I have written about the necessity and difficulty of Change in all of my books and also in my Jan, 2009 blog, “The How of Change” in which I quoted from “Eco Harmony Dawn Cooking: Balancing your Internal & External Environments”, which I co-wrote with my wife, Nicola Lawrence: “The urgent question for Humanity is not so much if we need a much higher level of compassion and cooperation, but how can we get to that level? Over his twenty-five years of teaching and even before that, Andy has pointed out that while it is a great impetus to have inspiring global leaders with integrity, compassion and vision - like Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela and now perhaps, Barack Obama – it is also necessary for the average person to radically change. Each of us needs to transform her or his consciousness in order to recognize appropriate leadership and support it on an on-going basis, through seeming highs and lows. Without this continuing support, the end result of any Great Leader‘s work will be more of the same - one step forward and one step back; one step to the left and one step to the right. Meanwhile, our global, human crises will continue to escalate. There are many specific reasons for the gap between our ideals and actions, but perhaps the deepest and most universal is that we feel ourselves to be separate from each other, from our natural environment, and from our Divine Oneness… or “God” to many. We struggle to bridge the gap. Such feelings of alienation have not been as prominent in all cultures and eras as they are in ours, wherein our current embrace of Science and Capitalism accentuates separation, fragmentation and competition, rather than integration and cooperation. In short, modern society tends to exaggerate the processes which break us into competitive parts, rather than uniting us into a Whole. We are at an unique point in human history, wherein our practical, global challenges as well as our most profound, spiritual teachings, are calling us to the same place – to unite on a common, higher human ground. To be able to step unto that higher ground, we must expand the dimensions and parameters of what it means to be “I” and our particular collective identity, “We”, whether that is defined by political ideology, nationality, race or religion. This expansion of the sense of self is essentially a matter of spiritual transformation and consciousness. It can only come about by something radically different taking place within ourselves, not just substituting one belief of the day for another”. In blunt, crude terms we have to look into ourselves before we shoot off our mouths. 2500 years ago, The Buddha said, “We are the result of what we have thought” and that we ought to be “a refuge unto ourselves”. Jesus (in reference to a stoning of a prostitute) said, “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone”. The crazy thing is that conventional society does not ask us to look into ourselves and take responsibility... we have no parameters or measures for that... yet you would think that the most essential ingredient of a successful Democracy would be aware, discerning voters! Be aware that many (not all) of our leaders want us to be uninformed and to unthinkingly react to temporary, deceiving “talking points” or “photo ops”! In that way, we become more manipulable even as we see ourselves as “tech savvy”. Many people want change but there is no specific target against which we can direct our frustrations and energies.. unless in a destructive way as in the recent G20 riots or as terrorists do. We have built a technologically evolved and complex society and we need a more evolved consciousness to deal with it.

As has been the case the past decade, American media and popular poll interpretations of all issues – in this case, the Gulf Oil Spill – are simplistically polarized, with few nuanced or deeper discussions.  President Obama’s desire to link this catastrophe to a long-term environmental policy aimed at weaning the USA from oil, especially ‘foreign’, is simply dismissed by many ‘knowing’ voters as typical Liberal/ Leftie agenda.  The Republicans want to get back to “business as usual” asap... citing the fact that many Lousiana and Gulf states jobs are linked with continuing oil drilling.  One senior (Texas) Republican congressman, Joe Barton, even apologized to BP, about the deal struck earlier this week by the White House and BP executives to establish a $20 billion escrow fund to pay claims of economic loss by Gulf coast residents.  Barton referred to the account as a "slush fund”, lacking legal standing and setting a bad precedent for the treatment of companies regarding future disasters.  Under current U.S. law (following the Exxon Valdez spill), oil companies were cut a deal by Congress wherein their maximum liability was capped at $75 million, which the BP spill has already exceeded by $ billions.  "I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case, a $20-billion shakedown," Barton told BP CEO Hayward at the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing.  Although Barton was subsequently condemned by some of his Republican colleagues, his sentiments are echoed by many grass roots Republicans - that this is just an unfortunate glitch which we should clean up and then continue as before. The polls presently seem to favour Republicans.
This unprecedented catastrophe and its partisan interpretations bring into sharp focus for me, at least two underlying and recurring issues and questions, which are rarely if ever discussed in popular American media.  In this case, the enormity of the situation begs extra attention:

