Earth: Magician's Secrets Revealed

My last post stirred up the emotion of challenged beliefs -- the instinct of self preservation, human beings defending what we know to be true even when that truth is wrong.  Many different acts have been committed against people who didn't believe in the same thing believed by a stronger, more powerful group of people.  The Nazi party of Germany had beliefs.  What determines the stronger dominant social practice of a country's beliefs?  Is it the collective idea which dictates the power of what we believe individually?  Many great thinkers tell us that we are our own moral authority, but we are subject to the influences of our environment.  Christopher Columbus told Europe that their flat-world was actually a round-world.  Does a unanimous opinion/belief make that opinion/belief a fact?  Our present society understands that the beliefs of our predecessors/ancestors were not always correct: the Salem witch hunt, slavery, the holocaust, etc.  Horrific events caused by the beliefs of humans.  Only through the power of opposition did those beliefs cease to be the dominant social practice of the places which hosted those horrific events.

The present moment of a human's understanding is that human's reality.  The present moment of your understanding is all that you know.  The present moment is an accumulation of all you have experienced and learned up to this always/only present moment.  When Birdie told me we are aliens it challenged everything I had learned and experienced at that moment.

I didn't expect to hear anything of value when I questioned "Birdie" about his statement.  He was a crazy  man who lived in a park.  I only asked, "How are we aliens?" because I thought it would serve as a humorous pastime for me and my friends hanging out in the park.  It was the craziest, most absurd thing we'd heard up until that moment. He pulled out a mirror and changed my understanding.  He said:

"Look in this mirror and tell me what a human looks like.  Do we look like we are supposed to?  do you look like you are supposed to?  Do you smell like a natural human?  Do you look like a natural human?  You don't look or smell like you are supposed to.  What does uncut, uncombed human hair look like?  How does a human body smell without perfumes and daily baths?  We detest our natural odor.  We detest uncombed or uncut hair.  It is part of our social contract.  Humans do not wish to be humans anymore!"

I looked in his mirror at my reflection and I couldn't see the real me.  I stared deeper into his mirror to see my reflection.

"The human race harnesses earth's secrets. A human thought, a human dream can be come real.  Imagination exists.  We create children without sex, we move without walking (all around the world) -- airplanes, boats, cars, etcetera.  We make light with no sun.  A human thought can be heard all around the world instantly.  These are unnatural creations of humans on earth.  That makes them alien creations.  Shaving is alien to your natural appearance.  Perfume is alien to your natural smell.  Telephones are alien to your natural communication.  Computers are alien to....?  Cars are alien to....?  Do you see where you are?  How far are we removed from our natural existence?  We create a synthetic world that is derived from our natural one.  This planet allows we/humans to bring the thoughts and dreams of our minds into physical existence.  Welcome to earth.  The planet of human magic."

Magic?  I couldn't see earth as magic.  Magic wasn't real.  Magic is entertainment to make people believe something that seems impossible become possible.  The magician tosses our thoughts and beliefs out and brings in our imaginations.  We watch in disbelief trying to understand as the magician performs and reveals things we cannot conceive with our normal understanding.  Birdie moved the mirror closer and like the magician, he challenged my understanding.  He said,

"Free your mind - Blank!  Think about all human invention.  Don't think about the process of invention. The process of invention doesn't allow you to see true magic. It's like a magician revealing the process of the trick.  How can you see magic if you know the process of the trick?  You can't see the magic like that.  Take away the processes of human invention and see what magic creations humans have pulled from the earth.  Allow your mind to remove the process it took to bring our inventions to life.  allow the inventions of humanity to simply appear from human thoughts.  Understand these inventions came from earth, but remove the process of how these inventions are derived from earth.  Allow human inventions to be thoughts which earth allows to appear in physical form.  A though, a dream, a nightmare can be born on this planet from the human mind.  It can exist and become a live through the collective belief of human social practice.  The belief of one mind can control the minds of many and many will fight to protect the collective belief created by that one mind.  Where do you think you are?  You did not design the system which you were born into.  The practices of your daily life have been taught to you .  Your family and those around you teach you from birth things that were taught to them.  You know nothing from birth outside that which you are taught to believe and even if that belief is not true, it is all you know in your always/present moment.  So, what happens when something you've been taught to believe (by everyone you know) turns out to be a lie?  I'll tell you what happens... You've been tricked.  What happens when I call you an alien?  Do your beliefs kick in to protect what you know?  It seems foolish to your understanding."

