The Chrysalisage Age

The Robotic Age

2011-08-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

From The Chrysalis Age (2002):

The long slow march toward artificial consciousness will proceed as fast as memory and chip speed will allow it. What the final result of this research will be is impossible to guess at this stage, but even if scientists are unable to create a machine that is aware, they will likely be able to create one that can imitate intelligence well enough to do many human tasks. This will inevitably change the structure of many societies, and we will necessarily need to prepare for it. Today a world of thinking machines seems like a far flung possibility, but with the rate at which computer sophistication increases many of us will see a computer capable of imitating, and thus replacing, simple human actions within our lifetimes. What would be useful is if the computer and robotics organizations in existence today could create an international panel working with major governments to examine and address these issues. Primary among them should be the examination of how robotics, even before advanced computer intelligence, will change the distribution of labor around the world. If we do not prepare ourselves for this shift, it will cause even more upheaval than the shift from manual to machine labor did during the Industrial Revolution of the 19th Century. This can be managed and assuaged by planning in advance how to shift from human to machine labor on a worldwide scale. We should establish educational programs for retraining as well as social security nets to ensure social and cultural stability in the nations most heavily affected. This planning should begin now to avoid the suffering that will inevitably come from being taken off guard and unprepared by the sudden changes we are bound to experience.

From Reuters, two days ago:

Contract manufacturers such as Foxconn, which also counts Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Nokia among its clients, are moving parts of their manufacturing to inland Chinese cities or other emerging markets.
They are also boosting research and development investments to lift their thin margins.

"Workers' wages are increasing so quickly that some companies can't take it longer," said Dan Bin, a fund manager at Shenzhen-based Eastern Bay Investment Management, which invests in technology and consumer-related shares in China and Hong Kong.

"Automation is a general trend in many sectors in China, such as electronics. Of course some companies will consider moving their manufacturing overseas, but it's easier said than done when the supply chain is here."

The China Business News on Monday quoted Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou as saying the company planned to use 1 million robots within three years, up from about 10,000 robots in use now and an expected 300,000 next year.

Debt Ceiling Crisis

2011-07-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

So the debt ceiling crisis is still looming. Seems clear that we will have to make cuts in things we like because we have been borrowing to pay for them for too long. Also seems inevitable that we will have to raise taxes, on every one eventually, but the wealthy first. Unfortunately, it seems only the first if likely to happen anytime soon.

The conservative logic says that you can't raise taxes on the wealthy because they use their money to create jobs. Where are those jobs? 9.2% unemployment. Where are they putting their money? Dow Jones is over 12,000. Seems they are putting their money in the stock market.

The wealthy do not spend their money in ways that create significant jobs. There aren't enough wealthy for their consumption of common goods to impact the economy and job creation. Moreover, the luxury items the wealthy purchase do not require significant labor pools to manufacture. A simple thought experiment: How many workers does it take to manufacture a $5000 handbag? Now how many workers does it take to manufacture 100 $50 bags?

One recurrent conservative meme is that every dollar in taxes is a dollar that is taken out of the economy. That makes no sense. The money collected as taxes goes back into the economy to pay the salaries of government workers, government contracts, constructions projects, unemployment benefits, etc.. Money that the very wealthy keep from lower taxes it more likely to go into the stock market than the economy.

Money put into the stock market is speculative investment. By and large, it does not create jobs (except for stock brokers). So, money that might be used for taxes, and put back into the economy is instead being put in the stock market. Speculative investors hope to make a profit and pay a lower tax rate than they would with earned income from productive investment.

We need to structure taxes to encourage productive rather than speculative investment. Productive investment, like venture capital, creates jobs. The money is used to hire people, rent office space, purchase equipment and machinery. But venture capital investment peaked in 2000. Shortly after that capital gains taxes were lowered. It made more sense for people with money to invest to stick it in speculative investments. The stock market. Money invested in the stock market doesn't create jobs (unless it is in new stock offerings used to expand companies - bonds do put money into the economy).

We'll need to cut spending and raise taxes, because we don't just need to balance the budget, we eventually need to start paying back the money we have borrowed. Unfortunately, I doubt any of that will happen until it is too late to really help.

Busy, Busy

2011-07-17T14:19:00.000-07:00

Cannot seem to find time to post here. Too busy posting at the Kosmosaic Books site, and the daily Twitter and Facebook posts.

I'm writing one of two new novels and editing two old ones. The Wizard of Time should by up for sale within a week. Hopefully The Young Sorcerer's Guild will be available a month later.

All this leaves very little time for posting here.

Posts will be a little sporadic.

Libya and Moral Questions of War

2011-06-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

I haven't known quite what to make of the political situation here in the US regarding the NATO intervention in the Libyan civil war. I think there is a clear moral need to intercede when a tyrant starts killing his own citizens and with airpower and threatening to annihilate those who have risen up against him. I'm not entirely sure why so many on the left of the political spectrum are so upset by this intervention. Especially those who are critical of the Obama administration for not putting enough international pressure on Syria, Bahrain, and Yemen to halt the attacks on their citizens who are calling for democracy and reform.

I do think that President Obama was legally obligated to seek authorization from Congress to continue the mission (a political burden the other NATO members are insulated from), but after the failure by a wide margin in the House of Representatives to pass such a bill without his request, I can understand why he chose not to seek it. While it is possible that if he had come to congress and explicitly asked for authorization for US participation in the NATO Libya operation that both houses would have passed a bill giving the go ahead, it is also possible, in light of events, that they would have either failed to pass such a bill, or would have attached such strings to it as to make it politically impossible to for President Obama to continue the mission with any hopes of success. Or they might have added amendments for domestic issues that would force him to veto the very bill he asked for.

A failed authorization bill that he requested would be a larger political failure than any heat he will take from the Left or the Right by claiming that the Libyan conflict does not rise to the level of hostilities which would require him to follow the War Powers Act. I think it does rise to that level, but I can see why he says it does not. Without troops on the ground and with limited military engagement by the US at this time, he can make that claim and still pursue the goal of ousting Gadhafi.

Although I'm not especially happy about it, I find I do support the decision. Do you follow the law and hope that your political enemies hand you the tools to accomplish the mission, or do you step around them and do what you think is morally right?

Glad I don't have to make those decisions.

Universal Marriage Rights in NY - Finally!

2011-06-25T12:44:00.000-07:00

New York has become the first state to legalize marriage for everyone. That's a nice feeling, knowing the people your state, or at least the people the elected to represent them, have been wise enough to see everyone should have the ability to marry the person they love.

It is a level of compassionate thinking, being able to put one's self on someone else's shoes, that is sorely lacking through the world today.

Afghanistan 2011

2011-06-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

President Obama announced yesterday that the 10,000 of the 30,000 troops added to the Afghanistan campaign will begin returning home this year will the remaining 20,000 to return by November 2012. Of course this will still leave nearly 70,000 US troops in Afghanistan. There is much debate about the wisdom of this plan from all political perspectives.

So, what is a spiritual path for such a quagmire? I'm glad that troops will begin coming home, but how much will really change on the ground? Although the president's stated plan is to slowly draw down troops until their final departure in 2014, without clear goals for the mission, no one really knows what will happen. The goal seems to be creating a stable enough situation in terms of security that the Afghan army can take over the fight. So far they have seemed unwilling or incapable of even participating in the fight in any meaningful manner.

