This was 2010

Christmas is over and the last days of the year 2010 have come. It is time to look back onto a year which comes to an end and into the future, which will hopefully be better. For some it was a very hard year for some others it was a boring year with no special incidents at all. After all 2010 was no year which will be remembered like many other years before. The big topic of “climate change” or the “financial crisis” are over yet. Stocks are going up again, the economy is stable and growing quiet well, and world trade has reached new levels. It seams that everything went better, than expected a year ago. But good news are seldomly remarked by the majority. Much more our society, driven by the media, is fascinated by bad news – the disease of our times. Well, we had a few this year, like earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and Japan, flood in Pakistan and an ongoing war in Afghanistan.
Terrorism was mild in 2010, only little damage was done to people and property worldwide. There has been no bigger war among nations or civil wars anywhere. All in all it was a quiet peaceful year. China is on the way of becoming economically Nr. 1 in the world, but will definitely no role model for a modern state. The strong support on European Nations which have stepped into big financial troubles, by buying bonds of states, is one sign of China’s rising political influence. On the one hand China is dependent on Europe as an important market for it’s products, on the other hand China is becoming more dominant on the global stage. It is hard to say a this point in history, which one will profit more from the deal: China or Europe? I personally have a strong tendency to believe it will be China. But one thing is for sure: It will be more difficult for European politicians to criticize China (for example for it’s problematic practise considering human rights and democracy). May be we will get a new definition for democracy under the influence of China, at least looking into the future for more than ten years.

The end of a year is also the time, when we make plans for the new year. Will we be successful, will we be happy, will we win or lose? These are fundamental questions which concern us all and many are very fearful of losing what they have. Unfortunately by being afraid of losing we rise our chances to fulfil our negative prophecies. Today I read of a poll made in Europe and America about the expectation for the new year. Most people are slightly optimistic, but a bit less than for the year 2010. It would be interesting to compare the new year polls of many years with the development which really occurred afterwards. Is there a correlation between expectation and what really becomes fact or not? Well if it is so, there are major dominant factors and powers in the world which do not seam to be interested in a prospering world. But that is just a thought of mine.

What about democracy in other regions of the world? We have seen a long period of dictatorship in the Arab world. May be people are rising their voices and can overthrow the one or other dictator in that region of the world – my hottest tip: Egypt.

2010 was a partially boring year. I hope that 2011 will be a glorious, prosperous and happy new year. A year which makes people more conscious about themselves and the world around them, would refresh the weery minds of western people. May everybody be happy and rich! That is my personal wish for the world in 2011!

Paganism – the decline of spirituality

Superstition, voodoo, belief in primitive forces of nature, astrology, idol worshipping and the like, have always been a part of mankind, especially among the less enlightened and educated classes of society. But two mighty forces have helped to overcome, at least to a certain degree, such foolishness: Organized Religions and Science. For a long time it seamed that the dark times had been overcome by reason und sceptical thinking. Christianity had overcome primitive pagan’s belief in fantasy figures like Thor, Odin, Freya, and had given to the people a more advanced concept of an almighty superpower in heaven – god. A higher development of consciousness destroyed the inferior belief in nature’s power. `Do not worship the creation, do worship the one creator alone!´, became the new dogma and we all can be very grateful for this new concept. It enabled mankind to belief in laws by which the universe can be understood, to overcome the uncertainty of life. One almighty being created the universe and therefore his laws are reliable. This gave birth, after a long period of time of course, to scientific thinking. Science is not a thing, as many people consider it, but a way of approaching life and the surrounding environment.

By science we see, that there are things outside of ourselves, things which exist independently from whatever we think about them. The laws of nature are not connection with our own mental state but are independent of it. The word is as it is, whether we like it, or accept it, or not. But although science has made tremendous progress and improved life of the people on planet earth, during the 20th century a new movement began to criticize science. Science is an authority, but not an authority of birth or position, but of knowledge and of reason. Therefore it is not arrogant of science to claim to be able to explain the world. But there is a group of people, rebelling against all kinds of authority, regardless of source, who live with the childish belief, that everything is possible. They think the limits of nature are not true, there would be a spiritual realm, in which everything goes. This is an infantile and immature point of view the belief in the magic of nature) and by the way most of these people are suffering from some kind of narcissism. It is the old illusion, which has already been described by Freud, of being almighty – a definite sign of not being adult.

What I am talking about is the movement which is known as the New (Dark) Age. An immature, uncritical – we can also call it dull and retarded – way of approaching life. What would not be a bad thing, for every society can hold out a few morons, but in the course of this movement we see an enormous decline of intellect and also of spirituality which lead to primitive forms of worship as for example the pagan (religion). This is a lose group of people without strong rules, structure and organization – just have a nice time and come together at magical places (like Stonehenge) and enjoy each others primitive infancy. It is more a kind of kindergarten for adults. They believe in stupid things like ghosts, the stars, angels, witchcraft and magic in common.

A reasonable society should only have cold contempt for people who engage in superstition, magic and illusions. Belief in magic is not only bad, it is an insult of mankind, something to be despises. In Britain for example paganism is the 6th largest of all religions in the country - a disgrace for a modern, secularized country. But it is the same in many western countries (whether Europe or America). We need a call to arms of all reasonable forces against such a decline of society caused by pagan people, who refuse to be adult. Times have come, when superstition should become banned from communities and especially of young children, who are indoctrinated by belief in magic and therefore must stay immature for the rest of their life, if not lucky circumstanced liberate them later in their lifes.

You have to make your choice. Either you stay a child for your whole life long or you enter the realm of adulthood by giving up all illusions and believe in magic. If you belief in angels, goblins, and the power of nature (for example by embracing a tree) you can also belief in Santa Claus, the Easter bunny or the tooth fairy. The difference is only the one is for adults and the other one for (so called) adults.

Pornography – no more!

A plague of our society is definitely the overwhelming use of pornographic material as well in private area, as in the public space. It is one of the reasons, why human communities have never reached such a low level of culture as we face it now everywhere on the planet in this fist decade of the 21st century. It is no question that no time in human history has ever been more disgusting, more immoral, more primitive, than the one’s we are all living in. Compared to the past, what we face is an enormous decline in everything that is good, that is right. No question we are living in the end times and the whole creation is not living for long from now on. Having been sure about this fact leads us to consider the immorality of our times from a much larger perspective than ordinary human being are able to.

So, what do I mean with this? I bring it all down to the issue of sexuality. Nothing is more a sign of immorality than this one. Sex without purpose, just enjoyed for the feeling of itself, is the most disgusting thing ever done by perverted people, not even the criminal inhabitants of Sodoma and Gommorra (read the first book of Moses) where that immoral as human beings are today, and nobody deserves to face a better fate than to be destroy by fire from heaven, brimstone (which are probably nuclear bombs nowadays). There are ignorant people who think porn is ok, they think porn is consenting adults doing consenting things for consenting adults to watch. Nothing could be more bullshit! Fact is, porn has no positive effect, destroys human dignity, destroys relationships and human existences. I therefore call for abolishing porn and sexual images in all areas of life. For example, seeing a women in a bikini advertising for a new car. That is more of a reason not to buy that car than buying it. A company which is going down to the level of using sexy women to promote their product (a technical one) to make people buy it, is not worth to be considered good. So whatever company is using sex to make people buy their products ought not to be bought than to be bought. We need a complete new kind of thinking. Sex is bad in any other way they practised by a loving married couple and it is a disgrace to use it to sell things and whoever uses sex as a stimulation to sell should be pushed out of business, should be pushed out of the whole industry!

But now to the negative and disgusting effects of sex an pornography on the human mind. Porn creates an illusion, it makes people not live in reality but in a fantasy world. Men and women expect their partner to be like a porn star, what will never happen. Millions of marriages have been broken of that reason. In the US porn is becoming one of the main reasons for divorce. It destroys the healthy development of human sexuality in children. Do you really think a 14 year old will develop a healthy sexual relationship after seeing a naked women being penetrated by two men? – Of course not! Sex is one of the big problems of our society and we have much too much of it. The prude behaviour of former times is over but the pendulum has swung to far into the other direction – we need more regulations, we need more discipline! Human beings are not capable to regulate sex on their own, therefore we need strong regulations, for humans always tend to be immoral and perverted, because of their sinful nature. Sex always needs to be restricted for the happiness and prosperity of society. Since old times, every society knew that the less sex you have, the more pure you are, the higher the standing in society is. Do you want to have a president who is having sex every week? Of course not. Superiority has always been linked to control of sex and sexual feelings and thoughts. We have to go back to the roots of reason in sexual behaviour. Less is more! Even in the culture of the South Sea only the primitive low class women had a lot of sex all the time, but the nobility has always lived a chastise lifestyle. As the apostle Paul mentioned the role model of humans is to live a life without sex, but if you cannot control your sexual drive and have to reproduce, the second choice is to marry and than have sex for the purpose of having children.

