Week 22--in which we realize the answer is in our hands

Beautiful Ones,

NOTE: Deep Soul Writing with Friends opens Tuesday!

The world roils and we the people feel unmoored. Every day, it seems, there is a new shock to the system. They did what? He did what? She said what?

It’s hard to pick one thing out of the fetid soup that is America, but here’s my winner for the week.

When grilled at a packed and heated town hall about the proposed cuts to Medicaid and food stamps which would leave many of her constituents without health care or enough to eat, Iowa Republican senator Joni Ernst defended the cuts. She said they’re being taken from the undeserving. Someone in the crowd shouted, “People are going to die!” And Ernst responded glibly, “Well, we all are going to die.”

What? She said what? Is this really happening?

What year is this? Did we turn a calendar page and wake up in 1939?

It’s not an accident that we are all talking about the return of fascism. Never again is somehow no longer never. We watch in horror as courts, universities, libraries, science, medicine—even national parks—are attacked. We watch in horror as “undesirables” are arrested and transported—even children.

“What can we do?” we cry!

It’s easy to feel helpless against what appears to be a tsunami of cold, heartless stupidity, shocking greed, and willful evil. Stupidity, greed, and evil that appear to be winning.

To help me answer these questions, I pay close attention to what Rebecca Solnit, activist and author of Hope in the Dark and so many other essential books, has to say. This week, she wrote about a new AI company called Cluely. She quoted the founder:

“We built Cluely so you never have to think alone again.”

This got my attention! My horrified attention. Because deep soul writing is all about realizing you are not alone, have never been alone, and will never be alone. There is a sacred voice at your fingertips that responds with focused and loving attention when you pick up a pen and say hello.

Turns out Rebecca Solnit agrees with me.

On her Facebook post about Cluely, she wrote:

“This is what I find so chilling about this tech, or at least the way it’s being marketed. Because thinking alone is sort of the core of being a complete person, much less a good citizen of a democracy. (my italics)

Solnit went on:

"In an earlier post, I quoted Hannah Arendt’s observation that the Germans who refused to participate in Nazi atrocities were those who possessed 'the disposition to live together explicitly with oneself, to have intercourse with oneself, that is, to be engaged in that silent dialogue between me and myself which, since Socrates and Plato, we usually call thinking.' To engage in that 'silent dialogue,' you need to be capable of thinking alone — or not precisely alone, but in solitude.

"Because as Arendt notes elsewhere, in The Human Condition: 'To be in solitude means to be with one’s self, and thinking, therefore though it may be the most solitary of all activities, it is never altogether without a partner and without company.'"

Although the situation we are in is terrifying and Cluely sounds like the dissolving edge of what it means to be human, I was still delighted to read this because it’s a total confirmation of what I have known since I picked up a pen in 1997 and stumbled upon how to activate an extraordinary internal voice. How? By dropping out of the fast-paced, judgment-filled, easily-angered beta brainwave state (surely the brainwave favored by fascists) into the slow, rarely visited theta brainwave that open portals into a limitless sea of mystical insight and creativity.

But don’t take my word for it. Listen to the brilliant systems theorist Ervin Laszlo.

It’s important to note that Ervin Laszlo was born in 1932 in Hungary. I think he knows something about what it’s like to live under fascism and tyranny.

In Science and the Akashic Field, Laszlo writes:

"When the censorship of the waking consciousness is not operative, information can reach the mind from almost any part of aspect of the universe.”

I love this quote so much I have it memorized.

Ervin Laszlo is now 93 years old. Frail as he is, he still gave an hour-long talk this past Tuesday. I took notes as quickly as I could. When asked how we can begin to address the horrors today, he spoke slowly and thoughtfully. Here are some of the highlights I captured:

• Start with yourself.
• Inside you know you are not alone.
• You belong to the community of life and of earth.
• Allow your higher self to come forth.
• We are wired to live a life of joy on a conscious, evolving planet.
• Trust yourself. Trust your intuition.

That sure sounds like deep soul writing to me! And, it sure sounds like the perfect antidote to tyranny.

Deep soul writing got me through a horrific divorce and the brink of bankruptcy. It got all of us through the pandemic. And now, deep soul writing will help us find our part in turning the world away from fascism.

It won’t be easy and it won’t happen overnight, but I stand with Ervin Laszlo that joy and community is how we are meant to live.

We open Tuesday.

I’ll be talking about the theta brainwave and how you can train yourself many different ways to swim in the delicious creative sea that is theta. And my teaching partner, Cathy Stevens Pratt, will introduce very modern brain science on the impact of attention on the left and right hemispheres.

Join us! We are now over a hundred in 25 states, 2 Canadian provinces, 5 European countries, and both Australia and New Zealand.

I expanded my zoom so now there’s room for you!

In addition to our 4 learning gatherings (with watch parties on Thursdays so friends in all time zones can gather), Cathy and I are going to host 2 cafes where we just chat about our soul writing experiences. There is no additional charge for those. And Caitlin Grace in New Zealand is going to host a live café as well. Dates and times to be worked out this weekend.

Here you go! When you register, I'll send you all the welcome materials. There's lots to read and watch.

Deep Soul Writing with Friends

• Be sure to watch the very fun video Cathy and I created for you.
• Take a moment to appreciate the mystical insights that Cathy wove into this painting. It captures the joy of soul writing and how it is amplified with a friend.
• Peruse the content. Even if you've been in multiple soul writing events with me, this is completely different.
• Ask friends if they'd like to join you.
• The registration fee is quite the bargain, but it goes even lower when you bring friends.

Deep Soul Writing with Friends!

to awakening that wise joyful voice within, 

Janet

website: janetconner.com

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