The unfortunate reality is that until the Afghan people need to be willing to fight for their own freedom. To date that doesn't seem to be the case. If it is not clear to them that the Taliban is their enemy, that they should be taking up arms against it to protect the freedoms they have gained, then no amount of US troops will solve the situation. You can't fight for someone else's freedom if they are unwilling to fight for it themselves.

Some sort of truce with the moderate elements of the Taliban might be possible, but the more extreme elements have no interest in a genuine truce because they have no interest in the democratic freedoms that Afghanistan has gained. They don't want rights for women. They don't want girls in schools. They don't want public elections. They want a theocratic state based on their very narrow interpretation of Islam. We know this, because this is what they had created until October of 2001, when the US helped to oust them.

Honestly I am unsure of what a true spiritual path might be in this situation. If the US were to leave rapidly now it seems all too likely that the Taliban would take control of the country again. But the longer they stay the more they become seen as occupiers (as the clearly unstable and unhelpful President Karzai called them).

Much of the problem is due to a clash of worldviews, but I'll try to articulate that in some later post.

For now, the only spiritual path I can see is some kind of negotiated deal that would retain the democratic freedoms while allowing the Taliban to practice their more medieval lifestyle (assume they can convince any of the women of the country to give up their freedoms and join them). The notion I'm suggesting is a negotiated truce that would give the Taliban the right to live like the Amish live in the US, as long as they agreed to the same non-violence as the Amish.

But that seems like an impossibly optimistic scenario. I suspect that violence and domination are so much at the heart of the true Taliban ideology that they would rather die than allow others to live as they wish.

New direction

2011-06-10T14:03:00.000-07:00

I’ve been rethinking the process of posting The Chrysalis Age as I revise it. Firstly because I’m slow at revising (too much novel writing to do) and because it doesn’t necessarily make for interesting blogging.

So, I think I’ll try to focus on short blog about the subjects of the book and shorter posts on revised material.

This seems like an interesting play. I wish I was in England to see it.

"The contemporary play tells the story of Edgar Ryme, a popular medium who suddenly disappeared from the public gaze after his wife died.

Amanda Schilling, an investigative journalist, has tracked him down to a flat in a fading Northern seaside town and despite having turned his back on the spirit world, he agrees to an interview. However, her agenda is to discuss the notion of spiritualism and why people are fixated with what awaits them – or doesn't – in the great beyond, on the other side.

The two compelling characters engage in a battle of wits as a terrifying tale unfolds featuring malevolent spirits, plot twists and heart-stopping shocks."

The Great Chain of Being

2011-06-01T09:13:00.000-07:00

(I am revising my book The Chrysalis Age: A Handbook for Spiritual and Global Transformation in the New Millennium. As part of that process, I am posting the sections of the book as I revise them.)

I got swamped with work and travel for work and then the long holiday and basically ignored this blog and the ongoing rewrite project. So, finally, here's the next installment:

The Great Chain of Being
The Great Chain of Being is the first of several concepts we need to explore before beginning an analysis of the different aspects of our world. It is a concept that helps give us a perspective on our relationship to, and place in, the Kosmos.

Vast Chain of Being! Which God began
Nature ethereal, human angel, man
Beast, Bird, Fish, Insect, what no eye can see,
No glass can reach; from Infinite to thee,
From thee to nothing. On superior pow’rs
Were we to pray, inferior might on ours;
Or in the full creation leave a void,
Where, one step broken, the great scale’s destroy’d
From Nature’s chain whatever link you strike,
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
-Alexander Pope

The Great Chain of Being: Matter giving rise to life, giving rise to mind, giving rise to soul, becoming aware of Spirit, the very essence of the chain itself. The Great Chain of Being pops up in one form or another throughout the world’s religions and philosophies. It isn’t a difficult concept to grasp. And it is not surprising that such a simple and elegant hierarchy has been frequently mutated and perverted to place one person above the rest, males above females, or one ethnicity above another. This pathological representation of the Great Chain should not be used as an excuse to discard it all together. Not only is it a valid view of the universe, but one that we can use in viewing our own relationship with it.

By seeing our place in the universe we gain respect for, and appreciate the place of, all other things. This to some extent probably explains the frequency with which the Great Chain appears in the various wisdom traditions. Philosopher and historian of religion, Huston Smith, noted as much when describing the universality of the Great Chain of Being. “When we combine (a) the fact that it has been the subtler minds which, when not thrown off balance by the first blush of the scientific breakthrough, have gravitated to the hierarchical view, with (b) the further fact that, from the multiple heavens of Judaism to the storied structure of the Hindu temple and the angelologies of innumerable traditions, the view was reached convergently and independently, as if by innate tropism, by virtually all known societies; when, to repeat, we combine these two facts and bring them into alignment, they entitle us to regard a tiered reality as man’s central surmise when the full range of his experience is legitimized and pondered profoundly.”
The most thorough study of the Great Chain of Being was written by philosopher Arthur Lovejoy. Referring to Lovejoy’s book, The Great Chain of Being, integral philosopher Ken Wilber notes that:

… the various Great Chain Theorists maintained three essential points: (1) all phenomenon – all things and events, people, animals, minerals, plants—are manifestations of the superabundance and plenitude of Spirit, so that Spirit is woven intrinsically into each and all, and thus even the entire material and natural world was, as Plato put it, “a visible, sensible God”; (2) therefore, there are “no gaps” in nature, no missing links, no unbridgeable dualisms, for each and everything is interwoven with each and every other (the “continuum of being”); and (3) the continuum of being nevertheless shows gradation, for various emergents appear in some dimensions that do not appear in others (e.g., wolves can run, rocks can’t, so there are “gaps” in the special sense of emergents).

Each thing, each atom, each life, each mind, is whole within itself, while at the same time part of a greater whole. This Great Chain of Being fills the entire universe top to bottom. This universe of infinite connection and infinite depth is the one that is around us and within us at every moment. Our awareness of it is in many ways our awareness of our own being. And more importantly, our awareness of our being in relation to all being. For instance, we might not have much feeling for the matter that comprises life, the seemingly unimportant molecules and atoms that create our Kosmos, but without them, there would be no life. And without life, there would be no mind. There would always be, as there always has been, Spirit, the Ground of All Being, but without mind, there would be no awareness of it.

Our place in the Great Chain of Being is both exalted, and tenuous. We are the fortunate ones, those possessing minds, capable of realizing the true nature of the universe, but at the same time the world of life, and a universe of matter, support us. If the sun should wink out, all life on this planet would disappear with it. In the same way, if we do not respect the life that supports us on this planet, we will threaten the very foundation that maintains and provides for our minds. And further, if we do not care for and cultivate our minds, we will never grow to fully appreciate the real nature of the universe as Spirit, the Ground of All Being, manifest in every link of the Great Chain.

Worldview, Ethics, and Vision - Part 2

2011-05-11T11:17:00.000-07:00

(I am revising my book The Chrysalis Age: A Handbook for Spiritual and Global Transformation in the New Millennium. As part of that process, I am posting the sections of the book as I revise them.)

