"Dear Friends"
by J. Harmon Grahn
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In America, today is Thanksgiving Day, in the spirit of which, I have some thoughts I would like to share with you. What follows is a sequel to Dear Friends, 16 November 2003, in which I want to narrow my focus upon what I feel are the most salient implications of the combined themes developed in that communication. And, I would like to make a proposal to any who may be interested. My previous communication to you dealt with the contemporary human predicament on planet Earth, and suggested that this predicament could be solved simply, and with universal satisfaction, if "each one of us reaches the realizetion, with deep and abiding certainty that we are not ultimately 'many,' but One." This is, notwithstanding its simplicity in concept, a rather "tall order" in practical terms. Fortunately, such a realization does not have to be experienced by everyone, or even by a majority of contemporary human residents of planet Earth, in order to effect a decisive change in the present trend of human events. The human predicament is the combined result of the purposeful intent and deliberate action of a very small minority among us, plus "the unconscious acquienscence of the vast majority, coupled with the absence of a purposeful minority with an alternative agenda."1 What's needed - desperately - are "a purposeful minority with an alternative agenda" to the program currently in train by the minority with the intent to "swallow the Earth" and control every facet of life on this planet. That program will surely fail, for its end result, intended or not, is plainly the extinguishing of all life upon the planet. It is planetary murder and suicide combined; yet in the absence of an alternative agenda, is proceeding apace toward its ultimate conclusion. Where are the purposeful minority with an alternative agenda? This is the question of the hour, and the hour is getting late. At one point in my 11/16 essay, I returned to the claim, which some readers may doubt, "that the simple yet profound realization that all are One, put into practice by a sufficient minority among the human race, would completely alter, in a remarkably short span of time, the state of human affairs on planet Earth." I made a hypothetical example of the unlikely, yet imaginable circumstance in which at least some of the "energy barrons," who currently profit from and control the flow of energy on this planet, were to experience a "change of heart," recognize that all are One, and act accordingly.2 Now this matter of all are One is attended by certain "problems." It's easy enough to say, but what does it mean? It actually means a very great deal; unfortunately neither I nor anyone else can tell you exactly or completely what that is. You'll have to search within - if you're interested - and ferret out the meaning for yourself. The best I can do is highlight a few things it means to me. One of the most important things all are One means to me is that we all, everyone and everything, share a common Source. Whatever "it" is that "spawned" "Life, the Universe, and Everything," ("God," "Allah," the "Big Bang," "Chaos," the "Label of Your Choice") we all share "it" in common. Therefore, no one and nothing is any more or less "important" than anyone or anything else. As A Course in Miracles puts it, "No one is special." This unavoidable and necessary Truth bears numerous corollary implications, among which I can list the following:
Yet another corollary is that existence justifies itself; which is to say in sum that anything or anyone, by the "mere fact" of its, her, or his presence in Cosmos, bears sufficient "credentials" to "justify" or "validate" its existence. No one requires "permission" or the "blessing" of anyone else; and conversely, no one is qualified to "grant" such "permission" or "blessing" as a prerequisite for anyone's, or anything's presence in Cosmos. We're all here alike by fiat of "That Which Creates" everything that exists. This is entirely sufficient, and nothing further is required. This implies in turn that all efforts to gain or maintain control over the will and action of anyone other than oneself are without legitimacy or validity, whatsoever. All such efforts are hostile, pre-emptive actions which it is legitimate to meet by any effective possible means. That is, any being in Cosmos pre-emptively attacked or threatened by another may legitimately defend itself. This must be so, because existence is self-justifying, and anything that exists has an intrinsic right to preserve its existence in the face of any circumstance that threatens it. To couch this in "moral" terms, one might simply say that "pre-emptive use of force (which includes, in this definition, overt pre-emptive force, fraud, deception, malicious nondisclosure, theft, and threat of force), and only pre-emptive use of force, is immoral. Any action that is not immoral is moral."3 In my view, however, "morality" is not the most appropriate frame of reference for this concern, because "morality" implies "action someone might want to take, but 'ought not' to take;" which implies in turn the presence of some sort of "authority" to adjudicate what "ought" and "ought not" be done. Rather, pre-emptive use of force, as defined above, is intrinsically self-destructive, because all are One, and so is universally and infallibly contrary to the interests of the one so acting. "Ought" or "ought not" hardly comes into it. It's equivalent to saying, "One ought not shoot oneself in the foot." True enough, but why would anyone want to? |
