30 years ago, a student came to me after the class, to tell me he was confused, he felt going mad, and still he couldn't stop thinking. i said that was the beginning of something good, and i was in the same boat. another student, a 6'5" tall black truck driver student perhaps in his late 30s, came to tell me he could see clearly for the first time, thanks to me, and i was truly humbled. when i finally could think clearly and see through the fog and noise, i realized there was no place for me in this particular global system. i've burnt all the bridges. but i've met plenty of real soulmates and honest friends outside the formal institutions, which keeps me from falling into the abyss of cynicism. i wonder how those students are doing now...
Those moments, when a student would tell me that their attitude toward biology and understanding thereof had morphed, granting me some credit for catalyzing that transition . . . those moments gave me a purpose that allowed me to exist in this madness; nonetheless the surrounding stupidity, the corporatization of universities, etc. managed to burn me out. Gratefully, several of those students, health professionals all have been friends for 30 years, so I'm fortunato d'avere nutrimento esteso, fortunate for the extended sustenance of their friendship.
if anything, i hope to become more humble as i age, thinking about the "teachers" or the "moments in which they inspired" me and thus have made and sustained me. hopefully i have done my share of inspiring others. the hard -- and ultimate -- part to me is remembering that they are also human, with worts and all.
"underneath everything, there really is a deep sanity and happiness after all." Brings to mind the diverse soil fungi, particularly the ecto- and endo- Mycorrhizae. Long-ignored because the focus of mycology was often fungi causing human pathology, we now realize that these soil fungi "tongue kiss" or even copulate with the roots of their plant partners by intertwining around and even within the root cells. This is natural happiness: organisms of extreme biological diversity uniting in an altruistic sociology that nutritionally supports both organisms and even other "bystander"organisms in the soil. If only human sociology were even marginally similar. If only!
Thanks for the rec. Actually, I'm a way-back follower of Rupert; with a colleague of mine, we even tried an experiment with 150 students in a freshman college class, testing his morphic resonance idea. Guess I'll need to check out Merlin. Also in the way-back category is Lovelock's/ Margulies' GAIA. Lynn Margulies was a fellow biologist in Mass., and I definitely resonated to her perspectives on the macrosystem and its subsystems.
Rupert is his dad. You will love Merlin's book "Entangled Life". To promote the book Merlin seeded a copy with oyster mushroom spores and let the fungi eat the book. It was covered in them! You may still be able to view it on youtube.
We don't know that it's not. What a gorgeous analogy, Vin. Soil fungi tongue-kissing is going to stay with me for a long time as I ponder the reality beneath our metaphorical feet where our roots begin and commingle and intertwingle, as a friend of mine says.
What a lovely response Tereza (my nonna was Teresa, Italian version). Nice image, and I know those roots exist and co-mingle with reference to my four closest friends. I freely admit to having more difficulty feeling it with some other folks. But it's a great task for the sub-intellectual brain. Not, by the way, sub-cognitive; my personal experience strongly suggest that those brain systems we undervalue as mostly having "automaticity" are highly cognitive beneath the level of fully engaged intellect. Sometimes a fully engaged intellect is a tremendous waste of neuronal processing capability.
Building on what you're saying, Vin, maybe you trade spores and chuckles with your four copacetic fungi friends. It's the ones where you don't feel it that the mycelium network kicks in. You get to do your part, transforming toxic waste into nutrition, and then you pass it on to the network and it goes where it's needed most. You don't have to worry about it. Presto LoPresti!
Allora, corraggio Teresa. Tutti di noi abbiamo bisogno di corraggio durante questo periodo d'insanità. It's why your avatar is so pertinent. There's also the alternate fungal strategy -- because they're so insulated from water loss in those hyphae -- of concentrating minerals in soil for the benefit of plant roots, thus optimizing plant health/photosynthesis, and hence the health of the entire ecosystem. That's what I got out of teaching broader scientific perspectives like GAIA and even Sheldrake, except concentrating ideas instead of minerals. Very spiritually nutritious.
Oooh... I like that. My Imagination Seeks Attention episode is subtitled "how to read the 'soul glyphs of the numinous realms'," a superb phrase I got from a Reality Sandwich article called Imaginal Hygiene by MT Xen. So burying spiritually nutritious soul glyphs in subterranean realms seems very prudent in these times of insanity. I hear that my name is a parting comfort or boost to vigor in Italy to take heart. Much needed.
