Acts of God

Sedona says – There was a book titled, “You Can’t Afford A Single Negative Thought” no longer in print which extolled the popular psychology of positive thinking. Many motivational speakers and writers continue making a living from promoting that idea as the pathway to success, health, wealth, and happiness. But, for every thought there is an opposite one. Psychologist Joseph Forgas at the University of New South Wales writes in “Australasian Science,” “Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, cooperation, and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking paying greater attention to the external world,” Forgas writes, “Positive mood is not universally desirable: people in negative mood are less prone to judgmental errors, are more resistant to eyewitness distortions and are better at producing high-quality, effective persuasive messages.” How come? Forgas also found that sad people were better communicators, especially through written arguments, because “mildly negative mood may actually promote a more concrete, accommodative and ultimately more successful communication style.” Dale Carnegie, (1888-1955) consultant to business executives and trainer to the ambitious advised, “First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it.” Those who are cleaning up the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the families mourning the loss of their members lost in the oil rig explosion know what this means in reality. Testimony by BP executives disclosed that the explosion destroyed both manual and one automatic blow out protections, leaving them with no tested options for stopping the spill. There seems to be no limit to the financial liability they now face. AIGWOC…all in God’s will of course.

           Things change, and they are not always for the better. To think otherwise is some form of mental illness. Drugs are being used increasingly to treat mental conditions that until recently were assumed to be normal, but now must be “cured.” If life sucks, it is natural to feel depressed. Fear is a natural reaction to anticipated disaster. If your home is about to be foreclosed and you have no job, it is natural to feel stress and fear. If your life partner just left you or died, it is natural to feel angry at God and to grieve. Sheeple obviously think differently, maybe even uniquely. For every thought there is an equal and opposite thought. Some may say the glass is half empty while others say it is half full and still others say it is too big or too small. Mental health is a subjective thing. To be happy no matter what, the glass is always full no matter its size if one is living from a place of divine love and compassion, if you truly believe that everything is the will of God the Almighty One. Few sheeple have the goal to live in a state of unconditional charity with no guarantees, as did Mother Teresa who spent her life serving sheeple in the slums of the world. It takes special eyes to see God in the slums, otherwise the shock would be too great.

           There is a common notion in psychiatry that automatic negative thoughts, (ANTs) are the cause of much anxiety and depression which should be cured. The cure is to identify such thoughts and counter them with opposing thoughts, as is taught to depressed clients in cognitive behavioral therapy. The underlying assumption is that anxiety and depression are abnormal mental states and must be corrected for mental health. A string of psychiatrists has been promoting this form of therapy during the past 20 years to treat Attention Deficit Disorder, Anxiety, and Depression. One of the most recent is PBS television star, Dr. Daniel G. Amen, who claims,”Your brain controls you, but you can control your brain.” He makes no attempt to define who the owner of the brain is or who is the YOU that controls it. Although he is a psychiatrist and neurologist, Dr. Amen advocates natural remedies, including deep breathing, guided imagery, meditation, self-hypnosis, and biofeedback for treating mental disorders that usually are treated with prescription drugs. And, he sells lots of books. So does Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, who is seen on PBS television hawking his some 30 books which interpret the ancient Chinese philosophy of Tao te Ching for modern man. Celebrity preacher, Joel Osteen, also has chosen this niche for his “prosperity preaching” that reaches millions with his motivational books and television lectures masquerading as religious sermons.

           The main winners among such thoughts are the authors who profit from selling their books to sheeple who think by reading them life will change for the better. Health, wealth, and happiness sells even better than sex; well almost. Although he makes a tidy living preaching the power of positive thinking, Dr. Martin Seligman, was quoted in Time magazine saying that about half of us have the genetic predisposition that gives the pleasant state of simply feeling happy no matter what, and the other half of us do not. That other half has the tendency to experience anxiety, worry, and negativity more often, and perhaps more easily, than pleasantly happy feelings. Putting them both together in a both/and theory would likely be most helpful to sheeple, but that would not sell many books. Responding to the marketing potential of positive thinking, Prof. Seligman has launched a new graduate level progam at the University of Pennsylvania that educates professionals in the art of positive psychology. He also has been hired by the U.S. Army to help returning soldiers readjust to life at home, after their enslavement in rigid military organizations and slaughter of civilians, with positive thinking. A couple of books touting pessimism and negative thinking as positive are available, but only a couple.  In one of them, “Bright-Sided,” (2009) journalist, Barbara Ehrenreich takes on the likes of Seligman and his ilk, which she likens to bait and switch, showing how the hucksters selling health, wealth, and happiness to those who don’t have any are distorting the beatitudes of Jesus (blessed are the meek, blessed are those who mourn, etc.) and deluding practical sheeple who, like her, fail to see much benefit in breast cancer. Reading her book reviews shows her critics to be the self righteous and self absorbed success seekers that Seligman finds to be his fans and supporters. All in the will of God the Almighty One, of course.

           If behaviors follow feelings which follow thoughts, these experts and prosperity preachers say that it is necessary to change thoughts in order to change behaviors…and it works. With this reasoning, if you can think exactly like Tiger Woods, you can be the world’s best golfer too. Of course, if you were Tiger Woods, why wouldn’t you be happy??? Specially with that group of women he had tagging along. Motivator and self-made expert, Anthony Robbins says so. “If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results…. We can change our lives. We can do, have, and be exactly what we wish.” Sheeple pay him a lot of money for such “wisdom.” That is why they are sheeple and Robbins is very rich. One of these motivators claims, “Achieve Your Goals, Desires and Life Dreams in the Next 90 Days by Using These Five Mind Power Techniques Based on Quantum Physics You Can Learn in The Next 30 Minutes.” P.T. Barnum, founder of the circus, observed “there is a new sucker born every minute.” Jesus claimed that you can move mountains if you think you can. (Mark 11:23) You don’t hear much preaching on this idea. This is the same reasoning that says you have the power to select eternal punishment or salvation, heaven or hell, merely by choosing to believe whether or not Jesus died for your sins. (John 3:16) If you think so you are saved and if you don’t think so you are not. Of course, this says nothing for all the sheeple who lived before Christ or for all those who never heard the message of his redemption. There is a flaw in logic here someplace, but many sheeple do not think it is ridiculous at all. Is that stupid, insane, or the will of God the Almighty One??

           Obviously, if your body weighs 120 pounds and you are barely five feet tall, it is not likely you can be a NBA basketball star no matter how much you think positively about it. It would be more realistic to seek a different occupation that fits your stature, like race horse jockey. Jesus challenged, “Which of you by worrying can add one hour to your life (or one inch to your stature.)” (Matthew 6:27) And if you live in land-locked Kansas and want to be a champion surfer, it is you who will have to move to the ocean because the ocean sure as hell is not coming to you. Similarly every lottery winner requires millions of losers, and there is no shortage of them. Oviously, free will in this sense comes with conditions attached. In his book, “Outliers, the Story of Success, “(2008) Malcolm Gladwell shows that over and over again highly successful sheeple seem to be in the right place at the right time to accomplish their achievements. The late comedian, Bob Hope claimed, “I was always in the right place at the right time.” Founder of Microsoft and richest man in America, Bill Gates has attributed most of his success to plain old luck. Moreoever, other sheeple seem to show up just when they are needed to help make it all happen. There is no one formula that works for all but each of Gladwell’s subjects did seem to follow a very specific chain of events to success. Change one little link in the chain of events and their stories would be quite different. However, there does seem to be some secret power of the mind that enables a sugar pill to have the same results as prescription drugs among some medical patients. It is called the “placebo effect” and may account for the miracle faith healings that are described of Jesus from Nazareth in the Bible. During WWI, field surgeons found that substituting salt water for unavailable morphine injections among wounded soldiers without telling them often provided the same pain relief. It turns out, to researchers’ surprise, that you can succumb to placebo even when you know you’re being fooled. There definitely is some healing effects in the power of belief for some sheeple. You just have to believe the deliverer. Jesus taught that if you can believe it you can have it. (Matthew 21:22) But, who it is that controls the believing is unknown.

           There are “New Age” books and movies that promote a belief that you create your own reality by controlling the laws of physics with your mind. They offer instant wealth and happiness, but they deliver medieval superstition to many sad gullible sheeple who believe their lies. The sad part is that so many scientists are willing to let the public get their knowledge of physics from celebrity quacks, what one called “quantum flapdoodle.” Many popular books make such claims and argue that key developments in twentieth-century physics, such as the uncertainty principle and the butterfly effect, support the notion that God or a universal mind acts upon material reality. There always is an opposite view, and it can pay to look for it. Physicist, Victor J. Stenger examines these faith-based contentions in his carefully reasoned and incisive analysis of popular theories that seek to link spirituality to physics, but fail. Throughout his books titled, “God; the Failed Hypothesis” (2008) and “Quantum Gods,” (2009) Stenger provides a useful synopsis of contemporary religious ideas as well as basic but sophisticated physics presented in layperson’s terms without complex equations.

           Of particular interest is Stenger’s discussion of a new-age kind of deism, which proposes a God who creates a universe with many possible pathways selected by chance, but otherwise does not interfere with the physical world or the lives of humans; a humanistic kind of god for progressives to worship. Although it is possible, says Stenger, to conceive of such a god who plays dice with the universe and leaves no trace of his role as prime mover, such a god is a far cry from traditional religious ideas of God and, in effect, may as well not exist. Stenger argues for the scientific conclusion that science does not need any kind of god to explain the universe. It just popped up spontaneously out of nothing, perhaps through a black hole of a previous universe that died, so therefore God does not exist. He uses phrases including “quantum theology” and “quantum spirituality” to describe those who disagree with him. He claims that the theory of evolution and the Bible are irreconcilable. “We have no empirical fact that requires us to introduce anything beyond matter. No case can be made that we need something more than matter to explain the universe…Either God exists and science is myth or science is right and God is myth. Take your pick.” [Stenger leaves unexplained how one mind can communicate with another mind over the latest wireless cell phone circuits with no matter involved at all.] We can do it all by ourselves, thank you very much. Just give us a little more time, maybe a few centuries, to fill in the gaps.

