The Return Of Gnosis

A discussion of the concept of sacred economics and gift economies based on the work of Charles Eisenstein, contrasted with how we currently relate to money within the modern-day global economic monetary system and its institutions.

Show Notes:

- Episode introduction and theme

- Do you ever feel as though there's something missing from life, in western culture? The cyclical nature of things

- The source of the richness in life - experiencing life as though it were a gift. But what in life is not a gift?

- Perspective - What is the relationship between our objective reality and the relative view we take of it. Is there an element of choice?

- Participating in the stream (of life) vs observing it from the shore.

- Nick saves Martina from being crushed by a public bus in Sweden.

- Nick's dream of the Three Trees.

- Uncertainty as a source of discomfort, simultaneously what gives things real value in that nothing is guaranteed, which makes everything a gift.

- Is 'reason' or 'thought' a process of stepping out of the stream? What takes place when there is complete undivided attention in response to one's external environment? Is there a separation?

- Both rationality and irrationality exist. Both the infinite and the finite exist.

- The individual journey from birth to death, development of higher cognitive faculties that facilitate functioning independently in the world, may also hem us off from the state of wonder at being that embodies childhood, which we must then rediscover.

- The Dark Night of the Soul. The dual world. When something is a constant it gets tuned out. Without the finite, the infinite would eventually lose its flavor.

- What are people mostly pursuing? Is it to have the experience of the infinite (peak experiences) all the time? The effort to repeat past experiences. Is it possible to live life fully awake, without going back to sleep?

- Flowing with the river, toward the ocean. Attachment as swimming against the current.

- The experience of life today takes away from the possibility of any middle ground. Physical vs spiritual poverty/richness. The external richness is a quanity, the internal is a quality. A part of us can never be satisfied by any quantity, but requires the quality which brings a state of peace.

- The spectrum between reason and love. That which exists in time and has a cause and effect (pursuing), verse that which is timeless and is an end in and of itself (being).

- Greed is a need that can never be fully satisfied. Ominiscience and omnipotence - the quest for certainty of outcome as the pursuit of power and control as a dead end. Understanding its limitations, not only conceptually but experientially.

- The beauty of voluntary human interaction, when you give of yourself freely, you are truly giving, and the opportunity to do so exists in the fabric of every moment.

- Meaning - is it possible to ascribe meaning to reality independent of our participation in it? Is everything truly a gift, or is reality simply 'what is' and we have a choice about what meaning we consciously choose to ascribe to it? If so, is that choice then not itself also a gift, since its outcome is not set?

In this podcast we explore the roots of the freemasonic dictum 'order out of chaos', or 'ordo ab chao', touching on the external phenomena of false flag attacks and destabilization of society for purposes of social engineering and control to try to bring about a new 'order' or 'novus ordo seclorum' through various divide and conquer mechanisms.

Moreover we get into the psychological underpinnings and esoteric principles that concern natural law and metaphysics, which are the true source of this 'secret knowledge' which is now being misapplied and misdirected by various secret societies and Machiavellian political elitists to the detriment of those they claim to serve.

Michael relates a recent nightmare he had about a Terminator and how he went back into the dream in a waking state using active imagination to resolve it. Nick shares some personal experiences from his travels in Italy and Sweden that opened his eyes to the illusion of artificial scarcity and helped transform his willingness to openly stand up for and help others in need.

With economic and political instability on the rise, a New World Order (NWO) appears to be on the horizon. Power and wealth continue to consolidate and centralize out of the hands of the many and into the hands of the few. Thus far, the NWO has been interpreted to be a political phenomenon, primarily driven by a secret cabal of elitist financial and political leaders, yet nonetheless, it is seen as strictly an external phenomenon, without any referent to the internal psycho-spiritual dimension. Yet this New World Order is not just an external phenomenon, but is an expression of a deep and archetypal force lying below the surface of our consciousness, driving us ever forward in it’s secret direction. To understand the psychology of New World Order-ism, we must understand the problem of human existence.

Man has always had myths. Stories with the power not only to interpret the human journey but even to transform it. Myths speak to our subconscious minds. They are deep and archetypal symbols. But what are we to make of the stories given to us by Hollywood and other modern myth-makers?

We have all heard the tales of people defying the known laws of physics and biology: mothers lifting a car off their child; the placebo effect or spontaneous remission from degenerative diseases like cancer; the effects of group meditation on crime rates and random event generators; walking on a bed of hot coals without incidence or injury; Dr. Emoto’s studies on the formation of water crystals in response to human emotion; and so on.

Can such phenomena be explained away or are these truly cases where consciousness has an effect on so-called external reality, wherein the rules we have become so accustomed to being fixed can be bent or even broken?

Just as importantly, when confronted with information that appears to contradict the map of reality we have already drawn for ourselves, are we more inclined to want to discard such information or to call our map back into question?

How important is man's connection with nature? Has our environment  become so abstract and artificial that it could be hindering us from reaching our full potential as individuals and as a species?

To our earliest ancestors, the natural world was 'home,' but for many today nature is something of a spectacle; a leisure destination; a place we go to 'get away from it all'.

From the office to the school house; from the home to the car, we have built up an entire world around ourselves that is an artifact of our own creation, with of course the occasional potted plant or a solitary tree standing in a parking lot of asphalt.

