I'm Richard Lloyd Jones, and this is Thinking with Somebody Else's Head. When I published our most recent program, Glorification and the Christmas Spirit, I mentioned that it would be our last program of 2012.
And so I thought. But my dear friend, Bob Butler, sent along an article the other day about the quite advanced movement to take Christ out of Christmas, and I felt obligated to step into the fray to address this unnecessary and imprudent tendency.
I say unnecessary because forbidding a school to call a tree the mount in the hallway in December a Christmas tree is not in support of the tolerant and pluralistic society we say we live in. My contention is that if that's all it takes to offend someone, then I think that person's problems are a little more serious than simple indignation.
And imprudent because the psychological and social consequences of eliminating humankind's spiritual dimension are grave. As we'll discover on the journey you'll embark on in our program today.
The Psychotic Separation from God, when Thinking with Somebody Else's Head returns on the STOP Radio Network.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Pages
▼
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Friday, December 14, 2012
Glorification and the Christmas Spirit
Another Christmas period, and all that that brings. The packed parking lots, the festive yuletide happy hours, cooking - and eating - the fatted calf.
And maybe, in a quiet, reflective moment, a spark of will catch flame inside you and for a few seconds or moments or, if you're lucky, hours, you'll feel a deep sense of place and connection with your fellow man and the universe that you recognize as the Christmas spirit.
Those tantalizing moments are tragically short-lived. Some complain that they don't like this time of year because we should have this spirit all round. "It's fake and phony," they say. But it doesn't fell that way to any who are still enough to allow themselves to receive the grace and depth of that spirit. That Holy Spirit we can call it, and we should take time to remember that this time of year is for honouring that divine presence. Yes, Christmas, of all times, is time to remember that.
Glorification and the Christmas Spirit, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
And maybe, in a quiet, reflective moment, a spark of will catch flame inside you and for a few seconds or moments or, if you're lucky, hours, you'll feel a deep sense of place and connection with your fellow man and the universe that you recognize as the Christmas spirit.
Those tantalizing moments are tragically short-lived. Some complain that they don't like this time of year because we should have this spirit all round. "It's fake and phony," they say. But it doesn't fell that way to any who are still enough to allow themselves to receive the grace and depth of that spirit. That Holy Spirit we can call it, and we should take time to remember that this time of year is for honouring that divine presence. Yes, Christmas, of all times, is time to remember that.
Glorification and the Christmas Spirit, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
The Science of Spirits
Welcome to Thinking with Somebody Else's Head. Nowadays, a conversation about spirits is looked upon in most of our western world with a high degree of suspicion. Five hundred years or so of materialistic, positivistic science has pretty much kicked the stuffing out of the philosophy that included spirituality in its precepts.
But some formidable literary and philosophical figures included the spirit world in their canon - including Shakespeare and Dickens. Some great artists even considered the purpose of arts to be a transcendental one, and included subjects like spirits and God in their everyday conversations.
It is mostly we moderns who now, in our smug self-assuredness, pooh-pooh the idea of spiritual influence as being old fashioned and passé, and dismiss any such views as superstitious and childlike.
But maybe these past geniuses had a better grasp on reality than we do. Maybe there is something from the vast pre-modern worldview that bears a further look, and could be brought back now to help us make sense of our complex and confusing modern world.
The Science of Spirits today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head on the STOP Radio Network.
Click here to listen to this episode.
But some formidable literary and philosophical figures included the spirit world in their canon - including Shakespeare and Dickens. Some great artists even considered the purpose of arts to be a transcendental one, and included subjects like spirits and God in their everyday conversations.
It is mostly we moderns who now, in our smug self-assuredness, pooh-pooh the idea of spiritual influence as being old fashioned and passé, and dismiss any such views as superstitious and childlike.
But maybe these past geniuses had a better grasp on reality than we do. Maybe there is something from the vast pre-modern worldview that bears a further look, and could be brought back now to help us make sense of our complex and confusing modern world.
The Science of Spirits today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head on the STOP Radio Network.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Healthy Communities and Society's Immune System
I'm Richard Lloyd Jones, and this is Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Any who've listened to this program for any length of time will know that I'm not much for relativity. As in, relative truth. Although that's a new stance for me, picked up over my 11 years of work at Norberto Keppe's International Society of Analytical Trilogy in Brazil.
"I have my truth, and you have yours," is a pretty common point of view from the New Age Movement, which seeks validation from the proposals of quantum physics that there's an unlimited offering of possibilities before us, and it's our choice that determines which one becomes reality.
It's an enticing idea: I am a co-creator of the Universe and therefore essential to its evolution.
Except that this idea disappears in the spotlight of Keppean metaphysics that proclaims that we are complete beings, not becomings at all. That we are, not that we are on the way.
This holds true for society as well. Society has an essential and perfect nature that we have degraded considerably. Although now, we have a science to help us return to the natural state.
Healthy Communities and Society's Immune System, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this program.
Any who've listened to this program for any length of time will know that I'm not much for relativity. As in, relative truth. Although that's a new stance for me, picked up over my 11 years of work at Norberto Keppe's International Society of Analytical Trilogy in Brazil.