           Jesus challenged such thinking, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” [or by worrying can add a single hour to your life?NIV ] (Matthew 6:27, Luke 12:25)  On the other hand, recall he said that with faith like a mustard seed, one could move mountains, even cast them into the sea and “nothing will be impossible to you.”(Mattthew 17:20, 21:21) But, he never instructed how to have that much faith or where it might be found, hence sheeple need bulldozers and dynamite to move mountains. James, his brother, contradicted with this command, “Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, which appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. Therefore, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15). So, what shall we do with this apparent contradiction in the Bible? Jesus attributed all that he did to the Father, so this too must be the will of God, confusing as it may be. (John 14:10) But, the Apostle Paul claimed that God was “not the author of confusion.”(1 Corinthians 14:33) Since confusion obviously exists in the Bible, it must not be written by God. Consider, for example that Jesus described the kingdom of god/heaven several times in parables in terms of places and relationships. Eight times he says that one can enter the kingdom of heaven, (Matthew 5:20, 7:21, 18:3, 19:23, 23:13 – Mark 9:47,10:15,10:23) but then he capped them off by saying, “The Kingdom of God does not come with your observation, nor will people say here it is or there it is because the Kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21) The best we can say is that for every positive thought there appears to be a negative one. If God wants you to be blindfolded to this reality, you will be. All in the will of God the Almighty One of course.

          There is a necessary opposing idea to the school of positive thinking; negativity has its place and sheeple require its acceptance and tolerance to be whole. Too much trust can be a bad thing. There is a rare disorder among children who cannot anticipate danger and so are very vulnerable to predators. Sometimes survival depends upon imagining the worst thing and preparing for it. But, holding two opposing ideas at the same time seems to be daunting for most sheeple. Pioneering psychologist and therapist, Felix Adler (1851-1933) concluded, “We stand, as it were, on the shore, and see multitudes of our fellow beings struggling in the water, stretching forth their arms, sinking, drowning, and we are powerless to assist them.” Since anger, fear, and despair come from feeling powerless, how does one gain power by believing everything is out of their control, but under control of God the Almighty One? Apostle Paul explained, “…there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) How does one move from contracted emotions into such expansive emotions? How does one move from fearing life to embracing life no matter what? How can one avoid struggle and suffering when the Buddha observed that all of life is struggle and suffering? These are not rhetorical questions, although answers seem to be just beyond human reach. When Jesus was asked how one could be born again he replied, “For man this is impossible, but all things are possible with God.”  (Matthew 9:26, Mark 10:27)

           Possibly no professional field is more uncertain than treatment for the troubled mind. This is the fields of such as psychology, psychiatry, and neurology. One may speak of a psychology of religion, psychology in religion, and religion in psychology. But, religion has scarcely found any place in psychiatry and neurology. Aiding a troubled mind still is mostly a trial and error process, drug therapy notwithstanding. The editor of the “Family Therapy Networker” wrote to professional clinical therapists, “… whatever your training, you know less than you once thought you did … The conspiracy that has been set in motion against us is irreversible … we are all doomed to live in a world that is getting more complex and indeterminable all the time … in such a world it is harder than ever to feel certain about what we know …”  This is not a new idea at all. The sixth century B.C. text of the Chinese “Tao te Ching” says, “The farther you go the less you know. The sage looks at life and smiles and enjoys his ignorance.”  Neurologist Robert Burton has concluded in “On Being Certain” (2009), “Despite how certainty feels, it is neither a conscious choice nor even a thought process. Certainty and the state of knowing what we know arise out of involuntary brain mechanisms that, like love or anger, function independently of reason.” Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld mused, “There are things we know we know. There are known unknowns, some things we know we do not know. But there also are unknown unknowns, that we don’t know we don’t know.” 

          This essay is not about the brain that is sick for lack of healthy oxygenated blood or malfunctioning neurons. It is about the normal indefinite uncertainty in life that produces existential anxiety. Once it becomes conscious, the ubiquitous indefinite uncertainty in life must necessarily make sheeple feel anxious or fearful about the unknown future. It does seem the more we learn, the less we know for sure. Perhaps the endless searches for ultimate truth and meaning are doomed to failure because all of man’s reasoning merely is idle speculations about reality. If you don’t feel scared and confused, you just don’t know what’s happening. Things are changing so rapidly long-range planning is useless. Sheeple must change careers several times, because technology and economic shifts are uncontrollable. The world can seem so complex that no one can figure out what is best to do. If you think you know, better watch out for those inevitable unpredictable unintended consequences. No better example exists than the good intentions of President Clinton to make homes available to lower income sheeple by increasing the insured risk of banks, which led to the loss of eleven trillion dollars of capital invested in the stock market and collapse of the housing business. This illustrates Murphy’s Law; if anything can go wrong, it will and its corollary; you can never run out of things that can go wrong. Sheeple have tried to avoid existential anxiety throughout the ages by invoking the option of intuitive knowledge. Chinese philosoper, Chuang-tzu argues, “If you have insight you use your inner eye, your inner ear to pierce to the heart of things and have no need for intellectual knowledge.” Western minds that depend upon scientific certainty cannot adopt this mode of thinking and so they suffer anxiety of the unknown. All in the will of God the Almighty One of course.

          However, anxiety must exist for a purpose, or it would not be, so there is an opposite side even to the meaning of anxiety, and it comes with benefits in my opinion. The late Rev. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993) pioneered the notion of positive thinking along with his weekly televised sermons from the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, and many preachers have made a good living from it ever since. But, for every thought there is an equal and opposite thought. For example, a child can be thought of as a book of blank pages to be written one page at time with no assurance of the outcome. Conversely, a child can be thought of as a book that is completely written at conception, with each page to be lived one day at a time just as it is written to the inevitable ending. Which thought you prefer is the one you are given by God the Almighty One. Everyone wants certainty of health, wealth, and happiness but they obviously are not distributed equally among God’s creation. Those who enjoy a seemingly unrestrained line of successes are like a rocket that will eventually fall back to Earth unless they escape the pull of gravity and soar out into space. But, even then, no power is greater than the source of all power. “Though you build your nest as high as the eagle’s, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 49:16, Obadiah 1:4) If God will pull down the eagle’s nest, imagine what he can do to the rest. Just ask the survivors of the Earthquake that destroyed most of Port au Prince in Haiti in January 2010. And recall how the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. destroyed the resort towns of Pompeii and Herculaneun. Consider the glacier volcano that shut down air travel all across Europe in April 2010 costing $200 million per day and stranding countless travelers. You may have been taught that God is love, but there is another view. “God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day.” (Psalm 7:11) And sometimes, it seems that God just likes to let sheeple know who really is in charge as he did with the horrible example of his faithful servant, Job. In the end, Job had no power to challenge God after losing his family and all his wealth. There are Job stories all over creation if you just have eyes to see.

           Pride and arrogance seem to always precede a fall. Consider the family of the late Joseph and Rose Kennedy of Massachusetts. He made lots of money importing Scotch whiskey during the depression and operating the trade mart in Chicago; then he served as ambassador to Great Britain during WWII. They had nine children; four boys and five girls. One daughter was mentally retarded, another was killed in a plane crash, and their oldest son was killed in combat over Germany, another son became President and was assassinated, another son ran for President and also was assassinated, the youngest son, “Teddy” was expelled from Harvard and reinstated and went on to law school and married a stunning blonde model, but his wife was an alcoholic, one of his sons and their daughter had cancer, and the other son had asthma. Teddy enlisted in the Army and washed out of intelligence school, then he was assigned as an embassy guard and discharged at the lowest rank of PFC. He loved sailboat racing, flying, and being a rodeo cowboy, and he almost died in a plane crash that killed the pilot. But, after the loss of his brothers, he picked up the family crest to carry it forward in the U.S. Senate. The Senator was a study in necessary opposites; a loyal family patriarch for his many nieces and nephews, but also a hell raiser and a womanizer, a tireless advocate for the poor and suffering who would compromise with his opponents while blowing insulting cigar smoke in their faces, a faith full Catholic who bought off the clergy to obtain a divorce and who made a final emotional written appeal to the Pope for forgiveness and absolution for his many sins before dying of a brain tumor. Perhaps he was so popular because he represented “every man.” We may want our leaders to be perfect and immortal, but alas, they are only mortal human beings like the rest of us.

           It’s like God attacks your highest assumption to remove the naivete and self confidence so you would rely more upon Him alone. One also thinks of the mighty ocean liner “Titanic” that sank at 3:00 a.m. April 15, 1912 after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage although it was touted as unsinkable, losing 1,250 lives of some very wealthy sheeple. There was a possible rescue ship, the “Californian,” within fifteen miles but it never heard the distress call because its sole telegraph operator was asleep after sending a warning of icebergs that was never acknowledged by the “Titanic.’ So it was on 9/11/01 when the monumental symbols of lofty capitalism dominating the skyline in New York City came tumbling down. So it was from the heights of Athens under the rule of Pericles, to the reign of France under Napoleon Bonaparte, to the heights of Nazi Germany under the rule of Adolf Hitler to its fall into history. It seems that empires must rise so that they can fall. So it must also be for the rich and famous individuals as they ultimately must face death and vacate their nests of power for others to occupy. “For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.” (James 1:10-11) One may only wonder about the future of the mighty United States of America with its national bird, the Bald Eagle. God does whatever he wants with whomever he wants whenever he wants.

