On Beliefs And Their Roots

Sept/2018

Hi Danilo.

A few further thoughts, in a related but different vein. Again with apologies for writing only in English. As you know I can read and understand Spanish (more or less) but writing in it is a different matter and escapes my meagre reach. 

This note is way too long to post on your FB page and in any case I doubt many people would find my thoughts on all this of any particular interest. You might not either! But on the chance you might I’m sending them to you.

In my earlier note I hinted at the danger and possibilities inherent in the current situation where along with the current environmental and social upheaval we are quickly reaching a situation that will cause many “normal” people to begin to question, not only if some piece of news is true, but more fundamentally what is real.  Well see about all that, but  meanwhile here’s some related reflections. 

This note is going to be so long I’d like to begin by briefly mentioning some of the things that follow. In that way you can decide whether it the rest seems worth reading! I understand if you decide it is too much to bother with. After all these are only one person’s opinions about things which are of a pretty specialized interest to begin with and deciphering long texts in foreign languages can be tiring — as I know well. I could say that in the end these reflections will be about reality, belief, and the future. However, that covers a lot of ground so more specifically let me note the broad points I will try and explain.

-Why I don’t think weather-manipulation technology has been developed but why I think there are all kinds of science fiction like technologies that people are (more or less) secretly trying to turn into weapons. 

-Why I  do think the threat of conspiracies by governments, corporations, economic interests etc., real or not, are no longer our biggest problem (if they ever were). Yes of course, wherever you have common interests you have fertile ground for collusion and conspiracies. But while governments, and other powerful entities may develop new biological and chemical weapons for example, today (or tomorrow) the asshole down the street might just do that  on their own. If you are interested in the implications  of all that I have tried to playfully explore that a bit HERE

-How my real interest in all this is in following these considerations to a peculiar proposal of internal work.

 In the comments about the video you posted on Facebook there is a lot of assumptions about dangerous technologies hidden from sight by powerful interests. The idea that certain governments have weather-shaping technology for example, is one that has circulated for decades. For my purposes I take that one only as an example, there are many such beliefs. 

Please note, by calling them beliefs I’m not trying to imply they are false or true. I merely want to point out that there are some people who are convinced of these claims, and others who dismiss them completely. In between are many of us with varying ideas of what is hidden and varying degrees of certainty about the reality of any particular claim. 

For example, personally I am certain that governments, corporations, etc have developed technologies of which most of us are unaware. Of course if we are unaware how do I possibly know? Perhaps better said, I suspect, or I surmise this from the weight of evidence I’ve come across. For example, I  know that there are technologies being tested that are supposedly capable of identifying that a specific person has been in a given place (a room, a cave, etc)  using only a sample of the dust that remains in that place. I know this because I’ve spoken to (and filmed with) the scientists who developed this, and related technology at least in part with the funding from the US military (DARPA). Their work included collecting insects from the area in question and examining the dust particles the insects had been in contact with. Dust is made up of all kinds of tiny particles including flakes of human skin. These scientists were able to remove sufficient DNA from the skin particles to make identifications. 

I don’t doubt that there are other scientists working on biological weapons capable of attacking only particular  groups, or even individuals with certain genetic characteristics. A kind of personalized  bio-weapon! I can believe there is this kind of research because in the scientific literature we know there are developments that could be taken in that direction. When powerful groups notice those kind of developments it is common for them to offer research money or hire the researchers to work for them. 

However, times are changing and the current state of the art means that, in this case for example, one doesn’t have to see, or imagine corporate or political conspiracies to recognize the danger. That vision of the world is in many ways out-dated. Today an individual bio-hacker can easily buy the equipment to work along these lines in the kitchen of their apartment. A conspiracy of one! And so for many things not just bio-weapons.

On the other hand when it comes to weather-shaping technology I’m very doubtful. Though I’m not in any way a scientist or expert, I have for decades read widely (though perhaps not deeply) in the scientific  literature. I haven’t seen any research that points to that kind of capability. In fact even predicting the weather is a difficult feat. 

What we have seen in practice is that changing the weather requires massive interference with the planet’s climate systems. We are talking about things like the ejection into the atmosphere of increasing amounts of greenhouse gases of millennia  (you can, for example, find traces of Roman lead smelting buried in Arctic ice). These lead to climate change and weather disruptions but the specifics consequences have proven difficult to predict in any but the most rudimentary fashion. The idea that there exists current technology that can modify weather in a particular place, in a particular way, strikes me as very unlikely.

Now, in fact I don’t care very much about the truth of any of those claims. I don’t care if I’m right or wrong about that technology, or the ability of governments to conspire for long in secret . It’s not where my interest lays. What I find important, and I hope you will also, is what it can mean for my own internal work. 

I know that there are intelligent, well meaning people who believe/disbelieve in this or that claim. If I leave aside the truth of those claims, if I ignore the who’s right and who’s wrong, with what am I left?  It seems to me I’m left contemplating the mechanism of belief. That is, I am lead to asking myself about the root of my beliefs. 

This is exactly parallel to that very powerful ceremony that the Book of the Message proposes regarding death. You know how in that ceremony the officiant points out that there are those who believe that the individuals life ends when life ends in their body and others who believe in a life separate from this one. After various considerations related to those divergent beliefs, the officiant concludes by saying: “Whatever our views, let us not weep for this body. Rather, let us meditate on the root of our beliefs, and a gentle and silent joy will come to us… 

Peace in the heart, light in the understanding!”

Why do you believe one thing and I another? Why do we agree on another belief? How do these beliefs come about? What supports them? Or do I believe that it is the others have beliefs and I have knowledge of truths? How is that? Where, and how are the roots of all this?

I have found those meditations, not only about death but about other beliefs I hold, very fruitful, very rewarding. When I focus on a personal belief trying to understand its roots I find the effort is in fact capable of bringing peace to the heart and light to eat understanding. 

A very big hug and thank you for your tolerance towards these uninvited ramblings.

Danny