The truths of each worldview are the basis of its ethics. Consequently, the worldview with the greatest depth of understanding will be the one with an ethics that has the greatest depth of meaning. The significance of this is extremely important. The greater the depth of a worldview and ethics, the more appropriate it will be for understanding and engaging the world. To be clear, I am not suggesting a Rousseau-like return to some historically earlier worldview, nor am I recommending the abandonment of Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment scientific empiricism. I am not promulgating an Eastern over Western perspective, nor am I advocating an adherence to religious, philosophic, or scientific dogma. Plainly put, I am saying that the world we have created, and more importantly the world we will be creating in the coming century, requires a whole new worldview that transcends, yet still encompasses the valid truths of the previous, more limited worldviews.

Our brave new century, our Chrysalis Age, requires a worldview that is capable of understanding the unlimited connections being created between nearly all the spheres of life. This is the Integral worldview. Our world is also in desperate need of an ethics that is not based in religious dogma, philosophical rationalizations, scientific absolutism, or free-market abstractions, but is instead grounded in a direct apprehension of the interconnectedness of all things. This is an Integral ethics. Unfortunately, when the subject of ethics is mentioned at all in reference to globalization it tends to be stuck in either a Modern, highly utilitarian sort of ethics, or a dysfunctional postmodern ethics caught up in cultural relativism.

In the spring of 2001, I attended a conference in New York City sponsored by the International Forum on Globalization. One of the things that struck me while sitting through an otherwise informative symposium was that two words were suspiciously absent from the discussion: “ethics” and “spirituality.” While I can understand the absence of the spirituality from the discussion, as it isn’t the first thing most people consider when talking about globalization, I couldn’t understand the absence of discussion about ethics. The debate on globalization is by its very nature a discussion about ethics, but few people, whether pro-globalization or anti-globalization, are willing to admit this openly. It seems we are assumed to be trapped in an ethical vacuum when making decisions about how to organize the world. This is an extreme misplacement of our concern. We should be concerned about globalization because of our ethics, not for intellectual or emotional reasons. I give many of the speakers at the conference a great deal of credit for attempting an Integral critique of globalization, but no criticism can be fully integrated without considering at least ethics, not to mention spirituality. The pro- and anti-globalization sides each have their own view, for their own reasons, and both assume they are “right.” Without a discussion of ethics, it is impossible to tease out the truths of either side.

What is worse, in my opinion, is that many in the anti-globalization camp, in attempting to defend the cultural integrity of developing nations from the modernizing, and mostly Americanizing, forces of globalization, often fall into a great cloud of ethical relativism. In one of the breakout seminars on how developing nations were being affected by globalization an audience member asked the panel how we, as culturally modern people, were to respond to the fact that many developing nations engaged in activities we found morally abhorrent. The panel was unfortunately in relative agreement on its relativism. They agreed that the cultures of many developing counties engaged in activities we find difficult to stomach, particularly where the rights of women were concerned. However, they felt these problems were the individual culture’s to work out in their own way, regardless of how much these actions might repel us.

This is the dysfunctional postmodern worldview at its worst. While the Modern worldview sees its cultural modes as superior, the dysfunctional postmodern worldview, in trying to see that all cultural modes have some value, mistakenly gives them all equal value. The truth is that the Modern cultural mode is in many ways superior, but not in all ways. An Integral worldview, one not trapped in relativism, clearly sees that the Traditional and Modern cultural modes both have a great deal to offer, and a great deal that should be discarded. The Integral worldview sees that while much of the culture of developing nations should be conserved as a precious heritage, where the cultures create suffering and deny equality to their citizens, they should change. The Integral worldview acknowledges that some worldviews are better functional fits than others, and accepts that Traditional individuals and cultures should abandon some their ways for Modern ones, which in turn should be abandoned for Postmodern and Integral ones, which eventually should be abandoned for Spiritual ways. One of the largest differences between the Modern and Integral worldviews is that the former sees itself as the height of development, while the latter realizes it is merely a stepping stage to greater heights of development individually, culturally, and socially.

As the forces of globalization sweep over the planet, seemingly unchecked, no aspect of our burgeoning global civilization is left untouched. Arenas of life that hitherto had only marginal effects on all of us are now tied together in a complex dance of near chaos. The global stew of economics, politics, social structures, diverse cultures, and the natural environment is being heated to a roiling boil by a vast array of technologies that threaten to outpace our ability to understand their current meaning, much less their long term implications.

To emerge from this maelstrom not merely in one piece but more whole than ever, we must not only acknowledge the storm, but our part in creating, maintaining, and exacerbating it. To do this will require not simply that we transform some of the social structures we use to create our world, but that we transform the very way we perceive it. This personal transformation, this transcendence of shallow ways of seeing for deeper ways of knowing, will by necessity demand that we challenge ourselves and others to examine in full our ways of being in the world as well as our ways of perceiving it.

This challenge is not to be taken lightly. Change rarely occurs without some manner of challenge and as we are in desperate need of extraordinary amounts of change, we will have to begin to supply equal doses of challenge in order to fully accomplish the tasks that we will be called upon to achieve. To create a Tsunami of change we will need wave upon wave of challenges. These waves of challenge should come at both the individual and collective levels. Moreover, they should be guided by the deeper ethics that the more encompassing worldviews engender. To simply provide challenge without guidance is to promote chaos on a level that can as easily lead to collapse as the emergence of new and novel ways of being. As our ethics guides our decisions it will also guide our manner of challenging the world around us. Consequently it will guide our vision of the world we wish to create and finally the actions that we take to accomplish the goals set out by this vision. Without a deeper worldview, we cannot obtain a deeper ethics, and without both of these we cannot hope to create a vision of the future that contains any real depth, nor can we hope to bring such a vision to fruition.

Worldview, Ethics, and Vision - Part 1

2011-05-09T10:59:00.000-07:00

(I am revising my book The Chrysalis Age: A Handbook for Spiritual and Global Transformation in the New Millennium. As part of that process, I am posting the sections of the book as I revise them.)

Before we can begin to explore the many different aspects of our world from an integral perspective, we first need a framework to hang our analysis on. The core of this framework is the idea of worldviews, what they are, how we acquire them, and how we can change them. We will explore worldviews in increasingly greater depth as we proceed through the book, but for now a brief introduction will suffice.

“In the old times, when it was still of some use to wish for the thing one wanted…” there lived a lovely young Princess who loved nothing more than to play with her golden ball. It happened one day that her precious ball rolled into a deep dark well and the Princess became very distraught. A bloated and slimy frog appeared at her side promising to retrieve the ball, if she in turn would promise to always keep him with her. The Princess readily agreed, but after the frog had brought forth her ball from the well, she began to feel quite differently about the bargain. The frog was after all, a frog. The frog however, insisted that the terms of the agreement be honored. The Princess unwillingly complied, taking the frog back to the castle, dining with it from the same plate, and retiring with it to her bedchamber. However, when the frog insisted on sharing the Princess’ bed, she grabbed it in a fit of rage and threw it against the wall, where it made a large splatting noise, and promptly turned into a handsome Prince. On apprehending this change of events, the Princess quite sensibly changed her mind about sharing a bed with the frog, now Prince, and the two were soon happily married.