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I suppose it will be necessary to take a slight detour here, to defend the position that "pre-emptive use of force, and only pre-emptive use of force, is immoral;" or alternatively, that pre-emptive use of force is "universally and infallibly contrary to the interests of the one so acting." There is the somewhat complicating natural phenomenon of predation, which in Nature has the appearance of "pre-emptive use of force," and is clearly within the "fiat of 'That Which Creates' everything that exists." In this context, natural predation is a necessary mechanism for preserving the ecological balance, and when it does not operate, as in the instance of the artificial or accidental introduction of species with no indigenous predators (the introduction of rabbits into Australia springs to mind), there is widespread experience of destructive consequences throughout the ecology. In this consideration, it is vital to distinguish between natural and human ecologies. Ideally, these are not distinguishable; yet the human predicament is simply that they do in fact contrast strikingly. Natural ecology, undisturbed by human action, "works" flawlessly; human ecology manifestly does not. Herein lies the essence of the human predicament. Natural predation, one might say, is "hard-wired" into predator and prey species alike; so a hawk stooping upon a shrew does not constitute the malicious exercise of free will, but is simply what a hawk, catching sight of a shrew in the open, is "programmed" to do; just as the shrew is "programmed" to take whatever evasive action it may. Sometimes the hawk "wins," and has lunch; sometimes the shrew "wins" and escapes with its life. Either way, no violence is done to the natural ecology, and everything "balances out" in the largest context. Human predation, in contrast, is not "hard-wired" into our species, but always involves the exercise of deliberate free choice. We have not been provided with an instinctual template to guide our actions, and are consequently, like it or not, responsible for our choices, and for their consequences. Given that all are One, a human individual or group taking predatory action - i.e. pre-emptive use of force - against another, is in effect "shooting himself in the foot," for he is damaging the ecology, or his relationship with his fellow beings, upon which his own life and well-being depends. He also invites whatever evasive / retaliatory action is deemed necessary and appropriate by his intended prey, thereby possibly losing the initiative, and relenquishing the very control over the situation that presumably motivated his action in the first place. In sum, pre-emptive use of force by humans constitutes a unilateral de facto declaration of war, which is always destructive to all beings within its scope. There is no one whose ultimate interests are served by this condition; it is therefore at once murderous and suicidal. |
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Even so, one can see this small minority's point of view, and to some extent, "sympathize." Given the belief that life is harsh, difficult, and maintained only by dint of ceaseless struggle against, ultimately, insurmountable odds, it makes a perverse kind of "sense" that the only way to secure one's "survival," and the perpetuation and continuity of one's "line," or "culture," is to secure to oneself and one's "tribe" by any means whatsoever an over-abundance - an absolute surfeit - of the "necessities of life," such as land, water, energy, minerals, etc., without which life is insupportable. Since there are many individuals and tribes requiring the same "necessities of life," if these are viewed as "scarce," even if they are not, the mere perception that they are creates the conditions for ceaseless war among humans. Even when there is more than enough of everything to provide abundance for all, the perception of scarcity dictates that one can never have enough. The hundred-billion-dollar corporation, for instance, whose "bottom line" this year is 100 million dollars less than it was last year, creates a major panic because, "Omygosh! we've lost 100 million dollars!" If they keep on going that way - ye gods! in a thousand years, they'll be bankrupt! With this mentality, an individual, or a corporate body, can never have enough. If they're not expanding their "bottom line," they're "losing," i.e. approaching "death." The mountain of already accumulated wealth upon which they complacently drowse dragon-like counts for nothing. Every moment they sustain either a "profit," or a "loss," and every "loss," large or small, is a threat in their minds of mortal peril. For them, the only remedy for this affliction is to "have it all," to achieve and maintain absolute control over the will and actions of all their peers; in effect to "own" exclusively everybody and everything on the planet. This is the agenda - has always been the ultimate agenda - of those with the poverty-consciousness that the "necessities of life" are scarce, and must be secured by any means (i.e. by pre-emptive use of force), overtly, or covertly, perpetually, and without ceasing. This poverty-consciousness of the "super-rich" has created a condition of murderous and suicidal de facto war on this planet, not "of every man against every man," as Hobbes had it,4 but of those who would gain exclusive control over the will and action of their peers, against everyone else. This strategy has "succeeded" for them so far, because it has been coupled with the unconscious, somnambulant acquiescence of the vast bulk