claim it is not “them,” as they accuse, discredit and vilify the authenticity of others.  We exist in an egocentric society.  Our personal survival, success, health and wealth supersedes that of community.  Many carry this social conditioning into ceremony and prayer.  In this tradition, many of the ceremonies are a community prayer experienced in a circle.

Spiritual leadership is not a dictatorial endeavor.  It is holding the space for others to make and experience their prayer in ceremony. When our ego influences and impacts our prayer, we experience only a fraction of the ceremony.  Every prayer is an intention to experience the natural progression of the ceremony.  Our commitment to pray must transcend our desire for personal convenience.  This empowers us with the ceremonial awareness to transform our experience and hold a space for others to do the same.

“Prayer is a way of life.”

The “Unity” of Community (Published 10/7/2023)

“Communication in unity is the heart of community.”

Society is not a community.  It is an engineered system designed to produce human reactivity, employing multiple control mechanisms to extract our personal power.  Social reality is a complex matrix of spiritual, emotional, mental and physical traumatization.  When we conform to society, we sacrifice our relativity with our soul and the universe, repress our emotionality and fully integrate ourselves into the mind and body.

We do not express universal awareness to the social impacts of our egocentric lifestyles.  We justify it with a necessity for survival, and “patriotize” it is an essential strategy to provide a better life for our children.  Our encounters with sense-based reality activate our mental endorphins to habituate us with dependency upon simulated, external gratification.

Community is not about the quantity of people, but rather the quality of its relations.  All who stand to profit financially are the furthest from the spirit of communion.  Community originates from our soul’s relativity with the universe.  The more we experience ourselves, the best we experience others.  Our soul is empowered by the universe.  Its energy resonates with a unique vibrational frequency, transmitting universality through our intuition, into the centers of our being and empowering our heart.

There is a vital distinction between the ideology and reality of “unity.”  Social interaction is primarily a peripheral encounter.  Community is empowered by the relation between our soul and the universe.  In a circle, there are no leaders.  Simply, unique beings who share their universality to the best of their ability.  The shift is each person embodying their unique energetic flow, collectively.

“Communion with the universe is the soul of community.”

Universal Relativity (Published 10/28/2023)

“Interpretation is perception without observation.”

Beyond our institutional and social conditioning, we have our own personal programming.  Whether it is our defense mechanisms, individuation, societal integration or self-righteousness, our selective conditions inhibit our interpretation and perception.  When we decide not to practice awareness of our thoughts, they wander into obscure oblivion, composing assumption, criticism, judgement and interpretation.  When relationships become personalized and uncomfortable, we tend to talk with everyone but the person with whom we are in dispute.  Not all diversities of interpretation are “conflict.” Most are merely differences in perception.

One of the greatest crimes against humanity occurs when we give our listening (power) to erroneous narratives about others; approving with our engagement, even though we disagree.  Many go the extra mile, and later feign empathy with the targeted individuals in a plea for clemency and conscience.  We do not observe social reality for what it is, we see it for what we desire.  Our perceptions are distorted; influenced and manipulated by all to whom we acquiesce our personal power.  Living in a three-dimensional paradigm is a paradox of being.  It confines us within the duality of thought and instinct.  In essence, society is the antithesis of universal being.

Authentic relatedness does not exist in social reality.  Before it exists in society, it must thrive within us all.  This is the human schism between what we perceive and who we choose to be.  In this age of social media and artificiality, we opt for a multitude of virtual communication.  The personal conditioning we enact with our self-righteousness and vanity simulates our artificial contentment and security.  In social reality, our conscious behavior empowers us, and ultimately others, to fulfill our universal purpose.  Being an expression of our soul in every moment empowers us to embody universality; so that others may empower their own.

“Relativity is the essence of universality.”

A Simple Choice (Published 11/18/2023)

“Truth is a foreign language, spoken by few and dismissed by many.”