This classic children’s story from the Brothers Grimm is a good but, simple example of shifts in worldview. The Princess could only see a frog, but the frog was more than merely a talking amphibious reptile, it was a royal youth, trapped by a witch’s spell. Had the Princess seen more clearly, had her worldview been a little deeper, she could have seen the frog for what it was. Just as the Princess could not see that her loquacious frog was more than simply a fly-eating friend until something drastic occurred, it may be that the circumstances of our world will have to become much more cataclysmic before we can muster the courage to transcend our individual and collective worldviews for ones that fully grasp the reality of the world we are creating.

Our worldview is, quite literally, the way we view the world. It is the manner in which we interpret the events of our lives and the world around us. In philosophy this is known as an epistemology, the way we know what we know. All philosophies are an attempt to explain and define their author’s worldview. Whether they utilize mythology, occult interpretation, philosophical rationalization, scientific empiricism, or direct interior observation, they are all attempts at explaining at least some small portion, if not the whole, of the universe. Interestingly, not only do our philosophies describe the world, they change the world as well. Our understanding of the world determines how we behave in it, and our behavior inevitably alters the world. This eventually becomes a feedback loop, whereby the changes we make in the world evoke changes in our epistemology. Much of the epistemological crisis experienced by people from the Renaissance onward is due to the internal conflict this feedback loop generates. While it seems to be clear that we all move through various stages with ever-deeper worldviews, or frames of consciousness, we do not all move through them at the same pace, or in the same manner.

There are a fascinating number of ways of looking at the world, and each of these worldviews engenders a different way of engaging our lives. The manner in which we live our lives, the choices we make of what to do and what not to do, is our ethics. Our worldview informs, and in many ways constructs, our ethics, the system of morals with which a person interacts in the world.

While there are a number of different worldviews, contrary to what many postmodern relativists might suggest, not all are equal. The widest worldview, the one with the greatest breadth and depth of perspective is always superior. The scientific worldview apprehends truths that the pre-scientific perspective simply cannot acknowledge. Likewise, a post-scientific worldview, an Integral-Spiritual perspective, is open to truths that science has no means of measuring, and science falls apart without measurement. As economist and philosopher E. F. Schumacher pointed out in A Guide for the Perplexed “…the methodical restriction of scientific effort to the most external and material aspects of the Universe makes the world look so empty and meaningless that even those people who recognize the value and necessity of a ‘science of understanding’ cannot resist the hypnotic power of the allegedly scientific picture presented to them and lose the courage as well as the inclination to consult, and profit from, the ‘wisdom traditions of mankind.’” A deeper worldview sees the validity of both the scientific tradition and the wisdom traditions.

We are living in a world that is integrated at every level and to survive in it, we must acquire an Integral worldview and an Integral ethics. With these tools we can then begin to create a vision of the future we might want to forge from the slag we are rapidly turning our world into. To accomplish this our worldview must eventually become not simply Integral, but Spiritual. A Spiritual worldview is one that sees the full depth of the universe, from matter to life, to mind, to Spirit. This progression is the Great Chain of Being of the world’s wisdom traditions. Philosopher Arthur Lovejoy describes it in his classic book of the same name as a universe composed “… of an infinite number of links ranging in hierarchical order from the meagerest kinds of existents, which barely escape non-existence, through ‘every possible’ grade up to the ens perfectissimum,” or Absolute Being. An Integral-Spiritual worldview is one that attempts to see the whole of the universe at every level of its depth, and every aspect of it being, not simply its physical dimensions. Furthermore, it is a worldview that supports an ethics capable of coping with the Gordian knot of moral issues that an interrelated world creates.

Introduction - Part 3

2011-05-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

(I am revising my book The Chrysalis Age: A Handbook for Spiritual and Global Transformation in the New Millennium. As part of that process, I am posting the sections of the book as I revise them.)

This journey in mapmaking begins with a metaphor to represent the terrain. The Chrysalis Age is structured around the concept of a spiral, which is http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifan ancient symbol implying transformation. The turns of a spiral relate to the flow of both physical and spiritual energy, suggesting evolution, or physical transformation as the energy flows outward and involution, or spiritual transformation as the energy flows inward. The spiral that is this book turns inward, signifying spiritual transformation by returning to the same fifteen core aspects of the world that it studies, each time from a different and deeper perspective. These aspects of the world cover a wide variety of topics chosen to give the broadest possible assessment of the current state of our world as well as a glimpse at the possible directions it may take.

The first of these is the physical world, which explores the world of oceanic, geological, and meteorological forces that support life and our civilizations. Next is the natural world of life and living things, followed by the human world of societies and cultures. These are then followed by a look at the clash of cultures created by globalizing forces and the effects on modern society of communications technology in media and the mind. We then explore the living conditions of humanity in their urban jumble. After this comes an exploration of globalization in terms of corporate ecology, the global economy and world government. Then we begin an examination of technology starting with progress vs. development, before looking at computers and robotics, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and the notion of an emerging global brain, or cybiont, from the mesh of interconnected communications that spans the globe. Finally the fifteenth aspect ponders the notion of spiritual emergence and how it might affect our future. Each one of these fifteen aspects is investigated from the dominant perspective of each of the five turns of the spiral that is the Chrysalis Age.

The first turn deals with worldviews, or the different ways that we view reality as we develop as individual humans and collectively as societies and cultures relying on developmental psychology and various studies of sociocultural evolution to suggest that there are deeper ways of perceiving the world available to each of us. This turn explores how we can shift from a world dominated by Traditional and Modern worldviews to one that openly expresses an Integral perspective, and ultimately, a Spiritual one.

The second turn deals with ethics, or the system of morals that we use individually and collectively to make decisions. This turn examines how our ethics is informed and created by our worldview and how deeply our personal and collective ethics affect the transformation of the world.

The last three turns are each about creating a vision of the future and how we can implement it. The third turn focuses on transforming the world in general, providing suggestions for change from an Integral perspective. The fourth turn then explores personal transformation, presenting a series of contemplations and meditations to facilitate personal development toward an Integral worldview. Finally, the fifth turn investigates spiritual transformation, again providing a compliment of meditations to promote the transcendence of our ordinary view of reality for one that sees and embraces the Divine in all things.

The recurrent theme of this book is that we desperately need a new more encompassing worldview and an ethics that is based not in religious dogma or philosophical rationalizations, but a direct understanding of the interconnectedness of the world. Given these two prerequisites of an ever-widening worldview and an ever-deepening ethics, the book then explores how we can begin to imagine a new vision of the world; one that is created in apprehension of its interconnectedness. This vision is in direct opposition to the world we are blindly fashioning in our ignorance. Globalization is in serious need of guidance and spirituality is the single most important tool for shaping that transformation. The pages that follow chart the need for conscious transformation of self and world, examining both from a number of depths and perspectives, suggesting the methods and providing the tools to turn this map into a reality.