• Firstly, why is every issue treated by the Media as Either-Or, Left-Right, Democrat-Republican?  The obvious answer is that for the Media, such an approach is a win-win situation. 1) It provokes controversy- “Which of these 2 alternatives do you vote for?” which increases coverage, viewership, readership... and advertising revenue. 2) It provides a convenient excuse for not having an opinion, vision or basic intelligence... “If we just treat each conflicting view as equal, we will come across as professional, knowing, intelligent, sophisticated and just!”  To me, such conclusions of equivalence are illogical since they neither address the specifics/particulars of the situation (How likely is it that all probabilities in the Universe fall into a Democratic/ Republican dichotomy?) nor seek to rank them in terms of Qualitative importance i.e. the possibility that something is inherently more important than something else.  For example, the Republicans seek to equate Nixon’s Watergate, Reagan’s Contragate and George W. Bush’s fake Iraq War with Bill Clinton’s cover-up of his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky on the grounds that they were all Presidents merely covering up their pecadillos/ missteps.  Hello!!?? Sexual misconduct is being equated with spying on political (American) rivals, international, drug-related subversion and outright, avoidable wars!!??  Think of the cost in Lives and Treasury! In the case of the present Gulf Oil Spill, Obama is being accused of using a crisis to advance an agenda – more Sustainability - which we actually all need, whether Democrat or Republican! I don’t hear the Media comparing Obama’s Gulf oil environmental linkage with George W Bush using 9/11 to establish military bases in Iraq, trying to control Iraqi oil and giving Bush- Cheney friendly companies like Haliburton $ billions contracts. Why not???  Incidentally, Haliburton was involved in the supposed ‘safe’ capping of the well that is now spewing into the Gulf!!... again no significant media coverage of this fact, which would seem to be to be historically relevant.  However, in these Internet times, we seem to have short memories!
• Is the present American (and other ‘developed’ Democratic countries’) economic/ political system capable of introducing and implementing policies aimed at long-term goals? Very probably, Not!!!  Corporate stock values go up and down daily on half-baked ideas, whims, emotional reaction or simple panic and corporations are now widely regarded as part of the fabric of government – check out the G8, G20 summits and others like Davos!.  Corporate decisions are definitely short term... make a ‘profit’ in this quarter, share prices will go up and the executives will earn their bonuses! Similarly, politicians, in bed with their corporate buddies, look towards re-election every 4 years or so, often focused on how much “pork”  (“profit”) spending they can direct to their local electorate.  Neither the Media nor the Electorate will give ‘brownie points’ for long-term policies... which means our children’s and grand-children’s quality of life... Destroy the Environment as long as the consequences don’t come to roost on our watch!  Polls and surveys show that we are self-centered with very strong tendencies to immediate gratification.  That is perfectly Democratic but it does have consequences which conflict with our supposed Ideals! There is a significant gap between our Talk and our Walk!  Selfishness is Democratic but that does have consequences, which we are seeing now, not as an aberration, but recurring facts. We get the leaders and policies that we select and deserve... for better or worse.

In the end, Democracy depends on you and me and what we want.  At present, we are getting what we really want and it conflicts with our avowed Ideals and Hopes.  To truly Change entails “spiritual transformation”, which may mean the delaying or giving up of "gratification"..

The above is a chapter title in my 2003 book, Ageless Wisdom Spirituality: Investing in Human Evolution.  7 years later, there is still no significant discussion of technology’s pervasive and profound impact on our individual and collective lives, unless there is something specific or dramatic (a media ‘”hook”) like the current Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  Even in these cases, the incident/ event is treated as an unfortunate, unforeseen “single issue”, which soon becomes “old news”,  even if the consequences continue and worsen outside of the brief news-cycle.   Who is interested in mortality spikes a few years later or interconnections with non-oil issues?  Not very “sexy”.

The general  impact and control (or lack thereof) of Technology  does not lend itself to media coverage or legislation, because it is gradual, complex, subtle and generally un-dramatic, which doesn’t translate well into  sound or video “bites”, media ratings or opinion polls.  To my mind, the unexamined implementation of new technology is far more dangerous and destructive than the threat of “terrorists” over which we currently obsess.  “Terrorists” will eventually succeed in killing anywhere they want if they are willing to sacrifice their own lives.  You or I, if sufficiently desperate, deranged or “motivated”, can strap a bomb to our bodies and detonate it in a crowded shopping mall, restaurant, market, subway station etc... and make the headlines, stampeding millions of people!  But what does that really mean or require for prevention?  More surveillance and Big Brother/ Police State policies (costing billions $ out of the Public Purse) which will eventually fail in the face of individual Human Will?
Here are few of the “hidden effects of technology”:

There is much more but space dictates the end of this blog.

Harper continues to spin and ride out his what should be his embarrassments – Guergis/Jaffer, Afghan torture cover up etc - while aggressively carrying out his American neo-con copycat agenda. As usual he bypasses Parliament, packing ‘independent” government agencies with his nominees, working on the bureaucratic level with other countries so as to bypass any big national debates, cutting funding to any group with whose policies he may not agree: anyone not always pro-Israeli, feminists, day care, gays, pro-choice, environmentalists especially those critical of the tar sands and more. It’s interesting that like all Conservatives, Harper is critical of ‘big government’ spending, but is happy to throw funding (your and my tax dollars)to his own favourite groups and spend on the military.


For some time, I have pointed out that Harper has been pulling Canada far to the Right even without the support of the majority. It’s getting pretty blatant now. The National Rifle Association (NRA, the all powerful gun lobby in the USA, is now funding campaigns in Canada designed to get rid of gun registration.
A new book called The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada details Harper’s links with the Religious Right. Author Mari McDonald comments, “All my worries about having to prove my case that this government is intent on cultivating the social conservative constituency in this country were nothing to worry about. They were doing it so openly that you could hardly keep up with the headlines...I think we should be vigilant. We have to decide what kind of country we want to live in. We have to stay on top of these issues because this is a government wedded to secrecy...This government has chosen a strategy that risks changing the Canada that most of us have agreed we want to live in and the tolerance we have built”.