Ample evidence exists in the alternative, mainstream and social mediums to reflect the cruelty, deception, manipulation, prejudice, supremacy and violence within contemporary society.  Oblivion has become our pastime.  We embody obscurity to desensitize ourselves from our traumatic encounters in society.  Every morning we awaken to the possibility of a new experience.  Yet, we tend to hop on the human treadmill headed for oblivion.  The information we consume is like a virus, infecting our instincts, thoughts, perspectives and emotions.  It is our weapon to defend our fear, insecurity, obsession and vanity.

We invest only in what supplements our selective agendas, comforts, narratives and realities.  Amidst the numerous horrors and tragedies occurring in society, we engage in the “busy-ness” of our lives, as if nothing is happening.  Reality, as we experience it, is a holographic projection.  Its primary purpose is to discourage, disempower and distract us from the truth.  We engage in a societal simulation.  Everything in our daily encounters is an illusion, engineered to enslave us into a matrix of social psychoses.

We may stoke the fires of our feelings and thoughts on social media to project our fleeting disdain with a variety of global inequities.  The stand we feign is diminished and distorted by our personal agenda, ego and vanity.  With the influences of our social conditioning and selective perceptions, our unconscious engagement in the paradigm of reality establishes the vicious cycles of our individualized matrix.  We are an expression of universal energy.  Yet, our relativity with our soul is wagered for social conformity.  The watermark of our madness is the exhibition of our entitlement.  The choice is to remain enslaved by our artificiality or create freedom by empowering our universality.  The former ends in finality, while the latter begins in eternity.

“Choosing not to choose is a choice to live in oblivion.”

The Path of the Soul (Published 12/5/2023)

“We succumb to our fear because we fail to relate with our soul.”

Comments, likes and shares dictate what is heard, read and seen.  Popular culture destroys creativity, consciousness, transcendence and transformation.  Truth is a foreign language we dismiss due to its incompatibility with social reality.  We deny it out of existence with our selective beliefs, information, narratives and perceptions.  The superficial security blanket of social reality imprisons us into virtuality.  Our anxieties, fears and insecurities are embellished and internalized until they become our psychosis.

We seek God in the direst of times.  For most of us, it takes an accident, deficit, harm, loss, scarcity or death to become present to experiences that transcend the triviality of social reality.   We are instinctually and intellectually tethered in duality to a three-dimensional paradigm.  Creating freedom from societal devices requires us to sever our engagement with the vicious cycles of virtuality.  In the simulation of society, we exist in a waking slumber, stumbling in the darkness of our selective oblivion; ever deluded, devalued, fearful, insecure and traumatized.

Our body and mind are simply applications our soul sources through our intuition and heart to navigate our way through the chaos, madness, narratives and psychoses of social reality.  The less we engage in social reality, the more we experience the universe and become an expression of our soul.  In this new era, we are either an emulation in the simulation or in relativity with universality.  Our universal path does not unfurl before us, it resonates within.  The path of the soul is empowering our human being with universality.

“Our true path is one we create.”

Plant Of The Month: The Christmas Rose Blooms During The Year’s Darkest Days

Plant Of The Month: The Christmas Rose Blooms During The Year’s Darkest Days

The Christmas Rose begs for attention on the darkest and bleakest winter days. The fragile-looking plant is related to the hellebore but, unlike its cousin, faces the light instead of nodding downward.

There are many varieties of hellebore, but ’tis the season, so let’s meet Helleborus niger or, more appropriately, the Christmas Rose (which is not an actual rose). If protected in a greenhouse, covered patio or porch, this perennial’s round, small white sepals and golden yellow stamens will rise out of a mound of glossy evergreen leaves just in time for Santa’s big day.

Hardiness, Light and Soil

Hellebore niger is hardy to climate zone 3 (-40°C) and requires shade and shelter if planted in the ground.

However, as the proud parent of two Hellebore niger, I highly recommend growing them in containers so you can protect and enjoy them without fear of having them buried in the snow or crushed by rain.

Wherever you decide to plant it, the Christmas Rose prefers well-draining humus and porous soil. Although it likes to be moist, this plant is not happy being over-watered.

The Christmas rose bring holiday cheer in the darkest monthThe Christmas rose bring holiday cheer in the darkest month

Propagation

Christmas Roses can be transplanted and divided after several years of growth. But in my experience, they don’t like being disturbed.