But there is no doubt, that the most noble, the most spiritual, beings do not have any sex at all. Even the misguided Indian guru Osho said that no human being should have sex after the age of 42. I would go much further and said that human beings should not have any sex at all. No question, that any sexual act is shameful, even within marriage, especially masturbation is a sin and it is a deathly sin! Self-pollution is one of the most disgusting things imaginable, even worse than theft, if not murder. There has never been a generation which has been bombarded by porn as the one between 15 and 25 nowadays. The biggest group of porn consumers is between 12 and 17 and the pornographers know very well, these are the consumers of tomorrow. It leads to desensitization and inhumanity, human beings are considered as objects not as subjects as they are. Approximately 14000 Porn-movies are produced every year in San Fernando Valley every year (the porn-capital of the world). It cannot be controlled by human beings on their own, that is an illusion, most people, even women, who are a third of all consumers!, cannot control the urges and fall into the trap.

You must see the bigger pictures behind the whole thing. Porn is bad (100%), it is completely destructive, and enslaves people. Behind the whole industry there is the power of evil which is running earth since there earliest days, human nature is not good, and therefore we need the help of an outside power, on our own we are lost – lost completely. Therefore god in his almighty grace has granted us his help to overcome the world and not live from it anymore. Stop looking at naked human flesh, do not fall in love with the world, for there is nothing good here, and come to the real salvation! Stop being sexual, live chastise, do not practise sex any more and become holy and a good person! I wish you all to be well!

Belief versus unbelief

Looking at the two pictures I posted at the beginning of this article, you recognize a special kind of advertising. It is not selling you illusions, but truth, as we can observe it. You may find your sense of life or be happy if you are a believer, but there is no guarantee. The same is true for atheism.

Nearly all people in the western world nowadays accept evolution and science, only few small groups of society deny it. Some religious groups try to use god as the power or person who planned and guides the process of evolution. But fortunately we have come to a point where religion and science exist side by side and respect each other. For a long time it seemed, they both can exist next to each other without major contradictions. But the more science evolves, and especially when it comes to the question of truth, more and more people doubt it’s attitude. Many philosophers have come to the conclusion of atheism, many scientist do the same. It seemed that what was going on in the mind of a believer was a myth, something science could no explain.

But modern psychology can explain how religion arises, what makes people belief (Of course it is can only partially explain what can be observed. Using the scientific method of verification and falsification onto the supernatural, the only solid conclusion is, that cannot be proofed that it exists. “So, but why should we use the scientific method?”, one may ask. Isn’t it arrogant to say this is the only method to find truth (as far as human beings can come to “truth” of course)? All the success of society, from medicine, to engineering, aircraft, computer, car, internet etc. and the better understanding of the universe, have come from using the scientific method. There was no other, we owe our advanced life 100percently to science. Since the beginning of enlightenment and successively declining influence of religion on society, life has become better and better. This method is working and it is the only one which is working properly. All other attempts to see reality base on evidence-less accepting, because of laziness of thinking, tradition or authority. The scientific method does not care for tradition or authorities, it gives science the power to self-correct itself, which is what religions never does – it sticks to the same ideas over centuries, whether they are right or not. The dogma is more important than truth, power is more seductive than knowledge. Right and wrong can be found by human reason, not by old scriptures of which authors and origins are very doubtful (not to say considering the political and social reasons, why they exist). So why does the observation of the world lead to other results than the scriptures describe?

Religious ideas are to some degree by-products of cognitive processes, of thinking. It comes from our ability to imagine worlds and people, which is an important ability for planning our lives. We can build up whole universes in our mind, but that does not make them real. The world does absolutely not care, for what we think is true or not. Looking at little children you see many of them have imaginative friends. God becomes such an imaginative friend (often a father-figure) for adults. Humans make compromises between, what they expect and what is interesting. Wishing for god very easily leads to believing in god, especially when you get social support. In some way whole societies stay children in there mind and they criticize the ones who become adults, what means being mature in mind, and think it is abnormal. Humans, as mammals, have a strong attachment-system, they sick to other group-members, not only when they are in trouble. And being part of a group is more important than truth. Therefore it is so hard to leave a group, you feel lonely and quickly start doubting your decisions. But there is good news nowadays. Society is fragmented that much, that everybody can leave majority and find his or her group. It may be as small group, but you do not have to be lonely. The majority of people is not thinking rationally, but to find people who think outside of the box is possible, everywhere.

But what about moral? Isn’t atheism immoral? The killer argument of the religious is that Hitler and Stalin, Mao and other dictator where atheist. Stalin and Mao where Atheist, Hitler a modern pagan, but there is no connection between Atheism and there deeds. They would have done there genocides, violations of human rights, crimes and inhumanity even if they had been religious people. Crime is a result of character, not of religion or unbelief. It is very often religion which deforms the (natural) moral feelings of people into obedience to a dogma or authority. Moral feelings are natural to humans, apart from religion and very often they are far better than religious dogma. Human beings are mature enough to know what is right and wrong, they do not need an “instruction manual”.

But this is where we come to another assumption of the religious. They think moral comes from religion. Without religion, they say, the result will be anarchy. So even if god does not exist and even if there is no supernatural, we could still use religion as a moral and ethical code. This argument is nonsense (and by the way a weak point of view, if you give up the claim for the supernatural and leave it to a simple code of behaviour). Moral means doing what is right, no matter what dogma says. Religions means to do what the dogma says no matter it is right or not.

Religions present supernatural, as “truth”, but that is often, a way to delude people. Religion is a social issue. It is about human societies and groups and belonging to a religion, especially to the dominating religion in a certain country, fulfils social needs, not the need for truth, or what is really going on in the universe, how was is created an the like. More intelligent people have always known for this. Many of the religious leaders are nonbelievers, they just use the faith of people for their own power – and as history shows it has always been working and it is still working. And that is a shame!
Some people say that religion has helped them. In most cases it is not religion which helped them but the social connection with other people. If it was the dogma it is the delusion, which fulfils personal wishes, which recognizes data, which confirm an opinion and closes the eyes before contradiction and opposite data. Religion may help, as alcohol helps a depressed person to feel better, the emptiness inside gets filled with an idea. Of course that may feel better and some may even get “happy” about that, but it is a happiness far away from truth. There are better ways of getting a happy and clear mind and that is a worldview based on reason and observation, a sceptical approach towards everything and true belief (make sure whatever I say about religion is about the human institution not the true and honest belief or the supernatural!). Skepticism is nothing negative, it is not pessimism, don’t mix that up, it means you test, what your are told, what you read – even be sceptical toward your own thoughts and especially feelings. Feelings make human beings vulnerable and they are very often nothing by lies. A life based on trusting feelings is not a life of success and high worth.

But what about the sense of life and happiness? Yes there are surveys which come to the conclusion that religious people are happier and the conclusion is that religion and belief are the reasons therefore. But that may be an illusion. In fact people are happier, when they are socially more integrated and in a society where religion, or in most cases a certain religion, is predominant, most people feel more happy when they join this religion, but of social reasons, not because religions has something to do with truth or the supernatural. We humans suffer from over-interpretation about many things in the universe. We think things are there with a certain goal; as egotists we often think all things where created for us. For example the naïve belief (of children) that the stars are there to lighten up a dark night. We have problems with random processes and rather think of an intention. We will not have any future using superstition instead of reason.