          The banking meltdown and collapse of the stock market of 2008-09 shows how this indefinite uncertainty principle works in real life. The mighty financial wizards who caused it were some of the most well educated graduates of the most famous universities. Again on May 6, 2010 the stock market dropped nearly 1,000 points in a few seconds due to some uncontrollable computer crash. A recent record among financial scandals was exposed when a hedge fund run by Bernie Madoff was found to be a gigantic illegal Ponzi fraud that lost $64 billion from seasoned investors who should have known better. Even the Securities and Exchange Commission that is supposed to protect investors ignored repeated alarms and warnings for ten years to let the scheme grow bigger and bigger until it finally collapsed when large investors began to withdraw their principle accounts. In addition, corporations can “cook the books” legally with accounting tricks that make it impossible for individuals to see reality through the numbers. Hundreds of other frauds continually are in the incipient stage ready to take more unsuspecting victims into their traps. Unregulated capitalism has again disclosed its dark side, and it is not a pleasant sight to see. We now live in a complicated global economy where there inevitably will be large corporations whose failure poses risks to the rest of the economy. Placing them under a class of professional corporate managers whose primary goal is maximizing their personal wealth has been risky from its outset. The entire government of Greece faced near collapse with rioting in the streets by sheeple who could not give up their entitlements for financial restructuring. In the choice between freedom and security, sheeple will choose security every time.

          Another isssue for Americans is the contrast of national interests with maximizing profits to satisfy captialism. Outsourcing higher paying jobs to lower paying countries may be good for profits but it also lowers the domestic standard of living in the U.S. If unchecked, it could continue until the buying power of domestic workers can no longer afford the credit needed to finance cheap goods produced overseas. More personal bankruptcy and eventual financial collapse are in store. The argument that outsourcing jobs raises the standard of living in less developed countries so they can buy more U.S. goods is hollow if your job has gone overseas and your income with it. When their primary goal is short term stock manipulation, investors can become over-optimistic and bid up the prices of corporate assets above the level that is sustainable based on economic fundamentals. The U.S. has been hemorrhaging dollars oveseas for many years with its skewed balance of payments deficit. As asset prices then fall to a sustainable level, investors who purchased inflated assets face ruin.  Don’t think it can’t happen to you. It is hard to see how a reasonable compensation schedule would give failing managers rich bonus payments after it is plain their decisions contributed to the destruction of their company. Historians may analyze these times and wonder whatever were we thinking. Well, according to Peter A. Ubell, a researcher of medicine and psychology at the Univ. of Michigan, we were sheeple being sheeple. He says in his book, “Free Market Madness,” (2009) “No matter how much we claim to be rational, everyone is driven by irrational greed, optimism, and ignorance.” He discovered that items listed on eBay at ridiculously low opening bids often end up at much higher prices than others because early bidders think they can get a bargain. Sheeple have even been induced to pay as much as $28 for a $20 bill in open auctions. Homo sapiens indeed are like sheep, following the leader and hoping for the best. The question is, who drives the leaders? This question can lead to a chronic state of “therapeutic depression” that was explained by the late psychiatrist, M. Scott Peck in his baseline book on therapy titled, “A Road Less Traveled” (2003). In medical terms it might be called dysthymia. This malady could be nothing more than a normal reaction to awareness of the negative side of reality. When you realize you don’t control your own mind, where do you turn for comfort???

          Thinking psychologists are beginning to realize that anxiety of uncertainty can help create “positive pessimism,” or the power in negative thinking. Strategic contingency planners in business and government realize if you anticipate the worst-case scenarios, you are more likely to avoid shock and disbelief and disaster when they happen. They invoke Murphy’s Law: If anything can go wrong, it will – and its corollary, you can never run out of things that can go wrong. With this attitude, one might be better prepared to live with worst-case outcomes when they are unavoidable…like wars and death. [Perhaps a little more of such planning in the White House could have avoided the mess in Iraq and the tragedy in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina or the collapse of banks that provided credit to unqualified debtors. Or not.]

          Anxiety also can kick us out of the stupor of unconscious incompetence where we don’t know what we don’t know, and stimulate us to growth and human development towards conscious incompetence to seek answers in the unknowable. Some of the best leaders and most creative sheeple of history were driven by acute anxiety, including Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and Vincent van Gogh. From that level of awareness, we can be stimulated to learn what we don’t know and to prepare for living the ultimate mystery: what comes after death. In fact, anxiety about an uncertain future that seems threatening may be the power that drives all human development and promotes the survival of the species. When we realize how vulnerable we really are and how fragile and brittle are the institutions of mankind, perhaps then and only then does the blessing of calm submission to life take root. The “Tao te Ching” proclaims, “..the sage would not control the world, he is in harmony with the world.” It may be calm submission that has enabled Homo sapiens to survive and adapt to their evolving circumstances by accepting that things change and require a different response. Like the serenity prayer says, “God grant me serenity to accept things I cannot change, courage to change things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” A definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior and expecting a different result. 

          Uncertainty in life is an opportunity for growth and understanding of sheeple, situations, and ideas. Some teachers and writers claim you can have anything you want merely by thinking you can based on a “law of attraction.” This is a manifestation of faith as in;  “when you believe it you will have it,” which was taught by Jesus. Others claim that you get what you give based on a “law of reciprocity”…so if you want more money just give away all that you have. Such ideas are sprinkled throughout the teachings of Jesus, but preachers do not often cite them. Since you reap what you sow, what you have is your own creation, although possibly not of your own will. (Galatians 6:6-8, John 4: 36-38) The ultimate power is choosing or rejecting eternal life by accepting or rejecting Jesus as Savior. But, the Buddha had an opposite thought. If anyone can align their will with what is as the will of God the Almighty One and spend their life maintaining that alignment, it may not matter what is happening in the outside world. For him, happiness is desiring what is and releasing all wishes that things should be different. That seems a bit harsh to tell survivors of natural disasters and family tragedies. Actually any choice you make carries out the will of God the Almighty One as there can be no other. However, doubt is a necessary and unavoidable companion to spiritual seeking. In this process we always are just beginning…with the beginners’ mind referred to in Buddhism. The inner alignment is what is important, not external circumstances. Jesus met this place on the cross, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39) And Apostle Paul expressed it, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20) And he admonished, “…who are you, O man, to talk back to God?” (Romans 9:20)

           A lot of sheeple make money by telling other sheeple they can change the world just by thinking they can, Jesus included. But 2,000 years of history indicates that things change, not by our will, but by the will of God the Almighty One. Could any of the circumstances in the past have been otherwise? Who knows? And, what about the future? Who knows? You may have heard it said, plan like you may live forever, but live like you will die tomorrow. But, the Apostle James warned not to make any definite plans, “Now listen up you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15) Western cultures emphasize personal effort to right perceived wrongs and to change things more to our liking. But, Buddhist therapist, David Richo has pointed out “Five Things We Cannot Change” (2005);  1) everything changes and ends, 2) things often do not go according to plan, 3) life is not always fair, 4) pain is a part of life, and 5) sheeple are not always loving and loyal. In his Buddhist philosophy, the only way to avoid suffering in these situations is to accept them instead of attempting to change them; i.e., to align ones goals with the situation because suffering is caused by wanting things to be different. This seems to be the opposite of the practice of cognitive behavioral therapy, developed and documented by the late Aaron T. Beck and David D. Burns, (“Feeling Good,” 1999) wherein troubled clients are induced and trained to challenge their thinking and to look at distressing situations from a more constructive viewpoint in order to treat depression. They assume that sheeple who feel depressed can be helped by changing their focus from internal self absorption to external subjective reference, like focusing on the needs of others instead of their own dilemmas. 

          This is not new stuff; first century Roman stoic philosopher, Epictetus observed that events do not disturb men’s minds, but their opinions do. Strip away the illusions about control, and we find the human condition burdened with fear. One checks off the major portions of life clearly beset by fear: infancy, childhood, dreams, religion, war service, competitive careers, illness of all kinds, old age. When we perceive our safety and ego control are threatened, Homo sapiens are hard-wired to respond with flight or fight reactions. If fight is not an option, we tend to flee our fear through action designed to take us toward some secure position. This fleeing can take on many forms, all of which involve immersing oneself into things in our day-to-day experience. We therefore escape the threat by doing some diversion, i.e., reading a book, watching a  movie or TV, listening to music, playing golf or attending a ball game, etc. Doing something serves as a temporary rest area in our existential fear, but then it returns with greater impact. A well-known Danish existentialist, Soren Kierkegaard, (1813-1855) believed that the best way to deal with “angst” or existential fear is to learn to face it courageously. In other words, the proper response to anxiety is to stop being anxious about anxiety, accepting it in the belief that it exists for a higher purpose as part of the human condition. Whereas pagan anxiety is expressed most profoundly as fate, and Jewish anxiety as guilt, the anxiety of the true Christian (whom Kierkegaard regarded as practicing the most advanced form of religion) is expressed in the form of suffering. Jesus experienced this fear as he faced the cross and sweat as though drops of blood fell from him. His dread was great enough to produce capillary hemorrhaging as he prayed for deliverance. (found only in Luke 22:44) Throughout the Bible this fundamental, other-worldly fear is depicted as an existential response to the human situation which, if we accept it, will give us otherwise unattainable strength in coping with the fearful situations that arise in the ordinary world. This could indeed be regarded as the basic message of the Psalms and Proverbs: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 1:7) But, we must walk through the valley of fear before climbing to this level of faith.