He removed the mirror from in front of my face.  The night had fallen upon us.  The city lights glowed and flickered in the background.  An airplane flew overhead.  He spoke,

"Look around you alien.  Your reflection is everywhere.  We are not natural to this world.  How many can survive without the grocery store?  How many can live in their areas without clothes?  Early human used animals.  Why do all other species live naked?  We are dependent on our creations.  Shoes have made feet too soft for the natural ground.  Grocery stores have taken our understanding of where food comes from.  Most humans on earth cannot hunt without a gun and most humans have never eaten from the bones of an animal they have killed.  The process of invention.  Even our food is made alien.  When an animal dies within two days the animal is in rigor mortis and old blood turns brown within hours because of coagulation. Why is the meat at the grocery store still soft and red weeks after the animal has been slaughtered?  Are hot dogs and hamburgers processes of human invention?  It is magic in this world.  Humans, welcome to earth."

The day I heard Birdie's theory my understanding of the world changed.  I began to notice human invention and I realized my life revolved around those inventions.  Toilets, toilet paper, windows, doors, doors that move by themselves, transportation (we move hundreds of miles in an hour?!), television, books, constitutions, space stations, space crafts (humans can live outside of earth), telephones, pictures, videos, tables, chairs, stock markets, shampoo, face lifts, liposuction, machines (x-ray) which can see inside a person's body without opening them?  How come I didn't see it before?  These creations came from a thought.  A thought in someone's mind is all around me and all of it came from earth.  Look into a forest and think about television.  Yes, the process was gradual, but the end result is still the same.  The television came form earth.  The computer came from earth.  I wonder sometimes, are inventions really free thought?

I ran into the street to tell everyone what I had learned and yes, I sounded as crazy to everyone around me as Birdie had sounded before I heard his theory.  We are aliens?  Don't sound so foolish.  We humans are just like every other species.  I don't talk much about this topic. I don't want the labels that come with a notion so absurd.  Don't look at this post as a nature platform.  Like a drug addict who flees from intervention, I don't believe I could cope well without my alien comforts.  I know what I am as I send this message all around the world in seconds.  I am just like you and everyone else reading this.  I am extraterrestrial.  Call NASA... Let's take a space ship to another planet.  I'll call you when I get there.

A Man Named Birdie

I keep my thoughts to myself about ideas, questions and answers I feel I have discovered through my curiosity.  I discover new things when I question my understanding of myself and the world around me.  I know I don't have a full understanding of myself and the world around me, so I/we seek to know more.  My questions challenge some people's beliefs about the world and as history has shown, it is very dangerous to challenge what someone believes in.  Challenge someone's belief in religion or politics and they will defend their beliefs.  It's similar to an instinct.  It can be as simple as an argument over who is at fault in any given situation where two or more people believe it is the fault of the other.  The argument is a basic instinct derived from self preservation.

My silence on things I have discovered in my search was directed only toward the masses (until now).  These thoughts were only shared with a few people like myself.  Those broad minded individuals like yourself, Cuddlebug, who dared to hear something which challenged what the believed.  The following analysis was discovered by two teenagers sitting in a park, looking up at the moon.

Evening turned to night.  The wind blew the leaves from the season of fall.  A familiar face passed mumbling and staggering.  The familiar presence didn't surprise us.  We understood we were in his home.  He didn't have a residential house or apartment, but he did have a home.  Why do we call people who live in parks and back alleys homeless people?  Those types of questions we ask each other for the sake of understanding.  A topic like that leads to a philosophical dialog that tests the limits of  understanding.  I attempt to question the question and we both ask why.  Why is the familiar face we know as Birdie considered a homeless man when he has lived in the same place for 20 years?  Isn't the park his home?  Birdie's presence in that park is as much a fixture as a bench, table, or swing.  All seasons Birdie is there.  He told us at the time, "There is no experience better than living.  Living holds all your experiences."  Birdie always spewed out random statements like that.  He didn't speak much in front of strangers and sometimes he only spoke in question.