The best way to propagate the plant is to wait until the sepal drops its leaves and a seed pod forms. You can snip the pod, break it open and propagate the seeds as usual, or scatter them in the garden to grow new plants. It will take one season to produce a small plant and several before it will have sepal.

Pests and Disease

Once the Christmas Rose is established, care is minimal. However, aphids love it! Colonies will cluster under the plant’s evergreen leaves. The best defence is to check the foliage regularly.

Keep aphids at bay by combining one teaspoon each of dish soap and baking powder with three ground garlic gloves. Then, ferment these ingredients with one cup of vinegar and three cups of water in a spray bottle.

Leaf spot can also be a problem, but it’s easy to solve. Just cut the leaf off at the base of the plant where it meets the dirt, and new growth will soon replace it.

Always wear garden gloves when handling the plant. It is toxic to both humans and pets!

The Christmas RoseThe Christmas Rose

Legend Has It

The legend of how this beautiful plant became known as the Christmas rose is fitting for the season. A young girl visited baby Jesus but had no present to give. She was sad, and as her tears fell onto the snow, the beautiful white Christmas Rose flower grew.

Join me next month for plant of the month as we garden and grow together.

Week in Weed – December 9, 2023

Week in Weed – December 9, 2023

This past week, we shared a new guidance document on intoxicating cannabinoids from Health Canada and looked at what some in the industry think of the new OCS THC testing program.

We also looked into new figures from Health Canada showing inventory levels declining slightly, and new numbers from CCX showing that wholesale cannabis prices also appear to be rebounding.

BZAM announced they were entering into an agreement to acquire Final Bell’s Canadian operation, which comes with some very interesting brands, including Jeeter Canada.

We looked at an interesting court case dealing with the appropriation of a cannabis store by a First Nations community on Vancouver Island, and we shared new information from Calgary Police on a string of cannabis store robberies in the city.

In other cannabis news:

The Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation (NSLC) says it will reinstate cannabis home delivery after some rural customers were cut off when the NSLC switched from Canada Post to a private courier company “to harmonize…home delivery programs for both beverage alcohol and cannabis.”

Charges against a Winnipeg man accused of handing out cannabis gummies on Halloween have been stayed. Sheldon Chochinov and his wife, Tammy Sigurdur, allegedly gave out THC candies to multiple children on October 31, 2022. Sigurdur previously pleaded guilty to charges of supplying cannabis to a young person and possessing cannabis that is not packed, labelled or stamped. Sigurdur is expected to return to court for a sentencing hearing in January.

Cannara Biotech Inc. announced its Q4 2023 report with net revenues of $18.3 million, net income of $4.6 million, and gross profits of $9.8 million. As of October 2023, Cannara has an 8.8% market share in Quebec, 3.2% in Ontario, 2.3% in Alberta, and 0.9% in BC. The company also increased production capacity by 50% in 2023.

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake gave the go-ahead for retail sales of cannabis in the community to begin when it voted to lift the moratorium on sales and possession for retail sales during its Monday meeting. The chief responsible for the dossier said she expects sales to begin in the New Year.

StratCann interviewed MCK Chief Tonya Perron about their plans for cannabis regulations in 2021. The lifting of the moratorium allows the Kahnawake Cannabis Control Board (CCB) to begin issuing the three licences that will be available for sales of cannabis, and possession of cannabis for sale, as soon as they get through what Perron expects will be a mountain of work on awarding those licences. Numerous stores operating in the area say they do not recognize the Council’s authority. 

Researchers with Nova Scotia Health spoke with CBC about a national study into the long-term effects of cannabis on young people.

More info came out this week on a story StratCann covered earlier this year involving a micro cultivator in Manitoba who was arrested in connection with drug trafficking and money laundering schemes that involved cryptocurrency, along with smuggling cannabis concentrate in and out of the country using barrels of honey and maple syrup, police say.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) says they intercepted 10,100 kg of cannabis in 2023.

