I’m Giving Away Energy Muse Jewelry!

Energy Muse Jewelry is intended to balance the body through the healing properties of gemstones and crystals. This is the world’s most recognized conscious lifestyle jewelry consisting of handmade crystal and gemstone jewelry with healing properties for love, health, prosperity, luck, and empowerment.

This unique handcrafted jewelry has been cleansed using ancient techniques and energized to amplify the power and healing properties of the stones. Embraced by athletes and celebrities, their pieces are worn by Sting, Bono, Phil Jackson, David Beckham, Heidi Klum, Britney Spears and many more.

Over the last few years, I have chosen meticulously, for each of my family members, a piece which I felt would benefit them most directly, according to obvious years of personal observation. The Energy Muse Jewelry that I have purchased for myself are listed along with their healing attributes, here.

Okay… so here’s the big question. What are you willing to do for an Energy Muse Coin Bracelet and $100.00 Energy Muse gift certificate ?  Here’s what you need to do.

To win a coin bracelet of your choice and a $100 gift certificate you MUST

1. Follow @lillyann and @energymuse on Twitter

2. Check out the coin bracelets I’m talking about. After you’ve checked them out, head back here to Whispy.com and leave a comment on this post that lists the name of your favorite coin bracelet and a comment as to why you would choose it. It could be for you, or for Mother’s Day, or for a friend. Be sure to include an email address (ONLY in the comment form — NOT within your post) that you check regularly so we can contact you if you win.

3. Tell everyone you just entered the contest using the hash tag #energymuse

Twitter Example:

Simply Tweet

(copy and paste one of these to twitter)

RT @lillyann Energy Muse Jewelry #Giveaway! Comment on the blog + RT to win! http://bit.ly/9WhIn7 #energymuse

Just entered to win FREE @energymuse Jewelry! Follow @lillyann + RT  http://bit.ly/9WhIn7 #energymuse #giveaway

I just entered @lillyann ‘s contest to win a Coin Bracelet from @energymuse Energy Muse Jewelry http://bit.ly/9WhIn7 #energymuse #giveaway

That’s It! Don’t forget to tell your friends

Don’t have a Twitter account? You can sign up for FREE here!

Finally

At the end of the contest, we’ll collect each commenter’s email address and draw a winner at random to be the winner of  the Energy Muse Jewelry, AND the gift certificate!

Remember you must:  leave a comment here + Follow @lillyann and @energymuse on Twitter + Tweet one of the above options including the hashtag #energymuse

If you need any assistance, please feel free to DM @lillyann on Twitter at any time

The contest starts today and will end on Monday, May 3, 2010 at midnight CST. Winner will be announced on Tuesday evening, May 4, 2010. I look forward  to reading all your tweets and posts as the contest gets rolling. Who knows – The bracelet and the $100 gift certificate could be yours!

Live in Joy!

LillyAnn

p.s.  These bracelets are for men too! So come on guys …. don’t be shy. Even if not for yourself,  it would make a great Mother’s Day present!

Sponsors:

Energy Muse Jewelry  is 10 years old this year (so are we!) and we at Whispy.com have been honored and privileged to partner with them throughout these many years!  THANK YOU

* Energy Muse Jewelry

* Energy Muse on Twitter

Want to be a sponsor? Contact us at: sponsors @ whispy.com

Happy Daymaker Day David Wagner!

Hello fellow Daymakers! Wow, what an incredible year this has been? Last year at this time there were thousands of people around the world that gave me an enormous gift on my birthday, which is today. A Daymaker friend of mine in Tucson came up with the idea to spend a minute at 12:00 noon Central time to pray for me since I was diagnosed with cancer five days earlier and was in pretty rough shape after losing 40 pounds and could not walk without assistance. He was able to spread the word via facebook, twitter, and the Daymaker movement website and soon there was a Daymaker community formed for that one minute in time. Remarkable isn’t it?