          The more we try to reduce or eliminate existential fear, the more we become aware of fear, a form of fear about fear. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) invoked this solution during the Great Depression, “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” Subsequent battles of WWII on sea and land make him look at least a little bit wrong. Fear turns into rage if some reaction is possible and into depression if one feels helpless, as those who lost their homes in New Orleans to hurricane, Katrina. A highly respected Australian expert in treating nervous disorders, Dr. Claire Weekes, (1903-1990) quipped, “Never forget that without fear you are invulnerable.” In other words, what you don’t know can’t harm you. But, when unconscious incompetence becomes conscious, fear naturally emerges. She summarized her treatment program from personal experience with midnight panic attacks as follows; facing the feared situation, accepting the feeling of panic and all the related physical symptoms, floating through it, and letting time pass. In any event, conventional therapy does not help sheeple facing existential anxiety. Neither does religion. The only response offered by Weekes and her subsequent peers is to acknowledge one’s helpless condition, accept that condition, keep busy, and wait for deliverance with patience and passive persistence. There are no answers to the fundamental existential questions, where did we come from, why are we here, and where are we going. Only beliefs. C.G. Jung observed… “all the greatest and most important problems in life are fundamentally insoluable…they can never be solved, but only outgrown.” All in the will of God the Almighty One of course. 

          The story of Job is a case in point. After God, through Satan, killed his seven sons and three daughters and all his servants and his cattle, Job was covered with boils and left to suffer in despair. He lamented, “God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me. He carries out his decree against me, and many such plans he still has in store. That is why I am terrified before him; when I think of all this, I fear him. When I think about this, I am terrified; trembling seizes my body. When I lie down I think, how long before I get up? The night drags on, and I toss till dawn. When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint, even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me….but though he slay me yet will I trust him.” The only response he got from God was, “Where were you when I created the Earth and everything in it?” To such a lament James replies, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1: 2-4) To such, Mother Teresa replied, “We must take what he gives and give what he takes, with a smile.” So, where do you go when you are suffering and you believe that God the Almighty One is the cause of it??? Must it just be accepted and even welcomed as the alchemy of spiritual purification??? Is this merely the process of mining the ore and removing all the dross until the pure gold is obtained??? If that process is not completed in this life must we come back again and again until it is finished???

          To be realistic, you don’t have to be happy when bad things happen to good sheeple or good things happen to bad sheeple, and you cannot always prepare for emergencies. Sometimes screaming in the dark is the only logical response. Nevertheless Richo says, “Our tears are precious, necessary, and part of what makes us such enduring creatures…The challenge is to stay steadfastly in the here and now of reality, however unsavory. The paradox is that going further into despair is what grants access to hope, going fully into the pain grants access to healing, going fully into the dark opens into light. An unconditionally embraced predicament becomes the threshold to whatever comes next.” [Even if that light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train?] Families being evicted from their homes with their belongings set upon the sidewalk could have problems accepting this concept. Try to imagine what it must be like for animals being led to slaughter or one who is innocent sentenced for life in solitary confinement, even one on death row awaiting execution for years, then go look in a mirror. Perhaps you should visit the killing room in a modern slaughter house to appreciate the sacrifice made of animals for your food supply, or volunteer for helping the disabled in a rehab facility. Then try to practice the acceptance of here and now that Richo claims is so enduring. Perpetrator of the greatest financial fraudulent Ponzi scheme in history, 70 year old Bernie Madoff, sits in a high security cell with no windows under suicide watch serving a life sentence where he can only remember what it was like to live like a billionaire while it lasted for more than twenty years. Even he cannot explain why he did it, except that he could. There are some things worse than death. 

          Sheeple who feel powerless and fearful often seek out some form of professional therapy to gain more control over their lives, because that is what the human ego wants more than anything, control. Counselors, therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists have responded with an endless string of theoretical approaches. There is cognitive behavioral therapy, rational emotive therapy, reality therapy, family systems therapy, existential therapy, gestalt therapy, psychoanalytic therapy, person centered therapy, feminist therapy, Jungian therapy, Adlerian therapy, hypnotic regression therapy, and more. There is even Reike, Rolfing, Body Therapy, Massage therapy, and Tapping therapy. All of them help some sheeple some times, but none of them help everyone all the time because the ego always resists losing its control. By suspending the ego, the Chinese Taoist wrote, “The sage has no ambitions, therefore he can never fail. He who never fails always succeeds. And he who always succeeds is all powerful.” Neurologist Robert Burton claims that to be healthy we need to learn to cope with anxieties and to tolerate the contradictory aspects of human biology, including the fundamental conflicts in our minds. Since absolute certainty is not possible, we must live with the anxiety of indefinite uncertainty. When all is said and done, the best we can say is that some things happen some times. How and if they are connected by some undiscovered form of energy in a formless spirit world will be for future investigators to explain. The positive power of accepting indefinite uncertainty is just one of five universal principles explored in “Voices of Sedona,” Volume I. For a complete set of these essays read “Lessons from Sedona.” Feel good inside no matter what happens outside.
 

Sedona says – Thinking sheeple are beginning to be concerned, and the rest should be, about the rise of militant Islam and the role of suicide bombings and other attacks by Muslims against nonbelievers in Allah and the prophet Muhammad. The assassination of 13 unarmed troops at Fort Hood, Texas by U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, a psychiatrist and Muslim, has raised some issues about religion in the military that sheeple have a hard time addressing if they are not well informed. Islam is not just a religion, but a total way of life that seeks nothing less than total world domination because God/Allah says so. So, the purpose of this essay is to remove the blindfold from those blinded to the reality of religious dichotomy that is facing the Western world. This is nothing less than a resurgence of the religious wars of the middle ages that saw Islam expand to engulf the seat of Judaism and Christianity in Jerusalem. It bloomed through the Ottoman Empire until after WWI when the empire was disbanded and present nation-states were formed in the Middle East. However, the zeal of jihad holy war has only been dormant and was not extinguished. Now, it is rising again fueled by those conservative Muslim teachers and Imams who see in the Koran commandments to fight the infidel and unbelievers until they all are subdued and live under the Sharia law of Allah as it was manifested by the prophet Muhammad.

           There are few voices crying in the wilderness for nations to wake up to the parasitic threat of Islam. In “Slavery, Terrorism and Islam” (2009) Dr. Peter Hammond explains that Islam has religious, legal, political, economic, social, and military components. The religious component is a beard and shroud for all of the other components. Islamization begins when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their religious privileges. When politically correct, tolerant, and culturally diverse societies agree to Muslim demands for their freedom to practice religion, some of the other components tend to creep in as well, like a parasite taking over a host. Only after the proportion of Muslims in society reaches a critical mass does it become apparent that their goal is nothing less than total cultural and political domination, all according to the will of Allah of course. The progression can be seen by comparing nations with few Muslims to those that have become Islamic theocracies, as for example France and Turkey. Once they reach the point of domination there’s supposed to be peace, because everybody is a Muslim, the Madrasses are the only schools, Sharia is the only law, and the Koran is the only word of God.

           The official U.S. response is stifled by the First Amendment to the constitution that stipulates “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” This restriction on addressing religious dogma that would threaten the safety and continued freedom of Americans is not a trifle, and it must soon be faced up to if the threat of Islamic terrorism is to be defused. Several decisions by the Supreme Court over the years have addressed the issue of freedom of speech and religious action that would threaten to overthrow the government, but now it seems that political correctness has paralyzed the nation from seeing the great threat and taking decisive action. No small element of the issue rises from tenants of Christianity that many would like to hold as the basic principles of the founding fathers, freedom of speech and such. But, a careful look at the Bible complicates the matter more than many political and religious leaders want to discuss. Consider the dichotomy in opposed teaching of Islam and Christianity. It seems that very few sheeple actually know the principles of their own faith and are blindfolded to the situation that faces them. Here are a few eye-openers for starters.

 Fighting words in the Koran…

 [2.190] And fight in the way of Allah with those who fight with you, and do not exceed the limits, surely Allah does not love those who exceed the limits.

[2.191] And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers.

[2.193] And fight with them until there is no persecution, and religion should be only for Allah, but if they desist, then there should be no hostility except against the oppressors.

[2.217] They ask you concerning the sacred month about fighting in it. Say: Fighting in it is a grave matter, and hindering (men) from Allah’s way and denying Him, and (hindering men from) the Sacred Mosque and turning its people out of it, are still graver with Allah, and persecution is graver than slaughter; and they will not cease fighting with you until they turn you back from your religion, if they can; and whoever of you turns back from his religion, then he dies while an unbeliever– these it is whose works shall go for nothing in this world and the hereafter, and they are the inmates of the fire; therein they shall abide.

[2.244] And fight in the way of Allah, and know that Allah is Hearing, Knowing.

[3.13] Indeed there was a sign for you in the two hosts (which) met together in encounter; one party fighting in the way of Allah and the other unbelieving, whom they saw twice as many as themselves with the sight of the eye and Allah strengthens with His aid whom He pleases; most surely there is a lesson in this for those who have sight.

[4.74] Therefore let those fight in the way of Allah, who sell this world’s life for the hereafter; and whoever fights in the way of Allah, then be he slain or be he victorious, We shall grant him a mighty reward.

[4.76] Those who believe fight in the way of Allah, and those who disbelieve fight in the way of the Shaitan [Satan]. Fight therefore against the friends of the Shaitan; surely the strategy of the Shaitan is weak.

[4.84] Fight then in Allah’s way; this is not imposed on you except In relation to yourself, and rouse the believers to ardor maybe Allah will restrain the fighting of those who disbelieve and Allah is strongest in prowess and strongest to give an exemplary punishment.