Quotes I

„I may not avail myself of the opportunity of denying once more the truth of the story that Prince Bismarck had ever likened Lord Salisbury to a lath of wood painted to look like iron.”
- Sidney Whitman –


“I must create a system, or be enslav’d by another Man’s; I will not Reason and Compare: my business is to Create.”
- William Blake: Jerusalem –


“I love to lose myself in other men’s minds. When I am not walking, I am reading; I cannot sit and think. Books think for me.”
- Charles Lamb: Last essays of Elia –


“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written.”
- Oscar Wilde –


“Against the blown rose may they stop their nose. That kneel’d unto the buds.”
- William Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra –


“All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.”
- Samuel Butler –


“I stood among them, but not of them; In a shroud of thoughts which were not their thoughts.”
- Lord George Gordon Byron –

To have or to be?

If I make an offer to you and say: “There are two different ways of living your life. One way leads to fulfilment, joy and a feeling of being united with yourself and the universe. The other way means stress, hardship, the permanent feeling that something is missing. It is a way of disease, lack of love and happiness. The first way is being true to yourself, the second one is playing games and roles for the whole life long.” Which one of the two ways, would be your choice?

The answer is at hand, but guess what: Almost anybody is choosing the second way, the way of despair, hardship and pain! Why is that so? `How can people be so dull?´, one may ask. Well, the answer to that one is not so easy. The first way of living is, what can be described as the “way of being”, the second one may be called “the way of having”. This second way is the way we know so well, almost anyone is living according to it. It is the way children learn from their parents and society and could be summarized with the motto: “What counts in life is what you have and how other people see you!” Value has, what can be described, what can be measured. It is the world in which someone is evaluating all things: money, possessions, titles, reputation, etc. Did you ever notice that people say: “He is worth 10 million a year”, which means that he has an income of 10 million per year. A humiliating sentence and an insult to every person of dignity, but “normal” in our society!

Children learn very quickly, that they are important, loved and respected, if the do something, if they own (have) something. “Performance” is what people want and the reward consists of getting respect. Very often the children have to fulfil the parents’ needs, instead that it was the other way around. No wonder that “to have” becomes what counts alone in the world, whether we like it or not. Do not be deceived by the political correctness statements of “being nice” and giving value to human life per se. The only things which really count, are the actions of people not their words. And by judging the deed, we are living in a world of having and doing, not of being!

People live their lives in an unspectacular way and only very few really find out who they really are. And if they do so, only a minority possesses the courage to live by it. From a very young age we get trained in not being ourselves, by acting according to the world’s expectations, beginning with our parents, who only “want our best” for you. (By the way: “parents know best” or “parents only want the good for their children” are lies told from one generation to the next one. Parents do not want “the best”, but what fits their one interest, not the child’s!). And they really mean it, for that is they were brought up by their own parents. First lesson in live is to learn that what is important is not, what your really want or what you really are, but to be like what society wants you to be (firstly represented by the parents, teachers, etc.). The second thing what you learn is your “role” by heart and third is you forget about your true self and stick to the artificial “educated” self, which your were taught. At the age of a kindergarten child, you are trained and fit for letting you out “into the public” and from now on you can act and live according to the “script” given to you by your parents. And the chances are good, that you will never find out, what has been done to you in your childhood!

You may search for the sense of live for your whole life, have problems of all kinds but society offers a lot of distractions to cope with the emotional tension: Alcohol, drugs, sex, TV, internet etc. Many of them are widely accepted by the culture and the state. But only one thing you shall never do: Looking inside of yourself and find out that education is manipulation and that deforming you began in a vulnerable age you do not even have any memory of any more.

Searching for your true self is not easy, a lot of explosives will blow up on the way, the attempts to “get you into line”. Anxiety is the main obstacle on that way. The biggest anxiety of all is paradoxically not the fear of death, but the fear of freedom, to be alone to be without your “textbook” by which you could live your life. Being free, means to be alone with your own being, making all your decisions on your own, by your own mind and thinking. That is a way of being, most people never experience in their whole life.

But the people who have started to live like this, they are seldom, but they exist! Do not want to go back to a life of slavery. The real root of being un-free or being unsatisfied with life, lies in the dark beginnings of every person’s life. Therefore it is so hard to get rid of the “impregnations” we got through the process called “education”. If you get free, your values, your motivation changes. What becomes important is not what you have, but what you experience. Life is about making experiences, it is the only thing which really stays. But experiences cannot be measured, they are unique and can’t be compared. This makes it very difficult for a culture which wants to bring everything into a mathematical order, to appreciate something. “To be” and not “to have” raises the quality of life to a much higher level, you feel united with the cosmos, you know the sense of your life and the nagging insecurity of people who have to “perform well”, is gone forever. Once you get a taste of what is awaiting you at the “end of the tunnel”, you do not want to go back! And that is the beginning of a new life – the only real life there is. To thyself always be true!

Complete mental health

What is normal? A simple question but a whole bunch of misunderstandings surround it. When we say something is normal, or someone is a normal person, we mean the thing or the person is inconspicuous, the “way it should be”. Therefore “normal” is understood in the meaning of average and average stands for “good”. But such a definition of normal is always orientated on the masses. Good is how everybody is. From a psychological point of view this is catastrophical. The average person in any society is sick, has a complicated sexual life and is having various neurosises. People don’t recognize it because everybody is having it. In a society of the sick, it is normal to be sick and the ones who are even sicker or who are healthier are the ones who shine out. Both are considered “abnormal” and any society tries to bring them into line or to get rid of them in one or the other way. As paradoxical as it may sound: A society is more interested to stay how it is, even if it is sick, than to change for the better.

When we face the world and ourselves we all have to ask: What is going out there in the world and inside of me? All we have are frameworks to cope with the surrounding and it feels very comfortable for us, if other people support our point of view, we get a feeling of being right. The need for security gets fulfilled. But people who challenge the society and its norms become nuisance. They don’t let the others go away the way they where used to. But without such people there would not have been any progress, neither in politics, philosophy, economics, science or even religion.

The better a person lives in reality, the more he or she lived in concordance with the world, the less neurotic or psychotic he or she is. Reality for us on a subjective level is what our brain is making out of the input we get through our senses. Our thinking is forming certain patterns which are characteristic for the individual. But the more energy, the more feelings, we put into such a pattern, the stronger it gets. A negative side effect of this mechanism is that the stronger a patter is, the more difficult it gets to replace the pattern. Most patterns in relation to life are formed very early in life. The period of 15 to 25 of age is critical because it is the time where people form up the ideal outside appearance of the inside pattern. The pattern itself regularly gets formed up to the age of six of seven, not later. So you can see, that people who are between 15 and 25 make the outside world very easily into there inner world and they have little problem there. But the older they get, the more incompatible the inner image is with the very quickly changing world outside. So whenever you see a person with a certain worldview, ask yourself how old the person is, go back in time when he was around the age of 20 and than look, if there is correlation between the person’s ideal world and the picture of the world when he was in the mentioned age. The completely mentally healthy person is not building up any inner pictures of the world and is always living in the world which is perceived by the sense. But this individual is extremely rare, especially in the sick societies of the western world.

Of course that does not mean, that the older a person gets, the more neurotic he is. Not at all. The acceptance of life grows with age. Young people try to make the world according to there own view, older people are better in coping with circumstances, which they don’t like. But back to the healthy persons. Erich Fromm wrote that the sick person is more normal than the average adjusted person. The sickest are probably the healthiest people in society. For the ones who are sick, who feel that something is not okay, are still sensitive enough to feel the lies he has been taught and the pressure which is used to suppress individuality which is very quickly becoming a threat to the community.

What is the ideal person? In history we have had a lot of ideas of the ideal human being. The religious being of the middle ages, the intellectual being of the renaissance, the economic and heroic being of the 19th and 20th century. All these ideals did not look at the real needs of human beings, they all where created by science of mind, religion etc. What we really need, is an ideal which considers the nature of human beings in its entirety. So I use the definition of Abraham H. Maslow, the great psychologist of the humanistic psychology movement. The ideal person is a self-actualized person. Every behaviour which fulfils human needs in a proper way is healthy and supports the growth of personality. Every behaviour which denies human needs or fulfils them in an ineffective way is not healthy. The really healthy person is free of neurosies, psychosises and personality disorders. We have never seen such a society but we also have never seen a society which believed in human beings. There was always the belief that human beings are evil or at least they have some part of evil within them by nature.

