Friday, May 23, 2008

The Dalai ‘Bama Letters #7: Hillary, the De-Energizer Bunny


Originally, the following was in response to a close, and mostly liberal, friend’s series of anti-Obama postings, posted in March of 2008 or thereabouts (mostly all posts were copies of articles my friend found elsewhere, and were not my friend’s own).

For a look at Barack’s actual policies on anything (instead of propaganda) please simply visit http://www.barackobama.com/.

I may have revised some small bits, but the spirit remains.
----------------

Originally Posted March 30th (and she's still here...)

In light of recent statements from Clinton that she’ll be in the race ‘til the end, and in the face of odds that make her endorsement as a candidate numerically unlikely, a recent swath of endorsements seem to be sending back to her a reactionary message: First, Obama gets the endorsements from Gov. Bill Richardson, then Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey Jr., then most notably Vermont's Patrick Leahy...

And now on Saturday, Obama wins a majority in a second round, in Texas of all places, of delegates, putting him at 51 to her 49 percent there, and giving him an additional overall delegate lead of 1,858 to her 1,270.

This is more than a little ironic since she actually won the Texas primary; the popular vote...

It’s ironic because the basis of one her arguments for a win is that she still has the potential to win because both Delegates and super-D’s both have a right to vote any way they want— even if this goes against the popular vote; the will of the people...

Well, it seems with Texas she’s being proven correct somewhat... but the result is not in her favor...

Then regarding Florida and Michigan, she argues let the people speak (even though she signed an agreement regarding those states not counting); and regarding the convention she more than implies that the super-D’s can vote their consciences, regardless of what the will of the people says— Going against the will of the people, in fact, is the very basis of her argument that she can still win...

So, her message here is simple, the people should count, when their votes are for ‘me’; or the delegates’ votes (regardless of what the people say) should count, when the votes are for ‘me’...

Then add to this her repeated ‘lapse of memory’ over the barrage of gunfire she supposedly dodged on that trip she took as a first lady... later proved not as she described...

As for ‘your’ litany of states falling in succession... well, specifically Oregon, which is where I’m from... Obama and Richardson were here together and 12, 000 tickets went away in less than 5 hours or something ridiculous like that (and later they were selling them on craigslist)... Obama will take Oregon, just like Washington...

And as for the PA double digit lead in PA polls... Twenty-somethings and many Thirty-somethings only carry cell phones... They are not being polled... This has been the essence of the surprising numbers in the democratic turnouts... numbers which have literally made precincts order more voting cards...

And who is responsible for generating these numbers... The same candidate whose average donation from contributors is around $109 dollars and (though he’s gotten PAC contributions for senate earlier) has taken ‘no’ federal PAC money for his presidential bid...

Gov. Bill Richardson (a likely and eloquent wise old Obi Wan VP or Secretary of State potential), Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (as if to actually punctuate with his endorsement Obama’s recent Wright Speech; or is that the Right Speech), then most notably Vermont's Patrick Leahy... and now the Texas delegates...

So, what is the blowback we see here as a result of her obvious manipulative-ness..? The answer here is simple... If Billary doesn’t take the so-called projected double-digit lead she claims probable in PA and especially if she doesn’t stop the negative campaigning which threatens to take down the entire party with her...

And if Billary can’t quell her feelings of entitlement... her avarice... the Supers are simply gonna do it for her...

The recent spate of endorsements is a warning... and they will become a barrage well before June if Billary can’t take a hint...

Bring on the rain...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright © November 2008 by Gerald Ollison. All rights reserved.

The Dalai ‘Bama Letters #6: That Red Hair In My Beard...


Originally, the following was in response to a close, and mostly liberal, friend’s series of anti-Obama postings regarding race, originally posted in March of 2008 or thereabouts(mostly all posts were copies of articles my friend found elsewhere, and were not my friend’s own). For a look at Barack’s actual policies on anything (instead of propaganda) please simply visit http://www.barackobama.com/.

This was in response to a re-posting of an article called Obama blew it: What the candidate should have said about race, by Michael Meyers, from March 20, 2008.