Before we can begin with the map itself, we first need to familiarize ourselves with the legend that defines the symbols used to represent the terrain. In this simple analogy the legend is a brief survey of a number of fields that are inter-related, at least from a kosmological point of view. These include globalization and spirituality as well as religion, the psychology of personal development, sociocultural stages of development, stages of transpersonal development, the perennial philosophy, paradigm shifts, complexity and systems theory, issues of epistemology, the Great Chain of Being, holons, the spheres of existence, and finally, philosopher Ken Wilber’s Four Quadrants of Being. These subjects are the filters through which the fifteen layers of the world that are the heart of the map are explored. Each of these topics is introduced before the aspect of the world that it is most related to, highlighting its importance. For instance, in the first turn, complexity theory, or the study of complex networked systems such as ecologies, is discussed before the chapter on the global economy. By viewing the global economy as a complex system similar to an ecosystem, we can gain a greater insight into the dynamics necessary to keep it functioning in an optimal manner that benefits all of the world’s citizens.

Just as the clock altered our conception of time and the compass refined the cartography of the Renaissance, so too will the technology of the Chrysalis Age change and amend our apprehension of the world, improving our ability to represent it. If we use this technology wisely it can aid us in transforming the way we construct our individual and collective maps of reality. This book is but one map of the kosmos and by no means definitive. Because the ground to be mapped is expansive, its scale of representation is by necessity large as well. The book covers a great deal of territory and unfortunately some of its subjects can only be sketched vaguely. This should serve not to discourage the reader, but rather to encourage them toward their own investigation of the world and the deeper reaches of their inner self. We are all mapmakers and this map is by its very nature a challenge to all travelers in this Chrysalis Age to create their own maps, shrinking the scale were they can and working together to provide a clearer picture of the ground we cover jointly. From one mapmaker to another, I hope you enjoy the journey.

What is a Spiritual Response to the Death of an Evil Man?

2011-05-02T18:20:00.000-07:00

So Osama Bin Laden is dead. Killed by a US SEAL strike.

It’s interesting to read through the comment sections of various blogs and news sites and see how the three primary worldviews perceive the event. Traditional cheering USA! and finding a way to criticize President Obama, Moderns cheering USA! and wondering what this means for US Security, Post-Moderns criticizing the US and turning their comments toward the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

So what is a spiritual response to Bin Laden’s death? A good question that few are asking. I don’t feel I can speak for others seeking a spiritual answer, but for myself, as a Buddhist, I cannot take joy in the suffering or death of another living being. And I can have compassion for someone so clearly in the grips of violent delusions. But I can also feel satisfied that a terrible man who caused the deaths of thousands of innocent lives will no longer be able to continue his violence or avoid justice. It would have been nice if he had surrendered to be tried for his crimes, but it would be nice if he had not chosen his path of violence in the first place. We do not live in that kind of world, unfortunately.

There are many on the spiritual path that believe that violence can never be the right response to violence. I am not one of those. I believe that it can be a moral imperative to use violence if it is in the defense of one’s self or others.

The hope is to act, not with a mind filled with hatred and anger, but a mind filled with lovingkindness.

More on that later. The time is late and I have a novel to keep editing.

Introduction - Part 2

2011-05-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

Globalization is a single word that describes the world we are creating; a world of accelerating technology, freely flowing capital, reduced trade barriers, and shifting global power. It is a word implying transformation of our physical, social, and cultural spheres. Spirituality is also about transformation, but of the individual. Specifically it is about transforming the way we perceive the world, shifting our view from one based solely on the self, and our sense of separation, to one that sees the inherent unity of all things. This is not a New Age spirituality of self-help and ego massage. While a healthy ego-self is important to mature transcendence, true spirituality is about a direct realization of the Divine, not an amplification of our natural tendency toward self-cherishing. It is a personal realization in that we experience it individually, but it transcends the individual person by opening us up to the beauty, wonder, and importance of all persons and of the whole of the universe. It is a spirituality based not in a craving to escape the world, but in a desire to see and be in the world more fully. It is not based in some new fad or fashion but in the paths and practices that inform and support all of the world’s wisdom traditions. Its heritage does not emerge out of the psychedelic experimentation of the 1960s, but stretches back more than 2,500 years. It is a core of spiritual experience that finds its expression in the mystic writings and realizations of all the world’s religious traditions. Moreover, it is a spirituality that is available to all of us regardless of social or cultural background. This transformative way of perceiving the world is what we desperately need to counter the narcissistic, close-minded, and materialistic worldviews that dominate the sphere of human affairs today. It is this vision, this deeper way of perceiving reality, which will help us guide the global transformations that we are engaged in. Just as globalization transforms the physical structures of the world, real spirituality transforms the deeper structures of the self.

Alchemy was the metallurgical and metaphysical art of transmutation finding its birth in the Middle Ages and its flowering in the Renaissance. The physical goal of alchemy was to transform base metals, such as lead, into gold via the creation of the mythical Philosopher’s Stone. As psychologist Carl Jung was first to point out, alchemy was a study of, and metaphor for, transformation of the self. In their obscure and arcane texts, alchemists explored the deeper meanings of separation and union throughout the universe, from the dichotomy of the male and female, to the unity of nature and the Divine. But as the scientific paradigm came to dominate our worldview the metaphysical investigation at the heart of alchemy was lost. As Jung explained, “With the decline of alchemy the symbolical unity of spirit and matter fell apart, with the result that modern man finds himself uprooted and alienated in a de-souled world.” In many ways this book is an effort to provide a new sort of alchemy for our Chrysalis Age. Like those ancient alchemical texts, it attempts to provide a means of transforming the world and the self by exploring the illusion of separation between person, cosmos, and the Divine. By providing an integral path toward the transformation of self and world a more complete understanding of both may arise.

It is a daunting task to attempt a deeper more complete understanding of the universe. Nevertheless it is an endeavor that every single one of us must strive to accomplish if we are to have any prospect of creating a viable future for the generations that follow us. We can only hope that our grandchildren’s grandchildren will have the pleasure of staring up into the night sky and sensing the magnanimity of the cosmos. As astronomer Carl Sagan wrote, “I believe our future depends on how well we know this Cosmos in which we float like a moat of dust in the morning sky.” Not only do we need to know the cosmos, we need to know it in all its depth and beauty. The original Greek word for the universe is kosmos. Unlike its English translation the original Greek word kosmos implies the whole of existence, at every level of the universe, including the spiritual as well as the physical domains. It is only by attempting to see and understand the whole of the universe that we can begin to establish a kosmology that will help guide us as we live our lives in this increasingly beautiful and dangerous world. The pages that follow endeavor to create an outline for just such a kosmology, drawing on the work of numerous philosophers, scientists, artists, and spiritual teachers, foremost among them, the work of integral philosopher Ken Wilber. It is not complete, and never can be. No map is the terrain itself, and no kosmoslogy will ever be able to present the full breadth and depth of the universe. What it can do is provide us with a guide to the paths that will eventually allow us to experience directly for ourselves the fullness and creativity of this awesome kosmos, and ultimately help us design our own creations, social, cultural, and physical, in imitation of its grandeur and divinity.

Introduction - Part 1

2011-04-30T18:47:00.001-07:00

I am revising my book The Chrysalis Age: A Handbook for Spiritual and Global Transformation in the New Millennium. As part of that process, I am posting the sections of the book as I revise them.

