Brainwashing by the mainstream media

There are alternative narratives to important things happening in the world today and in the past that the average person has no awareness of. 

This is because such narratives are not discussed by the mainstream media (which is an untrustworthy propaganda source) but which is many people's only source of information. 

And if such narratives are occasionally mentioned it's only to disparage them and those who believe them. 

So many people just mindlessly repeat the nonsense they hear and read in the news, seemingly unaware that the opinion is untrustworthy and not really their own.

I've lost faith in drugs and medicine

I must admit I've lost all faith in medicines and drugs to provide anything but momentary relief and cause long-term problems. 

There may be exceptions to this rule but I haven't met any yet. I read of people who have good results with various things but that hasn't been my experience. 

It's only logical that the body will respond better to things it has evolved to deal with naturally rather than something foreign created in a lab.

Although of course being natural doesn't make a substance safe. Discretion must be exercised. Knowledge is essential. I look to the tribes who live in harmony with nature and understand the role of each plant, for example, for inspiration. 

I don't negate the need for drugs for emergency care but more for chronic care which they rarely seem suited.

Independent countries need to be strong militarily

The sad truth is in the current age a country needs to be very strong militarily or they will become the puppet state of one that is. Money is also used as a weapon of control, making some degree of economic independence also important. That seems difficult given how economically interdependent countries have become. 

Sanctions are currently being used in the world as weapons against states that refuse to tow the line of the dominant empire.

The interesting question is: who controls that empire and what is their agenda?

Our perceived answer will determine which countries governments we support and which we don't. 

Is it empire controlled governments or those nations seeking to break away from its control?

Ukraine and the western empire

That the so-called "leader" of Ukraine is a ratbag seems obvious to me. That the Biden government is a puppet government of the western empire also seems obvious. I have zero trust in any western empire government. They were all fascistic on covid. They want to control the world. They can all go f*** themselves as far as I'm concerned. 

They have no respect for freedom or individual liberty and so they are on the dark side as far as I'm concerned. 

May they all be burnt to the ground and a free society created.

Love live freedom.

The one celebrity death that affected me emotionally

Only one "celebrity" death has ever affected me emotionally. That happened in 1994. I was living on Australia's Gold Coast in the beautiful hinterland region in a fantastic house and property with 2 friends from the college where we were studying Naturopathy together. It was a great lifestyle. I remember hearing of Kurt Cobain's death from a classmate who turned around in the lecture hall and told me the news. It immediately lowered my previously buoyant mood, casting a dark spell over me. 

It didn't keep me down for long as I wasn't obsessed with Kurt and his music at that point. That's happened in the last month or 2 as I am appreciating the songs more than ever and trying to understand Kurt and what went wrong in his life. Ongoing sickness, childhood traumas not yet healed, and deeply unhealthy drug abuse all no doubt played a role, and yet he could still make amazing, creative, complex (as explained in the video linked below) and melodic music and engage in other creative activities. Watching Rick Beato videos on his songs has given me an extra appreciation for his gift. 

I hope where Kurt is now he quickly received the healing of body and soul he so desperately needed. I'm sure he is back to being a joyful and creative soul, living in the more supportive environment that the next world reportedly presents. 

Earth life has many challenges and pitfalls, not all of which are easy to spot. So the inexperienced and unhappy souls, in particular, are at risk of falling into a trap and losing control of their life. Some recover, some die young. But those that do leave early who leave a legacy for others to enjoy have still achieved a great deal, despite their final tragic ending, too soon for those who care about them.

...

May all beings find healing and peace and free themselves from unhealthy behaviours and attachments.

Amen.

...

Rick Beato, brilliant musician and music theory teacher, talks about a couple of Nirvana songs and what makes them so great:

https://youtu.be/hMUkMGNX0Uk

Take your opportunities

They say "live like there is tomorrow" and that has wisdom, but tomorrow you will probably wake-up, and you want good feelings to accompany it.

Nail this to your wall:

"You'll never get the same opportunity again."

Time is not as expansive as we think when we are young.

It will run out.

We will get old and this life will end, taking these opportunities with it.

Illness

Illnesses don't just just come out of the blue generally, instead we are deeply involved through our thinking and habits with what happens with our body. 

