Reassert Empathy

As I observe our evolving or perhaps devolving world it seems to me that many of us are losing our capacity for empathy. This is a profound loss because it is one of the essential qualities that serve to hold our societies and our world together. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. We have a model of the empathetic relationship in our own bodies. We might say that each cell in your body is in an empathetic relationship with all the other cells. Each of the cells of our bodies is in constant communication with all of the other cells so that any cell can send out an alarm when some problem is taking shape. Long before the body is dehydrated a few cells have already sent out an alarm signaling that a fluid drought is beginning to take form. Long before the body experiences starvation a few cells have already sent out an alarm signaling that nutrients are becoming sufficiently depleted and that they need to be replenished. Of course the essential key to the success of this advanced warning system is that the various cells that make up our bodies have to be paying attention and listening to each other.

You can think of your family, neighborhood, the larger community or State, your Nation and our world as social organisms that operate in pretty much the same way. They are integrated systems where you and I are the individual cells that make up the various organs that in turn perform their unique functions all for the benefit of sustaining and protecting the welfare of the entire organism. You don’t have to stretch your imagination too far to realize what happens when the various cells of the social organism stop communicating or when they become insensitive to each other. How many times have we heard members of a family, where a member has committed suicide, say I just wasn’t paying attention to the signs, or I just didn’t see or realize how much pain he or she was expressing? How many times have we heard members of a neighborhood, social group, or religious community where some tragedy has occurred say that they just didn’t think something like this could happen in their community; he or she seemed a little different but…?

As I listen to the hostile, insensitive, and virulent political dialogue taking place during this current election cycle I cannot help but reflect on the words of the Mysterious Dr. M. about the Quantum Entity called the Oku Enia and how it must be feeding on all of the negativity that we are generating in our political and social environment. As I witness what to me seems like a complete breakdown in the relationship and sense of mutual responsibility between the working class and the financially elite members of our society I find myself reluctantly anticipating the collapse of the world’s premier experiment in Democratic Capitalism. As I reflect on and feel the pain in our youth as they are increasingly indoctrinated into the notion that their worth as individuals is to be measured in terms of the things they have or don’t have as oppose to the content of their character and their conduct in the world, I cannot help but think that the future we are shaping is far from the American Dream and much closer to a horrific nightmare that none of us will want to live through. Are we (humans) going mad? Are we losing our minds? Have we become so pathologically disturbed and narrow in our thinking that we can no longer anticipate the consequences of our actions? Have we reached that critical turning point in our history when we can no longer see the majesty of our animal relatives, that we can no longer appreciate the beauty of the flora and vegetation that surrounds us, that we can no longer understand that we are the sole caretakers of this wonderful ecosystem that the Enia call Ile Inurere, the House (Home) of Humanity?

In the Handbook On Being Human, the Mysterious Dr. M. and the Enia make it very clear that we humans come into this world from the Realm of Infinite Possibility, that we come into this world as Pure Potential, and that the environment into which we are born will shape us. This present environment that we have created and that we are perpetuating is not one of harmonious interaction. Instead, it is filled with hostility, insensitivity, anger, violence, hatred, selfishness, greed, disrespect, disregard, lying, cheating, crime, war, mayhem, and anomie – a lack of the usual social or ethical standards necessary to sustain the social order within and between individuals, groups, societies, and nations. A loss of faith in our institutions, a sense of hopelessness about the future, and a disturbing sense of helplessness in dealing with our current problems is becoming pervasive in U.S. society and is spreading like a pernicious epidemic around our world.

We can either surrender to this blighted future or we can fight back with all of the passion and power that we can muster. It is after all an ideological battle, that is, a battle of ideas and attitudes. That is why the Prime Directive is so important. The Prime Directive represents the ideological counterbalance to the madness that we see consuming our world. The proclamation to align with the Prime Directive and to Create Peaceful Space is a statement of power. The power that is inherent in our capacity to reassert Empathy as an essential protocol for the survival of our species and for the welfare of our planet. The Prime Directive is a guideline for reestablishing the Empathetic Civilization. Without this bold step all of our advanced technologies will simply speed up the process of our self-destruction and lead to the decimation of our planet. According to Dr. M. and the Enia, each of us chose to come into this world and to be here during this particular time period. They state that we came for a purpose and that each of us has an important role to play in shaping the future. The purpose of the Peaceful Space Project is to invite each of you to do what you came into the world to do – make a difference!