My wife Charlie and I laid in our bed together and just hugged each other shortly before noon and then waited for the clock to strike 12. It was one of the most memorable moments in my entire life. I just soaked it up, I knew there were people in my neighborhood that were praying for me as well as people around the globe from Taiwan, Hawaii, South America, Europe and others. It was truly one of the most incredible blessings that I have ever been bestowed. I will remember that time hugging Charlie my wife for the rest of my life.

So I am well and in remission and I can’t tell you how great that feels to even type one year later much less be living cancer free. Along the way I have met many other cancer victims along their journey. Sadly some have passed away and others are still fighting the fight. What I’d like to humbly ask today is that you take a moment at noon and just pray for those in your lives in need of healing. It makes an enormous difference not only for the person with the illness but it will make your day as well.

Here is a quick list of things that I intend to do on Daymaker day.

1. Write my parents a letter thanking them for their faith and dream that they have had for me since my birth.

2. Help a complete stranger smile.

3. Take a walk by myself for an hour, and give thanks for all the beauty that is in my life.

4. Tell a story about my childhood birthdays to my two daughters at dinner

5. Send a check to my favorite charity.

6. Write down my dreams for the rest of my life.

7.  Make my own day by taking the time to watch the sun rise and set on my birthday.

8.  Drive the kids to school in the morning and walk them to class.

9. Start on my new book “Faces of Cancer”. A journey of transformation through crisis.

10. Even though this has been one of the most difficult years of my life filled with fear, anger, doubt, and uncertainty I intend to take the time to thank God for the blessings that also came my way this year. Love, compassion, awareness, bewilderment, faith, and of course your prayers and well wishes that were so beautiful in my time of need.

What’s on you list today? Let’s make it a great day today and change the world together!

Love,

David Wagner
Daymaker
daymakermovement.com

The Daymaker Movement on Facebook

What is life? Life is relationships, my friends.

At the end of our lives we will not remember how much money we made, how many ball games we watched, or how many things we possessed. What will come back to us in a brilliant and blinding light will be … the quality of the relationships we formed with those we loved; our family, our partners, our children and our friends. ~ LillyAnn (2001)

Sticky Lemon Rolls With Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze

These rolls are amazing! These are my new go-to breakfast rolls. They are modeled after the classic cinnamon roll, with a buttery yeast dough flecked with nutmeg and lemon. Inside each roll is a rich filling of sugar and lemon that bakes into gooey, oozey sweet-tart deliciousness. The cream cheese glaze puts it over the top, with more lemon tartness and not too much sweetness.

Lemon Roll Dough

Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce Latte

This is a surprisingly low-calorie treat, and it will give you the same delicious flavors that you could get from a Cinnamon Dolce Latte at Starbucks!  If they still served them. This is an easy homemade version to make, and it won’t even add too many additional calories – definitely a guiltless treat.

Ingredients:

• 1 shot Espresso
• Dusting – 1/8 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1 cup Milk (for steaming)
• Splenda or sugar to taste
• 1 shot Smuckers Butterscotch (or Caramel) Sundae Syrup
• Whipped Cream (optional)

Start out by freshly brewing the shot of espresso, and then mix it with the cinnamon, and stir well. Add the sugar-free caramel syrup, and then mix in any additional sweetener to your taste. Steam your milk until it is 160°, and pour it in with the espresso to create your professional latte treat!

Variation: Leave out the ground cinnamon, but instead put a large cinnamon stick, some cloves and green cardamom pods in the milk. Leave as it comes to a boil, set aside and let it infuse for a couple minutes. Then strain out the seasonings and pour into the coffee.

Starbucks does still offer the Iced Cinnamon Dolce Latte

Awaken the Power to Walk Through Walls

Wise persistence always pays the one who serves it at least once, but usually twice. The first payoff — and the most valuable — is the realization that “walls” are immaterial apart from the resistance that lends them their temporary substance. The second payment comes on the other side of the “wall”… where achievement proves the value of sustained effort.

