Coming Out of Covid
Crucial Considerations
Despite the UK government’s latest attempts to maintain its grip on the populous by stoking the fire of fear under the covid-19 cauldron, I still feel it appropriate to head this blog post with the more upbeat message that this longwinded episode of hysteria in human history is coming to an end. Coronavirus may be with us for some time (as indeed most viruses are), but once the governmental institutions’ manipulation of the epidemiological science is brought to account, I am hopeful that we will indeed come out from behind the mask (sic) of the pandemic within the next few months.
In the USA, our metaphysical friend Bashar1 suggests the coronavirus mass event will have run its “awakening of the populous” course by the end of March 2021. I dare say my American friends will have moved their attention to more pressing political issues long before then.
I say this not just because the ever-mounting global scientific data2 on the disease gives us a far clearer picture of those truly at risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from the disease, but more importantly, because of the need to leave this distressing distraction aside and refocus our attention on the far more daunting threat to all our lives—the various, fast-approaching impacts of climate change.
As Lise Kingo, executive director of the UN Global Compact said back in June on their virtual conference, the pandemic is “just a fire drill” for what we can expect to come from the climate crisis. At the same conference, Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England, stated: “This is a crisis that will involve the whole world and from which no one can self-isolate.”3
J. M. W. Turner
At this momentous time in our evolution it is important to step back from any one critical episode in our human story, not least to conserve our energies as there are plenty of crises to come over the next few years (in association with our collective shift in consciousness), but also to help keep our feet on the ground, relax the mental merry-go-round for a while, and meditate on the bigger picture—and then, and I know it’s a big ask, begin imagineering the even grander evolutionary masterpiece that we wish to coax into our collective reality.
The bigger picture of the covid-19 episode relates to our psychological detachment from Nature’s nurturing ‘natural health services’—an NHS that eclipses any human designed health management system. It is a psychological detachment because it is impossible for us to physically stand outside of Nature as we are an integral part of this physical expression of Consciousness.4
Nature, and her intriguing microscopic expressions such as viruses, is not there to be ‘conquered’ or ‘defeated’ (war rhetoric from a misguided but thankfully dying approach to solving a problem), nor does she need to be ‘controlled’ by science. Science is about exploring and mapping the wonders of the natural physical world and utilizing the burgeoning technologies to help us do that while living in harmony with Nature—without imposing its beliefs (generalised from Darwinian theory that life forms are constantly in competition for survival) on how it should be managed upon it.
When a physical challenge arises in the natural world, Nature must be approached within a set of Natural Principles5—with gratitude and appreciation, with compassion and cooperation, and with creativity—all of which will allow us to access the psychical reasons for the creation of the challenge. Our well-worn, dictatorial, and yes, catastrophic approach, of isolating a ‘problem’ and then crushing it out of existence (as we tend to do with any ‘bug’ or people that annoys us) cannot be sustained if we are to fully embrace our place within Nature. Seth6 reminds us:
Your whole civilization is immersed with the idea that the way to solve a problem—any problem, private or worldwide—is to exaggerate it, see its worst projection; and this, then, is supposed to make you take proper action.
The approach unfortunately solves no problems, and only compounds them, whether the nation is trying to solve problems of energy, or social problems, or whether an individual is trying to overcome a dilemma. You are so immersed in that method of problem solving, however, that it comes back to haunt you. At least you can be aware of it [this habit] and alert.
…and against all conventional knowledge, reviewing the mistakes of the past does not lead to wisdom.
When you become so worried, of course, you concentrate even further on the problem—how bad it is, and what will happen if it becomes worse in the future.
The belief is that if you frighten yourself badly enough through imagined projections and imagination, you will be frightened enough to change—but the nation or the individual following that method does not change for the better, but compounds the original condition, concentrating upon it until it looms larger than before. Such methods cause panic, national or individual.7
In an interview with nature lover and author Akshay Ahuja, the contemporary philosopher Charles Eisenstein8 offers this alternative view on the coronavirus (that mirrors Seth’s stance on viruses in general):
AA
Most of us are currently insulating ourselves from what would seem to be an arbitrary natural force ‘indifferent to human well-being.’ Is there another way to think about the coronavirus? What might we learn from this crisis?