"I have my truth, and you have yours," is a pretty common point of view from the New Age Movement, which seeks validation from the proposals of quantum physics that there's an unlimited offering of possibilities before us, and it's our choice that determines which one becomes reality.
It's an enticing idea: I am a co-creator of the Universe and therefore essential to its evolution.
Except that this idea disappears in the spotlight of Keppean metaphysics that proclaims that we are complete beings, not becomings at all. That we are, not that we are on the way.
This holds true for society as well. Society has an essential and perfect nature that we have degraded considerably. Although now, we have a science to help us return to the natural state.
Healthy Communities and Society's Immune System, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this program.
Tuesday, November 06, 2012
The Spiritual Danger of Letting Yourself Go
Freedom. It's a word that hits deep in the human soul.
Let Freedom Ring!
Thank God Almighty, I am free at last!
Give me liberty or give me death!
These powerful declarations echo through time, but always seem current. Can there be anything more relevant than freedom? Stacked up against the social justice implied by liberty, our blind focus on monetary self-interest seems petty and pathetic. In the face of the grand ambitions of the human soul, our typical daily strivings pale in comparison.
But for all its power and resonance, freedom in real terms seems dauntingly difficult to achieve. That's easy to see in places where freedom is blatantly restricted, but even in the so-called free world of the west, true freedom as Christ and King and Kennedy called for has eluded us.
Perhaps this is because we have confused freedom with being free to do whatever we want - and that, in Keppe's psychological view, is fraught with peril.
The Spiritual Danger of Letting Yourself Go, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Let Freedom Ring!
Thank God Almighty, I am free at last!
Give me liberty or give me death!
These powerful declarations echo through time, but always seem current. Can there be anything more relevant than freedom? Stacked up against the social justice implied by liberty, our blind focus on monetary self-interest seems petty and pathetic. In the face of the grand ambitions of the human soul, our typical daily strivings pale in comparison.
But for all its power and resonance, freedom in real terms seems dauntingly difficult to achieve. That's easy to see in places where freedom is blatantly restricted, but even in the so-called free world of the west, true freedom as Christ and King and Kennedy called for has eluded us.
Perhaps this is because we have confused freedom with being free to do whatever we want - and that, in Keppe's psychological view, is fraught with peril.
The Spiritual Danger of Letting Yourself Go, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Transcending Einstein and Materialism with Keppe's New Physics
In The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky writes, "You have needs, satisfy them. Don't hesitate. Expand your needs and demand more." He calls this "the worldly doctrine of today."
But true to the depth of the great writer, he acknowledges the trap we fall into when we pursue a life of singular materialism.
"The result," Dostoevsky writes, "For the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder."
So boiling that down to its metaphysical essence, Dostoevsky was basically suggesting that the popular bumper sticker, "He who dies with the most toys wins," is a lot of twaddle.
But materialism is our inheritance from about 500 years of science bent on eradicating anything to do with spirituality - which they termed superstitious - from their theories.
I don't think this was a step up. In the end, a materialistic philosophy narrows our perspective to where mere survival becomes our primary objective.
Transcending Einstein and Materialism with Keppe's New Physics, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
But true to the depth of the great writer, he acknowledges the trap we fall into when we pursue a life of singular materialism.
"The result," Dostoevsky writes, "For the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder."
So boiling that down to its metaphysical essence, Dostoevsky was basically suggesting that the popular bumper sticker, "He who dies with the most toys wins," is a lot of twaddle.
But materialism is our inheritance from about 500 years of science bent on eradicating anything to do with spirituality - which they termed superstitious - from their theories.
I don't think this was a step up. In the end, a materialistic philosophy narrows our perspective to where mere survival becomes our primary objective.
Transcending Einstein and Materialism with Keppe's New Physics, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Tuesday, October 02, 2012
Narcissism, Shame and the Inverted Sense of Freedom
Think of the greatest among us and a pattern will emerge. For those who've done something truly valuable in life, one characteristic that stands out. Somehow, in some way, they've been interested in doing something for others.
I'm not talking about the preening and PR initiatives that drive some accomplishment, of course - the self-promotion behind Academy Award lobbying or magazine cover stories proposed by highly paid publicists. But the true contribution of photo-op shy individuals and groups that truly makes the world a better place. For underlying all of this type of accomplishment must be a high degree of selflessness, of forgetting oneself in the service to the good of others.
And we all know people like that who put aside their own glory a little to come to the aid of a greater purpose. Even if they receive personal recognition in the process.
Erich Fromm considered the main condition for the achievement of love to be overcoming our narcissism, and it's this we'd like to dive into today.
Narcissism, Shame and the Inverted Sense of Freedom, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
I'm not talking about the preening and PR initiatives that drive some accomplishment, of course - the self-promotion behind Academy Award lobbying or magazine cover stories proposed by highly paid publicists. But the true contribution of photo-op shy individuals and groups that truly makes the world a better place. For underlying all of this type of accomplishment must be a high degree of selflessness, of forgetting oneself in the service to the good of others.
And we all know people like that who put aside their own glory a little to come to the aid of a greater purpose. Even if they receive personal recognition in the process.
