G. Michael Vasey's Blog: The Wacky World of Dr. Vasey, page 109

Imagining

Sometimes, in a meditative state, I have some impressions about imagination. I can barely explain in words what these are except to say that I get the strongest idea that if I could truly imagine something as really there, it would be and that this is how everything works. What is even stranger is that I often have a memory of being very young and being able to do this.

I haven’t explained very well. I can’t. It is very frustrating though because it is a knowledge and a memory and then it’s gone again. It’s leaving is tinged with the sadness of knowing that I knew this/know this/can do this/did do this but have now forgotten how. I have also experienced this same sense of loss on waking up in the morning or during the night. It is a sense of loss. A strong sense of loss. It almost feels as if I am somewhere else – somewhere real – and then I have to fall back here and I am sad about it.

Very strange – anyone else ever feel this way?

Life…..

The lines are blurred

And faces merged

The funniest thing you’ll see

Moments in time and space

Held close for eternity

Just pictures saved by memory

Like silent movies played

Flickering images passing by

Do these belong to me?

Or is everything I see

From another, not me

The colours and the smells

The angles lacking symmetry

The sounds and sights

Images bound in space

The inner revelries revealed

My life’s tapestry

Unraveled

Untied

Betwixt and between

Reality

Us and Them

Flames

Burning us

Bullets

Tearing us

It’s Us and Them you see

Words

Grinding us

Fists

Beating us

It’s Them to blame if you ask me

Bombs

Ripping us

Feet

Stomping us

Am I doing this to Them or to me?

All is One don’t you see

I am hating and killing me

Them? Simply shades of me

Why We All Need to Look Up….

Living and working in a city like Prague has its benefits and one of them is simply seeing the sights on a daily basis. I work just off the main square in Prague 1 and I commute from the Beautiful Hanspaulkou area of Prague 6. My journey is partly by bus, partly by Metro and partly on foot. It is the latter bit I like best as I can observe the architecture and trip over the tourists! You just have to remind yourself to keep looking up or else you miss it all.

What do I mean by ‘look up’?

Well, most of us walk along staring at the floor probably thinking, worrying or planning our day. We are self-absorbed and living in our own minds walking as if on auto pilot. We forget to look up and take in the sights…. And as a result, we miss so, so much. I am terrible for this and have been known to ask where I can buy say fresh bread, only to be shown that I passed a bakery store every day for five years and never actually saw it!

I reckon this is a bit like life. We live in some inner revelry of thoughts, worries, plans etc. and forget to look up and take in the sights. Before we know it, our children have grown, our hair has grayed, and we wonder where time went. But, we did this to ourselves because we forgot to look up and live in the moment. We forgot to observe.

They say observation creates reality but we actually have to observe it to create. Stuck in our own heads all of the time isn’t observing. Take a look around, watch, listen and observe. Truly observe. Make a habit of spending a few minutes with your head up observing and contemplating. It will make a difference.

Most of the time, we do not create reality at all because we are controlled and we behave in predictable ways. No, I am not a conspiracy theorist but I am saying that we become part of the mob mentality, we stop thinking for ourselves, we stop accepting responsibility – we stop thinking. It is easy to do after all we are bombarded daily with reasons to fear and reasons to conform. To truly co-create reality, we have to consciously observe and take action. We need to be in control. We need to look up and stay looking up.

As my lead character, Stanley, says in my forthcoming novel; The Last Observer “So, you are saying that the vast majority of people don’t really create reality but simply sustain it through their emotional reactions to it then?”

Yep – Stanley. That is what I am saying.

Us and Them by Alienora Taylor

Here is a guest post from fellow blogger Alienora Taylor….. first posted at http://alienorajt.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/us-and-them.html

If I am right, then you are wrong.

If I am right, then you need to believe what I believe, think the way I think.

Or you are wrong.

If I am US – and you disagree with me – then you become THEM.

If you don’t agree with my mindset, then I am not going to be your friend anymore.

Maggie Thatcher’s mindset?

Or could it be wider than that?

Come on, guys, isn’t about time we questioned this assumption that an admantine mind equals strength of character? That the absolute conviction of rightness – which so easily spills into righteousness – is a good thing?