Free Yourself From What Confines You

Whenever we find ourselves in some “unwanted” part of ourselves, perhaps reliving an old heartache or caught in the throes of some irrepressible anger, old fear, or unyielding worry, part of this unwanted moment includes our certainty that we’re trapped in this condition. And compounding our confusion over feeling ourselves captive in this way are all of the attending negative inner voices. They tell us not only are we hostages of these disturbing states, but that the pain we now feel will be with us forever.

Bit by bit we come to accept what we see as the inevitability of our unhappy, captive condition. And should we hear from a still, small, free part of ourselves, “Try once more, you don’t belong there in that cell of yourself,” from within us rises a chorus of negative voices to drown it out — a choir constructed from our own past experiences that sings out, “There’s no use.”

So we go to sleep within ourselves, preferring to dream of better times or in the imagining of what we will never know outside of our fitful reveries. But we can wake up! We may awaken from not only the unsatisfying dream-life into which we’ve slipped, but from the unconscious dream-self that would have us remain there as captives of the lies it weaves. Shattering this dream world — and its hold over us — begins with bringing real light into it. This needed new light comes to us, first, in the form of new knowledge — an insight such as the one that follows into the actual nature of these negative states and the self they capture.

Regardless of the assertion of any negative state that seeks to convince you otherwise (using its painful presence within you as “proof” that the prison you’re locked within will stand until the end of time), apply this one great truth:

All punishing self-states are “lies.” They must break down if they don’t succeed in breaking down your willingness to test their reality. How do you conduct such a test? You learn to look at their presence within you with the quiet understanding that, in reality, nothing in life is fixed. All things change. Everything passes. This is truth. Knowing this to be true is power over what holds us captive.

On the other hand, according to another great truth, everything in life tends to become more of what it is, so that the only thing “fixed” in us are those parts of our presently unenlightened nature that convince us to resist life’s natural changes. As this fear-filled, downward-trending nature tricks us into accepting its conclusions, they become the same as our captivity. We unconsciously accept the limited and painful life this alliance-in-the-dark produces. We can do better!

Real self-change begins with seeing that Real Life is change itself. This means there is no condition that can hold you captive without your unconscious cooperation. Withdraw it. Wake up. Walk out of yourself by changing how you see what you call your life. Realize that while the contents of your life may come and go, turn dark, or suddenly seem delightful, regardless, these things will pass. Resting in the awareness of this Truth while working to stand upon its higher ground, you come upon the Life within you whose nature is the unchanging witness of these movements. This Self dwells outside of change, even as all that changes moves through It.

– Guy Finley

Free Self-Improvement Starter Kit:  Features the extraordinary ideas of best-selling author and renowned success expert Guy Finley. Includes a phenomenal 60-min MP3 audio program, ’5 Simple Steps to Make Yourself Fearless’; exclusive access to over 75 MP3 downloads in ‘Guy Finley’s Wisdom Library’; the immensely practical ’30 Keys to Change Your Destiny’ ebook; plus a stirring song track from the sacred music CD, ‘Door of My Heart.’ A $120 combined value. Grab you free kit today!

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Related Reading:

Seeker’s Guide To Self-Freedom: Truths for Living

Two Days We Should Not Worry

There are two days in every week about which we should not worry, two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.

One of these days is Yesterday with all its mistakes and cares,
its faults and blunders, its aches and pains.

Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control.
All the money in the world cannot bring back Yesterday.

We cannot undo a single act we performed;
we cannot erase a single word we said.
Yesterday is gone forever.

The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow
with all its possible adversities, its burdens,
its large promise and its poor performance;
Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control.

Tomorrow’s sun will rise,
either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds, but it will rise.
Until it does, we have no stake in Tomorrow,
for it is yet to be born.

This leaves only one day, Today.
Any person can fight the battle of just one day.
It is when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternities Yesterday and Tomorrow that we break down.

