Digital Future

One of the problems any writer or any artist faces is in what format should his or her creations be composed? One feels compelled to create and actually feels physically sick when not creating (I do anyway), so what format is best for creation? Since creation is communication with other persons sharing similar interests, one needs to find the common medium where one's work could best be shared. Clearly, today, that medium is digital. People like myself are drawn to digital media and it's why my work is in electronic format; as, after all, I'm writing for people like me.

State Survivability

Depending upon the size of its annual GDP, states cannot survive once their annual fiscal deficits exceed its GDP.  The reason for this, is that the interest payable upon its treasury obligations becomes so high its tax revenues can no longer sustain interest payments that are due, and because the revenues are less, taxes are raised to pay for interest payments, and those taxes serve to further reduce the GDP of the state---those that are so taxed moved to states with lower tax rates, and since these are the persons and entities contributing to the state's GDP, state GDP falls upon the loss of their contribution.  So, at the same time that more state revenue is needed to pay for interest on debt, three simultaneous events all happen:  interest rates on the state's debt rise because the state's credit rating has to fall; state's GDP decreases because those entities producing state GDP have moved on to other states; state fisc decreases because the entities contributing revenues via taxes are no longer doing so.  In short the state becomes bankrupt and so must liquidate its state powers to those other states which were fiscally more prudent and farsighted. 

Belief Systems and Evolution

Does humanity have any future?  Shall it survive?  Well, yes, but not in its present form.  What shall cause it to change?  Belief systems shall.  How?
We know that any isolated human breeding group separated from others for a sufficient period of time (a few hundred years) must undergo profound change within the human accelerated region (HAR) of the human genome's DNA.  The HAR is responsible for most of the rapid evolutionary changes in humanity.  So, given this scenario of a necessary prolonged isolation; is it then possible for human evolution to continue?  We already know where and why evolution happens: an isolated breeding community and the HAR of the human genome.  But given the extremely rapid technological advances in communication and in transportation, is it possible to have isolated communities in today's world?  We know we need isolation for HAR changes to happen.  The answer is: yes, because isolation occurs in humanity for psychic as well as physical reasons.  For instance, some religions prohibit sexual relations outside of their faiths.  They prohibit inter-marriage (and inter-breeding) with anyone outside their faith or religious sect.  The also encourage early marriage among members of their faith communities, and some faiths even encourage multiple marriages.  Given sufficient isolation, adherents of these belief systems undergo genetic changes.  Some have already done so.  So, some people of some beliefs are indeed different from others not of their belief; not just because of difference in the customs of the belief, but because they are truly genetically different:  Real purpose behind religious belief is enhancement of evolutionary change!  

Future of Humanity

Contrary to the popular notion humanity is becoming similar, interchangeable ethnically and culturally; just the opposite has happened.  People are more different than they have ever been before and they are growing even more different.  People are not the same; not that they ever were.  So no single system can possibly work for everyone.  There could never be a universal anything.  All humanity could never subscribe to the same faith or to the same belief.  What does this imply?   It implies: conflict is the natural state of Man.

Dangerous Belief Systems

Dangerous belief systems treat their adherents like merchandise in order to sell and to market the belief system to others.  Their adherents are praised for not questioning the "mysteries" of the belief system and for their loyalty in following the practices and the customs of the belief system.  Beneficial belief systems encourage questioning of all the tenets and practices of the system.  Since all belief systems have to be man-made, there can't be any tenets that can't be questioned; nor could there be customs that cannot ever be changed.  Good systems change and evolve.  Bad systems are static and stuporic.  If the tenets of a belief system seem stupid and non-scientific, they truly are dumb. 

Belief Systems and their Dangers

Belief systems were invented to preserve vanished cultures and unless the belief system is capable of change and evolving, so it can become reflective of contemporary culture, the belief system itself will eventually vanish.  Some belief systems are inherently extremely dangerous as they refuse to recognize their human origins.  There is nothing wrong with having been invented---all art is.  There is something terribly wrong with denying that a system of belief was invented and in stating the system of belief may have had a non-human origin.  That frankly is insane and insanity is dangerous.  That's my belief. 

Memory

Any type of training requires a good memory, whether or not that training might be physical or psychic.  The best way to train the memory is simpy to memorize poetry.  Of course, always pick poetry to memorize that appeals.  Since so many aren't familiar with contemporary poetry, I decided to try to peruse poetry written by various living poets to ascertain whether any of it was worth the trouble of memorizing.  There is some very good poetry being written, but unfortunately nothing truly outstanding that could be termed "great."  All the really good poets today are also song-writers.  So, to fill the gap temporarily, I'll just include some of my own poems on this blog.  I'm primarily a poet and am probably as good a poet as any: Judge for yourself.