Introduction: Of Birth, Butterflies and Mapmaking

In its transformation from an Earth-bound leaf eater to a gossamer winged swallowtail, the caterpillar must first go through a transitionary, or chrysalis stage. From the outside it would appear that this small creature, wrapped in its cocoon, is merely hibernating. In truth this shape-shifting insect is undergoing an enormous transformation on both a structural and cellular level. When it emerges from its protective envelope it will have changed from a multi-legged larva into a multicolored butterfly seemly as light as the air it floats upon.

Our world is currently entering into its own chrysalis stage of transformation. We are slowly shedding the tight fitting skin of modernity and the vestigial trappings of the traditional world that preceded it for a more integral and complete way of seeing and being in the universe. As with the metamorphosis within the caterpillar’s cocoon, we can expect this transformation to be radical, extensive, and violent. It will be a simultaneous transformation of ourselves and our world that will extend over much of the coming century, if not beyond it.

The notion that the human species is experiencing a significant period of change that is affecting not only its various cultures and societies but also the very Earth we inhabit is not new. Many writers have compared this change to the one that swept through Western Europe in the fifteenth century. Although the comparison between the Renaissance and the world we are rapidly creating is illuminating, it is not entirely accurate. The Renaissance was truly a rebirth. We are not rebirthing some world we have seen before. We are producing something entirely different, but yet not separate from the world of our past. The world we are constructing is a result of the world we have made over the last century and which we continue, largely blindly, to fashion each day. Our world has always been integral, but we are adding layers of connections and levels of complexity to it at an unprecedented rate. We are immersed in the initial phases of a new age: a Chrysalis Age, a period of transformation that by the end of this century will leave much of our world unrecognizably different. Our success as a species in coping with this incredible transformation will depend largely upon our ability to recognize how our worldview, our way of understanding the universe, informs and directs the course of human affairs. By understanding how we can transform our worldviews from the shallow ways of seeing that are indicative of the modern perspective to the deeper ways of knowing that are available to each of us, we will be able to transform the world in a consciously creative manner. Though we are in a Chrysalis Age, there is no guarantee we will manage a metamorphosis into a global civilization resembling the metaphoric butterfly. Unlike the caterpillar, we cannot afford to rely upon nature’s hand to guide us toward the more perfect form. Without conscious guidance, personally and collectively, we are just as likely to emerge from the chrysalis a deformed maggot-like creature as a brilliantly tinted monarch.

The Renaissance and the Enlightenment had as an ideal the Renaissance Man; an individual skilled in a number of fields and possessed of a broad base of knowledge. Our Chrysalis Age requires something similar: an Integral Human. We are in desperate need of women and men who can obtain a grasp, however loose, of the whole of human existence, from art and literature to science and technology, and from spirituality and psychology to politics and business. We have allowed our minds to become segmented and compartmentalized so much that we can rarely see more than a glimpse of what is outside our particular box. It has been suggested that Goethe was the last person to have a real grasp of the whole of his world. Where as Goethe studied and wrote about science, philosophy, art, and literature, in prose, poetry, and drama, we have allowed ourselves to become the necessary evil of our age; specialists. As my favorite childhood science fiction writer, Robert Heinlein was fond of saying “specialization breeds extinction; diversification breeds success.” This is not to say that we do not need experts. Experts are vitally important, but as their expertise becomes more and more specific, it often limits their ability to recognize how their specialized knowledge fits into the vast ocean of information that floods us from every corner. However, if we can learn to emphasize multiple perspectives, and holding the widest viewpoint possible, we can begin to integrate this information into a coherent picture of the world we live in. Together, as Integral Humans we can coalesce a complete apprehension of the world from the cacophony we are creating, turning it from a wall of noise into a symphony, and by doing so, guide ourselves safely forward into an unsure future.

The time when we could hope to understand the world simply by watching the evening news is long, long past, if it ever existed. What has really changed about the world is not so much that we can’t understand it with minimal effort, because we never could, but that now a minimal understanding of the world is actively dangerous. If we do not understand the economics of globalization, how can we hope to have a say in its implementation? If we do not understand the social, cultural, and political causes of terrorism, how can we hope to defend ourselves from it? If we don’t understand the science behind genetic engineering, how can we hope to understand the ethical considerations of cloning or stem cell research? If there was ever a time when we could blindly lead our lives oblivious to the world at large and simply hope that everything would work out for the best, it is long gone. This is all the more apparent in the wake of the hideous terrorist attacks of September 11th and the subsequent events that have followed, from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to the democratic awakening in the Middle East. If we are to have any hope of a future that provides a safe and sustainable world for our great grandchildren, then we must actively engage the world we live in now. We cannot afford to be ignorant or lazy. The luxury of these attitudes is not open to us and the toleration or pursuit of them will only lead to our destruction. This is why an investigation into the forces of collective and personal transformation is so important. These forces are expressed most openly as globalization and spirituality.

Re-vision

2011-04-25T09:02:00.000-07:00

I have finally figured out how to use this blog in a way that will encourage me to post on a regular basis. I’m going to use it to revise the manuscript for my non-fiction book The Chrysalis Age, in preparation for eventually publishing it as an ebook.

After reading about the success that writers like Amanda Hocking and J.A. Konrath are having by independently publishing ebooks I decided that there is no reason that I should not start publishing the YA fantasy and science fiction novels I’ve written. My hope is to publish the first book in The Wizards of Time series by June, The Young Sorcerer’s Guild in July, and The Celestial Blade in August. They are all polished and are only in need of final editing/proofing and the formatting need for print and ebook publication.

I’ll be creating a website and blog for the novels and separating my brand, so to speak. This blog will become a series of posts of revisions to The Chrysalis Age, sometimes posted out of order to comment of current events from the vantage point of spirituality and globalization from my perspective and an interspiritual minister. The other site will be for blogging about the novels and the process of writing and independently publishing.

The Chrysalis Age is a big book. Around 225,000 words. So it will take a while to work my way through the revisions. Especially since my primary focus will be the publishing and writing the YA fantasy and sci-fi novels. But my hope is that a year from now I’ll be able to make The Chrysalis Age available as an ebook. In the meantime I’ll be taking the book down from the website so I don’t have conflicting versions hanging around.

The next post will probably start with the introduction.

Buddhist Prayer of the Six Perfections

2010-08-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

Been a bit lazy about blogging. Trying to decide if I should switch over to Tumblr or if I should just install wordpress on the main site. Makes it easy to procrastinate about posting. So a prayer seems a good idea.

Buddhist Prayer of the Six Perfections
I seek to complete the perfection of giving;
fulfilling the desires of all living beings.
I seek to complete the perfection of moral discipline;
maintaining my vows and gathering virtuous Dharma.
I seek to complete the perfection of patience;
abandoning anger and cultivating equanimity.
I seek to complete the perfection of effort;
striving for enlightenment with unwavering
compassion.
I seek to complete the perfection of concentration;
attaining tranquil abiding and the mind of clear light.
I seek to complete the perfection of wisdom;
realizing directly the union of bliss and emptiness.
OM AH HUM

What are the 21 Stages of the Path to Enlightenment?