I may have revised some small bits, but the spirit remains.
---------------

I like this one, but instead of saying this guy's right and Obama's wrong... I'd have to say it's not either-or; it's a question of context.

What you got here, in comparing both statements about race, is really just another black guy's (transcendent?) opinion compared to another; but it's like apples and oranges. It's a little like that Spike Lee movie, 'Get On the Bus'. Twenty guys; twenty perspectives on what being black means... There is commonality, mostly our shared histories and how (white) society at large effects us, but it's not like a religion. In fact, we were from different regions, tribes and religions when our ancestors were brought here...

When I was in Philly, one place in the U.S. which is probably one of the most racially intense and aware places for blacks I have ever been... The place where Obama gave his famous speech... A place where people are ‘into’ the racial part of their identity like many East Coast cities—Black, but also Jewish, Italian, Irish, etc. A place where racial enclaves were started a hundred years ago or more, and are still often basically the same neighborhoods ... When I was there I once had a conversation with a group of friends and we often made very clear distinctions between race, culture, heritage, etc.

See, you know I’m adopted... this makes me really an outsider even within my adopted black family... My birth mother was from Texas and of Scottish descent (so that’s where those red hairs in my beard came from). My father was black and who knows what else... I was brought up by black adopted parents— well, my dad also had Blackfoot Indian and my mom, Seminole (a tribe I understand also owned black slaves long after emancipation). Just what the hell does that make me..? Even though I grew up kitty corner from friends whose older brother’s were Black Panthers and in a house with an Ebony Magazine subscription, how am to relate to the ‘black’ experience..?

Well, when I try to get a cab in NYC, then I know how to relate to the black experience. When I hear that my brown-skin male cohorts are 10 times more likely to be shot and killed before the age of 26 than yours, more than twice as likely to go to prison, and the females more likely to be single moms in their teen years—you bet your sweet ass I know which box to check when the census taker comes to the door... I know which federal programs will help, and I wanna make sure the correct proportion of federal tax dollars go to those that do... So, yes, politically, there is no doubt I am black!

Yes, I am a human being, but politically, in a political context in this country... I am most certainly black...

That is the context... and that is what Obama’s speech was about, ‘context’... And what this guy wanted..? Well, it wasn’t wrong exactly; it’s just a different speech.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Adama for President
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dalai Lama for President
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Yo Mama for President
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Billary for President

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright © November 2008 by Gerald Ollison. All rights reserved.

The Dalai ‘Bama Letters #5: Marianne Williamson Is Hot!


Originally, the following was in response to a close, and mostly liberal, friend’s series of anti-Obama postings, posted in March of 2008 or thereabouts (mostly all posts were copies of articles my friend found elsewhere, and were not my friend’s own).

For a look at Barack’s actual policies on anything (instead of propaganda) please simply visit http://www.barackobama.com/.

I may have revised some small bits, but the spirit remains.
---------------


In particular, this is a response to an essay he posted by playright/Director, David Mamet, whose work I love in almost every category (Just saw Redbelt and it was great!), but whose attitude about other things, well... The essay, titled Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal' was published March 11th, 2008.
---------------


And David Mamet... I love David as a artist, but he’s very much a prime example of exactly the kind of cynicism that’s pervaded the boomer culture. What I was talking about earlier... What’s there not to love about most of his work, and I love “TRUE AND FALSE”; but as for his cynicism...

Let’s just say I hope to God, that in the next life his soul has to be married an entire lifetime to Marianne Williamson...

That Oprah shit’ll fix his ass.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright © November 2008 by Gerald Ollison. All rights reserved.

The Dalai ‘Bama Letters #4: Cylons


Originally, the following was in response to a close, and mostly liberal, friend’s series of anti-Obama postings, posted in March of 2008 or thereabouts (mostly all posts were copies of articles my friend found elsewhere, and were not my friend’s own).

For a look at Barack’s actual policies on anything (instead of propaganda) please simply visit http://www.barackobama.com/.

I may have revised some small bits, but the spirit remains.
---------------


In particular, this is a response to the idea which keeps coming up that some conspiracy will destroy Obama in a JFK/RFK-esque like event-- a Jungian projection of a spectre which disturbingly keeps resurfacing.