Mental Training with Castles

Martial arts training is clearly the very best methodology for physical longevity, as it's intention is the development of power. What about mental training? Well, any strategic board game shall help develop the mind. The best one that I know of is the game of "Castles" that I played as a child. It's kind of like chess and go only it's a lot more sophisticated in that it's three dimensional. I tried to find the game on the Internet, but there doesn't seem to be any reference to it as it's so obscure. Anyway, you'll find a brief description of the game, with simplified rules for children, in a book: Heart-Healing The Chariot Way on Kindle and on MobiPocket for download. The adult version of this game is yet far more complicated, but its children's version is complex enough for most people. Like all games, it is intended to train its players in the values of its culture: Celtic, in the game of Castles to be sure; but more than that---Druid. Castles is a very high level game.

Martial Arts Clubs

Bare-Knuckle-Boxing is one among many, many martial arts.  There are over a thousand systems of martial art in the world, and possibly a lot more.  They all have one thing in common and that's the development of power.  Because of YouTube, all these various systems of martial art are available for perusal.  If you live near any large metropolis, there are hundreds of martial arts clubs.  Before joining any club, one should remember that any martial art is a part of a larger culture and the martial art was invented (martial arts like religions are invented---that doesn't mean they aren't useful or not true) so to preserve the culture's membership by its elite group of warriors.  It then behooves one to examine the entire culture in order to determine whether or not one wishes to join any particular martial arts club, as each club shall expect its members to have a deep respect for that culture from which its martial art sprang.  So, if something about some culture does not appeal to you; look for another club.   

Bare-Knuckle-Boxing

My original intent was to post the entire content of the 16 GB bare-knuckle-boxing videos onto YouTube, but some of the material in the videos might not be all that appropriate for the public. Some of the club members thought it would be better to post the content to the Blog, and I also agree. That way it's all in one place. However, just like YouTube, there is a time limitation of ten minutes, which means that I would have to chop the segments up to post them. So, for those who might be interested, we'll put the whole thing onto a DVD or on an SD card. That way you have it all. I'll still post those ten minute segments of video up onto the Blog, but it'll be a while until it's all edited. Hopefully, everyone will get there copy. It's been fun working with you all. Thanks everyone.

Immortaliy

The purpose of the major religious systems is the achievement of immortality, either by the total absorption of the self into a pure being or by the cessation of the striving for being. Naturally the cessation of striving for being results in the total absorption of the self into pure being. The goal is the same whether it be unification or absorption; one becomes the greater whole, rather than a separate distinct part, separated from the whole: one enters into the womb of existence again.

Psychic Survivability of the Spirit

Three Eastern methods of psychic survivability are well known: the Abrahamic, wherein the Spirit lives on after the body containing the Spirit dies and the Spirit is judged for any actions performed by the body; and based upon that judgment---the Spirit survives in altered states. The Buddhist, which was derived from Hinduism, whereby the Spirit is born again in repeated cycles after each death of the body into states higher or lower depending upon its actions in its prior state, and is eventually cleansed through the cycles of rebirth to be absorbed and released from all cycles of rebirth. The Taoist, whereby the Spirit lives as long as the body containing the Spirit survives, and the action during life is maintenance of the body's existence as long as might be possible in order to preserve the existence of the body's Spirit. Of course, all these scenarios have endless variations, as there are literally hundreds of sects and offshoots for these methods. The Old European belief tradition, the western tradition, is different in the sense that the Spirit exists to engage in a Quest and the purpose of that Quest is to give birth to the Spirit; so that the individual engaging in the Quest is looked upon as not being born as yet physically and spiritually until the goal of the Quest has been achieved. The Quest obviously is to achieve transformation.

Reliance upon Intuition

Since no one could possibly have a monopoly on truth, as no one can possibly obtain the sufficient knowledge and experience to be able to adequately differentiate facts from falsehoods in every field; it's then left up to one's core instincts to intuit what one feels about any statements made by others. If it feels right, it usually is right. If it feels wrong, it usually is wrong. Intuition is the stick blind reason taps before.

Blame and Responsibility

Societies will blame their ordinary members for the problems of the society. Obviously, this is complete nonsense, as any society's ordinary members have neither the power to either change or to direct the operations of the society. The powers and prerogatives rest with the elite of the society and those elite jealously guide their privileges. So let's take an obvious current example. America has problems and those problems are of a financial nature. Americans are stigmatized as being both foolish and extravagant; since their improvident actions have directly resulted in the present credit crisis, causing both massive unemployment and bankruptcy. That's the story that's been told, and it's absolute nonsense. What happened was this: financial institutions, the banks, the brokerages and insurance companies set up off-balance sheet investment investment vehicles in order to avoid capitalization requirements and to evade state domestic taxation. The financial institution personnel creating the investment vehicles amounted to, at most; just a few hundred individuals, less than a thousand. The vehicles were all situated in tax-haven countries. They're called qualifying special purpose entities and they're utilized to sell-off packages of bank bad loans. The vehicles amounted to over thirty trillion dollars, which is double the GDP of the USA, and they're worthless. The truth is: American public was blamed for the foolishness of few.