OK, I subscribed; sounds interesting. Only other person I was on phenomenal-noumenal discussion levels with is my old professorial integrated science colleague who's back in Boston. Have you ever read about Karl Bohm's book "Wholeness and the Implicate Order"? I say read about because the body of the book is pretty heavy mathematical physics, quantum theory. (And of course, I don't assume that you might not have competence; indeed you might.) But in the appendix, if I recall, he presents the concept in simpler terms -- an implicate order on the quantum level with properties that don't allow certainty. For example, there's no telling whether an electron you detect in one location is the same electron observed later in a new location because electrons come and go from the implicate [the noumenal] to become explicated when observed in the phenomenal (apparently not a violation of the theory). But with the probabilistic nature of quantum theory and the fact that the observation itself impacts the event, the possibilities are mind blowing. Naturally, Professor Bohm, a Nobel laureate in physics, swallowed molta merda from his esteemed colleagues at the end of his life. Sadly.
Loved every word of this poetic sermon! Caitlin has outdone herself on this post. It should be written in stone and preserved as an true statement of our times.
Indeed. From the ashes the Phoenix rises. New, tiny green shoots emerge from burnt forest floor. Somehow in this stifling, corrupt culture a fresh wind blows. Hold dear ones, hold this moment, this life. Even in our pain, loss and grief, we rise...
Most of my life, I believed in this madness....didn't really realize what the madness was doing to my psyche. Since the Global Financial Crime Spree and the resulting investigation and research I've done has opened my eyes into what a mad, mad world we live in.
At some point, we have to all learn that the only thing.....and I mean the ONLY thing that matters is love. Love of your family, your friends and your neighbors. We only have each other. To love, to forgive and to help our fellow man is really what this is all about. The rest is total madness.
"Now you're growing up some more and learning that, underneath everything, there really is a deep sanity and happiness after all."
Hmm. I'll reserve judgment on that one. Still, I did wake up having slept poorly after having had an upsetting exchange with another comment poster. (Not here, I hasten to add. Most people here seem a little more chilled.) I decided that day to avoid the internet for a while. So it didn't go on until 5 in the afternoon.
In the middle of that night I got up and wrote down, "I need to break away from the unrelenting misery!"
Yes, it is all fake. Fake reasons for war. Fake reasons for lockdown and fake reasons for reducing CO2 emissions. Someone always benefits: the MIC, Big Pharma and the Green Energy corporations.
I know, some here believe in the climate change scam. Well I don't. I'm not anti conservation. I want plastics to be taken from our oceans. I want to preserve the rainforests. But I also want to preserve traditional farming practices. Selfish virtue signalling vegans want to impose their religion on us all. The media is now telling us we must all eat insects to save the planet. Ireland is contemplating paying farmers to cull their cows to reduce CO2 emissions. If you believe in all this all I can say is, wake up, for God's sake!! It's a con - follow the money!
In Scotland it was reported in 2020 that 14 million trees had been cut down to build wind farms. Go figure!
some years ago, i a novice to environmentalism had one of those aha! moments reading about three ways in which human beings (society) relate to the nature: 1) the nature as the object/resource to use, 2) the nature as the object to protect from human disruptions and extractions, and 3) the nature as the environment in which human beings (can and should) exist as its organic part. the author observed the native amazonians have lived as part of the nature for a long long time while the "civilized" societies miserably failed in "managing the nature from the 1) and 2) perspectives". mother nature including the micro-biological world continues to prove to be infinitely more complex and intricate than what human engineering can imagine, manage, change, or improve.
Interesting. Unfortunately, we are a very destructive species.
I personally do not view the "exploitation" of animals for food and clothing as bad in and of themselves. What is bad is the cynical exploitation of animals for profit.
I once experimented with vegetarianism, but abandoned it. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with eating meat. We are not the only species to do that. Similarly, I don't think there is anything wrong with drinking cows milk and eating cheese and eggs.
The key for me is attitudinal. Food is a gift of nature and to be respected.
consumption or the way of life can and should be need-based as opposed to profit-driven, i'm sure you agree. i suspect the natives like amazonians eat whatever they find (and maybe cultivate in their own way) in their environment. i'm a lifetime (since 6yo) vegetarian but it's my personal taste, not a philosophical or moral stand.
Echoing the love that others are expressing. Your poetry always seeps through but when it floods, it's magnificent. I think that you, like Charles Eisenstein, don't consciously study A Course in Miracles but you're both taking the curriculum in a subliminal language. Today I read in it about overcoming the illusion of orders of difficulty. It seems like this problem is bigger, this catastrophe huge. But how can any shape be more significant in a dream?
I love your owl, the One Who Laughs. The ending is certain, and it's beautiful. Be patient.
30 years ago, a student came to me after the class, to tell me he was confused, he felt going mad, and still he couldn't stop thinking. i said that was the beginning of something good, and i was in the same boat. another student, a 6'5" tall black truck driver student perhaps in his late 30s, came to tell me he could see clearly for the first time, thanks to me, and i was truly humbled. when i finally could think clearly and see through the fog and noise, i realized there was no place for me in this particular global system. i've burnt all the bridges. but i've met plenty of real soulmates and honest friends outside the formal institutions, which keeps me from falling into the abyss of cynicism. i wonder how those students are doing now...