Nature has become something almost alien to the city-dwelling man of the 21st century. Where once he knew only of potatoes, tomatoes, and cows, now he knows only of french fries, ketchup, and the Big Mac. His connection to animals and other species has been narrowed to that of a pet, meal, or football team mascot.

Is mankind truly an alien in our world or have we simply alienated ourselves from it through our environment?

In the late 1880s, William James, known as the father of modern psychology, called into question the assumptions underlying our artificial world showing that subjective well-being and concentration were diminished by artificial and abstract settings and tasks. Conversely, his research showed that that spending time in natural settings and participating in activities directly involving the natural world had a significant restorative effect on a person, including improved concentration and increased subjective well-being. It seemed that natural settings had the ability to draw attention naturally and effortlessly, whereas artificial settings required directing the mind's attention through deliberate suppression of other information.

Scientific findings further demonstrated that the brain releases enzymes which inhibit or block out “unnecessary” stimuli when directed attention is required by an environment. While concentration is essential to daily life, it is an activity which produces mental fatigue and eventually requires restoration in order to continue functioning adequately.

It seems environments which naturally draw our undivided attention (without Adderal, Caffeine, or Nicotine) are essential to 'de-fatiguing' and replenishing a mind constantly depleted by forced focus; arguably as essential to our well being as roads, clean water and other amenities afforded to us by our artificial environments.

It is commonly held that we only use about 10% of our brains at any given time. Could nature bring us beyond this perceived limit to our cognitive abilities? Further, what if there is something beyond the everyday reality that we aren't experiencing because of this barrier?

Poets and philosophers for years have indicated that there is in fact more to life than the mechanics of everyday living. William Blake is famous for his line, “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”

Abraham Maslow, the psychologist famous for his formulation of the 'hierarchy of needs,' published extensive literature on that which he called the Peak Experience, said to be responsible for, or at least characteristic of, individuals with high levels of what he called self-actualization or the realization of one's full potential.

"Peak experiences..." he wrote,  "...are sudden feelings of intense happiness and well-being, possibly the awareness of an "ultimate truth" and the unity of all things ... the experience fills the individual with wonder and awe....he feels at one with the world, and is pleased with it .…"

Is this some bogus fantasy or could the direct experience of  some “ultimate t...

“In this world,

Hate never yet has dispelled hate.

Only love dispels hate.

This is the law,

Ancient and inexhaustible.”

My younger brother (John) had brought me to one of his “Best Buddies” events, a companionship program for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities. We pulled up to the front of the building where the event was being held, and he stopped the car. “Nick there is something I have to tell you. These people are just the way that they are. You have to just decide before you go in there – whether or not you are going to accept them and love them as they are ... because they can't change and there's nothing you can do that is going to make them be any different.”

It was not something totally unexpected for bringing in a first timer to an event for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. For me it has always been the case that people with such obvious handicaps as Down-syndrome have easily escaped my judgment and blame for transgressions. I could never see myself being anything but loving and accepting of them. It seems to be another story entirely though with people I consider "normal," the vast majority of whom at any moment may do or say something sparking my condemnation or blame.

I could no longer reconcile the discrepancy. With nothing but a simple label of the mind, there became no place in my heart for blame or judgment and yet with a different label, I could justify untold discrimination. Yet to what degree, I wondered, was the so-called “average person” 100% neurologically perfect, if in fact there is such a thing? And if so what would be the measure?

The problem of measuring people's level of intellectual or developmental disability is for me the same problem as identifying a universal age at which non-disabled people become culpable adults. Children too, I have come to learn about myself, could never do any wrong in my eyes, for “they don't know any better.” The opposite proves to be true for those lucky individuals who qualify for my label of “adult.”

18 is the magic number," says our society. "17!" shouts our justice system. "21" argues the alcohol, tobacco, and firearm regulatory bodies. Meanwhile, voices in other cultures say, "17, no 15!"

But what if no one ever becomes all knowing and everyone acts out of their ignorance at least to some degree? - A dangerous idea in a sociopolitical system benefiting more from serving after the fact justice than preventing crimes fueled by hate and discrimination.

That no one is omniscient or all-knowing is a truth which many consider self-evident, and not requiring further validation. Yet it seems for many, as it did for me before this experience, that this truth is only recognized at the intellectual level.  As it turned out for me, there were other deeper levels of knowing at which I did not yet recognize it.

Having grown up religious, and being a student of mythology, I had heard of the “Kerostasia” of the ancient Greeks, the “Weighing of Souls” of the ancient Egyptians, and was familiar with the biblical adage from the crucifixion scene, “Father forgive them; they know not what they do.” Obscured by their archetypal and non-intellectual form, any positive trans-formative powers these myths and religious symbols may have once held had been long lost to the overwhelming taste of religiosity and dogma. That is until now.

Many native and ancient cultures revered individuals born with what we call intellectual or developmental disabilities, considering them spiritually significant. Likewise, here they represented for me a symbol carrying the power of all the former myths, capable of conveying this truth on much deeper levels, that permeated my entire being.

“To what degree then ...” I wondered, “ is anyone really culpable, that is,