Solutions and Politics

Many of the most pressing problems have obvious solutions, but they'll lack political feasibility. For instance, in the United States, sixty percent of all personal bankruptcies are caused because patients are unable to pay for medical services contracted for, even though they have insurance. The reason for medical services' high costs is restricted supply of physicians to provide services. The smaller the number of physicians and other such medical specialists, the more limited those numbers are, the higher are charges for their services. If the charges exceed deductibles on the insurance policies of patients, those charges cause some patients to seek bankruptcy protection. The obvious solution would be simply to increase the number of physicians available to provide services so that the increased competition for patients would decrease amounts charged for the medical services rendered. But that would require government to found and to certify federal medical schools, in which the students paid no tuition; whose graduates (similar to graduates of federal military academies) would be mandated to provide services to the public at little cost, in public clinics, for a specific period of time, upon receipt of their federal medical degree licenses. But politics prevents such implementation. It would disturb the existing oligopoly in medicine.

Solutions and their Implementation

Solutions to problems are easy to propose, but much harder to get implemented. Everyone has solutions, but most of their proposed solutions could never be implemented. For instance, in the USA, there's severe problems in collecting sufficient revenues to keep government operational. Tax collections are no where near adequate. That problem could be solved by the imposition of a thirty percent VAT tax and by abolishing the existing income tax, employment tax, excise tax and estate tax structure---simply do away with it, and replace it with a thirty percent VAT tax. VAT tax has the advantage of easy audits (without audit no tax at all would be collected), as the VAT rate is flat and applied at each level of production; so a VAT forces production to decrease levels of complexity to be more efficient while controlling inflation, as VAT is a consumption tax. Seems a perfect solution until one realizes that America was founded upon obese consumption.

Perception is the Problem

No problem can possibly be solved if it's not recognized as being a problem. Articulation through correct stating of problems is difficult, especially if those problems are personal. It's easy to see problems others might have, but almost impossible to see one's own. Even friends with the best intentions might identify your problems, but not the sources or the solutions for those problems. The source of problems is false perception. Human perception is false because it is so limited. So, what's the solution? To make perception not limited. How to do this? It sure isn't easy!

Verification of the Future

If what our senses detect is not what truly is; then how can we possibly ever know what truly is? Well, there are methodologies already in existence to verify our perceptions---science and mathematics, in particular. But these verification methods are limited, as they only deal with what was and what we are really interested in is what shall be. We can verify the past, but we cannot verify the future and it's the future that we're interested in. We think we know the past. But do we?

Bare-Knuckle Boxing

Originally I was going to post the bare-knuckle boxing videos to YouTube, but at looking at some of the content; it might be a bit too brutal and inappropriate for public exposure; so I'll just be posting the videos to this blog so that their content will be confined to those who already have expressed an interest in the entire culture, and not in just its warrior aspect.

Thanks to All

Just wanted to take this small opportunity to thank those who have shown some interest in my books and postings. Hope it's been helpful. Just experiment and find what works best for you. No one has a monopoly on knowledge, including me. Bill

Cultures and Conformity

Distinct and separate are the ways of all cultures, but they all have common properties in that all wish to prosper and thrive. This is all to the good, except when that prosperity is conditioned on the poverty of some other culture. And of course, this is exactly how cultures work because they are in competition with each other for survival. Given all this; should one adhere to any culture's values and standards? Obviously not, unless the culture's values and standards also agree with one's own. Mostly, they don't; especially if one has very high standards. Any culture's standards stem from the mean of its membership and not from the best. One is always in conflict with the culture one happens to be in---whatever that culture might happen to be: Conformity is suicide.

Investments and the Future

Druids, since there are so few of us, are constantly getting inquiries about investments. So, well, here goes: stay away from broad index-related investing or any sectored indexed investments. Sure, the technology sector will always do well in the long run; but to invest in any mutual funds or hedge funds, where someone else is deciding what to invest in, is foolish. They know less than I do and I know very little. Invest in specific stocks whose companies have global marketing. So we know that technology has to grow in the long run. Which technology firms have marketing in the entire world's market? Which technology firms are highly liquid, with cash-on-hand: so that they can weather a deep recession and come out of it in viable condition to continue operations? There are only six: Cisco Systems (CSCO); Hewlett-Packard (HPQ); Intel (INTC); IBM (IBM); Microsoft (MSFT); United Technologies (UTX) and all are part of Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The Nature of NOW

Life is so complex not because events follow upon each other in a linked chain sequence; so that when one event happens, another must follow upon it...cause and effect. No. Life is so complex because a cause and a seeming effect of a cause doesn't happen: what happens is what happens and happening has no cause outside of itself. It is not directed. It happens. The fact that things happen is not related to another thing that has happened. Realization of this lack of relationship between past and present is what allows us to live in the NOW, which is outside of an appearance of any time. It is transcendent of time. NOW isn't eternal because to be eternal requires time. NOW just IS. This is reason for our saying: the thing most lovely is the music of what happens.