CE
I won’t go into the science here, and it is quite controversial, but viruses, even the dangerous ones, can also serve positive roles. For example, some people argue that traditional childhood illnesses like measles, mumps, and chicken pox gave the immune system a challenge that helped it develop, and even precipitated leaps in cognitive and emotional development. This idea receives ridicule today because of its association with the highly polarised vaccine issue, but when we stop looking at self as a separate individual and stop looking at nature as a vast competition, and instead embrace a relational, ecological self and see the role of symbiosis and cooperation in nature, then we are no longer disposed to see viruses only as enemies. Of course, they can still be dangerous, but we can ask how they might also benefit us, how they might co-evolve with us, and what the consequences might be of obsessive hygiene.
In nature, viruses are not just predators. They play a key role in ecology and evolution, transferring information between cells, organisms, and even across species boundaries. A large percentage of human DNA is of viral origin. Cells, especially when facing a challenge, even emit exosomes that are nearly indistinguishable from viruses – they are on a continuum. Viruses are part of the seething community of life that populates human beings. We are not separate individuals, not biologically, not ecologically, not socially. Our health – that is to say, our wholeness – depends on relationships.
Seth continues:
[You imagine] … The best way to protect yourselves from an enemy, for example, is to exaggerate your enemy’s power and evil qualities, and this is somehow supposed to bring about peace. The way to solve a health problem, whether private or national, is to emphasize its existence, exaggerate its characteristics, and project into the future, and this is supposed to bring health.
Against all that conventional wisdom, what I have said sounds extremely simple, simplistic, Pollyannaish, until you try to do it. To solve a problem you begin to minimize its characteristics, diminish its importance, rob it of your attention, refuse it your energy. The method is the opposite, of course, of what you are taught. That is why it seems to be so impractical.
I have said this so many times—and I do realize it is difficult for you—but you cannot concentrate upon two things at once. So to the extent that you concentrate upon your pleasures, your accomplishments, and to the extent that you relate to the psychic and biological moment, you are refreshing yourselves. You are not projecting negatively, and you are allowing the problem to unwrinkle, unknot. You are denying it the energy of your attention that keeps it going. You do not spend time thinking that you have not used your abilities properly. You take it for granted that you are using them properly, and that allows them to fully develop.7
With regard to viruses then, science is now showing us (e.g., through study of the human microbiome) that they and their larger allies, bacteria and fungi,9 are integral to the healthy functioning of living organisms. The question we should be attempting to answer is why has the coronavirus, which science shows us is comparable to influenza in mortality terms, been able to overwhelm our attention and our thinking? What is this miniscule element of the natural world trying to tell us?
A message from the human psyche
In part 2 of my previous blog post on the Covid-19 pandemic, a quote from Seth reminded us that epidemics are co-created (subconsciously of course) by the collective psyche (or “One Mind”10 as Larry Dossey terms it) and brought into the physical domain as a means by which our attention can be drawn to some deeply problematical beliefs we hold about ourselves and how we should express ourselves in the physical world.
The quote bears repeating (bold text is my emphasis):
The kinds of diseases change through historical periods. Some become fashionable, others go out of style. All epidemics, however, are mass statements both biologically and psychically. They point to mass beliefs that have brought about certain physical conditions that are abhorrent at all levels. They often go hand-in-hand with war and represent biological protests.11
Whenever the conditions of life are such that its quality is threatened, there will be such a mass statement. The quality of life must be at a certain level so that individuals of a species—of any and all species—can develop. In your species, the spiritual, mental and psychic abilities add a dimension that is biologically pertinent.12
For anyone with a conscience, it is not difficult to identify “certain physical conditions” that have become abhorrent of late.