That is not true. There is the potential for evil and good within humans. For we can sin, but we also can do good things. The root of evil is not inherited, but learned. A baby gets born into a sick society (every society in the world is sick only the degree of sickness is varying). Evil is the good which is not developed. The reason for evil is that one generation passes on its corrupt and defect ways of thinking, speaking, feeling and behaving onto the next generation. We create the evil anew in every generation. Such patterns can be traced back in families over generations. I strongly recommend the books of Alice Miller, the famous Swiss psychologist, who concentrated on this topic (examples of the development of people like Hitler, Nietzsche et. al.).

One point I want to mention at the end. A critical issue is language. Nowadays we use language exclusively in a descriptive way. We pass on information from brain to brain but we have forgotten the heart. Words can be used in another way also. They have the power to create reality. A communication between heart and heart is very well possible; also most people are not used to. If you read poetry or novels of former centuries you will get an idea of what I mean. We have used language as a tool to create a distance between us and the world and other human beings. Even emotional terms like love have become words alone. You say love but you don’t mean it. It is just like if you would say: “My shoe-size is 29”. I thing we have corrupted one of the most precious things which make us human: The ability to communicate with each other through language, especially by speaking. It should be a job of the 21st Century to change this thing.

Mental pressure on earth an within mankind

Only few people would deny that we are living in times of big changes. And as during all changes which happened in history people don’t know what will come out, if it is over. See for example the French Revolution and the establishment of the empire under Napoleon Bonaparte. There are many ideas; experts of all branches from economy, history to sociology are drawing their scenarios and for people who prefer less “intellectual” solutions we have an army of fanatics and “prophets” of all kinds, who know it best and with certainty. I am sure you also have heard about 2012, the year either the world will be hit by a cosmic object, which is called “Nibiru” or “the world would be advancing in spiritual development” and the rest, i.e. the unenlightened people, will be killed, for the new world will have “higher vibrations” and the people with “lower vibrations” would not be worthy to be part of this space jump. I hope that none of my readers is among such believers.

Explaining the unknown, the uncertainty of life has always been a big task for human beings. We all find ourselves confronted with a world (and with ourselves) and have to find out what is going on there. Therefore we have to use frameworks, to do that job. On specific way of approaching the word is what we call science. Science has proven to be the best system available until now to find out about the surrounding universe. Science is searching for the maximum of objectivity possible and also includes rules for self-correction. It is not delivering “truth”, at least not in the absolute sense of the word.

When we look at the world and the universe as it is lying before our eyes and our mind, we see that there are two directions into which evolution works. They could be called the inner and the outer sides of evolution. For most of history and also of science we where always looking at the outer side, which is, what can be observed in quantity. For example life is spreading over the surface of the planet very quickly. As long as there is enough space there is little, which could stop it in this process. The less space there is, plants, animals and human beings have to find another direction. Therefore I an considering the inner side of evolution, die big tree of life, of which we only see a small part, because vast parts do not exist any more in our time. By the way this has been one of the points which have always been attacked by “Creationists”. Their argument is like the following: “Show me before my eyes that one species changes into another. If you can do that, I am going to believe you, if not you have no proof for evolution”. This would be the same as if you would want a geologist to create a mountain right before your eyes, otherwise you would deny, that geology is true. This is absurd and it shows very clearly, that such people have no idea about how scientists work in the 21st. century.

But back to the topic of the pressure in the mind of mankind. The second direction by which evolution is developing to is the inside. The more the universe expands, the more it is rolling into itself, the more it becomes complex inside its inner structures. This is a conclusion to which all evolutionist come. The top of this complexity is us, human beings. A human being is not an animal. Also we have a common ancestor with primates and have 95, 97 or 98 percent of the DNA of a Chimpanzee, we are something completely different. But this difference does not lie in the DNA, not in the physical, but in the consciousness! In this sense I would define a human being as the evolution which has become conscious of itself. The more consciousness we have the more we are spontaneous and are creator instead of creations. I think we have come to a state where our further development will not be in the physical. It is quiet possible, that we human beings are the peak of the physical which is possible. From now onwards, the driving force of our evolution will guide us into the mental. To make such statements is very dangerous, if told to a new age person, who very quickly adopts such ideas, which fit very well into there worldview. But I am sure, that our problems will no become less and easier, there will not be a “saviour” coming to poor mankind. We have to become the saviour ourselves. The pressure we all feel comes naturally as the world becomes “one big village”. We influence each other with our thoughts, our actions and words and we have a bigger amount of information we get in one day, than people centuries ago got in there whole lifetime! This is pure stress for our mind. It is necessary to develop our consciousness to learn to cope with each other. It is a time of chaos. That is right. But after a successful adoption and new and higher organization of the individuals as well as the whole mind of mankind (may be a united mind of mankind), the stress will be relieved to a lower level and new equilibrium will be found. That is, what I believe. I am not going to pretend to know what everything which I have written here will mean in the world we are going to face. Therefore I stayed very abstract. But I don’t see any possibility to handle the thing without become very speculative or wore, illusionary.

At the end I want to say a little bit about religion and believe. We have become adults. In the time of the Old Testament for example mankind was in a childlike state, and needed a stern god, who punished all the time. We have developed and are rebuffing such an image of god. I am talking about images of god, not got himself, for who could god be detected? If he could be detected by human beings in his entirety, that would not be the “real” god. Image of god must develop according to the changes of the times. This is no blasphemy, but a necessity. We cannot successfully live life according to a 3000 year old image of god, not to say such an old code of morale and ethics. I personally do absolutely believe in God and Jesus Christ. And there is no problem combining my belief with modern science. If there are people talking about dying of religion and belief, they are talking about old image of deities. Yes, many of them will not be surviving, but if they cannot survive you see who week they where form the beginning onward. They had there effect during history, but the final point of existence of them hade to come necessarily. One danger for society stays: If some old images of the divine go bankrupt some people stick to superstition and worshipping of idols. We all should be very careful not letting people fall back into primitive states of worship, like polytheism or worshipping of nature (trees, stones, stars, moon, sun and the like). But there is a good chance that falling back in consciousness is not possible for mankind as a race, only for individuals. May be this is a too optimistic point of view and such a fallback could mean the end of the world? That’s a question everybody has to answer for himself.

Belief – Be pragmatic not dogmatic

One of the big advantages, which America possesses in comparison to Europe is its great common sense and developed pragmatism. While Europeans struggle with others and themselves about theoretical solutions, Americans have enough courage to take the risk of the unknown and discover new avenues. Europeans want to know everything beforehand and only want to start acting after having made up a “perfect” plan, which gives them a feeling of security, a feeling of having everything under control. America on the other hand always was more courageous and bold in doing what must be done than losing itself in fruitless discussions and philosophical considerations. And as experience shows, America is much more successful than Europe, which can blow up a question of minor importance to a question of heaven or hell, very easily. So what do I mean by the title of this post, when considering the issue of belief?

Europe very easily sticks to non-working systems although every rational mind must see, that it is not working. Europeans fall in love with their own ideas and concepts and try to force the world into them, no matter how much reality lets them run against a concrete wall. Best examples to mention are socialist, communist, atheistic and nihilistic thinking and the worldviews which were given birth by them. Once an American friend told me: “You Europeans never get it right! You are too afraid of the reality to act freely and accept the possibility of failure. Look, when it comes to religion and belief I have a very practical way of thinking. If I die and I did not believe in Jesus and his teachings, I got a big problem – and it cannot be solved any more. But on the other hand, if the bible is not true, I have nothing lost, for living according to the Scripture is not a bad life. So you have nothing to lose but everything to win! Who would not agree? Such a guy must be a moron!”. This kind of thinking is convincing for many atheist. But not so in Europe. Such arguments are seldomly heard here. For I think it would be an interesting approach towards the people unsaved. Most people are pragmatists deep inside their heart. But they where forced for many decades by ideologists to not consider the benefits, the advantages and the disadvantages of systems and ideas. For what ideologists hate most is to be confronted with a reality which does not confirm their mindset. As long as everything is in the mind and other people are infected by the same mindset you can feel comfortable. But facing the hard reality can make life hell for people who always want to be right, which is a typical characteristic of an ideologist.