[8.39] And fight with them until there is no more persecution and religion should be only for Allah; but if they desist, then surely Allah sees what they do.

[8.57] Therefore if you overtake them in fighting, then scatter by (making an example of) them those who are in their rear, that they may be mindful.

[9.12] And if they break their oaths after their agreement and (openly) revile your religion, then fight the leaders of unbelief– surely their oaths are nothing– so that they may desist.

[9.13] What! will you not fight a people who broke their oaths and aimed at the expulsion of the Apostle, and they attacked you first; do you fear them? But Allah is most deserving that you should fear Him, if you are believers.

[9.14] Fight them, Allah will punish them by your hands and bring them to disgrace, and assist you against them and heal the hearts of a believing people.

[9.29] Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.

[9.36] Surely the number of months with Allah is twelve months in Allah’s ordinance since the day when He created the heavens and the Earth, of these four being sacred; that is the right reckoning; therefore be not unjust to yourselves regarding them, and fight the polytheists [the Trinity] all together as they fight you all together; and know that Allah is with those who guard (against evil).

[9.111] Surely Allah has bought of the believers their persons and their property for this, that they shall have the garden; they fight in Allah’s way, so they slay and are slain; a promise which is binding on Him in the Taurat and the Injeel and the Quran; and who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah? Rejoice therefore in the pledge which you have made; and that is the mighty achievement.

[9.123] O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness; and know that Allah is with those who guard (against evil).

[16.81] And Allah has made for you of what He has created shelters, and He has given you in the mountains places of retreat, and He has given you garments to preserve you from the heat and coats of mail to preserve you in your fighting; even thus does He complete His favor upon you, that haply you may submit.

[22.39] Permission (to fight) is given to those upon whom war is made because they are oppressed, and most surely Allah is well able to assist them;

[33.25] And Allah turned back the unbelievers in their rage; they did not obtain any advantage, and Allah sufficed the believers in fighting; and Allah is Strong, Mighty.

[48.16] Say to those of the dwellers of the desert who were left behind: You shall soon be invited to fight against a people possessing mighty prowess; you will fight against them until they submit; then if you obey, Allah will grant you a good reward; and if you turn back as you turned back before, He will punish you with a painful punishment.

[49.9] And if two parties of the believers quarrel, make peace between them; but if one of them acts wrongfully towards the other, fight that which acts wrongfully until it returns to Allah’s command; then if it returns, make peace between them with justice and act equitably; surely Allah loves those who act equitably.

[61.4] Surely Allah loves those who fight in His way in ranks as if they were a firm and compact wall.

Many more discussions can be found in Islam and among the teachings of Muhammad that guide Muslims into the modern form of jihad. For a complete display, visit www.prophetofdoom.net. For an opposing view, visit www.submission.org.

          Prof. Akbar Ahmad, chair of Islamic studies at American University claims those Muslims who would interpret these scriptures in the Koran literally are stuck in the middle ages. He would invoke another view expressed in Surah 2:256, … “let there be no compulsion in religion,” to claim that modern Muslims do not take the Koran calls to fight seriously but rather see them as archaic history that does not apply to modern times. However, as the eldest son of one of the founding leaders of Hamas, Mosab Hassan Yousef has written a new book, “Son of Hamas,” (2010)  detailing his youth growing up with the propaganda of Muslim imams and his stint as a spy for Israeli intelligence, plus his surprising conversion from Islam to Christianity. Now, he characterizes the prophet of Islam as a killer and claims that neither Israel nor Hamas are honest with their people. While Yousef admits the death threats he faces now have left him with some regrets about writing the book, he says his story needs to be told. It includes his conversion to Christianity and the conviction that peace in the Middle East will come only when both the Palestinians and the Jews become Christians and love each other instead of killing each other. That will take an act of God.

Christian Non-Fighting Words…

           That there are many evil doers in the world is self evident to anyone who gets the daily news. Evil takes many forms and seems to be ubiquitous. In fact, evil seems to be more powerful than good. One of the most heinous of crimes is the abduction, rape, and murder of little children by pedophiles. One of the most bizarre cases involved a husband and wife who abducted an eleven year old girl and kept her imprisoned in a shack in their back yard, undetected for 18 years. When they finally were exposed the young woman had birthed two daughters by her rapist, had never attended school, and had seemingly adapted to her condition. Loss of a child is one of the most painful of all grievances, but there are many others, and they all appear to be part of God’s will as the creator of all evil, as there can be no other. “I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7) “Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?” (Amos 3:6) How shall we respond to painful suffering in life that is caused by God? What guidance does the Bible provide for those who consider themselves Christians facing such woes in life? Here are some of its responses to these matters. See what you think of them.

“You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who curse you and persecute and mistreat you…” (Matthew 5:43-44, Luke 6:26-28)

“But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” (Luke 6:35)

“But I say to you not to resist evil…bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic…Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.” (Matthew 5:39-41, Luke 6:28-30)

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you…” (Matthew 7:1-3) “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37)

“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” (Mark 11:25)

“If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, I repent, forgive him.” (Luke 17:3-4)

“For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.” (Romans 14:9-10)

“Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says the Lord.” (Romans 12:19, Deuteronomy 32:35)

          Given these scriptures, how can any Christian take up arms to defend himself or his country and still call himself a Christian…huh??? It would appear from the above scriptures that a pacifist Muslim and a militant Christian both are hypocrites, and it was those for whom Jesus lost his temper, “You snakes, you brood of vipers. How will you escape being condemned to hell?” (Matthew 3:7, 12;34, 23:23, Luke 3:7, Romans 3:13). To be truly Christian is to invite martyrdom by the sword of Islam. How could this be unless God willed it so? Those Christians and philosophers who claim some accommodation of violence with “just war” stretch the teachings of Jesus beyond endurance. Consequently, if Christians be Christian and Muslims be Muslim, then the latter take over the former, surely as the wolf kills the lamb. There is an incipient but growing population of young sheeple born in this country of Arab extraction who are learning the power and rewards of Islamic jihad in mosques on weekends while attending our public schools. Countless Muslim children are being taught the power and rewards of Islamic jihad in Muslim owned madrasses (schools) funded by Middle East oil money that escapes scrutiny by homeland security officials.  So, the killing of 13 soldiers and wounding of dozens more at Ft. Hood, Texas by Maj. Nidal Hasan, psychiatrist and Muslim, would seem to be a role model for things to come. All in the will of God the Almighty One of course.

          Unfortunately, a large measure of ambiguity was injected into Christian dogma by Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Rome. In the first chapter, he recognized the sovereign power of the state, presumably to the point of obedience to war and slaughter of fellow human beings upon command of the authorities. “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.” (Romans 1:1-7) Many have tried to reconcile the teaching of Jesus regarding pacifism with this scripture by dividing the secular from nonsecular, saying that obedience to God and to man are both condoned by the will of God.  But in order to make this work they must also divide human existence into the physical and the spiritual realms. In order to placate Rome, Catholic leaders concocted the “just war” concept that tries to have it both ways. Thus, we have religious chaplains serving in the military, and chapels of worship are constructed on defense bases. Analysts of this situation ultimately run into a logical dead end and leave the matter up to individual conscience. So we end up with those who volunteer to conduct military warfare, whose who serve involuntarily under state conscription, and those who are excused from military duty as conscientious objectors. All in the will of God the Almighty One, of course.

          Obviously, the role of religion in the military needs to be debated and changes need to be made to protect the national security….or not. In 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to establish the National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism (H.R. 1955-110). The Senate referred it to the Committee on Homeland Security but no further action was taken. Rallies by opponents were held from Maine to California, and numerous civil liberties, religious freedom and American Muslim and Arab organizations issued action alerts encouraging people to contact their congressional representatives in an effort to stop the Senate companion bill, S. 1959. It worked. Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington Legislative Office of the American Civil Liberties Union, “Law enforcement should focus on action, not thought. We need to worry about the people who are committing crimes rather than those who harbor beliefs that the government may consider to be extreme.” If you see no flaw in her logic, welcome to Fort Hood and Maj. Nidal Hasan.

          Since sheeple will not change until it hurts too much not to, perhaps it will have to wait upon many more families to lose loved ones to the sword of Islam before the political correctness for religious tolerance and diversity can be debated. How many? Well, consider that we tolerate more than 16,000 murders each year without blinking an eye and as many more are killed on the highways by drunk drivers. Switzerland, which prides itself on neutrality and tolerance for diversity, is the first nation to amend its constitution prohibiting construction of minarets, the missile like towers for call to prayer, within Muslim mosques. Other restrictions on freedom of religion to protect national security from radical Islam are yet to be debated.

          “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together, and a little child will lead them.” (Isaiah 11:6) Obviously, this prophecy has not come true yet and may never unless this dichotomy in religion is addressed. Christianity and Islam seem to be mutually exclusive. And both claim that sheeple will not change unless God/Allah makes them do so. (John 6:64-66, Surah 14:15) If this brief discussion has troubled your complacency, perhaps it is time to begin developing a belief system that can accommodate the reality of life in a world of mutually exclusive dichotomies, in this case freedom of religion and shariah law of radical Islam. This is one of the powerful five principles developed in “Voices of Sedona,” and in these Sedona essays, comprising the course in Thefatalism ™ . If you are ready, the teacher has come and her name is Sedona. Buy “Voices of Sedona” and “Lessons from Sedona” at www.Iuniverse.com, www.amazon.com and Barnes and Noble book stores. Feel good inside no matter what happens outside.
 