The man known as Birdie lived in our community park and was accepted by all his neighbors.  People would go out of their way to make sure he was okay.  Old clothes, left over food, whatever he needed because he never accepted more.  His camp would be broken down and hidden from view before sunrise.  He seemed to open up the park every with the ritual of breaking down his camp.  That's the way we saw it.  He opened up his home to us everyday.  He wasn't a victim of circumstance cast away by our great society because he lacked the necessary revenue to survive.  He was someone who'd grown up only a few miles away from the park.  His brilliant mind took him to the heights of scientific education, he studied physics.  One day he walked out of school, jumped on a plane and came to this park.  He called all of us aliens.

We/I used to think he was just a crazy old man spewing random nonsense until he explained his theory.  His theory is as intricate and complicated as life itself, but it is very possible he could be right.  I know it sounds crazy and like he did to us, I am going to leave you with this outrageous statement:  We Are Aliens.  I want you to listen to how absurd that sounds, "We are aliens."  Even those who are open to consideration have a difficult time trying to grasp that statement as a possibility.  I did.

This is a thought I hadn't shared with many.  Not many want to understand or hear a statement so absurd.  I ask you this:  If that statement were true, what would that do to your beliefs?  Has this statement engaged our instinctual self preservation button?  It's absurd why?  It is absurd because it's not something required to learn in school.  In my next post I will share a piece of Birdie's explanation.  I am going to explain a theory to you that made a brilliant student walk away from all he'd been taught to learn to live in a park so he could watch people be outside.  I love you Cuddlebug.  Slowly the truth of your diary will be revealed.  I know you didn't want everyone to know how these questions blurred the fine line between the world's reality and yours.  Miss you.  See you soon.

Secrets & Confessions

What is a secret?  Is a secret as simple as something hidden from others?  Are secrets the same as deception?  I have kept secrets.  I have kept secrets to protect myself and I have kept secrets to protect others.  I wonder if there are people who have never had to keep a secret.  I have wished to live the life of a person who’s never had to keep a secret.  What a joyous wonder it must be to have a conscious which holds no secrets.  To be open and honest with everyone about everything; to not worry about hurting someone or divulging a something about yourself that you don’t want the world to know,  It must be an amazing existence not to have the secret.  Are there people like that in our society?  Are there still people in this country who don’t have anything to hide from anyone?  If there is anyone who lives like that, please share your secret with the rest of us (no pun intended).  A world with no secrets holds no lies.  The secret and the lie are husband and wife.  People lie to protect their secrets.  Secrets & lies spawn mistrust and deception.

My eyes have bared witness to things which I cannot discuss or share with anyone.  I guard my tongue with my life.  I hold secrets from co-workers.  I hold secrets from friends.  I hold secrets from my children.  I hold secrets from strangers…like you.  I hold secrets from my wife.  My spirit holds precious cargo.  Those of you who have read my previous posts know what kind of secrets I have held or been forced to hold.  Those of you who know the torturous burden of carrying a secret such as that, understand what a secret can do to a person’s spirit: stain which covers you.  Holding secrets doesn’t protect you from yourself.  You know the truth.  The people you conceal your secrets from live a blissful ignorance while you agonize over holding in the truth.

If we do things we don’t want other people to know, should we be doing those things?  Let’s make this question more precise:  Are you hiding something you enjoy doing from someone?  If society doesn’t condone the things you like to do then why don’t you stop doing them? Are we afraid to live our lives in the open?  Why are things private and personal?  If we all do the same thing then why do we seek to be private?

No society is going to collectively agree that everything someone does is perfect.  Is there a perfect person among us?  Is there at least a person we all agree does everything right?  Here we are allowing a society to define us but we as a society can’t get the perfect definition.  So what about our lives we can’t share with each other?  Why do we have secrets about our lives we can’t share with each other?  If nobody is perfect can’t we understand our imperfections?  If nobody’s perfect and nobody live the ideal life then why aren’t we able to be honest about who we are?  Are we all doing things we know we shouldn’t be doing?  Is that the reason for all the secrets?

I have found the opposite of a secret to be very rewarding.  I have found secrets’ opposite removes stains like a soothing bath.  Secrets’ opposite is a confession and confession cleanses the spirit.  This type of cleansing you can’t pass up Cuddlebug.  You may get in trouble for your secret, but at least it won’t be a secret anymore.  You have to remove these stains from your spirit or else the filth of them all will make you unrecognizable.  The burden of a secret eats away at your spirit.  I love you Cuddlebug.  I haven’t forgotten.  I miss you.