Loyalty and Survivability

One of the real problems in deciding which to be loyal to is that the object of our loyalty may not survive. It might not even survive our loyalty. For instance, America, the USA, does not look like its very long for this world. Evenually, it won't be able to pay interest on its own Treasury obligations and shall have to default on those obligations. How soon? Well within the lifetime of most of those subscribing to this blog. Defaulting on debt obligations does not necessarily mean demise of a nation if those obligations are with its own citizenry. But in USA's case, they are not. It's a bit foolish to give loyalty to a state that can't outlast oneself especially since the sole reason for the state's demise was its own designed intenion to terminate; states can commit suicide too. When a state issues excessive debt that it knows can't ever be satisfied, it desires its own death.

Be Pulled. Don't Push!

Continuing with close combat strategy from bare-knuckle boxing: there's a saying " Long against Long & Short against Short" What this means is that, depending upon the opponent's attack, the response ought to be appropriate. This is why we practice the eight leaps in class---H-J Chang, because she has a tall light frame, performs them must better than I can so it is probably best to imitate her than myself, as I'm a bit too clumsy and heavy. The eight leaps deal with avoidance of an enemy and an enemy's weapon and they're essential to a study of classical bare-knuckle. There is also a psychic element to all of this, and I'll discuss that here. The body radiates energy and the body absorbs radiated energy. We've spoke about "gill-breathing" light in a prior post. This is all part of that. There is an analogy used about rope-bridge walking; that in order not to topple one must be pulled and not pushed. What it means is that if you concentrate on trying to overcome your fear and forcibly push your limbs to move forward to cross, you shall be bound to fail and to fall in the chasm. But if you were instead to let your mind go, and just allow the other end of that bridge to pull you towards it, you shall succeed in your crossing. This applies to life.

Combat Strategy

Unless you're a Druid, you are not going to be able to harm or to heal someone at a distance---so in this post, I'm assuming you are not...my apologies to the few that are. Close quarters combat requires actually touching someone to inflict an injury; whether done with a projectile, a weapon, or with one's limbs. In Celtic systems, almost all strikes are delivered with forearms and with shins, usually simultaneously, by a high strike to the head accompanied by a low strike to the knee...the high strike with a forearm and the low strike with the shin. Fists and feet are used to strike, but usually against soft tissue at various pressure points to paralyze the opponent. For instance, there are several pressure points right above the elbow that when struck will cause the opponent to lose control of his arm. These same pressure points also exist right above the knee and when struck will cause lost of feeling in the entire leg limb so that the opponent will collapse. In both cases, elbow and knee, these pressure points are in the center of the joint, the right side of the joint and at left side of the joint. Pressure points are found by experimenting, by pressing your thumb in, at various locations. When found, they'll produce a shock and a limb goes numb.

The World We Live In

Every day new books are published, new scores are composed, new films are released and new wines are decanted...and all are well worth reading, hearing, viewing and tasting. We live now in an age of genius. So don't despair. Ignore the ignorant and shun the craven. Honor only the courageous. Be one of them.

The Fruits of Experience

Knowledge must be earned and the price of it is experience. There is no substitute for having done the thing rather than merely heard that it was done. Too many are merely auditors of life, not practitioners themselves. Learn to play the instrument and not just hear it played.

Religions and Philosophies

Religions and philosophies are all invented. They are never revealed to us by higher entities; unless one considers one's own brain to be a higher entity (in some people, it actually is). This doesn't mean that; because the tale of their origins is spurious, the religion and philosophy has nothing to teach us. There is always something that can be earned about human nature from the comparative study of religion and philosophy, and human nature is all we really can learn.

Loyalty and Survival

Nations sacrifice their citizens to ensure national survival. That's always been the way of things. Beware patriotism as it can get you killed and shall. The question then is what is it one should be loyal to? The answer is obvious: To one's self; one's family; one's friends, and never ever to any abstractions---always to people. Remember: abstractions can't reciprocate, while people can and will, and we all need help at times. I've seen far too many talented people lose their minds and their lives over abstractions: rags and flags. States come and go; humanity remains.

Conditioning

All societies condition their memberships in subtle ways so as to elicit a desired response when the society is perceived to face danger of extinction. This conditioning applies all the way from the society's newest immigrants on up to the society's highest leaders. It's how all societies survive. Only the very rarest of individuals can hope to resist this cultural conditioning, due to its opaque design and its clever oblique subtlety. The wisest can and do, for they are well aware of its perverse cause---all societies shall eventually sacrifice their own citizens in order to survive.