So, what about believing, lets say believing into the bible for example? What does living a life according to the bible mean? People have a clear set of values, a tool for making decisions, a moral code in behaviour and the reassurance of a life in heaven (the last one is very important, but for a solely pragmatic person, it is of lesser importance, at least living in the here and now). The big questions of live like “Where do I come from?”, “Where do I go to?” and “What is the sense of my life?” become answered. I am sure, that living a live according to the bible burns away every neurosis, every personality disorder and every psychosis. The first question is: “What happens to a person, who is living according to the scripture?” In the beginning it is thinking, it is theory. Than you can observe the reality of living such a lifestyle in the life of other people who already live this way. But do not be too critical, for the bible leads to happiness and a good live in Christ for sure, but many people struggle and fail. God is not condemning failure, that is what the world does. The best of all ways to get insight is of course is personal experience! Once you change your life, and start living the new way, you will notice how the quality of your live is increasing. Such is true and you can see evidence in a two thousand year old history of Christianity and if you add the Hebrew culture you come up with more than three thousands years (Abraham – the first Hebrew - approximately live about 1750 – 1800 before Christ). If you asked me for an example of a man in the bible who had such a good live I would pick out king David, the great Leader of Israel. His life was blessed, he was successful in whatever he did, was rich, wise and beloved by the people. I think most people would like to have a life like king David. But, and that is the good news, David and the other great personalities of the bible where human beings, they where no super humans, angels or the like, but man and women who made mistakes, who had ups and downs, but a heart full of god. We can identify with them and we see the great love god has for all his children.

One thing I want to mention here: Belief and religion are not the same and there is a lot of confusion about the difference in some people. Belief means to honestly await things you do not see and very often your mind cannot imagine how they will happen. Religion on the other hand is a system, an institution made up by human beings. As important as a human church, a religious community is, there is always the danger to stick to traditions and convert them into a dogma of belief. We shall not worship anything or anybody but god! How do we see, what we are worshipping? That is very easy: Just look at the content of your heart. Whatever your heart is full of, that is what you are worshipping. How do you spend your time? What are you thinking most of? Where are your concerns? For example, if you are worrying and full of sorrows, that is what you are worshipping. You are worshipping your sorrows, not the Lord, not god father.

In the end do not be afraid of your own belief, if you see what you are doing and what you are thinking. Just stay in the word of god and if you fail, don’t do it again. That is all: See what you did wrong, make a clear decision, be determined and don’t repeat the wrong action. Not every question is about life or death, about heaven or hell! Live, what I would call “serious easiness in belief”. If belief is for you like a heavy load, instead of making you free, you are not in the true belief. Get rid of your load and pass it over to the Lord, for that is what he wants you to do. Be free, be happy and most of all, be fulfilled!

Ferdinand III. of Castile and Léon (1199 – 1252)

One of the biggest heroes of Christianity, the Western World and especially Spain, was the famous third king with the name Ferdinand. He was born in August 1199 as the oldest son of king Alphonso IX. of Léon and Berengaria of Castile. He became king of Castile in 1217 following his uncle Henry I. and by the death of his father in 1230; he also became king of Léon and united the two kingdoms under his strong and wise reign. At that time, big parts of middle and southern Spain were occupied by the Moors and the north was split up into several kingdoms. The “reconquista”, the liberation of Spain from den Moors, went hand in hand with uniting and forming the kingdom of Spain which came to a successful end by the marriage of king Ferdinand II. “The Catholic”, king of Aragon with Isabella of Castile in 1474. From the reign of Ferdinand III. onwards, Léon and Castile were permanently united. Ferdinand III. is also know as “the Saint”, for he was canonized by the Pope in the 17th Century.

Under king Ferdinand III. the reconquista reached a new pinnacle and vast territories were liberated from the Moors. In 711 the Moors came to Spain and conquered the majority of its land. It took many centuries to regain the lost territories by the Christian Spanish nobility. One of the biggest steps in this big project was fulfilled by Ferdinand. Beside of Castile and Léon, Asturia and Galicia became part of the greater kingdom and by this the base of Castile’s glory and power was led. Ferdinand expanded the power of his state to the southern sea (Spain’s Atlantic coast to the south, next to Portugal). Glorious triumphs he made by defeating the Moors at Cordoba (a very symbolic act) in 1236, Jaén in 1246, Seville in 1248 and Cadiz in 1250. By this the majority of the Iberian Peninsula came under his reign. The Moorish kingdom of Granada stayed independent but became dominated by Castile until the final end of Moorish influence in Spain by conquering Granada and its symbol of power, the castle of the Alhambra (“the red one”).

In 1239 he founded the famous University of Salamanca. The legal system was improved by the king and a royal court of appeal was established, before which everybody could appeal. A code of behaviour as a strict rule, for all the clerks of the king was passed and became a guiding line for centuries of Spanish administration. Ferdinand was as strong believer and defender of the Christian believe. For he was not a brutal man and always united wisdom, belief and moderation but stayed strong and invincible about questions of belief. Being king and living a Christian life was always very difficult for occidental rulers. Ferdinand succeeded admirably, like other Christian Saints who were kings like Louis IX. of France or king Olaf II. of Norway. Ferdinand fought strongly against heretics and was eager to secure the purity of Christian belief. Many dioceses were founded by him. One well known building, he let built, was the cathedral of Toledo (another city which was reconquered by one of Ferdinand’s ancestors). Before the king could follow his plans to invade Africa to free the Christians in the Moorish land, he became very sick. Ferdinand’s main interest was not power, but promote the glory of Jesus Christ and bringing back people to the Christianity. Part of this plan of course was to win against the enemy with whom there was no compromise possible: Islam. None the less, he showed a great heart, by treating the unbelievers rightly and let them sell there goods and let them return to the African continent. Also he was enormously successful, he never became arrogant, stayed humble before god and devoted everything to the Lord’s greater honour. As an outer sign of this, he built the cathedral of Burgos.

Ferdinand became famous as “the protector and defender” of the church. There are very beautiful paintings which show the Saint, which are seated in the Prado-Museum in Madrid and the Louvre in Paris. The Cathedral of Burgos owns a painting on which the king can be seen with the devil in the body of a dog, which is lying under the feet of Ferdinand. The royal family had a lot of offspring. As the result of the first marriage of Ferdinand with Beatrix of Swabia (the daughter of the German emperor Philipp of Swabia) arose seven sons and three daughters. His daughter Eleonor (1241 – 1290) became the wife of king Edward I. of England.

Ferdinand died on May 30th in 1252. In 1671 be became canonized by Pope Clement X. His day to remember is May 30th, the day of death.

False tolerance - Truth first!

Tolerance! What a praiseworthy, what a high value?! Who could ever be against it? Who could dare to criticize this great value? Well, I can and I will. Not tolerance per se, but tolerance without intelligence, without reason is what I do criticize! We always have to consider what is the base of our tolerance. From the outside it may look very beautiful, but viewed from the inside, tolerance can be a result of weakness or ignorance. Many people are tolerant because they think that if you do not attack someone else’s position, the person will not attack yours. People may be tolerant out of fear, out of a lack of strong character. Such a tolerance may lead to an outside peace, but it destroys your own soul, it destroys what should be stable inside of you, what is the solid rock in a stormy ocean. Tolerance can never mean to give up your own character, to violate your own boundaries, so that you do not have any conflict with other people.

Tolerance has its place, of course. But if tolerance means to give up truth, not to say what you mean, because it could harm someone and it could make someone feel bad, then it is false tolerance. You are not on earth to have a good understanding with other human beings. It is nice to have it, but it is not necessary. Your job in life is to fulfil your mission, to spread truth on earth and to prepare for the life after life. May the world hate you or not. There is nothing bad about being hated. Being hated for truth is sweet, very sweet. Think of the great Greek philosopher Socrates. He died for truth, also he could have avoided to drink the mug of poison. But his love for truth was bigger than fear of death. What a great person!

A world community, where absolute values are given up, because of harmony and understanding of human beings, is a big lie. It would be better if the world lives in a permanent state of war, than giving up truth! This is a hard saying, I know, but it is rightful and therefore I do not fear to make it public. We see in our world too many compromises, too much of false tolerance. We have to change! And we have to change quickly! Otherwise we will end up in a world of outside peace, but inside terror.