We may seems to just stumble into poor health. Bacteria or viruses may seen involved, and that may be so, but we need to ask what made us attract such an experience? 

If we don't we will never learn from it. And may have more troubling recovering from it and may attract more later to wake us up.

Hang-ups

The problem with our hang-ups: fears, misunderstandings of life, isn't just that they limits us and our interactions with others and our experience of life, but they eventually hang us, when we realise who we are, what have been and what we have done. 

Particularly if this realisation comes later in life when we feel certain things have passed us by and we realise what we've missed or perhaps even the harm we've done.

Ian Curtis and Kurt Cobain

Were Ian Curtis and Kurt Cobain, brilliant front men in their own style, doomed or was their tragic passing something that arose from a serious of unfortunate events?

Both had drug issues, one prescription, the other illicit. Both had relationship issues. Ian's life was falling apart after a epilepsy diagnosis that meant he couldn't always perform and his young marriage was on the rocks. 

Kurt presumably struggled with a heroin addiction and was discontent with key areas of his life at the end. His band and his marriage seeming to be the primary areas. I think he may have struggled with some mental and physical health issues before that. 

They both left a wonderful legacy, but were gone far too soon in many of our eyes.

Many loves

We have different love for different people, including those we've never met, like musicians, actors and other public figures. My love for RFK Jr is deep. I see his integrity and righteousness and I adore it. My love for his father and uncle is different again and more removed at this point. My love for Steve Kilbey and his music is different than my love for Kurt Cobain and my love for Grant McClennan (see video below) is different again. 

They say there is only one love, but it comes in many forms.

https://youtu.be/iM8z47RvRf8

Being brought to our knees

Some people become far superior human beings after being brought to their knees. It can open our heart, increase our humility, make us empathic to the suffering of others and perhaps take ourselves less seriously. 

Ideally such a thing never needs to happen. Ideally we develop these qualities without having to undergo excessive suffering, but living in the flesh tends to bring us all down eventually.

Perhaps this purifies us for our next destination.

Even Jesus, to many the saviour of our civilisation, is said to have spent 6 hours on the cross, crucified. Surely an excruciating experience.

Did he need this experience?

He was said to be born without sin, but what person comes into this world with sin, but we do accumulate it, willingly or not.

"Blood money": My story about "Skills"

The musician I wrote about previously, Steve Kilbey, put out an album with his band in 1988 called "Starfish", containing the beautiful hit single "Under the Milky Way". At that time a neighbour from childhood who became a friend at university for a time was addicted to the album. He would play the CD on repeat in his car, driving fast, endlessly. 

After he left uni he went looking for the quick, easy dollar on the edge of the law.

His funeral was the first I attended of anyone of my generation. He was murdered, knifed to death in his Bankok apartment, according to what I was told. Related to shady business dealings, it seems.

His lifelong friend, who read his eulogy, was, ironically, about to go to prison for theft in business shortly thereafter.

His friend was a lovely man and the act was out of character. He was very nonchalant about going to prison and was soon out and on with his life. It didn't break up his family, but put great stress on his parents. 

I spoke with him at the funeral of our mutual friend and with the mother of the deceased at the mourning or celebration, depending on how you saw it, learning more about her son's life since I last knew him, many years ago.

He lived fast and died young.

I'm sure he fit more into his 50 or so years than many do in 90.

He was a risk taker.

He once asked me if I wanted to move into a share house with him at uni. I said "no" because I knew he lived a much more fast living, risk taking life than me and he understood my thinking, I'm sure.

I saw him once after uni. He was very close to his mother who was a lovely woman and visited her when he could, having moved away from the small town she lived in. His father had died young and had not been much of a man, I hear. When I saw him last he was driving a red sports car. The likes of which I've never owned, being the more conservative, practical type.

His name was Steven but his friend's called him "Skills", a name he gave himself, based on a criticism he was given as a youngster.

I doubt he has any regrets from where he is now. Who knows?

There are more stories to tell of him, including a brush with death at a famous South American beach with a friend in dangerous surf, and a fight at a brothel in Texas while with the same friend (not the one who read the eulogy, which was beautiful, by the way).

Long live Skills.

May we learn from his courage and also from maybe taking one too many risks.