Even as I re-post this Hillary brought this crap up as a reason she should remain in the race: "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right..? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California."


Of course, she had to apologize (to somebody)...
---------------


Dear ______,


Gee-whiz... What happened to the guy that just posted that other sappy sentimental real-love-on-Earth posting? Yikes!

I believe it’s like that too, all conspiratorial-corporate and stuff. But the emphasis still has to be on taking action; and not a probability of defeat. The problem with conspiracies (theory or practice) is that they deflate the notion that any progress at all is possible... and that ain’t simply so...

Sooner or later the real monsters rear their ugly heads and it becomes pretty obvious who the lesser of all the available evils are, at least... and it’s pretty obvious who is or ain’t on, say, Cheney’s team.

The problem with most conspiracy theory (playing both sides against the middle and you is the middle) is that it can make you think that all of it is just an exercise in futility... You start thinking, hey, there’s no difference between these guys, so screw it...

And folks, that’s exactly what it’s designed to do... that’s why moneyed interests loves conspiracy theory... It stagnates the idea that any action, or choosing any side, can only lead to the same ol’, same ol failures...

As the saying goes-- Sooner or later, you have to choose sides.

I think Adama said that too...

That’s not a typo; I really do mean Edward James Olmos in Battlestar Galactica...

I really am a believer in Cylons... I mean, wow, Cheney?.. Ann Coulter?.. and that Dana Perino, chick... What up wit dat...?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright © November 2008 by Gerald Ollison. All rights reserved.

The Dalai ‘Bama Letters #3: The Pot Calling the Kettle... Wha..?

Originally, the following was in response to a close, and mostly liberal, friend’s series of anti-Obama postings regarding race, originally posted in March of 2008 or thereabouts(mostly all posts were copies of articles my friend found elsewhere, and were not my friend’s own).

For a look at Barack’s actual policies on anything (instead of propaganda) please simply visit http://www.barackobama.com/.

I may have revised some small bits, but the spirit remains.
---------------

First this:

Don Wycliff, editor of the Chicago Tribune, reviewed Steele's book and disagreed with his analysis of Barack noting that:

"[as] I read his essay, I found myself thinking that Steele was trapped in a time warp, that his knowledge of the currents of thought and attitude among black people stopped sometime around 1990. Less charitably, I found myself thinking that the egregious Al Sharpton is not the only one with an investment in a static view of American race relations....It apparently never occurs to Steele that for a man a generation younger than himself the terms of blackness might be different, that the “totalitarian” demands he [Steele] encountered in the ’60s might no longer prevail, that Barack Obama’s mixed-race experience might actually be different than Shelby Steele’s."

My own bit:

Let’s see... Bargaining..? Trade-offs..? Relieving white guilt..? Wants to ‘be black’..? Wait! You’re calling Obama an Oreo!!!

Oh, God!!! Is this a tired old accusation, or what?... The above review is dead on! Not Shelby... Basically, Shelby Steele’s take is just a revamped version of the ol’ uncle Tom Oreo name callin’ thang... That’s it. For all his intellectualizing and pseudo psychological neo Freud-o babble about ‘trade-offs’, it just boils down one black guy calling another black guy a house nigga’... and it’s so, so tired and boring... He reminds me of the children I grew up with (yes, a father remembers...), except he’s still angry... Whatever...

Steele talks about Barack’s charisma as if it’s entirely a contrivance. In fact, lots of people who want Obama to just “go away already!”, talk like that; like it’s all an image he’s somehow positioned himself in, to manipulate... This isn’t that surprising because hey, that’s what campaigns and politics is all about, right? Show business, right; focus groups and PR and positioning and shit? But we are all aware of this by now... And we’re not under some funky contextual spell, and Barack isn’t stirring toads into a magic iron urn and mumbling spells of hypnotic delights to delusional wide-eyed blind optimists, towards which he’s positioned himself as some savior.

Interesting note: Charisma is based on the word charism... Originally, is was a term used by monks to describe a quality given to a person by god, in order to validate that person’s presence in a place.

Doesn’t that just piss off the gatekeepers and how!