Imagine a world, where people live like the old hippies thought: Love and peace and understanding, no hunger, no war, no terrorism. Again who could not want this? What an evil person someone must be not to love such a “paradise”? But what is the price for such a world? Ignorance of basic principles! It would mean giving up the absolute values, of truth! Such a world would be possible, but it would be an evil world inside, a world without real principles, a world without the complete guidance of the creator! It is a world that is very seductive, it looks so nice and seems to fulfil all the wishes of human beings. The heart of such a world is devilish, is governed by the Antichrist. But it would be too late for the people who glorify this world. The moment they find out what really is set up in the heart of such a world (evil), they are all going to lose their freedom and end up in the worst nightmare imaginable. Evil very often comes disguised by beautiful masks. Or as the old saying goes: The devil is dressed in an angel’s gown and is carrying a bible in his hand to approach a poor soul.

Beware of the nice one, of the people who demand tolerance, harmony, peace and understanding! They are people who want you to give up you character, to give up your (absolute) values. Truth is absolute and it is as hard as a diamond, nothing can split it off. Whoever wants to tell you about moral relativism, who wants to tell you that good and evil are relative and dependent on the situation or time, is not a friend of you, but someone who wants to take what is yours, like a thief in the night. Therefore the only thing, which really counts is: TRUTH, not tolerance! Let truth, and only truth, be your guiding light! That is the only way to end up at the place that is set up for you long before you where born.

The positive side of globalization

Talking about globalization, very quickly leads to strong controversies among people. What the media is presenting us, is mostly the negative side (bad news is good news). And the meaning of the globalization is everything else then good, that is the way it looks for many. Therefore I want to write a little bit about the positive side, which is, what I believe, not covered enough. I only write about aspects which are visible now, I do not speculate about what is or could be coming or what expectations people have. It is definitely true, that a big part of disappointment about globalization is caused by propaganda (economic and political) which has not been fulfilled, as well as wishes people had, projections of one’s own interests.

The first aspect I want to cover is an economic one. Barriers of commerce have been decreased, international standards have been established and a mutual competition among companies has led to the optimized use of capital, workforce and know how. Crops and commodities are available in nearly any quantity and at any time. The liquidity of financial markets is providing enough capital for national and international growth. International credit standards and accounting standards make companies more transparent and enable people to compare companies of different countries with each other. That was a big problem for many years for capital administrators, when looking for foreign investments. One thing should be mentioned here: Globalization is nothing new in the world of economics. Before World War I. the international trade volume among different nations has been nearly as high as today (in relation to the size of nations, population etc. of that time of course). Barriers where build up during the first half of the 20. Century and it took many decades to get rid of them. Internationalization and globalization are everything else but knew.

Democracy is spreading around the world. Even if many nations resists this development (at least until now – look at Northern Africa, I am sure in the near future we are going to see some major changes there!), more and more people become aware of their human rights. The idea that there are human rights which are given to everybody, not by the government, but by nature of human beings itself, is becoming well know to a big part of mankind. An easy and transparent legal system which guarantees private property to people and secures personal values, is necessary for economic growth, as well as the freedom of conscious. This becomes common knowledge around the planet. Even totalitarian regimes are not able to control the information their people get nowadays. We have seen this impressively in the last years. And a few courageous companies, who have a strong backbone, show us how not to give in “the evil”.

People speak at least one foreign language, apart form their mother tongue, and the understanding of foreign cultures and civilizations gets improved. Means of communication are very quick and everywhere available, so what was exclusive and very expensive decades ago and only possible for a small elite, became part of every person’s daily life. The internet is the symbol of globalization of communication. Of course, most of what can be found in the net, is of low or very low value, but let us not forget the pearls which exist and which can be found. We have an enormous amount of information but what is mostly missing is a strategy to cope with it. Communication takes too much of our short time and the personal and/or economic value we get out of it, is quiet low. I am sure we will learn to cope with information in a way that provides better results in the future. The increase of the productivity of mental work of work based on knowledge, is one of the big tasks management is given in the 21th century.

Culture: We also see a better understanding of others cultures in most parts of the world. We watch the same movies, read the same bestselling books. Actors, writers, artists are know throughout the world. Many think that this global unity would destroy the local character of culture. That was true for the beginning of this development, but the more people are globalizes, the more they ask themselves about their own roots. There is a rising awareness of the culture you come from. The farer the branches reach out into the world, the more the roots get strengthened. That is the new human of the 21th century. You do not push aside your home, your origins, you live them more consciously, the farer away you are form your home.

Religion: For most big religions, globalization is nothing new. Most of them offer solutions for all human beings and they are represented all over the globe not only for years but for centuries. There knowledge could be very valuable in the ethical and moral development of the world. But there has to be paid attention to the theological depth of the belief. There is a big danger in staying on the surface, of presenting a religion “light”, which is nothing more than a lifestyle, which changes very quickly. Religions are fundaments, are solid rocks, in an ever changing world. The highly moral demands of the religions must stay as they are completely and unchangeable! There cannot be any change in questions of belief itself. Religions are more demanding than most of the other “systems” we know in the world. But if rightly understood, they have an enormous potential for the good. They fulfil the most demanding need of human beings: the need for sense in life. So religions could really become the “salvation” for the world.

These are just a few aspects of the positive side of globalization. There are many more and I do not claim to have covered the topic in its wholeness. That would not be the sense of a short article, written on a private blog. But I hope I could make sure, that globalization is not something negative per se. We have concentrated too much on the economic development and have very often let aside the other parts (social, political, ethical and most important the moral side!). It will be the job of the next years and decades to develop a complete globalization which includes all aspects of human life. Well, there is a big job to be done.

The goal and the way

Viktor E. Frankly (1905–1997), the great Austrian psychiatrist and founder of the Logo-Therapy, once said that there are two kinds of people in the world. On the one hand, there are the ones who think that reaching a goal, justify any means, which are necessary therefore. On the other hand, there are the ones who believe, that the way of reaching a goal is equally important than reaching the goal itself. But how do we decide? How do we make valuable decisions? How do we really come to a judgement which has its roots in moral and ethics?

Many people in our times think that what counts in the end is what feels good for them. I have written about the feel-good society in a previous post (If it feels good, do it!). The lack of moral standards has become a disease of our times. People have become very suspicious when it comes to the decision of right and wrong. We have seen throughout history that a legion of different systems claimed to have the absolute truth. In different countries and times, right and wrong was what authority claimed to be right or wrong. That has led, in the course of liberation of men, to a position of uncertainty, a kind of moral vacuum which could not be filled. And whoever claimed to be able to fill this vacuum, did not get the support of the majority of the people. What stays left, are a moral relativism and a huge amount of cynicism, which is always the result of uncertainty and anxiety underneath. People crave for clear standards, but it seems that nobody can provide such standards and declare its usefulness. Scientists expand the relativity of their own business onto ethics and moral. In the end right and wrong are subjective and depend on circumstances, persons, society, politics and a lot more. Nobody is completely satisfied, but we are told, it is the best we can get. The hunger for sense und direction stays, but we have to hold it out and stay unsatisfied. At least the human ego can celebrate itself as a modern hero, who goes through a senseless life but shoulders the heavy burden with pride. After centuries of being guided and controlled by someone else, human beings crave for freedom, freedom of men, freedom of systems, freedom of ideology and indoctrination. But in many cases the pendulum has swung too much into the other direction. More and more people see, that freedom can never mean living without rules. As well is it can never mean to deny all rules coming from outside.

But true freedom is a process which always puts the ego into the second row and let something greater than human rule the life. It takes humbleness to accept such a rule of “the father”, as Christian, for example, would call. The reign of “the father” makes free, but the reign of human beings puts you into bondage. This paradoxical fact is everything else than easy to be understood and it takes emotional, intellectual and spiritual maturity to reach at such an insight. And it can never come solely from outside. Nobody can be made to act morally, the light of insight must shine from within and the ignition is always a kind of grace, nothing human being could completely reach by himself.

We definitely live in more complex times, than any generation, who lived before us. Moral questions have never been more difficult to be answered. What is lacking is a solid rock in the stormy sea, the one thing we can rely on. It is easy to see, that nobody can make complete and wise decision who has not found himself. A person, without complete knowledge of his or her own values, is unable to stay “on course” during hardship and turmoil. Emotional balance is crucial to decision making. The power to make decisions is one of the characteristics of a complete mature person. Opportunism is immaturity as well as anybody is not a complete person who uses other human beings as tools for his own fulfilment and joy or reaching his goals. For a wise person it is never true that sweet fruits come out of evil deeds – never! Nobody does a crime and gets away with it – never! Also many people nowadays believe that being smart hides the evil intention and action. An immature person will believe so, but the wise one knows: The reaction will come, sooner or later, with certainty! Look at all the white collar crime. For many years people are heroes of the masses, the media, but in the end they fall deep, deeper than anyone could have imagined. Nothing stays hidden forever; everything gets disclosed in the end.