It is not the experience of Today that drives a person mad,
it is the remorse or bitterness of something which happened Yesterday and the dread of what Tomorrow may bring.

Let us, therefore,
Live but one day at a time.

~ an unknown angel ~

Borderline Personalities and Meditation

There’s a saying among medical professionals that everybody owes it to their colleagues to take on a borderline or two. “Borderline” refers to people with borderline personality disorder (BPD), who are some of the most challenging patients there are—so challenging the reasoning goes, that it’s only right that all practitioners assume their fair share of these difficult people.

Borderline patients are hypochondriacs. They believe, almost without ceasing, that something is dramatically wrong with them. And they demand immediate relief of their enormous suffering, in the form of medication, testing, referrals, or hospitalization. Substance abuse—alcohol, prescription drugs or illegal substances—may further complicate the picture.

Borderlines are relentless at getting what they want. So long as you’re meeting enough of their needs, you’re a hero. But make a misstep, which is just about inevitable amidst the drama of their lives, and you’re a bum. This is called splitting. People who suffer with BPD tend to view others without shades of gray, as either wholly good or wholly bad.

I have started out, to every one of my borderline patients, as a savior, as the doctor who finally really understands them and their problems. Sooner or later, all but a few have thrown me over because, in their eyes, I’ve failed them and because they have found a new doctor who really, really does understand them.

The stakes are high. Borderlines are subject to all sorts of self-harming behavior, including substance abuse, self-mutilation and suicide. So anything done to lessen their suffering can make a huge difference in their lives and in the lives of the people who exist within borderlines’ chaotic orbit.

There are numerous theories about the genesis of BPD, none of which captures more than a fraction of the truth about this unhappy way of existence. Some explanations say that BPD is merely an extreme of the normal variation of personality. Others blame genetics, abusive parenting, or toxic exposure early in life.

I’d like to discuss one theory of BPD that has special appeal to me because it treads the line between science and spirit. The ideas come from an article entitled, “The Role of Mindfulness in Borderline Personality Disorder,” published in the October 2009 issue of  The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.

The authors hypothesize that the extreme measures that borderlines take to avoid being aware of uncomfortable emotions, sensations, and situations precludes them from becoming habituated to these experiences. “Habituation” refers to the lessening of sensitivity that occurs with repeated exposure to a stimulus, such as the sound of the train rumbling by to the people who reside next to the tracks or the livestock smell to the feedlot’s neighbors. By not allowing themselves to actually experience noxious stimuli, whether internal or external, borderlines don’t ever get to down-regulate their raw nerves. They find themselves in a vicious cycle of escalating distress and attempts to avoid it. Borderlines set the curve for dukkha, Sanskrit for suffering, the theme of Buddha’s First Noble Truth.

For this study, the researchers enrolled 70 borderline inpatients at a Dallas psychiatric unit, each having suffered extreme psychological trauma in the past and severe impairment, such as major self-destructive behavior, in the present. Participants were administered a number of psychological tests, including the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), a 15-item test which subjects rate, on a scale of 1 to 6. The MAAS assesses awareness of emotions, thoughts, actions and situations. (A sample question, to be rated 1 to 6, is, “I find it difficult to stay focused on what’s happening in the present.”)

The study’s authors did find a strong negative correlation between mindfulness and manifestations of BPD. That is, as mindfulness went up, this particular form of suffering went down, and vice versa.

Neither the researchers nor I would contend that lack of mindfulness is the sole explanation for the dukkha of the borderline condition. Still, mindfulness, a prescription for managing all forms of suffering, might provide a handhold on the slippery slope of personality disorder. Dialectical behavior therapy, a form of psychotherapy used for some BPD patients, does include a component of mindfulness training.

