The Higher Perspective - The Best Antidote to Fear and Crisis By Christine Hoeflich

Philosopher Ken Wilbur and spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen both agree that one of the most significant spiritual challenges of our time is staying connected to a higher perspective even when humanity's survival (and your own) hangs in the balance. "We might not make it as a species...It's a chance to really learn how you allow the survivalist mode to knock you out of your true self and your already-free awareness," says Ken Wilbur in a preview to an upcoming discussion between Cohen and Wilbur on how each of us can become fully awake, purposeful and integral human beings.

"We fall out of touch with that which is higher...We contract into a very fearful orientation to life. Often, those who are able to really make a difference in times like these are those who are able to see global events and crises in the biggest developmental context--to see it all as part of a larger process, which itself is indestructible. Never losing touch with that perspective is critical, because when we lose touch with the bigger perspective, we lose touch with the best part of ourselves," says Andrew Cohen.

My understanding is that reconnecting to your higher self (the source of your higher-level perspective and awareness) is without a doubt the answer to both your own crises as well as the world's larger crises. Furthermore, once you actually reconnect to your higher self, synthesize the wisdom that undoubtedly will come from within, and realize the higher level understanding, you will no longer worry about global events and crises and you will no longer fear ever losing touch with that higher level perspective again. You will understand the deeper purpose behind your crises (and the world's crises) and how it all fits into the divine plan.

Moreover, once you're connected, you're connected. You understand that the crises are indeed a part of divine plan. You understand how and why the outcome--the Golden Age--is assured. And once you (as an individual) get it, you have it. You got what you came here to get and it cannot be taken away from you, regardless of how much fear the outer world tries to inflict upon you. In fact, you see how the elements of fear fit in perfectly into the larger design, and you are no longer affected by them in the same way.

So how does one actually arrive? Instead of theoretically discussing world crises and why we're doomed, you spend some of your time reconnecting to your higher self and you learn to trust your higher self. You actively engage and immerse yourself in the larger process about which Cohen and Wilbur speak.

Though the reconnecting process is simple, it is not very easy and it does not occur overnight. Reconnecting consists of 1. learning to distinguish your inner guidance from mental conditionings and societal expectations (your higher-level consciousness from your human-level consciousness) and 2. learning to trust that connection enough to promptly and consistently follow through.

Following through is of utmost importance. Seeing the results of your follow through is the most effective way to learn to trust that connection. The more you trust your inner guidance, the more new insights you will gain, the more favorable synchronicities you will step into, and the more you will begin to "move mountains." You will know that when you follow your higher self's plan--your "true" plan--you will eventually succeed. That's because your higher self has the bigger picture and also a vested interest in helping you fulfill your higher life purpose. This is the only place from where to come.

The truth is, we have chosen to disconnect and to experience the challenges and the hardships that came "with the territory," so to speak. There was a larger purpose and intent for being on this planet in a state of "lowered consciousness," and we are ready to complete that chapter of the human story. So, now that you know that a process that activates your higher consciousness exists, why wouldn't you do everything within your power to begin it?

Are you ready to reconnect and activate your higher life purpose? Subscribe at http://www.WhatEveryoneBelieved.com/ and receive a 7-page report (gratis) on reconnecting to your higher self--which will help transform your life experience at the most powerful level. Christine Hoeflich is the author of What Everyone Believed: A Memoir of Intuition and Awakening, a 2008 USA Book News award-winning finalist that helps reconnect you to your higher self.

Pirates and Pigs - The Nightmare By Sandy Krolick Ph.D.

Who would have 'thunk' before he took office, that at the top of Obama's to do list would be fighting pirates and pigs. Well that is the case. Not one hundred days into his fairytale presidency, Barack Obama is dealing with two issues that were not even on the radar screen last fall. But why are pirates and pigs so important, and how did the issues they present, holding sailors and the world's populations hostage, come to occupy center stage in our efficiently run, and digitally globalized economy? The answers may be simpler and more frightening then we first suspect.

It has been a long time since Captain Hook once sailed the waters off the coast of Neverland. And, the Pirates of the Caribbean: why that was just a movie that kept repeating itself. But those young boys in speedboats taking sailors and ships hostage off the coast of Somalia...that is real. And it all began two decades ago as young Somali fishermen no longer had safe and plentiful waters in which to fish for their villages' own survival. Their livelihood had been destroyed. How, you might ask? By the illegal and often clandestine encroachment by fishing fleets from more 'developed' nations like South Korea, Japan and Spain, among others. The pillaging of the Somali coastline began shortly after the dismantling of Somalia's last government in the early 90's. A 2006 United Nations report noted that,

"In the absence of the country's at one time serviceable coastguard, Somali waters have become the site of an international 'free for all,' with fishing fleets from around the world illegally plundering Somali stocks and freezing out the country's own rudimentarily-equipped fishermen."

And according to another U.N. report, approximately $300 million worth of seafood is stolen from the Somali coastal waters each year. It appears that initially it was these young fishermen who turned to piracy in order to protect their own waters against larger, and more sophisticated trespassers, whose equipment, technology and firepower outpaced the ability of small local Somali fishermen. In addition, several European nations found that it was "more cost effective" to use these same waters as a toxic waste dump for years. And now the bills are becoming due. We more 'developed' nations of the world have created, it seems, the conditions leading to the piracy we are now desperately fighting to control. Our policies and practices, driven by motives of profit and economic expansion, have led to this current crisis.