This has come out only too clearly in the wake of Margaret Thatcher’s death. Now, don’t get me wrong: I am of that generation, and had neither liking for her nor respect for her policies. She had, as I said on Facebook yesterday, an appalling effect upon this country – and one which has been perpetuated by the successive waves of Glove Puppets who have ruled (for want of a better word – ‘misruled’ being an obvious candidate!) our poor, benighted country.

Like many people, I am outraged at the apparent attempts to cover up the truth of those years, to gild a rotting lily.

The purpose of this piece is not to go into the whole parliamentary system because it is too large for a single blog. I can only give my opinion – which is that the system, as it stands, does not work and is not fit for purpose. It does not matter who is living at Number 10 Downing Street. It is the whole notion of elitism, of Number 10-dom, which is wrong! Animals at the top of the hierarchy are predators. Same goes for human beings. And, as long as we are venerating the predatory, or at least allowing ourselves to be prey, nothing will change.

I can remember how relieved I was when Mrs Thatcher finally stepped down. I am sure I am not alone there!

But, something in me baulks at actually being glad she is dead, baying for her soul to rot in hell or, metaphorically or otherwise, dancing upon her grave.

The satirical jokes and comments I love; I think they are a brilliant way of releasing tension and of expressing discontent in a clever and funny way.

Now, I am well aware that not everyone is going to agree with the way I see things -and that is fair enough. I have no rights of dominion over anyone’s mind but my own.

However, I have been left stunned by the increasing, ‘I am right!’ strand of thought appearing upon the Social Sites – and its sinister twin, the manipulative, almost bullying, threat to unfriend anyone who thinks differently. This to me is very much not all right as an approach. It has dark-blossomed on both sides of the divide.

But what strikes me – in the kind of irony I associate with the bitterest of bitter herbs – is that these people have far more in common with one another than they, perhaps, realise. Because, the bottom line seems to be that they KNOW that their viewpoint is right, is the only way forward, is the political Messiah!

Margaret Thatcher, the aptly named Iron Lady, once famously said, ‘This lady is not for turning!’ and we all knew that she was extremely strong-minded (or stubborn as a paddock full of mules, depending on your view!) and not to be swayed.

By anyone. Anytime. Anywhere.

And I am no longer prepared to be bullied in this way: to have people on the far religious right tell me I’ll go to Hell if I don’t believe in their version of the Truth; to join with the pro-Margaret Thatcherites unfriending the screaming antis; to have the, ‘Burn in Hell, Mrs T!’ brigade looking askance at me because I do not join in; to have it suggested, in any way shape or form, that those of us not out partying are, in some way, in denial.

If people feel strongly, that is their prerogative! If they want to rant and shout, rejoice and clap, let them! But, do not condemn those of us who do not wish to go down that path. Do not accuse us of being weak characters, of not knowing our own minds, of being lily-livered.

Having a strong mind can be such a positive thing, if used for the light.

But, have you noticed how many dictators have also been absolutely certain that their view of this mutable, friable world is THE ONLY ONE?

A fine line, indeed!

I do not give anyone, no matter how much I like, even love, that person, the right to dictate how I should respond to things!

Putting pressure on others to see things your way is rhetoric gone rogue!

I am never sure that my views are right. Our minds are seething seas full of subjective creatures, all writhing away trying to survive. Our thoughts and opinions are precisely that! To claim otherwise is to claim some degree of godhead!

Nobody knows THE TRUTH. Nobody knows that their version of religion, their take on life’s mysteries and wonders, is the right one! How can they?

Alienora blogs at http://alienorajt.blogspot.co.uk/. She is a superb writer and the author of an hilariously funny book too called Long Leggety Beasties available at Amazon.com and well worth a read.

A Death and the Sadness of Hatred

It was 1979. The memory of the three-day week and blackouts was still fresh in my mind as I sat in the Aston University Students Union lounge. On TV was a woman. I was listening to what she was saying because, to me, it made a whole lot of sense.

Raised in Hull – a working class town if ever there was one – I rejected the bitter class warfare that passed for socialism and I found myself the butt of snide remarks for it too. Comments like “who the hell does he think he is going to college and all – he should get a bloody job like the rest of us”. Some so called school friends never spoke to me again for going to college and betraying my ‘class’. Funny, because until I moved to the US, I never actually fit into the upper middle class environment my professional life found me working in either. Here, I was that jumped up guy with the horrible working class Hull accent! The US was bliss… there I was just English and everyone loved my accent…..