Erich Fromm considered the main condition for the achievement of love to be overcoming our narcissism, and it's this we'd like to dive into today.
Narcissism, Shame and the Inverted Sense of Freedom, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Vanquishing Mathematical Technology and Restoring Society's Soul
When analyzing the crises in society, it is customary to lay blame on a wide array of doorsteps. There's corporate malfeasance, of course, and political ineptitude and general apathy, to name a few. And back of them all is the corrupting influence of money and greed.
And that's about as far as we normally get. A few of the more strident truth seekers draw a bigger circle and follow the trail to the secret organizations pulling the levers and flipping the switches from high level strategy sessions behind the scenes.
But I don't think I've every heard anyone point the finger at the dominance of mathematics as a crucial flaw in our philosophical underpinnings. That's exactly what Norberto Keppe does in his magnificent work. Reading Keppe's book, Sociopathology, will be a slap in the face to calculus geeks and binary nerds of any nationality. And a breath of fresh air to any of us who need our cellphone calculators to divide up the lunch bill.
This is a complex analysis Keppe embarks on, and we'll launch off on the initial forays into the territory today.
Vanquishing Mathematical Technology and Restoring Society's Soul, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
And that's about as far as we normally get. A few of the more strident truth seekers draw a bigger circle and follow the trail to the secret organizations pulling the levers and flipping the switches from high level strategy sessions behind the scenes.
But I don't think I've every heard anyone point the finger at the dominance of mathematics as a crucial flaw in our philosophical underpinnings. That's exactly what Norberto Keppe does in his magnificent work. Reading Keppe's book, Sociopathology, will be a slap in the face to calculus geeks and binary nerds of any nationality. And a breath of fresh air to any of us who need our cellphone calculators to divide up the lunch bill.
This is a complex analysis Keppe embarks on, and we'll launch off on the initial forays into the territory today.
Vanquishing Mathematical Technology and Restoring Society's Soul, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Saturday, September 08, 2012
The Occult Olympics and the Reptilian Brain
This week on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head ... most of us are
pretty clueless about the occult history of humankind. To our detriment.
Occult agendas have been behind many of the momentous occurrences in
history, from Columbus' journeys to find the New World, to Hitler's drive for a Third Reich.
Both saints and psychotics have been moved by esoteric knowledge that has never been mainstream, and this makes analysis of the field murky and prone to extremism and fanatacism.
Some agents acting on this occult knowledge have been extremely well intentioned. Columbus and numerous Millenarists from various religious and political persuasions fall into that camp.
Others from the modern New World Order camp have been in no way well intentioned.
And deep within the conspiracy theories lies some truth: the machinations behind the scenes of history's events have remained obscured and hidden in secret meetings and occult intentions, and this is never revealed on the 6 o'clock news.
But if you know what to look for, you will see subliminal messages of this subterfuge everywhere. The Occult Olympics and the Reptilian Brain, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Both saints and psychotics have been moved by esoteric knowledge that has never been mainstream, and this makes analysis of the field murky and prone to extremism and fanatacism.
Some agents acting on this occult knowledge have been extremely well intentioned. Columbus and numerous Millenarists from various religious and political persuasions fall into that camp.
Others from the modern New World Order camp have been in no way well intentioned.
And deep within the conspiracy theories lies some truth: the machinations behind the scenes of history's events have remained obscured and hidden in secret meetings and occult intentions, and this is never revealed on the 6 o'clock news.
But if you know what to look for, you will see subliminal messages of this subterfuge everywhere. The Occult Olympics and the Reptilian Brain, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Corrupting Society's Divine Tissue
We who spend our lives in so-called First World countries have little idea how we got that way. We grow up in the lap of relative luxury and are not stimulated to question the luck of the birth lottery that had us being born where we were.
And as we grow up in that protected crucible, we seldom stop to question the system that gives us relative everything while millions more in other less privileged parts of our globe go without. Far from questioning, actually - we scramble frantically to carve out our little corner of paradise whee we can hunker down with families and fireplaces and frequent flyer miles in isolation so complete we rarely think about those little details like social injustice or economic imperialism.
In spite of giving a nod to the global imbalance through our sophisticated recycling programs, financial support to Third World charities and wholesome bike lanes, we don't want to rock the boat that much. In fact, it's safe to say the blame for our world's social crises can be partly laid at out feet.
Corrupting Society's Divine Tissue, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
And as we grow up in that protected crucible, we seldom stop to question the system that gives us relative everything while millions more in other less privileged parts of our globe go without. Far from questioning, actually - we scramble frantically to carve out our little corner of paradise whee we can hunker down with families and fireplaces and frequent flyer miles in isolation so complete we rarely think about those little details like social injustice or economic imperialism.
In spite of giving a nod to the global imbalance through our sophisticated recycling programs, financial support to Third World charities and wholesome bike lanes, we don't want to rock the boat that much. In fact, it's safe to say the blame for our world's social crises can be partly laid at out feet.
Corrupting Society's Divine Tissue, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
Going Beyond Sex and Passion
I was browsing through a friend's Facebook timeline the other day, and came across her New Year's message.