Yeah, admittedly, some of what is happening is about the context which Barack is positioned in. But he didn’t do it himself. He may be providing Jungian hooks on which we are hanging all kinds of archetypes... None of them, from his direct causation or manipulation. But he is a famous young black politician running for president in the United States, for chrissake!

Now, if he were an eloquent and poetic black boxer protesting the war, it wouldn’t be so surprising... Well, not these days anyway...

So, why should all that archetype hanging surprise us? Sheesh...

This doesn’t make him manipulative, psychologically strange, nor the new hope to his supporters... it just means that on (whatever truthful and real) hook he’s got, those archetypes, today anyway, hang quite well...

Maybe, just maybe his charisma is because, within today’s context, he may be the right person (when compared to the current alternatives) to help us heal some of this pessimism, masquerading as realism.

Maybe this exchange on your blog is all it’s all about...

But does it really have to sink to some house nigga thang..?

My name is Barack Obama...

Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright © November 2008 by Gerald Ollison. All rights reserved.

The Dalai ‘Bama Letters #2: MIddle East Meets 'West' (A Letter)

Originally, the following was in response to a close, and mostly liberal, friend’s series of anti-Obama postings regarding race, originally posted in March of 2008 or thereabouts. One or two of his posts were strongly negative, pro-Zionist takes on the Senator (mostly all posts were copies of articles my friend found elsewhere, and were not my friend’s own).

I have heard that some rightwing extreme groups are spreading outright lies in a whisper campaign about Barack’s Israel policy positions and this is disturbing if true. For a look at Barak’s actual policies on anything (instead of propaganda) please simply visit http://www.barackobama.com/.

For info regarding his beliefs and activity history specific to Israel I suggest downloading the PDF file on his
Foreign Policy Page at his site here>>.

Also, more info is on his fact pages here>>


I may have revised some small bits, but the spirit remains.
---------------



Hi, _______—

I do so understand your response— more than you may know.

There is a marvelous chapter in Cornel West’s ‘Race Matters’ on Black-Jewish relations which describes the ongoing dialog (like our own bit here) impeccably. I’m gonna do one of those excerpt thingies-- Please bare with:

“Without a sympathetic understanding of the deep historic sources of Jewish fears and anxieties about group survival, blacks will not grasp the visceral attachment of most Jews to Israel. Similarly, without a candid acknowledgement of blacks’ status as permanent underdogs in American society, Jews will not comprehend what the symbolic predicament and literal plight of Palestinians in Israel means to blacks...”

Later, same chapter...

“My fundamental premise is that the black freedom struggle is a major buffer between the David Dukes of America and the hope for a future in which we can begin to take justice and freedom for all seriously. Black anti-Semitism— along with its concomitant xenophobias, such as patriarchal and homophobic prejudices— weakens this buffer. In the process, it plays into the hands of the old-style racists, who appeal to the worst of our fellow citizens amid the silent depression that plagues the majority of Americans...”

Later, same paragraph...

“And without principled opposition to the xenophobias from above and below, these desperate channels will produce a cold-hearted and mean spirited America no longer worth fighting for or living in.”

This is simply a candid description of a Platonic dialectic— of a ‘process’. Much like Barack’s speech today pegged in so many ways. I have said over and over to my self and to others that life is not a ‘zero sum game’ (the exact words I heard in his speech today). One need not necessarily lose for the other, or all, to win. This is an old concept of win or lose, black or white... It’s like, the world is still flat and the center of the universe, ya know...

Those who would change our dialectic into a debate or argument want us to see it that way... I refuse to see life in that way; or there’s simply no reason to hope for the future. Real life has lots of gray, complexity and nuance...

And complexity? We can overcome this... Adult humans can do complexity well when we try... There can be peaceful solutions... and we cannot be sucked into the fears of our ancestors, nor allow rhetorical manipulation by today’s special interests that fear they’ll ‘lose’...

We are better for our progenitors’ struggles; not less than, otherwise we dishonor their memory, their souls (let alone our genes).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright © November 2008 by Gerald Ollison. All rights reserved.

The Dalai ‘Bama Letters #1: Are You Experienced..?