2010-07-30T12:10:00.000-07:00

Lamrim means “Stages of the Path” in Tibetan. In 1042 King Jangchub invited the Buddhist teacher Atisha to Tibet. Asked to give a concise teaching of the Buddhist path for the Tibetan people, Atisha created the Lamrim, organizing the essential Buddhist teachings in the order they should be realized. These twenty-one stages are the Lamrim, or the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. These teachings form the basis of what is known as the Kadampa tradition and nearly all subsequent Mayahana Tibetan teachings.

I’ll be attempting to write a meditative prayer for each stage from an interspiritual perspective and to write a short commentary on that stage and how the teaching can be used from an interspiritual perspective.

The 21 Stages of the Path Are:

1. Relying upon a Spiritual Guide
2. Our precious human life
3. Death and impermanence
4. The danger of lower rebirth
5. Refuge practice
6. Actions and their effects
7. Developing renunciation for samsara
8. Developing equanimity
9. Recognizing that all living beings are our mothers
10. Remembering the kindness of living beings
11. Equalizing self and others
12. The disadvantages of self-cherishing
13. The advantages of cherishing others
14. Exchanging self with others
15. Great compassion
16. Taking
17. Wishing love
18. Giving
19. Bodhichitta
20. Tranquil abiding
21. Superior seeing

I'm guessing that this project will take most of the year if not more. Something to work in between writing a new script and creating the notes for a new novel.

I need a nap.

21 Interspiritual Prayers

2010-07-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

I think I may have found a focus for this blog. I’ve been thinking for awhile that it would be easier if I had some sort of on going project to work on in this space. Most blogs seem to be either a sharing in a diary like fashion or a constant update of opinion on current events. I’m not sure I’m cut out for either of those. I may decide to post a few opinions, but for the most part I’m hoping to make this blog a place to explore a new project. Or at least to post some of the notes from that project. What’s the project?

Since my ordination a year ago I have had the idea of writing a series of interspiritual prayers with explanatory text and maybe even quotes to support them. I had thought about 108 prayers (because of the importance of the number to Buddhists), but I have been so daunted by the project that I haven’t even started. But yesterday in the middle of meditation something popped into my consciousness that made prefect sense. I could write interspiritual prayers based on the Tibetan Buddhist 21 Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. I could explore each of these stages interspiritually, not simply as a Buddhist teachings.

So, that’s my project. To try and express the 21 Stages of the Path (the Lamrim) in an interspiritual manner that will apply to anyone of any faith or religion.

That seems like something that will keep me occupied for a while.

Spirituality in the Series Finale of Lost

2010-07-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

A much belated thought about the series finale of Lost and its spiritual content.

I was one of the people who were thoroughly satisfied with the ending of Lost. Immediately after watching the final episode I knew that while I might not be fully satisfied intellectually, I was certainly satisfied emotionally. And as I contemplated the ending more, I realized that that show had satisfied me spiritually as well.

My spiritual satisfaction came from watching the characters realize what I thought was the essence of the finale, and a potent spiritual teaching. As they become aware that they are dead, that they in some middle place, a purgatory or bardo of some sort, a place of their own creating, they have a realization. That real realization is crystallized in the final scene between Ben Linus and John Lock. They realize that they do not have to be the people they were. They understand that they were like actors in a play, pretending to be these characters with all these flaws and problems, filled with anger and hatred and fear, and finally, they can let go of all of that a just BE.

That is such a profound lesson to me. It is a lesson I keep trying to remind myself of. This life is like a play (or as Buddha said, like a dream). I don’t have to play the role of a person filling with anger or hatred or fear (delusions). I can drop that mask and all the other masks and just Be.

It makes me look forward to re-watching the series one day and looking for other little spiritual lessons I might have missed the first time.

Taxes, Deficits, and Productive vs Speculative Investment

2010-07-15T14:01:00.000-07:00

I’ve been reading in a lot of discussion about the deficit and taxes the last few days. Everyone is worried about the national deficit and the national debt. Counties like the United Kingdom are cutting spending and raising taxes. While raising some taxes will help the deficit issue, here there is a big debate between Paul Krugman and Nail Ferguson about whether to push for another round of deficit financed stimulus spending or whether that will bankrupt the country. Meanwhile, Republicans are calling for cutting spending and keeping the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. They seem to believe that the more money the wealthy have the more they will invest in the economy, even though there seems to be no evidence of this having happened in the 2000s after the tax cut was initiated. Instead the wealthy took the extra money from income and capital gains tax cuts and stuck it in the stock market, which has very little direct impact on the economy at large.

All of this, in my opinion, comes down to understanding the difference between productive and speculative investment. Productive investment, like venture capital investments (which peaked in 2000), spurs job growth and production. Money invested in companies is used to hire workers, rent or build office space, purchase supplies, materials, etc.. Money put in the stock market is just speculative investment. Like gambling. The exceptions are things like initial public offerings, a stock issue to raise money for expansion, or municipal bonds.

If we can structure our taxes (and tax breaks) to encourage those with income to invest to put that money into productive investments (like venture capital), then it is more likely that we will see economic growth. A good place to focus this would be green energy technology. Few things help spur economic growth like investment in new technology (i.e. internet boom of the 90s).

Encouraging productive investment will create economic growth which will increase tax revenues, but we will still need to raise taxses and cut spending. And raising taxes on those who make the most does make sense, not simply because they can clearly afford it (otherwise they wouldn’t be gambling in the stock market with it) but also because it is fair.

It makes sense for those who make more money to pay more in taxes because we do not make money in isolation – we make money in interconnection and interdependence with one another. The greater our income the more we are interconnected and the more we are benefiting from our interconnection. It only makes sense that the more we benefit from society the more we should contribute to the maintenance of that society. Why is a person making $2.5 million a year contributing at the same rate as someone who makes $250,000 a year? The wealthier person benefits exponentially more and should contribute exponentially more. The same is true for corporations. And that increased tax revenue will decrease, along with spending cuts, the budget deficit. Targeted tax breaks for businesses and investors who put money in productive investment will encourage economic growth, which will increase tax revenue.

Of course the problem is passing tax increases and getting people to see the difference between productive and speculative investment. And figuring out what spending cuts to make. And figuring out how to spread the pain with small taxes for the non-wealthy. And figuring out if we really can afford more stimulus. I certainly hope so, because with consumer spending being such a large part of our domestic economy, we need to offset its slump with exports and a little government spending that creates jobs. We were lucky the last ten years that as productivity increased (fewer people being needed for the same work) people were able to borrow money (most on credit cards and new home loans) to keep consumption demand high and create some jobs. Without the ability of people to borrow freely, it will be difficult to drive consumer consumption unless there are new jobs (hopefully from green tech).

That’s all enough babbling for today.

TVs Lost, Mysteries, and Revelations

2010-07-12T18:03:00.000-07:00

I’ve been thinking a bit about Lost, both the series as a whole, and the finale in particular, and I think I have come to an understanding of why some people were so dissatisfied with the answers that the final season and finale provided to the questions that had been posed by the show over the course of six years. I’ve bee thinking about this because I am in the plotting stage for a fantasy series that would pose a large number of interconnected mysteries that would need to be resolved in the final novel.