Anyway, I digress. Margaret Thatcher galvanized me. She made me understand that I could DO whatever I wanted if I had the ability, drive and passion. She changed my life in so many ways. I went out on the streets of Birmingham and I campaigned for her back in 1979. It was amazing to see her become PM. Again, I was an outlier. A student supporting the Tories when it was so fashionable to a leftie.

Funny, I recall a conversation with my best friend back then – he knows who he is – he was labour through and through. I told him, wait, a few years now and you will change. About 7-years later, I was knocking on doors for him too in a council election where he was standing as the Tory candidate! It was just so trendy to be a leftie back then – maybe still is.

Mrs. Thatcher started well, was good for several years but then, surrounded by weak yes men, she made some mistakes. That’s life. we all do. I know some folk hated her. She was a change agent. Most folks hate change too. They will fight it and resist it to the bitter end. Yes, people lost their livelihoods in the pits mining coal no one wanted to buy. I know she wasn’t good for everyone but she changed the UK and she changed Europe and she even changed the world – for better or for worse, she had an impact. She was the first woman to hold that office too.

Today she passed away. This article isn’t to extoll her virtues or lay praise on her doorstep. It is simply to say that I do not understand what has happened to my country. How people can make the vitriolic and hateful statements they make about an old lady’s death. Have some respect people. She was someone’s Mother, Aunt, Grandmother etc. She lived her life and did her best. What has happened that people can be so sick. Today, I unfriended someone on Facebook for their sick and hateful comments – someone who most of the time talks spirituality too!

Which brings me to my last point I guess. I havn’t lived in the UK for over 20-years. I don’t see myself anymore as British or working class or Tory or any of those other labels we all like to use so much to find reasons to hate one another. I am simply a human being trying to get on with my life, enjoy it, and hopefully have an impact on others through my interaction with them. I am UNIQUE. I always have been…….

The Last Observer – Draft Cover

So here it is….. the draft cover!

What do you think?

Shine On

My good friend, co-author of The Mystical Hexagram< and follow blogger – yes, check out her excellent blog, gave this blog a Shine On award. We are deeply honored indeed.

as a part of this, I am supposed to share seven things about myself – but, as SC Vincent also says, read the blog, it is ALL there….

I must also nominate 5-10 other blogs… here goes:

Franz Bardon Magic

The Artwork of SC Vincent

Merovees Child

The Silent Eye

Working with Light and Love

Waiting for the Pudding

We had lunch today at a Sushi place. The kind with a rolling array of dishes that passes you and you grab what you want. We have eaten there many times before and they do a pudding to die for…. Today, we sat and waited for another 30 minutes hoping to see the pudding but it never came. In the interim, we of course, totally stuffed ourselves on other delicacies rolling by. But although we were waiting for the pudding, it never came.

It made me laugh actually, when we said we were ‘waiting for the pudding’. Why? Well, don’t we spend half a lifetime waiting for the pudding in life that never actually arrives? Meanwhile, we get sidetracked here and there and feed on other things we saw, liked but maybe didn’t need? Ir seemed like a good analogy for life – waiting for the Pudding!

Although our pudding didn’t arrive, we still enjoyed the meal. The fact that the pudding wasn’t served today did put a bit of a downer on lunch though because we waited expectantly for something and we were disappointed.

It’s like wanting that car, house or whatever. We can see it, we can taste it, but it never lands in our laps. No matter what the cosmic ordering folk may say, it never happens. Instead, life does. at the end of the day, if the pudding never arrives does it matter? so long as we actually lived life, I don’t think so. So right now, I’m waiting for my pudding…

that would be a house with a tower for my office ….

and a Porsche Cayenne…….

Yes – I like double helpings of pudding!

Imagineering

Some days, I don’t wish to do anything

I would just like to sit and stare

A lazybones

Awake, but asleep to this world

Wakeful dreaming

Creating in my head

No need for people

Me and me alone

Crowded by thoughts

And memories of times gone by

Begging to question why?

If I could change it

Would it mean anything?

Would my now be any different

Would I have learned anything?

Pondering the future

There’s that feeling again

So strong, so strange

It’s only me this thing

No you or them, just me

Everything and nothing

Cycle, no end nor beginning

Eternally now

Me

Imagineering