The Fifth Flower of Fire

The fifth pressure point is the cavity (a slight depression) that's located right opposite the navel in the lumbar vertebrae at the small of the back. Because we are all so different, this particular pressure point might be different in different people. Some of us are long-waisted; and some are short-waisted. Regardless of this, the fifth pressure point is directly in line with the navel; only it's located on the other side of the body. It's located on the spinal chord. We breathe through this pressure point. This breath is not that of the lungs, which is our physical breath; this breath is a psychic breath---we are breathing in light. This is the many-colored light that is referred to in all of the ancient stories and poems. This kind of breathing is called gill-breathing and it is well know to all Celtic warriors. It is also used to imbue psychic power in the training of our priests: the Druids. Regardless of whose training it's directed to, this is the center of the breath.

The Five Fires

In Celtic martial systems, emphasis is placed upon five pressure points of the body. These five pressure points consist of four cavities, inside the shoulder joints and the hip joints, and one at the lumbar vertebrae directly opposite the navel. What these cavities do, at shoulders and hips, is to unlock the joints further down the body---the elbows and the knees. It is easy to judge the validity of any martial system by simply watching the adherents of the system. Many renowned practitioners of the martial arts have never actually used any martial technique in close-quarter combat situations, and therefore lack the necessary practical experience of fighting for their own lives and for the lives of others. One of the worse mistakes a practitioner could make is locking the joints of the elbows and knees, as they shall immediately be broken. No joint should ever be locked. Period. Aside from their martial aspects, the energy cannot flow in the body when any joint is locked. It's like a string of lights; by locking a higher joint, energy can't flow to the joints below that joint. So, the cavities at the shoulder and hip joints have to opened (in Celtic martial terminology, their fires must be ignited, must be lit) in order for power to descend throughout the limbs of the body, all four of the limbs. These cavities are like dimples at each of the joints.

The Power of Nothing

The nothingness that makes something makes it out from its own nothingness. Let's see how to explain this as it's very important in the generation of one's own energy. Let's go back to a prior analogy: Two mirrors facing each other, with nothing in between them. Nothing. The mirrors are reflecting nothing, except what? Well, the facing mirror. Yes. But what happens when you face a mirror? Reversal, right? But when the two mirrors face, these reversals are repeated. Depending upon the reflective quality of the mirrors, the reversals could be repeated infinitely; reversals on top of reversals, forever. A mirror of nothing makes a perfect mirror; no distortions to interrupt the pattern of reversals. They go on forever. The cells of the body are imperfect, and they can't go on forever; but they do have the power to change and to be replicated. This replication is necessary for energy generations, and they are generations. Literally, they are generations of energy. Energy is being given power to evolve, so it can constantly be born again.

Energy

That that's not makes That that is, IS. Nothing makes something is the key to all energy generation. What this means is that both body and brain have to be "clear" to make energy. If the body is tight with fear; if the brain is tense with worry, it's impossible to store, to develop and to transmit psychic energy. Relax. Calm down. Dimple the shoulder joints so that the shoulders sag. Sink the hips so the inguinal creases are pronounced. The small of the back is stretched and is rounded, so that the lumbar vertebrae are lengthened and loosened. That's done by extending both hands forward, palms up; with the fingers spread, without forcing them apart. To get some idea of the correct posture, look at the photos of the Golden Eagle Set in the back of the book: The Chariot Way: The Dream of Crom.

Celtic Martial Arts

Energy is power. Power expressed is energy expressed. How energy is expressed determies its affects. Affects can be anything. It's the energy that creates the affect. Without the energy, nothing could be done. Without the power, we can't do anything. So the primary portion of any training; martial, psychic, creative, intellectual, has to be developing energy. All cultures have methodologies for generating energy. What we'll try to do in the following posts is to give some simple methods to develop power. I'll try to be as specific as I can. If you'll reference my book, HEART-HEALING The Chariot Way, you'll get the reasoning behind power development. The following posts will be devoted particularly to the practical "how" for the creation of energy.

Survival

If one looks at any daily publication from seventy years ago, and looks at that same publication today; the comparison shall be startling: Its grammar, punctuation and sentence structure will be greatly simplified and a previous broad range of vocabulary scope has now been substantially narrowed and lessened. Publications depend upon their advertisers to stay in business, and the advertisers pay ad rates based upon the demography and quantity of readers who are expected to be possible purchasers. The reason the level of intellectual content of a publication has fallen so drastically is precisely because the intellectual level of intended readership of the publication has fallen drastically. Content mirrors the mean of its readership. The average reader is not as smart. That's why so many publications devote so much space to celebrity gossip. To enjoy an independent life requires thought; living vicariously through lives of others requires its absence.

Nature of Evil

If we examine evil as being an aberration; something that is not normal within humanity, we may well miss its evolutionary advantage. Although we are all capable of stupid acts, some of which might have tragic consequences; very few of us are actually capable of performing malicious evil acts, say of purposely and deliberately harming others, for pleasure. The evil lack empathy for others. They have moral autism. In most traditional societies, those who're perceived to be evil are driven out. They are ostracized. Contemporary societies, because they are so large, help to conceal those that are evil. In societies that lack a universally accepted code of conduct, such as in the United States, the evil can flourish and thrive, even attaining election to high public office.