OK, so here we are in August and I'm looking at January, so I really was browsing. The point is, what she said really stood out to me - live with full passion is what she wrote.
And I get that. Do what you do with feeling. Imbue your activities with drive and verve. This is, of course, sage advice. Far too often we sleep walk through life, failing to grasp the magnificence that lays itself out before us at ever step. So I get her point.
But I also think it's a little more complicated than that. Passion, as the great Pablo Neruda said, is "as if you were on fire from within." And how could anyone argue against the merits of that? But it seems that perhaps passion unleashed without the tether of a good purpose can demolish rather than build. And it is here we need to explore more deeply. For a true human being must understand how to do what's really important. And that takes massive self-knowledge.
So let's go beyond sex and passion today, on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
OK, so here we are in August and I'm looking at January, so I really was browsing. The point is, what she said really stood out to me - live with full passion is what she wrote.
And I get that. Do what you do with feeling. Imbue your activities with drive and verve. This is, of course, sage advice. Far too often we sleep walk through life, failing to grasp the magnificence that lays itself out before us at ever step. So I get her point.
But I also think it's a little more complicated than that. Passion, as the great Pablo Neruda said, is "as if you were on fire from within." And how could anyone argue against the merits of that? But it seems that perhaps passion unleashed without the tether of a good purpose can demolish rather than build. And it is here we need to explore more deeply. For a true human being must understand how to do what's really important. And that takes massive self-knowledge.
So let's go beyond sex and passion today, on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Analytical Trilogy: The Science of the Human Interior
All of us have a reluctance to see our problems as the result of our own actions. The more serious the issue, the more creative we become in our explanations.
To the point of absurdity at times. Years ago, a radio student of mine had a unique twist on the age-old excuse. When I asked him why he handed his assignment in late, he said with all sincerity, "My dog ate my contact lenses."
Laughable and ridiculous obviously. But illustrative of what has become the typical attitude. "Hell is the other people," is how Sartre characterized it, and this lack of awareness is a serious problem in our world today. It's led to obese women suing their mothers as being responsible for their fatness.
Or one country so convinced the problem is out there that they drop bombs on others or erect walls to keep the others out. But seeing our own problems as caused by another makes us lose contact with our own inner lives. Meaning we alienate ourselves from wisdom and knowledge.
Analytical Trilogy and the Science of the Human Interior, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
To the point of absurdity at times. Years ago, a radio student of mine had a unique twist on the age-old excuse. When I asked him why he handed his assignment in late, he said with all sincerity, "My dog ate my contact lenses."
Laughable and ridiculous obviously. But illustrative of what has become the typical attitude. "Hell is the other people," is how Sartre characterized it, and this lack of awareness is a serious problem in our world today. It's led to obese women suing their mothers as being responsible for their fatness.
Or one country so convinced the problem is out there that they drop bombs on others or erect walls to keep the others out. But seeing our own problems as caused by another makes us lose contact with our own inner lives. Meaning we alienate ourselves from wisdom and knowledge.
Analytical Trilogy and the Science of the Human Interior, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Compromising on Love and Truth
Compromise. It's a word ripe for heated debate. A thing to be avoided? Or a necessary evil? Better to bend than break, as an old Scottish proverb puts it. Compromise is supposedly what makes nations great and marriages happy, what people use to justify unconscionable bargaining techniques.
But all too often - in business and international negotiations as much as in relationships - compromise means raising the thresholds of what we'll tolerate while lowering our expectations. Not exactly a recipe for strength of character. And perhaps it is those value compromises, those times when we give in but shouldn't, that cause us the most pain as we look back.
For sure, compromise can be a slippery slope. We develop the habit of giving away the store or fine tun our manipulative techniques to Henry Kissinger-like finesse. The great convert to theology, C.S. Lewis, discussed the gradual road to Hell that I think can be the result of compromise, and it is important to think harder and deeper about this.
Compromising on Love and Truth, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
But all too often - in business and international negotiations as much as in relationships - compromise means raising the thresholds of what we'll tolerate while lowering our expectations. Not exactly a recipe for strength of character. And perhaps it is those value compromises, those times when we give in but shouldn't, that cause us the most pain as we look back.
For sure, compromise can be a slippery slope. We develop the habit of giving away the store or fine tun our manipulative techniques to Henry Kissinger-like finesse. The great convert to theology, C.S. Lewis, discussed the gradual road to Hell that I think can be the result of compromise, and it is important to think harder and deeper about this.
Compromising on Love and Truth, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Exploring the Hidden Me
My father is fond of saying that the problem with human society is that we were born without an operating manual.
Clever I thought. Once. But thinking more carefully, I realize it's actually not true at all.
We have endless advice passed down through tradition and testament and even tablet that lays out pretty unequivocally how we should live. And it's surprisingly consistent. From Buddhism to Chirstianity, Confucius to Mohammed, the great mandate has always been to do unto others what you would have them do unto you.
So that's out there, and it shows up again and again in social conventions and cultural upbringing and even on fridge magnets and coffee mugs. Constitutions and declarations and proclamations for centuries have laid it all out. This is not the problem, Dad. Our problem is that we don't want to follow it. Yes, it's an obedience thing. When confronted with what we should do, we human beings like to say, "Oh yeah? Who says so?"