Those moments, when a student would tell me that their attitude toward biology and understanding thereof had morphed, granting me some credit for catalyzing that transition . . . those moments gave me a purpose that allowed me to exist in this madness; nonetheless the surrounding stupidity, the corporatization of universities, etc. managed to burn me out. Gratefully, several of those students, health professionals all have been friends for 30 years, so I'm fortunato d'avere nutrimento esteso, fortunate for the extended sustenance of their friendship.
if anything, i hope to become more humble as i age, thinking about the "teachers" or the "moments in which they inspired" me and thus have made and sustained me. hopefully i have done my share of inspiring others. the hard -- and ultimate -- part to me is remembering that they are also human, with worts and all.
A like from the person you tried to tag as a "neoliberal."
BTW. I forgive you.
i apologize for my hasty careless labeling.
We all have those days.....and my response also deserves an apology.
I love you, Caitlin Johnstone. Thank you for embracing the All of Everything and choosing to stand up.
"underneath everything, there really is a deep sanity and happiness after all." Brings to mind the diverse soil fungi, particularly the ecto- and endo- Mycorrhizae. Long-ignored because the focus of mycology was often fungi causing human pathology, we now realize that these soil fungi "tongue kiss" or even copulate with the roots of their plant partners by intertwining around and even within the root cells. This is natural happiness: organisms of extreme biological diversity uniting in an altruistic sociology that nutritionally supports both organisms and even other "bystander"organisms in the soil. If only human sociology were even marginally similar. If only!
Have you been reading Merlin Sheldrake? If you haven't I guarantee you will like his book!
Thanks for the rec. Actually, I'm a way-back follower of Rupert; with a colleague of mine, we even tried an experiment with 150 students in a freshman college class, testing his morphic resonance idea. Guess I'll need to check out Merlin. Also in the way-back category is Lovelock's/ Margulies' GAIA. Lynn Margulies was a fellow biologist in Mass., and I definitely resonated to her perspectives on the macrosystem and its subsystems.
Rupert is his dad. You will love Merlin's book "Entangled Life". To promote the book Merlin seeded a copy with oyster mushroom spores and let the fungi eat the book. It was covered in them! You may still be able to view it on youtube.
He then "ate his words" quite literally.
Love Merlin Sheldrake and his dad, Rupert. Merlin is my vote to be our Elfin Princeling.
We don't know that it's not. What a gorgeous analogy, Vin. Soil fungi tongue-kissing is going to stay with me for a long time as I ponder the reality beneath our metaphorical feet where our roots begin and commingle and intertwingle, as a friend of mine says.
What a lovely response Tereza (my nonna was Teresa, Italian version). Nice image, and I know those roots exist and co-mingle with reference to my four closest friends. I freely admit to having more difficulty feeling it with some other folks. But it's a great task for the sub-intellectual brain. Not, by the way, sub-cognitive; my personal experience strongly suggest that those brain systems we undervalue as mostly having "automaticity" are highly cognitive beneath the level of fully engaged intellect. Sometimes a fully engaged intellect is a tremendous waste of neuronal processing capability.
Building on what you're saying, Vin, maybe you trade spores and chuckles with your four copacetic fungi friends. It's the ones where you don't feel it that the mycelium network kicks in. You get to do your part, transforming toxic waste into nutrition, and then you pass it on to the network and it goes where it's needed most. You don't have to worry about it. Presto LoPresti!
Allora, corraggio Teresa. Tutti di noi abbiamo bisogno di corraggio durante questo periodo d'insanità. It's why your avatar is so pertinent. There's also the alternate fungal strategy -- because they're so insulated from water loss in those hyphae -- of concentrating minerals in soil for the benefit of plant roots, thus optimizing plant health/photosynthesis, and hence the health of the entire ecosystem. That's what I got out of teaching broader scientific perspectives like GAIA and even Sheldrake, except concentrating ideas instead of minerals. Very spiritually nutritious.
Oooh... I like that. My Imagination Seeks Attention episode is subtitled "how to read the 'soul glyphs of the numinous realms'," a superb phrase I got from a Reality Sandwich article called Imaginal Hygiene by MT Xen. So burying spiritually nutritious soul glyphs in subterranean realms seems very prudent in these times of insanity. I hear that my name is a parting comfort or boost to vigor in Italy to take heart. Much needed.