Play to Survive

All those whom I worked with are dead and I am the sole survivor of my action team. Why? Some of them were smarter and stronger than me, but they failed to make it. Some were killed; but most died of a natural cause, mainly from congestive heart failure. Why am I now the only one left? The reason, I believe, is that I am able to get outside of myself in order to view myself dispassionately. What this does is to free the Self from out the prison of one's own body. I'm not speaking of the body in the physical sense, but in its psychic sense. The mind is encased within a shell and this shell holds the mind inside of itself. The mind is trapped by the limitations of its own identity, It has to be able to somehow transcend that identity, if it's going to survive. If it cannot; then the Self dies when its shell dies, since it isn't able to free itself from the prison of its identity. To survive, Self has to be given a new identity and a new passport to life. It has to be able to liberate itself from itself. How may it do so...by participating in the play of a bigger game.

Reality and Illusion: Three Vehicles

If we know through our senses, then it shall pay to sharpen our senses. If we know through our minds, then it shall pay to sharpen our minds. If we know through our bodies, then it shall pay to sharpen our bodies. Since we know that we know through all three (senses, minds, bodies), it should pay to sharpen all three. Whichever vehicle we have for knowing, that vehicle must be exercised, trained and developed. We all have three vehicles for knowing (three chariots). We know that each vehicle must be used daily; or else the vehicle will fall into disuse and won't work.

Ethics and Society

If we think of what we do as something we have a responsibility for; it must mean that we can either somehow alter what we do, or choose not to do it. But if we have no choice in what we do, then we lack any responsibility for what it is we've done. All too often, however, society gives us no choice in what we do and it wants us to take full responsibility for our choice-less action. The choice-less action has a false ethical content inculcated by the society: Society wishes for us to perform an action; we perform the action; society judges performance. Society employs subtle enslaving of its members whenever calling acceptance of conscription conditioning: patriotism.

Contingency

If we are truly contingent upon anything, it is the belief in our own existence. How is it that we know we exist? Because we can doubt the fact of our existence. If there is a doubt, there must be a doubter capable of doubt. So good, so far. Here now is the subtle part. Let us say that we doubt our own existence. Let us go even further to say that we disbelieve in our existence. Is this a disbelief in us, or is it a disbelief in existence itself? Perhaps it is both: a disbelief in our own existence and in the possibility of any existence itself. Well, obviously, we believe we exist. But let's take the exercise a step further. Does belief in our own existence create a contingency? Well, maybe. Now what would that contingency be? Perhaps it is a dimension of potentiality; a dimension in which the possibility of existence can occur...something that is capable of containing us, as existing. Now that dimension could be called a multi-verse, a container of universes, each of which is capable of sustaining existence; or we could go even further, and call it consciousness.

Necessity

Is anything necessary? Does every effect have some real cause, or is the effect actually before the cause? When we perform any action, do we always foresee that there must be a result from that action, some perceived foreseen result? If we do, if we do believe that every action must have some result; isn't that foreseen result the actual cause of the performance of the action? And, more often than not, is the foreseen result the reason an action is not performed? If something is never done, how could it possibly be ever necessary? Does an action have a cause and an effect, if it cannot be foreseen? Isn't our own very existence such an action, without a cause or an effect, since we choose to continue it even though we believe it must end? What happens if we believe it doesn't end...does it still have a cause and effect? Could life exist for us if we choose not to believe in the necessity of the continuance of existence? What happens then if we become free from the belief in necessity?

Knowledge and Ignorancce

Many people have knowledge, but they are ignorant. Knowledge is to be used. If it is not used; if it is left to become dormant and to become stale, it is no longer knowledge. It is simply waste. False knowledge, a belief in facts that don't exist, is false faith. Facts should never contradict each other, although they can often indicate contradictions to previous facts that were taken to be true. Either the present fact is wrong or the past prior fact was wrong, or possibly both the present and the past fact were and are both wrong. Not acknowledging factual contradictions is ignorance and not trying to find the truth when contradictions are acknowledged is cowardice.

Religiousity and Spirituality

All adherents of any religious tradition are religious by definition. But there is a subtle difference between being religious and being spiritual. Spiritual people are interesting, while the religious people are often dull and insipid. Why? The problem is in orthodoxy of belief and in practice. Religions are constructs designed to preserve particular cultural values and ensure coherence within societies. Since societies are different, their values are different. When the society is in the process of changing, of adapting, of evolving; different sets of values are emphasized and the adherents of religions, simply blecause they must adhere, adopt the new criteria of values. It's different with spiritual people. Spirituality is multi-dimensional. One lives in this world and one partakes of it, but always one belongs to a higher world, a greater dimension; and many, maybe most, of the contemporary values of society shall seem both meaningless and foolish. They are unimportant, frivolous even. One's eyes and all of one's senses are focused on something else; something else that is outside and is higher and greater than is one's own mortality, and that of any society. If all the world were to pass away (as it most cerainly shall), what then remains?