Defiance to the truth then ... this is deep, isn't it. And it deep inside us all.
Exploring the Hidden Me, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Clever I thought. Once. But thinking more carefully, I realize it's actually not true at all.
We have endless advice passed down through tradition and testament and even tablet that lays out pretty unequivocally how we should live. And it's surprisingly consistent. From Buddhism to Chirstianity, Confucius to Mohammed, the great mandate has always been to do unto others what you would have them do unto you.
So that's out there, and it shows up again and again in social conventions and cultural upbringing and even on fridge magnets and coffee mugs. Constitutions and declarations and proclamations for centuries have laid it all out. This is not the problem, Dad. Our problem is that we don't want to follow it. Yes, it's an obedience thing. When confronted with what we should do, we human beings like to say, "Oh yeah? Who says so?"
Defiance to the truth then ... this is deep, isn't it. And it deep inside us all.
Exploring the Hidden Me, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Thursday, June 07, 2012
Keppe Motor and the Disinversion of Science
Mandela wrote that true freedom is not just merely casting off your own chains, but living in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
I love that last part because it implies that we have an obligation to do something to assist the general welfare - not just sit back in our "I'm all right, Jack" armchairs.
But it strikes me as I think about it that, actually, the strongest prisons that hold us hostage are not those made of concrete and steel and barbed wire. We live in prisions erected by our wrong beliefs and philosophies of life.
Norberto Keppe has written voluminously about a psycho-social condition called Inversion and how this has caused us to see reality upside down. A deep reading of his vast output will take you on a journey of human consciousness that will mark a turning point in your life. You will never be the same after his great discoveries of human psychology enter your consciousness.
One of the inverted institutions that locks us into an inferior perspective is modern science. Our lauded scientific worldview is seriously incomplete.
The Keppe Motor and the Disinversion of Science, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
I love that last part because it implies that we have an obligation to do something to assist the general welfare - not just sit back in our "I'm all right, Jack" armchairs.
But it strikes me as I think about it that, actually, the strongest prisons that hold us hostage are not those made of concrete and steel and barbed wire. We live in prisions erected by our wrong beliefs and philosophies of life.
Norberto Keppe has written voluminously about a psycho-social condition called Inversion and how this has caused us to see reality upside down. A deep reading of his vast output will take you on a journey of human consciousness that will mark a turning point in your life. You will never be the same after his great discoveries of human psychology enter your consciousness.
One of the inverted institutions that locks us into an inferior perspective is modern science. Our lauded scientific worldview is seriously incomplete.
The Keppe Motor and the Disinversion of Science, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Rockefeller and the Shattered American Dream
Norberto Keppe's book, Liberation of the People, is the most complete book I know about the pathology of power. It explores the psychological condition that lies behind the lust for power, and shows clearly that this drive is most times fueled by a pathological desire for self-service and narcissism, not for the common good.
"It is extremely important to perceive that the established powers have been organized so as to control the will of the people, paralyzing their capacity to act," Norberto Keppe writes in this profound book.
In other books, Keppe writes forcefully about secret groupings of powerful people acting in the shadows as constituting the basis of all social sickness. Here, he's talking about the Bilderbergers and the Trilateral and the secret societies at Yale and all that mess.
And just saying that pushes us into the territory of conspiracy theories for some. I mean, what's next? Questioning the moon landing?
But Keppe's voice is not strident or self-righteous. Instead, it's a fresh breeze of sanity into this minefield of subterfuge.
Rockefeller and the Shattered American Dream, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
"It is extremely important to perceive that the established powers have been organized so as to control the will of the people, paralyzing their capacity to act," Norberto Keppe writes in this profound book.
In other books, Keppe writes forcefully about secret groupings of powerful people acting in the shadows as constituting the basis of all social sickness. Here, he's talking about the Bilderbergers and the Trilateral and the secret societies at Yale and all that mess.
And just saying that pushes us into the territory of conspiracy theories for some. I mean, what's next? Questioning the moon landing?
But Keppe's voice is not strident or self-righteous. Instead, it's a fresh breeze of sanity into this minefield of subterfuge.
Rockefeller and the Shattered American Dream, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
A Cure for Corruption
Broach the subject of corruption with most people, and there's an almost instant reaction. We understandably get apoplectic about the cases of corruption evident in corporations like BP or rogue traders like Nick Leeson. I even remember some self-righteous media pundits lamenting the blow to baseball represented by Pete Rose betting on the game.
We all get irate when facing these levels of unethical behavior, or even when a loved one betrays a trust. But this is when it would be timely to remember Shakespeare's counsel in moments of self-righteous indignation: Methinks you doth protest too much.
It's well known in psychology that we can often tee off on behavior outside that we also partake in, and that can be a tough pill to swallow. It takes all the honesty and virtue we can muster to see that external conduct as a mirror reflecting back our own sins. But it is exactly this that's required of us today. Because one thing we must admit - if the world has gone astray, chances are pretty good we've contributed to that.