Over the years, a few borderlines have stayed in my practice for a long time. The secret of our success has been to see each other frequently, sick or not. That way the patient doesn’t have to be in severe distress to gain my attention. At visits where suffering is less, there may be enough attention and emotional energy left over to build, gradually, a relationship that depends on something other than the patient’s pains and the doctor’s nostrums.

Occasionally we can develop enough mutual trust to move on, slowly, to a healthier outlook and life. The relationship itself is therapeutic.

Developing a relationship with a borderline is no easy task. This cluster of personality traits has no correlation with intelligence, which means that a borderline patient may not only be needy, demanding and manipulative, but plenty smart too. Borderlines provide me with some of the greatest tests of my professional skill and personal compassion.

Because I have a special interest in psychiatry and because there is a huge need for compassionate care of these unfortunate individuals, I have significantly more than my “fair share” of borderlines in my family practice. How do I manage it? With mindfulness, of course. Regular meditation practice is my most important tool for managing difficult patients. By quieting my “monkey mind” (or by allowing it to dwell with at least a shred of ease in what causes me distress) I gain space between perception and reaction when dealing with people who have black belts in the art of pushing emotional buttons.

By no means am I ready to state that borderline personality disorder is the opposite of mindfulness, nor that meditation is the cure. Nevertheless, no matter what your relationship to BPD—patient, family, friend, helping professional—I strongly recommend that you try meditating.

Intuitive Cooking: 5 Ways to Find Your Inner Chef

I write a lot about intuitive eating. Just as important, and the first step in the process, is intuitive cooking. But it’s hard in our world.

We’re pressed for time, and accustomed to looking outside ourselves to the experts — the celebrity chef, the cooking show stars, the cookbook authors —for the latest word on what to buy and how to cook it.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for education in culinary and nutritional topics; it’s how I make my living. At some point, though, it’s exhilarating to rely on an internal compass rather than external directions. It’s not like celebrity chefs or we food writers have cornered the market on cooking.

Food preparation is the most natural, instinctive activity in the world, right up there with nest-building and baby-making. And I believe it’s as important as intuitive eating in terms of our relationship with food.

Cooking by availability and intuition — shopping the market, choosing produce that looks fresh and appealing, and then combining it with ingredients on hand, according to taste and personal preference — is perhaps the oldest and most authentic way of food prep. My southern grandmothers cooked this way, without recipes or elaborate meal planning. They simply gathered vegetables from their garden, combined them with ingredients on hand, and added a pinch of this and a dash of that until it tasted good. At the end, it was invariably a feast.

Cooking without a recipe requires only a little skill, plus a lot of imagination, and a willingness to be bold and inventive. These five steps will get you started:

1. Head to local farmer’s markets. That’s where you’ll find an abundance of fresh, seasonal produce. But don’t write off our local grocery stores; Whole Foods can’t be beat for its high-quality organic produce selection and vast array of herbs, spices, oils, nuts, cheeses and specialty items. Vitamin Cottage has wildly competitive prices and a full selection of organic produce. And some mainstream grocers are doing a pretty good job of offering more organic and local produce.

2. Start with color. It will be one of your main guides for choosing ingredients. Begin with one main ingredient — asparagus, for example — then look around the market or produce section for seasonal produce that would compliment their bright-green color. Look for what appeals to you–the pale hue of green onions, for example, and the soft tan-gray of wild morels.

You could sauté these in olive oil, then top with a little black sea salt and shaved Asiago cheese. How would you cook them? Maybe make them into a soup with a light broth, a little cream and nutmeg? Or sauté them in sesame oil with garlic and ginger, and top them with black sesame seeds? You get the idea; anything is possible. Don’t overlook fruit; pears, berries or citrus fruits compliment many vegetable dishes with a subtle, fresh sweetness

3. Try something new. The first time I saw a rutabaga, I was consumed with curiosity. I purchased the monstrosity, which looked something like a mutant potato. At a loss, I chopped it up, boiled it and served it with butter, salt and pepper. It was delicious — sweet, clean, with a mildly nutty, cabbage like flavor. Try something new — celery root, cardoons, chanterelle mushrooms, tomatillos, fiddlehead ferns, chayote squash, kumquats. Ask for cooking suggestions at the market. Start by seasoning simply with a little salt and pepper, and branch out from there. You’ll know.