That brings us back to the beginning of this article: The way is equally important, than the goal, the end! The end depends on the beginning. In our times, where society is split up into more groups than ever before, the potential for conflict is even bigger than ever before. Many groups try to wipe out others and deny their right to exist. The “majority” is ever changing and people will learn than in most cases they will be part of a minority. Being a member of the minority becomes completely normal! That is a situation most people are no used to. And the consequences are enormous. The security of the group is gone and individuals will be confronted more and more with a strong wind blowing into his face. Without personal values and boundaries, one will be blown through life like a leaf in the wind. The permanent self-betrayal will lead to depression, senselessness and tragedy in life. The world will not help you, for nobody is interested in your good but yourself (and your creator of course). Mature people will conclude that the only way to guarantee peace in modern society is by having a few basic principles on which a people is built. We need a real respect for the other ones as human beings. If respect depends on a certain worldview, political opinion, religion or the like, an understanding is impossible. Imagine an atheist and an evangelical preacher. Without accepting each other as human beings, one side will always believe in superiority. Superiority and inferiority thinking poisons every social climate and by the way are never justified at all!

Never before, ethical and moral values have had a bigger impact on politics, whether it is national or international, economy and society as a whole. After the times of crises there is always a time of new clarity. After this time of common relativism we will see a time of new orientation and clarity. When people of good heart stand as a moral example and act by it, how much resistance they may every face, people will start trusting and learn that trust is better than mistrust. Without a basic optimism, no society can exist for long. If human beings do not trust east other, if society is divided it must be doomed to fall. If a house fights against itself the result will be ruin. If the devil fights against himself, he cannot prevail. Lucky is who possesses a strong moral code of ethics, by which his feet are guided. America is rooted in Christendom. The founding fathers always prayed and quoted the bible more often than any other works of philosophers and thinkers. Also Europe can find its eternal moral values in its history if it is ready to reconcile with its history and origin. As for the individual the task is the reconciliation with the source – so salvation, moral action and wise decision will be the prosperous harvest!

What is esotericism?

Last week I wrote about anthroposophy and Mr. Rudolf Steiner. As I told, the idea came into my mind by meeting an old friend of mine after many years within which we haven’t met. I did some research and found out about anthroposophy, which descended originally form theosophy, and its teachings. But what was even more important for me, was to take a close look at my fiend’s life. This was a true revelation! His life had turned into a chaos, since he began to become involved with anthroposophy. A once happy marriage was divorced, he doesn’t want to have any contact with his children any more, his money is gone (all to the society which he now serves) and he is living from public welfare. But what is most surprising it, that he does not see the reality of his life. According to his statements, he has risen very high on the ladder of spiritual levels and is about to become a masters. Therefore he has to avoid all people with “low” character, and most of the world would be to dirty for his “pure” thoughts. It would only take a short time from now and an uprising of the planet would take place, but only for the “chosen” one of course. Everybody else would be sent to lower levels of beings, for the world (which is considered a living being) would be taken to a higher (lighter) state of being (I somewhere heard the same nonsense from some 2012-the-end-of-the-world people).

I haven’t heart a bigger nonsense for many years. This reminds me of many people who are involved within the New-Age or Esotericism scene. They believe to come into contact with “higher” worlds or spheres. Well, from the scientific point of view such phenomenon are nonsense, may be some hallucinations, a case for psychiatrists and in worst case for mental institutions. But other religious traditions, especially Christian ones are aware of the existence of such “worlds”. For example, the Catholic Church is still education exorcists to free people from evil spirits. Whatever we think about such practises, one think that cannot be denied is the fact that people make experiences and that there are many ways by which such experiences can be made. Whoever meditates for a certain time will have experiences, which are not explainable by scientific ways. Even the most “reality”-orientated person cannot deny such experiences.

The word esotericism originates from the old Greek and means, hidden, secret, inside. It is the same as the Latin word occultism. But occultism has some negative connotations and most people interested in the “paranormal” or “supernormal” use esotericism for it sounds much more harmless and is more attractive. But the fact stays that it is the same. Esotericism cares for all things that cannot be perceived in the ordinary, sensual way, we live our daily life. Many people start esotericism, because they are disappointed by the experiences, which they made within their traditional religions (if they have any experiences there at all). They come into contact with the “supernatural” and this experience makes them believe. In contrary the traditional religions did not give them this experience and stay boring and old fashioned in their minds. Many think esotericism offers them the freedom they are searching for. Religion seems to be a way to rule people and take away their freedom. It is nothing to accuse people for, for the reign of humans brings slavery, but the reign of God makes you free. But people consider God being a bigger kind of human being. They have never understood God, they believe in the old point of view of the old polytheistic religions. Gods are a kind of superhuman, according to these traditions, they have bright characteristics and dark characteristics. If you see God as a superhuman with a good and a bad side you haven’t understood a think of the truth of Christendom.

It is true there is a world of God and there is a world of humans. And in between we find many spiritual phenomena with angels, demons, light-beings and the like. It is true, that they exist, they are no illusions. But one think is an illusion: To think that the spiritual world can bring salvation, you can never be free by caring for the spiritual world. God is much higher! And another thing: God is absolute, the spiritual world is a relative (good and evil) and it never serves mankind. There are a lot of lies, which have it’s origin within this spiritual world. The idea, that human beings have a divine potential or that human beings and god are the same. Esotericism thinks human beings can do things on their own if they follow certain rules. Truth is, that without God human beings are unable to help themselves. Nobody can find the way to God without the grace of God. God alone can do the revelation, whatever human beings do, they can never find it on their own (for example Buddhism thinks human beings have Buddha-nature, which is one of the big lies of Buddhism!).

In many of my next posts on this blog, I will explain more in detail the relationships between esotericism, religions and spiritual experiences.

An unusual way of learning

Learning is one of the most important skills of our times. What we learn and what we have to learn during our lifetime changes where quickly. New inventions, ever changing circumstances demand a growing awareness and flexibility, not only in physical movement but even more in mental abilities. But even when things around us are changing, there are certain stable rocks that change very slowly if ever in our lifetime. One of such stable components is the way we learn. School normally suggests that there is a right way for learning, as well as there is a right way to do things. In effect, pupils and students are forced to accept a certain way of doing things, whether it applies to the individual personality or not. Whoever fits into the educational system will be promoted and probably get successful. But the ones who fail or have learning habits, who are very far away from what is called “normal” will get bigger problems, or in worst case, fail completely and are called dull or mentally underpriviledged. One indicator by which this can be seen, are the school marks. For good marks tell very little about the real abilities of children, but even more about the adaptability to the system. The more you conform, the better your marks will be. Smart pupils always knew that in order to get a good mark, it is not necessary to be enormously intelligent, but to impress the teacher, by telling him what he wants to hear.

This leads me to the question of the style of learning. Many people do not know their own style of learning or thoughts, and believe that it is not really necessary to find one’s way of learning things. School is over (for luck), they think, and the rest is a more or less successful struggle through life. I cannot agree to this and more and more people can’t because they feel the negative consequences of not knowing their one learning habits. So there are people who prefer reading things (reading types) or others, who do best, when they hear, what they have to learn (hearing types). These are the types, who will be most successful in the traditional school system. Then there are others special types of learners, like the one’s who have to read aloud or walk through a room by learning (like a lawyer before court). Some people have all kinds of rituals to promote their mental awareness and creativity. Think of poets like Friedrich v. Schiller (1759-1805) who had always old apples on his desk, while working or many artists who have their muse to inspire their mind to produce their most wonderful works of art.

I am sure that there are many other ways of learning, which are as individual, as there are personalities on earth. My personal way of learning is writing. I never learn better, than when writing about something. This blog is one way of doing so. Whenever I read or hear about something new, I sit down and write a few sentences about the topic. By doing so I recapitulate what I have got to know, I structure the lessons learnt and express myself. It took some time to find out, that this is the optimum of doing so for me. Until a few months ago, I was sure my way of learning would be walking through a room and recitate what I have to learn. It was a very well working way for me, which was successful for many years. But now I have found another and even better path to learn. It is not what will be accepted very well at school. I got to know that Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), the famous British Prime Minister, did learn exactly the same way. Well if someone winning the Nobel Price for Literature was learning in that way, it may not be the worst choice for me also!