A Cure for Corruption, this time on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
We all get irate when facing these levels of unethical behavior, or even when a loved one betrays a trust. But this is when it would be timely to remember Shakespeare's counsel in moments of self-righteous indignation: Methinks you doth protest too much.
It's well known in psychology that we can often tee off on behavior outside that we also partake in, and that can be a tough pill to swallow. It takes all the honesty and virtue we can muster to see that external conduct as a mirror reflecting back our own sins. But it is exactly this that's required of us today. Because one thing we must admit - if the world has gone astray, chances are pretty good we've contributed to that.
A Cure for Corruption, this time on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Spirituality and Leadership
The murky world of shadows that constitutes modern leadership is not a new thing, of course. The TV mini-series "The Tudors" lays out in all its deceit and subterfuge the nest of vipers that was the British Royal Court of the 15th and 16th centuries. Ancient Rome was no picnic either from all accounts. And Chinese warlords scheming to be Taipan operated within complex webs of treachery.
Not much has changed. We're inverted, so we still practice to deceive and think, in our boundless delusion, that it will all come out ok in the end.
It's been that way for centuries. So prevalent is it that we could be excused for thinking that political gamesmanship is just human nature - whether it's office competitors vying for the bosses favor, or contestants on a reality TV show pacting to get another sent home, or unelected bank leaders meeting in secret to decide world monetary policy.
Treachery and cunning, though, in all their proliferation, are far from what it means to be truly human, and this disinverted view deserves more headlines than it's gotten. Allow us to do that a little today.
Leadership and Spirituality, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Not much has changed. We're inverted, so we still practice to deceive and think, in our boundless delusion, that it will all come out ok in the end.
It's been that way for centuries. So prevalent is it that we could be excused for thinking that political gamesmanship is just human nature - whether it's office competitors vying for the bosses favor, or contestants on a reality TV show pacting to get another sent home, or unelected bank leaders meeting in secret to decide world monetary policy.
Treachery and cunning, though, in all their proliferation, are far from what it means to be truly human, and this disinverted view deserves more headlines than it's gotten. Allow us to do that a little today.
Leadership and Spirituality, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Freedom and Leadership - Highlights Version
This week on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head, the first in a 2-part series on leadership. And not a superficial treatment either. But a deep investigation into what it means to be a true leader here in the 21st Century.
Gone are the old values we once held so high, like charisma and conviction and coercion. It's a new time, and it requires true leadership, not the pseudo leadership we see all around us today.
Only question is ... what is true leadership anyway? The science of Analytical Trilogy is uniquely placed to answer that question.
Here's an excerpt from our latest Thinking with Somebody Else's Head program, Freedom and Leadership.
Click here to listen to this excerpt.
Gone are the old values we once held so high, like charisma and conviction and coercion. It's a new time, and it requires true leadership, not the pseudo leadership we see all around us today.
Only question is ... what is true leadership anyway? The science of Analytical Trilogy is uniquely placed to answer that question.
Here's an excerpt from our latest Thinking with Somebody Else's Head program, Freedom and Leadership.
Click here to listen to this excerpt.
Freedom and Leadership
Take a look around at the critical situations facing we human beings, and it's sobering. Maybe that's why most of us don't like looking too closely. It becomes overwhelming. "Can't you talk about something else," is how my mother often phrases this sense of overwhelm. The implication being that not talking about it makes it disappear.
An absurd rationale, of course, but one that's rather common in our addicted-to-positivity society. In the science of psycho-socio-pathology elaborated at the International Society of Analytical Trilogy where our program originates, this is called an Inversion.
Seeing problems is a negative. You have to make lemonade with that mountain of lemons, after all. Problem? what problem? What we've got here is a heaven-sent opportunity, not a problem at all. That's the common parlance.
But to really solve the problem, we have to forget about the inverted dictums of the motivational literature. There it is written that we need to forget the past and look to the future - exactly the polar opposite of what we should be doing. Real leaders, in truth, need to look very hard at the reasons we're in the mess we're in.
Freedom and Leadership, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
An absurd rationale, of course, but one that's rather common in our addicted-to-positivity society. In the science of psycho-socio-pathology elaborated at the International Society of Analytical Trilogy where our program originates, this is called an Inversion.
Seeing problems is a negative. You have to make lemonade with that mountain of lemons, after all. Problem? what problem? What we've got here is a heaven-sent opportunity, not a problem at all. That's the common parlance.
But to really solve the problem, we have to forget about the inverted dictums of the motivational literature. There it is written that we need to forget the past and look to the future - exactly the polar opposite of what we should be doing. Real leaders, in truth, need to look very hard at the reasons we're in the mess we're in.
Freedom and Leadership, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Monday, April 02, 2012
Correcting Metaphysics and Society
I remember the day it fully dawned on me that the path society was on was a dead end. I was on the train from Rhinebeck, NY to Toronto - a beautiful but tedious journey with only vestiges of the former romance of train travel to keep me company. I was settled in with snacks and bottled water and ample reading material to fill the long 10 hours or so ahead of me.
My book of choice at that time was Norberto Keppe's Liberation of the People: The Pathology of Power, and I felt myself changing as I read.