And if you listen to Starfish (or was it Gold Afternoon Fix? Listen to them both, they have a related feel, recorded in LA and oozing a feel of the times- late 80's, as interpreted by the song writer), you may get a sense of where Skills head was at in 1988.

A particular song on Starfish called "Blood Money" perhaps was a premonition of what was sadly to come.

https://youtu.be/C_Z48dHFYLc

A tale of suffering and redemption

Nobody signs up for suffering, unless that are that spooky performance art woman who's name elludes me, but it comes knocking to the door of almost everyone eventually, in some form.

Pretty much everybody of my generation is aware than heroin use, for example, can often be a path to great suffering, having seen "Trainspotting" and other such films, and yet people still try it, with some able to stop it or control their use and others not.

A well-known Australian musician used on it on occasion, didn't inject, and kept his use under control. He befriended another local musician who he introduced to it, thinking he could use it in the same controlled manner. Possibly because he had more money to buy it his friend soon became addicted, an addiction than lasted 10 years and cost him his marriage, his children, his friendships, his house, his money, but strangely not his career.

He tried rehab many times with no success.

He ended up moving from Australia and living in Sweden (nearer to his estranged family) in a house of junkies.

Eventually he said the drug gave him up, by no longer working for him. It wasn't his willpower, he said. You could say he was blessed.

Than was some years ago.

Now he is a healthy 60+ year old currently touring the world with his active and recording band.

After his addiction he had 3 more children to two women, to bring his family to a total of 5 girls, including 2 lots of twins. 2 are adults now with successful lives and 3 are possibly teenagers, who he cares for alone, I believe. 

Below he speaks a bit about his experience. 

On a final note, his friend who introduced him to heroin and whose friendship was lost because of it, died young at 48, of a reported heart attack, blamed by friends on his excessive alcohol use.

Poison comes in many forms...

https://youtu.be/uPAt-bb85jo

Sin and the flesh

In my understanding sin means mistake, it doesn't mean a person is evil. Few people are evil. Many are afraid. Some are angry. But few have ill intent, in my experience. 

Sins can be against ourself, against our body, against others and against nature and the planet.

CARING FOR THE BODY

The body is a vessel for the soul to learn through, in my understanding. 

If we sin against the body we suffer.

Our sins may be small but accumulate over time until we end up with a big problem, sometimes seemingly from out of nowhere. 

We need to take care of our body as best we can, listen to its messages rather than overriding them with our ego's preferences. 

If we do we so we will reduce our later suffering and regret, and increase our physical wellbeing and longevity.

Following our inner promptings

We can make rules for ourself and it can be useful to set boundaries in certain areas of our life but possibly one of, if not the biggest lesson I'm still learning is that not listening to our intuition, our "body wisdom" or gut feeling can result in disaster. The ego, whatever that is... our conscious mind? can be our own worst enemy, particularly when it overrides our intuition. 

The author Stuart Wilde wrote quite clearly about this in his books. He clearly delineated between our subtle feelings and emotion, with emotions being driven by the mind and feelings being driven by inner wisdom. People call it willfulness or being head strong when we choose to follow our heads rather that the often more subtle messages from our soul.

The difficulty in following our inner voice occurs when what it is communicating is not convenient to our outer selves or not the direction we want to go. This is where it is so important to be quiet enough and humble enough to let go of our ego's preferences and listen to what our internal.wisdom is telling us, and do our best to follow it.

Experience has taught me intuition knows best, but I still override it at times, always to my later regret.

The Ron Paul presidential debate moment that shook the world

When Ron Paul mentioned "blow back" on the stage of a Republican presidential debate all the lying toads of the establishment collectively lost their minds. 

It was nothing Noam Chomsky hadn't said 100 times before, but not in front of a TV audience of millions, in the very lair of that most ugly of beasts- the establishment. 

Of course they jumped on him for it. 

The USA is always the good guy and all the bombs they drop overseas are necessary and the military-industrial complex has never run foreign affairs.

A pretty fantasy for docile minds.

A fantasy world the establishment has built for people and projected to them through their media and institutions. 

But only a fool can't see it for what it is now.

An ugly, hideous beast.

The curtain has been well and truly drawn.

It's time for the people to take back their worlds and their minds.