International

4C Labs, located in the self-governing British Crown dependency of Guernsey, has a licence to grow on the island but intends to import the majority of its product from Canada.

According to new data shared by MJBiz, medical cannabis companies in Australia exported 1,510 kilograms of cannabis in 2022 and produced 24,900 kilograms, up from 16,700 kilograms in 2021.

The US DEA is now warning Georgia pharmacies to stop selling THC products. Georgia recently became the first US state to allow cannabis sales in pharmacies. 


420 with CNW — Survey Shows at Least 10% of Senior Americans Have Used Marijuana Recently

420 with CNW — Survey Shows at Least 10% of Senior Americans Have Used Marijuana Recently

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Recent research findings indicate a growing trend of cannabis use among older Americans. A University of Michigan study, which used data from the National Poll on Healthy Aging, revealed that 12.1% of individuals aged 50 to 80 years of age in the United States reported using marijuana within the past year.

According to the researchers, among those who acknowledged marijuana use, 34.2% reported using it at least four days a week. The study also revealed that during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than one in ten adults in that same age range turned to marijuana, with many adopting a regular usage pattern.

The researchers stress the importance of ongoing monitoring by clinicians and policymakers as marijuana accessibility expands nationally, particularly focusing on potential risks for older adults.

The study also observed that marijuana use was less prevalent among individuals identifying as Hispanic or belonging to “other” racial categories compared to non-Hispanic white respondents. Despite this, cannabis has gained popularity among older individuals seeking relief from chronic pain and various age-related ailments.

NORML deputy director Paul Armentano commented on the survey results, noting that it is not surprising that an increasing percentage of older adults view marijuana as a viable option. Many older individuals contend with issues such as restless sleep, anxiety and pain, all conditions that are often alleviated by marijuana products. Armentano highlighted the awareness among older adults regarding the serious adverse effects linked to prescription drugs, such as sleeping aids and opioids, positioning medical marijuana as a practical and potentially safer alternative.

Additional survey data aligns with this growing trend. A report by the Hill earlier this year highlighted a significant increase in cannabis usage among Americans aged over 65, nearly tripling from 11% in 2009 to 32% in 2019. The report also noted the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on survey methodology and results.

Gallup corroborated these findings, revealing that 50% of Americans have tried cannabis at some point. This represents a gradual increase over the past 25 years, with 17% reporting current marijuana use. The proportion of Americans admitting to smoking marijuana has more than doubled since 2013, reaching 49% in 2021. Gallup’s historical trends highlight a substantial increase in public support for marijuana legalization, growing from 12% in 1969 to an impressive 68% today.

In essence, these research findings indicate a shifting landscape of marijuana use, especially among older Americans, driven by a growing acceptance of cannabis for both medical and recreational purposes. These are trends that major players in the marijuana industry such as Cronos Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CRON) (TSX: CRON) may be watching closely because seniors can be a stable market segment to target.

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Stop Pretending to Be Asleep

Stop Pretending to Be Asleep

www.self-inflictedphilosophy.com

Stop Pretending to Be Asleep

by Gary Z. McGee

“Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have.” ~James Baldwin

Our only God is the fact that we are going to die. Our only Heaven or Hell is what we create with our life, between birth and death. Our only power is how we utilize our own entropy. Everything else is smoke and mirrors. Everything other than Death is a false God.

As Emil Cioran said, “Everything is a mask that is not death.”

And yet we balk. We lose ourselves in our masks. We turn away from God. Afraid of the sheer magnitude of infinity, we shrivel up into our finitude. We lose ourselves in the mundane and profane, while sacrificing the sacred and the beautiful.

We cloak ourselves in delusions: flags, nations, religions. We play finite games (beer pong, marriage, prayer) while ignoring the only Infinite Game there is: Life. And all because we fear to face the “only true fact we have”: Death.

As Dr. Alexander Lowen said, “The challenge to modern man is to reconcile the antithetical aspects in his personality. On the body level he is an animal, on the ego level a would-be god. The fate of the animal is death, which the ego in its godlike aspirations is trying to avoid. But in trying to avoid this fate man creates an even worse one, namely, to live in fear of life.”