Sedona says – Some geologists think there is evidence that the Earth is about four and a half billion years old. If that time were scaled to a twenty-four hour day, scientists estimate the existence of Homo sapiens on Earth would be less than one second. Obviously, the life of an individual is a small microsecond of that. In that brief time they have used up more than half of the natural resources and put the whole planet at risk of survival while poisoning themselves with toxic wastes, not to mention all the mayhem they have brought onto each other. Makes you wonder what this species is all about doesn’t it. In its short time, its various branches have developed into a wide range of variations. At one extreme are those who live by a personal computer, cell phone, and GPS receiver and could not survive if their modern machines were to disappear. The accelerated growth in high speed communications technology made possible by fiber optic cable and microprocessor chips leaves sheeple who cannot use them out of participation in modern life. The technology is neutral but its applications can be either very good or very bad. On the other extreme are those who live on the land much like their ancestors did thousands of years ago with need for none of the modern inventions to sustain their survival and link them with ancestors in a chain of events impossible by mere chance. Although there are wild variations, among Homo sapiens are some similarities in cultures and beliefs. But they all came from somewhere through an amazing process of evolution connected together by indispensable connections between invisible links. Only by looking at the complete chain of events are the links disclosed. 

          British historian, James Burke (1936 -) documented a series for public television titled “Connections” in which he circled the globe to show how events separated by decades and continents linked up to get us to the many variations in modern civilization. Sheeple often made a contribution to the chain without realizing they were creating a link that was absolutely necessary to human history. Take the cell phone for example. You may think it began with the telephone that was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. But his work depended upon a patent filed a few weeks before by Elisha Gray from developments by Philip Reir who built the first audio transmitter and receiver in the 1860s from theory proposed by Frenchman Charles Bourseul in 1854 who extended it from workings of the telegraph that was developed by Samuel F. Morse in 1838. The personal computer has even a longer chain of events and unsung heroes leading up to its present state. Intel could not produce those ubiquitous microchips unless British mathematician George Boole (1779-1848) developed his system of binary logic with no idea what it could be used for more than a century later. 

          Chocolate is the most complex food known. It contains 1500 different compounds. The nearest second is wine with 500 compounds. Chocolate was harvested 3,000 years ago in Mesoamerica for drinking in a bitter tea. No one knows how it was discovered or how sheeple learned to process the bitter cocoa bean seeds into delicious food. The Nestle company was first to market it in Europe in the 16th century. Milton S. Hershey failed in three candy company attempts before he perfected his unique sweet chocolate recipe in 1899. However, chocolate melted in summer temperatures without air conditioning and refrigeration and so was a seasonal product. It took the inspiration of Forest Mars, son of the founder, to create the M&M coated candy that “melts in your mouth, not in your hand.” Chocolate was blended with oats to create a concentrated food bar for soldiers in WWII. The rest is history. Nothing would be possible at present had not a series of indispensable events occurred that led up to this time and place, whether for good or evil. Any slight variation or omission among the invisible links and the present time and place would be much different. The unsinkable cruise ship, “Titanic” sank on its maiden voyage in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg with 1,250 doomed souls aboard because the engineers permitted its rivets to be made of substandard steel, and the British Admiralty permitted it to sail with only half the number of lifeboats normally required. The closest ship that could have responded, the “Californian,” was only 15 miles away, but its captain never got the distress call because his only radio telegraph operator had gone to bed after telegraphing a warning about the ice field that “Titanic” never acknowledged. And who put that iceberg there in its pathway? 

          In the Buddhist tradition everything is relational, and nothing exists in and of itself, immune to the forces of cause and effect. For anything to happen, everything preceding must be in place, and when everything is in place something happens necessarily. This awareness is like the calm waters that lie far beneath the surface of a raging sea or the calm air high above the turbulent weather.  But there is always an exception. Physicist, Victor Stenger warns in “Quantum Gods” (2009) that no law of physics requires a given direction in time, so effects may actually precede causes, every process is reversible, motion does not require a mover, and flat tires might spontaneously reinflate. He explains that the necessity of a First Cause came from Aristotle in 350 B.C., and no longer applies in modern physics. He also claims that science has no need to postulate the existence of Spirit to explain laws of the universe. Then he contradicts himself by writing, “But this does not rule out the possibility of a deist God who created the universe and endowed upon it the ability to act creatively to carry out his own plans.” Jesus plainly said that his kingdom was in a different dimension where laws of physics may not apply at all. (John 18:36)  But don’t expect to get younger with time. 

          When the time was ripe and everything had been put in place, Martin Luther (1483-1546) was able to rise up against the corrupt reign of Roman Catholic Popes and issue his famous proclamation in 1517 that changed the course of Western religion. He left the abusive rigidity of private schools and entered a monastery to become a priest. Luther’s theology challenged the authority of the papacy by holding that the Bible is the only infallible source of religious authority and that all baptized Christians under Jesus are a universal priesthood. “Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us … Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and Earth and everything else falls.” ( Mark 13:31) With the aid of the newly invented printing press, Luther’s writings circulated widely, reaching France, England, and Italy as early as 1519, and students thronged to Wittenberg to hear him speak. Luther was excommunicated by Pope Leo X in 1521. At his hearing he intoned, “Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen” Luther was declared a heretic, which made it a crime for anyone in Germany to give him shelter, food, or drink. It also made it legal for anyone to kill Luther without legal consequence. Luther was protected by friends in Wartburg, where he translated the Bible from Greek into German and wrote many religious tracts explaining his new beliefs. Thus was begun the protestant movement. What may not be well known is that Martin Luther’s vehement anti-semitic views against Jews were not repudiated by Lutheran churches until the 1980s. They may have served to arouse the Jewish holocaust by the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler. Toward the end of his life he became less and less tolerant of the human condition. After debilitating chronic illness including blindness in one eye, he died in 1546. The rest is history. Speaking of that, had he not been assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. might have been just another civil rights leader. But, in death he has become larger than life with a legacy that equals that of his namesake. 

          Born in 1767 and orphaned by age 14, seventh President of the U.S., Andrew Jackson (“Old Hickory”) grew up hating the British and the Indians, for good reasons. His father, mother, and brother died from hardships of the revolution. Although orphaned at age 14, he became a self-taught lawyer and representative and senator from the frontier state of Tennessee where he owned a cotton plantation with up to 150 slaves, called the “Hermitage.” He also was commissioned a Colonel and, with no formal military training, he gained a national reputation for killing 800 Creek Indians at the Battle of Horsehoe Bend in 1814, defeating the British at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812, and for liberating Florida from Spain without authority from Congress. He was a paradox; a demanding leader of troops and slaves, but a polarizing politician with disdain for formal authority for those above him. He caused a scandal by marrying Rachel before her divorce was final, and revered her for life although she died unexpectedly just after he was first elected. Jackson believed in “manifest destiny,” the divine right of settlers to occupy Indian lands. During his administration (1828-1836) treaties with the Indians were ignored and the “trail of tears” was blazed as the Indian Removal Act, declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, required all Indians east of the Mississippi to vacate their homes and hike into the western wilderness at the point of military bayonets. 

          The settlers, who were aided by the U.S. Army, were relentless in taking possession of Indian lands and hunting grounds. They cleared the virgin lands and introduced cattle and agriculture that eventually took over the continent. They also formed new corporations and a banking system that began to shift power from elected representatives to the captains of industry, which Jackson feared. He tried to deter the flood of capitalism by killing the central bank, but his victory was only temporary. The central bank was reinstituted with creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913.The age of capitalist industrialism had begun, leading to the present age of banking, insurance, and automobile corporations “too large to fail.” During Jackson’s second term, the stage was set for the turmoil to come that divided corporations from workers and poor from rich as the political structure became organized around democrats and republicans, and divided slaveholders from abolitionists. The Civil War was then inevitable. Jackson left no heirs, but his heritage is an indispensable link in the chain of American history. 

          Theories about man, matter, and the universe continually evolve, and sometimes they defy common sense…like there is only ONE and each of us is an indispensable and equal part of it. The ancient Chinese Taoist philosophy says the river of life flows along and your only choice is whether to row upstream or float downstream, and which ever one you choose is the one you must take. The “Tao te Ching” proclaims, “The Way flows and ebbs, creating and destroying, implementing all the world, attending to the tiniest details, claiming nothing in return. It nurtures all things, though it does not control them; It has no intention, so it seems inconsequential. It is the substance of all things; though it does not control them; It has no exception, so it seems all-important. The sage would not control the world; he is in harmony with the world.” Greek philosopher Heralitus observed that life is a series of challenges and constant change so you cannot put your foot into the same river or meet the same person twice. There is nothing like returning home from a funeral to realize the truth in that. Others say your choices in response to challenges are fight, flight, avoid, or submit. Life includes risks and unavoidable pain. But the more things change the more Homo sapiens seem to stay the same, and the more mistakes sheeple make the more mistakes they invent to make. Sheeple reproduce and strive to survive at the expense of others through mutual support and defense bounded by some form of isolation and separation. As of now, Homo sapiens are defined more by their insistence upon differences than their similarities. Elaborate social constructs have been created to maintain their separate identities, including various languages, religions, cultures, nations, and governments. Although their branches spread out first to Europe and then in all directions about 35,000 years ago, their roots are traceable by DNA to some origin in central Africa and some evolutionary transition from a previous species, in spite of myths that would have them spring full blown in a single act of creation by a creator that can’t seem to get it right in a garden called Eden. 