Hero of the net – coward of real life

There is an interesting phenomenon which can be witnessed during surfing the internet, whether it is public newspapers, information guides, private blogs, online communities or worst of all, diverse kinds of forums. Obviously the persons behind the nicknames or the apparently anonymous posts, feel the strong urge to blurt out into the world his or her degenerated and highly unqualified thoughts. What I am referring to are the masses of anonymous writers that penetrate all areas of the World Wide Web and increase the amount of confusion, disinformation and entropy by which the average internet user is molested permanently.

It has been said, that at least two third of the net’s content consist of misinformation, propaganda und sex. For that is definitely true and complaints about such facts are all in vain, I am one of the strongest proponents of not falling into the trap of the illusion, that the world outside of you can be changed. Not at all. What makes me think about this anonymous writers is more of an academic interest, the need to know and to understand, an effect of my unsaturating curiosity. The phenomenon is well known, but only little studies are done on the subject. I remember in fall of 2008, when Jörg Haider, the politician of the Austrian right, died in a car accident, it became a very big story in Austria. The media and especially the net where filled with all kinds of propaganda and conversations of the lowest level imaginable. Most posts where worthless, either there was glorification or happiness about Mr. Haider’s death. The net turned into a bloody battle field. A well known psychiatrist wrote in a local newspaper about the kind of person that exists behind the anonymous posts and nicknames.

There was a study of a Swiss psychiatrist, who found out that the personality of the people who write very courageously and seem to have strong personas and opinions, own the complete opposite of these qualities in real life. The net seems to turn them around and under the secure cover of anonymity they pretend to be great and powerful people, they live the illusion in the webspace they do not dare to live in their real life. When I read this article, I discovered parallels to my personal experiences. Reading some homepages always made me ask, if the writer is serious or just writing fiction. Behind the outside appearance, there is shyness, anxiety and feelings of not being worthy and a strong lack of character. But most of all, such people feel a big amount of aggression inside themselves, which need to be expressed. For they do not dare to express aggression in there daily life, the web becomes a substitute, a “safe space”, where all the non-digested energies are thrown into. The anonymous writers crave for acknowledgement, for they believe there contributions have not been evaluated enough and the respect of the community is painfully missing. Of course the writers feel secure and do not believe in any negative consequences for themselves, otherwise such actions would not be possible. These people are cowards, they are what without any doubt can be called a narcissistic personality. But may be there is one good effect of these internet user’s activities. If they use the net for their expression of aggression, they do not act aggressively in the “real world”. As far as I remember that was the conclusion of the mentioned article.

Non the less, the internet shows a lot of what is really going on inside the human’s mind. It seams to me like a course in free association sometimes. Robert Greene writes in his “33 Strategies of War”, that it is fatal, that human beings of our times are trained for peace and not for reality, what is war. Hypocrisy and manipulation became very common, everybody is searching for the “trick” to get things done the way they like it. The surface is shining like gold, but the deep waters of character are highly intoxicated. Make people become emotional and you see through the vale of complacency presented to the world. Never overestimate the moral of people. The person who exposes him- or herself as highly moral, is oftentimes the complete opposite of being moral. We all know the false Phariserians, who shine outside and stink inside, without even knowing it; most of them really believe what they tell themselves. They are hypnotized by their own words and ideas and cannot see the truth. One part of their personality contradicts another one, without even recognizing it. A human person normally includes all kinds of contradictions. But if we are aware of ourselves, we see that different aspects of us (often appearing as different inner voices) have different positions toward the same thing. Goethe, the great German poet expressed this by saying: “there are two souls living in my chest”. But for luck I am quiet sure that nobody of my readers belongs into the category of this anonym writers. At least I hope so!

The guy whom can be trusted

One of the most crucial factors in choosing our leaders in society, business, politics, as well as our friends, companions and people we socialize in general, is trustworthiness. To trust means to believe in someone without proof. That does not mean, that we trust blindly or without mind and thinking; not at all. It just means that there is a solid base, a strong fundament, on which our beliefs are grounded. It is evident that all comes down to the question of character or personality. In this text I am using character and personality as synonyms.

We shall not choose the ones we follow by their resources, their social network, their power or by their outside appearance. Such criteria for election have always been a disaster in effect, as history is full of stories of the charismatic leader, who led his people into ruin. But the leader of a country, may it be a king, a dictator or an elected president, is always a representation of the mass consciousness of a certain people. So it can be said, without being sarcastic, that every people has the leaders it deserves. That it definitely true, and makes us draw a crucial conclusion from it. If we want to have better and more capable and competent leaders, we have to change ourselves first! We have to act more mindfully, more in the present of the moment with guiding the help of our heart and our brain. What I mean is not some weird, esoteric or New-Age thinking, without connection to reality (we have had enough of that for a few decades now and the results are everything else than fruitful). It just means, we do not be blinded and irritated by the smoke of fake personality and see through all the deceptions that come along our way.

One is never deceived, we always deceive ourselves. The lack of our own integrity opens up a hole in our personality, so that outside forces can invade us and may take control of our true being. We may feel like being out of control, and that is true to some degree, for we let an outside force (normally another human being) take control. But we always have the power to re-establish our own reign. So first of all, if we really wish to live in a world of trustworthy people, if we want to have prospering relationships, we have to become, what we want to perceive - trustworthy. If you want to have good friends, first it is your duty to be such a good friend to others. And considering the question of trustworthiness, it is your job to be trustworthy yourself.
Many people think, detecting the personality of another human being and being successful in life comes from a certain kind knowledge and the training of clearly defined skills. In other words, they believe, that success, may it be in business, society, sports or relationship and the like, comes from knowing “tricks” and having special information most people do not have, or which are hidden from public. They believe that knowledge is power, and that you could change the word outside of you. So they read books, visit seminars and workshops, listen to “Gurus”, who seemingly have “the wisdom”, and pay thousands of Euros or Dollars. Nothing could be more short-sighted. Fact is that you can control to hundred percent what is inside of you (at least potentially, not to say you have already acquired this ability) but the world outside of you is completely out of your control. You have zero control over what is not inside of you. So any change in life can only come from inside. The outside is only an effect; the world is an indirect perception of ourselves, not more and not less!

Let’s go back to the question of character and trustworthiness. A person, that knows his boundaries, knows what he can control and what is outside of his control. Ideas of “let us change the world and make it a better place” are dull, especially when spoken by a politician. The attempt to create heaven on earth has always led to hell! (By the way did you notice that dictators are always talking about peace: Hitler, Soviet Union et. al.) A mature person accepts what cannot be controlled and is not wasting energy on it. If we have the wish for vengeance, we live in the illusion to controlling the past, which can not be controlled. If we are afraid of the future, we are living in the illusion of controlling the future. Regret or vengeance are suffering over the past and anxiety is suffering over the future. But we can only live in the now. Suffering means there is going something wrong in our life. Suffering tells us to stop, what we are doing. But that is not the way human beings look at the world. Suffering is just wasting of energy, we are alarmed by our mind, not to waste energy, and therefore suffering exists. The truth is, that there is never a past and there is never a future, they are never real. A person, who is afraid, as well as a person, who regrets the past, is not living in reality. Suffering also tells us, that we are not living in reality. In reality there is never pessimism, there is only optimism. Pessimism is nothing else than immaturity. And do not be deceived by people who tell that the reason, why they are pessimistic is because they are realists. That is another deception to justify their negative view of the world and themselves. For whatever we think about the world, is what we think about ourselves.

So we have another factor of a mature person, whom can be trusted. A mature person is an optimist. A trustworthy person has strong personal boundaries. He knows what are his goals and values; he knows his priorities and lives by them. So he is able to say “no” when someone wants him to act against his values or goals. We may not like, that a person opposes us with a “no”, but at least we can respect such a person and we can trust him, for what we know what he is standing for. He has a profile, in other words, he has character. And character is destiny, as we know since the times of the old Greek.

The ability to choose other people by their character is one of the most important skills we must learn in life. Without this skill, we end up in bad jobs, bad economic situation, bad relationships and bad societies. But keep in mind: You are the master of your character, your are the master of your word, everything begins with you! Character is destiny!