Bring4th

2016: The Year Ahead

by Neil Kramer

This brief piece appears in New Dawn magazine, Jan 2016 edition. The editor asked me and several other authors and thinkers to give our 500 word perspective on what 2016 will bring.


2016 will rigorously test people’s readiness to embody their truth. Can we live the wisdom and transformation we’ve been cultivating over years of study, journeying, and contemplation? Can we summon the strength to have our outside accurately reflect our inside? Are we ready to run our own world yet?

In many schools of mystical study, polarity is a key principle. The student is taught that everything in life is dual. All phenomena have pairs of opposites, as observed in the primal forces of birth and death, day and night, order and chaos, joy and sorrow. Over time, through experientially mapping and understanding the interplay of each set of polarities in our own lives, we may gradually determine a point of equilibrium that reveals the hidden teachings of these mysterious fluctuations. What we must be careful to avoid, is clinging to just one end of life’s naturally divergent polarizations. And herein lie the trials set forth in the world’s current crises.

At every turn, the synthetic culture of Empire implores us to throw our hearts and minds into unconscious polarization. It wants us to radicalize ourselves to either patriot or terrorist, believer or atheist, white or black, liberal or conservative, strong or weak, and then embark on an endless crusade to reform, condemn, or destroy the other side. This one-way polarization renders all participants impotent, regardless of which side they pick. This subtle but devastating trick deactivates our will and we automatically forfeit our capacity to rule ourselves. Lost in unconscious polarization, we serve Empire.

Nevertheless, whilst Empire’s constant telegraphing of fear can be unsettling, its power to deceive is unquestionably failing to influence legions of honorable humans who refuse to hand over their discernment to the corrupt and compliant media. The sock puppet terror cells and fabricated economic cataclysms are fraying at the edges and their artificial nature is pitifully evident. The official narrative betrays only those who choose to hide from reality. For them we can do nothing, until they do something for themselves.

It is my heartfelt observation that a critical threshold of spiritually alive humans have grown so excellently in confidence and wisdom, that the old hierarchies must resort to ever more vulgar contrivances to preserve their reins of power. Understand then, that the daybreak of a new higher consciousness will be heralded not by gentle awakenings and well-mannered transitions, but by bewildering fragmentation. Just as these patterns of collapse were experienced in many people’s personal lives throughout 2015, so now they are shaking the very foundations of Empire. Towering ramparts that once seemed so impossibly daunting and everlasting, will soon be little more than forlorn ruins.

We are upon the eve of the grand winter solstice of Empire, and the longest darkest night will seem interminably protracted and bone-chillingly cold. But like all things, this too shall pass. And the daylight will lengthen and the new growth that we have envisioned for so long will blossom – if we let it. We made Empire and we must unmake it. As a thing is bound, so it is unbound. Deeds not words. Learn the art of depolarization and nothing can stop you.

Quote:At every turn, the synthetic culture of Empire implores us to throw our hearts and minds into unconscious polarization. It wants us to radicalize ourselves to either patriot or terrorist, believer or atheist, white or black, liberal or conservative, strong or weak, and then embark on an endless crusade to reform, condemn, or destroy the other side. This one-way polarization renders all participants impotent, regardless of which side they pick. This subtle but devastating trick deactivates our will and we automatically forfeit our capacity to rule ourselves. Lost in unconscious polarization, we serve Empire.

Nevertheless, whilst Empire’s constant telegraphing of fear can be unsettling, its power to deceive is unquestionably failing to influence legions of honorable humans who refuse to hand over their discernment to the corrupt and compliant media. The sock puppet terror cells and fabricated economic cataclysms are fraying at the edges and their artificial nature is pitifully evident. The official narrative betrays only those who choose to hide from reality. For them we can do nothing, until they do something for themselves.