Absence and Emergence

If two mirrors are facing each other and there is nothing between them, what is it then that those mirrors reflect? Is it something; themselves, perhaps? Is it nothing at all? Could the mirrors be reflecting reflection even though there is nothing there to reflect? Do they reflect light? Perhaps darkness? Need they reflect anything? Is a mirror still a mirror when it reflects nothing? What makes it to be a mirror then? When any mirror is reflecting nothing, just nothing, ought it to be called something else? What? Could a mirror be purposely designed so that it could only reflect nothingness?

Third Tenet: Necessity for Contingency

The third tenet (we only have three tenets) of the Old Belief is in the Necessity for Contingency. As we've stated, the whole thrust of the Old Belief is in the development and wise usage of the psychic potential that we possess. This involves the intention of creating consciousness in the sense of waking from a dormant state into an aware state. We are asleep. We must awake. So we have a goal and we have many methods for achieving that goal. But all those many methods presuppose the necessity for contingency. What this means is: that everything we do or that we don't do is contingent upon the state of the entire universe. We don't act alone. The universe acts with us. Think of two mirrors facing each other. Whatever is shown in one mirror will be reflected in the other. It is as if the mirrors were one mirror, but a mirror of separate sections. Multiply the mirrors to infinity and that it is how the universe works; everything being shown on one (us) is contingent upon what is being reflected in everything else. So, what we do or don't do reflects everywhere. All our actions are multiplied elsewhere; so are all our in-actions. What we do or we don't do has multiple consequences. It has results. We are affecting the universe and the universe affects us. Not only are we affecting the universe, we're creating its consciousness.

Tenet: Necessity for Change

Another tenet is the necessity for change. What that means is: Built into the universe is not just the capacity for change, but the very necessity for change. Things change because they have to do so. Nothing can ever remain the same, including us. Because we change, everything else changes. Because everything else changes, we change. There then is reciprocation in these constant changes.

Tenet of the Power over Time

Every religion has tenets; has its own beliefs and practices. The main tenet of The Old Belief is in the illusion of time...that time is but a human construct, a creation of sensory perception, and that Time does not exist in nature except in relationship to movement and to action. Sounds a little complicated, but all it means is that we live in an eternal NOW. In practical terms, it means we possess the power to change the future...and not just our own future, but all the futures of everything; either by our actions or our in-actions, and even by our contemplations, by thoughts alone. We possess the power to make the Future and the Past by what we do in the Present. We have power over Time. We possess potential to shape the Future. We have Power not only to foresee the Future but to make it and to shape it. The Power over Time is the main tenet then of The Old Belief. This tenet is what distinguishes it from all the other religious practices.

Ethics

All religions have a set of ethical standards dealing with how one treats others...and usually this consists of a golden rule of some sort...treat all others as you would that they treat you. This has nothing to do with spirituality...it is simply good manners. It is a survival mechanism. If you don't treat people well, they won't treat you well either. We have a different way naturally. It's this: Be good to do good and do good to be good. What it means is that actions are reflective of character and character is reflective of actions. What one does and what one refrains from doing change one and that change causes one to act as one does. The action taken or not taken and the character resulting from that action are the same. This is the reason why we have the saying: Become who you Are. That is our golden rule.

Spirituality in The Old Belief

Like all religions, the Old Belief emphasizes spirituality (while we are called Druids, the religion itself is termed as The Old Belief...simply because it is so ancient...as it is the sole remainder of the wide-spread religion of Mesolithic Old Europe); it's spirit based. It wouldn't be much of a religion if it wasn't after all. There is a subtle difference in the spirituality however. It is based upon reflective continuity and reflexive harmony. This sounds complicated, but its concept is simple. All human sense perception suffers from astigmatism; as no matter how well any one of us views reality, that view has to be blurred. Our senses are limited; all of our senses, and it is with our senses that we are able to perceive reality at all, no matter how vague our perception might happen to be. In addition to all that, our memories are variable. We can't remember exactly what it is which we have perceived and so we reconstruct that perception whenever we try to remember our past, and that reconstruction is never complete; nor is it ever exact. So, the first aspect of Druid spirituality is to correct false perception; hence the concepts of reflective continuity and reflexive harmony. These are the necessary first steps in spiritual training in a system of practice/belief. Every religion has such a system of spiritual training: It has to have it.

Pan-Psych-Ism

When we speak of pan-psych-ism, we aren't addressing the universe as being some deity, in the sense that all things are divine or are in god, like Spinoza. Not at all. That belief is pan-theism. What we are speaking of is that all things are conscious, and they were always conscious; which is quite different. This Druid belief is neither theistic nor is it atheistic. It is non-theistic. It's quite different; as the belief is evolutionary, and it's possibly revolutionary to those who didn't grow up in it. We think the universe makes itself and is always in the process of re-making itself, and that this making is being done absent an extraneous force or outside intervention of any sort whatsoever. How this process of making is being played out then is what we are concerned with.