Speaking on behalf of the Earth’s animal kingdom, how can they attain a “quality of life,” when there is ongoing ecological and environmental destruction through pollution of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans? How can they live a quality of life when they are factory farmed for consumption, are still hunted for recreational “sport,” used in medical testing, and have their body parts harvested for human adornment and decoration?
A quality of life in the natural world cannot be restored while the predominant species holds to its modern scientific worldview that fosters a disconnected arrogance illustrated by this quote from The Astonishing Hypothesis by the Nobel Prize winning molecular biologist Francis Crick:
But it is sentimental to idealize animals. The life of an animal in the wild, whether carnivore or herbivore, is often brutal and short compared to its life in captivity. Nor is it reasonable to claim that since both animals and humans are “part of Nature” that they should be entitled to exactly equal treatment. Does a gorilla really deserve a university education? It demeans our unique human capabilities to insist that animals should be treated in precisely the same way as human beings. They should certainly be handled humanely, but it shows a distorted sense of values to put them on the same level as humans.13
Speaking on behalf of the human species, how can we attain a quality of life when there are those in power who fail to take on the responsibility of admitting to our involvement in the ongoing ecological and environmental destruction; while we still have the dehumanising perpetuation of racism, sexism, slavery, poverty, starvation, people trafficking, child exploitation, and the autocratic restriction of an individual’s right to their fundamental freedom of expression.
Perhaps it’s time for us to review our “distorted sense of values” and recognise that Nature’s myriad physical expressions, including human beings, are all on the same level. And that “level” is a level of consciousness that is directly connected to Divine Love: the evolutionary, vital, all-pervasive force that powers universal Consciousness. It is a level of consciousness that imbues all life forms with the freedom of expression.14 This is the level of consciousness permeating the natural world—the freedom to express who and what we are—whether a fern, fungus, frog, finch, fox, or fellow human being.
When we in the West fully accept that we’ve disconnected ourselves from Divine Love, and thus Nature, by championing a distorted scientific worldview as ‘truth’ when it is just another belief system in desperate need of revision, we may have a chance of saving the planet and ourselves.
That said, I’m not at all sure whether a gorilla would want a university education and the ensuing debt therefrom.
Finding our fears and those that would manipulate it
The lockdown period—unintentionally giving each of us the time to identify the key elements within ourselves and in society we would like to change—has opened not so much a can of worms, but taken the lid off a deep dark barrel of humankind’s ancient psychological shadows and emotional wounds. Reaching down to the bottom of the barrel, we can scrape up the root cause of all our woes—fear.
Fear is what disconnects us from Divine Love and thus an appreciation and gratitude for the natural world.
Fear is the most chronic infection of the psyche (more precisely, the mind of the ego-self15), transmitted and embedded within our collective psyche through centuries of indoctrination, primarily through religious edicts and then through the modern scientific assumption that nothing exists beyond the physical dimension.
Suffice to say at this point that our fearful infection is being expunged on many levels during this time of shift in consciousness for humanity. For the individual it is an opportunity to meditate on one’s own fear of death and to examine our beliefs on the nature of existence after physical death. To come to terms with our own spirituality.
Collectively, this an opportunity to carefully study how we have, individually and in organisation, exploited fear as a means by which to subjugate and control others in the pursuit and maintenance of power. When we understand that no one can express their own individual power while living in fear of doing so, we can begin to eradicate this insidious manipulation of fear from our governmental and organisational bodies.
Fear is the ultimate form of discrimination. It discriminates between living apart from Divine Love and living within its embrace.
Appreciating the bigger picture
If you’re not familiar with the Seth material, a primary assertion is that we create our own reality (both individually and en masse) through our beliefs, thoughts, feelings, emotions and intent.16 Yes, the physical stuff—seemingly out there—is the product of these psychical energies, whether you believe it or not!
If we can believe this, we will get to better understand the importance of constantly examining the beliefs we nurture within our own portion of the psyche,17 together with the beliefs humanity holds by consensus to be “true” in the collective psyche.