We’re paradoxical beings torn between flesh and spirit, finitude and infinity, wormhood and godhood. We cannot help but stretch our wings despite our earthbound roots. Death is our parenthesis. It is both our prison and our escape hatch.

Nothing is easier than death. Nothing is harder than life. And living a full life is harder still. But nothing is worse than ignorance to death at the expense of life. Nothing is worse than pretending to be asleep. Here are four ways to stop pretending…

1.) Foremost, do not ignore death:

“Much of our lives are spent running from our own shadow. The denial of death and the division of the human soul go together.” ~John Gray

Don’t run from your shadow. A death ignored is a shadow abhorred. Without the shadow onboard, you will falter. You will have no gumption, no fierceness, no teeth. And you will be forever lost in the delusions of your cultural conditioning, pretending to be asleep.

Use the howl of the inner beast as a wakeup call. It strikes like a cobra, sinking its fangs into the ripened fruit of everything you’ve been taking for granted. It is thunderous, empowering, cataclysmic. It rocks all boats. It tests all waters. It flips all scripts. It turns all tables. It pushes all envelopes. It thinks outside of all cliched boxes. It topples all ivory towers.

When you get the shadow onboard, you settle the score with death. True maturity is overcoming the denial of death. It’s embracing death in all its ingloriousness. Facing your death is facing your shadow. It’s the sacred ceasefire of the soul.

You wreck your mortality against immortality, but in the wreckage you become whole.

2.) Use death as a reason to celebrate life:

“Those who cling to life die, and those who defy death live.” ~Kenshin

If life is a journey, then death is a compass. Let the journey be the thing by using death as a guide through the brambles, through the trials and tribulations, through the vicissitudes of life.

Let your death be your drive. Let it drag you through the dessert. Let it pull you up the cliffs. Let it kill you if it must. Let it reveal to you the abyss, where the secrets of life are hidden in the metaphor of the mighty Phoenix.

Yes! Use it as a reason to celebrate life rather than curl into a craven ball in the corner of your over domesticated life. Use it to shout at the top of the highest mountain with a brave heart, “Everyone dies, but not everyone truly lives!”

Use it like a fist. Give the devil a black eye. Backhand the turned cheek of God. Punch through the pain, the fear, the anxiety, the stress, the existential angst. Use it to get out of your own way. Use it to recondition your cultural conditioning.

Perfection and goodness are chimeras of the first order. Life is too short not to live it to the fullest out of fear of death. Use death as a reason to celebrate your impermanence.

3.) Be diligent:

“To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.” ~The Buddha

The undisciplined mind (unintegrated shadow) looks at death like a beast it should fear. The disciplined mind (integrated shadow) looks at death like a beast it must ride into fearlessness.

Understand: in the tug-o-war between life and death, you are not on either side. You are the rope! You are the one being tugged. You are the one being dragged. You are both alive and dying. Living well is dying well, and vice versa.

Be diligent despite this. Transform setbacks into steppingstones. Convert the rope into a lasso in spite of the fact that it will one day be a noose. Lasso love. Lasso truth. Lasso wisdom. Lasso even death, and then ride it like those eight seconds were an eternity. Then reel it all in, knowing that you were the punchline to the cosmic joke the entire way.

Diligence is the only way to prevent you from pressing the snooze button on pretending to be asleep. Be persistent, unwavering, unassailable. Fall in love with what you love to do and then let it kill you. Rage, rage against the dying of the light and then embrace the coming night. Let death invite you as an old friend.

4.) Cultivate a good sense of humor:

“Death smiles at us all; all we can do is smile back.” ~Marcus Aurelius

There is nothing more powerful than a smile in the face of doom. In the throes of laughter, the entire universe is in you, vibrating through your throat chakra, howling at the moon, singing a language older than words.

When you’re laughing, you are in tune with higher frequencies. You’re a fountainhead tapped into the higher order of disordered order. You’re a beacon of hope in a field of despair collecting humor like ripened fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. You’re a devil-may-care cosmonaut in the whirlwind slipping all knots.