4. Stock up on basic cooking ingredients. An artist needs the proper paints, brushes and canvas upon which to express her creativity. You’ll need an assortment of oils, vinegars, salts, spices, fresh herbs and other ingredients, to make the most of your cooking artistry. Basics include:

• A good olive oil and grapeseed or other neutral cooking oil
• Balsamic, sherry and red wine vinegar
• Kosher or coarse salt, sea salt and, if you like, a finishing salt, such as fin de sel, to be added after cooking.
• Seven or eight spices you love (try cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, chili powder, black pepper, white pepper, paprika and curry powder) and a wide selection of fresh herbs, garlic and onions.
• A selection of dried beans, lentils, grains, nuts and seeds.
• Canned tomatoes, canned beans and a good, basic broth or stock.

5. Start with a great recipe. It sounds counter-intuitive, but having guidelines for a dish you love — pasta, salad, soup — creates a basic framework, the scaffolding upon which you can lay your own original design. A basic soup recipe, for example, might be 6 cups of broth, 2 cups of vegetables, 1 cup of beans, 2 tablespoons of oil or butter, and 1 tablespoon of fresh herbs.

Start with a recipe you love, head to your favorite market, and be willing to be bold. At the very worst, you’ll discover what doesn’t work — and that’s a valuable life lesson in itself.

By: Lisa Turner

Lisa Turner is a widely published food writer with more than 25 years of professional experience. She has written five books on health and nutrition, and hundreds of magazine articles. Her diverse background in food and nutrition includes studies in macrobiotics, raw foods and vegan regimens, as well as classic culinary training. In addition to writing books and magazine articles, Lisa combines 20 years of yoga, meditation and mindfulness practices to help her clients understand and change emotional issues behind their eating habits. Currently, she’s a faculty instructor at Bauman College of Culinary Arts and Nutrition in Boulder, Colorado, and hard at work on her next book. Visit her websites at www.TheHealthyGourmet.net and InspiredEating.com.

Come On Baby, Fight My Liar

Back in the Vietnam era, there was a popular joke about Lyndon Johnson. How can you tell when LBJ is lying? When he scratches his head, he is telling the truth. When his nose twitches, he is telling the truth. When he wiggles his ear, he is telling the truth. But when he opens his mouth … he’s lying.

Like so many political jokes, that one has been re-purposed many times to apply to the lying politician du jour. Even the lies are the same. If you haven’t done so already, go rent Norman Solomon’s movie, War Made Easy. There, you will see and hear Robert McNamara and LBJ justifying the Vietnam War — and the Bush team and their media lackeys saying almost the exact same words to justify our invasion of Iraq 35 years later.

How can they continue to get away with it? Well, because the American people have been “trained” to accept being lied to. The prevailing cliche of lying politicians is so universally accepted, that … well, it’s universally accepted, so much so that you can probably get nine out of ten Americans to agree that, yes politicians lie. By making “lying politicians” an indisputable truth, it becomes like army food in the old days: something we are encouraged to complain about, but are powerless to change.

To understand how we have been collectively mentally manipulated to accept and embrace lies and liars, go check out Edward Bernays and Leo Strauss. They shared the belief that the masses are meant to be manipulated by the elites, and their ideas have spawned the techniques and technologies that keep the American people enslaved under the illusion of freedom. And when dissatisfaction does well up, the channels are in place for the heat of anger to be expressed, while the light of insight remains hidden.