Originally, the following was in response to a close, and mostly liberal, friend’s series of anti-Obama postings regarding race, posted in March of 2008 or thereabouts. One or two of his posts were strongly negative, pro-Zionist takes on the Senator (mostly all posts were copies of articles my friend found elsewhere, and were not my friend’s own).

I have heard that some rightwing extreme groups are spreading outright lies in a whisper campaign about Barack’s Israel policy positions and this is disturbing if true. For a look at Barak’s actual policies on anything (instead of propaganda) please simply visit
http://www.barackobama.com/.

For info regarding his beliefs and activity history specific to Israel I suggest downloading the PDF file on his
Foreign Policy Page at his site here>>.

Also, more info is on his fact pages here>>

I may have revised some small bits, but the spirit remains.


Hi, _______-- Jerry'O again... I just listened to the Barack speech he gave in Philly today... It is a masterpiece.

I was for Obama since the beginning. When I hear the various arguments going back and forth, I keep coming back to 2 basic ideas... feelings really, more than thoughts...

Number 'One') Obama is from the original 'Generation X'... Those of us at the tail end of the baby boom, the 'bust-ing' part; by some people’s measurements those born between 1958 and 1964, roughly.

I think this observation matters more regarding the perspective which his campaign is viewed through, than his race. It is why I think his campaign appeals to the young so much. The late Bill Strauss (co-founder of the Capitol Steps, that Bill Strauss) co-wrote a series of books about the world’s historic and generational peculiarities and divides, and it’s too bad he’s dead because I really wonder how he’d view Obama’s candidacy through this prism.

To clarify, here’s a quote of a description I found on the net of his book ‘13th Gen’ (I apologize, I can’t find my own copy here in the house):

“It's "13er" Nancy Smith's "...generation after. Born after 1960, after you, after it all happened." It's those born after the Boom, but before the Babies-on-Board 1980s, between 1961 and 1981 (I was born in 1977). It's those alternately tagged "Generation X," "Baby Busters," "Computer Babies," the "New Lost," "Nowhere," "Boomerang," or "MTV" generation. It's the generation with a terminally bad image, one no spin doctor press agent would have even tried to manage... Everyone hears about sagging test scores, rising violence, sexually transmitted diseases, the declining job market and the fact that this generation will be less well off than those which came before...”

We of this bust period were the ones who arrived late to the Summer of Love, after eating and buying all the philosophy and pabulum, and ready to party...

Only, oops! Reagan’s in office and, hey, where did all my older brothers and sisters go..?

We are the ones who’ve been dubbed the original ‘Slackers’. We’ve been largely the service industry for those others: Waiters, then office administrators and other mercenary service society to those who came before, and more than a little disillusioned by it... It’s argued we’re viewed largely with confusion, distrust and even as a threat by the boomers before us... Because, hey, we’re pissed, and why shouldn’t we be..?

Think you’re gonna get that job after the boss retires..? Sorry, didn’t you hear they’re raising the retirement age to 75..? Didn’t get that memo..? Oops, my bad... Well, you know, we can’t go anywhere just yet because we’re all so healthy and pumped up from yoga... And it’s like, our spokesman, Dennis Hopper says in the Ameriprise commercial, “We’re not going out to pasture!”, because hey, we don’t really have as much money saved for retirement as we need (because we’ve been blowin’ it all on those little blue pills and Botox injections).

Obama will not be trusted, and not because of race really, and not because of the so-called bad guys he (more than any other politician we know) associates with; but because he’s, get this, like those other Slackers... inexperienced... can you hear Jimi Hendrix..? Are you experienced, Obama..? Are you ‘experienced’?

Yeah, give it to the yuppie; not the puppy...

That’s just Number ‘One’...

Number ‘Two’) Listen to his Philly speech... Try not to cry... not because he’s somehow manipulating you... but because of the truth of it...

Hillary is sincere with her tears, and I do believe they come from her heart. She believes with all her heart in her ideals and will fight to the death to defend them,

But Obama brings the tears from you, because he has resonated more than once with a truth many feel in their own hearts.

People have tried to nail him to the wall with his imperfections as a man or politician with facts dug up from here or there...