          Why have Homo sapiens come this far and where do they seem to be going? Indeed, why do they exist at all? They are not the only species of life that continually seeks safety and control, and then social belonging, and then social superiority. While the rank order in a pack of human animals is clear to everyone and accepted by everyone, peace prevails. But, individual humans continually compete for power and invent more and more expensive and complex instruments of mass destruction, while at the same time they create greater monuments to their existence, even while depleting the resources of Earth that sustains them. What makes Homo sapiens believe that they are superior to all the other species on the planet? Why have they not yet learned that they all are part of the global chain of relationships that link them together through time and space?  What is there about the brains of Homo sapiens that enable them to go to the moon while they worship the gods of their imaginations? How come they can soar to the heavens but also fall into all matter of degredation and disease? Why do they see the links connected in the chain of history but stubbornly assume they have free will to make each link of life as they please??? How can the chain of events accommodate compassion and charity combined with brutality and slavery? If they all are part of an invisible chain, does it have a beginning and an ending like the Bible claims…or is it just a circle like the Chinese symbol of Yin and Yang or the mysterious mobius that has no beginning or ending?  Is everyone a necessary link in the chain? When you look back on your life, do the individual links in the chain become more apparent? Is your present here and now the result of inevitable and indispensable links in the chain of your life? Who or what is behind this inevitable evolution of change? And, where is it going? Why is it even here?  Is it all real or merely a fantastic illusion that exists only in our imagination?

           Find the answers in “Voices of Sedona, Volume I” and “Lessons of Sedona, Volume II.” Buy at www.amazon.com, www.Iuniverse.com and Barnes & Nobles bookstores….feel good inside no matter what happens outside. 
 

Sedona says – Mark Twain, (1835-1910) [a.k.a. Samuel Clemens]  was lecturing in Europe when he got the news that his beloved 24-year-old daughter Olivia Susan Clemens, named for her mother, had died of spinal meningitis. “It is one of the mysteries of our nature that a man, all unprepared, can receive a thunder-stroke like that and still live,” he later wrote in his autobiography. “She was full of life, full of activity. Her waking hours were a crowding and hurrying procession of enthusiasms — joy, sorrow, anger, remorse, storm, sunshine, rain, darkness. They were all there. They came in a moment, and they were gone as quickly. In all things she was intense. In her, this characteristic was not a mere glow, dispensing warmth, but a consuming fire.” The daughter he called “Susy” continued to inspire his writing after her death. Clemens never lived again in the Hartford, CT house where she died.

          Someone said that grief is the price we pay for love, and it comes in proportion to how much we loved what was lost The serverest losses are the ones we value the most, the ones that leave the most holes behind. Perhaps the greatest loss is death of a spouse, but there could be preparatory losses along the way that we often overlook. Before we get very old, the realization that life is composed of beginnings and endings begins to sink in. Losses can be casual, like losing a toy or a pet or more severe like losing a beloved family member. Loss and grief are parts of ongoing life but grieving, which is the natural response to loss, is a social taboo in this culture. American anthropologist, Margaret Mead (1901-1978) observed, “When a couple marries they celebrate and when a child is born they rejoice, but when someone dies they pretend nothing happened.” Perhaps the pain is just too great to absorb. When sheeple we have loved enter our hearts they never leave. Consequently, many sheeple carry around pent-up grief from many losses that occur throughout life. Eventually, it can be disabling if the grief is not appropriately healed, although it can never be totally removed. Roman Emperor and stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius (121-180 A.D.) tried to wish away grief by observing, “Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature’s delight… Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.” Until losses come to you most sheeple just pretend they don’t exist to avoid the impact of grieving. But loss happens, often beginning at a very young age. Favorite toys break, pets die, best friends move away, accidents occur, and sometimes close relatives die before we get very old. Sometimes adults try to help kids adjust quickly and process these losses by buying them a replacement toy or pet. When that doesn’t work, the adults feel uncomfortable and admonish the kid to get over it quickly, stop crying, and pretend nothing happened so they can avoid feeling empathy for the survivor. So, we learn to stifle strong feelings and bottle them up in order to protect others from their contagious reactions that many fear can be disabling. Although more than two million sheeple die in America each year, many folks reach middle age before they must witness death of a close relative or loved one. Most of them are totally unprepared for the painful shock that it can bring.

          When the pain of loss is unbearable, sheeple often avoid its cause or adopt some substitute life style that masks the suffering, including drugs, alcohol, or risky behaviors. Such sheeple can live a pseudo life through others to avoid living the life they are given. A modern example is the “Celebrity Worship Syndrome” or “Mad Idol Disease” now recognized by psychology to be an escape from reality. By stalking the lives of the rich and famous one may avoid looking into the mirror and seeing the reality of what is there, what psychologists call escapeism or dissociation. But, when a celebrity idol dies the reality of death swoops in to remind us that no one is immune from the grief of loss. One moment we can feel secure in our assumptions about life, and the next be thrust into an abyss of uncertainty and suffering far beyond any expectations as though thrashing about like a fish caught upon a hook. In spite of more than four deaths per minute in the U.S., the consequences scarcely are evident until it happens to your family because society hides it from view. Sheeple often recoil from the evident grief in others because it opens wounded places in themselves that have not been healed. In fact, neuroscience is proving what the ancients knew from experience; grief is contagious and therefore to be avoided. It seems that human brains are equipped with “mirror neurons” which fire up when they detect suffering or distress in another, even distant relatives or unrelated sheeple. The natural reaction is self preservation, so survivors react either with attempts to fix the problem or to flee from it, the old flight or fight response. Few consider another option, that of calm submission. As the late anthropologist Margaret Mead observed, when someone dies, we pretend nothing happened in order to avoid the feelings of loss and grief. Consequently, as the late psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross observed in her classic book, “On Death and Dying” (1969), most sheeple are walking around with unresolved grief that prevents them from the full enjoyment of whatever life they have left.

          Whatever one thinks happens to the departed after death, for the survivors it is “a fearful piece of brutality,” according to C. G. Jung (1875-1961) who proclaimed after death of his wife. “There is no sense in pretending otherwise. It is brutal not only as a physical event but far more so psychically. A human being is torn away from us and what remains is the icy stillness of death.” He might also have said what remains are the holes in our makeup the departed one was filling up for us. A widow described it thus; “Grief is the madness that follows death.” It can seem like a flash flood has swooped over the landscape tearing out the basic structures of life and leaving mud, corruption, and debris in its wake. The one thing that is most important for survivors of traumatic loss seems to be repeatedly describing it to others until it makes some sense. Shakespeare instructed Macbeth, “Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.” It seems that in processing the events and feelings, there comes some kind of accommodation that is difficult to achieve if grief is bottled up. Unfortunately, the feelings of grief are contagious and many folks just cannot bear catching much trauma. So, you will need to find such resources who can listen, even if it means paying a professional counselor for time to listen until you are finished describing. If you are the friend or relative of a survivor, perhaps you can “lend an ear” as much as possible to help the process along. If there is no oppportunity for verbal disclosure, then writing your thoughts about the loss down in a daily journal is a good practice and for some who are prone to pessimism and introversion, maybe even better than talking. If the feelings of grief become so srrong there are no words to describe them, nothing remains but to suffer them until they pass. This is when it helps to have friends or a therapist to help carry them.

          Sheeple often avoid the losses of others because they trigger sympathetic grief reactions in “mirror neurons” of the brain they would rather prevent. The emotions of mourners may feel contagious and thus to be avoided. The sight of a dead loved one can tear open their fear of mortality and strip away their illusion of immortality with the attendant spiritual crisis that may come with it. When they are caught up in the feelings of irrevocable loss themselves, sheeple often activate the flight response to feeling threatened so they can get on with their lives with little or no disruption. They also may attempt to avoid the feelings by medicating with drugs or alcohol or frantic activities. But, underneath this façade, grief must get its due and one must submit to mourning or let it pile up until something inside breaks. Smothering it with activities and denial and substitutions merely permits normal reactions to losses to pile up until one day a personal loss may trigger all the pent up grief from all previous losses, and some psycho-physical symptoms appear that can be disabling, even leading to suicide. To avoid its consequences, sheeple must relearn the normal process of grieving their losses. When a close loved one dies, the reaction can be so intense that some sheeple need counseling and even long term therapy to properly recover from loss. Since sheeple won’t change until it hurts too much not to, counselors may see clients in deep grief for a personal loss that holds the accumulation of all previous losses improperly grieved.

          Grief is said by psychologists to be a normal reaction to loss and, therefore, it is not treated as a mental illness. Perhaps that is a mistake because sheeple sometimes die of grief from a broken heart, or reduced immune defenses that follow a severe loss. Some even commit suicide. Maybe it is all due to the unresolved unfinished business that remains if it was not completed. Hospice director, Dr. Ira Byock has observed that five most important elements of closure that must be worked through with the dying are; “I forgive you, please forgive me, thank you, I love you, goodbye.” If this is not done, the remorse and guilt may last a lifetime. Grief also has been described as the last great expression of love for the deceased. Such might be the example of Dana Reeve, wife of actor Christopher “Superman”Reeve who was totally paralyzed for nearly ten years after a horseback riding accident. Only nine months after he died she contracted inoperable lung cancer, although she was a nonsmoker, and died in another nine months at age 44. “I’ll tell you it’s another journey,” Dana Reeve said. “And I’m ready to be finished with the journeys.”

          The impact on a person having experienced traumatic death or terminal violence of a loved one belongs on the level of acute traumatic stress syndrome, occurring immediately after the event, followed by the post-traumatic stress disorder if symptoms of trauma persist. It matters not the cause; what does matter is the combination and severity of the symptoms of trauma such as memory impairment, difficulty concentrating, irritability and anger, flashbacks and frightening dreams, hyper-arousal, insomnia, loss of interest in formerly pleasurable activities, and dissociative symptoms. The problem with postulating stages and time frames for recovery from loss is that survivors are traumatized even more when they do not see themselves living up to what their social environment apparently considers to be “normal” – universal emotional states resolving within a pre-determined, fairly short period of time. Advice dispensed by the uninitiated adds to the trauma of now living in an unfamiliar and extremely distressing emotional dimension, unimaginable to those who have not been there themselves. Advice to focus on others presumed to be “worse off” or on “all the good things in life” may have no effect whatsoever and hence induces even greater distress in the survivor. It is better to have no advice than such further damage to the wound that fails to heal.