of humanity. Thus, we are all responsible for the human predicament, and it is pointless to distinguish "morally" between "predators" and their "prey." The "predators" have been so because of their belief, and their "prey" have been so because we too have believed in the "scarcity" of the "necessities of life." Yet anothor corollary to the realization that all are One is that all Cosmos constitutes the commonwealth of all its residents.5 If we presume Cosmos to be in fact infinite, this ammounts to limitless wealth available to every Cosmic resident - even if the Cosmic "population" is also infinite. As I gave consideration to these realizations while composing my 11/16 essay, it was borne in upon me far more forcefully than ever before, how vital to the human predicament is the planetary energy issue. As developed in that discourse,2 the primary lever in the hands of those misguided souls whose agenda is to control the will and actions of their peers, is simply their control of the flow of energy available for human use on the planet. Never mind arguments about political systems, economic systems, so-called "laws," religion, education, media, or anything else. Energy is "the name of the game," and practically speaking, it's the only game in town. Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever your racial, economic, political, or cultural status, if you must purchase from someone else the energy you need in order to conduct your daily life and pursue your interests and creative goals - you are a slave. If you have unfettered access to the limitless commonwealth of energy which saturates, fills, and surrounds you, and all Cosmos at large, you are free. This is the binary "either/or" that determines the status of every human resident of this planet. It is a "nuts and bolts" technological issue, for as made clear by myself and others,6 numerous tecnologies for effective liberation of free energy "out of the æthers" already exist on this planet, and in the awareness and know-how of contemporary human planetary residents. These technologies, and information about them, have been deliberately suppressed by means of pre-emptive use of force by those who would retain exclusive control of the vital lever of energy availability to their peers. If they are much longer successful in retaining this exclusive control, our fate, and theirs, is sealed. The planet, and all resident life, are doomed, for the present planetary trend remains thereby unchecked, and arrives in due course at its appointed destination. If, on the other hand, "we" are successful in liberating by any means these free energy technologies, and make them easily and abundantly available to all people everywhere, we will have accomplished one vital task in the mission of ensuring our continued planetary survival; giving us in turn the possibility of transmuting "hell on Earth" to "heaven on Earth," for everyone. This is the "external" leg of the dual necessity facing humanity at this time. The "internal" leg is the sufficiently widespread, sufficiently deep realization that all are One, sufficiently comprehended and put into practice in daily human life. These two together, "external" and "internal" aspects of a profound "change of heart" among humans, constitute the means of laying to rest the protracted de facto war that has been consuming our lives and our planet without ceasing throughout recorded historical human memory; because it completely dissolves the "rationale" upon which the war is founded. When it becomes experientially clear that energy, hence wealth, really is limitless and inexhaustible for everyone, and that we really are all One in practical fact, as well as in theory, what will remain for us to fight about? Are we humans so perverse that we really fight only because we like it? Or do we fight because we, like the poverty-conscious "super-rich," are afraid of "being left out in the could," without energy, and without the means of sustaining our lives? I believe the latter is true, and therefore that if we were to discover in our own "feet-on-the-ground" experience that energy and wealth are available for us - all of us, without exception - in limitless abundance, that the overwhelming majority of us would cast an Earth-shaking sigh of abject relief; discard our weapons, and our "fight / flight" postures, and enter with utter delight upon the discovery of the endlessly unfolding meaning of our realization that after all, all are One. This applies to all of us, "rich" and "poor" alike, who are able to shake the poverty-consciousness that has afflicted us all, and is at the foundation of the protracted war that has by now almost entirely consumed our planet and our very lives. To this end, as mentioned at the outset, I have a proposal to make to anyone reading this who may be interested. I propose a multilateral information network dedicated to the discovery and disclosure of free energy technologies in particular, and "alternative energy" technologies in general. The network will have no particular "center," although I, for one, will intensify my focus upon this issue by publishing in the Energy section of the Freedom Digital Library information, and links to information on the Net relevant to free energy, as these information sources enter my awareness. As noted by Dr. Lindemann,7 there is a great deal of "noise" in the field of free energy, masking the clear "signal" of useful information. What needs to happen, and is happening already, is a "winnowing process" wherein the "wheat" is separated from the "chaff," and given as wide distribution as possible.