But he’s not choosing, for the most part, to fight with facts... He’s choosing, like other imperfect but truly inspired leaders before him, to align himself with truth... that inner stuff... as long as he takes the high road the facts thrown at him will only show what we already know— that he’s just a man... but it won’t change the truth he’s aligning with...

The truth is a funny thing-- You can throw facts at it, you can shoot it, you can call it names, you can say it’s inadequate, dysfunctional, you can associate it with as many bad things and people as you want, but it will only be the man who is flawed, who dies or loses an election; not the truth he aligns himself with...

For better or for worse, I feel in my heart of hearts that this man is honestly attempting to take this high road... to align himself with the truth...

That’s why this has become a ‘movement’. This isn’t at the level of rhetoric anymore...

This is part 2 maybe, of what the boomers started years ago... and it’s more than a little ironic that they couldn’t see it coming...

The party is finally just getting started.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright © November 2008 by Gerald Ollison. All rights reserved.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

NewMyth #1: Experiences with the Sacred - by Gerald Ollison


Originally a response to a curious convenience store security video of a purported 'ghost'. This was posted on Tony Forkush's blog Stop This Noise in My Head, on November 25th, 2007 as Gerald Ollison's Ghost in the Machine.

Firstly, I don't have the luxury of nonbelief. I've had one (fucking profound) ufo sighting, various psychic flashes and several so-called ghost experiences (one notable experience which left physical traces I showed a friend afterward, and another which took place with another witness present).

I'm not defending this particular video. I wasn't there and I dunno. But when I hear people say they don't believe I feel a responsibility to chime in. I won't try to convert you; but I feel we are really doing ourselves and our collective experience of reality a disservice, if we don't at least cop to some of this mystery which is here.

I have to admit, because I've experienced some pretty bizarre stuff first hand, that I might be more gullible than the next guy because I'm, by default, willing to entertain the possibility more than many. Also though, if you have had these kinds of experiences it pretty much changes you in other ways. First, you are overwhelmed. At this point, you either deny it (because you need to live with a solid definition of things); or it moves you, inspires you, in some way. . . You are aware of the depth of the mystery of it all, because you have been touched directly by it. If you are stable, you don't so much as loose your footing as become comfortable with balancing amidst the uneasiness of it; and, if you are inquisitive at all, you will attempt to study it. You won't find any answers, but you'll see that there are plenty more experiencers out there who are attempting to ask more questions, and who aren't afraid of being ridiculed for showing their investigative results.

Specifically, Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) has been a pastime since the spiritualism of the early 1900s. Alexander Graham Bell was one of its most famous proponents. To this day, people go into graveyards, old prisons and condemned insane asylums with their tape recorders on, and they record (what seems to be) nothing for hours... but later, when they play the tapes back, they've recorded often eerily clear voices speaking and shouting all kinds of craziness. And since security cameras have become prolific, ghost video recordings have also become commonplace. Google EVP and you'll find many of these recordings online.

Generally, our culture chooses, for the most part, to abide by beliefs from within the context of a deductive, scientific perspective. We do live in a society of choices, so this is not the only context or perspective available to us, by any means. We are surrounded by churches and other alternative philosophical institutions, but livability with each other in our western North American society (and now the world) demands a way to reconcile our religious and philosophical pluralism. We seem to use science as a kind of uneasy, but mostly safe mediator; a peaceful neutral alternative to the philosophical differences which otherwise divide us. The proof in science is materialistic. It comforts us that we can touch it, show it to each other.

But ironically, our materialistic Newtonian Clockwork view of the world is actually a century out of date. It's no more than a mythical doctrine itself. Decades old experiments in quantum physics have already explained that we are either particles or waves, depending on what we expect to find when we go looking; and that we are all connected through the subatomic fact of quantum entanglement. In other words, the universe is what we perceive and expect it to be, and you and me and everything are literally one-and-the-same: We really are all One... and isn't this how many define God?

The result? While previous millennia may be accused of not having the correct (scientific) explanations behind their collective experience, we of the post-enlightenment era may be the first, because of our deference to materialistic science, to deny our collective experience altogether.