          In spite of thousands of academic studies that show grief to be a serious impact on life – physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually – there still is no standard treatment for grief. The Society on Death Education and Counseling was organized to provide a better understanding among academics about social impacts of grief, but its influence has not spread much beyond the college classroom. Physicians may prescribe a mild sedative to aid sleep or reduce stress, but each person is left to process the impact of their losses alone and without a road map through the maze. As such, counselors are powerless to help and almost any reaction to grief is considered to be normal, including some pretty bizarre behaviors. Society responds to grieving widowed men and women differently. Women tend to cluster around the widow to offer support and sympathy. If they are sexually active, men may pursue them to help meet their “needs.” But, widowed men often are abandoned and avoided, even by close friends and relatives, because they are perceived as a threat to couples and are assumed to have all the coping resources they need. The law of the jungle prevails as single men are perceived, unconsciously or consciously, as threats to committed couples, to be viewed cautiously and defensively. While older widows may stay “married” to their dead spouses, active widowers often either remarry or die within a few years. Grieving the loss of a close loved one can challenge all previous assumptions about how life should work, as well as what comes after death, and if the loss is untimely or unreasonable, the belief in a loving God can be questioned even by the most devout and faithful. Unless they are given a road map through grief, survivors often heal in ways that leave them permanently scarred or functioning like an amputee with a poorly fitting prosthesis, or none at all. Much as we know it happens, accepting the inevitable endings is difficult for society to implement because ongoing life scarcely stops long enough to attend a funeral. All things in cyclical existence are transient and impermanent, but until it happens to you the realization of permanent loss is only an idea. When inevitable loss comes to your house, things change forever. Letting go and detaching from the past is one of the most excruciating tasks in preparing to reconstruct a new life without the beloved.
         
           A search among religions for some help for mourners turns up very little of much use. The loss of a spouse has been rated as the highest stressor that one can experience, and religion may not offer much support. When British theologian C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) went to the throne of grace for support after the painful untimely death of his wife he lamented in “A Grief Oberved,” (1961) “…go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that silence, you might as well turn away. The longer you wait the more emphatic the silence will become. There are no lights in the windows. It might be an empty house. Why is He so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble?” C.S. Lewis lost the will to live and died within two years. There is that Bible passage often read at funerals, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil because you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4) Jesus was quite ambivalent about it. On one hand he said, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4) And he instructed, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-9) But to the disciple who wished to go and bury his father, Jesus retorted, “Follow me and let the dead bury their own dead.” (Matthew 8:21-23)  For the Christian, Pope Benedict XVI, nee: Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger says in his “Eschatology” (1988) that death is nothing less than the ultimate transformation, “The Kingdom of God is found in those persons whom the finger of God has touched and who allowed themselves to be made God’s sons and daughters. Clearly such a transformation can only take place through death.” Presumably, while they are alive sheeple belong to Satan because “all have sinned.” (Romans 3:23)

          There are no generally accepted standard therapies for helping mourners to grieve because each situation is assumed to be unique. But, many studies have shown that grief can be a traumatic and serious reaction to loss which can disable mourners if they are not given adequate support. Often, they are ignored soon after the funeral because the pain of mourning is contagious and close family and friends would rather just avoid getting afflicted with it. Failing to find much comfort in scriptures, a grieving widower and a pastoral counselor compiled a book for surviving spouses that now could be the road map for grieving in all types of losses. In “Recovery From Loss,” (2001) the authors described a process for grieving that is based upon sound psychology as well as the empathy available through spiritual guidance. The model of grief that they described can be customized to fit each individual mourner according to their specific personality preferences as described by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. This model is being integrated into some college courses on death and dying. Perhaps it will find its way into mainstream grief counseling and so help to reduce the disabling affects of acute loss. Here is a brief summary of its model for grief.

          Sheeple suffering from acute loss must walk through a labyrinth to reach the center of comfort once again. Unlike a maze, which is intended to frustrate and confuse, a labyrinth is an ancient symbol for centering that must be traversed only one way in and one way out. The grief walk requires passing through tasks of acknowledging the loss (overcoming denial), feeling the full impact of loss including the guilt and remorse from any avoidance behavior, developing healthy substitutes for the lost object, detaching from investments in the past and letting go of personal responsibility with forgiveness, and moving forward to reconstruct a new life while integrating the loss. This process is neither easy nor quick because it requires that lifelong patterns in brain neurons must be rewired to accommodate new lifestyles initiated by the loss. The feelings of grief are some of the most intense of all human emotions and they must be suffered alone in isolation if they cannot be conveyed to anyone. If the loss seems to be undeserved, the feeling of betrayal must be uncovered and dealt with. That effort may require a trial and error approach to see what helps and what hurts. If they don’t get help, grief can impair the immune system and expose mourners to illness and even death. Many, if not most, sheeple try to avoid the strong feelings of grief and skip ahead by latching onto substitutes before healing is completed. If they skip the work of detaching that involves resolving remorse and guilt, they pile up unresolved losses which can erupt at some time later in various destructive ways, even including suicide.

          To each of these tasks everyone brings the whole person that they are; physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. Each person possesses strengths and weaknesses in each of these areas, so the tasks of grief may be customized for the optimum benefits of each survivor based upon their personality profile. When a loss occurs, we are left with the holes in our personality that person or object was filling up for us. When someone enters our hearts and leaves, only memories of wholeness are left. Happiness is having our holes filled. When two sheeple are devoted to filling the holes in each other, that is bliss. And when one of them leaves, that is hell. The normal but unhealthy reaction is to find a temporary substitute quickly to fill up the holes again to feel comfortable, like taking a pill when we feel sick. But the healthy way is to identify the holes in our makeup, physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual and work on filling them for ourselves so we can bring a more healthy and whole person to any new relationships. However, grief can become complicated by unfinished business with the deceased that may involve unresolved remorse, anger, and guilt from an imperfect relationship. These emotions must be uncovered, resolved, and purged before the tasks of grief can be resumed. Sometimes a professional counselor will be helpful in dealing with such issues. Buddhism speaks of leaning into grief and letting it wash over us until the wounded areas are healed instead of running for cover. That is why it is called grief work. If grief counselors could learn to help their clients work through this model of grief work, perhaps its devastating impact could be softened somewhat. 

There is an anonymous poem that might comfort the bereaved:

          “Do not stand by my grave and weep

            I am not there, I do not sleep

          I am a thousand winds that blow

          I am a diamond glint on snow

          I am sunlight on ripened grain

          I am the gentle autumn rain

          When you wake in the morning hush;

          I am the swift uplifting rush

          Of quiet birds in circling flight.

          I am the soft starlight at night.

          Do not stand at my grave and weep.

          I am not there, I do not sleep.”         

          Everyone knows that all beginnings come with endings, but some sheeple learn that lesson only after repeated losses of loved ones and the lifestyles they represent. Even if a broken heart does not lie in your past or present, it awaits you in your future, at some place, at some time when you will almost certainly be unprepared. In the words of Jalaja Bonheim: “Make no mistake: those who tell us we can have whatever we want, be whoever we want to be, and have full control of our lives are merely playing into our desire to avoid the discomfort of feeling our vulnerability. True wholeness has nothing to do with getting what we want. Paradoxically, we achieve true wholeness only by embracing our fragility and sometimes our brokenness.” Sometimes God must break a heart in order to get inside, and if it seals up he will break it again, and again. There is a saying; to make an omelet one must break some eggs. Some things that are broken cannot be fixed and remain unresolved and unfinished in this life, but perhaps they are contributing to omelets in the sky. Sometimes neither fight nor flight are appropriate reactions when it is better just to be in the here and now and to suffer when suffering to allow natural healing to occur. If you have an amputation, there may be a prosthesis to help you get around but the lost limb will never grow back again. When a loss is severe enough, basic beliefs may be shattered like Humpty Dumpty who fell off the wall and could not be put back together again. It helps if one has a belief system that works to accompany the losses in life.

          And after all the grief work is done, some sheeple even find the experience of post trauma growth actually is real. Posttraumatic growth is not simply a return to baseline from a period of suffering; instead it is an experience of improvement that for some sheeple is deeply profound and can take surprising turns into new and unexplored territory. Growth does not occur as a direct result of trauma, rather it is the individual’s struggle with the new reality in the aftermath of trauma that is crucial in determining the extent to which posttraumatic growth occurs. Results seen in sheeple who have experienced posttraumatic growth include some of the following: greater appreciation of life, changed sense of priorities, warmer, more intimate relationships, greater sense of personal strength, and recognition of new possibilities or path’s for one’s life and spiritual development. Two personality characteristics that may affect the likelihood that people can make positive use of the aftermath of traumatic events that befall them include extraversion and openness to experience. Also, optimists may be better able to focus attention and resources on the most important matters, and disengage from uncontrollable or unsolvable problems. The ability to grieve and gradually to accept trauma could also increase the likelihood of growth. It also benefits a person to have supportive others that can aid in post-traumatic growth by providing a way to craft narratives about the changes that have occurred, and by offering perspectives that can be integrated into changes in life schema. These relationships help develop narratives; these narratives of trauma and survival are always important in post-traumatic growth because the development of these narratives forces survivors to confront questions of meaning and how answers to those questions can be reconstructed by constructing a different life which accommodates the loss. All in the will of God the Almighty One of course. Feel good inside no matter what happens outside.