Or maybe it wasn't a change as much as a recognition. T.S. Eliot spoke about how at the end of all our exploring we would arrive at where we started and know the place for the first time - and that perhaps comes closer to how I felt. It was like a recognition in Keppe's writing of something I also knew to be true but had forgotten.
Keppe's great book does that - reawakens our idealism and gives us a glimpse of the new society that's possible. And all this can happen because Keppe helps disinvert us and get us back on track.
Correcting Metaphysics and Society, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
My book of choice at that time was Norberto Keppe's Liberation of the People: The Pathology of Power, and I felt myself changing as I read.
Or maybe it wasn't a change as much as a recognition. T.S. Eliot spoke about how at the end of all our exploring we would arrive at where we started and know the place for the first time - and that perhaps comes closer to how I felt. It was like a recognition in Keppe's writing of something I also knew to be true but had forgotten.
Keppe's great book does that - reawakens our idealism and gives us a glimpse of the new society that's possible. And all this can happen because Keppe helps disinvert us and get us back on track.
Correcting Metaphysics and Society, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Inversion: The Missing Link in Human Consciousness - Highlight version
This week on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head, we go deeply into one of the most important psychological discoveries in history. And we look at how it impacts all aspects of human life on our planet.
There's only one problem: this psychological wisdom is not being studied sufficiently. This is something we're trying to correct on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Inversion is the name of this psychological condition, and it's the root cause of our problems. This means it's essential to be studied and understood more completely. Here's a start.
Listen to our highlight program here. Check out the full program on our site at www.healingthroughconsciousness.com
Friday, March 09, 2012
Inversion - The Missing Link in Human Consciousness
We are indeed living in potentially transformative times. And I only say "potentially" because it remains to be seen if humankind will do what it takes to reverse the downward cycle we have been in for millennia.
I know this sounds like heresy to those conditioned to hearing about the progress of modern society, but I am, of course, talking about a decay at a level much more profound than technological. Because, really, what benefit is it to us to be able to Twitter what we had for breakfast if the air is poisonous and the social injustice continues unabated?
All our vaunted progress is moving us further and further away from a better society, not closer, and this is happening because of an inverted worldview inside the mass of humanity. This Inversion is, of course, not perceived by us. And educating human beings of this provides the reason for our show, and underscores the importance of Norberto Keppe's science of Analytical Trilogy, which provides the base for what we do on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Inversion - The Missing Link in Human Consciousness, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
I know this sounds like heresy to those conditioned to hearing about the progress of modern society, but I am, of course, talking about a decay at a level much more profound than technological. Because, really, what benefit is it to us to be able to Twitter what we had for breakfast if the air is poisonous and the social injustice continues unabated?
All our vaunted progress is moving us further and further away from a better society, not closer, and this is happening because of an inverted worldview inside the mass of humanity. This Inversion is, of course, not perceived by us. And educating human beings of this provides the reason for our show, and underscores the importance of Norberto Keppe's science of Analytical Trilogy, which provides the base for what we do on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Inversion - The Missing Link in Human Consciousness, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Monday, February 27, 2012
The Wrong Vibration Between Power and People - Highlight Version
Our latest Thinking with Somebody Else's Head program explores a crucial question: in order for society to improve, does the individual need to change first, or does the political structure - the pathology of power - need to shift?
Norberto Keppe's science of psycho-socio pathology helps us understand this crucial question, and brings a deep wisdom to the consideration that few people are discussing.
We hope to contribute to changing that.
Here's an excerpt from our latest Thinking with Somebody Else's Head program, The Wrong Vibration Between Power and People. If you like it and want more, the full program's available at www.healingthroughconsciousness.com, through iTunes, or here.
Click here to listen to the highlights version of The Wrong Vibration Between Power and People.
Norberto Keppe's science of psycho-socio pathology helps us understand this crucial question, and brings a deep wisdom to the consideration that few people are discussing.
We hope to contribute to changing that.
Here's an excerpt from our latest Thinking with Somebody Else's Head program, The Wrong Vibration Between Power and People. If you like it and want more, the full program's available at www.healingthroughconsciousness.com, through iTunes, or here.
Click here to listen to the highlights version of The Wrong Vibration Between Power and People.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
The Wrong Vibration Between Power and People
There is, as I'm sure you've noticed, a massive movement around the world of the people struggling to free themselves from the shackles of oppression. The latest initiative - the "I won't pay" movements surging in Greece and a few other countries in Europe, specifically targeting Metro ticket turnstiles.
And, of course, the surging up of indignation causes conniption fits in those in power - from extreme, like the violent crackdowns in Syria and even in #Occupy locations in North America, to more hidden, like the reports leaking out from the Bilderbergers and Trilateral Commission that subtly suggest that all this is a thread to global stability.
This is, of course, a huge crock of horse hooey, since it's the stability of the elite's iron hold on power that's really being threatened. And from the people's point of view, how could that ever be bad. But we the people play into these Machiavellian tactics when we follow unthinking into that dark night. And it's this we'd like to consider today.