I find it fascinating that it speaks consistently of the benefits of depolarization and how we should reject arbitrary binary choices... while incessantly painting this undefined but apparently all-powerful "Empire" as the terrifying bad guy who can "deactivate our will" and which which we should presumably be happy to see reduced to "forlorn ruin." There are the Awakened, and there are the slaves of the corrupt for whom we can do nothing. Us or Them. Be afraid. Pick a side.

It embraces the exact same cheap psychological trickery it attempts to decry.

And even if the author is honestly well-intentioned, it bothers me that he seems completely unaware of this. He doesn't even seem to have much sympathy for these spiritually unalive people he sees everywhere, what with the victim-blaming he has going on, despite having effectively accused this "Empire" of mind control. He's sunk into the same angry fear he accuses the other side of spreading, and apparently doesn't realize it.

The pit of fear can never be filled with more fear. The flames of anger are never doused with more anger. Even if cataclysm is inevitable (which I don't believe) we surely must retain compassion for our fellow humans throughout the process, rather than cheering their downfall. And they are mere human beings, no more and no less.

Yes, even the "bad" ones.

(01-03-2016, 01:55 PM)APeacefulWarrior Wrote: [ -> ]I find it fascinating that it speaks consistently of the benefits of depolarization and how we should reject arbitrary binary choices...  while incessantly painting this undefined but apparently all-powerful "Empire" as the terrifying bad guy who can "deactivate our will" and which which we should presumably be happy to see reduced to "forlorn ruin."  There are the Awakened, and there are the slaves of the corrupt for whom we can do nothing.  Us or Them.  Be afraid.  Pick a side.

It embraces the exact same cheap psychological trickery it attempts to decry.  

And even if the author is honestly well-intentioned, it bothers me that he seems completely unaware of this.   He doesn't even seem to have much sympathy for these spiritually unalive people he sees everywhere, what with the victim-blaming he has going on, despite having effectively accused this "Empire" of mind control.  He's sunk into the same angry fear he accuses the other side of spreading, and apparently doesn't realize it.

Actually, he's not unaware of this.  In his more lengthy podcasts and interviews, he expresses acceptance of, and sympathy for, those who choose the other path.  I guess it's not apparent in this short essay.

We all choose a path, eventually.  He has chosen to pursue the service-to-others path, although he doesn't label it directly that way.  You might wish to explore his web site to put this essay into a larger context.  I love his stuff.

Well, I'm glad that he's not as strident about "the other team" as he seems to be in this article, but that doesn't really change my problem with the way this is written. He very literally engages in the exact same behaviors he accuses this "Empire" of engaging in. He builds them up into a huge boogeyman, even as he says spreading manufactured fear is wrong. He divides the world into Awakened and Empire (and their slaves) while saying arbitrary binary choices are a means of control.

At least based on this, he strikes me someone who may have stared into Nietzsche's abyss a bit too long.

Besides, we only "have" to choose in 3D existence for the sake of the initial polarization and the self-actualization that comes with it. Afterwards, entities are basically free to move between polarities, if they choose, as their desire to learn guides them. And that initial choice has very little to do with picking teams in Earthly conflicts. Even if his "Empire" thesis is correct, there are undoubtedly plenty of STO entities working for it because -for whatever reason- that is how they have chosen to render service to the world. And likewise, someone could just as easily be overtly working for a team that says it's walking in the light, but doing so for purely selfish or power-based reasons.

We can never know what is truly in any entity's heart based solely on their external actions. That's one of many reasons why it's not a good idea to try to divide the world up into "Good" vs "Bad" regardless of how that division is made or what specific labels are used. If someone desires to be more positive in their polarization, that sort of thinking has a high chance of slowing (or eroding) their progress, especially if it gets to the point they lose sympathy for "the other side" and start celebrating their misfortunes.

If you enjoy his writings, that's fine. But I'd still urge you to read his words with some discretion if this "Empire" vs "Awakened" story is one he pushes often. He's right that such binary choices are usually a path towards fear and hate, one way or another.