By collective psyche, I mean not just the portion of the psyche assigned to human beings, but an expanded view of this mysterious territory within consciousness—one that incorporates and appreciates an awareness of the interconnectedness of all life and the countless sophistications of consciousness expressed through nature and its organisational lifeforce—Gaia.
Appreciating the mystical masterwork of Gaia and our intimate connection with Nature, coming to terms with fear and our own mortality, understanding how Divine Love operates through us to the extent that our minds allow it to, are just a few of the crucial things to consider as we ponder on our reactions to the SARS-CoV-2 mass event.
If we are to detach ourselves from a timeline to extinction, we must begin to fully appreciate how our minds—and the above-mentioned psychical energies therein—work in the creation of our reality. With a better understanding of our Selves, we are in a better position to apply a theory of mind18 to all life forms so that we revitalize our connection to the sanctity of Nature.
I end this missive with a final quote from our metaphysical friend Seth:
Now if you believe in one life only, then such conditions will seem most disastrous, and in your terms they clearly are not pretty. Yet, though each victim in an epidemic may die his or her own death, that death becomes part of a mass social protest. The lives of intimate survivors are shaken, and according to the extent of the epidemic the various elements of social life itself are disturbed, altered, rearranged. Sometimes such epidemics are eventually responsible for the overthrow of governments, the loss of wars.19
As we come out of Covid, we hold our breaths to see if the final sentence is a prophetic one.
1Bashar is channelled by Darryl Anka. https://www.bashar.org
2Click on this link to get a free download of this YouTube video presentation by Ivor Cummins: https://we.tl/t-2HHpYJaz9F?src=dnl
3See following article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/15/covid-19-pandemic-is-fire-drill-for-effects-of-climate-crisis-says-un-official
4Consciousness with a capital C is a modification of the concept traditionally referred to as God.
5The Natural Principles are described in my booklet How to be in Divine Love: 10½ Principles That Will Make You A Happy, Purposeful Person.
6Seth describes himself as an “energy personality essence” no longer focused in physical form. His communications, channelled through the author Jane Roberts, are now housed at Yale University’s Sterling Memorial Library.
7Butts, R. A Seth Book: The Personal Sessions. Book 4 of the Deleted Seth Material by Jane Roberts. Manhasset, NY: New Awareness Network Inc.; 2003. Session 08/14/78.
8Charles Eisenstein’s website: https://charleseisenstein.org/
9See Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures.
10One Mind: How Our Individual Mind Is Part of a Greater Consciousness and Why It Matters. Larry Dossey MD (2013) Hay House.
11Note that the February 1918 to April 1920 A/H1N1 Flu pandemic’s high mortality rates were brought about (in a 2007 study) by malnourishment, overcrowded medical camps and hospitals, and poor hygiene—exacerbated by the appalling physical conditions at the end of WW1.
12Roberts, J. The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc. (1981) Session 804, p. 50.
13Crick, Francis H. C. The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul. (1994) London: Simon & Schuster. p. 110.
14Abraham (Esther Hicks) reminds us that “the basis of life is freedom.” https://www.abraham-hicks.com
15For a fascinating exposé of the rise and fall of the ego, see Steve Taylor’s book The Fall: The Insanity of The Ego in Human History and The Dawning of A New Era.
16Intent is a directional force within and part of Consciousness powering learning and growth for it and all its individuated forms of expression.
17There are no simple definitions of the psyche. Seth:
The psyche, then, is not a known land. It is not simply an alien land, to which or through which you can travel. It is not a complete or nearly complete subjective universe already there for you to explore. It is, instead, an ever-forming state of being, in which your present sense of existence resides. You create it and it creates you. (Roberts, J. The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice-Hall Inc.; 1979. p. 18.)
18A theory of mind is necessary for us to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one’s own. I would suggest an expansion of this principle to include all living things under the term ‘others.’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind
19Roberts, J. The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc. (1981) Session 802, p. 31.
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