The Wrong Vibration Between Power and People, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Putting the New Consciousness into Practice
We've been bombarded with images and catch phrases heralding a new era for a number of decades now. From marketed scientific publications like the Aquarian Conspiracy to the blue environmentally pagan humanoids of Avatar to the end of the world apocalypse that Hollywood envisioned as the running out of the Mayan calendar, we've been up to our keisters in pop culture interpretations of the changing consciousness brought by a relentless new age spirituality for almost as long as I've been alive.
And way longer than that in the esoteric literature from Europe.
Some portray this as an inevitable product of the cosmic cycles of consciousness that are moving us dramatically towards the third millennium. Others say it's all the destiny outlined in Revelations in the Bible. Still others that it's all the product of the endless cycles of birth and death being acted out on a global scale.
A lot of room for interpretation and speculation, isn't there? Which is why it's important, here in the middle of the thing, to try to do something and not just speculate.
Putting the New Consciousness into Practice, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
And way longer than that in the esoteric literature from Europe.
Some portray this as an inevitable product of the cosmic cycles of consciousness that are moving us dramatically towards the third millennium. Others say it's all the destiny outlined in Revelations in the Bible. Still others that it's all the product of the endless cycles of birth and death being acted out on a global scale.
A lot of room for interpretation and speculation, isn't there? Which is why it's important, here in the middle of the thing, to try to do something and not just speculate.
Putting the New Consciousness into Practice, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Work, Art and Occupy Wall Street
Einstein made serious mistakes in equating energy with matter and thereby giving us the scientific justification for tearing up the planet in the search for more material to extract energy from.
His theory also single-handedly put the damper on space travel when he linked everything to the speed of light. After all, if we have to propel a spacecraft at that speed, well how will that be possible? And even then, if it'll take a few million light years to get anywhere interesting, you can see how that could dampen enthusiasm for space exploration.
Now, Einstein wasn't a bad guy. He was just inverted. However, he did say some good stuff, too, like how we should never lose our holy curiosity when contemplating the marvellous structure of reality. Somehow that touches poetry, doesn't it, and makes a case for how science shoulders up to art when it's at its best.
Norberto Keppe maintains that art is actually the basis of civilization, essential as the main pillar of any advanced culture. And art brings with it an implication of beauty and goodness - something we too often neglect in our modern technological paradigm.
Let's bring it all together a little. Work, Art and Occupy Wall Street, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
His theory also single-handedly put the damper on space travel when he linked everything to the speed of light. After all, if we have to propel a spacecraft at that speed, well how will that be possible? And even then, if it'll take a few million light years to get anywhere interesting, you can see how that could dampen enthusiasm for space exploration.
Now, Einstein wasn't a bad guy. He was just inverted. However, he did say some good stuff, too, like how we should never lose our holy curiosity when contemplating the marvellous structure of reality. Somehow that touches poetry, doesn't it, and makes a case for how science shoulders up to art when it's at its best.
Norberto Keppe maintains that art is actually the basis of civilization, essential as the main pillar of any advanced culture. And art brings with it an implication of beauty and goodness - something we too often neglect in our modern technological paradigm.
Let's bring it all together a little. Work, Art and Occupy Wall Street, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Removing the Rose-Colored Glasses - program excerpt
This week on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head, we'll take off the rose-colored glasses to look at what we need to do to create the just society everybody in the 99% says they want. A small hint: there'll be some internal soul-searching required. But along the way, a very optimistic view of business and working for ourselves. It's powerful stuff when combined with the science of psycho-socio pathology elaborated at Norberto Keppe's International Society of Analytical Trilogy.
Listen to a program excerpt here.
Listen to a program excerpt here.
Monday, January 09, 2012
Removing the Rose-Colored Glasses: The Dangers of Social Alienation
I wonder sometimes if young people today admit to naivete. It seems very uncool to be innocent these days. Kurt Cobain maybe summed it up best when he said he was always busy acting like he wasn't naive. Like he'd seen it all, like he was there first.
I think that speaks for a generation. You can't be gullible anymore, God forbid. You have to know what's cool and what's not and prove that in what you wear and drive and love
Of course, there's the really complicated aspects to consider, like your best friend who keeps walking blindly into disastrous relationships with men who throw down her heart and stomp that sucker flat. This is pretty pathological, and I think speaks of a deep self-destructive alienation, not guilelessness at all.
We are all of us vulnerable to this kind of personal heave-ho based on the level of denial we are in about reality - reality in this sense meaning how we really are behind our masks, and how we see the true state of our upside-down society. And this we will never see unless we undertake some profound self-analysis.
Removing the Rose-Colored Glasses: The Dangers of Social Alienation, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
I think that speaks for a generation. You can't be gullible anymore, God forbid. You have to know what's cool and what's not and prove that in what you wear and drive and love
Of course, there's the really complicated aspects to consider, like your best friend who keeps walking blindly into disastrous relationships with men who throw down her heart and stomp that sucker flat. This is pretty pathological, and I think speaks of a deep self-destructive alienation, not guilelessness at all.
We are all of us vulnerable to this kind of personal heave-ho based on the level of denial we are in about reality - reality in this sense meaning how we really are behind our masks, and how we see the true state of our upside-down society. And this we will never see unless we undertake some profound self-analysis.
Removing the Rose-Colored Glasses: The Dangers of Social Alienation, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.