This touches upon yet another corollary to the realization that all are One, and upon the nature of the commonwealth we all share. The commonwealth includes not only limitless energy, and limitless wealth, but also limitless creativity, which is one of the the primary wellsprings of our shared wealth and abundance. When we finally shake the poverty-consciousness that has for so long stifled every aspect of our lives, and begin to experience the limitless abundance in which we live, work, and breathe, we discover the possibility of stepping into a space in which every moment of our lives is given over to creativity, in one form or another. Our every act becomes a sacred moment of creative self-expression, which we are at liberty to offer freely to any passer-by with the resonance to appreciate it. We no longer "depend" upon our creativity for our "livelihood," for we already know we are abundantly, limitlessly wealthy, and lack for nothing. Therefore, our creativity too is entirely liberated, and is free to express itself in any way that pleases us. If it pleases someone else, we have thereby an opportunity to bestow a gift, and a blessing, upon another aspect of Who We Are. If not, we have nevertheless experienced the joy of creating something that springs spontaneously from the bottomless wellspring of our inmost Self. This liberated awareness moves us effortlessly out of a state of mind in which we jealously guard the fruits of our creative productivity, e.g. as proprietary and exclusive "intellectual property," into a state in which we freely and enthusiastically share our creativity with others - and rejoice when our creativity stimulates further creativity in others. This can happen, for instance, when an invention, a poem, musical composition, story, or work of visual art we have authored has the effect upon another artist of inspiring a work in which our creativity too is manifestly present. With our liberated awareness, instead of taking the poverty-conscious position that someone has "stolen" or "plagiarized" our "intellectual property," we rejoice that we have contributed to a possibly mounting "wave of creativity" which may expand and sweep through numerous creative minds, hearts, and spirits, and produce an entirely unanticipated cascade of creative invention. Because all are One, the benefits of this process are shared by all, at no "cost" to anyone, and contribute on yet a higher arc to our already limitless commonwealth. It is also worth mentioning that there is no necessary end to any individual's Cosmic creativity; and therefore that there need be no "cost" to "giving away" our boundless creativity to "others." It is a well that need never run dry, and is therefore yet another potential source of limitless wealth, for the artist, and for all who benefit from his or her work. Therefore, the artist / author / inventor who taps the Cosmic Source of creative invention, and brings valuable works into physical manifestation out of her or his Cosmic creative imagination, need never fear poverty because "the well may someday dry up." It may seem to, in the circumstance that the artist looses touch with his or her authentic Self, or Source. Yet contact is always renewable, for the relation of each of us with Source is eternal and inseverable; and That is the creative Source utterly without beginning or end. As to creative credit, there is no objection to giving credit, where credit is due, to the creative sources which have found expression in our own creative works; and to receiving credit for our contributions to the creative works of others. This may not in every instance be possible, however, for all being One, every creative work is unavoidably the fruit of "many minds," often subliminally and unconsciously, and it would be impossible to list all the sources for any creative work. My hunch is that when compensation is no longer an issue, "credit" for one's creativity will quickly become less and less important to most artists, in comparison to the sheer joy of unbridled human creativity. Every creative work, in any case, bears the indelible "signature" of its creator(s), whether or not they are given overt recognition. These are some of the reasons we have given attention to the issue of information sharing in the Freedom Digital Library Draft Vision Statement.
Information in this sense is the very essence of our commonwealth, and when certain individuals and corporate entities among us perpetrate upon us repeated acts of war by pre-emptive use of force, and deliberately and artificially sequester from us access to information vital to our liberty, prosperity, and well-being, we have the Cosmic right to take whatever action we find necessary to secure access to said information, and to use it to liberate ourselves from our misguided oppressors. Therefore, I invite, will appreciate receiving, and will publish, reliable information about free energy. As reliable as possible, anyway. If you find something useful or informative along this line, and are convinced, or are "reasonably sure" of its bona fides, please do bring it to my attention, along with your reasons for valuing it, or trusting it. If you have doubts about the authenticity or validity of any technology described or discussed in the Energy section of the Freedom Digital Library, state these, and I will publish such reservations as well. Gradually, with your help, and with the help of those in your various networks - that is, with the help of "a purposeful minority with an alternative agenda" - I hope we will accumulate an "Energy Library" which becomes an increasingly valuable resourse for anyone seeking information on the theory and practice of bringing into useful manifestation technologies that can liberate people anywhere, everywhere, from the oppression of the energy monopoly. This, the "external leg" of what needs to be done, we can do cooperatively together, and watch the result of our efforts take shape before our eyes. The "internal leg" must take place privately and invisibly within each of us. Observably, we can have no apparent assistance in this; yet if it is indeed True that all are One, then every act of deepening this realization within any of us makes its further deepening easier for all of us. Additionally, each of us harbors within us the One that all of us are. This is no small thing. It is invincible, impregnable, undeniable. Believe it. Know it. Thank you. And thank "That Which Creates" for everything. I have no complaint, about anything. Happy Thanksgiving. Love, Peace, Joy, Now,
1. "Dear Friends," 11/16/03 edition. 2. Ibid. The link is to the part of the essay that specifically discusses energy. 3. Concept adapted from "On Morality and Gun Laws," an undergraduate paper by Aaron GrahnTM, June, 2003. In other words, and speaking in the broadest possible terms, any pre-emptive, or unprovoked hostile or malicious action (or inaction), deliberately intended to damage the interests of its recipient(s), or to profit at their expense, is here defined as immoral. Theft, deception, slander - even if these go entirely undetected - as well as overt physical attack, are examples of pre-emptive use of force. See Dear Friends, 12/15/03 for an expanded development of these ideas. 4. Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679, Leviathan. The relevant passage is quoted in my 11/23/98 essay, "Governance". 5. See my illustrated essay, Sharing the Commonwealth in the Peace section of the Freedom Digital Library. 6. E.g. Peter Lindemann's March 2001 essay,"The World of Free Energy" in the Energy section of the Freedom Digital Library. 8. See Paragraph 4.2. of the FDL Draft Vision Statement for a discussion of why information too is a necessary component of the human commonwealth.
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