OK, I subscribed; sounds interesting. Only other person I was on phenomenal-noumenal discussion levels with is my old professorial integrated science colleague who's back in Boston. Have you ever read about Karl Bohm's book "Wholeness and the Implicate Order"? I say read about because the body of the book is pretty heavy mathematical physics, quantum theory. (And of course, I don't assume that you might not have competence; indeed you might.) But in the appendix, if I recall, he presents the concept in simpler terms -- an implicate order on the quantum level with properties that don't allow certainty. For example, there's no telling whether an electron you detect in one location is the same electron observed later in a new location because electrons come and go from the implicate [the noumenal] to become explicated when observed in the phenomenal (apparently not a violation of the theory). But with the probabilistic nature of quantum theory and the fact that the observation itself impacts the event, the possibilities are mind blowing. Naturally, Professor Bohm, a Nobel laureate in physics, swallowed molta merda from his esteemed colleagues at the end of his life. Sadly.
Loved every word of this poetic sermon! Caitlin has outdone herself on this post. It should be written in stone and preserved as an true statement of our times.
Indeed. From the ashes the Phoenix rises. New, tiny green shoots emerge from burnt forest floor. Somehow in this stifling, corrupt culture a fresh wind blows. Hold dear ones, hold this moment, this life. Even in our pain, loss and grief, we rise...
I have read many of Caitlin's post but this one stands out, it is like reading a script from my own minds-eye.
Most of my life, I believed in this madness....didn't really realize what the madness was doing to my psyche. Since the Global Financial Crime Spree and the resulting investigation and research I've done has opened my eyes into what a mad, mad world we live in.
At some point, we have to all learn that the only thing.....and I mean the ONLY thing that matters is love. Love of your family, your friends and your neighbors. We only have each other. To love, to forgive and to help our fellow man is really what this is all about. The rest is total madness.
"Now you're growing up some more and learning that, underneath everything, there really is a deep sanity and happiness after all."
Hmm. I'll reserve judgment on that one. Still, I did wake up having slept poorly after having had an upsetting exchange with another comment poster. (Not here, I hasten to add. Most people here seem a little more chilled.) I decided that day to avoid the internet for a while. So it didn't go on until 5 in the afternoon.
In the middle of that night I got up and wrote down, "I need to break away from the unrelenting misery!"
Yes, it is all fake. Fake reasons for war. Fake reasons for lockdown and fake reasons for reducing CO2 emissions. Someone always benefits: the MIC, Big Pharma and the Green Energy corporations.
I know, some here believe in the climate change scam. Well I don't. I'm not anti conservation. I want plastics to be taken from our oceans. I want to preserve the rainforests. But I also want to preserve traditional farming practices. Selfish virtue signalling vegans want to impose their religion on us all. The media is now telling us we must all eat insects to save the planet. Ireland is contemplating paying farmers to cull their cows to reduce CO2 emissions. If you believe in all this all I can say is, wake up, for God's sake!! It's a con - follow the money!
In Scotland it was reported in 2020 that 14 million trees had been cut down to build wind farms. Go figure!
some years ago, i a novice to environmentalism had one of those aha! moments reading about three ways in which human beings (society) relate to the nature: 1) the nature as the object/resource to use, 2) the nature as the object to protect from human disruptions and extractions, and 3) the nature as the environment in which human beings (can and should) exist as its organic part. the author observed the native amazonians have lived as part of the nature for a long long time while the "civilized" societies miserably failed in "managing the nature from the 1) and 2) perspectives". mother nature including the micro-biological world continues to prove to be infinitely more complex and intricate than what human engineering can imagine, manage, change, or improve.
Interesting. Unfortunately, we are a very destructive species.
I personally do not view the "exploitation" of animals for food and clothing as bad in and of themselves. What is bad is the cynical exploitation of animals for profit.
I once experimented with vegetarianism, but abandoned it. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with eating meat. We are not the only species to do that. Similarly, I don't think there is anything wrong with drinking cows milk and eating cheese and eggs.
The key for me is attitudinal. Food is a gift of nature and to be respected.
consumption or the way of life can and should be need-based as opposed to profit-driven, i'm sure you agree. i suspect the natives like amazonians eat whatever they find (and maybe cultivate in their own way) in their environment. i'm a lifetime (since 6yo) vegetarian but it's my personal taste, not a philosophical or moral stand.
Echoing the love that others are expressing. Your poetry always seeps through but when it floods, it's magnificent. I think that you, like Charles Eisenstein, don't consciously study A Course in Miracles but you're both taking the curriculum in a subliminal language. Today I read in it about overcoming the illusion of orders of difficulty. It seems like this problem is bigger, this catastrophe huge. But how can any shape be more significant in a dream?
I love your owl, the One Who Laughs. The ending is certain, and it's beautiful. Be patient.
Thank You, check out my substack. I listen to you often on my rambles and meanders through Northern Michigan field and forest.
True dat.
Ow, lies
Yes!! 1,000 x "Yes!" our species will drive us (and many others) extinct... AND that fundamental awareness will be here even after we are gone...
Caitlin, I love you.
These words sounds sooo familiar Caitlin . . . .
Beautiful, thanks. Always enjoy your writings