Gnostic

To be clear, when we speak of "Gnostic," we are not using the term in the Ibrahim's sense as the twin aspects of one single deity: light and dark or good and evil or creation and destruction. We are using it in a more profound sense, the Druid sense, of Non-Being and Being. From our point of view, existence has three aspects, or faces. These three faces are Being, Non-Being and Being Beyond Being. Each one is a part of, and each one is reflective of, the others. These three faces are always entangled. In order for Being Beyond Being (neither Being nor Non-Being) to come into its existence, it is also necessary to have Being and Non-Being. This is why our religion is so termed as being Gnostic Pan-Psych-ism, because it has these twin aspects, that of Being and Non-Being, which together then form the third aspect of Being Beyond Being. One shouldn't think of one aspect as superior to or as any older than the others. All three are necessary for consciousness. As we've said, we do believe in consciousness. There is the Druid saying: That which is: IS. That which is not: IS, also. What this means is Being and Non-Being are actually needed for there to be any existence, for there to be any thing at all. This acknowledgement is what makes it psychic. What makes it pan-psychic is the belief that everything is consciousness.

Gnostic Pan-Psychism

Since we are speaking of energy generation, we also should be discussing the "why" and the "how" of energy. This is going to get a little deep. The Druid outlook on the universe, or the nature of reality, does not distinguish between the physical and the psychic. From the Druid's viewpoint (obviously I'm giving my own interpretation here---there are only about a hundred of us left), the psychic and the physical are simply different aspects (or "faces" which is the proper term) of the same consciousness. Reality is seen as conscious, but this consciousness is not the same as human consciousness---think more of a child in the womb---this consciousness is more the potential of consciousness---the universe is in the state of becoming conscious: the World is potent with Thought. It is this potency that is tapped when we're exploring psychic endeavors.

Energy Generation

Energy generation is quite different in the various family Celtic systems. What we shall be discussing here is a Druid system, which is a bit different from the various family systems. The Celtic systems (that I know of) have thirty-two family systems (4x8). All the other systems are variants of those thirty-two. As it would not be acceptable for me to discuss the other family systems (they can discuss their own without my assistance quite well), I'll confine the system to the one I was brought up with; that of the Connor of the Red Hand. This is a Druid system that he had learned from his mother. It is related to the system of the "White" or "Shining" Connor. The appellation "shining" or "whiteness" is one that is used to distinguish the Druid portion of a clan; those who were exempt from engaging in combat. The "red" or "blood" portion of the clan are the warriors. Since I'm descended from both portions in the Clan of Conn, I can discuss both aspects: the martial and the spiritual. Energy generation is the same, but the usage is different.

Supplement to Heart-Healing The Chariot Way

The Chariot Way: The Dream of Crom is supplemental to Heart-Healing The Chariot Way. At the time of publishing Heart-Healing, Kindle had limited gray scale abilities; so I was forced to use just eight simple drawings of the various postures from the Golden Eagle Set (this is a Druid set from Ballydavid where my parents were from). The new book will have more photographs, as the gray scale on Kindle is improved...I like publishing on Kindle simply because the Amazon Kindle readers are genuine readers; they actually will take the trouble to read the work and to comment upon it. Hopefully, I'll be writing a whole series of books for the Kindle. I do tend to assert opinions, so feel free to disagree with those opinions. Luckily, I like critics. Keeps me on my toes! Try the exercises in the books and experiment with them. See what works for you.

The Chariot Way: The Dream of Crom

I am currently working on another book to supplement Heart-Healing The Chariot Way. The book is entitled The Chariot Way: The Dream of Crom. If anyone wishes to contact me, my Google e-mail address is: oconnor.rothcroi.william@gmail.com and my AOL is rothcroi@aol.com
With regard to Celtic Martial Arts Club of New York, the address of the club is 440 Lafayette St. in lower Manhattan, New York City. We normally hold classes on Sunday afternoons now from Noon until 2:30 in either rooms 3G (on the third floor) or in 4G (on the fourth floor), depending upon which studios become available. These rooms are rented out by NYU's Tish School of the Arts for Drama and they have first priority of any spaces in the building. That is the reason as to why the rooms change on short notice. If you come, check out both rooms to see where we are.
The cost for each session is $10, payable to the person who rents the rooms---not me---I don't charge for teaching. The holistic healing aspect is included in the teaching for anyone who may possibly be interested. We try to have an eclectic approach---whatever works, works! It might be a good idea to secure a copy of Heart-Healing The Chariot Way before attending, so that you can get some good idea as to what we are all about. We have members who also practice various other martial arts and holistic healing systems; a great variety of them, in fact. William O'Connor

Publication of HEART-HEALING The Chariot Way

HEART-HEALING The Chariot Way has been published as a Kindle e-book on Amazon.com and it is also available for download from Mobipocket.com to a computer's hard-drive or to a cell phone. HEART-HEALING is a hand-book manual for longevity...any comments or criticisms are most welcome. Thanks.