I suspect that many people were unhappy with the answers that Lost’s creators provide because of the simple fact that mysteries are almost always more interesting and engaging to than any answers that make them understandable. I think, to a degree, that holds true for the mysteries of science as well as the literary kinds. The mystery of the origin of the universe are more engaging than the answer that it was created in a Big Bang in an instant from an infinitesimally small singularity. This I think explains in some small way why many people find it easier to cling to the explanation that the universe was created by God, because that answers leads to the question of God’s existence and back to mystery. For Lost, once you have introduced the Black Smoke Monster, it’s difficult to ever come up with an explanation for its existence that is even remotely as interesting and the mystery that it creates by its presence. I suspect that Lindoff and Cuse knew this which is why they decided not to reveal the even larger questions about what the island itself is and where it came from. Because if people were upset with the answers about Jacob and the numbers and the Black Smoke Monster, how could they ever be happy with an answer about what the island was? What I find amusing is that I have read a lot of people complaining about the answers they got, but haven’t found anyone suggesting alternative explanations they thought were better.

What this all means to me is that I need to be really careful in how I plot out this new novel and how I reveal the explanations for the mysteries that are at the center of the story. I need to figure out how to balance the mysteries with the other plot elements and the character development. Much work ahead. For now, though I am reading The Young Sorcerer’s Guild to my wife and trying to figure out a way to convince an agent that it is the next Harry Potter, Lightening Thief, Golden Compass, etc..

Much work ahead.

Cunsumption, Consumption, What's Your Function?

2010-07-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

Still not clear on what this blog is going to be about. So, while I figure that out I thought I’d post an excerpt from my play Pop Culture: The Future of America™.

SCENE: Two
SETTING: Typical Citizen Home

The Citizen Enters

CITIZEN: Computer, load the doctor program.
COMPUTER (O.S.): Doctor program running.
CITIZEN: I need to speak to a psychologist.

COMPUTER (O.S.): I am required to inform you that you have already exceeded the one hour a year time limit for psychiatric consultation allowed by the Health Marketing Operator assigned by your company Inc.com.
CITIZEN: I’m aware. Deduct the charges from my account. Just let me speak to the doctor.
COMPUTER (O.S.): Billing will commence immediately, charged by the quarter-minute.

The DOCTOR appears bathed in hot white light.

DOCTOR: How may I help you Consumer?
CITIZEN: I’m feeling… I don’t know.
DOCTOR: Could you clarify that feeling please?
CITIZEN: Lately I’ve been feeling like I don’t fit in.
DOCTOR: How do you not fit in?
CITIZEN: I feel like I don’t belong. Like everyone is living a life that I don’t want to live.
DOCTOR: And how does this make you feel?
CITIZEN: Angry.
DOCTOR: You’re feeling depressed, yes.
CITIZEN: I’m not depressed, I’m angry.
DOCTOR: Depression is common among people who don’t consume enough.
CITIZEN: I’m not depressed.
DOCTOR: What did you buy today?
CITIZEN: I didn’t buy anything today. I skipped my Buying Session™.
DOCTOR: Research has shown that Purchasing Brings Pleasure™.
CITIZEN: I don’t want to buy anything.
DOCTOR: Buying Brings Happiness™. The More You Buy, the more Happiness You Buy™.
CITIZEN: Buying things isn’t bringing me happiness anymore.
DOCTOR: You’re depressed.
CITIZEN: I’m not depressed. I’m mad.
DOCTOR: Madness is a form of depression.
CITIZEN: I just want to live another life.
DOCTOR: I’m going to proscribe you ProzoCom™.
CITIZEN: I don’t need drugs.
DOCTOR: ProzoCom™ is a Wonder of Modern Medicine™.
CITIZEN: It just makes you feel so empty that you want to buy things. I’ve seen people on it. Everybody is on it.
DOCTOR: Six Billion Consumers Can’t Be Wrong™.
CITIZEN: I just don’t feel like buying things.
DOCTOR: Anti-consumerism is a pathology of the pleasure principle.
CITIZEN: I don’t need a drug.
DOCTOR: ProzoCom™ isn’t Just A Drug. It’s Happiness Through Chemicals™.
CITIZEN: I know, I know, I wrote that ad campaign.
DOCTOR: Then you must see The Truth in Advertising®.

CITIZEN: There is no Truth in Advertising®. It’s all about making you want to buy more things.
DOCTOR: Buying Brings Happiness™. The More You Buy, the more Happiness You Buy™.
CITIZEN: You said that already. Computer, stop the doctor program.

The light goes down on the Doctor.

COMPUTER (O.S.): You’re account has been billed six hundred and forty-two credits. I am instructed to inform you that this amount will not be reimbursed by the Health Marketing Operator assigned by your company Inc.com.
CITIZEN: Fine.
COMPUTER (O.S.): I am also instructed to inform you that you have been fined one hundred credits for missing your Buying Session™ without rescheduling. This amount has been deducted from your account.
CITIZEN: I don’t want to buy anything.
COMPUTER (O.S.): Buying Brings Happiness™. The More You Buy, the more Happiness You Buy™.
CITIZEN: Computer off.

The Citizen sits down as the lights fade.

Maine Vacation

2010-06-30T18:13:00.001-07:00

I was on vacation all last week in Maine and avoided the internet (and this blog) as much as possible. I’m still trying to figure out what this blog is supposed to be. What I want to use it for. So, while I try to figure that out, I’ll post a few pictures of Maine.

Interfaith at Claremont School of Theology

2010-06-10T09:37:00.000-07:00

There’s a very interesting article today about the Claremont school of theology. They are creating an interfaith training program to teach future rabbis, imams, and pastors together.

Conceived in 2006, the University Project will allow seminary students at Claremont to cross-enroll in programs that train future Muslim and Jewish religious leaders while working toward their own degrees in Christian theology. Claremont already has chaplaincy programs for Muslims and Jews who ultimately work as counselors in institutional settings, but they don't have rabbinical and imam certification programs. Course topics will include inter-religious conflict resolution, scripture and ethics.

I think that it is a very helpful step in the right direction. I can only hope that they open their minds a hearts a little wider still and bring in guest speakers for the other major faiths. Even if they don’t, I know from my own experience in an interfaith seminary how helpful it can be to learn about other religious perspectives. It wasn’t a theological stretch of my worldview to learn about Islam, Hinduism, and the various other faiths as they were like windows to look in up my own Buddhist faith and my Christian upbringing. All those windows help give a better view from looking both inward and outward.

I’ll write more about my own beliefs at some later time.

First Post - Areas of Interest

2010-06-09T14:11:00.000-07:00

I had been blogging at Gaia.com, but after taking a few months off I came back to discover that they had closed their blogging community and decided to focus on trying to monetize the site. So, whatever I had blogged is gone. And now I start again.

I’m not sure how often I will manage to write here. In part because I have other writing that demands my attention. But I hope this can be a place to write about my various interests in a way that begins to connect them in some fashion.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to connect all the different areas of interest in my life, from religion and spirituality to history and science to the writing novels and plays. How do I fit it all together. I created the chart above as a visual aid for myself to ruminate on the possibilities.

For now, I think I’ll try to use this blog as a place to explore all the things that don’t make it into my creative work.