To understand how lie-ability becomes an asset, let’s take a look at two liars — your liar, and my liar. Your liar is the liar I love to hate, whose lies I believe should be transparent to everyone — which is why he or she drives me crazy. For progressives, Glenn Beck fits that description perfectly. As the “ideal” purveyor of toxic disinformation, Beck builds credibility by beginning with “common sense” truths that seem indisputable. Into this mix, however, he inserts an IED (Intentionally Explosive Disinformation) that causes progressives to explode with rage, to the glee of his faithful audience.

Ready for Beck’s favorite IED? George W. Bush was a progressive. Yes, according to Glenn Beck, because the Bush Administration grew big government to run the Iraq War, it makes him a “progressive.” Does it make sense? Well, to conservatives who have learned that “progressives hate America and love big government,” it makes a sort of half sense — but who needs logic when you have fervent belief and an all-purpose straw man enemy? This is a recycled McCarthyist tactic that worked back when the enemy was communism. Now it’s socialism, or Obamacare.

Because of the absurd outrageousness of this claim, it draws progressive fire: “Come on baby, fight my liar!” And, it gives so-called conservatives something to rally around. (I remember the first peace march I went to in New York back in the 60s, where I found myself face-to-face with a counter-demonstrator shouting, “Communist! Communist! Communist!” I calmly walked up to him, put my face close to his and asked, “Excuse me, can you tell me what a communist is?” He got a blank look on his face for a moment, and then he answered my question. “YOU! YOU! You’re a communist!”)

OK. So that’s their liar. What about ours?

Last month, more than 500 concerned progressives attended an event at the University of San Francisco sponsored by the Network of Spiritual Progressives. Convened by Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun magazine, the one-day event focused on how the progressive wing of the Democratic Party could influence President Obama to be the Obama the people voted for.

In addition to providing comic relief as the Swami, I was also given a panel spot to address the war in Afghanistan. I used that platform to suggest that the war is a symptom of the disease that has had America in a stranglehold for more than 60 years — a Military Industrial Complex in support of the American Empire. Earlier, a military veteran had commented that in his experience, the President had limited power to make any real change, and that the Military Industrial Complex held the real power. Another individual suggested that until we address the very questionable “official 9/11 story,” we would be unable to fundamentally change American foreign policy.

I was disappointed — but not surprised — as the gathered progressives rejected the opportunity to step outside the political matrix. None of the other panelists who spoke would address either the forces that hold the President in check, or the horrific notion that our own government might have had something to do with the 9/11 attacks. It was reminiscent of the classic Holy Fool story, where the Fool is down on his knees in a parking light one evening. A friend asks him what he is doing.

“I’m looking for my car keys,” is the reply.

“Oh,” says the friend, “you lost your car keys in the parking lot?”

“No, I lost them in the bushes over there.”

“Well then, why are you looking here?”

“Because there is more light in the parking lot.”

In my view, mainstream progressives are unwilling to confront the darkness at the heart of the American empire. They rail at the manipulators over at Faux News, as they fail to recognize a very inconvenient truth: they are lying to themselves. Now let me clarify what I mean by the “darkness” at the heart of the American empire. I don’t believe America or Americans are “evil.” Very likely the vast majority of our public servants, even those who serve in high office, are largely well-intentioned. However, by ignoring the proverbial elephant in the living room, they empower the sociopathogens who thrive in darkness.

After World War II, the American public entered into a “don’t ask, don’t tell” agreement with our government. We the people promised not to ask what our government is doing to “protect” us, and the government promised not to tell us. In the 60+ years that have followed, we have empowered a secret government with a “black budget,” with no accountability whatever. If there is one universal law of political science worth remembering, it’s Lord Acton’s notion that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

America’s Founding Fathers understood this more than a century before Lord Acton uttered those words. That’s why the Constitution provides for balance of powers. But when you empower a power that has no accountability, and no counterbalance, you are essentially writing a blank check to tyranny. Global climate change notwithstanding, THIS is the hugely inconvenient truth that so few “progressives” are willing to face. Why? Because facing it would require inordinate courage and spiritual fortitude.