Living in alignment with the Prime Directive

is a choice to which everyone should be invited!
You have been invited!

Create Peaceful Space! 
Trust Your Process!

Peace, Love, and Health!

Preview The Handbook On Being Human, vol. I 

Hurting For Tyler Clementi

It seems that my heart is in constant pain over the meanness, cruelty, and inhumanity that is sweeping across our world. Human social life is steadily degenerating into something that makes the worst of Hollywood’s horror films into PG13 movies. Each day I think about the Oku Enia (the Corpse) and the tragedy that is growing in the Ojiji Aiye (Shadow world) and making its way into our Pataki Aiye (Material world) as described by the Mysterious Dr. M. and the Enia in the Handbook On Being Human, vol. I. Each day it becomes more challenging to remain optimistic in my belief that the human family will turn things around. This past week has been especially difficult. I’ve found it almost impossible to shake the pain my heart feels over the senseless death of Tyler Clementi. I know that I am not alone in feeling this deep sense of hurt for him, for Megan Meier, and for the tens of thousands of other young souls who suffer the abuse of bullying and senseless condemnation. Have we really become so blind, callous, and crude that we can take pleasure in the sadistic disregard for the pain and suffering of others?

The national and global reaction to Tyler’s death is the tread that ties my heart and my faith to the hope that we have not all degenerated to the depths of no return. The expressions of genuine empathy and compassion that have emerged in the face of Tyler’s provoked suicide offer me a ray of hope that we have not all descended into the abyss of dehumanization where tragedy and destruction are waiting to consume us for our offenses against our own humanity.

I also viewed the PBS documentary entitled Soldiers of Conscience this week and it also helped me to hold on to the optimistic belief that One-By-One we can turn things around and save ourselves from the consequences of the negative energies that we are generating in our world. If we can teach our children to go to war, to kill animals and other human being, and if we can create the conditions and environments for them to learn how to be mean, cruel, crude, uncaring, insensitive, and even diabolical, then why can’t we also create conditions and environments for them to learn and internalize the Prime Directive of the Human Family? Tyler Clementi’s death strengthens my conviction that this message has to be spoken and this choice has to be put on the table as an option.

Please don’t sit on the sidelines in silence and let our children live and die in such pain. Please help to promote the Prime Directive of the Human Family in any way and every way that you can. Can’t you see that we (the human family) have lost our way; that we have forgotten how to live in harmonious coexistence, that we have forgotten how to Create Peaceful Space, and that we are condemning our children to a nightmarish existence of horrific cruelties, unspeakable crimes, harrowing experiences, and disturbing realities? Can’t you see how important your voice is in making a difference?

The Prime Directive states that you should seek pleasure and avoid pain for yourself and others, that you should transform negative energy into positive energy through your conduct in the world, and that you should nurture life and struggle against death for the welfare of the planet and the coexistence of all living things. As we advance in our development of new technologies we also need to advance in our moral and ethical protocols, in our empathy and compassion for each other, and in our understanding of human nature and the human condition. There are those who would dismiss the senseless cruelty of Tyler’s suicide as just one of those things. There are those who would have us believe that war and terrorism, that crime and murder are just inevitable facts of life. But our babies don’t come into this world with war, terrorism, crime, and murder written into their genetic code. Nature prescribes our capacities but it is nurture that shapes our choices. Lets join together in nurturing the Prime Directive into every human heart and in teaching each other how and why we should Create Peaceful Space.

Living in alignment with the Prime Directive

is a choice to which everyone should be invited!
You have been invited!

Create Peaceful Space! 
Trust Your Process!

Peace, Love, and Health!

Preview The Handbook On Being Human, vol. I