Laughter is an inverted mirror that flips the universe. It puts all the seriousness and pettiness into perspective. It keeps humor ahead of hubris. It puts the ego on a leash. It prevents you from putting all your eggs into one basket and clinging to it for dear life.

As Michel de Montaigne said, “Be equally laughable and able to laugh.” Indeed.

Go Meta with your humor. Tap the Oversoul of the Overman. Mock the gods. Test the tempests. Leverage holy shrines into monkeyshines. Trump your small picture beliefs with big picture imagination. Get above the rightness and wrongness of it all and contrast it with the healthiness and unhealthiness of the be-all-end-all.

Laughter transforms suffering into vitality and strength, into curiosity and wonder, into transcendence and awe. Have a laugh at your death. Carry your hard-earned ashes to the Phoenix nest. Then have a laugh at your rebirth. It’s all a cyclical comedy of compounding errors putting on heirs. So be it.

If as Voltaire said, “God is a comedian playing to an audience who is too afraid to laugh,” then simply make sure you are not afraid to laugh at the punchline that is your mortal soul. With God’s tongue in your cheek, of course.

Image source:

Untitled by Hassleblad

About the Author:

Gary Z McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide-awake view of the modern world.

This article (Stop Pretending to Be Asleep) was originally created and published by Self-inflicted Philosophy and is printed here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Gary Z McGee and self-inflictedphilosophy.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this statement of copyright.

Researchers Explore Whether Ayahuasca Ceremonies Could Reduce Narcissistic Behavior

Researchers Explore Whether Ayahuasca Ceremonies Could Reduce Narcissistic Behavior

A study published in the “Journal of Personality Disorders has suggested that participation in ayahuasca rituals may reduce narcissistic behavior. The research explored the connection between ayahuasca, a psychedelic brew with a rich history of spiritual, healing and religious use in indigenous Amazonian communities, and narcissistic behavior.

Ayahuasca is typically brewed from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and the leaves of plants containing dimethyltryptamine (DMT) such as Psychotria viridis. The brew triggers a potent hallucinogenic experience once ingested and is usually consumed in ritualistic ceremonies under the guidance of experienced shamans. A typical guided ayahuasca ceremony is meant to put participants into an altered state of consciousness, encourage spiritual insights and self-discovery, and potentially boost mental and physical healing.

The psychedelic brew has become increasingly popular in recent years, especially in Western countries that are currently undergoing a “psychedelic renaissance” and have seen a surge in psychedelic-related research. On top of anecdotal accounts from users and endorsements from celebrities, an increasing number of studies have found that psychedelics can be effective at treating mental disorders such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and even eating disorders.

According to the researchers, ayahuasca ceremonies can induce profound psychological feelings of clarity, awe, heightened introspective capacity and love that have been connected with reductions in neuroticism. The research team recruited 314 participants, all of whom were at least 18 years old and had attended ayahuasca ceremonies at three retreats in Costa Rica and Peru. The participants filled out three surveys that included the Psychological Entitlement Scale and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. This was followed by the Ego Dissolution Inventory to assess ego dissolution during ayahuasca ceremonies, the Mystical Experience Questionnaire to assess the psychedelic experience’s mystical aspects, and the Multidisciplinary Iowa Susceptibility Scale to assess suggestibility.

Self-reported narcissism measures pointed to a minor reduction in participants’ sense of entitlement as well as a willingness to exploit others. The participants also showed a slight increase in the tendency to seek leadership positions and assert authority during a three-month follow-up. However, the researchers did not observe any significant change in grandiose narcissism, and informant reports did not find any change in narcissism levels among the participants.

In addition, 6% of participants reported experiencing negative side effects such as brain fog, difficulty concentrating, distressing dreams and auditory hallucinations.

While the recent study adds to the scientific literature on ayahuasca, the fact that it relied on self-reported data, did not have a control group and only collected data at three time points limits its findings’ usability.

Entities such as Seelos Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: SEEL) are conducting psychedelic drug-development activities adhering to stringent preclinical and clinical trial standards. These will avail a lot more rigorous data on the benefits of various hallucinogenic compounds.

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