I'm not making an argument to be gullible (like me). I am making a case, for everyone I know and our society at large, to become less afraid I guess, and to become more openly accepting of, what I have come to call, experiences with the sacred...

And before you take that word 'sacred' and think I'm going all new agey on you-- believe me, nothing could be farther from the truth. I don't really consider myself of that ilk... at the same time, because of the scale, the magnitude, the bigness, of the possible truths these experiences infer-- and as a witness myself, what else can I call it?

And I'm not alone... Not nearly...

I know people don't like polls. I know, with some people they just don't trust them 'cause they think they're slanted, or it's just, like, Zzzzzzzzzzzz-snoozetime... But the actual population numbers these particular polls suggest have always floored me, and I know a lot of people don't know about these so I gotta bring this up. It really is going somewhere, so please bear with. I'll keep it short.

Firstly, I'm gonna note both UFO and ghost polls, because I'm not certain myself how separate the events are or how they divide up (and It's not widely known, but lots of people who are UFO experiencers also see their deceased acquaintances). Also, regarding mental illness (some of you think this is a mental issue). I'm just gonna throw this out there: It is determined that schizophrenia affects roughly one percent of the population; numbers for depression are higher, around nine percent, if I recall.

From a 2007 Associated Press-Ipsos Poll-- 23 Percent (that's roughly a quarter of everyone you know) either say they have actually seen a ghost or believe they have been in one's presence. Most likely candidates for such visits include single people, Roman Catholics and those who 'never' attend religious services. More who say they're liberals (31 percent), compared to those who consider themselves conservatives (18 percent) report actually seeing a specter.

In August 1997, in a survey conducted by independent researchers in five Canadian cities in British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, the independent research consortium has found that 9.6% of all Canadians believe they have seen UFOs. This translates into nearly 3 million people who said they were UFO witnesses.

The present US population I think is approximately 301,139,947, so the following numbers I insert below are those you'd get if you extend the poll numbers throughout the actual population.

Dig this, from a September 2002 Roper Poll:

One in seven Americans say that they or someone they know has had at least one "close encounter" of the "First," "Second," or "Third" kind. That's 43,019,992.

One in five Americans (60,227,989) in general say they believe that humans have already interacted with extraterrestrial life; 57 percent of those (34,329,954) believe that abductions have taken place... And of those who believe in abductions..?

One-third of those who believe in abductions-- 11,328,884-- claim to have experienced, or know someone who experienced, a Close Encounter of their own.

Let's just for the hell of it, waaaaaay overcompensate, and let's do the incredibly inequitable thing, and minus our 3,011,399 schizophrenics from the number above and you get: 8,317,485 (02.76 percent) people in the US who we know are 'not' schizophrenic, who say they personally, or know someone who says they have personally, experienced a close encounter of their own.

That's like three percent of everyone you know.

Three percent of everyone you know, 3 out of every 100 persons you pass by when walking on the street, about the same size as the population of Los Angeles, who are not sick with dopamine imbalances, and who are probably trustworthy in about a thousand other ways that you know-- knows someone or has had, and may continue to have on a regular basis-- an experience with sacred.

Yet we deny it as a society. It's a cultural suppression of the wildest kind. It's an innate birthright of our identities as humans for all we know, and we are not allowed to share it, or feel we can acknowledge it in any meaningful way.

No wonder we have gone from spiritual adepts, to inepts. No wonder we're all so neurotic-psychotic.

These experiences may not be real the way we commonly accept, but this is not to say that they aren't as physical as the nose on your face. These experiences are often observed by multiple witnesses. It is not widely known that the 'revolving and falling sun' in Fatima was not only witnessed by 70,000 people in the vicinity of Cova da Iria, but also by others in the surrounding area of over 20 to 30 miles! These events often leave physical traces, though the collective wisdom won't often acknowledge this either.

They are part of our collective so-called myths, religions, fairy tales and legends. These experiences directly mark the bodies and the minds of the experiencers themselves, and indirectly mark us all, whether you choose to acknowledge it as real or not.

Happy Holy Days.
Jerry'O
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Copyright © November 2007 by Gerald Ollison. All rights reserved.