Consequently, most progressives accept the taboos against talking about fixed elections or the mysterious collapse of Building Seven. Just recently, the Huffington Post very quickly pulled a post by Jesse Ventura that questioned the official 9/11 story. Where was the protest? Nowhere, that’s where. With the exception of three notable progressive journalists — Mark Crispin Miller, Rob Kall of OpEd News and Peter Phillips of Project Censored, the rest of progressive journalism prefers the comfort of calling these inconvenient possibilities “conspiracy theories.” My definition of conspiracy theory is, “something which, were it true, you would be unable to deal with it.”

Hence, we have mainstream progressives searching for the keys to change in a well-lit parking lot, instead of the dark and thorny shrubbery. They may find ways to temporarily feel better, but ultimately they will continue to hold the current dysfunction in place, while continuing to hold on to the “moral superiority” of believing in change, while not being willing to do what it really takes to have that change.

I’m sorry if that sounds harsh.

But true transformation comes from confronting the lies we tell ourselves, rather than on our outrage over the lies the other guy is telling. We have very little power of the latter, and a world of power over the former.

The good news can be found in a story my friend and colleague Patricia Sun told me a number of years ago. She was scheduled to speak at a “new age” bookstore, and when she arrived she found four fundamentalist Christians picketing outside the store. Patricia told the store owner she was going to speak to them.

“Oh,” the store owner said, “you can’t talk with those people. Don’t waste your time.”

Nonetheless, she went out to converse with the picketers. After ten minutes, three of the four put down their signs, hugged Patricia, and said, “You’re saying just what Jesus said!”

The fourth one continued holding his sign.

From this simple, transformational incident I extracted “the Law of 75.” When faced with loving and respectful communication, three out of four of people will put aside the beliefs in their head for the love in their heart. Of course, this is an untested premise, more of an intuitive suspicion than an actual “law.” But I’m sure those working with the tools of Non-violent Communication and other techniques for holding connection in the face of conflict have similar stories.

So perhaps the key to breakthrough and transformation is not to get sucked into fighting the other guy’s liar, but instead gathering around a higher, more compelling truth. If you think this is pie-in-the-sky hopium smoke I am blowing, check out what’s happening in Reno, Nevada, where Richard Flyer’s Conscious Community Network is bringing together traditionally religious folks, along with the spiritual-but-not-religious, secular humanists and ethical atheists around “virtues and values” the vast majority of us share in common.

Maybe this is the time to emerge from the dueling dualities and bi-polar political dysfunction, and have the courage to face the unknown together, using our “positions” as jumping off points, not platforms. What if we brought together the Tea Parties, the Coffee Parties — heck, the Pot Parties, if need be — and brought the light of love, sanity, and coherence across the artificial political divide, and focused on the greater truths we share in common?

We already have the communications tools to do this. Now we need the will and the focus.

There are some who say we are facing an imminent apocalypse. Others say that evolution is calling us forth. I’m inclined to agree with both. Remember, the original definition of apocalypse is “lifting the veils.” As with any recovery program, the first step is telling the truth — lifting the veils both on the true powers we have as human beings, and the forces that have kept us from seeing and using that power. Before we can totally embrace our powers as co-creators, we must see clearly where we are and how we got here.

It won’t be pretty. But by cultivating and growing the field of love that at least 75% of us are capable of, we will have what we need to metabolize those political toxins. As we strengthen the bonds of love and mutual-respect, we will generate both the field and the wisdom to find emergent solutions to entrenched problems. Together, we can become generators of our own light. And only together can we bring that light to the endarkened corridors of power.

By: Steve Bhaerman

Steve Bhaerman’s work can be found online at www.wakeuplaughing.com. On the serious side, he is co-author with Bruce Lipton of Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There From Here.

He is also author of a recent e-book on transformational humor, Wake Up Laughing: An Insider’s Guide to the Cosmic Comedy.

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