I and others have issued similar warnings for some time but Canadians seem asleep or are cocooned in their own lives, hoping that will be enough to protect them. It won’t . The reality is that we have created a Global Village. We are all interconnected; we have become a corporate-run society that is reinforced by technological innovation. Power and wealth have shifted upwards to a very small percentage of the population. Democracy is being rapidly undermined... as several authors, journalists and academics are beginning to point out.

> For 26 years, I taught the exploration and integration of body, energy, emotion, mind and spirit. My 2003 book Ageless Wisdom Spirituality: Investing in Human Evolution (AWS) suggested Ageless/ Perennial Wisdom was necessary to meet humanity’s global challenges. As a member of the (trans-traditional spirituality) Forge, I helped create the Call to Global Spirituality Citizenship (www.globalspiritualcitizenship.org), hoping to bring such ideas into the popular arena.


Recent occurrences started me questioning Freedom of Thought and the interface between Private and Public. Rather than getting my opinions out, should I shut my mouth because Big Brother might actually be paying attention!? The first occurrence was that several well-established, traditional, shiatsu organizations in Ontario were suddenly banned from teaching (some heavily fined) because they were not registered/ qualified under the Private Career Colleges Act 2005. They were small with no organizational muscle or “credibility”. The second was a CNBC program on Google, which revealed that Google keeps the IP addresses of all searches, which are available to the US government under the Patriot Act! Within the last few days, the US Library of Congress announced it was keeping all Tweets for “posterity” and the Privacy Commissioners of 10 countries - Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and Britain - criticized Google for “negligence in protecting user privacy”. The USA was absent in this initiative.

What if a powerful body – political, corporate, governmental etc – decides I (or any law-abiding citizen) was not just insignificant, but a “threat”? Apart from all I have published or spoken in public, Facebook, Twitter and Google now provide loads of multi-media personal information. Is there a picture of me looking drunk or “high” or with nubile women? Telephone conversations and emails are easily intercepted; life style habits are exposed through bank accounts, debit and credit cards (your “credit rating”), and through GPS tracking of cars, cell phones etc. Such investigation is not restricted to black-garbed terrorists!!
If I was taken to court, could I financially withstand the army of lawyers Government or a large corporation would summon? Having lived and taught Oneness and Interconnection, “both-and” thinking, the existence of Qi or Prana life energy etc., could I “prove” the legitimacy of all this in an environment of “either-or” thinking and within which the definition of “reality” is rigid, simplistic, “quantifiable cause-and effect”? How could I prove “consciousness” much less argue there might be different levels of consciousness available to adult human beings? I would be ridiculed! Ironically, if we take a detached look at what “hard-headed reality” has created for us, the Ridiculous is not hard to find.


If you think the above legal, nightmare scenario is far-fetched, research Monsanto’s many ruthless legal campaigns. This Vanity Fair article is one example: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805. Another is Monsanto’s persecution of Percy Schmeiser (www.percyschmeiser.com), a 79-year old farmer, around whose property Monsanto’s genetically modified (GMO) seeds were growing. Don’t seeds blow in the wind? Anyone seen the movie Erin Brockovich? How come no one wants GMO “Frankenfoods” and yet they constitute the majority of all we actually buy and take into our bodies?

All this is not just conspiracy-theory paranoia, since it is verifiable. However, facts don’t necessarily impact us if we (including non-Americans) are indentified with a Belief, which in this case is mostly the American Dream. For some time, I have sensed a growing Disconnection in the USA (and in my own country, Canada) between Illusion and Reality.. and the inability to recognize innate quality. Chris Hedges’ explores this Disconnection in depth in his Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.
A few related thoughts and facts:

The last 60 years, corporate and technological power has exploded and transformed society in fundamental ways which are still not recognized by our populace or leaders. President Eisenhower warned about the rise of the “military-industrial complex” and its effect on government, while subsequent Presidents, especially Reagan and George W, openly and enthusiastically supported it. Corporations wield enormous power within society generally as well as in the depths of government and politics. Often they are “too big to fail”, even if they are blatantly corrupt. For many people, even the exploited poor, corporations are seen as synonymous with the “national well-being”. This is an unexamined and probably flawed assumption. Venerable corporations and institutions (including the Catholic Church) have collective egos as fallible and flawed as individual egos... except their impact on individuals is greatly magnified because of their sheer size and power!

A direct result of corporate monopoly has been the acceleration of the gap between rich and poor and the negative impact of “quality of life” issues, the consequences of which have been analyzed in detail in the book, The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality makes Societies Stronger.

Blog space is ending. To end, I think we need a shift in the way we think and feel, which I feel can only come about because of a (spiritual) shift in consciousness. We need to recognize Wisdom in individuals, apart from how famous they are or how much money they have. How that can come about is a question which I hope will come into the popular arena. I have a few ideas!