And now to the pigs! Despite how much we might try, this too is not traceable back to the small farms and underdeveloped village areas of the world, like those in rural Mexico, Thailand or China. No, it is a direct result of large-scale domestication, live stocking and agribusiness farming that has created our current crisis. Again, it is the developed nations and their corporations that have created the dilemma. While in the earlier part of the 20th century most pig farming was conducted by small farmers in backyards and small family plots, agribusiness eventually bought up the smaller players (who could no longer afford to compete) and harvested these farms into large colonies or 'pig cities' of tens of thousands of pigs, with a commensurate increase in the potential for squalor, waste and disease.

Moreover, the IMF and World Bank further complicated the problem by requiring smaller 'developing' countries to open their economies to outside corporations if they wanted IMF loans. So agribusiness moved in and, without the same oversight and regulation, closed down the smaller indigenous players, and created "cities of pigs that stretch around the world," hotbeds of disease. And it is big American-based agribusinesses like Holly Farms, Tyson and Perdue, holding large pig (and poultry: remember the bird flu) farms that are at the center of the latest flu pandemic scare.

Now, what is the common denominator among these pigs and pirates? And why am I forced to view these twin challenges together, as the result of a common cause? Could it have to do with the tendency of modern industrial society towards economic and political expansionism, operating with a competitive, zero sum-game rationale? Could it have to do with the fact that such 'civilized' games necessarily create winners and losers? Perhaps there is just something about the values underlying our civilized societies, with our commitment to hierarchy, divisiveness, and control, that mechanically negates those who are different, the strangers, and systemically creates victors and victims, masters and slaves. When will the developed world of 'civilized' nations realize that they have been living in a dream, imagining their own omnipotence, and that now the dream is ending and we must admit finally that we have given birth to a nightmare? But, perhaps the nightmare is only just begun!

After a ten-year career in academia, Dr. Krolick spent the next twenty years in the executive ranks of several of America's largest international firms. Sandy has spent many years traveling around the world, including parts of Asia, Africa, Western and Eastern Europe. Retiring from business at fifty, he recently returned to the USA with his wife Anna, after teaching for several years in the central Siberian Steppe, at the foot of the Altai mountains in Barnaul, Russia. His latest book, The Recovery of Ecstasy: Notebooks from Siberia, is available at http://www.amazon.com/Recovery-Ecstasy-Notebooks-Siberia/dp/1439227365/?tag=widgetsamazon-20 or visit him @ http://www.kulturcritic.com

The Simile of Wisdom, Law & Worship in Psalm 119 By Steve Wickham

"Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I will keep it to the end [steadfastly]... Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity (idols and idolatry); and restore me to vigorous life and health in Your ways" -Psalm 119:33, 37 (Amplified).

Psalm 119 is often considered a psalm of the wisdom genre, yet every line it seems is etched with legal terms of God's law. It seems a never-ending meditative prayer of the psalmist who is fearful of letting go lest he risk giving up the prize of the true knowledge of, and obedience to, God.

This portion of the longest of the one hundred and fifty biblical psalms talks about 'worthless' things, continuing the incessant prayer of the psalmist to abide by the statutes and decrees (the covenant) of the Lord--until the very end. The NIV and Message paraphrase have verse 37:

"Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word." (NIV)

"Divert my eyes from toys and trinkets, invigorate me on the pilgrim way." (Msg)

Unpacking this pithy little verse is tantamount to the opening of Pandora's Box, as we see profoundly the vast divergences of life; one of worship in extremes.

Psalm 1 (NIV) tells us that the person who 'delights in the law of the LORD' cannot help meditating on the law with devotion both day and night. They're immersed in it as if the law was an unfathomable ocean and they were addicted to swimming in it. Perhaps they're so fearful that it might be to their own peril to stop; "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge," as Proverbs 1:7 (NIV) has it. And this is true. To stop, for these, would be to totally dishonour, and turn from, God.

And this is the essential blending of wisdom with the law that both are inextricable. Both call to each other. Wisdom, among much more, is fundamentally turning from worthless things to the law, which is the Word of God.

And this is the 'pilgrim way,' of rejecting the world's trappings and turning back to the eternal God and his things of eternity. What does it serve us (or God) when we chase after all the gadgetry, 'toys and trinkets' in the world (perhaps even in God's name?) but lose the essence of the 'life in his way?' Let us be forever watchful, as the psalmist, continually aware and abiding.

We're all inclined to worship... what (object/s) or who (subject/s) is it though, that we worship? And what thought and activity defines our worship?

Copyright © 2009, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Steve Wickham is a safety and health professional (BSc, MSIA, RSP) and a qualified, unordained Christian minister (GradDipDiv). He also has training and leadership Diplomas. His passion in vocation is facilitation and coaching; encouraging people to soar to a higher value of their potential. Steve's key passion is work / life balance and re-creating value for living, and an exploration of the person within us.